DR. MILLER S 



biting. Yet it may be well to add that there are ants and ants. 

 Go far enough South and you may find ants that a\ ill destroy a 

 colony sometimes in short order. Even in the North there is 

 kind to be dreaded. You say yours are "large black ants." 3Iost 

 likely that means ants that are a quarter of an inch or so m 

 length, which are large in comparison with little red ants. But 

 if you have the big wood ants that are three-quarters of an inch 

 long, then that's another story. I've had no little trouble with 

 them and they are hard to combat. They get between the bottom- 

 board and board on which it rests, and honey-comb the bottom- 

 board. Sometimes there will be merely a shell left, so that you will 

 hardly notice anything wrong, yet a little touch when hauling 

 bees might break through a hole to let the bees out. Carbolic 

 acid may do something toward driving them away. You may also 

 poison them. Take two pieces of section, or, perhaps, better 

 still, two thin boards 4 inches square, or larger, fasten upon each 

 end of one of them a cleat one-eighth inch thick, and lay or fasten 

 the other on it, thus leaving a space of one-eighth inch between 

 the two boards. IMi.x arsenic in honey and put between the 

 boards. The bees cannot get into so small a space, but the ants 

 can. Or, put poison in a box covered with wire-cloth that v/ill 

 let the ants in but keep the bees out. 



Q How can I rid my apiary of red ants? They build their 

 hills near and sometimes directly under the hives and crawl into 

 the hives and kill the bees. 



A. Have four feet to the hive, each foot standing in a vessel 

 of oil or water. Find the nest of the ants, with crowbar make a 

 hole in the nest and pour in carbon disulfide. Have no fire near, 

 as the disulfide is explosive. Gasoline will also answer pretty 

 well. 



Apiary. — Q. How many colonies of bees can be kept in one 

 apiary? 



A. That depends upon the pasturage within a mile or two. In 

 most places not more than 75 or 100. 



Q. My bees have at least 300 acres of clover and alfalfa 

 within two miles. How many colonies can I pasture to be safe? 



A. That's one of the very hard things to say. You don't say 

 whether red or white clover. If you mean red, it probably 

 doesn't count for much, while white clover counts heavily in 

 good years, although some j'ears it blooms a plenty and yet yields 



