' 988 
7bt RURAL NEW-YORKER 
.Tunc 21. 1MD 
Bees on the Faim 
What a Woman Can Do 
Part I. 
A Neglected Industry. —Why is bee 
culture given so little attention in our 
farm papers? “Oh,” someone answers, 
“there are special journals devoted to 
that industry.” There are; there are 
also stock journals, horticultural, home 
and poultry journals, and yet all of these 
subjects have a portion of every issue of 
the general farm paper devoted to them, 
while I believe about the only mention 
of bees I’ve seen for weeks was a paid 
advertisement headed “A Bee Line to 
Profit.” There have been a lot of sug¬ 
gestions to our country women about 
making “'pin money” for themselves by 
raising cut flowers, making jams and 
jellies or raising poultry ; but very little 
has been urged in favor of bees. I can 
readily understand why the busy farmer 
does not often undertake their care, but 
I do not understand why the farm woman 
cannot he interested at least to the ex¬ 
tent of providing honey for home con¬ 
sumption. In the recent* sugar shortage 
honey was a great help to me. 
Unnecessary Fear. —I believe the 
lack of interest in bees for the farm comes 
from a lack of knowledge of them coupled 
with an unreasonable fear of what .Tosh 
Billings called their “javelins.” I have 
in mind an example of this fear. A 
young woman, farm raised, came to live 
in the same yard with us. The path 
between the houses ran near my beehives, 
and when she first came she would walk 
back to the barn and come up the drive, 
rods farther, rather than risk taking the 
few 7 steps near the bees. She had a little 
boy just beginning to run about, and she 
was really very uncomfortable about him 
whenever he w ? as out. She seemed to 
think the bees were lying in ambush, 
ready to attack at all times, and that the 
CONTENTS 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, JUNE 21, 1919 
FARM TOPICS 
The Business of a Grange Exchange. 989 
Up-State Farm Notes. 992 
Hope Farm Notes. 994 
Selling Price of Hen Manure. 995 
Grain Figures and Facts. 997 
Coming Farmers’ Meetings. 1004 
LIVE STOCK AND DAIRY 
child was in real danger of being stung 
to death. I notice she no longer prefers 
the long way around, and there are two 
little boys running about now. She has 
told the sturdy two-year-old he “must 
not touch; the bugs will bite,” and the 
four-year-old found that out for himself 
when he put his index finger on a 
“water-carrier” in the pump sink, the 
only time he has ever been stung. Yes, 
we admit that they will use their “jave¬ 
lins” at times, and on anyone. If any¬ 
one boasts in your presence that bees 
will not sting him just regard the state¬ 
ment as a mistake. You can be sure 
that person has only handled the “pesky 
little bugs” when they were on their 
good behavior in times of plenty. But 
suppose they do sting occasionally, what 
of it? If you happen to be one of those 
unfortunates, like myself, in w r hose case 
a sting any place about the head swells 
eyes shut, let me comfort you by telling 
you that if you will persevere and get 
stung often enough^vou will probably find 
yourself becoming immune to the poison 
after awhile, so that the swelling will 
not be so painful. Of course the thrust 
of the “javelin” will always hurt. 
Other Fighters. —But doesn’t an old 
hen “peck” spitefully sometimes? Won’t 
a turkey gobbler “flop” you? Yes, and 
nearly knock you off your feet, besides 
leaving big purple bruises on your body? 
