604 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



t)lllng up the Cases of honey, is surmounted by a 

 small pyramid of tin pails of extracted honey, and 

 tin palls of extracted are hung upon nails all along 

 the " plate," rafters, and cross-beams. Above all 

 this, nailed to the roof, is a huge plaaard, " 3000 lbs. 

 honey 1" Right where visitors could poke their 

 noses against them are 3 glass hives containing full 

 colonies of bees, while large gilt letters upon the 

 glass announced that one hive contained " Blacks," 

 another "Syrians," and another "Italians," while a 

 one-frame nucleus eontained an " Italian queen and 

 bees." All these glass hives turn upon a revolving 

 pivot, and visitors can turn them so as to get the 

 best light. A dozen queen-cages containing queens 

 are attached to a board that turns upon a pivot in a 

 similar manner, and many a person who had never 

 seen a " queen teee " saw one. A shipping-crate, cov- 

 ered with silver paper, trimmed with gilt paper, till- 

 ed with sections. Is surmounted by a pyramid of 

 sections, some of which are covered with silver and 

 gilt paper, and over the whole is a square case of 

 glass, the corners of which are trimmed with silver 

 and gilt paper, and letters on the front, in gilt let- 

 ters, "Gilt-edge Honey." Dr. A. B. Mason said that 

 it was the finest thing of the kind that he had ever 

 seen. The sections in the shipping-crates were 

 awarded the first premium, as was the large display 

 of comb honey. A tall pyramid of wax, surmuunt- 

 ed by an old-fashioned straw hive formed of wax, 

 also received a first premium. A collection of hon- 

 ey-producing plants, pressed and mounted, and 

 bound in an Emerson binder, interested and pleased 

 many a visitor, as the leaves are turned and return- 

 ed. It received a second premium. A show-case, 

 lettered on the front in gilt letters, " Bee-Keoping 

 Literature," contains 47 copies of periodicals and 

 publications, and was awarded a second premium. 

 Then there is a fountain pump, a foldlilfe tent, 

 queen-excluding hoaey - board, supers, shipping- 

 crates, etc., that make up a collection of implements. 

 First premiums were awarded Mr. H. upon Italians 

 and Syrians. His premiums in all amounted to 

 about $80.C0. The aggregate value of all the ex- 

 hibits is $2000. 



The reporters of the city papers were much in- 

 terested, and, of course, we " stuffed " them, and 

 they gave us good long notices, and mentioned the 

 bee-keeping show as the " new feature." 



But the best of all is, that the officers of the so- 

 ciety have become very much interested, and have 

 promised to do any thing reasonable that we may 

 ask of them. The exhibit of this year has opened 

 their eyes to the attractiveness and importance of 

 an apiarian exhibition; and all that is now neces- 

 sary is that bee-keepers come forward and make 

 displays, and we shall soon have so large and at- 

 tractive a premium list that bee-keepers can come 

 to the fair, and find it lyrofitabU in dollars to do so. 

 W. Z. Hutchinson. 



State Fair Grounds, Detroit, Mich. Sept. 20, 1883. 



Eriend H., I am pretty well satisfied that 

 you and I have both of us done a wise thing 

 m deciding to attend the conventions and 

 displays of honey at our fairs. They are, 

 without question, one of the greatest helps 

 in the way of educating the people in the 

 way of apiculture that have been devised. 

 It is true, there are objectionable features in 

 all fairs, but I suppose it is because those 

 who are hungering and thirsting after right- 

 eousness have been too much in the habit of 



holding aloof. You say the display was the 

 largest and finest ever made. Well, that is 

 just what I thought about the exhibition at 

 Toronto. But I think we shall not have any 

 discussion on this point. I congratulate you 

 on the happy vein in which you have de- 

 scribed what you saw there; and it has oc- 

 curred to me that it might be desirable to 

 know what you heard, as well as what you 

 saw there. My recent visit has firmly de- 

 cided me on one thing, and that is, that our 

 next county fair shall witness an exhibition 

 of honey such as has never been seen in Me- 

 dina County before. In Toronto, the exhib- 

 itors were permitted to sell honey while ex- 

 hibiting the mode in which it was obtained, 

 and in this way they had ample pay for all 

 the trouble and pains they took in carrying 

 their product to market. Friend Jones has 

 the credit of this idea, I believe. Did you 

 have similar arrangements at Detroit V The 

 retail trade that was kept up in the honey- 

 house at Toronto was deemed one of the 

 pleasantest features, and it afforded a most 

 excellent opportunity to discuss and decide 

 in regard to the proper kind of packages to 

 put honey in, so that consumers might carry 

 it off with them with the least trouble and 

 inconvenience. Who shall say that the time 

 may not come when wide-awake honey-pro- 

 ducers will dispose of their whole crop at a 

 good round price while exhibiting it at our 

 honey shows, in connection with our Stale 

 and county fairs ? 



A PARASITIC HONEY-PI.ANT. 



THE DODDER. 



i^%^ several occasions, while walking through al- 

 IIJjl) falfa fields, I have noticed honey-bees visit- 

 ing the tiny blossoms of the dodder. They 

 seemed very much in earnest In prosecuting their 

 work, for at timi'S one bee would crowd another out 

 of the way, in order to get in first. The dodder, or 

 cuscuta, as you are undoubtedly aware, is a curious 

 plant of a parasitic nature. The fact of the bees 

 working on the dodder does not of itself attract any 

 particular attention ; but when we come to look into 

 the matter more closely we find that it Is one honey- 

 plant, so called, feeding upon another. The flowers 

 are abundant, and give forth a pleasant fragrance. 

 Although we are all very desirous of encouraging 

 the cultivation of honey-plants, we would not rec- 

 commend the least attempt to try it, for honey or 

 otherwise. 



To give your readers a better idea of this parasitic 

 plant, the writer thinks he can't do better than to 

 quote the foUowmg extract from an article by Jos. 

 F. James, custodian of the Cincinnati Socletj' of 

 Natural History, in Vick's Maoazine, Vol. V., p. 330: 



The yellowish-colored plant commonly seen climb- 

 ing and twining over other plants, and which some- 

 times causes great mischiet in cultivated fields, is 

 the dodder. It starts in life like any other plant; 

 that is, it germinates from a seed, and has at first a 

 root. But as it grows, and the stem reaches far and 

 twines on other plant-stems, the root dies, the stem 

 severs its connection with the earth, and depends for 

 the rest of its life on the nutriment it can secure 

 from the plant upon which It has fastened itself. It 

 sends its suckers deep into the stem of its tenefac- 

 lor, and, absorbing all of the vitality from it, is 

 eventually the cause of its death. One species of 

 the genus, Cuscula racemosa, has been very Injuri- 

 ous In Europe, and lately in California. In Europe 

 it appeared quite suddenly, and for ten or twelve 



