1883 



juve:n^ile gleanings. 



161 



way, I know a man who saw that his beans were 

 just up, shell and all, and went and pulled them all 

 up, and planted them again with their roots in the 

 air. But he was not a farmer noi a bee-keeper. 



If you want something pretty in your yard, get 

 .vour pa to saw off a nail-keg half way, and set it on 

 the cherry-tree stump. Bore a couple of small 

 holes in the bottom, and put in a laj'er of cobble 

 stones for drainage. Line it with sods from the 

 meadow, and fill up with rich earth, putting in such 

 fertilizer as you wish. Plant a small wooden ladder 

 in the center, and put in one or two plant" of the 

 Kenilworth ivy, also called " love in a tangle." Give 

 it plenty of water, and it will reward you. One day 

 in hot weather I saw a bee hover over mine and 

 crawl away under to a large leaf full of water, 

 which she drank in as though it were honey. Did 

 you ever see a bee drink? But the prettiest vine 

 for the shade is the maurandya. This grows easily 

 from the seed. One plant will nearly till a window. 

 It does not twine, but climbs by its leaf-stalks, 

 which twist around a thread once, holding firmly to 

 it. Both of these grow nicely from slips. I should 

 like to tell you about my flower garden, but I am 

 afraid Uncle Amos will think ihix bee is not after 

 honey. So, good-by. Beeula A. 



A STOKY WITH A MOK.ll. TO 5T. 



DOES IT PAY TO FERD ? AND WILLIE'S DEVICE FOR 

 Wl^TElt FEEDING. 



ik^iSlf ^' father used to take Gleanings; but in go- 



ing to the public library he found it contain- 

 ed all of the bee-books, including your val- 

 uable A B C in bee culture, so he concluded he had 

 enough to read for at least one year. As my father 

 is employed in the Peoria postolHce, and as I fre- 

 quently go there, I saw, at one time, your Juvenile; 

 and, not seeing the report of this part of the coun- 

 try, I will send you ours for tbe last season: — 



Having two swarms to start with in the spring, 

 and, the season being very l)Hckward, wet, and cold, 

 father was compelled lo feed his bees until about the 

 first of J\ine, su as to keep them from starving. As 

 he hail led his bees witb three dollai s' worth of A 

 sugar, mi.tht r often wanted lo know how he was to 

 get bHck his money for the sugar he fed. But as 

 white clover ep- ned, and, having the bees strong in 

 numbers, thej' gathered honey rapidly. We receiv- 

 ed over 300 lbs. of comb honey, and sold $40.00 worth, 

 besides having all we wanted for familj' use. 



The bees increased to five good swarms by natural 

 swarming; I hived them, and father gave me one 

 good swarm. Now, Mr. Root, T will send you one of 

 father's inventions by this mail. I will not describe 

 it, ns you will see the model. 



DEVICE FOR WINTER FEEDING. 



Father thinks it is of great value. It pei-mits the 

 bees to cluster, or pass from comb to comb; and in 

 spring, in feeding up stocks, having a hole cut 

 through the carpet, where the wire screen is, it pre- 

 vents the necessity of disturbing the bees. By taking 

 a tumbler or fruit-jar, filling it with syrup, and tying; 



a muslin cloth over the moulh of it, inverting the 

 jar, it enables the bees to carrj' the sjTup below. 



This is my first letter, and I hope you will have a 

 waste-paper basket large enough to hold all of this. 



Peoria, 111., Jan. 20, 188.3. Willie Darr. 



If I am not mistaken, Willie, more than 

 one wife and mother — aye, and perhaps a 

 few fathers too — have worried about the 

 sugar it has taken to feed "those bees." 

 In your case, I presume mamma was most 

 agreeably convinced, and we can readily ex- 

 cuse her, for she probably had not learned 

 what bees may do. — The device yon. send is 

 substantially a Hill's device, made of solid 

 wood, Avith "a hole iii the center, over which 

 wire cloth is attached. This hole serves for 

 ventilation, or for feeding. A fruit-jar, 

 with cheese cloth over the mouth, may be 

 inverted over it, and it can be put on and 

 taken off without it being possible for a bee 

 to get out in the way, to sting or get lost. 

 There, now, Willie, it has just popped into 

 my head, Avhat it is we want for this pur- 

 pose. It is a small wooden bowl, with a 

 hole bored through the bottom, aitd wire 

 cloth tacked over it. Of course, a hole must 

 be made in the carpet or enameled sheet, to 

 match the hole in tbe bowl, and then we 

 have it. As a cluster of bees is usually a 

 little oblong, I would rather prefer an oval 

 bowl ; l)ut I presume it will not make very 

 much difference. 



THE AMEKICAN BOV. 



Orti PICTURE ON PAGES 164 AND 165. 



1^0 VS and girls who take to bees are, as 

 Ira a general rule, if I am not mistaken, 

 —-^ of the class who are a little on the line 

 of inventive genius, and are, therefore, if I 

 have rightly divined, about the sort who 

 will be interested in our ''big picture." 

 The picture is a copy, reduced in size by the 

 ])hoto engraving process, of one that recent- 

 ly appeared in the 3Iechanical Neics, pub- 

 lished by James I.effel, 110 Liberty Street, 

 New York. Many of the scenes bring quite 

 vividly to mind experiences of my own boy- 

 hood days; and as they come up, I think I 

 will tell you a little about it. 



The opening scene is, I suppose, with the 

 clock. What enterprising youngster has 

 not looked wonderingly at the curious ma- 

 chine which, almost like a thing of life, pegs 

 on, and tells us the time? The first clock 

 we ever had in our little household was a 

 monster of a weight clock that I traded for. 

 We used it, because Sue and I were saving 

 carefully, and it saved the money a new one 

 would cost. It answered the purpose nicely. 

 Ernest got to be about as big as the urchin 

 in the picture, when he one day climbed up 

 just about as in the picture, opened the pon- 

 derous machine, but, pulling a little too hard 

 on the door, it tipped forward and went over 

 his head, weights and all, and "bake, bake, 

 bake mamma's clock all to pieces." Mam- 

 ma was so much rejoiced to find it didn.t 

 " bake " the baby "all to pieces," she didn't 

 scold very much. When he saw the ruin 

 he had made, he ventured, "Can't papa fik 

 esV" 



The wind-mill must have been myself, for 



