18S1 



GLEANOGS I:N BEE CULTUEE. 



327 



flower, and now it is growing wild all over the r 

 town." We sowed the seed last spring, and only one 

 plant came up ; but after lying in the ground a 

 year they are now coming up in evers* place where 

 the seed was scattered. In the ground, all around 

 where the plant grew last year, the plants came up 

 thickly, and so we took a dibble and a pan and lifted 

 out the plants carefully, and set them in waste 

 places, so that they can seed themselves another 

 year. "Whenever you think of a thing, is the time 

 to do it; if you see honey-plants growing so thickly 

 that they can not thrive, such as catnip, sweet clo- 

 ver, tigwort, etc., transplant some of them to differ- 

 ent waste places. If the weather is dry, dig a hole, 

 put in the plant, pour in water, and fill up with the 

 loose soil. This is a much better way than planting 

 first and then watering. Try it, and see if it is not. 

 In rainy weather, plants grow if transplanted al- 

 most any way; but then, you might get wet and 

 drabbled, and make your mother more work. 



LUCINDA HAKKISON. 



Peoiia, 111., June6, 18S1. 



KA.1IBL.£ NO. 5. 



JOHN ANDREWS. 



fPON the western edge of our county is located 

 a small hamlet, designated as Patten's Mills. 

 The mills consist of a gristmill, and a shop for 

 a variety of purposes. In this village lives our 

 friend John Andrews, who, when we visited him, 

 had about 100 swarms of bees. We found Mr. A. in 

 his shop busily engaged making bee-hives. He uses 

 a frame much smaller than the Langstroth, but 

 tiers them up on the Simplicitj' plan. His bees have 

 a good pasturage; and to aid them, several bass- 

 wood-trees have been planted along the highway; 

 and it is safe to say, that wherever you see basswood- 

 trees planted along the highway, you will find in that 

 vicinity an enthusiastic bee-keeper. We learn that 

 Mr. Andrews has lost several swarms during the 

 past winter, and he Vielieves bis Italian bees are 

 much more difficult to winter than blacks. They 

 dwindle down more in the spring. His bees are win- 

 tered in his cellar. We have found other parties 

 who are going to stick by the common black bee. 

 The disasters of the past winter have opened the 

 eyes of many bee-keepers to the fact, that hardiness 

 is a point not to bo overlooked in breeding bees, and 

 the breeder who will give us such a strain of bees 

 shall have our patronage. 



While speaking with Mr. A. about bee-stings, he 

 related a very peculiar instance of a sting received 

 by his daughter. She was eating honey that had 

 been taken from the hive several weeks or months 

 before, and felt a stinging sensation in her throat. 

 The parts began to swell; the family became 

 alarmed; a physician was sent for, and, with proper 

 instruments, he removed the sting from her throat. 

 This sting, with its poison-sack, had been thus pre- 

 served in the honey for a considerable length of 

 time. We have all found people who can not eat 

 even the Emallest amount of honey without giving 

 them very disagreeable feelings, and even convul- 

 sions. Are not these feelings explained by the 

 presence of poison in the honey? We have found 

 persons who could not eat the old-fashioned strained 

 honey, but, alter many tastings, extracted honey 

 was eaten without injury. There was not so much 

 poison in the honey thrown out as in the squeezed' 

 out honey, 



But we will return to Mr. A.'s shop, and I will in- 

 troduce you to his son Cyrus, who is manufacturing 

 row boats. We found a boat much harder to make 

 than a bee-hive; nearly every piece has to be made 

 after a different pattern, and the fit must be next 

 to perfect. These boats are to be used upon Lake 

 George, of which we wrote in our last Kamble. Mr. 

 A. is interested in several cottages for summer 

 boarders, upon the eastern shore of the lake, where, 

 we have no doubt, a welcome would he extended to 

 a goodly company of bee-keepers. Bee-hunting is 

 indulged in on the mnuntains bordering upon the 

 lake. Lines of bees have been traced directly o\er 

 Buck Mtiuntain to ;he apiary of Mr. Adams, six 

 miles away. These bees had an additional quality— 

 they were not only long-flyers, but high-flyers. We 

 could say much more of Mr. A. and his Itind family, 

 but must bid them adievi for the present. 



Hartford, N. Y. J. H. Maktin. 



If the sting was in the honey the length 

 of time you mention, friend ^I., it of course 

 possessed no life, and therefore got caught 

 in the throat like any other splinter. That 

 it could empty its poison under such circum- 

 stances seems liardly probable ; but if the 

 doctor pulled out a sting, I suppose Ave shall 

 have to admit it, or conclude that a live bee 

 had, unknown to any of them, crawled into 

 the comb. I confess the latter seems to me 

 far the more probable. 



^ i»i ^ 



A PL.EASAAT LETTER FROM A INEIV 

 ABC- SCHOliAR. 



YOTJXG IN EKTHUSIASM, EVEN THOUGH WELL ALOXG 

 IX VEAKS. 



fHAD often thought I should like to have bees, 

 but was afraid they could not be kept here, 

 ' where there is but little honey-making feed, and 

 the climate is very cold; but last year I concluded 

 to try. So I got a hive of the Langstroth pattern, 

 and in June, 1880, got a swarm of bees and brought 

 them home, 20 miles distance. I let them take caro 

 of themselves until late in the fall; I then got your 

 ABC book. I am rather old for an A B C scholar, 

 being in my 69th year, but I tried to find the surest 

 way to winter the bees. After considering the dif' 

 ; ferent methods, 1 concluded the handiest to get at 

 \ was to take a large packing case and lay in about 3 

 inches of chaff in the bottom, and place in the hive, 

 I arranging an opening from the entrance of hive 

 through the side of case, and then packing all 

 . around it with chaff well pi'essed in, and I then cov- 

 i ered the top with an old bed-quilt, and left them out 

 ' on the stand, having many doubts in regard to them. 

 Early in the spring they were found with a pretty 

 good supply of food on hand, and all lively and in 

 very good condition. So, early in May I got me a 

 ! chaff hive, to have it ready for a swarm. On the 

 13th of May, soon after breakfast, I saw the bees 

 coming out very numerously, but I was not quite 

 certain whether they were about to swarm. I asked 

 ' my wife to watch them, and went and got a swarm- 

 : ing-box and my chaff hive; but before I was quite 

 ready, wife came and told me the bees had settled 

 [ upon the post 1 have at the garden gate. 1 got a 

 j white sheet over them and put the box under, think- 

 I ing they would go into the box, which they showed 

 [ no disposition to do. So I sawed off" the upper end 

 I of the post, and put it, bees and all, into the hive, 

 I and I soon found it necessary to shiike them off in- 



