428 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1. 



minutes? There was a greenhouse, and frames 

 for all the plants like those I saw at friend 

 Ransom's; and how I did long to look over the 

 plants I But he said his wife and family had 

 read Gleanings so long they would never for- 

 give me if 1 did not go in and just speak to 

 them. When I suggested that he had got more 

 beautiful tomato-plants than he could probably 

 sell in that locality, he pointed to a little board 

 tacked to the top of the bed, where I read some- 

 thing like this: "459;.' tomato - plants- sold to 

 John Smith." And then he informed me that 

 pretty much all the stuff he had was in that 

 same predicament, only waiting for milder 

 weather to let the owners take them away. 

 God's gifts, again. 



What kind, pleasant neighbors we can always 

 find if we toofe for them ! and what little gar- 

 dens of Eden there are scattered throughout 

 this land of ours, if we only ?f?jcw it! The text 

 gives us a hint of what God expects us to do — 

 "And have dominion over the fish of the sea, 

 and over the fowl of the air, and over every 

 living thing that creepeth upon the earth." 

 And in the n<^xt two verses it speaks about hav- 

 ing given us every green herb, as well as the 

 birds and fishes — yes. every herb bearing seed; 

 and he says it shall be to us for meat. Do you, 

 my friend, believe that the outcome of all "this 

 beautiful world of ours is to be only destruction 

 and death and ruin ? Why. the idea is ridicu- 

 lous. There may be some things wrong in this 

 world of ours: but God has laid upon us the 

 responsibility of righting them. And very little 

 faith in him. and faith in and love for our 

 fellow-men will do a tremendous lot of righting. 



'~36TiAGEs7xI0 

 °° PER YEARj 



Thou niadest man to have dominion over the works of thy 

 hands; thou hast put all things under his feet.— Psalm 8; 6. 



The first number of the Ndtlondl Bee Gii- 

 zette, published at St. Louis, Mo., by Geo. H. 

 Penn, comes out neatly printed, and very nicely 

 bound in magazine form, with a tinted cover. 

 Gleanings extends its right hand of welcome. 



In Stray Straws, in the present number. Dr. 

 Miller wants to know whether it is the thorax 

 or the abdomen that prevents the queen from 

 going through the zinc. It is both; but more 

 the abdomen than the thorax, and that is the 

 reason why an occasional virgin queen will go 

 through, when, after she begins laying, she will 

 fail to do so. 



We notice, in one of the agricultural ex- 

 changes, that the V edge of the Hoffman frame 

 is strongly objected to. on the ground that the 

 sharp edges will come together in some cases, 

 and in others the square edges, and destroy 

 correct spacing. If the frames are nailed up as 

 per our catalogue, the V edge will always come 

 next to the s(iuare edge, and they can't come 

 any other way. 



Dr. Miller is bound to see fun in all things. 

 How could he ri'aii (see .Straws) that the Big 

 Four were going to have their ears painted 

 with yellow ocherV We liad it printed right — 

 cars. It is possible, however, that, in the doc- 

 tor's journal, it was printed ears. But the 

 typos shake their heads. Say. doctor, hadn't 

 you better get another pair of those 2.5-cent 

 specs ? 



The great unsolved problem in bee-keeping 

 is, to control swarms when working for comb 

 honey, or, at least, make it possible for an out- 

 apiary to be run so as not to require the con- 

 stant attention of a managing apiarist. Auto- 

 matic swarmers, while far from perfect, give us 

 hope. While they may in time become an entire 

 success, they may prove to be only an utter 

 failure. Let us go slow, and make sure. 



The Rev. L. L. Langstroth. the father of 

 American bee-keeping, has recently been re- 

 lieved of one of his distressing brain troubles — 

 a peculiar malady that seems to afflict him for 

 two or three years at a time. He is now feeling 

 so very much better that he expects to make a 

 visit to the Home of the Honey-bees, and look 

 upon the faces of the big and little Roots, and 

 also to see with his own eyes " how the little 

 acorn. Gleanings, thatl saw in 1875, has grown 

 into such a large oak."' Of course, we will try 

 to give to the readers of Gleanings the benefit 

 of his visit, sp far as we may be able on paper. 



The initial number of the National Bee Ga- 

 zette copied a last year's advertisement of the 

 W. T. Falconer Manufacturing Co., Jamestown. 

 N. Y., in which the company offer a five per 

 cent discount on all goods. This advertise- 

 ment (no doubt intended as a favor), we were 

 informed by the company, was inserted without 

 authority, and therefore it causes them a good 

 deal of annoyance, because they are not now 

 offering any discount on their goods. By the 

 way, it is a rather had idea to insert an adver- 

 tisement, free or otherwise, without first con- 

 sulting the parties in question. 



Since our statistical report published on page 

 297, April 15, it is evident, from the letters com- 

 ing in every day, that the past spring weather 

 has been rather destructive to bees. Many 

 have lost from half to two- thirds of their colo- 

 nies since April 15. Reports also show that 

 fruit-bloom while it lasted was exceptionally 

 good. In the two days that our bees had a 

 chance at it, they gathered quite a quantity of 

 honey — the stronger colonies getting enough to 

 neai'iy fill the hives. But it has been raining 

 nearly every day for the last month, and the 

 poor little fellows have had to gather what 

 nectar they did in between times, or when the 

 honey was not entirely washed out of the 

 blossoms. 



On p. 382 of this issue. Miss Wilson contrib- 

 utes a valuable article on how tc^ remove prop- 

 polls from supers, separators, etc. The idea is 

 not entirely new, because something of the 

 kind has been advocated before. But for some 

 reason or other the times were not ripe enough 

 to recognize the value of the plan. This is 

 something that our subscribers can put to the 

 test at once. Any thing is an improvement over 

 scraping, resulting in particles of propolis flying 

 all around. By the way. we hope oin- readers 

 will also test the use of grease rubbed over the 

 contact parts of brood-frames for preventing the 

 deposition of propolis. Oh, yesi prevention is 

 better than cure ; but it is very desiralile some- 

 times to have a cure when prevention is not, or, 

 rather, was not, available. , 



LIGHT BltOOI) FOITND.VTION VKRStS MEDIUM 

 BROOD FOR WIRED FRAMES. 



Last fall, in our experiments with light 

 brood foundation we found there was no trouble 

 about its buckling when being drawn out by 

 the bees on horizontal wiring. This spring we 

 find that it does buckle, much to our astonish- 

 ment. This issomewhat humiliatingto confess 

 after having once or twice recommended this 



