1897 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



241 



the questioner's place I would not give to the 

 amountof ten dollars in sacrifice, in changing a 

 position a mile and a half from the honey flora 

 to one right in its midst. I have had good 

 crops of buckwheat honey stored when there 

 was not a square rod of buckwheat in sight of 

 the apiary, and not to exceed 13 acres within the 

 distance stated (a mile and a half), while hun- 

 dreds of acres lay from three to five miles away. 

 This, with tons of basswood honey stored from 

 the top of the heights, seven and eight miles 

 away from my apiary, during the past 25 years, 

 leads me to think that the center-location par- 

 ties have not had any practical experience 

 along the lines they are talking about. 



REARING QUEENS. 



Question.— I have seen it stated that queens 

 reared by natural swarming are superior to 

 those reared from eggs laid in worker-cells. Is 

 this a fact beyond reasonable question ? If so, 

 how do our queen-breeders secure the thou- 

 sands they send out, all from swarming-cells? 



Ansiver —It would be but reasonable to infer 

 that a plan of queen-rearing which brought 

 vigorous healthy bees, all the way from before 

 Samson's time down to the present, in their na- 

 tive haunts, must produce queens that were 

 very good, to say the least. But to say that an 

 egg laid in a queen-call by the same queen was 

 a better and more vitalized egg than was one 

 laid in a worker-cell, is something that very 

 few would be ready to assume. From years of 

 close observation I can not think that there is 

 any difference in favor of the egg, no matter 

 where it is laid, whether in queen, worker, or 

 drone-cells, providing said egg is properly fec- 

 undated; but the difference; comes in the treat- 

 ment of the innate life ofitthat egg after^itahas 

 come to the larval form.cin natural swarming 

 a larva intended for a queenrfrom3the"time;it 

 first breaks its s,he]\\s\nnrse(ilallUs_lnrvar,life 

 with a fondness equal to any mother's fondness 

 for^her child; and in this nursing we^have the 

 part which plays for good or^evil in the future 

 queen. If by any means we cannsecure a like 

 condition for 'the^just-hatched 'Jarva.ofrom an 

 egg laid in a worker-cell, we can securefa like- 

 conditioned queen; and 1 have not a single 

 doubt that thousands of the queens sent out by 

 queen-breeders are every whit as good as those 

 reared under natural swarming, for the most of 

 our queen-breeders to-day spare no pains to 

 bring about an equally favorable condition to 

 that under which natural swarming is conduct- 

 ed while rearing their queens. Much poorer 

 queens than those reared under natural swarm- 

 ing can be produced, and will be, unless the 

 work of queen-rearing is done rightly; and it 

 was because that, in the infancy of the queen- 

 rearing business, very little attention was paid 

 to the condition of the colonies while feeding 

 the embryo queens that the subject of where 

 the eggs were laid was advanced. God placed 



man at the head of and gave him control over 

 all animate nature, and thus it hf scome to pass 

 that he has been enabled to equal, if not to im- 

 prove, every thing which he has turned his 

 hand to, and queens are no exception to this 

 rule. 



GOOD NEWS FROM CALIFORNIA. 



I have just been out two hours in the rain, 

 guiding the torrent (as it passes my apiary) to 

 make it fill up holes, and level up things gener- 

 ally. The rain and snow have kept me from 

 the postoffice. Three inches of snow and 43i 

 in. rain (including the snow); this time 17 in. 

 total. This will ensure a honey crop here so 

 far as rain is concerned. R. Wilkin. 



Newhall, Cal., Feb. 18. 



HONEY AND SALAD OIL FOR COUGHS. 



Our people down here in Canada place much 

 confidence in clover honey for medical purposes. 

 Physicians often order it. A mixture of honey 

 and olive oil is very efficacious for children 

 troubled with severe cough. A lady was telling 

 some time ago that her two little ones were per- 

 fectly cured in a short time by taking a tea- 

 spoonful three times a day, and said, smilingly, 

 "I had no trouble to get them to take it; the 

 honey did the coaxing for me." 



A Bee-friend. 



BASSWOOD seeds; A SUGGESTION IN REGARD TO 

 PLANTING. 



I see in Gleanings that Bro. Root gave direc- 

 tions about planting basswood seeds. If we fol- 

 low his directions here in Iowa the seed will 

 stop in the ground two winters. I have had the 

 best luck by planting it in the spring, then it 

 would come up the next spring. 



Lamont, la., Jan. 14. Chas. Blackburn. 



WEIGHT OF IX-IN. SECTION. 



I see you want an expression from your read- 

 ers as to the weight of sections with honey. I 

 use the IJi sections, and in the last three years 

 I find that the weight is from 13X to 14}^ 

 ounces to the section. That would make the 

 average 14 ounces. If a section weighs 14>^ 

 ounces it is well filled and of fine appearance. 



Eudora, Kan., Dec. 14. Louis Moll. 



ADVANTAGE OF FULL SHEETS OF FOUNDA- 

 TION IN THE SECTIONS. 



I used last season brood foundation (as I had 

 some broken) for surplus cases, and they work- 

 ed well, for I put them in the full size of sec- 

 tions and reaped a good harvest by so doing. 

 Hereafter I intend to use for starters the thin 



