270 



GLEANINGS m BEE CULTUKE. 



Oct. 



much less quantity is needed to coat the in- 

 side tliorovighly and fill all cracks and inter- 

 stices, and less skill and expedition is nesded 

 in its manipulation. Yon should have about 

 a gallon of the melted liquid, or too much of 

 it will adhere to the inside of the barrel, for 

 a small quantity will not keep hot until yon 

 can pour out the remainder after the waxing 

 is done. Ten or 12 lbs. will do very well. 

 Have your Inuigs all nicely fitted, and have 

 a good hammer in readiness to get the bung 

 out quickly. With a large-mouthed tunnel, 

 pour in the hot liquid, and bung it up at 

 once. Now roll the barrel so as to have the 

 wax go entirely round it, then twirl it on 

 each head, and give it another spinning so 

 as to cover perfectly all round the ciiime. 

 This operation will have warmed the air in- 

 side to such an extent, that the liquid will 

 be forced into every crevice, and if there is 

 a poor spot, you will hear the air hissing, as 

 it forces the liquid through it. Just as 

 quickly as you get the inside covered, loosen 

 the bung with your hammer, and if your 

 work is w^ell done, the bung will be thrown 

 into the air Vvdth a report. Pour out the re- 

 maining liquid, warm it up, and go on with 

 the rest. If the weather is cool, you had 

 better put your barrel in the sun, turning it 

 frequently and driving down the hoops, be- 

 fore you pour in the wax. This is to save 

 your material, for if the barrel is cold, it 

 will take a much heavier coating ; and the 

 main thing is simply to close all crevices. 

 Eor honey in quantities of less than 100 lbs. 

 perhaps tin cans will be handier than barrels 

 or kegs, for they can then be shipped as 

 freight, without crating. 



Good thick honey will usually become sol- 

 id at the approach of frosty weather, and 

 perhaps the readiest means of getting it out 

 of the barrel in such cases, is to remove one 

 of the heads, and take it out with a scoop. 

 If it is quite hard, you may at first think it 

 quite difficult to get a scoop dowai into it ; 

 but if you press steadily, and keep moving 

 the scoop slightly, you will soon get down 

 its whole depth. If the barrel is kept for 

 some time near the stove, or in a very warm 

 room, the honey will become liquid enough 

 to be drawn out through a large sized honey 

 gate. After the head of a barrel has been 

 taken out, the barrel should be waxed again 

 before using, around the head that has been 

 removed. Get out all the honey you can, by 

 warming and allowing it to drain, and then 

 with a tea-kettle of hot water, clean off 

 every particle of honey. The rinsings may 

 be saved and fed to the bees that there be no 



waste. As barrels are apt to get musty, or 

 give the honey a taste, I would advise wash- 

 ing and lightly coating them every season, 

 before being used again. After having been 

 once coated, a very small quantity of par- 

 afflne will answer perfectly, the second time. 

 I should have no hesitation in using any 

 kind of a barrel for honey, if it were first 

 scalded, allowed to dry thoroughly, and then 

 perfectly coated with paraffine. If the bar- 

 rel is dry and warm, or slightly hot, there 

 will never be any danger of its cleaving from 

 the wood, as wax sometimes does. Parafiine 

 has neither taste nor smell, and does not 

 decay as wax does, when exposed to damp- 

 ness or the action of liquids. 



Caution: — A mixture of w^ax and rosin 

 was at one time used for coating barrels, 

 and after giving it, as I thought a thorough 

 test, I used it for a whole crop of honey. 

 The result was that the honey tasted of ros- 

 in after being in the barrels over winter, and 

 it was sold at 10c, w^hen it would otherwise 

 have brought 15c. This is quite a serious 

 matter, as some of the Journals seem to be 

 still recommending the rosin. 



23ASSWOOB. With perhaps the single 

 exception of white clover, the basswood, or 

 linden as it is often called, furnishes more 

 honey than any other one plant or tree 

 known. It is true, that it does not yield 

 honey every season, bivt what plant or tree 

 does ? It occasionally gives us such an im- 

 mense fiood of honey, that we can afford to 

 wait a season or two if need be, rather than 

 depend on sources that yield more regularly, 

 yet in much smaller amounts. If a bee- 

 keeper is content to wait, say ten or fifteen 

 years for the realization of his hopes, or if 

 he has an interest in providing for the bee- 

 keepers of a future generation, it will pay 

 him to plant basswoods. A tree that was 

 set out just about 10 years ago, on one of our 

 streets, now furnishes a profusion of blos- 

 soms, almost every year, and from the way 

 the bees work on them, I should judge it 

 furnished considerable honey. A hundred 

 such trees in the vicinity of an apiary, would 

 be, without doubt, of great value. See ar- 

 tificial PASTURAGE. Our 4000 trees were 

 planted in the spring of 1872, and are now— 

 1877— many of them bearing fair loads of 

 blossoms. We made some experiments with 

 basswood seeds, but they proved mostly 

 failures, as have nearly all similar ones we 

 have heard from. By far the best and cheap- 

 est way, is to get small trees from the forest. 

 These can be obtained in almost any quan- 

 tity, from any piece of woodland from which 



