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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. 18, 1904. 



dark. At last the three men waiting in the bushes deter- 

 mined to fire, and the three shots really " rang out as one." 

 He was hit, and must have been wounded seriously, for he 

 ran away with no care as to making a noise, leaving a trail 

 of blood. They tracked him next day until the trail disap- 

 peared, and as he has not been back since, I hope the poor 

 thief is dead. 



When I regretted the inconclusive result, the third 

 selectman said mournfully, " Nobody feels as badly as I do." 



Here is a clipping which may be the sequel to the 

 episode : 



NOT A HOLE, BUT A BLACK BEAK. 



The motto, " Look before you leap," has been handed down for 

 generations and generations, but it is a curious fact that a person lias 

 never suggested the thought of " thinking before looking." If there 

 had ever been a motto like the latter, it is probable that Gideon L. Joy 

 would never have received the shock to his system that he experi- 

 enced when he looked into a hole in the ground and found a big, black 

 bear about three inches from his nose. Mr. Joy did not stay looking 

 into that hole any longer than was necessary to recover from his 

 astonishuient, but got up, and the way he legged it for home and a 

 gun would probably have made the bear laugh if he had stayed to 

 witness Mr. Joy's sprinting act. When Mr. Joy returned with his 

 rifle the bear was nowhere to be seen, nor has he been seen since. Mr. 

 Joy will likely get his gun first and look afterward if such a case ever 

 comes up again. — Kennebec Journal. 



The clipping is from the New York Sun, but the item 

 appeared originally in the Ellsworth American, our county 

 paper. Mr. Joy mentioned is a neighbor of ours, and 

 father-in-law of the third selectman. He said it was an 

 " awful thin bear," and sent word that he thought it was 

 the same one, "for he saw honey around its mouth!" 

 Please put one of Dr. Miller's joke labels on that last state- 

 ment. 



You have missed me in making your list of sisters who 

 are members of the National Bee-Keepers' Association ; I 

 am one-third of the membership from Maine. That is not 

 so bad as North Carolina, but, still, Maine can not boast. I 

 am wintering 36 colonies this season ; they are packed on 

 the summer stands, which is the way I have wintered ever 

 since I began to keep bees, and so far my winter losses have 

 been insignificant. My honey crops are insignificant, too, 

 compared with yours of last summer. I am envious ! 



I hope Mrs. Griffith will have better success than I did 

 on hatching hens' eggs over bees. I only succeeded in 

 spoiling some eggs, and I am not a greenhorn at hatching 

 eggs, either, having had considerable experience and vary- 

 ing results with both hens and incubators. I am afraid it 

 won't do except in a warm climate. It was cold and rainy 

 here, and one colony I had them on began to die of starva- 

 tion before I was aware of their desperate state ; of course, 

 the eggs got stone cold. A. R. Adstin. 



Hancock Co., Maine. Jan. 20. 



I am very glad to add one more sister to the list of 

 members of the National. The name appeared on the list 

 merely as A. R. Austin, without any Miss or Mrs. attached 

 to it. 



Poop Season for Honey in 1903. 



Last season was a poor one for honey. We got an aver- 

 age of 25 pounds per colony, fall count, and increased from 

 16 to 20. Mrs. Ben Ferguson. 



Ford Co., Kans., Jan. 7. 



c 



Nasty's Afterthoughts 





The " Old Reliable " seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. Hasty, Sta. B Rural, Toledo, Ohio. 



OWNERSHIP OF HONEY IN BEE-TREES. 



Those Iowa boys that cut the bee-tree — something 

 within me objects to calling them exactly thieves. 'The 

 most widely spread feeling in regard to this matter is that 

 wild bees and honey belong to the first finder, but that the 

 tree they happen to be in belongs to the land-owner, of 

 course. This general feeling looks to me like natural jus- 

 tice. With due apologies to the Iowa law and legal lumi- 

 naries, the boys didn't steal anything from the man, but 

 they cut his tree and trampled his corn, both damages that 



natural justice says should be paid for. We must grant that 

 some States may have laws that do not conform to the 

 above ; and some localities may have public sentiment or 

 usages that do not conform. Apparently the boys sized the 

 man up, and decided that there was not much chance of 

 getting their property with his permission. He had the 

 possession, which is sometimes called nine points. There- 

 upon they took justice (and injustice, also) into their own 

 hands — and it didn't pay. But 'spects we might any of us 

 trust them to bring an uncounted sum of money home from 

 town all the same. Page 820. 



