1883 



GLEANmGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



467 



office than I am, or at least I g-uess you will think so 

 when you read this letter. Please excuse my poor 

 writing; and if you can And any thing in this worth 

 putting in Gi-eanings, please do so. If you have a 

 mind to send me a Clark smoker, I shall feel veiy 

 thankful; but by the assistance of the good Being, 

 I never expect to use the filthy weed again. 

 Grayesville, O., July 22, 1883. D. P. Hubbard. 



Friend H., your report is certainly a "re- 

 port encouraging," and one of the kind I am 

 glad to hear, especially where you touch on 

 your experience in the breaking-away from 

 tobacco.— In regard to your yield of honey 

 of 100 lbs. to the colony, spring count, it 

 ought to satisfy almost any of the veterans. 

 I declare, it astonishes me again and again 

 when I see how novices take hold, and, un- 

 der the influence of an enthusiasm like 

 yours, make a big success of it the very first 

 season. It seems to me to indicate that a 

 new order of things is coming about, and 

 that, instead of taking seven years to learn 

 a trade, our people now become pretty fair 

 workmen, not in three years, nor in two 

 years, but sometimes in even less than one 

 year, where they go into it with a whole- 

 souled enthusiasm such as is needed in any 

 tiling in this world. And, by the way, I can 

 not help thinking that a man is smarter and 

 brighter, and in every way better, after hav- 

 ing broken in pieces the chains of a bad 

 habit, put them decidedly under foot, and 

 standing before God a free man. "Ye 

 shall know the truth, and the truth shall 

 make you free." 



Or Letters from Those AVho Iiavc Made 

 Bee Culture a Failure. 



3f5/?jE all have blasted hopes ! Bees are doing no 



good— not a pound of honey have I taken. 



What will you sell me a barrel of extracted 



honey for? I am entirely out. I got my barrels and 



extractor ready, but have cleaned up, and set them 



away, with no prospects of using them this season. 



Oakland, Texas, July 7, 1883. John H. Mullin. 



Friend M., I have been looking for some- 

 thing for this department for a long while. 

 I think you must be just the man, unless a 

 great flood of honey has come upon you sud- 

 denly, since you wrote the above, so as to 

 spoil your eligibility to this department. 



Or Department for tliose w\\o don't Sign 

 Tlielr Names, etc. 



¥OIJR letter is at hand, telling me to look over 

 my goods once more for the rabbets, which 

 I thought were omitted. But I am almqst 

 ashamed of myself to say that I have found them. 

 I was just laying around those roofing tins, between 

 which they were packed nicely. I had taken them 

 out on a lump, and had laid them away. Excuse 

 me for making such a mistake. 

 Kutztown, Pa. Wm. K. Deisheb, 



|5()% mid %mm§- 



^i?^ LEASE excuse my troubling you; but as you 

 f(r^ have published my communication about 

 ' " Moving to Florida," page 393, July, I would 

 like to call attention to two mistakes. I don't know 

 if my bad writing caused them or not; but they 

 change the meaning a little. The reading should be 

 as follows: * * * " If a man is willing to 

 work, let him come if he is not already comfortably 

 fixed where he now is; but" * * * * And 

 again, * * * "as for heaUli,! think Florida 

 will rank," * * * B. L. Alexander. 



Altoona, Orange Co., Fla., July 12, 1883. 



I bought 6 swarms one year ago. I now have 50. 

 But they haven't made much honey yet this season. 

 Amboy, 111., July 16, 1883. Geo. Peoples. 



bees on lilac. 



A. J. Cook spoke about bees working on lilac. I 

 have one colony of hybrids, and they worked on it 

 as long as it lasted. L. H. Bartram. 



New Lenox, Mass., July 18, 1883. 



WHITE POLLEN. 



Answer to question in last Juvenile, " Where do 

 bees get white pollen?" Oui-s are getting a nearly 

 snow-white pollen from plantain, at present. Bees 

 are booming with us this season. J. F. Schafeb. 



Ada, Hardin Co., O., J uly 21,1883. 



SUNDAY SWARMING. 



If your bees happen to swarm on Sunday, do you 

 hive them, or let them hang till Monday? 



Watson, 111. John Cline. 



[Hive them, hy all means, friend C. Doesn't the 

 Bible plainly direct you to do so?] 



HONEY VINEGAR. 



Mrs. Harrison is just right. It may do for week 

 days and children, but will not answer for Sundays. 

 We have used it for more than 20 years. I have seen 

 many swarms depart without alighting. 



La Porte City, la. Jesse Oken. 



Please say to Old Fogy, that I had a first swarm 

 leave a box hive, and go off without clustering — 

 May 18, 1883. I can vouch for its being a natural 

 swarm, the bees having been at work in boxes for 10 

 days before the swarm issued. H. R. Cuyler. 



Rapidan Station, Va. 



DO bees ever swarm when it IS CLOUDY? 



I hear some say they do not, and I want to be cer- 

 tain whether they do or not. 



Seneca, Kan., July, 1883. Malinda A. Wilkins. 



[I believe bees usually prefer to swarm during 

 warm sunshiny weather; but when they get a going 

 in real earnest they pay very little attention to 

 whether it is cloudy or not. Sometimes they swarm 

 even during a light rain. See reports elsewhere.] 



BEES IN the woods. 



There are lots of bees in the woods here; and if I 

 had the opera-glass I could do much better. I went 

 to the woods to-day and found a fine swarm just 

 leaving a tree I had found, and I let them settle on a 

 lall tree; so I got my hive, saw, etc., went up the 

 tree, sawed the limb off, brought it down, and put 

 them in mj' hive, so to-night I have a fine swarm. 

 How is that for a new hand? R. M. Boyd. 



O'Fallon, Mo. 



