1891 - Mr. Love's Long Life With Bees

This article from the British Bee Journal & Bee-keepers Adviser celebrates the good man, John Love, as a beekeeper. I have been getting an article about him as a famous grower of pinks when I got lured away by bee. Pinks are coming!   I have added illustrations when I was curious to know about something (if I could find any).  I would have liked Mr. Love as a neighbor.

OUR PROMINENT BEE-KEEPERS.

No. 30—MR. JOHN LOVE.

We have much pleasure in giving this week the portrait and a biographical sketch of the veteran bee-keeper, Mr. John Love.  Born in the village of Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire, on 10th April, 1806, bred a hand-loom weaver, as were his father and grandfather, three Johns in line, he maybe said to have been a born beekeeper, as he remembers a saying of his father's -that in the old garden the hum of the bee had been heard without a break for sixty years. 

Of middle height, fair complexion, with high colour, the fringe of pretty, fair, silky hair below his wide-awake behind, this 'yellow-haired laddie' of eighty-five summers is frequently taken by the stranger as wearing on to seventy.

If the sentence above made you read it twice, be it known that "The wide-awake, a broad-brimmed felt hat with a lowish crown, was a countryman's hat". (I thank the source!  I remember acutely doing research in pre-computer days. I think the magic of the web will never dull for me.) 

Still remarkably nimble and fleet of foot, of a very amiable disposition, his laugh is as nappy and jubilant now as I believe it to have been when, a boy of nine, he remembers listening to accounts read from the papers of the glorious victory of Waterloo.   For many years an exemplary Presbyterian elder, growing deafness (his only infirmity) prevents him now from performing all the duties of the office.   So healthy has he been that only once during his
long life, for a fever, has he required medical advice.   He married, 12th August, 1833, Mary Climie, daughter of a weaver's agent in his own village, and has been blessed by a numerous offspring.

A few years after his marriage the subject of our sketch moved to Mount Pleasant, beautifully situated on rising ground above the village, and occupied jointly with his brother-in-law, the upper flat as their dwelling  house — workshops below, a good garden behind. 

The passer-by could not but be attracted by the bee-house, a neat model of a two-storied dwelling-house, complete to the sweep on the chimney.  The numerous odd hives of the two dwellings were cosily placed in sheltered nooks under the many crafted fruit-trees. The floral display of roses, herbaceous plants, &c. was very fine but in their season the bed of pinks was the great attraction. 

Mr. Love for many years was the acknowledged Scottish champion 'pink' grower. Upstairs his stuffed specimens of natural history reflected great credit on our friend's taste and neathandedness in another direction. 

It has been recorded in these pages long ago, when the Italian bee was newly imported, how a petition was couched in respectable verse from the Kilbarchan fraternity for leave to inspect the new bee: the writer of it was Mr. Robert Climie, Mr. Love's brother-in-law. 

Alas! that deputation has all passed away save Mr. Love.  

Curious how the poetic vein descends, coming out in the children and grandchildren of Mr. Love.  Robert Climie's end, some twenty years ago, was very affecting.  He was invited over to a neighbouring village to examine the bees of a married daughter of Mr. Love.  A non-smoker himself, he administered a whiff of the pipe, said to his niece he felt sick, and would never touch that vile pipe again, retiring to an inner room, where she in a little while found him kneeling by the sofa in prayer, in which posture his gentle spirit passed away.  The funeral was largely attended, service in the open air, a beautiful spring day, the woods of Glentyan across the strath, and the village nestling in the hollow, bees out in force—very touching to beekeepers present to see his little favourites hover over the pall and odd ones resting on it, as if taking a long farewell of the old master ere his remains were borne away.

Time brings its changes, the kindly old Laird dies, the estate is sold, and Mr. Love after an occupancy of thirty-eight years has to move his looms into the smoky atmosphere of the town of Paisley, where he and an unmarried daughter bravely struggle on, plying their shuttles side by side.  In the interim, first the partner of his joys and sorrows, then his youngest and fairest flower, droop and die.  Gladly he accepts an offer to take charge of a cottage and pony, grow and dispose of a large fruit-garden crop in the island of Bute.  Rarely do we find a man at seventy-six so cheerily abandon his life-work, and begin to earn his bread by his hobby.

