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Vol. XX. 



JUNE 1, 1892. 



No. 11. 



STRAr Straws 



FROM DR. C. C. MILLER. 



I^kt's Fi)i.iA)W Prof. Cook's suggestion, and 

 write to the Secretary of Agriculture. 



"Wet axd coi.d most of the time," says Doo- 

 llttle, "and that tells you all about it." 



That Myers spray pump is just what I've 

 been looking for this good while. Must have 

 one. 



Dooi-iTTi.E took his bees out of cellar April 

 26. r,» davs later than I did. Wise Doolittle. 

 Foolish Miller. 



Nkw Hampsuire is a bad State for selling 

 artilieial honey. The ^4. B.J. says a man was 

 fined ?100 for selling it there. 



My bees are still dying off in the middle of 

 May. It's not dwindling; the weak ones just 

 die. same as they do in winter. 



Two YOUNG queens last season mated 31 

 days after leaving their cells, for W. P. Fayloi;, 

 and he says they were good in every respect. 



R. (iAMMON writes that he is afraid the name- 

 less disease may become a very serious matter 

 with him. and he finds the salt cure no good. 



If I HAD KEPT EIRE iu my cellars all winter 

 and then not taken the bees out till May 1(5, I 

 think I should have had more bees than I now 

 have. 



SoFT-M.\PEE Bi.ooM is becoming less and less 

 a guide for me as to taking bees out of the cel- 

 lar. Of late years the maple doesn't seem to 

 have very good judgment, and blooms too soon. 



The Keei>ey Tobacco Cure, according to 

 the Weekly Medical Rcvlcii\ killed a man in 

 Omaha, after two weeks' use. It's not so safe 

 as the Root smoker cure, and I don't believe it's 

 as sure. 



Laurel honey may be rank poison, but if it 

 is I'm puzzled to know win I never heard of 

 any one being poisoned t)y it" in Western Penn- 

 sylvania where we had acres and acres and 

 acres of laurel. And wasn't it beautiful? 



The fuist swarm came out for me May \2, 

 but it was a " fool swarm," a little bit of a colo- 

 ny leaving its hive without the shadow of an 

 e.xcuse— had plenty of honey, a clean hive, and 

 all that— what makes such a colony swarm, 

 anyhow ? 



I READ, on p. 38.5, " We notice that the Big 

 Four are having all their ears painted with 

 ocher." and began wondering who had been 

 decorating the ears of the incorporators; but on 

 reading further I found the editor was talking 

 about a railroad, and that it was cars and not 

 cor.s- that had the coat of ocher. 



Is THE THORAX of a laying queen anv larger 

 than it was when she was a viigin? Who can 

 tell us? For it's the thorax, isn't it, and not 

 the abdomen that prevents a queen from going 

 through an excluder? Bro. Larrabee, there's a 

 nut to crack. 



" We have last largely," writes Mrs. Axteil, 

 "and more are dying every day, spotting the 

 hives badly— not enough bees left to cover the 

 capped brood." My bees differ in one respect. 

 They haven't as much brood as thev can cover. 

 I suspect it is better so. 



That chapter by A. I. Root in the new 

 book. "How to Support a Family on a Quarter 

 of an Acre of Giound," is good, I'll warrant; 

 but the question that interests me most is, 

 " How to Support Forty Acres of Ground with 

 only One Small B^amily." 



This is the worst spring, I think, for bees, 

 that I ever knew. Changing from cool to cold, 

 and i-ain, rain, rain, there have been no days 

 when bees could fly all day. few when they 

 could leave the hive at all. and none when they 

 could gather any thing to speak of. 



May 13 was the first day for some time that 

 bees could fly, and there was on that day some 

 spotting of hives, just as on first flight in spring. 

 Showed they were injured by the long confine- 

 ment. Then ]\Iay Ifi was good, and those two 

 days are the only good ones we've had in the 

 month, up to the 20th. 



Bait sections, I used to think, were better 

 in the corners of the super. Latterly I prefer 

 them in the center. I think one Ijait in the 

 center is as good as one in each ccn-ner. Bees 

 start sooner in the middle, and if there are any 

 unfinished sections left in a super I'd alwavs 

 rather have them in the corners. 



Sweet clover, I suspect, may have a future 

 before it as a hay plant. I have lately been 

 feeding some sweet-clover hay, and find it a 

 success. If I were a farmer, I should give it a 

 thorough trial: for if it makes good hay, I 

 think there is no question about the heavy 

 yield per acre. I am inclined to believe that it 

 needs no cultivation of taste for the dry hay, 

 as it does for the green plant. 



Looks a little blue to see the bees kept the 

 same as in winter quarters up to May 20. and 

 no telling how much later, but there's much to 

 be thankful for. Pve plenty to eat and drink, 

 the happiest homc^ in North(!rn Illinois, and it's 

 up on a hill where there's no danger of its being 

 washed away lik(^ so many others; and al- 

 though the flood-gates of heaven seem wide 

 open all the time, there are blessings as well as 

 rain coming down. 



Excluders h.ave been reported in some in- 

 stances as failures. Was it because the ex- 

 cluders were faulty, or can a queen go through 



