1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



313 



keeper. Go to work to find that out. Give 

 careful study to the two very excellent books 

 you have. Don't be in a hurry to increase 

 rapidly in numbers. See how much honey 

 you can get, rather than how fast you can 

 increase, being satisfied with an increase of 

 50, or at the most 100 per cent annually. In 

 that way you can feel your way along and 

 find out better than anyone else can tell you 

 whether it will be well to give your chief at- 

 tention to bees. 



Stick to your father's farm for a long 

 while yet, and get a good education. The 

 better your education the bigger the world 

 in and around you, and the more enjoyment 

 you can have in taking care of bees. Above 

 all, be a good, honest. Christian man. The 

 market is overstocked with smart men; but 

 square men such as I have mentioned are at 

 a premium. Be one of the premium sort. 

 Best wishes for your success. 



Marengo, 111. C. C. Miller. 



[The last paragraph, if nothing more, is 

 good enough to paste in the hat. Yes, sir, 

 there is always a premium on square men. 

 -Ed.] 



proportion of water and lye for clean- 

 ing propolis ; miss wilson 

 explains. 



Mr. Green wishes I had been a little more 

 explicit as to the amount of water used to 

 those three cans of lye, page 13. I should 

 guess the kettle used would hold about half 

 a barrel of water. I would go this minute 

 and measure ; but truth compels me to say 

 that we do not own such a kettle (I wish we 

 did), and the one used was borrowed for the 

 occasion from our wash-woman. 



I did not measure the water put into the 

 kettle. I just filled it full enough so I 

 thought it would not slop over when the 

 utensils to be cleaned were put in, leaving 

 room to move them about freely, adding 

 more water as it boiled away. 



I presume I used more lye than was actu- 

 ally necessary at the start ; but as it is not 

 very expensive, and, so far as I could see, 

 never injured in the least the articles to be 

 cleaned, I put in that amount to start with, 

 and it was all needed before I was through. 

 It takes less time, and does better work, to 

 have the solution very strong at the first. 



Marengo, 111. Emma M. Wilson. 



PROGNOSTICATING THE CLOVER-FLOW. 



Mr. Root:— As you ask for reports, page 

 1156, for rule or rules to know the previous 

 year whether we are going to get a crop 

 or not, I know of no sure rule. A good 

 growth of clover in the fall, and plenty of 

 snow or a mild winter, has always been the 

 surest rule with me. The year 1901 was 

 very dry and hot. June 1 the honey-flow 

 began, and was heavy until about the 15th 

 or 20th, when the flow stopped by clover 

 drying up. 



The year 1902 was a wet one, with no 

 clover honey-flow, and the winter following 

 was mild, with three or four inches of snow, 



and clover was green under the snow all 

 winter. 



The year 1903 was also wet, with the 

 greatest growth of clover known, which 

 gave a crop of 150 lbs. per colony, spring 

 count, with a great deal of swarming. The 

 growth of clover continued thick until fall. 

 The winter of 1903 was very cold, with no 

 snow. The next spring, on hills where the 

 north and west winds could strike, the clo- 

 ver was all dead where it had been a perfect 

 mat the fall before ; but on the sides and 

 bottom of the hills, and also where the 

 grass was long to pi-otect it, there was a 

 fair to good growth. 



Honey crop of 1904 of white clover was a 

 complete failure. Now, in 1903 there was 

 plenty of rain all through the season. 



Heartsease in this locality is a very sure 

 yielder. I have always secured a crop each 

 year ranging from 20 to 100 lbs. per colony. 

 This year I got 20 lbs. per colony, but there 

 was very little honey in the brood-chamber at 

 the beginning of the flow. The flow begins 

 about Aug. 15, and lasts till about Sept. 15. 



Dixon, la., Dec. 27. E. A. Doney. 



[By your rule, then (and it is the one gen- 

 erally accepted), if we don't have too dry a 

 summer we ought to get a good flow of 

 honey from clover this summer. Last fall 

 there was an unusual amount of young clo- 

 ver everywhere. While the winter has been 

 cold there has been no lack of snow. — Ed.] 



THE HOFFMAN FRAME UNIVERSALLY LIKED 

 IN JAMAICA. 



I wrote all the prominent bee-men, asking 

 them to point out any defects in the Hoff- 

 man frame, if there were any. Replies: 

 "The Hoffman frame is an ideal one." 

 "We will have no other." "The only fault 

 in the Hoffman frame is, that every bee- 

 keeper does not put them up alike." 



F. A. Hooper. 



Kingston, Jamaica, Dec. 5. 



[Mr. Hooper has himself something like 

 20,000 Hoffman frames in use. He's in close 

 touch with nearly all the extensive bee-keep- 

 ers of the island, so that his statement 

 regarding the merits of this frame in ques- 

 tion can be taken with some weight. —Ed.] 



increase NOT WANTED* HOW TO PREVENT. 



I have as many colonies of bees as I want. 

 I should like to know how to manage those 

 bees so as to get good service from them in 

 storing honey without any increase. If this 

 can not be done, what method will come 

 nearest to it ? A. T. Zimmerman. 



Washta, la., Feb. 7. 



[Increase can be held in check by hiving 

 the swarms back on the old stand in a hive 

 containing empty combs or foundation. The 

 parent colony with its combs should be 



E laced alongside of the hive with the swarm, 

 ut with the entrance at right angles to it. 

 When the swarming season is nearly over, 

 or all the brood hatched out, shake the bees 