In the autumn of that year, 1881, the writer sailed to Bute and made the acquaintance of that steep ascent, the serpentine road, resting to gaze on the beauty of the grand prospect: Rothesay Bay at our feet, Joward Castle on the opposite shore, the glassy smoothness of the far reaches of the Kyles of Bute in the rugged distance.

The hill-top is at last gained; there, bareheaded as usual, busy among his strawberries, stands our hero. The joy at meeting!  'Why, John, you look like an old eagle perched on this hill-top!'  The bees and honey prospects are discussed, and the tremendous crop on his gifted young Caledonian plum-trees presented by John; a branch promised and hamper followed. 

By return of post the hit-off thanks :—

"Through wind and rain your basket came
     In safety—it is here.
'Twas careful hands that packed it
    With its richly-laden store. 

I never can repay you,    But I thank you o'er and o'er, For there are deeds of friendship    Words may not all impart,Their sterling worth, as deep they sink   Into our inmost heart. 

Then, once again I thank you    From here, my mountain home,And, one and all, I wish you joy   In the year that is to come.'

The Stewarton: The Hive for the
busy man

I gave him an introduction to my good friend Miss Macdonell, of Glengarry, and he assisted her with her bees, and that lady, in the kindest manner possible, presented him with a couple of swarms, and he was once more into stock, whose descendants he still carefully preserves.  

The above lady takes an enthusiastic interest in the bee and the silkworm.  

A handsome mahogany rotating observatory ornaments her drawing room, and the supers from her gigantic Stewartons overtopped everything at the Rothesay Exhibition. 

She also takes a warm interest in the cause of religion and education, in maintaining the purity of worship in the National Church;  is thoroughly practical, projected and supports an Initiatory School where poor boys are taught the ground-work of religion, besides the ability to sew on buttons or patches on their jackets.   

detail; source

At the School Board she has sat for nearly six years, the only lady, and heroically defends her position with as much determination as did her illustrious uncle the gates of Hougoumont at Waterloo.

Three verses are extracted from a letter or Mr. Love's on another occasion:—

'I will whisper my tale to the Yule-log   As I muse in its ruddy glow,As here again comes Christmas,   With its holly and mistletoe.

                                *****

'Tes! that is the tale I whisper,
   As I muse in the firelight glow,
As I sit, in the hush of the evening.
  And think on long ago; 

'On the happy home of my childhood,   On the friends I held so dear:
One by one they have left us,
   They are no longer here.'

                                  *****   

After a five years' residence in Bute he came back to Kilbarchan, and the bees and pinks are safely flitted to his present garden.  After the labours of the week are over, it is a much 

anticipated pleasure on the Saturday half-holiday, skimming over the four miles that part our dwellings.  The newest ideas in bee-keeping are discussed, the last bed of pinks planted by himself seen to, and the latest-come herbaceous plant criticized; and if in autumn the fruit-crop is peculiarly interesting — those 'Bouquet trees, the waxy purity of the white 'celestial' apple flanked on either side, same tree, by branches of the scarlet or striped varieties successively.  

He often ejaculates,  "It bates a!"  

How comes such heavy crops? Your good grafting and the fertilizing powers of our little friends, the bees?   "Nae doot, nae doot!"

One fine Saturday afternoon autumn was a twelvemonth, we were favoured by a visit from 'Our Editor,' pointing out to him how  "history repeats itself", our old Japanese lion, worshipped for 3000 years, had been peopled that season by a colony of humble-bees as Samson's was, the subject of our sketch arrived  and the pleasure of that introduction he will never forget.

— A Renfrewshire Bee-keeper

1895 - Ki-ote Seed & Nursery Company

This was an interesting cover from the

 Ki-ote Seed & Nursery Company. 

I live near Wethersfield, Connecticut, home of the famous Wethersfield onions.  To find them featured in a South Dakota seed catalog was unexpected.
Don't ask why, but it was, and it got my attention.

