1892 



GLEANINIJS IN BEE CULTURE. 



&.n 



an* very large aiui show y. and in a collootion 

 always "attract n\ncli notice and coninipnt. We 

 often' rear many of tliein in a sinjile season. 

 Tliey rarely do any great liarni. as they have so 

 many enemies tiiat they do not become very 

 nnmtMons. They are, however, great feeders; 

 and were tliey more common lliey wonld be se- 

 rions pests. S'tM by i;se of tiie arsenites — Lon- 

 don imrple or Paris green we could (inietly ex- 

 termir.ate them, even if they were destrnctive. 

 Now that we know tiiat. by adding a few 

 pounds of thoronghly slaUed lime to each hnn- 

 <lred gallons of Paris green or London purple 

 anil water, we render it harmless to vegetation. 

 wliile yet poisonous to insects. w(> shall lind this 

 even more valuable than formerly for killing 

 insects. A. .L Cook. 



Agricultural College. Mich.. Aug. 27. 



NOTES FROM THE BICYCLE. 



KKNKST S TOUK AMONG BEE-IvEEPIOKS. 



I made the trip of nearly 4tM) miles, and now 

 after having been home for a couple of weeks 

 find myself none the worse for wear: on the 

 contrary. I b<>lieve I'm (>ven better for the 

 "kicking." yes. in the best condition physi- 

 cally or athletically, if that is the better word, 

 that I have ever been. I wasn't sick or ailing 

 when 1 left home, but I fairly ached to get out 

 in the common roads again. I am no crank. I 

 hope, but somehow I do like to push a crank 

 while riding on my hobby, a Victor pneumatic 

 bicycle. 



Before we go on, perhaps you will ask. What 

 is a pneumatic wheel? It is one having two- 

 inch hollow rubber tires pumped up full of air. 

 These tires being soft and springy, that is, re- 

 silient, pass over slight inequalities of the road 

 without jar to the rider. For instance, if you 

 were to strew a lot of pebbles on a hard floor, 

 and then run a pneumatic-tired wheel over it. 

 you would scarcely, if at all, notice the difl'er- 

 ence between the level door and the portion 

 covered with the pebblfs, because the latter 

 bury themselves, as it were, into the tire with- 

 out affecting the even course of the wheel. If 

 you still don't understand the pneumatic, ask 

 the small boy for further particulars. That 

 piece of inquisitiveness is constantly pushing 

 and squeezing tires with his hands whenever a 

 wheel is at rest. 



On the last of August I set out from home 

 with my necesiinry luggage strapped to my 

 handle-bars. I carried only such as I thought 

 1 would actually need, not even carrying a 

 small revolver to keep off the dogs that are — 

 well, as the other fellow said, "'the confounded 

 nuisance of every bicycle-touring expedition." 

 Perhaps I'll tell" you about the dogs later. 

 A. I. R. accompanied me about five miles from 

 home to give me a good send-off. After leaving 

 him to pursue his way on anothei' road to a 

 market-gardener's place, I quickened my pace 

 toaten-mil(^ gait. Wellington, 20 miles away, 

 was reached in two hours. Twenty miles more, 

 which was run in another two hours, brought 

 me to East Townsend. the home of II. R. Board- 

 man. By the roundabout railroad course I 

 could not havi' reached it in as good time, so I 

 was ahead in railroad fare, in exhilaration of 

 spirits, and in time. 



AT THE APIAKY OF II. K. BOAKTJMAN. 



Happily I found him at home and in his shop 

 with nis helper, scraping and crating filled sec- 

 tions for market. He did not recognize me at 

 first. My beard had been shaved off and I was 

 set off in a sweater, knickerbockers, and a Can- 

 adian hehn<t hat. Covered as I was with 



dust from the road it was not much of a wonder 

 that he did not know me as the former Ernest 

 that had called upon him som<' two or three 

 years l>efoi-e. 



As soon as I had exi)lained my identitv I ask- 

 ed what his honev crop had been. He had 

 secured this year the finest lot of honey he had 

 ever taken, and indeed it was nice. I tried to 

 induce him to sell it for more money than he 

 was asking, but he shook his head, saying that 

 he would have to adhere to his original quota- 

 tions. Then I began to press him as to the 

 (Iti(i)ititii. He didn't know exactly, nor, in fact, 

 did he want to know. I inferred that he would 

 just as soon have had more. Strangle how bee- 

 keepers are alike in this respect ! 



Mr. Board man had made some elaborate ex- 

 periments during the last spring in feeding. 

 He was satisfied that, had he not fed liberally, 

 he would have secured little or no honey. 

 When the honey did come (the brood-nests 

 being well supplied), it was. as a matter of 

 course, forced into the sections. The result of 

 his experiments in feeding, both as to the time 

 and manner in which it was done, was exceed- 

 ingly interesting: and it is no more than fair 

 that I reserve this for him to describe himself 

 at some future time. 



The thing that struck me forcibly in the 

 apiary was the great strength of the colonies. 

 Most of his hives were two-story, and evidently 

 crammed full of bees; and. while the majority 

 of tliem were hybrids, they were quite peace- 

 able. His home apiary, as some of you may 

 remember, is in an orchard: and large, luscious 

 Queen Ann apples were dropping every now 

 and then upon the hive-covers. The bees seem- 

 ed to take all this as a matter of fact. During 

 all the time we were in the apiary, not a single 

 bee offered to molest us— not even when we 

 stood right in front of the entrances, obstructing 

 their flight. 



BOARDMAN'S SOI.AK WAX-EXTRACTOK. 



During the past summer Mr. Boardman had 

 been melting up a large number of odd-sized 

 combs with the solar wax-extractors. He had 

 three mammoth-sized ones (the same as was 

 Illustrated in Gleanings, p. .50, 1891), the di- 

 mensions of the sash being somewhere about 

 3x<i feet, and with these he had rendered out 

 several hundred pounds of wax. I asked him 

 what he did with the residue, and he pointed 

 me to a couple of barrelfuls. This he burned. I 

 suggested to him that, if he would render this 

 with sulphuric acid, as recently described in 

 Gleanings, he would secure enough wax to 

 more than pay him for his trouble. He did not 

 feel so certain that he would, but promised to 

 make the experiment; we shall, therefore, all be 

 interested in the result. 



After we had walked about the yard, looking 

 at this and that. Mr. Boardman again took me 

 into his shop and showed me some unfinished 

 sections that had been filled out by being fed 

 back with first quality of extracted honey. It 

 was very easy to sec where the lunv lot of honey 

 had been joined on. as it were, to the old; and 

 the sections altogether had an inferior look. 

 The conversation gradually turned to auto- 

 matic hi vers. My friend felt rather doubtful 

 about their ever coming into general use in the 

 apiary. The expense, and troubk; of attaching 

 them, were two serious objections, he thoughr 

 With the swarm oatc/iecs he was greatly pleas- 

 ed. These, the reader will remember, are to be 

 attached by the apiarist to the entrance of the 

 hive from which the swarm is just issuing. 

 The flying bees are caught in a large cage, and 

 are then hived on a separate stand — the bees 

 (except the first few that come forth) not so 

 much as even g(!tting into the air. 



