1881 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



325 



producing a small quantity of honey which it makes 

 in the hollows of rotten trees and crevices of rocks 

 and dilapidated buildings. I have seen and exam- 

 ined a great m'lny of these combs, which are irregu- 

 lar in shape; they never yield more than a teacupful 

 of honey, which Jias a rather acid taste, and is used 

 only for medicinal purposes. Since writing the 

 above I have been taken by surprise by Mr. Benton, 

 a good authority on bee culture; his visit to Kuru- 

 negala is to hunt up the (Bai)ihara) Apis dnrsata. 

 A narration of his valuable experience has afforded 

 me much information, and I indulge in the hope 

 that this will enable me to compete with my difficul- 

 ties more suecessfully in the future. A person of 

 Mr. Benton's acknowledged ability and experience 

 would do much for Ceylon in opening up a branch of 

 industry so easily conducted, and yielding so large a 

 return, but of which the natives are so lamentably 

 ignorant. 



^ AM not a bee-keeper myself, but my father is, 

 J>|[ and in the summer time he gives me five cents 

 every time I see the bees swarming; that is, if 

 1 see them before anybody else does. But I thought 

 sure I was going to have a swarm last summer. I 

 had been up to my uncle's, and on my way homo I 

 saw some thing that looked like a large swarm just 

 in the edge of the woods; so I hurried home and 

 told father about it. Then he and I took the hiver 

 and a hive, and went up where it was. Father told 

 jne that if it was a swarm I could have it; but when 

 we got up there it was nothing but a grapevine clus- 

 tered together. So I did not have a swarm of bees 

 after all. Father says that he has had bees nearly 

 ever since he has kept house. When the bees sting 

 mother it makes her sick, and sometimes she has to 

 go to bed. It don't seem to cure father's rheuma- 

 tism either. My brother used to keep bees too one 

 time. Ho was out hiving a swarm of bees, and all at 

 once he came up missing. We called and called, 

 and after awhile we found him under a currant 

 bush by the side of a bee hive, fast asleep. He said 

 that he had just been eating a piece of honej\ Fa- 

 ther thinks lots of his bee journals. I have one sis- 

 ter. She has been siok for 4 years, and has not 

 walked for two years. I am ten years oUl, 



Eugenie Steatjns. 

 Lima, Fayette Co., Iowa, Feb. 16, 1881. 



Very s'ood, Eugenie. You can let your 

 sick sister read the book we send you. or 

 read it to her, and let us all remember to 

 thank God that we can walk, and are not 

 sick. 



Papa has three colonies of bees; he had seven last 

 fall. What lived over are doing well. We have 

 three Sunday-schools — in the morning and evening; 

 I go to both whenever I can. I live in the country, 

 and sometimes it is too bad to go. 



Cattie Goody Koontz. 



Tipton, Tipton Co., lud., June 5, 1881. 



Very good, Cattie. Take care of the bees 

 and Sunday-school too, and God will bless 

 your life and make it a good and happy one. 



Mrs. Harrison is mistaken, for I do not work with 

 bees. My papa said if I worked with them he would 

 give me a hive, liut not until I did. A good while 

 ago, Josie Myer, my schoolmate, and myself joined 

 a "bee convention," and went three times, when it 

 broke up. I read of so many girls and boys of my 

 size working with bees that I think I shall have to be- 



gin. I have a little cousin who goes out with my 

 papa and looks at the bees, and he is not a bit afraid 

 of them. I like the book you sent me very much, 

 and I thank you for it. Maisel L. Nelson. 



Wyandott, Kansas, May 13, 1881. 



I am a boy 13 years old. We commenced winter- 

 ing with 7 colonies. All were packed in chaff hives 

 but 2, ont- of which was in a Simplicity, and the oth- 

 er in a box hive. One hive was mine, one mother's, 

 and one Frank's (my brother.) Mother's died (in a 

 chaff hive) with the dysentery. This is not a very 

 good place for bees. 



The way we dry corn is to put it in Hunter's steam- 

 er and steam until cooled, and cut it off the cob and 

 dry it in the Zimmer fruit-dryer. I think boiling 

 takes some of the sweetness out of the corn. 



Poor "us," we can't get that smoker offered for 

 quitting tobacco (and 1 am glad of it, because we 

 don't use tobacco.) C. E. Israel. 



Beallsville, Monroe Co.; O., March 8, 1881. 



And SO " mother's hive " died after all, did 

 it, in spite of chaff V— It is a little sad that 

 the boys who have never learned to smoke 

 can't have a smoker free ; but, my young 

 friend, if you will read the Smoker Column 

 of this month, and the Home Tapers too, 

 you may thank God that he lias spared you 

 the task of fighting these fearful tempta- 

 tions. 



My pa has taken Gleanings for three or four 

 years. I like to read the Juvenile Department and 

 Mr. Merrybanks and his neighbor. I liave one stand 

 of bees. Pa has one. We had 30 last year; 10 of 

 them died during the winter, and 3 this spring, and 

 pa sold the rest. I go to two Sunday-schools— one in 

 the forenoon and one in the afternoon. I don't 

 chew or smoke, nor do I ever intend to. My pa has 

 just got a new ABC book of you, and I am going to 

 learn how to take care of bees. 1 will be 13 years old 

 in July. The bees are gathering pollen very fast. 

 Charley W. Sch,i;ffek. 



Corydon, Wayne Co., la., Juno 3, 1881. 



May God bless you, Charley, in your good 

 resolves ! Somebody in New York City 

 once advertised parrots that could swear, 

 and the tSunday-Sdiool 2'imcs, in comment- 

 ing about it, said it was their impression 

 that almost all the swearing was done by 

 "parrots." They meant it was done by 

 boys and men who had not brains enough to 

 do any thing for any better reason than that 

 they heard it from some one else. I have 

 been wondering if the boys who learn to 

 smoke and chew do not do it much in the 

 same way— because they saw some one else 

 do it, without thinking at all, or trying to 

 think, whether this mimicking, or imitating 

 somebody else, would do good or harm. 

 How is it, boys? Shall we live to imitate 

 other folks unthinkingly, like parrots, or 

 shall we have minds of our own? 



I wrote a little letter which you printed in the 

 April No., but the book you promised me never 

 came, and I was so disappointed I wanted to write 

 right away and let you know ; but mamma said she 

 supposed it was lost in the mails. At last she let me 

 write. Papa has bought some bees, but they are not 

 at home yet. I expect mamma and I will have to 

 take care of them, as papa is away from home most 

 of the time. Mamma says she thinks she will have 



