706 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



•some producers write to the periodicals, ' ' Tre- 

 mendous honey -flow ! " and before it reaches 

 its destination, bees may not be making a Uv- 

 ing. This year a man came for sections, say- 

 ing that he never saw honey coming so fast. 

 We ordered them for him, and they remained 

 here one month, and I doubt if he ever open- 

 ed them. 



Some newspapers report a big yield of corn , 

 which is far from the truth. It didn't ear 

 well, neither did tomatoes set. The best crop 

 in this locality was blackberries. It is report- 

 that a man dug his potatoes, dropping them 

 into a jug, and after working all day it was 

 not full. Mrs. L. Harrison. 



Peoria, 111. 



[See editorial on this subject, page 670. — 

 Ed.] 



DISCOURAGING FOR FLORIDA. 



You may announce that the present season 

 has given us not one pound of surplus honey 

 in this "neck of the woods." This is the 

 most signal failure we have ever known all 

 along Florida's East Coast. As I have given 

 you some fine records from here I will not 

 shrink from recording this surprising failure. 

 Except for the killing of the mangrove in '95, 

 I do not see how we could have had a season 

 like the present. By next season we shall 

 get honey from that source again. 



Hawks Park, Fla., Aug. 27. W. S. Hart. 



THE BEAR AND THE BEES; THE FATE OF THE 

 BEAR. 



We never had any bee-hives kicked over by 

 horses or sheep, but we had two kicked over 

 last night by a bear, and the honey and brood 

 eaten out of one. She was scared away three 

 times, and came back the fourth time, all in 

 five hours. I twice drove her away with two 

 Winchesters; the last time I put a hole through 

 her jugular. This was my first chance at her. 

 I was away when she came first, and my wife 

 shot at her. Mrs. Bear was a dandy, and 

 weighed 400 lbs. I shall take her hide to the 

 tannery to-day, and will make a rug of it. 

 vShe was killed at 11 P. M. After bleeding ten 

 minutes she got up and came at me as I went 

 to her wath a light. F. T. Hall. 



Barron, Wis. i^ Sept. 3. 



A "SENSITIVE" HONEY-PLANT. 



Bees are now working liveh* on smartweed, 

 corn-top, goldenrod, a"nd other plants, and 

 another very pretty plant with yellow flowers 

 that is quite sensitive to the touch. I do not 

 know the name of it, but will inclose a sample. 

 The leaves are always facing in the direction 

 of the sun. Some have clusters of the flowers 

 for ornaments in their dooryard. 



Fairbury, Neb., Aug. 15. O. C. Burch. 



[The plant sent belongs to the family Z<o-w;;//- 

 nosic, or pulse. This particular one \s Cacsal- 

 pinta, but a different species from Poinciana. 

 The plant is nearly related to the well-known 

 Mollie Heath honey-plant. It resembles the 

 true sensitive plant of the florists, and it is 

 closely related to the beautiful acacia of Cali- 



fornia and Florida. These plants are so exceed- 

 ingly handsome I would advise you to save 

 the seed and offer it to bee-keepers. If it is 

 hardy in Nebraska it will probably make a 

 beautifiil dooryard plant throughout the whole 

 North. I should be glad of a small packet of 

 seeds myself. — A. I. R.] 



LIMITING THE QUEEN'S LAYING CAPACITY BY 

 THE USE OF PERFORATED ZINC. 



I notice in a late issue of your journal that 

 you object to caging or taking out queens 

 during a honey-flow, ' ' as the bees sulk too 

 much." I have not tried it, only as a colony 

 happened to be queenless, or was made so in 

 the operations of queen-rearing. I think you 

 are correct, but it has occurred to me that that 

 difficulty might be overcome by caging the 

 queen on one comb in a cage made of perfor- 

 ated zinc, so that the bees could have full 

 access to her and she could lay to a limited 

 extent on the one comb only, while the rest 

 of the brood-nest is being emptied of brood, 

 and being refilled with surplus for extracting. 



Estero, Fla., Sept. 3. J. S. SargenT. 



[The plan you speak of has been tried, and 

 a few years ago it was thought it might be a 

 big thing ; but we scarcely hear of it now. 

 One trouble was that, when the queen failed 

 to raise the usual amount of brood, through 

 no fault of her own, the bees proceeded to 

 supersede her. In short, this contracting the 

 queen's room induces a condition of discon- 

 tent on the part of the bees, and of course 

 they fail to do their best work. — Ed.] 



THE DANZY HIVE. 



I have put one swarm of Italians into a 

 Danz}' hive. They have completel}' filled the 

 brood-nest vdth absolutely straight combs, 

 \A'ith only starters, and finished the super of 32 

 sections with the nicest white honej- I have 

 ever had, and all in exactly two weeks from 

 the day I swarmed them. I like the mechanism 

 of the Danzy. There was not a burr-comb to 

 be seen when I took off the sections above 

 noted, this week. 



I suspect all will have beautiful clover comb 

 this year ; but those tall sections of thin 

 beautiful clover honey are certainly enough 

 to bring out a hearty interjection. 



Indianapolis, Ind. T. C. PoTTER. 



WHITE CLOVER ; GROWING AND GATHERING 

 THE SEED, ETC. 



Never seeing any thing in your publication 

 about gathering white-clover seed, we make 

 inquiry as to what method is used for cultivat- 

 ing and gathering it. John Coleman. 



Altoona, Pa., Aug. 23. 



[I shall have to confess that I have never 

 heard of cultivating white clover. Of course, 

 we sell the seed of the white Dutch clover, 

 which is pretty much the same thing, and 

 this, I believe, is generally sown the same as 

 alsike or red clover; and my impression is the 

 seed is harvested in much the same way, as it 

 has a good deal shorter blossoms, and nearer 

 the ground than the alsike. There may be, 



