36 



GLEAJN^IN^GS IK BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



DEPOSITORY OF 



Or letters from Those Wtao Have JTIade 

 Bee Culture a. Failure. 



THE OTHER SIDE OF BEE CULTURE. 



Kfh ID you ever ! we have a really good 

 M3) l<^iig letter this time for Blasted Hopes, 

 — ^ and it is from a pen no less able, than 

 that of our old friend. Scientific. Listen : 



Well, friend Novice, I begin to think Heddon's 

 head is about level after all. The market for honey 

 is over-stocked especially with extracted. Thurber 

 and Co., who we thought would purchase any quan- 

 tity have got more than they want, and our country 

 villages are full of honey at low prices. Now sup- 

 pose California, and the rest of the U. 8. yields 

 bountifully will there be any sale at all another year? 

 I have sold about half of my crop, and the rest goes 

 slowly at 12'2 cts. I am setting my face in another 

 direction, and bee-keeping will be only a secondary 

 consideration, unless you study up some way to 

 make the sale of honey remunerative. 



Speaking of honey taking the place of sugar, I be- 

 lieve if honey were sold for 5 cts, per lb. people 

 would prefer sugar, at pi-esent prices. Further-more, 

 we have a species of stock that has no market value; 

 we may infuse all the noted foreign blood and then 

 offer ah apiary of a hundred swarms for sale and 

 they will go slowly at ^hM per swarm. We think of 

 offering our 110 swarms if they winter well, for ?3.00 

 per swarm, with all fixtures thrown in. Yes, bee- 

 keeping is such nice business for invalid gentlemen 

 and sentimental ladies: all you hrvc to do is to show 

 admiring friends how the busy little workers roll in 

 the greenbacks. It's all very nice and poetical on 

 paper. 



"How doth the busy little bee. 

 Improve each shining hour." 



Now, our experience is, that the apiarint has to im- 

 prove every shining hour, and manj/ houi-n after "old 

 shiney" has retired, and step around mighty lively 

 too. Then, what about the stings? Oh! sa.vs the en- 

 thusiastic bee men, that's nothingi grin and bear it, 

 it's the beauties of nature that you are to study! We 

 can talk learnedly about the polished point "of tie 

 sting and compare it to the bungling works rf m; n 

 as manifest in the point of a common needle, ard 

 speak of the great power of a tiny drop of poison, dis- 

 tilled from the sweet nectar, sipped from the fra- 

 grant virgin flower. Oh! who wouldn't le slung liy 

 an insect of such wonderfnl construction! Yes. a 

 thousand times a daj-, and after getting a few pounds 

 of sweets, find the products of your lalwr a drug ui>- 

 on the market; home m.ijket at that, with your ped- 

 ler discouniged and trading old horses, ard finally 

 coming down with a malignant form cf diptheria, 

 with some danger of his non-recovery. 



Now, friend Novice. I sat down to wi ite for a coup- 

 le of files, and will come to a close, for if I keep on, 

 I verily believe you will think I have the blues. If 

 this was written with blue ink I would call it a hhic 

 lettrr. Ard if bee-keepers havn't a n;;/?f to have the 

 blues, I d( n't know w ho has: ask Heddrn. 



J. H. Martin, Hartford, N. Y. Dec. 27th, "77. 



Now friend M.. if you have not forgotten 

 all about your fit of the blues when this 

 meets your eye, I shall conclude you are just 

 the man we have long been looking for, to 

 countenict the tendency of our ABC chiss 

 to think bee culture is all sure and certain 

 l>rofit. iind no h;ird work. I very much pre- 

 fer that they simll start out with the idea 

 tluit th.ey mr/y have to sell their honev f or o 

 or lOc. i)i;ui ihat they will surely get 2o, 

 without ;iiiy esjiecial effort on their i)art. I 

 will uKKst cheerfully assist you in going into 

 that other business that "is "clenn profit," 

 witli no losses, by tnking all your l)ees. ;it 

 .?8.00 per colony ;nul honey at Sc per lb. If 

 tliey are in L. frames such';ts I use. I do not 

 know but that I could lake them ail at i?.5.00. 



