714 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



ter she would claw out of her mouth with a 

 front foot. At last she happened in front of 

 a ^hive-entrance, and saw the bees pouring 

 in. She stopped and craned her neck. Did 

 you ever know that a toad had a neck be- 

 fore? Well, you should have seen that one. 

 She hopped right up to the entrance; and as 

 a bee made a fumble at getting in, that toad 

 just swallowed it without even being near it. 

 At first I thought the toad could not reach, 

 as it made a sort of awkwai'd jump and then 

 stopped as if she had changed her mind. 

 But the bee always disappeared. I watched 

 this for some time as the toad stood there 

 and actually reached right into the entrance 

 with that great long tongue and got a bee 

 every time. 



Now, this toad and I had gotten along 

 pretty well up to this time; but the thought 

 that any animal could have such contempt 

 for my little fighters as actually to eat them 

 and then wink merrily as if they tasted good ! 

 This was too much for me to look at and re- 

 main neutral; so I thought that, perhaps, I 

 might teach that toad a lesson. I caught it, 

 tied a string to one of its legs, held it down 

 in front of the hive-entrance, and gave the 

 hive a jar. The bees came out to see what 

 was wanted; and as the toad began to kick 

 they fell to with a vengeance. They covered 

 it all over and left their stings so thick that it 

 looked more like a Texas toad than any thing 

 else. I got so interested in watching how 

 the bees had the laugh on the toad that I got 

 close up on the firing-line. The bees thought 

 they would see if it would do any more good 

 if they stung me some. This brought better 

 results, for I dropped the string and vamos- 

 ed. I thought the toad had gotten her finish; 

 but not a bit of it. Next evening there it 

 was with the dried-up stings still in the tough 

 hide. 



She could actually jump further, stretch 

 her neck longer, and seemed to have a "long- 

 er tongue-reach." I took hold of the string, 

 swung it around over my head, and her 

 Wartship landed in the blackberry bushes 

 about 50 feet away. Next morning I looked 

 under the hive and there she was, trying to 

 hide her face with her hands. I put her in a 

 sack and took her to a swamp about a mile 

 away. I think we are shut of her, for this 

 was last summer, and she is not back yet. 



A toad one day was feeling bad. 

 Her mind somewhat erratic; 



And then her limbs were sorter stiff, 

 A little bit rheumatic. 



She got into a hive of bees— 



That, surely, did the biz; 

 And goes to prove that all bee-stings 



Will cure the rheumatiz. 



Special emphasis to be placed on the ' ' tiz. ' ' 

 I have overcome some of my bad habits, but 

 the poetry habit is chronic. Just been in con- 

 sultation with my physician about it, and he 

 said it was caused by acute cerebral disinte- 

 gration. The remedy he usually recommend- 

 ed was plenty of air, but said I had too much 

 of that already. Oh, my! 



HOW TO KILL THE COMB-HONEY LIE, AND 

 WIN A CUSTOMER. 



I have made a trip every year for ten 

 years to the upper peninsula of Michigan, 

 selling comb honey. I don't have any trou- 

 ble with the person who believes there is 

 manufactured comb, and knows all about it. 

 I just keep my temper; and if that person 

 gets abusive or ungentlemanly, all the bet- 

 ter. When the reaction comes, and it surely 

 will, he will buy a case of honey. The best 

 and only argument worth any thing with • 

 one who knows so much is the $1000 reward 

 offered by A. I. Root for one pound of man- 

 ufactured comb honey. They won't believe 

 that, of course. Then I say, "Friend, I will 

 give you $500 for one or more pounds of 

 manufactured comb honey that the bees did 

 not make, and I am ready now to give you 

 any reasonable security for making my 

 promise good." Be courteous and gentle- 

 manly first, last, and all the time. The suc- 

 tomer finally thinks that, perhaps, your hon- 

 ey is the real bee honey, and guesses he will 

 take a case. The next year he doesn't stop 

 to argue, but says he has been waiting, for 

 yours is surely pure honey. Of course, he 

 won't admit it; but if you could hear him 

 talk with his friends you would hear him say 

 he doesn't believe there is such a thing as 

 manufactured comb honey after all. 



Mt. Pleasant, Mich. H. G. Wheeler. 



[There is another strong argument that 

 you can now advance, viz.: that the nation- 

 al pure-food law, even if it were mechanical- 

 ly possible to manufacture comb honey, 

 would effectually bar the product from the 

 markets. No one would dare sell it, for the 

 moment it left the borders of the State of its 

 alleged manufacture there would be trouble. 

 —Ed.] 



a newly formed nucleus leaves hive. 

 In the forenoon of June 13th I took five 

 empty combs — four full and one partly built 

 out — and put them in a box with wire-cloth 

 bottom and a one-inch auger-hole for en- 

 trance, as Swarthmore describes in his book 

 "Increase." There was some honey in the 

 combs. Then I shook in four frames of bees 

 from a strong colony, and carried them into 

 the cellar and let them stand there for seven 

 hours; then I nearly dug out the candy in 

 the candy-hole of a cage containing a new 

 queen I had just reared, and put the cage on 

 top of the five frames, as there was |-inch 

 space between frames and cover. I then car- 

 ried the box and bees two miles away from 

 home, set them in the shade on the north side 

 of a tree, and opened the flight-hole. 



