1877. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUllE. 



107 



Jawyer — said that auy man must be au idiot, 

 who would not say "God speed the work." I 

 have good reason to feel that you all have seen 

 Bimilar work, where the real spirit of Christi- 

 anity was at work. If Spiritualism, scepti- 

 cism, infidelity or anything else should pro- 

 <luce such au eflect upon its followers., it might 

 .seem that there was a Divine hand in it, and 

 we should thea see bad, dishonest men pre- 

 tending they believed in such tilings for the 

 purpose of making a cloak of theia. Where 

 snen go into the business of counterfeiting, 

 they usually try to make dollars, not copper 

 ccuts, and Spiritualism has borne sucli fruit in 

 our vicinity that one would be crazy indeed, 

 who would pretend belief in it from selfish 

 motives. Those who take the Bible for their 

 ijuide in true sincerity, always begin straiglit- 

 way to show its divinity by their lives and 

 actions. Do not take ray word for it, but look 

 about you, and "when you perceive the fruit it 

 is bearing, oh, ray friends, do beware how you 

 (.Irop a single word, even in jest, that may dis- 

 courage any one who may be just thinking of 

 n better life. I know full well, of the dillicul- 

 ties that are to be met in trying to reconcile 

 all that we find in the Bible, but, ray friends, 

 are there not also diJliculties elsewhere that ice I 

 are unable to reconcile ? If we see swearing, j 

 ^ghting, and drinking men made better, do we j 

 not feel like letting the difiiculties drop, and | 

 joining in and helping the best we know howV 

 To be sure we do, for we feel it is God's work, 

 no matter what be the sect or creed it comes 



DEPOSITORY OF 



Or JLctters iroiu Tliosc AViio Mave Made 

 Mee Culture a. Failure. j 



ipS^ HE last has been a hard winter for bees iu this 

 ■j"}'"' county. One man lost 40 out of 50 stands ; oth- 

 ^=i ers irora one iourtli to one-half the number they 

 haa last fall. As a (lencral Ihinp i.iiey left from one- 

 Sbiirth to one-third of their honey in the liive. The 

 bees commenced to die in the earlj'part of winter and 

 by spring some hives had lost all, others had a few 

 lit'cs left but not enough to start up with again. The 

 cause is not known. J. V.vn Liew. 



Light Street, (Columbia Co., Pa., May Sth, "77. 



I was glad you did not scud the extractor, as I have lost 

 all -nay bees but G stocks and they are iu box hives. Have 

 ;il ways had good success iu wintering ou summer stands 

 liutil last winter, lly bees in the Union frame hives died 

 before those in the box hives. My best stocks froze first, 

 riiid if the weather continues as cold as it now is I !>hall 

 liave to report blasted hopes. I don't think. I could raise 

 a very laige club as everyone is so disoourageJ. Nearly 

 all the bees are dead in this section. One friend that has 

 t wo swarms left, said he thought he would take Glean- 

 IKGS as he had got to have souicthing to help him. 



A. i. Chiss, Potter Centre, X. Y., May 10th, '77. 



comb and some with honey and expect to recover our 

 losses this year and have a little surplus to cover ex- 

 penses. CnAS. W. Laffeetv. 

 JiartJnsville. Ills., May 14th, 1877. 



Beg pardon friend L., but you see we must 

 have something for "Blasted Hopes," and your 

 letter was the nearest it of any we could llnd. 

 We are very glad to hear you are not discour- 

 aged. Will some of those who have made real 

 genuine failures, please speak out 'i 



Well, we have certainly hit the nail on the 

 head thift time auy way, for our next friend 

 has had his hopes blasted or our name isn't 

 Novice. Listen : 



