1883 



JUVENILE GLEANINGS. 



153 



I will give you papa's report for this year. In the 

 spring he began with 19 stands of bees, and increas- 

 ed to 55. We did not g-et munh honey this year, be- 

 cause the bees ssvarmed so. Papa has taken off 

 about 400 lbs. of honey. Most of his bees are Ital- 

 ians, and in Simplicity hives. He got all of his hives 

 from Mr.Flanagan. 



SWAKM3 Kl'NNING AWAY. 



One time when he was gone for hives, 3 swarms of 

 bees came out, and before he got back they had gone 

 to the woods. We had (5 or 7 swarms of bees go to 

 the woods this year. We were taking otf honey 

 from a very cross hive of hybrids one time, and 

 the bees came out and stung us all. Papa says he 

 got stung 40 times. Mamma got stung on her hand 

 and in her eye, and I got stung 3 times on my head; 

 but I do not think bec-stings hurt much. 



PLUMS. 



We have the plums, " big as a peach," but we did 

 not get $"00 a bushel for them, but we got 40 cts. a 

 gallon, which would be fo.20 a bushel. Would you 

 like a tree? If you do, I will send you one. We 

 call them the wild-goose plum. AVe sometimes pick- 

 ed up 50 gallons of plums in a day. Papa has also a 

 farm, and he could hardly be in the field a minute, 

 before the bees would swarm. 



CATNIP. 



We had a patch of catnip, and the bees were just 

 roaring on it all summer. I saved a pound of seed. 

 Do you want any? If so, what is it worth? 



Maud Whiteside, age 13. 



Belleville, 111., Dec. 14, 1883. 



And a right good report it is, Maud.— It 

 seems to me your pa lo^t almost as much as 

 he gained the day he went after hives and 

 let three swarms run off to the woods. — I 

 should be real glad to get a tree of the kind 

 you mention. We had a wild-goose plum- 

 tree; but when the men were building our 

 new house, somebody ran over it and broke 

 it all doAvn.— I think we have all the catnip 

 seed we can use now, thank you. 



MHAT HIA'^E TO ADVISE, ETC. 



We live in town. Pa bought one swarm oE bees 

 last July; got 50 lbs. of honey from them. One 

 swarm came out, but ii ran away. He bought eight 

 more swarms last fall. They are packed in planer 

 chips. He wishes to transfer them to other hives in 

 the spring, and would like to know what hive you 

 think the best; also what will stop bees when they 

 start to run away. Pa sowed some sweet-clover 

 seed, and expects to sow some alsike, spider plant, 

 and catnip, in the spring. I think you are very 

 good to give the juveniles such good books, and so 

 much space in your paper. Please send me The 

 Roby Family, if you think I deserve it. 



May Foote, age 14. 



Creston, Iowa, Dec. 26, 1882. 



What hive is best? is very often asked. 

 If you mean without regard to cost, I should 

 say the chaff hive. If you wish to extract 

 honey only, the chaff hive fitted for the ex- 

 tractor. If you want the best hive for a lit- 

 tle money, I should say the Simplicity hive ; 

 and if you expect to carry your hives into 

 the cellar winters, I don"t know but the 

 Simplicity is as good as any, and they are a 

 great deal easier to carry than chaff hives. 

 All things considered, I would advise every 

 apiarist to have about an equal number of 



chaff and Simplicity hives, but to winter 

 mostly in chaff hives.— When bees start to 

 run away, throAV dust or dirt among them, 

 if you can. Sprinkle them with water, with 

 a pail and dipper ; use a fountain pump, if 

 you have one; break up their ranks with 

 sticks or clubs ; chase after them, and see 

 where they go ; and some folks think mak- 

 ing a noise to drown the note of the queen 

 will make them come down, but it may be a 

 mistake. To stop runaway swarms 'is, in 

 short, sometimes the great problem. 



A PUZZLE FOB THE JUVENILES. 



Mi'PAHAS47HI VESOFBEES THEYAR EI N T H E 

 CELLARMYBROT HERSANDIHELPEDGE TTHEM 

 INWEDREWTHEMONASLEDFROMCHARLEY 

 WHIT1NG7 



Venice, Cayuga Co., N. Y. 



There, my chicks, who can read that V It 

 is just exactly as I received it, and it is just 

 as a good many of the wee ones write ; but 

 I suppose it is the best they can do, and I 

 wouldn't have them stop writing, for any 

 thing. While I think of it, some of the old 

 ones, too, squeeze their words and letters up 

 so closely it makes it quite a puzzle to get at 

 just the truth, and then sometimes we don't, 

 and troubles come. I'll tell you how I 

 would do it. I would take twice as much 

 paper as I intended to use. Then I vs^ould 

 commence at the top, and make calculations 

 to have a lot of blank space left below. Al- 

 ways have ruled paper (we have now some 

 nice paper, nicely ruled, for only ].5 cts. for a 

 quarter of a ream— who will tell how many 

 sheets there are in a quarter of a ream ?) and 

 when you get pretty near tlie end of the line, 

 don't try to squeeze another word in, but 

 just commence on the next line. Put in all 

 the commas ; and when you are not sure, 

 put in a few too many. You will learn how 

 after a while. \Vhen you get to the end of a 

 sentence, always put a period, and then take 

 a little more room, and commence with a 

 capital letter. Omitting these capital let- 

 ters, when they commence a new sentence, 

 is one of the worst habits, I tell you. We 

 have had some of the worst kind of blun- 

 ders in business, because the writer didn't 

 use a capital letter when he began to talk 

 about something else. Now, you children 

 have plenty of time, and usually plenty of 

 paper, I think, and I want you to learn to 

 write real nice clean plain letters. Now, my 

 little Charley, I want you to write me a nice 

 little letter, with spaces I)etween the words, 

 won't you ? and then, you see, I shall know 

 you haven't felt hurt at what I have said. 

 We're good friends yet, are we not, Charley? 



WHAT MADE THEM STING SO? 



My brother Charlie has six swarms of bees now. 

 The old swarm in the log I wrote about last Juno 

 died this fall. He extracted about 200 lbs. of honey, 

 and the bees have plenty to winter on. He packed 

 them in hemlock boughs, and they look as nice as if 

 they were on a Christmas-tree. They swarmed four 

 times last summer, three times when Charlie was 

 gone, and ma had to hive them. Once she had been 

 using coal oil, and looked out the window, and saw 

 the bees coming out, so she slipped on some kid 

 gloves and started for them. As soon as she began 