 I'll look around and see what I can find out about the Ki-ote company. 

They Better Taste Good!...

Haven't seen pollinators.  I was hoping my bees would like them.

Four years ago I was amused by the story of the Wonderberry, and posted Vials of Contempt - The Wonderberry Story.   

Then, last fall, I bought the seeds for Schwartzenbeeren from Baker's Heirloom Seeds, completely forgetting what I had written years ago.    

This is the stage mine are at today.

It was quite the surprise to have my old post come up when I was looking for info on the Schwartzenbeeren! (Also know as Schwartzbeeren, blaubeeren.)


I find I did not buy the Burbank's improved Solanum nigrum which was named the Wonderberry, just the historical favorite brought to the United States by the Volga Germans.

What I was looking for was recipes, however, not history this time.  The plants look very eager to inundate me with little berries.

The plants in their pots are already covered with flowers and the start of berries so I planted many of them yesterday.  Maybe too early, given the weather report of 49º at night, but they had been hardened off so out they went!  (It also opened up room in the cold frame for the next batch of plants.)

NEXT DAY:  It's hot outside.  The plants are well watered by the rainstorm. They are very happy.  

I wonder how long before the first ripe berries???!!!

This recipe is from a PDF available from the North Dakota State University - Libraries.

Schwartzbeeren Cream Pie 

1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell 

3 cups Schwartzbeeren 

1 Tbsp. flour 

1/2 cup cream 

3 egg yolks, slightly beaten 

a pinch of salt 

3/4 to 1 cup sugar 

Meringue (recipe follows) 

_____________________________________

Preheat the oven to 400º F. 

Place the Schwartzbeeren in the pie shell. 

In a bowl, blend the flour with a little of the cream until smooth. Then add the rest of the cream, the egg yolks (save the whites for the meringue that will go on top the pie), salt, and sugar. 

Mix thoroughly and then pour over the berries. 

Bake the pie 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to 325 ºF. and bake until the custard is well set (a knife blade inserted into it should come out clean). 

Remove the pie from the oven and top with the meringue. 

Return the pie to the oven and bake 12 to 15 minutes more, or until the meringue is golden brown.

Let cool before serving. 

Meringue: 

Combine 3 egg whites, 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar and a pinch of salt in the bowl of an electric mixer. 

Beat on medium speed until soft peaks form. 

Add 6 Tbsp. sugar, 2 Tbsp. at a time, beating after each addition. 

Beat 3 to 5 minutes longer, until all the sugar is dissolved and the whites are satiny and form stiff peaks. 

Apply the meringue to the hot pie, smoothing it to the edges of the crust to keep it from shrinking. Make peaks in the meringue with the back of a spoon.

(Return the pie to the oven and bake 12 to 15 minutes more, or until the meringue is golden brown.)

1877- A Plant for the Poor - Polygonum cuspidatum

This interesting view of Japanese Knotweed and of the state of poor city people was an English article published in the The Florist and Pomologist.  


1877 - POLYGONUM CUSPIDATUM AS A TOWN PLANT

IN the preface to many a small treatise, the author states that "a great want has long been felt" for the article which he, in his benevolence, has at length provided; and following this precedent, I cannot do better than introduce Polygonum cuspidatum, alias P. Sieboldii, as a plant to fill a gap of no ordinary dimensions.  

"Fat Hen", I know it as Pigweed.
 Image source

The plant belongs to a family of troublesome weeds, of which the Fat Hen (used as a spinach) is a notable member; and from a certain family likeness, this plant, like the Fat Hen, may perhaps some day do duty as a vegetable at the board of the poor man.


Its chief merits at present, however, consist in its being, like Jonah's Gourd, a plant of rapid growth, and in its taking kindly to town life. 


It grows at least 10 ft. high, and the rapidity with which it runs up may be seen, when I state that one recently planted against a cottage in a narrow street in Manchester, attained from 6 ft. to 7 ft. in height; and being a bold herbaceous plant, with a branching stem spotted with purple, and well furnished with leaves all the way up, it has no mean or common aspect.

