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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



been previously equalized until they 

 all caaie up to tbe swaioiing point at 

 once. Tbey were in two yaius, 4b and 

 84 colonies respectively ; 33 ot llie 34 

 would liave liad sealeu cells within 36 

 bours Jrom the time the tirst ceil was 

 sealed. 



1 divided them long enough before 

 basswoud so they would have no 

 biood 10 leed,and so the young queens 

 ■would coiunience laying heiore the 

 close ot the yield. Oi course the 

 modus operadi is patent to every one, 

 BolwlJiouiy give the lesult: Bass- 

 wood lasted 25i dajs. The colony on 

 BcaifeS stored 2(,8 pounds; one other 

 colony got 74 pounds m three days, 

 and the bO colonies got ]0,OliO pounds, 

 an average ot 126 pounds. 



Bees in this locality got from noth- 

 ing to ';o pounds per colony. One 

 peculiarity this season, the older ihe 

 bloom got the better it yielded. The 

 atmosphere reached that peculiar 

 electric condition just at the last. 

 Since bass\\ood bloom the bees have 

 just made a living, but are gelling a 

 little sui plus to-aay tiom asters. 



Htar, p Wis., Sept. 14, 1887. 



New England Farmer. 



A New Economy— Bee-KeeiiiDg. 



W. S. liLAIsDELL. 



Not a few of the appliances which 

 abound in modern times are those 

 which are designed to save the wastes. 

 To-day we cannot aflord to lose. In 

 the times ot our lathers, such was the 

 prolihc condition of a virgin soil, that 

 they thought but little ot taxing it lo 

 the remotest without any adequate 

 return ot manures as an exchange lor 

 the yearly products. Barns were 

 built with scarcely a thought of what 

 might be saved. No regaid was had 

 for the compost heap, it was not 

 dreamed ot even, or if mentioned at 

 all, It was only to stir ridicule tor no- 

 tions of lancy farming— the kind done 

 with '-gloves and patent leathers," 

 tlie very extreme ot rustic sarcasm. 

 But this is all changed. A man now 

 gets rich by saving what the lathers 

 let run lo waste. 



The barns are built for saving, and 

 the older ones are being rertodeled 

 for the same purpose. The cimpost 

 heaps aie places of peculiar inteiest. 

 Ihey are the mint which turns the 

 pre of everjthing appaiently worth- 

 less into the gold ot picfltable leiti- 

 lizeis. The celdsare beiijg redeemed. 

 Ihe larms are giowing in productive- 

 ness, which is better than lo glow in 

 size. And all but the ISew England 

 pastures— lor we must make an ex- 

 ception heie, and we do it too as a 

 witness lo an improvidence yet to be 

 rectihed— aie beginning to blotsom as 

 the lose. New England has had to 

 mix biains with her laiming work- 

 and It must be admitted that brains 

 are beginning to win. 



Theie is, however, another step 

 above this, and it may be there aie 

 many ot thtm ; but one is prominent, 

 80 much so that it is attiacting some 

 attention and a little "' 



._ . a little discussion. 



During the blossoming season of the _ 



year, there is a large excess of sweet- 1 protection .ot"the''coIony— what some 



ness deposited within the calyx of the 

 flower, more than what the ripening 

 ot the geim requires. It is leti to ihe 

 rains to be dissolved and carried 

 away. Millions ot pounds ot the 

 choicest nectar that naiuie affords are 

 wholly lost, and there is nothing re- 

 turned as an excuse for ihe waste. 

 With any adequate means lor saving; 

 and preservation, there is enough ot 

 this necessary element of human sub- 

 sistence washed down the stems and 

 and stalks ot our flowering plants, to 

 luinish this gieat need in the pro- 

 visioning of man. 



But man on his part, as if unwill- 

 ing, to appiopriale in this particular 

 at least, what has been provided 

 Ireely in nature, has been most inae- 

 faligable in seeking his supplies by 

 the most difliciilt and costly methods. 

 He has tapped the maple, but the tree 

 gives up us lite reluctantly and makes 

 him pay lor the deed. He has planted 

 in his Liest soil the soighum and the 

 sugar canes, but what with the labor 

 ot cultivation, the exhaustion ot his 

 lands, and an expensive apparatus, 

 tbe moral of his methods is taught in 

 the smallness of his prohts. Tne re- 

 sult has been, and still is, that the 

 prices of sugars have always ruled 

 high, and must be so as long as man 

 loices himselt away from a natural 

 product. He can have his notions 

 even when they are wrong, and he 

 can blindly lollow them; but then- 

 he must pay the price. 



