ISO 



gleani:ngs m bee culture. 



Apr. 



on the point end of the nails. The time prained in 

 hooking the wires on, over that needed to thread 

 them through holes, is more than equal to the time 

 required to put in the hooks. E. S. Easteud.vy. 

 Nokomis, 111., Mar. T, 1883. 



I declare, friend E., 1 don't know but that 

 you are right, for the nail-heads along the 

 top-bars would not disOgure It at all. I will 

 have our girls try it, and report. 



FROM 1 TO 4, AND 12") LBS. OF HONEY, ONLY. 



I can not maKe my haes "store up" honey like 

 the rest of j'ou bee-raisers. It does seem to me 

 that you all can make your bees store up as much 

 honey in a couple of weeks as mine would in a 

 whole season. I'm almost ashamed to tell you, that 

 last spring 1 statitd uith one hybrid stand, and the 

 increase was throe gcmd swarms and 125 lbs. comb 

 honej', and each hive well filled with honey and bees 

 for winter. That was the best I could make them 

 do. A. Cokey. 



St. Marys, Auglaize Co., Ohio, Feb. 16, 1883. 



Well, it is really too bad, friend C, that 

 you couldn't make your one swarm of bees 

 do any better than to give 125 lbs. of honey, 

 and increase to /oKr s/;-o?7^ colonies ready for 

 lointer. Suppose you had a hundred, and 

 did as well with all of them, where would 

 you be ? 



BTARTINO NUCLEI BY MOVING A AVORKING COLONY, 

 ETC. 



I Started last spring with 10 colonies and increas- 

 ed to 23, and secured about 3T5 lbs. surplus, all in 1- 

 Ib. sections. It was a very poor season, and the 

 box-hive men (the bees around here are all kept in 

 box hives, except mine) secured no surplus honey 

 at all. About the first of June I moved a strong col- 

 ony of blacks, and set an empty hive in their place, 

 giving a comb very full of young larvte and eggs 

 from an Italian queen. There was quite a flow of 

 honey at the time, from locust. They started two 

 queen-cells, and filled nearly every other cell with 

 honey, covering up eggs and larvae. They had 

 plenty of sheets of fdn. at the time. I moved an- 

 other hive in the same way la'er, and gave them a 

 comb of larvEe and eggs from a very bright swarm 

 of Italians, and they raised a queen whose bees are 

 pure black, as nearly as I can tell. I have never 

 seen the queen. Can thej' be hybrids, or did the old 

 queen come back? Will friend Doolittle tell us how 

 many feet of comb and brood he gives his bees 

 when he crowds them up to put on his sections, and 

 have them store honey enough in the brood-chamber 

 to winter on? J. Woolsey. 



Bedford, N. Y., Feb. 26, 1883. 



If the queen was reared from pure Italian 

 brood, the bees can't very well be black, 

 friend W. I think some young queen must 

 have got in. The old queen could not very 

 well get there by moving the hive. 



FRIEND KEPLEU AND HIS NEW OPENING-UP IN 



TEXAS. 



I have just opened 25 colonies of fine bees, shipped 

 by freight from Chattanooga, Tennessee. They were 

 closed up, and on the journey 10 days; all opened up 

 in fair condition, without broken combs, and are 

 now flying freely. I have settled on my ranch of 

 over 1000 acres, and have a range over tens of thou- 

 sands of acres of horsemint, clover, mesquite-trees, 

 sensitive plant, broom-weed, sage, etc. Hoping to 



be able to report better success in this "land of 



promise" than in the barren coal measures of the 



Cumberlands of Tennessee, I am yet hopefully,— 



D. Kepleh. 

 Hubbard City, Texas, Feb. 20. 18S3. 



CALrFORNIA MOUNTAIN S.VGE. 



You advertise in your catalogue the seed of Cali- 

 fornia white sage {Salvia arcjentea). Now, if Prof. 

 Rattan, and the Geological Survey, "Botany of Cali- 

 fornia," are any authority, the Salvia aracnteaxiexer 

 grew in California, at least no mention ia made of it. 

 The "white sage" which has built up the reputation 

 of California houey, is not a true sage, but it be- 

 longs to the genus ranking next to Salvia in botan- 

 ical character. Its true name is Aiidiheitia jxily- 

 stachija. A close relative, the A. stachyoides, ranges 

 further north, and is but little inferior for honey. 

 Quinby's New Bce-Keeping makes the mistake of 

 saying, that " in California the main dependence is 

 on 'white sage' (Eurotia Janata"), page 01. Eurotia 

 lanata is a dwarf plant growing only in alkaline 

 soils in the extreme nnrthern and eastern borders 

 of the State. It is useful only as stock forage after 

 other resources are checked. It is sometimes called 

 white sajo, and somctimrs " white fat." 



Anure.\ Norton. 



Gonzales, Monterey Co., Cal , Feb. 18, 1883. 



Thanks, friend N. All I know about our 

 sage seed is that it was sent us from some of 

 the bee friends who have the sage honey, 

 and therefore I think the seed is right, even 

 if the name is wrong. Will Profs. Cook and 

 Lazenby please help to set us right in the 

 matter? and will some of [he friends in Cal- 

 ifornia please mail them samples of the sage 

 that bears the honey? I presume there will 

 be no trouble in getting both leaves and 

 flowers now. 



BLUE THISTLE. 



I see by some of the late numbers of Gleanings, 

 that Fome are apprehending danger to the farming 

 community by the introduction of blue thistle. I 

 am not in favor of introducing dangerous plants; 

 but I must say, from pi.st experience I apprehend 

 no danger from this plant. It made its appearance 

 here more than thirty years ago, and Is one of our 

 best honey-plants. 1 had about 7 acres of it the past 

 summer, from which my 20 colonies of bees gather- 

 ed about 603 lb?, of section honey with pure white 

 capping and excellent quality, bringing 25 cents per 

 lb. Besides ray own. there were 40 cnloaics of bees 

 belonging to another apiary working on it. Sumac 

 is a good honey-plant here, but takes double the la- 

 bor to get it out of the Iind that blue thistle does. 

 amber sugar cane. 



The package of seed I purchased of you last spring 

 I planted on the 6th of June, and got a good yield. 

 There were three stalks that grew among it with 

 seed like that I inclose, which ripened about a week 

 in advance of the other. Are you acquainted with 

 this variety? And will the seed raised here deterio- 

 rate too much in one season for planting, or will it 

 do for several years? I tried the plan recommended 

 in Gleanings for clarifying with clay, and some 

 others: found clay the best. J. W. Walker, 



Greenspring, W. Va., Feb. 27, 1883. 



I do not know any thing of the early vari- 

 ety you found, friend W. Northern-grown 

 seed is preferred by some, when it is well 

 ripened. Thank§ for item on blue thistle. 



