650 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1. 



flowers that yield nectar. Cornfields, with 

 the improved implements of culture, are also 

 destitute of these plants. Low lands along 

 the river are being leveed and drained ; and 

 where the plow and the reaper go, the bees 

 have to take a back seat. 



Bees have been very erratic this season. 

 They will swarm, cluster, be hived, and then 

 return to their old home ; repeat it again the 

 next day, and finally settle down in their old 

 home. 



We may expect a fall flow of honey, judg- 

 ing from the amount of rain that has fallen ; 

 but if what the Germans say is true, it will be 

 a failure. They say bees will not work where 

 grasshoppers have been ; and they were never 

 more plentiful than now. Great big yellow 

 fellows are eating buds and blossoms, and 

 ears of corn; we only regret that we have not 

 chickens enough to eat them. 



One good thing about bee culture — if bees 

 have an off year we can do something else — 

 amuse ourselves in some other line of industry. 



Mr. Editor, I like your homely talks. The 

 one in last Gleanings about good roads 

 pleased me exceedingly. I've had some ex- 

 perience in building sidewalks in Florida ; 

 and the best way is to arise and build, as they 

 did the walls of Jerusalem. I know those 

 who refuse to help in any such improvement 

 are very apt to use it the most. They refuse 

 to aid in buying lumber for a walk ; yet when 

 it is finished they trundle heavy wheelbarrows 

 over it, breaking it down. 



Peoria, 111. Mrs. L. Harrison. 



DANZENBAKER VS. NIVER ON THE KIND OF 



HONEY THAT SELLS ; IS THERE MORE 



HONEY IN 15 CENT SECTIONS THAN 



IN 10 CENT ONES ? 



I dissent from the idea set forth on page 570, 

 that three sections like the middle one can be 

 produced for one at the right, with plain sec- 

 tions and fences, with proper management ; 

 and I venture that J. E. Crane, M. H. Men- 

 dleson, N. D. West, Vernon Burt, and hosts 

 of others will sustain me. If supers are as 

 warm as they should be in a full flow of white 

 honey in June weather, at least half the sec- 

 tions should grade No. 1 when the rest grade 

 No. 2, either of which will bring from 10 to 13 

 cts. wholesale. 



It is rather discouraging to think of retail- 

 ing even No. 2 sections for 10 cts.; but it may 

 be all that black buckwheat honey is worth ; 

 but if it is retailed for 10 cts., there can not 

 be much for the producer's pocket after the 

 supply-dealer, railroad freights, carting, and 

 commissions are paid. 



We know that buckwheat yields little or 

 no honey in hot weather. In cool latitudes, 

 where it yields surplus during cool days and 

 chilling nights, it may not be possible with 

 ordinary hives to have the supers warm enough 

 to have combs drawn out, and the honey 

 cured fit to seal at the sides of the sections to 

 grade as No. 1 ; and the buckwheaters are 

 obliged to make only No. 2 or none, and sell 

 it for 10 cts., as it is all it is worth. But the 

 most of us are happy to know we are not rais- 

 ing comb honey yet to be retailed for 10 cts. 



The bulk of the 4x5 plain sections raised 

 by myself, and others that I have seen, will 

 grade No. 1, and we get all the bees make and 

 ought to spare. Our chief concern is to know 

 that they have not put so much in the sections 

 as to be short of winter stores. 



F. DANZENBAKER. 



Washington, D. C, Aug. 10. 



THAT "GOOD CATCH." 



O Mr. Editor! — What won't you ask of 

 us next? But why hold them on? They'll 

 stay without if they care to. But I don't see 

 that I nor any other "young lady of prepos- 

 sessing appearance " could succeed in hold- 

 ing a swarm of bees on a limb if they wished 

 to leave. And should the swarm think the 

 lady intrusive, and try to discountenance her, 

 what assurance is there that the "$10 " with 

 all the " grace that one of her sex has " would 

 enable her to still " have about her an uncon- 

 scious air of ease," while painfully conscious 

 of the disaster to her " prepossessing appear- 

 ance " ? I've the bees, but I'll not send in my 

 picture. E. L. More. 



So. Cal., Aug. 1. 



WAXING RUBBER RINGS TO PREVENT HONEY 

 LEAKING ; HOW TO WAX THE RINGS. 



I am so confident, Dr. Miller, that waxing 

 rubber rings will prevent leakage in your 

 locality or in any other that I will forfeit $500 

 to the U. S. B. K. U. if it will not, and will 

 sign a legal agreement to that effect. There 

 is no kink about it, except what I fully ex- 

 plained in the article describing the plan. 



From what you say about the wax flaking 

 off, I think perhaps you did not have the wax 

 hot enough. It should be boiling, and the 

 rings just dipped in and instantly withdrawn ; 

 then there will not enough wax adhere to 

 them to flake off ; in fact, you will have to 

 look close to observe any wax on them. It is 

 true that, in screwing the cover down tight, 

 some wax will be forced out of the pores in 

 the rubber ; but enough remains to prevent 

 the least trace of leakage — that, is if the jar 

 seals air-tight in the first place. 



Southern Minn. C. Davenport. 



" EXTRA FANCY" A SUPERFLUOUS GRADE. 



I have read two or three times lately in 

 Gleanings about extra fancy comb honey, 

 and now some commission man has taken it 

 up and gives quotations for it in the last issue. 

 Now, I am afraid this will work to the disad- 

 vantage of the producers of comb honey, and 

 the commission men will make an extra profit 

 out of it ; for will not that extra fancy bring 

 the price that was formerly obtained for No. 

 1, and our No. 1 then be looked upon and 

 priced as our No. 2 used to be? Not one bee- 

 keeper in 500, may be, will have a few sections 

 of extra fancy ; and while he may get a little 

 more for it I am afraid it will tend to lower 

 the prices all along the line. After a while 

 we may hear of " super extra fancy," or some 

 such name, and I would not object to it if the 

 price would go up with the names ; but past 



