18S1 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



11 



CORN AS A HONEY-PIiANT, ETC. 



EASTERDAY S REPORT. 



t COMMENCED the season with 12 colonies, and 

 increased to 23. Took ofif 1089 lbs., all comb 

 *~^ honey— an average of over 00 lbs. I boug-ht 5 

 old colonies in August for $12.00, from which I took 

 180 lbs. Nearly all of this honey was produced dur- 

 ing very dry, hot weather in August and September ; 

 principally from corn-tassel and smartweed. I am 

 aware that many contend that corn does not yield 

 honey; but I have always got more from that source 

 than from white clover. My honey sold readily at 

 an average of about seventeen cents, net. 

 Nokomls, Ills., Dec, 1880. E. S. E.4Sterdav. 



There now! I alvvay.s thought corn was 

 good for bee.s ; or, perhaps, I should say, 

 rather, I hoped it was. Last season I bought 

 a bushel each of three kinds of sweet corn, 

 and ]ilanted patches of them on our grounds. 

 The bees worked on all, and got large quan- 

 tities of pollen, if they did not honey. Well, 

 to kind of make my honey farm pay a little 

 something, I sold green corn and some other 

 garden stuff. Neighbor II. is a farmer, you 

 know. AVell, he and Mr. Gray were one day 

 laughing at my market-garden speculation. 

 I had a man hired at $1.2.5 a day, and I had 

 hoped to sell enough stuff to pay his wages. 

 Said II., "Mr. R.. you are a tip-top hand to 

 run a bee journal and factory; but w^hen 

 you get to farming,, you are off from your 

 beat. You may possibly make your ground 

 yield the 2.5c part of the 11.2-5, but, if I mis- 

 take not, you Avill be just about a dollar a 

 day out of pocket.*' 



Well, it was a good deal so, my friends, on 

 a great part of my crops, because I had so 

 little ground, and could not be with the boys 

 personally much of the time. But there was 

 one thing that paid expenses, and a little 

 more. It was the green corn. It was very 

 little cash out for labor, and the corn sold 

 readily at 10c per dozen ears, the whole of it. 

 More than that, a lot of it w^as dried, and it 

 is certainly the most delicious corn now of 

 any w^e have ever used or tasted. Caddy 

 and Blue Eyes both testify to its excellen- 

 cies. The corn was the Mammoth Ever- 

 green ; and next year I am going to have a 

 field large enough to keep our lunch-room 

 supplied, not only during the summer, but 

 with dried corn through the winter months. 

 Who knows but that we may be able to put 

 a package of superior dried corn on the 5c 

 counter, large enough to make a good meal 

 for the whole family? Wake up, boys! 

 Who among you, ye sons of toil, Avill furnish 

 me with dried corn by the ton, so I can sell 

 it low, and do good, and all get paid for it 

 too? The honey will be clear profit, you 

 know. The corn mentioned w'as so sweet 

 that we all accused mamma of putting sugar 

 in it. You see, when you get a lot of it 

 ready for market, you can just send samples 

 by mail. W^hy has dried corn never yet been 

 before the public? Good canned corn can 

 be had, it is true ; but think of the expense 

 of cans, and the extra bulk of corn boiled in 

 water, juice and all, compared with dried 

 corn. Our dried corn is, besides, vastly su- 

 perior to any canned corn we can get in our 

 market. Who will furnish me a ton? Where 



are our feminine friends who have nothing 

 to do? and who will tell us the best method 

 of diying it? If this article is not all about 

 corn as a honey-plant, it is a good one, I am 

 sure. If you do not think so, come down to 

 dinner Avith us, and have a dish of that dried 

 corn. I ])resume it w^as that jiew book of 

 the Home Papers that startea my mind off 

 in this direction. 



\ciamj, 



OB H09ET PLANTS TO BE NAMED. 



fSEND you by mail to-day a honey-plant which is 

 of considerable value in this locality. No. 1 

 grows in wet places, and is rare here. 1 have 

 }i acre of it. It is in bloom from middle of May till 

 middle of September. Bees work on it all day. It 

 grows 6 ft. high; has a branching top, with numer- 

 ous bunches of bloom, similar to the elderberry in 

 appearance. I send you one branch of stalk, with 

 seed inclosed inside. J. W. VanDorn. 



El Dorado, Kan., Oct. 6, 1880. 



The piece of stem is that of a large plant belong- 

 ing to the Parsley family (wjn^cHi'/erfc). Flies work 

 on these plants a good deal. It is most likely some 

 species of ArchangeUca in the order above named. 



Lansing, Mich. W". J. Beal. 



The stalk referred to looks like a joint out 

 of a dock-stem, only it is of mammoth size, 

 and so hard it seems as if it might do nicely 

 for some kind of timber tubing. It must be 

 a curiosity indeed to see such a thing grow- 

 ing ; and if it bears honey in proportion, it 

 must be worth while indeed. Will you 

 please send a few more seed, friend V.? We 

 Sent all those with the stalk, to Prof. Beal. 



COTTON AS A HONEY-PLANT. 



I come to vindicate my staple honey-plant,— cot- 

 ton. I see friend Cathey, of Cabot, Ark., classes it as 

 a poor honey-plant. His description of the bloom is 

 correct. My bees seldom enter the bloom, as there 

 is but little honey secreted on the inside of the cor- 

 olla. They get their honey between the corolla and 

 the live-pointed calyx which hugs the corolla very 

 tightly, admitting only the tongue of the bee; and 

 as the honey is secreted at or near the base of the 

 corolla, where the little boll increased, aad as the 

 calyx is si.x-sixteenths of an inch in depth, and the 

 tongue of the Italian bee is only four or live six- 

 teenths of an inch in length, it is impossible for the 

 bees to get all the nectar, and frequently the calyx 

 Is so tight around the corolla that it is impossible for 

 the bees to get at the nectar. My bees gave me a 

 surplus of 30 lbs. per hive in July, and during Aug- 

 ust and September they stored from 50 to 60 lbs. per 

 hive from cotton alone. I had fifty acres of cotton 

 on my own farm, extending to within fifteen feet of 

 my hives. I spent many hours in the cotton-fields, 

 to satisfy myself that my bees were getting their 

 honey from the cotton; and as I live on a high, open 

 prairie, three miles from timber, and nine-tenths of 

 the land is under cultivation, and fully three-fiftha 

 planted to cotton, with no other flowers from which 

 my bees could get honey, I know that is the best 

 honey-plant we have; and if it were not for the 

 countless millions of small black ants that appropri- 



