1883 



(JLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



189 



THE " POINSETTIA," AGAIN. 



On page 133, March No., is an article on the new 

 honey -plant (?), Poinsettia pulcherrima. Friend 

 Holtke writes that they would yield more than bass- 

 wood. He also asks if any one has tried it. I have 

 two plants in my conservatory, and observed, dur- 

 ing January, the lovely drops of nectar oozing out 

 of the seed-balls, and I was delighted over the looks 

 of things as friend Holtke when he went into that 

 greenhouse. About a week after observing this, I 

 conceived the idea of testing the relative merits of 

 the blacks and Italians under a forced existence, as 

 you might say. The result of this experiment ap- 

 pears in the March No. of the Bee and Poultry Mag- 

 azine. The first thing I did after the bees got ac- 

 customed to their new quarters, and were working 

 on syrup and artificial pollen, was to bring to their 

 notice the wealth of honey to be found in that most 

 beautiful plant with scarlet bracts. I took more 

 than a dozen bees during the day and quietly placed 

 their " bills" in contact with drops of nectar. They 

 would insert their bill just once, and then wipe it off 

 on their trousers, and walk away disgusted. During 

 the whole time I had them in ray conservatory (two 

 months) I never saw them work on this plant. 



John Aspinwall. 



Barry town, N. Y., March 16, 1883. 



FROM 16 TO 22, AND 1965 LBS. OF HONEY. 



The first of May, 1883, 1 had 16 stands of bees, all 

 weak, and the first of December I had 23 stands; 

 sold 3 for $20.00, and i went off; got 1315 lbs. extract- 

 ed honey, and 750 lbs. in sections; have sold $183 

 worth, and have $40 00 worth on hand yet, besides 

 what we have used, and that has been considerable. 

 My bees are all Italians. I use the L. hive, and 

 make all hives and fixtures myself. I was looking 

 through my bees to-day. I find 4 stands dead. All 

 have had the dysentery this winter. "We have nice 

 weather Jiow, and bees are getting some honey from 

 soft-maple. W. L. M ller. 



Chariton, la., March, 1883. 



FROM 4 TO 18, AND 500 LBS. OF COMB HONEY. 



Started in spring of 1883 with 4; increased to 18, 

 and 500 lbs. comb honey; lost two; one starved, and 

 . the other froze. I shall have to double up two of 

 them; that will leave me 15 in good order. They 

 had a fine fly the 4th and 5th of March, and how 

 they did carry off rye flourl I can get 13 colonies 

 for 20 lbs. of honey each for one year. Do you 

 think it will pay ? I am getting all of increase. 



A.W. Spracklin. 



Cowden, 111., March 9, 1883. 



I should take them, friend S. 



FROM 3 TO 9, and 150 LBS. OF HONEY. 



I began the season of 1883 with 3 colonies — 1 Ital- 

 ian of Hayhurst's stock, and 3 hybrids. Italians in- 

 creased to 9 by natural swarming; 3 hybrids to 4. 

 One swarm came off Aug. 30, and one Aug. 31. Both 

 have plenty of stores to winter on. All are packed 

 in sawdust, except two, which are in cellar. I sold 

 three late swarms at $3.00 each, and have taken 110 

 lbs. of extracted honey and 50 lbs. of comb honey 

 in 1-lb. sections. No surplus till basswood bloomed. 



HOT SMOKE FOR CURING BEE-STINGS. 



I noticed in Gleanings that one bee-keeper cures 

 stings by the application of smoke, which cure, the 

 editor thinks, is imaginary, or that the pain ceased 

 through the^imagination of the person. I think the 



mind has an influence over the body; but last sum- 

 mer, when I had my thumb mashed with a foot-adze, 

 and eased the pain by holding it in the smoke of 

 burning wool, I could not think it was imaginary, 

 but real. A brother-in-law of mine, working in a 

 sawmill, in turning down a log, ran the spout of an 

 oil-can through his hand, coming out about the mid- 

 dle of the palm, giving him great pain. A neighbor 

 came in and applied smoke from burning wool, 

 which he said took away all pain in five minutes, 

 and never pained him more. I have known it tried 

 in several instances with much the same results. 



Webster, Ind., Dec. 9, 1882. J. P. C. Steddom. 



It would really look, friends, as if I should 

 have to give up, that smoke does some good. 

 Let us now, while we accept the facts fur- 

 nished, at the same time apply to the matter 

 the reason God has given us all. Is it real- 

 ly probable, that puffing smoke on the out- 

 side of the thick hard skin of the hand could 

 have any etfect in allaying the pain caused 

 by poison injected deep into the flesh ¥ I 

 can not think the smoke alone has any such 

 virtue, but relief may come from another 

 cause. Some years ago I slipped off my 

 mill that ran by wind power, and fell about 

 14 feet on to the frozen ground. The ankle 

 received the shock, and it was so painful 

 in a few minutes that I begged for chlo- 

 roform. Several things were tried, but 

 without relief, until a friend brought me a 

 pail of hot water. It was tempered so it 

 would almost scald ; and as soon as my foot 

 was dropped into it, the pain was gone. In 

 half an hour I went to work, but kept my 

 foot in hot water, changing as often as it 

 got so cold the pain would come back. I 

 have often thought this ought to be publish- 

 ed, although I have never heard any satis- 

 factory explanation from physicians respect- 

 ing the matter. Now, then,' friends, are you 

 sure it wasn't the heatof the burning wool, or 

 the blast of heated air, rapidly passing over 

 the flesh so as to raise the temperature quick- 

 ly, that did it? Of course, the remedy is 

 none the less valuable ; and now when you 

 get stung, just heat up the place vigorously 

 with a ''hot-blast " smoker, and I shouldn't 

 wonder a bit if it stopped the pain. Don't 

 you think I ought to be among ranked sci- 

 entists, and rewarded with a leather medal V 



HONEY THAT AVILL NOT GRANULATE. 



My honey does not^ranulate. That obtained from 

 bees that died in 1880 was kept in an open vessel in 

 the comb till fall, in a cupboard, then strained and 

 put in glass fruit-jars, and some of it kept till we 

 had new honey this season, and showed no graining. 

 Honey that we extracted Oct. 5, what is left of it, 

 has stood in stone-jars and pails, covered with shin- 

 gles and newspapers, in a cold room. It is very 

 thick, but shows no grains. I don't know what 

 plant it is got from. Blackheart was abundant bei-o 

 last fall also. M. E. Knowlton. 



Sanneman, Illinois. 



WIRING FRAMES— ANOTHER " KINK." 



Some of your correspondents would like a device, 

 to be used instead of the holes for wiring frames. 

 This is the way I do: I take 5i-inch wire nails and 

 drive them through the top and bottom bars, where 

 the holes should be— the heads on the outside. Then 

 with a pair of small round-nosed plyers turn hooks 



