188S 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



319 



hives resting on these strips, and sustaining the 

 hives a foot or so from the ground. There was no 

 alighting -board, no bottom -board whatever. In 

 fact, several of them had comb hanging down six or 

 eight inches below the bottom of the hive, and yet 

 this man's bees wintered. One would almost sup- 

 pose from this that you could not give too much air 

 at the bottom. While I think, as I have said before, 

 that it is from the bottom of the hive that the bees 

 should receive all needed air and chance for ventila- 

 tion, yet, because I have succeeded in wintering my 

 cow in some old cold rickety stable, and bringing 

 her through aliv^e just by the skin of her teeth, in 

 spite of wind or weather, is no good reason that it 

 was the best way, and that I should always winter 

 her so. No; there is a reasonable limit, and our 

 judgment in the matter must decide what it shall 

 be." R. H. Mellen. 



Amboy-on-lnlet, 111., April 2, 1883. 



Friend M., next time you see Mr. Duster, 

 tell him that we think it not unlikely he may 

 be obliged to change his opinion once more 

 before he dies. Please notice that he lays 

 great stress on the importance of having 

 bees dry. Well, now, our latest develop- 

 ments seem to indicate that we don't want 

 bees dry. Do you not remember how much 

 has been said about the advantages of water 

 for bees, even in the winter? 



NOTES AND QUERIES FKOM EVER. 

 OREEN APIARY. 



THE HILL DEVICE, ETC. 



Y experience again the past winter confirms 

 the importance of placing over each hive 

 the Hill device. Itdoes away, in my opinion, 

 the old way of boring an unsightly hole through 

 each comb, to give the bees a winter passage. I 

 think if we had a nice round-bottom basket, a bit 

 larger than an ordinary wash-basin, and about as 

 deep, to invert over the bees, it might improve the 

 Hill device. 



OUR BASSWOOI3 HONEY CROP— A CAUTION. 



Friend Hasty, will you please just hurry up a lit. 

 tie on developing that short-tube clover? The way 

 the goodly linden timber in these parts is being de- 

 stroyed of late, is staring us in the face. It seems 

 that everybody who owns any linn-trees are bent on 

 their extermination. No doubt they little realize, 

 "'tis the goose that lays us the golden egg." By the 

 way, friend Root, if laws are enacted to protect 

 game, fish, etc., for the general welfare of the hu- 

 man race, would not a general uprising, by way of 

 petitions from beemen to our State Legislatures 

 secure protection to the linden timber? Does not 

 nearly every man, women, and f^hild in America love 

 basswood honey as much as flsh or quails? But un- 

 der the present practice, what is the future prospect 

 of that splendid honey supply? 



FOOT-POWER SAAVS. 



I want to tell everybody who thinks of getting up 

 a foot-power buzz-saw, to try a wheel of an old worn- 

 out Buckeye mower for a drive-wheel. I hit on a 

 combination (partly friend Hutchinson's) by using 

 an old mower-wheel 36 in., by nicely fitting the 

 shaft in babbitt-metal boxing, that almost runs 

 ofi' with itself. You see, there is a great weight to 

 the rim; and beside.?, there is a heavy cog-wheel 

 near the outer rim that helps to give velocity. 

 The old wheelcost only $1.50. 



BEES FOR HONEY. 



I want to send this season to queen-breeders in 

 widely separate localities for a few queens, to begin 

 more thoroughly to breed honey-gathering stock. 

 If I had faith or credulity in the Darwinian theory 

 of the law of natural Relection, I would begin to set 

 about to develop off the fine point of the sting of 

 our honey-bee. If I could believe that the whale has 

 developed from the cow, and that the boa-constrict- 

 or has developed oft' his legs, I bhould think the oth- 

 er could be done in a few thousand years. 



D. E. Brubaker. 



Maxwell, Story Co., la., April, 1883. 



I too, friend B., feel greatly troubled about 

 the way our basswood forests are going, but 

 I don't see how the remedy you suggest is 

 going to avail. Every man has a right to do 

 as he pleases with his basswood-trees, or the 

 fish in his (ish-ponds, as it seems to me. and 

 this in spite of any legislation. I have 

 thought seriously of refusing to buy bass- 

 wood ; but then, again, I can't see how this 

 would help the matter very much. Farmers 

 have basswood-trees, and, of course, sell 

 them to the highest bidders. The only hope 

 I can see is in inducing people to plant bass- 

 wood for both honey and lumber. You 

 know we have made a start in that direc- 

 tion. Since you mention it, I have a strong 

 notion to go down and take a look at our 

 basswood orchard to-day. We have just had 

 a fine rain, and the trees are just in their 

 first leaf ; and the sight of 4000 trees at such 

 a time is beautiful, you can well imagine. 

 The way things are going now, I confess 

 that the greater part of us will very soon 

 have to go without basswood honey. 



REPORT FROM ONE OF OUR CHICAGO 

 HONEY -MEN. 



ALSO SOME HINTS IN REGARD TO HONEY PACKACES. 



fSOLD, of comb-honey crop of 188'i, up to the 

 first of January, 1883, nearly 130,000 lbs.; since 

 ' January 1st to April 1st, sales have been slow, 

 and yet VO.OOO lbs. has been disposed of. There is 

 perhaps a few tons of dark and buckwheat comb 

 honey on this market that will not be consumed be- 

 fore the new crop comes into market. There has 

 been three pounds of comb honey crop of 1882 of- 

 fered in this market, to one of the crop of 1881. 



Extracted honey has aggregated in sales 140,000 

 lbs. There is perhaps a good deal to carry over yet 

 on the market. Prices since the first of December, 

 1883, have gradually declined until the present date. 

 At this late hour, holders are anxious to sell; hence 

 prices vary very much. Honey has been offered in 

 almost every conceivable shape and style of pack- 

 age. But that which meets with the most demand 

 is the one-pound section; next the l^^-pound sec- 

 tion, or frame; and packages containing 25 to 40 

 lbs. are preferred. One-pouud frames of comb hon- 

 ey are as small as this market calls for at present, 

 and none larger than IJ'I-lb. will be taken to any ex- 

 tent, when the smaller can be had. 



Extracted honey should be furnished in packages 

 ranging from 10 to 350 lbs.; the smaller packages 

 should be tin; the larger, iron-bound casks and 



R. A. Burnett. 



Chicago, 111., April 3, 1883. 



