1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



835 



The Basingstoke bee-case is stirring up as 

 big a hornet's nest as the Uiter case here. 

 The statement of the matter by the London 

 Standatd is so laughable as well as instructive 

 that I give it here : 



Somewhere in the neighborhood of Basingstoke a 

 wood-dealer occupies a field adjoining the garden of 

 the local postmaster, who keeps bees. Part of it he 

 mows, and part is grazed by an "old mare" — that is 

 to say he designed to mow it, and he turned out his 

 old rnare to graze, but the ferocity of the po.stmaster's 

 bees ruined eithtr project. When the laborers enter- 

 ed with their scythes the flying squadrons of the 

 enemy assailed them in such force that they hastily 

 withdrew, and the poor mare, unable to withdraw, 

 perished in the field So the wood-d^altr appealed to 

 Basingstoke County Court, claiming damages, first, 

 for his murdered ?teed ; second, for the loss of hay ; 

 third, fo. t-vlra labo., lua-iuuch as he w;is oblige 1 to 

 move his rick ; fourth, for his personal sufferings. 

 And the Judge decided in his favor for the whole 

 amo\nit. saving that "a person keeps bees at his own 

 risk. III! J if lliey do damage he i^ liable.'' We sus- 

 pect that the worthy Judge has not heard the last of 

 this case. Bee-keepers are patient and amiable folk, 

 but. like their interesting charges, they can protect 

 themselves. 



The English bee-keepers are raising a fund 

 to contest the case. 



Mr. W. P. Meadows attended the Paris con- 

 vention, and has this to say : 



I wended my way to the hall, thinking I might be 

 interested in the proceedings ; instead of which it was 

 my misfortune to rtmain seated while .several papers 

 — no doubt relating to important bee-matters — were 

 read. I was, however, pleased to meet Messrs Calvert 

 and Dadant, of America, and Mr. Taylor was also 

 there. At the close I was asked to attend a banquet, 

 and friend Calvert was :nuch amused at my answer, 

 which was : " No. can not waste time like that, this 

 morning is sufificient." My knowledge of French be- 

 ing extiemely limited, I d d not see amid numberless 

 items of interest everywhere around — and very limit- 

 ed time to see them in — that it was worth giving time 

 either to feast or be talkt d to. Nor was I pleased with 

 the bee-exhibits — indeed, I should have been sorry to 

 face a "Royal" show with all the appliances seen 

 there on my .stand — in fact, none of them equaled our 

 own manufacture — a strong statement may be, but if 

 any English bee-keepers saw them they would bear 

 out my remarks. 



\i< 

 Quite a tragedy occurred at the recent honey 

 show at Bidston. An eye-witness says : 



The judge was the Rev. J, F. Buckler, rector of Bid- 

 ston, who was just completing his labors, and had 

 scarcely formed a satisfactory judgment upon the sin- 

 gle 1-lb. jars, when a severe thunderstorm, which had 

 been raging for over an hour, changed suddenly to a 

 terrific hurricane from the north-west. 



All hands tried to save the honey by laying it upon 

 the gra-s under the staging, but in the midst of the 

 work the tent-poles snapped like twigs, and the tent 

 came down, burying the workers in its folds. As the 

 hurricane continiied all the rest of the day, nothing 

 more could be done, except to crawl from underneath 

 the wet canvas. On the morrow what a wreck met 

 the eye ! Every tent on the ground, save one, had 

 been leveled. The bee tent lay as it had fallen. 

 IvUckily. most of the honey had escaped much dam- 

 age, exxept the second-prize sections It was useless 

 to attempt any further exhibition, especially as the 

 bees from the examination and lecturer's hives be- 

 came troublesome. So the honey was packed up as 

 speedilv as possible and consig'.ed to its owners. A 

 more disastrous show for every one concerned has 

 never taken place. Thunder, lightning, torrential 

 rain, and howling gales marked all the time the show 

 was open, and we understand there has been a loss to 

 the Society of about ^2000 on the show. 



BULLETIN DE LA vSOMME. 

 I translate the following suggestions from 

 this French journal, as I believe them to be 

 good : "Mix half a teacupftil of honey with 



the juice of one lemon. Take from time to 

 time two tablespoot-fuls of this mixture, as 

 hot as it can be endured. If the stomach 

 will not retain the honey, take two or three 

 tablespoonfuls of milk." 



Here is something further relative to the 

 use of honey : " Honej', V;y its cleansing prop- 

 erties, being slighll) laxative and purgative, 

 prevents constip.ition, and is very good in 

 cases of inflammation of the stomach, and even 

 of the bladder. There is not, says Dr. Guerin, 

 a more suitable medicine for intestinal fevers, 

 and he adds that honey should be the special 

 food of persons inclined to be feverish. 



AUST. BEE BULLETIN. 



The editor says the cry about the home mar- 

 ket not being tried is getting to be stale. He 

 adds : 



Not only have bee-keepers themselves been ship- 

 ping honey to England, but good business men, with 

 reputations at stake for their honesty and integrity, 

 in Sussex Street, Sydney, or elsewhere, have also been 

 shipping tons away. L,et us also bear in mind what is 

 going on in Great Britain. There a lot of comforta- 

 ble, well-to-do people have dropped on to bee-keeping 

 in the goody-goody style. Royalty has also been call- 

 ed in to further the great cause, and bee-keeping and 

 bee-keepers' associations are springing up all over the 

 country. A spirit of antagonism is fostered also 

 against all foreign honey. Before long honey will be 

 as cheap in England as it is in New South Wales. 



GROWING CLOVER. 

 First Prize Article. 



BY WILLIAM ROBINSON. 



There have been several articles lately in 

 Gleanings on alsike clover. I have been 

 familiar with this plant several years, and will 

 give you my experience with it, both as a far- 

 mer and bee-keeper. It is the hardiest of all 

 the clovers, thrives on almost any soil, but 

 gives better results in soils containing some 

 clay than in sandy soil. It makes a luxuriant 

 growth in land too wet to grow red clover at 

 all. The roots do not heave out of the ground 

 in spring, as other clovers often do ; therefore 

 it has never been known to winter-kill in our 

 locality, while last winter fully ninety per cent 

 of the red clover here was killed. Some fields 

 near me were sown two years ago with red 

 and alsike mixed, half of each ; but now very 

 few plants of the red clover are to be found in 

 those fields, while the alsike still flourishes as 

 though it were a native of the soil. 



For sowing with timothy it can not be equal- 

 ed by any other variety. This combination 

 makes as heavy a hay crop as any ; but the 

 advantage of the alsike is it is as easily cured 

 as the timothy, and retains its beautiful bright 

 green color in the hay, which is sometimes 

 difficult to get in the red varieties. It remains 

 green and succulent for a long time after the 