Yitamines; the Life-giving Food Fo¬ 
ments .985. 986 
Using Clover in the Silo. 986 
Feeding Carrots to Horses. 987 
The Price of Cream. 997 
Figuring Prices of Milk. 997 
How Orleans County Obtains All its Wool 
is Worth . 997 
Experience with a Retail Meat Market.... 997 
Ruptured Pigs . 1004 
Feeding Brood Sow. 1004 
Silo Juice and Prohibition. 1004 
Forage and White Beans for Sheep. 1004 
Grassy Flavor in Milk. 1004 
Linseed Oil for Lice on Horses. 1004 
Treatment for Scours. 1004 
Jersey Cattle Club Meeting. 1004 
Should the Dairyman Retire?. 1004 
Washington and Rennselaer Counties’ Wool 
Sale . 1004 
Coming Live Stock Sales. 1004 
Change in Freshening Period. 1006 
Tuberculin Test . 1006 
Breed Selection for Pork. 1006 
Stunted Pig . 1006 
Ration for Jerseys. 1006 
Milk and Live Stock. 1008 
Storing Butter . 1012 
Selection of Breed for Butterfat. 1012 
Value of Clover Silage. 1012 
The Grain for a Dairy Herd. 1012 
THE HENYARD 
Egg-laying Contest 
Bloated Chicken . 
1013 
1013 
HORTICULTURE 
The Business of a Peach Orchard. .... .986, 987 
The Moccasin Flower. 995 
WOMAN AND HOME 
Pickles as Good as Your Grandmother Used 
to Make—Part 1. 990 
Ways with Cherries. 990 
Why the Bovs and Girls Leave the Farm.. 998 
Let the Boy Study Farming. 999 
The Family Finances. 999 
Pastoral Parson and His Country Folks... 1000 
A Letter from France. 1000 
Thoughts of a Plain Farm Woman. 1001 
Destroying Ants . 10VL 
The Confession of an Optimist. 1002 
A Pair of Selling Partners. 1002 
The Demonstrator’s Strenuous Life. 1002 
The Home Dressmaker.1003, 1008 
Home-making in the Country. 1007 
Old Ways and New. 1007 
The Covenant of Calgary. 1007 
Curing Meat in Summer. 1010 
Salting and Curing Suckers. 1010 
A Minnesota Co-operative Laundry. 1011 
MISCELLANEOUS 
Bees on the Farm. 
Country-wide Produce Situation... 
Editorials . 
Snow in June. 
Trouble on a Rural Route. 
Trespassing Golfers and Shotguns 
Your Body Temperature. 
Tainted Canned Fruit. 
Paints for Old Wood....... . 
Telephone Lines and Lightning... 
Oil for Killing Lice. 
Luminous Paint . 
Removing Oil from Glass. 
Sugar in Homemade Wine. 
Acids in Tomatoes. 
Keening Maple Syrup. 
Products, Prices and Trade. 
Publisher’s Desk . 
. 988 
. 992 
. 996 
. 997 
. 1007 
. 1007 
1007 
. 1009 
. 1009 
. 1009 
. 1009 
. 1009 
1009 
. 1009 
. 1009 
. 1009 
. 1011 
. 1014 
Hiving the New Sicarm 
And I think I’d rather hive a swarm of 
bees than to put my hand under a sitting 
turkey hen unless I personally knew her 
to be of a peaceable disposition. Yet we 
would think anyone very foolish to be 
deterred from keeping poultry by fear 
of being hurt. I have had my hands and 
arms scratched from gathering blackber¬ 
ries until they hurt quite as badly as 
would a bee sting, but is that a good 
reason for doing without blackberry pies 
and jam? It is just as foolish to do 
without honey for fear of bee stings. It 
is quite possible to have bees and reduce 
the danger of stings to a minimum. As 
a rule when bees swarm they are peace¬ 
able and easily handled. Some things 
cause exceptions to this rule, however, 
such as adverse weather conditions, two 
or more swarms issuing at once and get¬ 
ting "all mixed up,” or something of that 
kind, so never make the mistake of being 
reckless about handling them. If one 
could be certain he would make no wrong 
move, that nothing would fall or tip 
over, and could be gentle and steady 
enough in all his movements, he might 
handle them .without protecting himself. 
But for my part I think it foolhardy to 
do so, for one can be protected without 
making himself unduly uncomfortable 
and can work so much more rapidly and 
surely. The suit of armor that I don 
is very simple. It is always wise to 
cover up your hair. If a hee finds her¬ 
self entangled in your tresses it seems 
to make her very nervous. She appears 
to “lose her head” and starts straight for 
yours. 
