802 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15. 



other hand it may be a very great conven- 

 ience. I have been trying it a Httle myself, 

 and must say I hke it. — Ec] 



Oh the drouth ! Three months ago the 

 earth was a mat of white clover; to-day, Nov. 

 1, yovi must get down on hands and knees to 

 find it, and some places none then. [ I am 

 afraid, doctor, there is a good deal of truth in 

 what you say; and I a:n afraid, too, that the 

 condition you observe will be found generally 

 over the country. Whether that will have the 

 effect of cutting down the growth of clover 

 next summer, remains to be seen. We have 

 just had two or three days of rain — raining 

 almost constantly. It always rains, you 

 know, during election. Possibly the rains 

 may help to revive the drooping spirits of the 

 clovers now almost out of sight, even if it 

 does not those of some of the politicians, 

 surely buried for ever out of sight. — Ed.] 



I AGREE with you, Mr. Editor, p. 766, that 

 bees put more wax in com1)s in a dull flow, 

 but I always supposed that such wax was . the 

 regular article, and I never heard proof that 

 any of it was lugged in from outside on their 

 legs. [ It may be that bees do not use " gath- 

 ered " wax to thicken combs in dull seasons. 

 But we do know that tliey will darken a nice 

 light comb put up next to a dark one; and the 

 only way we can account for this darkening is 

 on the ground that the bees borrow wax from 

 the old comb and put it on the new. I should 

 be more inclined to believe that bees follow- 

 no invariable rule — that wax is wax to them, 

 whether it be the regular article coming in the 

 i-egular way or that which has been borrowed 

 or 'stolen. — Ed.] 



The German Bee-keepers' Central As- 

 sociation at present numbers about 2o,000 

 members. As far back as I can remember, no 

 bee-keepers' societv in this country ever reach- 

 ed that number. [No, nor anywhere near it; 

 and yet the U. S. B. K. U. ought to have at 

 least "that many names to back it up. Why is 

 it that there is such apathj' on the part of 

 bee-keepers ? Only the other day I received a 

 letter from a man who thought we ought to do 

 less talking and do more work in the matter 

 of fighting adulteration; but I am almost cer- 

 tain he is not a membsr of the U. S. B. K. U. 

 Man}' of these fellows who talk about "action" 

 and "less talk" are just the very ones who 

 grumble, and yet never would think of put- 

 tinsj their shoulder to the wheel themselves. — 

 Ed.] 



While hauling bees home, a little epi.sode 

 broke in on the even tenor of my life. I made 

 a rack, and put it on top of a heavy wagon- 

 box — springs under— 31 colonies at a load. 

 Unloading I stood on top and handed hives to 

 Philo. When the last hive was left on the 

 rack, extending over the hind end, my weight, 

 together with the hive, overbalanced Uie rack, 

 and it tipped. The hive lit on ground upside 

 down; I fell on -hive; rack fell on me; rack 

 wasn't hurt a bit. [It is too bad, doctor, 

 there was not a Kodaker around to preserve 

 the whole situation. If you will agree to go 

 through with the performance again I will 

 promise to take a series of snap shots, even if 



I have to go clear to Marengo. But say, doc- 

 tor, I should like to know what was the tem- 

 per of the bees, and possibly of yourself, 

 about the time you all three came down ' ' ker 

 slap." — Ed.] 



Replying to your question, p. 7(i7, I didn't 

 cushion down the paraifined paper. Didn't 

 need to. Bees glued it down. The only 

 point I made was that bees would put glue 

 freely on a paraffine surface, in contradiction 

 of the claim made in Gleanings for 1896, p. 

 7-i6, that bees dislike paraffine and are not in- 

 clined to deposit propolis on it. [ If you had 

 cushioned down the paper there would have 

 been less propolis, I am almost sure, doctor. 

 Mr. Danzenbaker insists that paraffine paper 

 should be squeezed down tight to the surface 

 of the sections. If there is a little crack or 

 air-gap, as there certainly must have been 

 between the sections and the paraffine paper 

 that you put over your sections, propolis 

 would certainly be put in to fill up the spaces. 

 But I think we might just as well admit that 

 bees do not dislike paraffine paper as nmch as 

 we thought they did; and we certainly can not 

 now say that they will not gnaw itimder some 

 circumstances. — Ed. ] 



TH.A.T FOOTNOTE, p. 766. Seems to help the 

 boom for figwort, although it was hardly so 

 intended. But when 3'ou say, " Our own ex- 

 perience, so far as I can remember," that 

 phrase, " so far as I can remember," makes 

 your cultivation of the plant only a memory. 

 Please tell us how much land you have now 

 occupied with figwort, and how much less 

 with sweet clover. In plain words, is it advis- 

 able to occupy good land with figwort? [Fig- 

 wort grows wild in our river-bottom land, or 

 it did do so a few years ago when we were 

 specially interested in studying this plant. 

 The only point I tried to make was that there 

 is more honey — considerably more of it — to a 

 single stalk of figwort, than in a stalk of sweet 

 clover. In answer to your question I would 

 say that it would not pay to try to grow either 

 one on good ground. No, we are not growing 

 figwort on our land, neither are we trying to 

 grow sweet clover; but, unlike figwort, it will 

 of its own sweet will, spring up and thrive in 

 all waste places. No scythe on our premises 

 dare molest it. — Ed.] 



In reply to your implied question on page 

 766, Mr. Editor, I don't know just how man}' 

 days' work was involved in getting that crop 

 of 17,150 lbs. of honey; but I know that two 

 of us did all the work except perhaps what 

 might be equivalent to two months' work. 

 Neither did I spend my whole time at it, for I 

 furnished weekly to bee and agricultural jour- 

 nals some half a dozen columns of stuff about 

 bees — in fact, not such a very light year's 

 work at writing alone. But I had to get up at 

 three and four in the morning through a good 

 part of the harvest; and if I'd been less young 

 and tough I couldn't have stood it. [ I do 

 not understand you, doctor. You say, " I 

 know that two of us did all the work except 

 perhaps what may be equivalent to two 

 months' work." Do you mean that you prac- 

 tically harvested that whole crop, two of you, 



