* UMASS/AMHERST 312066 0331 2908 9 U n D D D o D a D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D a D a D g UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS o R LIBRARY D D D D D ? D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D □DDDDD JJBRARY UNIVERSnYOF MASSAC niSETTS AMHERSI I^ASS. Knt,r,fl „l lie I'o.lotllr.. F„lr„,„r. .Y. )' . „. ,rron({-c/,l \^® &i\F(B ftto® P®®^D® Who Oan Turn Out mmdl KM SEffiTili (cleated separators) FOR sections >n\ without ■^ inset-!) 1898. Having special appliances and machinery, we can make them right. Nothing in late years has seemed to stir snch a furor in the Bee Keeping World as these new goods. If you don't know about tliem, send to Tne -A.. I. I^OOT OO., Medina, Ohio. NEW 1898 CATALO(tUE, largely re-written, out by January loth BBSS W AIL We mrill pay 26 cts. cash or 28 ctsingoods^ for good quali- ty o£ Beesmrax^ freight paid to FA1UOOMKR, M. Y. If you have any ship it to us at oncei, (Prices subject to change without notice). THE W. T. FALCONER M'F'G CO. MUTH'S HONET EXTRAOTOB PERFECTION Cold-Blast Smokers. SQUARE GLASS HONEY JARS, &c For Circulars, apply to Chas. P. Mdth & Sou Corner Freeman and Central Avenues, Cincinnati 0. Send 1 0c for Practical Hints to Bee- Keepers. We are also Dealers in Honey and Beeswax Please mention American Bee- Keeper PATENTS Qiiickly seeurca. CU3 ^ZZ EUE ■ms PATENT OBTAINED. Send motlcl, sketch cr photo, with description for free report .is to patentability. 44-PA6E HAND-BOOK FREE. CnntaiKS references and full information. WRITE FOR COPT OF OUR SPECIAL OFFER. It is tlie mostliberal proposition ever made by a patent attoriK'V, and EVERT INVENTOR SHOULD READ IT before applying fur patent. Address : H.B.WILLSON^CO. PATENT LA VYERS, LeProitBidg. WASHINGTON, D. C. ((uickl Villi » ill l)e si l)e done, --eu I ii.s yen bi- to your iritere>t to \ddrfs- — '• PKOPK Philfidelnbia. Pa. ' ii per wei-k! You work riKht niHv thiiiK- VViit.t td their ability to distinguish )lor. For two or three days matters ent in about the same way, and the speriraents of Sir John Lubbock re- ilting in a preference for blue, seemed illy verified. Finally the white Dwers were also visited, and I no- ced that each individual seemed to ive its own choice regarding color, hose that had frequented white awers passing by purple ones with le same haughtiness shown by others reviously regarding the white or yel- w ones. Then came the query, why Dt a difference in individual tastes, in the genus homof Later I no- ced that after a bee had visited and Dssibly re-visited all the flowers of his first chosen variety, he finally, perhaps, in a fit of desperation at the evident lessening of pollen supply, tested the other variety; finding it to his liking he visited other flowers of the same color with the same discrim- ination as before. Thus the conclu- sion is drawn that the color which at first attracts each individual is the one that will be almost invariably chosen by it until scarcity of pollen in this variety leads it to be dissatisfied and cast its lines elsewhere. Late in the season I saw some individuals working on the yellow variety, but it seemed for some reason less popular to the majority of bees than the purple or white sorts. On Wintering Bees BY ED JOLLEY. In reading the article of G. M, Doolittle in December Bee Keeper, I was surprised to lesrn the wide range of temperature of a colony of bees. I had thought that owing to their clustering closer together the temper- ature would be but little lower in cold weather than warm. If anyone had asked me I should have told them that it would probably range from 90 to THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. Januari 97 degrees. But we see from a care- ful experiment that it will go nearly 30° below that. Mr. Doolittle rightly says that it re- quires an extra expenditure oi: honey to keep up a temperature so much higher than the surrounding temper- ature. Using this as a basis he inti- mates that us fellows who advocate out-door wintering, might figure out where we are losing in dollars and C3nts by the practice. I will admit that it requires more honey to carry a colony through the winter out-doors than in a repository. But there are other features to be con- sidered besides the difference in amount of honey consumed. Now I believe success in wintering, whether in the cellar or on the summer stands, depends more on the quality of houey used than anything else. That honey that is a superior article for wintering in a repository, will often give dire re- sults if used out-doors and vlci versa. In fact I have proven it to be so to my satisfaction, by a series of experi- iments, which I will mention further on. In this locality the bees usually get enough late fall honey to fill the brood combs. This honey comes in slowly and as the brood is decreasing, it all goes in the broodnest. It is a dark, strong and inferior quality of honey, and if we should extract it, it would be useless as we couldn't give it away. So you see, considering the quality of the honey and the quantity we usually get off it we are not out much in dollars and cents, even if it does require a little more of it to win- ter outdoors than in the cellar. But while this is apparently an inferior grade of honey it is a very superior honey for wintering on the summei stands. It is strong, aromatic anc very condusive of heat. Yet it give.' very poor results when used by bees ii long, dose confinement. When I first began keeping bees, ^ thought too much of my bees to think of risking them out-doors in the win ter. So I put them in the cellar The nexs spring my bees all had thi dysentary and dwindled away unti it took them nearly all the next sea son to get into shape for another win ter. This I ascribed to some defec in cellar. Accordingly the next fall made arrangements with a neighbo who had a good, warm, dry cellar well cemented, to let rae put my bee in his cellar. The results here wen nearly or quite as bad as in my own This made me think that there migh be something in the quality of th( honey, and led me to try a series o experiments as to what was the bes food for wintering and where to us( it. The next fall I selected three col onies, and took all fall honey front them, and gave them combs of clove houey instead; from three other col onies I took the honey and substitute! sugar syrup instead; three colonic were allowed to retain the fall honey These colonies were as near alike a could be, and all were set in my eel lar at the same time. Having bu twelve other colonies, I treated then in same manner. Giving four clove honey; four sugar syrup, and four lat fall honey. These colonies were al lowed to remain on the snmmer stands Now as to the results: The colonic that wintered on the clover houey ii the cellar came out in good condition While those with the fall honey cam* 898. THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. ut diseased and dwindled away as be- ore. Now the result was altogether ifferent with those that wintered ut-doors. Those with the clover ouey and sugar syrup were weak in 5ring and slow to build up, while lose ou the fall honey were strong d healthy. I then came to the )ncIusion that as long as I could inter my baes on the summer stands ith the cheap honey, better than I >uld in the cellar with the cheap jney, and winter on the summer ands with the cheap honey as well as could in the cellar with a more ex- nsive article 1 was ahead in dollars ',d cents by doing it. But if I had feed sugar or use a milder honey I ilieve I would winter in the cellar, igar syrup and many of our finer ades of honey are mild in flavor id are very suitable for indoor win- ring, yet they lack the heat pro- icing qualties contained in the strong d more aromatic fall honey, and lich are so necessary to successful ntering ou the summer stands, lere is more that might be said )ng this line, but I have said enough provoke thought, and will wait un- I hear what others have to say. ^^•anklin, Pa. Clubbing List. ^e will send the American Bee-Keeper with PCB. PRCE. BOTH. erican Bee Journal, (81 00) 81 35 Keeper's Review. (1 00) 1 35 adian Bee Journal, (1 00) 1 35 mingrs in Bee Culture. (1 00) 1 35 nj 3 per cent, discount will be allowed catalogue prices on all orders re- ved before February 1st, 1898. 110 cepting on sections , shipping cases i glass. j^a^^i^0:^i^"" Ed. Am. Bee Keeper, Dear Sir: — I notice in the Nov. number of the American Bee Keeper a request for sudscribers to write from their own experience ou topics pertaining to bees. I will make an attempt to do so although I have never w-ritten any- thing before and my experience is small. In fact I have kept bees only two seasons. There are several old fashioned bee keepers about here who believe that bees should have water but they let them get it through leak}" covers. They also believe that "larning spoils folks" and they advise beginners not to read Bee Journals and books on bee keeping, 1 started bee keeping in the spring of 1896 with eleven colonies in old hives and have now in the cellar 42 swarms in good condition. I have nearly doubled them each year besides getting a large crop of honey, as 1 follow the plan of natural swarming; I expect to reach 84 swarms next year. Swarming here usually begins about the first part of June. The past season my first swarm issued the 7th of June and the last one the 15th of August, this latter being what I called a buckwheat swarm. Through the winter I make my hives for the coming season and get everything in readiness, a plan which 1 think works nicely. THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. The hives 1 use are made 21 inches long by 14 inches wide, (outside meas- ure,) 10 inches deep. 1 use eight frames in each hive and use full sheets of light brood foundation in each frame, The past season was not an extra good one here. For a while white clover gave a very fair harvest; the basswood was far behind and in fact was almost a failure. My honey is stored in one pound sections and the sections are removed before they become travel stained. I have no trouble in markeimg them. Several other bee keepers here put their honey up in 2 lb boxes made of red pine and let them remain on the hive until they are dark colored and then sell them with the glass, weigh- ing the glass and all, to the customer, but people do not like to pay 12 1-2 cts. per lb for glass that they cannot use, so such bee keepers find very little sale for their goods. I believe if all bee keepers would put their honey in good attractive shape and then try their home market first, looking up new customers who would take their wearly supply from them , it would in a great measure help prices in the city market. As long as 1 can have good success in sellihg honey at 12 1-2 cts. per lb. as I have had in the past year I will not trouble the commission men in the city' I have had no experience in queen rearing, transferring, etc., and so cannot write intelligently obout them but would like to hear from others on this subject. Yours truly, C. H. Peterson, Crary Mills, N. Y. Dec, 15th. I From New York Tribune) PROGRESS IN BEE CULTURE. What Fifty Years Have Done For Apicul ture BY A. I. ROOT. A little more than fifty ^^ears a2;o man employed by ray father to brim stone some skeps of bees in orde r to g€ the honey. I was then three or fou years old, but 1 was so carious abou bees and honey that I stayed out dooi on a cold autumn day until I caugli such a cold that it came very nea spoiling this chapter. I was alway an eager questioner, and I persuiue asked more questions about bees an other insects in a few minutes tha all my relation could answer in a many years. When I became old er ough to form an acquantance with th ants in the anthills near my home questioned ray friends so eagerly an intently that when some of my oldt brothers and sisters stirred up my aui hill just to bother me there would hav been a free fight all around had it nc been for my good mother. When was ten years old I became the owne of a hive of bees, but when sprint time came a colony belonging to nearby neighbor, came inandcleane out my hive — bees, honey and al This aroused my curisoty again, an I wanted more bees; but my goo father objected, on the ground th? they would sting people and raak trouble, and would not gather an 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. honey to amount to much, after all. As soon as I became a married man, and even before I had a home of my own, I procured some bees, proposing to investigate to ray hearts content. However, before the bees and I be- came very well acquainted they de- camped. But this only made me still more curious, and in a short time was " crazy," as the neighbors said in regard to bee culture. I was pro- prieror of a little jewelry store at that time, where my sister assisted me in my watch-repairing, etc. I remember hearing her tell my wife one day that every old farmer who came into the store was compelled to stay until he had told me every thing he could tell and all that he had heard anybody Ise tell, about honey bees. I ransack- d old garrets for back numbers of The American Agriculturist, " and later I got hold of " The Rural New- Yorker"; but the more I studied the more infatuated I became. When I was the happy possessor of " Lang- troth on the Honey-Bee" I came pretty near sitting up all night to read the wonderful story — more wonderful and fascinating than "Robinson Cru- soe," because Crusoe's island was right in my garden, where I could investi- gate and verify all the particulars of he wonderful story. I soon found :hat Mr. Langstroth was living, and uf saved up my money until I could pur- jhast the best Italian queen he owned, n the best in America, as I supposed. Very likely the progeny of that $20 jueen is now doing service all over the 9» [Jnited States, more or less. Through my influence, largely, "The ilii American Bee Journal" was started igain. it having been temporarily sus- jended on account of the Civil War. 'J'hrough its pages I learned of the honey extractor, invented in Ger- many. The German machine was made of wood. In a few days I had made one according to my own notion, all of metal. The first summer after I received my high-priced Italian Queen I neg- lected my buisness at the store quite a little, I fear, to rear queens and stock minature beehives, or queens-rearing hives, as we called them then. By this time I had purchased a home of my own, and the back yard with its hives of bees, all Italians, was to me the most pleasant place on the face of the whole earth. We had a very pretty garden, with currant bushes, peach trees, grapevines, etc., but my queen- rearing finally got agoing so well that Mrs. Root said when she was picking currants she expected to find a little, swarm of bees clustered on almost every bush. My hives were too small, as I afterward learned, and the thrifty Italians would gather honey enough to fill the hive pretty thoroughly in a little more than one day, and then, following their instinct, they swarmed out, because they wanted more room. As it begun to be noised around that I was '"crazy on bees," a good mady swarms were hived and brought to me, for it was rumored that I would give $3 or $4 for almost any kind of swarm — even though it might be a second or a third one. One exper- iment made late in June set me al- most wild. A neighbor brought me quite a heavy swarm of bees.fur which I paid him $5. These were at once run into a hive completely furnished with empty combs. Basswood and clover were just at the height of their yield. In two days' time this colony "HE AMERICAN BEE KEEPEE. Jamian of bees with the combs already fur- nished brought in so much honey that the hive was really a pretty good lift. I had taken the weight on hiving them aud when the scales showed that they had actually brought in and stored in the combs something like thirty pounds of honey I could hardly be- lieve my senses. Let us consider a little. Bee culture was at a low ebb in our neighborhood then. Almost everybody I talked with said that since the forests had been cut down bees did not pay any more. Some men had twenty or thirty hives, and had not received as many pounds of honey for several years. The almost univer- sal decision seemed to be that "bees didn't pay for the bother." Of course they didn't. There wasn't any bother and there wasn't any pay, I increased ray stock of bees to something like thirty or forty colonies; gave each colony an Italian queen, the daughter of ray original Lang- stroth queen. During the season after this I secured 6,102 pounds of ex- tracted honey. As this was during the time of war prices, 1 sold almost the entire crop at 2") cents a pound. But let me not presume to take too much of the credit right here. Other skill- ful beekeepers were in the field, and when accounts came out in the papers telling of the enormous crops that had been secured in occasional instances, scattered here and there, thousands of people went into the new industrv. As in everything else, however, only a comparatively few succeeded. A good many of us were surprised to discover that there seemed to be no precise locality where the business al- ways succeeded. A colony of bees under some circumstances might gather two hundred or ever thret hundred pounds of honey in a seasor by the use of the extractor; and on( man in Iowa was so sure he cotild d( it every time that he made a bet oi challenge at one of our beekeepers conventions. He had just secured ar enormous crop from the great bass wood-timbered regions of his state Nobody took up his offer, however and I have never heard that he has done anything remarkable in bee cul ture since. Atone time it seemtd as thougl New York State was the banner stat( of the union for honey. Then Cal ifornia eclipsed New York, and finall} Wisconsin left them all in the shade in regard to the number of tons thai might be secured from a given area. After that Florida came in and broke the record. Within two or three years past, however, the region around Phcenix, Ariz,, has seemed to furnish more carloads of honey than the same area in any part of the world. I vis- ited a man just about a year ago whc had about three hundred stands oi bees in Arizona, and these bees were all in one spot right around his home Now, it has been pretty generally de- cided that a hundred hives in one place is as many as can be kept in one locality; but this man actually secured a crop of beautiful honey, averaging over two hundred pounds per colony! This seems almost incredible, but the neighbors all around him for miles in different directions did pretty nearly as well. The immense crop was se- cured principally from miles of alfalfa, fields kept growing in wonderful luxuriance by the aid of irrigating canals which almost exhaust the en- k tire water of Salt River. 898. THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. Now, these great results are secured Illy by much care, pains and study, esidts hard work, in the first place, bere must be a locality. Then the lan who manages the bees must be a 'orker. He must be right in the work, eart and soul. Trusting to hired elp will never produce great results 1 bee culture, for when a hired man as caught a glimpse of what hisabil- y and skill might accomplish for imself, he will not be a hired man ly longer. Among all the risky and ;ti Qcertain occupations I should pro- Duuce bee culture the most precar- us. By a very little carelessness and id management a man can in a very ort time, lose all. Again, I do not Qow of any occupation where a man ay so quickly pick up. Beekeepers th a hundred colonies or more often eet with losses in wintering, cutting lem down to a dozen, or even a half dozen, but a man with plenty of grit lit id one who is well informed, will ke this remaining remnant of half a ho )zen and in one season will almost ive his whole lot of hives and combs cupied by bees again^ aud this may metimes be done by means of nat- •al swarming, as well as artificial, single colony of bees with a good leen will sometimes, by natural ie( /^arming, increase to half a dozen or ore, and the old stock, with the aid the new one, will sometimes store veral hundred pounds of surplus, sides having enough for all of them winter. The diligent beekeeper [10 loves bees and (may I be per- !f itted to add?) God, will be constaut- fii meeting with happy surprises. He ay nuet with some surprises that e not so very ' haopy," al^o, it is je; but if he h )ld3 fast to his I'atth, studies hard with his brain, while he is not afraid to use his muscles, he will surely reap a rich harvest in due time. A host of inventions have been made during the last fifty years to fa- cilitate the work of the beekeeper, and many of these inventions have been along the line of simplicity. In place of the complex and expense patent hives of years ago, beekeepers now al- most universally use simply a box in which to hang the frames. There are very few patent hives, and compara- tively few patented appliances in use. Great progress has been made in the matter of making both hives and honey-boxes by means of automatic machinery, and so they may be offered at a very low price In fact, hives and honey-boxes are now furnished in many localities at a price less than what the bare lumber would cost if you were to go to the average carpen- ter shop aud try to buy it. The honey- extractor has not been very greatly changed from what it was when I made my first metal ones, something over thirty years ago. Perforated zinc for excluding drones, and comb foundation for preventing the produc- tion of drones, have both been the means of making C)lonies valuable that would otherwise be unprofitable. Utensils to hold honey for market, both wood and glass, have been greatly improved. Comb honey is now put up in much more attractive form, and the cost of the box, or "section," that holds it, is far less than the old fash- ioned wooden drawers. Hives are now equipped with combs all worked, much more accurate in mathematics than any the bees every built for them- selves Injieuious machines at a low THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. Januai price for driving the bees out of the way by means of smoke are now a reg- ular article of merchandise. Bee veils to put over the face; tents to set over the hive; knives especially designed for the beekeeper, are also to be found with every supply dealer. Several years ago we fondly hoped to find plants that could be grown for honey alone, but in this we have been disappointed. Perhaps this is because the beekeeper must have acres or even miles, if you choose, of honey yielding plants to have them amount to much. The principal sources of honey are the clovers, and as these ail have a value for other purposes than honey, they stand well at the head. I should place basswood next, and, as this wood is getting to be quite valuable for timber we can get large crops of honey from it while it is being grown for that pur- pose. A good -sized basswoud tree may keep a considerable colony of bees busily employed, at least, during the early hours of the days, and I should say, at a rough gnet-s, that such a tree might furnish several pounds of nec- tar every day while it is in bloom. Buckwheat might perhaps come next. In many parts of New York, not only tons upon tons, but carloads of buck- wheat honey alone are gathered each year. A very beautiful, thick and transparent honey is gathered in Cal- ifornia from a species of mountain sage, and this is thought by many to be quite similar to if not the very same as the famed honey of Mount HymettUH, that is spoken of in both prose and poetry in ancient history. "How TO Manage Bees," a 50c book, and the American Bee-Keep- RE a year for only 60c. (Written by E. Kretchmer for United State Bee Keepers' Union.) THE SHIPPING or COMB HONEl That man never gets too old 1 learn , proves true to many of us. A though I had shipped tons of hone prior to 1893, it was during the Co urabian Exposition in Chicago, whil in charge of the Iowa honey exhib that several heretofore unnotice changes in the packing of comb hone presented themselves, and which du ing the second installment of hone for that exposition was put to pract cal test. Prior to the time named, a though we packed the honey withdi care, I had no knowledge of theactu: condition in which it arrived at i destination. Although the first shipment of hone for the Columbian Exposition Wi packed with great care, many of tl cases, when unpacking them at tt fair grounds, were not in as good coi ditiou at we desired tln-y should b< in some of the cases it appeared as only a single comb had becon)e d( ,|j tached from the section, and in i\ moving of the crates, this loose com had fallen against the next comb an knocked it off the section, and tb force of the two combined against th next, had broken it out likewise, ui til the entire row of honey from tb glass to the back of the case, \\i broken down; the leaking honey, a though retained iu the case, soake into the wood of the next sections,an also damaged these. In the second shipment for the low exhibit we effectually prevented th above described damages by construe ing the shipping cases wider an deeper: We placed a sheet of manill paper in the bottom with the edgelirii Id 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. neatly turned up, forming a shallow pan; within this pan we nailed small triangular strips on which we placed the sections of honey, and between the several rows inserted wood seperators, in the same manner as in the supei's. Whilst the use of paper pans in the shipping cases, and strips of wood un- der the sections is now wellknown to many, it may be a matter of surprise to them to know that they are not yet in general use, and the writer found it necessary to write numerous letters to fully explain their uses. Separators in shipping cases are, I think, not yet very much used, but I 3nd that if seperators are used, a comb oroken from a section is confined to :he space within that section; it cau- aot break or deface the next adjoin- ng section, whereas, if the separators ire not added, the entire row is fre- quently broken down. Wood separ- itors are cheap, costing less than two ^nts for a case, whilst their benefit s more than ten-fold, I therefore think hat no shipping-case is complete with )ut the separators. I have been to some expense, both the World's fair and while visiting lumerous honey markets, to ascertain he most desirable size, form and de- ailed construction of shipping cases, nd it appears that commission mer- hants and retail dealers in honey •refer a case holding 24 sections, sin- le tier high, with glass on one side rom 2 to 3 inches wide, with the top oards fitting between the front cleat nd the back, so as to hold the top in lace while retailing from the case, nd so as not to show the joint on the rent or glass cleat. In this paper I will not say where, rto whom to ship, but outline more fully the form of shipping-cases, how to fill them, and how to forward them, and when, and thereby prepare the way for a fruitful discussion. As already stated, the 24-section case, showing four sections through the glass, seemed to be preferred, and therefore we should furnish the size and form de&ired. In construction the cases should be light, the cleats for holding the glass should be grooved not rabbeted, and the glass slid into these grooves so that, should the glass break, the grooves will retain the pieces in position. Having placed the paper pan and wood strips in the bot- tom, select 24 sections of honey, as nearly alike as you can; place four average sections near the glass, top up, that is, in the same position as they were on the hive; if inverted some open cell is liable to leak, and the running over the white face of the comb mars the beauty of its appear- ance. Should there be a little space endwise, make them tight with little wedges at the end; next drop in a wood separator, which should be as wide as the hight of the sections. In this manner fill the case, wedge up the back of the sections so they are tight sidewise, lay on another sheet of paper, which should be large enough to project a little with the ed- ges, then fasten on the top, preferably with small screws. Goods shipped by express must be speedly loaded and unloaded, and are consequently not handled with the same care as freight shipments, where ample time is usually taken to load and unload; therefore honey shipped by freight arrives- usually in better condition than when shipped by ex- press; but express shipments go 10 THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. January: through iu less time than shipments by freight, and if as a matter of speed honey has to be shipped by express, I ti.ud that single shipping cases with- out being crated or connected with other cases, go by express in better condition, and are handled more care- fully, than heavier crates; but ship- ments by freight or in wagons should have 6 or 8 cases crated together iu open crates so as to show the glass and honey through the openings, with a liberal supply of straw under them. The addition to the directions to so load that the edge of the comb should be towards the locomotive, is, I find never regarded, as the crates are usu- ally so placed to fit the space in the car; but the top of the crate should hive in large, plain letteis this direc- tion: "THIS SIDE MUST BE UP," which is usually regarded. Iu hauling, I advise the use of ve- hicles with springs. If such cannot be had, a liberal supply of straw un- der the crates, and slow driving would be desirable. Do not attempt to ship comb honey great distances in warm weather, nor when the honey is liable to freeze, as it is more liable to break and leak . I well remember how a careless shipujeut iu hot weather nearly ruined the honey market of a city; the honey arrived badly broken and the cases leaked, the dealer in his eagerness to dispose of it, labeled it: ''Comb honey, 8 cents." The market reports of the lo- cal paper next quoted: "Comb honey 8 cents per pound." This quotation spread to near by places, and for months this was the prevailing price. W.M. Gerrish, East Nottingham, N. H., keeps a complete supply of our goods and Eastern customers will save freight by ordering from him. (From Bee Keepers Record).— (British). ABOUT BEES AND BEE KEEPING. THE PLEASURE OF IT. BY HENRY W. BRICE. Whilst prepared to admit that the large majority of bee keepers join the craft mainly with an eye to the com- mercial point of view, it should not be taken for granted that this is the only end to be attained. Quite a sub- stantial minority keep bees either simply for the pleasure of it or for the purpose of studying the lower an- imal creation. The number who have started bee keeping for the pleasure it affords to set up a colony of busy little laborers in one's garden, whose work in the summer time seems to add sunshine to sunshine, to say nothing of those who find their pleasura in ad- vancing the science, is much larger than is generally thought, snd it seems to me that such individuals form the very backbone of our pursuit. At the same time, it should not for a moment be understood that profit from bee keeping is not acceptable ; far from it. Jn fact, it is a clear sign of the times that everything we now take in hand in the present day must be re- garded from the £. s. d. point of view, This particular phase of bee keeping sets one wondering what the position would be if the profit to be got from them permeated all the pursuits in life which are included in the wor "hobbies." It is not easy to imagine a man making a hobby of, let us say his home garden, and lovingly tend ing the fl»jwers it contains as one oi the joys of life, yet only finding the pleasure of it in proportion to the am ount of cash he can realize from the sale of his precious blooms ! Does ii 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. IT not rudely brush aside the charm of a " hobby " when £. s. d. is the predom- ioant factor in the case ? Then, I ask, why should bee keeping be tolerated as the pleasant pursuit we believe it is only so long as it pavs well ? None will dispute the fact that a "paying hobby" is a rara avis, but 1 take leave to say that our hobby comes under that category. Nor is it a mere figure of speech to say that it is one of the most pleasure-giving pastimes conceivable to those who pos- s a love of the country and of na- ture's wonders. For the scientific mind, too, there is a fund of delight- ful research in studying the bee and its ways, sufficient to amply recom- mend bee keeping from that side of the question. But when we come to regard the keeping of bees only as a paying concern, and find our hobby disparaged because of the low price the bee keeper has to take for his produce, or because we are doing away with its advantages by enlisting too many recruits in our Associations, it is, to my mind, ignoring much that is well worth thinking of among the many pleasures of bee keeping. Those who expect to make a fortune out of it will, of course, be disappointed; but lag are we to take no account of the good ID it does to one's health and strength to ru be up and out in the early morn of u iummer time among the bees? An ti hour so spent — before breakfast and :;nt :he daily journey to town — is surely •:S ivorth something. Again, what is the ai ?ood of worrying, as some do, because ( i )f the fear that "too many are start- ;tlif ng bee keeping? It does not create am iistrust and suspicion among neigh- 4 )ors, but the very opposite. At least j-l . find it so, and my official experience as a county secretary goes to prove that in the gieat majority of cases love of the pursuit tends to promote an amount of friendly feeling and kindly regard between members such as will be found in few associations, whatever their object. I contend that bee keeping is, par excellence, a health giving recreation, no less for a busy man than for the studious scientist. And I also again say that, if followed earnestly and in- telligently, it will yield more profit for the labor involved than any pur- suit that can be included in the term "home hobby." But when it is re- garded simply as an occupation for money making, and worrying about because honey is fetching a penny a pound less this year, all the joy goes, and one fails to see the pleasure of it in any shape. I write this because of hoping to see in the coming year more general heartiness on the part of bee keepers in supporting county associations, not for the direct or personal good derived from membership, but for the ail- around benefit afforded to the craft, in standing together for the general advantage which only co-operation can give. Those who have to bear the burden of the work done all over the kingdom will, I am sure, feel more encouraged to continue it, if members and bee keepers generally would regard the industry a little less closely from the £ s. d. point, and think more of "the pleasure of it," I say this, "knowing whereof 1 speak." Our 1898 catalogue will not be mailed before February 1st, but or- ders can be made up from our 1897 catalog, as there will be very few if any changes in prices for next season. 12 TEE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. Jaauary (From American Bee Journal.) ABOUT THE CELLAR WINTERING OF BEES, BY C. P. DADANT. The time has come to put the bees into winter quarters, and if they are to be placed in the cellar, that job ought not to be deferred beyond De- cember 10, unless the weather is un- usually fair. As a matter of course it is not advisable to move them to the cellar in warm weather, for they are much more restless, and more bees are lost, than in cold weather. In ad- dition to this, the warm days are bene- ficial to them if they can have a flight* When we put bees into our bee- cellar, we usually select a cold day, in the beginning of December, or the last days of November. The caps or covers of the hives are left on the summer stand with the number of each hive marked inside of the cap, so that they may be returned to the same spot in the spring. We know that many apiarists consider this superflu- ous. We do not, for we have had very clear evidence that many of the bees remember their location, even after four months of confinement, and that a change helps to bewilder them when they are first removed. It may not be amiss to state in what manner we ascertained this. We have, in our home apiary, two styles of hives, that is, hives contain- ing frames of two different sizes. About half of them are with our reg- ular Quiuby frames, and the rest in frames similar to the American hive frames, measuring about 12x13 in- ches. As it is inconvenient to have the two different styles side by side, we have separated the hives into two yards, one on each side of the road leading up to the house. A few years ago, it happened that, in catching two or three swarms, some of the hives were placed in the wrong yard, and we neglected to move them away. When they were put in winter quar- ters, we concluded that we would make the exchange in the spring, at their removal from the cellar. This was done. All the colonies that were removed from the cellar that day be- haved very nicely, except the two or three that had been exchanged in lo- cation. The uproar among these was such that we concluded to move them back, so as to regain the lost bees. We believe a great deal of the trouble experienced by beginners with bees that are removed from the cellar —hive deserting, fighting, dwindling —during the first few days, is caused by their having placed them in a changed location. So we strongly urge those who can do it easily, to leave the cap, or cover, with a maik at the exact spot occupied by the hive. This cap, or cover, is not needed in the cellar, for the bees should be give n a certain amount of upward ventila- tion. We do not like to place any of the hives next to the cellar floor. In all our experience, whenever the combs have suffered from mold, or the hive has proven damp, it was in the low- est tiers, in the cellar. If the hive? are kept on joints or shelves, a foot or more from the floor, the conditions* will be much more satisfactory. Buti they may be piled up in tiers of three, four or even more. The entrance is left wide open, but darkness is neces- sary, and quiet is justaaindepensable as the absence of light. We have a THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 13 special room partitioned off in our home cellar for the bees, but we also keep apples and potatoes in it. We do not use the cellar more than one winter out of every five for wintering the bees, for the reason that I have stated in a former article. We are on the limit of safe outdoor wintering, but when the bees are in good condi- tion, strong and populous, when the honey is of good quality and plentiful, and the winter is fairly mild at its beginning, we prefer the natural hi- bernation. An ordinary house-cellar is sufficient if the portion reserved to the bees is portitioned off in some manner to QQake it dark, and if the temperature 3au be kept without much trouble at the proper degree. From 40° to 50° is the best temperature. We have heard it said, by men who claimed to know, that a moist cellar could be kept at a TQUch higher temperature, and that he bees would winter well in it. We lave even heard a beekeeper assert :hat bees would remain quiet in a cel- ar with a temperature of 60° or 80°, 3ut we afterward found out that this nan did not have a thermometer in lis cellar and waa "just guessing" at he degree. This is wrong. What is vorth doing at all is worth doing well, ind the cost of a thermometer is not 0 great that a practical man should winter his bees on a guess. In ordinary winters, we find it less lifficult to keep the temperature above he limit mentioned than below it. •"ifty or 100 colonies of bees, grouped ogether in a cellar, that will usually ;eep fruits or pototoes will be found 0 raise the temperature very rapidly, E no outside current tempers it. We aust remember that the bees are warm, bodied insects, and keep their cluster at blood heat. This, of course, must necessarily act upon the air of a closed apartment, materially increasing the degree of heat. So we find it quite indispensable to keep the cellar-wind- ows partly open, with a shutter that excludes the light. Thequanityof air given is measured according to the atmospheric conditions and the warmth of the cellar. Many of our good bee keepers pay daily attention to their bees, and find it as necessary to do so when they are housed up at as any other time. It is certain that only by such watchfulness can bee culture be made a success. The bee business, as Mr. Heddon said, is altogether "a business of details." (From Pennsylvania Farmer) 1)0 BEES INJURE GRAPES? Prof. Troop of the Indiana Experi- ment Station, has been investigating this subject, with the following result: He says: There is a great difference of opinion among welliuformed fruit growers as to whether the honey bee actually destroys ripe grapes without any assistance. In order to secure re- liable data on this question, some careful observations were made dur- ing the past season. A Worden grape- vine was selected, and when the fruit was ripe all defective berries and sur- plus leaves were removed, so as to al- low the bees free movement and give them every facility for work. A col- ony of Italian bees was then placed close to the vine, and both vine and hive enclosed with mosquitto netting, giving the bees about 300 cubic feet of space in which to work. At first they did not take kindly to the con- finement, but after the first few days 14 "UE AMERICAN BEE KEEPEB. January did not seem to mind it. They were kept coufined with the grapes just three weeks, and during this time they were removed and the grapes carefully examined, but it could not be dis- covered that a single grape had been injured. The natural inference is, that if the bees could not be induced to eat the grapes when kept in close confinement with them, they are not likely to do them much injury when at liberty to seek the food they like best. It is wellknown that certain wasps will cut the skin of grapes, and i have always held to the opinion that the wasp was the culprit which opens the door for the bees to enter. This opinion has been confirmed the past season, when two species of the genus Polistes, or social wasps, were seen to light on the grapes and with their sharp jaws tear open the skin and suck the juice, after which the honey bees would usually finish the work. In fact, it would be a very stupid bee that would not avail itself of such an opportunity. (From New York Sun.) BEES BRING BLISS. An Unusual Train of Events at a Country Funeral in Maine. During a funeral in the town of Cutler two days ago two lovers who had been ali enated from each other for a month were brought together un- der peculiar and painful circumstances^ and before the services were ended a complete reconcilation was effected. The chief mediators in the affair were honey bees — a whole swarni of them. After short services at the house the body was taken to the family tomb in another part of the town. Willis Smith the rejected suitor, one of the pallbearers, rode in a carriage ahead of the hearse, and Miss Milly Loring, the woman in the case, occupied a top buggy driven by Mr. Clark, and brought up the rear of the procession araoung the neighbors and friends. As soon as the tomb was unlocked and the coffin taken to its resting place great crowds of angry bees swarmed out, stinging kindred, friends and bearers, untill everybody howled with pain. Mr. Clark, the man who was escorting Mi^s Loring, jumped from his carriage and fled for a stream of water 20 rods away, whereupon his horse got up a brisk runaway right among the mourners. The animal had made one circuit about the ceme- tery and was bolting through the gate for a two-mile home run, when it was caught by Mr. Smith, who led it to a place of safety, and did what he could to alleviate the distress of Miss Loring. Meantime the men of the party had built a fire, which scorched the wings of the bees and caused them to fall to the ground. When Mr. Clark returned from the stream he found Mr. Smith and Miss Loring sitting side by side applying wet clay to their bee stings. Both were eating honey and talking as if they had always been friends. Mr. Clark took his horse and drove home without asking any questions. HONEY BEES CAPTURE A SHIP. The bark Shirley, which has carried millions of feet of lumber on the Pa- cific coast, is now said to have aboard a small cargo of honey. Her owners recently decided to put her in the Klondike service and L. B. Mitchell was sent to Quartermaster Harbor 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 15 with men to get her ready for repairs. "We found that she had been taken possession of by honey bees," Mitch- ell says, "and in going into her we found every passage and room was ap- parently full of bees. We shut the hatchway and thought we had them imprisoned, but we found a steady stream going and coming through the hole left for a stovepipe in the cabin_ We were on board thirty minutes, and in that time the column of bees con- tinued to move, making a noise like escaping steam. We were unable to work on board until something should be done. We lowered into the hull a tank of burning cedar bark and closed up everything. A great many of the bees were killed, but we were uuable to go into the bark the next day. Some think she may contain a ton of honey or even more." HONEY-ANT PIE. Savages, we know, indulge in such luxuries as grubs and locusts, but for a civilized white man to finish up his dinner with a dish of raw ants seems too nasty to be credible. Yet in Mexico it is the custom, and a custom adopted by plenty of colonists atxl visitors. The ant eaten is called the honey ant, and is perhaps as curious an in- sect as lives. With a tiny head and legs, it has a hugh body as big as a large pea, and this is yellow and swollen with excellent honey. In each nest there are 300 or 400 of these honey ants, which are attended by thousands of others. The huney ants hang on to the roof of the cells in the nest while the others feed them. They are, in fact, living storehouses o£ winter food. An observer says that if one of the Ijouey ants falls from his perch, a worker will go and pick him up and replace him. This is as if a man were to walk up the face of a cliff carrying a large buffalo or cart horse on his back. 'A Cilcutta physician who was at- tacked by a swarm of bees," says Popular Science News, "was stung on the hand, head, face and neck, no fewer than 150 stings being afterward taken taken from his neck. For- tunately he had some ipecacuanha powder with him. which he immed- iately made into a paste and smeared over the head, face and neck. The effect was most marked, preventing to a large extent the swelling and pain which invariably follow the bee's stings." It is asserted by a correspondent of the Gardener's Chronicle that wasps not only devour ripe fruits, such as apricots, grapes and pears, but that they extend their ravages to rosebuds and blown roses. The blossoms and buds covering two flourishing rose bushes belonging to him were de- stroyed by wasp', in spite of the battle which he waged with the insects for the preservation of his flowers. Prices of Sections. Prices of sections for the season of 1898 will remain as follows: No 1. No. 2. No. 1. No. 2. Per 100-$ .50. $ .40. Per 1000 @ S3,00 $2.50. " 2.51)- .85. .7,5. " 20J0@ 2.85 2.35. '• .500- 1.50. 1.25. " 3O00 @ 2.75 2.25 .5000 @ $2 .50 per M. Large quantities will be quoted on application. The above prices are the same as are charged by all manufacturers of and dealers in first class sections. Further changes of prices of supplies will be found in our 1898 catalog which will be ready Feb. 1st, and will be mailed free to anyone asking for it. 16 THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. January The Anerican Boe-Keepep, PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE W. T. FALCONER MANFG CO. TERMS : 50 cents a year in advance ; 2 copies, 85 cents ; 3 copies, $1.20 ; all to be sent to one postoffice. Postage prepaid in the U.S. and Canada ; 10 cents extra to all countries in the postal union and 20 eects extra to all other countries. ADVERTISING RATES: 15 cents per line, 9 words; S2.00 per inch. 5 per cent, discount for 2 insertions ; 7 per cent, for 3 in- sertions; 10 per cent, for 6 insertions; 20 per cent. for 12 insertions. Advertisements must be received on or before the 20th of each month to insure insertion in month following. Address, THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER, Falconer, N. Y. -•^Subscribers finding this paragraph marked with a blue cross will know that their subscripiton expires with this number. We hope that you will not delay in sending a renewal. >9S"A Red Cross on, this paragraph indicates that you owe for your silbscri prion. Please give the matter your atteuiion. atteuHi ED] ITOKIAL. We are iu receipt of a copy of the 13th annual report of tlie manager of the National Bee Keepers' Union, which certainly shows the Union to be in a very healthy condition. The appeals for assistance were more numerous during 1897 than in any previous year. The membership is large and constantly increasing. Canada is getting to be a hot coun- try for bee keepers; a record breaker in fact. J.B.Hall, the veteran comb- honey man of Woodstock, Out., re- ports having had combs actually melted down in the sections during the past season. The question is asked in A, B. J., "What is the largest number of col- onies ever successfully kept in a sin- gle apiary at any one time in any part of the world." C. C. Miller re- plies, "six-hundred have been pro- fitable kept in one apiary. I'm not sure whether more." According to Mr. Osborn, the natives of Cuba keep as high as 2,000 in one yard and make it pay well. Is not the expert testimony regard- ing the influence of a honey flow upon the work of drawing out foundation, as presented by Editors Holtermann and Root, liable to perplex the bee keeping student? See editorials in Canadian Bee Journal, March, '97, page 1035, and Gleanings, Sept. I, "97, page 639. Whether bees do a better job of thinning foundation dur- ing a scant or brisk flow of honey, is the question. Editor Holtermann says the former. Editor Root illus- trates an example directly opposite. C. F. Muth, in the A. B. J., says: "If the duty were taken off the im- port of foreign Honey, Cuba alone would swamp our countiy, and deal a blow at the most vital parts of api- culture." It seems almost incredible that the honey product of an island much less in extent than the state of New York, having the other markets of the world and a home population of 2,000,000 to supply, could swamp this nation of 70,000,000 people. If such is the case, the possible acquis- itieu of that island, from the Amer- ican bee keepers' standpoint, is quite a serious matter; vet they seem suf- 1893. THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. ficiently self-sacrificing for buman- ty's salie, to welcome a practical trial of the experiment. The subject of marketing honey is rowded off the program of the W. N. Y., N. W. P. &. E. O.Bee-Keep- 3r3' convention entirely,by such prob- ems as "house apiaries," "artificial ncrease" and "spring management.'' [f it is really a fact that these matters ire of primar}^ interest to bee keepers it this time, as indicated, it is evi lent that the importance of united iction tendino; toward the develop- nent of the honey market has been greatly overestimated by certain pecialists and the bee keeping press. The market demand for apiary pro- iucts, it would seem, is the only 'oundation upon which to build, being he sole support of the industr}- for ill time. Is this matter of devising 50rae means of creating a popular de- aiand for our prodnct, not Worthy of 1 place alongside of such questions IS "artificial increase,"' before 41 con- i^ention of hone}^ producers? To the question of a correspondent n Gleanings: "Can 1 not put off feeding until winter? ", ]\Ir. Doolittle replies thus emphatically: "No! a housand times nol When will people [earn not to put off the feedins; of bees 'till cold weather comes." The latest census reported about 70,000 colonies of bees in Ontario, Canada. Californians want the next convon- ion of the United States Bee Keep- Ts' Union. San Francisco's the phte:>, :hey sav, The spring rush for the Klondike 5oId fields will soon begin, and in an- icipation of it the Northren Pacific [\ailvvay Co , has issued a very com- Drehensive pamphlet on the Alaskan jrold Fields, giving in detail the l)est routes to go, and the distances , the articles to take along, the cost, etc. The pamphlet is called the "Key to Klondike.'" If any bee keepers con- template going there, they will find much valuable information in it and it will pay to get a copy which can be had for a 2c stamp sent to Charles S. Fee, general passenger agent, St. Paul. It is needless to say you can- not keep bees in Klondike. We will send the American Bee Keeper one year and a box of gar- den seeds (price $1.60) for 75c post- paid. F. T. Hall, Wisconsin, recently put an end to the destructive work of a 4-000 pound bear in his apiary by a well aimed rifle .bullet. According to accounts in the Pa- cific Bee Journal, the bee keeper out that way that does not report nine tons and upwards this year, is a "little fellow."" ~ Literary Items^ ' MARK TWAIN's NEW STORY. Mark Twain's new humerous story, which he is now writing in Vienna, is to go to The Ladies' Home Journal, which magazine has also secured F. Marion Crawford's new story, which is a tale of the unreal, with the striliing uncanny title of •' The Dead Smile." " WHAT TO EAT" FOR JANUARY — "HOW TO KEEP YOUNG '" is the title of another article in What To Eat for January, and it will interest every- body who has passed twenty. If you want to " swear off '' in a sensible manner for the coming year, read the pledge containe I on the frontpage. It promises what any of us ought to cheerfully sub- scribe to. "Frauds in Flour" and "Frauds in Food and Drink'" form the subject of particularly vigorous editorials, and choice recipes, poems and stories make up the rest of the number. It is announced that the winners of the prize poem contest will be given in the next i.ssue. 10c a copy, $1 a year. Address Pierce & Pierce, Publishers, Minneapolis, Minn. •18 -^HE AMEBIOAN BEE KEEPER. Jannar THE HUSBAND'S SOLILOQUY. When we clean house, I'm homele.KS for a week. When we clean lioase, my life is cold and bleak. My wife she wci ks .-iw: v And "airs the hous: " :[ll day. Oh, what a disari;',y When we clean house -I When we clean house, woe fath-omloss l3 mine. The things are shook and li;-:i:r u-)on a line. I canniit find my d -ihcs, And where my i;;( '. s.luium goes The future only shows When we clean hou.so. When we clean house, I feel that I have sinned. When we clean house, we mostly live on Wind. We have our little snacks And dine on beats and whacks And soap and carpet tacks When we clean house. —Detroit Free Press. GREATEST OF THREE. He was first of all her husband's friend and then her own, and this is the story of liow she saved him iu a time of great danger and stood herself on the brinli of another and greater peril. Evey Lancaster was one of those wo- men who marry men they averagely love and are faithful wives and devoted mothers so Vug as passion, going down the country lane of their peaceful lives, passes them by on the other side. She, perhaps, loved her husband more than these women usually do, but then she was made of sterner stuff, and where there is more to conquer there is more to suffer Small blame to her, since heaven had made her charming. Small blame to Edward Yereker, her hus- band's friend, since he found her so, and he himself as goodly a mau as you would meet on any summer's day. Her husband. David Lancaster, was a good- ly man, too, and worthy of her and of Edward Yereker, his friend. But there were three of them, and three is an evil number concerning men and women. It was during the summer of 189:] that Edward Yereker and Evey, bin friend's wife, began to be more than friends. He was staying with the Lau- casters down in Surrey in their pretty little red house on the edge of the pret- ty little Lluo river, aud David was go- j.ngup auci cijwn to Jjoudon every day becau.-e it v,as yet early, and the vari ous vacations and holidays had not be gun. So he ai:d she were left a goo( deal on one another's hands. Satai found mischief, not for those idL hands, bat idle eyes, for that summe one's hands remained in one's lap an( it was too hot even to talk, but it is a easy to look at one's neighbor as to star blanldy into space, and eyes can do i great deal by themselves, take it alto gether. So these two sat in the shady gardei under the big cedars and looked at om another for want of something better t< do and found the occupation suffice fo: all the ir needs. Evey Lancaster was a good woman— by nature, not by art. I mean she wai naturally good and had not become s< by trying very hard. She had been wel brought up; she read decent books, and therefore, only a few, and she mean every word of her share in the mar riage service. But, alas and alas, she was a woman; and a pretty one, and Edward Verekei was good looking and a man, thougl somewhat unusually moral and possess ed of a .sense of honor. Moreover, thej both loved David. But David was awaj all day, and — I mistrust June and the devil in a green garden! I don't know that anything would have come of it if tragedy had not step- ped in; Adelphi tragedy, battle, murdei and sudden death in one of its most r,p- palling forms in the shape of hydropho- bia. Evey and Edward had been unneces- sarily energetic that day. Perhaps they both uncomfortably realized that sit- ting under the trees saying nothing was becoming a little exciting. At any rate Evey went to the gunroom and broui;;bt out a Smith & Wesson of her husband's, and they set up a mark iu the meadow outside the garden, and, having prudently removed the cows, practiced shooting in the cool of the day. They shot very badly, but (hey had to look at the target, and that was- comparative safeiy. They got tired of it at last, and she sat down under one of! the great oak trees flanking the garden with the revolver in her lap, while he sauntered across the grass to rearrange the somewhat shaky tareet. 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 19 She was uear the gate leading to the road, and ifc was opeu, for the cows hud goue that way to the farmyard, aud in June, 189^, gates thut it was not an imperative necessity to shut remained opeu for coolness' sake. And here the Adelphi melodrama Dame in, and through the open gate, too, heralded by "shouts outside" — a strange heart sickening chimor coming ap from the hush of evening distance — hoarse, scared yells, and the tramp of running feet and confused directions ap- parently issiied in many voices. Aud through the open gate a horror rushed, a creature with dripping jaws and star- ing eyes, a big, black retriever, bearhig in its strange, altered state but little resemblance to the friendly, kindly dog of a few days back, aud at its heels a concourse of men armed with sticks and farm implements and any weapon that could be hastily snatched up, but none, alas, with a gun. Evey Lancaster, revolver in hand, with shells still remaining in a couple of chambers, saw the mad dog enter the meadow and make straight across it out over the sunburned grass to where Ed- ward Yereker was walking toward the target. She was under the shadows of the hedge, broadside on, as it were, aud the dog never noticed her. Edward Vereker turned ou his heel at the sound of the uoise at the gate, and, like Evey, took in the situation at a i_glauce. But he was absolutely unarm- ed— he had not even a stick, and he was alone in the midst of a wide field •with death in its foulest form not 80 yards from him. Then Evev Lancaster, from where sho «iieit on Tne grass under the heage, took aim aud fired. She was his friend and knew that his life was at stake, and that quickened the presence o'i mind aud the courage within her. She was made of British stuff, and that steadied the shakiug hand and kept the revolver straight, aud though the first bullet went wide the second carried true, and the mad dog, with a hideous yell, dropped disabled with a shatterc d shoulder not 15 paces from him. Then the crowd closed in and put an end ro everytliing. Five minutes later Edward Vereker and the woman who had saved him, leaving the excited villagers still clus- tered round the horror on the grass, went back into the garden. It was as much as she could do to walk now that the strain was past, be- ing only a woman after all, aud the green garden was going round aud round in a dim mist that smelled of gunpowder and grew blacker at every Step. He saw her falter aud stop and was only in time to catch her in his arms to prevent her collapsing ou the lawn at his feet. The earth aud sky might wheel aud melt into a blackening mist at will, but a pair of stroug arms were round her and her cheek on a protecting shoulder. Stroug emotions make us view tho world in a distorted light with our men- tal as well as our bodily eyes, and the re was no David in the green garden 1 3- hind the high hedge, only a brave vf > man, weak and trembling, with her head on the breast of the man she had rescued from worse than death — the mau who called her "Evey, my dar- ling," and passionately kissed her. David Lancaster came home iu the gloamiug Lj^lf an hour later, with a piece of salmon in a bass bag and the fifth Globe with all the latest cricket in it, Evey, up at her window, white and tremLlicg still, watching with half averted eyes a figiire pacing up and down under the cedars, saw her husband coming in at the gate, saw him join the restless figure aud tramp up and down in company aud knew the story was be- ing told him, for with a kiss had come awakening and shame, as it came with the kuo.. ledge of good and evil into the first garden. Seme time later the two men came back to the house, aud Evey's preter- naturally sharpeued ears heard Edward ascend to his own room aud David turn down the passage to come to hers. She stood in the middle of the floor in her white gown, her hair slightly ruffled, her face drawn with the stress of emo- tion which she had undergone, her hands — those little hands that had done so much — hanging limply by her side. And David opeued the door and came in. She could not look at his face, but she understood as he walked across th room 20 THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. Januc to where she stood and took her straight and unhesitatingly into his arms that somehow, in spite of all, he knew about the kiss and had forgiven her. And the kiss was all she could remember of her past life. When David Lancaster went up stairs to his wife and took her to his heart without asking for a word of explana- tion on her part, he did the one thing that saved him and her and Edward Vereker from shipwreck. I read a story once in which the con- cluding sentence ran thus, "And so by a little thing was a woman saved from the misfortune of a great passion." Edward Vereker, having done all that lay in his power to atone for what had happened, left the house early next morning without seeing Evey again. And her husband shook hands with him at parting. They have not met since, except casu- ally in society, and then they meet and greet as friends. They had fallen a lit- tle way together and repented of it, and with repentance conies revulsion of feel- ing and with that the end of all things that might have been, withered untime- ly in the budding of passion's poppy flowers. So she was heroic in that she saved him, and he was noble in that he con- fessed his kiss to her husband. But somehow it seems to me that the great- est of these three was David Lancaster, who heard and understood and yet, hear- ing and understanding, forgave. — Black and White. The Bacon Folly. It was inevitable that the Bacon folly should proceed to commit suicide by piling up extravagances. By some meth- ods one can prove anything, and accord- inglv we find writers busy in tracing Bacon's hand in the writings of Greene, Marlowe, SJnrley, Marston, Massinger, Middleton and Webster. They are sure that he was rhe author of Montaigue's essays, which were afterward translated into what we have always supposed to be the Fn uch original. Mr. Donuelly believes that Bacon also wrote Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy. " Next comes Dr. Orville Ow( n with a new cipher which proves that Bacon was the son of Oueen Elizabeth bv Eobert Dudlev. and that he was the author of the "Faei Queene" and other poems attributed Edmund Spenst r. Finally we hare Mr. J. E Roe, w] does not mean to be outdone. He as? us what we are to think of the notii that an ignorant tinker like John Bu' f yan could have written the most perfe allegory in any language. Peri.sh il I thought! Nobcdy but Bacon could ha-^ | dene it. Of course Bacon had br t u iro: ! than 50 years in his gravt^' when "Pi grim's Progress' was published as Bui van's, but yi ur true Eaconizer is uevt stopped ly triii's. Mr Roe assures v that Bacon wrote that heavenly bool as well as "Robinson Crusoe'' and th "Ttile of a Tub," which surely bcgii^ to make him seem i bi uitous and evei lasting If Ihiu.^s go on at ll;i^ rate. \v f-hall presently have a ri-!;,.:(;us ^ec holding as its fir.st article < 1' l..ilh rha Francis BLicou created the he vens an^ the earth in .-ax chi} s and rested eii', th seventh dav. — Jrhn Fifske in Arl;;:n>i' Aii I rtniy cf Humanity. There arc probably few persons of ma ture years who have not read the stor; of the man who put the sick beggar up on his best hor.-e in order to take bin to his home and friends. The begga; suddenly recovered his strength aue rode off with the horse that "was tin pride cf the desert and the fortune o: his owner. The man called after the thief and begged him to halt for a mo ment. Bfife from pursuit, he did so, when his benefactor implored him nevei to tell hov/ he obtained the hcrse, as the incident, if known, might stand in the way of relief of some honest beggar who sought charity by the wayside. Although it is claimed that the story is a very old one, it is juht as applicable to our time as it was when the affair occurred. It is the professional beggar who miikcij the most terrible eufi'ering poj;>'i ble to those who are too proud, too hou: est or too timid to ask for what they need. — i7cw York Ledger. Love's Exit. "I never could see any sense in that saying that love laughs at locksmiths," "You couldn't? Well, it is because he has no need for the door. Dtm't you know t'fiat love flies out at the win- dow?"-••Ciiici330 Post. THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 21 UNCLE JIM'S DANCING. Uncle Jim, he'd never been To any city ball Until he come a-visitin The folks in town last fall ; Could dance until you couldn't rest, Knowed how to fling his heel, But all the dance he knowed wuz jeal The old Virginny reel. So when they took him to the ball The gals had lots of fun. He went a-slippin crost the hall An bumpin every one. Of course he couldn't waltz, but they Jest made believe he coiild. They kept on whirlin him away. 'Twnz worse than splittin wood. Jest serious as could be he kept A-goin roun an roun. On all the ladies' trains he stepped When he warn't fallin down. He stood it jest as long as ho Could stand it ; then he throwed His liat down till they laughed to see, Then jerked his coat an blowed. He give his galluses a hitch An squared himself, an then As quick as that they seen him pitch Right 'mongst the gals an men. 