Are you sure, if I buy you out at these figures 

 you will not set right to work and build up 

 another apiary at a less expense and make 

 money at it ? If you will write as clear con- 

 sistent and jjractkal an article tor this de- 

 partment every month, I will pay you as 

 much for your articles, as I do your neigh- 

 bor Doolittle for his. 



If honey comes down to .5c, I think we can 

 all swing our hats and give three rousing 

 cheers for the success bee culture has made, 

 in making honey as plenty as milk, and 

 placing it within the reach of every one. 

 While a feu- lament that the prices of honey 

 and bees are likely to go down, thousands 

 will rejoice. Can we not be hai)py in seeing 

 others happy, even if we do suffer a little V 

 Money easily enined does not, by any means, 

 bring hapi)iness. 



CATNIP. 



m 



HE best plan for raising catnip is to sow the 

 seed very thickly, in March, on good garden 

 soil, let the plants grow till fall and cover them 

 slightly with litter, to prevent their being thrown 

 out by the action of frost during winter. As soon as 

 the freezing weather is nearly over, the next spring, 

 the plants should be set out S}i feet apart each way, 

 (4000 to the acre) and cultivated like corn. The 

 plants will blossom the first season, but are so small 

 as not to produce much hone}'. This transplanted 

 crop will commence to bloom the latter part of June, 

 and continue to throw out new shoots and branches 

 which will be covered with bloom and with bees un- 

 til hard frosts. 



During the summer of 1875 all sources of honey, 

 except catnip, were cut off in these parts, and friend 

 Hill, who lived about nine miles from where I was 

 situated with my bees and catnip, had to feed his 84: 

 swaims between two and three thousand lbs. of hon- 

 ey during the summer and fall. I had H acre of 

 cultivated catnip, besides considerable that I had 

 sown in wild places, from which my bees gathered 

 an abundance to keep up brof)d rearing through the 

 summer and fall, and increase from Si to 33. During 

 the latter part f f that season Mr. Hill paid us a visit 

 and while looking at the catnip which covered the 

 ground completely, and stood as high as a man's 

 her.d, discussing its merits, I remarked that I be- 

 lieved my bees had, during the three months they 

 had been at v/ork on it, gathei ed at least one pound 

 of honey from each plant. He said he did not doubt 

 it in the least. 



I have no seed for sale at present but could furnish 

 a few thousands of plants in the spring. Have not 

 enough to make it an object to advertise. 



M. Nevins, Cumminsville, O., Jan. 5th, '78. 



> H g» ^' 



FRIEND JOINER AN» HIS "CONVEN- 

 TION.-' 



WHAT HE SAW, HEARD, AND LEARNED. 



^ AST week I attended a Bee-Keeper's "Conven- 

 w 1 tion." one of your kind, at the residence of 

 ^~J W\ H. Stewart, Orion. Richland Co., Wis. He 

 has lately bought a 5 inch comb machine of you. 

 Mr. Stewart is a good mechanic, either in wood or 

 metal .ird a genius generally. He has discovered, in 

 a few hours experimenting, a much simpler method 

 of dipping and rolling, than that described by j-ou in 

 Dee. Gleanings; he uses no ice, is not particular 

 about the temperature of his melted wax, or water 

 tank, yet at one dipping he makes sheets of any 

 thickness, and they come off in the water tank with- 

 f/ut using anything to keep them from adhering to 

 the dipping plates, or any ice. I was somewhat in- 

 credulous at first, but we built a fire under his boil- 

 vr, he dipj)ed and I rolled, and I had the satisfaction 

 f f making seme of the most beautiful fdn. I ever 

 saw. 



We went and looked at his bees: at the beginning 

 of winter he dug a ti-ench and set his hives over the 

 trenc'n banking them uv> with the dirt from the 

 trench. The weather was very waim. sr.me days as 

 high as £0^ in the shade, and of course his bees soon 