BEES DYING WITH CANDY ABOVE THElVI. 



Yes, good plan to keep in mind the fact that there is 

 such a thing as a colony's starving to death with plenty of 

 candy right over the cluster. It may not be very common, 

 but dry candy, and dry air, and bees which can not spare 

 any moisture from their bodies, spell death when the three 

 letters are put together. Page 824. 



POI,I,EN-BOUND COMBS— APIARY BDI.I,ETIN. 



Mr. Blunk wonders what my mind is about combs 

 blocked with pollen. Apparently he is already doing bet- 

 ter than my experience has usually been. Guess we must 

 each cut and try the different ways, and follow the way that 

 succeeds for the time being. Conditions vary widely, and 

 must be met accordingly. Solid pollen, dry, and. permeated 

 with white fungus, looking as if the cells had been filled 

 neatly with white lead, well, I should say give one such in 

 the middle of a new swarm. In four days look in, and 

 whatever they have not dislodged cut it out, combs and all. 



Bulletin-board, eh ? Tip-top idea for forgetful folks. 

 Obliged to see duty staring us in the face. I think none of 

 the numerous published pictures of apiaries shows a bulle- 

 tin-board. Don't think I ever heard of one. Here's a 

 feather for his crown — inventor of the apiary bulletin- 

 board ! Still, "locality" may have its word to say. In 

 some localities it may call down such a deluge of pester- 

 some questions from outsiders that the owner may be glad 

 to exchange it for my way. Well, what is my way 7 Paper 

 fastened on a large cardboard, laid or hung where it will be 

 handiest, and backed with a solemn resolution to look at it 

 every day. Page 830. 



GRAND CANYON — HOME OF BAD ANGEI,S. 



The last front picture for the year 1903— Grand Canyon 

 as Hutchinson gives us a peep into it, is a very unearthly 

 sort of looking place. Still less does it look heavenly. Kind 

 of a home of the bad angels, with the angels all gone on a 

 vacation. (All gone but one, and he tempted 'em to go 

 down.) 



RULES FOR GRADING COMB HONEY. 



Unpleasant to be cutting into honey, and so few buyers 

 capable of judging it — presumably these are the reasons 

 that grading rules do not demand high quality. Neverthe- 

 less I guess R. L. Taylor is right, that such a rule ought to 

 go in. At least it would notify the many (who don't even 

 know that much) that there is such a thing as good flavor 

 and poor flavor in equally good-looking samples of honey. 

 Page 835. 



MOVING BEES BETTER THAN PLANTING FOR HONEY — SOME- 

 TIMES. 



Sorry to have to tell John Kennedy and others that in a 

 location where the natural flora are disinclined to " give 

 down," the highly recommended plants will probably fail 

 also, either in whole or in part. He has already seen it so 

 with buckwheat. Moving bees to where the pasture is 

 good may not seem an easy job, nor a desirable one ; but 

 there's more light and hope in it than in planting honey- 

 plants on barren hills. Page 837. 



ANSWERS BY PRIVATE MAIL. 



And would he just send the answers by private mail, 

 because they are so uncertain and unsatisfactory when 

 printed in the Bee Journal ? There you have it. Dr. Miller. 

 Plenty of taffy ofttimes — once in awhile a fine bolus of 

 anti-taffy to swallow. Page 838. 



Maple Sugar and the Sugar Bush, by Prof. A. J. Cook ; 

 44 pages ; price, postpaid, 30 cents. This is by the same 

 author as " The Bee-Keepers' Guide," and is most valuable 

 to all who are interested in the product of our sugar-maples. 

 No one who makes maple sugar or syrup should be without 

 it. Order from the office of the American Bee Journal. 



