AMONG OUR EXCHANGES.

GLEANINGS.

Bees and Grapes. —The Klassen and Krock difficulty about the bees of the former committing depredations on the grapes of the latter, is to be submitted to arbitration. It seems that the real trouble was a “personal feud that does not concern bee-keepers at all”—the grape matter was an outgrowth. This matter was referred to in Prof. Cook’s article on page 74 of the Bee Journal, and should now be entirely divorced from the Bee and Grape controversy.

Bees Dead in box hives.—Mr. G. Castello, Saginaw, Mich.,

says that on Feb. 22 he went to a neighbor’s, 5 miles distant, who had a box-hive apiary consisting of 103 colonies of bees. After looking them over, they found only 10 colonies alive; all the rest had died of dysentery.

Honey for sore Eyes. —Mr. S. C. Perry, Portland, Mich., says:

“A neighbor of mine had inflammation in his eyes. He tried many things of many physicians; ‘was nothing better, but rather grew worse,’ until he was almost entirely blind. His family was sick, and I presented him with a pail of honey. What they did not eat he put in his eyes, a drop or two in each eye, 2 or 3 times a day. In 3 months’ time he was able to read coarse print, and now, after 4 months’ use, his eyes are almost as good as ever. I have also found honey good for common cold-sore eyes.”

MISCELLANEOUS.

Feeding in Winter.—Mr. A. B. Weed, in the Michigan Farmer, says:

“Many colonies which were put up for winter with but a small amount of provision, have consumed what was given them, and starved for want of more. Others have but a small amount of stores left, and must be fed soon if they are to be saved. The best way to feed such is to give them frames of well ripened honey, but this the weather will not always permit. The next best thing for them is candy; this can be given at any time, and can be laid on top of the frames. If the cluster is low down in the hive, it should be put down into it, where it can be reached.”

Bees and Grapes. —Mr. W. H. Stout, in the Lancaster, Pa., Farmer, gives the following as his experience:

By close investigation I have satisfied myself that bees do not destroy sound grapes. I had, during the past season, 22 colonies of Italian and common black bees; all the hives were in close proximity to the grapes, while a number had the vines trained over them for shade during the heat of summer. The grapes are of the Concord variety, of which I had an abundance of fine fruit, some clusters of which grew within 18 inches of the entrance to the hives. Bunches of the grapes remained on the vines until the frost had killed the foliage, which fell off and left the grapes exposed, affording every temptation to the bees; and this, too, through a season when the honey yield from natural sources was so small that the bees consumed stores they had gathered earlier in the season. But the bees do work on grapes, and also on other fruits under certain conditions. If the skin of grapes, peaches, pears, etc., is ruptured from any cause, the bees, wasps, ants, etc., are very quick in discovering it, and soon leave only the dried shells. During the hot weather of August, especially when there are frequent showers, the skin of ripening fruit cracks, for reasons which I will leave to some philosophical friend to explain. My conclusions are not hasty; nor were my observations superficial; but they were prolonged from the time the first grapes ripened until the close of the season. I found some clusters of grapes literally covered with bees scrambling and fighting for the little sweets contained in the cracked grapes, which are the only ones on which they work, as I found out by driving the bees away and removing from the clusters all the bursted grapes, when the bees, as soon as they found only sound fruit remained, went away and left the grapes uninjured. We also laid some bunches of grapes on top of the hives and others close to the entrances, also left clusters hanging on the vines close to the hives, where they remained uninjured by the bees as long as the fruit was sound. I know very well that bees can gnaw through heavy muslin, or shave off wood and straw. To cover the bees we have quilts made of heavy muslin, which they sometimes bite through, and we have wood and straw hives on which they have enlarged the entrances; but, nevertheless, I am fully satisfied they do no injury whatever to sound fruit.

Feeding Rye-Meal. —In the Indiana Farmer Mr. F. L. Dougherty says:

“Bees will not raise brood without pollen in some shape. We frequently find colonies with but very little, and at times none at all. In crowding them on a few frames, quite frequently those left in the hive contain but little, if any. So it becomes necessary to furnish it to them, until they can gather it from natural sources. Unbolted rye-meal is probably the best substitute, although they will use wheat-flour, corn-meal, oat-meal, or in lieu of any of these, will even carry saw-dust. To get the bees started, place a piece of comb on the meal, and if the weather be pleasant and no pollen to be had they will soon appropriate it. They will leave the meal when natural pollen makes its appearance.”

☞ That excellent Monthly, published in Nyon, Switzerland, by Mons. E. Bertrand,—the “Bulletin D’Apiculteur pour la Suisse”—gives the Weekly Bee Journal the following kind notice:

“We have received the first 2 numbers of the American Bee Journal, which has been transferred from a Monthly to a Weekly, by its Editor, Mr. T. G. Newman. Only one apiarian publication is issued every 2 weeks, the Bienen-Zeitung of Eickstadt. That of Mr. Newman’s is, therefore, ‘the only one in the entire world which is published weekly.’ It is also, without doubt, the most universal. Its principal contributors are among the most distinguished bee-keepers of America, together with scientists, entomologists, chemists and farmers; and the number of those who send it communications can be called legion. It is, with an understanding of the full extent of the services which it renders, through the abundance of the observations and of the information which it brings before its readers, that we offer to our colleague and friend our warmest felicitations on the occasion of the new development of his publication.”

This very kind notice is the more valuable as Mons. E. Bertrand is a man of intelligence and wealth, whose sole interest is his love of the pursuit of bee-keeping.

☞ L’Apicoltore, the organ of the Central Società d’Apicoltore d’Italia, also gives the Bee Journal the following very kind notice, in its excellent number for February:

“The bee-papers are every day augmenting to suit the increasing need of the readers, and the publisher of the American Bee Journal, Signor Newman, who came to Europe and to Milan last year, announces that at the beginning of 1881 his Monthly Journal will be issued every week.”

☞ In Mr. A. Hoke’s letter, on page 77, he stated that the dead bees covered the ground for several yards. That was bad enough, but our compositor made it a hundred times worse by adding the word hundred. The reader will please discount that expression accordingly.