NOVIGMBER, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



845 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



Letters from a Beekeeper's Wife 



By the Hearth, Nov. 1, 1917. 

 Dear Sis : 



Returns are in ! You will be glad to 

 know that our wholesale honey sold for a 

 good price and as a result we have $2250 

 in bank ! It really seems too good to be 

 true that we have all that money in a lump. 

 We have never had such a good year since 

 we spread out from our home apiary. I 

 believe that each one of us has spent that 

 money a thousand times in imagination. 



Of course, 1 want it spent on the children 

 and the house. Harriette will be ready for 

 college next fall if she can take a little 

 extra work this winter, so I want her to 

 have lessons in French and German. Then 

 Florence needs a new piano — ours is abso- 

 lutely worn out, and the child has so much 

 ability that I hate to hear her trying to get 

 music out of it, altho I believe she could get 

 music from a tin pan. And when I look 

 at the house and see the painting and paper- 

 ing that needs to be done, I just ache to 

 spend some money that way. Then if we 

 could take a few of the good magazines that 

 we long to be reading each month ! Oh 

 dear! 1 am dreaming again, when Rob has 

 said that every cent we can spare must be 

 paid on the principal of the mortgage. I 

 suppose everyone has a specter in the back- 

 ground — ^ours is a vampire called Principal, 

 that consumes everything we have. 



I suppose winter is the bees' specter. 

 It is always in the backgTound, even on the 

 sunniest day of summer. They must work 

 and hoard eveiy minute, and what is it all 

 for? Winter, the inevitable, comes along 

 with its icy fingers, and the summer stores 

 in the cells gTadually grow smaller. The 

 poor little creatures don't realize that their 

 specter is there wliile they work, and it is a 

 blessing they don't. Now as I have plan- 

 ned how I would like to have the honey 

 money spent, I have known all the time 

 that it would have to go toward reducing 

 tliat principal. Howevei', it doesn't sjDoil 

 ihe pleasures of dreaming — nothing can do 

 that ! 



Rob has been packing the bees for the 

 winter and I wish you could see them! We 

 are putting four hives close together in a 

 big box and filling in all around th^m with 

 a thick layer of dry leaves. Surely with 

 such a blanket they can't help but be warm. 

 Isn't it wonderful how they know how to 

 keep up the warmth of the hive themselves? 

 Last winter we h.ad some in the observation 



hive just outside our bedroom window and 

 they were as good as a thermometer. When 

 the weather was cold the cluster drew to- 

 gether, but just as soon as it grew warmer, 

 the cluster would spread out again. Dur- 

 ing cold weather, tliere was always a circle 

 of buzzing bees in the center, working hard 

 to keep up the warmth. Those in the circle 

 of buzzers would give up their places to 

 others, who would begin moving and buzz- 

 ing immediately, so that the circle remain- 

 ed unbroken. Billy said he was going to 

 watch until he saw two bees quarrel over 

 whose turn it was to make heat, but that 

 never happened. The harmony and obe- 

 dience to law in a bee colony is marvelous, 

 isn't it? We all felt sorry when that brave 

 little colony finally succumbed to the cold. 



This year Rob has given each of his colo- 

 nies more honey than it can possibly con- 

 sume during the winter, but he says he is 

 going to make sure that none die of cold or 

 starvation. This packing will soon be over, 

 and then he will have time at last to read 

 the file of old bee journals that he bought 

 last May at a farm sale. He has been wait- 

 ing patiently for the leisure to get at them, 

 for he says that some of those old journals 

 are better than much of the more recent 

 literature. I wonder if he is right. 



I hope your boys are over their colds. 

 Give them each a hug for me. With love to 

 you. Ever your loving sister, 



Mary. 



Sowing Sweet Clover with Wheat or 

 Oats 



A reader of Gleanings at Rock Island, 

 111., wishes to know about seeding sweet 

 clover with fall wheat, and with oats and 

 barley the following spring. These ai*e 

 both good ways to seed, and under right 

 management will surely prove successful. 



This correspondent being located near 

 Rock Island, 111., his land no doubt will 

 need a liberal application of ground lime- 

 stone, which he can get very cheap from 

 the Linwood quarries at Davenj^ort, Iowa. 

 Three tons per acre harrowed into the sur- 

 face soil when the wlieat is sown will put 

 his land in fine condition. The seed can 

 be sown either in March, and the weather 

 allowed to cover it over, or it can be 

 harrowed in the first dry spell after the 

 wheat has started in the sjaring. I think 

 I should prefer the former plan. 



It is better to get the ground all plowed 



