“novice's" gleanings in beb culture. 
had commenced working tliat day, The 
owner of the farm stated that the bees 
had worked very briskly on the cider, h’ive 
of the stocks were not opened on Satur- 
day remained shut in by a wire screen 
put before the portico 8x12 wide until 
Monday night. I was terror-struck to see 
from a pint, to a quart of dead bees in three 
of those hives. Several bees were exam- 
ined and found to contain n large drop of 
some kind of liquid not in their honey 
bag, but in their extremities. This makes 
me think that cider is very injurious. Per- 
haps those bees would not have died if they 
could have discharged their fames. Two 
years ago the bees of my home apiary had 
been weakened so much by working on 
cider, that they came very weak through 
the winter, and amounted to nothing at 
all the next summer. A. G. 
Many thanks, Mr. Grim. We value the 
above report as it gives an idea of the 
profits of beekeeping as it really is, gener- 
ally the country over, and presents no ex- 
aggerated inducements to beginners, that 
will be sure to lead them to disappoint- 
ments. In regard to the cidermills, P. (1. 
has insisted all along this fall that the 
number of dead and dying bees in front 
of our hives surely indicated something 
wrong. Novice suggested that it was on- 
ly old bees whose span of life was "spun" 
out, but after sweeping the ground clean, 
in a very short time it was again 
strewn with their distended bodies, 
and many of our stocks are so sadly de- 
populated that if they all winter safely 
twill be a wonder indeed. Since the dry- 
sugar experiments, matters have much 
improved with the exception of the time 
when mauy bees were lost in working on 
the dampened sugar. 
MOW NOVICE FED OI K BEES, 
TfJiOUU barrels of sugar were purchas- 
«“*i ed about Oct. 1st, at an expense of 
lljf C per pound. We could have had it 
tor even 11, two months earlier, but we 
make it a practice as ageneral rule to buy 
as low as we can when an article is need- 
ed without attempting to speculate on the 
probable rise or tall of any staple com- 
modity. 
As Novice expressed a very sanguine 
belief that he could finish the whole 
feeding in three days if furnished with 
plenty of "tea kettles," the whole mat- 
ter was turned over to him alone, and he 
commenced operations at .'I o’clock, Oct. 
8th, tho day being very line though cool 
towards evening. 
A large pine box lined with zinc, of ca- 
pacity' equal to four barrels, was the only 
material used, not found in every house- 
hold, and this had been originally made 
for another purpose, but has been used 
in our apiary to keep empty combs in, etc. 
The barrels of sugar were in the bee 
house where they had been rolled from 
the car. Well, at 3 o'clock as we said be- 
fore, this zinc lined box was placed in 
3* 
front ol the bee house at about six feel 
from the door, the light ladder used to 
gain access to the loft, was placed so at 
to form an incline from the threshold of 
the door to the edge of the box over 
which it projected beyond the other edje 
of the box. 
1 1 is clear that with this arrangement 
but little strength and very little time was 
required in rolling a barrel up so that it 
rested directly over the box, removing 
the head and dropping the whole contents 
without waste into the box. The next 
operation was to pour the contents of a 
large washboiler of boiling water on said 
sugar, and as the quantity seemed insuf- 
ficient the contents of the teakettle found 
on (lie stove were used also. The absence 
of said utensil, when preparations were 
being made for the evening meal. Novice 
failed to consider at all, and in fact had 
lie done so it would probably have troubled 
him but little, for when be is at work at a 
project for shortening labor lie seldom 
considers its bearing on other people or 
things, at the time. 
When liejudged that the boiling water 
for a barrel of sugar was sufficient, rapid 
dissolution was the next desirable point 
and a hoe was hastily divested of the great- 
er part of the accumulation on its blade, 
when Mrs. N. ventured to remonstrate, on 
the ground that the garden hoc was hard- 
ly a tidy implement for such a purpose ; 
lie replied that she did him injustice for 
'twas not the garden hoe, but the one 
used in the stables. (Novice here insists 
that with the aid of said teakettle of 
boiling water the hoe was made perfectly 
clean.) 
Perhaps fifteen minutes was occupied 
in acquiring the art of using the hoe to 
the best advantage, which consists in 
making a channel in the sugar and then 
forcing the hot water along this with con- 
siderable force by keeping the boe con 
stantly submerged, and directing the cur- 
rent toward the sugar until it all disap 
pears. 
After supper, the undissolved sugar had 
settled to the bottom and the syrup above 
remained clear and about the desired 
consistency. A shelf was suspended in 
the box on which to place the feeders, and 
the syrup wns dipped up with a collee-pot 
and poured into them; whenfull the feed 
cr was inverted oil the shelf to see that 
noue ran out, and then carried in this 
position to a hive that had been previous- 
ly uncovered. Before returning, the next 
hive was uncovered and so on ; by thus 
saving steps, twenty hires were each sup 
plied with the contents of one ot the tea 
kettle feeders, before (i o’clock ; ami in 
short a whole barrel of sugar was tuade 
into syrup and fed to twenty hives in less 
than three hours. In proofthat syrup can 
be made in this way without the addition of 
other ingredients to prevent cry stall za- 
tion, we may state that at this date, Oct 
1 1 tli, the syrup is, the greater part of it 
nicely capped over, brood is to be seen in 
all stages aud a healthier it»te of afiair* 