'Twas dancin now without a doubt, Per then ♦hey seen him peel His weskit off an jump about In a Virginny reel. —Atlanta Constitution A MUTUAL FRIEND. Howard, desiring to bring Ferguson Hid Walker into a fellowsliip like that of Daruou and Pythias, set them so far ipart that oceans roll between them and deserts parch and bake. This is, of course, a figure of speech, for Ferguson and Walker both live in Chicago, where there are no oceans or deserts. But the feeling of loathing which has risen up to separate these two men whom Howard had hoped to make firm friends accomplishes the purpose of desert and ocean and mountain chain too. And yet the two men have met but once, and then only to say "How d'ye do?" Howard lives in Pocatello, Ida. To Pocatello a year ago went Ferguson, journeying on some affair connected with the railroad company which pays him well for knowing intricate and hid- den things about the tran.sportation bnsi- uess. Ferguson was in Pocatello for two weeks. It was a gloomy sort of ex- ile, and but for the presence of Howard, •whom he met on the first day of his vis- it, he would have suffered horrible pangs and gripiugs of louesomeuess, but Howard, bright, entertaining and all informed, was as a wellspring of hap- piness and made the railroad man's stay in the sunburned regions of Idaho a pleasant vacation, and when Ferguson was ready to leave Howard said to him: "Now, old man, I want you to be sure and meet my friend Walker. It's a shame that two such splendid fellows should live in the same town and be strangers. I've written a letter of intro- duction, and you just walk around to his place when you get back to Chicago and go out and take one on me. You'll like Walker and he'll like you." Ferguson thanked Howard with an easy conscience, for he, too, thought it would be pleasant to meet one whom Howard recommended for his worth. Then he returned to Chicago. The letter of introduction nestled in his pocket for a month, quite forgotten. At the expiration of that time Ferguson received a note from Howard, who wanted to know something about a business matter which they had discuss- ed in Pocatello. As a postscript Howard added the question : "You have seen Walker, of course? Great fellow, isn't he?" "Walker, Walker — let me see," Fer- guson mused. "Who in thunder is Walker? Oh, yes. That fellow I have the letter of introduction to. Well, I really must call on him." The same mail which bore the mis- sive to Ferguson also carried one to Walker. Howard, among other things, wrote these words: "You remember Ferguson, whom I asked you to call up- on? What do you think of him? He's the right sort, isn't he?" "By George," Walker cried on read- ing Howard's letter, "he did ask me to drop in on somebody named Ferguson, to whom he had given a letter for pres- entation to me. And I've clean forgot- ten it. Wonder where the man's to be found?" He examined the directory's list of Fergusons, and then, with some show of disappointment, said to him- self: "Pshaw! His office is down in the Grand Central station, three miles away. Well, next time I'm over that way I'll stop." Then he called for his 23 THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. Januar stcnographtT and dictated a letfcr tell-- iug Hiiward that he had enjoyed bis visit with Ferguson ininieusely. Two \vcel:s afterward Ferguson re- ceived fnrtlier documents from Pocatel- io. "The mat*'er you were examining in- to," Ho\v.;rd wrote, "turns out to be a pretty good ;hing, and I'd advise you to hang on to it. Ill keep you posted on developments. I'll not let them fool you. By the way, what do you think of Walker? You haven't told me. " "Thunder and lightning!" Ferguson uttered, "I ought to have called on Howard's friend a month ago. Here he is doing me all kinds of good turns out fbere in Pocatello and I haven't grati- tude enough to go and meet the man he asked me to." He would have ru.shed out forthwith to commune with Walk-" er, only he saw that the directory locat- ed the man away off on the North Side. "I'll take that letter around to hini nest week," said Ferguson. He did not, however. He promptly forgot all about Walker until a fort- night passed and information came from Pocatello that "the property is up 20 per cent in value. Give my respects to Walker the next time you see him. " "Next time I see him," Ferguson re peated. "Let's see. Did I say I had al- ready met him? I guess I must have told Howard something like that. Well, I'll have to lie it out on that line if it takes all summer." So he answered Hovard's l;*^ter by saying that he and Walker had together seen a play the uight before tind had had a most enor- mously good time. He even repeated Bome anecdotes of Howard's earlier life which he declared Walker had told him. "I'd like to know whether Walker is married or single, ' ' Ferguson thought. "I've got a bully story I could tell about him if I only knew. Doggone him! I wi.sh I didn't have that letter of introduction to him. He's getting to be a kind of nuisance." About the same time Walker, writ- ing to Howard, was saying how much he was indebted to the western man for the pleasure he had drawn from his lompaniouship with Ferguson. "Only I wish to heaven Harry hadn't been so fervent in his desire to have me, meet the fellow," he observed to him-. self. "I suppose that, as he says, this man Ferguson is all right, but I haven'i time to go skating all over this to~wi looking him up. I presume I ought tc have gone and dug him out for Harry's sake a long tim^ ago, but I keep forget ting it, and now I've involved mysell in a fooli.sh mesh of lies about my ex periences with Ferguson, whom I have not met, and whom, to tell the truth, I'm getting so I don't want to meet." Out in Pocatello Harry Howard was delighted with the tidings, he received from Chicago. "It's a great satisfac- tion," he told himself, "to bring twc good men together this way. It's really a noteworthy thing to be the author ol a firm friendship between two first class- people. Only I hardly think I under- stand this last letter of Ferguson's. 1 thought Walker had only two children, and here Ferguson writes me about his little girl. She must have been born in the last year. There were certainly only two boys when I passed through Chicago last summer. I'll send Ben my congratulations." When Walker received the sheet con- veying honest Harry Howard's good wishes for the best and brightest future for little Miss Walker, he ran his fin- gers through his hair and looked dazed. "When did I say anything about a new baby?" he wondered. "I must have f& written him some lie about that fel low Ferguson's child. I think I have ft described the man's wife and children and father in-law and the mortgage on his house in my communications with Howard. Harry's always asking new questions, and the chances are that Fer- guson has no family, and Howard thinks it was a slip of the pen and that I wrote about my own new baby — which I haven't got. Heavens, I wish this busi- ness had never started! I wish I'd never promised to call on Ferguson. I wish Ferguson would get run over by a cable car or come to some definite and perma- nent end. ■ I'm getting to hate the very name of him. I'll bet he's a cheap skate anyhow who has imposed upon, Howard's good nature. Why should I go drilling three miles into town just to meet him and say: 'How are you? I' know a friend of yours.' I shan't do it." Ferguson had already come to a elmi-: lar conclusion. "Howard's a first class" ^198. THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER, 23; Jlow. aid he made tilings migJjty easaur for me in Pocat llo," be rea- ; ued, "and it would have been no more " lau white f r me to call on that friend bis at firkt, but I ve got so blamed ?el;- red of the very mention of the name lat it fills me witb luatbiug. I believe lat if I w^ere to meet tbat pirate of a alker I'd A/aut to (.brow bricks at bim. tbougbt tbe first lie I told about bim ould let me out, but the falsehoods we multiplied upon themselves until " don't remember half tbe facts I have iported concerning that outlaw wbom have never seen. " Two weeks ago Ferguson and Walker let. Ferguson, entering tbe library of is club, was accosted by a fellow mem- jr, who introduced bis visiting friend, /■alker. The two glared at each other, id Ferguson hurried into the billiard )om. "I have changed my mind about pre- mting an application for member- lip, " said Walker to tbe man who was scortiug Lim. The next day Ferguson let the member who bad introduced V^'alker and said, "I'm sorry, old man, ut if it is your intention to offer that 3llow's name for membership I'll cer- iinly do my best to get him black- ailed. " And this was the consummation of larry Howard's kindly designs of re- iving Damon and Pythias. — Chicago lecord. Spain and a Conquered Race. The idea of conquered races enjoying he most minute liberty of action by nat- iral birthright was regarded in Spain s absurd. Little by little pressure was irought to bear on tbe king and his lounselors, producing a gradual relasa- ion of the fetters which bound tbe new ubjects to their forced allegiance. Crade, created by the Spaniards, which inally extended to half castes, was con- ined exclusively to commerce with Spain. Botli in tbe far east and the far WQ&t the exa'^t size and number of pack- iges shipped, the number of voyages per Emnum to and fro of the Naos (govern- nent trading galleons), contents of • jales, etc., were all regulated, and no me could ship without a boleto or pub- ic permit, which could only be obtained :rom the unscrupulous officials who bad jorrie to fill their pockets by the most corrupt meaiis. Permission had to be so- licited again and again to perfi.rm al- most any act beyond liie comniou ueces- " sities of life. One could neither travel, . quit or enter the country, read, write, assemble in a group, build a house nor plant a field without license In the I'hilippiuc i.-lands tbe natives, were forced to think like their masters, to dress as they were told and to adopt the religion of their conquerors under, tbe severest penalties of torture and fre- quently of death In Mexico official ap- pointments to tbe Manilla dependency . were publicly sold. Until the American colonies were lost to Spain hardly one Spaniard in a gent^ ration carried capita^ to these nev/ possessions to develop their natural re;-ources. Foreigners wiere jeal- ously treated as intruders, and the Eu- ropean influx sprang generally from the lowest soinal ordrrs, who acted like wolves \&i loose among a fold of sheep. — We tminster Review. Columbus and the Timid Sailor. It was on the forty-seventh day out " W'hen some of the crew began to mur- mur, and one of them, more outspoken- than the rest, walking into Columbus' cabin, implored him not to go farther. "Why?" asked Columbus. "What's, the use of turning back, now that we're, nearly half way there?" "We are afraid we'll never get back, " said the sailor. "You'll lose your way before long." "Not at all," said Columbus, point- ing through the stern window of his ship. "We can't lose ourselves. Do you see the wake of this ship?" "Yes," said the sailor, "I see. It's my own waie I'm thinking of, your honor." "Well, never fear," said Columbus calmly. "When we decide to return, all we have to do is to follow that wake back to Gibraltar, and from there the way is easy." The sailor departed satisfied. — Har- per's Bazar. When the Duke of Monmouth was executed in the reign of James II for treason, his duchess ordered every oak in the park to be cut on the fateful morning. The new growth, belonging to Lord Ebury, is one of the finest for- ■ ests in Britain. 24 THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. Janua. ENGAGEDI were rievoted to lier to a inau, but si reserved her smiles for Leou, aud, if She lingera still in the driving mist, Striving to keep his shadow in sight. There's a tremulous smile on the lips he has kissed. In her eyes shines a new sweet light, And the sodden landscape fades away. A shining path spreads before her feet. Love's deathless domain she has entered today, And, oh, to be living is sweet! HE. He, hurrying off to catch the train, Hopes that his people will like the match. What a lucky girl such a husband to gain. For she wasn't mucli of a catch. Well, the deed is done ; the victim must pay. How much did that dress cost she wore to- night? She should make her own ; there's a saviL^ that way. Once married, he'll set all such things righi — E. D. Pierson in New York Sun. LOST HIS BEAKD. "Rezonvillel Gravelotte! Montre tout! What a longtime ago it all seema — half a lifetime, monsieur!" said my old friend Philipe Alibert, the ex-dra- goon, as we stood before Brisset's pic- ture in the salon of 1894. "Yes, that is Gravelotte — I was there. Is the picture like it? Oh, no doubt! The artist knows — I cannot tell. I had to fight, not look about. "You want an anecdote of our troop, monsieur? Well, you shall have one. You may take it that we were picked men. There was but one youngster among us, and to us old mustaches his beardless face seemed strange. Ah, he was handsome, with the beauty du di- able, fairly tall aud very slim. He had a caustic tongue, aud nothing pleased him better than to use it on us, his comrades, in such a manner that we feared him and left him to himself. How it was we could not tell, but Leon St. Paul carried everything ktfore liim. Did one of us offer attention to a pretty grisette mere- ly pour passer le temps, Leon would cut him out and cover him in his retreat with confusion. This, in truth, was bad enough when the intent was merely to amuse oue.self, but, sacre, it is hard to bear whtn a man was in earnest, as poor Cambert was with Mam'selle Ma- rie Emmanuel, the vivandierj. "A good creature, that Marie. We must say what I think, the inmost ri cesses of her heart for monsieur le doi teur. "Poor Marie! M. Vendome thougl nothing of her. "Cambert hated Leon and would o: ten say while stroking his thick, blac beard : ' This young cockerel crows tc loud, messieurs. We must cut his com for him. ' " 'There are plenty of Prussian coml for cutting. Corporal Cambert, ' our sei geant would reply. 'Let us carve them my friend, before we practice on eac other. Who knows?' he added thought fully on one occasion. ' The time ma, come when we shall none of us ha.v the heart for crowing. ' "Ah, well, the campaign was in it infancy then, and France, like a brid who decks herself for her nuptials, ha( gone out to espouse the god of war, lit tie dreaming what the children of he: marriage bed would be. But to mj story, monsieur. It was the eve o: Gravelotte, and Cambert, moody as usual, came across Leon trifling witi Marie, the vivandiere. He found hei smiling into the youth's handsome, beardless face, and in a burst of sar- casm unusual with him — for monsieur will understand that he had no great command of language except for curs- ing— he said to her, 'Mam'selle Marie Emmanuel, if you would have us con- tinue to be your slaves, at least give us a man for a rival. ' "Leon's face turned scarlet. 'Man or boy,' he answered, 'I will wager my silver rosary, blessed by the holy fa- ther himself, against that beard of youx's, of which you think so much, that I ride before you into the fight when next we charge the Prussians. ' "'Agreed!' replied Cambert lightly. 'Have the goodness to accept my assur- ance mademoiselle, that I shall present you with a silver rosary in a little time. ' " 'Marie shall have the rosary, but she shall also have your beard to stuff a pillow for her favorite poodle, ' an- swered Leon, and then, looking daggers at each other, they parted. "The morrow was the day of Grave- lotte, and we heard that we were to charge the blue tunics and drive them 189S. TIJE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 25 out of tlae pkiutatiou of hop viues be- hind which they lay couctaled. " 'Ah, this is work formeu,' gruutad Camhert, as he looked to the left, cm which feida rode Leou, with myself next in line. " 'Look to your heard, Cambert,' an- swered Leon, laughing scornfully. ' You •will never carry it into another fight. ' "The word was given, and off we went. Tell you about it? What shall I say? Only that the air was thick with a mist which smelled of sulphur and that a swarm of bees from hell itself seemed buzzing round our ears. "Ping! We were not half way across the space which intervened between our st-.rting point and those green rows of hop vines, each one masking a blue coated Prussian, when I got it! My right arm was stung by one of those bees and tlie bone shattered. I trau.'-fer- red my saber to my left hand and let my reins fall on the neck of my gray mare. On she went, her head down, her neck stretched out, her nose to the ground. "'Godofwar!' I said to myself. 'Had it only bren my It ft arm some Prus.siau should pay for this!' I was thinking ol myself, of course, for it is not good or agreeable to charge Prussians with one arm useless, out I saw what passed near me — I saw very well, though the gray mist seemed turning red. "Young Leon was the next. A bullet struck him below the breast just abov^^ the belt, a little to the side — a disa- greeable spot that! Strike yourstlf with your fist, luousieur, i^:o — just there. nnJ YOU will know what I mean. I heard him groau 'O Jef^n!' and saw him throw out both his hands into the air, Then I knew what had happened. "In another instant he would fall backward over his horse's haunches and lie on the ground with a Prussian bullet in his internals and his com- rades' horses trampling the beauty in his young face. On I went, the blood trickling down on to my saddle, my teeth gritting together and a pretty strong resolvH in my soul to see some Prussian fluid very soon. " 'Holy \irgin !' Jean Joseph Cam- bert's voice reached me through the screaming and the hissing of the bul- lets. He was speakiuj? grimly. 'Cour- age, comrade,' he said; 'you win your wager, for you ride before me toward the enemy's line.' And, monsieur, it was so ! Leon St. Paul had been caught as he fell, and lay across the saddle of his rival, supported by his left arm. " What followed then? You must pic- ture it for yourself, for I cannot. Some of us never reached the hop vines, some never returned, but those who left us had Prussian comrades on their journey to the other world, be sure of that. Ah, ha, on that journey a good soldier of France is comforted by the presence of a detest- ed Prussian, though in life no road is broad enough for them to travel amica- bly. "When it was over we returned, and we three, Cambert, St. Paul and I, were still together. "Cambert bore St. Paul to the place where M. Vendome aud Marie Emman- uel were at work. They were both cov- ered with bl( od and sweat. The surgeon groaned as we brought the youth in, for, as I have said, he loved St. Paul, but Marie uttered a cry which was hard on Cambert and made him look more grim than ever. "I was in very great haste to part company withmy rii;hr arm, but I stood aside to give young Limiu his chance. A right arm is a good friend and sticketh closer than p brother. Eut even the best friend is soir^times do trop. "The sur.":ei;iu ripped the garments up with his i-ci.-.-' rs aud tore them from the wound, (li.'-cl i^iiig the white fiesh of the patients b:j\v, but just then Leon roused and tried to drag himself on. to his side, away from the healer's hand, muttering something that seemed to im- ply that, exclusive to the last, he would not be touched or handled in our pres- ence. "The surgeon drew back irresolute, which was indeed strange with mo- ments so precious and gaping wounds waitiug for him on every side. "Then it was that the vivandiere spoke, turning to those who stood with- in the door of the hut, moved by such curiosity as men can feel who are used to scenes of blood. "'Go, go, my friends,' she said; 'monsieur must find that bullet, and this is no place for you. You all have had mothers, women of France, sisters, some of you wives or sweethearts. 2G THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. January Retire, I beg. If I come to the door of the hut aud say, 'My friends, it is the death' — here her strong voice broke — 'then pray — pray for the soul of a brave daughter of France. ' "We who had called tlie young sol- dier comradvi and loved or hated hini for his smiling, handsome face cast a strange look upon the silent figure un- der the doctor's hands. We saw with opened eyes and every head was bar^ in an instant, for patriotism and the courage which God himself gives some- times to his weakest commanded our respect as no other earthly attribute might. "The doctor, with a gasping sob, turned to us as we drew toward the door of the Lut. 'I loved the youth,' he said. 'I find that I have loved our sis- ter. It is well that you should go — she wishes it — but courage, my brothers, the time has not yet come to say of our brave comrade in arms — may the soul of the faithful departed rest in peace.' "Well, monsieur, my arm was takeu off and I did well enough. They ex- tracted that bullet from young Leon's body, aud the doctor kept it. A bit of German lead, of course, but made pre- cious by a countrywoman's blood. They moved us to the house of a wealthy pa- triot, and she lay in the temporary ward among the men, but separated by a screen. My bed was next to it. "Cambert came to visit us, clean shaven, and not half so fierce and grim without hit, mustache. When he left, he was weeping like a child. "One day I heard Marie Emmanuel talking to the patient behind the screen, aud then I heard the voice of Leoutiue St. Paul. ' ' ' How shall I face my comrades, ' she said; 'bow meet them, now I no longer dare to wear the dress in which they knew me?' "And the vivandiere answered : 'Meet them, dear friend, as the wife of our brave surgeon. He loves you — I have said it. Surely such women as you were meant to bo the mothers of our future heroes. ' ' ' "And v\ hat became of Cambert?" I demanded. "(Jh, he married," said the old enl- dier. "He has sous and daughters. Per- ha})s he married Marie Emuianml. I have seen liis daughter.' She is vorv York -Cora Lauglois in New Must H:ive Roeii a Loose Screw. For several minutes the young man did not speak. I: is heart was too full. It was enough for him to know that this glorious creature loved him; that .she had promis('(] to sbnve his fate. With a new and dc li^litiul sense of ownership he feasted his ^yt■s once more upon her beautj', and as he realized that hence- forth it would be his privilege to pro- vide for her welfare and happiness he could have almost wept with joy. His good fortunt^ seemed iucredible. Final- ly he whispered tenderly: "How did it ever happen, darling, that such a bright, shining angel as yourself fell iu love with a dull, stupid fellow like me?" "Goodness knows," she murmured absently. "I must have a screw loose KOmewhere."— Pearson's Weekly. They Called Him Vanns. It is curious how inconsistent are the prejudices of people in regard to the use of heathen names. Mr. Payn, in his "Gleams of Memory," tells an amus- ing story of the late Dean Burgon, who objected to the name of the goddess of beauty, but found no fault with that of the god of the woods. An infant was brought to the church for christening, and the name proposed for it was Vanus. " Vanus?" repeated the dean. "I suppose you mean Venus. Do you imagine I am going to call a Christian child by that name, and least of all a male cliild?" The father of the infant urged that he only wished to name it after his grandfather. "Your grandfather!" cried the dean. "I don't believe it. Where is your grandfather?" He was produced — a poor old soul cf 80 or so, bent double and certainly not looking in the least like the goddess in question. "Do you mean to telJ me, sir, that any clergy- man ever christened you 'Vanus,' as you call it?" "Well, no, sir. I was christened Syl- vanus, but they always calls me 'Va- nus.' " A Japuiifc^e si.ying runs. A woman's tongue is ouly six iuches long, but it can kill a u.an six ieet high. 898. THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 2(> Mauifold. Cntter — What's the old man with tha ivhiskers writing? Peumau— 01], he's getting out some iyndicate stuff. "He's uot writing for the papers?" "Oh, no. He's a Mormon, and he'n vriting home to his wives." — Yonkerti 5tatesmau. Potatoes In the Pulpit. A clergyman who enjoyed the sub- stantial benefits of a fine farm was slightly taken down on one occasion by uis Irish plowman, who was sitting on ais plow in the wheatfield. The rever- end gentleman, being an economibt, said, with g' eat seriousness: "John, wouldn't it be a good plan for you to have a pair of pruning shears tiere and be cutting a few bushes along the fence wnile the horses are rt sting a shoi't time?" John, with quite as serious a counte- uance as the divine himsell, said: "Look here, wouldn't it be well, sir, for you to have a tub of potatoes in the pulpit, and while they were singing to peel 'em awhile to be rtauy tor the pot?' ' The reverend gentleman laughed heartily and left. — Pearson's Weekly. Why He Objected. The maiden was weeping bitterly. The young man stood opposite her with lushed cheeks and a troubled look on ais face. "Then your father has not waited for me to ask for his consent, but has con- peyed his refusal through you?" "Yes, Algydear. " (Sob.) "And you think there is no chance of tiis relenting?" 'N-o-o." 'But, Lucy, darling, what does your father see in me to object to? Did he 5ay?" "He said, Algy, that he couldn't see anything in you (sob), and that was why he objected to you." (Sob. )— Pearson's Weekly. A Convert of the Wheel. "Pedalton used to be very fond of sayiug there is no such thing as perfec- tion in life. " "¥'. s Lut that was before he bought his ui w bicycle. " ' — Washington fetar. "He" AVas a Woman. A person admitted to an English workhouse uot long ago objected to tak- ing the usual bath with the men and confided to the medical officer that "he" was a woman. The woman's story, which she subsequently told, is stranger than fiction. She was educated at a woman's college and married at 16 to a man who ill treated her. She left him and went to live with a brother, who was a painter and decorator. Acquiring a knowledge of the trade, she donned male clothes and became a successful painter and decorator. For 22 years sho lived with htr niece, who kept house for her and posed as the painter's wife. Three months ago she fell from a scaf- fold, and, although she injured her ribs, managed to prevent the doctors from discovering her secret. A failure to obtain employment finally compelled her to seek the shelter of the workhouse, with consequences disastrous to her manhood. — New York Tribune. S:evensoti and His Karse. Alison Cunningham, Robert Louia Stevenson's old nurse, was much beloved by him, and he sent her a copy of each of his books, with his own inscription on the fly leaf. Generally the inscription is just a line or two, "Alison Cuuniug- hau], irom her boy," or "from htr lad- die." But one of thevolumes, "An In- land Voyage" (1878), contains the fol- lowing : My Dear Cunning— If you had not taken so much trouble with me all the years of my childhood, this little book would never have been written. Many a long night you sat up with me when I was ill. I wish I could hope, by way of return, to amuse a single evening for you witn my little book. But, whatever you may think of it, I know you will conunue to think kindly of the aiithor. A Story of Wliittier. Mrs. Alice Freeman Palmer tells a etory illustrating the almost boyish modesty of the poet Whittier. A little woman forced her way into the ptnetra- lia of a Boston mansion when Whittier was visiting there and, clasping both the poet's hands in her own, exclaimed, "Mr. Whittier, this is the supreme mo- ment of my life!" Whittier stood first on one foot and then on the other, wi h- drew his hands and clasped them behind his back and reulied nrosairallv. "Is io?" 28 THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. Januar Sending: Uedeflotlies by Mail. An old uegro bearing a huge bundle of bedclothes which were somewhat the worse for wear and none too immacu- late in character rapped at one of the little windows up at the postofifice. The clerk who appeared in answer to the summons was thus greeted by the afore- said darky : "Boss, I'ze got tu send dis here bun- dle o' bedclo'es to my old 'oman down in Mis'sippi. Is dis here de place whah I'ze got ter start it off?" "Oh, you want to send the package by mail, do you?" asked the clerk, without cracking a smile. "Sartaiu, fer sho', boss. How much is I got ter pay?" inquired the darky. The clerk could not resist the temp- tation to play a joke upon a fellow clerk, so he said: "Well, uncle, this isn't the place for you to leave your bundle, but if you will just take it down to that window below here" — indicating the general delivery department— "and hand it in to the clerk down there, he will put the right number of stamps on it and send it ofif f or you. " "Thauke'ee, boss; thank'ee. I sho' is obleeged ter you," said the unsuspect- ing Senegambian. He at once made his way to the de- partment indicated. Arriving there, he thrust his hi^ge bundle into the win- dow, into which it fitted closely, at the same time telling the astonished presid- ing genius of that department please to put stamps on it and sent it to "my eld 'oman, Sallie Sanders, down in Water Valley." It is said that a coolness now exists between these erstwhile friendly clerks in the Memphis postoffice. — Memphis Scimitar. Antetobacco Smoking. There is ample authority for the statement that before the introduction of tobacco it was customary to inhale the smoke of burned herbs for medici- nal purposes. There is, however, so far as I know, no authority for supposing that pipes at all resembling our tobacco pipes were ustd for this purpose. Lyte says of coltsfoot : "The perfume of the dried leaves ledde upon quicke coles, taken into the mouth throueh the nine of a funnell. ui" tunnell, helpeth such as are trouble with the short nesse of winde, and fetch their breath thicke or often, and do (sic breake without daunger the impostem of the breast. " This is the usual form of the direc tions given in such cases, and Gerar follows it almost word for word, add ing, however : "Being taken in manner as they tak tobaco, it (coltsfoot) mightily prevail eth against the disease aforesaid." This is pretty good evidence that tc bacco pipes were not in use in Lyte time, but had been iotroduced in Ge rard's. In Sylvester's "Tobacco Battel ed and Their Pipes Shattered" tobacc pipes are spoken of as a new invention Two smoakie Engines, in this latter Age (Satan's short Circuit, the more sharp his rage JEave been invented by too-wanted Wit, Or rather, vented from th' Infernall Pit, Guns and Tobacco-pipes, with Fire andSmoal (At least) a Third part of Manliind vo choak. He considers the later invention th more devilish of the two. — Notes aU' Queries, A Rainfall of Seeds. Some days ago the province of Ma cerata, in Italy, was the scene of an ex traordinary phenomenon. Half an hou before sunset an immense number o small blood colored clouds .covered th sky. About an hour later a cyclou storm burst, and immediately the ai became filled with myriads of smal seeds. The seeds fell over town anc country, covering the ground to a deptl of about half an inch. The nest day th. whole of the scientists of Macerata wen abroad in order to find some explana tion. Professor Cardinali, a celebratec Italian naturalist, stated that the seed; were of the genus cercis, commonly called Judi;S tree, and that they belong ed to an order of legumiuos&as founc only iu central Africa or the Antilles, It was found, upon examination, that i great number of the seeds were actuallj in the first stage of germination.— Golden Peuuv. Mother. Sometimes. "The child," said the shoe cleri boarder, "is father to the man. " "Uh, not always," said the cheerful idiot. "Sometimes it is a girl. ' — Indi- anapolis Joiwaul. 898 THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 29 Sold the Machine. The book agent, the sewiug machiiiG geut, the insurance agent, have each nd all won distinction by their persever- ance, but the agent of the washing ma- :hiue is worth his weight in gold to the lOuse for which he travels if all there s said about him in the following is rue: Exasperated Woman of the House — I lave told yon a dozen times I don't vaut the machine. Sic him, Tige! Agent (while the dog is gnawing his eg) — Don't want the machine, ma'am? i'ardon me, you haven't yet seen half ts good points. It washes the clothes :leaner than any other and in less than lalf the time. It never tears off a but- on. It"— "Good heavens! Don't you see what he dog is doing?" "Yes. quite a playful animal. This nachine, ma'am, uses less soap, takes up ess room" — "He'll tear you to pieces if you don't ?o. Run, for mercy's sake. He's tasted alood, and I'm afraid I can't stop him 30W. ' ' "I have to put up with such things, ma'am, and it's a good cause. This ma- chine is the best one that ever was in- h vented. If I can succeed in introducing one into a family, I always feel that I have done a benevolent act. You can use any kind of water, hard or soft, hot or" — "Oh, no, no! He'll kill you. What is the machine worth?" "Ifsworth 11,000,000 to any family, but I'm selling it for only $5, and" — "Here's ycur money. I'll take it. Tige, Tige! Let go!" Looks as if we were going to have rain. Well, I must be going. Good aft- ernoon, ma'am." — Sewing Machine Times. The New ICiiglancl Sleeting House. The New England meeting house was generally a square wooden box, but it showed excellent taste in the detail of its simple ornamentation. It is the the- ory of some thoughtful architects that among the early colonial immignaits were men considerably above the abil- ity of ordinary carpenters. In ti.o.sR days the architect was apt to Le I', lii designer and builder, and it was r i '.a ^is country until very modern times that the line was at all clearly drawn between the architect who designed and superintended in the interests of his client, and so became a professional man, and the builder who took a contract to execute the work and make what he could out of it, and remained a business man. It is believed that the excellent taste and judgment of these men among the colonists made themselves felt in the taste of the ornamentation in what we call colonial architecture. They had no originality in the general design of buildings, because their experience had never included that, but they knew how to carry out to perfection details of the ensemble. — William' B. Eigelow in Scribuer's. The Troubles of Ireland. On one occasion Hartley Coleridge had listened with deep apparent inter- est to the voluble discourse of a well known Iri^h enthusiast who spent much of his time traveling about Eng- land and enlightening the English mind on the subject of popish errors, especial- ly in Ireland. After dinner Hartley re- quested to L -^ presented to a man so re- markable. On the presentation he took the far famed traveler and philosopher by the arm, while a fev*' of the guests gathered around, and addressed him with awful solemnity, "Sir, there are two great evils in Ireland." "There are indeed, sir, " replied the Irish guest, "but please to name them." "The first," resumed Hartley, "is — popery!" "It is," said the other, "but how won- derful that you should have discovered that! Now tell me what is the second great evil." "Protestantism!" was Hartley's reply in a voice of thunder as he ran av\ ay screaming with laugh- ter. His new acciuaintance remained panic stricken. — "Recollections of Au- brey de Yere. " Its Great Charm. "Yes, we went all over Europe, but papa really only enjoyed himself in Venice. " "Ah, yes, no wonder. The gondolas, St. Mark s, the Rialto, the" — "Oh, it wasn't that. But he could sit in the hotel, you know, and fish out of the Minclcw. '" — London Fun. 30 THE AM Kill CAN BEE KEEPER. January Old Settlers' Yarns. They were two old picueers of nppei Michigan eutertaiuiug the gullible re- sorters. "When I first came to this region," said the veteran who owns a log cabin, a flatboat and a turnip patch, "we had a good deal of trouble with bears. They'd com.e sniffia round the shanty at night, and you could go out any moruin and lay in a stock of bear beef. 'Bout the best luck I ever had was one fall when I was pokin about just beyaut the clearin. I was shovin a bullet home with an iron ramrod when I see a she bear and three cubs comiu toward me. They see me at the same time, and all went up in a row on their hind legs. Uf course I was naturally excited and banged away. When the smoke cleared there was them four bears strung on that ramrod, and there wasn't a good kick left in none of 'em." The other entertainer looked troubled for a few seconds, but soon rallied and looked as honest as an owl. "Hank," he began, "you mus' reca- leck that red cow of mine. There was the beatiuest critter I ever see. She could ketch more fish than airy a man in the settlement. She wasn't no ex- pense 'cause she could steal a livin the year round. She could pick a lock with her horns, and ole Jim Clayter swears he see her climb a tree after a black bear once. I wont make no afiSdavy to that, but I know she used to bring in bear reg'ler. She could do more with them horns of hern than any man could with a rifle. Wa n't she a corker, Hank?" "I hain't spinnin this here yarn, Lige, " declared the other pioneer, who was plainly jealous, "but the only cow you ever owned since you come up here wasamooley." Though ihey are both old they are as tough as pine knots, and it took five minutes to part them. The friendship of years is broken and each declares the other the prince of liars. — Detroit Free Altitude and Phthisis. I have spent considerable time in traveling in the Catskills, Adirondacks and the Rt)cky mountains, investigating with some care these localities, with their varying altitudes above sea level and their influence upon the lungs, and. .:_i:c pcriiii] s a ijigii aLcl ar^ aiii. ..^^,. er air may be Ic ueLciul iu soniediieates and for its iLfn ( nci' i pun the geneiul health, I do not believe that it has tLe slightest etect upon the growth an pro- liferation ot the tubercle bacillus itself. In this opiinon I am heartily confirmed by the judgDjtnt of ruauy able and care- ful practiticLcrs with whom I have most earuchtly ccnver.-xd, and I repeat that altitiiuL has no influence whatever in destroying the tubercle bacillus. A considerable experience with this disease has led me to believe that no place is better for its treatment than New York city. Patients have come to me from every state in the Union, from Canada, from the Sandwich Islands and from Europe, and it appears to be the general belief among them all that the climate of New York city, with its clear air and bright sunshine, is quite as favorable under all circumstances as is that of UiCst other localities. I have under my care at this time patients from several towns in Colorado, from New Mexico and California, and all are doing better iu this city than in their own localities. — Dr. Hubbard Winslow Mitchell in New York Medical Eecord. Leprosy. Leprosy is an exclusively human dis- ease. It is not inoculable to animals. It is never of spontaneous origin, but is in- variably derived from the lesions or se- cretions of a person similarly diseased. Its development in a country previously exempt from the disease may always be traced to its importation in the person of a leper from an infected center. We know nothing definitely of the mode of infection or the channels of entrance through which the bacillus gains access to the organism — whether by direct con- tact, by inhalation or imbibition of the germs or by other intermediaries. Ob- servation proves conclusively that every leper is a possible source of danger to all with whom he may come into inti- mate and prolonged contact. — Dr. Prince A. Morrow in North American Review. Experts have come to the conclusiou that what kills trees in London is not the soot flakes nor the want of air nor the drouglit, but the sewer gas, which attacks the roots, so that the tree soon withers and dies. 189S. 2' HE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. THE CIVIL WAR. Some Facts Tor Folks Who Are 'Sot Sure When It i:nded. Mauy people think Appomattox marked the eud cf the war, as Surutfir did its begi lining. As a mutter of fact the war did not end officially until Aug. 20, 1866, when President Johnson issued a proclamation aunouuciug that war was at an end and that peace, or- der and tranquillity and civil authority existed in all the states. While Lee's surrender was not the end of the war, it was the beginning of the end. John- ston surrendered on April 26, Dick Tay- lor on May 4 and Kir by Smith not until May 26. On May 13, more than a mouth after Lee's surrender, a sharp fight took place at Palmetto Ranch, in Texas, which is called by Jefferson Davis and other authorities the last battle of the war. The commander of the Union troops, mostly colored, says in his report: "The last volley of the war, it is be- lieved, was fired by the Sixty-second United States Colored infantry, about sunset on May 13, 1865, between White's ranch and the Boca Chica, Texas." In this fight, which took place on the American side of the Rio Grande river, the Mexican Imperialists sent over a body of cavalry, which aided the Confederates in their last and success- ful attack. On June 13 Tennessee was declared at peace; June 23 the blockade was raised; July 22 Grant made his last official report; April 2, 1866, procla- mation that Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missis- sippi and Florida were tranquil was is- sued by the president; Aug. 20, 1866, war was officially declared ended. The latter date was in 1867 fixed by congress as the official and legal date of the close of the war. — New York World. » - - -* 'mf' " Picked Him Out. A teacher was introducing a lesson on "A Flint Stone" by a few remarks upon the primitive savage. After detailing many characteristics he wound up with: "He was very rough, using no knife or fork, but eating wi»-h his fingers. Now, who was this?" Johnny— Please, air, our lodger, sir." -■ London Tit-Bits. The Human Body. The human body is an epitome iu na- ture of all mechanics, all hydraulics, all architecture, all machinery of ev- ery kind. There are more than 310 mechanical movements known to me- chanics today, and all of these are but modifications of those found in the hu- man body Here are found all the bars, levers, joints, pulleys, pumps, pipes, wheels and axles, ball and socket move- ments, beams, girders, trusses, buffers, arches, columns, cables and support! known to science. At every point man'v best mechanical work can be shown ti; be but adaptations of processes of the human body, a revelation of first prin ciples used in nature. Not His Luck. Mrs. Peck — Here's another case of i man who forgot to appear on his wed- ding day. Henri Peck — And ye* they call ab- jentmindeduess a misfortune. — Pbila- dfelnhia North Amerirau. Honey and Beeswax Market Report. Below we give tlie latest and most authen- tic report of the Honey and Beeswax market ia different trade centei-s : Kansas City, Mo., Dec 20, 1897.-The demand for honey is fair. Good supply. Price of eomb 10 to 11!/2C per lb. Extracted 4)/^ to 6c per lb. Good demand for l!eeswax. No supply. Prices 2-5 to 27c per lb. Very little extracted honey on the market' Hambli.v & Bearss, 514 Walnut St. Detroit, Mich.. D ec. 26, 1897.— Fair demand for honey. Good Supply. Price of white 11 to 12c per lb. Other grades 8 to lie. Extracted light 5 to 6c; dark 4 to.ic per lb. Good demand for bees, wax. Fair supply. Price 25 to 26c per lb. The failure of the apple crop here has helped the sales of honey very much. M. H. Hunt. Bell Branch. Mich. Boston, Mass., Dec. 20, 1897.— Good demand for honey. Fair supply. Price of comb, fancy 13c; No. 1, 11 to 12c. Extracted 6 to 7c per lb. Good demand for beeswax, practically no supply. Price 27c per lb. Blake, Scott & Lee, 57 Chatham St. Cincinnati, 0.. Dec. 23.1897.— There is no change in prices, and demand is rather slow on account of the holiuay season. We quote 10 to 14e as the range of price for best white comb honey and 3J^ to 6c for extracted honey, according to quality. Demand is fair for beeswax at 20 to 26c for good to choice yellow. Supply fair Chas. F. Muth & Son S. E. Cor, Freeman and Central Aves. 33 THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. Jamidvy HOW TO FIND OUT. Fill a bottle or common glass with urine and let it stand twenty-four hours; a sedi- ment or settling ind'cates an unhealthy condition of the kidneys' When urine stains linen it is evidence of kidney trouble^ Too frequent desire to urinate or pain in the back, is also convincing proof that the kidneys and bladder are out of order. WHAT TO DO There is comfort in the knowledge so often expressed, that Dr.Kilmer's Swamp R'X)t, the great kidney remedy fulfills every wish in relieving pain in the back, kidneys, livtr bladder and every part of the urinary pas ages. It corrects inability to hold uiii and scalding pain in passing it, or bad ti feet following use of liquor, wine or beer, and overcomes that unpleisant necessity of being compelled to urinate. The mild and the extraordinary effect of Swamp-Root is soon realized. It stands the highest for its wonderful cures of the most distressing cases. If you need a medicine you should have the best. Sold by druggists, price fifty cents and one dollar. You may have a sample bottle siid pamplet both sent by mail. Mention American Bee Keeper and send your address to Dr. Kilmer & Co., Bingham ton, N, Y. The Proprietors of this paper gurantee the genuineness of this offer. ■^ Tlio only bee paper in the Uiii- ■^ ted States edited exclusively in \ the interest of the farmer bee X keeper and the beginner is The X Busu Bee^ publislied by Emerson T. Abbott, St. Joseph, Mo. Write for free sample copy now. ^^ Future comfort for present; seemmgf economy^ but buy the sewingf machine with an estab- lished reputation, that guar- antees you long and satisfac- tory service. ^ ,^ J' J> J> Tfc ITS PINCH TENSION . . AND . . TENSION INDICATOR, (devices for regulating and showing the exact tension) are a few of the features that emphasize the high grade character of the White. Send for our elegant H. T. catalog. WHBTE SeWBNG IVlACHlNE CO., CLEVELAND, 0. For Sale by Oscar Stranburg, JAMESTOWN, N. Y. 1.00 he subscription price ot DEMO REST'S is reduced to $1 00 a Year- A YEAR FOR D&MORE)STS Ff\MlbY N\f\Gf\Z\HB>. Demorest's Family Magazine is something more than a Fashion Magazine, although it gives the very latest home and foreign fashions each month ; this is only one of its many valuable features. It has something for _each member of the family, for every department of the household, and its 'varied contents are of the highest grade, making it pre eminently. The Fam- ily Magazine of the World. It furnishes the best thoughts of the most in- teresting and most progressive writers of the day. and is abreast of the times in every thing,— Art. Literature, Science. Society Affairs, Fiction, Household Matters. Sports, etc.— a single number frequently containing from 200 to 300 fine engravings, making it the MOST COMPLETE AND MOST PRO- FUSELY ILLUSI'RATED of the GREAT MONTHLIES. Demorest's Magazine Fashion Department is in every way far ahead of that conrained in any other publication. Subscribers aro entith d each month to patterns of the latest fashions in woman's a' tire, at no cost to them other than that necessary for postage and wrapping. NO BETTER CHRISTMAS GIFT an a year's subscription to Demorest's Magazine can be made. By subscribing AT ONCE you can t the magazine at the reduced price, and will also receive the handsome 25 cent Xmas Number with s beautiful panel picture supplement. Remit SI 00 by money order, registered letter or check to the Ifcmorest Publishing; Co., 110 Fifth Ave., NEW YORK CI I Y GREAT SPIOIAL CLUBBING OFFER FOR PROMPT SUBSCRIPTIONS: ^ODiy $1 'i^ for file ftmepicao ^u Keeper FaX^'T^Tz^^'l Send your Subscriptions to this Office. Bee-Book Sent Free with American Bee Journal. Every nem svbscnber sending $1,00 for the weekly American Bee Journal for one year will receive a copy of Newman's 160-page " Bees and Honey," free. The old American Bee Journal is great this year. You ought to have it. .^aiiiple of Bee Journal free. Write for it, GEORGE W. YORK & CO., 118 Michigan St., CHICAGO, ILL. E MPIRE WASHER FREE^ To Energetic Agents, NORMOUS PROFITSI WITH LITTLE WORK PEIIFECT SATISFACTION (;U ARANTKEn. *SOO to any one who will invent a similnr WASHI.VO M VC»l-Xi: thjit will operate easier or do better work. The rrice l« Low. Write foreirculars. price and terms to MenSSisPrpriHE EMPIRE WASHER CO., Jamestown, N.Y. IBST on Sarth. 15 years for a $1.00 BINGHAM MOKER. Six sizes, all perfect, rom 60c to $1.50. F. BINGHAM, Farwell, Mich. T. F. Bingham, Dear Sir : I have used theConquer- r fifteen years or more. I was always 'ell pleased with its workings, but think- ig 1 would need a new one this summer write for circular for 1897. I do not aink four-inch Smoke Engine too large. Yours, Wm. H. Edgerty. Cuba, K.an., .Jan. 27, "97. BEGIMMERS, Beginners should liave a copy of the Ariiaieiir Ree Keeper, a 70 p.ige book by Prof. .). \V. Rouse; written especially for Minatfiirs. Second addition just oiil. Kirst aef Keeper (a live progressive "J^ page month ly journal) one year b5c. Apply' to any fir.st-class dealer or address, LEAHY NI'F'C CO., Higglnsville.Nlo. One Man with the UUIONCommnation Ca,n do the work of four men using hand tools, in Ripping, Outting-oflf, Mi- tring, Rabbeting, Grooving, Gaining, Dadoing. Edging- up, Jointing Stuff, etc. Full Line of Foot and Hand Power Machinery. Sold on Catalogue Free. (i Trial. Seneca Falls Wlfg Co., 45 Water St., 112 Seneca Falls. N. Y. «" ■■ " ■■" 'I I ■ I I TT. View IS iJ)l.(JO a year, but for the sake of getting it in- to new blinds and being able to begin the year with s» large list, I will, until Jan, Ist, send free to each new subscriber, a copy of "Advanced Bee Cul- ture," a -^O-ct book of nearly IdO pages, that gives briefly but clearly the best methods of management from the time the bees are put into the cellar in the fall until they are again ready for winter— 32 chapters in all. Those who prefer can have, instead (.f the book, I'J back numbers of the Keview, the selection to be mine, but no two numbers alike. All who send 11.00 now. will leceive the last four issues of this year free, and the Review will be sent until the end of ISUS. If not acquainted with the Review, (-eiul 10 cts. for three late but different issue.s. W. Z. HUTCHINSON, Flint, Mich. 50 YEARS' EXPERIENCE Trade W3arks Designs Copyrights &c. Anyone sending a skPtrh and description may qulcltly asoert.iin our opinion free whether an invention is prohMbly patentable. Comnuinion- tions strictly confidential. Handbook on Patents sent free, oldest agency for securing patents. l^atents taken through Munn & Co. receive special notice, without charge, in the Scientific Jlmerkan. A handsomely illustrated weekly. Largest cir- culation of any scientific journal. Terms, $;> a year: four months, $1. Sold by all newsdealers. MUNN SCo.3«^B-^-v, New York Branch Office, 025 F St., Washington, D. C. SECTIONS, BEE-HIVES~~ and other Bee-keep- ers' Supplies, at bed-rock prices. Best of Goods at LOWEST PRICES. Write for free, illustrated Catalogue and Price list. G. B. LEWIS & CO., Watertown, Wis. BUSYASABEEJ t rightly describes the condition of X the man who continues to do all his : WRITING WITH A PEN. 'SEREIVE as an OYSTER is the person who uses an ODELLTYPEWEITE (PRICE ONLY $20.00) X in his business. The machine does X any work that can be done on any .t typewriteir, and is guaranteed in X every particular. Send for Cata- X logue and sample of work. ODELL TYPE WRITER CC 358-364 Dearborn St,, Chicago, or H. E. HILL, Agent, Titusville, F Please mention the American Bee-Keeper irl addressing advertisers. BARNES' Foot Power Machiner This cut represents our Co bined Machine which is t best machine made for use the construction of Hives, £ ions. Boxes, Etc. Sent trial. Send for catalogue ai Price List. W. F. & John Baknes C< 913 Ruby St.. Rockford, III Please mention American Bee-Keeper. Pasteboard Boxes or Carton For holding 1 lb. sections o honey, very cheap. For prices address, THE W. T, FALCONE M'F'G CO., JAMESTOWN, N. Y. COOPER'S LEATHERSTOCKING TALES complete stories bound in one large volume, substantial paper coverj togetlier with our new Agricul tural monthiy one year for onl} 50c. Sample copy free. l-£ FARMER'S REA.LM,Syracuse,N.Y. 5 WE ARE THE PEOPLE' Who Can Tnrn Out rENCE^ 'SSSl,,., i2£ PLAIN 5ECTI0N5 (sections with out insets) FOR 1898. Havinor special appliances and machinery, we can make them right. Nothing in late years has seemed to stir such a furor in the Bee-Keeping World as these new goods. If vou don't know ahout them, send to THE A. L ROOT CO., Medina, Ohio. NEW ls*i)M CATALOGUE, largely re-written, out bv Jaunarv loth. Quickly secured. OUR FEE DUE WHEN PATENT OBTAINED. Send model, eketch or photo, with description for free report as to patentability. 48-PA6E HAND-BOOK TREE. Contains references and full information. WRITE FOR COPY OF OUR, SPECIAL OFFER. It is the most liberal proposition ever made by a patent attorney, and EVERY INVENTOR SHOULD READ IT before applying for patent. Address : H.B.WILLS0N&CO. PATENT LAWYERS, L«DroitBidg., WASHINGTON, D. C. AGEN rs— $2.5 to 150 per week ! You work right around home. A bran new thing. Write to us quick! You will be surprised at how easy it can be done. Send us your address anyway, "it will be to vour interest "to inve.stigate. Write to-day. Address PEOPLE'S, '^''^^ Market St., Philadelphia, Pa. Patent Wired Oomb Foundation Has no Sag in Brood Frames. Thin Fiat Bottom Foundation Has no Fish-bone in Surplus Honey. Beiug the cleanest is usually worked the <|uick- est of any Foundation made. The talk about wir- ing frames seems absurd. We funiish a Wired Foundation tliat is \>rttii\ chMipi'r and not half the trouble to use that it is to wire bro.id-frauies. Circulars and Samples Free. J. VAN DEUSEN &. SONS, Sole Manufacturers, Mont;,M)niory Counly. Si-moi't Rp.ook, N. V. /'/(-/.«■ iiiriiliiiii Aiiirricnii Hrr-Kccprr. THE AUSTRALIAN BEE BULLETIN. dating through I the .Australian Capeof (iood H( ."is. per annum iti advance; if booked, Cis.-i'id. Kilited, I'rinted and Published by K. TIPPER. West Maitland.N. S. W scAi.r, or PHI A. Half-page— Per anniun, Vr, Half-year, t;5: quar- cr. £l-ir)s. Quarter- page— Per annum. £3; Half-year, £l-15s; iuartcr. £1. (tne-eigluh page— Per annum, £l-15s; Half-year. ;i; Quarter, Pis. Single Insertion— 1st in., 3s Cd; succeeding 2s-6d. E. TIPPER, WEST WIAITLAND Beeswax Wanted! We will pay 26 cents cash or ^8 cents in goods, for good quali- ty of Beeswax, freight paid to FALCONER, N. Y. If you have any ship it to us at once. (Prices subject to change without notice.) W.lftitriTiCo. |?n HONEY EXTRACTOR PERFECTION COLD -BLAST SMOKERS, Square Glass Honey Jars, Etc. For Circulars, apply to CHAS. F. MUTH & SON, Cor. Freeman ct Central Avenues, Cincinnati, O. Send 10c. for Practical Hints to Bee-Keepers. We are also dealers in Honey and Beeswax. I'lrnur mrntinv Amcn'ran Jiei'-Kfcpcr. 08 Vol. vm. Published Monthly by the W. T. Falconer Manfg Co. FEBRUARY, J 898. No. 2. ome of the Duties of an Apiarist. Written for The American Bee-Kceprr, BY G. M. DOOLITTI.E. Mr. Editor — Allow me to give the eaders of the American Bee Keep"^'' ome of the duties of an apiarist, as I onsider them. During the winter and ly spring, if a chance occurs that he colonies which are wintered on heir summer stands can fly, the apia"- 5t should see that the entrance to the ive is not clogged with dead bees or ny obstruction to confine them to the ive, as these winter flights are very eneticial. If those wintered in the ellar are quiet, and can be kept so. hey should remain where they are till hose colonies which are out on their ummer stands commence to bring in ollen from the first opening flowers. »therwise it may be well to set them ut for a fly during March, if a warm ay occurs. When pollen becomes lenty, examine the bees by lifting the rame of each hive, and if the colonies re weak the bees should be shut to ne side of the hive by means of a di- ision board, so as to keep up the nec- ssary heat for brood rearing, using nly the combs containing brood and ne of honey in the part where the ees are. A queen will lay about 700,- 00 eggs during her lifetime and usual- f lives from three to four years, but nder the present system of manage- rent we coax the queen to lay all of iiese eggs in two or three years. Of course, the readers of the American Bee Keeper all know that bees gather honey, not m.ake it, and that the eggs laid by the queen produce bees; conse- '^uently the more eggs the queen lays the more bees we get, and the more bees we have the mrre honey they gather. Therefore it win be seen that under our coaxing prropss we get as much honey from a colony now in one year as was gotten forty or fifty years ago in two. i^s scon as the queen, with her eggs, i^as filled the combs that was giv- en hei- when contracting the hive, these are spread apart and an empty comb, or one filled with honey, if the bees are short of honev, is inserted between those occupied with brood, when in a few days' time the queen will fill this also, and so we keep on till every avail- able cell is occupied with brood or young bees. Vv''hen this is accom- pMshed the sections are put on, and it will be seen if any honey is gathered, it must be put in the boxes, as there is no room elsewhere to place it. Each section should have a small piece of clean, white comb or comb foundation attached to the top as a starter, so the bees will work more readily in the sections, and cause them to build their combs true in the same, while the cen- ter tier of sections should be full of comb left over from the previous year, if possible. As soon as the first ten to fifteen sections are filled they should 34 THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. February be taken off while snow-white and startered sections put in their places, thereby causing the bees to work with renewed vigor to fill up the vacant space left where the full ones were taken out. In this way keep taking out fall sections and putting empty ones in their places as long as the honey har- vest lasts. Queens are to be kept con- stantly on hand, so that no colony is allowed to go queenless for any length of time from any cause, for the queen is. in fact, the producer of honey, as has been shown above. Store honey in a dry. warm room, in such a shape that it can be penetrated by the fumes of burning sulphur, should the larva of the wax moth be troublesome, and after it has sufficiently evaporated. crate it in nice twenty-pound crates for market. See that your bees have enough honey and are properly pre- pared for winter, and then you can look back over the year with pleasure. In short, do things at the right time and in the right place, leaving no "stone" unturned that win produce one ponnd more of honey. Don't forget to read The American Bee Keeper acd other pape'<; on bees, so as to keep posted on ?M of the improvements of the times and if you can add your mite of kT'owledge to these columns. don't be hpckwa'-d in doing so. And now I have kept till tbp ^?st the most important item of the whole, which is that you «?houM have a tho'-nugh knowledee of the locality in which vou reside a« to when its hnnpv producing flora open*?. Many bee-keepers do not »eem to re?l'ze the imports "cp of th's. as their actions show, for if they did we sbou'd not so often hear of those who delayed putting on the surplus ar- rangemept ti'l the best part of the honey seasrn was over, or of those who added t.hf «urp'u8 ror-m so early in the nfiAtyrm f^at their colonies were greatly Injured b'- allowing the heat wh'ch is «o nfrf.f^.fH'^y for brood rearing in the early part of the season, to escane into the upper story. All work with the bees, to be successfully done, should be done with an eye open to the prob- able time of the blossoming of the main honey plants in our locality. For in- stance, if white clover is our main honey crop, we must commence opera- tions with the bees at least six weeks previous to its blossoming in order to insure a good yield from it. for it takes at least six weeks to build up a colony so it will be able to do the best work on a given field of blossoms. Hence, as white clover blossoms in this latitude about June 16th, we must commence to get our bees ready for it as early as May 1st. By so doing we secure the bees in time for the harvest, which means success. But. supposing bass- wood, which opens July 5th to 12th, to be our main honey harvest, we having but little white clover, not more than enough to keep the bees breeding nice- ly, then the commencing to work for the bees for this harvest as early as the first of May would be labor thrown away, as well as a useless expenditu^'e of bcney used in producing bees to loaf around waiting for the harvest. What man is there having a field of wheat to cut. reouir'nc the labor of twenty men to harvest the same, who hires these men two weeks previous to the time the grain is ripe? When shall we learn to use common sense in regard to bees as we do in other things? For a man to talk of getting his bees strong and readv to swarm in .April by means of artificial heat in this latitude, as some have, shows a lack of good common sense en this point. Again, if our bees are weak in the spring and we do not get them ready for the harvest un- til after that harvest is over, they be- come merely consumers, instead of producers, or worse than useless. It would belike the man hiring his twenty men to harvest his wheat after it had become ripe and spoiled on the g''ound. Thus it will be seen that to be the most successful we must have a full force of bees just in the right time to take advantage of the harvest. In or- ^DS. THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 35 jr to do this we must study our lo- ility and know the time our honey oducing flowers open, and thus we all gain a knowledge which will en- le us to reap a rich harvest of honey, tien honey is secreted in the flowera. Borodino. N. Y. Details in Extracting Honey. ]\'iitU:n f<_ir l/if American IJft-h'ffptr. By w. z. HrrcHixsoN. Editor American Bee Keeper — A cor- spondent in your November number ks for details in the work of ex- icting honey. He uses an eight-frame hive, and ks how many frames he shall empty one time supposing them all in the 3ie condition. Not much headway n be made in the production of ex- icted honey with an eight-frame e, unless it is used two ox more tries high. A.bout all of the combs of one eight- ime hive are needed for brood. One two outside combs might be found It would contain considerable honey, d they could be run through the ex- tcior with little or no damage to the Dod. if care is taken not to turn fast ough to throw out any unsealed 3od. But this is a slow way of get- g extracted honey. In a good honey w these one or two outside combs u!d have to be emptied daily in or- ■ to give the bees room to store what ney they could gather, and in many tances a colony would need several lies this room. Not only this, but re wou'.d not be time to ripen the ney. Use the eight-frame hives, two more stories high, and they are all ht for the production of extracted ney. Put on a queen-excluding Qey board over the top of the lower iry and thus confine the queen and ; brcod to the lower story. When ; second story is full of honey, if it is t capped over it may be raised up i another story placed between it 1 the lower story. By the time that ' last added story is full of honey it likely that the top one will have its honey ripened and sealed over. If it isn't, I would add still another story, or, better still, put the upper story, bees and all, on some weak colony that has not yet an upper story. Three stories high is about as high as it is advisable to tier up full sized hives. I would not extract until the honey is all sealed, or, at least, most of it is sealed. Perhaps this ought to be quali- fied a little. By this tiering-up process it often happens that the honey is real- ly ripened before it is all sealed over. Judge of the matter by the thickness of the honey. If the honey is as thick as that of fully ripened honey that is sealed over, it is ripe enough to extract. One great trouble with the sale of ex- tracted honey is that so many extract it before it is ripe and put it on the market in that condition. Experts may extract honey that is not fully ripe, and then ripen it by artificial means, but the ordinary bee-keeper dees not do that way. Some good au- thorities assert that honey may be ripened artificially and be of just as fine flavor as that ripened by the bees. WTiile it is possible that this is true, there is no doubt that the honey ripened by the bees is all right. When the honey in the upper story is ripe, remove the cover and drive the bees down with smoke. Take the combs out rapidly before the bees come trooping back, and give each comb a sharp shake or two that will dislodge most of the bees. Brush off the rest of them with a quill from a turkey wing or something of this nature. When the combs are free from bees, hang them in an empty hive. If there are other empty combs, they may be at once put in the places of those that have been removed. Wired foundation is all right to put in the supers, but finished combs are better, especially when honey is coming in freely, as they are all ready to put honey into. A hive of combs can be wheeled or carried to the extracting room, the cappings shaved off and the honey extracted, and then 36 THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. February the combs given to the next hive that is opened. This is supposing that only one man is at work, or that there is a limited number of combs on hand. If there are plenty of combs, the honey may all be removed and empty combs put in its place before the extracting is commenced. It is better, however, to extract the honey as soon as possible after it is off the hives, as it is then warm and extracts more easily than after it has cooled. There is no need whatever of feeding after extracting. If the season is ov^r, enough hcney shouM be left in the hive for the wintering of the bees. It wouUl be a waste of labor to extract the honey and then feed it back again. If doney is still coming in, there is no need of feeding. The cappings should be placed in some vessel that has holes in its bot- tom. A pan or a pail of tin may be used, with a lot of holes punched in its bottom. Or a large can may be used with a fa'se Dottom of wire cloth to support the cappings whi^e the honey drains off to the bottom of the can. After the 'appings have thoroughly drained they may be washed and the water used in making vinegar. Then the cappi^p-s may be made into wax that will be of the clearest and finest imaginable. It is not necessary to strain the honey. Let it stand a few days, when all pieces of comb, etc., will rise to the top. This may be skimmed off and the honey drawn off into kegs tins or cans. Extracted honey ought not to be left exposed to the air, as it thereby loses its flavor and aroma. Flint, Mich. H. W. Brice. in B. B.-K. R.. points out the lessons which past failures should teach and their value as a guide to futui'e practice. Admonishes be- ginners ae-ainst too-early handling of bees in the sprins:. and particularly against the Indiscreet spreading of brood. Seasonable Suggestions. U'riltcn for the Amrrimii Bcc-Ktcpei; BY ED. .lOLLEY. While the work of the bee-keeper in winter is not attended with hustle and bustle of summer, yet the bee-keeper who would be ready for the spring work when it comes must not sit all winter with folded hands. Now is the time to get your new supplies ready for next season. And now is the best time to clean the propolis from your old supplies. You can scrape off more propolis now in one hour than you can in three in warmer weather. Now is the best time to render your old combs into wax. The weather being cold, the combs can be easily pulverized, which is a great help in separating the wax from the dirt. The pulverized combs should be put in a barrel containing two or three times as much water as broken combs. Stir occasionally for a day or two, and then d'p the broken comb off the top and render them. The greater part of the dirt will have set- tled below the wax. About this time of year, too, we have more or 'ess anxiety as to whether our bees have stores enough to last them until more can be gathered. It is best not to disturb colonies that went into winter quarters with an abundance of stores until the warm weather of spring has opened up. But any colo- nies that we fear may not have enou2;h we had better look them over any time that it is warm enough for the bees to fly cut. Take the cushions off and lift the quilt and take a hasty look. If you think they will need feed, the best thing to do is to put th'-ee or four pounds of loaf sugar, slightly damp- ened, on the top of the frames; tuck them up good and warm and let them alone until it is warm enough to feed sugar syrup. This is cheaper and easier to give at this time of year than sugar syrup; safer than the ca^dv that nine- tenths of the novices would make. Apply castor oil to the projecting ends of brood frames, edges of closed end frames, following boards or any- 1S9S. THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. thing that the bees are liable to glue together with propolis. When this is dene the parts are always loose and may be easily taken out or moved. I found this out by an accident in- stead of by an experiment. I had a box of Hoffman frames, in flat, in my shop. A can of castor oil was on the bench above the box of frames. It was accidentally ovei turned and the oil went into a box of frames. The next season I noticed that wherever the oil had touched the parts there was little or no propolis. And the little there was would peel off very readily. I have tried this now for three years with very satisfactory results. Franklin, Pa. l/ocations Suited to the Keeping of Bees. Fmiii Farmers' Bulletin, No. 59. BY FHANK BENTON. It may be safely said that any p^ace where f aiming, gardening or fruit lais- ing can be successfully followed is adapted to the profitable keeping of bees — in a limited way at least, if not extensively. Many of these localities will support extensive apiaries. In ad- dition to this there are, within the bor- ders of the United States, thousands of good locations for the apiarist — forest, prairie, swamp and mountain regions — where agiicu ture has as yet not gained a foothold either because of remote- ness from markets or the uninviting character of soil or climate. This pur- suit may also be followed in or near towns and, to a limited extent, in large cities. It even happens in seme in- stances that bees in cities or towns find more abundant pasturage than in country locations which are considered fair. The city of Washington is an ex- ample of this, bees located here doing better during the spring and summer months than those in the surrounding country, owing to the bee pasturage found in the numerous gardens and parks and the nectar-yielding shade trees along the streets. This is due mainly to the fact that the linden, or basswood, which is rarely seen in the country about Washington, has been planted extensively in the parks and for miles on both sides of many of the streets and avenues in the city. An- other source in the city not found ex- tensively in the country adjacent is melilot, Bokhara or sweet clover (Meli- lotus alba), which has crept into va- cant lots and neglected corners, and spreads about its agreeable perfume to the delight of all city dwellers, whether human or insect. The writer has prac- ticed with profit the transportation of nearly 100 colonies from a country apiary ten miles distant to Washington for the linden and sweet clover yield. He has also seen a prosperous apiary kept on the roof of a business house in the heart of New York City, and on several occasions has visited another apiary of thirty to forty colonies, which a skillful apiarist had located on the roof of his store in the business portion of Cincinnati, O., and from which thirty to forty pounds of honey per colony were usually obtained each year. Another apiary personally inspected was located directly on the sand banks forming the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. These bees were, of course, unable to foiage westward from the apiary, hence had but half "a field." The soil of the area over which the bees ranged was a light sand, unpro- ductive for most crops, and the region was little developed agriculturally, most of the honey coming from forest trees and from shrubs and wild plants growing in old burnings and windfalls, yet twenty-five to thirty pounds of ex- cellent honey per colony was the usual 38 THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. Fehruar, surplus obtained. At one time the writer had an apiary in the city of De- troit, Mich., where the wide river on one side cut off nearly half of the pas- turage, yet the bees did well. And again for several years he had an api- ary containing from 100 to 200 colonies of bees on a very sterile coast of the Island of Cyprus, and another nearly as large located but a few rods from the seashore on a rocky point of Syria. Both of these apiaries were devoted in the main to queen rearing, yet the yield of honey was not an unimportant item, especially in the Syrian apiary, while in the Cyprus apiary some honey was frequently taken, and it was rarely necessary to feed the bees for store. In the latter case about one-fourth of the range was cut off by the sea, the bees being located at the head of an open bay and a short distance from the shore, while the location of the Syrian apiary prevented the bees from secur- ing half of the usual range, hence their greater prosperity was due to the na- ture and quantity of the pasturage of their limited range. It is evident, therefore, that no one similarly located need be deterred from keeping bees, provided the nectar- yielding trees and plants of the half range are of the right sort and abun- dant. Moreover, regions so rough and sterile or so swampy as to give no en- couragement to the agriculturist, or even to the stock raiser, will often yield a good income to the bee-keeper, insignificant and apparently worthless herbs and shrubs furnishing forage for the bees. The ability of the bees to range over areas inaccessible to other farm stock and to draw their susten- ance from dense forests when the tim- ber is of the right kind, and the free- dom which, because of their nature, must be accorded them to pasture on whatever natural sources are within their range of three or four miles, must be taken into account in estimating the possibilities of a locality. It will be (oqnd that very few localities exist in our country where at least a few colo nies of bees may not be kept. Whethe a large number might be profitabl; kept in a given locality can only bi decided by a careful examination as t( the honey-producing flora within rang' of the apiary. ITEMJ or INTERE5T. Dadant, in the A. B. J., says some thing over one pound of wax is ob tained from the cappings of each 10 pounds of honey extracted. Our ex perience accords with the rule. — o — Australian Bee Bulletin. — "If you d not wish to increase your swarms, o to weaken your hives for the hone flow, place the swarm alongside th parent colony, cut out every queen ce) in the parent colony, and in the even ing place the swarm as a super on to of the parent colony." — o — J. G. Hurstville of Australia recentlj by request, made a small shipment o honey to a friend in England, wh says they cannot get good honey there We predict that this item, from th Australian Bee Bulletin, will result ii a general comparison of the relativ merits of Australian and Englisl honey. What's the matter witl heather? , William McNally, in the British Bee Keepers' Record, favors the "ne\ style" section, but would embody th "continuous passage" feature by using instead of the "fence," a separato without cleats, and having attached ti it, by glue, small blocks, 3-16x3-8, oi either side to take bearing against th corners of the sections when clampe( fi in the super. This idea is in line witl the Aspinwall system, so clearly dc scribed and illustrated in the Deconi ber Review. Mr. Aspinwall's arran.i;c ment certainly has the appearance o , i being perfection. I | THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 39 C. Davenport, in American Bee Jour- nal.