,i-:axinc.s in bva-: cri/nuiv. 



apiary, that is workiii.i^ in the sjctions. Thisc 

 we call " hait-ciiinhs," and every wise ajiiarist 

 will put one or two of them in the center of 

 his supers alont; with s.^ctions containinj^ /"«// 

 s/itt/s of foundation. The averaj^e hee-keeper 

 can not aff<.>nl to use narrow starters. 



.\ .yroat (leal of stress has been laid on the 

 importance of puttinij in bait-combs to start 

 the bees up ; but a theater stress should be 

 laid on the importance of havint^- bijr rousing 

 colonies. The hives should be " slioost crammt 

 cham full "' of bees ; then when supers are put 

 on, the bees will j^o into them. When o/uv 

 here they won't loaf lon<;- if honey is comint^. 



SHKKP TO KKKP DOWN CRASS IN THK APIAKV. 



A few days a<jo Louis. Dadant and I called 

 at \'ernon Burt's. He was away at the time, 

 but we strolled into the yard nevertheless. 

 Quite a flock of sheep ^^■ere busily nibbling 

 around among the hives. I had supposed 

 that ]Mr. Burt allowed them access to his api- 

 ary only at night ; but latterly, at least, it 

 would seem that he lets them go among the 

 hives day and night as much as the\" please. I 

 saw some sheep nibbling grass close to an en- 

 trance. Did the bees make any fuss about it ? 

 Well, yes, but the creature did not seem to 

 mind it. One old woolly chap I noticed was 

 walking across the apiary at a little quicker 

 pace, with his head quite low. By looking 

 carefully I saw that a lot of bees were after 

 him. He plunged his head into a clump of 

 twigs, and wiggled his stump of a tail in a 

 show of self-defense. He shortly drew his 

 head out, and went to nibbling grass around 

 the hives as though nothing had happened, 

 another sheep seemed to be stung in the face, 

 but paid very little attention to it. Just imag- 

 ine a cow or a horse or a donkey, with bees 

 after them, among a lot of hives ! No car- 

 toonist has or ever could fitly represent the 

 " scene." Thick heavy wool protects so that, 

 I believe, they are rarely stung ; and even 

 when they are, as I said, they pay no particu- 

 lar attention to it. 



I don't believe there is any thing equal to our 

 woolly friends to keep down grass and weeds 

 in an apiary. It takes lots of time and hard 

 work to do an equally good job with the lawn- 

 mower. At our home yard there is an open 

 roadway over which considerable basswood 

 lumV)er is hauled, and more or less general 

 teaming is done. Were it not for this fact I 

 should be in favor of having a flock of .sheep 

 to keep the grass down in our apiary. 



GLEANINGS PRINTED ON NEW TYPE AND ON 



A NEW PRIiSS ; .SOMETHING .\BOUT 



THE PRINTING FACILITIES .A.T 



THE HOME OF THE 



HONEY-BEES. 



Our readers will notice that this issue is 

 printed on a new dress of type, the old having 

 become so much worn as to make a change 

 necessary. It is also printed on a brand-new 

 Campbell Centura- four-roller book and job 

 press that has a guaranteed capacity of 2200 

 impressions per hour, or a normal rate, includ- 

 ing stops, of about 18,000 printed sheets in a 



da\- of 10 hours, each sheet lia\'ing ICi ])ages of 

 (tLK.\.nings matter on a side. This machine 

 co.st us $2."iOO in cold cash. 



Our printing department has been .so crowd- 

 ed during the past year that we had to have 

 something better ; as it was, the old press ran 

 night and day from about* the fi:st of January 

 to the middle of May la.st. We have realized 

 for some time also that it has taken too long 

 for us to run off an edition of GLE.A.XINGS. 

 With the old press it took from four to five 

 days ; but we expect wnth the new machine, 

 as soon as our boys learn to feed it to its full 

 capacity, to make the run in something like 

 a day and a half, or possibly less. 



Besides the printing of our journal we have 

 from ir,0,00() to 200,000 catalogs to print, of 

 our own, every season ; for we believe heartily 

 in the principle that we must let the world 

 know that we have something to sell. Then 

 there is our ABC book and several rural pub- 

 lications. Besides this there is some outside 

 printing. The consequence is, we have found 

 our capacity heretofore to be .so limited that 

 we found it necessary for us to buy the very 

 best and fastest printing-press that could Vje 

 found in the market ; and after a good deal of 

 investigation it proved to be the new Camp- 

 bell Century — a press that is now almost work- 

 ing a revolution in printing-presses. I believe 

 there is no one other ^ook and Job press of 

 its class that can equal it in speed day after 

 day without "playing out." 



Good by, old press ! good-by, old type I and 

 welcome new type and new Century and pro- 

 gress ! While Gleanings does not claim to 

 be the /^est bee-journal in the world, it has a 

 right to claim that it ' ' keeps up with the pro- 

 cession," both in subject-matter and in letter- 

 press work. Besides this we shall continue to 

 bestow, as in the past, extraordinary care upon 

 our proofs. 



THE NEED OF STANDARD GRADING-RULES ; A 

 SHARP TRICK OF THE TRADE. 



It begins to look as if it were impossible to 

 find a set of rules for grading that will suit 

 even the experts in bee-keeping. Some even 

 go so far as to think it better to have no rules, 

 and let each one grade according to his own 

 notion. The obvious disadvantage of this is 

 that one lot of honey can not be compared 

 v^-ith another. A's "Fancy" would be B's 

 " No. 1 ; " and C's " Extra Fancy " might be 

 D's "Fancy." We must somehow strive to 

 arrive at uniformity. Without grading-rules 

 a commission house can st'// B's honey as 

 " Fancy, " and make him returns for the honey 

 at No. 1 grading. By this way they can ac- 

 tually steal the difference between the price of 

 No. 1 and Fanc}'. Yes, even with a standard 

 .set of grading-rules they could carry on this 

 sort of stealing, but it is not nearly as easy to 

 do .so ; for with standard rules each party 

 would know what he is talking about ; but 

 without rules the bee-keeper is ac the entire 

 mercy of the commission house. I regret to 

 say it, but I fear that the practice of selling at 

 one grade and making returns to the bee- 

 keeper at a lower grade is more common than 

 it ought to be because it is so easily done and 



