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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1 



that the articles of that person from that 

 time on command much more attention. 

 Yes, we have known Mr. Laws as being one 

 of the sohd men. He has bred queens for 

 many years, and made it almost his exclu- 

 sive business; and when he says these "ba- 

 bies" will yield good results you may rest 

 assured that, with his conditions, if you fol- 

 low his directions you will be able to meet 

 with the same success that he does. —Ed.] 



A CORRESPONDENT in July introduced two 

 fine-looking queens. Queens are laying well, 

 but in each hive he has found at three dif- 

 ferent times one matured queen-cell in each 

 hive. He asks why. The bees are trying 

 to supersede. They scent afar a failing 

 queen which yet appears all right to you, 

 and it is just possible that sometimes the 

 superseding is a sort of whim. [1 believe 

 you are right, doctor. But one thing that 

 bee-keepers should remember is that bees 

 discover signs of failing that do not appear 

 to the bee-keeper. I have noticed cells 

 starting while the queen was apparently 

 doing full duty as well as any queen could 

 do; would remove the cells, but a little later 

 find she was playing out. Whim? Yes, 

 bees take on peculiar streaks. They will 

 at times set aside all known rules, balking 

 the bee-keeper at every move. This is par- 

 ticularly so in the matter of introducing. 

 When a colony gets a whim and decides it 

 will not accept an introduced queen, one 

 might as well give up and let it raise some- 

 thing of its own.— Ed.] 



Smoker fuel of little basswood blocks 

 being preferred at Medina, page 970, is all 

 right. If you say you prefer such fuel on 

 the score of convenience, Mr. Editor, I've 

 nothing to say; but when you speak as if it 

 were intrinsically better, I demur. When 

 you get your mother to say she prefers 

 basswood to oak or hickory as a steady diet 

 in a cook-stove, I'll believe that soft wood 

 is better that hard wood in a smoker. [I 

 have tried both hard and soft wood. The 

 latter ignites more readily, and is a little 

 handier for us to get, for we have carloads 

 of it right handy. But lately we have been 

 using the Coggshall smoker-rolls. They are 

 nothing more nor less than old phosphate- 

 sacks rolled up in rolls of suitable size, and 

 tied with strings. They are then cut to the 

 proper length with a hatchet. One end is 

 then dipped in a solution of saltpeter. When 

 dry, the cartridge is ready for use. We 

 find this very ignitible, and ready to give off 

 a good smoke in ten or fifteen seconds after 

 a match has been applied. They are last- 

 ing; and, when prepared in advance on a 

 rainy day, they save a lot of time in the 

 height of the season. We have been think- 

 ing that perhaps we might be doing bee- 

 keepers a good service by making up this 

 fuel of the proper size, call them cartridges, 

 and sell them at so much a hundred. —Ed.] 



"Teaching a graded span of horses in one 

 lesson of only three hours so they will never- 

 more be afraid of autos. " That heading, 

 p. 988, awoke my intense interest, but I was 



disappointed not to be told just hoiv it was 

 done. My horses are so afraid of automo- 

 biles that the women take no comfort in 

 riding. I only wish the machines were 

 plentier, so the horses would have to get 

 used to them. Keep on telling us about 

 them, Bro. Root; it will do no harm for us 

 common bee-keepers to dream of the time 

 when the price will get down within our reach. 

 [A great deal depends on the horse. Old 

 horses are much more difficult to educate 

 than young ones. I suppose it is largely be- 

 cause it is "difficult to teach an old bird 

 new tricks." But I have myself trained 

 several horses so that they now pay but 

 little attention to my machine. It requires, 

 of course, co-operation on the part of the 

 horse's owner, and this is the method: The 

 animal is led up to the machine while it is 

 standing still, made to smell of it and look 

 it over. The automobile is started up, and 

 the horse follows it at a point far enough 

 behind where he is not frightened. As he 

 becomes more accustomed to it he is driven 

 closer and closer from behind. The machine 

 is stopped still, then he is made to pass it. 

 He turns around, comes back, meets it, and 

 passes it. Again the automobile is started 

 up, and the horse follows it as before. 

 After a little he can be driven quite close to 

 it, and very soon he can be driven alongside 

 of it. The machine is slowed down, and the 

 horse goes ahead. It gradually catches up 

 and passes the horse. Next the horse is 

 made to pass the machine. The machine is 

 stopped and put at a low pace, when the 

 horse is driven up to it from the opposite 

 direction. If he shows fear, the driver gets 

 out and leads him by the bits, and makes 

 him stand in front of the machine, or near 

 it, until he becomes accustomed to the 

 "choo-choo. " The operation of coming up 

 to the machine is repeated several times, 

 until the horse begins to find that the red 

 devil is devil only in name. A colt can al- 

 ways be taught, but some old farm plugs 

 may give some trouble. —Ed.] 



Feeding sugar syrup may be a useful 

 thing, says Herr Reidenbach, in Pfaelzer 

 Bztg., when it replaces for winter food ob- 

 jectionable honey-dew or something of the 

 sort, but is in general to be condemned. 

 Honey contains from one to three per cent 

 of nitrogenous matter; sugar, only a trace. 

 This is absolute y essential for brood-rear- 

 ing, and in general for replacing worn-out 

 tissues. Sugar will keep up the heat in 

 winter, but even in winter there is some 

 wear and tear of tissue, which needs the 

 nitrogenous matter of honey and pollen to 

 replace; and a colony wintered entirely on 

 sugar is to some extent lacking in vitality 

 in spring. A case in point is cited. In 1894 

 two powerful late swarms were installed on 

 account of their young queens, and were 

 wintered on sugar. They wintered well, but 

 the cold of February was of unparalleled in- 

 tensity. When they flew in March they 

 were rapidly decimated, and in two weeks 

 every bee was dead, only a handful of dead 

 bees remaining on the floor of each hive, 