— "During the past few years great progress has been made in the science of producing honey; few if any other branches of agriculture have kept pace with us, but in one most important respect — the marketing of our product — we are not much farther advanced than were the bee-keepers of 50 or even 100 years ago." Why is it thus? — o — The conductor of the American Bee Journal's "Beedom Boiled Down" de- partment dissects, sifts and in general handles European bee lore of all lan- guages in a manner to excite envy. But Gleanings seems to have a monopoly of the new Chilean bee paper's produc- tions— quotes, paraphrases and com- ments with apparent ease. Porque no hace V. eso, Sr. B. B. D.? — o — F. Greiner, in Gleanings, thinks the bee-space rather the most important part of Langstroth's invention, though he charges to its influence the loss of thousands of colonies in wintering. He believes, however, that wintering in modern hives has been reduced to a science, and that it today meets with greater success than the box-hives of this or past ages. — o — D. L. Tracy, in the Progessive Bee- Keeper, relates an experience with moths that'g just a little ahead of any- thing that has come our way hereto- fore. He says: "In Iowa I have seen moths literally eat up a swarm that were like the Englishman's corpse, 'pretty dom'd lively.' There was no sickness and no languishing. There were 10,000 bees to the frame, and ten frames to the hive, yet the moths com- pletely annihilated them." — o — As an illustrat'onof the unaccountable peculiarities sometimes encounteied in the management of bees, we note an instance as related in the biography of George S. Wheeler, in the American Bee Journal. He purchased an Italian queen of Kidder away back in the '60's. The next season about twenty queens were reared from this one and introduced to as many different colo- nies of blacks, and nearly every bee reared from these queens showed three bands, and were as well marked as the old queen, though when they took their flight the yard was full of black drones. The season following, when nearly every drone in the yard was Italian, he could hardly get a queen purely mated, the progeny being not only hybrid, but largely black. — o — L. A. Aspinwall, in the Bee-Keepers' Review, leviews the history of the sec- tion honey-box from the time of its ap- pearance, some thirty years ago, to the present; noting each improvement and stage of its progress from the crudely constructed frame to the snow-white, polished section now turned out by millions in the large factories especial- ly equipped for the purpose. He re- gards the introduction of the "new style," or plain section, an advance step. The following points of merit are noted by comparison with the in- set or projecting corner style: A sav- ing of one-seventh in material, to the manufacturer, should result in a cor- responding reduction in price. The consumer gets less wood and more honey when buying by weight; yet re- ceives a more beautiful and artistic package for which he pays an ad- vanced price. Owing to the decreased width of the section, a saving of 20 per cent, in shipping cases follows. The thorough and rapid work of cleaning by machinery is made possible and practical. The expense incurred by the change from the in-set to the plain style is also mentioned, though the ad- vantages gained will soon compensate for the additional outlay, he thinks. Please send us a list of your bee«- keeping acquaintances, that we may forward sample copies to them. THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. Fehruar. 1 iiHi m wii THE W. T. FALCONER MANFG CO. m:. e. tiiLL, Elditor. Terms: Fifty cents a vear in advaiicf; 2 co]>ies, Sfi cents; 3 copies, 11.20; all to be senl tn. ne uustottiee. Postage prepaid in the 1. s. and Canada; 10 cents extra to all eoimtne^ in ilie i>()stal union, and 20 cents extra id all iJih.'r cnumiic^. Advertising Kates : Fifteen cents per line, 0 wcirds; S'J.OO per inch. 5 per cent, discount lor 2 insertions; / per cent for R insertions; 10 per cent, for li insertions; 20 per cent, for 12 inseilioiis. Advertis<'iiiiiits niusi lie i ■.•ccived on or before the20tli of each iii'inlh in .n.^iue insertion ill the niontli following. Addie^s THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. Falconer, N. Y. ' 4®=Subseribcr> liiMlniLi llii with a blue ciciss w ili lumw tion expires with tin- miinlu will not delay in semliug a r 4®=-A Red Cross on this that you owe for your snf)sc the matter your attention. EblTOKlAL. With this issue Mr. H. B. Hill as- sumes the editorial duties and respon- sibilities connected with this journal, and we have no doubt that the change will be an agreeable and welcome one to our subscribeis, for Mr. Hill will devote the greater part of his time to it, and as he is a practical bee-keeper of wide experience as well as a very pleasant w. iter, no doubt the improve- ment of The American Bee Keeper will be very marked. The former editor has never done either his readers or himself justice, for he has been at all times so en- grossed in business matters that no time could be devoted to the affairs of The Bee Keeper excepting such as could be obtained by "burning the midnight oil." We hope the new editor will be encouraged by a good flow of subscriptions and new adver- tising, and we can assure our readers it is our aim to have this journal rank as one of the best. Yours truly, THE W. T. FALCONER MFG. CO. In connection with The Americai Eee Keeper this issue marks the firs charge that has occurred during it seven years of existence. The reason for the change in editorial managemen are fully explained by. the publishers who have, without assistance, carriei it far beyond that stage of questionabl stability through which so few of th apiarian journals have succeeded ii passing. Whether the change wil prove for the better, or otherwise, tim alone can determine. We have only t say that if our success shall be in pro portion to our desire to serve the in terests of our readers and the bee keeping industry in general, our great est ambition will be gratified. Gleanings comes to hand this mont with a new set of specially designed de partment headings, cleverly executed appropriate and attractive. We have received many letters fror friends in Florida regarding the effec of the recent cold snap there; fron which we learn that the damage ti bee-keeping interests is very slight, i any. Our feelings, just at present, place u in close and tender sympathy with th. bewildered "scout," that returns to th' scene of the cluster, only to find tha the swarm has been hived and takei away. We hope, however, to get ou bearings all right, that we may b< spared the humiliation of being com pelled to return to the parent hive. A letter just to hand from our es teemed friend and brother bee-keeper Mr. Benjamin Parks of Stuart, Fla. brings the sad intelligence of the deatl by typhoid fever of his second son John Parks, at Rockledge, Fla., on De- cember 18th. Our sincere sympathy together with that of a large circk of friends, limited only by the extent of their acquaintance, goes out to the bereaved family. THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. A Winter Scene in Florida. The January number of the Ladies' World, a magazine having a circula- tion of nearly 400,000 copies, has a most excellent contribution "written for the Ladies' World by Lena Thatcher," entitled "Honey as an Ar- ticle of Food." The article is exceed- De| ingly well written and evinces upon the part of the author an intimacy with the subject that is by no means ordinary. Such wide dissemination of educational matter we regard as of in- estimable value to the bee-keeping in- dustry; yet in this particular case it la to be regretted that "Lena Thatcher" was neither endowed with originality in proportion to her ambitions nor had acquired a knowledge of literary pro- priety, which demanded that the articie be duly credited to Thomas G. New- man, from whose writings it was taken almost verbatim. The Bee Keeper invites correspond- ence upon all matters relating to beea and bee-keeping. 42 mi: AM^BiCAN BJ^]^ itEllP^lt. Pebruari The American Bee Keeper invites its readers to send in reports of the past and projected plans for the coming season. These little items are an in- teresting, and often instructive, featu e of our bee journals. If your experience has taught some new idea in practical work, write it up for The Bee Keeper. We shall always be pleased to receive communications from our readers, and to pay for articles of exceptional merit relating to bee-keeping. Bright, wai-m days during February and March often induce bees wintering upon the summer stands to fly freely, and serious loss not infrequently re- sults from large numbers alighting upon the snow, where they become chilled and die. Do not neglect, then, to littQr well with straw about the hives and thus save thousands of bees so much needed at this particular sea- son to protect the brood nest now be- ing fol-med. Better prevent too fre- quent flights by shading the entrances during sunny days. We are pleased to note that the pro- posed amendments to the constitution of the United States Bee-Keepers' Union, as published in the October number of The American Bee Keeper and submitted to a vote of its mem- bers, were carried almost unanimously. We hope every reader of The American Bee Keeper may appreciate our mutual good fortune in having such an able organization to represent and protect our interests, and that all may realize their evident duty, in behalf of their personal interests and the future wel- fare of the bee-keeping industry, to be- come members and thus assist the im- portant work projected. Our subscribers will note the de- creased number of pages in The Bee Keeper this month, the entire paper being devoted to the industry in the interest of which it is published. We shall gladly make additions to our space as patronage may warrant; bu to include in a bee journal that clas of miscellaneous reading matter to b found in weekly newspapers, or to es pouse the cause of other industries o professions is not in accordance witl our idea of conducting an aplcultura magazine. We trust our readers ma approve the action, and by their kin co-operation assist us in making Th Bee Keeper an exclusive t)ee Journal, a implied by the name, interesting an instructive. In commenting upon the undevelopo condition of the Southern honey mai ket, through the American Bee Joui nal, Mrs. L. Harrison says she visite many groceries enquiring for honey i Mobile (a city of about 44,000), bv found none. We have made a simila canvass in Chattanooga, Altanta, Sa vannah and other Southern cities wit about the same results, when, at th same time, the commission men an warehouses of Chicago and New Yor were storing tons of honey. One grc cer in Atlanta, who kept a large stor on one of the principal streets, told u that he had never had but one lot c "honey in little boxes," and that as ; was a novelty it sold very readily Does not the importance of united ac tion on the part of honey producers tending toward some systematic meth od of distributing their product mor generally and educating the people t its use, become more apparent eac day? WHO'S THE CHAMPION? "Three hundred and thirty-fou pounds of honey was extracted from single hive in England the past seaso by Lancelot Quayle. The British Be Journal regards this as probably th largest ever taken in the kingdom." [It is hardly fair to crow over our Bril ish cousins; but some years ago a re( ord of 700 pounds was reported froi Texas, but it was discredited by a goo many prominent bee-keepers. We d 189S. THU AMERICAN Bt:E EEEPER. 43 know, however, that two or three lead- ing bee-keepers did secure as much as 450 or 500 pounds each from a single colony and its increase. — Ed.] The foregoing quotation Is one of Dr. Miller's Stray Straws, followed by edi- torial comment, in Gleanings. Now, if that Texas yield is the one reported years ago from Dresden, it has shrunk some 300 pounds since its palmy days of great popularity, as we recall it. It is the duty of the American press to stand by and defend American's rec- ord. Of course we don't want to crow, but we can hardly allow this alarming decline to continue unno- ticed. Cannot B. P. C. yet set the mat- ter aright before an envious world? Was it really 700 or 1,000 pounds? Seriously, now, it would be interest- ing to know who does hold the cham- pion single-colony record of America. In this connection we take occasion to refer to a visit that it was our good fortune to enjoy in the fall of 1894 at the home of W. S. Hart of Florida, who had, during the season then just past, filled to the bung with honey 101 bar- rels from his apiary of 116 colonies. While together in the "bee yard" Mr. Hart pointed to two hives standing side by side, remarking: "There are two colonies that gave me over 600 pounds each. I did not weigh the honey separately, but I am certain that the two gave upwards of 1,200 pounds of honey." Until better claims are forthcoming we concede the laurels to W. S. Hart. AS TO FOUL BROOD LAWS. Inquiry is being made by the Depart- ment of Agriculture, at Washington, regarding the foul brood laws of the various states. Editor Abbott of the Busy Bee, while approving this mani- fest interest in behalf of bee-keepers, is inclined to regard the enactment of stringent laws against the adulteration of all food products as of greater im- portance to bee-keepers just now. To those whose bees are in no imme- diate danger of foul brood, the pure food laws may appear to be of primary moment. But there are today In the United States bee-keepers who are struggling to eliminate the foul brood scourge from ■ their apiaries, while within the same range whole apiaries have been wiped out by the disease and others badly affected are still kept by one of that rare, though too numerous, know-it-all, bull-headed class who re- fuses to either act or to permit others to treat his bees, though It would be undertaken without expense to the wise (?) owner, who "knows his own business." This condition of affairs exists in one of the most productive honey fields in the whole country, wherein are estab- lished, under efficient management, large apiaries, constantly menaced by this veritable hotbed of bacillus alvei. Without the aid of foul brood laws to stamp out and eradicate the contagion, ultimate ruin to surrounding bee-keep- ing interests is evident. Yet, owing to the prevalent lack of knowledge of bee- keeping in general, action upon a most perfect foul brood bill, introduced at the last session of the State Legisla- ture, was indefinitely postponed. Let us assist, rather than discourage, any possible interest that may have been awakened upon the part of the govern- ment. To many bee-keepers the im- portance of securing legislation in this line is measured by the value of their apiarian interests. THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH. Today, February 1st, the frozen snow squeaks and moans beneath the feet of passing pedestrians; the graceful win- dow ornamentation, artistically de- signed by Jack Frost, obstructs the view of drifting snow without. A typi- cal Northern winter day, with the mer- cury hovering about the zero mark and fires blazing high upon every hearth. No sound emanates today from the hives packed upon the summer stands; and as the bee-keeper sees the swirling 44 THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. Fehniar snow drifting over the hives he men- tally questions the possibility of hav- ing neglected anything in their prepa- ration for the ordeal. Noting this condition of affairs as it exists at this date in Western New York, is it any wonder that such im- portance is attached to climatic influ ences, as accounting for various con- flicting results and experiences in bee- keeping, when crntrasted with the fol- lowing extract from a private letter, just received from a friend in Dade county, Florida: "My bees are work- ing fine now. Some of the hives are nearly full of new honey; so I will have to begin extracting soon." It is difficult to realize that within this short distance, in our own coun- try, the air is today as balmy as June and ringing with the merry hum of bees; birds caroling in shady bowers, and gaudy butterflies flitting among the endless profusion of wild flowera that characterize the "Flowery Penin- sula." We doubt not that an accoun!: of Flor- ida bee-keeping, and the life of a mi- gratory "bee-man" in that land of sun- shine, would be of interest to our read- ers, and the editor will improve the op- portunity when it is offered, to "fill in" with accounts of his rambles in Florida and other bee-keeping countries. It is our wish to present in The Bee Keeper each month some bee-keeping scenes, which we will do if our readers will kindly send photos of their api- aries, together with a statement of their methods and experience, to be published in connection therewith. Starting upon our new duties February 1st, the work of getting out the Febru- ary number was necessarily under- taken on "short notice," hence some of the improvements contemplated must follow later; and in the absence of any pictures of apiaries belonging to our readers, we present in this number a winter scene in Florida. The apiary shown was established at New Smyrna, on the east coast of Florida, by the present editor of Th American Bee Keeper, in 1894; and it brief history will afford subject matte for future descriptive articles, whicl in connection with other engravings will appear in these columns. Ye ed itor and his paternal assistant wer engaged in a tour of inspection whe the "snap" was taken. Our bachelo quarters were pitched in the bull din shown in the background, which serve also as a workshop. SURPLUS FOUNDATION. A point in favor of using full sheet of foundation in the sections was mad by J. A. Green at the Chicago conver tion of the Northwestern: "If you hav a small strip in the top the consume can tell it; if not, nine times out of te he can't detect it." If there is really a perceptible diffei ence between a natural septum and on of pure, refined beeswax of ligfi weight, which in a ge^ieral sense i very doubtful, to associate the two i one section, is to invite the attention c the consumer to the contrast. Thanks to the skillful efforts of ou leading manufacturers of foundatior the uniform quality, low price and su periority of their goods, the da when nearly every bee-keeper in th land seemed to think it his duty to ow a foundation mill, and to use exclusive ly his own crude, irregular and off color foundation from top to botton has fled, and the talk of "fish-bone, which resulted from this amateu work, will incidentally pass away wit the decline of the practice. Home made foundation was one of those "ad vance steps" in which theory and prac tice failed to tally. ■ That it was a ver; popular, though false, idea of econom is attested by the affectionate embrac of retired paraphernalia and cobweb to be seen in the extreme rear of ever; modern bee-house attic. fi Send your report for publication il The Bee Keeper. rh ?.9ding out ^ practice that which he may learn ithin a few days by reading the ex- rience of others. The text-book, the periodical pubM- tion and practice constitute the hree graces." And the greatest of ese is practice. Literary Itemj. Professor Lion's incubator, which is iw to be seen in New York, is a mar- 1 of inventive skill, scientific ingenu- r and mechanical expertness; and the ating, the ventilation, and the hy- enic conditions, upon which the life the prematurely born or weakly in- nt must depend are so simple, so sys- matic and so practical in arrange- ent as to seem almost flawless. In ^fder to have the benefit of the incu- tor treatment, it is not absolutely cessary that babies be sent to the in- stiute. Single incubators, with trained nurses, are sent to private houses, or hospitals, if desired; though this meth- od is naturally far more expensive than the "ward" treatment, and is also less ceitain in results. In all the incubator hospital children brought by very poor parents are treated free. The woman who shudders with horror over the idea of these fragile mites of humanity being shut up in cages, without moth- er arms or crooning lullabies, has an entirely mistaken idea of the situation, which a single glance in the babies' dining-rocm would obliterate. For the nurses apparently love their shadowy little charges, and the amount of pet- ting the unconscious, wabbling atoms receive wouM comfort the heart of the most sensitive mother. They are never by any chance the least bit pretty, yet they are petted and snuggled and fondled and loved to the absolute con- tentment of every woman's desire; and the nurses grow so fond of them that very often quiet tears are shed when the cage door is opened for the pet bird to fly away. Why, the very French word for incubator (couveuse) means brooding. — From 'Scientific Mother- ing," in Demorest's Family Magazine for February. The spring catalog of the Geo. A. Sweet Nursery company of Dansville, N. Y., has been received. It comprises 24 pages and lists a most complete line of fruit and ornamental trees and shrubs. The Sweet company propose through the medium of this catalog t-i save their patrons the agents' comms sions by selling direct to the planter. Pare and cut the apples into slices; put them in a baking pan with a layei of coarse bread crumbs between the layers of apples, having the top layer of c- urnbs. Put two tablespoonfuls of molasses into half a cupful of water; pour the mixture over; bake in a mod- erate oven. — February Ladies' Home Journal. THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. Februnri Our 1898 Catalog. The Annual Catalog of The W. T. Falconer Mfg. Co. has been mailed to every one on their lists. If any of our readers have been missed v^^e will send them one promptly on receipt of a card. Now is the time to subscribe for The Bee Keeper. For fruitful results, plant your ad- vertisement in The American Bee Keeper. Send us fifty cents and secure the regular visits of The Bee Keeper for a whole year. "How TO Manage Bers," a 50c. book, and the American Bee-Keeper a year for only 60 cents. We will send the American Bee-Keep- ER one year and a box of garden seeds (price $1.60) for 7iic., postpaid. W. M. Gerrish, East Nottingham, N. H., kepps a complete supply of our goods, and Eastern customers will save freight by or- dering from him. ClyUBBING I/IST. We will send the American BekKeei'ER with the— I'L'B. BOTH. Amerie.in Bee Journal, $1 00 U 35 Bee-Keepers' Rtview, 1 00 1 35 Canarliaii Bee Journal, 1 00 1 35 Gleanings in Bee Culture, 1 00 1 35 Kidney and Bladder Troubles Quickly Cured. You May Have a Sample Bottle of the Great Discovery, Dr. Kilmer^s Swamp-Root, Sent Free by Mail. Men and women doctor their troubles so often without benefit that they get discouraged and skeptical. In most such cases serious mistakes are made in doctoring and in not knowing what our trouble is or what makes us sick. The unmistakable evidences of kidney trouble are pain or dull ache in the back, too frequent desire to pass water, scanty supply, smarting irritation. As kidney disease advances the face looks sallow or pale, puffs or dark circles un- der the eyes, the feet swell and some- times the heart acts badly. Should fur- ther evidence be needed to find out the cause of sickness, then set urine aside for twenty-four hours; if there is a sediment or settling it is also convinc- ing proof that our kidneys and bladder need doctoring. A fact often over- looked, is that women suffer as much from kidney and bladder trouble as men do. Dr. Kilmer's Swamp-Root is the dis- covery of the eminent physician and scientist and is not recommended for everything, but will be found just what is needed in cases of kidney and blad- der disorders or troubles due to weak kidneys, such as catarrh of the blad- der, gravel, rheumatism and Bright\i Disease, which is the worst form of kidney trouble. It corrects inability to hold urine and smarting in passing it, and promptly overcomes that unpleas- ant necessity to get up many times during the night. The mild and the extraordinary ef- fect of this gieat remedy is soon re- alized. It stands the highest for its wonderful cures. Sold by druggists, price fifty cents and one dollar. So uni- versally successful is Swamp-Root in quickly curing even the most distress- ing cases, that to prove its wonderful merit you may have a sample bottle and a book of valuable information, both sent absolutely free by mail, upon receipt of three two-cent stamps to cover cost of postage on the bottle. Mention American Bee Keeper and send your address to Dr. Kilmer & Co., Binghamton, N. Y. This generous offer appearing in this paper is a guar- antee of genuineness. ?.95. THE A3IERICAN BEE KEEPER. HONEY AND BEESWAX MARKET REPORT. Below we give the latest and most authentic port of the Honey and Beeswax market in dif- ent trade centers: Boston, Mass., Jan. 28, 1898.— Light demand for ney. Good supply. Price of comb 9 to U cents r lb. Extracted .5 to 6>^c. per lb. Good demand beeswax. Practically no supply. Prices 20 to ;. per lb. Blake, Scott & Lee, 57 Chatham Street. :'IN(INNATI. O., Jan. 27, IS'.ts.— The demand for kinds of honey is slow. ( iood supply. Price comb 10 to \:\c per lb., fnr liest comb. E.xtraci- o'.. to 6c. per lb. Fair (leniaiiil for beeswa.x. ices2U to 25c. per lb. for good to choice yellow. > never before saw so slow a demand for comb A extracted honey. Hard times and mild ather seem to have formed a combination. Chas. p. Muth & Son, Cor. Freeman and Central aves. )etroit, Mich.. Jan. 28, 1898.— Slow demand for iiey. Fair supply. Prices of comb 8 t<^ i3e. per Extracted 4 to 6c. y>er lb. Good demand for 3swax. Light supply. Prices 25 to 26c per lb. ncy white honey not plenty Other grades in )d supply. M. H. Hunt, Bell Branch, Mich. Cansas City, Mo., Jan. 24, 1898.— Fair demand honey. Large supply. Price of comb 9 to ^c. per lb. Extracted \% to 6c. per lb. Good nand for beeswax. Light supply. Prices 25 to . per lb. Hamblin & Bearss, 514 Walnut Street. cubators for Oa?h or on 30 Days Trial. Any size, any kind or larger and better ones. [y four hatches with Bantam from 50 eggs each re 30, 35, 42 and 48 chicks. Miss Ada Ci.ARK, Jordan, N. Y. ^end 4c. for No. 130 Catalogue and trial offer. GKEYE INCUBATOR CO., Springfield, 0. PATENTS PROMPTLY SECURED Write for our inleresting hooka ' Invent- ) rsHelp" and "How you are swindled, end us a rough sketcb or model of your ivention or improvement and we will tell "V free our opiinon as to whether it is robably patentable. We make a specialty f apph ations lejecied in other hands. Iighesi references furnished. MARION & MARION ATENT SOLICITORS & EXPERTS \ ivil & Mechanical Encrinpers. G>.-»(1uatra of thfi olytuchnic School of EiiKinferlng Hnchrlois in pphed Sciencos. L:ival I'nivrrsitv. Mrpibfra atentLaw Associntion, Americ.in Wat^i Worka 880ciatiou, New Kngl.mci Water Works Assoc. • y. Surveyors Vssoci.ition Assoc. Member Can. DCiety of Civil Engineers. Offices: \ Washingtov. D. C. I MoNTHEAL, Can. yy^^^^vww^^^^^^^^ Future comfoi't for present seemingf economy, but buy the sewingf machine with an estab- lished reputation, that guar- antees you long and satisfac- tory service. ^ J> ^ J' j^ ITS PINCH TENSION . . AND . , TENSION INDICATOR, (devices for regulating and showing the exact tension) arc a few of the features that emphasize the high grade character of the "White. Send for our elegant H. T. catalog. White Sewing Machine Co., CLEVELAND, 0. For Sale by— Oscar Stranburg, JAMESTOWN, N. Y, THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. Fehrnary to Bee-Keepers Only ! A HANDSOME CATALOGUE FOR 1898. Address HUDSON, WIS. INCUBATORS The OLENTANOY Incubator has proved to lie the best. Have taken prize after prize. Brood- ers only Sio.OO. Before buyinc elsewhere, send for free de- scription and testimonials. Iso breeder of 40 varieties of eh-clasH poultry. 110 yards. ,lu hoiiRBR. Address Gc S. SINGER, Cardington J- You Cant Make Inch a Bicycle! We want bright business men to represent us everywhere. MONARCH CYCLE MFG. CO. Chicago New York London. Send nine two=cent stamps for Monarch Playing Cards. Regular 50c cards. ill the Fiiiit l>flt of South Florida. Choice Lauds Cheap, aud ou Easy Terms, /rite for maps and I'urther hifbrmalion to H. E. HILL, Agt., and Dept. F. E C. Ry. Titisville, Pa. SEND ME A I,IST of the Si'PPLiEs you wish and get special prices either wholesale" or retail. Honey is cheap and you must buy your goods cheap in order to make it pay. I can help you. LiRfiE Ilhistp.ated Cata- logue full of information Fkee. A full line of the A. I. Root Co. goods. M. H. HUNT, Cash for Beeswax. Bell Branch, Mich. (near Detroit.) THE MONTHLY KEVIEW. A IC-page Family Paper, 50 cents a year. Sample free. Useful premiums and cash commissions to agents. TITUSVILLE. PA. EASTERN B E T; keeper. Did You Know that I could furnish you any bee supplies that you want and save you freight charges? I have the Falcon Sections and Comb Foundation. Also Dovetailed and Simplicity Hives. In fact anything from a polished section box to a complete hive. Write for catalogue. 2-5 EDWIN E. SMITH, Watertown, Conn. Book Sent Free with American Bee Journal. Every ncir !- The only Bee Paper in the Uuited 8tates edited exclusively in the in- terest of the farmer bee-keeper and the beginner is The Busy Bee, published by IMERSON T. ABBOTT, St. Joseph, Mo. Write for fiee sample copy now. JAPAN PLUM TREES! Large stock of best varieties at lowest prices. Full assortment of Fruit aud Orua- lental Trees aud Plants. Correspondence solicited from parties who intend planting U'ge orchards. Get our prices before ordering elsewhere. We can save you money. 8eud )v new Spring Catalogue— it is free. Established 1869. Over 150 Acres. Address THE GEO. A. SWEET NURSERY CO., Sox ig6o. Dansville, New York. MPIRE WASHER FREE: To Energetic Agents, Eiwiririr wwHt^nm rriri~ enormous profits ■ ■■■ llllw WVII^rllkll I IlkBH WITH LITTLE WORK PERFECT SATISFACTION GUARANTEED. $500 to any one who will Invent a similar WASHIJVO MACmiVK that will operate easier or do better work. The l*rlee Ik Low. Write for circulars, price and terms to agents. Address, ^ Mention this Taper. THE EMPIRE WASHER CO., im^^n ^ "Xl Best on Earth. 15 years for a $1.00 Bingham Smoker. iix sizes, all perfect, from GOc. to $1.50. .. T. F. BINGHAM, Farwell, Mich. T. F. BiXGltAM— Dear 8ir:— I have used he Conqueror fifteen years or iiioie. I was ihvays well pleased with its workings, but hinking I would need a new one this sum- ner, I write for circular for 1897. I do not hink 4-inch 8moke Engine too large. Yours, Wm. H. EncJERTY. Cuba, Kan., .Ian. 27. '97. BEGINNERS. Beginners should have a copy of tlie Am- ateur Bee-Keeper, a 70-page book, by Prof. J. W. Rouse; written especially for ama- teurs. Second edition just out. First edi- tion of 1,000 sold in less than two years. Editor York says: "It is the finest little book published at tlie present time." Price ■25 cents; by mail, 28c. The little book and the Progressive Bee-Keeper (a live, pro- gressive, 28 page monthly journal) one year f )r 65c. Apply fo any first-cla.ss dealer or address LEAHY MFG. 00., Higginsville, Mo. One Man witli the UNION c°ti«^*-»^ Can do the work of tour men nsiny band tools, in Ripping, cutting-off, Mi- truiy, Ra 111 let ini;, Grooving, (xamui^', l>as. per annum in advance; if booked, (is-fid. Edited, Printed and Published by E. TIPPER, West Maitland," N. S. W. S('.\I,K OF PRICES rOK .VDVERTISEMKNT.S IN A. BEE BULLETIN: Half-page— Per annum, £.5; Half-year, €3: quar- ter, .£l-15s. Quarter-page— Per annum, £3; Half-year, ,£l-l,=)s: CJuarter. £1. One-eighth page— Per annum, .£l-15s; Half-year. £1; Quarter, 12s. Single Insertion— 1st in., 3s 6d;sticceeding2s-r)i]. E. TIPPER, WEST MAITLAND, N. S. W. We will .send the American Bek-Keep- ER one year and a box of garden seeds (price 11.60) for 7r>c.. postpaid. We will pay 26 centj cash or 28 cents in goods, for good quali ty of Beeswax, freight paid to FALCONER, N. Y. If you have any ship it to us at once. (Prices subject to change without notice.) tW.l.fOKOWM'I'gCt. Incubators for Cash or on 30 Days Trial Any size, any kind or larger and better ones. My four hatches with Bantam from 50 eggs each were 30, 3.'), 42 and 4.S chicks. iMiss .-Vddie ('i..vt;i\, Jordan, N. Y. Send 4c. for No. ];!9 Catalogue and trial oH'er. -'-! BUCKEYE INCUBATOR CO., Springfield, 0 Published Monthly by the W. T. Palconer Manfg Co. VoL vm. MARCH, J898, No. 3. ^slil The Problem of Marketing. Written for the American Bee-Keeper,\ BY ED. JOLLEY. A^:2HE market is an offspring of de- ' been the competition among the coiu mission men and dealers. Nearly evei > large city has a number of commission houses where produce of all kinds honey included, is sold on commission As soon as the honey harvest is over nearly all the bee-keepers within a radius of 150 to 200 miles of these cities ship their honey to these commission men. As a result, within an incredible short time after the honey harvest, every commission house is overloaded with honey that must be disposed of. Now I believe the majority of these commission men are honest, conscien- tious men, who do what they think is best under the circumstances. Com- mission man A will start comb honey at 15 cents per pound and extracted at 10 cents. Commission man B says I have a big lot of honey on hand, I will make it % cent lower, and make a run and get rid of my load. C says I have got to get rid of my load some way. I make it another 1/2 cent lower. D says I have a big lot on hand, and it takes up my room, too. I believe it would be better for me and the owners of this honey, too, for me to make a quick job of it and get it out of my way and get them their money; I will just run this off at 1 cent lower than those other fellows. This haggling is kept up until about all the bee-keeper gets out of his summer of hard work is the little bit of glory he can get out of it. Another very important factor in lowering the general price of honey, is the cheap sweets, such as sugar and syrups, with which it has to compete. There are two or three other agents that are more or less hurtful, but I will THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 51 pass them, as this article is already- long, and I have not yet touched on the remedy. It is easier to diagnose diseases than to prescribe an effective cure. But if we will ever place honey in its proper place in the markets of the world, the first great step is UNITY among the producers of it. Before we can do any- thing we must become thoroughly or- ganized. After which, I would suggest, that the country be divided into sev- eral districts; a head agent to be ap- pointed for each district; one in whom the bee-keepers of the district have perfect confidence as to honesty and business ability. The head agent to be located in the chief city of his district, and have sub-agents under his control in the smaller cities and towns of the district. The head agent must be mi- nutely informed of all the honey for sale in his district, over and above what each bee-keeper can dispose of in his home market, which must not be neglected under any consideration. The head agent being located in the chief city, it will be his duty to act as wholesaler of honey for that city, handling nothing but honey in whole- sale way. He will be able, with a lit- tle help, to supply a large city. It will be his duty to keep honey out of the hands of commission men and dealers, except those who buy the honey out- right. It will be his duty to furnish the price of honey for the market col- umns of the papers; and his duty to set the price that his sub-agents through- out the districts must sell by. These men, having control of all the honey in the district, and the different districts of all in the country, there can be no competition, and it being to their in- terests not to overload the market, there is no reason why the price of honey could not be steadily raised to where it ought to be. These men should receive a reason- able commission for their services. Having control of all the honey in the country, a reasonable commission would make the business a very re- munerative one for them, and they, in turn, would make bee-keeping a very profitable employment. There being an honest agent in every market in control of the honey, the adulterator of honey would be out of a job. If there should be any of it done there would be a man on the ground to look after him. When the bee-keepers of the country thoroughly wake up to their own in- terests and become thoroughly organ- ized, the adulterators of honey will not find the smooth sailing to which they have been accustomed. The ban of oui product will have disappeared behind us in the past. The United States Bee- Keepers' Union will have so much money on hand that every now an.I then they will be compelled to declare a dividend in favor of the members instead of as now, appealing with out- stretched hands for just money enough to make an example of one adulterator of honey. Neat and attractive packages, to- gether with increased confidence in the purity of honey, and fair dealing, will in a great measure overcome the cheap sweets that honey has to compete with. The quantity of honey consumed will be greatly increased by its even and systematic distribution. Franklin, Pa. Olden Time Bee-keeping. WiiUenfor The American Bee-Keeper, BY G. M. UOOLrn-LE. ^ijh[U; CORRESPONDENT wishes mo fQ^\S to tell the readers of the Am- ^'^- erican Bee-Keeper something of my beginning in the bee business, thinking the same may be inter- esting to many of the readers of this paper. As this beginning hap- pened at a time when the old systems were in vogue, I am led to say a few words along the line of my boyhood days. When I was quite small, father "took" a colony of bees of a neighbor living about a mile distant, to keep on 52 TEE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 3farc shares, each to have half of the in- crease and half of the surplus honey. This surplus was mostly obtained by killing the weaker and poorer of the colonies in the fall, with the fumes of burning sulphur and then taking what- ever honey they had laid up for the winter. Thus, when fall came, the neighbor and father would look over the bees, and decide how many and which colonies should be killed, after which the honey obtained was divided equally between them. If more was obtained than was necessary for fami- ly use, a portion was taken to our nearest village, this being always the best part, and exchanged for groceries, boots, dry goods, etc. I can almost see the pails of beautiful snow-white comb honey father would take to town, as I write, though forty-five years have passed since then; this white honey being taken mostly from after swarms which were considered too light in stores to winter. The darker combs, and those partly filled with bee bread, were left at home for our consump- tion, to be used in the shape of strained honey. The straining was done by cutting up the combs till every cell was broken and then putting the whole into a bag made of thin cotton cloth. The bag was then hung up near the fire so it might be kept as warm as possible, this making the honey more thin so it would drain out better into a vessel placed underneath. The quality of this honey was very fair, and if no dark or fall honey was in the combs it would approximate nearly to our white extracted honey of today. After all had drained out, which would do so by hanging by the fire, several small sticks were placed across the top of a large pan, kept for the purpose, the bag placed on the sticks, and the whole set in the oven. The oven wa? kept as warm as possible and not melt the wax very much, and in this way quite a quantity of inferior honey was obtained. Right here I wish to digress a little. During the late past we have ofte' been told, where strained honey wa being compared with extracted, tha the latter was the clear nectar of th flowers, free from all impurities, etc while the former was of suspicion character, obtained by mashing up th combs of brood, pollen and honey, to gether with whatever dead bees migh adhere thereto, and squeezing th whole through a cloth by wringin with the hands. From all knowledge have, I would as soon risk the cleanli ness of strained honey as that of ex tracted; for at our house, nothin; looking like dead bees, brood, or filtt was ever allowed in the sack fror which the honey was strained, while have seen disgusting-looking larva b; the score, together with the food givei them, floating on a vessel of hone; where extracting was being done fron the brood chamber of the hive, as i very frequently practiced even at thi time, although not nearly so much si as at an earlier date in the existence o the extractor. The killing of the bee; to secure the honey, the destroying o the combs, the mixing of the light anc dark honey, and the slight taste o pollen, was all that I could ever se< that was objectionable to strainec honey. But to return. After a few years, th( bees from the first colony above re ferred to, had so increased that a divis ion was made, and the neighbor tool away what belonged to him. Bj this time I had become larg^ enough so I could watch tht bees, and during the month Df June and July, whenever I was noi at school, I was stationed near th( apiary from 9 o'clock in the mornini till 3 in the afternoon, to look foi swarms. This soon became very tire some, and I often begged to be allowed §"• to go off with the other boys, but as father thought that all should bear an equal share of the burden of support ing the family, according to thei; strength and ability, I was kept at my 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 53 post, instead of being allowed to roam the streets and fields with other boys Df my age. About this time father concluded to :ry to get his surplus honey by placing arge boxes holding from twelve to fif- :een pounds of honey on the hives. 5ome of these were placed on top of ;he hive and others at the sides, ac- lording as he thought best. I remem- )er as distinctly as though it were yes- erday of his hiving two swarms that dustered together in one hive and then )lacing two of these large boxes at the ides and one on top. To place them at he sides, the hive was raised on half- nch blocks, the same as some are ecommending today, and a slot was ut in the bottom of the boxes one-half nch deep, next the side toward the live, thus making a passage for the lees. The result was that he took ,bout eighty pounds of "box" honey rom this hive, fully two-thirds of vrhich was taken from the sides. Soon ifter this, one morning when father vas leaving home on business, a small econd swarm came out, and as he did n(i|iot consider it worth the time he nust spend in hiving it, he told me 1 Qight have it as my own if I would se- ure it. Up to this time I had never lived a swarm, and it took some little ourage for an 8-year-old boy to climb o the top of a tree to get a swarm of ees for the first time; so I thought, at east. I finally got them hived and be- ame so interested in them that 1 Qust go to see them every day, and Th.Qi\ the cool weather of fall came on, would go and tap on the hive for the good morning" answer, which was al- ways granted me. In a few days there ame a morning when I tapped on the ive as usual, but without an answer, nd there was a strange hollow sound iven off so different from what I had een accustomed to, I carefully tipped p the hive and peered in to be greeted nly with an empty box, for during the ight some one had taken the hive to be woods, killed the bees with fire, and taken the honey, as the charred and combless hive conclusively proved. I was very much grieved over this part of the matter, but as we could not trace out the thief, I had to pocket the insult and make the best of it. At about this time foul brood appeared in the apiary, and in two years father lost all his bees from this disease, and my bee-keeping came to an end for a period. Fourteen years now elapsed, when I started in bee-keeping on the improved plan, of which I will try and tell a little later on. Borodino, N. Y. Importance of Breeding from Good Stock. Wvittea for the American Bee-Keeper, BY J. B. CASE. OST bee-keepers, no doubt, think that it is a good plan to breed from good stock, i.e. good queens; but I believe that few realize how important it is to breed from the very best. Stock breeders know that to breed the best type they must use breeders that excel in the points they wish to perpetuate; and they devote years in breeding to fix certain desirable traits, so that those traits will be transmitted, almost without fail, thus oDtaining a breed that is very desirable in the traits wished for. I believe it is fully as important to breed bees for the traits we desire as it is to breed cattle for milking, or beef qualities; though, to be sure, we do not have the control in mating bees that we have with stock. Yet we can rear the mothers from the stock having the qualities which we desire, and by con- tinuing this course, curtailing the pro- duction of drones from inferior queens, and crossing with other desirable strains, bees may be bred up to average better and thus prove more profitable to their owner. Perhaps a little ex- perience will help to illustrate this point. When I commenced bee-keeping I 54 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. March was in a locality that was quite good for buckwheat and poor for clover and other early sources of honey, i bought a few box hives— this was in '73— se- lecting the best colonies— black bees— from apiaries a few miles apart. These gave much larger yields than the bees that were in my neighborhood. I trans- ferred them and tried some Italians. To get breeders I selected stocks from apiaries a few miles away, and was so well pleased that in 1879 (I think it was) I went to A. W. Lundy and paid an extra price for the colony of Ital- ians that had made the largest amount of honey the previous year out of some fifty or sixty colonies of Italians. The season opened up with the best flow of honey from apple bloom that I ever saw, and this colony superseded the queen during the flow from apples, rearing five cells. All produced fine queens, which in due time were used in small colonies. The season gave very little surplus, and one of these queens was wintered in a strong nucleus with four combs and surrounded with chaff. They wintered well, and by giving combs of honey with the cappings broken, they bred up and did about as well as the average. The season was only medium, but they went Into win- ter quarters with almost solid combs of honey. The next spring they were in fine condition. I gave them a hive with fifteen frames, lOVaxlBi/s inside meas- ure. June 1st they had brood in four- teen frames and by measure contained 1,200 square inches of brood. The eight middle frames contained as much brood as a good average colony. June 10th it swarmed. I removed eight of the best combs of brood, leaving six or seven, and a frame of foundation in the center, and hived on the old stand, cov- ering sides and top with boxes. In just a month I took off eighty pounds of as fine honey as I ever saw, and later for- ty-five pounds more. The brood re- moved to another stand lost their queen in mating, but another was sup- plied and they gave fifty pounds, mak ing 175 pcunds and one swarm. The colonies with the four sistei queens gave 140 pounds, 125 pounds, Hi pounds and the other but little mort than the average of the yard, which was seventy pounds. All except tht last were very prolific. Besides these I only had two or three stocks thai gave over 100 pounds (all was box) I had Italians of other strains, anc blacks, and hybrids; all told about fif- ty colonies. None of my neighbors go' as much as 100 pounds from their bes' colonies. I bred from this strain unti I left New Jersey, in 1884, and com- pared with other selected stocks thej were superior as workers to any : could get and quite equal to any in oth er respects. At this time I was using a modifica tion of "Doolittle's" system of side anc top boxing, with usually seven to eigh combs in the brood apartment. Thest queens, though two years old, hac never had much incentive to over exer themselves in egg laying, as both pre- vious seasons had been poor and very very poor. In the following years I noticed tha' queens bred from the best queen men- tioned above, averaged better thai those from any other queen that ] raised from. I was not in the queen- rearing business, but I used all th< available cells from swarms, wher needed, always preferring those fron the best stock, and did not attempt t( rear any artificially. But it woulc have paid big to have re-queened al my inferior colonies with queens fron the best one that I had, as I hav( proved to my own satisfaction since As this is my first article for Th( American Bee-Keeper, I will close, oi perhaps the editor will invite me t( stop. Port Orange, Fla. —[Too much cannot be said regarding the im provement of our stock; and we are especiallj pleased to give space to the discussion of the sub ject by one so thoroughly qualified by nature ant long experience, as our friend Case.— Ed.] 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPEB. 55 •_ iTEIiJ or 1NTERE5T. The Belgian market is taking some of California's amber grade of extracted honey. — o — • Any one who has never seen a case of foul bood ought to send for the De- cember number of the Bee-Keepers' Re- view. A specimen therein presented lacks only the smell. — o — Lewis Leighton, of Nebraska, in A. B. J., finds the white variety of sweet clover a most excellent forage plant for bees, but a complete failure as fod- der for stock of any kind. — o — The Wisconsin State Bee-Keepers' Association has formally indorsed the United States Bee-Keepers' Union. Amalgamation of the two unions was also favored by the convention. Letters patent uave recently been granted to one E. Arringtou, on "a bee catcher." The report fails to desig- nate whether the apparatus is designed to "catch" queens, drones or whole swarms. We may hear more of it in the future. But we don't expect to. — o — "What is the best tree to plant or the best seed to sow for bee pasturage?" continues to be asked by the novice, and the veteran repeats over, and over again, the answer, 'Tt will not pay to cultivate any known plant ex- clusively for honey." — o — The recent elections of the National Bee-Keepers' Union, resulted in hand- some majorities for all the former of- ficers. The resolution that Manager Newman be allowed 20 cents on each membership, as compensation for his services, carried "with a rush." A resolution presented at the Cali- fornia State Bee-Keepers' Association, "That the new United States Bee- Keepers' Union should absorb the Na- tional Union," carried by 43 to 0. — o— Extracted heney warehouse receipts of the California Bee-Keepers' Ex- change for 1897, were 484,287 pounds. Twenty car-loads were sold through the exchange during the last three months. — o — "There are about 53,000 bee-keepers in the British Isles. They will average five colonies each; in favorable loca- tions the yield is from 100 to 150 lbs. per colony, but the general yield is from 50 to 60 lbs." — o — "The wholesale price of comb honey in the British Isles is from 14 to 20 cents; extracted, 12 cents. The value of the annual product is about $750,000. Besides the home production there is a monthly import of from 10,000 to 15,- 000 lbs, the greater portion of it from the United States and Canada." The thirteenth annual report of the National Bee-Keepers' Union for 1897, by General Manager T. G. Newman, of San Francisco, shows the past year to have been one of useful activity for that organization; and the treasury is still in a very healthy condition. — o — Harry Lathrop, in Gleanings, pre- dicts no clover honey in Wisconsin this year. The basis of his prophecy is the fact, so stated, that it takes two years to produce a good crop of honey, f;om the time the seed is deposited in the ground, and the unfavorable con- ditions for germinating the seed, that followed the deposit of '96. — o — Wm. A. Selser, of Philadelphia, who is an "old hand" at the honey busi- ness, through the American Bee Jour- nal, urges eastern producers to market their product not later than November, before the arrival of car-load ship- ments from California, which, he says, come every year and are dumped at ruinous prices on an over-burdened market, during the winter. ^c. TBE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPEB. March 1 flMHI m K[[P[II. PUBLISHED MONTHLY liV THE W. T. FALCONER MANFG CO. lEa:. e:. ieiill. OEditoar. Terms : Fifty cents a year in advance; 2 copies, S5 cents; 3 (iopies, 11.20; all to be sent to one postoffice. Postage prepaid in the U. S. and Canada; 10 cents extra to all countries in the postal union, and 20 cents extra to all other countries. Advertising Rates : Fifteen cents per line, 9 words; 12.00 per inch. 5 per cent, discount for 2 insertions; 7 per cent, for a insertions; 10 per cent, for 6 insertions; 20 per cent, for 12 insertions. Advertisements must be received on or before the 20th of each month to insure in.SLrtion in the month following. Address THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. Falconer, N. Y. ^^"Subscribers finding this paragraph marked with a blue cross will know that their suVjscrip- tion expires with this number. We hope that you will not delay in sending a renewal. ftS^A Red Cross on this paragraph indicates that you owe for your subscription. Please give the matter your attention. EDITORIAL, PLAIN VS. OLD-STYLE SECTIONS. The Bee-Keepers' Review for Janu- ary presents a most interesting and beautiful half tone engraving of eight finished sections of honey. As four of the sections are of the stan- dard, or "old-style," and four of the plain ones, the illustration is presented as an object lesson in comb building, and to show by contrast the su- perior work obtained by the use of the plain section. And in this case it is, indeed, very striking. If such contrast could be shown from the same colony, by partly filling a su- per with each style of sections and sep- arators, or even by a separate super, during a continued flow of honey, the superiority claimed by many for the plain section would be established be- yond the possibility of further ques- tion. The editor says of the illustra- tion: "This is a fair representation of such honey as I have seen pro- duced in the two classes of sections." That's good, and is, in itself, enough to give considerable weight to the possi- bility of the wide difference being a result of the difference in the style of sections; yet the Review's characteris- tic spirit of fairness is becomingly maintained in the above quotation by emphasizing the personal pronoun. Having had no ' personal experience with the plain section, Bro. Hutchin- son's illustration of the relative ap- pearance of the work secured in the two styles of sections, and his remarks relating thereto are doubly interesting; and we have no hesitation in saying that if such widely different results in the matter of filling out and finishing up the work, as depicted, is wholly due to the style of the section, that the in- troduction of the plain section will mark the beginning of a new era in the history of comb-honey production. But the high degree of perfection to which Editor Hutchinson has risen in the photographic art as well as in that of bee-keeping and journalism, as re- vealed by the excellent definition and brilliancy of the negative, due to perfect lighting and a knowledge of every de- til in the treatment of his subject, from start to finish, discloses (to our mind) existing conditions in the production of the specimens shown that may have been responsible in a measure for the striking contrast in the appearance of the work, other than the style of the section. In the case of the in-set sections, it is apparent that the bees were not crowded much, either as to numbers or storage room; while the plain ones have every appearance of having been taken from a strong colony that was confined to a comparatively limited space. If economy of room fails to ac- count for the extra completion of the work and the smooth, flat cappings shown in the plain sections, as com- pared with the open edges and convex capping, clearly defining the line of the side-walls of each cell in the old-style specimens, may the picture not serve as an object lesson in comb-building traits, in favor of the colony employed in the production of the former? tHE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 5t Send us fifty cents and secure the egular visits of The Bee Keeper for a hole year. The marriage of Miss Constance Me- oa Root and Arthur Lonson Boyden ccurred February 1, 1898, at Medina, hio. The bride is a daughter of Mr. I. Root, the well-known manufac- irer of apiarian supplies, and Mr. Boy- en, who was at one time connected th the office of the W. T. Falconer [fg. Co., is at present an employe of ae A. I. Root Company at Medina, he Bee-Keeper extends sincere well- Of John Newton, president of the Ox- )rd Bee-keepers' Association, the anadian Bee Journal well says: "He a young bee-keeper of more than or- nary promise, and is already in the ont ranks." We are pleased to an- 3unce that Mr. Newton has consented > write a series of articles for The merican Bee-Keeper, and we are now iticipating the pleasure of introduc- ig to our readers this rising young Marist of Canada in the next issue of he Bee-Keeper. The apiarian display at the Trans- ississippi- and International Expos- ion at Omaha, next silmmer, will, ithout doubt, be the gi-andest ever )ened to the public. A special build- g is being erected to accommodate le extensive exhibits of bees, apiarian jpliances and apiary products. The ureau of Bee Industries is in charge Commissioner E. Whitcomb, of riend, Neb., who is sparing no effort eclipse all previous efforts in this le. One thing is certain, the work is competent hands. EARLY SPRING WORK. The first work of importance when ;es are out of winter quarters in the ring, is to ascertain the strength of ch colony, and to allow no more om in the hive than is absolutely •cessary to accommodate the bees it contains. By the use of division boards the combs in each hive should be reduced to the covering capacity of the colony, warm cushions of chaff or sawdust tucked snugly over the frames, the entrances contracted and every precaution taken to retain the animal heat within the hive. It is of equal im- portance that each colony be provided with a supply of honey or a substitute, where their natural stores are running low. There is no time that the strength of a colony may be "sized up" as ac- curately and quickly as on a chilly spring morning, when the bees are huddled together in the smallest space possible, upon the brood. Three men, or even one man and two smart boys, can easily go over an apiary of 200 colonies before breakfast, and ascer- tain just which hives need honey, and exactly how many frames each one should be contracted to. One goes ahead and removes the lids, and caps, ■ if used, and the apiarist following closely, places his right hand under the back of the hive, and by the weight "spots" the light ones as well as those that have honey to spare; and at the same time jerks back the quilt, and at a glance notes the exact number of combs containing bees. The exist- ing conditions are called, as the quilt is quickly replaced, and noted upon the record slate by man No. 3, and is a ready and certain guide to the treat- ment required by each colony when the weather is warm enough to go through and examine for queens and to con- tract the brood chambers. It is quite impossible to determine the right number of combs to allow a colony, during warm spring days when they are active, as a weak stock will often make a big showing of bees un- der such circumstances, and it is well to confine them to the number of combs that they occupied when ex- amined in the morning, regardless of their apparently increased strength. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPEB. Marct BEE-KEEPING IN FLORIDA. Last month, as an introduction to the subject, we gave our readers a view of a Florida apiary. Though space will not permit a lengthy account of the ad- vantages and disadvantages experi- enced by the Florida bee-keeper, we shall briefly outline some of them as they appear to us, on the east coast, to wUich our experience has beeu con- fined. The wintering problem, of course, a matter of no concern to the be* keeper of South Florida. The bloo) of the soft maple, which skirts tt wending streams, opens early in Jam ary, and by its striking contrast, lih scarlet leaves of autumn, is clearly d« fined the extent of its growth, by mere glance over the landscape. Tl 1S9S. THE AMEBIC Aiir BE^-KEEPEB. 59 live-oak, too, and Spanish moss, which hangs from its boughs, often in mas- sive festoons, twenty feet or more in length, both bloom during the winter months, and secrete sparingly of honey in the early morning hours, and yield an abundance of pollen; attracting the bees in swarms, even before Old Sol has risen out of the ocean, which stretches away to meet the eastern sky. These sources of supply all have a beneficial effect upon the building up of stocks for the regular honey season; though they are of minor importance in comparison with the wild penny- royal, which grows in great profusion in the southern counties and blooms from December until April. Penny- royal is quite a bountiful yielder, and the honey is of extra heavy body, al- most water-white and of delicious fla- vor. This continued flow of honey stimulates the bees to swarming about the beginning of March and fills the hives with workers, ready for the har- vest from palmetto in April and May. It is not all smooth sailing, how- ever, even in this "sunny southland," and some of the unpleasant conditions that exist there, and from which no country is exempt, must be reserved for future notice. Chilly nights are not so uncommon as to relieve the api- arist of the necessity of contracting the brood chambers and entrances of the weaker colonies during the winter and bestowing the same care as that requii-ed in such cases during May in the North; and the same loss will re- sult from neglect alike in both coun- tries. In certain localities near the sea, mosquito hawks, or dragon-flies, are a great pest, coming, as they do, by tens of thousands, and filling the air about the apiaries, catching and devouring the busy workers by wholesale. There seems to be no practical means of deal- ing with this enemy, which is no small factor in reducing the working force of an apiary in localities where they abound. The appetite of these voracious pests is seemingly without limit, as they will capture and munch down several bees in immediate succession. We have on several occasions endeavored to satisfy their ravenous greed by catching two of them, while devouring bees, and al- lowing one to eat all that was eatable of the other; then turning the long, slender posterior of the still-eager gourmand to its head, it would imme- diately proceed to consume its own body with the same apparent avidity and relish that it had shown for its earlier victims — the bees. By the use of a shingle or similar weapon, thou- sands of these hungry pests may be slain in a short time on a summer evening, without any perceptible de- crease in the swarm still darting in all directions to intercept the flight of laden workers. The apiary shown in this number of The Bee-Keeper is located in the pen- nyroyal fields of South Florida, about 260 miles south of Jacksonville, which, in favorable seasons, is a very produc- tive location and a popular rendezvous of the festive dragon-fly. THAT "COMING BEE"— APIS DOR- SATA. As our forests and white clove fields are being superseded by ' cultivated fields, the necessity of developing a larger bee, with proportionately in- creased length of tongue, has impressed Adrian Gataz, as shown by an article in the American Bee Journal. He is confident that, by careful selection in breeding, and the use of foundation having slightly larger cells, a red clo- ver strain may be developed. That the introduction of apis dorsata would prove a valuable acquisition to Ameri- can bee-keeping, he has little doubt. As apis dorsata build no drone comb, one obstacle foreseen by Mr. Gataz is the difficulty in controlling a possible over-production of drones. Does any one know that it would be at all necessary to restrict bees of this TSE AMERICAN ^Etl-KEEPt^R. March species in the matter of drone rearing? Now it is probably just a little early for us to add to our burden of earthly cares, the suppression of drones in col- onies yet in the inaccessible jungles ol Hindoostan; but since the subject ia before the public, The American Bee- Keeper, presuming the existence ot some distinctive feature in the cap- pings, as in the case of our domestic bees, bespeaks the effectual execution of an extension step-ladder and a Bing- ham knife in the hands of the dorsata- keeper as a final solution of this little matter; these extra trips to be paid for in red clover honey and the secre- tions of other flowers having deep nec- taries. GO SLOW. That the art of bee-keeping is con- stantly progressing is an apparent fact^ and one in which every apiarist feels a degree of justifiable pride, for each has contributed, to some extent, towards the attainment of present conditions; yet no greater authority than our own observation is required to establish the fact that the present advanced state of our art has been achieved largely through costly experiments, conducted by studiously inclined bee-keepers. Failure and disappointment have been a more frequent result in this work than anticipated success, and have been no less valuable in imparting genuine knowledge. Recent inventions are being discussed pro and con, and innumerable methods are advocated and opposed, according to the judgment and experience of those who give them attention. Simply because reports indicate tht complete success and apparent great advantage of some new method or ap- pliance, the young bee-keeper should not hastily conclude that in order to be up with the times, he must discard his present equipment and adopt the new- fangled arrangements. It has been well said that "more depends upon the man and his locality than upon the hive and fixtures in use." If we are favorably impressed in regard to some aew feature suggested, it is better that tve determine its practical adaptability to our personal means and ends, by moderate experinaent, before making any expensive changes. Nor is it pru- dent for the beginner to depart radi- cally from the general course in vogue, which has been established by years of Experience. Of course, during the first year or two of his practice, it is to be expected that a few "improved" hives will be invented. The field for invent- ive genius in this line, however, is very limited, as will be surely realized later. The spirit of investigation, and the desire to excel are eminently commend- able, and though it has wrought the present state of perfection in apiarian appliances and methods, as a result of over-confidence in untried theories, it is also responsible for much individual loss, financially. Now, if only the proper application were made by our young bee-keeping readers, the foregoing might as well have been expressed in two words: "Go slow." A Belgian bee paper, Le Rucher Beige, recommends the temporary as- phyxiation of bees by the fumes of burning saltpeter when it is desired to dislodge them, and they, for any rea- son, adhere sluggishly to the combs. About one-fourth ounce of chloroform on cotton, tucked into the entrance and then closing it will produce exactly the result described, without apparent injury to the bees. But any one who undertakes to entirely free the combs of bees at any time of year, by any method of suffocation, will surely meet disappointment. Large numbers of dormant bees will adhere to the surface of the comb so tenaciously that all shaking and jarring is useless; while all those that seek relief from the fumes of the drug, deep in the cells, suc- cumb to its influence in that position and cannot be shaken off. Decidedly 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPEB. 61 the better way is to wait until climatic conditions favor the work, then pro- ceed in the accustomed way, with feathers, clubs and smoke. ITEMJ or INTEREJT. Dr. Besse thinks that honey may be kept indefinitely without granulating by bringing it to the boiling point, ad- ding about one tablespoonful cream of tarter to each 100 lbs., and then sealing it in air tight cans. — o — By a biographical sketch in the A. B. J., of C. Theilmann, of Minnesota, it is learned that this venerable, thorough- going and ever-successful bee-keeper, in 1872, secured from one colony, five good swarms, which, together with the parent, gave him 600 pounds of honey. This is noted in connection with the canvass for the champion re- cord. — o — J. A. Bearden, in A. B. J., attaches great importance to having the honey thoroughly ripened upon the hive. He judges of the proper condition for ex- tracting by the hum of the bees. A cessation of that evaporating roar at night, indicates that the honey is ready for the extractor. May it not also indicate that robbers will be on hand to assist ? — o — Now this is going the rounds of the newspapers: "That the bee is not gluttonous and does not consume more than it earns is proven by the fact that 164,000,000 pounds of honey are annu- ally sold throughout the world for the enjoyment of the human race. The United States stands at the head of the list of honey producers with 61,000,000 pounds, and Germany comes next with 40,000,000 pounds." — o — J. A. Golden, in Gleanings: "People may talk about smoker fuel, but dried sunflower stalks, leaves, stems, crown, and all together, lay all other fuels in the shade so far as controlling vicious bees is concerned, giving a pleasant yet dense smoke, holding fire much longer than the majority of fuels recom- mended. Cut up while green, cured in the sun, then stored away, it is both handy and inexpensive. Try it." Editor Thomas Wm. Cowan, of the British Bee Journal, England, has for some time past been visiting American apiarists. He was in attendance and made an honorary member of the Cali- fornia State association at its Los An- geles convention in January. Mr. Cow- an gave a very interesting talk before that body on bee-keeping in England, which is our authority for several items relating to that subject, herein The effect of the bee space upon the wintering of bees, is being earnestly discussed through the American Bee Journal. The arguments of all who attach no importance to its detrimental influence are promptly met in oppo- sition, by a series of logical articles over the nom de plume, "Common Sense Bee-Keeping;" by whom it is averred that the bee-space over and around the frames, is fatal in its ef- fect upon bees in winter. The February issue of Table Talk is full of general and useful information for housewives. Some of the principal articles this month are: "How to Read," the second paper of a series by Mrs. Burton Kingsland; "Short Ser- mons from Gastronomic Texts," by Dominie Doublewit; "The Codfish," by Virginia Lyndall Dunbar; "Cuts of Beef and Their Uses," by Cornelia C. Bedford; "Home Amenities, by Mrs. Stevens, and many other excellent ar- ticles appear. A free sample of the magazine may be had by any of our readers who send their name and ad- dress to Table Talk Publishing Co., Philadelphia, Pa. 62 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. March The W. T. Falconer Mfg. Co.: Gentlemen — Kindly send me catalog of supplies. I am entirely sold out, and in the rush of work last season was obliged to order quickly from Chicago. I could not send to your factory, as it takes two weeks for goods to come by freight. I have never seen anything in the section line that comes up to your Pal- con section. I had a neighbor bee-man (who, by the way, does not buy nis sup- plies from me, as he lives eight miles distant) visit me last summer when I was busy putting on sections, and he noticed how my press was working and how square my sections were when put up, and the general good appearance of the work, and he remarked that his section press was not as good as mine (he has the same kind I have), and he could not get his sections to sit up square, etc. Well, I thought at the time maybe his press was out of order somehow and gave it no further thought. Right after this I had a run on sections and sold out quick, and I had to get sections instanter; I ordered from Chicago, and, to make a short story, my press would not do good work on these sections, and they would not stand up square, and I was no bet- ter off than my distant neighbor, who blamed his press when his sections were at fault. If you manufacture a line of goods as good as you did four years ago, I want those goods, even if I have to pay a little extra freight. Yours truly, JOHN W. WILCOX. Scales Mound, 111.. Feb. 3, 1898. Write a I/Ctter and Win a Prize. To encourage our young bee-keeping friends and develop their latent tal- ents. The American Bee-Keeper makes the following proposition to those who have not over twenty-five colonies nor have had over five years of bee-keeping experience: To the subscriber sending in the best and most instructive article on any subject relating to bee culture, be- fore April 15th, 1898, we will advance the contributor's subscription one year, and pay in addition one dollar ($1.00) in cash. For the second best, we will send one Two-inch Bingham Bee Smoker, post- age prepaid, and The American Bee- Keeper free for one year. For all others of sufficient merit to warrant publication, we will send The American Bee-Keeper one year free. As this offer is made wholly for the encouragement of beginners, profes- sional writers and bee-keeping special- ists are excluded from competition. Competitors must be paid-up sub- scribers to the American Bee-Keeper, or inclose with the article 50 cents for one year's subscription, when sending it in. A statement of the number of colonies kept and the extent of con- tributor's experience must accompany each article. No article containing over 500 words will be awarded a premium. Write briefly and to the point. It is ideas we are after. All articles accepted will be pub- lished in The American Bee-Keeper and premiums will be awarded in pro- portion to their merit, according to the judgment of the editor. All articles not accepted will be held in strict confidence, and returned to the writer if return postage is sent. Now, let us hear from our amateur readers. Don't hesitate or delay; we will appreciate your effort, whether you are successful or not, and we be- lieve every one of our readers are cap- able of writing something that will be interesting and useful to others. Address, EDITOR AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER, Falconer, N. Y. W. M. Gerrish, Ea.st Nottingham, N. H., keeps a complete .supply of our snoods, and Eastern customers will save freight by or- dering from him. 