24.1 



GLEANIKGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



May 



THE SIMPSON PLANT IN COLORADO. 



I send you a few seeds of the only flgworl plant I 

 have seen in this county. It has been watched for 

 the last three years. It commences to bloom about 

 the first of June, and from that time to about the 

 first of September there will be from 15 to 30 bees on 

 it constantly, "from early morn till dewy eve." It 

 seems to me no plant can be more valuable for 

 honey. It grows very bushy, and not over 18 inches 

 high; comes up from the root every year. Last sea- 

 son it had no rain nor irrigation, and continued in 

 blossom two months. Chas. B. McRay. 



Canon City, Col., April 18, 1881. 



[It appears to be the regtilar plant such as wc 

 have, friend W. With cultivation, I think it would 

 grow as ours does, from 4 to 7 feet high.] 



RED CLOVER, ITALIANS, ETC. 



My bees being Italians, why did they not work on 

 red clover, as there were 40 acres or more in this 

 neighborhood? Why did I not get any surplus when 

 those who kept blacks around me did? What will 

 be the best way to get my bees pure again, as they 

 are now hybrids, and my pure queen is dead, and 

 most all the bees around here are blacks? I suppose 

 I can't do it until there are no more blacks here, 

 can I? Otto G. Josenhans. 



Owosso, Shiawassee Co., Mich., Mar. 21, 1881. 



[Red clover, like most other plants, sometimes 

 fails to yield honey. If the blacks got honey from 

 it, and your Italians did not, why try to have your 

 bees pure, friend J.? Keep on with your hybrids. I 

 am inclined to think it was because your Italians 

 were weak, and the blacks were very strong, if such 

 were really the case. You can rear pure Italians, no 

 matter how many black bees are around you, if you 

 choose. See " Italianizing " in the AB C] 



We are having by far the worst snowstorm of the 

 season. Hill, of Mt. Healthy, has not lost one stock; 

 has 112; since 1868 he has lost not one in wintering! 

 and he uses mj- hive, and has always had over 80 

 stocks. L. L. Langstroth. 



[Do you see that, my friends? Friend Hill has re- 

 ported all along his system of wintering (chaff pacli- 

 ing, etc.), and now friend L. reports that, with to- 

 ward a hundred colonies, and 113 this year, he has 

 not lost even one colony since 1868. There may be a 

 mistake in the figures, and friend L. may have meant 

 tosay]8T8; but even then I doubt whether we have 

 another man in the United States, if we have in the 

 world, who can say that. Is it accident, think you, 

 for so many years in succession? Now I will tell 

 you: Let us go next fall and see friend Hill, and 

 learn his secret. Would we iiot make a fine bee 

 convention if we should bring our baskets and give 

 him a surprise party?] 



MR. niERRYBAJVKS AND HIS NEIGH- 

 BOR. 



A CHAPTEHTIIAT TELLS SOMETHING ABOUT 



GETTING DISCOURAGED IN BUSINESS, 



AND GIVING UP. 



^?^ERIIAP8 some of the friends would 

 Jf* like to know Avhy the town in which 

 Mr. Merry banks and his neighbor 

 lived was called Onionville. Well, I have 

 thought for some time I would like to tell 



you the story ; and as there is a good moral 

 in it that seems to be quite in season just 

 now, I think I will tell it. 



Near the site of the town there had for 

 many years stood a tract of low swamp lands 

 that never produced any thing but wild 

 swamp-grass, and was considered by all of 

 no value particularly, for any ]iurpose. 

 .Finally, some eccentric youth took it into 

 his head that, by a system of underdraining, 

 etc., this land could be so reclaimed as to 

 raise good crops. This piece of foolishness, 

 so the neighbors said, he got from some 

 papers or books, or some other like imprac- 

 ticable nonsense on which he had been wast- 

 ing his time ,whenhe would have been better 

 employed at work like the rest of them. He 

 did not argue the ]:)oint with them much, 

 but very quietly went to work and tried the 

 matter on a small scale ; and, as luck would 

 have it, his first venture happened to be on 

 onions. The crop was excellent, and the 

 demand good ; but he still kept quiet, al- 

 though he did a vast amount of thinking, and 

 studied those foolish books and papers more 

 than ever before. The next season he had 

 his plans matured and ready for business. 

 lie rented, at a very moderate sum, perhaps 5 

 acres of this swamp land, and with a force 

 of picked men he went to work letting off 

 the surplus water by means of open ditches. 

 Every thing seemed to favor him, and in due 

 season rows of bright green onions, as 

 straight as the streets of a city, rose up be- 

 fore the astonished gaze of the people ; and 

 the clean culture, with the bright green con- 

 trasting against the background of the black 

 soil, made a sight that was worth going 

 miles to behold ; and, in fact, people did go 

 miles just to see the beautiful sight. Did 

 they all give u]), and admit there was some 

 thing in book-farming after ally 



Well, some did, but a great many did not. 

 Some who knew from experience what a 

 crop of onions might be expected from a 

 growth as was there before their eyes, de- 

 clared that the whole United States could 

 not consume so many, and that his crop 

 would bring them clown so that onions 

 would not be worth 10 cents a bushel. Our 

 friend still kept still ; for, in fact, he could 

 not afford to waste valuable time in argu- 

 ment. He just minded his own business. 

 In due time, the bulbs began to show them- 

 selves, and when the crop was beginning to 

 ripen, he was still on the ground, curing 

 them and preparing them for market in the 

 best manner. Not a weed had been allowed 

 to grow in the whole plat, and the sight was 

 almost as grand in the fall as it was in June 

 and July. Where in the world will he put 

 them aliv In due time they found out. With 

 wagon-loads of boards about a foot square, 

 and like loads of cheap lath, the same hands 

 that cared for the growing plants in a twink- 

 ling reared pyramids of cheap boxes, or ship- 

 ping-crates, and soon the whole enormous 

 crop of over liOUO bushels was not only safe- 



