438 



THE AMERICAl^ BEE JOURNAL. 



a weight nothing is better than a 

 stone weighing from 20 to 40 pounds. 

 For very tender plants less weight 

 should be used than for hardier ones. 



Twenty-four hours after the plants 

 are put into the press, they should be 

 looked at, and wherever a leaf or 

 flower is out of place, it should be 

 placed naturally ; as the plants are 

 in a sort of wilting condition, this is 

 easily done. At this time, also, the 

 driers should be removed and others 

 substituted, placing those taken out 

 in where they will dry. This opera- 

 tion is repeated every day for one or 

 two weeks, when the plants will 

 usually be dry. This is told by plac- 

 ing the plant against the cheek, if it 

 feels cold it is not yet dry. 



Where very tine specimens are de- 

 sired with the natural colors pre- 

 served, heated driers should be used 

 and replaced two or three times a 

 day. By this method I have produced 

 specimens which rival in beauty of 

 form and color the fresh unplucked 

 flowers of fields and woods. 



After the plants are dry they may 

 be kept in the specimen sheets an in- 

 definite length of time, or until they 

 are to be mounted. For mounting 

 either for exhibition or for private 

 purposes, I use heavy book paper cut 

 113^xl6J^ inches, this is the size used 

 by botanists for herbariums. They 

 cost about 2 cents per sheet. There 

 are two methods of attaching speci- 

 mens to the slieet, either by gluing 

 small strips of paper over different 

 portions ot the plant, or by gluing it 

 bodily to the sheet. For exhibition 

 the latter method is much to be pre- 

 ferred. Any strong, light-colored 

 mucilage will suflice. I have used 

 with good results a solution of gum- 

 arabic. 



As dried plants are liable to insect 

 attacks, they must be poisoned. This 

 process is very simple ; apply a satur- 

 ated solution of corrosive sublimate 

 in alcohol by means of a camel's-hair 

 brush to all parts of the plant. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Tree-Trunk Method of Wintering 

 Bees on the Summer Stands. 



WM. F. CLARKE. 



This is a somewhat pompous and 

 lengthy title for an article, 1 must ad- 

 mit, and a modest blush mantles my 

 cheek as I read it. But there is no 

 use in giving a small name to a big 

 idea, which I firmly believe the one I 

 have struck to be. For several years 

 it has been impressed upon my mind 

 that I should some day make 



A GREAT DISCOVERY IN BEE-KEEPING 



Mr. Ileddon sarcastically twitted 

 me on this point in one of his articles 

 in the Bee Journal, but it must 

 have been a species of mind-reading 

 on his part, for 1 never told any body 

 my dream of becoming a discoverer. 

 But I did not deny " the soft im- 



Eeachment " on Mr. Heddon's part, 

 ecause I inwardly felt that it would 

 yet become true. I find it very diffi- 

 cult to write with that calm dignity 

 and equanimity which befit a liter- 

 ary man. In fact, my hand quivers 



with a tremulous excitement, so that, 

 as the Editor can plainly see, I do not 

 write with my usual steady chirog- 

 raphy. I feel somewhat as Galileo 

 did when the true theory of the uni- 

 verse dawned upon him, and my fel- 

 low bee-keepers must bear with me if 

 I " blow off steam " a little at the 

 start. To quote Puck's motto, "What 

 fools we mortals be !" Or to make a 

 more original remark, " Why did no- 

 body think of this before !" It seems 

 to me so simple and self-evident, that 

 I am afraid somebody will yet get it 

 before the apicultural world before I 

 do ! Life is too short, and I am too 

 impetuous to wait two or three sea- 

 sons and experiment. I must take 

 the whole bee-keeping fraternity into 

 my confidence, and ask each one to 

 test the method I am about to develop, 

 with one colony. Tliis is a small re- 

 quest, and I think my brothers and 

 sisters in apiculture will not refuse 

 compliance with it. 



prevalent modes of WINTERING 

 BEES. 



I have tried every known plan of 

 wintering except the clamp and coal- 

 oil-stove methods. After the disas- 

 trous experiences of Messrs. Hutchin- 

 son and Doolittle, I do not feel dis- 

 posed to waste time in trying these, 

 particularly as I feel sure I have found 

 " a more excellent way." For myself, 

 I must own I am not satisfied with 

 any of the modes of wintering now 

 in vogue. Every season the question 

 comes up, which of them all I shall 

 venture to adopt the coming winter. 

