Ho8 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



but never could make a start in the right way; your 

 offer in Gleanings set me to thinking that perhaps 

 now was the time if ever; so I tried it for a week. I 

 found myself alive, and that was about all, at the 

 end of the week, but with a resolution to "hang" to 

 it. It's now over tive months, and I think I am safe. 



H. A. March. 

 Fidalgo, Whatcom Co., Wash. Ty., May 31, 1881. 



To be sure you will pull through, friend 

 M.; you wiil pull through if you take it in 

 the right way. It is not a bargain with i«e, 

 ])ut with God ; for every one of you who 

 stands out here before his fellow-men, and 

 voluntarily makes this protnise, if he con- 

 siders his word good, he will of course keep 

 it. Your honor as a man, before God, is the 

 point in question ; and surely no one would 

 forfeit such a promise, publicly given, for a 

 dollar or two. Look to God— not my poor 

 self, my friends ; and may his blessing rest 

 upon the little band of you who Lave thus 

 come out before men, to assert your freedom 

 from the bondage of appetite. Thanks for 

 postage. 



1 have received the smoker, and am well pleased 

 with it. I have had a hard time of it since I burned 

 the tobacco-pipe; but, by the grace of God, T am de- 

 termined to conquer. Bees are doing well here; 

 clover is in bloom, and they are bringing in the 

 honey very fast. I extracted, on the first day of this 

 month, from one hive 20 lbs. of honey, and they 

 have filled 11 frames since, which beats any thing I 

 have ever had since I have had bees. 



Georoe Cole. 



Freeport, Shelby Co., Ind., June (5, 1881. 



Don't falter, friend C. Kemember the 

 text,— 

 " He that endureth," etc. 



You may put me in the smoker club if you like, as 

 I quit chewing some time ago, and will quit smoking 

 now. S. P. Roddy. 



Mechanicstown, Md., .Tune 3, 1881. 



Here is the smoker, friend U.; and may 

 the Lord help you too, Avith all the rest of 

 the little throng. 



I see by Gleanings you are trying to induce your 

 fellow-men to quit the habit of using tobacco. I do 

 not smoke it to excess; but what I do use I think is 

 no benefit to me. I see you will give a smoker free 

 to all who will quit the use of it. Now, you may 

 send me one of your largest cold-blast smokers, and 

 1 quit using the weed in any form this 4th day of 

 June, 1881. S. C. Gates. 



East New York, Kings Co., N. Y., June 4, 1881. 



I have been an inveterate smoker for years, and 

 have tried repeatedly to quit the habit; but I never 

 promised any one that I would — not even myself. 

 Now, if you will send me a large-size Bingham 

 smoker, I give you my word that I will not touch 

 tobacco in any shape until I send you the pay for 

 the smoker, and I think that won't be this year, as I 

 feel pretty poor at present. I have only 13 colonies 

 left from 41 last fall. Joseph Cook. 



Jackson, Mich., June 5, 1881. 



You strike on a strong point, friend (;., 

 when you say that you have tried repeatedly, 

 without mentioning it to anybody, and 

 failed. A promise made publicly is pretty 



apt to be kept, if the one who promises has 

 any regard at all for his word. Do not neg- 

 lect to ask God to help you. 



OUR OWN APIARY. 



J'UNE 3.— Still the orders continue to 

 pour in for bees and queens, but we 

 ^ have no trouble in tilling them all 

 promptly, except where the dollar queens 

 come in. Neighbor 11. agrees to furnish us, 

 during the month, 800 or over ; but at pres- 

 ent this is not going to be enough. Every 

 one of our old customers reports having all 

 the orders he can till, but this certainly can 

 not last long. I am expecting every day to 

 see such heaps of them from all directions 

 that we won't know where to put them. I 

 shall be at least happy in having a laying 

 queen in every one of our 160 hives, so we 

 can set about getting ready for winter. 



EAKLY SOrrSON HONEY-PLANT. 



Had I just gone over among them, I 

 should have reported Simpson plants in 

 bloom before our last journal went out, for 

 I found bees busy working on them before 

 white clover was out. Of course, they will 

 be of little account, right during our clover 

 and basswood bloom ; but from what I have 

 seen, 1 am pretty sure we may develop a va- 

 riety to fill the vacancy between fruit-blos- 

 soms and locusts. 



By the way, we have had a most bounti- 

 ful flow of honey from locusts again this 

 year, and it has lasted fully ten days, filling 

 the hives with most beauliful yellow honey, 

 and I have really got in the fever of having 

 a locust orchard as well as a basswood. But 

 would it not be splendid? Just think of the 

 bees roaring on about two acres. I think 

 two acres would keep a hundred colonies of 

 bees busy. Who will start the first oneV If 

 you do not look out, I shall. 



Neighbor iL has revived the old queen 

 nursery, to be placed over a strong hive, 

 such as I described and went wild over in 

 the first volume of Gleaninus. He uses 

 only a broad board, like a Simplicity cover, 

 forinstance, and then bores it full of auger- 

 holes; these holes are covered with wire 

 cloth on the under side, and tlie board is 

 then placed in a chaff hive, under the cush- 

 ion. He says it is working nicely. The se- 

 cret of it is, the chaff hive for protection, 

 which I did not have in my earlier experi- 

 ments. On the 25111 of May, he sold a queen 

 from a hive, and at once let in a newly 

 hatched queen from this nursery. .June 1st, 

 he found her laying, and took her out and 

 sold her. What do you think about the 

 profit a hive or nucleus would give during 

 the season, if worked in that way? with the 

 great call there is every spring for bees and 

 queens, I am really suri)rised to see so few 

 making asuccess of it. JJoysand girls, what 

 ails you? It is the pleasantest and easiest 

 way of making money I ever heard of, only 

 it takes brains and energy, and getting up 

 early in the morning. 



13//i.— Beautiful weather, and every thing 

 is doing finely. The orders for bees and 

 queens aie beyond any thing we have ever 

 heard of. We have purchased and divided 



