12 



GLEA^^INGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



ate a greater part of the nectar, our bees would 

 gather tons of honey every year from the cotton 

 alone. I do not write this to got up a controversy 

 with any of my Southern bee-keepers, but to set 

 them to watching closely for the honej^ for the 

 bees, and how they get the honey, and for the greedy 

 little ants that g%t most of the cotton honey. The 

 honey from cotton is white and very transparent, 

 and after standing a few months is equal to the 

 famous white-clover honey of the North. 



B. F. Carroll. 

 Dresden, Navarro Co., Texas, Oct. 30, 1880. 



MALLOWS AS A HONEY-PLANT. 



Inclosed And some seed and some of the stalls 

 which blooms from July till the ground freezes. My 

 bees are working on it to-day, and have been ever 

 since basswood. J. K. Oren. 



LaPorte City, la., Oct. 6, 1880. 



The plant sent is Malva alcca, a kind of mallow 

 which has escaped from cultivation. W. J. Beal. 



Lansing, Mich. 



The same plant was in bloom in our 

 garden last season, and the bees were busy 

 working on it November 5th. I can not 

 now remember who sent it to us, l)ut it has 

 excited considerable attention tliis season. 

 Tlie blossoms are exactly like little holly- 

 hocks. I heave no doubt but that a half-acre 

 of it would be a sight. It grows nearly as 

 high as the hollyhock, but has a much more 

 branching habit. 



Below is a report from the same plant, 

 from still another locality : — 



I send you to-day a parcel containing leaves, flow- 

 ers, and seeds, of a plant we call "Malice." It blos- 

 soms from early spring until late in the fall. If it is 

 of any account for bee-food, will you please give no- 

 tice of It in Gleanings as soon as possible, and 

 oblige a subscriber and lover of flowers and bees? 



Kichmond, Mich., Nov. 6, '80. 



A liETTER from: SCOTI^AND. 



FROM AN enthusiastic ABC SCHOLAR ACROSS THE 

 WATER. 



MAKE bold to write you, as you are a friend to 

 every one interested In bees. Your book fell 

 Into my hands In the spring of this year. I 

 happened to find it in a friend's house, and as he 

 was making no use of it I begged a reading of him. 

 The result was, that your name became a house- 

 hold word in our circle. Your plans of bee-keeping 

 were at once adopted by me, and, though laughed at 

 by many an old-fashioned apiarist, I persevered 

 with my pound section-boxes till, in the first week 

 of July, I experienced the delight of lifting off from 

 one of my hives one completely filled. It weighed 

 exactly 1GV4 ounces. My dear wife, who, since that, 

 has, by our all-wise heavenly Father, been taken 

 from me, was very much pleased, and so were all 

 our friends. The enemies of the system were 

 all amazed. Encouraged by my success, I still went 

 on supering my hives with these little boxes ; de- 

 vised tin separators, which, while they made the 

 bees work straight combs, freely admitted the laden 

 workers to the honey-chambers; then in the begin- 

 ning of August, just as the heather was bursting 

 into bloom (a moor containing four thousand acres 

 13 within three miles of our village), on a dull night 



I had my hives carted otf and set down on a meadow, 

 with heather in front of them,— heather, purple- 

 blooming heather, as far as the eye could reach. 

 How the bees worked! Making a noise like a stream 

 of water, they poured in and out as only bees in 

 earnest can do. In the first week of September, at 

 our annual flower show, I exhibited a crate glassed 

 at b :rth ends, containing 3lj lbs. (in 1-lb. boxes), each 

 box so beautifully and smoothly flUed, capped with 

 a snowy wax capping, that not a drop of honey was 

 escaping; not a bit of comb protruding. The first 

 prize was obtained for the exhibit. Next day, the 

 same crate took first prize against all comers— 

 against men who have been bee-masters for forty 

 years, at the show in Sterling. I did feel some 

 pleasure ia being at once looked upon as an author- 

 ity in bee culture; but I told those whom I thought 

 worthy of enlightenment, that they must procure a 

 copy of the book which had been of so much value 

 and service to me. All thanks to you, dear friend. 

 You will, however, allow me to say, that a man's 

 love for these busy creatures, and his ingenuity, 

 will do much to win success, even in bad years, and 

 that these are required over and above the aid of a 

 valuable book, such as you have given the world. 



I always like to think of my bees being the crea- 

 ti(jn of Him who said to the disciples, " Gather up 

 the fragments ihat remain, that nothing be lost." 



They truly are the gatherers of nectar that would 

 be lost had he not sent them -skilled laborers— into 

 the harvest-field to prevent waste or loss. 



You may be sure that my "little fellows" are all 

 comfortably housed; strong in numbers, and plen- 

 tiful in stores. John Main, 



Violet Bank, Douno, Perthshire, Scotland. 



Nov. 37, 1880. 



BEE POISONING. 



MjDITOR GLEANINGS:— I wish to relate my case 

 I of singular poisoning of the bronchial tubes, 



which I receive whenever I am about an open 



hive, or in a room where several bees are confined, 

 or where an angry bee passes within a few inches 

 of my face. You are all aware, that often an angry 

 bee throws ofC poison which you can smell readily. 

 Were you also aware, that nearly every bee that 

 flies about you (not loaded or en route for the fields) 

 also throw off a lesser quantity of poison? Well, 

 such I have proven to be the case. The same is 

 true when hives are opened, at nearly all times. 



This shows us how careful we should be about ir- 

 ritating the bees when removing surplus honey, in 

 order that the honey may not become impregnated 

 with the poison. This trouble commenced about six 

 or seven years ago, and the first symptoms were an 

 itching in the glands between the ears and roots of 

 the tongue; next, a tingling, itching sensation in 

 the back part of the roof of my mouth, very hard to 

 bear. Then this sensation crept down the bronchi- 

 al tubes to the lower portion of the lungs, till I 

 found I had bronchial asthma. I had to get out of 

 bed and go to the window to catch my breath, at 

 night. 



I had every evidence that the poison from the 

 bees caused all the above symptoms, but still I 

 would doubt it at times. Whenever I was away 

 from the bees for two weeks at a time, I would get 

 all well again. Finally I decided to settle the mat- 

 ter. I kept away from the hives till I was entirely 

 free from any of the symptoms. When I opened a 



