414 



JUVENILE GLEANINGS. 



July 



lip and swinginpc my liat when I read your 

 No. ;^ ; but after a little while I was glad I 

 didn't. May bs you are right, though, after 

 all. I am sure you are partially right about 

 bees " cooking dcwn ■" the raw honey. You 

 know we have had a good deal of specula- 

 tion about this subject. If I recollect cor- 

 I'ectly, friend Doolittle, or some one else, 

 suggested that the bees " sort of " " churn- 

 ed " the water out of the honey iu homeAvard 

 tlights from the flowers. Now, this idea, 

 which I believe is mostly yours, that bees 

 use their breathing-tubes for evaporating 

 the lioney as well as getting the breath of 

 life, I do not know that I have ever heard 

 of before, or ever thought of it; but since 

 you suggest it, I believe you are right. I 

 am sure tliey hold the honey out on their 

 tongue, and blow it, for I had decided on 

 this long ago ; and now I sliould accept your 

 explanation, every bit of it. were it not for 

 the fact I mention in the A l> (', under the 

 head of "Water for J3ees," page 260, where I 

 speak of the bees gathering thin watery 

 honey from the ligwort, and expelhng the 

 watery portion as they start to fly home. 

 Last fall, when they were at work heavily 

 on the gray buckwheat, by stationing my- 

 self on one side of the field, the clear water 

 which they threw off as they started for 

 home, heavily laden, was so great that it al- 

 most made a small shower. I have collect- 

 ed this watery matter in clean plates, and 

 lasted it, and it is pure water, and nothing 

 else. They throw it off while on the wing; 

 and I presume careful" observation will show 

 that it is thrown off in this way when they 

 start for home, no matter what kind of blos- 

 soms they are working on.— Once more I 

 congratulate you on the skill with Avhich 

 you have unfolded and explained Vikgil. 



OUR JUVENlIiES AWAY OFF IN AUS- 

 TKAIilA. 



A LETTER FROM ONE Oil' THE .lUVENILKS. 



J 



S papa is writing to thank you for Gleanings 

 and catalogue, I desire to tbank you for 

 Juvenile Gle.vnings, which very much in- 

 terested us. My brother Ernest and I wish" we were 

 able to get it everj' month. We have been Iceeping 

 bees these last two years. Ernest and I have had a 

 good deal to do with them in the way of hiving and 

 driving them from one box to another, in order to 

 get the honey. We feel very anxious to know more 

 about the modern system of managing bees. We 

 hope, after receiving your A C, we sahll be able to 

 manage bees much better than we can now. Last 

 year p^pa made 5 frame hives, which are a great 

 improvement on the boxes; but not knowing how 

 to make them properly, the bees build their comb 

 too thick, and also fasten the frame fflst to the box, 

 and we have much dilBculty in getting the first 

 frame out, and often make a muss in so doing. Last 

 year was a very bad year for bees, and we lost half 

 of them. This is a very much better one so far. 

 This fall crop bids fair to be a good one, on account 

 of gum-trees {EacahjxAus oio'Ji'fits) llowering this 

 year. 



TREES 300 FEET HIGH. 



The gum-tree is one of our most useful and largest 

 trees for all kinds of sawed and split timber. Many 



of them grow to the great height of 250 to 300 ft., 

 many of them measuring 30 ft. in circumference at 

 the butt. Wo have many flowering trees which af- 

 ford for;:ige for the bees. The wattle-tree flowers in 

 spring (September), about as soon as the willow and 

 peach trees. Many other trees continue to flower 

 up to our first fall month (March), then our noble 

 gum-tree comes into flower. In some of the warm- 

 er parts of our colony, bees can get a little pollen 

 and honey nearly all winter, and need little or no 

 attention. They are left standing out anywhere in 

 old boxes, without any cover, or any thing but 

 water. Right in some parts of the woods there are 

 great numbers of bees in hollow trees; and when 

 cut down, people get a great many pails full of honey. 



KANGAROOS. 



We who live on the opposite side of the world 

 from you hive a great many things that would be 

 curious and interesting to you; viz., the kangaroo, 

 which carries its young in a bag, or pouch; a great 

 many thousands of them arc in many parts of our 

 colonies, and when closely pursued by man and 

 dogs they will often throw out their young ones, 

 that they may escape. The "old man " kangaroo 

 of I en stands about .5 or ft. high, and are very dan- 

 gerous to man and dogs, seizing them with their lit- 

 tle fore-feet. They will rip them to pieces with 

 their hind great toe, and if there be water near by 

 they will carry them to it and hold them under until 

 they are drowned. If any one can manage to cut 

 their b^g tail off they will tumble over and lie per- 

 fectly helijlt-ss, it being their balancing-pole, which 

 is 5 or 6 incbes through, and makes capital soup. 

 wild-cherry tree. 



I think it is about time to cut my narrative short, 

 or you will think I am very voluble. So I will only 

 mention one thing more — our wild-cherry trees. It 

 has a beautiful shape; its folinge is like that of the 

 pine, and seldom attains the height of 15 feet. Its 

 fruit is about the size of currants, more the shape 

 of grain, or wheat; instead of the stone being on the 

 inside, it is on the outside, the opposite end from 

 the stem. 



Ernest and I wish we lived near you. that we might 

 see you and your factory, where you make all the 

 implements for the apiary, which would delight us 

 very much. How big is that wheelbarrow of yours 

 that is always full of books, and running over? If 

 there were any thing about bee culture in it, and 

 were passing our place, we would be sure to pick up 

 all those that tumbled off. We can get all kinds of 

 books here, and we have many good ones too, but 

 nothing treating on modern bee culture. The Juve- 

 nile we soon devoured, and wish we could get it 

 every month. We can not learn from it what the 

 price would be for 13 months. Please let us know 

 how much it would be, and the best way to send the 

 money to you. Norman T. Loukes, age 14. 



Daylesford, Victoria, Australia, March 11, 1883. , 



May God bless you for your little letter, 

 and the sample bee you sent, my young 

 friend. We send a book from the wheelbar- 

 row full, and Gleanings a year for your 

 letter. The Juvenile is a part of the oth- 

 er, and is never sent separate. The price, 

 $1.00, covers both. We are all very much 

 interested in your account of those great 

 gum-trees, as well as your interesting ac- 

 count of the kangaroo. It sounds different 

 from reading accounts of these things in 

 books, because we have a real live letter 



