680 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1. 



honey is brought into the room. Will the 

 sulphur kill the eggs not j'et hatched ? [We 

 have an article on this question of freeing 

 comb honey from worms, in this issue. It has 

 special reference to the use of bisulphide of 

 carbon. — Ed.] 



"Are you sure that, by getting the sec- 

 tion enough shorter to make it square, the 

 bees will make a better fastening at the bot- 

 tom ? " quoth ye editor, p. 645. Pretty sure, 

 Mr. Editor, if no bottom starter is used. But 

 understand, I give that only as the argument 

 of the others. My own reply would be, " But 

 I don't need to change the shape of the sec- 

 tion to get the comb fastened to the bottom- 

 bar. A bottom starter does that best in any 

 case." 



A GRACEFui. THING was done by Canadian 

 bee-keepers at their last convention in confer- 

 ring upon J. B. Hall the distinction of being 

 the only life-member of their association, on 

 the ground that "lie has been the life and 

 soul of the association meetings for the last 

 nineteen years." Although Mr. Hall does 

 not write for the papers (more's the pity) he 

 is a walking cyclopedia of bee-knowledge, 

 and, besides, "he's a mighty good fellow." 

 [Yes, it is too bad we lose the benefit of Mr. 

 Hall's experience through our bee-journals. — 

 Ed.] 



J. F. MUNDAY, in The Australasian Bee- 

 keeper^ wants me with closed eyes to taste a 

 sample of a greasy section and compare it 

 with one snow-white. He thinks I would pro- 

 nounce the first the better honey. That's not 

 the question, friend Munday. It's not what / 

 prefer, but what the dear public prefers ; and 

 so long as said public insists on the whitest 

 sections, and the greasy sections must sell at 

 a lower price, I don't want to produce greasy 

 sections. [Some greasy honey would taste 

 no better (if as good) than some good white- 

 faced honey. If I had to buy the honey for 

 my own use, without tasting it, I think I 

 would take the white. Some comb honey is 

 greasy, for no other reason than that it is old 

 last year's goods. — Ed.] 



When a oueen is sent by mail she always 

 has an escort taken from her own hive, doesn't 

 she? The other day I put into a shipping- 

 cage a queen I didn't value, and put with her 

 some bees from another hive. They were en- 

 tirely kind to the queen. Probably they are 

 so frightened at being shut in that they have 

 no thought of fighting any thing. If it always 

 works that way, why can not that be made the 

 basis of a safe method of introduction.'* In- 

 stead of caging the queen for safe introduc- 

 tion, cage the bees. [I know, it is true, that 

 a few bees when caged will accept a queen a 

 good deal better than when they have the lib- 

 erty of the hive. Their close confinement 

 and close quarters sodisconcertthem that the)' 

 are willing to accept any thing ; but I know 

 from experience it is not safe to put strange 

 bees into a cage with a good queen, although 

 it can often be done without any bad results. 

 —Ed.] 



^ICKlISrGS 



<*/^0M OU/f NEIGHBORS Finos. 



i^rf9BP9UdmSMSJ»Hii 



Heavj' rains still pouring down, 

 Followed soon by broiling heat; 



Vegetation's rank and green- 

 Food for all to eat. 



\it 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 

 O. O. Poppleton, of Florida, reports 16,500 

 lbs. of extracted honey from 115 colonies. 

 \l/ 

 Mr. S. B. Strater, of Illinois, suffered the to- 

 tal loss of his shop and gristmill, last July, in- 

 cluding books and every thing in the mill. 



\b 



D. L. Durham, of Illinois, says that sweet 

 clover and heartsease are the salt that saves 

 the bees and bee-interests in his vicinity. 

 \i> 



A correspondent says, " I set one sweet clo- 

 ver plant to the right of each hive." I sup- 

 posed all clover plants were equally sweet. 

 What kind of clover was it ? 

 \it 



R. V. Goss, of Alabama, found a dead lizard 

 to which the bees had attached their comb. 

 It probably died in a hollow limb ; and as the 

 bees were unable to move it, and it being per- 

 fectly dry, they built right up against it as 

 they did inside of Samson's lion. 

 \b 



Mr. York prints a map of a part of Chicago 

 showing how to get to the convention and to 

 his office. By the way, how that town grows! 

 Since 1890 it has added a whole Cleveland and 

 a Detroit to its population. I'm glad Lake 

 Michigan prevents its growth toward Medina. 

 \i« 



When Mr. Langstroth told Prof. Cook that 

 he wanted to find some one to revise his work 

 on bees, Mr. Cook suggested the Dadants, and 

 he still thinks nobody is sorry for the decision. 

 Of the ABC book he says it is a work of 

 which all may feel proud. Of Cowan's book 

 he says he does not wonder that it is regarded 

 as the most authoritative work in Europe. 

 vi< 

 BRITISH BEE JOURNAL. 



Mr. Buttel-Repen, of Germany, has written 

 a book on the life history of the bee, and in 

 it he puts forth the theory that bees have 

 seven kinds of smell, as follows: Distinctive 

 individual smell; distinctive collective smell; 

 brood and food smell; drone smell; wax smell; 

 honey smell; nest smell. The author says, 

 " I am of the opinion, which is shared by 

 many scientists, that insects possess senses or 

 sensation quite unknown to us, and which on 

 that account we can not even imagine; so 

 that we are unable to say whether the impres- 

 sions produced on us by certain actions and 

 movements have the same effect on insects. 

 For myself. I am firmly persuaded that they 

 are not." While it is agreed that bees have 



