36 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



Jan. 



It was very well the first half; the fall crop was not 

 large; we get no honey from buckwheat, or next to 

 none, in this part of the country. Sweet clover fills 

 the gap between white clover and fall flowers. 

 Basswood comes In with white clover, but bees will 

 always leave clover for basswood. Heart's-case is 

 the best fall flower we have, and the nicest - flavored 

 honey I ever ate. 



We also have a flower that is called blue vervain 

 that yields some honey, but I have not had enough 

 to test its qualities. But what I would impress on 

 every bee-keeper is the necessity of sowing seed for 

 bee pasturage, for the streets and roads are full of 

 noxious weeds that could be replaced bj' hcney- 

 plants, and I am pleased to say that the bee-keepers 

 of this vicinity are alive to the fact that we must 

 plant to fill the gap between white clover and fall 

 flowers. I would recommend sweet clover, catnip, 

 and motherwort as the 3 best honey-plants for this 

 section of country. D. L. Whitney. 



Rockton, Ills., Dec. 10, 1882. 



FRUIT-TREES FOR "HONEY-PLANTS." 



I see in last Gleanings an advertisement of one 

 of our friends away down in Tennessee, offering, at 

 a very fair price, fruit-trees; but he is too far south, 

 I think, for his trees to grow up here in the spurs of 

 the Alleghanies. But will not some of our friends 

 who have nurseries, and would be willing to ship 

 orders of 20, 25, or 50 trees, as many as one or two 

 farmers would want, please stand up in Glean- 

 ings (alongside of friend Doolittle's man), and tell 

 us where they live, and their prices, etc.? 



S. M. Humphreys. 

 . Richardsville, Jefif. Co., Pa., Dec. 25, 1882. 



Surely, friend II., yoitr wants can be sup- 

 plied near home, unless 1 am much mistak- 

 en. Who will give us a brief little adver- 

 tisement of fruit-treesV 



A tin dipper in lieu of a fountain pump. 



Last year I was at work for a farmer who had a 

 few colonies of bees. One day we were told the bees 

 were swarming. We hastened to pi-epare a hive, 

 but before we had it in readiness for the bees we 

 found, to our disappointment, they Avere on the 

 wing. I immediately started for a pail of water to 

 sprinkle them. My employer said it was of no use; 

 but I meant to try. I did try in good earnest, for 

 they started over a creek, and I managed to shower 

 them nicely by the aid of a dipper. It caused great 

 mirth among the other members of the family, to 

 see me get so wet; but I was soon rewarded by see- 

 ing them safely landed on a low bush. So you see 

 how just a little information saved a flne swarm of 

 bees, and led me to investigate the mysteries of bee- 

 keeping. My father and I took two swarms of a 

 friend, and now they have increased to eight swarms, 

 besides the large quantities of honey we have ob- 

 tained. J. C. roBK. 



Brook field, N. Y., Dec. 4, 1882. 



FROM 18 TO 54, AND 600 LBS. OF HONEY. 



Last spring I started with 18 colonies and increas- 

 ed to 54, and I obtained some over 600 lbs. of honey, 

 mostly extracted; and next season I shall have to 

 handle about 94, if they live through the winter. I 

 have packed mine in chaff. I use the Mitchell hive. 

 To-day, the 22d, the bees had their last pleasure in 

 flying around in the air. We had very cold weather 

 here — 20° below zero for two days. 



Ligonier, Ind., Dec. 22, 1882. J. C. Mishler. 



HOW TO MAKE LABELS STICK TO TIN. 



I notice on page 187, April No., 1881, you recom- 

 mend your readers to have their labels go around 

 the cans, to make them stick fast to the tin; but 

 what shall they do when the labels go but part way 

 round? Well, after considerable trying I hit on a 

 plan, which is as follows: I take borax, 1 part; shel- 

 lac, 2 parts; dissolve the borax in boiling water, 

 then the shellac, until it is about as thick as muci- 

 lage; now if you put this on your label, and the 

 label on the can as you naturally would, without 

 any further manipulation, it will, when dry, be sure 

 to peel off; but if you just rub the label backward 

 and forward a few times on the can with the palm of 

 j'our hand, after the manner of making a glue joint 

 with two boards, it will stick so fast when dry that 

 you can't pull it off. Joseph Mason. 



Wallace, De Kalb Co., 111., Dec. 2, 1882. 



FRIEND LOVEJOY PLEADS " NOT GUILTY." 



In Dec. Gleanings, Mrs. T. M. Squire says she 

 thinks R. Lovejoy, of Greig, missed it in letting 

 those colonies of his starve in the spring. You also 

 gave me a little sermon in July or Aug. Gleanings, 

 in which you said any man who does not take care 

 of his bees ought to lose them, and he must not find 

 fault if God does take them, or words to this effect. 

 Now, injustice to myself I wish you would insert 

 this. I have kept bees five years, and never had 

 but two swarms starve in the whole time, and I will 

 own that I am ashamed of starving even those two. 



DYSENTERY CAUSED BY UNTIMELY DISTURBANCE. 



I think the cause of my losing them was. First, 1 

 had to move them out of the cellar two weeks earlier 

 than I ought, and move them one mile on a wagon, 

 which gave them a good shaking- up, and of course 

 excited them a great deal. When I put them into 

 the cellar they numbei-ed 53 strong; and when I 

 moved them out, about the middle of April, I put 

 out 49, all in good shape but one, and that one died 

 of starvation before 1 got them all moved. Of the 

 4 I lost in the cellar, two were killed by mice, and 

 two died queenless. Out of the other 15 which died 

 of spring dwindling, 1 saved 37 combs 11x12, and 

 most of them were full of good sealed honey; so you 

 see they did not starve, neither did they die by any 

 neglect of mine, but they would fly out and get 

 chilled. The trees and fences were covered with 

 them, and the Italians died off worse than the 

 browns or blacks. R. P. Loaijoy. 



Greig, Lewis Co., N. Y., Dec. 18,1882. 



A BEE-MAN IN TROUBLE, AND HOW TO HELP HIM. 



I will send you a pair of woolen socks for a sample, 

 to see whether you could use them. May be I have 

 told you before, that I had a sunstroke last harvest, 

 a year ago, so I am not able to do any thing out- 

 doors since that, and not much in the house. I was 

 not even able to tend to my bees this summer. It 

 was nearly three months this summer that I was not 

 able to walk out to see what they were doing; but 

 they did well enough for the attendance they had. 

 I got about 150 lbs. of surplus honey from 3 colonies, 

 and increabed to 5, so I got a knitting-machine, and 

 work a little at that to make a living. They are 

 paying me $4.00 a dozen in the stores here, and In 

 one store S4.25; but they can not use them as fast 

 as I can knit them, if I am able to work at it. So I 

 thought I would give you an offer, whereby you 

 could sell them at 35 cents (they sell them at 45 here). 

 I would let you have them at $3.50 per dozen pair. 