Dressing for Work. —For a head 
covering I use a globe bee veil. It is 
light, quickly and easily adjusted over 
bonnet or hat. As I wear short-sleeved 
house dresses about my work I keep a 
pair of long, loose, canvas gloves hang¬ 
ing with my bee veil. When the gloves 
were new they were dipped in linseed 
oil and hung up to dry. I have them long 
enough to come well up over the sleeve, 
and that is all the protection I have 
found needful. If I happen to have on 
low shoes, and the bees crawl on my 
stockings and are brushed by my skirts, 
they are apt to resent it. If they crawl 
into the clothing anywhere and are 
pinched they will sting. Otherwise they 
seldom sting through clothing, and I have 
frequently worked with them wearing a 
thin lawn dress. 
A Wandering Swarm. —As a child I 
was very fond of honey, and when I was 
married I wanted to have bees. My 
father-in-law discouraged me. He had 
tried the bees and given them up in dis¬ 
gust. I know now that he failed because 
P 
he tried to increase by dividing and car¬ 
ried his dividing so far as to weaken his 
colonies too much. But one day while 
preparing the noon meal I heard a great 
buzzing over my head, and looked up to 
see a swarm of bees passing over. I had 
a tin dishpan in my hand, and I caught 
up something and began belaboring it 
and shouting. I had an idea that some 
kind of a din was indispensable. The 
bees settled in a tall young hickory tree 
in the yard. I suppose they would have 
done so had I not battered my dishpan. 
I knew absolutely nothing about how to 
get them, now they were in sight. From 
his father’s experiments my husband did 
know something about how to get them 
into a hive, so I ran excitedly to the 
field to fetch him. He came willingly 
to try to save them. We had no hive, 
but he told me to get some kind of a box 
while he “rigged up.” lie put on a 
heavy coat, wrapped all up in mosquito 
bar, and got a ladder. I got out a sheet 
and spread it on the ground. He climbed 
the ladder, sawed off the limb and let it 
fall on the sheet. We burned rags and 
did I know not how many unnecessary 
things, and by the middle of the after¬ 
noon had the bees in the box. We spent 
two or thre* hours doing a few minutes’ 
work, because we did not know how! 
Preparing the Hive. —After work 
that evening we visited an old man. a 
retired cabinet maker, who was locally 
considered a great bee man, to see if we 
could get a hive. He made his own hives. 
I had the idea that all parts of a hive 
should be accessible. These hives were 
not so made. When I asked him how I 
eould'get into the brood chamber he told 
me I had no business there. The brood 
frames were nailed fast. He was evi¬ 
dently of the same opinion about a brood 
chamber as the sitting turkey hen. He 
tried to tell us now to transfer our bees 
from the box to the hive, but I do not 
now recall any part of his instruction 
except a remark he made about getting 
rid of the box, because “it is now their 
home.” 
Hiving the Swarm. —The next day we 
went at. the job ith fear and trembling. 
It proved to be a tedious task, and my 
husband soon decided he had already 
spent too much time and wouldn’t “fool 
with ’em.” and went back to his plow. 
It is more than a quarter of a century 
since the hees were thus perfunctorily 
given over into my charge. I was both 
hot and provoked, but determined to hive 
that swarm of bees, so I went at it. I 
soon got so hot that I threw off the extra 
clothing I had put on for protection, 
rolled up ny sleeves and did put them 
where I wanted them. I remember that 
I had to tear the box to pieces, brush the 
bees off the pieces and run, hide them or 
they would settle back on them again. 
For a wonder I was not stung, and my 
swarm of bees did well. But I did not, 
for a long time, know where to get the 
information I needed really to make a 
success of bee culture. It seems to me 
that things are brought within our reach 
better now. I find the advertising pages 
of our magazines very entertaining and 
instructive, and am able to learn a lot 
from them, but I stumbled along several 
years before getting in touch with a firm 
whose advertisement appeared in The 
It. N.-Y. CLARA COWING. 
Indiana. 
