252 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



SMOKER COIiVmN. 



fll AVE spent the evening in reading and review- 

 ing April Gleanings, and have found manj^ iu- 

 ' teresting articles, and lastly ran upon "Smoker" 

 column, the most singular offer I ever heard of. As 

 to this, I will give expression to my views. Your 

 offer to give a smoker to all those who will abandon 

 the use of tobaeco, on simple statement, you taking 

 a person's word only, no oath required ! By the 

 way, I am inclined to think that a great many will 

 make use of your extreme liberality, and you will 

 suffer quite a loss that will amount to quite an item 

 at the end of the year by giving away your smokers. 

 It is likely that perhaps about one-half of these in- 

 dividuals are sucking away at their pipes as usual, 

 in spite of their promises. Auo. TiGGES. 



Marathon City, Wis., Apr. 12, 1881. 



Friend T., you are to me one of this vast 

 sea of humanity. I do not Ivuow you any 

 more tlian I know those wlio have publicly 

 made this promise, except from what I can 

 judge from the letters they have written. 

 Now, would you keep the promise, if you 

 had given it under the same circumstancesV 

 To be sure, you would ; and so will the oth- 

 ers. They are not under my eye, and the 

 promise is not, in one sense, given to me. 

 It is made before God, and it is God whom 

 they offend, if they break it, without com- 

 ing out honestly and acknowledging their 

 fault, and paying for the smokers like men. 

 Is there one among us who would break such 

 a promise for the paltry sum of one or two 

 dollars? God forbid! There is a great strong 

 arm back of me, in tliis, friend T., and He 

 will take care that I do not suffer very mucli. 



Thanks for smoker, all O. IC. When promise is 

 broken, I will pay you for ten smokers. 

 Beverly, Mo., April, 1881. Ed. Ladd, Jr. 



I will ask you to send me a smoker, for I shall 

 never use tobacco again, under a penalty of Ave dol- 

 lars the first time I smoke, chew, or use it in any 

 way as a stimulant. Send me a large Bingham 

 smoker on the above conditions. 



N. B. H. Dean. 



Brighton, Ont., Can., March 10, 1881. 



Do not send me a smoker for leaving off using beer 

 and tobacco, but please help me to form other reso- 

 lutions, which I consider worth more than presents. 



Chillicothc, la.. Mar. 15, 1881. Jo.sEni Ball. 



I want to join your tobacco army; and if you will 

 send me a smoker I will pledge my word Hd'ev'touse 

 tobacco again. Please send me one of those Lu-gest- 

 sized ones— one that holds two quarts. If you do not 

 intend to give that size, I will pay the difference, 

 and if I use tobacco again, I will pay you $1.01 for it. 



Los Angeles, Cal., Feb. 31, '81. W. W. Bliss. 



About the smoker you sent me: it seems easy now 

 to keep from smoking. I have promised wife, God, 

 and you, to keep from it, so if I break one I b)-eak 

 nil. Thanks many times for it, and hoping God will 

 bless you and your " Home Papers," I remain, 



E. Ladd, J«. 



Beverly, Macon Co., Mo., April 5, 1881. 



REPORT FROM NEIGHBOR SHOOK. 



WINTERING 4.5 COLONIES AVITHOUT LOSS. 



fjjHIS is my first attempt at letter-writing. I will 

 tell j'ou my experience in bee-keeping. 1 have 

 kept bees since lS6i. I kept blnck bees about 

 ten years in box hives, averaging from one to eight, 

 with no honey to eat, until 187.5; then I got up to 

 eight again. I then bought eight Italian queens of 

 Mr. Dean, about Sept. 1st, 1875. I Italiaiaized all, and 

 changed to movable-frame hives. 



In 18761 increased to 15 colonies bj' artificial swarm- 

 ing, and procured 400 lbs. of honey. Since then I 

 have had all the honey to use 1 wanted, with bets 

 and honey to sell. In IS79 I incrensed to 41 colonies, 

 of which I lost 2; in the spring of 1883 I sold 19 col- 

 onies; started agiin wiih 2J colonics; increased to 

 45; procured about .500 lbs. of honey: lost none. 

 These colonies are very light, but I think tbey will 

 come ont all right. I winter in house. The outside 

 is sided up with Js drop siding, sealed inside with 

 inch lumber; have sccentcca inches of s.iwdust be- 

 tween walls. It is warm; the lowest that I saw the 

 mercury this winter was 8° below freezing. This is 

 rather warm — perhaps chaff would b3 better. I 

 have it ventilated at top and bottom; have wintered 

 in house three winters, with go id success. 



Daniel Shook. 



Seville, Medina Co., O., April 21, 1S8L 



A FRESH ABC SCHOL.iR'S STORY. 



MSI am one of the ABC class, a new and green 

 ^\, scholar at that, I wili mnke my report. I am 

 "'^ an invalid, and have b(_cu for several years. I 

 had to quit business on accounl of my hc;iLh. I 

 bought Vi cclonies last October and November at 

 public sale. Thej' were in miserable old rotten 

 hives; about 4 had stores sulHcient to winter on; 

 remainder had plenty ( f bees, but had but little 

 stores. I bought pine luiibcr and had hives made, 

 20 inches in the clear; set the old hives in these, and 

 packed straw between them, and put gunny sacks 

 and baling stuff on the frames, and left them to care 

 for themselves until spring. We had an unusually 

 cold and long winter. They had one day in Febru- 

 ary and two in March they could fly; but a great 

 many died on the snow. I began to feed coffee A 

 sugar syrup the 20th of March, by putting the syrup 

 in plates and saucers placed on the frames and 

 under the gunny bags. I gave each colony two 

 saucers of syrup a week. They ate it readily. But 

 3 of my weakest colonies died, one in February and 

 two in March, leaving me 10— one with dysentery 

 bad, but cleaning up and working now. Gathered 

 first pollen from hazel April 13, mercury 43, and have 

 been busy every day but one since that. We had a 

 hard rain this morning; cliudy all day; bees boil- 

 ing out at the entrance, and packing pollen as if 

 their very existence depended on to-day's work. 

 They are hybrids and the common black. Api-il 16th 

 one hybrid colony sent out a fair swarm. They set- 

 tled and acted exactly as a swarm would in summer. 

 I went to the mother colony and found a hybrid 

 queen near the entrance in a small clump of bees. 

 I picked her up, put her in a cage, and opened the 

 hive to see what the trouble Avas; found plenty of 

 bees, some sealed honey, eggs, and unsealed larvae. 

 Well, you have left plenty to keep house, and now 

 what's the matter? I examined the cluster and 

 found another hybrid queen. I then put tbem in a 



