148 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15 



and deposit them in a special compartment 

 at the right of the division-board D, where 

 they can be quickly gathered for melting 

 into wax. 



Now remove the frame and clean the oth- 

 er end of propolis; then slide it into the 

 notch and scrape the remaining wax from 

 the side of the bar. Thus with three or 

 four quick strokes a frame may be cleaned 

 top and bottom, and, what is more, the bulk 

 of the wax is at once separated from the 

 refuse — a recommendation in itself. 



When extracting I take in a set of eight 

 frames at a time; and after throwing out 

 the honey I run them over the scraper, and 

 all are quickly rendered clean and nice for 

 rapid handling. A putty-knife is useful 

 to keep the scraping-blade free of wax. 

 Brood- combs can be scraped fairly well 

 without dislodging all the bees, which is 

 quite a saving in time. 



When scraping the brood-frame in the 

 spring, fasten the scraper outside some- 

 where in a central location, or have it 

 portable by nailing the box to the wheel- 

 barrow. 



CAN BUTTERFLIES DESTROY THE BLOSSOM OP 

 ALFALFA? 



A Few Corrections. 



BY H. W. SMITHKONS. 



My Jan. 1st Gleanings came yesterday, 

 and I want to write you my appreciation 

 of its neat, artistic, and up-to-date appear- 

 ance. I am more than pleased with the 

 change. I have read Gleanings for 18 

 years, and have subscribed for it for five 

 years more to come, so 3'ou see I take an in- 

 terest in it. I usually turn first to the edi- 

 torials, because I like the sensible treat- 

 ment you give to subjects that are sometimes 

 queerly handled by the correspondents. 

 Keep on with your footnotes. 



Your answer on p. 8 to Dr. Miller's Straw 

 on that item about an umbilical cord in 

 bees is worth one year's subscription. I 

 know it is difficult to keep all absurdities 

 and errors out of a magazine that has many 

 contributors; but for the sake of new sub- 

 scribers who might become prejudiced 

 against a good paper, I should like to call 

 your attention to one or two in the last 

 issue. In Stenog's department, the item 

 about the mole is away off. If he were 

 familiar with moles he would not have cop- 

 ied that fiction from the Revue. A mole 

 has a short tail; rudimentary, inconspicuous 

 eyes; short, thick, silky fur, the color of a 

 mPvltese cat; and large hand-like paws, and 

 it lives wholly in the ground. What Ste- 

 nog's picking describes is the white-bellied 

 wood-mouse. I know them well, for they 

 frequently occupy the boxes which I have 

 all over the farm for bluebird's nests. 

 They have large shoe-buttonlike eyes, and 

 are very spry. They naturally live in the 

 woods, and gather linden and other seeds; 

 but they also do much damage in corn- 

 shocks and bee-hives. 



On p. 11 you speak of the butterflies on 

 alfalfa, and say you were told they "eat 

 the blossom." If you had stopped to re- 

 member that butterflies have no mouth-parts 

 to eat, like grasshoppers, which often eat 

 off clover-blossoms, but that they have only 

 a tiny slender tongue for licking or sucking 

 up sweets, I don't think you would have be- 

 lieved that report. 



Say — did you ever try honey for tirene in 

 a punctured bicycle-tire? Our boys once 

 tried it in a pinch, and now they use- noth- 

 ing else. 



I started with bees (one hive) 18 years 

 ago, at the age of 14, and have made them 

 pay well every year. I have 60 colonies, 

 all in ten-frame chaff hives, and raise only 

 fanc3' comb and extracted honey for the 

 home market at Lorain. I had nearlj' a 

 ton this year from 35 colonies, and am just 

 about sold out. I hope that Texas "bulk 

 honey" business will never extend up here, 

 as it would only open the way for adultera- 

 tors. I raise fancy comb from such colo- 

 nies as are able to produce it, and extract- 

 ed from the weaker, and put the latter on 

 the market in '2 -lb. tumblers. As I run 

 the apiary as a side issue with a large 

 fruit-farm I need to simplify the operations 

 as much as possible; therefore the ten-frame 

 chaff hives were allowed to swarm once. I 

 shall try the "shook" swarms next sea- 

 son. 



North Amherst, O., Jan. 8. 



[I am very glad to have any thing that 

 appears in Gleanings, that is incorrect 

 from a practical or scientific point of view, 

 set right. Some one else, whom I do not 

 now recall, mentioned the fact that the but- 

 terfly could not eat the blossoms of alfalfa, 

 as it had no mouth parts. I am not an en- 

 tomologist, and do not know; but I assume 

 from what you say that you are well posted, 

 and I therefore accept your correction with 

 thanks. 



But butterflies undoubtedly do damage of 

 some kind in alfalfa-blossoms in some re- 

 gions in Arizona, for some years they swarm 

 in countless thousands over the fields of it. 

 The blossoms seem to blight or wither, and 

 somehow I got the impression that this with- 

 ering was due to eating the blossoms Per- 

 haps Mr. Will Chambers, who gave the in- 

 formation to me, will enlighten us further. 



You have my sincere thanks for your very 

 kind words regarding my work on the 

 journal. 



No, I never tried honey in leak}' bicycle- 

 tires; but I am sure it would work satisfac- 

 torily. When we were doing bicycle-re- 

 pairing in our machine-shop, we used to 

 pay S2.00 a quart for tirene. I afterward 

 discovered that the stuff was nothing more 

 nor less than finely pulverized plumbago, 

 molasses, and a mixture of corn meal or 

 bran. These last ingredients were doubt- 

 less put in to disguise the fact that the stuff 

 was really molasses that cost a cent or two 

 a quart, and for which we paid $2.00. Hon- 

 ey has a quality that syrup does not possess, 