My report for this spring is not as encouraging as some, 

 yet it might be worse. Last fall I packed 1() good stocks 

 ou their summer stands with six inches of chaff; all iu 

 good orJer with i)lenty of sealed stores, but my yard is on 

 the isorth side of a hill with no wind break and' the long 

 cold winter did it for them. They took the dysentery, 

 s')otted their hives up terribly and'then were attacked by 

 the spring lizzie, and one after another fizzled until I now 

 have but one hive left, and that has not over a jiint of 

 btcs in it, but the queen is doing her share toward build- 

 ing up. depositing two eggs in a cell. All the r&st of my 

 pets have gone where the woodbine twineth, but thank 

 fortune they left me their hives, also a line lot of comb, 

 and if providence }>ermits, and the water don't raise you 

 will hear from me again. Wait until I get my 8 feet board 

 fence around my yard. By the way, would you advise 

 me to arrange my one lone hive in a hexagonal or an oc- 

 tagonal form V 



Now I .suppose you will put me in the column of 

 "Bl;isted Hopes," but we will lay it to the blasted cold 

 weather and remember all of our expensive lessons. 



W. Rt-'GEE, Binghampton, N. Y., May IGth, 1S77. 



As sure as you are alive, here is another un- 

 favorable report of chafl". Guess your apiary 

 will be on the "monogonal" plan, friend R. 



I moved ray bees over 100 miles and lost them ail, but 

 am going to get some more. JHy liojjes are not '"blasted" 

 but I lost my bees. 



J. J. McWnoETER, Polo, Mich., Jlay l-ftb, 1877. 



Why friend M., you are as bad as the soldiers 

 that didn't know when they tcere whipped, but 

 kept right on lighting. If you do not belong 

 here, we shall really be in despair. 



BLiASTED HOPES. 



FKlIiND nOI.IN'S REMKOV. 



I 



I w.-is surprised to find my letter under "Blasted 

 Hopes"' and "those who have made biiO culture a fail- 

 luv." It is true we lost very heavily, but our "hopes" 

 are not all ''blasted" yet. Although we made almost an 

 entire failure in wintering we got .'>.S75 lbs. of honey last 

 .ve.'ir. To take the ^ix years before into consideration we 

 think we have not "made bee culture a failure." EsjKic- 

 lally whin you consider the fact that we commenced with 

 six hives, and have sold about fO colonies in the time, and 

 over 8000 lbs. of honey. We have at present 70 stands, SO 

 of them m box hives which wo intend to transfer soon. 

 They are divided into seven lots, and situated in different 

 parts of the country, which gives us a chance to test dif- 

 ferent localities. We ha\'c o\er a hundred hives full of 



fi HOPi: Mr. Fletcher will not "give up the ship" 

 and abandon bee culture in disgust, as I think it 

 can be made to pay in spite of all the drawbacks 

 he enumerates. It is" true it requires considerable, 

 care to insure success; and pray v/hat bnsintss does 

 not require that if we would succeed in it 'i 



Now as to the poor seasons; good strong stocks arc 

 a sure remedy for them, for 1 never knew a swarm so 

 poor that a really strong stock of Italians would not 

 get enough to winter on and a fair amount of burplus 

 for theirowner. They will store honey when medium 

 and weak stocks will starve. Long cold winters— a 

 good warm depository, either house or cellar will 

 guard our bees against them. Backward springs- 

 strong stocks i)roperly wintered are proof against 

 them, let them be ever so backward. It would have 

 been a strange spring imlced that would have injureil 

 a great many of my stocks this spring, with the hivts 

 running over with'young bees. 



Low prices lor honey ; keep our bees strong and get 

 plentv of honey, then we can afi'ord to take a low 

 liricefor it and "thus put it within reach of the labor- 

 ing classes. \'ery poor business to depend on for a 

 living: now I liave wheat growing that will in all 

 probability, judging from present appearances yield 

 from 3u to" 4iJ or even more bushels i)er acre, and 1 

 have Bwarnis in mv yard that will proliably yield mc 

 as much clear profit 'as an acre of that wheat, yet 

 who says farming don't pav. 



I have been trying bee culture for a number of 

 years and think with Mr. Uoolittle, it pays, ailhough 

 many of mv neighbors who keep them on the brim- 

 stone plan" think (iiiVercntly ; in fact a great many 

 vho kept fires rears ago have given it up. 



James Bomv, West Lcdi, O., May Utb. 1^77. 



