488 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Oct. 



send one queen to A. I. Root, that he shall put each 

 one in a good colony; that next summer he shall re- 

 poi't through Gleanings how they wintered, how 

 they " springed," and which he considers the best 

 queen, all things considered; and to pay to the win- 

 ning queen-owner the price of all the queens sent 

 him, provided no sender shall send an imported 

 queen, or shall charge more than S3.00 for his queen. 

 Now, Mr. Root, I have not proposed any thing I am 

 not willing to enter into myself, although I do not 

 make a claim to being a prominent queen-breeder. 

 Lee Center, 111., Aug. V2, 1881. J. L. Gray. 



I hope our good f liend Mellen will excuse 

 us toe talking so much behind his back, and 

 If he will give us the report his neighbor 

 hints at, we won't do so any more. — I am 

 very much obliged, friend Gray, but I should 

 go crazy, sure, if you put any such task as 

 that on my shoulders. I would want a year 

 or two on some isolated island to do it, and 

 then I should not expect to get at more than 

 a glimmering of the truth. I am much in- 

 clined, too, to think you would get good and 

 bad queens from everyone's stock, and that 

 likely one man's, on tlie average, would just 

 about equal another's. AVe are all chang- 

 ing about so much all the time, I do not see 

 where any great difference can be. Freshly 

 imported stock seems to be an advantage ; 

 but with the poor facilities we have, any of 

 us, for isolation, I confess I have but little 

 faith in extra strains of bees. Our old red- 

 clover queen promised pretty well, but still 

 I could never be quite sure her bees did not 

 steal their stores. 



LETTER FROM FRIEND IIARKNESS. 



HOW HE AND HIS WIFE KEEP BEES IN PARTNER- 

 SHIP, ETC. 



^T would be a pity to have your waste-paper bas- 

 Ji|[ ket remain empty the year round because all 

 " — ' the letters you receive are "good enough to 

 print." So I am going to write you a long letter, 

 knowing that the more 1 write the more it will be 

 worth when you sell it by the pound. 



The ferocious-looking insect pictured at the top of 

 this page is supposed to be a queen-bee. I don't 

 know what kind of a one it is, for I never saw any 

 thing that looked like it. Perhaps it is the Apis dor- 

 sata (that "stamps" his feet and shakes off the dew), 

 or else the " big blue bee " that one of your corres- 

 pondents inquired about. The line of writing under 

 the picture was suggested by reading, in the July 

 Gleanings, the " Department for those who forget 

 to sign their names." I am very absent-minded, and 

 for fear that I should get into that Department, or, 

 rather, that some of my letters would, I thought best 

 to print my name on my paper with the copygram. 

 I suppose you would say "cheirograph;" but I like 

 the name copygram better, as it is so much easier to 

 spell. Of course, your word is the purest Greek, 

 mine being a sort of liybrid, half Greek, half Eng- 

 lish; but as I am used to handling hybrids, I like it 

 all the better for that. 



I believe I have never told you much about our 

 bees. I say our bees, because they belong to my 

 wife and me in partnership. 



T hamlle the bees and pocket the money; 



She lielps all she can, and we both eat t'iie honej". 



We began in May, 1879, with a single colony, which 

 was a present from her father. It swarmed twice, 

 and the three gave us about 75 lbs. box honey. We 

 wintered them all and got from them last season six 

 natural swarms and 325 lbs. of box and section hon- 

 ey. We wintered seven without losing any, and 

 have this season had eleven natural swarms. I do 

 not yet know how much honey we shall get this 

 season, but probably not a large amount. As you 

 know, I have just begun to learn my A B C's. I 

 never saw an extractor till I made one about two 

 weeks ago, my only guide being the pictures in your 

 price list and Gleanings. But if we have not tak- 

 en out much honey yet, we have had some natural 

 swarms that I think are worth reporting. Our 

 seven old colonies have each swarmed once, and 

 four of them the second time. I weighed those 

 seven tirst swarms very carefully and this is what 

 they weighed:— 



WEIGHT OF swarms. 



My feeder ad. in Gleanings has begun to yield 

 fruit, and I have already received and filled orders 

 from people in five different States. The first order 

 came from J. W. Shaffer, of Corydon, Wayne Co., la. 

 I feel quite well acquainted with that gentleman, 

 for his son Charley has told us, in the July Glean- 

 ings, page 325, all about his father's bees and his 

 own. 



It is sometimes hard to decipher the names of 

 people who order feeders. I wish I had a printed 

 copy of your subscription list, to find those names 

 in. It would be a great help to those who wish to 

 send circulars to live bee-keepers, as it would give 

 the addresses of over 4000 of them. But I don't 

 know that you could sell enough to pay you for 

 printing them. Some time I will tell how we win- 

 ter bees here in northern New York without losing 

 any; but I have written enough for this time. 



J. W. Harkness. 



Keeseville, Essex Co., N. Y., Aug. 15, IfSl. 



EXPERIENCES IN BEE CUIiTUREDOWN 

 SOUTH. 



BY OXE WHO SPEAKS RIGHT OUT. 



^]jOME five years ago I commenced bee culture. I 

 ^i knew nothing whatever of bees and their hab- 

 ^--^ its, except their stinging pi-opensities. A 

 friend (?) gave me a colony in a small soap-box; these 

 were black bees. Like most beginners I felt that I 

 wanted one hundred colonies at least, immediately, 

 if not sooner. Soon after giving me the colony of 

 blacks the same person proposed selling me a large 

 colony of what he termed Italian bees. I bought 

 them; they too were in a soap-box, but the colony 

 was very strong. I have since learned that this 

 colony was the worst class of hybrids, and cross is 

 no term to apply to their temper. I have since 

 found that this man sells hybrids for pure Italians, 

 and sells the pure Italian for albino bees. The lat- 

 ter he tells people are a distinct class of bees, much 

 finer and better than any other race. I have since 

 found that the albino is merely a " sport " from the 

 Italian, and, though fair to look on, their qualities 



