410 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug; 



MK. MERRYBANKS' NEIIGHBOR. 



ALSO SOME THING ABOUT HOW THEY ARE GOING TO 

 FEED THEIR BEES IN ONION VILLE THIS FALL. 



JOHN'S father had a little piece of land, 

 Avhich he cultivated after a fashion, 

 when he had no otlier work on hand. 

 He had this year got it planted to corn, and 

 the corn was up so as to need cultivating. 

 To do this, he must borrow a horse ; but, 

 strangely, this year everybody wanted to use 

 their horses, or else they had not much sym- 

 pathy for a man who seemed to take life so 

 very easily, and so the corn was growing up 

 to weeds. His wife gently remonstrated; 

 but he replied that, as no horse was to be 

 had, he did not see how the matter could well 

 be helped, and so kept on smoking his pipe 

 quite complacently. This was very trying to 

 her, and even Jolui urged that they should 

 go at it and hoe the corn without cultivating. 

 " Why not buy ahorse, father ?" 

 Sure enough ; why not buy a horse, and be 

 independent of these pesky neighboi's, who 

 never cared whether they accommodated a 

 body or not. But where was the moneyV 

 He sauntered off, and before night returned 

 with the information that he nad found a 

 horse, and the man would give him time on 

 it, with one condition. 'I he condition was, 

 that their little home should be mortgaged 

 as security. John's mother had been pray- 

 ing for their little family, oh how earnestly ! 

 but she could see no answer to prayer in all 

 this. Knowing her husband as she did, she 

 had little hope that the money would ever be 

 raised. Still, as John and his father both 

 talked of how they could get lots of work to 

 do, if they only had a horse, she finally con- 

 sented. The iiorse was purchased, and the 

 cultivator was started ; but, somehow or 

 other, before the field was half gone over, 

 even one way, the horse was turned out, and 

 our friend sat in the yard smoking his pipe 

 as in times past. It did not matter how busy 

 the birds were building their nests, nor how 

 eager the bees were in gathering the pollen 

 from the early sweet corn that was already 

 beginning to tassel, nor how busy the rest of 

 the town were in their gardens, cornfields, 

 and meadows, this man sat and smoked his 

 pipe all the same. His poor wife was trying 

 in vain to remember some passage in her lit- 

 tle l^ible that would give one comfort and 

 cheer in a time like this. She remembered 

 some passages in the Psalms that had al- 

 ways before seemed strange and unaccount- 

 able to her. Here was one of them:— 



Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come un- 

 to thee. Hide not Iby face from me in the day when 

 I am in trouble: incline thine ear unto me; in the 

 day when 1 call, answer me speedily.— Ps. 102:1, 3. 



Was it all this trouble that was beginning 

 to show her how David felt when he said, 

 ''Hear my prayer," '•'hide not thy face," 

 and "incline thine ear"? Was it ]jossible 

 that God knew all this trouble would result 

 in her own good, if she took it in a way that 

 sent her to him as her only refuge in the 

 time of trouble, with a faith that made her 

 prayer importunity V If so, O Lord, thy will, 

 not mine, oe done. And then she read the 

 following verses from the same chapter:— 



But thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever; and thy 



remembrance unto all generations. He will regard 

 the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their 

 prayer. 



After this she felt that in some way deliv- 

 erance was coming ; so she went on with her 

 work with a trust in that p) omise that he 

 would "regard the prayer of the destitute." 

 '.' I will do just the best I can, and be n(»t 

 troubled," she said to herself. 



Just here the doctor drove u\} in his gig, 

 and, meeting friend Merrybanks, who was 

 going in the opposite direction, asked 

 him how he should feed his bees after 

 basswood had ceased. The doctor, the shoe- 

 maker, as well as John's father, had all in- 

 creased their bees in order to fill their emi)ty 

 hives, and save their combs from the moth. 

 They had also secured some comb honey, 

 but many of the colonies were weak in bees, 

 and almost all of them needed stores. As 

 the shoemaker did not live far off, he saw 

 the three talking, and came to hear what it 

 was all about ; so friend M. had an oppor- 

 tunity of talking to them all together. 



MR. 3IERIIYBANKS TELLS HOW TO FEED 



BEES THE FIRST OF AUGUST SO A.S TO 



GET THEM IX THE BEST POSSIBLE 



WINTERING TRIM. 



" My friends, we must take into consider- 

 ation that, although we seldom have honey 

 enough after this' time for bees to build up 

 to the best advantage so as to be ready for 

 winter, we usually have some honey ; and 

 we do not want our feeding to stand in the 

 way of having the bees get all they can from 

 natural sources. 1 onc^ fed a weak nucleus 

 about 40 lbs. of honey i;i the fall, to build 

 them up to a strong colony, which I succeed- 

 ed in doing, but they stuck to the feeder all 

 day long, to the entire exclusion of going to 

 the fields ; and as the fall happened to be one 

 when bees worked on the second crop of red 

 clover, I had others that, during the same 

 time, built up of themselves, and even gave 

 us some honey in surplus boxes. The feed- 

 ing was not only an expensive operation, but 

 it was really a damage to them, for it got 

 them finally so they would not work at all, 

 unless it was to bring in the little pollen 

 they needed. If you want to make these col- 

 onies which are poor in bees and stores win- 

 ter, it will by no means answer to say we 

 will let them take their chances. Jf the 

 yield of honey stops for only two weeks, it 

 will cause the queens to cease laying, to a 

 great extent, and old queens will sometimes 

 stop almost entirely. The yield of honey is 

 most favorable for brood-rearing when it 

 comes just fast enough to cause the bees to 

 build a little snow-white comb along the 

 tops of the frames. You all know what this 

 is, when you see, by turning the mat back, 

 this thrifty white look on the combs, just 

 over the center of the brood-nest." 



Here friend M. gathered up his reins, and 

 was about to go on ; but they almost with 

 one accord begged liim to tell them ivlutt they 

 should feed. 



" You wish to use some thing that will be 

 the safest and best for winter stores, and no 

 mistake about it?" 



" Yes, sir," said they almost all at once. 



" Well, then, use granulated sugar, and 



