1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



511 



Mr. Becker succeed that he determined to 

 go in on a larger scale, until now he has 

 eight hothouses about 300 feet long by 50 

 feet deep, all steam- heated, with a force 

 of about fifteen men to manage them, all 

 growing cucumbers. 



Lettuce is raised in the houses from Oc- 

 tober to March, the cucumber- vines not be- 

 ing set out until about the middle of March. 

 The vines are started in hotbeds in the 

 houses; and when set out in the houses they 

 are in most cases two to three feet in length, 

 with buds just starting. 



Heavy steel wire is stretched on poles, 

 and forms a support for the growing vines 

 that fairly fill the house, as, year after 

 year, they produce several hundred barrels 

 of cucumbers, and that at a time when the 

 prices they command are big. 



Thus year after year this shrewd old Ger- 

 man makes the bees help him produce early 

 cucumbers which, without their help, would 

 be impossible. It is, therefore, very evident 

 that all who grow fruits and certain vege- 

 tables should be sure that there are bees 

 enough in the neighborhood to insure the 

 proper fertilization of the blossoms. 



HOW TO PRODUCE MORE HONEY. 



A Plan for Materially Increasing' the Crop. 



BY A. K. FERRIS. 



This subject is so broad, and so many de- 

 tails enter into it, that I will give in this ar- 

 ticle only a few hints as to how we may in- 



ONE OF J. F. BECKER S GREENHOUSES WHERE THE BEES FERTILIZE CUCUMBER-BLOSSOMS, 



There is, however, a pathetic side to the 

 case; and that is, the loss of the bees. Aft- 

 er the little fellows fly about the house from 

 blossom to blossom they fail in most cases 

 to find their hives, and hundreds of them 

 can be seen bobbing against the glass roof 

 of the house, trying to get outside. 



It doesn't take much of this to put them 

 out of business, and so we find hundreds of 

 dead bees on the floor which could not get 

 to their homes. This being the case, Mr. 

 Becker is compelled to buy new hives each 

 year for his houses; but as this is merely a 

 matter of a few dollars' output for a return 

 of many hundreds of dollars, the item is 

 looked upon as one of necessary expense. 



crease the yield from our present number of 

 colonies. 



In localities where the flow is from buck- 

 wheat, goldenrod, and other medium and 

 late flowering plants, the keeping of more 

 colonies run on the "let-alone " method will, 

 no doubt, be the very best way to secure a 

 larger yield; but in the North, where the 

 flow is early, the more intensive methods 

 are better, as 1 have proved, for colonies so 

 operated have given a yield from two to nine 

 times as much as those run on the "let- 

 alone method." 



To secure more honey from a given num- 

 of colonies I prepare a double hive by plac- 

 ing a §-inch division in the center of^a ten- 