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 63 Every iJee-keepers' society of the state of New York is requested to send five delegates each to a convention to be held at the Kirkwood, in the city of Geneva, N. Y., March 16, 1898, at 11 o'clock, a. m., for the purpose of organ- izing a Nevvf York association of bee- keepers' societies, or state board of apiculture. Each society represented will have an equal voice in the organi- zation, although they may not be rep- resented by a full delegation. By Order of Conference. FRED L. EMENS, Chairman, Fayette, Seneca Co., N. Y. Lee B. Smith, Sec'y, Vincent, Ont. Co., N. Y. NOT ALWAYS UNDERSTOOD. A fact often overlooked, or not al- ways understood, is that women suffer as much from distressing kidney and bladder troubles as men. The womb is situated back of and very close to the bladder, and for that reason any dis- tress, disease or inconvenience mani- fested in the kidneys, back, bladder or urinary passage is often, by mistake, attributed to female weakness or womb trouble of some sort. The error is easily made and may be as easily avoided by setting urine aside for 24 hours; a sediment or settling is evidence that your kidneys and blad- der need doctoring. If you have pain or dull aching in the back, pass water too frequently, or scanty supply, with smarting or burning — these are also convincing proofs of kidney trouble. If you have doctored without benefit, try Dr. Kilmer's Swamp-Root, the great kidney remedy. The mild and extraordinary effect will surprise you. It stands the highest for its wonderful cures. If you take a medicine you should take the best. At druggists fifty cents and one dollar. You may have a sample bottle and pamphlet, both sent free by mail. Mention The American Bee-Keeper and send your address to Dr. Kilmer «& Co., Bingham- ton, N. Y. The proprietors of this pa- per guarantee the genuineness of this offer. Our 1898 Catalog. The Annual Catalog of The W. T. Falconer Mfg. Co. has been mailed to every one on their lists. If any of our readers have been missed we will send them one promptly on receipt of a card. HONEY AND BEESWAX MARKET REPORT. Below we give the latest and most authentic report of the Honey and Beeswax market in dif- ferent trade centers: Boston, Mass., Feb. 22, 1898.— Fair demand for honey. Ample supply. Extracted 5 to 6c per lb. Good demand for beeswax. No supply. Prices 28c. for pure stock. Price of comb honey, fancy white, in cartons, A No. 1 white 13c. No. 1 white 10 to lie. No. 2, 8 to 9c. per lb. Blake, Scott & Lee, 57 Chatham Street. Cincinnati, O., Feb. 21, 1898.— Slow demand for honey Fair supply. Price of comb 10 to 13c. for Extracted 3^4 to 6c. per lb. Fair demand for beeswax with a fair supply Prices 20 to 25c. for good to choice yellow. We have not had so slow a trade for honey for years as we have had this winter. Chas. F. Muth & Son, Cor. Freeman and Central aves. Detroit, Mich.. Feb. 22, 1898.— Slow demand for honey. The supply of cheaper grades is good. Prices of comb 8 to 13c. per lb. Extracted 4 to 6c. per lb. Good demand for beeswax. Fair sup- ply. Prices 26 to 27c per lb. The best grades of honey are not so plentiful. M. H. Hunt, Bell Branch, Mich. Kansas City, Mo., Feb. 21. 1898.— Light demand for honey. Very large supply of com!) honey. Price of comb honey 10 to lie." per lb. Extracted 4 to 6c. per lb. Good demand for beeswax at 25 to 27c. per lb. No. supply. Hamblin & Bearss, 514 Walnut Street. BEES ^ IN APRIL AND MAY. QUEENS Prices Below All. Bred for business. One untested Queen, April or May (for a trial), 35c. Price list of Queens, Nuclei and Bees by the pound, free. Address J. B. ALEXANDER, Box 768. 3-3 Hartford City, Ind. >(] HONEY EXTRACTOR PERFECTION COLD - BLAST SMOKERS, Square Glass Honey Jars, Etc. For Circulars, apply to OHAS. r. MUTH & SON, Cor. Freeman & Central Avenues, Cincinnati, O. Send 10c. for Practical Hints to Bee-Keepers. We are also dealers in Honey and Beeswax. Please mention American Bee-Keeper. 64 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. Marc) to Bee-Keepers Only ! A HANDSOME CATALOGUE FOR 1898. Address HUDSON, WIS. INCUBATORS The OLENTANGY Incubato: has proved to be t)ie beet. Havi taken prize after prize. Brood ra only £5.00. Before buyin; elsewhere, send for free de ecription and testimonials Also breeder of 40 varieties o high-class poultry. 110 yards 110 houses. Address G. S. SINGER, Cardington. 0- You Cant Make MONARCH CYCLE MFG. CO. Chicago New York London. Send nine two=cent stamps for Monarch Playing Cards. Regular 50c cards. Do 3'ou want them ? 3- baiid or golden; war- ranted 2 yards; rear- • ing a specialty for 7 years. 1,000 sold. Send for cata- logue. Member of Queen Breeders' Union, tf J. B. CASE^ Port Orange, Fia. Farm Bee-Keepmg,^>' The only Bee Paper in the United States edited exclusively in the in- terest of the farmer bee-keeper and the beginner is The Busy Bee, published by EMERSON T. ABBOTT, St. Joseph, Mo. Write for free sample copy now. SEND MB A I,IST of the Supplies vmi wish and get special prices either whok'salr nr niai I. Honey is cheap and you must buy ynui- uuoijs cheap in order to make it pay. Icau iKlpyou. l>,vr,GE Illl'stkated Cata- logue full of information Free. A full line of the A. I. Root Co. goods. M. H. HUNT, Cash for Beeswax. Bell Branch, Mich. -'-t (near Detroit.) THE MONTHLY REVIEW. A 16-page Family Paper, 50 cents a year. Sample free. Useful premiums and cash commissions to agents. TITUSVILLE, PA. EASTERNBE EJ^^^PE^S- Did You Know that I could furnish you any bee supplies that you want and save you freight charges? I have the Falcon Sections and Comb Foundation. Also Dovetailed and Simplicity Hives. In fact anything from a polished section box to a complete hive. Write for catalogue. 2 5 EDWIN E. SMITH, Watertown, Conn. 160-Page Bee Book FREE. Book Sent Free with American Bee Journal. Every new mtbscriber sending $1.00 for the weekly American Bee Journal for one year will receive a copy of Newman's 160-page "Bees and Honey" free. The old American Bee Journal is great this year. You ought to have it. Sample of Bee Journal tree. Write for it. Geo. W. York & Co., 118 Michigan St., Chicago, 111. JAPAN PLUM TREES! Larue sto(;k of best varieties at lowest prices. Full assortment of Fruit and Orna- mental Trees and Plants. Correspondence solicited from parties who intend planting large orcliards. Get our prices before ordering elsewhere. We can save you money. Send for new Spring Catalogue— it is free. Established 1869. Over 1.50 Acres. Address THE GEO. A. SWEET NURSERY CO., Boa- ig6o. 2-3 Dansville, New York. I MPIRE WASHER FREE: To Energetic Agents, PERFECT SATISFACTION GUARANTKF Invent a similar WASHB.VG MACIIiNa better work. The I'rice is I.,<>0 to any one who will at. will operate easier or do circulars, price and terms to =."'i..Zr-THE EMPIRE WASHER CO., jA«Esio««,N.y. .^ '^ If, If, If, Bingham has made all the improvements in Bee Smokers ^.^^ Honey Knives nade in the last 20 years. Undoubtedly le makes the best on earth. Smoke En- fine, 4-inch stove, none too large, sent post- said, per mail, |1.50; 3^-iu., |1.10; 3-iu., til. 00; 2.]-in., 90c; 2-in., 70c; Little Won- ler, 2in., 65c; Knife, 80c. T. F. BITJaHAM, Farwell. Midi. BEGINNERS, I Beginners .should have a copy of the Am- j ateur Bee-Keeper, a 70-page book, by Prof j J. W. Rouse; written especially for ama- j teurs. Second edition just out. First edi- tion of 1,000 sold in less than two years. Editor York says: "It is the finest little ] book published at the present time." Price 25 cents; by mail, 28c. The little book and the Progressive Be6-Keeper (a live, pro- gressive, 28 page monthly journal) one year for G5c. Apply to any first-class dealer or addre-ss LEAHY MFG. CO , Hi^dnsv-lle, Mo. One Man with the TTNTON Combination SAW Can do the wink nl lour men u^m^ li.md timK. in Ripliin^' ( uttnu ott Ml tnui; U.ililn-tHi_ (,ro(nmg, Gamnu Duloiii,' EdguiK- uj) Toiitin. -tnti ett Full Line \:\n(> or orgn and American Popular .Music for :'. mnntl Address Popular Mnsic Co., Indianapolis, Ind. !/ i (sections with- out insets) WE ARE THE PEOPLE' Who Can Tnrn Out rENCE5 ^^eSators, ANb PLAIN 5EeT10N5 Having special appliances and macbiuery, we can make them right. Nothing in late years has seemed to stir such a furor in the Bee- Keeping World as these new goods. If you don't know about them, send to THE A. L ROOT CO., Medina, Ohio. NEW 1898 CATALOGUE, largely re-written, out by January 15th. PATENTS Quickly secured. OUR FEE DUE WHEN PATENT OBTAINED. Send model, sketch or photo, with description for free report as to patentability. 4S-PA0E HAND-BOOK FREE. Contains references and full information. WRITE FOR COPT OF OUR SPECIAL OFFER. It is the most liberal proposition ever made by a patent attorney, and EVERY INVENTOR SHOULD READ IT before applying for patent. Address : H.B.WILLS0N&CO. PATENT LAWYERS, LeDroltBldg.. WASHINGTON. D. C. M Bee-Keepefs' Reiii Patent Wired Comb Foundation Has no Sag in Brood Frames. Tliin Flat Bottom Foundation Has no Fish-bone in Surplus Honey. Being the cleanest is usually worked the quick- est of any Foundation made. The talk about wir- ing frames seems absurd. We furnish a Wired Foundation that is better, cheaper and not half the trouble to use that it is to wire brood-frainL-;. Circulars and Samples Free. J. VAN DEUSEN &. SONS, Sole Manufacturers, Montgomery County. Sprout Brook, N. Y. PleiA/i' riif'iitinii American Rrr- Keeper. THE AUSTRALIAN BEE BULLETIN. Circulating through all the Australian colonies. New Zealand and Cape of Good Hope. subscription: 5s. per annum in advance; if booked, 6s-iid. Edited, Printed and Published by E. TIPPER, West Maitland, N. S. W. SCALE OF PRICES FOR .A.DVERTISEMENT.S IN A. BEE BULLETIN: Half-page— Per annum, £5; Half-year, £;5: quar- ter, £l-15s. Quarter-page— Per annum, £3; Half-year, £l-l.is; Quarter. £1. One-eighth page— Per annum, £M5s; Half-year, £1; Quarter, 12s. .Single Insertion— 1st in., 3s 6d; succeeding 2.s-6d. E. TIPPER, WEST MAITLAND, N. S. W. We win send the American Bee-Keep- ER one year and a box of garden seeds (price $1.60) for 75c., postpaid. Made substan- tial improve- mentswith the beginiiint; oi tiK-" I'lvsent. vuar. It is printed on heavy, white Imok paper, from large, clear, new tvpe.'and has a cover of heavy cream, paradox paper printed in that warmest of all colors-claret. With each number there Is also a frontispiece of some subject connected with bee-keeping, printed on heavy ivory enameled paper, These pictures are all half-tones made from photographs. That of December showed a comb badly infected with foul brood. January showed eight sections of comb honev, four of them in the old style of sec- tions and four in the plain style. It is an object lesson worth seeing. The one for February shows a beautiful view of an out-apiary in the wilds ot Wisconsin, a really picturesque view. March frontispiece is a scene in a sugar-maple forest in Michigan. So much by the way of mechanical improvements: liut it is more difficult to describe the iiilormation it contains. Perhaps the best that can be saiil is that never before has there been so much pains taken to secure the best ot correspondence— to get the views and experiences ot the very best bee-keepers. The price of the Review is Sl.OO per year, but if vou prefer to know still more about it before sub- iscribing, send ten cents in either stamps or silver, and three late Imt different issues will be sent von These will ijive you a fair idea of the Re- view, and, if von then wish to subscribe, the ten cents that yovi have sent may apply on your sub- scription. A coupon will be sent entitling you to the Review one year for 90 cents if sent in during 1S98. W. Z. HUTCHINSON, Flint, Mich. New Music-Liberal Otter. To introduce our new monthly publica- tion, American Popular MuhIc, we make the following liberal oifer: Send us the names of three or more performers on the piano or organ, and tilteen cents in money or postage, and we will mail you sixteen pages of the latest popular songs, two steps, etc., full sheet music arranged for piano or organ, and American. Popular Blusic for 3 months. Address Popular Music Co., Indianapolis, Ind. CI/UBBING I.IST. We will send the AMERIC.A.N Bee-Keepep with the- PUB. BOTH. American Bee Journal, $1 00 SI 35 Bee-Keepers' Review, 1 00 1 35 Canadian Bee Journal, 1 00 1 35 Gleanings in Bee Culture, 1 00 1 35 Vol. vm. APRIL, J898. No. 4. Spring Management. Written fnr the Ain> rican Jlee- Keeper. BY JOHN NEWTON. HEN asked to give something r on the spring management of '^'i^^ bees I wondered what I would say, for it has been before the public so often, and threshed out until now it is almost threadbare. The spring management of bees should commence in the previous tall. 'Tis true that upon the condition in which our bees go into winter quar- ters, and upon their wintering depends the profit of the next season. They should be strong in numbers, well sup- plied with good stores, and have a young queen. With these conditions, and with reasonable care in wintering, the terrors of spring dwindling are re- moved, and necessary spring manage- ment greatly reduced. The matter of having young queens, I am coming to regard as of the first importance. A queen that is failing at this time means an unprofitable colony during the com- ing season. I have made it a practice in most cases to replace my queens after the second season. Those wintering bees in the cellar or in the bee house will be looking forward with eagerness to the time to bring them from their winter quarters. While this may seem a simple matter, yet 'tis frought with some per- plexities. For instance, shall we return each colony to the stand occupied by it during the previous fall, or place them on the stand that seems the handiest to us as we bring them from the cellar? Yes. we should be sure and mark each stand in the fall and return the stock to the same situation. If not the bees will try and hunt up their old home, and in doing so go into some other hive and be killed. Then, in putting them out, we should put out but part at a time. When should bees be put out? We used to think when the soft maple bloomed it was the time to take out our be-^.s, but the opinion of bee-keepers seen:s to be changing to early setting out: in fact our old friend, J. B. Hall, puta his bees out as soon in March as they can fly. The bees being out, our first care is to see that they are well supplied with stores, as a shortage at this time means a heavy loss in the re- turns of the season. Bees that are wintered out of doors need the same care. This can be done by placing in combs of honey that have been saved over from the previous fall, or from any colonies that have died during the winter, leaving stores unused. Some eminent bee-keepers have said the bees, by their clustering, form a natural hive, and so retain heat. But I think we can aid them by putting in cushions and endeavoring to keep them THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. April as tight as possible at the top. This is all that is to be done until fruit blos- soms appear. During this season, (as I am a clip- per), all queens are clipped. This be- ing the best time, before the hives get full of bees, and no danger of robbers. Bees that have been wintered out of doors should also, at this season, have their winter cases removed. ' The spreading of the brood nest, which is practiced by some, must be done with great precaution, and the novice, as a rule, will be safer to leave it alone to the bees, as I believe they know more about this matter than we do. If spring feeding is at any time profitable, it is between apple blossom and white clover. In conclusion, let me say: Let us disturb our bees as little as possible during the early spring. Thamesford, Ont. Stimulative Feeding-. Wvitti n fill- l/ic American Bee-Keeper, BY ED. JOLLEY. ^jp\ OES it pay to feed in the spring "^I'l ^J to stimulate brood rearing? ^ •''^ This is a question that comes up for consideration nearly every spring. I believe, if it is judiciously done, it will pay in any locality where the honey flow comes as early as the 10th of June. Because, without feeding, very few queens will be laying at their full ca- pacity a month before this time, and if they are not, it means just that much shortage of honey-gatherers. One of the greatest draw-backs to stimulative feeding has been that it is a tedious, troublesome job — one in which the greatest care has to be ex- ercised or it will incite robbing. One that when once commenced, has to be kept up until relieved by honey from natural sources. The easiest and most practical way to stimulate brood rearing that I have ever tried, is by feeding outside the hive in the open air. I lay a few boards on the ground some distance from my hives and feed by pouring the syrup on the boards. Starting at one end of a board I pour as large a stream as will lay on the board without run- ing off at either side, the whole length of the board, and on to the next, and so on until all the feed is used up. When the bees get the boards cleaned up they are apt to go nosing around, and if there are any weak colonies they are apt to try and clean them out. To prevent this I make one of the feeding boards into a shallow trough by means of narrow strips. In this trough I put about half an inch of chaff. After the bees have gotten the syrup off the top of the chaff they will have to work down through it to get what is left. They will root and turn the chaff over and over, and put in hours getting the little bit of honey out of it. It keeps them busy and diverts their attention from the weaker col- onies. To begin with, I generally use about four ounces of syrup, daily, for every colony in the yard, and gradually in- crease until it takes about half a pound for each colony. Of course the weaker colonies will not get as much of this feed as the stronger. They will get a ratio in proportion to the number of their gatherers. But all will be stimu- lated, the stronger building up faster than the weak, will soon nave bees and brood to spare to them, and by the time of the honey flow there will not be a colony in the apiary that is not teeming with bees old enough for the fields. This plan of stimulative feeding originated, I believe, with Mr. R. C. Akin, of Colorado, and was described by him in one of the bee journals (I cannot now recall which one) some two or three years ago. FACING HIVES. Don't be too particular about front- ing hives in any particular direction. Face them whichever way is most con- venient. I have tried facing them in 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. .67 different directions, and I find that hives facing north and west give prac- tically the same results as hives facing south and east. Sometimes it would seem that the bees would start out a little earlier in the morning from the hives facing south or southeast, than from the others. But they never seemed to be any stronger in bees or brood, or gather a larger amount of surplus than those facing any other direction. YACOB VETTERSTKIN. We have in what is known as the Pennsylvania Dutch settlement, an em- bryo bee-keeper, who gives promise of making a name for himself. According to Mrs. Vetterstein, the boy's mother, ■'Shakey has two leddle poxes of pees, und he make honey more as a horse could haul. Shakey," she says, "is a shmart poy und he learns about pees like nottings. Mr. Kohlmeyer, who knows effrydings apout pees, tolt Shakey ef somedimes he dond know nottings apout pees, to come ofer und he vill told id to him." Franklin, Pa. What fond hopes and pleasant an- ticipations are awakened by the first sweet hum of spring, and the arrival of the first golden pellets upon the alight- ing board. — o — Contrary to his preconceived notion of the requirements of a successful wintering hive, long and varied ex- perience with both a deep and shallow frame, J. E. Hand has now decided in favor of a frame only 4^^ inches deep. His story is related in Gleanings. — o — In the matter of mammoth honey tanks, for which California has always been noted, she is completely outdoing hei'self this year. We learn by Glean- ings that R. Wilkin is storing fourteen tons of honey in a fire-proof, concrete reservoir, awaiting a satisfactory mar- ket. Mr. John Newton. Written for Tlie American Bee- Keeper, BY H. E. HILL. P2l£2 ^rryHE suDject of this brief sketch. Jj^ of whom mention was made in ^' our last issue, as one of Canada's rising young apiarists, was born and reared in the town of Woodstock, On- tario, thirteen miles from Thamesford, his present home. Mr. Newton is in his 31st year, and begun his bee-keeping career in 1882 JOHX NEWTON. by engaging with Mr. J. B. Hall as as- sistant in the widely-known "Wood- stock Apiary" — a view of which is also herewith presented — and his success has been no less marked than that of Martin Emigh and Jacob Alpaugh, prominent Canadian bee-keepers of to- day, who graduated from the same honored school. Mr. Newton continued during the sea- sons of 1883, '84 and '85 to assist Mr. Hall in his apiary work, and during this protracted term of tuition under "the chieftain," an appellation by which THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. Apri Mr. Hall is known among our bee- keeping cousins over the border, and by virtue of his recognized leadership, and authority in matters apicultural, abundantly merited; John became a pro- ficient bee-master. Subsequently, how- ever, his bee-keeping knowledge was materially diversified by spending one season each with several other leading him for government experimentalist ir charge of the apiarian branch of th( Dominion experimental farm at Ot- tawa. In our picture Mr. Newton is seen ai the left with smoker in hand. Seatec upon a hive at the right is Mr. Har with the record slate making notes ol the conditions found in the hive being Si ■i Mi m ^m mm m gll Wm ?j :1 ^^ ^^^ ^^ m ^^m fe i p R ""'%- ^J ■^ » a i^ -Tl?" m ■■'■"■ ■ 14, ■«i lii K^ ^Ih #^ %■ ' % 'm H ^ l^s n :m.i ■H ft '••■ K-^:-'-:^.^ ■ m ■1 WOODSTOCK APIARY. lights of the province, before estab- lishing his present apiary of about 100 colonies at Thamesford. It would seem by reason of his ver- satile genius, Mr. Newton possesses to an unusual degree the qualifications es- sential to the successful persuit of his chosen vocation in all its various branches. In competing with other ex- hibitors at Canadian fairs, he is ac- credited by the Canadian Bee Journal with having been very successful. At the Columbian exposition in Chicago, in 1893, he was awarded a medal and diploma. He has achieved considerable prominence as a manufacturer of foun- dation. He is an ever-active figure in local association work, and at present holds oflfice as president of the Oxford Bee-Keepers' Association, and at the last meeting of the Ontario Bee-Keep- ers' Association at Hamilton, additional manipulated under his instruction by your most humble servant, the writer; who embraced the valued opportunity to spend the season of 1885 in the Woodstock apiary, at which time the picture was taken and my acquaintance with Mr. Newton, which has developed into steadfast friendship, begun. Mr. Newton was married in June, 1895, to Miss Fannie Ellis, of St. Da- vids, Ont., and a bright little boy, now in his second year, is the joy and pride of the Newton household. The first soft maple bloom for 1898 in this locality, opened March 11th. — o — The Review says a German text book for bee-keepers has been Vi^^ritten by a Mr. Eggers. of Nebraska. The manuscript for still another in the same language by a South Dakota bee- honor was conferred by nominating keeper, is on the market. 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. Notes on Apiary Work. Written for the American Bee- Keeper. BY S. M. KEELEE. SOURING a good honey season we are liable to have some late or after swarms issue, when we would much prefer to have them re- main together in one good strong col- ony. But out they will come, making old and young too small to be of much use. 1 have adopted a plan of getting them back so they will stay. This may not be new to some. When hived right back they will not stay there. So I hive them in a temporary box, and the next day, (on the second morning is my choice), run them back. They have then become established as a s.warm, and commenced comb-building, so when put back they will take full possession, destroying all queen cells, and are ready for business. I aim to catch all the young undipped queens at the entrance when the swarm comes out the same as I do the clipped queens. Then I can, if I have hives that need more bees, divide these new swarms and use a portion, or all of them, if need be, to strengthen other swarms, and run those that are left from the box back in their old homo with the queen. Now, if I fail to catch the queen when the swarm comes out, I emptj; the bees a little back from the en- trance, and as they commence march- ing in, the queen is very soon seen walking right over the top of the mass of moving bees; then I cage her and keep her caged until the swarm is dis- posed of. In the January number of theAmeri can Bee-Keeper, Ed. Jolley has ap- parently given us something well worth knowing. From his experi- ments in wintering bees, showing earls honey to be the proper stores for bees in the cellar, and late fall honey for bees wintered on their summer stands. For some years I have had buckwheat honey for winter stores for my bees. I always winter them on their summer stands, and they invariably go through with little or no loss. Several years ago I sustained a heavy winter loss, and if my memory serves me right, they had early or clover honey for that winter. I contract the brood-nest for the early honey, and enlarge it for the buckwheat flow, so the bees can fill it up for winter in their own good way. I have never had to feed in the fall for winter stores. Now, lest some readers should class buckwheat honey with this late fall honey which Mr. Jolley describes as a "dark, strong and inferior quality of honey," I feel disposed to come to the rescue. Allowing that buckwheat honey maj^ possess the requisite heating quality for winter stores, I consider it, for table use, in ferior to none. And very many people prefer it to basswood honey. Buck- wheat bloom comes in August, and other fall flowers later. * * * To get bees started in the supers at the commencement of the honey flow, I bait with unflnished sections, first leveling them nearly down to the foun- dation by scratching the cells ofi with my fingers. I can thus do it very ex- peditiously, without the use of ma- chinery. * * * Steam, to moisten sections when folding them, Fuits me better than water. I have folded over 1000 sec- tions this winter without breaking one. It takes but little steam, and is easy to do. The water does not need to boil, but should be hot enough so the hot moist vapor will rise from it. I use a pan on the stove for the hot water, and lay the sections across the top of the pan with groves up, so as to moisten the outside. While I am fold- ing one, the next will be ready, and so on. as fast as I can handle them. Hf * * The February number of A. B. K. has just come to hand, bringing the 70 THE A3IEBICAN BEE-KEEPER. April surprise of a new editor in charge. It looks well throughout, so I think we had better accept it as all right. I wish the new editor great success. Chenango Bridge, N. Y. Bee-keeping in Old Mexico. Written for the American Bee- Keeper. BY F. BUSSLER. 'ERE in Orizaba, having everlast [(©If ing spring, the mountains which '^^'^ surround us are filled with black bees, and modern methods are laughed at by the natives. Any kind of old boxes are used as hives, and one can hardly find a bee-keeper who knows anything of the interior life of a hive. On the plateaus, where the climate is, of course, very different from ours here in the valley, are found accumula- tions of from 200 to 300 colonies — you would not call them apiaries — which are handled mostly by Indians. Mexi- cans say that honey is no good for eat- ing, it is too irritating, and they have the bees only for the wax, which is worth from $1.00 to $1.50 a pound. In the terra caliente (hot lands) one only finds twenty to thirty hives at a time, and these are dwindling away. Of course they talk many superstitious things about bees and their dying off, but I know it is only on account of their carelessness and bee moths. I am sure that Mexico could produce twice the amount of honey that could be produced in the United States. Some three years ago I saw some bees near here and at once took the "bee fever." I had never kept bees be- fore, being by profession a German gardener, though I am now one of the leading bee-keepers of this section. I have changed the Langstroth hive more to my liking by making the frames shorter and by putting them in crosswise, and am now working hard to have it adopted as a standard here. I made the first public display of bees and hives ever shown here, at a recent exposition, and took as first prize$100 in cash. I am now keeping the Mexi- cans awake by writing little articles for El Progresso de Mexico , on bee- keeping. I mostly translate American articles and change them to suit the minds of the readers, just I did the hive, and am also translating an Am- erican bee-book into Spanish. It is only in the most favorable seas- ons that bee-keeping pays in this lo- cality. Colonia Mantey, Orizaba, Mexico. The Farmer and the Market. Written for the American Bee-Keeper. BY M. W. SHEPHERD. HAT an awful pity it is that the scalawag farmer is so heedless ^"^ of the rules of propriety as to be continually knocking down the price of honey by putting his product of the "busy bee" on the market so in- ferior in quality and condition. Of course if some great manufacturers of supplies buy honey by the car-load and dump it on the retail market for less money than the small producer can af- ford to sell for, that might be called philanthropy by some, but the farmer and others who may hare a few hun- dred pounds to sell, look at it in an altogether different light. The farmer goes to town with some pure extracted clover honey, and offers it for sale for eight cents per pound; and the grocer says, "why, look here, I just bought a dozen cans of choice alfalfa honey that came clear from Colorado, (Nevada, California or some other far-away country), and I will sell you, my rustic friend, all your old mare can haul home for six and one-half cents per pound." Clodhopper scratches his head, where hayseed is thickest, and says, "gee whiz! who demoralized this honey market, I wonder?" The farmer don't scrape the sections. Now that is certainly awful. But I peep into a commission house, and say: Who sent this honey? They tell me, "Mr. So and So; is that not mighty fine?" But I see the sections are not scraped, and I say some farmer bee- 1S98. THE A3tEEICAN BEE-KEEPER. 71 keeper sent it in, I presume. "Oh no," is the reply, "it is a man with a hun- dred or more colonies." Then I get to thinking, and I wonder why the farm- ers will demoralize the market by sell- ing honey in unscraped section boxes. Now brethren, "be ye not weary in well doing." If you have a ton of honey to sell and you don't get what you think you ought to have for it, look around and see if you can't find a farmer to blame for it. Don't stop and think that if the great producers will only sell good honey and ask a good price, it will come all right. And above all things, don't say the glucose man has cut prices on honey. Lay it to the farmer. What business has he to be a farmer, anyhow? Mannville, Fla. ITEMJ or IMTERE5T. It is now suggested that the next meeting of the U. S. B. K. U. be held at Omaha during the Trans-Mississippi exposition. If pollen from natural sources is not available in early spring, whole-wheat or rye flour placed in open vessels in the apiary, will be found a good sub- stitute. — o — The bee-keepers' supply factory of the Goold, Shapley & Muir Co., of Brantford, Ont., was damaged to the extent of $20,000 by fire on the 3rd ult. Insurance, $19,000. — o — A gloomy prospect for the season of '98 now confronts the honey producers of California. The necessary rainfall failed to come this year, as we learn by letter from our old friend A. A. S^oett- ing, of El Casco, one of California's substantial bee-keepers. A nice photo- graphic view of one of Mr. Goetting's apiaries also arrived this week, for which he has our thanks. We will show it to our readers as soon as space will permit. Bees, small fruits and poultry keep- ing, make a good combination, and with good management will make a ni-'e living. One advantage is that on- ly a small acreage will be necessary. — Ex. — o — E. T. Flanagan, the veteran migra- tory specialist of the Mississippi valley, is at it again. This time Mr. F. has gone with 300 colonies nearly to the Rio Grande, in Southern Texas, a move of about 1,400 miles from his Southern Illinois home. — o — That the bee-keeper who is endowed by nature with the requisites for a good salesman, should quit the producing business and go into dealing in honey, is the gist of several good paragraphs on the marketing question by F. Grei- ner in Gleanings. — o — The report of the Ontario experi- mental apiary for 1897 strengthens the position of those who advocate early setting out in the spring; showing, as it does, that the earlier activity stimu- lated by sunshine, results in a corre- sponding increase of brood. The idea of having a %-inch space between the bottom bar and the bottom board, thus compelling the bees to crawl up the sides of the hive with their load of honey, is a measure recommended in poetic language by the Farmers' Voice, to secure well- filled outside sections. — o — Dr. Miller detects a vein of inconsist- ency in our awarding the single-colony championship to the "flowery penin- sula." in the face of the greater yield reported from the "lone star," as stated in the February Bee-Keeper. One is authentic, plausible and accepted. The other is said by our esteemed contem- porary, through which we are criti- cised, speaking upon authority of those in a position to know, to be overdrawn, "padded." See? THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 1 in B[['K[n. 1>UBLISHEI> JIONTHLV BY THE W. T. FALCONER MANFG CO. ii. e:. -i^Ti-j^, - - - Eiditor. Terms : Fifty cents a year in advance; 2 copies, 85 cents; 3 copies, $1.20; all to be sent to one postoffice. Postage prepaid in the U. S. and Canada; 10 cents extra to all countries in the postal union, and 20 cents extra to all other countries. Advertising Rates: Fifteen cents per line, 9 words; $2.00 per inch. 5 per cent, discount for 2 insertions; 7 per cent, for 3 insertions; 10 per cent, for 6 insertions; 20 per cent, for 12 insertions. Advertisements must be received on or before the 20th of each month to insure insertion in the month following. Address THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER, Falconer, N. Y. 4®=-Subscribers finding this paragraph marked with a blue cross will know that their subscrip- tion expires with this number. We hope that you will not delay in sending a renewal. 4®"A Red Cross on this paragraph indicates that you owe for your subscription. Please give the matter your attention. EDITORIAL. With due appreciation and gratitude we note ttie numerous well-wishes and kindly criticisms of our readers and brother editors that have come to our table. "The New York State Association of Bee-Keepers' Societies," organized at Geneva, N. Y., March 16, is the latest development in co-operative work among honey producers. A copy of the new association's constitution, from Secretary Harry S. Howe, reaches us just as we go to press. A nice article of maple sugar put on the market this year by a Vermont company, has upon the wrapper of each one-pound cake, an extract from the Vermont state laws, approved Nov. 13, 1890, regarding the increase of pen- alty for the adulteration of maple sugar and "bees' honey," and the purity of their goods is guaranteed un- der forfeiture of $1,000. Such measures beget public interest in pure food, and many shippers of extracted honey would profit by emulating the example. April POSITION OF COMBS IN MOVING. A label upon which is printed a hand having the index finger extended, and the words, "load with the finger point- ing to the bow, locomotive or horse," has long been used in shipping pack- ages containing combs of honey. The shipper, of course, places this sticker on the hive, shipping case, or whatever the article may be, with the finger run- ning parallel with the combs. In criti- cising this feature of the sticker, which gives also other instructions for hand- ling, Dr. Miller, in Gleanings, remarks: "The finger ought to point to bow or locomotive, but hardly to horse, unless the horse walks besides wagon." The majority of country roads will, doubt- less, justify the doctor's premises; which, however, will not stand, accord- ing to our experience, if the moving is to be done over several miles of well- worn corduroy. Why "it ought to point to bow," we do not know, either. In sea-going ships it can make no difference as to the position of the combs; owing to the variaole, easy motion of such great weight upon the waves. With smaller craft, though injury to combs by any motion ot the boat is highly improb- able at any time, it would be impossi- ble to fix any stated rule for loading that would render the chances for safety any greater, in a general way. A short sail boat with good beam, run- ning under close-haul, or on the wind, would carry combs easier if stowed fore-and-aft. In loading a steam, or other small motor boat, however, hav- ing less bearings, under the same con- ditions of weather, the reverse pos- ition should be adopted in loading. The innumerable models and rigs, varying weather and peculiarities of navigable waters, as well as the differ- ent methods of handling by each cap- tain, are all factors which render such a rule entirely worthless. If brevity is desirable, strike out the nautical com- mand. Aren't we right, ex-Tar Leahy? THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 73 • NO-WALL FOUNDATION. A machine to manufacture founda- ion, having no sidewall at all, has been irought out by the Michigan State Bee- keepers' association, ana a number of he members have given the product iractical tests with gratifying results, "oundation running sixteen square feet 0 the pound is said to hold its position a tlTe section. By its use the "gobby" hewing quality oi melted wax, found 1 comb honey produced on heavier oundation, is removed, giving practi- ally a comb of natural delicacy, being eadily accepted and entirely worked ver by the bees. We have never been ble to produce an uniformly straight Dt of combs on very light foundation. Jspecially during a light flow of honey, hen the work of drawing out the side- ^alls would progress more rapidly on ne side than upon the other, the ten- ency of the septum to warp and curl way from the deepest cells, was very bjectionable. It is possible that the ddition of new^ wax, in w^orking the ew no-wall foundation, instead of binning and drawing out the wax con- ained in the ordinary style, may ob- late this objection to the use of very ight sheets. The extent of the advantage to be ■ined through the use of such extra hin foundation must necessarily be de- ermined by at least an approximate olution of the honey cost of wax se- retion. The new product is the invention of . F. Bingham, of smoker fame. EDUCATING THE DEALER. One of the neglected duties of the loney producer is that of instructing he dealer in the care of their products, tore-keepers, as a rule, are as slow to cquire a general knowledge of honey nd proper methods of handling it, as re the public to recognize its merits s an article of diet and its medicinal ises. Indeed, both conditions are ioubtless to some extent the result of his neglect; a matter worthy of more than a passing thought by those w^hose livelihood depends upon the sale of honey, and is of proportionate moment to those with whom bee-keeping is but an avocation from which they ex- pect profitable returns. Upon every shipping case sent out should be pasted printed instructions, full and explicit, for the care of comb honey; with an explanation of the re- sults that will surely follow any viola- tion of the specified rules. This duty is imperative until such times, at least, as the average dealer shall have learned that comb honey and cabbage require different methods of treatment in handling, to insure success in both A single day's experience during the past winter will serve to illustrate the prevalent ignorance of dealers regard- ing honey. We chanced to step into a well-stocked grocery in a Pennsylvania town. It was very cold, and directly in front of the door, at the farthest possible point from the stove, stood a large glass case in which were nicely displayed probably 200 sections of honey. The prominence of this display was a souce of great interest, and soon became the subject of conversation, af- fording the opportunity to compliment the dealer on his evident good taste, etc. That ashen pallor, indicating gran- ulation, was showing itself upon the cappings of many sections. "Yes, that's the greatest trouble in handling honey," remarked the urbane mer- chant, "it will candy; and you see I keep it in the coldest place in the house, too." In all his years of hand- ling honey he had never before heard that it should be stored in a warm, dry place. The information was received graciously and with evident gratitude. Passing down the street about two blocks, the most novel display of honey we have ever seen, loomed up in front of a grocer's shop. a pyramid of 31/^x5x11/^ No. 1 sections graced the street display upon the sidewalk. Freezing like Klondike, and comb 74 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. April honey turned out of doors! We learned that the proprietor had been handling honey for about sixteen years, and he "always thought the colder the better for honey." He thanked us kindly for the suggestions we made free to offer regarding the care of honey, and promptly pulled in the display. Calling upon still another groceryman we noticed upon the shelves a number of one-pound tin cans, upon which in red letters the word "honey" was very prominent. A closer inspection showed the label to read, "Blossom Brand, Pure California Honey." "Pure California honey, eh?" was our spon- taneous query. "Well, that's what I bought it for, but I opened a can to show to a cus- tomer some time ago, and it had all turned back to sugar, so I haven't rec- ommended it since then," was the re- ply. Now, all this dealer "pretended to ask" for the questionable mixture was twenty cents a pound, so we bought one of the little cans and sampled the contents on the spot; and a more per- fectly delicious sample of pure black sage honey we never tasted. Upon re- moving the cover the aroma itself brought to mind craggy mountain slopes clad with clumps of greasewood and sage brush, and of bygone days of lonely bachelorhood in remote cannon apiaries of the "Sunset State." Yet, by no possible elasticity or distortion of conscience, could this provision ven- der feel to recommend it to his trade. It really seems to us that this neglect of producers has been one great bar- rier in the way of progress in the de- velopment of the market. A small tent made of muslin or other light material, that may be handled conveniently, is an essential part of the apiary equipment. Though its uses are numerous, it will be found particularly servicable to set over the hive being manipulated when robbers are trouble- some. KEEPING A RECORD. Just now as we are entering upon an- other season of active apiary work, seems a fitting time to indulge our in- clination to say a few words regarding colony records. That our idea of the impcrtance of some efficient system of recording notes in the apiary is not commonly shared by bee-keepers, is shown by its entire absence in many bee-yards, and, indeed, some such yards have every ap- pearance of being well cared for; yet, with us, owing to our early training, perhaps, such satisfactory results from this memory, or guess-work manner of doing business, could not be even hoped for. The use of books is open to the ob- jections of being soiled by propolis and honey in handling, as well as the ease with which they are blown away by every breeze, when exposed. The ma- nilla register serves only to indicate the stage of progress in the development of the queen at the time of the last visit, and is in no sense acolony record. Sticks, stones, sand piles, tomato cans, etc., placed upon the hives is a popular method in mountain apiaries of Cali- fornia, which has been adopted in a modified form by substituting oyster and clam shells in many sea-board apiaries of the east. The various pos- itions of the entrance blocks, and many other imperfect methods, might be mentioned, which would impart to the reader nothing of practical value. Perhaps the most efficient method in general use is a small slate, about IV2X2 inches, though its very limited capacity for notes to a large degree de- feats the purpose for which it is de- signed. The system employed in the Wood- stock apiary, shown in this number of The Bee-Keeper, is to have a framed slate about 4x6 inches attached by straps to the back of each hive. Each queen has a slate, and that slate fol- lows her through life, with a note of every event, feature and peculiarity 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 75 connected with her history. It some- times occurs that one slate will contain a record of two or three generations, which Is made possible by the use of abbreviations and signs requiring but little space. We have made use of this system for a number of years, and have doubtless varied the original style of abbreviat- ing, which we there learned, so that it would not be recognized by Mr. Hall; yet the following contractions, etc., of a few imaginary notes convey a mean- ing as clearly as though written in full, and will serve to illustrate the idea. Though each bee-keeper may make de- ductions, additions and general changes to suit his individual bee-vo- cabulary: Jones A 1 Box. '96 96 I Jun. 15 Sdr|'2rPgmvdT23 els dsd S V | 30 egs Jy 10 clpd I 15 on U S I Ang 20 OlTl SepF24 off US, out 3 frs H, OK | Nov 10 pkd, OK ] 97 Apr 4 Bs on 5, H I 22 bd in 4, Con to 6, DN | May 24 gv 2 MT cl)s, SQ | Jun 8 OK | 16 on Supl 24 do | Jy 4 Sup on tp I 10 put tp Sup below | 24 off 2 comp Al I 28 oft- Sup comp I 30 out 1 ft H do 2 frs bd&Bs, in 3 MT cbs | Oct 10 OK | _______^^ The squares at the top are for gen- eral notes. Particularly such as one might desire to consult hurriedly, and having no direct reference to the work; though it is to some extent an epitome of that which follows. Thus: The original stock is designated by "Jones." Comb honey qualities A.l. Clipped queen hatched June 1896. In "plain English" the following notes are: Swarmed June 15th, 1896. June 21st piping. Removed. June 23rd cells destroyed, saw virgin queen. June 30 eggs. July 10th clipped the queen. July 15th on upper story. August 20th everything is "all right." September 24th took off the upper story, and also took out three frames of honey. No- vember 10th packed for winter. April 4th, 1897, bees on five combs, and they have plenty of honey. April 22nd, they have brood in four combs, we con- tracted them to six combs but did not see the queen. May 24th, we gave them two empty combs and saw the queen. June 8th, "all right." June 16th, we gave them a super. June 24th, gave another super. July 4th, placed an- other super on top. July 10th, we put the top super below. July 24th, we took off two completed supers of fancy honey. July 28th, took off another complete. July 30th, we took out one frame of honey and two frames of brood and bees, and replaced them with three empty combs. Oct. 10th, "All right," again. This is not given as an example of proper management, but to illustrate our method of keeping a record. COMB BUILDING IN THE OPEN AIK E. T. Flanagan tells in the Progress- ive Bee-Keeper of seeing a colony of bees established in the open air, near New Orleans. They had nine combs suspended from the limbs of a mag- nolia tree, and had been doing business there about five months. In tropical countries it is not very unusual to see colonies thus exposed to the weather, and even as far north as Pennsylvania a similar instance has come within our experience. In September, '96, being regarded as the "bee man" of the town, our ser- vices were earnestly solicited to hive a swarm which a resident said had "come to him." Upon investigation we were surprised to find that the swarm had been several weeks hanging in the dense top of a maple shade tree, and had several large combs. Though they had lost their queen, probably in mating, they were holding the fort with laying workers and about three pounds of bees. It was rather an awkward task, yet to please our newly acquired and deeply interested friend, they were put into a hive, and more bees, queen and honey secured to put them in condition for the winter. The result is, we have another bee-keeper in town, and he has at present quite a nice little apiary. Some years ago, while engaged in buying odd colonies and small apiaries of the natives on the south coast of 76 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. April Cuba, we remember being very much interested in one of these fi"esh air colonies. In that country bees are liept •in hollow palm logs, not as they are sometimes used in the states, in an up- right position, but are left entirely open at both ends, and lay horizontally, like a fallen tree. This colony, which attracted our at- tention in particular, had extended its combs beyond the end of their crude, native hive, into a clump of shrub- bery, fully two feet from the log. It was in January, and the vines of the honey-yielding campanula were en- twined in every direction through the snow-white combs of glistening honey, and their beautiful bell-shaped flowers, resembling a small, white morning- glory, hung in such profusion about the cluster of busy workers that they would often impede their flight, and the sudden jarring of the tiny floral bell by coming in contact with a homeward- bound worker, would startle another gatherer that was deeply interested in sipping the nectar within. Another illustration of the bee's marvelous instinct was also presented in this instance. The field force were on duty and the shady spots and side of the combs were left almost without a guard; large slabs of virgin comb, weighted with unsealed honey were ex- posed to plain view, yet a ray of sun- shine was not permitted to fall upon it. Solid clusters of the black Castilians would glisten at every point where the sun was in range. If by any means this protection had been removed, these combs would not have withstood the force of that tropi- cal sun for ten minutes. Mr. Doolittle's writings show con- clusively that he is not "carried away" with the plain section, as some others of the fraternity seem to be. A four- piece nailed section is still used in his apiary; yet we do not know of another man in the United States who makes a small apiary pay as big as does Mr. D. E. R. Root inclines to the belief that the reported cures of foul brood by the use of salicylic acid, were cases where genuine foul brood did not ex- ist: but instead, another disease of very similar appearance known as "pickled brood," which though des- tructive lacks the malignant quality of foul brood, and will in time disappear of its own accord. We have had a very limited experience with both of these maladies, and think there is much to confirm Mr. Root's conclusion. The present primitive methods of mari«-eting honey, to which we have frequently referred; and which Mr. Theilmann fays are the same as those of fifty or one hundred years ago, it would seem prevail universally. Hear Wm. McNally, in the British Bee- Keepers' Record: "As years roll on, and I get older in the bee business, the more I become convinced that the honey trade of this country (the Brit- ish Isles) would become of more nat- ional importance if carried through on business lines, more especially as to selling the crop. There is such an un- business-like method of dealing with, and want of uniformity in disposing of the article that nothing short of co- operation amongst bee-keepers can put the trade on a sound basis." As a result of the food congress held at Washington Mar. 2. a national pure food law is pretty well assured. Eugene Secor and E. T. Abbott, appointed as delegates from the United States Bee- Keepers' Union, were placed on all the important committees, and bee-keeping received full recognition. Mr. Abbott, in a letter to Gleanings, says: "We got all we asked for, and I do not think the industry was ever before so thor- oughly identified with other industries of the community." That's the idea, exactly. It takes- a national organi- sation to grapple successfully with national questions. Let us foster, en- courage and support the U. S. B. K. U. 1898. THE A3IERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 77 Mr. Doolittle estimates that if one- fourth of the bee-keepers of America were to adopt the plain section, the necessary change in supers, separators, etc., would involve an expense of $1,- 000,000. Editor Root off-sets this with the claim that if a like proportion were to use but 5,000 plain sections each at a reduction of twenty-five cents per 1,000 that a saving of $1,200,000 would re- sult. By a recent letter from Fred L. Cray- craft, of Havana, Cuba, we learn that amid the rumblings of war he is still extending his business there by estab- lishing out apiaries; and that he will extract from over 1,000 colonies next season. P^red L. is one of the American boys who have made a success of bee- keeping, and he knows by years of ex- perience in Cuba just what her capa- bilities are in the line of honey pro- duction. Readers of The American Bee-Keeper will hear more of Mr. Craycraft in the future. Can Insects Talk? JrT7HIS may, indeed, seem a strange ^-^ py question to those who would lim- ^^^ it the meaning of the word to the capability of expressing ideas by means of articulate sounds, nevertheless, a little reflection will convince anyone who is conversant with the habits of these creatures that, though they may have no tongues, they can expiess themselves in some way or other "with most miraculous organ." Various experiments might be quoted in proof of this. Let us, however, select one or two which seem to leave no room for dispute about the matter. Any one who finds himself in the vicinity of an ant's nest may soon be convinced that these industrious little laborers are by no means destitute of the power of communicating information to each other relative to the affairs of theii commonwealth. Let him, for example, place a heap of food in the vicinity of the ant hill and watch the proceedings of its inmates. A short time will probably elapse be- fore the discovery of the treasure, but at length some wanderer, in his morn- ing's ramble, has the good fortune to stumble upon it. What does he do? He does not, like an isolated individual, incapable of asking for assistance, be- gin at once the task of removing the heap, but, on the contrary, off he scam- pers with the glad intelligence, and, running his head against that of every ant he meets, manages in some mys- terious way, not only to intimate the fact of the discovery, but also to give information relative to the locality where the provisions may be found, for speedily it will be seen that troops of porters, summoned at the call of the first finder, hasten to the spot, and all is activity and bustle until the store is safely warehoused in the ant hill. Another still more striking instance of the possession of a capability of spreading intelligence, and that of a somewhat obsy-use character, is fur- nished by experiments that have been made by Huber and others upon bees. Every one is aware that the queen bee is an object of the greatest solicitude to all the workers of the hive, and yet among so many thousands, all busily employed in different and distant parts of the colony, it would appear impossi- ble for them to ascertain, at least be- fore the lapse of a considerable time, whether she was absent from among them or not. In order to see whether bees had any power of conveying news of this kind, the queen bee has been stealthi,y and quietly abstracted from the hive, but here, as elsewhere, ill news was found to fly apace. For some half hour or so the loss seemed not to have been ascertained, but the progressively in- creasing buzz of agitation an- nounced the growing alarm, until short- ly the whole hive was in an uproar, and all its busy occupants were seen pouring forth their legions in search of their lost monarch, or eager to 78 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. Apri. avenge with their stings the insult of- fered to their sovereign. On restoring the captured queen to her subjects with equal secrecy the tumult speedily sub- sided, and the ordinary business of the community was resumed as before the occurrence. — Exchange. "Food V^alue of Honey," is the title of a neat little folder of fourteen pages compiled by Dr. C. C. Miller; published by the A. I. Root Co. As an educator, bee-keepers should use it liberally to build up local trade. There is no doubt as to its doing the work, if it were only given the circulation. We will furnish them, with your name and address neatly printed on each, as a premium for getting new subscribers for The American Bee-Keeper. During the recent rush of business in the supply trade, which necessitates running our factory to a late hour each night to keep up with orders, numerous inquiries are also coming in for queens and bees. As we do not deal in these, we can only refer our inquiring friends to the advertising columns of our journal. Queen breeders and others should keep in mind the significant combination; first, the wise words of Kate B. Griswold: "Advertising is a honey-comb, which holds in it the sweets of business success," and sec- ondly, the wide circulation of The Bee- Keeper throughout the eastern states. Now is the time to advertise queens and bees. The publishers of The American Bee- Keeper, the W. T. Falconer Mfg. Co., Jamestown, N. Y., are among the largest manufacturers of bee-keepers' supplies in the world, and they make almost everything used in the pursuit such as Hives, Sections, Extractors, Smokers, etc. The workmanship is al- ways of superior merit and quality of material unsurpassed, in fact, seldom equalled. Their customers hail from every country where bees are kept by scientific methods, and they are just now enjoying not only a very large home trade, but have on hand several large foreign orders. The W. T. Fal- coner Mfg. Co. have been doing busi- ness for many years and have built up their large business by treating their customers fairly and in a business-like manner, so that each customer is satis- fied and returns to them again when in want of anything in their line. If you have not received one of their large illustrated catalogs and price lists for this year, send your name to them on a postal card. — Their prices will be found to be right. Free to Our Readers. Our readers will be pleased to learn that the great discovery Dr. Kilmer's Swamp- Koot has been so universally successful in quickly curing all forms kidney and bladder troubles, that those who wish to Prove for themselves its wonderful merit may have a sample bottle and a book of valuable in- formation both sent absolutely free by mail. Nothiue could be more fair or generous than this liberal offer, and we advise our readers to write mentioning The American Bee- Keeper and seud their address to Dr. Kilmer & Co., Biughamton, N. Y. Swamp-Koot is the discovery of a great physician and , scientist and as such is not recommended for everytbing, but will be found by men and women just what is needed in cases of kidney and bladder disorders — or troubles arising from weak kidneys, such as gravel, rheumatism, pain or dull ache in the back, too frequent desire to pass water, scanty supply, smarting or burning in passing it. Swamp- Root stands the highest for its won- derful cures. The regular sizes are sold by druggists, price fifty cents and one aollar. nn HONl^Y EXTRACTOR PERFECTION COLD -BLAST SMOKERS, Square Glass Honey Jars, Etc. For Circulars, ajiply to CHAS. r. MUTH & SON, (or. Freemani C'entrnl Avr.iines, Cincinnati, O. Send 10c. for Practical Hints to Bee-Keepers. We are also dealers in Honey and Beeswax. Please mention American Bee-Keeper. 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. HONEY AND BEESWAX MARKET REPORT. Below we give the latest and most authentic repiirt of the Honey and Beeswax market in dif- ferent trade centers: Boston, Mass., Feb. 22, 1S98.— Fair demand for honey. Ample supply. Extracted 5 to 6c per lb. (iood demand for beeswax. No supply. Prices 2.SC. for pure stock. Price of comb honey, fancy white, in cartons, A No. 1 white 13c. No. 1 white 10 to lie. No. 2, 8 to 9c. per lb. Blake, Scott & Lee, .57 Chatham Street. CrNCiNNATi, O., Mar. 21, 18>>8.— The demand for e.xtracted honey is fair, with short supply. Price, 4 to (ie. Slow demand for comb 10 to 13e. Good demand for beeswax with a fair supply. Prices, 2(.ito Lioc. for good to choice yellow. Chas.'F. Muth & Son, Cor. Freeman and Central aves. Detroit, Mich.. Mar. 22, 1898.— Slow demand for honey, with good supply of lower grades. Price of light comb, 9 to Uc; dark. 7 to 9c. Good de- maiid for beeswax, with light supply. Prices 26 to 27c per lb. The better grades ot honey will be nearly all used up in a short time, but there will be considerable undesirable goods carried over. M. H. Hunt, Bell Branch, Mich. Kansas City, Mo., Mar. 21, 1898.— Light demand for honey. Good supply. Price of comb, 8 to luc. per lb. Extracted, i% "to bKc. per lb. Good de- mand for beeswax, w^iih light supply, at 22 to 25c. per lb. Uamblin & Bearss, 514 Walnut Street. We have for sale a j Cleveland, i 1897, •2() I inch fraiiie, Gent's Wheel, cost |100; a I Hoffman Ladies and Gents' Tandem, ls!)7, cost !f)150, and a Dayton Ladies' Wheel, 1897, cost $10o, all in tine condi- j tion. None ever run over aOO miles; look | like new. We will .sell the choice for $40 cash, and guarantee the wheels to he first class in every way. Address The American Bee-Keeper, Falconer, N. Y. We are Headquarters for the ALBINO BEES, the best in the world. If you are looking for the bee that will gather the most honey and the gentlest of all bees in handling, buy the Albino. I also furnish the Italian, but orders stand 50 per cent, in favor of the Albino. I manufacture and furnish supplies. Address 4-2 S. VALENTINE, Hagerstown, Md. BEES ^ IN APRIL AND MAY. QUEENS Prices Below All. Bred for business. One untested Queen, April or May (for a trial) , 35c. Price list of Queens, Nuclei and Bees by the pound, free. Address J. B. ALEXANDER, Box 768. o_3 Hartford City, Ind. For fruitful results, plant your ad- vertisement in The American Bee Keeper. ;We ^WHEELS, Too! MILLER R0DE0NE2093 MILES IN 132 HOURS The Eldredge ^so.oo The Belvidere Superior to all others irrespective of price. Catalogue tells you 1 1 why. Write for one. 5 NATIONAL SEWING MACHINE CO 339 BROADWAY, New York. 80 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. Apj m ': 1 Addre to Bee-Keepers Only ! HANDSOME CATALOGUE FOR IgQS. Address HUDSON, WIS. INCUBATORS The OLENTANGY Inoubat. asproved tobe thebest. Ha' taken prize after prize. Brooi era only 85-00. Before buyir ^ elsewhere, send for free d scription and testimonial Also breeder of 40 varieties i high-claes poultry. 110 yard .Y ■ 110 houses. Address ^Ui9 G- The only Bee Paper in the United States edited exclusively in the in- terest of the farmer bee-keeper and the beginner is The Busy Bee, published by EMERSON T. ABBOTT, St. Joseph, Mo. Write for free sample copy now. SBND MB A I..a' n*. .;<>... Made substan" tial improve" mentswith the beginning ottlR"lnx'8eiit year. It is printed on heavy, white book paper, from large, clear, new type, and has a cover of heavy cream, paradox paper printed in that warmest of all colors-Claret. With each number there is also a frontispiece of some subject connected with bee-keeping, printed on heavy ivory enameled pajier, These pictures are all h'alf-tones made from photographs. That of December show 3d a comb badly infected with foul brood. January showed eight sections of comb honey, four of them in the old style of sec- tions and four in the plain style. It is an object lesson worth seeing. The one'for February shows a beautiful view of an out-apiary in the wilds of Wisconsin, a really picturesque view. March frontispiece is a scene in a sugar-maple forest in Michigan. So much by the way of mechanical improvements; but it is more difficult to describe the information it contains. Perhaps the best that can be said is that never before has there been so much pains taken to secure the best of correspondence— to get the views and experiences of the very best bee-keepers. The price of the Review is f 1.00 per year, but if you prefer to know still more about it before sub- scribing, send ten cents in either stamps or silver, and three late but different issues will be sent you. These will give you a lair idea of the Re- view, and, if you then wish to subscribe, the ten cents that you have sent may apply on your sub- scription. A coupon will be sent entitling you to the Review one year for 90 cents if sent in during 1898. W. Z. HUTCHINSON, Flint, Mich. New Music-Liberal Oifer. To introduce our new monthly publica- tion, American Popular Music, we make the following liberal offer: Send us the names of three or more performers on the piano I or organ, and lifteen cents in money or j postage, and we will mail you sixteen pages of the latest popular songs, two steps, etc., I full sheet music arranged for piano or organ, I and American Popular Music for 8 mouths. I Address Popular Music Co., Indianapolis, Ind. CI^UBBING I.IST. We will send the American BeeKeeper with the— PUB. BOTH. American Bee Journal, 81 00 $1 35 Bee-Keepers' Review, 1 00 1 35 Canadian Bee Journal. 