648 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1. 



old-style frames are a sight. In some cases the 

 rabbets are full of what looks and tastes like 

 pure pine pitch. I will send you a sample. In 

 the improved Hoffman frames they get only a 

 little line where the frames touch — none in the 

 rabbets. Devoted as they seem to be to this 

 plastering industry, it takes but the merest 

 hint of honey to make them drop their tools 

 and go to robbing; and when they are started 

 they beat the record for persistence. About 

 Sept. 1st the partridge pea will give them the 

 first of the fall flow: and, a little lati'r on. a 

 wild flower, which I have been unable to name 

 or identify, gives the bulk of the crop. 



When I first saw bees at woik on the par- 

 tridge pea I was not a little puzzled to know 

 where the honey came from. They do not pay 

 any attention to the yellow flower, but get the 

 nectar from extra floral glands. There is one 

 at the base of each leaf-stalk, about a line in 

 diameter — the globule of honey in plain view 

 on its surface. Almost any of our local bee- 

 keepers will tell you that the fall flow is in good 

 part fi'om goldenrod; and I see that flower 

 mentioned by several in friend Krown's report. 

 But I am still skeptical. The plant, in difl'erent 

 varieties, is all about us here, and I have 

 watched it every hour in the day when bees 

 were flying, and never yet have seen a honey- 

 bee on it. I have also noticed the entire ab- 

 sence of flies and other insects, so common on 

 it in the north. 



With your permission I want to tell the read- 

 ers of Gleanings a good thing in relation to 

 the flat covers of the Dovetailed hive. I have 

 tried the hive this year, and can see but one 

 fault; viz.. the covers ivill warp Now and 

 then one will lie perfectly flat; but the most 

 of thi'm are "cantankerous." and I have to 

 pile brick on diagonally opposite corners to 

 make them robber-excluding. Well, if you are 

 bothered the same way. when you order covers 

 just a-^k friend Root to run them over a circular 

 saw, cutting two-thirds of the way through the 

 board, from the under side. Make three or 

 four of the grooves, equal distances apart. 

 Wh(m tluit cover is cleated it is flat to stay, and 

 as strong as ever. One can even use the edge 

 for a seat if he feels so disposed. 



A TOBACCO- STORY WITH A MORAL. 



I have been much interested in the Tobacco 

 Column in Gi.kanings. and have been wonder- 

 ing if 1 do not deserve a smoker, for I have quit 

 using tobacco. Hut as I quit about thirty 

 years ago. and umlei- rather sudden and peculiar 

 circuni^tanc's. vou may not think so. .As the 

 story might help some one who does not know 

 how to infiuencc his boys to let the weed alone. 

 I will give it. I was a ten or twelve year old 

 boy. wJH'u I one day found some "fine cut," 

 kept by our hired man. in the stable. I knew I 

 ought not to touch it. but I took a good big 

 chew of it anyhow, just as I had often seen 

 Abe do. It was sweet, mild tobacco, and tasted 

 rather pleasant. My next sensation was also 

 not unpleasant, a sort of light airy feeling about 

 the head. My errand to the barn was to gath- 

 er the eggs; and I now climbed up into the 

 hen-house, got the eggs, and was preparing to 

 descend the old ladder when sensation No. 3 

 announced itself, and I sat down to consider it. 

 In a minute or two I became deathly sick, and 

 faint and blind I tried to go down the ladder, 

 and fell headlong en feet to the ground, for a 

 wonder witliout breaking i7iy neck. At about 

 this time Mother Nature turned me as nearly 

 inside out as possible, and then my own mother 

 took in hand the sickest boy she ever nursed 

 back to health and strength. The next morn- 

 ing my fath(>r and I had an interview — a pain- 

 ful one to hitn nuMitally and to me physically; 

 and I promised to let tobacco alone, without 



even a smoker in view. As it relates to my 

 moral and physical welfare, I now know that 

 the punishment was one of the kindest acts he 

 ever did. I yet honor and thank him for it. 

 He believed and taught his children that the 

 use of tobacco was purely evil in its tendency, 

 and in a neighborhood where every farmer 

 drew half his income from its culture, would 

 never allow a stalk to grow on his land. He 

 was a pioneer in the an ti- tobacco crusade, for 

 at that time its effects in dwarfing mind and 

 body were not taught so thoroughly as now, 

 and around us the habit was almost universal. 

 Boys became habituated to its use, saturated 

 with nicotine, before their teens were reached. 

 Indeed, tlie habit is almost invariably formed 

 in early boyhood, and the middle-aged votaries 

 of the weed who have not at some time tried to 

 get rid of their tyrant are scarce. And those 

 who have succeeded in their effort are scarce 

 too. Save the boys from the debasing habit 

 while they are so easily influenced for good or 

 evil. That is where work will give the biggest 

 returns. E. J. Baird. 



Orlando, Fla., July 26. 



[Friend B., we realize what you say about a 

 bee-book specially adapted to the Southern 

 States, and such a book might be very con- 

 venient; but then, its sale would be, for a great 

 part, restricted to the South. Now, inasmuch 

 as the great bulk of the teachings of our books 

 on bees are applicable to any locality, it hardly 

 seems to me there would be demand enough to 

 warrant such a work. Another thing, an in- 

 telligent reader would have no difficulty in 

 tnodifying the general teachings to suit his 

 climate and locality.] A. I. R. 



BEE-MOTHS. 



E. FRANCE THINK.S THE IT.\I.IANS ARE NO 



MORE PROOF AGAINST THE.M THAN THE 



BLACK BEES. 



I read in the bee-papers that the Italian bees 

 are proof against the bee inotli. and that the 

 black bees are not as good as the Italian in that 

 respect. Now, the fact of the case is, I don't 

 set" any difference in the two races about keep- 

 ing the moths out of their hives. We have 

 some good Italians y<>t. and plenty of hybrids, 

 a cross betwiH'ii Italians and blacks. Tlicn we 

 have Carniolans. and their crosses with blacks 

 and Italians. No^v. friends. I don't* sei- any 

 difference as far as moths are concerned. We 

 have had some good tests with bee-worms this 

 year. Bees died or dwindled out until there 

 was not one left. Then the combs were exposed 

 to the bee-moth. We always ha e more or less 

 of such combs every spring. We usually man- 

 age to use them up in making new colonies by 

 division. This year has been different from 

 other years. The fore part of May we had 

 some combs in almost all the yards; and as we 

 expected to use them soon we left them in the 

 hives, as we usually do. But we did not get a 

 chance to use them; and the first thing we 

 knew, the moth-worms had them used up. In 

 some cases the wax was all eaten up, and noth- 

 ing remained but webs, worms, and cocoons. 



Now, mind, we use a quadruple hive that 

 holds four colonies of bees. It is a fact, that in 

 those hives that had one. two, and sometimes 

 thi'ee divisions destroyed by the worms, in oth- 

 er parts of the hive there were one or more 

 colonies of bees alive and in good order — no 

 worms in their combs — just a loose honey-board 

 over the top. In some cases the honey- board 

 would be warped up enough to let a worm 

 crawl througli into the part that was occupied 