 When rising in spring, which it does in May, the succulent shoots are crisp and tender, and rather larger than fair-sized Asparagus. The leaf is heart-shaped, with a narrowed point and truncate base, and handsome. It is thoroughly hardy, and one of its peculiarities is that its underground stems spread widely in search of fresh pasture. 

I saw it putting in an appearance in a garden adjoining the one in which it was planted, having travelled by the wall and under a flag-stone 3 ft. wide, thereby showing its aptitude for town-life; and whilst the London Nettle [Coleus] requires to be kept indoors in the dingy windows of the City, this Polygonum will do the work of the Nettle without any protection.

In a box or barrel containing half a cubic foot of earth, placed against a wall, or planted out in the paved yard, it will live and do well; and as it dies down every year, it escapes half the dirt that would have fallen upon its foliage had it been an evergreen shrub. It is, moreover, strong enough to stand alone, and does not need the town-ladder nor even a stake to keep it upright.

The Lupinus polyphyllus is one of our earliest spring plants, and has been extensively cultivated for agricultural purposes. Who knows but that this fastgrowing, early herb may some day rival the Lupine as early food for ewes and lambs. As a weed, it has much of the character of colt's-foot and couch-grass, and therefore had better be cautiously let into possession, lest it might be difficult to get it out root and branch, for it pushes its underground stems in all directions.

Whilst the rich can carry their love of grass and flowers from the country into town-life, and be able to maintain parks and squares where their children can walk under shady trees, and disport themselves on the green sward, the poor people are not deficient in taste for the same luxuries, and would gladly hail a hardy perennial herbaceous plant that would take up its abode with them, and thrive among bricks and mortar, and every year get abler for its work.
The Polygonum cuspidatum will do all this, and thereby supply a want that has long been felt.—A. FORSYTH, Salford.

_______________________

Friend of Bees -The Japanese Knotweed

This isn't a seed related post, instead,  just something else I like.  As a new beekeeper, my interest in poking around in old journals and books has led me to Polygonum cuspidatum. (Say it aloud with a good bounce - its fun)  

Japanese Knotweed was introduced in the United States as an an ornamental in the mid 1800s and grew to be one of the hardest plants to keep from taking over the countryside. 


Gardners of larger estates (and people with small lawns,  but with attitude) appreciated Castor Bean and Cannas for their large lush exotic aesthetic.
Japanese Knotweed fit right in. 

Back before the internet I had to look it up in Bailey when a narrow, shady ally behind my house sprouted a bee full forest of the stuff. 

What I haven't known until recently is that it makes a nice dark honey!!

 Japanese Knotweed honey has many people who appreciate it. I've never tasted it, but I love buckwheat honey which is as dark as molasses, so I am planning to find Polygonum cuspidatum honey to buy this fall.  

The other feature that beekeepers appreciate is the flowering time of knotweed in New England falls when most other flowers are taking a break before starting up again in early fall.  Called "the dearth", during this time when most plants are not flowering beekeepers need to feed their bees to keep their numbers up so they are ready for the important work of gathering the fall flower honey.   Bees who are not fed during a dearth wisely decrease the their numbers so there are fewer mouths to feed.  However, if the hives have a big tract of knotweed to forage on there is no dearth for those bees. 

This article promoting it as a garden plant for the larger garden is from 1868.  The same magazine, The American Agriculturist, was still promoting it as an ornamental in 1887, although they place more emphasis on how it gets out of control, with suggestions of planting it in a tub, or someplace where it can spread.  

The Japanese Knotweed.  (Polygonum cuspidatum.)

The genus Polygonum, although a large one, cannot boast of many species sufficiently elegant to be cultivated for ornament. We are familiar with them as plants to be ejected from the grounds rather than to be introduced, for here belong the False, or Climbing Buckwheat, the Black Bind-weed, Smart-weed, Knotgrass, Goose-grass, and others whose common names indicate their weedy character. The Polygonum Orientale, the Prince's Feather, or Ragged-Sailor, a tall Species with rather coarse foliage and drooping spikes of rose colored flowers, is often been in the humbler attempts at gardening, in company with Sunflowers, Love-lies-bleeding, and other similarity coarse and weedy plants. 