 All are more or less haunted by risk 

 and uncertainty. All result in loss. 

 at least now and then, sometimes in 

 very severe and crippling loss. I have 

 felt until now, and the majority of 

 experienced bee-keepers have felt 

 with me, that the true mode of win- 

 tering bees has been an undiscovered 

 secret. 



A QUESTION. 



In my young days, I helped clear 

 many acres of timber land, and never 

 felled a tree, nor heard of one being 

 felled, that gave evidence of a colony 

 of bees having been wmter-killed in 

 it. I would ask bee-keepers all over 

 this broad continent if they ever saw 

 or heard of a colony of bees being 

 winter-killed that had its home in a 

 hollow tree '? The fact that bees win- 

 ter well in hollow-tree trunks was the 

 vein that revealed to me what I be- 

 lieve will prove a gold-mine to bee- 

 keepers. "There's millions in it'" of 

 live bees, yet to be saved from perish- 

 ing through the ignorance and stu- 

 pidity of that very wise being called 

 " man." 



nature's METHODS. 



Without raising that vexed question 

 in theology, whether nature's laws 

 are the dicta of an all-regulating 

 mind, which would bring Mr. Iled- 

 don and others after me with a sharp 

 stick, I will simply lay down the posi- 

 tion that the closer we can adhere to 

 nature in our artilicial arrangement?, 

 the more likely we shall be to come 

 out right. Well, have we observed 

 this principle in the construction and 

 location of bee-hives ? Not much. 



When did a colony of bees ever vol- 

 untarily make its home in a dark, 

 damp cellar, or a gloomy, close-pent 

 bee-house ? Or in a box or other re- 

 ceptacle close to the cold, damp 

 ground '{ Who invented the plan of 

 setting hives close to the surface of 

 the earth V Where is the practical 

 benefit of so doing? Almost the only 

 argument in its favor I know of is, 

 that bees, laden with honey, are apt 

 to miss the hive and fall to the 

 ground. But I believe more bees are 

 gobbled up by toads in consequence 

 of the hive's near proximity to the 

 ground than are ever lost by having 

 them higher up. Undeniably nature's 

 method is to give the bee a home sus- 

 pended in mid-air, away up from the 

 damp, heavy vapors that always settle 

 down to the earth's surface. It is 

 man who forces this insect to live 

 among reptiles, toads and worms, 

 when it was made to be the compan- 

 ion of birds and squirrels in the tree- 

 tops. I have arrived at the conclu- 

 sion that most of our troubles in re- 

 gard to wintering arise out of the ab- 

 surd attempt to make a denizen of 

 the air become a dweller on the 

 ground. 



BEE-LIFE IN A TREE- TOP. 



What are the characteristics of the 

 bee's natural home V Elevation above 

 the damp, foul gases that by the law 

 of gravitation sink to the surface of 

 the earth. In winter, an abundant 

 supply of still air; a long shaft of 

 hollovfuess, so to speak ; a crevice or 

 opening usually some way up that 

 shaft, and not far from the bee-nest ; 

 no upward ventilation ; provision for 

 dead bees falling away down low 

 enough not to pollute the home of the 

 living with their dead carcasses ; and 

 the natural gradual change of air 

 which takes place in a long atmos- 

 pheric column. We violate nearly, if 

 not quite all these conditions in our 

 prevailing modes of wintering bees. 

 Is a cellar or bee-house a good place 

 for a human being to live in '? The 

 respiratory organs of the bee are prob- 

 ably as sensitive as those of a human 

 being. Tough specimens of men and 

 women have made out to live in 

 wretched underground bastiles for 

 months and years, but if people in 

 general were doomed to inhabit such 

 places, there would probably be as 

 much mortality among them as there 

 is often among bees in cellars, bee- 

 houses and earth-clamps. In the tree- 

 top, air is filtered to the bees through 

 a long air-shaft, the outer crevice, 

 and by means of ventilating processes 

 which these insects understand how 

 and when to apply ; but our customary 

 methods give them unfiltered and foul 

 air, often in very small proportions, 

 and in manner that prevents their 

 employing their own instincts in the 

 way of artificial ventilation. More 

 or less old bees usually die in the 

 course of the winter. Their dead 

 bodies lie on the bottom-board not far 

 from their living companions. It is 

 as though we had a corpse or two in 

 the first story of our houses, got the 

 diarrhoea from the bad smell, and 

 then attributed it to the family eating 

 oatmeal or buckwheat cakes ! How 

 delicate is the sense of smell in bees I 



