1881 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



13 



hive, and when the bees were quite enraged, I drew 

 a long- breath upon them, and I tell you, I shall nev- 

 er try that experiment again. I was in terrible dis- 

 tress for a half-hour. I coughed with a "tight" 

 cough for about two days; then I began to "raise," 

 and this kept on about three weeks before I healed 

 t be wounds. During all the rest of the fall just past 

 I kept away from my apiaries, except to go in occa- 

 sionally to direct the work, and then with a hand- 

 kerchief tied over my nose and mouth. Xow I am 

 as well as any of us, but much disappoiated when I 

 think that next season I must shun my favorite la- 

 bor. AVhen you consider that bee culture has been 

 a specialty with me all my married life (12 years), 

 and that nearly all my capital is in it, and that just 

 now the honey-producer's future seems to brighten, 

 you can readily imagine that an antidote for this 

 trouble would be very acceptable. 1 have tried 

 many and various remedies, among which the best 

 is ammonia, gargled and swallowed; but none of 

 them are equal to the task, and soon become nega- 

 tive to the poison. 



I have business enough now, with my supply 

 trade, to keep me at work out of the apiary; but my 

 greatest trouble is to get good reliable help who un- 

 derstand the business. I used to take good men, 

 and teach them the trade; but now, as I can no long- 

 er work among the bees, educated help becomes a 

 necessit}', and, I fear, a very scarce one too. With 

 the present low rate of interest for money, and out- 

 look in our pursuit, I should be enlarging rather 

 than contracting, but for the above-described trou- 

 ble. Has any one ever experienced or observed any 

 thing like ity Any information would be thankful- 

 ly received. James Heddo.v. 



Dowagiac, Mich., Dec. 9, 1880. 



T have noticed sometliing of what friend 

 n. mentions, in regard to the poison from 

 bee-stings, although it never affected myself, 

 nor any one whom I have conversed with, in 

 the manner he states. I am inclined to 

 think that handling bees was not the origin- 

 al cause of the disease he mentions, but that 

 the virus from the stings only aggravated a 

 complaint that proceeded from otlier causes. 

 Of course, I may be mistaken in this. 'In 

 any event, I do not think we should be in 

 haste to conclude that working among bees 

 is necessarily an unhealthy pursuit, even 

 though friend II. be correct "in all his prem- 

 ises. Prof. Cook has recently written in re- 

 gard to a. kindred matter, showing that Avhat 

 is '•• one man's meat may be another's poi- 

 son." You will find, in this No., very strong 

 proof that these same stings are of great ad- 

 vantage in some cases of rheumatism ; well, 

 may it not be that the same virus that proves 

 l)oisonous to friend H. will be exactly the 

 medicine needed for some other brother or 

 sister who is afflictedV 



m tm> m 



REPORT ON HONE ¥-PIi ANTS. 



^"^ S I have previously promised, I will now make 



a full report on my success with honey-plants 

 during the past season. I tried four kinds; 

 viz., touch-me-not, or the common garden flower 

 called balsam and lady slippers; mignonnette, 

 Simpson and Spider plants. 



TOUCH-ME-NOT. 



Of the first-named, I have tried some for two sea- 

 sons. This season I had a patch, say 30 by 60 feet. 



They bloom freely through the last of July, August, 

 and Sept., and, having a great variety of shades and 

 colors, they make a very attractive appearance to 

 any one who does admire nature's beauties. I have 

 watched them quite closely, as a honej'-plant, and 

 I have come to the conclusion that they do not pro- 

 duce the nectar in very paying quantities, while 

 they do serve to keep the bees out of mischief, such 

 as robbing and pilfering, at such times as there is 

 not much else they can find to work on. 



MIGNONNETTE. 



I became pretty thoroughly disgusted with mign- 

 onnette last season. 1 planted a piece, say 150 feet 

 square, of the very finest of ground, rich and mel- 

 low; but I had to plant it over three times, and then 

 did not get half a crop from it. I have planted it 

 two seasons, and I have found the seeds of it the 

 very hardest to germinate of anything I have ever 

 tried. I can beat it with the Simpson seed a thou- 

 sand to one, as a honey-plant. I conclude, it is fair, 

 but not the best. Sometimes the bees seemed to 

 work on it quite fairly, and at others scarcely at all. 

 If it could be easily grown, I would be satisfied to 

 raise it every year; but my patch last season cost 

 me, in ground rent, seed, and cultivation, at 

 least SIOOO, and I do not think I got $5.00 

 benefit from it. But I was consoled in the 

 fall by the information that the kind I had 

 cultivated, which was the small sweet, was worthless 

 as a honey-plant, but that the mammoth, or grandi- 

 flora, were the only ones worth the culture for pro- 

 ducing honey. If this be true, what have all our bee 

 journals been doing by advertising and selling the 

 seeds of the worthless kinds"? Do they not merit a 

 place in Humhugs and SivindlesJ Next season I in- 

 tend to try the larger kinds. 



THE SIMPSON PLANTS. 



Of the Simpson, I conclude the half has never yet 

 been told. I cultivated a small patch of about 

 a thousand plants. I saw the first bees on 

 them the first day of July, and they 

 were fairly at work by the 8th or 10th; and from 

 that on, for fully two months, it was one continual 

 big boom, from early dawn until fully dark, wet or 

 drj% hot or cold; yes, even in the rain they would 

 not give it up, for I went out one morning after it 

 had been raining hard, and was then raining quite 

 briskly, and the bees were flying there in quite 

 goodly numbers. Two mornings I got up at four 

 o'clock to get ahead of the bees, to see how early 

 they would get to work ; but both times they were 

 there first. One night I remained to see how late 

 they would stay, and I could hear them as long as I 

 could see them; but it was not only a few bees that 

 would be seen, but a large multitude of them. To 

 look into the patch, it would seem as if a swarm was 

 settling there, As the patch was not over ten feet 

 from my shop, my opportunity for observation was 

 good. It was a common thing, when my friends 

 came to see me, to take them out and show them the 

 sight; and, without exception, they said it was the 

 greatest wonder in that line they had ever seen. 

 About the 10th of Sept., it began to seed, and by the 

 last of the month, scarcely a bee was seen about it, 

 and I pronounced it done for the season. A couple 

 of weeks later, I went to it to strip the seed, and 

 was not a little surprised to see new green shoots, 

 new buds, and new blossoms, and the bees working 

 on it again quite lively. A fresh rain had renewed 

 it ; but as I wanted the seed, I stripped it. I also 



