1878. 



GLEAKINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



143 



you above. In the foreground, you can see 

 the plan by which we get strong grape vines, 

 just wliere we want them, and in a much 

 shorter time than they would grow in the 

 ordinary way. The fence is not really es- 

 sential, but I tliink it pays all tl>e expenses 

 of building, by keeping off cold winds 

 alone ; and, if it is 8 or 10 feet high, as it 

 should be, it is quite a protection against 

 thieves, as well as dogs, chickens, &c. The 



straighten it up, and you M'ill get hapjiy by 

 and by. There is no excellence without 

 great labor, and there is much discontent 

 with laziness. I guess I know, for I have 

 tried both ways, and it is ever so much more 

 fun to have a nice apiary, all the M^ork of 

 your own hands. I wonder if any of the 

 rest of you have made this discovery, 

 i^ow, about those gra])e vines; they look 

 very well, when nicely tied up to the wires 



A GllAPE VINE APIARY OF 19 HIVES, ALSO "SWARMINU" THE GliAl'E VINE. 



bees may be wintered in the house, if that 

 way of wintering is preferred, or they may 

 be wintered on their summer stands, and 

 the house may be used simply as a honey 

 house. Make your apiary nice, neat, pretty, 

 and tidy, and then keep it nice, neat, pretty, 

 and tidy, nil the time, ivhethcr you feel like it 

 or not. If you find it is getting weedy and 

 disorderly, luake yoiuself "pitch in" and 



and posts, especially, when loaded with 

 ripe fruit ; but, if you neglect pinching off 

 the tender shoots, and training the young 

 tendrils in the way they should go, they will, 

 in a few weeks, get to "be about as distress- 

 ing as anything I know of. "A thing of 

 beauty is a joy forever;" especially, if you 

 have to get up at 5 o'clock every morning, 

 to preserve its beauty. 



