142 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15. 



The boss printer says we have enough mat- 

 ter, editorial and otherwise, to fill another 

 complete journal, notwithstanding this num- 

 ber is eight pages larger than our regular 

 issue. This will explain why some communi- 

 cations sent some little time ago have not yet 

 appeared. 



WE have been having some cold snaps in 

 Northern Ohio. The mercury has ranged all 

 the way from 15 to 20 below zero, and some 

 reported that it went even below 20. While 

 it perhaps may have been as cold as this be- 

 fore we never knew it to keep there so long. 

 I just received a letter from Dr. Miller, stat- 

 ing that he was in the house with his coat off, 

 notwithstanding it was 24 below zero outside. 

 But he dryly adds, " We have a fire in the 

 house." 



FRED S. THORINGTON. 



We have just learned through R. B. Leahy, 

 of the Leahy Mfg. Co., of the death of Fred 

 S. Thorington, of Chillicothe, Mo. Mr. Thor- 

 ington has been quite a prominent writer, 

 particularly for the Progressive Bee-keeper. 

 Mr. Leahy writes : 



He had been an invalid for more than 20 years, and 

 with a wheel chair he wheeled himself through his 

 apiarv of 40 colonies (sometimes) of bees, and cared 

 for them. His neighbors say for him that in all these 

 davs of pain and inconvenience he always remained 

 cheerful, and was a lover of flowers, birds, and bees. 



Most of us, under such circumstances, 

 would hardly have thought we could keep 

 bees, to say nothing about taking care of them. 

 And this reminds me of the case of Mrs. L. C. 

 Axtell, one who has been an invalid all her 

 life, and yet one who has done a large part of 

 the work in managing one or more large 

 apiaries. Some of the time she has been 

 obliged to lie on her back while doing her 

 work. Such people have real pluck and 

 heroism. 



APIS DORSATA FOR THE UNITED STATES. 



An American soldier now in the Philippines 

 at Manila has kindly volunteered to secure 

 Apis dorsata, of which he says there are a 

 great many in and about Manila, and further 

 that the natives have offered to furnish him 

 the bees. He has asked for instructions how 

 to ship, etc. We have given him the neces- 

 sary information, and have offered to pay him 

 £25.00 for one queen, §35.00 for two, and so 

 on. We will publish his interesting letter in 

 our next issue. 



I for one feel sanguine that we shall be able 

 to obtain the big bees, because Mr. Uglow 

 says Manila is only 20 days from San Francisco. 

 Of course, he will have to arrange to get direct 

 steamer connection so the bees will not be 

 caged any longer than is absolutely necessary. 

 If any of our subscribers desire to communi- 

 cate with Mr. Uglow, his address is, John C. 

 Uglow, Co. M, 2d Reg. Ore. Vol. 



THE VALUE OF THE BICYCLE FOR OUT-APIARY 

 WORK. 



In the American Bee-keeper for February 

 there is a very interesting and valuable article 

 from one of "Coggshall's lightning operators," 

 Mr. Harry S. Howe, to whom I have before 

 referred. His experience in regard to the 

 value of the wheel for all kinds of out-apiary 

 work is very nearly my own. In fact, I am 

 almost inclined to put all he says in italics. 



The average bee-keeper under 45 who is 

 used to handling horses, and says he must 

 have them anyhow, and therefore thinks he 

 would have no use for a bicycle, is making a 

 big mistake. Let him keep his horses if he 

 wishes ; but he will find that the bicycle will 

 be used much even then. 



As our readers know, every summer I man- 

 age one out-apiary myself, and do nearly all 

 the going and coming on a bicycle, even to 

 carrying foundation, supers, and what not. 

 There are lots of things a fellow can do if he 

 only thinks so; and I have no doubt that 

 Harry could even carry bread and milk if he 

 wanted to. 



As I have often said, one can hire a team 

 for one out-apiary or two, and possibly three 

 or four. All hive stuff should be delivered 

 early in the season, and then during the 

 greater part of the rest of the year one can 

 come and go on his bicycle, even carrying 

 some material when occasion may require. 

 After the crop is secured, then of course he 

 will be obliged to hire a team or teams to 

 carry it to town. As a general thing a farmer 

 will do the work for a little honey. 



Keeping a horse is expensive business, as I 

 know from sad experience ; and then a horse 

 around bees — well, nature never designed that 

 they should be together in company. I had 

 one valuable animal killed, as some of our 

 readers know, at one of our out-yards. I have 

 had runaways in going to yards; broken thills; 

 broken buggies ; broken harness. I have 

 been through the experience of having a horse 

 have the mud fever ; I have been kicked al- 

 most into insensibility. Oh, dear ! it would 

 have been money in my pocket if I had never 

 invested in horse flesh. 



The horseless carriage will soon be here, and 

 then we can bid good-by to the horse so far as 

 the bee-business is concerned. 



There, now, I did not intend to write all 

 this prelude to Harry's excellent article. 

 Here it is— or, rather, an extract from it : 



By using a wheel a man can do much more work in 

 the out-apiaries than with a team. 



Mr. Coggshall's yards average nearly 10 miles from 

 home, and my lot average 14, which gives lots of 

 chance to save time on the road. With a wheel a man 

 can start as soon as he is ready. When he gets to the 

 bees he can go right to work. The time saved on the 

 road and in getting started comes just when it is 

 worth the most. 



My regular riding gait is 12 miles per hour, or twice 

 as fast as a good team can go over the same roads. Of 

 course, once in a while a wheel will get stuck in the 

 mud, but not often. It did not happen to me once 

 last year, and only twice this season, and one of those 

 times I should have gotten home if I had been alone. 



There is a great difference in wheels in that respect. 

 When I built my present wheel I had that point in 

 mind; and by using small tires, with plenty of room 

 between the tires and the frame, I can go right along 

 unless the mud is very deep. The time saved by the 