1 00 1 35 Gleanings in Bee Culture, 1 00 1 35 Vol, VIIL MAY, J898. No, 5, th:^ itaI/IAn bbe. Its Natural Adaptability to Vary- ing Conditions. Writteti for the American Bee-Keeper, BY J. B. CASE. EES differ in characteristics and require different management. • - •• Many bee-keepers condemn cer- tain races of bees as being inferior to others, without considering that per- haps, their syste^m, or want of system, of management is such, that they are trying to force the bees to do some- thing which, perhaps, nature has been opposing for centuries in the locality in which their progenators were bred. A dairyman selects the breed or grade of cows most valuable to him for the line of business he expects to follow. If he desires to sell milk he se- lects a milk breed; if he expects to make a specialty of butter-making he selects with that end in view. But a stockman selects for beef. After the selection, to obtain the best results, the characteristics of the selected breed must be studied and the environments, care, feed, etc., must be suited as far as possible to the habits of the breed chosen. Instead of trying to enforce the fancy bred animals to adapt them- selves to unfavorable surroundings, everything possible is done to adapt the surroundings to the habits of the particular breed cf animals he has chosen. And so with poultry. The Leghorns in a cold climate, must be warmly housed and given the most careful attention to be profitable, while the heavy feathered fowls are not so well suited to a warm climate as are the Leghorns, and need a different care. The Cyprians were generally discard- ed as they were too cross. The so- called "Holy Land" bees were not as satisfactory as were the Italian, and were soon only a memory in most yards. The black and the Italian bees with their crosses, have been more widely tested than any others. Langs- troth, Quinby, L. C. Root and thous- ands of other careful, conscientious bee-keepers, commenced bee-keeping with black bees, and, by careful com- parisons with the Italian, decided that the latter were the most satisfactory and protitable, all things considered. A few claim the blacks as better in some respects; while many aver that the first cross hybrids are superior to either race, or to any yet tested; while still others find points of superiority in Carniolans, or different strains of Italians, such as "dark," "albino," "golden," etc. Bee-keepers differ in training, in habits, manner of doing things; some are quick in movement, others slow. 82 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. May some delight in having everything as nice as possible, others are careless; in fact almost all kinds of people are found keeping bees; from the special- ist to those who keep a few colonies for amusement. In the ranks of bee-keep- ers are found some with thousands of colonies, many with hundreds, more with less than one hundred. When we also consider the difference in altitude and latitude, that the United States are about 2,800 miles from east to west and 1,C00 miles from north to south, with mountains, hills, plains and valleys; soil from barren to fertile, climate from hot to cold, dry to wet and with almost every combina- tion of soil, rainfall, season and flora, it seems as though the bee that would prove the most profitable in all the above conditions would be a perfect one, with no faults, ana leaving noth- ing more to be desired. Again, some produce box honey while others bend all their energies to the production of extracted. In some sections a light flow precedes the main harvest and the bees are done swarm- ing before the main honey flow comes on. Another section is very poor in the early season, and then comes a heavy flow of honey and the bees swarm and swarm until the apiarist is in dispair. A few miles away there may be a light, almost continuous flow during the sea- son. In some parts the main crop of honey is gathered early in the season; other parts give only a late crop. Some bee-keepers can count reasonably sure on two crops with a dearth between. And so it goes in endless variation. When we consider variations in cli- mate; the different kinds of location; the uncertainty of the honey flow; the various systems of management, and the climatic conditions that are liable at any time to upset our best plans, it seems almost wonderful that the ma- jority of bee-keepers have decided that the Italians are best suited for all pur- poses. It shows that they have sterling qualities and are almost as capable of adapting themselves to their surround- ings as man himself. It is true that in some locations, and in some seasons, hybrids have given the best results, but they are uncertain. Some are extra good workers; some are very poor; while their temper is very unpleasant to say the least. The writer believes that by a little change of management the Italian may in nearly, perhaps all, locations, prove su- perior to hybrids. Especially so when we consider that at times hybrids are almost uncontrollable, and even at times dangerous in a community. A gentle Jersey cow would be ruined for a time, if not for life, if whipped, chased by dogs and brutally treated; while a scrub cow would take abuse as a matter of course, and so with a fine blooded horse. A hybrid colony of bees will stand an amount of smoke that will nearly smother an Italian col- ony. They (Italians and hybrids) re- quire different treatment, and I, for one, prefer to get along with as little smoke and as few stings as possible, especially when the majority claim the Italians as superior, and my experience agrees with the majority. How I Started in Bee-keeping. Written for the American Bee-Keeper, BY G. M. DOOLITTLK. ^/TiTK) CORRESPONDENT says he is jQim^ about starting in bee-keeping, ^^^'^ reads the American Bee-Keeper, and that he wishes I would tell through its columns how I started, thinking it would be interesting to the readers. Well, with the editor's permission, I might say a few words on this subject, although it might not be as profitable as an article on some other subject When about sixteen years old, while boiling sap one day in the fore part of April, about 2 o'clock in the afternoon I got a little lonesome, so placing a good lot of large wood in the fire, so that the sap would be kept boiling for 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 83 some time, I started ofE for a neighbor- ing sugar camp, about a mile distant. As I neared the camp I stopped for a moment to see if the owner was in the woods anywhere gathering sap, as I did not see him near the sugar house or boiling place. As I stood listening and looking for him, I thought I heard the hum of bees, and upon looking up into the tree tops all around me, I pres- ently saw the bees taking their first flight in the spring, as this was the first really warm day, from a hole in a large basswood tree, some seventy feet from the ground. When I found the owner I showed him what I had found, and he kindly told me that I had better put my initials on the tree to keep any other party who might chance to find it from cutting it. He also said that I had bet- ter let it remain till the coming fall, when he would help me cut it for what honey he could eat. I felt proud of my find and grateful to the owner for be- ing so kind to me. On going back I re- solved that the next pleasant day I would go all through those woods look- ing for bees, which I did a few days af- terward, and to my satisfaction T found another colony, the tree of which was marked in like manner with the first. Since then I have found many other colonies in trees, by simply passing through woods on warm days in early spring. As there are no leaves on the trees at this time of the year to bother, it is an easy matter to look into every tree which may have the appearance of being hollow, and if you keep the tree between you and the sun, looking a lit- tle below the sun will reveal the bees quite readily by the flashing of their wings in the sunshine; while trees hav- ing bees in them can often be found by looking on the snow for dead bees which are carried out and dropped on the first warm days. The two trees spoken of were cut the last of Septem- ber, and from these we obtained about 100 pounds of honey, I dividing with the neighbor. During the following winter I saw an advertisement in a paper regarding a certain book which would tell how to hunt bees, and as 1 was now anxious to find bees I sent for it. The book proved to be the "Bee-Keepers Text Book," and treated largely on the management of bees, for which I then had little de- sire. Six years later in hunting over an old closet, I came across this book, and as I saw the preface was short I read it, as I generally read the preface to any book first. I at once wanted to know all there was in the book, and sat down fairly spellboimd till the last page was read. I at once decided to have some bees in the spring (this was in January, 1869) and accordingly 1 engaged two colonies of a box-hive bee- keeper, for five dollars each. I also purchased "Quinby's Mysteries of Bee- Keeping," and read and re-read it till I could tell the substance of the whole book to any one who would talk bees, I was so interested in the matter. Then I subscribed for the American Bee Journal, which was about the only bee paper of those days. When spring opened I got my bees home, bought five Langstroth hives all complete, for $12.50, and thought myself fully equip- ped for the season. Every time the bees would fly I could hardly keep away from them, and on cold days in April and May I would go and tip up the hives to see the bees clustered be- tween the combs. In short, I wanted to be with them constantly, (and haven't got over that part yet,) and yet, withal, I had a great fear of them stinging me, as my flesh always swelled very badly when stung — so much so that I was often confined to the house from my eyes being swollen shut, or an arm or a limb being so badly swollen that I could not use it. For this reason I al- ways bundled up well if I went near the bees when they were flying. As it came near the swarming sea- son, I remembered what Quinby said in his book about being able to tell when the bees would swarm by invert- ing the hive in the middle of the day, 84 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. May and with a little smoke driving the bees out of the way, so that the sun might shine down between the combs, thus revealing any queen cells that might be starting on them. Not wish- ing to keep watch of the bees all the while, I thought I would try my suc- cess in ascertaining this matter. So I bundled up with coat and mittens and veil and prepared for the siege. I often wonder that I persisted in working with the bees when I was so afraid of them. But this must be done, taking stings patiently, if success must be ours. After getting stung pretty badly several times, I found that each time the pain and swelling grew less and less, till T finally dropped all but the veil, which I still wear, as a gen- eral rule, when working with the bees. To return: With "fear and tremb- ling" I blew a little smoke under the hive, and inverted it, blowing smoke from a roll of rags (no improved smok- ers then) upon the bees, and to my sur- prise I found queen cells nearly ready to seal over. In a day or two this hive cast a swarm which was safely run into one of the Langstroth hives. That was the only swarm of the season, as 1869 was the poorest season I have ever known for bees. I now had a swarm in a frame hive, and these I would manipulate every few days till T be- came familiar as to how the combs were built, the larva fed. the time from the egg to the perfect bee, etc., all of which every bee-keeper should be thor- oughly acquainted with at the outset. To shorten up. In the fall I had one full box of honey (six pound boxes were the smallest then in use) and two partly-filled from the colony which did not swarm, and three colonies of bees, to which I fed $.5.00 worth of sugar to insure safe wintering, as the season was so poor that most colonies not fed starved before spring. Honey was so scarce that year, that I was offered 50 cents per pound for the completed box I obtained, and the few who had honey to sell reaped a rich harvest I bought another colony in the fall and had an- other given me which had no honey. This I fed, and a taking of account showed an outlay of $35.00, with noth- ing to show for it except the one box of honey, two partly filled, and four empty hives, with five colonies of bees to run my chances on through the win- ter. Infatuated with the bees as I was, I now resolved that I would never lay out a single cent more on them, unless they first earned it for me; believing that if I could not make five pay I could not five hundred. This resolve I stood by, so that my bees never cost me more than the $35.00, and have earned me my home of thirty acres, all the buildings on it, all the machinery and conveniences in them, all I now have to enjoy, and something laid aside for old age, besides paying their way. Borodino, N. Y. New York State Association of Bee-Keepers' Societies, Written for the American Bee-Keeper. BY HARRY S. HOWE. fHE bee-keepers of this state have for a long time been asking for some recognition of the value of their industry to other branches of ag- riculture; for the same protection against adulteration that is accorded other food products; and for freight rates ihe same as other commodities of similar value and similar methods of packing; but in most cases they have asked in vain, because they could only speak as individuals, or at best as the representative of some local organiza- tion. Recognizing this fact, a call was is- sued by a committee from the local so- cieties for a meeting of delegates from the local societies of the state at Ge- neva, N. Y., March 16th, to discuss ways and means. As a result it was decided to organize a State Association of Bee-Keepers' So- cieties It is hoped that by acting as a unit we may be able to accomplish much of 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 85 value t& the bee-keepers that could not be effected otherwise, and that we may secure a standing in the state that will entitle us to be heard the same as the other special industries. "We feel that the value of our prod- ucts, as well as the value of our in- dustry to the horticulturist and the farmer, entitle us to the same protec- tion to the purity of our products that is given to the producer of vinegar; to the same protection to the lives of our bees from poison that is given to dogs and cats; that honey shall not be adul- terated nor the bees poisoned without adequate punishment. We earnestly hope that all bee-keep- ers will unite with us to secure these and other benefits that can only be se- cured by co-operation. The following is a copy of the consti- tution drafted and adopted by the As- sociation at Geneva: Article I. — Constitution. Name — This organization shall be known and designated as the New York State Association of Bee-Keepers' So- cieties. Art. II. — Place of Meeting. The Association shall meet annually on the secoud Wednesday of January at Geneva, N. Y. Art. III.— Object. By association and co-operation of the various Bee-Keepers' Societies in the State of New York, to secure a state bee-keepers' organization that is syste- matic, representative and vigilant; to devise ways to piomote measures that are of general interest to the bee-keep- ers of the state; to encourage the or- ganization of local co-cperalive socie- ties in every county in the state; to demonstrate and impress upon the pub- lic the importance and value of the in- dustry, and to demand and dictate legis- lation effecting the industry. Art. IV.— Officers. Sec. 1. The officers of this society shall consist of a President, Vice P Gsi- dent, Stcieiary-Treasuier and an Ad- visory Board, consisting of the Piesi- dent of each affiliating society. Teini of Office. Sec. 2. They nbaU hold their cfi'^ces for one year, and until their succe a rs are elected and have accepted the ctilce. Art. v.— Revenue. Any Bee-Keepeis society in the s ate may become a member of this AssoLMa- lion by paying an annual memb.: i'lip fee of two dollars, and no society vill be allowed to partic'pate in the a airs cf the Association until their due., are paid. Art. VI.— Funds. The funds of the Association sha i be used to pay the legitimate expenses of the Association, and for any pu po.se not inconsistent with the intent and purpose of the Association when ap- proved by the Executive Committee. Art. VII.— Election of Officers. The President, Vice President and Secretary-Treasurer shall constitute the Executive Committee. They shall be elected by a majority ballot at the annual meeting of the Association and shall assume the duties of their respect- ive offices immediately upon the close of such meeting. The Advisory Board shall be chosen by their respective so- cieties in such manner as they may se- lect. Art. VIII. — Representation. Each society that has complied with the conditions of the constitution shall be entitled to two votes and two dele- THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. May gates who, before being seated, shall present proper credentials. Any and all members of affiliating societies shall be admitted to the privilege of the floor, but only those who are duly accredited delegates or their proxies are entitled to vote. Art. IX.— Duties of Officers. Sec. 1. President — It shall be the duty of the President to superintend all matters of the Association; to preside at the meetings; to call meetings of the Executive Committee and of the Ad- visory Board, through the Secretary, and to perform such other duties as may devolve upon the presiding officer. Sec. 2. Vice President — In the ab- sence of the President the Vice Presi- dent shall perform the duties of that office. Sec. 3. Secretary-Treasurer— It shall be the duty of the Secretary to call the names of the societies; to receive the annual dues and the credentials of their respective delegates at the opening of each meeting: to report all proceedings of the Association, and to record the same; to conduct the general cor- respondence of the Association; to file and preserve all papers belonging to the same; ar the close of his term of office to transfer all money and papers belonging to the Association to his suc- cessor in office; to pay out the funds of the Association only upon vouchers signed by the President; to render a written report of all receipts and ex- penditures at each annual meeting, and to perform such other duties as prop- erly belong to such office or by direc- tion of the President or the Advisory Board. Sec. 4 Advisory Board — The Advis- ory Board shall, by conference and co- operation, assist the President, and carry out the plans of the organization, and have in charge propositions for legislative action not otherwise com- mitted to the charge of special com- mittees; to do and perform all acts not inconsistent with the intent and pur- pose of the Association; to fill all va- cancies that may occur. The President of this Association is to be the chair- man of the Board ex-officio. Art. X. — Compensation. No officer of the Association shall re- ceive compensation for services except such compensation be fixed previous to the rendition of such service by reso- lution duly adopted and recorded. Art. XI. — Special Meetings. Upon the petition of a majority of the Advisory Board the President shall call a special convention of the Asso- ciation. Art. XII. — Amendments. This constitution may be amended by a majority vote at any annual conven- tion of the Association. Art. XIII.— Quorum. One-half of the number of delegates entitled to vote shall constitute a quo- rum for the transaction of business at the meetings of the Association, Honey from Basswood, IBtc. Written Jor The American Bee-Keeper, BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. ^M)^ CORRESPONDENT wishes me "^W^ to answer the following ques- (^i^ tions through the columns of the American Bee-Keeper: First, I am thinking of moving my bees the com- ing summer several miles to where there is an abundance of basswood, hoping to secure a greater yield of honey than I at present receive, as I have no basswood in my immediate vicinity. What do you think of the idea? Second, are not the blossom buds formed on the basswood trees a few weeks previous to the time of their opening, so I can know by this whether there is a prospect of honey from that source in time to make preparations for moving? Third. Are there any sea- sons when basswood blossoms in pro- fusion, when there is no honey yield from it? In answering the first question I would say that the plan is a good one and I can see nothing against it, ex- cept the expense. I believe basswood to be the greatest honey producer in the world. In fact, no report has ever been given (if I am correct) where 20 pounds per day has been stored for 30 days in succession, by a single colony, except from basswood. Such a report can be found in the back volumes of the American Bee Journal; and I had a single colony that did fully as well for ten days, the same giving 66 pounds 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 87 in three days. If the cost of moving the bees need not be greater than $1.00 per colony, I should have no hesitation in saying it would pay well to move bees to the basswood district, for I find by going over my diary that my bees have averaged fully 50 pounds per col- ony from basswood alone, each year, during the past twenty-five years. In answering the second question, permit me to say that the fruit buds and leaflets to all trees with which I am familiar, are formed in June and July of the previous year, so the buds and flowers are already formed in the embryo, on the apparently bare and lifeless branches of the trees in mid- winter. They wait only for the warmth of spring to bring this dormant life into growth. As soon as the buds un- fold the latter part of May, then we can tell for a certainty just what is to be the result, barring accidents, as far as blossoms are concerned. Of course, the weather during the time of bloom, will have much to do with how much nectar will be secreted, and whether the bees will have fine days for the harvest. The practiced eye can tell nearly two months in advance as to the promise of a yield of basswood honey, the buds being very slow cf maturing. In replying to the third question, I never knew of but one season when the basswood did not furnish some honey, and that was the last. There were few flowers in any event, and then it com- menced to be rainy, cool weather just as what little bloom there was opened, and continued thus for twenty days, and by the end of that time basswood was past.. Before the past season, the shortest season I ever knew, gave a three days' yield, in which honey was so plentiful that the bees could not prepare room fast enough to store it. with a gradual tapering off of two days more, making five days in all. Then one season we had a yield of 25 days with three of them so cold that the bees could only work a little in the middle of the day. The state of the atmosphere has much to do with the secretion of honey in the basswood flowers, the most fa- vorable being when the weather is very warm with the air filled with electric- ity. At such times the honey can be jarred from the blossoms on a sheet of tin or glass so it will collect drops up- on them. At such times as these the nectar is very thick, almost to the con- sistency of honey without any evapora- tion, while during a cold, cloudy, rainy spell the secretion is so thin that it takes much evaporation to reduce it When the secretion is at its best, I doubt whether there is such a thing as overstocking a good basswood locality, if 1,000 colonies were located all in one place. ITEMJ or INTERE5T. Michigan bee-keepers are agitating the introduction of a new, up-to-date fonl brood bill, to supersede the pres- ent law, which is said to be inadequate, and behind the times. O. O. Poppleton, in Gleaning?, sug- gests that honey weighing less than ll%pounds to the gallon would hardly be merchantable. Right; and twelve pound honey would have a better effect upon the future market. — o — Gleanings. — A press made and oper- ated by J. J. Rapp, of California, is said to remove the wax from old combs more effectually than can be done by any other means. The refuse from a solar extractor R.re, by this method, worked over with profit. The plan of construction is not given. — o — Scientists say bees have no ears. E. Whitcomb says he is no scientist, but says he knows that bees can hear in some way. Probably sound waves are perceptible to their delicately-con- structed nervous system. Every prac- tical bee-keeper will agree with Mr. Whitcomb that they do hear, ears or no ears. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPEB. May PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE W. T. FALCONER MANFG CO. 33:. E:. liILL, Terms : Fifty cents a year in advance; 2 copies, S5 cents; 3 copies, 11.20; all to be sent to one postofflce. Postage prepaid in the U. S. and Canada; 10 cents extra to all countries in the postal union, and 20 cents extra to all other countries. Advertising Rates : Fifteen cents per line, 9 words; S2.00 per inch. 5 per cent, discount lor 2 insertions; 7 per cent, for 3 insertions; 10 per cent, for 6 insertions; 20 per cent, for 12 insertions. Advertisements must be received on or before the 20th of each month to insure insertion in the month following. Address THE AMERICAN BEE-XEEPER, Falconer, N. Y. >8®=-Subscribers reciMxiiv.^ lii^ wrapper will know that ihniMi with thisnumber. W'r liopu th: lay favoring us with a renewal. j^'A red wrapper on your paper indicates that you owe for your subscription. Please give the matter your early attention. EDITORIAL. Is your wrapper red, white or blue? Please note the new system of notifica- tion adopted with this number, and ex- plained as formerly in the paragraphs above. Personal. — "Optimus," please send name and address to Box 308, Titus- ville. Pa. To bee-keepers who depend solely up- on white clover for a crop of honey, as many do, next month will tell the tale. Is your dish right side up? As a result of the scarcity of bees- wax, prices on foundation have ad- vanced three cents (3) per pound. The W. T. Falconer Mfg. Co. are now pay- ing cash 28c. per pound, or 30c. in trade for wax of good quality delivered, freight paid to Falconer, N. Y. See ad- vertisements in another column. When this edition of the American Bee-Kecper is wrapped for mailing it will prcotn': an array of national colors befitting its name and date in history. Though from an artistic standpoint, the disproportionate display of red might offend a highly cultivated sense of harmony in the art of color and de- sign. Like every other question connected with bee-keeping, early setting out of bees in the spring, as advocated by many of late years, finds opposition; and that based upon unfavorable ex- perience. After reading the experience of others it would be well to locate the "goiden mean" and experiment both ways. In these matters every man must be "a law unto himself." A discussion of the wax moth in the American Bee Journal, by Prof. Cook, and C. TheiJmann, elicits the fact that both of these gentlemen are prone to discredit the statement by others, that a species of moth exists which prey up- on solid cakes of beeswax. It is a fact too well known to bee-keepers of tropi- cal countries, that such a destroyer is a reality, and that handfuls of their semi-waxen excrement, particles of web and wriggling atoms of animal life may be gathered from the surface, and about the base of any cake of wax that is exposed for a period of six weeks or longer, during the summer months. Foul Brood Inspector Wm. McEvoy, of Ontario, than whom America has no better authority on matters pertain- ing to this disease, in the Bee-Keepers' Review, says: "I have always asserted, and do yet, that foul brood can and sometimes does originate from the rot- ting of uncared-for brood; and believ- ing that to be a fact, I have warned bee- keepers everj'where against the dan- gerous and horribly filthy practice of putting combs containing decayed brood into their colonies for the bees to clean out." 1898. TSE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 89 Mr. Doolittle's contribution, "How I Started inBee-Keeping,"ln this number of The Bee-Keeper, would have ap- peared last month, had we not thought those of our subscribers who have been reading his writings in these columns for years, as well as the many new ones, who have more recently joined our circle, would appreciate a glimpse of his present apiary in connection with his story of the mere, though time. I do not have so many different kinds of hives now, and all have tin roofs, so that the awkward looking boards on some of them would not be in a picture taken at this time. Of course you will note that the building with the door open is the shop, in which I store all my honey, run steam machinery to do the work for my apiary, and in one room of the same, do my 'scribbling' for the bee papers." APIARY OF G. M. DOOI/ITTI,^. tiappy chance that brought him in con- tact with the pursuit to which he has proven himself so eminently adapted. We give below Mr. Doolittle's explana- ory note which came with the picture: "The only photo of my apiary which [ have in my possession was taken some fifteen years ago, which I mail fon. It gives as good a view of our iurroundings as would one taken at this .ime. The 'chap' at the wheelbarrow s Doolittle, and the man beside him is % neighbor who happened in at the For the information of those who have no opportunity to see the "scrib- bling" that G. M. does for the bee-pa- pers in that shop, until it is reduced to plain Roman print, we might say that he uses neither a pencil nor pen — just a hundred dollar writing machine. J. H. Martin, in Gleanings, says bee- paralysis and the "nameless" disease, which were formerly so destructive in California apiaries, are on the wane, and now attract little attention. 90 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. Mat Any of our readers who have never used such a device will hardly appre- ciate the great convenience and service secured in handling frames by having an ordinary window blind staple driven into the end of each bottom bar, allow- ing it to project about one-fourth of an inch. While it serves as an end spacer for the frames, its great utility lies in the protection it affords to any bees that may be on the end bars, when shaking or otherwise handling frames. Such a safeguard against the possible injury or destruction of queens is in itself a source of satisfaction when working hurriedly. Try a few this year, and if not pleased with the result, tell us why. PROTECTION IN SIGHT. Hon. Eugene Secor, who, with Rev. E. T. Abbott, as delegates from the United States Bee-Keepers' Union, represented American bee-keeping in- terests at the pure food and drug con- gress in Washington in March, writes: "A policy and plan of work was out- lined that will doubtless result in good for not only our industry but all other food preparations." The Brosius Pure Food Bill, H. R. No. 5441, now before congress, was found to comprise such provisions as are much needed to compel honest branding of all food preparations and thus protect the honest producer of honey and others from fraudulent com- petition, in the way of adulterated imitations; and every bee-keeper is earnestly advised to write at once to his congressional representative and senator, urging its early consideration and adoption, in the interest of every honest industry FINISHED SECTIONS— ARE THEY DESIRABLE? From the plain-section controversy has developed a new question. "Is it desirable that sections should be filled and finished to the wood on all sides?" Some of our most successful produc- ers hold the negative position on thit subject. Wo have never been troublec with over-filled sections, and have al- ways worked to secure as far as possi- ble perfectly filled and capped boxes ol honey. They look better, stand ship- ment with less breakage, reduce the section and shipping case items of ex pense and shorten the hours of labor; both in producing and preparing the crop for the market. From our pres- ent knowledge, however, we are in clined to regard the projecting side pieces as a valuable protection to the surface of the comb in handling; while the extra completion of the honey through the use of the plain section, is by no means an established fact. To those who desire to test the rela- tive merits of the two styles of sections this year. The W. T. Falconer Mfg. Co. is prepared to supply your needs. SOURCE OF BEE-KEEPING KNOW- LEDGE. Complaint is made by some of our New York state readers that the bee news of our home state is not in pro- portion to its subscribers. Ah, this is a more welcome criticism than any commendatory remarks that have been offered during the last three months; for it affords an opportunity to remind our bee-keeping friends that they, themselves, are the sole originators of bee-keeping news, and that it is the mission of the American Bee-Keeper to disseminate such items of interest as are reported. Every class or trade journal relies upon the active workers of the indus- try which it represents, for informa- tion and support. Since the art of printing was invented — since nature's first swarm of bees started for the woods to hunt a hollow tree, not one practical bee-keeping idea has origin- ated in an editorial room. To verify this statement would involve a line of reasoning too long for these columns; yet it is a fact. The point is, all bee- keeping knowledge must have its THE AMERICAN BEE-KEJEPEB. 91 origin in the apiary or by direct con- tact with the principle involved. New York justly claims the largest interest in our list, of any one state, and should, therefore, by reason of their greater numbers and incidental greater interest and increased contri- butions, receive proportionately great- er representation. But there can be no effect without a cause, and in this case the cause is controlled by the bee-keep- ers. Let our bee-keeping friends of the Empire state shed their veil of reti- cence— let each one trim his apicultural lamp and hold it aloft, and The Bee- Keeper will become a dazzling beacon. Its apicultural light would descend from the sound to Jamestown, as the electric rays fall upon Bedloe's Island. OLD COMBS FOR BROOD. R. C. Akin, in Gleanings, cites an in- stance corroborative of Mr. Dugdale's experience, as reported several years ago in some of the journals, that he had witnessed the act of bees tearing down and rebuilding old brood combs. Mr. Akin thinks the bees can be depended on to reconstruct the combs when they have become too small by accumulated cocoons for breeding. This would seem to be the rule; yet we are convinced that full development of the larval bee is some- times prevented by cells thus con- tracted. A very marked difference in the size of one queen's progeny, several years ago, led to an investigation of the cause, with the result that all the bees emerging from a certain old comb were found to be very much under size, while those hatching from all others were normal. According to our recollection of the circumstances, this comb had been in use about twenty years, and we were disposed to accept the instance as strong evidence in favor of renewing about every ten years. Yet, having never observed a similar effect upon other colonies, an air of uncertainty would occasionally pervade our con- clusions. Some years later we were engaged to transfer a number of box-hive colonies for a farmer bee-keeper. Among the lot was an antique relic of the builder's architectural skill, reduced almost to ruins by the ravages of time, which, the owner informed us, was established upon the homestead during the occu- pancy of his grandfather, and that it had served continuously as the bees' abode for sixty years. Here, indeed, was a rare opportunity to observe the effect of old combs upon the development of their brood; and the crumbling walls of the erstwhile palatial hive were removed with curi- ous interest. The lower edge of the combs, of irregular formation and black with age, contained a preponderance of wax. In some instances the septum being fully one-quarter inch in thick- ness. The cappings of the honey, as dark and rough as the bark of an oak tree, defied chronology, though suggest- ing a period antedating American rail- roads and Jackson's administration. Yet the bees were not in the least di- minished in size; showing conclusively that in this instance, at least, the combs had been remodeled, or the co- coons removed in some way by the bees. The former instance (in which the development of the bee was undoubt- edly hampered by cocoons) was, then, evidently the "exception," which, it is said, there are to all rules. Various methods are being recom- mended to assist in finding the queen in very strong colonies. If someone would devise a practical method of readily locating the queen in weak col- onies, in which the bees are always more unsteady and the queen dodging out of sight around the ends and bot- tom of the combs, a greater service would be rendered. We would much prefer to undertake finding the queen in a strong colony than in one less populous. 9^ THE A3IERICAN BEE-KEEPER. May ^EE Brevities. M. F. Reeve, of Rutledge, Pa., wrote to us that on March 19 and 20, the thermometer indicated nearly summer heat, and that the bees were then com- ing in laden with pollen, red, white and yellow, from maple larch and willow. Rather early business for his latitude. — o — Alsike clover continues to gain favor; not alone for its merit as a honey-yield- ing plant, but as a result of its excel- lence as a pasture and hay crop. The satisfactory experience that others are having with alsike should induce a trial by farmers that have not yet test- ed it. Dairymen are loud in its praise. — o — With reference to the practice of set- ting a large number of colonies closely together in the apiary, the editor of the Canadian Bee Journal remarks: "I am not sure, but I am inclined to think that many bees humming, flying and roar- ing about in a limited space, tends to swarming." May be something in it, too. — o — According to Editor Root, the opera- tors employed in the apiaries of W. L. Coggshall, one of New York's largest producers of honey, are decidedly of the "lightning" class, their methods of the "hurricane" order and "hurry-up" the watchword. Economy of time holds precedence against all else, and every- thing is done on the "get-there" prin- ciple. Supers that are stuck too tight to yank off are kicked off; and he esti- mates that from a quart to a peck of bees are crushed to death, drowned in the honey, or otherwise killed at each extracting. Of course the bees do not shirk their plain duty to resent such treatment by constant stinging, on these slaughter days, and, judging from Mr. Root's experience, visitors who de- sire to witness the operation of extract- ing in this extensive and successful honey-producing plant, should provide a coat of mail, or other impenetrable armour. Mr. Harry S. Howe, whose likeness appears in another column of this number of The Bee-Keeper, is one of CoggshaU's "lightning" operators. — o — We regret to learn that Mr. Pop- pleton has recently suffered quite a a heavy loss as the result of one of his apiaries being located in the wake of one of those destructive fires, which, during the spring months are constant- ly raging through the woodlands of South Florida. The bee-house with all its contents, _ including a new Cowan extractor, uncapping can, tank with several hundred pounds of honey and numerous other articles of value, was destroyed. Many hives of bees were damaged and eleven strong colonies were consumed outright. — o — Take a scap box, remove a three- inch strip from one sjde of the bottom. Over this opening tack a double thick- ness of window scieen. Invert the box and nail a tup bar along each side and to these secure a piece of half-inch stuff projecting five inches. Affix legs high enough to admit a pail, of varying lengths, to give the right angle; com- plete conductor by strips at side, wax well to prevent leakage, and you have an uncapping can ( ?) as made and used by Mrs. Effe Brown, and described in American Bee Journal. — o — At an X ray lecture in Los Angeles the "professor" invited the audience to place anything they might desire be- fore the instrument. Having a sample mailing block containing two bottles of honey, J. H. Martin placed it between the ray and the screen. "The block," he says, "did not appear on the screen but the bottles of honey stood out in bold relief." This experiment was made four months ago and the honey has not yet granulated, and Mr. Martin sug- gests that those having an X ray handy make the test on various grades of honey disposed to granulate. 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 93 Insufficient room in the brood cham- ber crowds the bees into the surplus apartments, which, when removed, leave the bees to die of starvation, says W. S. Donner in A. B. J. A large hive with deep frames is recommended for the amateur, and the importance of leaving plenty of stores below at all times is emphasized. Large hives, large colonies and large crops are soime of the noteworthy causes and effects associated with his successful experi- ence. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Division of Pomology, Washington, D. C, April 9, 1898. W. T. Falconer Mfg. Co., Jamestown, N. Y. Gentlemen — I am in receipt of yours of the 6th inst. enclosing vouchers in payment for boxes which we ordered from you. These vouchers have been signed here and sent to the chairman of the Commission, Mr. Brigham, for signature and you will receive a draft in payment for boxes in a few days. The boxes have just arrived and we have opened and examined them, and are very much pleased with them. It seems to me there could not be a more perfect job made. I wonder how you can make them so cheaply. If we have any occasion for using any more boxes you will certainly receive our order. Thanking you for promptness in exe- cuting this order, I am Yours truly, G. B. BRACKETT, Pomologist, Stuart, Fla., April 12, 1898. Editor American Bee-Keeper : Dear Sir — Quite a little has been said about that big Texas yield of honey. but curiously, everyone has overlooked the important feature. Mr. Carroll claimed to have received 1,000 pounds of surplus honey in one season from one colony and its increase. It would simply have been playing to have done that with any of our very best colonies here in 1894. Such a colony could have been divided into at least four colonies early in February, which, without ex- tra nursing, would have overrun their 250 pounds each from April 1 to Au- gust 1, which was the extent of our main honey season that year. Wishing you abundant success in your new calling, I am Yours truly, O. O. POPPLETON. HONEY AND BEESWAX MARKET REPORT. Below we give the latest and most authentic report of the Honey and Beeswax nmrket in dif- ferent trade centers: BasTON, Mass., April 14, 1S98.— There is but lit- tle call for anything but light grades in this mar- ket. Comb honey, 9c to lo, according to grade and quality. Extracted o to 7c per lb. Beeswax is scarce ai 26c. Blake, Scott & Lee, 57 Chatham Street. Cleveland, O., April 28, 1898.— We quote our market to-day as follows:— Fancy white, 12e; No. 1 white, lie; Fancy amber, 9@lOc; No. 1 amber, 8c; Fancy dark, 7c; White extracted, 6c; Amber, 5>^c. Beeswax, 26c. A.. B. Williams & Co., 80-82 Broadway. CINCINNATI. O., Mar. 21, is;w.— The demand for extracted honev is fair, wilh sliort supply. Price, 4 to 6c. Slow demand for ODiul) 10 to llVc. Good demand for beeswax with a fair supply Prices, 20to 25c. for good to choice vellow. Chas. F. Muth & Son, Cor. Freeman and Central aves. INCUBATORS The OLKNTANOV Incubator provod tu lie the best. Have taken prize after prize. Brood- ;oiily»3.00. Before buyinp elsewhere, pond for free de- scription and teHtimonials. Iso breeder of 40 varieties of hieh-claPrt poultry, ill) yards. ... — - 110 honses. A'ldresK '^UJ9 G. S. SINGER, Cardington.Oi Farm Bee-Keeping.^^>- The only Bee Paper in the United States edited exclusively in the in- terest of the tanner bee-keeper and the beginner is The Busy Bee, published by EMERSON T. ABBOTT, St. Joseph. Mo. Write for free sample copy now. 94 THE AMERICAN BEI^KEEPER. May W. M. Gerrish, East Nottingham. N. H., keeps a complete supply of our goods, and Eastern customers will saxe freight by or- dering from him. Now is the time to subscribe for The Bee Keeper. SfJierSW'si Yon May Ha-re a Sample Bottle of the Great Discovery Sent Free by Mail. As we are by nature subject to many diseases, the only way to guard ag-ainst all stampedes on our health is to make a studv of our own phvsical 6elf. - >■ . If an acute pain attacks you, try to locat« its origin and discover which organ of the body is sick and in need of attention. If the kidneys are at fault— and in almost everr case in the failing of our health they are— look well to their restoration to health and* strength. They are the great filters of our body, and con- sequently, the purity of the blood is entirely de- pendent on their cleansing powers. If the kidneys are not in a perfectly clean and healthy condition, the blood becomes impregna- ted with impurities and a decay of the kidneys soon takes place. If your desire to relieve yotir- self of water increases, and you find it necessary to arise many times during sleeping hours, your kidneys are sick. As they reach a more unhealthy stage, a scalding and irritation takes place as the water flows, and pain or dull ache in the back makes you miserable. If the water, when allow- ed to remain tmdisturbed for twenty-four hours, forms a settling or sediment, you are'in the grasp of most serious kidney or blader disorders. If neglected now the disease advances until the face looks pale or sallow, ptifl^- or dark circles under the eyes, the feet swell, and sometimes the heart acts badly. There is no more serious menace to health and strength than any derangement of the kidneys. Swamp-Iloot is the great discovery of Dr. Kilmer, the eminent physican and specialist, and will be found just what is needed in cases of kidney and bladder disorders and Uric Acid troubles due to weak kidneys, such as catarrh of the bladder, gravel, rheumatism and Bright's Disease, which IS the worst form of kidney disease. It corrects inability to hold wal«r and promp.tlv overcomes that unpleasant necessity of being eoni- pelled to go often during the day and to get up many times during the night. The mild and the extraordinary eflfect of this great remedy is soon realized. It stands the high- est for its wonderful cures, and is dispensed by druggists in fifty e«nt and one dollar bottles. So universally successful is Swamp- Root in quickly curing even the most distressing cases. that to Prove its wonderful merits you may have a sample bottle and a lx>ok of valuable informa- tion, both sent absolutely free by mail upon re- ceipt of three two-cent stamps to cover cost of postage on the bottle. The value and success of Swamp-Root are so well known that our readers are advised to write for a sample bottle and Mi kindly mention The American Bee-Keeper when sending their address to Dr. Kilmer i Co.. Biut'- hamton. N. Y. THE MONTHLY REVIEW. A 16-page Family Paj:«r. 50 cents a year. .Sample free. U.seful premiums and cash commissioii- to agents. TITUSVILLE, PA. '~N.^ Standard for Quality. ^, and More Popiilar th.an Ever. A 5FLENblb RECORb. We Introduced *^^ . ^ FIEST safty bicycle of standard type. FIEST bicycle of light weight and nar- row trea/i. PIEST cross tliread fabric tire. Strong and resilient. FIEST bicycle chain with hardened block and pin. FIEST dust proof, baD-retaining bearing. (Bnrwelli. FIEST bicycle with frames built of large tubing. OUR -98 FEATUKES: Burwell Bearings with Self-oiling Device. Burwell Detachable Tires. 0:: Clevelands Only. '98MnnFfsl50,$65,$75. H. I mm \ CO., Mfrs., CATOLUGUE FREE. Cleveland, O. New York, Boston. Philadelphia, Baltimore, Buffalo. Detroit, San 5-et. Fran cis' o.London. Paris. Hamburg. H I ity 0^ Beeswax and I U U I U U I vj I the consequent high price of same, we -re compelled to advance the prices of Founda- tion Three cents per pound. m.n :estown, n. y. 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 95 CflnER/1 For Sale CHEAP. We have a new Hawkeye Jr. Cam- era, made by Blair Camera Co. ; take.-^ pic- tures .Six3.V: uses both roll of film {V2 pic- tures) and plates. Is covered with grain leather and has a leather carrying case with strap. Cost .5'9.o0. Also a complete outfit for developing plates and prints; cost $8.00. Will sell the Camera alone for f!.'?. .59. or the Camera and outfit for .$9.0(1. Addre.ss The American Bee-Keeper, FALCONER, N. Y. BEES ^ IN APRIL AND MAY. QUEENS Prices Below All. Bred for business. One untested Queen, April or May (for a trial) , 35c. Price list of Queens, Nuclei and Bees by the pound, free. Address J. B. ALEXANDER, Box 768. 3-3 Hartford City, Ind. P We have for sale a Cleveland, 1897, 26 inch frame, Gent s Wheel, cost $100; a Hoffman Ladies and Gents' Tandem, 1>97, cost $1.50, and a Dayton Ladies' ^Tieel, 1897, cost $100, all in fine condi- tion. None ever run over 500 miles; look like new. We will sell the choice for $40 cash, and guarantee the wheels to be first class in every way. Address The American Bee-Keeper, Falconer, N. Y. Will take pay in good wax at 30c. per lb. For fruitful results, plant your ad- vertisement in The American Bee Keeper. We are Headquarters for the ALBINO BEES, the best in the world. If you are looking for the bee that will gather the most honey and the gentlest of all bees in handling, buy the Albino. I also furnish the Italian, but orders stand fifty to one in favor of the Albino. I manufacture and furnish supplies. Address 4-2 iS. VALENTINE, Hagerstown, Md. m HONEY EXTRACTOR PERFECTION COLD -BLAST SMOKERS Square Glass Honey Jars, Etc. For Circulars, applv to CHAS. F. MUTH & SON, Cor. Freeman & Central Avenues, Cinonnati, O Send lOc. for Practical Hints to Bee-Keepers. We are also dealers in Honey and Beeswax. Pfe I Civil & Meclianical Ensrineers, Giartuatps of the C Polytechnic Set) ool of Engineering Bachclois in f Applied Sciences, Laval University. Menibera I Patent Law Association, American Water Worlss } Association. Ktw England Water Worlis Assoc. / P. Q. Surveyors Association, Assoc. Member Can. 5 Society of Civil Engineers. Washingtov, Mo N THE A] Offices : NGTOV, D. C. > ;eal, Can. > W.I.f 50 YEARS' EXPERIENCE An under Gardener, who understands carpentry, and has a thorough knowledge of bee-keeping. Addre.ss 221 East av- enue, Rochester, N. Y. BARN ES' FOOT POWER MACHINERY. This cut repre.sents our Combined Machine, which is the best machine made for use in the construction of Hives, Sections, Boxes, etc. Sent on trial. .Send for Cat- alogue and Pi ice List. W. F &JOHN BARNES CO.. 913 Ruby St., Rockford, III. I American Bee- Keeper. coopeR's LeftTtteRSTOCKING T/\Les, Marks Designs .... Copyrights Ac. Anyone sending a sketoh a"d description may Qulcklv aseertair. our opinion free whether an invention Is probahlv patentable. Communioa- Uons strict yconfldeiitlal. Handbook on Patents X free? oldest agency for sex^uringpatent^^^ Patents taken through Munn & Co. receive specica notice, without charge, in the Scientific American. A handsomely illustrated weekly. ^«/Kest clr^ ^y^'a'^r?f'^l?r^l^::,^.tllT''ioWaliJrd|feif MUNN &Co.3«^«-^''«^^' New York Branch Office. 626 F St.. Washington, D. C. 5 Complete stories, hound in M EVERY BEE-KEEPER To have a copy of OUR 1898 CATALOG Send us vour name and address and we will take pleasure in mailing you a copy. G. B. I,EWIS CO., 3-tf. Watertown Wis. I one large volume, sub- stantial paper covers, together with our new Agricultural monthly, one year for only .">()e. Sample copy free. TARMEES' EEALM, Syracuse, N. Y. FOR SALE. Bees in L or American Frames, $G.o() per colony. New American Hives, complete, $1.. '50 each; .second-hand ones, $1.25 each. Second-hand Chaff-hives, $1.25 each, newly painted, new frames, sections and super.s, making them good as new. Quart pepper-, box Bee Feetlers, 5 cents each. 200 winljs built from foundation, wired American frames, at 8 cents each Fine tested Italian Queens $1.50 each. Write for particulars to THEODORE BENDER, Canton, 0. 4.tf JMeiitionlhe Bee-Keeper. m sramiiES: The Fence and Plain Sections. Weed New Process Foundation. Cowan Extractors Poi-ter Bee-Escapes — the best made. Dovetailed Hives with Danz. patented Cover and Bottom. Danzenbaker Hives. No-drip Shipping-cases. Gleanings in Bee Culture; illustrated, semi-monthly. Catalog: of Goods, and sample copy of Gleanings sent for your name on a postal. Branch Offices: 118 Michigan St., Chicago, 111. ^TJT!" A T T>nri^ f^Ci 1024 Mississippi St., St. Paul, Minn. J^ Jtl-C/ ^, 1. JVXJKJ 1 L/L/., 1635 W. Genesee St., Syracuse, N. Y. .«, <• ^t ' 10 Vine St.. Philadelphia, Pa. Medina, Ohio. Mechanic Falls, Me. PATENTS Quickly secured. OTJK FEE DUE WHEN PATENT OBTAINED. Send model, sketch or photo, with description for free report as to patentability. 4S-FAaE HAND-BOOK PEEE. Contains references and full information. WRITE FOK COPT OF Otm SPECIAL OFFER. Itis the most liberal proposition ever made by a patent attorney, and EVERY INVENTOR SHOULD READ IT before applying for patent. Address : H.B.WILLS0N&CO. PATENT LAWYERS, L«proHBidg.. WASHINGTON, D. C. Patent Wired Comb Foundation Has no Sag in Brood Frames. Thin Flat Bottom Foundation Has no Fish-bone in Surplus Honey. Being the cleanest is usually worke8®»Subscribers receiving their paper in blue wrapper will liuow that their subscription expires with this number. We hope that you will not de- lay favoring us with a renewal. jg^A red wrapper on your paper indicates that you owe for your subscription. Please give the matter your early attention. R. L. Taylor, of the Michigan State Ag- ricultural college, by whose very able pen the criticisms are conducted. The Review is indeed an unique publica- tion; a credit to its editor and an hon- or to its supporters; and, in point of interest to advanced apiarists, its new department is second to none of those previously established. We are proud of our sprightly, artistic and edifying exchange. ^ EDITORIAL. Hives in readiness for the new swarms should be kept shaded until used. Bees dislike a hot hive, and fre- quently abscond as a result of such be- ing used. War is the all-absorbing topic just new, but let us not neglect to bestow the careful attention so essential to success in the apiary at this particular season. Bee-keepers should "remem- ber the Main" honey flow is at hand, and that the harvest comes but once a year. (( In addition to its intensely critical condensed view of Dee writings, by E. E. Hasty, together with other marked improvements, the Bee-Keep- ers' Review has introduced a new '''de- partment of criticism.''' The initial C of the department heading encloses a miniature medallion half-tone of Hon. Some of our forehanded bee-keepers begin preparations this month for the coming winter, by securing extra combs of sealed honey for winter stores. An invariable rule in some large api- aries, including our own, is: "Keep combs on edge." Accidents resulting in annoyance and loss are thus averted, and the habit is easily acquired. The strongest colonies should be se- lected for producing comb honey. See that the hive sets level, and by glanc- ing between the sections, make sure that none of the foundation starters have been jarred loose, before plac- ing the super upon the hive. One fal- len starter, where separators are not used, may ruin a whole row of combs. "Successful Methods of Rearing Queen Bees," by Henry Alley, of Wen- ham, Mass., is the latest acquisition to our library, and the thoroughly reli- able source of the information con- tained, places it at once among the standard works on this subject. It is a concise, yet quite exhaustive treatise; being largely a revision of the Bee- Keepers' Handy Book, of which Mr. Alley is the author, and brings the sub- ject up to date. His style and language are such as to be readily understood by the most inexperienced — a com- mending feature too often neglected by book-makers. Mr. Alley is a recog- nized authority, of unusual experience on queen rearing; was for several years editor of the American Apicul- 1898. TBE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 105 turist, and is thoroughly master of his subject. We bespeak deserved popu- larity for the little book. Membership in the United States Bee-Keepers' Union costs $1 per year. The subscription price of the American Bee-Keeper is but 50 cents a year; but as a special inducement, and in order to increase the Union's membership, the publishers will agree to send the Bee-Keeper to all who may become members of the Union, at just one-half the regular rate. The Union now has about 400 members, though but a year old. We ought to make it 4,000 by the close of the year. See advertisement in another column. In the American Bee Journal the question is asked: "What would you advise in order that the membership in the United States Bee-Keepers' Union may be so increased as to make it of the greatest possible good to the bee- keeping pursuit?" To this R. L. Tay- lor replies: "You have the cart before the horse. 'Make it the greatest pos- sible good' to its membership, then its membership will be sufficiently in- creased." Mr. Taylor is not in the habit of vocalizing his thoughts with- out due consideration, and we are, therefore, led to cherish the hope that his full ideas in this connection, were not expressed in the Journal. Hence we beg to propound a supplemental question: How can the Union be made of any possible good (not to say "the greatest,") to its members without an increased membership? B. A. Hodsell, in the American Bee Journal, says: "Bee-keepers of Ari- zona are up-to-date and wide awake, using the best hives, extractors and all modern improvements. Last, but not least, they read bee papers and keep themselves informed." It is further stated that the Salt and Gila (pro- nounced Heelah) valleys alone have shipped to eastern markets twenty- nine carloads of honey in a single sea- son; that nearly all their bee-keepers are members of two associations, through which they buy their supplies and ship their honey in carload lots. Arizona bee-keepers have long since been brought to realize the benefits of co-operation, find, unlike some of the Bee Journal's sage counselors of the "question box," believe in taking hold of live questions and assisting the de- velopment of improved conditions in which they expect to share; as shown by the large number of Arizona mem- bers in the United States Bee-Keepers' Union. That our brethern of the far southwest are up-to-date and progres- sive, is amply attested by the mere fact of their support to the broadest, most promising and progressive organ- ization that has ever stood as the rep- resentative of our industry and as the champion of the bee-keepers' rights. It would be well if there were more of the Arizona spirit in Illinois and Ken- tucky. At the Colorado convention, in reply to the question: "Will it pay to feed in spring to stimulate," Mrs. Rhodes said she knew it did pay, and in proof of her knowledge, continued: "One spring we fed several pounds of sugar a week. It proved to be a poor season, but we got 1,000 pounds of honey when our neighbors got nothing. Our bees built up and theirs did not. The Australian Bee Bulletin quer- ries: "How many of our readers belong to the National Bee-Keepers' association?" and adds: "If you do not, don't complain you can't get a price for your honey." Substituting our own national association, the U. S. B. K. U., this advice has a significant application right here, at home. Yet we learn through the American Bee Journal's question box that some are waiting for prices to advance before joining the Union. 106 TBE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPEB. June "A captive bee striving to escape, has been made to record as many as 15,540 wing strokes per minute, in a recent test." — San Francisco Post. A writer in the American Bee Jour- nal adduces strong evidence that queen- less bees will sometimes steal eggs from other colonies, with which to re- lieve their otherwise hopeless con- dition. — o — F. Rauchfuss, at the Colorado con- vention, stated his observation to have been that in renewing their old brood combs, bees choose a time when the combs are free from brood, as during queenlessness. An interesting obser- vation, surely. W. P. Whitaker, of Centreville, Utah, writes that he recently purchased ten colonies in dry goods boxes; transfer- red them in the usual way to good hives, and they are now prospering in their homes. Utah is coming to the front as a bee country. — o— The somewhat beclouded skies of the apicultural future are illumed by the light of encouragement, through the introduction of recent improvements, as seen by L. A. Aspinwall, in April Review, who says, "we are progressing towards a perfect system of bee-cul- ture." Then in immediate succession comes an article by C. G. Ferris, wholly in line with his introductory para- graph: "I am thoroughly disgusted with the way that producers of honey are going backward instead of im- proving their product." And the horizon is again obscured by sombre clouds. We have an excellent article on the management of an apiary for extracted honey, by Mr". John Newton, to appear in our next issue. Mr. Newton wrote us May 17th that bees in that section of the country, (Ontario) had wintered well, and were improving the lovely weather by active work on fruit bloom and dandelions. — o — Dr. A. B. Mason, of Toledo, O., writes that the idea of using the blind staple in the end of bottom bars, as suggested in the Bee-Keeper last month, "strikes" him as a good thing, and that he will give it a trial. We have used staples in this way for the past eighteen years, and would not think of trying to work without them. You'll like them, doc- tor. — o — The widely different traits of char- acter in bees of the same variety or race, as noted by every bee-keeper of experience, according to J. E. Crane, in Review, is a disposition to be prized; as it lends substantial encouragement in the work of improving our stock. If all bees of the same race were of uni- form disposition, invariably estab- lished, our ambition in the line of im- provement would be hopeless. — o — Speaking of the fruit institute of Michigan, held at Grand Rapids, the American Agriculturist says: "Prof. Barrows gave one talk each day upon insects of archard fruits, insects of small fruits, fertilization of flowers and the natural enemies of insects. He spoke of the importance of not spray- ing with poisonous solutions while the trees are in flower, as this will also destroy the bees, which are necessary for the cross-fertilization of the flow- ers, recent experiments having shown that with the exception of Baldwin and Greening nearly all of our apples are self-sterile and require the aid of in- sects to cross-fertilize them, while many of the other fruits are also self- sterile." THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPEB. Wl It is said, in Australian Bee Bulletin, that California and , Jamaica honey holds first place in the London mar- kets. The Bee-Keeper would welcome any bee-keeping information with which our Jamaica subscribers might favor us, regarding that fruitful and picturesque isle of the Caribbean. The latest account of Fred L. Cray- craft, of Cuba, with whom we had ar- ranged for some bee-keeping articles for publication, was a letter to his father, Mr. John Craycraft, of Florida, dated Havana, April 18th, in which he stated in the event of war he would disappear into the mountains and join the Cubans. Further intelligence is awaited by his parents with anxiety, which is hopefully shared by the bee- keeping fraternity. That spongy residue often scraped from cakes of beeswax, and gener- ally supposed to be caused by a mix- ture of pollen, propolis and other im- purities, is in fact a result of too much boiling, by which the water is taken in- to the disorganized body of the wax, says C. P. Dadant, in American Bee Journal. Wax should be melted slowly, boiled but little and always with water both inside and outside of the recepta- cle; then allow it to cool slowly. Da- dant is authority on beeswax. o - There are in the United States 110 apairian societies, eight journals de- voted exclusively to this industry, and 15 steam factories for the manufacture of the hives and apiarian implements. There are 300,000 persons engaged in the culture of the bee, and, according to the United States census report, they produced in 1869 14,603,815 pounds of honey, and in 1889, twenty years later, 53,894,168 pounds. According to the eleventh census, the value of the honey and wax production of the United States at wholesale rates, was $7,000,000 and a conservative estimate of the present annual production is $20,000,000.— Green's Fruit Grower. If but one-tenth of these 300,000 bee-keep- ers were members of the United States Bee-Keepers' Union, what would be the annual production and consumption of honey in the United States, ten years hence? Think of it; we can do it if we will. Will we? Where the natural extension of the brood-nest is hampered by stores of honey, bees sometimes transfer a por- tion of it to the super when placed up- on the hive. If dark or inferior grades are below, in such cases, the white honey crop in the sections suffers as a result of the mixture. The last report of the Ontario Agricultural college shows this to have occurred in seven out of ten cases; and the apiarist ad- vises placing an extracting story above until the brood-nest is fully developed. — o — Bees, says Horbis, can embalm as successfully as could the ancient Egyp- tians. It often happens in damp weather that a slug or snail will enter a beehive. This is, of course, to the unprotected slug a case of sudden death. The bees fall upon him and sting him to death at once. But what to do with the carcass becomes a vital question. If left where it is, it will breed a regular pestilence. Now comes in the cleverness of the insects. They set to work and cover it with wax, and there you may see it lying embalmed just as the nations of old embalmed their dead. When it is a snail that is the intruder, he is, of course, impene- trable to their sting, so they calmly ce- ment his shell with wax to the bottom of the hive — imprisonment for life with no hope for pardon.— Ex. To those who have not chanced to observe a similar instance, this may be regarded as somewhat imaginary. Yet all ex- perienced bee-keepers know that it is according to the bees' nature, and pre- cisely what they would do in such cases. We have seen a three-inch liz- zard thus entombed in a hive. Not with "wax," of course, but propolis. 108 TBE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. June The publication of the Pacific Bee Journal has been posponed, owing partly to the publisher's connection with the National Guards of California, and partly to the lack of support owing to the dry year. It is Mr. Bennett's in- tention to resume the publication at some future time, advancing all paid up subscriptions. A I^etter from Maine. An invitation from the editor in the March number of the American Bee- Keeper for bee-keepers to write their experience was intended, presumably, for those of brief experience as well as those further advanced. I have been a subscriber for the American Bee-Keep- er for several years, and find much in it to interest and instruct. Of course there is much written by those high in bee lore that is beyond my comprehen- sion. T do not rememl)er to have seen a re ■ port from this state in the Bee-Keeper. I think Maine is not ranked high as a honey-producing state, though my per- sonal knowledge does not extend much beyond this county, Waldo, where there are several bee-keepers with stock varying from twenty to sixty col- onies; the products of which are dis- posed of in local markets. My own experience commenced about eight years ago, when, in the fall, I bought a heavy hive, or box, very heavy with honey, paying the generous price of |8. The seller assured me that the hive contained sufficient honey to pay the cost, which was, probably, true, but as I could not remove the over-abund- ance, I thought later I had paid a good price for a useless property. However, the bees wintered well, and the follow- ing season my stock doubied. Then, and since, I have used principally the Simplicity hive. My stock hp,s never exceeded twelve colonies, varying down to five. Doubtless for the first year or two my operations, if wit- nessed by an expert in the business, might have caused extensive smiles, if not convulsions. Often in the bungling manner in which they were handled many bees were killed, and it some- times seemed that those remaining were trying to turn the table. I have often regretted that I had not become interested in bees at aJi earlier date, as one to begin in middle life, or later, has that to learn which might have been earlier, and then would be better equipped and more likely to suc- ceed. I am often made aware of my ig- norance, and yet there has been a de- gree of improvement since buying the first colony, prior to which my knowl- edge did not extend far beyond the fact that bees will sting and gather honey. About four years ago I built a narrow- shed along the north side of my bee yard. It is seven feet high in front, four feet deep, two feet of the front from the top is closed in, below that a portico one foot in width extends the length of the structure. In the fall I move the hives back in the shed; in the spring move them forward so that the porticos will just cover the tops of the hives. I like this arrangement very well but see a chance for an im- provement. In the swarming season, if there are more hives than can be accommodated in the shed, they are set in the open space in front. Ordinary winters I have no difficulty in keeping the fronts of the hives clear, but the unusual amount of snow the past win- ter has caused a hard fight to over- come the snow-drifts. I have had good success in wintering bees, having never lost but one colony, and that through carelessness in allowing them to starve. I have succeeded well in wintering colonies that were weak, not 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 109 having a large amount of stores in the fall, by closing them up on a few well-filled combs, leaving no unneces- sary space. Then about the middle of April begin to feed, gradually enlarg- ing the space as needed. I have sev- eral times, by this method, brought such colonies up to a high standard by the time the bloom was on. The yield of honey in this part of the country in 1897 was much below that of 1896. I find much enjoyment in the company of bees, studying their habits, etc. Often coming from the field weary, or, at times, perplexed by cares, I rest in the shade on the rustic seat and watch the "busy bees" until weari- ness passes away, or perplexity is for- gotten. J. F. HEATH. East Thorndike, Me. Milton, Mass., May 12, 1898. Editor American Bee-Keeper: Dear Sir — I am sending herewith a sample of beeswax which, you will no- tice, has holes in it. I suppose they are caused by the same moth that is spoken of in the May Bee-Keeper. This has been going on about seven months, and the dust or excrement upon the sur- face is being produced constantly. Please reply through the Bee-Keeper. Yours truly, B. F. GREEN. [The ^specimen submitted appears ex- actly as any cake of wax soon after be- ins attacked by the moth previously mentioned as fiourishing in the South; and Mr. Green's supposition is prob- ably correct. Though, owing to their less vigorous work in a northern cli- mate, it is doubtful if any material loss would result. During seven of the warmer months the destruction would doubtless have been greater; while a like period in the South would have re- duced it almost to powder. The re- markable feature in this case is that their burrowing, though slight, con- tinued through the winter. — Ed.] The W. T. Falconer Mfg. Co.: Gentlemen — I received the goods in due time in good condition and they are A No. 1 Yours, etc., CHARLES W. EGE, Woodsville, N. J. The W. T. Falconer Mfg. Co.: Dear Sirs — The foundation shipped me March 25th came to hand. It is the finest fotmdation I ever saw. Yours tiuly, FRANZ ZSCHOEMETZSCH, Monticello, N. Y. The W. T. Falconer Mfg. Co.: Gentlemen — The goods just received, and I am well pleased with them. Ma- terial and workmanship can't be beat. Yours, etc., WM. H. BARBER, Maple Grove, N. Y. The W. T. Falconer Mfg. Co.: Gentlemen — Please send me your catalogue for 1898. The supplies re- ceived from you last year were very fine. Yours, etc., F. J. WILSON, Hebron, N. Y. Bast Bloomfield, N. Y., Feb. 12, 1898. W. T. Falconer Co., Jamestown, N. Y: Dear Sirs— Inclosed find eighteen dol- lars and sixty-eight cents to balance account. Our dealings with you this year have been, as in many years past, very pleasant, and the goods all that any one could ask. In the fifty odd dollars' worth of supplies we had of you there was not a cent's worth of poor stock or shortage, and we can highly recommend your supplies. There may be just as good, but I doubt there being any better. Very trtily yours, OLMSTEAD BROS., Per C. A. O. P. S. — We will want as many or more supplies this year. 110 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. June The W. T. Falconer Mfg. Co.: Gentlemen — The goods you sent me are at hand, and I find them, as far as examined, very satisfactory. Yours very truly, JULIUS HOFFMAN, Canajoharie, N. Y. Literary Notej. Lilian Bell is now in Russia for the Ladies' Home Journal, and one of her recent achievements was to secure a photograph of the Czar with her own camera. This is most difficult to do in Russia, where every one with a camera becomes a suspect. But the Russian officers helped this bright American girl. Miss Bell will tell the story of her capture of the Czar in the June Journal. — o — Mrs. Cleveland recently had a new set of photographs taken, the first time she has been photographed since leav- ing the White House, and has given them to Mr. Bok, with permission to publish them in the Ladies' Home Jour- nal, where they will be publicly seen for the first time. The set also includes the first authoritative photographs pub- lished of the new Princeton home of the Clevelands. — o — The May issue of table talk contains much good reading as well as helpful information. "The Edible Weeds and Grasses," are discussed by Miss Cor- nelia C. Bedford, who also ably con- ducts the departments of "Housekeep- ers' Inquiries" and "New Menus and Seasonabl Recipes," being an author- ity on all culinary and household mat- ters. "The Passing of the Pie" is much regretted by Martha Bockee Flint. "Familiar Superstitions" are spoken of by Mrs. Burton Kingsland; "The Olive and its Oil," and the process through which they pass before placed on the market are described by Isabel Bates Winslow; Mrs. Jacobs tells of "Choco- late in Cookery." Some of the most re- cent books which are to hold their places in the literary world are men- tioned by Mary Lloyd. Fashions are talked of by Tillie May Forney, while "The New Bill of Fare" by Mrs. M. C. Myer, touches upon many topics of in- terest to women of today. A sample copy of Table Talk is offered to any of our readers who will send their ad- dress to the Table Talk Publishing Co., Philadelphia, Pa. "How TO Manage Beks," a 50c. book, and the American Bee-Keeper a year for only 60 cents. HONEY AND BEESWAX MARKET REPORT. Below we give the latest and most authentic rei«irt 1)1' the Honey and Beeswax market in dif- ferent trade centers: Bdston, Mass., May 16, 1S98.