It is fairly probable that we should 

 not know ot ihis vast waste, with all 

 our research, with all our science, had 

 it not been revealed to man through 

 the instinct ot an insect. The honey- 

 bee has literally •- made known what 

 has been hid tuitn the foundation of 

 the world." There seems to be a 

 very intimate relation between this 

 Insect and the human race, so much 

 so, that if we will accept it, there 

 appears therein a manliest design. 

 The bee is not independent of man, 

 while in some respects it rises far out 

 of Ihe possibilities of his reach or 

 thought. It has no reason, not a 

 glimmer of it. Myriads of them will 

 slaughter themselves trying to lollow 

 a ray ot light through glass, while 

 they cannot And the way out of an 

 enclosure, if it be in the rear and 

 daikened. They do, however, put 

 the skill and cunning ot man to 

 shame in a thousand ways. They are 

 the most docile, unwearied, uncom- 

 plaining, and successtul servants that 

 man can have. 



'Ihe colony is a model of a work- 

 shop. Two men working together, 

 even if they be brothers, have more 

 fiiciion than 60,0(JU bees, all desperate 

 w orkers lor the common w eal as they 

 are, and silent sufleieis as well. 

 "With man, Umperameut goes a good 

 ways. When he is peaceable, people 

 look the thud lime to see it he is not 

 lazy; and where he is quarrelsome, 

 they throw the cloak of charity over 

 the fault in the apologetic remark 

 that he is smart. The honeybee is 

 both peaceable and smart. The tem- 

 per ot the bee, the power to force its 

 sting, is only its defensive armor. Its 

 attack is a sacrifice of self for the 



of us may do, so very reluctantly, for 

 our country in her hour ot peril. 



The honey-bee then, and the secre- 

 tions of the flowers which can be 

 gathered by the bee, are very sub- 

 stantial gills, providing for man, as 

 is possitjle, about oue-thiid ot his 

 subsistence. By no means has it yet 

 been done, and herein may be per- 

 ceived the vast waste of these years. 

 It is urged very decidedly to any ad- 

 vocacy ot the bee-keeping interests, 

 thai there are many who have tried it 

 wiih but indiflerent success or a total 

 loss. That it is not so in all cases is 

 pioved by the great successes which 

 have been achieved. 



But why IS It so even in an excep- 

 tional case V A very little observation 

 enables one to see the reason. All 

 the care goes to ih^ cows, the hogs, 

 and the geese, and there is no time 

 lelt to be devoted to an insect whose 

 delicate organization requires a hun- 

 dred lold more skill from the man 

 than what the coarser Ubied animal 

 does. The honey- bee responds quickly 

 to a little skilllul care. It needs only 

 liiile, but that little both as lo time 

 and amount is vital to its prosperity, 

 if not lo its very life. 



The condition ot aH success is the 

 mixing ot brains with one's work, and 

 this is what the bee-keeper must 

 emphatically observe. He must study 

 the nature of the bee and Us needs, 

 so as lo understand them. It cannot 

 be wholly learned from books ; care- 

 ful, continued and discriminating 

 observation is the only reliable means. 

 And until the man can neglect every- 

 thing else, if that be required, and 

 attend to this bees, he will never do 

 well in this choice line of production. 

 The honored Langstroth mixed a 

 little biains with his work, and he 

 did it at that juncture ot time and 

 development ot this industry, that he 

 was led to construct the movable- 

 comb hive. This event marked a 

 great advance in the art, and has 

 made an illimitable industry possi- 

 ble. In doing this he did a deal of 

 thinking for the farmer, clergyman 

 as he was, and down to the latest 

 time he has made us all the better 

 off. But though more than a quarter 

 ot a century has gone, his genius is 

 scarcely yet appreciated, nor has his 

 invention wholly succeeded in driv- 

 ing out the old-formed hive, in usrng 

 which our fathers were excusable, for 

 they knew no better,butits continued 

 use is a sarcasm on us. 



It is not a question of entering into 

 an experiment where new industries 

 are to be tested. The matter is wholly 

 a saving of wastes from an industry 

 tested and proved, but whose wonder- 

 ful possibilities are only now begin- 

 ning to be appreciated. From this 

 one source alone, careful judges have 

 estimated that from $100 to $iOO 

 yearly can be added lo the net prohts 

 of every farm in New England. We 

 do not think the estimate high. There 

 are some localities where the abound- 

 ing raspberry, the white clover and 

 the basswood are so plentilul that 

 larger estimates would not be exag- 

 gerations. The lorests, now only 

 profitable to the woodman and lum- 

 berman, would give up a large yield 