Experience with Hay Caps 
In answer to M. D. C., on page S07, I 
would say I made 75 hay caps 40 years 
ago. of sheeting two yards in width, hem¬ 
ming the torn ends and turning up the 
four corners 3 in. In each corner was 
put a strong cord or small line with a 
sharpened wooden peg about 8 in. long, 
attached to the line, to drive into the 
ground to hold the caps in place. These 
caps are still in good condition, and will 
be used for several years. Of course, in 
some seasons they have been used very 
little, the weather was so good; in other 
seasons they have been used a great deal, 
and I consider they have savo.i -j their 
cost many times over in one seas«.,i 
New Hampshire. E. 3. M. 
2,500,000 Cabbage Plants 
(Ready Now) All Head Early, Succession, Copenhagen 
Market, Enkhuizen Glory, Early Summer, Early Jersey 
Wakclleld, Elat Dutch ami Sorehead. 81.60 per 1.000. 
Kerooted Cabbage Flnnts — all above varieties 
#1.75 per 1,000. 
1,000.000 Danish Bnllhend (ready now). Our "No. 
6” Special Strain which is the best obtainable from tests. 
$1.75 per 1,000; Rerooted 82.00 per 1,000. 
500,0001(eiiderson’s Snowball cauliflower plant* 
grown from Burpee's Seed. $-1.0(1 per 1.000; Rerooted 
$4.75 per 1,000. (New Plants coming on all the time.) 
600,000 Tomato Plants (Field Grown) Bonny Best, 
Chalks Early Jewel. John Baer and Stone, #2.00 per 1,000: 
6.000 #9.00; 10,000 $17.00. 
1,000,000 Celery Plant*— (Heady July 1st), Golden 
Self Blanching, White Plume, Winter Queen, Golden 
Heart and Giant Pascal. $8.00 per 1,000. 
Cash must accompany all orders. 
Complete plant price list free. 
PAUL F. ROCHELLE MOUKI8TOWN, M. J. 
ARR1SONS* NURSERIE 
Fruit Trees Budded from Bearintr Orchards. 
Peach, apple, pear, plum, cherry, quinco, 
crape-vines, strawberry plants, raspberries, 
blackberries, evergreens and nhaae trees. 
Catalog free. box 14 Berlin, Md. 
Large Asparagus Roots 
$2.60 hundred: 81 2 thousand. S-yr.-roots, 81.60 hun¬ 
dred ; 88 thousand. 2-yr.-roots, 81 • 1 6 hundred; $6.20 
thousand, by express. II AUK? I,. SQl'IKES,Good Uruund.X.X. 
I .InP.kliairnDlanli 200,000. Parcel post. Danish 
LateliaDDagerlantS Bail Head, (prepaid.) 100 — 45c.; 
600— *1.60; 1,000— #2.76. Cauliflower, 100— 70c. Every 
plant a good one. W. J. .MYERS. K. 2, Massillon, Ohio 
Late Cabbage Plants Sureliead and American 
Savoy 98c. per 1,000; *9 for 10,000; *85 for 100,000. 
Plants Ready June 10 to Aug. 10. S. A. V1HIMN, llardy, Del. 
For Sale- Long IslandSEED CORN WHITE DENT 
J. CODDINGTON, - Glen Head, L. I. 
SWEET POTATO Plants $3.6& thousand, express 
HARRY L. SQUIRES - Good Ground, N. Y 
Cabbage and Celery Plants A8I1HEA iV.'h llllamiou, N. 1. 
INTERESTING 
GARDEN BOOKS 
A Woman’* Hardy Garden 
By Mrs, II. R. Ely $1.75 
Old Time Gardens 
By A. M. Earle 2.50 
Flowers and Ferns in Their 
Haunts By M. O. Wright 2.00 
Plant Physiology By Duggar 1-60 
For Salm by 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 333 W. 30th St.. N. Y. 
Thc*res 3 I?e3Son 
why so many 
people make 
Grape -Nuts 
the regular part, of* at 
least one meal each. day. 
It’s because of* the 
delightful flavor, and "won¬ 
derful values of Grape-Nuts 
as a health builder. 