— Our honey mar- ket is withdut I'han^e exoept that the demand has dr<>]i)n'(l (iir (■(iiisjiicia))ly. (iwiii.L; tn the warmer W(:i|Ih r. \\v .|ii.>lc unr in.ikct to-dav— I'^ancy white III I 111, cailoiis, l:;c.: Nd. 1 white in 1 lb. carliins. 12e.; Mo. 1 white in ula.-s Inait eases 11@ r.'u.; No. 2 do, 9@.10c. Berswa.x very scarce and in good demand. Pure stuck w.iuld bring 28@29c per lb. B i. a k v.. Sc i itt & Lee, 57 (Jhatham Street. New York, May 7, 1898.— Trade in honey is fair- ly active. Fancy white and buckwheat comb find i|ui1(' ready sale witli ns. Trade in Snntliern Cal- ifoMii.-i cMnii-lcd lia- been ■,-efv :'e..il the j.avt few we^'k-. I'.ee-wax Ml .ieiiiMinl. W e r | um| e . .1 1 r mar- ket a- i..ll,,\\,.-- I'aiicv uiiile e,,iiil. licliev, 11(5} 12e.; l.-iir while '.u.,Wr.: l,uek\\ Ileal , C,' „„, 7,:. ; Cal- f.iniia water wliile ,Air;ieied, C ,e.; "( ,■, li hirnia Willie, lie ; Calilenii;! Ij-lii niiil.ei'. .-.'..e.: Southern extra^c. Beeswax, 26c. A. B. Williams & Co., 80-82 Broadway. (TNriNN.VTT. <).. Mar. 21. IKOs.— The demand for cxtraeicd honev i- l.iir, \\ illi shoil sujiplv. Price, 4t..(;e Sh.u deiiKin.l loreoinl. 1(1 to b^c. Good deiiuiiid l.ii' lieeswa.x with .1 l.iirsupply Prices, 2Utoli.'ic. l.u'good lo choic'e \, How. Cn.\s. !•■ Mr I II ^t Son, Cor. Fre.'iiiaii'.-uid i \iitral aves. Dethoit, Mich.. Mar. •_■_!. l.v.is. slow demand for lioiiev. Willi L:o(id Mi|i|,lv ni k.wer 'ji-.iili'^. I'rice olli^hl eoiiil,, '.I lo wr.: dai-k. -, lo'je. cood de- mand lor heesuax. with liL;lil Mi|.plv Pnees 26 to 27e per lb. The better .yrade^, oi laaiey will be nearly all used up in a short time, but there will be considerable undesirable goods carried over. M. H. Hitnt, Bell Ilr.ineh, Mich. Kansas City, Mo., Mar. 21, l.s'.i.s.- Lmhi demand for honey. Good .supply. Price oi e.,iii|p, s to luc. per lb. Extracted, 4>i, to Oj/yC. peril., i.ood de- mand for beeswax, with li,glit supply, at 22 to 2.'ic. per lb. IlAMBLlN & BEAItSS, 514 Walnut Street. 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. Ill KIDNEY AND URIC ACID TROUBLES QUICKLY CURED. You May Have a Sample Bottle of the Great Discovery^ Dr. Kilmer^s Swamp-Root, Sent Free by Mail. Men and women doctor their troubles so" often without benefit, that they get discouraged and skeptical. In most such cases serious mistakes are made in doctoring and in not knowing what our trouble is and what makes us sick. The unmistakable evidences of kid- ney trouble are pain or dull ache in the back, too frequent desire to pass water, scanty supply, smarting irritation. As kidney disease advances the face looks sallow or pale, puffs or dark circles un- der the eyes, the feet swell and some- times the heart acts badly. Should further evidence be needed to find out the cause of sickness, then set urine aside for twenty-four hours; if there is a sediment or settling it is also a convincing proof that otir kidneys and bladder need doctoring. A fact often overlooked, is that women suffer as much from kidney and bladder trouble as men do. Dr. Kilmer's Swamp Root is the dis- covery of the eminent physician and scientist and is not recommended for everything, but will be found just what is needed in cases of kidney and blad- der disorders or troubles due to uric acid and weak kidneys, such as catarrh of the bladder, gravel, rheumatism and Bright's disease, which is the worst form of kidney trouble. It corrects inability to hold urine and smarting in passing it, and promptly overcomes that unpleasant necessity of being com- pelled to get up many times during the night. The mild and extraordinary effect of this great remedy is soon realized. It stands the highest for its wonderful cures. Sold by druggists, price fifty cents and one dollar. So imiversally successful is Swamp-Root in quickly curing even the most distressing cases, that to prove its wonderful merit you may have a sample bottle and book of valuable information, both sent abso- lutely free by mail, upon receipt of three two-cent stamps to cover cost of postage on the bottle. Mention The American Bee-Keeper and send your address to Dr. Kilmer & Co., Bing- hampton, N. Y. This generous offer appearing in this paper is a guarantee of its genuineness. Bishop McCabe, of New York, on Dr. James' Headache Powders. "Wiih regard to Jameb' Headache Powders, I have no hesitation in com- mending them to suffers from head- ache. They relieve the pain speedily, and I have never known anyone to be harmed by their use. The Dr. James Headache Powders have, however, greatly relieved me at times, and I never allow myself to be without them, and have recommended them to others freely. "C. C. McCABE." For sale by H. W. Davis, Falconer, N. Y. STATES I R UNITED ^^ I BEE-KEEPERS' UNION. | Membership Fee, $1.00 per Year. Organized to prill nut !■ .uv\ i.rntccl iIh> interests of its members; to '1' rui'l iln'in in ilu'ir lawful rights: to enforce law- a-ainsi iIh' adnlrcratiiMi of honev; to proseentr 'li^hdiicst coiinni^sinn-men, and to advance the pursuit ol bee-ciilturi' in gen- eral. Executive Committee.— President, Geo. \\. York; Vice-President, W. Z. Hutchinson; Secretary, Dr. A. B. Mason. Station B, Toledo, Ohio. Board' of Directors.— K. R. Root, p: Whitcomb, V. '1'. Alilintt, C. P. Dadant, W. Z. Hutchinson, Dr. C. C. Miller. General Manager and Treasurer.— Eugene Secor, Forest City, Iowa, B@" Always mention the American Bee-Keepek when addressing adverti.scvs. It is to the interest of all concerned. 112 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. June Standard for Quality, and More Popular than Bver. m^. A 5PLENblb RECORD. We Introduced the — ^^^-^ PIRST safety bicycle of standard type. riEST bicycle of light weight and nar- row tread. PIRST cross thread fabric tire. Strong and resilient. PIRST bicycle chain with hardened block and pin. PIRST dust proof, ball-retaining bearing. (Burwell). PIRST bicycle with frames built of large tubing. OUR ns FEATURES: Burwell Bearings with Self-oiling Device. Burwell Detachable Tires. On Glevelands Only. '98M0DELSS^^5^£|; H.A.L0"MI(!0.,Mfr8., Cleveland, O. CATOLUGUE FREE. New ^^.^k, Baltimniv, 5-6t. FraIl.■i^^,^! i>,llanilHirg. FlJllfjOO j(]P ity of Beeswax and UllllUUiiUil the consequent high price of same, we re compelled to advance the prices of founda- tion Three cents per pound. CSS. Ill W.I. fill OinEKfl For Sale CHEAP. JAMESTOWN, N. Y. We have a uew Hawkeye Jr. Cam- era; made by Blair Camera Co. ; takes pic- tures 3.Jx3k uses both roll of film (12 pic- tures) and plates. Is covered with grain leather and has a leather carrying case with strap. Cost $^9.00. Also a complete outfit for developing plates and prints; cost ipB.OO. Will sell the Camera alone for $5.50. or the Camera and (Uitlit for fiy.dO. Address The American Bee-Keeper, FALCONER. N. Y. Farm Bee-Keeping.^^^ The only Bee Paper in the United States edited exclusively in the in- terest of the farmer bee-keeper and the Ijeginner is The Busy Bee, published by EMERSON T. ABBOTT, St. Joseph. Mo. Write for free sample copy now. HONEY EXTRACTOR PERFECTION COLD -BLAST SMOKERS Square Glass Honey Jars. Etc. For Circulars, applv to OHAS. F. MUTE & SON, Cor. Freeman & Central Avenues, Cincinnati, O. Send 10c. for Practic^al Hints to Bee-Keepers. We are also dealers in Honey and Beeswax. PIcnxr.menlUm Amur lean Bee- Keeper. 'I fffi to Bee-Keepers Only ! A HANDSOME CATALOGUE FOR 1898. Address HUDSON, WIS. THE MONTHLY REVIEW. to agents. iO ceut^ a yoar. Samjile s an I r-A \[ ci.mniissidns TITUSVILLE, PA. Htlt DOILIES. All dif- BBinh. fcreiit I'atterns. 1 Large Bread-l'iate Ccnter- cce, 1 J iiicues across; 'Z U-in. lie doilies; will please any ;ul.y. Sendlo 2-ct, stamps for a year's subscription to ir illuslrated Majiazlue for ■ Home and Farm and we will lail these P^ine Doilies Fkkk. ]<\\KMKli'a liKALiM, Wykacuse, N. Y. MViaA ^ 0 ' ^r^ • ^ ■llllllll«YERS, Le Droit Bldg, WASHINGTON. D. C. Patent Wired Comb Foundation Has no Sag in Brood Frames. Tliin Flat Bottom Foundation Has no Fish-bone in Surplus Honey. Being the cleanest is usually worked the quicli- est ol' any Foundation made. The talk about wir- ing frames seems absurd. We furnish a Wired Foundation that is better, cheaper and not half the trouble to use that it is to wire brood-frames. Circulars and Samples Free. J. VAN DEUSEN &, SONS, Sole Manufacturers, Montgomery County. Sprout Brook, N. Y. Please mention American Bee-Keeper. THE AUSTRALIAN BEE BULLETIN. Circulating through all the Australian colonies. New Zealand and Cape of Good Hope. subscription: 5s. per annum in advance; if booked, 6s- 6d. Edited, Printed and Published by E. TIPPER, West Maitland, N. S. W. SCALE OF PRICES FOR ADVERTISEMEN S IN A. BEE BULLETIN: Half-page— Per annum, £5; Half-year, £3; quar- ter, £l-15s. Quarter-page— Per annum, £3; Half-year, £l-15s; Quarter. £1. One-eighth page— Per annum, £l-15s; Half-year, £1; Quarter, 12s. Single Insertion— 1st in., 3s 6d; succeeding 2s-6d. E. TIPPER, WEST MAITLAND, N. S. W. We will send the Ameeican Bee-Keep- ER one year and a box of garden seeds (price |1.60)for 75c., postpaid. Made substan- tial improve- mentswith the beginning of tlic"]ir(.^ent year. It is printed on heavy, white liook paper, from large, clear, new type, and has a cover of heavy cream, paradox paper printed in tliat warmest of all colors-claret. With each number there is also a frontispiece of some subject connected with bee-keeping, pjrinted on heavy ivory enameled paper. These pictures are all half-tones made from photographs. That of December showed a comb badly infected with foul brood. January showed eight sections of comb honey, four of them in the old style of sec- tions and four in the plain style. It is an object lesson worth seeing. The one for February shows a beautiful view ot an out-apiary in the wilds of Wisconsin, a really picturesque view. March frontispiece is a scene in a sugar-maple forest in Michigan. So much by the way of mechanical improvements; but it Is more ditflcult to .describe the Information it contains. Perhaps the best that can be said is that never before has there been so much pains taken to secure the best of correspondence— to get the views and experiences of the very best bee-keepers. The price of the Review is Sl.OO per year, but if you prefer to know still more about it before sub- scribing, send ten cents in either stamps or silver, and three late but different issues will be sent you. These will give you a fair idea of the Re- view, and, if you then wish to subscribe, the ten cents that you have sent may apply on your sub- scription. A coupon will be sent entitling you to the Review one year for 90 cents if sent in during 1898. W. Z. HUTCHINSON, Flint, Mich. Remarkable Offer of Music. To introduce onr new monthly publica- tion, American Popular 3Iusic, we make the following liberal offer: Send ns the names of three or more performers on the piano or organ, and fifteen cents in money or postage, and we vdll mail you sixteen pages of the latest popular songs, two steps, etc., full sheet music arranged for piano or organ, and American Popular Music for 3 months. Address Popular Music Co., Indianapolis, Ind. CLUBBING I6^Subscribers receiving their paper in blue wrapper will know that their subscription expires with this number. We hope that you will not de- lay favoring us with a renewal. >8®»A red wrapper on your paper indicates that you owe for your subscription. Please give the matter your early attention. EDITORIAL. We have recently had a most enjoy- able visit with Mr. Paul VanSyckle, of Porto Rico. Mr. VanSyckle was for a number of years located in Cuba, where we made his acquaintance and enjoyed his hospitalities. An apiary at San Juan, Porto Rico, constitutes a part of his present industrial interests, of which he expects to soon be in charge again. He relates a story of home markets, good prices, profusion of nectar-yielding flowers and general favorable con- ditions that makes us fairly "home- sick" for a Porto Rican bee ranch. DEATH OF CHARLES F. MUTH. Mr. Charles F. Muth, senior member of the firm of Chas. F. Muth & Son, Cincinnati, whose advertisement and market quotations appear regularly in The Bee-Keeper, committed suicide by shooting on May 16th. The rash act is thought to have been committed in a moment of temporary insanity, result- ing from a sunstroke, which he suf- fered several years ago. It is doubtful if there exists in the United States today a commission house that has succeeded in winning the same degree of confidence among the honey-producing fraternity as that of which the name of Chas. F. Muth has been at the head since our earliest recollection. The fact that Mr. Muth was, himself, a bee-keeper, may in part explain the cause of this coniidence. which became the basis of a very ex- tensive and successful bnf=iness, as in- ferred from the reputed extent of his fortune; which is said to have reached hundreds of thousands. Deceased was about 65 years of age, and is survived by a wife and six grown children. THE SUPPLY TRADE. A peculiarity of the bee-keepers' sup- ply trade, is that general business con- ditions of the country are no index of the probable extent of orders for the season. While other factories and mills are booming, the "supply" factory may be idle for lack of orders, and vice versa. Last year was a good one for the sup- ply men, though there was no indica- tion that it would be followed by the largest business in the history of the trade; which appears to have been the case. The W. T. Falconer Mfg. Co. is just now permitted for the first time in three months, to pause for breath; a thing which it would not yet be able to do, had the management not put forth a most determined effort to avoid disappointing their patrons in caring for the unprecedented volume of business, which, judging from the re- ports that have come to us, they have succeeded in doing much more prompt- ly than their competitors; a fact duly appreciated by their customers and noted with gratification by the com- pany. The grand rush of business TBS AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 121 which has taxed the manufacturing fa- cilities of the, country beyond their ca- pacity, must necessarily have resulted in disappointment to many who de- layed ordering too late. The lesson contains an obvious moral, and the ad- vantages of early ordering will be re- alized more keenly in the future. MOVING BEES— SOME PEESONAL EXPERIENCES. The occasional reference to this sub- ject in current bee literature, bearing evidence, as it does, of a general inter- est in the preparation and care of bees in transportation, together with the many requests received from our read- ers for more of our personal experi- ence in The Bee-Keeper, are the only apologies we have to offer for devoting so much space this month to a subject that we had grown to regard as pretty well worn. But here we are reminded that each year adds to our fraternity many young members, from whose ranks must de- velop the Doolittles, the Heddons, the Hutchinsons, etc., of the future. And their enthusiastic missives, pleading for light upon the subject of their newly-awakened interest, recall per- sonal experiences eminently calculated to incite a deep appreciation of our pleasant privilege, and present duty, to freely impart to this most earnest and ever-hopeful multitude, whatever aid may be derived from the lessons of our own bee-keeping life. At some period in the life of most bee-keepers the matter of moving be- comes one of personal and direct inter- est. If this condition transpires during his earlier day in the business, con- siderable anxiety is involved, and in- formation from every available source is eagerly sought; while, though not having had occasion to give the sub- ject previous consideration, the ex- perienced apiarist who finds himself making preparations for a move, does so almost instinctively. Every detail tending to success in the projected move receives minute attention, with- out an anxious thought as to the re- sult. Guided by a thorough knowledge of their characteristic peculiarities and requirements, gained by years of practical work, the bees' every need is considered and provided for; and necessary variations, conforming to varying conditions, are readily recog- nized by the practiced eye, and treat- ment is accordingly applied. That it would be impossible to give stated rules for the preparation and care of bees in moving, that would suit all cases, is one lesson which our ex- perience will illustrate. The transportation of bees in box hives is rarely practiced beyond a local move, which we have upon several oc- casions accomplished with success by simply confining the bees with a strip of wire screen over the entrance, load- ing them into a wagon and driving to the new location. The combs in such hives are secured naturally, and after having been in use for several years are very tough, so that no special care need be observed in handling; and to facilitate loading compactly, may be carried bottom upwards as safely a$ in their natural position. There is one rule, however, that has a general application m preparing bees for a move — one that is effected neither by the style of hives, extent of the trip or other conditions — viz: Always carry a wad of cotton batting as a ready and effectual means of checking any possi- ble escape of bees that may occur. Under certain favorable conditions bees may be kept confined to their hives in transit for weeks, with perfect safety; while under the excitement of adverse circumstances they may die within a few hours. It is a fact also worthy of note that as bees differ in temperament, otherwise displayed, so are some colonies disposed to take con- finement seriously, and keep up a con- stant hue of complaint; while others, 122 TBE AMERICAN Bi:E-KEEPEn. My under the same treatment, cluster quietly, and appear to appreciate the comforts provided by their thoughtful keeper. In the fall of 1886, having been en- gaged to establish an apiary on the south coast of Cuba, we purchased fif- teen strong, three-frame nuclei from a breeder in Ocean county, New Jersey. They were shipped by express to Nov-' steamship, Cienfuegos, bound for Hav- ana, and placed forward on the main deck, where they remained during the voyage and were carefully watched. T'hey would sometimes become rest- less as a result of insufficient ventilation: or, as often, from too" much draft or excessive heat, and were promptly treated accordingly. On lint (Invs a r-pi'inldinp; nf 'iM sea A Cuban York as the beginning of their fif- teen days' trip, where they were placed in an empty room for two days to await the deferred sailing of the steamer. Upon each screened top was placed a sponge saturated with water; and a space of one inch was left over the frames, which were secured by notched sticks across the bottom, into which the bottom-bars rested. On the third day they were loaded upon a dray, driven to the wharf and carried aboard the Ward Line Apiary. water was administered to each colony. That they appreciated these shower- ings was shown by the greedy manner in which the last drop was invariably taken up, while the sponges, soaked with fresh water, were receiving little or no attention. Arriving at Havana four days later, they were transferred to lighters and taken ashore along with other freight, where they were objects of great in- terest to the assembled Havanese in the government warehouse, in which TSE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPEM. 123 they were placed with our other sup- plies during the customa^ry routine of business which every foreign importa- tion involves. The business manager of the new firm, by which we were employed, be- ing a Spaniard, our duties were con- fined to the care of the bees, which were evidently a great novelty to the interested crowd, who, much to our dis- comfort and the bees' displeasure, per- sisted in blowing tobacco smoke through the screens. Our knowledge of the Spanish language rendered any verbal admonition out of the question entirely, though with some emphasis a rebuke in our native tongue proved equally as effectual. After a stop of three days in Havana the bees were removed to the railway station and under our personal care, taken to Batabano, a small town on the south coast, which has since been demolished by the insurgents. Here they were transferred to a coastwise steamer for another sea voyage of 160 miles over the Caribbean to Cienfuegos, a considerable seaport, recently adver- tised extensively. Here, again, they remained confined for three days while we were selecting a permanent loca- tion for the apiary, which was finally decided upon about three miles back from the city, whence they were taken upon a huge native cart, placed upon their new stands and liberated. Not to exceed 200 bees were found dead in the hives, queens were all lively and brood in good condition; and during the first hour of freedom in their new tropical home, many returned from a prospecting tour with abdomens dis- tended and pollen-baskets filled. Our plans were to buy native colo- nies, transfer them to Langstroth frames and Italianize from the stock we had taken from the United States; hence the end of the foregoing moving experience was the beginning of an- other more tedious and widely differ- ent. One hundred colonies of native stock were now required to carry our arrangement into effect, and there be- ing no bee-keepers in the vicinity we were obliged to look them up in the in- terior, from five to twenty miles dis- tant, and move them upon ox-carts to our new location. From the most in- accessible places it was necessary to "pack" them upon the back of mules. To de.scribe the irregular, dilapidated boxes and logs with open ends, of va- rious lengths and sizes, scattered about the yards, which constitute "a Cuban apiary," is a task that we have vainly attempted in the past. The accompany- ing picture which we are permitted to show our readers through the courtesy of Gleanings in Bee Culture, will give but a meagre idea of the appearance of the "average" Cuban bee-yard, as the proprietor of the apiary shown was evidently a man of exceptional thrift and energy, as evidenced by the uni- form size of "las colmenas," and his his thoughtfulness in thus elevating them from the ground. The conclusion is strengthened by the apparent fact that of the six hives shown, not to ex- ceed two or three are rotten enough to necessitate wrapping with rope before moving, a substantial condition rarely met in Santa Clara province. It will serve well, however, to show exactly the appearance of a small Cuban apiary, with the white combs protruding from the ends of two of the "skeps," and shaded by orange trees. If the view was from the opposite position, it is quite likely the combs would be ex- posed to view in the other four, as the colony usually inclines to one end or the other. The white flowers in the foreground are probably the honey- yielding bellflower, of which we will have more to say in a future issue, as we will also of the work of moving and transferring over a hundred of these native colonies, and other moving ex- periences in detail, in Florida and other countries. Subscribe for The Bee-Keeper. 124 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. Juhj DEFENDING OUR RIGHTS. Notwithstanding the good work that has been done of late in defense of the bee-keepers' rights by the National Bee-Keepers' Union, cases are con- stantly coming up whereby bee-keepers are subject to great annoyance and often expense, as a result of some real or imaginary grievance of neighbors. Publishers of apicultural journals, to a greater extent than any other class, have these instances brought to their notice by these ''victims of spleen," who seek counsel and assistance in their hours of trouble. "We venture to say that there is not an editor in the whole country who does not, in such cases, regret his inability to render sub- stantial aid. They can advise, of course: but the best advice of which we know is this: "Get into the Union, dear brother, and your future difficul- ties will be taken in hand by thg ablest legal talent in the land, backed by an adequate fund, which will insure jus- tice to your rights and interests. And in the event of your good fortune to es- cape further trouble in this line, it will be a source of satisfaction to know that you are assisting others to hold their rights against the unjust accusations of misguided and ignorant persons. Trouble is brewing for a bee-keeper in Northampton county. Pa., as we learn by a letter just received. He has kept bees for fifteen years without a thought of any unpleasantness; but, like hundreds of others, his hour has come; and, we regret sincerely to state, he has no claim upon the Union's pro- tection. UNITED STATES BEE-KEEPERS' UNION. It is with more than ordinary pleas- ure that The American Bee-Keeper places before its readers this month a collection of portraits of those who at present hold office in America's great- est bee-keeping organization — the United States Bee-Keepers' Union. The future of bee-keeping in the United States will be exactly what wt- make it, and it really seems to us that we cannot too highly esteem the op- portunity afforded by the Union to join hands in one grand effort tending to the uplifting of our industry. The gen- eral manager well says the enter piise is too great to be attempted by any in- dividual, but, by association with such able representative men as those at present in office, who are serving from purely fraternal motives, and without other compensation than the pleasure of thus assisting the cause of American bee-keeping, how simple the matter be- comes, and how easily the long-hoped- for results may be achieved. From all that has appeared in the platforms of other societies as being most desirable and important to pro- mote the general interests of our in- dustry, the U. S. B. K. U. has been evolved; and today as never before we, as bee-keepers, are privileged to as- sert with becoming dignity and effect- ive force, our claims to recognition among the great and growing indus- tries of the nation. We have no inclination to question the claim made by all associations, to have some special field of usefulness, beneficial in some degree to the inter- ests of their members, socially or financially; yet we think it doubtful if, prior to the advent of this modern and progressive association, any American bee-keepers' organization has had as its basis, a constitution of sufficient breadth and so far-reaching in its scope of useful and important work as to render its support an obligatory duty. The constitution was published in The Bee-Keeper for October, 1897, and copies of the same may be had by ad- dressing the secretary, Dr. A. B. Mason, Station B, Toledo, Ohio. Now is the time to subscribe for The Bee Keeper. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 125 ■^0^^^m^m:^., Rutledge, Pa., June 13, 1898. Dear Editor — I saw in a bee journal recently a suggestion about getting rid of the after effects of foul brood by pour- ing kerosene on the inside of the hive and igniting it. It strikes me that if heat be the thing wanted, a plumber's gaso- line torch would be just the thing, be- cause it generates an intense heat. Some apiarians are using formalin in solution. M. F. REEVE. United States Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. June 7, 1898. W. T. Falconer Mfg. Co., Falconer N. Y. Dear Sirs — The hive material ordered from you recently was duly received, and has given satisfaction — in fact, though I have bought bee-supplies to a greater or less extent every year for twenty-five years past, I have never seen greater accuracy nor any better material than your goods show. Yours truly, FRANK BENTON. Verdoy, N. Y., March 28, 1898. Editor American Bee-Keeper: Dear Sir — Permit me to say for the benefit of your .readers, that in winter- ing out of doors in an eight-frame hive, I find it an advantage to remove one frame — leaving but seven. In this way you get more bees together and they are kept warmer. Give a little venti- lation at the top, and if the seven frames are full of honey they will win- ter out of doors all right, without pro- tection. And furthermore, without protection they feel the cold winds strike the outside of the hive and will not come out every bright day to be chilled and die, which they will do if protected on the northwest, as I have proven during the past winter. You cannot freeze a colony to death that has plenty of stores and ventilation. Heat without ventilation produces mould, and that is what kills the bees. The cover was blown off of one of my hives last winter when the mercury was twenty degrees below zero, and when I found it the bees' only covering was a piece of canvass, still they came through all right. Yours truly, E. CHARLES McCLEARY. Freeport, Me., April 5, 1898. Editor American Bee-Keeper: Dear Sir — I began my bee-keeping with two colonies in the fall of 1894, never having anything to do with them before, and I now have eight in good condition this spring; have sold some to keep the number small. The winter of '94 I put my two colonies in the attic, but found the temperature so uneven that I lost most of the bees before it was time to put them out doors. In April one built up rapidly and gave me two swarms and twenty pounds of honey that season, while the other failed to swarm or make any honey. The next winter I used dry goods boxes for outside cases, after fill- ing the half-story full of fine hay from the lawn. I set them in the boxes fac- ing the southeast and then filled the box full of hay and leaves. My only trouble with that was the rain running through and freezing around Lhe hives, still, with that trouble the bees win- tered well. Two years ago I built a bee house for summer and winter use, large enough for nineteen colonies. 1 use portico hives and fit the front into openings left in the walls for that pur- pose. My bees are thus protected from wet and heat of summer, and still may pass freely in and out at any time. The house is of benefit in cool nights in summer and fall, when the bees have 126 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. Jtihj been at work in the field through the day; it holds the heat so that bees will stay at work all night in sections, when, if left out of doors, they will all go down to the brood and leave the sec- tions until the middle of the next fore- noon, thus making a loss for the bee- keeper. This fall I intend to buy an extractor so as to extract partly-filled sections, and some from full frames. Yours respectfully, WILLIS SNOW. ^^'^EE BREVlTlE5.fe^@ If you receive more than one copy of The Bee-Keeper, kindly hand the extra one to some one else who is interested in bees. — o — Californians are rejoiced over a couple of showers of rain which fell upon them in May. But they came too late to effect the sage honey crop. — o — We now have the National Queen- Breeders' Union; organized for the protection of queen buyers and reli- able breeders. J. O. Grimsley, Byrds- town, Tenn., is secretary of the new association. — o — Delos Wood, in Gleanings, thinks it is the people who rely upon the cap- ping of hojiey to determine its fitness to extract, who put the unripe honey upon the markets. He extracts before it is capped, then evaporates to the de- sired consistency, which, he says, is not less than twelve pounds to the gal- lon. — o — In the Canadian Bee Journal D. W. Heise says: "I just want to whisper that if better filled sections are really desired by honey producers and con- sumers, and freer communication will bring about that result, I think I know how it can be secured to a far greater extent than can possibly be done with the plain section and fence, as now ad- vocated." That's what is wanted, Mr. Heise. Launch your idea. A short- bladed putty-knife is a most convenient tool when taking off supers. It is in fact very handy every day in the apiary. — o — The mechanical genius of the bee- keeping fraternity is now being brought to bear upon devices for cleaning sec- tions of honey by machinery. — o — Mr. E. M. Storer, who has two hun- dred colonies in the vicinity of the great Okefinokee swamp in Southern Georgia, writes that while he has con- siderable stock of extracted honey of this year's crop on hand in 60-pound cans and 500-pound barrels, destruct- ive forest fires are responsible for a much shorter crop than would otherwise have been obtained. Our southern friends seem to be "catching it" all around from fires this year. Our own apiary in South Florida has been no exception. — o — J. H. Martin, author of the popular "Rambler" series of articles in Glean- ings, has forsaken the parched valleys of Southern California and sought the more propitious conditions existing in Siskiou county, several hundred miles farther north, where he is wrestling with about 240 dilapidated Harbison hives. Undei- date of May 28, Mr. Mar- tin writes that notwithstanding the se- vere drouth with Avhich the southern counties of the state are afflicted this year, and by which a loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars will restilt to their honey, fruit and sugar beet in- dustries, that alfalfa fields of his pres- ent location have been amply watered by frequent rains, and the prospects for a honey crop are favorable. When the Rambler started north in quest of pastures new, we thought he would "turn up" about Honey Lake, but the still more enticing name of Oro Fino attracted him still farther, and he is now located in that isolated mining camp, near the Oregon line. 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 12- If you should receive an exti-a copy of The Bee-Keeper, kindly hand it to some friend interested in bees. By so doing you may render a two-fold ser- vice. W. M. Gerrish, East Nottingham, N. H., is agent for our supplies. Bee- keepers in his vicinity can save freight by ordering of him. BEGINNERS. Beginners should have a copy of the Am- ateur Bee-Keeper, a 70-page book, by Prof. J. W. Rouse; written especially for ama- teurs. Second edition just out. First edi- tion of 1,000 sold in less than two years. Editor York says: "It is the finest little book published at the present time. ' ' Price 25 cents; by mail, 28c. The little book and the Progressive Bee-Keeper (a live, pro- gressive, 28 page monthly journal) one year for 65c. Apply *o any firet-class dealer or address LEAHY MFG. CO., Higginsville, Mo. If, If, If, Bingham has made all the improvements in Bee Smokers ^^ Honey Knives made in the last 20 yeai'S. Undoubtedly he makes the best on earth. Smoke En- gine, 4-inch stove, none too large, sent post- paid, per mail, $1.50; :^.l-in., $1.10; 3in., $1.00; 2i-iu., 90c; 2-iu., 70c; Little Won- der, 2in., 05c; Knife, SOc. T. F. BINGHAM, Farwell, Micli. FAIinrlrftinn Owing to the scare ml In ''^"^ Beeswax and UUIIUUilUll the consequent high price of same, we re compelled to advance the prices of Founda- tion 5 cents per pound, ou catalog prices. lie 1 1. Foiconi JAMESTOWN, N. Y. Bishop McCabe, of New York, on Dr. James' Headache Powders. "With regard to James' Headache Powders, I have no hesitation in com- mending them to suffers from head- ache. They relieve the pain speedily, and I have never known anyone to be harmed by their use. The Dr. James Headache Powders have, however, greatly relieved me at times, and I never allow myself to be without them, and have recommended them to others freely. "C. C. McCABE." For sale by H. W. Davis, Falconer, N. Y. HONEY AND BEEIWAX MARKET REPORT. Below we give the latest aud most authentic report of the Honey aud Beeswax market in dif- ferent trade centers: New York, June 14 —Demand for Comb is slow at 10@rJefor white; Extracted is bringing -134®' 6^40, with good demand. Supply of Beeswax is light with active demand at 28@30c. We would advice shipments of Extracted Honey and Bees- wax. Francis H. Leggett & Co. Franklin and Yarick Sts. Detroit, Mich.. .Tune 15. 1898.— No demand for honev, with none in sight. Comb, market bare. Extracted, 5@6c. Good demand for Beeswax, with light supply. Prices. 28(5'30c M. H. Hunt, Bell Branch, Mich. Boston, Mass., June 9. 1^98.— .\t the present time the demand for Ixith Comli and Extracted Hr>nev is very light, witli Inu little >tock on hand. We quote ourmaket— Fancv White incartons.lSc; A No. 1 white in glass fmiit ca-es lU-/ r2c.; No. 1 do, 10@llc.; No. 2 do. ^(a\)ti., Extracted, white, 6@7c.; light amber, 5(w,Gc. Beeswax, pure, in good demand and light supply, at 30c. Blake, Scott & Lee, 57 Chatham Street. Kansas City. Mo., June 15, 1898.— Good demand for honey. Light supply. Price of comb, 8 to lie. per lb. "Extracted, 4 to 5%c. per lb. (.iood de- mand for Beeswax, with light supply, at 25c. per- Ib. ( )ld crop cleaned up and very little on the market. Hamblin & Beah.ss. 514 Walnut Street. I UNITED STATES | I BEE-KEEPERS* UNION, p Membership Fee, $1.00 per Year. Organized to pn mil ite and protecl Ihe interests of its memliers; to dufcnd them in iheir lawful rights; to enlciree law.- ag^imst the adulteration of honey; to prosecute dishonest commission-men, and to advance the pursuit of bee-culture in gen- eral. • Executive Committee.— President, Geo. W. York; Virc-I'rrMilcnt. W. /., Ilntcliinson; Secretarv, Dr. A. P.. .Masun. sialmn M, Tol,..|,,, Ohio. Board of Directors. -1-: K- lioot, E Whitcomb, K. T. .\l.liott, ('. P. Jiadunt, \V. Z. Hutchinson, Dr. C. C. Miller. General Manager and Treasurer.— Eiigone Secor, Forest City, Iowa. 128 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. July Golden or 3-band Ital- ian, warranted; two yards; rearing a spe- '• cialty for seven years. Thousands sold; $1.00 each; after May ist, 75c. Free circular. tf J. B. CASE, Port Orange, Fla. to Bee-Keepers Only ! A HANDSOME CATALOGUE FOR 1898. Address HUDSON, WIS. You Cant Make For sale by H, M, GAGE, East 3d Street, Jamestowu, N. Y /S;v^_Standard for Quality, ^i&J and More Popular than Ever. A 5FLEND>lb RECORD. We Introduced tbe^ TIEST safety bicycle of standard type. TIEST bicycle of light weight and nar- row tread. riRST cross thread fabric tire. Strong and resilient. riRST bicycle chain with hardened block and pin. riRST dust proof, ball-retaining bearing. (Burwell). riRST bicycle with frames built of large tubing. OUR '08 FEATURES: Bui-well Bearings with Self-oiling Device. Burwell Detachable Tires. On Clevelands Only. '981VIOnF,IVSo,$6S.$r5. HJ.lOZlii;0.,Mfr8., CATOLUGUE FREE. Cleveland, O. New York, Boston, Pliiladelphia, Baltimore, Buffalo, Detroit, San 5-6t. Francisco, LoRdoii, Paris, Hamburg. PATENTS !| PROMPTLY SECURED! Write for our inter, sting books " Invent- or's Help " and " How you are swindled." Send us a rough sketcli or model of vour invention or improvetnentand we will tell -rn ft-ee our opinion as to whether it is i robahly patentable. We make a specialty of applications rejected in other handa. > ' Highest references furnished. MARION & MARION PATENT SOLICITORS & EXPERTS I Civil 4 Mechanical EntMiiPers. Grartuatos of the ^ Polytechnic School of Engineering Bachelors in - Applied Sciences, Laval Universitv. Membera Patent Law Association, American Water Works i Association, New England Water Works Assoc. P. Q. Surveyors Association, Assoc. Member Can. Society of Civil Engineers. W^ASHINGTOV, D. C. Offices; 'i MoNTitEAi., Can. FREE 3 PINE LlNESr DOILIES. All dif- ferent ratterns. 1 Large Bread-Plate Center- piece, 10 iuches across; 2 0-in. Plate dollies; will please any lady. Send 13 2-ct. stamps for a year's subscription to our Illustrated Magazine for Hoiue and Farm and we will mail these Fine Doilies Fke4:. FARMER'S KEAliM, SYRACUSE, N. Y. CflnEK/1 For Sale CHEAP. We have a uew Hawkeye Jr. Cain- era, made by Blair Camera Co.,; takes pic- tures 3ix3j: uses both roll of film (12 pic- tures) and plates. Is covered with grain leather and has a leather carrying case with strap. Cost ft9.U0. Also a complete outfit for developing plates and prints; cost $8.00. Will sell the Camera alone for |5..50. or the Camera aud outfit for $9.(X>. Address The American Bee-Keeper, FALCONER, N. Y. 160-Page Bee Book FREE. Book Sent Free with American Bee Journal. Every new subscriber sending 81.00 for the weekly American Bee Journal for one year will receive a copy of Newman's ittO-page "Bees and Honey" free. The old American Bee Journal is great this year. You ought to have it. Sample of Bee Journal tree. Write for it. Geo. W. York & Co., 118 Micliigau St., Chicago, 111. 'S hon:ry extractor PERFECTION COLD -BLAST SMOKERS Square Glass Honey Jars, Etc. For Circulars, apply to CHAS. r. MUTH & SON, Cor. Freeman &. Central Avenues, ClNCiNNAxr, O Send 10c. for Practical Hints to Bee-Keepers. \Te are also dealers iu Honey and Beeswa Please mention American Bee-Keeper. Farm Bee-Keeping,_-^>- The only Bee Paper in the United States edited exclusively in the in- terest of the Ihrmer bee-keei>er aud the beginner is The Busy Bee, published by FMEESON T. ABBOTT, St. Josepli, Mo. Write for free .s;imple copy now. One Man with tlie UNION c^-J-i-"- Can do the work of four men using hand tools, in Ripping-, Cutting-off, Mi- tring,Rabbeting, Grooving, Gaining, Dadoing, Edging- up, Jointing stuff.etc. Full Line of Foot and Hand Power Machinery. Sold on Trial. CataloffueFl-ef. Seneca Falls Mfg. Co., 4-5 Water St., 1 12 Seneca Falls, N. Y. Beeswax Wanted! We will pay 28 cents cash or 50 cents in goods, for good quali- ty of Beeswax, freight paid to FALCONER, N. Y. If you have any ship it to us at once. (Prices subject to chartge without notice.) IW.l.ttOMMl'gCt. 50 YEARS' EXPERIENCE Marks Designs FT..- Copyrights &c. Anvone sending a sketch and description may quickly ascertain our opinion free whether an Invention is probably patentable. Communica- tions strictly confidential. Handbook on Patents sent free. Oldest agency for securing patents. Patents taken through Munn & Co. receive tpecial notice, without charge, in the Scientific Hmerican. A handsomely illustrated weekly. Largest cir- culation of any acientiflc journal. Terras. *d a year: four months, $1. Sold by all newsdealers. MUNN SCo.^^'^'"^''^^^ New York Branch Office, 626 F St., Washington, D. C. EVERY BEE-KEEPER To have a copy of OUR 1898 CATALOG. Send us your name and address and we will take pleasure in mailing you a copy. G. B. IvEWIS CO., 3-tf. Watertown Wia. Untested, 70 cents each, 3 for $2 ; after July J St, 50 I cents each. Tested Queens, $1.00 I each. Colonies of Bees, $6.50. Two and three frame nuclei. Safe arrival and satisfaction guaranteed. Large illustrated catalog free. THEODOEE BENDER, Canton, 0. j 4.tf Mention the Bee-Keeper. BARNES' FOOT POWER MACHINERY. This cut represents our Combined Machine, which is the best machine made for use in the construction of Hives, Sections, Boxes, etc. Sent on trial. Send for Cat- alogue and Pi ice List. W. F. & JOHI\l BARI>fES CO- SIS Ruby St., Rockford, III. Please mention American Eee-Keeper. is^WHEELS, Too! MILLER RODE ONE 2093 MILES IN 132 HOURS The Eldredge ^so.oo The Belvidere #^o.oo Superior to all others irrespective of price. Catalogue tells you why. Write for one. NATIONAL SEWING MACHINE CO, 339 BROADWAY. New York. Factory, BELVIDERE, ILL. The Feuce and Plain Sectious,- Weed New Process Fonndatiou. Cowan Extraetoi'S Porter Bee-Escapes — the best made. Dovetailed Hives with Danz. patented Cover and Bottom, Dauzeubaker Hives. No-drip Shipping-cases. Gleanings in Bee Cultnre; illustrated, senii-monthly. Catalog of Goods, and sample copy of Gleanings sent for your name on a. postal Branch Offices: nt^ Michigan St., Chicago, 111. 1024 Mississippi St., St. Paul, Minn. 16o5 \\. Genesee St., Syracu.se, N. Y. in Vine St., Pliiladelphia, Pa. Mechanic Falls, Me. THE A. L ROOT CO., Medina, Ohio. BEGINNERS, Beg'inners .should have a copy of the Am" atenr Bee-Keeper, a 70-page book, by Prof. J. W. Eou,se; written especially for ama- teurs. Second edition just out. First edi- tion of 1,000 sold in less than two years. Editor York says: "It is the finest little book published at the present time." Price 25 cents; by mail, 28c. The little book and the Progressive Bee-Keeper (a live, pro- gressive, 28 page monthly journal) one year for 65c. Apply to any first-class dealer or address LEAHY Mia. CO., Higginsville, Mo. Patent Wired Comb Foundation Has no Sag in Brood Frames. Ttiin Flat Bottom Foundation Has no Fish-bone in Surplus Honey. Being the cleanest is usually worked the quick- est of any Foundation made. The talk about wir- ing frames seems absurd. We furnish a Wired Foundation that is better, cheaper and not half the trouble to use tiiat it is to wire brood-frames. Circulars and Saiiii>U's Free. J. VAN DEUSEN &. SONS, Sole Manufacturers, Montgomery County. Sprout Brook, N. Y. Please mention American Bee-Keeper. THE AUSTRALIAN BEE BULLETIN. Circulating through all the Australian colonies. New Zealand and Cape of Good Hope. subscription: 5s. per annum in advance; if booked, 6s- 6d. Edited, Printed and Published by E. TIPPER, West Maitland, N. S. W. SC.\LE OF PRICES FOR ADVERTI.SEMEN 8 IN A. BEE BULLETIN: Half-page— Per annum, £5; Half-year, £3; quar- ter, £l-15s. (iuarter-page— Per annum, £3; Half-year, £l-15s; Quarter. £1. One-eighth page— Per annum, £l-15s; Half-year, £1: Quarter, 12s. Single Insertion— 1st in., 3s 6d; succeeding 2s-6d. E. TIPPER, WEST MAITLAND, N. S. W. We will send the American Bee-Keep- er one year and a box of garden seeds (price $1.60) for 7.5c., postpaid. Last vear only about 1 per cent.— only one sub- scriber'in 100- orderedhis Review discontinued. If the Review could secure 1,000 new subscribers the present vear.there is almost absolute certainty that at least 900 of them would remain, not only next year, but for several years— as long as they are interested in bees. Once a really griod journal visits a bee-keeper a whole year, it usually be- comes a permanent member of his family. I would have no difHculty whatever in getting twice 1,000 new subscribers this year if all the bee-keepers in this country ha'l reml the Ik' view the past year. I have sometimis ihuimiit, it iniiiht pas a publisher to give away his i(j\inial one year, simply for the sake of getting it into new hands. There are, of course, decided objections to such a course, but I .am going to come as near to it as I dare. Here is my offer: If you are not a subscriber to the Review. send me ¥1.00 and 1 will send vou twelve back numbers, the Review the rest of tliis year, and all of next year. Each issue of the Review, especially if devoted to the discussion of some special topic, is really a pamphlet containing the best thoughts and ex- perience of the best men upon the topic under discussion. Twelve back numbers of the Review are, to a certain extent, so many little books de- voted to as many different phases of bee-keeping. Some issues of the Review are now out of print: of others only a few copies are left; while of others there are several hundred. Of course I shall send those of which I have the greatest number. Most people subscribe for a journal at the be- ginning of the year. In this case there is no use of waiting, as you will get the Review for next vear just the same as though you waited until iiext January to subscribe; and you will get the rest of the numbers for this year, /jw. The sooner you subscribe, the more free issues you will re- ceive. Let me tell it once more: For fl.OO you can get twelve back numbers, the Review the rest of this year, and all of 1899. ■ w.z. Remarkable Oifer of Music. To introduce our new monthly publica- tion, American Popular 3Iusic, we make the following liberal offer: Send us the uames of three or more performers on the piano or organ, and fifteen cents in money or postage, and we will mail you sixteen pages of the latest popular songs, two steps, etc., full sheet music arranged for piano or organ, and American Popular Music for ,3 months. Address Popular Music Co., Indianapolis, Ind. Published Monthly by the W. T. ralconer Manfg Co. VoL VIIL AUGUST, J898. No. 8. How to Introduce a Valuable Queen Safely. Written for The American Bee-Keeper. BY G. M. DCOI.ITTLK. ^iS) CORRESPONDENT writes me 'w;|/(y\'(d' that he has iust lost a very valu- ^^■'~' able queen in trying to intro- duce her, one for which he paid $5.00, and he feels so badly over the matter that for the time present, bee-keeping has nearly "lost its charms."' He closes his letter with these words: "Is there any really safe plan for the intro- duction of queens? If so, will you tell us what it is and how to proceed, in The American Bee-Keeper?" The safe introduction of queens is a subject upon which much has been written and many plans have been de- vised to accomplish this object, but as the most of them fail to bring about the desired results, it may be well to write a few words on this subject, on which so much has been written that it would seem almost "thread-bare." For the introduction of all queens, except those of special value, I follow the directions which accompany nearly every queen now sent through the mails, which is that of allowing the bees of the queen- less colony to eat the food which is stored in the cage, as provisions for its occupants while in transit, by opening a small hole in the end of the cage so the bees of the colony can have access to it. This eating of the food will re- quire two or three days, and during this time the colony is becoming ac- quainted with their future mother through the wire-cloth which fastens the queen and her attendants in the cage, the wire-cloth side of the cage being so placed that the bees from the colony can have free access to it. Then, when the candy is eaten out, the queen need not go among the bees until she and those which come into the cage get thoroughly acquainted, and, as she goes out at her leisure, there is none of the excitement which generally ac- companies any mode of direct introduc- tion. With this plan I do not lose more than one queen in fifty introduced: but as I do not want to take that one-fiftieth chance on a queen which bids fair to be of great value to me, years ago I studied out the following plan, which I have used for over fifteen years, and have never lost one single queen with it. I probably should have been con- tent to have used this nearly perfect plan, as sent out by queen breeders, had it not been, that in some way or other, that when a loss did occur, it was quite apt to fall on a most valuable queen coming from a long distance at a great expense, so that the loss was more keenly felt, as was the case with the correspondent. From nearly the first year of my bee- 130 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. Avgufessary, while the discuss- ion is going on, if our readers will freely express their views of this sub- ject. While it is on let us fathom its depths, and by friendly discussion lo- cate the wrong which seems to ex- ist, with a view to permanently better- ing future conditions. — Ed.] Kindness in ourselves is the honey that blunts the sting of unkindness in another,— Landor, 189S. T^E AMERICAN BEE-KEEPEB. 133 Bee Culture in Japan. Vrittenfor the American BeC'Keeper. BY J. IKEIJA. ,PICULTURE in Japan is yet in an undeveloped state, though our people have kept bees from time unknown. The species is, per- haps, native. They work diligently and are very gentle, though they have the peculiar trait of gathering only a part of the honey from each flower — leaving a portion of it behind. They never cast a large swarm, and other small swarms are liable to issue soon after the first, and first swarms sometimes cast a swarm the same year. The body is somewhat smaller than that of the Italian, and the abdomen is gray. The hives are not especially made, and empty barrels, which are hung un- der the eaves of a house, are often used. These bee-keepers are ignorant of the modern methods of increasing arti- ficially, and think success a matter of luck. There prevails a proverb: "When one's colonies go to increase, one will soon become a millionaire." Prof. Tamari, of our Imperial uni- versity faculty, was a pupil of Prof. Cook, and was very much inspired by the professor's teachings. During his association with the university profes- sor Tamari • has written a book on apiculture, which was heartily wel- comed by the people of Japan, and has already reached the third edition. I am sending you a copy of the work to- day. Its introduction has awakened our people from their long sleep, and they are now paying attention to the bee-keeping industry. We are told by scholars that Japan has progressed wonderfully of late; if it is a fact, it may be attributed to Commander Perry, who opened our closed seaports to the world, and thus introduced Western light. And now Prof. Cook has, through Prof. Tamari, enlightened our apicultural world. We owe much to your people. Long live America! Tokyo, Japan, June 27, 1898. [The book and copy of the "Popular Agriculturist," were duly received and appreciated, though, owing to our ig- norance of the Japanese language, in which they are printed, we shall not derive much knowledge of bee-keeping methods in "the land of the Mikado," from this source. The American Bee- Keeper wishes our oriental brethern all the success their progressive spirit de- serves; and that is not a little. — Ed.] Prevention of Increase. Writlen for the American Bee- Keeper. BY C. THEILMANN. HE following way of preventing increase I find to work better than any of the plans recom- mended which I have tried. It is origi- nal with myself, and may be of inter- est to readers of The American Bee- Keeper. I allow my bees to swarm naturally, and when a swarm issues I cage the queen and lay the cage at the entrance of the hive from which she came. As the swarm returns and re-enters the hive, this gives me a powerful colony for the production of comb honey. The queen is sometimes left at the entrance for a week or more, and on the seventh day after swarming, I go through the hive and remove all queen cells, being very careful not to leave one, as to miss a cell is to insure a second swarm and defeat the whole purpose of the opera- tion. Usually, by the seventh day, a queen will have hatched, but if not, the cells are all taken off just the same, and some of the ripest of them are laid at the entrance also, for the bees to care for until hatched. The first one to emerge will enter the hive to assume her "reign," and the others will be killed by her as they hatch. This ef- fectually puts an end to second swarm- ing; or, at least, until the best of the harvest is over from white clover and linden. If I have no place in other colonies 134 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. August where I can use the best of the old queens to advantage, they are killed, as are also the inferior queens, both old and young, and stock substituted from my best sti-ains. At this time a queen will, as a rule, be readily accepted by the bees if simply run in at the en- trance; which is the plan I employ in introducing under such conditions. This method of preventing increase, not only gives a strong force of work- ers for the harvest, but introduces young, vigorous queens each season. Theilmanton, Minn. The Queen and Her Mating. An interesting feature of the Ameri- can Bee Journal is its "question box" department, through which replies by a score of prominent bee-keepers are given to one or more questions pro- pounded by its readers; the query and answers thereto appearing at the same time; an example of which, from its is- sue of July 7, we give entire. Some of our readers have kindly written us regarding bee-keeping mat- ters, and at the same time expressed a disinclination to write anything for publication, through fear of criticism by the wiser ones. To such, in par- ticular, we invite a careful perusal, and general comparison of the replies of a quarter of a hundred American author- ities, to a simple, every-day problem in practical bee-keeping. And in the fu- ture we hope no one will hesitate upon this ground to freely express his opin- ion. We have all much to learn, and may do it in no other way so well as by a free and fearless expression of our personal ideas: Query 75.— Under favorable conditions : 1. How many days will elapse after the qneen hatches from the cell before she takes her flight? 2. How many days after hatching before she commences laying? 3. Is it true that the mating of the queen and drone always causes the death of the latter?— Utah. Emerson T. Abbott — I do not know. J. A. Stone— 1. From 1 to 5. 2. From 8 to 15. 3. Yes. J. A. Green— 1. 6 or 7 days. 2. 10 days. 3. I do not know. Dr. C. C. Miller — 1. 5 days or more. 2. Something like 10. 3. Probably. Chas Dadant & Son— 1. About 6 days, never short of 5 days. 2. 2 to 4. 3. Yes. Mrs. J. M. Null— 1. 5 to 11 days. 2. 10 to 16 days. 3. Death is a physical necessity. R. L. Taylor— 1. From 4 to 8 days. 2. From 6 to 15. 3. I think so, of neces- sity. Dr. J. P. H. Brown— 1. Usually in 4 or 5 days. 2. On an average, in 10 days. 3. 'Tis true, I believe. Prof. A. J. Cook— 1. 3 to 6— usually 5, with suitable weather. 2. 3; occasion- ally 2. 3. Yes. J. M. Hambaugh— 1. From 3 to 7 days. 2. 6 to 10.' 3 Yes, according to our best authority. E. France — 1. I don't know. 2. A week to 10 days. 3. I don't know, and don't think anyone knows. O. O. Poppleton— 1. From 6 to 9 days, usually; but there are many ex- ceptions. 2. Add a couple of day to above figures. 3. I don't know, but think yes. D. W. Heise— 1 and 2. That will vary greatly, depending much upon the weather, and other conditions. 3. I give it up; ask them that know. W. G. Larrabee — 1 and 2. I never saw a queen take her flight, but she will commence laying from 3 days to a week after hatching. 3. I don't know. J. E. Pond— 1. Usually 2 or 3 days. 2. 5 or 6 days. 3. Yes, the drone loses the male organ at the time of mating, and death, as a rule, immediately re- sults. Mrs. L. Harrison — 1 and 2. It will depend upon the weather as to the time of flights and the laying of the queen. 3. I don't know. What is the differ- ence, anyhow, whether he lives or dies? C. H. Dibbern— 1. From 12 to 16 days. 2. I am not sure about this, but I think the time varies somewhat. 3. 1898. THE A3IEBICAN BEE-KEEPER. i:?5 That is the common understanding, but there may be exceptions. E. S. Lovesy— 1. About 5 days. 2. 8 to 9 days. 3. I would very much like to know. 1 have many times seen a young queen come out of the hive with the bees, circle in the air, and usually return and enter the hive in about ten minutes. I have seen her set- tle with the bees as if tired, and I have seen them hived as a swarm, but they always rush out and enter their own hive. i3ut I have never seen anything that would shed any light on this question. Dr. A. B. Mason — 1. The time var- ies. I have had them fly in 5 days, and also not for 8 days, under the con- ditions named. 2. From 2 to 4 days. 3. I don't know, but our leading writers say it does. Eugene Secor — 1. Prof. Cook says 5 to 6 days; Cheshire, 6; Cowan, 3 to 5; Langstroth-Dadant, 6 to 7; Root, 5 to 7; 2. Prof. Cook, 2 to 3 days; Che- shire, 2; Cowan, 2; Langstroth-Da- dant, 2; Root, 2. 3. I don't know. P. H. Elwood — 1. Cowan says from 3 to 5; Cheshire says 6 days. 2. Che- shire says 2 days. We believe it takes with us nearly 10 days on the average, from hatching to laying. 3. I do not know that it ever causes death, but suppose it is so. R. C. Akin— I believe 3 to 4. 2. All favorable, 9; some, 8; some, 10 to 12. 3. I never saw the mating act, but have seen a number of queens evidently very soon after mating, a string trail- ing after them V^ to % inch long — sup- posed to be a part of the drone. Rev. M. Mahin — 1. Usually about 5, if the circumstances are very favorable. 2. Under very favorable circumstances in 7 days, but that is much under the average. 3. I suppose it is. I dis- covered in my boyhood that the ex- trusion of the male organs produced in- stant death. G. M. Doolittle— 1. If the bees allow her to emerge (not hatch; the larvae hatch) from the cell as soon as mature, from 5 to 7, as a rule. If held in the cell by the bees, then from 24 to 72 hours after allowed her liberty. 2. A queen commences laying about two days af- ter successfully meeting the drone. 3. Gently press a "ripe" drone till the sex-organs protrude, and the drone ex- pires at once. See? G. W. Demaree — 1. It depends upon the weather, and to some extent on the time of year. About 18 years ago 1 spent nearly a whole breeding season to test all these questions, and have ob- served closely ever since. To put it definiely, she will commence her wed- ding flights — she makes not less than three — on the evening of the seventh day of her age. 2. She begins to lay in 2 or 3 days. 3. I believe it is. "It is my practice to leave a few roots in each radish bed to go to seed, and have been surprised at the attrac- tion the flowers are to the bees, also at the quantity of seed set. Another plant they are fond of is the bean, and the more bees visit the blossoms the greater the yield. The flowers of all the cabbage and cauliflower tribe are ever wooed by bees. So also are those of the thyme, pennyroyal and catnip." E. S. S. "The American Bee-Keeper is not entirely satisfied with an answer I made to a question in the American Bee Journal, and propounds a supple- mental one: 'How can the Union be made of any possible good (not to say the greatest), to its memV>ers without an increased membership?' I answer, the membership of the Union is already large, and its resources abundant. Let its officers make a determined and ef- fective campaign, offensive and defen- sive, against the evils and dangers that threaten bee-keepers and bee-keeping, and doubters will fall in rapidly enough. ' — Hon. R. L. Taylor, in the Review. 136 THE A3IERICAN BEE-KEEPER. Autjust PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY _^ THE W. T. FALCONER MANFG CO. Id:, e:. hill, _ _ _ Eia. Terms : Fifty cents a year in advance; 2 copies, 85 cents; 3 copies, $1.20; all to be sent to one postofflce. Postage prepaid in the U. S. and Canada; 10 cents extra to all countries in the postal union, and 20 cents extra to all other countries. Advertising Rates: Fifteen cents per line, 9 words; 82.00 per inch. 5 per cent, discount for 2 insertions; 7 per cent, for •S insertions; 10 per cent, for 6 insertions; 20 per cent, for 12 insertions. Advertisements must be received on or before the 15lh of each month to insure insertion in the month following. Address THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER, Falconer, N. Y. ;e®=-Subscribers receiving their paper in blue wrapper will know that their subscription expires with this number. We hope that you will not de- lay favoring us with a renewal. 4®>A red wrapper on your paper indicates that you owe for your subscription. Please give the matter your early attention. EDITORIAL. Twenty-four pages this month. The honey season in England has thus far been disappointing. Cold east and northwest winds is the cause attributed by the Bee-Keepers' Record. The editor of Gleanings says some of their colonies are run for both comb and extracted honey at the same time. Every season brings to light new and novel ideas, and in this respect 1898 will ever stand forth conspicuously. While a few localities appear to have been especially favored this year, there is now evidence of a shortage in the general honey crop of the country. With no California honey to be placed in the eastern markets, as a result of the drouth, indications favor better prices for the light supply that will be offered. The usual "gap between white clover and basswood" was kept well closed in this locality this season, by a continu- ation of clover, which was yet in full bloom when basswood was declining. But when milkweed opened the bees had but little time for either, a decided preference being shown for the latter. Mr. Ed. Jolley wheeled up the valley from Franklin, Pa., recently to honor our "sanctum" with a brief call and discuss intricate phases of modern bee- dom. To us it was a pleasant hour, in- deed, and incites an earnest wisii that we might thus meet more of our read- ers and contributors, with whose names we have become so familiar. W. A. Varian, in American Bee Jour- nal, has conceived the idea of a com- mittee of bee-keepers being formed from General Merritt's army in the Philippines to test Apis dorsata. He says: "If the great bee, or a closely allied variety, inhabits the region, they can test them there, and if they prove adapted to hiving, introduce them." Has Mr. Varian taken into considera- tion the awful possibility of their pref- erence in favor of improved hives, which might result in their wresting perforce from Apis mellifica their pa- latial dovetails throughout America? It might be prudent to test them in the Ladrones before jeopardizing the Phil- ippines. A metropolitan newspaper is author- ity for the statement that during his day of peaceful residence in his native land, Senor T. Estrada de Palma, of the Cuban junta, has received in one year from bee-hunters $800 for the privilege of removing the Tioney and beeswax from his estate in Santiago province. If "Old Glory" is hoisted over much more of that kind of territory, The American Bee-Keeper may decide to confer additional honor upon Gen. Shaffer by publishing his picture. 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 137 THE OMAHA BEE BUILDING. The apiai'ian building at the Trans- Mississippi and International expo- sition now open at Omaha, Neb., here- with shown, is said to be the largest and most advantageously arranged structure ever erected exclusively for apiarian exhibition purposes. The architecture is of Swiss design, and when it is stated that the building is seventy-flve feet broad by one hun- dred and forty-eight in length, the reader will better appreciate its extent of exhibition space, than by reference crating honey for market. It being averred by Mr. Snyder that inferior grades are to a damaging extent, fraud- ulently concealed behind a facing of finer goods next to the glass. In the coLiise of discussions pro and con, Mr. Doolittle expressed the opin- ion that so long as honey was shipped to be sold on commission, there could be nothing really dishonest in the act of packing a variety of grades in any particular manner that might suit the fancy of the producer, in one crate. Though he distinctly says he doubts -^ti Apiarian Building, Omaha, Neb. to the illustration, in which the artist has unfortunately lost nearly all per- spective. By an ingenious interior arrange- ment and the flood of light from its high Dutch windows along either side, and sky-light above, objectionable shadows are avoided, and the nu- merous attractive displays under the general supervision of Commissioner E. Whitcomb, who is a "tireless toiler" in all work tending to advance bee-keep- ing interests, appear to the best possi- ble advantage, and cannot fail to af- ford instructive entertainment to all who attend. FACING COMB HONEY. Quite a thorough discussion through some of the bee journals has been oc- casioned by an article from Aaron Snyder in Gleanings, wherein bee- keepers are accused of dishonesty in the wisdom of such packing, we regret to note an inclination upon the part of certain of his critics to place an entire- ly unwarranted construction upon what he has written. Who will say that any producer has not a moral right to ship any crate of his product, whether it be good, bad or indifferent, to a commis- sion house handling such goods, to be sold on its merits, and for what it will bring? And who, again, cannot see the fallacy of mixing up several grades in a case, when, by separating them into their respective classes, according to established rules, a better price is ob- tained? As a final result of the controversy the American Bee .Journal instituted a canvass of the leading commission houses, soliciting an expression of their views upon the subject of "facing," etc. and the published replies in nearly every case accord with Mr. Doolittle's 138 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. Aur/Hsf views, that though not necessarily fraudulent, it is an unwise practice, reacting to the detriment of the ship- per. HIVE COVERS. At the Colorado Bee-Keepers' con- vention R. C Akin truthfully remarked that the wax in sections is sometimes brought almost to the melting point be- neath a sirgle board cover. Quoting this from the American Bee Journal, Dr. Miller, in Gleanings, comments: "Every now and then it comes to light that some practical bee-keeper is using a cover with dead air space, covered with tin, and it seems a little strange that manufacturers offer nothing of the kind." Although there has been much writ- ten upon this subject, we believe it may yet be discussed with profit, as there are still styles of covers manu factured and sold, which in theory and pictures appear to embody desirable features, though practically a failure in every way. The essential points in a hive cover are: It must be a "lawful" roof — one that is in fact a protection from storm — a roof that will shed all the rain, all the time. It should be close-fitting, in direct contact with the hive all around, and yet so constructed that it may be adjusted without force or jar. It should be a non-conductor of heat, and afford a ready means of providing ventilation through the hive when desired. As with all else about the apiary, it should offer no secluded harbor to vermin. When used over sections, it is of im- portance that an accurate bee-space be maintained, hence the necessity of a rigid and substantial cover, one that will not spring and warp out of shape, inviting propolis at this time, and af. other times tempting robbers as well. There is one pattern of the venti- lated variety of lids constructed of three-eights and three-sixteenths stuff that has had quite an extensive sale, which in our experience has been an intolerable nuisance. Ventilation is a most desirable feature in a hive cover where exposed to the sun, but we can- not afford to sacrifice all other good points to secure this one, as has been done in the case referred to. Such wafer-like boards, with the moisture of the colony below and the heated air above, supported only by inserting the ends into saw-kerfs in the end cleats, and nails driven squarely through the thin boards which constitute the roof, is a source of endless annoyance. What less efficient device could be contrived as a cover? A good lid cannot be made from such fragile material. The only point that we can truthfully note in their favor is that they are necessarily "short-lived," fortunately necessitating an early change. As to the merits of the ventilated Higginsville cover, brought out a few HIGGINSVILI.E VENTILATED COVER years ago, we can not speak from ex- perience, though its advantages over the former style are evident. Having, as it does, heavier material as a roof, a more substantial method of cleating and a firm centre support to the thin, lower boards. We have in use, how- ever, quite a number of the ordinary Higginsville covers, in connection with a cleated honey-board, which we as- sume is similar to the inner cleated cover used by Mr. Akin, and the com- bination is a very satisfactory cover- ing, second only, in our opinion, to a flat lid and honey-board, of which we have also about one hundred in use. The rude, sectional sketch herewith shown, may serve to illustrate the ar- rangement which we use and prefer to all other styles yet tried. The lid, a, is a solid board seven-eighths thick, the ends being let into snug-fitting grooves in the end cleats of one and one-eighth inch stuff, two and one-fourth wide, 1898. THE A3IEEICAN BEE-KEEPER. 