1883 



JUVENILE GLEANINGS. 



169 



walked heedlessly on the ice. I hurt my el- 

 bow, and had to walk all bent up for awhile. 

 1 walk real careful now, you may be sure. 



JOSEPH AND HIS BEE-TREE. 



Please send me a sample copy of Gleanings and 

 price list. I found a bee-tree, August 8, 1882. I got 

 one of the neighbors and pa to go with me. It was 

 an elm-tree about 3 leet across. When it fell we 

 couM see them going in and out of a hole about 6 in. 

 across. I got them home and put them in a hive. I 

 have but one stand of bees. A man who lives about 

 3 miles from here found 3 more swarms on the same 

 forty acres. That was doing pretty well, was it not? 

 Joseph H. Osborne, age 12. 



Hopkins, Mo., Jan. 20, 1883. 



Tiptop, Joseph, for a boy only 12 years old. 

 Some of our older ones may take courage, 

 when they hear what a boy can do. 



Pa had 15 colonies of bees last spring, but Ave of 

 them were so weak that they built up to make good 

 swarms, only by the time the honey-flow ceased. He 

 got 1500 lbs. of extracted honey, and increased to 30 

 by natural bwarming. 



HOW PA CLEANS HIS PAINT-BRUSHES. 



When he gets done using them he puts some kero- 

 sene in a tin cup, and churns the brush up and down 

 in it, and it cleans it as nicely as it was before it was 

 ever used. Did you ever ti'y it? Pa saw that I was 

 so much interested in the Juvenile, he gave it to 

 me, and it pleased me very much. This is my first 

 letter; and if you think I deserve a book, please 

 send me Ten Nights in a Bar-Room. 



Jakie Huffman, age 12. 



Very good indeed, friend Jakie. I have 

 never tried that way of cleaning paint-brush- 

 es, but I think the plan may be valuable. 



FROM 15 TO 30, AND 1500 LBS. OF HONEY. 



Pa has 30 stands of bees now, from 15 last spring, 

 and extracted 1500 lbs. of honey, besides some comb 

 honey. He keeps his bees in the cellar, out of the 

 cold. It was 30° below zero yesterday. This is my 

 first letter. Lizzie Huffman. 



Monroe, Green Co., Wis., Jan. 23, 1883. 



a visit to D. a. JONES. 



Pa and ma were in Beeton, and had the pleasure 

 of conversing with D. A. Jones. Well, that nice 

 plant which you call blue thistle, he calls blue vipers. 

 We have a lot of it growing on the road here, and 

 the people in this vicinity do not know what to call 

 it, so we will call it blue vipers. It is our best hon- 

 ey-plant. The answer to Hannah M. Smith's ques- 

 tion is Leviticus 2 : 11; the answer to G. F. Greely, 

 Proverbs 24 : 13. The answer to yours is Luke 24:42. 

 Brother thanks you for that nice book you sent him. 

 If I deserve a book, please send me Silver Keys. 



Sarah J. Switzer, age 11. 



Fergus, Ont., Can., Jan. 23, 1883. 



Don't you mean " Viper's Bugloss," 

 Sarah ? That is the common name for blue 

 thistle, as given in the botany. Perhaps 

 "Blue Vipers " has been corrupted from it. 



RASPBERRIES AS HONEY-PLANTS. 



Pa commenced the winter with 60 swarms of bees. 

 They are all packed in chatf. He likes bee-keeping 

 very much. We all help him as much as we can. 

 He makes his own hives, and buys his sections in 

 the flat. There are no boys in our family, so it 



keeps us girls pretty busy in the spring. 1 have one 

 sister older and one younger than myself. My age 

 is eleven. We raise strawberries, and a few rasp- 

 berries. Pa wishes he had acres and acres of them, 

 for they are just alive with bees when they are In 

 bloom. They are mostly red. I have got four prizes 

 for being at the head the most in school; one for 

 good conduct. Please give my love to Blue Eyes, I 

 have blue eyes too. Mary E. Barrett. 



Cherry Valley, O., Jan. 33, 1883. 



SOME WISE COUNSELS FROM A YOUNG HEAD, 



Papa thinks his bees are wintering nicely. They 

 had a nice fly a few days ago, and no signs of dysen- 

 tery. They are on summer stands, and in single- 

 walled hives. I am next to the grammar room in 

 school. We have a large playground In the front. 

 We have some flower-beds. Mr. Green, the princi- 

 pal, is talking about fixing the front of the school- 

 house up. He sent off for some flower-seeds. He 

 has 13 kinds of seeds. You would not think of 

 planting flower-seeds in winter ; but if a farmer 

 expects flowers in the summer, and sits around the 

 fire all winter, I don't think he will have mauj'. 



D. Belle Lewbdao. 



Wheeling, W. Va., Jan. 29, 1883. 



FROM 15 TO 30, AND $50.00 WORTH OF HONEY — AND 

 SOME BAD LUCK BESIDES. 



Pa has 30 swarms — 13 in chaff, and 18 in the cellar. 

 Pa sold $50.00 worth of honey this year, besides what 

 we ate. He increased from 15 to 30 swarms. One 

 day last summer, two hives swarmed at the same 

 time, and alighted on the same limb. He held the 

 swarming-box, and I climbed up the tree and shook 

 the limb, and the queens went into it. He thought 

 their wings were clipped. They were not, and they 

 came pretty near flying away. Last summer pa and 

 ma went to my uncle's, and six swarms got robbed. 

 One day last summer pa and I went out, and the 

 working bees were killing drones. 



Thomas E. Stocks. 



Nashua, Chickasaw Co., Iowa, Jan., 1883. 



BE CAREFUL ABOUT SMOTHERING THE BEES; A LIT- 

 TLE GIRL'S WARNING. 



Papa has 11 stands of bees, and he lost two. They 

 were big swarms, and papa found one of them. 

 But it went away, and he did not find them, and the 

 other swarm he did not get at all. He said he would 

 give me a quarter every time I saw them swarm, 

 and the same day I saw a swarm, so I got a quarter; 

 but I did not see any more. While papa was trans- 

 ferring bees he had bad luck. They must have been 

 just ready to swarm, for there were so many, and 

 the box he smoked them into must have been too 

 close; for when he went to put them In the new 

 hive they were all dead; nearly a peck of them, I 

 should think. This is my first letter. 



May Keller, age 8. 



Mt, Vernon, 111., Jan. 23, 1883. 



HOW EDGAR'S FATHER FETCHED BACK A RUNAWAY. 



We put 30 colonies of bees in the house this winter. 

 One has died. We left eight out of doors on the sum- 

 mer stands, and packed them with straw. I read a 

 great deal in Gleanings about other boys' and girls' 

 bees running off. Our bees fly off. There was a 

 swarm which came out and started off, and we fol- 

 lowed them, and they settled on a tree. Father 

 went to the house and got a frame and tied it to a 

 stick and held it up in the swarm of bees, and they 

 alighted on it. Then he took it and put it in the 



