338 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



shut them in for 21 or 30 hours, until sure they have 

 eaten aZf they took with them. Then give them a 

 clean hive. This generally cures; but sometimes it 

 must be repeated. Cut all infested combs from 

 frames, and put in sun extractor, and (I think) boil 

 the bonej'. Give the hive and frames a good "cook- 

 ing " in boiling water, and they arc again ready for 

 vise. I have talked with several bee-keepers who 

 claim to have worked by this plan with success. 



In a late private card, Mr. Harbison expresses 

 preference for Holy-Land queens as compared with 

 Cyprians; also that the present prospect for honey 

 in San Diego Co. is not nearly as good as last year; 

 and this opinion, only more so, is shared by most 

 bee-men hereabouts. Bees wintered nicply; no 

 loss except by robbing, and all now generally very 

 strong. In the flush year of 18T8, general extracting 

 did not commence until the last of June or first of 

 July; but I am told the signs are ditferent now from 

 then. 



The full-sized L. frame is very little used here. A 

 small frame, 9x1154. is much used; I.e., runs cross- 

 wise of the 8-framed L. hive. A frame about llxi3J4 

 seems gaining in favor here. In San Bernardino 

 Co. the popular frame is abopt 10x15 inches. All 

 these are outside mensurcs. The can for extractors 

 is generally of galvanized iron, large enough to take 

 4 to t> frames; across the top is bolted a strip of 

 plank; in center, a hole to receive upright shaft 

 with 2-inch beveled cog on top; a wheel about 5 to 6 

 inches matches this, and the shaft extends to outside 

 of can, and generally a common grindstone-crank 

 attached. "Eastern extractors" find no friends 

 here. I saw an extractor for 6 L. frames with hinged 

 wire baskets or ])uckets to receive the frames, so 

 the comb was emptied without taking it out. I 

 don't know how it worked. 



San Bernardino Co. is further inland, and liable to 

 be hotter than here. Tor an apiary they like a 

 southern slope, with honey-house at lower edge; 

 two rows of hives back to back, 4 to .5 feet apart, 

 and hives about 13 to 15 inches apart in rows; over 

 this a shade of some kind, often brush. These rows 

 run north from honey-hoase, and give a down grade 

 to wheel honey, and under shade all the time. In 

 both rows, bees get sun morning and evening. All 

 are shaded in the middle of day. 



Some bee-men are extracting a little; but the 

 prospect for a good honey crop does not improve 

 much. 



Now, Mr. Root, if you can't keep awake in church 

 'tis pretty good evidence that you need sleep and 

 rest. Please remember, that " Nature's demands are 

 God's commands," and can not be disobeyed with 

 impunity. Don't think you must print any part of 

 this. If it pays you for your time for reading, I am 

 satisfied. I feel you are doing much to bring about 

 "goodwill to men on earth," and may the angels 

 "bear you up." But you must bear in mind, there 

 are physical laws of life and health, which, to obey, 

 is life; to disolify, is death. "Choose ye this day 

 which ye will serve" or do. " Slow up " — you can't 

 stand this speed very long, and we ne^d you for 

 years. J. H. Bemis. 



Los Angeles, Cal., May 23, 18S1. 

 Many thanks, friend B., especially for your 

 little sketch in regard to friend Harbison. 

 We hear so little from him that every scrap 

 is of interest. I am really ashamed to say 

 that I do not remember your -s'isit, but as I 



read your kind letter, I am troubled to think 

 that may be you were not treated with such 

 kind cordiality as the writer of such a letter 

 deserves. Uo you really mean to say, friend 

 B., that everybody who goes to sleep in 

 church is overworked? What an awful lot 

 of poor fellows there is of us, if that is so ! 

 By the way, I have lately taken to having a 

 half-hour's nap between the morning Bible- 

 class and the sermon, and my wife says that, 

 every time I have that nap I always say 

 " amen " to the sermon, no matter who it is 

 that preaches. 



'' But they were splendid sermons, and 

 somebody ought to say amen." 



"My dear husband, they were splendid 

 sermons when you went to sleep too ; it's 

 you. not the minister." 



Well, after I had just begun to be happy 

 to tliink I had discovered a remedy for sleep- 

 ing in mpeting, I discovered that it made me 

 so late I was always with a crowd of tardy 

 worshipers. I some way thought they looked 

 as tliough they felt glad to see me among 

 them, for if the superintendent were always 

 in just before the sermon commenced, it was 

 not so much matter if they were late too. 

 You se^, it is just like going out before the 

 last hymn. The week days are not long 

 enough, and the Sundays are not half long 

 enough. I know you are right, friend B., 

 and I thank you for the application you have 

 made of my favorite text ; but what is a body 

 to do, when there is so very much to be done, 

 and so many whom one can help so much, 

 with only just a few words? A few days 

 ago a woman asked if we could give her a 

 hybrid queen, and bees enough with her to 

 build up a swarm, for a dollar. Now, you 

 know it could be done by putting them on a 

 frame of hatching brood ; but as it would re- 

 quire half a page, nearly, to explain the 

 matter fully to her, and as we have hun- 

 dreds of similar inquiries, all I could do was 

 to send her a price list, which answers it all, 

 if she only would read it. It seems she did 

 not read it, for this morning an indignant 

 and threatening letter was handed me, be- 

 cause the queen and i lb. of bees the clerks 

 sent her for the dollar, had not built up into 

 a swarm, but had gone down to a dozen, and 

 the queen was lost. I felt so badly at her 

 dif?appointment, that I was moved to give 

 her her dollar back ; but as the clerks sent 

 her exactly what she ordered, and as the 

 dollars are getting scarce, I felt I had no 

 right to do it. I mention this to show those 

 who complain that I do not take time to an- 

 swer simple questions, why it is ; let a clerk 

 do it? It takes an expensive clerk to fully 

 answer questions like the above, and I can 

 not afford it. I can do it fully with the big 

 printing-press, but that is the only way; 

 and in justice to myself, I must ask you to 

 please be lenient. A great many of the 

 questions you ask are yet undetermined, and 

 we are all experimenting, much as you are. 

 ^ly life is at your service, my friends, but it 

 is my duty to make it go just as far as possi- 

 ble. If I "do not answer fully to you all in- 

 dividually, please remember I am trying to 

 answer questions of piore import, to a great- 

 er number. 