"We have for some years known a species which is really worth cultivating, but which does not seem to be much disseminated—the Polygonum  cuspidatum, a native of Japan. It is a perfectly hardy perennial, which throws up branching stems three or four feet high, bearing large oval leaves, which are long-pointed at the apex,—hence the name;  cuspidatum. 

The small white flowers are in Utile clusters in the axils of the leaves, and are succeeded by the fruit, or seeds, which being of a pale rose color are more showy than the flowers themselves. Though the flowers individually are small, they are produced in such abundance and have such a graceful droop that the plant is quite showy in flower and fruit, and its effect is heightened by the reddish color of the stems.

The plant increases very rapidly, and soon forms a large clump; indeed this is its greatest fault, and one which unfits it for use in smallholders. 

It is very effective for planting where there is plenty of room, and it will grow in any soil and situation, even under the shade of trees. It blooms in July and August, and continues for a long time. There is a variegated leaved. form which is rather curious, but the variegation is not constant. 

___________________

I had to include this video!!

And I also have to include this one.  This is why it is a hated plant.

The presenter in this news clip is Christine Walkden, one of my favorite Gardners Question Time panel members. Gardners Question Time makes a great podcast for commuting BTW.

1887 - Horsemint: #10 of Root's Bee Plants

If you are thinking about what honeybees consider a delightful flower - think any mint family plant.  I suppose there might be one they shun, but I haven't heard of it yet. 

Bee balm

A. I. Root's horsemint is Monarda fistulosa.  The flower shape is familiar to anyone who has the more common (in New England) garden plant, Monarda didyma, bee balm.


Horsemint is more of a southern plant in the United States.  In 1882, Mrs. Jennie Atchley was describing the bee plant year in Texas when she said,  

"...after May 20th, horse mint begins to bloom. Then we can holloa out, Eureka, all is safe; just about the same as apiarists in the north when white clover and basswood comes in."   

 In Texas, "the dearth", when bees have a hard time finding anything in bloom, comes just before the horsemint blooms.  A gentleman from Carthage, Missouri  in 1883 commented that horsemint was usually the richest honey harvest of the year.    

Frank Chapman Pellet writes, in his 1920 book, American Honey Plants: Together with Those which are of Special Value to the Beekeeper as Sources of Pollen :

HORSEMINT (Monarda)

There are several species of horsemint, known also as bee balm, wild bergamot, etc. Some of the species are represented from New England to Texas. Figure 77 (not shown) shows M. fistulosa, the wild bergamot of the North. The corolla tubes are so deep that, as a rule, the bees are unable to reach the nectar. In some cases it is reported as yielding freely and the author has seen times when the bees were apparently getting considerable nectar from this species. 

Whether the nectar secretion is unusually abundant or the corolla tubes shortened more than is commonly the case, the author will not venture an opinion.

 In parts of Wisconsin, M. punctata, according to D. L. H. Pammel, can be depended upon to yield an abundance of nectar every season. This is probably the most important species to the beekeeper. It is found more or less commonly on sandy soil from New York to Minnesota and south to Florida and Texas. 

In Texas it is the source of very large quantities of surplus honey in seasons following wet winters, and springs. The honey is a clear light amber with a decided minty flavor. It is one of the most important sources in Texas, where, together with M. clinopodioides, it is regarded very highly. In the Arkansas Valley of southern Kansas horsemint is also important, yielding as high as fifty pounds of surplus per colony.

This lovely watercolor sketch by Miss Helen Sharp.  I can't find any information on her beyond what she notes on her drawings - where she is when sketching  and the date.  Her works date between 1888 and 1910.  This sketch was done in Taunton, MA in 1910, I think. Hard to read date.

Here is another, from 1895.

And here is another artist in a book from 1800, Zorn, J., Oskamp, D.L., Afbeeldingen der artseny-gewassen met derzelver Nederduitsche en Latynsche beschryvingen, vol. 4: t. 316  (Images of the physician's crops with their Dutch and Latynian writings)

Old Photo - Time to Plant Seeds

They are in such a hurry to grow up.