526 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JUI.Y 1. 



"No. Don't you see it doesn't look like 

 honey? " 



" Oh, no ! I see it is wax." 



" No, it is not wax ; it is pollen," said I. 



" What do the bees do with pollen?" he 

 inquired. 



" Why, feed their young brood, of course." 



" I tell you there is a good deal to learn 

 about bees," said Jerry. "But I dropped in 

 to see if you had not sort o' made up your 

 mind to support our license candidate for the 

 legislature." 



" No," said the deacon, " not if my name is 

 Zebadiah Strong." 



"But," said Jerry, "haven't you heard of 

 Prof. At water's experiments? " 



" What experiments ? " queried the deacon. 



"Oh! he has proved that alcohol, when 

 taken into the body, will burn, or give out 

 heat, the same as other food. He put a man 

 in a little glass house and weighed the air and 

 food, and did every thing in the most scientif- 

 ic manner, and he has proved it's so, what- 

 ever temperance fanatics may say." 



" We can burn alcohol outside of the body, 

 and I presume," said the deacon, ' under 

 some circumstances it may burn in a human 

 body ; but it is an old saying, and a true one, 

 that you can not get something out of noth- 

 ing. Now, we all know there are no nitrates 

 in alcohol to repair the muscles or phosphates 

 to build up the brain or bones, so that it can 

 not be a true food." 



" But doesn't a man feel stronger after he 

 has taken a little whisky? " queried Jerry. 



"I presume so," said Deacon Strong, "just 

 as my horse feels stronger after I have given 

 him a little whip. But you ought to see my 

 horse Prince go after he gets one cut. I am 

 not sure but there is a good deal of nutrition 

 in a whip. And after all, there is not so much 

 difference between a whip and whisky as there 

 might seem at first thought. You will notice 

 that the first — yes, the first three letters of 

 both words, are the same.. One makes the 

 skin smart on the outside, and the other makes 

 it smart in the inside. Both make the nerve 

 centers give out energy that has been stored 

 up for sickness or old pge. No, sir ; alcohol 

 is not a food but a stimulant, pure and simple, 

 or a poison." 



"What is a stimulant? " Jerry asked, with 

 about as much interest as, eighteen hundred 

 years ago, Pilate asked, " What is truth ? " 



" It is most likely to be a poison," said Dea- 

 con Strong," that acts on the nerve centers, and 

 increases the circulation of blood and — " 



But just then a bee from a hive that Jerry 

 had carelessly sat down on stung him over 

 one eye, and he jumped to his ftet, and, 

 swinging his arms, knocked his hat off, vhen 

 another bee took him in his back, and another 

 on one leg, and another on his nose, when, 

 using language that was any thing but gen- 

 tlemanly, he broke, and, hatless and wildly 

 gesticulating, he ran down the s'.reet a living 

 flesh-and-blood illustration of a stimulus. 



" We would call that fellow, over our way, 

 a regular cork-screw politician," said Mr. 

 Henshaw. 



" What is that ? " I inquired. 



" Why, the crookeder it is, the stronger the 

 pull — see? " 



" Lawful sakes alive ! What ails that 'ere 

 man down the street there?" exclaimed Will 

 Simpson, from the roadside. 



"He has been taking some stimulants," 

 said Deacon Strong. 



" How did he take them ? " queried Will. 



" With a hypodermic syringe, I should say," 

 the deacon replied, while a comical expression 

 came over his face, rather unusual for him. 



" Great Gemima ! How he runs ! Got any 

 more of that kind of stimulants over there?" 



" Plenty," said the deacon. 



" I guess I won't stop— got to be down to 

 Gains' Mills by ten o'cl' ck," and Simpson 

 trudged on with his bull terrier at his heels. 



MAKING LATK SWARMS PROFITABLE, ETC. 



"Good afteriioon, Mr. Dooliitle. I thought 

 I would drop over a little while to-day aud 

 have a talk with you about swarming. It is 

 getting a little late for swarms now, but I have 

 several colonies that I fear will swarm yet, 

 and I wish to know if there is any other way 

 of treatii g ihern than that usually adopted." 



"Glad you called, Mr. Smiih; and about 

 treating swarms, it is the custom of many bee- 

 keepers to hive new swarms on a new stand 

 at all times of the year ; and while tins is oft- 

 en profitable in the early part of the season it is 

 often ruinous, so far as a crop of surplus hon- 

 ey is concerned, where practiced the latter part 

 of the honey harvest. As the season advances, 

 a different plan is needed from that us d dur- 

 ing June, and after considerable study along 

 this line I hit upon a plan which has worked 

 to my complete satisfaction." 



" Good ! Aud now if you will give me the 

 plan I shall be under much obligation to you." 



"Never mind about the obligation tome. 

 Whenever you have a good chance to benefit 

 a fellow-mortal, always impnve that chance, 

 never thinking that \ou are tinder no (jbliga- 

 tioiis to any save those who have helj ed you. 

 It is even well to try to benefit the unkind and 

 un hankful, for the Father above st nds the 

 rain, sunlight, and dew on these who never 

 think of thanking him, much less of being 

 under obligations to him." 



" Is th.it your plan of treating late swarms? " 



"Well, not exactly; but I thought it no 

 harm to give you a little truth as occasion pre- 

 sented. The plan is this : As soon as a swarm 

 is seen issuing I take six frames filled with 

 foundation, and two wi ie fiames of sections, 

 putting the san^e in a box or hive which is 

 convenient to carry ; and when I arrive at the 

 hive from which the swarm is coming I take 

 the frames from the box and pi ce them down 

 by the hive. As soon as the swarm has most- 

 ly ceased coming out the hive is opened, and 

 all of the frames of brood and honey, with 



