858 



GLEANING^ IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15. 



the Rio Grande. They run this through the 

 grounds, and the water is so nasty and muddy 

 that it leaves a thick scum or sediment wher- 

 ever it flows over the ground. This sediment 

 is equal to concentrated manures for fruit, al- 

 falfa, or almost, any thing else. Why. the 

 rushing waters, laden with their fertilizing 

 treasures, made me almost wild to have a ranch 

 in New Mexico: but then, when I thought of 

 those mud huts for homes, that were almost the 

 rule in that region, I felt almost homesick 

 again. 



May be Las Cruces has more real houses than 

 I gave it credit for. But Mrs. Root was not 

 along; in fact. 1 had not seen her for four or 

 five hours! This was by far the longest period 

 we had been separated since slie met me in 

 San Francisco. Besides, we were both begin- 

 ning to feel a terrible longing for home and the 

 children. With all these explanations it is not 

 very strange that, instead of staying two or 

 three days at Las Cruces, I began to make in- 

 quiries in regard to the first train back that 

 evening. At suppertime my resolution was 

 somewhat shaken by meeting some of the min- 

 ers from Organ Mountains. These mountains--, 

 in fact, had considerable of a look like my old 

 friends Superstition Mountains. There was 

 not any turret nor battlements away up in the 

 clouds, but there were some sharp peaks that 

 looked more like church-spires than they did 

 like mountains. An old miner who had received 

 an injury in the mines told me a good deal 

 about them, and said people had climbed up 

 those spires, and they all gave me a pressing 

 invitation to go up and see the miners work in 

 those mountains next day. Friend Brannigan 

 said, further, that there were some mountains 

 right back of these that were almost as white 

 as snow, and it was not snow either: it was 

 mountains of gypsum, or plaster of Paris. By 

 the way, I had had a glimpse the day before of 

 one of these gypsum mountains. All at once I 

 startled the passengers by exclaiming, "Just 

 see that white mountain! What can it be?" 

 They all jumped to the window and caught a 

 glimpse of it. Then the train whirled us 

 among the hills, out of sight: and when we had 

 got to the spot where we thought it ought to 

 be, it was not there any more. A good many 

 explained its disappearance by saying that it 

 was a mirage: but I am sure it was a plaster- 

 of-Paris mountain. The railroad did not hap- 

 pen to go where we could get a glimpse of the 

 mountain again. For several days after leav- 

 ing Las Cruces I felt bad to think that I did not 

 shake off my feeling of homesickness and go off 

 and explore those wonderful mountains. Never 

 mind: when we get out of debt again— if we 

 ever do— perhaps the boys will send me off to 

 finish my explorations. In the next issue I will 

 try to tell you something about the strange city 

 of Paso del Norte, just across the river from 

 El Paso. It gets its name, probably, from this 

 branch of the Rio Grande, "' del Norte " mean- 

 ing the northern branch. 



A KIND WOIID FRO.M AUSTRALIA. 



Friend Boot:— Let me thank you for the good I 

 have got from your ))ooks, particularly "What to 

 Do." etc. That book did me good, and strengtlieiicd 

 my liands. I was feeling in the dark, and your 

 gleam of light showed the track. Deep cultivation, 

 heavy manuring, and good stufif are my text-words, 

 and J have succeeded very well in small things, 

 such as strawberries, tomatoes, fruit, and poultry, 

 and the best shops jump for my produce. Besides 

 this, you have heliJed, by your writings, other poor 

 men over here, and encouraged tliem and taught 

 them. Let this platitude of ours sometimes dwell 

 in your mind, and repay you for your trouble. 



Sidney, N. S. W., Sept. 19. T. A. Board. 



C36T>AGEs7xlO 

 ii^S PERYEAPj 



For a small moment have 1 fors-aken thee.— ISA. 54 : 7. 



We have to-day. Nov. 10. a heavy fall of 

 snow, and eveiy thing looks decidedly like 

 winter. We usually do not have, much snow in 

 our locality before the first of December. 



We have just been advised of the safe arrival 

 in Australia of two or three Italian queens that 

 we sent from Medina some forty days ago. We 

 sent out. toward the latter part of the season, 

 something like three dozen, and so far have 

 heard from only four or five queens. 



Ouii friend J. M. Jenkins, the supply-dealer 

 of Wetumpka, Ala., has ere this, we presume, 

 taken a new helpmeet. There was a brief inti- 

 mation of the coming event in a letter oidering 

 another lot of catalogues for 1893. Gleanings 

 extends congratulations. 



We omitted to state, in our footnote to Mr. 

 Crane's article on page 837. that he has a cone, 

 or sleeve, of pejforated metal, that slips right 

 over the cone top of the smoker. This sleeve 

 has an air-space between it and the cone proper, 

 and. tieing fastened securely, the top may be 

 removed without burning the fingers. 



expebiments with glitcose: how the bees 

 take to the pure stuff. 



It has been intimated several times of late, 

 that bee-keepers feed glucose to bees to get 

 comb honey. We have all along doubted 

 whether this would be practicable, and accord- 

 ingly, during the past summer, we ordered a 

 small keg of the finest glucose made, to test the 

 matter for ourselves. We knew the bees would 

 not take to it very kindly, but were greatly 

 surprised to find that we could not get them to 

 even smell of it: and Mr. J. B. Hains, of Bed- 

 ford, Ohio, who wished to prove the fallacy of 

 the thing, says this is his experience. We ex- 

 perimented with three colonies of different 

 temperaments, and they all seemed alike to 

 regard it with the same disfavor. Finally we 

 thought we would see. one day. if we could not 

 force it down 'em. We dipped our finger into 

 it, and allowed the glucose to st?"eam all over 

 the cluster of bees: and while we were watch- 

 ing them they did not even take the pains to 

 lick each other off. and we believe, if we had 

 dosed them much more, the whole colony would 

 have been killed. 



When the stuff' first came we thought we would 

 sample it. It looked beautiful, clear as crystal, 

 and as thick as nice well-ripened honey on a 

 winter day. We sampled it. taking a good big 

 spoonful. The first sensation was not particu- 

 larly bad; but as the stuff began to melt in the 

 mouth it was almost nauseating. It reminded 

 us very forcibly of old rotten potato parings. 

 (We never eat such things, but judge of their 

 quality by tho smell.) We invited, in turn, 

 several others to taste it, and they all regarded 

 it as positively bad. 



Now, the point of all this is right here: If it 

 is impossible to make bees take pure glucose of 

 the finest quality, it is impossible to produce 

 pure glucose comb honey by feeding: and all 

 the talk we have had regarding the possibility 

 of making glucose comb honey is a waste of 

 words— that is. if our experiments were con- 

 ducted carefully. This is possible, and, we 



