376 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



furnish a cheap and easy method of trans- 

 portation at very much less expense than to 

 take a horse and bugg-y. 



MR. JAMES HILBERT AND HIS OPINION OF 

 CUBA. 



Some days ag-o we had the pleasure of a 

 visit from Mr. James Hilbert, of Bingham, 

 Mich. — A. I. R.'s neighbor at his northern 

 home. Mr. H. has just returned from Cuba, 

 vphere he has been investing in land and 

 bees. He expressed himself as being very 

 much pleased with the country — its possi- 

 bilities and development. It is his intention 

 to run his bees up in Northern Michigan 

 during the summer, then during the cold 

 winter months, when his Michigan bees are 

 asleep, he will go to Cuba and work his 

 Cuban bees. 



DEATH OF DR. ELISHA GALLUP. 



On the 5th of last April, Dr. Elisha Gal- 

 lup died at his home in California at the 

 age of 83 years. He was one of the old vet- 

 erans — the Gamaliel at whose feet Mr. Doo- 

 little sat when he himself was learning his 

 A B C's. Mr. Doolittle has often referred 

 to the doctor, and in recognition of his grati- 

 tude to him dedicated his book, " Scientific 

 Queen-rearing," to him. Mr. Gallup was 

 the inventor of the hive and frame bearing 

 his name. He was a prolific writer during 

 the early 60's and 70's, and in later years 

 for the American Bee Journal. The period 

 of time included in the last twelve months 

 has taken away more than its share of the 

 veterans — six in all. 



CALIFORNIA'S GOOD YEAR AND THE NA- 

 TIONAL. 



The bee-keepers of California have been 

 getting more rain; and so far as I know 

 the prospects seem to be generally good. It 

 seems to be very opportune that the very year 

 when the National goes to Southern Califor- 

 nia that it should be a good year. If it were 

 to be one of their numerous "off-years" I 

 am afraid there would not be a very large 

 local attendance. But present indications 

 speak for a grand meeting. Remember the 

 date, Aug. 18th to 20th, at Los Angeles. 



Later. — There seems to be a move on foot 

 on the part of some of the eastern bee-keep- 

 ers to go in a party to Los Angeles over the 

 Santa Fe route, stopping just long enough 

 to see the Grand Canyon in Arizona. So 

 far as I know. Editors Hutchinson and 

 York and Mrs. York will go over the Santa 

 Fe route. Dr. Miller and myself will prob- 

 ably go the same way. The plan seems to 

 be to engage a tourist sleeper and get up a 

 party of bee-keepers. Particulars and an- 

 nouncements will be given later. 



massif's method of INTRODUCING. 



In the review of Mr. Massie's book, in 

 another column, I find I omitted to make 

 mention of his method of introducing queens, 

 which seems to have some merit. In brief 

 it is this: He takes two frames of hatching 



brood, and puts them in an upper story, 

 the same being set on top of the hive to 

 which the queen is to be introduced, and 

 separated from it by a thin board. The 

 queen is let loose on the hatching bees, and 

 the upper story closed up. A few days 

 after, the old queen in the lower story may 

 be killed or removed, and the bees can be 

 shaken off the frames, which are then put 

 in the upper story. A single sheet of news- 

 paper through which are pricked a few 

 pinholes is then slipped between the upper 

 and lower hives. The bees going in below 

 find themselves queenless and broodless, 

 and immediately set up a cry for a queen. 

 In a few hours they gnaw away the paper 

 and work up into the upper story — a few at 

 a time at first — getting on to their own 

 brood. Here they find a queen laying nor- 

 mally ; and, probably having the same 

 scent as the combs, she is immediately ac- 

 cepted. Mr. Massie says the plan is sure. 



LATEST FROM the PEAR-GROWING REGIONS; 

 TRYING TO POISON THE BEES. 



Some time ago Mr. Charles Downing, of 

 Armon, near Hanford, Cal., a man who 

 has one of those mammoth pear-orchards, 

 published a notice that, having suffered 

 serious damage through the visitation of 

 the bees to his orchards, he proposed to 

 adopt as effective means as possible to pre- 

 vent the destruction of the coming crop; and 

 he warned all bee-keepers to keep their 

 bees out of his orchards. This simply 

 meant that he would put out poisoned 

 sweets to kill off the bees. Information has 

 reached us that the poison was set out in 

 accordance with the notice; but the bees, 

 instead of committing suicide, were visiting 

 the blossoms as before, and no harm was 

 being done. 



I saw Mr. Downing myself, when in Cal- 

 ifornia, and regarded him as a progressive 

 fruit-man. I think it was he who said that 

 the pear-men were largely to blame because 

 they did not prune their trees, cutting out 

 the blight. I am led to wonder why he does 

 not adopt the effective measure proposed by 

 Prof. Waite, of pruning out all the diseas- 

 ed members of the trees. 



REFUSING TO PAY FOR QUEENS. 



On the 13th of last August, Mr. Oakey 

 Hayes, of Little, Taylor Co., W. Va., or- 

 dered of Mr. G. Routzahn, of Menallen, 

 Pa., six untested red-clover queens, inclos- 

 ing an express money order for $3.00; but 

 as Menallen is not an express office Mr. 

 Routzahn returned the order, requesting 

 Mr. Hayes to send him paper that he could 

 use. To this no response was received. 

 Mr. Routzahn finally referred the matter to 

 us after he had written to Mr. Hayes a 

 number of times without getting any reply. 

 We wrote Mr. Hayes, asking for an ex- 

 planation. After some delay he wrote that 

 the queens he received were unsatisfactory ; 

 that three of 4:hem were drone- layers, and 

 the other one was dead. Accepting this as 



