24 



GLEANINGS IX BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



tomed to going there.— In our locality, plia- 

 celia is but an indifferent honey-plant. I 

 should not want to waste time on any plant 

 exclusively for honey, imless it yielded honey 

 so the drops were visible to the eye. Please 

 accept thanks for your report, friend IL 



BSE-STINGS AND KHEUJTIATISM. 



WHEN you published my inquiries concermiig 

 rheumatism and bee-stings, I hoped to re- 

 ^ -' eeive at least tive hundred replies; but 

 OEly 17 have responded, and of that number, two 

 claim to have been entirely cured, and one some- 

 what relieved. 



Mr. John C. Grcenleaf, New Boston, Mass., age 31 

 years, engaged in bee culture 5 years, had rheuma- 

 tism prior to handling bees, but is relieved entirely. 

 He receives three or four stings a week. 



Mr. C. H. Chapman, Easthampton, Mass., age 48 

 years, has been in bee business 3 years, and hail 

 rheumatism prior to handling bees, but received 

 complete relief in six months afterward. He was 

 badly afflicted in one shoulder and arm. 



Mr. W. C. Hutchinson, Acton, Ind., age 37 years, 

 engaged in bee culture 7 years, had rheumatism 

 prior to handling bees, but no severe attack since. 



Two report having contracted the disease after 

 engaging iu bee culture, and received no benefit 

 from stings; two had it previous to handling bees, 

 and likewise received no benefit from stings, and 

 the others never had rheumatism. 



I can not accept j-our theoi-y, that the benefit, if 

 any, from the virus of the bee, is inerely that of a 

 counter-irritant, for that it does have a peculiar ef- 

 fect on the blood is seen in the uon-poisonous effect 

 of the stings on those who have been often stung. 

 Such care very little more for stings than for mos- 

 quito bites. The investigation so far is too meager 

 to prove any thing, and I shall try again. 



Otwell, lad., Dec. ti, '80. W. W. Lemmon. 



I too, friend L., can not accept my former 

 theory, after the evidence that has been 

 Ijrought forward. I am more rejoiced than 

 I can well tell you, that there seems now 

 very good evidence that bee-stings may in- 

 deed exert a curative effect in some cases of 

 rheumatism ; and who knows if they may 

 not also do the same with many other dis- 

 eases V I do not draw this inference from 

 the cases above alone, but from letters that 

 will be found elsewhere in this and other 



numbers. 



• ♦ » 



CELLAR ^VINTEKING, 



7N WHICH OUR FllIEND MERRYBANKS IS UNJUSTLY 

 ACCUSED. 



S|^|R1END NOVICE: — I rise to say, that, having 

 JSm read many of the discussions in the bee con- 

 ventions on winteriDg bees, and also many 

 communications recently, from different ones in our 

 bee journals, one would almost think, from the con- 

 clusions reached, that wintering outdoors in chaff in 

 some form, is the correct thing to do. We hold, that 

 any protection is better than none; and, by the 

 same comity of reasoning, the nearer we come to 

 complete protection, the better the way. Now, for 

 a few hard facts and reasons. 

 For about ten years I hare wiatercd, on an aver- 



age, 25 swarms of bees in my cellar. I have never 

 lost a swarm in wintering in this way. I put them 

 in, usually, about the :.'Oth of Nov., and put them 

 out from the 10th to the 20th of March— never giv- 

 ing them a fly during that time. My cellar is dry, 

 and cemented on sides and bottom— frost-proof , and 

 kept so dark that it is the " blackness of darkness.'" 

 For an illustration: I once lost my light and points 

 of compass at the same time, in this cellar, and, 

 after feeling around and not making any headway, 

 rather than to bark my shins against the butter-fir- 

 kin, pickle-jar, wash-tub, and so on, all of which I 

 would be pretty sure to find, I cried out, for once in 

 my life, for "light from above." Parenthetically, 

 let me say, there was no cider in the cellar, to the 

 best of my knowledge and belief! 



I recollect that, some time last winter, a gentle- 

 man—I "think his name is A. I. Root (some of you 

 may know him), asked how bees were wintering in 

 cellars, and seemed to fear great loss from bees get- 

 ting uneasy, as the weather was warm and change- 

 able. No one, I think, answered the inquiry. It 

 was an important question, and should have been 

 answered by all keeping bees in this way. I will 

 answer now though late: My bees were never more 

 quiet, or wintered better, than last winter— eating 

 but little of their stores. The reason is plain enough. 

 If your cellar is completely protected from the se- 

 verest cold, ft is just as iccU protected from suddtn 

 heat; and, although the warm weather may hold for 

 some time, yet the change is so gradual, the bees do 

 not mind it. Now, a few words with my chalf-win- 

 tering friends. 



Of all the chaft hives I have seen, I think our 

 friend Novice's is as good, if not the best, yet 

 brought out. They are just the thing for springing 

 and summering bees, and then I can just pick them 

 up in the fall and put them in my cellar without 

 fussing as I do now with some of mine by placing 

 rye-straw mats around and over them, besides fine 

 hay or leaves on top. Yes, I rather like a chaff hive. 

 I've several of them, and I'm always careful to put 

 tliem in the cellar. Try it. 



See where he comes, with his old nag! Perched up 

 on a small cargo of dry&oods boxes, is our old, hon- 

 est, moon-faced friend, Mr. Merrybanks (see Glean- 

 ings.) He has about one-fourth the number of box- 

 es he wants for his 50 hives of bees, when all to- 

 gether. What a pile! Mr. Merrybanks is always 

 alert and abreast with the times; don't believe in 

 exhausting his natural forces, con.sequently will not 

 carry his bees in and out of the collar any more. Oh 

 no! Mr. Merrybanks last fall took only a day for 

 himself and Mag to go to one of his neighbors to get 

 a load of chaff (no work, you know), and store it 

 away; and now he is ready for business. Mr. Mer- 

 rybanks pours about three or lour inches of chaff in 

 his store box, picks up his hive, and sets in said box; 

 bores a hole, and puts in a spent, or something for 

 passage for bees; puts in more chaff, pressing it 

 down until full, and then puts on the cover. Mr. M. 

 soliloquizes: "Let's see. About how many hives 

 could I have picked up and put into my cellar while 

 I have been fixing this one? .Inst look at that lid ! I 

 hadn't thought; that cover will leak; just look at 

 the cracks! By jimiimy!" Don't swear, Mr. Merry- 

 banks. "Oh! I never do. But I'd like to say some- 

 thing sti'ong, all the same. It will take me an hour 

 to fix the thing decently." Then Mr. Merrybanks 

 has another happy idea— just the thing, you know. 

 So he gets a big box, big enough to hold four hives; 



