176 



JUVENILE GLEANINGS. 



Mar. 



nature's way of uniting unprosperous colonies. I 

 Ions' !ig'o came to the conclusion, that the awful bee- 

 rampages we sometimes read of in the papers are 

 usually brougbt on by getting clusters of swarmed- 

 out bees stirred up and infuriated — although they 

 had no particular ill will to anybody or any thing 

 when they came out. 



(6) Jf 1 am right, this martial song, or trumpet- 

 sound, is not really a martial song, but a death-song. 

 When colonies are in a healthy state, the worn-out 

 bees go away and die quietly; but in the spring, aft- 

 er a hard winter, this scjund is often heard. It is 

 made by a very few Ijcps, often only one, standing in 

 the entrance and whirring the wings with such a 

 noise as to be heard several rods away. I am not 

 sure, but I infer that the bee sjon dies, and the 

 sound ceases vnitil another bee tsikes his place. 

 When this noise is hoard in many hives, then look 

 out for some tall swarming-out when the weather 

 gets fine. 



(7) Everybridy who has had much experience with 

 spring dwindling ought to know how prone bees are 

 at such times to hall their own queens. 



(8) This waiting for a beautiful day and then com- 

 ing out, reveals whi.t the disturbance spoken of 

 really is. After the terrible winter of two years 

 ago, the first beautiful day happened to be Sunday; 

 and I had eleven swarms cut up this caper and 

 swarm out while I was gone to Sunday-school. So 

 far as I could find out, however, none of them got to 

 fighting. 



(9) I did not bring out the idea in the translation, 

 but am pretty well satisfied that the poet meant to 

 allude to the method of gathering nuts and acorns 

 by the use of a battering-ram. I wonder how many 

 of the children have ever seen nuts gathered in that 

 way. To tell the truth, I never did myself, but I 

 have hoard tell about it. A big log is pried up and 

 hung by the middle. It is then set in motion, and 

 sent against the trunk of the tree with such an aw- 

 ful " bunt " as to make the old tree quiver from bot- 

 tom to top; and the nuts let go and come down -^ 

 like a swarm of bees. 



(10) Here is a delicate touch of Virgil's art, delight- 

 ful to critics — using exactly the same word the 

 second time, instead of changing from Uwse to those, 

 as we usually do. " Wallace " will have to look sharp 

 to those printer-boys, or they will "correct" it, and 

 make it or Uicsc or tliosc, in spite of every thing. 

 This curious form of expressi.)n helps to give the 

 passage that air of Impetuous rapidity which makes 

 it a sort of poetic avalanche. 



(11) Dast has some advantages over smoke. It re- 

 quires time to get a smoke ready to use; but dust 

 can often be had instantly. Smoke can be thrown 

 but a little way, while dust can be hurled quite a 

 distance. Who knows but that a deluge of dust 

 would «ubdue the Cyprians that pay no attention to 

 smoke at all? At any i-ate, when a square rod or 

 more of ground is covered with bees, fighting and 

 tumbling about in mortal combat, a bushel or two of 

 dust promptly hurled over them may be the only 

 thing that will stop the fighting. E. E. Hasty. 



Richards, O., March 5, 1883. 



I believe I shall have to agree with you, 

 friend Hasty, that, if bees do have any love 

 for each other, it is a queer kind of love- 

 after a sort of cool, mathematical sort, that 

 calculates the greatest good for the greatest 

 number, without any thing of an emotional 

 nature about it. They rejoice in numbers, 



simply because in numbers there is strength ; 

 and your "buzz-saw" illustration, I opine, 

 is pretty near the truth. I heartily indorse 

 your No. 1, friend II. It is a mark of a great 

 mind to say one doesn't know; at least, once 

 in a while. 



A lilTTLE lilSTTER FROM OUR OLD 

 FRIEND "BESS." 



PRICE OF HONEY IN WASHINGTON, ETC. 



INCLOSE you an article clipped from a paper. 

 [See p. 66. Feb. No.] The statement of this hi- 

 bernating personage sounds so delightfully san- 

 guine that he surely must be closely related to the 

 owner and author of " Blessed Bees." I should 

 think, if wintering in the South is so profitable, that 

 there would be more successful reports from South- 

 ern bee-keepers, and that honey would be at least 

 cheaper in this section of the country; but we paid 

 Saturday evening, in market, 80 cts. per lb. for hon- 

 ey in sections, and " chunk " honey retails at 25 cts., 

 and not very nice at that. I have never laid eyes on 

 extracted honey since I have been here, and my hus- 

 band says that he never ate any in his life. 



A B'lVE-CKNT STORE ON A BOOM. 



If some enterprising Yankee would go Into the 

 business, I rather think he would be as successful as 

 a merchant on 7th St., who opened a five-cent store 

 during the holidays, and then had to hire a stout 

 darkey to hold the door, admitting the crowd from 

 the outside only as fast as the store emptied so as to 

 permit it. He had to do this in order to keep his 

 customers from being actually crushed to death. 



I see by Jan. Gleanings that you are still devis- 

 ing ways and means for keeping a list of "square" 

 men. Would it not be better to simply report those 

 — with proper proofs — who have not the required 

 four "right angles" of honesty, also Cottony wo- 

 men, to the Postmaster-General, and let him place 

 them on the "fraud" list? He can most effectually 

 stop their Impositions on unsuspecting mankind, by 

 simply directing postmasters not to deliver their 

 mail matter to them at all. He has closed several 

 firms in this way lately, I notice. One was a man in 

 Chicago Avho advertised Bihles at a greatly reduced 

 price, and then sent nothing when money was for- 

 warded him. 



With kind regards to all my old co-laborers, I am, 

 as ever,— " Bess." 



Washington, D. C, Feb. 5, 1883. 



Now, Bess, I can imagine a sly twinkle in 

 your roguish eyes, as you tell that story about 

 the five-cent store. Are you sure you didn't 

 exaggerate it one bit? Just invite your 

 gootl husband's attention to the fact that we 

 have to-day expressed him a 5-lb. Jones pail 

 of clover honey, and you please tell him, will 

 you, that it is sent to him to give to his wife 

 for the very interesting article she has sent 

 us, depicting the destitute condition of the 

 AVashington honey-market, and also describ- 

 ing the wonderful zeal of the inhabitants of 

 said town, in patronizing five-cent stores V 

 Please do all this faithfully and " truthfully," 

 won't you,J}ess, because it comes from your 

 old " boss " V Come to think of it, however, 

 there never was very much " bossing " any- 

 where around, so far as you and I were con- 

 cerned. Suppose I say, your old co-worker. 

 But now, dear old friend, may I just say one 



