762 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



Special Notices by A. 1. Root. 



THE ACME HAND POTATO- PLANTER. 



I suppose everybody knows how to use these by this 

 time We have only three or four dozen left, and do 

 not expect to handle them after these are sold. In or- 

 der to clo'=e out, we offer what we have at the very low 

 price of 50 cts. each. They can be sent by mail at an 

 additional expense of 45 cts. But a better way is to 

 have them go by express, or, better still, by freight 

 with other goods. Full directions accompany every 

 machine Circulars in regard to the potato-planters or 

 sprayers' will be furnished free of charge; also our cat- 

 alog of honey-plant seeds. 



THE FAULTLESS SPRAYER FOR POTATO-BUGS. CURRANT- 

 WORMS, LICE ON STOCK. POULTRY, ETC. 



As we are about closing out on these goods we offer 

 what we have left, at the low price of 25 cts. each for 

 thf^ tin snraver, and 35 cts. for the galvanized iron tank. 

 If wanted by mail, either kind can be sent for 25 cts 

 additional. I am sure no one in the country can afford 

 to be without these sprayers, especially as they cost so 

 little You can often save the price of a machine in a 

 verv' few minutes if you have it handy and keep it 

 "loaded " With every machine there is a stout linen 

 tag with" full directions how to use it. It will do for 

 fruit-trees if you get up on a ladder so you can get the 

 spray where it is needed. 



CAUCASIANS ON THE ISLAND UP TO MAY 4. 



The following came to me at the " cabin in the woods:" 



Friend Root— Your letter and cages came to hand to- 

 day I will mail you a queen to-morrow. 



We have a good honey-flow this week; extracted two 

 combs from each of four hives. Caucasian one of the 

 four They are holding their own as honey- gatherers 

 and gentle hardly expresses it. We shook and brushed 

 the bees off the combs without smoke: not a bee offered 

 to stine Florence never uses smoke when opening 

 their hive, and nota Caucasian has ever stung any of us. 



Osprey, Fla., May 4. J- T. Shumard. 



1 will add that the daughter of our Florida Caucasian 

 is now a two- st07-v twin nucleus CA.H of bees) up here at 

 ihe '^Id Cabin Home " in North Michigan. The snow- 

 storms and cold weather of the first week m May seem 

 to bTover. and it is hard telling who is the happiest this 

 beautiful May irorning— the bees or myself. A. I. R. 



Traverse City. Mich., May 11. 



THE ART OF ATTRACTING AND CATCHING SWARMS OF 

 BEES. 

 Letters are coming in almost continually^^ asking if 

 we advise sending a dollar to T. W. Bryan. Fickhn, 111., 

 for his secret in regard to catching swarms of runaway 

 bees We showed up his swindle on page /32, last year, 

 and 'also on page 923, Sept. 1, last As soon as Mr. 

 Bryan began advertising we sent a dollar for his book. 

 He returned the money promptly, saying he would send 

 the book as soon as he got a new edition. No new edi- 

 tion came, however, but he kept right on advertising, 

 and getting people's money. But one of our subscribers 

 tent for the book and promptly forwarded it to us. Let 

 me repeat what I have said before. This dollar book 

 contains five very small pages, coarse print; but the 

 wonderful secret is all told in just a few lines on one of 

 the small pages. There are two things you are to do to 

 attrlTthe bees. Put a little bright-red flag on one 

 corner of the hive. The second thing is to attract the 

 bees by the scent of the oU of anise. Now, there is no 

 doubt that a hive fixed in this way will occasionally 

 catch a runaway swarm; and so will an empty hive 

 without any red rag or anise; and because the bees 

 sometimes locate in such hives he gets his material for 

 testimonials. The use of the oil of amse^.not at all 

 new The "red " rag may be new, but I think every 

 intelligent bee-keeper will decide that it has nothing to 

 do with attracting the bees. Will other bee^journals 

 please help us expose this man and his swindling oper- 

 ations ? One of the worst things about Bryan s opera- 

 tions is that he is employed by the Mi^sourt VaUey 

 Farmer to conduct a bee-keeping department in that 

 paper: and in every issue he takes pains to boom,_his 

 dollar secret. Let me give you a specimen of his in- 

 structions" to bee-keepers, clipped from the journal 

 named above, for April, 1906: 



" Well, after many attempts and failures I at last suc- 

 ceeded in perfecting a hive which caught the eye and 

 scent of the home-seekers, and they have no trouble in 

 locating it at once. To-day I hold the key to the situa- 

 tion, and can teach any person just how to prepare 

 empty hives so they will attract bees for miles, and 

 thus catch all the swarms they want for practically 

 nothing. So far as I know I am the only bee-keeper in 

 the country who has ever succeeded in doing this. My 

 booklet, which was copyrighted in 1904, is the only work 

 that teaches this science, and can be had only from me. 

