698 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15. 



After sampling a few of those great luscious 

 Queen. Anns we made our way to the sweet- 

 clover patch. The bees were still working on 

 it busily, although his cow had been browsing 

 on it, cropping it down during the early part of 

 the season. This cow has learned to eat it in 

 preference to any other clover in t hf' y ard when 

 she can have her choice, cr piffi ^-^ 



It was now getting dark, and I told my friend 

 that I would have to take my wheel and hurry 

 on to Norwalk. from which point I was to start 

 in the morning for Fostoria. Bidding him 

 adieu, I mounted my wheel. Just before I got 

 into the town I saw "ahead of me three fellows 

 who seemed to have imbibed just enough liquor 

 to be "gloriously happy." A shepherd dog 

 accompanied them. By the way, these dogs 

 are the meanest animals we encounter. Well, 

 these three chaps thought it would be just fun 

 to set that dog on me. and. of course, he came at 

 me with all speed. As is always ray custom. I 

 dismounted. But this seemed to make no dif- 

 ference to the dog. He ran around one side of 

 the wheel and I the other, when finally I es- 

 pied a small boulder. This I let fly at him 

 with all my might, but to no purpose. If I 

 could have had the pleasure of hearing it crash 

 against his side( just as I did at another time with 

 another dog) I think ray temper would have 

 been cooled off somewhat; after all, the dog 

 ran as if,' for dear life. As the three men 

 came up after I had vanquished the doji, I 

 turned and said. "This may be fun for you. but 

 not for rae. Wait till I catch yuu wheeling 

 some time." At this one of them seemed dis- 

 posed to show fight. Now, I did not think it 

 would look very well to be seen fighting, even 

 if I had an equal chance, so I mounted my 

 wheel, and, putting on full speed, said. '" Good 

 day," and left the trio contemplating the wheel- 

 man vanishing ahead of a cloud of dust. 



AT S. F. NEWMAN'S. 



Ne.\t morning it rained. From all appear- 

 ances the rain would not stop for several hours 

 — at least it would rain enough to get the road 

 muddy and slippery. In the mean time, while 

 waiting for better prospects, I called upon 

 S. F. Newman, at his insurance office. His 

 main business is insurance, for bee-keeping is 

 simply a side issue, or a recreation which he 

 took up some years ago. As a bee-keeper he 

 has been quite successful. At one of his out- 

 yards the farmers have been induced to grow 

 peavine or mammoth clover, and it is now 

 grown so extensively that he had secured every 

 year considerable honey from it. Farmers did 

 not have to be urged to grow it any more, be- 

 cause they found it to be a profitable hay crop. 

 The honey itself, the finest quality, was by 

 some pronounced to be not unlike that made by 

 bumble-bees. 



I made Mr. Newman only a short call, as I 

 was anxious to get started. I went out upon 

 the street, and it was still raining and the 

 thermometer in a neighboring drugstore gave 

 me no encouragement. Still I decided to push 

 on, raud or no mud. rain or no rain; and how I 

 regretted it I will tell you in ray next. 



Ernest. 



SMOKERS AND THE REVIEW. 



the way, what a splendid paper the Review isT 

 I am proud of it and its editor as Michigan 

 products. 



Apropos to the subject of smokers, a word as 

 to friend Larrabee's amusement at my class 

 and myself lighting the shavings in the smoker. 

 Will it seera unfaii' for me to say that we were 

 also amused to see Mr. Larrabee try and fail? 

 We tried two or three times: he only once, 

 when he went in and got dry shavings. The 

 trouble was that suggested by Miss Emma 

 Wilson — the shavings were damp. Moral — 

 Keep the fuel dry. All fire-making depends 

 upon the principle of keeping open a draft, or 

 giving a passage for the oxygen of the air, 

 which must come or the fire goes. Any one who 

 can not build any fire, under reasonable cir- 

 cumstances, is either stupid or ignorant of the 

 principle on which combustion rests. The 

 other morning I saw "the girl " trying to light 

 the fire with a newspaper doubled as it goes to- 

 the office to be mailed. She seemed very grate- 

 ful when I showed her that a crumpled paper 

 wooed the oxygen and won the flame. I should 

 take it to be as much of a compliment to be told 

 that I ■■ did not know beans " as to be told that 

 I did not know how to make a fire or light a 

 smoker, no matter what the fuel. 



I am glad, my brother, that you are riding 

 the bicycle. I am with you. I ride a pneu- 

 matic Columbia a few miles each morning be- 

 fore breakfast. It is fun. It gives one great 

 chestfuls of good air; it makes the blood fairly 

 fly through the arteries, and invigorates the 

 whole body. Saxe said, "God bless the man 

 who first invented sleep." I say, "Amen," and 

 add, "and the bicycle." It makes exercise a 

 pleasure, not a mere duty. A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College, Mich. 



Lad/es' Conversazione. 



NURSING UP NUCLEI IN THE SPRING. 



MKS. AXTEEL TEI.ES HOW SHE MANAGES TO DCV 



BOTH THE WORK IN THE HOUSE AND IN 



THE APIARY. 



PROFESSOlt fOOK AND THE RICYCEE. 



Friend Root:— You can not know how I en- 

 joyed the last Review. I have long thought 

 the Bingham smoker by far the best. I could 

 not understand how any one else could differ 

 with rae. To note that I ara in line with bee- 

 keepers generally is very pleasant. The new 

 smoker has two substantial improvememts. By 



Had we not taken away all the honey-dew 

 stores from our bees, and put feeders into each 

 hive and fed daily of sugar syrup, or (>very oth- 

 er day in May, I fear we should not have had 

 any bees left. Even a few colonies in May 

 seemed to dwindle, and many died outright; 

 and very weak colonies would leave their hives. 

 Six swarmed out in one day. The queens 

 seemed to be the last to die; so, to save the 

 queens, I fastened several to a bit of brood and 

 honey, with as many of their bees as I could, 

 by placing over them a wire-cloth cage pressed 

 into the comb, and then placed several such 

 combs into one hive with the rest of the bees. 

 The queens would live in that way, apparently, 

 as comfortably as if they had their liberty. 

 When caged in small cages the bees died off 

 rapidly, and the queens would crowd behind 

 their bit of honey, and often die; but if given 

 that large cage, about 3x.') inches, pressed into 

 the comb, none were injured, that I could see. 

 I tried to save some of the queens by sewing up 

 cotton cloth and inserting thin comb, with 

 brood and queen, and what few bees they had, 

 into it and setting it into a strong colony at one 

 side; but the bees would soon all die, and 

 neglect the brood, and no good came of it. If 

 left any time, the queen too would die. 



Sister Harrison (and, I suppose, many others) 

 ?aid, I thought, " I told her so; that such ftiss- 

 ing with bees will not pay;" but it did pay in 

 raore ways than one. I am confident we have 



