1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1383 



hives and yet make them capable of a 

 greater degree of gradual expansion and 

 contraction. Very possibly Mr. Smith is 

 working toward that end. In any event we 

 shall be glad to hear from him further. If 

 the genei al adoption of shallow brood-cham- 

 bers or extracting supers, and the elimina- 

 tion of full-depth brood-chambers, is not 

 practicable we shall be glad to have him 

 give us his reasons therefor. If. on the oth- 

 er hand, he is working toward the divisible- 

 brood-chamber scheme, will he kindly give 

 us his reasons for so doing? 



In this connection it may be interesting 

 to note that the late Dr. A. B. Mason, both 

 secretary and president of the National Bee- 

 keepers' Association for several terms, was 

 an advocate and user of shallow extract ing- 

 supers, for he was a producer of extracted 

 honey. When asked why he did not use the 

 full-depth chamber he advanced one of the 

 very reasons given by our correspondent; 

 namely, that the giving of full-depth supers 



been leaders in the advocacy of shallow ex- 

 tracting-f raiues. — Ed. ] 



PALL HONEY FLOWS. 



600 Acres of Cuciinibers Near Marengo. 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



PICKING CUCL.MliEK "TICKLES NEAK ilAKENCO, ILL 



made too great an expansion of the hive ca- 

 pacity, giving the bees more room than they 

 could occupy and warm up to advantage. 

 He told the writer that, in poor seasons, he 

 would get extracted honey with these shal- 

 low supers of half depth when his neighbors 

 with a full depth would secure no honey; 

 moreover, that he could uncap these shallow 

 combs so easily and quickly that there was 

 very little loss of time over the method of 

 handling and uncapping a full-depth comb. 

 While Dr. Mason was never an extensive 

 bee-keeper, yet he was a close observer, and 

 ever on the alert for shoi't cuts. 



This is a very interesting and profitable 

 subject for discussion, and we shall be glad 

 to hear from others of our subscribers who 

 have made compaiative tests between the 

 shallow and full-depth supers. In the mean 

 time we should not forget to mention that 

 the Dadants, while users of the Quinby 

 frames for the brood-nest, have for years 



Years ago I made no count on a fall flow. 

 When white clover failed in any year, that 

 was the end of it, and I could count on feed- 

 ing sugar to till up the hives for winter. 

 Gradually there has been a change, and for 

 some years the bees have been able to gather 

 enough from the fall tiow to fill up for win- 

 ter, and perhaps a little more. The year 

 lyU6 was one of those years when white clo- 

 ver took it into its head it wouldn't furnish 

 a supply of nectar for the bees, but the fall 

 flow tilled the brood-chambers and provided 

 a nice lot of sealed combs for spring use. 

 I don't know what has made the difference 



— at least I 

 can't be sure 

 about it; but 

 I know of 

 two honey- 

 yielders that 

 have been 

 increasing in 

 a (r r e age. 

 One is sweet 

 clover — pos- 

 s i bl y you 

 may remem- 

 ber that I 

 have ocea- 

 sionally spo- 

 kt^n of sweet 

 clover — and 

 the other is 

 the cucum- 

 ber. The 

 relentless 

 war against 

 sweet clover 

 has kept it 

 down pretty 

 >well on the roadside, and as yet farmers do 

 not generally encourage it in the fields; but 

 the presence of the cucmmber has been court- 

 ed. For several years I have been in the 

 habit of making people open their eyes by 

 saying that 2U0 acres of land about Maren- 

 go were annually occupied by cucumber's. 

 This morning 1 thought I would get some 

 accurate data before writing this article, so I 

 called up on the telephone Mr. W. C. Wood- 

 ard, the head of the la'gerof the two pickle- 

 factories Icoated at Marengo, which was es- 

 taijlished 28 years ago, and I'll repeat what 

 he told me. 



The acreage occupied with cucumbers 

 rea(-hes GOO acres in some years, falling a lit- 

 tle below in others. The pickle-patches, as 

 they are called, vary in size from half an acre 

 to three or four acres, some of them being as 

 far as six miles away, and they furnish to 

 the factories in the best years about 100,000 

 bushels of cucumbers, the annual average 