139 and secured only by a liberal applica- tion of white lead pnd linseed oil, with a single two-inch screw through the centre, into the end of the lid-board. This rests upon the seven-eighths inch honey-board cleats, bb, leaving a free passage, c, for the circulation of air over the honey-board, d, of which some are made of three-eighths and some of half-inch material, by way of X ^^ experiment, and as the latter are pro- portionately more firm and substantial, we now prefer them to the thinner ones. The combination makes a solid, convenient, and, to our notion, a per- fect cover. The line, e, indicates the bee-space of about one-fourth inch over the top-bars, which have also a like space at the ends, and are guided to their proper position by spacing staples, ff, in the ends of the bottom- bars. The gained block, g, is to hold the inner end of the record slate, with which each honey-board is provided; as they are also with a permanent feeder, shown at the opposite end, which, though seldom used, is always in position and at no time any incon- venience. This, of course, is a summer arrange- ment, for, in their present location, it is always summer; but if we were keeping bees again in the northern states or Canada, we should certainly use the same cover, as with our method of wintering, in packing cases, a hive needs no lid, and in fact is better without it. The extra cost of such a cover is but slight, and its advantages, we think, are many and important. CUBAN THOUGHTS AND OBSERVA- TIONS. Last month we briefly outlined our trip to Cuba with a small lot of bees, concluding the description upon arrival at La Gloria, the apiary site selected a short distance out from the city of Cienfuegos. La Gloria is one of many Cuban plantations that have been abandoned by their Spanish owners through fear of lawless bands headed by such noto- rious brigands as Matagas and Espan- oca, who have terrorized the island for years, by plying their profession of pillage and plunder, and is located but a few hundred yards from the boy- hood home of the latter, where his pa- rents and less distinguished brothers still reside. Being situated upon a beautiful eminence, overlooking a broad valley of waving sugar-cane, to the south, dotted here and there with groups of white plantation buildings, groves of cocoa and royal palms, and the blue peaks of the coast range mountains rising several thousand feet, as a background, with hundreds of square miles of wild land affording an inexhaustible bee range to the north, east and west, and the capacious rooms inclosed by massive walls of masonry, an abundance of shade beneath the spreading branches of giant ceiba trees, rows of almond, orange, lemon, date and other truly beautiful specimens of the palm family, the location was an ideal one in every particular. As inci- dents of interest are revived in memory through this reflection, we almost re- gret the restriction which a bee-paper places upon the general character of its contents. No part of Africa could well be more "foreign" in certain respects than is the south coast of Cuba, or than it was at the time of our sojourn there, eleven years ago. Vegetation, climate, language, customs, architect- ure, and all else so thoroughly foreign, no one but a real bee-keeper whose lot it has been to muse alone, " a stranger in a strange land," could appreciate the 140 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. August companionship afforded by the bees. When the brilliant hues of sunset had faded from the mountain peaks, and in their stead a craggy outline of the southern horizon was dimly seen through the shades of night, and the doleful sounds of the tom-tom from the slave quarters of a distant planta- tion came faintly upon a zepliyr from the sea, gently rustling the coarse leaves of the towering palms, then it was, after a day of active work in the A Royal Palm. apiary, we returned again, to hear the one familiar sound— that of an apiary at night. No sweeter music ever fell upon more appreciative ears. There is something akin to magic in the influ- ence of this sound "like rushing waters" — the rapid vibrations of a mill- ion wings — and the odor of nectar upon the air, by which a bee-keeper is in- stantly translated from this ordinary old world of ours, through spontaneous meditation, to another realm. It is the voice of success — the hum of prosperity — which captivates tlie mind, and he becomes for tlie time monarch of the municipalities represented. Each of which are associated in the chain of thought, witli familiar experiences of the past, present conditions, or fu- ture duties. But, at about this juncture a ripe almond falls upon a hive cover, or a huge cocoanut lets go, and comes to earth with a startling thud through the branches of a lower tree, and we are thereby awakened to the fact that while we have been unconsciously planning work for the morrow and more distant future, the hours have been passing. The hideous tom-tom has ceased to "tom," and the silvery moon has mounted high into the heav- ens and shines down with a brilliancy seen nowhere else as in the tropics. The great white moonflowers entwined through the cactus hedges and other shrubbery may be seen in profusion everywhere, mingled with the smaller bloom of the bellflower, Cuba's greatest honey yielder, the mass of white bloom is in places so dense as to appear like snowbanks in the moonlight. The late Charles P. Muth, than whom no man was better qualified to speak from personal knowledge of America's honey industry, once de- clared that Cuba alone was capable of producing honey enough to swamp our country, and that unrestricted importa- tion of honey from that island would deal a blow at the most vital part of bee-culture in the United States. While we have always felt that Mr. Muth may have overestimated the producing ca- pacity of the island, it must be ad- mitted that, as an extensive wholesalp dealer and importer of honey, he ho had excellent opportunities to observ' and upon which to base his judgement. And such veritable seas of nectar- yielding flora, as noted above, from November until March, extending for unknown miles, shed a rather convinc- ing influence over the beholder. That Cuba will play a prominent part in future honey production is unques- 1898. fSE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 141 tionable, though its exact character and extent, are interesting problems which may only be conjectured at this time, but to be soon revealed by current de- velopments. The cargo of the Spanish schooner "Gallite," captured July 5, near Isle of Pines, was said to consist in part of honey and wax. What is interesting The American Bee-Keeper now is to learn where the Gallite "shipped" that part of her burden. We are sending a number of sample copies this month to bee-lteepers who are not subscribers. Please accept it as a personal invitation to become a regular reader. See our special offer to new subscribers. The American Bee- Keeper from now until January, 1900, for only 50 cents. The article on the prevention of in- crease by C. Theilmann, in this num- ber, is worthy of a studious perusal. The plan recommended has several ad- vantages, which space will not permit us to enumerate. Mr. Theilmann is one of our western bee-keeping veterans who keeps over two hundred colonies, has made "big money" in the business, and is therefore competent to give solid advice. We are glad to add his name to our list of occasional con- tributors. Mr. C. Theilmann, in American Bee Journal, concludes an interesting ar- ticle with this interrogation: "Did any bee-keeper ever see drone-comb built the first day of swarming with a young, prolific queen; or drone-brood reared the first two or three days after the swarms were hived?" If any bee- keeper has ever seen either of these conditions under the circumstances named by Mr. Theilmann, in less than three weeks after hiving, we would be pleased to have them report their ex- perience in The Bee-Keeper. Quite a good "yarn" regarding the capture of a ship by a swarm of bees is being related by certain of our ex- changes. The story is quite laughable and timely, just now, when everyone is interested in accounts of "captured ships." Our subscribers may read it by turning back to the January num- ber. From Australian Bee Bulletin: "A good way to clear sections is to place several supers in a bee-proof box with strips of wood between each, and have one or two bee-escapes in the box." A writer in the same journal says: "We have had a plague of swifts, bee mar- tins and other bee-eating birds this summer. In the mouth and throat of one swift that I shot I found fourteen bee stings." He also complains of a spider, as a destroyer of bees. An- other says: "We have had no rain to speak of for two years, and everything is completely dried up." A half-column of lamentations from still another writer who has had three years of fail- ure, concludes: "Very happy to say that the drouth has broken up." In the Ruralist, J. 0. Grimsley sounds this note of warning: "Look out for the so-called Cyprian queens. Some dealers are offering them who have not a Cyprian bee in their apiary." This is, of course, a swindle and should be exposed. But, frankly, wouldn't an in- experienced buyer profit by the decep- tion? We think so. Mr. Grimsley has also recently discovered the fact that without the stimulating effect of a honey flow, the golden Italians are "scant and scattering layers." Truer words were never penned, and, accord- ing to our experience, a continued dearth of honey will too frequently re- sult in a total loss of the queen's fe- cundating power, and the "scant and scattering" brood will develop instead of workers, cute little golden drones. 142 T^E AMERtCA}^ BE^-K^&PFlk. August In conversation with an up-to-date man, a bee-lieeper who neglects to read the journals devoted to his interests, will invariably "give himself away" in the opening sentence. There is no dis- guising a "back number." We are pleased to note a decrease in the number of red wrappers to go out this month. We appreciate the thought- fulness of our readers in thus relieving us from the necessity of using a great amount of this colored stock. You see. red wrappers "come high." "In the spring and summer provide the bees with plenty of honey-making food and pure water, and do not keep them near orchards on which insecti- cides are used. A field of alsike, white or crimson clover, with a flower garden near by, will remove all necessity for the bees seeking the orchards for nec- tar." It is not clear whether the fore- going, from one of our agricultural ex- changes, is an inspired effusion of some visionary amateur, or a case of de- lirium tremens. A. J. Wright, Bradford, N. Y., in Gleanings, rises in defense of the mos- quito-hawk, or dragon-fly, claiming that in his locality, at least, they are no enemy of the bee, while they work much good in the destruction of nox- ious insects, upon which they prey. The article is in reply to an item in that journal from a Florida contribu- tor, whose experience has been that the dragon-fly is a great pest in the apiary, with which our own experience accords perfectly, as stated in The Bee-Keeper for March. Mr. Wright's article shows him to be an observing and apprecia- tive student of nature which, being con- sidered in opposition to the statements of the Florida writer, leads to the con- clusion that he has had to deal with a very different species from those re- ferred to in the Item which called forth his interesting remarks. The Bee-Keepers' Review concludes a very complimentary editorial notice of our July number by advising its readers to send for a copy. The Re- view minces nothing, nor hesitates to proclaim its sentiment on any matter of interest to bee-keepers, through fear of incidentally advertising a contem- porary. But then, a journal which is in a class by itself can afford to be thus generous; a rather enviable pos- ition of independence, which in nowise effects our gratitude. Thank you. Brother Hutchinson; thanks! "M. Devauchelle having said that laying workers deposit eggs only in drone cells. Dr. Miller replies in I'Api- culteur, that such is the fact when drone cells are present, but in the ab- sence of drone cells they use worker cells, in that case laying one egg in a cell regularly, so that the work cannot be distinguished from that of a fertile queen until the brood is sealed." — American Bee Journal. Is this a case of "difference of climate," or "error in translation?" Of all the cases we have seen, a worker has rarely succeeded in depositing her egg upon the base of a worker cell, as a queen invariably does. Our venerable and esteemed contem- porary, the American Bee Journal, in commenting on the change of editorial management, with reference to The Bee-Keeper, and, evidently, with kind intent, several months ago expressed the wish that we might not find that we had undertaken an "up-Hill" job. Chancing, after a lapse of six months, to again observe this friendly remark, we are moved to say that since that time The Bee-Keeper has had an up- hill road. That is to say, it has been continually on the up-grade. In other words, it has been steadily ascending the hill of success. We have had no "boom" — we do not approve of them — but it has been a source of encourage- ment to us to note the daily additions 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 143 that have been made to our subscrip- tion list for several months past. And while we are grateful for these tokens of appreciation, as we regard them, we are confident that if our readers were less backward in expressing their per- sonal ideas, and would contribute items of general interest, and suitable sub- jects for illustrations, more freely, that we could soon give them an improved journal at the present price. We would ask our present subscribers to kindly co-operate with us in this matter. Every item of interest contributed — every word spoken in our behalf, adds to the propelling power "up-hill." To Meet at Omaha. Toledo, O., July IS, 1S9S. Editor American Bee-Keeper: After thoroughly considering the matter of the next place for holding the United States Bee-Keepers' Union con- vention, the executive committee have decided in favor of Omaha as the place, and probably early in October as the time; but the exact date will doubtless be fixed by those having in charge the securing of reduced railroad rates, and we are going to put the securing of these and hotel rates and place for the convention to meet in, etc., on Bro. E. Whitcomb's shoulders, for they are broad, and he is right on the ground. A short time ago he sent me some particulars regarding rates, from which I take the following: "Every day dur- ing the exposition, tickets will be on sale from all Western Passenger Asso- ciation territory to Omaha at one and one-third fare for the round trip, ex- cept their rates from the following points, which will be as follows: Chicago, $20; Peoria, $17; St. Louis, $17; Denver, $25. Tickets will be lim- ited to return thirty days from date of sale, not to exceed Nov. 15. From June 1 to October 15 the passenger rates to Omaha from all the principal cities and towns in the United States beyond the Western Passenger Associ- ation territory will be SO per cent, of double the first-class fare." Tickets are good to return until November 15, but I am expecting (?) lower rates, for Bro. Whitcomb told the convention at Buffalo last summer that, if the Union would hold its next meeting at Omaha during the time of holding the Trans- Mississippi Exposition, we should have "as low rates as to any other place on earth." We know that Bro. Whit- coimb will do his "level best" for those who attend the convention, and show us "the sights" on the Exposition grounds. A prominent Western bee-keeper wrote me a few days ago that "the rate, however, cuts a very small figure." Well, may be if we poor bee-keepers were all rich like him, it wouldn't; but this is only another evidence that localities differ. Further notice of rates, time of meet- ing, etc., will be given when known. A. B. MASON, Sec. West Groton, N. Y., July 18, 1S98. Editor American Bee-Keeper: Dear Sir — We will have no white honey this year. So far as I can learn there is none in this part of the state. Prospects for buckwheat are nothing extra, so you can put me down among the "reports discouraging." Yours truly, HARRY S. HOWE. Rutledge, Pa., June 24, 1898. Mr. Editor — The invitation to visit the apiary of Mr. Homes, at Ashbow- ner was accepted by thirty persons, most of whom were members of the Bee-Keepers' Association. Mr. Homes has ten colonies of Italians in simplic- 144 tilE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPElR. ity hives. He gave several demonstra- tions of his methods of handling bees, w^hich are original, particularly his plan of tiering up for extracted honey, supering, etc., all of which was appre- ciated by the spectators. There was a discussion afterwards on the lawn at the Association meeting. Only one member had had any success in getting surplus, and exhibited a sample of comb honey which was pronounced "poplar," and probably gathered from trees in Fairmount Park, which was contiguous to the apiary. Yours truly, M. F. REEVE. Augud may easily satisfy yourself by an ex- amination of their work. If it is caused by poisoned stores, extracting and sub- stituting new will remedy the evil. Spraying fruit trees while in bloom is a most dangerous practice, and one against which several states have stringent laws. It is very seldom, how- ever, that a bee-keeper is found guilty of such imprudence. The best feed for bees at all times is honey. If fed in ex- tracted form it should be slightly di- luted with water. — Ed.] Weisenburg, Pa., July 17, 1898. Mr. H. E. Hill: Dear Sir: — Last spring I sprayed my fruit trees with Paris green emulsion and since that time my bees have been on the decline. Two of my colonies are in good condition, bu>. the others are very poor; they do not gather enough honey for their own use, and with all my care and feeding they continue to go backward. Their combs were full of moths. I took some of them out and gave them nice clean ones, but they make no use of them, staying all the time upon the old ones. Please give me full particulars and let me know what you recommend as the best for feeding while in this condition. Respectfully yours, F. H. Wesley. TThat the use of the spraying mix- ture has anything to do with the trou- ble is highly improbable, though for want of a more detailed statement of conditions we cannot answer positively. "The others," which are declining, may mean two or three, or it may include a large number; a point upon which we are not informed and one that would have an important influence upon our conclusions as to the cause, which, from the meagre information at hand, we are very much inclined to attribute to poor queens. Upon this point you Making- Honey Sell at Home. A great deal of our surplus honey can be sold at home, in the small towns and villages if a trade is built up, but you must first build up your would-be cus- tomers' appetites for honey and get them in the habit of using it. There is hardly anyone who can say he don't like honey after tasting a good article. But the most of them only think they don't like it, because they have had some poor stuff from the store or elsewhere. Here is my plan for one who keeps a few bees for profit and does not want to ship his honey to the commission man: It may be a little expensive at first but will pay in the end, as all good ad- vertising does, and how can one get the quality of his honey before the people better than by giving a small sample to those he thinks might be good cus- tomers? If you don't feel able to give away a pound as a sample, send and get some smaller sections that will hold, say half a pound, and place as many of them on your hives at the be- ginning of the honey flow as you think you will need for samples. 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 145 When they are filled and nicely capped over, take them off and place a nice label on them with your name and address and any other suitable reading for a small advertisement, then dis- tribute them among those where you think it would be most likely to do good, telling them tliat it is a small sample of your honey that you would like to have them try, and that you will be around again in three or four days with more for sale. Then let the samples do their work. It is also a good plan to leave one of "Root's Honey Leaflets" with the sample. In a few days take a small load and call on your would-be customers. You will sell quite a lot the first time, which will help to sell more the next time, and so on. your trade increasing, as all you sell helps to advertise. But care must be taken not to sell honey that is not well capped over. T find it also a good plan to leave some at the grocery stores in neat show cases. I have no trouble in selling all the honey I can produce in this way. — A. E. Concord in Southern Merchant and Farmer. Bees Invade a Candy Factory. They boil up a ton of raw sugar every morning on the top floor of the four- story brick building, No. 66 Cortlandt street, and the thirty-five girls and men employed by the Murcotte com- pany, who occupy the premises, spend the rest of the day in making over the resultant cream into chocolate and bon- bons. Two doors further up the street, also on the top floor, J. H. M. Cook deals in bees, hives and apiary sup- plies. A feature of his business equip- onent is a hive of up-to-date pattern, with a colony of bees in full operation, which is maintained to show prospect- ive customers what they may come to possess. When the saccharine fumes from the boiling sugar began to drift over the beeman's place when the candy factory started up yesterday morning, pedes- trians stopped in the street in surprise at the chorus of feminine shrieks and masculine shouts that floated from the open windows of the bonbon works, while a lot of pretty candy makers ran out, and the shirt-sleeved manager of the candy factory dashed up to the beeman's attic at three steps to the jump. The bees had caught a whiff of the sugar steam, and with a view to next winter's food supply invaded the candy factory in a body. Mr. Cook came over to see what could be done. He found the boiling room in a state of turmoil. There were bees everywhere. Two men who superintended the caldrons were jumping around killing them as fast as they could and using bad broken English at a triple tongue gait, while in the far end of the room a bevy of bonbonnieres who had not yet deserted their posts encouraged their efforts. "Big Frank" and "Little Frank," which are the only names the men are known by in the shop, had completely lost their tempers, and ever-in- creasing number of lumps kept crop- ping out on their faces and necks. Mr. Cook, who is a mild mannered man, remonstrated with them both for their actions and words. "Bees are peace- ful creatures," he said. "If you don't molest them they will walk all over you and never hurt you." The candy man thought it would be a good idea to drive them into the choco- late cold storage room on the third floor and freeze them to death there, and the two Franks intimated that he might try it if he wanted to. He didn't try it, and flnally, as the sugar cooled, the bees began to go home, and after an hour or more the hands came back to work. There was another plague of insects down town yesterday. Myriads of lit- tle white-winged bugs appeared in the air around Fulton street, and the ad- joining streets in such numbers that 146 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. August late in the afternoon they gave almost the appearance of a fine, flying snow squall. They were about the size of mosquitos, but they never sang nor bit, and when touched they crumpled up into a little white powder. — New York Herald, June 3. Mrs. A. L. Amos, in Progressive Bee- Keeper: "I have had a lesson this spring in the matter of feeding arti- ficial pollen. I had read of it often, but always thought it needless here. The elms and box elders supply pollen as soon as the bees want it. This spring Mr. A. bought a feed mill and has been grinding corn, wheat, oats and barley, and the way they crowd around and load up with the dust is interesting to see. They surely would not gather it if they did not need it." The new official flag of the President of the United States is printed, for the first time correctly, on the cover of the July Ladies' Home Journal. The flag was recently adopted as the President's emblem, and henceforth will be em- ployed to proclaim his official presence. When he is at the White House the flag will be displayed there, and where- ever he may go as President of the United States it will be in evidence. Its publication in accurate color detail will be a matter of much interest, in- asmuch as it will acquaint the public with the President's emblem. "Aux Armes" is the cry at this writ- ing, and little comforts and necessaries are the order of the day for the man on the tented field. One of the best things the soldier has had devised for him is a portable letter case of leather that folds so compactly that it can be slipped into the pocket of the military blouse. Despite its small size and the fact that it takes up practically no room at all, this letter case holds pen, paper, envelopes, a blotter and a tiny bottle of ink. It is one of the few genu- inely practical articles for the volun- teer or the regular not under the head of "equipment," and, indeed, any man who travels frequently would find it useful. — From "Things Men Want to Know," by Cromwell Childe, in Dem- orest's Magazine for July. In the July issue of "Table Talk" the tastes and interests of the housekeeper, the home-maker and the hostess, will find much to assist them. The menus, table decorations and many of the re- cipes, are fresh and new, while others, given in reply to inquiries received, must meet the needs of more than the inquirers, because so practical. Al- though the little magazine is of much aid and value to women who desire to keep up with the household interests and improvements of the day, and to get it in a condensed form, some of the articles are: "Behind the Brass Knocker," by Martha Bockee Flint; "Serving a Can of Salmon," by Elea- nor M. Lucas; "A Shell Luncheon," by Isabel B. Winslow; "July Days, Man- ners, Ideas, Fancies," Mary C. Myer; "Housekeepers' Inquiries," by Cornelia C. Bedford, which always are of deep- est interest to women interested in their table. Any of our readers desir- ing a sample copy can obtain one free, by addressing Table Talk Publishing Co., Philadelphia, Pa. Mrs. E. A. Starr, editress of the Phil- adelphia Public Ledger's apiarian de- partment, has kept a colony of bees on the window ledge outside of her room, on the fourth floor of the Ledger office, for the past four years. .\ covering of newspapers over the frames is thi» only protection given the colony during the winter seasons. "The bees," says M. F. Reeve, "come and go nt their pleas- ure, and gather a .great deal of sweet- ness from Independence and Washing- ton squares; the former directly across 189S. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 147 the street, and the latter about a block away." The Quaker City has another lady bee-keeper who keeps eighteen colonies in a third-story window up- town. These are located inside, and the laden workers have for an alighting board, the window sill, while an open- ing is left at the top for the exit of the out-bound force W. M. Gerrish. East Nottingham, N. H., keeps a complete supply of our goods, and Eastern customers will save freight by or- deriug from him. HONEY AND BEESWAX MARKET REPORT. Below we give the latest and most authentic report of the Honey and Beeswax market in dif- ferent trade centers: New York, July 23.— Our market is in very good shape for the new crop of comb honey. We have had several shipments of White Comb from Flor- ida, of late. This has sold from 10 to ll^^c per lb. Market on Southern Extracted honey very steady, there being a good trade for the cheaper grades. We quote our market as follows : Or- dinary at 50(a'53c per gal.: Good. 55@60c per gal. Florida White, 6c. New California is beginning to arrive. Beeswax market is quiet, prices ruling a little lower. We quote pure beeswax at 26>^@ 273'^c. Write us for shipping instructions. Francis H. Leggett & Co. Franklin and Varick Sts. Detroit, Mich.. Julv 15. 1898.— Demand slow, with light supply. Best White Comb, 11@12; Ex- tracted, 5@6e. Fair demand for Beeswax, with light supply. Prices. 25@26c. New honey is com- ing in slowly. M. H. Hunt, Bell Branch, Mich. Boston, Mass., July 23, 1S9S.— Demand for both Comb and Extracted Honey is verv liffht. with ample supply. Price oi Comb. 'Ma i:',c.; Extracti'd, 5(5'7c. Beeswax, good (Ifmaiiil, nt:i()c. (iwiiiL; to warm weather, there is practirallv no demand for honey. Blake, Scott & Lee, 57 Chatham Street. Cleveland, O., Julv 23 1898.— New honev in demand: supply light. Price of Fancy white," 13c; Extracted, 6(S'6J^c. Beeswax, demand good; sup- ply light. Price, 25c. A. B. WILLIAM.S & Co., 80-82 Broadway. Kansas City, Mo., June 16, 1898.— Good demand for honey. Light supply. Price of comb, 8 to lie. per lb. Extracted, 4 to f)}4c. per lb. Good de- mand for Beeswax, with lignt supply, at 25c. per- Ib. Old crop cleaned up and verv little on the market. Hamblin & Bearss, 5U Walnut Street. 50 CENTS EACH. SSIS. THEODORE BENDER. ConiOO. "How TO Manage Bees," a 50c. book, and the American Bee-Keeper a year for only fiO cents. Bishop McCabe, of New York, on Dr. James' Headache Powders. "With regard to James' Headache Powders, I have no hesitation in com- mending them to suffers from head- ache. They relieve the pain speedily, and I have never known anyone to be harmed by their use. The Dr. James Headache Powders have, however, greatly relieved me at times, and I never allow myself to be without them, and have recommended them to others freely. "C. C. McCABE." For sale by H. W. Davis, Falconer, N. Y. aii|iiiiiiiiiiiiiliiililiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiii,iiiii!iiiiiiiiiiB We want 10,000 Bee-keepers on our subscription list before | the close of the century. | WE MAY NOT GET THEM, j but as an inducement to that end we propose a the following: We will send The American Z Bee-Keeper from now until January, 1900, = for 50 cents. S If you are intercstril in bcr-kcciiini,', vdu Z can hardly afford ['< im-jIccI tlii^ o|.|H.iiiiii'ity. Z Substantial additions h,i\r l.rcii iii.nlc iM,,nr Z list every month tliis Near: hut il will lif lu-- Z cessary to increase the ratf at which they are - now coming, to give us the lo.diiii new ones in | the specified time. We sliall, thiiclore, con- | stantly endeavor to imprcive the paper and - hope by this generous oiler to add several | hundred this month. You are invited to join | us. Address | THE I AMERICAN i BEE-KEEPER, i I Falconer, N. Y. | nil ■ III 1 1 III 1 1 lillH III 1 1 III III 1 1 ■••■>■ II 1 1 1 1 1 III 1 1 ■ lillllili M [QSI COQSl RQilif Lids, On Easy Terms of Payment. Low rates of travel to honieseekeis and settlers. H E. HILL, lloeni, Tilusville, Po, Further information tijion request. 148 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. August /\ rrilfl ^'°^'^^" '^^ 3-band Ital- CLUBBING I/IST. t f ^ riEST safety bicycle of standard type. FIRST bicycle of light weight and nar- row tread. FIEST cross thread fabric tire. Strong and resilient. FIRST bicycle chain with hardened block and pin. FIRST dust proof, ball-retaining bearing, (Burwell). FIRST bicycle with 'frames built of large tubing. OUR '98 FEATURES: Eurwell Bearings with Self-oiling Device. Burwell Detachable Tires. On Olevelands Only, Write for our intcTusting booka " Invent- ( or s Help axid "How you are swindled."'* Send us a rough sJcetch or model of your ? invention or inipio\ ement and we will tell -m ft-ee our opiniou as to whether it is jobably patentable. We make a specialty CJ applications rejected in other hands. Highest references furnished. BIARION & MARION PATENT SOLICITORS & EXPERTS Civil & Mechanical Kntrineefs. Graduates of the Polytechnic School of Engineering Buchclovs in ^fFll^A Sciences. Laval [Jniversity. Membera ratentLaw Association, American Water Works ^ Association, NewKjiglanxi Water Works Assoc. , P. Q. Surveyors Association, Assoc. Member Can. Society of Civil Eugiueers. Offices: i Washingtox, D. C. ^ Montreal, Can. J FREE 3 PINE LIXEX DOILIES. All dif- ferent Patterns. 1 Large Bread-Plate Center- piece, IJ liiches across; 2 0-iu. Plate doilies; will please any lady. Send IS 2-ct. stamps for a year's subscription to our Illustrated Magazine for Home and Farm and we will mail these Fine Doilies Fkee. FAKMEB'S KEALiI, Syeacuse, N. Y. CAniKd For Sale CHEAP. We have a new Hawkey e Jr. Cam- I era, made by Blair Camera Co. ; takes pic- i tures:^ix3i: uses both roll of film (12 pic- ^QR MOHFT ^ $50. $65. $^5. tures) and plates. Is covered with grain /UiTlui/l>l^L7, LJ*: X„_^ j leather and hasa leather carrying case Avith 1 strap. Cost §9.00. Also a complete outfit ' for developing plates and prints; cost ^iS.OO, \ Will sell the Camera alone for |5..o0, or the I Camera and outfit for $9.00. Address I The American Bee-Keeper, i FALCONER, N. Y. H. k LOZIEE { CO., Mfrs., CATOLUGUE FREE. Cleveland, O. New York, Boston, I'liiladelphia, Baltimore, Buffalo, Detroit, Sau 5-6t. Franciseo,Loado!i, Parii,Hamb«rg, 160-Page Bee Book FREE. Book Sent Free with American Bee Journal. Every new suijscri/xr sending 81.00 for the wccklii American Bee Journal (or one vear will receive a eopv of Newman's KiO-page "Bees and ll.>ney" Iree. The old American Bee Journal is givat this year. You ' The only Bee Paper in the United States edited exclusively in the in- terest of the fanner bee-keeper and the beginner in The Busy Bee, published by rMERSON T, ABBOTT, St. Joseph, Mo. Wfire far free sample copj- now. The Fence and Plain Sections. Weed New Process Foundation. Cowan Extractors Porter Bee-Escapes — the best made. Dovetailed Hives with Danz. patented Cover and Bottoro. Danzenbaker Hives. No-drip Shipping-cases. Gleanings in Bee Culture; illustrated, semi-monthly. Catalog of Goods, and sample copy of Gleanings sent for your name on a postal. Branch Offices: 118 Michigan St., Chicago, 111. n^TTT!' A T J^/l/l'T^ f^rk 1024 Mississippi St., St. Paul, Minn. J- -n.X> J±, J.. J\KJKJ ± %^\J.f 1635 VV. Genesee St., Syracuse, N. Y. 10 Vine St., Philadelphia, Pa. Mechanic Falls, Me. Medina, Ohio. BEGINNERS, Beginners should have a copy of the Am- ateur Bee-Keeper, a 70-page book, by Prof. J. W. Rouse; written especially for ama- teurs. Second edition just out. First edi- tion of 1,000 sold in less than two years. Editor York .says: "It is the finest little book published at the present time." Price 25 cents; by mail, 28c. The little book and the Progressive Bee-Keeper (a live, pro- gressive, 28 page monthly journal) one year for 65c. Apply to any first-class dealer or address LEAHY MFG. CO., Higgingville, Mo. Patent Wired Comb Foundation Has no Sag in Brood Frames. Tiiin Flat Bottom Foundation Has no Fish-bone in Surplus Honey. Being the cleanest is usually worlied the quicit- est of any Foundation made. The talk about wir- ing frames seems ateurd. We furnish a Wired Foundation that is better, cheaper and not half the trouble to use that it is to wire brood-frames. Circulars and Samples Free. J. VAN DEUSEN & SONS, Sole Manufacturers, Montgomery County. Sprout Brook, N. Y. Please mention American Bee-Keeper. THE AUSTRALIAN BEE BULLETIN. Circulating through all the Australian colonies. New Zealaud and Cape of Good Hope. subscription: 5s. per annum in advance; if boolied, 6s- 6d. Edited, Printed and Published by E. TIPPER, West Maitland, N. S. W. SCALE OF PRICES FOR ADVERTISEMEN S IN A. BEE BULLETIN: Half-page— Per annum, £6; Half-year, £3; quar- ter, £l-15s. Quarter-page— Per annum, £3; Half-year, £l-15s; Quarter. £1. One-eighth page— Per annum, £l-15s; Half-year, £1; Quarter, 12s. Single Insertion— 1st in., 3s 6d; succeeding 2s-6d. E. TIPPER, WEST MAITLAND, N. S. W. We will send the American Bee-Keep- er one year and a box of garden seeds (price $1.60jfor 75c., postpaid. II Last year only about 1 per cent.— only one sub- scriber in 100— ordered his Review discontinued. If the Review could secure 1,000 new subscribers the present year.there is almost absolute certainty that at least 900 of tl)em would remain, not only next year, but for several years— as long as they are interested in bees. Once a really good journal visits a bee-keeper a whole year, it usually be- comes a permanent member of his family. I would have no difficulty whatever in getting twice 1,000 new subscribers this year if all the bee-keepers in this country had read the Review the past year. I have sometimes thought it miffht pav a publisher to giveaway his journal one year, simply for the sake of gettiilg it into new hands. There are, of course, decided objections to such a course, but 1 am going to come as near to it as I dare. Here is my offer: If you are not a subscriber to the Review. send me ¥1.00 and 1 will send vou twelve back numbers, the Review the rest of this jrear, and all of next year. Each issue of the Review, especially if devoted to the discussion of some .special topic, is really a pamphlet containing the best thoughts and ex- perience of the best men upon the topic under discussion. Twelve back numbers of the Review are, to a certain extent, so many little books de- voted to as many different phases of bee-keeping. Some issues of the Review are now out of print; of others only a lew copies are left; while • of others there are several hundred. Of course I shall send those of which I have the greatest number. Most people subscribe for a journal at the be- ginning of the year. In this case there is no use of waiting, as you will get the Review for next year just the same as though you waited until next January to subscribe; and you will get the rest of the numbers for this year, free. The sooner you subscribe, the more free issues you will re- ceive. Let me tell it once more: For Sl.OO you can get twelve back numbers, the Review the rest of this year, and all of 1899. w. I. HuicHmsoi Film, m. Mi M GOQSI ROillOl llinil!!, On Easy Terms of Payment. Low rates of travel to homeseekers and settlers. H I HILL, flgent, lilusviile, pq. Further information upon request. W. M. Gerrish, East Nottingham, N. H., keeps a complete supply of our goods, and Eastern customers will save freight by or- dering from him. Vol. vm. SEPTEMBER, J 898. No. 9. Cutting Quecti-Cells to Prevent Swarming. Written for the American Bee-Keeper. BY G. M. HOOLITTLE. Tjp\ ICKING up a paper lately I saw YJl is these words from quite a promi- '^ ^ '' nent writer on apiculture: "Cut- ting queen-cells cannot always be re- lied on to prevent swarming, but the practice has a tendency to delay it, and in some cases entirely prevent it." T wish to say a few words in this matter of cutting queen-cells. I will take the above as a sort of text and widen out a little so that the reader can see something regarding what Doolittle does believe in along the line of cutting cells. Undoubtedly the words quoted were said in alluding to the stopping of prime swarms, by the cut- ting-of-cells plan, so often given and tried by those who have not had years of experience in practical apiculture. Such being the case, I think the writer quite correct in his statement, and would add to it, that I believe inuch honey is lost in trying to hinder prime swarms through the cutting of cells, which might have been secured had the bees been allowed to swarm when they were ready to do so, instead of throwing them out of a normal con- dition by cutting cells, and then having them swarm at ast under conditions not as favorable, for a crop of surplus honey as would have been had they been let alone. By the cutting of cells and any manipulation which is not sure and permanent, the swarming fe- ver is generally at its height right in the heaviest flow of honey, and when thus, very little surplus will be ob- tained, while if the bees were allowed their way, and after-swarms prevented, the whole apiary would settle down to business .iust when the flow of honey was at its best, and thus a fine crop of honey is secured. But it is barely pos- sible that the writer alluded to after- swarms when he said that "cutting of queen-cells cannot always be relied on to prevent swarming," for I am well aware that the way queen-cells are generally cut, has not only a "tendency to delay" after-swarms, but it has also a tendency to increase the number which issue. Nature gives many more in number of after-swarms than of all other swarms put together, and as these swarms are not desired by many, any plan which will entirely prevent them, will bear repeating often, and this brings me up to what I wished more especially to say: The usual plan for cutting queen-cells to pievent after- swarming, is to wait six days after the first prime swarm issues, when the hive is to be opened and all of the queen-cells excepting one, cut off, 150 TffE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. when it is claimed no more swarms will issue. After trying this plan for sev- eral years I found it worked just ex- actly as a bee-keeper told me a short time ago it worked with him. He said he had usually hived these after- swarms in boxes about the parent col- ony till the old colony stopped swarm- ing, when he dumped all together in the old hive, letting the young queens fight it out, when they would go on and work well; and if a suitable time in the honey harvest when this was done, such a colony would do good business, giving a surplus of honey. While he was thus doing, another bee- keeper came along and told him that, if he would cut all the queen-cells but one, on the sixth day, he would have no more trouble hiving after-swarms in boxes about the parent colony. Of- fering to show him how, they opened a hive which had swarmed six days be- fore, and bee-keeper No. 2 cut all the cells but one. At the usual time no swarm issued and bee-keeper No. 1 thought he had learned something of value: but when the sixteenth, seven- teenth and eighteenth days arrived af- ter the issue of the prime swarm, he found he had more swarms from hives thus treated than from those not touched at all. He said that the bees built queen-cells over the larvae still left in the hive, that was of an age at which it could be converted into a queen; destroyed the cell or queen af- ter she had hatched, which was left in cuttting cells; and as the bees had be- come strong in numbers before the queens matured from the newly built cells, the bees would swarm until the old hive was so depopulated that it would not build up for winter unless helped by the apiarist. I have given the readers of The American Bee-Keeper what this bee- keeper told me, as it so nearly de- scribed what I have found to be a fact when using the plan, that words of mine could add nothing to it. I have September often wondered how long it would take to teach the apiarists of the United States that such cutting of cells was a fallacy, and worse than a failure. But there is a way of cutting queen-cells so as to entirely prevent after-swarms, which has stood the test of years with me. I will tell the readers so they can enjoy it with me. Wait eight days af- ter the first or prime swarm issues from any hive, then cut all the queen cells giving a ripe one from your best colony, and you have a sure thing of it, as, in this case, all of the larvae have passed the age of being converted into queens. But the way I prefer, and the one I practice is this: On the evening of the eighth day, just before going to bed, (the maximum outside noise being hushed in the outside world at this time), I listen a moment with my ear at the side of the hive which cast a prime swarm that long ago, and if the young queen has hatched, and the bees have concluded to send out an after- swarm, I hear the piping of the young queen, which always precedes the issue of an after-swarm. If I hear this pip- ing, I open the hive early the next morning and cut off every queen cell, shaking off the bees from each frame in front of the entrance, so that no cells can by any possibility be missed. There is now no guess work or hope-so about it, but a sure thing, as one queen has her liberty and you take away all the rest. In all ways where a sealed queen cell is left, there is a possibility that this cell may not hatch, in which case the colony will be queenless; but by this plan we know that there is a young queen present, for we heard iier say so the night previous, if no piping is heard when we listen, then listen the next night, and so on to the night of the sixteenth day; and if no piping is heard then, we may know that the bees have concluded not to send out any after-swarm. Borodino, N. Y. 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 151 National Queen-Breeders' Union. Written for the American Bee-Keeper. BY .1. B. CASE. jjjhiT^EW bee-keepers, perhaps, realize '-^it^the proportions to which the bus- '^"^^ iness of rearing queen bees for sale has grown. Many thousands are annually sold. They are good, fair or ambitious to rear queens of the highest type possible; others bend their ener- gies to rearing large numbers to meet the demand for cheap queens. In a "queen trade" the buyer is de- pendent on the "honor" of the breeder as to the kind of stock, method of rear- ing and value of queens. The breeder indifferent, depending upon the condi- tions under which they are reared. Tf all the conditions are most favorable good queens result; otherwise, poorer ones. Some are queen breeders because they love bees, take delight in fine stock, in rearing, improving and in sharing it with others. Some rear queens as a but- less and others as a side issue for a lew weeks. Some are IS (lepc'udeut uu llif purchaser's"honor"' as to arrival of queen and after reports. The dealer has to depend on the honor of both breeder and purchaser. To give mutual confidence, to save losses and to improve the quality of the queens reared, Mr. J. O. Grimsley or- iginated the idea of a National Queen }3reeders' Union. Its object is to pro- tect both queen breeders and queen buyers, and the Union guarantees that 152 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. Septemher no complaint of dishonesty or misrep- resentation Is against any member. As soon as complaint Is received it will at once be investigated, and if the mem- ber is guilty he will be expelled. Ap- plicants for membership have their names forwarded to each member for investigation before they are received into the Union by ballot. There are (or have been in the past) breeders and dealers who have ordered queens, promising to pay, but not do- ing so. After getting as many as pos- sible from one breeder, another would be "worked," and so on. The constitu- tion provides that each member shall report all such cases to the secretary, (who also invites all others, iiaving knowledge of such cases, to do like- wise), who shall notify the members that such persons do not pay. It is intended that the queen buyer shall have the utmost confidence m the members of the Union. As each mem- ber knows that he would be expelled for any crookedness, it is not reason- able to suppose that a member would invite the ruin of his queen trade by dishonorable methods, even if he were not honest by nature. The Union has a "trade mark." Each member has the right to use same as a guarantee. All queen breeders whose reputations are spotless are eligible to membership. While members may reject an appli- cant, no one but the members know who have applied for membership. While the Union does not intend to re- flect on outsiders, it believes that it will be to the interest of all to join and help to extend the usefulness of the Union, as, by organization, it is possi- ble to accomplish much more than the members can by individual effort. So come on, brethren, and help us. As the organization was effected by correspondence, it was thought best to adopt the constitution as drafted and make the minor changes afterward. In some points it will probably be changed soon. I omitted above to say that the Union is in no sense a trust, as each member regulates his prices to suit himself. One of the objects of the Union is to improve the honey bee. An association whose interests as a whole (as well as individually) are to increase the queen trade is the one from whom we would naturally expect the most improvement in the honey bee. By inter-change of ideas and working in accord along the same line, much more should be ac- complished than by each working in- dependently. Port Orange, Fla. Care in Winter and Spring. Written for the American Bec-KiXjier. BY FRED S. THOEINGTON. §T is my habit when I can do so to provide my bees with plenty ol stores (sealed honey preferred) when they are placed in winter quarters in the fall. I aim to give them enough food to last them until they can gather honey from the blossoms in the spring. But as some colonies may fall a prey to robbers and be robbed of some of their stores, and as some use more honey than others, I keep watch of them during the winter and early spring and give them food at any time they may need it. I determine this by the appearance of the bees when out flying, and by gently lifting the hive at the back end, so it is free from the stand, letting the hive rest on the fing- ers of one hand while the front rests on the front end of stand. By lifting the hive in this manner one gets nearly all the weight, or enough to determine when the colony is running short of stores. As there is but a small amount of brood in the hives during the winter months, a good portion of the weight, aside from that of hive, frames and comb, will be honey. If one knows the weight of an empty hive he will soon learn the rest by a little practice, and 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. \T,:\ some hives need not be lifted more than once or twice during the winter. It disturbs the bees but little if it is done with care, letting the hive down gently so as not to jar the bees. As bees winter better when kept quiet, I disturb them as little as possible. I examine my bees, mostly in March, as above stated, choosing some warm day when they are flying. This year it was March 5, and up till that time not a cap had been removed from hives after they had been placed in winter quar- ters. Yet my colonies, forty-two in number, were found all right, with no loss. One colony was about out of honey; I gave it frames of honey kept over winter for that purpose. I set them next to the brood, after taking out the empty frames. Two other colo- nies were fed a little in case they might be short of stores if the spring should be late or weather so the bees could not work on early bloom. I had rather my bees would have ten pounds more honey than needed for winter than have an ounce too little. If they have plenty of honey to last till it comes in the spring, the bees are stronger in numbers, as they breed up faster, and are more ready to take advantage of the first flow that comes. Should bees have to be fed sugar in the spring it is best fed in syrup form, as it is a more natural food and stimu- lates the queen to egg-laying. When bees are fed they should be tucked up warm again before the cap or cover is put on. Colonies will hardly ever be found to be without a queen in the spring. If they are bringing in natural pollen, and are active about the entrance, it will be found they have a thrifty queen. Strong colonies raise brood very rapidly in the spring and consume a larger amount of honey, and should be closely watched that they have enough to last until they can gather it from fruit blossoms. Chillicothe, Mo. Where It Pays to Take Time. U'n'tlciijhr llic American Bec-Keeper. BY HAUKY S. HUWE. Vip HAVE been crying out for faster ^\V'> ways of working ror so long that ^•^^ perhaps it will be a good plan to try it the other way for once. lake time to see that the smoker is in good working order before opening a hive. It pays in wear and tear on the temper. Take time to look over the yard when through working for the day, and see that no fire has been dropped upon the cushions. I have known of several cases of hives being burned, one thirty- six hours after it was worked. Take time to let your dinner settle. I can do more work in a day with a nooning than without it. Take time to read the bee journals, advertising and all; and don't think one paper has it all in. I read four and then miss lots of good things. Take time to go to your bee conven- tion, even if you have to hire a man to work in your place while you are gone. I got an idea at the last Cortland Coun ty convention that has been worth all I ever paid for conventions, so far this season. Even if there are no new ideas, it is worth the price to get the "bee fever" up to a higher temperature. Take the time to visit your neighbor bee-keeper. He may have just what you want. At least, you will learn how not to do it, and that is worth some- thing. I once visited a yard where two men had been a day or two taking ex- tracted honey at the rate of 400 pounds a day. It was worth a day's work to see those men lay a comb flat down on a board, and then take a hot knife and cut of pieces of capping almost as big as a silver dollar! Take time to keep a record of what you do and when you do it. I thought this year that the first extracting was way ahead of time, until I looked it up and found that it was only the average. Go slow and take a few years to cou- 154 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPEE sider before you change the style of your hives. 1 am working yards hav- ing six entirely different hives and can't see much difference in the results. Of course, only one kind is allowed in a yard. It is confusion worse confound- ed to have two styles of hives in one yard. Take all the time that may be neces- sary to explain how flowers are fer- tilized and the part bees play in it. This is one of the subjects upon which people should be educated. I changed a man from a skeptic to a firm believer, today, by showing him the structure of a few flowers and the use of the parts. West Groton, N. Y. The Bee a Napoleonic Emblem. Written for the AvKrimn Bee-K<(i> upon Mr. John F. Eggleston, of Vro- man. Pa., who keeps about 125 colonies and has, he says, lots of milkweed within his range. Mr. Eggleston quite positively opposed' our idea as to the quality of the honey, claiming that it Milkweed.-( \^,l side Wanderings and Wedge-Woo Study," by Martha Bockee Flint, tha will interest most women; "Let Fa the Curtains," by Virginia Lynda Dunbar, who is widely known to th reading public. The article is a prac tical help to the housewife. Anion 1898. TEE AMERICAN SEE-KEEPER. 163 others are "The Olympian Banquet," "Peach Dainties," "Home Laundry, '' etc., etc., besides its regular practical departments so ably conducted by its regular staff of editors. A sample copy will be sent free to any of our readers addressing Table Talk Publishing Co., Philadelphia, Pa. HONEY AND BEESWAX MARKET REPORT. Below we give the latest and most authentic report of the Honey and Beeswax market in dif- ferent trade centers: New York, July 23.— Ourmarketis in very good shape for the new crop of comb honey. We have had several shipments of White Comb from Flor- ida, of late. This hns sold from 10 to ll>^c per lb. Market on Southern Extracted honey very steady, there l)ein.ii a good trade for the cheaper grades. We i|Uote our market as follows : Or- dinary at :>ii(.' fii'.c per g;il.: Good. 55(a'60c. per gal. Flori^la Wliitr, lie. New California is beginning to arrive. I'.ecswu.x market is quiet, prices ruling a little lower. \Ve()uote pure beeswax at 'ieVo® 273.,c. Write us for shipping in.structions. Francis H. Leggett & Co. Franklin and Varick Sts. riETROTT, IMifii.. .lulv 1."). 1898.— Demand slow, with liylil siii.|.ly. I',est White Comb, 11(S>12; Ex- tractrv^c. per lb. Good de- mand for Beeswax, with light supply, at 25c. per- Ib. ( )ld crop cleaned up and very little on the market. Hamblin & Bearss, 514 Walnut Street. ''How TO Mana(;k liEKS," a 5()c. book, and the American Kee-Keeper a year for only GO cents. "If people didn't have hobbies the world would soon cease to revolve." Bishop McCabe, of New York, on Dr. James' Headache Powders. "With regard to James' Headache Powders, I have no hesitation in com- mending them to suffers from head- ache. They relieve the pain speedily, and I have never known anyone to be harmed by their use. The Dr. James Headache Powders have, however, greatly relieved me at times, and I never allow myself to be without them, and have recommended them to others freely. "C. C. McCABE." For sale by H. W. Davis, Falconer, N. Y. "Everybody says, 'Go up higher' to the man who is 'getting there.' " ai'iiiiiiiiiii:iii!iii!iiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii'eeii made to our : list every month this year: luit it will be ne- ; cessiirv to increase the rate at whii-li tliev are : now i-i.niiim, te 1j> Ibis generous ol er to add several hundred this month. You are invited to join : us. Address THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER, • Falconer, N. Y. iililililil I ■illilil liKlililililil lil'lilil'IJ |i|'l'l500 to any one who will Inventasiiiiihir W.VSHING M.VCHiNt: that will operate easier or do better work. 'I'he Price Is ILi<>w. Write fur circulars, price and terms to Mention this Paper. 164 TEE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. I. Sepfewhr Golden or 3-band Ital- ian, warranted; two yards; rearing a spe- '• cialty for seven years. Thousands sold; $1.00 each; after May ist, 75c. Free circular. tf J. B. CASE, Port Orange, Fla. CI/UBBING LIST. We will send the American Bee-Keeper the— PUB. I! Americrtn Bee Journal, $1 00 Bee-Keepers' Review, 1 00 Canadian Bee Journal, 1 00 Gleanings in Bee Culture, 1 00 You Cant Make MONARCH CYCLE MFG. CO. Chicago New York Send nine two^cenf stamps for JMonarch Playing Cards. Regular 50c cards. For sale by H. M. (^AOE, East M Street, Jainestowii, N. Y standard for Quality, and More Popular than Ever. A 5FLENI:>1D RECORb. We Introduced ^^^ ^ — -^ FIRST safety bicycle of standard type. FIRST bicycle of light weight and nar- row tread. FIRST cross thread fabric tire. Strong and resilient. FIRST bicycle chain with hardened block and pin, FIRST dust proof, ball- retaining bearing. (Burwell). FIRST bicycle with frames built of large tubing. OUR '98 FEATURES: Burwell Bearings with Self-oiling Device. Burwell Detachable Tires. On Olevelands Only. '98MODEL01"M'65,$75. H. 1. LOZllOO., Mfrs., CATOLUGUE FREE. Cleveland, O. New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Buffalo, Detroit, San 5-6t. Francisco, London, Paris,Hamburg. PATENTS I PROMPTLY SECURED Write for our in I cresting books " Invent- or's Help " and "How you are swindled."- Send us a rough sketch or model of your invention or inipi-ovcment and we will tell -cr tree our opinion as to whether it is robably patentable. We make a specialty of applications rejected in other hands. Highest references furnished. MARION & MARION PATENT SOLICITORS & EXPERTS Civil - New York Branch Office, 625 F St., Washington, D. C. EVERY BEE=>KEEPEK To have a copy of 1898 CATALOG. BARNES' FOOT POWER MACHINERY. This cut represents our Combined .Machine, which is the best machine made for use in the construction of Hives, Sections, Boxes, etc. Sent on trial. Send for Cat- alogue and Pi ice List. W. F. & JOHN BARNES CO.. 913 Ruby St., Rockford, III. ii/ion American Ike-Keeper. W OUR Send us your nanie and address and we will take pleasure in mailing you a copv. G. B. I,BWIS CO., 3-tf. Watertown, Wis. //, If, If, Bingham has made all the improvements in Bee Smokers ^^ Honey Knives made in the last 20 years. Undoubtedly he makes the best on earth. Smoke En- gine, 4-inch stove, none too large, sent post- paid, per mail, 11.50; 3Wn., $1.10; 3-in., $1.00; 2|-in., 90c; 2-in., 70c; Little Won- der, 2-in., 65c; Knife, 80c. T. P. BINGHAM, Farwell, Mich. .1. J— To sell 200 colonies of Bees, in South- I'Un ern Georgia, or partner with capital to llbll move apiary to Cuba, iit close of war, by an e.xperienced apiarist. Reference, editor of American Bee-Keeper. Address E. M. STORER, Saussy, Clinch county, Ga. The Fence and Plain Sections, Weed New Process Foundation. Cowan Extractors Porter Bee-Escapes — the best made. Dovetailed Hives -with Danz. patented Corer and Bottom. Dauzenbaker Hives. No-drip Shipping-cases. Gleanings in Bee Ciilture; illustrated, semi-monthly. Catalog of Goods, and sample copy of Gleanings sent for your name on a postal. Branch Offices: 118 Michigan St., Chicago, III. ^JTT/ A T J?nrk^ /^/l 1024 Mississippi St., St. Paul, Minn. -I. XlX> -^. X. JV l^l^X L/l^., 1635 W. Genesee St., Syracuse, N. Y, _, -. ^... 10 Vine St., Philadelphia, Pa. Medina, OHIO. Mechanic Falls, Me. BEGINNERS. Beginners should have a copy of the Am- ateur Bee-Keeper, a 70-page book, by Prof. J. W. Rou.se; written especially for ama- teurs. Second edition just out. First edi- tion of 1,000 sold in less than two years. Editor York says: "It is the finest little book published at the present time." Price 25 cents; by mail, 28c. The little book and the Progressive Bee-Keeper (a live, pro- gressive, 28 page monthly journal) one year for 65c. Apply to any first-class dealer or address LEAHY MFG. CO., Higginsville, Mo. Patent Wired Comb Foundation Has no Sag in Brood Frames. Thin Flat Bottom Foundation Has no Fish-bone in Surplus Honey. Being the cleanest is usually worked the quick- est of any Foundation made. The talk about wir- ing frames seems al)surd. We furnish a Wired Foundation that is better, cheaper and not half the trouble to use that it is to wire brood-frames. Circulars and Samples Free. J, VAN DEUSEN &. SONS, Sole Manufacturers, Montgomery County. Sprout Brook, N. Y. Please mention American Bee-Kecpcr. THE AUSTRALIAN BEE BULLETIN. Circulating through all the Australian colonies. New Zealand and Cape of Good Hope. subscription: 6s. per annum in advance; if booked, 6s- 6d. Edited, Printed and Published by E. TIPPER, West Maitland, N. S. W. SCiLE of prices FOR ADVERTISEMENTS IN A. BEE BULLETIN; Half-page— Per annum, £5; Half-year, £3; quar- ter, £l-15s. Quarter-page— Per annum, £3; Half-year, £l-15s; Quarter. £1. One-eighth page— Per annum, £l-15s; Half-year, £1: Quarter, 12s. Single Insertion— 1st in., 3s 6d; succeeding 2s-6d. E. TIPPER, WEST MAITL/VND. N. S. W. Always mention The Bee-Keeper wheQ writing to advertisers. I Last year only about 1 per cent.— only one sub- scriber in 100— ordered his Review discontinued. If the Review could secure 1,000 new subscribers the present year, there is almost absolute certainty that at least 900 of them would remain, not only next year, but for several years— as long as they are interested in bees. Once a really e/ood journal visits a bee-keeper a whole year, it usually be- comes a permanent member of his family. I would have no difficulty whatever in getting twice 1,000 new subscribers this year if all the bee-keepers in this country had read the Review the past year. I have sometimes thought it might pay a publisher to give away his journal one year, simply for the sake of getting it into new hands. There are, of course, decided objections to such a course, but I am going to come as near to it as I dare. Here is my offer: If you are not a subscriber to the Review.send me SI. 00 and 1 will send you twelve back numbers, the Review the rest of tliis year, and all of next year. Each issue of the Review, especially if devoted to the discussion of some special topic, is really a pamphlet containing the best thoughts and ex- perience of the best men upon the topic under discussion. Twelve back numbers of the Review are, to a certain extent, so many little books de- voted to as many different phases of bee-keeping. Some issues of the Review are now out of print; of others only a few copies are left; while of others there are several hundred. Of course I shall send those of which I have the greatest number. Most people subscribe for a journal at the be- ginning of the year. In this case there is no use of waiting, as you will get the Review for next year just the same as though you waited until iiext January to subscribe;, and you will get the rest of the numbers for this year, free. The sooner you subscribe, the more free issues you will re- ceive. Let me tell it once more: For $1.00 you can get twelve back numbers, the Review the rest of this year, and all of 1899. II II. Mien. FlOfi E08I C008I RBilif iOPIlS, On Easy Terras of Payment. Low rates of travel to homeseekers and settlers. H E. HILI, Aoeni, Tilusvjiie, Pa. Further information upon request. W. M. Gerrish, East Nottingham, N. H., keeps a complete supply of our goods, and Eastern customers will save freight by or- dering from him. Published Monthly by the W. T. Falconer Manfg Co. Vol. Vffl. OCTOBER, J898. No. JO. From the Iort of the Honey and Beeswax market in dif- ferent trade centers: Detroit. Mich.. Sept. 8, 1898.— There is light ■;iil>|.lv of honey on our market at present, with M„»l (Ifinand at li)(" He. for comb, and .5@6c for ■\ir;i(tr(l. Deiuaml for heeswax is slow, with fair <\\\>y\x. Prices ■_>:.(-' 12Ge. M. H. Hunt, Bell Branch, Mich. Boston, Mass., Sept. 16, 1898.— The fall demand for hnney is now opening and from present in- licalions we li>ok for good prices right through tlie season. Wo (|Uote our market as follows: Faiirv White, in Cartons. 14c: A No. 1, White, 12>^ ;.■; Xu. 1, White, Win Vic: No. 2, 10@12c. Cal- iii:i rxtrai'tcil is iiractirally out of the market. IMiii.lia in liaiii'ls is >(_•! liiiu for 0@7c. according to quality. Ueeswa.x 'JCx" '.iTc. per lb. Very light. Stock, only fair demand. Bi.ake, Scott & Lee, 57 Chatham Street. Cleveland, Sept. 9.— Honey in good demand with fair supply. We quote our market to-day, comb. 8 & liic. ' Extracted, .') (w. 7. Beeswax is in good demand with very light supply, selling at 26 to 28c. A. B. Williams & Co., 80-82 Broadway. Kansas City. Mo., Sept. 7. 1898.— Good demand for honev. Good supply. We quote white comb, 123^ @ 14c. Extracted, 5 & Q%c. Hamblin & Bearss, 514 Walnut Street. Albany, N. Y. Sept. 12, 1898— Honey in good demand now and receipts light. The earlier you ship now the better prices will get. White Comb, 12@.l 3c.: mixed, llCal2c.: dark, 9@10c.; extracted light, 6(ai6Kc.; mixed, r,y,(wGc. : dark 5c. H. R. WRKiHT. Chicago, III., Sept. 10, 1898.— Honey has sold well for past few days and all of the best white comb that is in proper shape sells at 12c.; off grades of white, 10@llc.; amber, 9(aa0c.: dark grades, 7@ 8c.: extracted white, 5 @ 7c.; amber, 5@6c. and dark 43^@5C. Beeswax, 27c. R. A Burnet & Co. 163 S. Water, St. "Many of our best lessons are learned from our failures." ''How TO Manage Bees," a 5()c. boolv, and the .\merican Bee-Keeper a year for only 60 cents. Bishop McCabe, of New York, on Dr. James' Headache Powders. "With regard to James' Headache Powders, I have no hesitation in com- mending them to suffers from head- ache. They relieve the pain speedily, and I have never known anyone to be harmed by their use. The Dr. James Headache Powders have, however, greatly relieved me at times, and I never allow myself to be without them, and have recommended them to others freely. "C. C. McCABE." For sale by H. W. Davis, Falconer, N. Y. Always mention The Bee-Keeper when writing to advertisers. I ■■■II ■ I ■ I ■ I ■ I ■ I ■ ■11 ■■ I ■ ■'■ I I I ■■illill III ■ ■■ ■■■■■i^ ■!•£ We want 10,000 Bee-keepers on our subscription list before | the close of the century. | WE MAY NOT GET THEM, f but as an inducement to that end we propose i the following: We will send The American ^ Bee-Keeper from now until January, 1900, = for 50 cents. z If you are interested in bee-keeping, you = can hardly afford to neglect this opportunity. 2 Substantial additions have been made to our = list every month this year; but it will be ne- | cessary to increase the ratt> at whii'h they are - now coming, to give us tlu- lo.uiio new ones in g the specified time. We shall, therefore, con- 2 stantlv endeavor to improve the paper and | hope by this generous oiler to add several 2 hundred this month. You are invited to join | us. Address Z THE I AMERICAN I BEE-KEEPER, I Falconer, N. Y. | ^■{■■■ii ■■■■■■liiiii^iiiiiiri I ■■^■■■iiiiiiiiiiri^^j MPIRE WASHER FREE To Energetic Agents. Eivinnr ■WHi^nrn rnrr ^no"*^*^^^ profits Ifll IIIIh ■■riwllkill I llkk WITH LITTLE WORK PERFECT SATISFACTION GCARANTEED. !|{S500 to any one who wUl Inventa similar WASHINO M.Vt'HINK that will operate easier or do better work. The Price Ix I><»\v. Write for circulars, price and terms to MenSLpiriHE EMPIRE WASHER CO., Jamestown, N. Y, 180 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. October Golden or 3-band Ital- ian, warranted; two yards; rearing a spe- • cialty for seven years. Thousands sold; $1.00 each; after May ist, 75c. Free circular. tf J. B. CASE, Port Orange, Fla. CI/UBBING I/IST. We will send the American Bee- Keeper with the— I'UB. BOTH. American Bee Journal, SI 00 81 35 Bee-Keepers' Review, 1 00 1 35 Canadian Bee Journal, 1 00 1 35 Gleanings in Bee Culture, 1 00 1 36 You Cant Make MONARCH CYCLE MFG. CO. Chicago New York Send nine two=cent stamps for Monarch Playing Cards. Regular 50c cards. For sale by H. M. GAOE, East 3d Street, Jamestown, N. Y. standard for Quality, "and More Popular than Ever, A 5FLENblb REC0R5. We Introdvced ^>"' — ^-^ FIRST safety bicycle of standard type. FIRST bicycle of light weight and nar- row tread. FIEST cross thread fabric tire. Strong and resilient. FIEST bicycle chain with hardened block and pin. FIRST dust proof, ball-retaining bearing. (Burwell). FIRST bicycle with frames built of large tubing. OUR '98 FEATURES: Bunnell Bearings with Self-oiling Device. Burwell Detachable Tires. On Olevelands Only. '98 M0nFfV50,$65,$75. H.A.lOlRlGO.,Mfr8., CATOLUGUE FREE. Cleveland, O. New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Buffalo. Detroit, San 5-6t. Francisco, London, Paris, Hamburg. PATENTS i I PROMPTLY SECURED Write for our interesting booka " Invent- or s Help" and "How you are swindled." Send us a rough slcetch or model of your invention or improvement and we will tell •^cw ft-ee oxir opinion as to whether it is rrobably patentable, Wc make a specialty of applications reiected in other handa. Highest references furnished, MARION & MARION PATENT SOLICITORS & EXPERTS Civil A Mechanical Engineers. Graflnatps of the Polytechnic School of Eiis^mpcring Bachelois in Applied Sciences, Laval Uiiiveisity. Members Patent Law ABsociatton, American Water Works Association, New Knglaiid Water Works Assoc. P. Q. Surveyors Assv>ciatiou, Assoc. Member Can. Society of Civil Eutriaeers. Offices: -^ Washinotov, D. C. "( Montreal, Can ^^v^v./-V^%/0 FREE 8 PINE LINKX DOILIES. All dif- ferent Patterns. 1 Large Bread-Plate Center- piece, 1 J iuches across; 2 0-iu. Plate doilies; will please any lady. Send 13 2-ct. stamps for a year's subscription to our Illustrated JMagaziue for Home and Farm and we will mall these Fine Doilies Fkee. FAHMEB'S KEA1.M, SYRACUSE, iJ^. Y. OinEKfl For Sail CHEAP. We have a new Hawkeye Jr. Cam- era, made by Blair Camera Co.