1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



119 



once put down. One consisting of a barn and 

 out-buildings, with an occasional stretch of a 

 board fence on the north and west sides, would 

 be equally effective ; and I am satisfied that 

 the slight expense of maintaining the fence 

 or trees would be made up in a few years' 

 time, ten times over, in the saving of many 

 colonies of bees, and preventing others from 

 getting so weak that they are practically use- 

 less for honey production. — Ec] 



" Colorado isn't a good country for nerv- 

 ous troubles," p. 90. Nor for heart troubles 

 — too high altitude. A little nephew born in 

 Colorado had heart disease so bad that physi- 

 cians pronounced his lease of life very short, 

 and that he must never again be allowed ac- 

 tive exertion. Came to Illinois — got strong. 

 Went back to Colorado — disease returned 

 worse than ever, and he died. [Yes, Colorado 

 is a rather hard place for those who have heart 

 troubles. While I believe I have normal 

 health, and that my heart is normal, beating 

 at 76 in Ohio, it ran up to 120 at an elevation 

 of 9500 feet — nearly two miles — and in Den- 

 ver the pulsations were about 100. Denver it- 

 self lacks about 15 feet of being 5280 feet (one 

 mile) above sea-level. Central City, a mining 

 town up in the heart of the Rockies, two miles 

 above the level of the sea, that I visited, is a 

 place I should not care to reside in very long. 

 I experienced a shortness of breath that seem- 

 ed almost suffocation ; and how those people 

 live there year after year, and how the horses 

 and mules in that country can pull heavy loads 

 over the mountains, without getting clear out 

 of breath, is beyond my comprehension. But 

 I suppose they get used to it, and think noth- 

 ing ot it. — Ed.] 



winter slowly wears away — 

 Skies are foggy, landscape gray ; 

 Bees are flying round our head — 

 Tired, perhaps, of winter's bed. 



" Modern Bee-keeping " is the title of a lit- 

 tle book of 16 pages, by Gilbert Wintle, of 

 Como, Quebec. It does not claim ,to be a 

 hand-book on bee-keeping, but is simply an 

 attempt to explain to outsiders something 

 about what is certainly a most interesting in- 

 dustry. It is well written, and should have a 

 wide circulation. It is sold at the nominal 

 price of 10 cts., and can be had by addressing 

 the Family Herald Pub. Co., Montreal, Can- 

 ada. 



We have just received from E. T. Abbott, 

 of St. Joseph, Mo., a copy of the Kansas Par- 

 tner containing an address delivered by him 

 before the Kansas State Horticultural Society, 

 Topeka, Dec. 27, on the subject of bee-keep- 

 ing in relation to fruit-raising. Mr. Abbott 

 seems to have gone from A to Z in this matter, 

 and, considering his audience, this essay can 



not fail to do great good. While there is much 

 in it with which we are all familiar, there is 

 much additional truth brought out, all going to 

 show one thing — the great part bees do play 

 in fertilizing fruit-blossoms, and the still great- 

 er part they may be caused to take in that 

 work. Doubtless Mr. Abbott will furnish a 

 copy to all applying ; and to enable him to do 

 so the address should be printed in pamphlet 

 form. 



\ii 

 Now for that recipe for making bird-lime. 

 A friend asks why it is called " lime. " It is 

 probably a misspelling of the German word 

 leini, meaning _^/«^ — a good deal on the prin- 

 ciple that a German says clay when he means 

 clover. Here is the recipe : 



There may be difficulty for some to make it, as it is 

 made from the bark of the holly-tree, and that grows 

 only in the South. First, peel the bark from the tree, 

 and boil it soft ; then strip the outside skin off, and 

 throw it away. Bury it four days, after which beat it 

 into a pulp. Wash clean, when it is fit for use. As to 

 its use, smear a twig with the lime, and fasten it so 

 the twig will drop. When the bird alights, the feet 

 stick to the twig, and the wings get stuck so the bird 

 can not get away, and is caught fast. The lime will 

 keep for a year. ' 



CANADIAN BEE JOURNAL. 

 Men have been rejected in considerable numbers 

 who sought enrollment in the U. S. army because they 

 have what is called a '"tobacco heart." There are 

 manjr evil fruits which flow out of " small vices," un- 

 wisei}' adopted and needlessly continued. 



That reminds me that there is now on my 

 desk a copy of The Australian, giving two 

 large half-tones of what is called Victorian 

 Club Smoke Night. Describing it the editor 

 says : 



The big room of the Vienna Cafe was far too small 

 for the concert and smoke night of the old Church of 

 England Grammar School boys and their friends on 

 Thursday. A move was suggested to the AthanEeum ; 

 but as pipes were going, and the " rosy " was already 

 circulating, chairs were squeezed up, and the old boys 

 sat literally shoulder to shoulder. 



The whole thing is a swell drunk and smoke; 

 and when we consider that it comes from one 

 of the leading religious fountains of instruc- 

 tion of the English youth, it makes one won- 

 der whether the church or the Boers are doing 

 the most to rob England of her strength. The 

 whole scene is below the plane of healthy sav- 

 agery. Worse still, Queen Victoria detests to- 

 bacco, and will not have it around her. It is 

 refreshing to think that some bee-keepers in 

 Australia are not of that ilk. 

 \l/ 

 BRITISH BEE JOURNAL. 



With the death of Mr. Dickel's journal, his 

 theory seems to have gone with it. The te- 

 nacit}' with which Mr. D. clung to his theory in 

 the face of all opposition was worthy of a bet- 

 ter cause. It stands opposed to parthenogene- 

 sis (virgin genesis), which may be defined as 

 follows, according to i\ie British Bee Journal: 



The queen, after she has once been mated, can lay 

 at will two kinds of eggs — fertilized and unfertilized, 

 the former of which produces females ; the latter, 

 males. 



The Dickel theory is this : 



1. The fertile queen bee lays only fertile eggs, the 

 fate of which depends solely upon the worker-bee, 

 which alone has the power of determining the sex of 

 the resultant insect. 2. This power is exercised 