 ' "T. W. Bryan." 



"a POCKETFUL OF WHEAT." 



When I said last winter that a pocketful of wheat 

 was the best medicine for little chickens, why did not 

 somebody among our 30,000 readers tell me that a pock- 

 etful of wheat is the best medicine in the world for the 

 human family as well as for chickens? For six weeks or 

 more I have been having raw wheat (Pettijohn's rolled 

 wheat) three times a day, and I like it just as well now 

 as I did at the start; and it is worth more than all the 

 medicines for troubles with digestion I have ever gotten 

 hold of. I have tried different kinds of nuts, and have 

 about settled down on fresh nicely prepared salted pea- 

 nuts: and after having had a satisfying meal of "grains 

 and nuts " I eat all the fruit I care for, of any sort that 

 comes handy — dates, figs, apples, bananas, oranges, etc. ; 

 also all kinds of dried and canned fruits, avoiding sugar 

 as much as possible. The sugar in fruits— dates, for in- 

 stance, the sugar that God makes— is much better for 

 me than manufactured sugar. A little honey, also, 

 seems to be very much better than any kind of refined 

 sugar. Now, in order to get this excellent result I nev- 

 er taste any thing between meals, and drink no liquid of 

 any sort at mealtime. Of course, the apples and oranges, 

 furnish some liquid at the close of the meal, and this 

 seems to be all right. 



BUCKWHEAT FOR BEE-KEEPERS, ETC. 



We have for years past been sending out a pamphlet 

 giving what information we could gather in regard to 

 the buckwheat crop for bee-keepers. The Cornell Uni- 

 versity, Ithaca. N. Y.. has just sent out a bulletin (No. 

 238. April. 1906), which is for free distribution in York 

 State. I can not gather whether other people can get it 

 or not. This bulletin contains much valuable informa- 

 tion, and we clip as follows from the concluding sum- 

 mary: 



Formerly the flouring qualities of the Japanese varie- 

 ty were pronounced by many millers to be inferior to 

 the other sorts, and not infrequently the price of Japa- 

 nese buckwheat was five or ten cents per bushel less 

 than the others. In some localities this condition still 

 prevails; in others the reverse is true. In parts of Sen- 

 eca Co , N. Y.. in recent seasons the millers have offered 

 a bonus of five cents per bushel for the Japanese varie- 

 ty. Whether this change in the estimate of the variety 

 is due to improvement in the quality of the grain due to 

 acclimatization, or to better adaptation of the milling 

 methods to the variety has not been ascertained. 



ENEMIES. 



The buckwheat crop is unusually free from interfer- 

 ence from weeds or plant-diseases^ It starts so quickly 

 and grows so rapidly that most weeds get no chance to 

 make headway against it. In fact, buckwheat is one of 

 the best crops for cleaning land by smothering out 

 weed growths. Wild birds as well as domestic are fond 

 of the grain, and. when abundant, sometimes cause con- 

 siderable loss. No insect or fungous troubles have been 

 sufficiently destructive to attract much attention. 



BUCKWHEAT AS A SOILING CROP. 



A number of farmers have reported favorably upon 

 the use of buckwheat as a soiling crop, but its use for 

 this purpose has not been sufficiently extended to estab- 

 lish its value. 



BUCKWHEAT AS A GREEN-MANURE CROP. 



The use of buckwheat as a green manure has been 

 much more extended. It possesses several character- 

 istics that adapt it to this purpose. It thrives on quite 

 poor soil. It grows rapidly. It smothers out weeds, 

 thus helping to clean the land. It leaves hard soils in a 

 remarkably mellow condition. It decays quickly when 

 plowed under. 



VARIETIES. 



There are three principal varieties of buckwheat 

 grown in America — the common gray, silverhull, and 

 Japanese. The seed of silverhull is slightly smaller than 