^ takes pic- tures 3.|x3i: uses hoih ix)ll of film (12 pic- tures) "and plates. Is covered with grain leather and has a leather carrying case with strap. Cost |9.00. Also a complete outfit for developing plates and prints; cost $8.00. Will sell the Camera alone for $5.50, or the Camera and outfit for $9.00. Address The American Bee-Keeper, FALCONER, N. Y. 160-Page Bee Book FREE. Book Sent Free with American Bee Journal. Every new subscriher sending 81.00 for the mrkln American Bee Journal for one vear will receive a copv of Newman's ICO-page "Bees and Honey" free. The old American Bee Journal is great this year. You ought to have it. Sample of Bee Journal free. Write tor it. Geo. W. York & Co., 118 Michigaii St., Chicago, 111. 'S hon:^y extractor PERFECTION COLD - BLAST SMOKERS Square Glass Honey Jars, Etc. For Circulars, applv to OHAS. r. MUTH & SON, Cor. Freeman & Central Avenues, Cincinnati, O Send 10c. for Practical Hints to Bee-Keepers. We are also dealers in Honey and Beeswax. Please mention American Bct-Keeper. Farm Bee-Keeping.^^ The only Bee Paper in the United States edited exclusively in the in- terest of the fiirmer bee-keeper and the beginner is The Busy Bee, published by EMERSON T. ABBOTT, St. Joseph, Mo. Write for free sample copy now. The Fence and Plain Sections. Weed New Process Foundation. Cowan Extractors Portei' Bee-Escapes — the best made. Dovetailed Hives with Danz. patented Cover and Bottom. Danzen baker Hives. No-drip Shipping-cases. Gleanings in Bee Culture; illustrated, semi-monthly. Catalog of Goods, and sample copy of Gleanings sent for yout name on a postal. Branch Ofkices: 118 Michigan St., Chicago, 111. 1024 Missi.ssippi St., St. Paul, Minn. 1635 W. Genesee St., Syracuse, N. Y. ti- j. „.. 10 Vine St.. Philadelphia, Pa. Medina, OniO. Mechanic Falls, Me. THE A. I. ROOT CO., BEGINNERS. Beginners should have a copy of the Am- atevir Bee-Keeper, a 70-page book, by Prof. J. W. Rouse; written especially for ama- teurs. Second edition just out. First edi- tion of 1,000 sold in less than two years. Editor York says: "It is the finest little book published at the present time." Price 25 cents; by mail, 28c. The little book and the Progressive Bee-Keeper (a li\e, pro- gressive, 28 page monthly journal) one year for 65c. Apply ^o any first-class dealer or address LEAHY MF&. 00., Higginsville, Mo. Patent Wired Comb Foundation Has no Sag in Brood Frames. Thin Flat Bottom Foundation Has no Pish-bone in Surplus Honey. Being the cleanest is usually worked the quick- est of any Foundation made. Tlie talk about wir- ing frames seems absurd. We furnish a Wired Foundation that is better, cheaper and not half the trouble to use that it is to wire brood-frames. Circulars and Samples Free. J. VAN DEUSEN & SONS, Sole Manufacturers, Montgomery County. Sprout Brook, N. Y. Please mention American Bee- Keeper. THE AUSTRALIAN BEE BULLETIN. Circulating through all the Australian colonies. New Zealand and Cape of Good Hope. subscription: 5s. per annum in advance; if hooked, 6s- 6d. Edited, Printed and Published by E. TIPPER, West Maitland, N. S. W. SCALE OF PRICES FOR ADVERTISEMENTS IN A. BEE BULLETIN: Half-page— Per annum, £5; Half-year, £3; quar- ter, £l-15s. Quarter-page— Per annum, £3; Half-year, £l-1.5s: Quarter. £1. < )ne-eighth page— Per annum, £l-15s; Half-year. £1: (inarter, 12s. Single Insertion— 1st in., 3s 6d; succeeding 2s-6d. E. TIPPER, WEST MAITLAND, N. S. W. Always mention The Bee-Keeper when writing to advertisers. Last year only aljout 1 per cent. — only one sub- scriber in 100— ordered his Review discontinued. If the Review could secure 1,000 new subscribers the present year.there is almost absolute certainty that at least 900 of them would remain, not only next year, but for several years— as long as they are interested in bees. Once a really good journa"! visits a bee-keeper a whole year, it usually be- comes a permanent member of his family. I would have no difficulty whatever in getting twice 1,000 new subscribers this year if all the bee-keepers in this country had read the Review the past year. I have sometimes thought it migM pay a publisher to giveaway his journal one year, simply for the sake of getting it into new hands. There are, of course, decided objections to such a course, but I am going to come as near to it as I dare. Here is my offer: If you are not a subscriber to the Review, send me Jfl.OO and 1 will send vou twelve back numbers, the Review the rest of tliis year, and all of next year. Each issue of the Review, especially if devoted to the discussion of some special topic, is really a pamphlet containing the best thoughts and ex- perience of the best men upon the topic under discussion. Twelve hack numbers of the Review are, to a certain extent, so many little books de- voted to as many different phases of bee-keeping. Some ifi.sues of the Review are now out of print; of others only a few copies are left; while of others there are several hundred. Of course I shall send those of which I have the greatest number. Most people subscribe for a journal at the be- ginning of the vear. In this case there is no use of waiting, as you will get the Review for next year just the same as though you waited until next January to subscribe; and you will get the rest of the numbers for this year,//'ee. The sooner you subscribe, the more free issues you will re- ceive. Let me tell it once more: For Sl.OO you can get twelve back numbers, the Review the rest of this year, and all of 1890. w.z. Farm Bee-Keeping,_^>- The only Bee Paper in the United States edited exclusively in the in- terest of the farmer , bee-keeper and the beginner is The Busy Bee, "published by EMERSON T. ABBOTT, St. Joseph, Mo, Write for free sample copy now Vol. VIIL NOVEMBER, 1898. No. J I. Improving Our Resources. Written for the Anirrivun Bee-Keeiter. P.V i;i>. .Till, LEY. F one-half the energy that is now expended in inventing new hives and other appliances; searching for new races of bees; breeding for beauty, etc., were turned to the better- ment of the honey resources of the country, bee-keeping as a business, would be a more lucrative one. For it matters not what kind of bees we keep, nor what hive we use, our object is to secure honey. And it matters little whether the hive we use is large or small, double or single, with fixed or hanging frames; whether we use plain sections with a fence, or the more com- mon ones, for all these have to do with producing honey is their respect- ive conveniences. And no race of bees can produce honey beyond what they can gather from the flora within the radius of their flight. If the flora is wanting, no improvement in hives or bees can attone for it. No application of scientific methods can overcome it. No one can be a true bee-keeper and not be interested in his honey-pioduc- ing flowers. Their increase and pres- ervation should be as important to him as the welfare of his colonies. Every bee-keeper should have a thorough knowledge of the honey-producing plants of his neighborhood. He should know exactly when to expect the flow from this and from that. In fact, he must know it if he would be prepared to make the most out of it when it comes. It is a lamentable fact that some of our best honey producers have de- creased wonderfully during the last two or three decades. The plough and the reaper now hold supremacy over the then vast fields of white clover. The beautiful lindens that once decked alike the hills and the valleys over a large portion of North America have been greatly devastated, and in many localities completely "wiped out." These two great honey plants are de- serving of more than a passing inter- est. The American Linden or bass- wood (Tilia Americana) is as the name implies an American tree, being in- digenous to the forest of North Ameri- ca. It is one of America's most beau- tiful and useful trees. It is a rapid grower, and when properly trained, it makes one of the finest of shade trees. It is adapted to nearly all kinds of soils, and thrives over the greater part of North America. It is easily propo- gated, and can be raised either from the seed or from slips or cuttings. The best way to start the seed, is to go into the forest, I'ake the old rotted leaves fiom a plot of ground, stir the top soil 182 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. November lightly with the rake, and then sow the seeds and cover lightly with well- rotted leaves or compost. Do this in the fall of the year, and the next fall the starts are ready to transplant. To start from slips, cut early in the spring and stick the cutting in a marsh or wet ground. The swelling or expanding buds will draw nourishment from the ground and will soon throw out roots or feeders. Slips started in the spring will be ready to transplant the follow- ing spring. As a honey producer it has no su- perior. Coming in bloom about the middle of July, just as the white clover is going out. But it has other values than as honey and ornamental shade trees. Its beautiful, soft, white and pliable wood has been in such demand as to almost threaten complete extermination. Now, I do not believe in planting anything in valuable land for the sake of honey alone. But, if every bee-keeper would see that all his needful shade trees were of the linden, and plant them liberally on the waste and untillable land, and laud their praises far and wide to induce others to do so, in a few years we would have something like the old-time basswood honey crops. That white clover is a valuable honey plant is not to be wondered at, when we consider that it is a member of a family that has many representa- tives on the honey producing list. Tre- folium repens, or creeping clover, is a member of the pulse family, or what the botanists call leguminous. So named because the seed of this family is raised in a legume or pod, which opens on both sides, as the pea, bean, etc. This family of plants contains about 6,500 different species, many of which yield honey. The pulse family is di- vided into three divisions. Our clovers belong to the first or papilionaceous di- vision. It was so named by Linnaeus because the flowers of this division, when in full bloom, resembled a but- terfly. Papilio being the Latin for but- terfly. The reader may have noted this re- semblance in the pea and the bean. Now, if you will take a head of clover and put it under a microscope you will see that is not a single flower but a collection of many in one. Seperate one of these blossoms and you will see a perfect bean or pea blossom. Select a well-ripened head, and pull off one of the dried blossoms, and underneath you will find a perfect little bean shape. Open it carefully and, lo, you will find a perfect bean. To this division of the pulse family, belongs all our clovers, peas, beans honey-locust and a mighty host of others that yield more or less honey. White clover is a biennial. The plant that germinates from the seed this year will bloom and bear seed the next, when the old plant will give way again to the seed. If by any means, such as cold or wet weather, during bloom of white clover, the bees do not visit them frequently enough, they will be improperly fertilized, and the per- fect seed will, therefore, be scarce; which accounts for white clover fre- quently being scarce. And when it is very scarce ii will often take two or three years befoi-e it regains its full standing. Now, for all this seed costs, every bee-keeper could provide himself with a few pounds and scatter along the roadside and streams, fence-corners, pasture fields, and through the woods, and by so doing the honey crop from this source would be materially in- creased. Franklin, Pa. If you have a bee-keeping friend who is not a subscriber to this paper, kindly direct us to send him a sample f'opy. THE A3IERICAN BEE~KEEPElt. 183 National Queen Breeders' Union. WritU'ii for flir Aiiininm ]i>r- Keeper. BV .1. n. (,I:I.MISI,KY. 'ITH your permission I will sup- plement Mr. Case's article in the September Bee-Keeper, and hope to be able to show the necessity for such an organization. To begin with, there were six of us (a hexagon, you see), entered into the work of organizing. Besides the four officers mentioned in j'our editorial, page 157, there were W. H. Laws, of Arkansas and W. H. White, of Texas. I mention these because they are as much entitled to credit in effecting the organization as any of the officers. In this connection I can do no better than quote from Mr. Secor's article, page 113, American Bee-Keeper for July: "Men lay their heads together, form alliances for mutual protection and thereby gain strength impossible to the single worker." Again he says: "Men interested in a common pur- pose are enabled to unite on a common plan of action and work to some ef- fect." Thanks to Mr. Secor for such a fit- ting expression; nothing could be more to the point in our organization than what he says. For years the queen breeders have been hobbling along, sin- gle-banded, each trying to make the strongest points, and the result is we have but little improvement. Since the organization of the Union we have a "company" of breeders, each inde- pendent, yet with one "common pur- pose are enabled to unite" in improv- ing the honey bees of our nation, with- out the jealousy that formerly existed between individual breeders. So much for the plan of improvement. I quote again from Mr. Secor, pages 113 and 114: "For instance, it is too large a job for one bee-keeper to attempt to fight adul- teration of honey, etc." What applies to adulteration of honey, in that case, is just as applica- ble to the professional "dead-head" and the hap-hazard bi'eeder in our own ranks. Right here I will quote from a letter received from one of our leading apicultural lights in reference to our organization. He says: "I somewhat question the wisdom of the move. There is only one queen- breeder that I now recall whose reputa- tion, both for square dealing and prompt pay, has not been all that we could desire, and it seems almost un- necessary to form an association simply to bar out such a person as he." To me there seems to be a lack of wisdom — no, I will say enterprise — in the expression. If we were organizing for the purpose of "barring out" cer- tain persons, then there would be a lack of wisdom. It is true that our doors are closed against all dishonesty, but instead of stopping to fight a com- mon enemy, it is our purpose to ad- vance right along over them. Unscru- jjulous breeding was one of the causes that lead to our organization. Queen, buyers are at the mercy of the breed- ers, and, of my personal knowledge, many are badly deceived in the quality of queens they get. On that account , all queen breeders are looked upon with a degree of distrust. I have seen prominent queen breeders use "hap- hazard" cells by the hundreds and send out "untested" queens from these very cells (the writer of the above men- tioned letter has bought scores of them, to my knowledge). Then, is it any wonder that the thought of protecting buyers against such should spring up? Then, at this day and time there are scores of "upspurts" (like myself) that, as soon as they get a smattering of the business, want to pose as a breeder. Can all such be trusted with the strength and prosperity of your "stocks?" We all Hgree on one thing, and that is, the queen bee is the foundation for 184 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. Novemhet successful bee-keeping. The queen being tlie foundation, we want one that is solid. Then there is no branch of apiculture that needs more thorough organization than that upon which apiculture is built. Let's make the foundation solid. In a further correspondence with the party quoted from, he says: "The queen breeders can almost be counted on the fingers of one hand. If they represented a large number, up in the thousands, then such an associa- tion would come in play." To satisfy myself, I picked up a num- ber of bee papers and in less than ten minutes counted forty-four advertise- ments of different parties offering queens for sale, besides twenty-seven supply dealers, most of whom sell queens. These may not all be breeders, but to the purchaser of queens they are all the same. But if we numbered only a half dozen, why not organize? Well, we have organized, and now would ap- preciate the encouragement of all en- terprising bee-keepers and breeders. All worthy breeders are welcomed to our Union, and when you get in we will see to it that you walk just right, and if you don't you might as well "take down your sign." I have already written more than was my purpose, but hope you will bear with me, and if there is any further in- formation that any of us can give, we will gladly do so. Byrdstown, Tenn. COMMENTS Suggestions and Notes Called Out bygthe August Issue. Written for the American Bee-Keeper. ^^TB AM in receipt of a sample copy of Ws The American Bee-Keeper, for ^ ® which I hereby subscribe for one year. You say it is published in the inter- est of bee-keeping. 1 see it is not de- voted entirely to your goods. I notice an article in the August issue, page 131, 'The Market Problem;" then 1 turn to page 147, the same issue, and see you publish honey market reports from commission men. These com- mission men ruin our markets. They are the ones who set prices on our honey and make it a difficult task to get remunerative prices. I think it all wrong for bee papers to insert the commission taerchants' price list. The editors could state what honey is bringing at the different marts, but not the names of the firms. You see, it is like this: The commission merchant gets one profit, the grocer one profit, before it reaches the consumers. Thus, the bee-keeper supports the commis- sion merchant and the grocer. See? I see also on pages 129 and 130 in the same issue "How to Introduce a Valu- able Queen." Now, that is all right, but I have a better way — a way that I have never lost a queen by introduc- tion. It is this way: I remove the "whole business," bees, hives and all, to a new stand, place a new hive on the old stand, return to the old hive, hunt up the old queen and the frame upon which I find her I place in the new hive on the old stand, give her some empty drawn comb and a frame or so of honey. While doing this, you see, the old bees go home to the new hive. The object is to draw off the old bees so as to introduce the valuable queen to the young bees and hatching bees only. Young bees will take the new mother readily. As the old bees are the ones that would kill the new queen, 1 mere- ly readjust the brood nest and place ihe caged queen on top of the frames, giving the bees access to the food in the cage. This plan saves time and an im- mense lot of unnecessary fussing as per article on page 129. On page 133, "Prevention of In- crease," by f". Theilmann, T observe th:it he allows his bees to swarm once. ms. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. Now, that is all righr, but I don't do so. 1 do not allow my bees to swarm be- fore or after the harvest, and in doing so I can make my increase as much or as little as I desire, or not at all, by di- viding after the white honey harvest is over. My plan is to have an adjusta- ble brood chamber in a large hive — one that I can expand or contract at will. This plan is no experiment I am using it this very day, and obtain results that "astonish the natives." No caging of queens, no swarming, no clipping of wings, no cutting out queen cells, no waiting for the seventh day for a queen to hatch and no de- queening as per article on page 133. Here is a sample obtained from one colony: An increase of three full colonies, which are or have been working on buckwheat and fall flowers, and from which I shall obtain over 200 pounds of extracted honey, $10; comb honey, $21; increase (three colonies full-blooded Cyprians), $15; nine young queens, $9; total, $55. My plan, with the Acme hive, is surely a success. South Wales, N. Y. United States Department of Agricul- ture, Division of Entomology, Washington, D. C, Sept. 30, 1898. W. T. Falconer Mfg. Co., Falconer, N.Y.: Dear Sirs: — I fully appreciate the improvements you have been making the past season in The American Bee- Keeper and hope you may succeed in your plan of adding greatly to your subscription list for the coming year. Enclosed are three names to help a lit- tle. Kindl.y send, for enclosed money order for $1.50, The Bee-Keeper from October ], 1898, to Jan 1, 1900, to each of the three as per offer in last num- ber. Very truly yours, FRANK BENT'ON. Mountain View, N. J., Oct. 14, 1898. The W. T. Falconer Mfg. Co. Gentlemen— Please find enclosed a check to balance account. Would have sent it sooner but have been perfecting plans and intended to send an order at same time. The foundation you sent me is the best I have ever used, the bees accepted it and made the whitest comb produced this year. I noticed its softness and marked each super in which it was used. I shall use no other. All the supplies received from you are better than from any other house. I had some separators from you two years ago, 3-32 thick, planed both sides, and find less propolis on them than the sawed ones, and they keep their shape better, in fact, do not wrinkle at all. I suppose you can furn- ish them planed of that thickness now? Though the early part of the season was very unfavorable, still, the fall has given me about 1,200 pounds, and the bees have abundant stores to keep them until the next flow of nectar, and I have thirty-six colonies to carry through. Very truly yours, B. F. Onderdonk CincinnatUh, N. Y., Oct. 5. 1898. The W. T. Falconer Mfg. Co.: As I promised to let you hear some- thing of my experience with the new dovetailed supers and bored separat- ors, will try and do so now. As it was rather along in the honey flow before 1 received them, I could not tell as well in regard to the willingness of the bees to occupy them, as they were used in tiering up. I put them up, according to Pettit's plan, of a bee space outside of the sec- 180 THE A 31 ER WAN BEE-KEEPER. Novemher tions, or rather a separator outside, and a bee space l)etween separator and side of super. Tiiis gave me room for six brood frames to the super, or twen- ty-four sections. From my observa- tions so far I am I6d to thinlv that tlie bees will enter the supers more readily than ordinary ones; that they will work on the outside row of sections and fill them generally as quick as the others. I am inclined to believe, but hardly dare say it, that they will store more honey in them. In regard to holes in the corners of filled sections, I could see no material difference. I think we must go farther for that, probably, on the line of full sheets of foundation, giving less sur- plus room, leaving sections on longer, etc. One or all of these, but I can't say that I like any of them except full sheets, which I shall test next season. I have made up my mind to one thing, and that is that my supers will all be fixed with a bee space outside of the outside row of sections. I have seen enough this season to satisfy me on that point. I may say that from thirty-three swarms, some of which did not fill one super, I have taken 2.000 pounds of comb honey, and that with a drouth during clover bloom. Yours truly, O. E. NICHOLS. Annin Creek, Pa., Sept. 13, 1898. Editor American Bee-Keeper: Dear Sir:— Since reading your edi- torial on milkweed honey in the Sep- tember number of the American Bee- Keeper, I thought I would give my ex- perience. There is considerable milkweed in this vicinity and it is increasing every year. If I mistake not. it is in bloom at about the same time as sumac and re- mains in bloom until and during part of basswood bloom. For that reason I have been unable to secure any which was anywhere near pure. I have hun- dreds of sections of honey which have the sulphur-colored cappings. Some of the honey is very light-col- ored, while a little of it shows the red- dish tinge, but all, if I mistake not, is from the same flowers. That which is the lightest colored has a very agree- able flavor, while that which has the reddish tinge is much stronger and is by no means equal to white clover. Although this honey may not con- tain any basswood honey, it does con- tain honey gathered from sumac and other honeys, possibly a little rasp- berry or clover and other kinds which I do not know. Honey gathered during milkweed bloom and such other flowers as may be in bloom at this time. Is of a very high specific gravity. I have a good many sections 4%xl% which weigh more than one pound and a few which tip the scales at IS^^ ounces. These sections were every one of them built between separators, although they were loose-fitting, perhaps 1-16 inch play in some instances or possibly a little more. T will make more definite observa- tions next year and try to learn more about milkweed honey. The last few numbers of The Amer- ican Bee-Keeper are the best that have ever been published, that is, allowing me to be the judge. They suit me the best. Yours truly, G. F. TUBES. Driving Bees to Pasture. When Aaron Snyder, of Kingston, took his honey bees out for a drive in the country the other day and left them to spend a few weeks amid rural sights and sounds on Dr. C. O. Sahler's farm, near Kyserike, Ulster county, he created quite a breeze of excitement among the persons along the road, and had to stop many times to explain what he was doing. The idea of send- ing bees to the country for the benefit of their health is full of novelty to the average man, who has come to regard tS9S. THE AMERICA}} BEE-KEEPER. \?a: a bee as the most cranky and pesti- ferous thing alive. Yet, as Mr. Snyder explains, there is an excellent reason for taking the bees to the country, and it is really no more remarkable than taking cows to pas- ture. The principle is in the main the same, although by moving the bees, color and quality of the honey they make is thus controlled. It is a fact well known to bee fanciers that bees will only go about three miles from their home to gather honey from the flowers. Another fact equally well known is that there is in buckwheat flowers a larger amount of honey than in any other flower that grows in any quantity. This hbney, although dark in color, has a very agreeable flavor, and is preferred to any other. Buckwheat is not very plentiful within three miles of Mr. Snyder's apiary and therefore he is moving 100 hives of bees to a location in the coun- try where they can find plenty of it. Half of these bees are taken to Kyser- ike and the other half to a place about two miles north of Stone Ridge. When the buckwheat has died off the bees will be brought back to their home in Kingston. Mr. Snyder has kept bees for twenty- five years and has made a study of their habits, which fits him to care for them with the required profit. When asked if his bees would not get lost taking them into a strange country, he said: "No; there is no danger of that, if the hives are always moved while the bees are in them. But if, while the bees are out in the fields gathering sweets, the hive is moved, they will re- turn straight to the place where the hive was and cluster there. A bee re- turns on a route 'straight as a bee line' to the place it starts from, and as the queen bee remains in the hive, the bees go right on making honey in this hive, according to their nature." It is said that the idea of moving bees to pasture is carried on to a large extent along the Mississippi, where the hives are taken from place to place down or up stream on fiat boats, that anchor during the day and are moved on at night while the bees are all in the hives, thus keeping them in fresh pas- ture all of the time. — New York Herald. Days Gone By. ( ), the ilays gone by! O, the days gone by! The ai)ple in the orchard and the pathway through the rye: The chirrup of the robin, and the whistle of the quail. As she piped across the meadows sweet as any nightingale: When the bloom was on the clover, and the blue was in the sky, And ray happy heart brimmed over in the days gone by. In the days gone by, when my naked feet were tripped By the honeysuckle's tangles, were the watei- lillies dipped, And the ripple of the river lipped the moss along the brink. Where the placid-eyed and lazy-footed cattle come to drink. And the tilting snipe stood fearless on the truant's wayward cry. And the splashing of tlie swimmer in the days gone by. O, the days gone by I O, the days gone by! The music of the laughing lip, the luster of the eye: The childish faith in fairies and Aladdin's magic ring. The simple, sbul-reposing, glad belief in every- thing. When life was like a story, holding neither sob nor sigh. In the olden, golden glory of the days gone by. James Whitcomb Riley. BEE-KEEPING IN CHILI. Editor Juan Dupont-Lafitte, of "El Apicultor Chileno," the bee-paper of Chili, South America, in a recent letter to The Bee-Keeper, says: "Apiculture hns a grand future in this Chili of ours. It is yet in an undeveloped con- dition, but a new era is dawning and we are at the front of the battle." It is always interesting to read of con- ditions and methods existing in for- eign lands, and we are pleased to an- nounce that Senor Dupont-Lafitte has consented to contribute an illustrated article on bee-keeping in Chilli which we hope to publish in the near future. Mr. Dupont-Lafitte has recently been chosen "correspondent member" of an apicultural federation in Belgium. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. Korrinbrr THE W. T. FALCONER IVIANFG CO. li. EL. lilLL, _ _ _ EZciitox. Terms : Fifty cents a year in advance; 2 copies, S5 cents; 3 copies, 11.20: all to be sent to one postoffice. Postage prepaid in the U. S. and Canada; 10 cents extra to all countries in the postal union, and 20 cents extra to all other countries. Advertising Rates : Fifteen cents per line, 9 words; S2.00 per inch. .5 per cent, discount for 2 insertions; 7 per cent, for :i insertions; 10 per cent, for 6 insertions; 20 per cent, for 12 insertions. Advertisements must be received on or before the 1.5th of each month to insure instrtion in the month following. .\ddress THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER, Falconer, N. Y. flS~Subscribers receiving their paper in blue wrapper will know that their subscription expires with this number. \Vc hope that you will not de- lay favoring us with a renewal. 4®"A red wrapper on your paper indicates that you owe for your subscription. Please give the matter your early attention. EblTORIAL. We have on hand at present a num- ber of excellent articles to appear dur- ing the coming "reading season,"' in The Bee-Keeper. The American Bee .Journal says: "Many persons speak of bees being 'run out' by moths. Why not say the weeds run out the corn?" E. W. Brown, Eden, N. Y., reports in Ainerican Bee Journal that while his apiary is composed chiefly of Italians, the blacks only worked on basswood this year, the "yellow fellows" sticking to the clover. General Manager T. G. Newman, in the American Bee Journal, reports an- other victory before the courts of Cali- fornia, for the National Bee-Keepers' Union. It was another "bees a nui- sance" case, which investigation failed to justify. Some people will learn, some day, that bees and bee-keepers have some rights on earth. Editor Hutchinson, of tlie Review, has been going the rounds of the state fairs "out west" with his honey ex- hibits, and the "firsts" and "seconds" which he has gathered in, foot up a snug sum of money. The chief benefit arising from such public exhibitions, however, is its educational effect, a benefit in which every bee-keeper in the land shares indirectly. It would seem, according to Mr. Whitcomb's climatic theory, that, what- ever may l)e said of the depraved appe- tite and correspondingly crude diet of the Esquimaux, these primitive breth- ren of the far North have an advantage over us in the matter of superior qual- ity and flavor of honey that may be ap- proximated by the intervening dist- ance. The farther north the better the flavor. The California Bee-Keepers' Ex- change has now on hand orders for more than 600 tons of honey for ex- port. Owing to the failure of the honey crop this season in Southern California it seems now to be a question just how to hold the European demand which the Exchange has created. There will always be a demand for sage honey where it has once been introuduced; but the market developed for cheaper grades from the Paciflic coast may find substitutes in abundance. In the engraving accompanying Mr. Jolley's interesting article on the de- A^elopment of greater honey resources, presented in this number, is shown a Pennsylvania pasture-field literally carpeted with white clover, and a second-growth linden in full bloom; a branch of which, with clover entwined, constitute the background. The pe- 1S98. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. lS!> culiar delicate fragrance of the linden bloom, coupled with the profusion of white clover at the same time, forcibly suggested the inscription, "Every scent of summer tide," — Flowery pastures all glow, from Jean Ingelow's inspiring poem, A Lily and a Lute. The subject selected by Mr. Jolley is one of great interest and importance, especially to bee-keepers of the North, and the mat- ter deserves consideration accordingly. An accumulation of other matter just now, we deem of greater interest, so that the Cuban reminiscences and Florida notes are temporarily discon- tinued. It is not improbable, however, that something more up-to-date may be given in this line before the lapse of many months. Public interest seems to be quite generally centred upon Cuba, and "The Wanderings of Hill with Camera and Quill," is a future possibility. Bee-keeping methods in Japan, as they existed twenty-five years ago, are illustrated in colors by J. Ikeda & Co., of Tokyo, in a chart 7x20 inches, a copy of which is just at hand, accom- panied by a written explanatory key and a very kind invitation to the editor to visit the author at his Japanese home, for all of which we hereby extend as- surance of our gratitude. We shall try to have a small reproduction of the picture prepared for publication in The Bee-Keeper. Jude Grabbe, of the Illinois state fair, we learn through the American Bee Journal, suggests, among other "excellent" changes in the premium list, that in the future premiums on exhibitions of black bees shall be omitted. The reason stated is that "the breeding of the blacks should be discouraged rather than encouraged." This begins to look like the beginning of a race war, which may develop into an effort to have the dusky fellows transported to Liberia. RELATING TO SOUTHERN HONEY. Following the reading of Mr. Pop- pleton's paper before the Omaha con- vention, as published in this number, came quite a lengthy discussion re- garding the probable effect upon the American honey market of future com- petition with Cuba, and incidentally as to the relative quality of varieties of honey. The comments of some of the participants carried with them such a gross injustice to a certain im- portant division of the fraternity that The Bee-Keeper, in calling attention thereto, deems an apology unnecessary. We were not a little surprised, in reading the American Bee Journal's report of the convention, to find these words attributed to E. R. Root: "Southern honey has a strong flavor which is liked by some." It is to be regretted, in the face of repeated protests, offered in the name of common justice, that men of in- fluence and authority should not be more guarded in their public state- ments. We are sure that no one ac- quainted with Mr. Root or his writings would for a moment attribute to him a thought of willful misrepresentation. We believe him utterly incapable of studied deception, a fact that makes the matter all the more serious. Were it not for the universal regard in which he is held as an authority upon all matters relating to our pursuit. The Bee-Keeper would feel less urgently the duty to protest in behalf of its southern constituents. We m.ight say, 'Northern honey is strong," "Western honey is not good." "Honey from New York or Ohio has a rank smell and is dark and pungent;" all of which, though true, would be misleading and unjust to the producer of the North, West, New York or Ohio, but not more so, we believe, than Mr. Root's assertion that 'Southern honey has a strong flavor." The ab- surdity of the expression would not be M THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. effected pei'ceptibly by inverted syn- tax, thus: "Strong-flavored honey, which some ]ili;e, is Southern." Red apples are sour. Sour apples are red. Cross bees are yellow. Yellow bees are cross; and so one might continue ad infinitum. Each statement is true, but taken separately impart a false idea, just as the statement. "Southern honey has a strong flavor," will surely do. Every well-informed bee-keeper is aware that there is an inferior grade of honey known to the trade as "Southern." This product comes from a class of small bee-keepers through- out the South, to whom modern meth- ods of apiculture are comparatively unknown. Yet. to the serious detri- ment of the progressive Southern api- arist, whose knowledge, facilities and product are in every way the equal of those found farther north, his goods are persistently, or thoughtlessly char- acterized as "Southern;" when, in re- ality, Southern honey includes a va- riety as great, and as widely different as "Northern honey." One is equally as specific as the other. We had hoped after the formal recog- nition of this existing evil, and its efforts to right the wrong, by the North American Bee-Keepers' Associ- ataion. in convention at Columbus, O., in 1888, that there would be no cause for further complaint in this respect; and it is therefore almost discourag- ing, after a lapse of ten years, to have the same error heralded to the world from the platform of America's lead- ing bee-keepers' society. It is a duty which the progressive producers of honey in the South owe themselves and posterity, to strenuously oppose the indiscriminate reference to South- ern honey as an inferior article. Following his son in discussion at the convention, Mr. A. I. Root, in part, said: "Most localities yield both good and poor honey." Now there is the essence of wisdom; the truth of the whole matter in eight short words. We had the pleasure of meeting the elder Mr. Root some years since, in the heart of the great mangi'ove belt of Florida, from which the bee-keepers of that lo- cality were then shipping their season's crop of something over two hundred tons of honey; so that Mr. Root had ample opportunity to test the quality of Southern honey which is produced in that section, and his remarks were based upon personal observations. In this case, we feel sure he found South- ern honey to possess no "strong flavor," or other inferior qualities. Here is another comment along the same line, by President-elect Whit- comb, of the U. S. B. K. U.: "Climate has much to do with the flavor of honey; a warm climate producing that of inferior quality, and a colder climate producing honey of a much better flavor." As this statement stands in the pub- lic convention report, as a positive as- sertion reputed to Mr. Whitcomb, he doubtless has evidence in support of the claim, which would be most inter- esting reading. The affirmation, if true, is capable of being demonstrated. It is founded upon one of two things, fact or fancy. The object of this ref- erence to the matter is not tO' refute the claim, but, rather, to determine which label shall be applied. If it is a truth that the quality of honey is gov- erned,' and is in proportion to the mean temperature of the climate under which it is secreted, it is not to soon to establish it as such in the archives of beedom. We believe that the honey produced between the 20th and 35th parallels in America will compare favorably with that taken between the 35th and 50th. Our opinion, however, like Mr. Whit- comb's assertion, has no influence up- on existing facts. Conditions are in no way effected by either. In this connec- tion it is a noteworthy fact that in naming the three choicest varieties of lSi)8. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. li)l American honey, by Mr. Muth, he in- cluded two which are produced in the South — in our hottest climates. In order to facilitate an earlier dis- semination of light, The Bee-Keeper respectfully suggests that Mr. Whit- comb tell us through its columns, specifically in what way alfalfa honey produced in Colorado and Ne- braska is superior to that obtained in the San Bernardino, Salt River and Pe- cos valleys. Honey Production in Our New West Indian Possessions. [Read befoiv the T. S. B. K. U. Conxention, at Omaha, Neb. The coming Americanization of Cuba and Porto Rico presents many interest- ing problems to us as a people. This is especially true with bee-keepers. With some because of a contemplated removal to one of these islands, and to all because of the inevitable effect on our business. It is possible my two years' experi- ence in Cuba enables me to give some idea of the good and bad features to be found there, but I understand better than almost anyone else can that the subject can only be skimmed in an es- say like this. Cuba is without doubt one of the finest honey countries in the world. I consider it as fully the equal of Cali- fornia, and in some respects superior. Should Cuba be annexed to the United States, thus not only doing away with all duties on honey shipped to this country, and duties on hives and imple- ments from this country, but in time improve facilities for transportation all over the island itself, it will, I think, affect the honey market of this country far more than the great crops from California have yet done. It is well for us to look these facts square in the face. At present there is in Cuba an ex- port duty of 6 cents and an American import duty of 20 cents per gallon, over 2 cents per pound on honey from there. These duties and the wretched govern- ment of the island itself are what has kept our markets from being flooded with Cuban honey. Remove these two conditions and the result is plain. There are but few mov- able comb apiaries in Cuba; so far as I know, less than a dozen in all, nearly all of them managed, if not owned, by Americans. It is exceedingly difficult to get reliable statistics of che amount of honey annually produced at these apiaries, but from such facts and fig- ures as I did get while there, and since, I judge that any well managed apiary of 300 or more colonies is safe for a yield of from 40,000 to 70,000 pounds of honey each season. As there are chances for locating such apiaries all over the island, it can be easily seen what an enormous harvest can be ob- tained. One great advantage Cuba has over any other place I know of, is that an entire failure to secure a fair crop is almost if not quite unknown. As well as I can learn the poorest crop will be fully as much as 50 per cent, of the largest crops. All bee-keepers can fully understand the advantage of these con- ditions. The principal disadvantages are the duties already mentioned and the bad roads, making it so costly and difficult getting honey to a shipping port. This last difficulty is so great that many owners of bee-gum apiaries in the in- terior of the island, so I have been re- peatedly informed, practice saving the wax only, for sale, pouring large amounts of honey on the ground to waste. While there are scores of trees and plants yielding some honey, the great bulk of the crop comes from a plant, or rather a vine, known to American readers of our bee journals as bell- flower or campanea. Its Cuban name is aguinaldo, (literally, "a Christmas present," so called because of its being iQ-2 THE A3IERWAN nEK-KEEPER. Xo ihrr in full bloom at Christmas time). Scientifically it is a convolvulus (not a campanula as was figured in one of our. periodicals several years ago), genus, ipomoea; species, sidaefolia. The few species of the genus found in the States are the morning glories, only one of which, ipomoea batatas (sweet potato) is of materia] value to the human race. All the fc-pecies of the genus I know of are vines with heart-shaped leaves and bell-shaped flowers, the one which furnishes so much honey in the West India islands being the most profuse bloomer of them all. At times the bloom is so abundant that hedges and stone fences look like snow banks from a distance. It commences to bloom late in November, continuing until late in February, January being the month of greatest bloom, with De- cember a close second. The quality of its honey is good; color, white, with good body and rather mild and pleas- ant flavor. It is the equal of white clover honey in color and body, and in flavor I would rank it as next to that best of all honeys. Other plants and trees furnish some honey, but the royal palm is of the most value, I think, not because it gives any surplus honey, but because it yields every day in the year and seems to be the only source of honey from May to September. Many colonies unless fed will starve to death during the summer, and many more would but for this tree. Large apiaries have been the rule in Cuba, all move- able comb apiaries I know of having 300 to 600 colonies in one locality. I think this is a mistake, but had no chance to learn whether smaller apiaries would do better. I think it will readily be seen from what I have said that the main points one needs to look well to when decid- ing on a location in those islands are, first, a locality with plenty of agviinal- do and royal palm; second, nearness to a port from which honey may be shipped to a market, and third, very close prox- imity to a railroad or a good macada- mized road leading to a port. While there are other desirable conditions that should be secured in a location if possible, these three I have given are the most important. My personal experience was in the country a few miles west of Havana, but as well as I can learn, conditions are very similar in the other parts of Cuba, and also in Porto Rico. I have not attempted to go into de- tails of bee-keeping in Cuba, as it would be useless to attempt it in a pa- per like this. Many of the details it would be well for anyone who expects to go there to know can be found on page 539 of Gleanings for 1889. O. O. POPPLBTON. Advanced Methods of Comb Honey Production. [Ileml lielbre tlic V. S. B. K. f. Convention at Omaha, Neb.] The subject assigned me by your worthy secretary is an important one. The greatest difficulty in dealing with It consists in the large number of supposed-to-be superior systems and everyone wedded to his own. But for all that the advancement recently made in the fine art of taking comb honey is marvelous indeed, and I often admire men and methods. Presuming the object your secretary had in view was that this paper shall be helpful rather than a delineation of many and conflicting methods, I shall in the main confine myself to my own system, be- lieving it to be the best. First of all, quality and reputation must be maintained, even if necessary at the expense of quantity. The foun- dation must be faultless. The filling of the brood chamber at the approach of the clover flow or main crop with su- gar syrup I regard as a most pernicious practice. I state this with due respect for the views of others. Later on I will give a better way. May I digress long enough '898. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 193 to state that the statutes of Canada, when any such syrup reaches the su- pers and it is offered for sale, make such practice a willful adulteration and the government at its own charges will do the prosecuting. It is no digression to state that per- fect wintering is a mighty factor in the production of comb honey. It is not enough to bring ninety-five or even one hundred per cent, of our stocks through the winter alive. We should see to it that they are practi- cally in the same condition thai they were at the approach of winter, with plenty of stores, healthy and strong, and able to rush out and catch the first and every honey flow coming within reach. And then the spring management must be such that the brood chamber at the time of giving section supers is practically full of brood from side to side and from front to rear. Briefly, then, to this and brood- spreading, timely and judiciously, with some uncapping, must be practiced. And now for the better way: When the spring flow sets in sharply, in order to leave the whole brood chamber to the queen and to provide against the practice of feeding sugar syrup, ex- tracting supers must be given. These with their contents are left on to keep up brood rearing until clover yields freely. These supers are then removed and comb honey supers take their place. Generally at this time, if the work has been well done, the brood chamber will be practically full of brood, which will be of far greater value than sugar syrup and it costs nothing and your comb honey will be pure and your reputation unsullied. With this management neither bait combs, half supers nor double brood chamber will be wanted. The bees will go up for standing room and go to work with a right good will. I must not forget to state that at the time of changing supers the coml)S containing the most and youngest brood should be placed next the side of the brood chamber. This will make more room for the queen, retard swarming and force the honey into the sections; then when swarms do issue their numerical strength will gladden your weary hearts and cause you to re- joice in hope of a rich reward. T'he large entrance has become an indispensable necessity in my practice. For that purpose I use the wedges so often referred to, and the dividers for creating a double bee space at the out- side of the section is also indispensable. The former distribute the bees and the latter hold them just where wanted, so much so sometimes the outside and rear sections actually get ahead of those near the entrance, but that is not the rule. The habit of the young bees meeting the field bees above the entrance near the centre is so strong that a cluster is sometimes formed and the field bees continue to go up at the centre, but a little cool weather will usually break that up and a proper distribution will follow. Hive swarms on starters, in hives contracted to about two-thirds of their size by the use of dummies, let them remain upon the old stands, and at once transfer the supers to the new swai-ms. A queen bar or excluder must be used; give shade and a lot of top Ventilation, which should be closed the fourth or fifth day in the cool of the evening. We may yet learn how to continue top ventilation with profit. What seems to me to be the most diflicult thing is to give the right amount of super room. I would say, be careful to give enough and be just as careful not to give too much. But what is enough and what's too much, how should we know? Well, I reckon from existing conditions and prospects. Years of careful observation will guide us pretty well. Want of spacp forbids giving many useful pointers. My experience with 194 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. jVovpmlirr deep cell foundation, fence separators and plane sections is too limited to be of value, but whatever changes we do make I do hope we will not depart from the standard iy^xiV^ sections. The cost will be too gi-eat for an im- aginary gain. NOTES. (1). Foundation should touch the sides of the sections and come to with- in one-sixth of an inch of the bottom bar. (2). I have used thousands of bot- tom starters and fail to find much ben- efit from them. But I have learned this, that if they overlap one-fourth of an inch or so no harm will result; the bees will cut them to fit and unite them all right. (3). If holes are found in the sep- tum of foundation the bees lose time and add too much wax in mending. (4). Feeding back on account of granulating should be discouraged. S. T. PBTTIT. Belmont, Ont., Canada. Rang^e of Honey Bees. The range of the honey bee is but lit- tle understood by the masses, many supposing that bees go for miles in quest of nectar, while others think that they go only a- short distance. It may be curious to many to understand how any one can tell how far the bee may fly, but this is simple when understood. Years ago, when the Italian bees were first introduced in the United States, these bees, having marks different to the common bees already here, were easily distinguished, and after any bee- keeper had obtained the Italian bees they could be observed and their range easily noticed. If bloom is plentiful close where bees are located, they will not go very far, perhaps a mile in range, but if bloom is scarce they may go five miles. Usually about three miles is as far as they may go profitably. Bees have been known to go as far as eight miles in a straight line, crossing a body of water that distance to land. It is wonderful how the little honey bee can go so far from its home and ever find its way back to its own par- ticular hive. If, while the little bee is out of its home, or hive, the hive should be removed some ten or twenty feet, according to the surroundings, when it came back to where its home was first located it would be hopelessly lost. If its home was in an open space, with no other objects close, it might find its way home, but, even should the hive be moved only a few feet, many of the bees would get lost. So to move a hive, if done in the win- ter time, it would be all right; but if in the summer time it should be done af- ter dark, or when the bees are not fiy- ing, and even then the bees should be stirred up some, and smoke blown in at the hive entrance and a board or some object placed in front of the hive, so that the bees in coming out may mark their new location. Bees, no doubt, are guided by sight and also by sense of smell. They are attracted by the color of bloom, as, if they are at work on a certain kind of bloom, they are not likely to leave that particular kind of bloom for any other as long as they can find that kind. Again, bees are often attracted to sweets by their sense of smell, for they will go affter sweets, even if in the dark, if close. However, any kind of sweets may be placed in glass in plain sight, but if covered so as not to emit any smell, the bees will take no notice of it. — Philadelphia Inquirer. "The year, throughout the United States, excepting Colorado, Florida, Vru'mont, Michigan and Northern Cali- fornia, has been a most signal failure." — Gleanings. One more number will complete the eighth volume of The American Bee- Keeper, 1898. THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 195 The past season has been a good one for the bee-keepers of Canada. Some of our large producers have learned by experience that it is not good business policy to separate the grades of comb honey commonly desig- nated as "fancy" and "No. 1." The point claimed in favor of crating both together is that the usual higher price of the "fancy" article may as well be secured for "No. 1," which is really in no way inferior. The editor of the Bee- Keepers' Review refers approvingly to the matter. Describing the method of M. F. Chatelain for stopping a case of rob- bing, Dr. Miller, in Gleanings, wrote: "Smoke the hive of the robbers; in two or three minutes close the entrance; wait till the returning bees crowd out- side; open enough to insert smoker- nozzle and smoke; open entrance wide and let all go in; then smoke like sixty till bees rush out of hive." A French bee-paper in publishing the item in that language, rendered the closing sentence thus: "Then smoke till about sixty bees rush out of the hive." Regarding the general consensus of opinion and points brought out relative to Cuban honey at the Omaha conven- tion, as a result of Mr. Poppleton's es- say, Gleanings for Oct. 15 has an ed- itorial, from one paragraph of which the following is noted, in substance: "That honey coming from Cuba is in- sipid; that honey coming from Cuba has a rank flavor; that campanilla honey, which conies from Cuba, has a very fine flavor." The editor of this paper has sought in vain to harmonize this information , and has finally .de- cided to pay for one year's subscription to The Bee-Keeper for the first person who may send in a comprehensible ex- planation. In the meantime, we shall think that some of those "opinions' were not founded upon knowledge of the subject. White Clover. My little maiden came to me. Her small hands brimming over, Not with the garden's choicest fiowers, But only sweet, white clover. 1 took her gift, the while my thought The long years traveled over — When I, like her, with busy hands Made wreaths of sweet, white clover. I dream my childish dreams again, In fairy land a rover, A magic garland, this, I ween. Though only sweet, white clover. Yet much of life's best sweetness we In homely things discover. As honey-bees pass gaudy flowers. To seek the low, white clover. .l/c.v. /.. V>. FlrnniHj ill Aiiirricaii lirr .n>in-iiril. ^^^LlT£RARY N0TE5.fe^?^ "■'Our Southern Home," of Mount Holly, N. C, devoted to the inttrests of that state, is a new exchange upon our list. (URLS LIVIN(; IN COUNTRY TOWNS. In the October Ladies' Home Journal Edward Bok devotes much of his ed- itorial page to showing country girls and women the way to make their lives mean more — how they can partake morp fully of the true enjoyments of life. He has prescribed a method of country living which can readily and profitably be pursued, and which will go far toward the emancipation of the country woman from much of the drudgery, and lighten the isolation of farm life. MARY ANDEKSON'S LITTLE BOY. Mary Anderson, who is now Mrs. de Narvarro. and lives in England, has allowed herself, her new English home, and her 2-year-old baby to be photo- graphed for the first time for publica- tion. Some twenty pictures have been made, and the best of these will appear in an early issue of The Ladies' Home Journal. The baby's picture is, of course, the central one of interest. 196 THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. Xoremhfr Eaiiier accounts of a general short- age in the honey crop of the country are confirmed by later reports. Flori- da, it appears, is ahead of other states in the matter of a honey crop for 1898. . PHONEY AND BEESWAX MARKET REPORT. Below we give tlic Intest aiid luosl autlifiitic report of the Honey and Heeswa.^; market in dif- ferent trade centers: BDETRorr, Mich.. Se]>t. S. 1898.— There is light supply of honey on our market at present, witli good demand at 10(« lie. for comb, and 5f« (ic. tor e.xtraeted. Demand for l)eeswax is slow, with fair supply. Prices •_'.'>«i 2Ge. M. H. Hunt, Bell Branch, Mich. |fCLEVEL.\NU, Sept. 9.— Honey in good demand with fair supply. We quote our market to-day, comb, 8 (a) 13c. Extracted, 5 Co 7. Beeswa.x is in good demand with very light supplv, selling at 26 to 28c. ■ A. B. Wii,r,i.\Ms & Co., 80-82 Broadway. CHiCA<_io, ILU. Oct. 7, 1898.— Fancy w iiite cluvcr brings 13c., with best grades white cimdi li'c.; dir grades with more or less empty cells, kk^iic; amber, 8(ai9c., according to grade with fancy at lOc: extracted white, eCnVc.; amber, ."xwOc; dark, i^faitc. Beeswax, 2(i0'27c. K. A BUJiNETit Co. 1H;1 .S-. Water, St. Alk.\ny, N. Y. Sept. 12, 1898— Honey in good demand now and receipts light. The e"arlier you ship now the better prices will get. White Comb, 12(a'.13c.: mixed, llfr(12c.: dark, 9@,10c.; extracted light, fitaeVaC; mixed, :^y,(tl^\Q. ; dark 5e. ' H. R. WUKJIIT. K.\NSAS City, Mo., Sept. 7, 1898.— Good demand for honey. Good supply. We quote white comli, 12>:2 @ 14c. Extracted, 5 Cw 6.Hc. H.\.MBLIN ct BE.\HSS, 514 Walnut Street. Boston, Mass., Sept. Ki, 1898.— The fall demand for lioney is now opening and from present in- diraiioii^ w, i,.,k for good prices right through ilic -iMsoii we ((uote our market as follows: Kancv Whit.', m Cartons, 14c; A No. 1, White, 121;, (" l:;c.; No. 1, W liit.', nr.'l2c.: .\o. 2. lOm 12c. Cal- ilornia cxtiactcd is practi.'all\ onl of tile market. |.ci Nv.w Aa.\ 2G(»27 demand. Bi.ake, Scott & Lee, ,")7 Chatham Street. . _:. v.. Sept. 2i;, 1808.— Receipts of new ciop coiidi lioiiov have ln-cn heavv the i)ast week: Mii'ilil\ avciagcs Ijcllfv than last season. with uood demand. We .|Uote our market as fol- lo\vs:^l'aney wliile, lie.; No. I wlute, 12e.;N<). 2 white, lie.; P.nekw iieat, ,s'..(-' l(ie. Market in .good sliajie for extracted lionex." We (|\iole as follows— White clover anil hasswood. r,(./ tii ^,e.; amber, .j,'4 («'5%c.: "Jouthern," in hai-rels, fjlMiitic. pergallon, according to qua! i I y. Keeswax, dull, at 25X,@ 2(U4e Write us loi shiiqiini; inches across; 2 0-iu. folate doilies; will please any I lady. 8enal3 2-ct. stamps for a year's subscription to our Illustrated Magazine for Home and Farm and we will mall these Fine Doilies Fuee. FARMER'S REALM, SYRACUSE, N. Y. For fruitful results, plant your ad- vertisement in The American Bee Keeper. We want 10,000 Bee-keepers on our subscription list before | the close of the century. | WE MAY NOT GET THEM, I but as an induceaent to that end we propose i the following: AVe will send The American * Bee-Keeper from now until January, 1900, | for 50 cents. ; If you are interested in bee-keeping, you ^ can hardlv afford to neglect this opportunity. ^ Substantial additions have been made to our # list every month this year, but it will be ne- | cessary to increase the rate at which they are r now coming, to give us the 10,1)00 new ones in ; the specified time. We shall, therefore, con- | stantlv endeavor to improve the paper and ^ hope by this generous ol.er to add several ; hundred this month. You are invited to join | us. Address : THE : AMERICAN : BEE-KEEPER, : I Falconer, N. Y. = Sim lit I II iilliiililit I III 1 1 1 11 1 1 1 11 III III iiiij I III 1.1 II I II Always mention The Bee-Keeper when writing to advertisers. One Man with the UNION ^°-^i-«- Can do the work of four men using hand tools, in Ripping, Cutting-off, Mi- tringjRabbeting, Grooving, Gaining, Dadoing, Edging- up. Jointing stuff'; etc. Full Line of Foot and Hand Power Machinery. Sold on Trial. Catalogue F)-ee. Seneca Falls Mfg. Co., 45 Water St., 1-12 Seneca Falls, N. Y. Beeswax Wanted! We will pay 34 cents cash or 26 cents in goods, for good quali- ty of Beeswax, freight paid to FALCONER, N. Y. If you have any ship it to us at once. (Prices subject to change without notice.) II, 50 YEARS' EXPERIENCE Trade Marks Designs Copyrights Ac. Anvone sending a sketob and description may quickly ascwrtain our opinion free whether an invention is probably patentable. Comniunioa- tions strictly confidential. Handbook on Patents sent free. Oldest agency for securing patents. Patents taken through Munn & Co. receive special notice, without charge, in the Scientific American. A handsomely illustrated weekly. Largest cir- culation of niiy sciemiflc Journal. Terms, $o a year ; four months, H. Sold by all newsdealers. MUNN SCc^^'B^"^''*^^ New York Branch Office, 625 F St., Washington, D. C. EVERY BEE-KEEPER To have a copy of 1898 CATALOG OUR UNITED STATES | BEE-KEEPERS' UNION. U Membership Fee, $1.00 per Year. Organized to promote and protect the interests of its members; to defend them in their lawful rights; to enforce laws against the ftdalteration of honey; to prosecute dishonest commission-men, and to advance the pursuit of bee-culti;ire in gen- eral. Executive Committee.— President, Geo. W. York; Vice-President, \V. Z. Hutchinson; Secretary, Dr. A. B. Mason, Station B, Toledo, Ohio. Board of Directors.— E. R. Root, E Whitcomb, E. T. Abbott, C. P. Dadant, W. Z. Hutchinson, Dr.. C. (;. Miller. General Manager and Treasurer.— Engene Secor, Forest City, Iowa. PATENTS Quickly seoured. OUR FEE DUE WHEN PATENT OBTAINED. Send model, eketoh or photo, with description for fret report as to patentability. 48-PAOE HAND-BOOK FREE. Contains references and full information. WRITE FOR COPT OF OUR SPECIAL OFFER. It is the most liberal proposition ever made by a patent attorney, and EVERY INVENTOR SHOULD READ IT before applying for patent. Address : H.B.WILLSON&CO. PATENT LAJVYERS, LeDroItBldg.. WASHINGTON, D. C. Send us your name and address and we will take pleasure in mailing you a copy. G. B. I^@14>^c; Fair White, 12@13c; Buckwheat, 8>^(aU0c; Amber, 9(Sjllc; Mixed, 9@11. Extracted Honey— Our market is in good shape for all grades. Would suggest shipping now. We quote as follows.- White Clover, 6@7c; Amber, 5}4 (a!6>^c; Buckwheat. 5@6c; Florida White, 6@7c; Florida Light Amber, f>%@,&%c. Other grades of Southern honey, 55@65c per gal., according to the quality. Beeswax— Our market during the past week has shown a slight improvement, though we do not anticipate much more advance for sometime to come. We are selling at 25>^@263^c. per lb. When shipping, we would ask that all packages be marked plainly, the gross, tare and net weight. Yours truly, Francis H. Lkugett & Co. Franklin and Varrick Sts. Albany, N. Y. Nov. 3, 1898— Honey market in good shape here, Receipts and stocks lighter than former seasons. White Comb, 13(5:l4c; No. 1, 12© 13e; Medium, ll(^,12e; Buckwheat, 8>^@9c, Ex- tracted Buckwheat, 53^@6c; Amber, 6@6>^c: White, 7@7>g. Yours, H. R. Wright. 326, 328, 330 Broadway & 9, 11, 13, Hamilton St. BARN ES' FOOT POWER MACHINERY. This cut represents our Combined Machine, which is the best machine made for use in the construction of Hives, Sections, Boxes, etc. Sent on trial. Send for Cat- alogue and Piice List. W. F. & JOHN BARNES CO.. 913 Ruby St.. Rockford, III. Please mention American Bee- Keeper. A Wonderful Mew Invention. If you have a Piano or Parlor Organ you can play the sweetcift chords in music and accompany the Voice, Flute, Mandolin, Zither, Banjo, etc., with WOOLER'S HARMONIC CHORD CHART. It points out the proper notes very clearly. Nothing to learn. Musical knowledge unnecessary. It will de- light you. Only 75 cents; stamps taken. Order now and enjoy the long evenings this winter. Agents wanted. Address 11-tf THE HARMONIC MUSIC CO., Scranton, Pa. U- cflnEK/1 For Sale CHEAP. We have a uew Hawkeye Jr. Cam- era made by Blair Camera Co. ; takes pic- tures :?ix3j: uses l>otli roll of film (12 pic- tures) and plates. Is covered with grain leather and has a leather carrying case with strap. Cost §9.00. Al.so a complete outfit for developing plates and prints; cost $8.00. Will sell the Camera alone for $5.50. or the Camera and outfit for $9.00. Address The American Bee-Keeper, ' \ ClvUBBING I/IST. % Vsend the American BekKeepkr wit'n the'*^^^ PUB. BOTH. Amei\ " tee Journal, $1 00 »1 35 Bee-Kev\ f^' !;.jview. I 00 1 35 CanadiaS, J- .Imrnal, Gleaning: 'in Beo Culture. Modern F, nier and Busy Bee. 1 00 1 35 1 00 1 35 1 00 1 0« FALCONER. N Y. ■'How 1 . and the ? for only 60 .NAGE Beks," a 50c. book, iCAN Bke-Keeper a year 'UtS. Alwaysv mention The Bee-Keepei when writing to advertisers. MPIRE WASHER FREE: [ ^^■agents. SleDtion th To Energetic Agents PEUP '^CT SATISFACTION GUARANTKEI invent . sirailar WASHI.VO M ACHlIN t;_that wi]I operate ea NORMOUS PROFITS WITH LITTLE WORK ifioOO to any one who will The rriee »« I^ 1re3S, Write for circulars, price and terms to 160-Page Bee Book FREE. THE EMPIRE WASHER CO., immmM ^ ^[^ Book Sent Free with American Bee Journal. Everv new siibacnber sending $1.00 for the ircrki;; American Bee Journal for one year will receive a copy of Xewman's 160-page "Beos and Uoney" free. The old American Bee Journal is great this year. You ought to have it. Sample of Bee Journal tree. Write for it. Geo. W. York & Co., 118 Michig:aii St., Chicago, 111. PAflNTS 1 PROMPTLY SECURED lillilll'lilllllli:l Can ) FREE 8 FINE LINEIC DOILIES. All dif- ferent Patterns. 1 Large Bread-Plate Center- I piece, 10 iucUes across; 2 0-iu. Plate doilies; will please auy jlady. Send 13 2-ct. stamps ™, ,J for a year's subscription to j^^,|y] our Iliusti-ated Magazino for Ilomeand Farm and wewl.'" ' lail these Fine Doilies Fkkk. i AKMER'S FFM^ &XS'-^r For fruitful results, plant your ad- vertisement in The American Bee Keeper. We want 10,000 Bee-k@®pers on our subscription list before the close of the century. WE MAY NOT GET THEM, but as an inducement to that end we propose the following; We will send Thk American Bee-Keepek from now until January, 1900, for .50 cents. If you are interested in bee-keeping, you can hardly atford to neglect this oppor-unity. Substantial additions have been made to our list every month this year; but it will be ne- cessarv to increase the rate at which they are now coming, to give us the 10,000 new ones in the specified time. We shall, therefore, con- stantlv endeavor to improve the paper and hope by this generous olier to add several hundre'd this month. You are invited to join us. Address THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER, Falconer, N. Y. | 1 1 S I I 1 1 I ilili.i'lll I I I I III III lll'lil'lill.lil Always mention The Bee-Keepei -hen wi-iting to advertisers. One Man w^ UNION ^°^ Ciiii do the wc. men using han< Ripping, Cutti) trinfr.Rabbetiajf Gaining, DatMii , up, .TointinglSfi Lint- of Fo Power Macl Trinr. Seneca Falls Mfg. Co.,45AA'H^ 1-12 Senece Falls, N. Y •uU ' I and .lid on St., Beeswa.'" Wanted! We will pay 34 cents cash or 26 cents in goods, for good quali- ty of Beeswax, freight paid to FAI.CONBR, N. Y. If you have any ship it to us at once. OUR Scnil ufi your name aurl arMress and we v,"U tnko nleasurc In r^ailing ynu n rn->,,\-. G. B. IvBWIS CO., -tf. Watertown Wis : ii B[[«ra(i. Is one of tlie leading depavtments in the 310DERN FARMER AND BUSY BEE, Trade Marks Designs .... Copyrights &c. Anyone sending a sk<>trTi and description may quickly nscertniii onr oiinion fr'^e whether an tnventior. is prnbnhlv p.ifentaWe. Comraunioa- tionsstri ilyiotilldeiitiiil. Handbook on Patents sent ivci\ Oldest a^'cncv for securing patents. Patonts taken thi.nitrli Munn & Co. receive special notice, witliout fliarse, in the Scientific American. Ahandsoniolv illustrated weeklv. I.nrsrest cir- culation of anv s lour'i^il. Terms, ^i a year: four months, *1. feuld by all newsdealers. IVIl)NN&Co.3«^^-»«'-^' New York Branch Office, 025 F St., Washington, JD. C. BEE-KEEPER To h;ive a "opv of 1898 CATALOG ■i the hest geaeral Farm and Bkk I)aper in ext.4ence. Write for sam- ple copy to-day, and for clul)bing: rates with any paper you want. EMMERSON T. ABBi St. Joseph, Mo T, Patent Wired Conh "^,01111(3^,11011 Has no Sag ik a, |J I Frames, Thin Flat Bottom FouncKdon Has no Fish-bone in Surplus Honey. Being the cleanest is ti.snnliy Wifrked tlie quick- est of any l''oundation made. The talk about wir- ing frames seems aliMiid. We furnish a Wired Foundation that is hdl'r, chenper and not half the- trouble to use that it is to wire brood-fraracs. Circulars and Saniiil'^s Free. J. VAN DEUSEN &. SONS, Sole Mi!!>ufacturere, Montgomery County. Sprout Brook, N. V. I'kdse mention Amrvirun lirc-Kerprr. THE AUSTRALIAN BEE BULLETIN. Circulating til rough all the Australian colonies. New Zealand ami Cape of Good Hope. suiiSiijiPTios: rs. per annum in ad\ imoe; if booked, (is-fid. Edited, rrinted and I'ublislied by E. TIPPKR, West Maitland, K. S. W SOAIJC OF PRICES FOR AD\'KUTISBMKNTS IX A. BEE BULLETINr Half-page— Per annum, £.">; Half-year, £:>; nuar ter, £l-15s. Quarter-page— Per annum, £;^; Half-year, .£l-ir>.s Quarter. £1. one-eighth page— Per annum, £l-15s; Half-year, £1; Ciuarter, 12s. Single Insertion— 1st iu., Ss 6d; succeeding 2s-nd. E. TIPPER, WEST MAfTLAIMO, N. S. W BEGINNERS, p]eginne)s .should have a copj' of the Am- atenr Bee-Keeper, a 70-page hook, by Prol. .7. W. Rouse; writ; en especially for aina- Iciirs. Second edition just out. First edi- tion of 1,000 sold in less than two years. Editor York say.s: "It is the finest litl! hook published at the present time." Pri( . ;i.') cents; by mail, 2Sc. The little book and tjie, Progressive Bee-Keeper (a li. e, pro- gressive, '^H page monthly .journal) oue year for.6;')c. Applv *o any firsf-olass dealer oi address LEAHY MFG. CO., Higgm3v:lle. Mo. ^lU^x