1S'.>2 



(JLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



665 



and our best autlioritios. our oxpcrimoiil sta- 

 tions, and our apririiltural eollogcs will tell you 

 that no valual>l«> inforiuatiou ever ooincs 

 throuuli some scrivt process that is sold for a 

 oortaiu sum of luoiicy. Our a',M'ii'ultural prri- 

 odirals art' rousiatitly on tin' lool<out for \alu- 

 abli> proot'ssos of any sort \vliati'V(»r. If ihvro 

 is any sui'li thing they aro ready to buy it and 

 give it to tlio world. If you will look over tho 

 back volunit>s of i;i,kamn'gs you will lintl that 

 wo have boufiht recipes again and again, just 

 to see if any thing valuable ever comes in that 

 way. All siicli venturt^s have b(>on failures so 

 far. One of the recipes for making artiticial 

 honey, that was advertised in most glowing 

 eolors. was found in Dr. Chase's Family Recipe 

 Book: and the (jrait sa-rct for curing disease 

 without medicine, that a short time ago bid 

 fair to take humanity by storm, and make the 

 vender of the secret a millvmnire. was all found 

 in our f<imihj ilocUir book. It is hclihid tlie 

 times, this whole matter of getting information 

 in that style. You do not say what you paid 

 for your recipe, but no doubt enough to have 

 bought a nice book covering the whole matter 

 of preserving fruits. I have no per.sonal knowl- 

 edge in reeai'd to the matt(>r of the "e.xtract of 

 salyx:" but many of our agricultural papers 

 have been notifying the public that the use of 

 salicylic acid, and all such substances of like 

 nature, for this purpose, is at least very danger- 

 ous to health. It is a shame that papers that 

 claim to be working for the public good should 

 give i)lace to such schemes. The cold process 

 of putting up fruit is advertised much like the 

 silver-plating outfit. Some woman or some 

 farmer's ihixujhter writes to the paper some 

 sort of hint about housekeeping, and then she 

 winds up by saying that she has been making 

 money very fast with tlie cold process or the 

 silver-plating ajtparatus. Now. an editor who 

 will accept a blind advertisement of this sort, 

 and take pay for inserting it in his columns, 

 deserves to— become a bankrupt. The truth is, 

 all letters of this sort are not letters at all. No 

 woman or farmer's daughter ever wrote any 

 thing of the kind. The whole thing is a cheat 

 and a swindle, gotten up by the unprincipled 

 m<(n at the bottom of it, and he pays the editor 

 of the paper a certain sum of money for putting 

 it in the pai)er in a place where it will seem to 

 be a honn-fide letter. Please note that most of 

 these swindles direct people to send their mon- 

 ey to Zanesville. Ohio. If the good people of 

 Zanesville do not soon wake up and get this 

 man Bain and his associates out of their midst, 

 their town will soon acquire a reputation for 

 swindling concerns that it may not recover 

 from in years to come. 



We find New Concord is in the same county 

 (Muskingum) that Zanesville is; and very 

 likely the rascals thought that another post- 

 oftice would be a better place for their scheme. 

 The Postolhce Department of the U. S. has at 

 least once forbidden mail matter being deliver- 

 ed to Bain and his clique. Will the proper of- 

 ficials at New Concord please look after this?] 



Heads of Grain 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS 



PL'XIC KEE.S : AXOTHEK ADVERSF: REI'ORT. 



As I have five colonies of I'unics, and in a cli- 

 mate' almost like their own nhermometer from 

 100 to 117° in the shadei. I have been putting 

 them right down to a test. I heartily indorse 

 all you have to say regarding them in a recent 

 issue of (iLEAXixfis. More is to be learned. As 



for their being very gentle, they are directlvthe 

 opposite. Go within three or four feet of the 

 side of a hive just after they have (juit work for 

 that day. and they will dart at yijin- pants legs 

 like arrows. I have looked time and again to 

 find a (iiieen. but all my efforts were in vain. I 

 find they also have a terrible swarming propen- 

 sity. A few we(>ks ago. while in an alfalfa lield 

 I noticed on one of the checks (that had been 

 nuuieto hold the water) a badgcM' hole about 8 

 inclu's in diameter. In this hole. ai)()ut :5 ft. in 

 the ground, was a fine swarm of bees, hard at 

 work, and W(>11 satisfied. I could easily see 

 them. They were suspended from the" top, 

 building their combs to the sandy soil. This is 

 a feature that I had never seen or heard of be- 

 fore. F. D. Lowe. 



Rosedale, Cal.. July 23. 



[Here is another, from Mr. Klock. that does 

 not speak very well for tli(( new bees:] , 



The Funics are prolilic. and the very best 

 workers, but that is all that can l)e said for 

 them. They build neaily all drone comb, and 

 the comb honey in boxes has a very watery ap- 

 pearance. They handle like Cyprians. Smoke 

 had but very little effect on them. 



Urban, Pa., July 25. J. S. Klock. 



HONEY FHOM I5LACK MANGROVE: A REPORT 

 FROM W. S. HART, OF FLORIDA. 



Tt.e honey-flow from black mangrove still 

 continues, and is now as abundant as at any 

 time this season, but is liable to cease at any 

 time within the next ten days. Up to date the 

 flow has been considerably below an average, 

 and bees have been notably cross throughout 

 the season, though the bloom has been profuse. 

 The late winter and spring flows were some- 

 what scant in this section, owing to forest fires 

 and a late frost. Late in April and the first 

 half of May there was a light flow that caused 

 the queens to lay well, and then came another 

 break in the flow that left the colonies with al- 

 most no young brood or eggs at the beginning 

 of June, the very time when brood was most 

 needed, as the mangrove flow came late this 

 year. A little stimulative feeding the last three 

 weeks of May would have been a most profita- 

 ble investment: but I had several weighty mat- 

 ters upon my hands at the time, and did not 

 watch my bees sufficiently close to realize the 

 need until it was too late. 



MIGRATORY KEE-KEEPIXG. 



This seems to be getting quite popular here. 

 .Several bee-men have brought their apiaries 

 here from the interior to secure the mangrove 

 yield, and these bees come in good shape, as 

 they had built up strong on the orange-blossom 

 and other interior crops. Mes.srs. Poppleion 

 and Storer also brought their bees back from 

 the .St. Lucie River, where they had secured a 

 good crop of wild-pennyroyal and saw-palmetto 

 honey, a'ld got in good condition to make the 

 most" of (he summer crop here. The Florida 

 honey ci'op will run considerably below the 

 average for this season, lieyond question 



My friend Harry Mitchell made a little dis- 

 covery lately in regard to an application to the 

 hands that prevents the bees from stinging 

 them, but I will let him give it to the public if 

 he cares to do so. W. .S. Hart. 



Hawks Park, Fla., July 28. 



B.^SSWOOD A FAILURE IN RICHLAND CO., WIS. 



Bass wood is now in bloom. Bees did not be- 

 gin to work upon it this year till the 18th of 

 July. Last year they began upon some trees 

 on the :sd of July. This is the "off " year up 

 here for l)assvvood to bloom. Not inore than 

 one tree in ten will bloom at all this year, and 



