GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1. 



it's stronger. And isn't pure smote better 

 than smoke mixed with cold air? With the 

 cold blast you are blowing air on the bees, to- 

 gether with what smoke goes along with the 

 air for company. With the hot blast are you 

 not sending out pure smoke? [Hot smoke, as 

 pure smoke as it can be, is the stuff that gives 

 me the best satisfaction. — Ed.] 



What a wholesale recanter ye editor is, 

 when once he finds he's in the wrong ! From 

 thinking 15 minutes enough to boil foul-broody 

 honey he has gone clear up to 3 hours, p. 49. 

 I protest that there is no sort of proof for the 

 necessity of boiling more than 2}^ hours. [It 

 is rather humiliating to have to turn "right 

 about face;" but when one sees he is wrong, 

 it is the only honest thing to do. Three hours ! 

 why, if two and a half hours is just enough — 

 just barely enough — why not make a sure job 

 of it by taking three hours?— Ed.] 



I KNEW that something stronger than water 

 was sometimes drunk at Medina, on the sly, 

 but I didn't suppose that the editor indulged 

 so freely that he wouldn't straighten up in 

 two weeks' time. But he still seems fuddled, 

 Jan. 15, p. 41, and insists, just as he did two 

 weeks before, that "wide frames are section- 

 holders without top-bars," and innocently 

 asks, "If not, what 'are they?" Why, bless 

 your heart, wi le frames are section-holders 

 with top-bars ! [Cart before the horse this 

 time, sure. What I had in my mind, but 

 didn't say it, was this: "Section-holders are 

 wide frames without top-bars." — Ed.] 



John Armstrong proposes, as spacers, 

 buckshot with nails driven through them. 

 That would give metal spacers, but the lead 

 would not dull the uncapping-knife. But the 

 shot being round, there seems no advantage 

 over staples Possibly a lead bead could be 

 made that would be a good thing. [I th : nk 

 we make much more ado about the possibility 

 of the uncapping-knife being dulled on a me- 

 tallic spacer than actual experience with such 

 spacers seems to warrant. I talked with Mr. 

 Frank Boomhower, who uses staple spacers. 

 I do not remember exactly his remark, but it 

 was to the effect that he had no trouble along 

 that line, and that the talk in the bee-journals 

 was based on theory and not actual experi- 

 ence. — Ed.] 



What is THERE in us that makes us laugh 

 at the calamities of others ? When I read on 

 p. 60 the multiplied afflictions of Bro. A. I. 

 Root, with crick in back, rubbers off, shoes 

 untied, and nose unwiped, I just lay on the 

 lounge and laughed till I shook all over. 

 [Been there yourself, eh, doctor? But, say; I 

 wish you could do something to make him 

 stay indoors till he gets well. He no sooner 

 feel i a little better than out he goes again, 

 trapsing around in the wet ; gets chilly, goes 

 in, hovers over the steam-pipes, with his rub- 

 bers, overcoat, and hat on. After he gets well 

 cooked up, and hot, he goes out again ; then 

 at night he wonders why he has the neuralgia, 

 the grip, and a lot of other aches and pains. 

 Ihaveb^en trying to give him some good 

 fatherly (?) advice. Somehow he thinks he is 

 older than I, and ought to know better. He 



has been having a regular siege of grip with 

 all its attendant pains, during the past few 

 days ; and now, contrary to my explicit or- 

 ders, he is outdoors again. Say, doctor, do 

 you know of any way of mesmerizing him 

 into submission ? I wish you would do it if 

 you can. — Ed.] 



More honey dew was stored last year all 

 over the world than ever before, according to 

 reports. Perhaps honey - dew was no more 

 plentiful than usual, but the scarcity of floral 

 nectar made the bees store what in other years 

 they neglect. [Perhaps ; but when there is 

 honey in plenty from the fields, I have noticed 

 that the sidewalks under the trees are not spot- 

 ted by the spray of the honey-dew as they are 

 during those times when honey is scarce. Is 

 it not possible that Nature has so provided 

 that, when nectar is not secreted in the usual 

 way, because of certain conditions of atmos- 

 phere, those same conditions are favorable to 

 the secretion of another form of saccharine 

 matter, or, rather, to the growth of certain in- 

 sects ? You know there is a wonderful har- 

 mony in nature. The all-wise Creator has in 

 many ways made one hand to help the other. 

 Ed.] 



The old Union has 152 members and $171. 

 The new Union has 465 members and $175. 

 Pity they didn't marry. [Some comparisons 

 are odious, but I hope this is not one of them. 

 The nezv Union has larger annual expenses, 

 owing to the annual conventions, and salary 

 paid to the secretary. All of this money is 

 legitimacy used, and is productive of good. 

 The old Union confines its labors entirely to 

 the defense issue; the new Union takes up the 

 whole field, defense and adulteration, besides 

 helping to foster our national bee-keepers' con- 

 vention, an institution that brings our best 

 men face to face and hand to hand. What we 

 want the Union to do is to use the money for 

 the best interests of the pursuit, and jet keep 

 a comfortable surplus. The new Union has a 

 large membership, and yet enough money back 

 of it to keep it financially in good trim. — Ed.] 



PICKINGS 



FROM OUR NEIGHBORS' FIELDS. 



BY " STENOG." 



Un pour tons, et tous pour un. — French motto. 

 One for all, and all for one: 



Such is the motto of the hives: 

 Why can not men adopt the plan, 



And make more sweet their lives? 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Mr. Thaddeus H. Keeler says he has " fallen 

 in love with the tall sections." 

 \\> 



Mr. A. B. Bates tells why, in his opinion, 

 Italians store better honey than blacks. It's 

 pretty hard to show he is wrong in the follow- 

 ing reasoning : 



Honey is heavier than water, and, as a natural con- 

 sequence, the richer of the saccharine substance would 

 settle to the bottom ; and while black bees during a 

 copious flow of honey might store as much honey Mess 



