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THE AMERICAN BEE JOLKIMAL. 



Dec. 8, 1904. 



Pres. Harris — The reason I appoint these gentlemen is 

 because they are near the seat of war, and I know Mr. Ferry, 

 especially, will take things upon his shoulders and I know 

 they will move. 



Mr. Hershiser — There are a good many ideas that present 

 themselves to a person, but I would like to make a sugges- 

 tion for the consideration of the convention, and that is, that 

 the President, General Manager and Secretary of the Asso- 

 ciation be ex-officio members of this committee, because their 

 official position might push it along a good deal. I will make 

 a motion to that effect. 



Mr. Abbott— I second that. 



Mr. Hershiser put the motion which on a vote having 

 been taken was declared carried. 



NATIONAL PURE FOOD BILL — NEEDS OF BEE-KEEPING. 



Mr. Abbott — I saw Dr. Wiley yesterday, and asked hin» 

 about our National Pure Food Bill, and he said it would be 

 up before the Senate for consideration some time, I think,, 

 about Dec. 6, and he says if it passes the Senate we are all 

 right. 



Mr. York moved that the Board of Directors be a com- 

 mittee to prepare an address, properly signed, and forward 

 it to the President of the United States. [Motion carried.] 



®ur BecKecptng Sisters 



s/ 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilsok, Marengo, 111. 



Origin of the " Honeymoon ". 



How many of the sisters have ever thought why a certain 

 period after marriage was caller the "honeymoon?" Certainly 

 it ought not to be because during only the short period from 

 one change of moon to another were the newly wedded pair to 

 be sweet as honey to each other. 



The "honeymoon" is defined in the Standard dictionary 

 as "the first month after marriage," and this explanation of 

 the origin of the term is quoted from W. Pulleyn Etymological 

 Compend, page 142 : 



"It was the custom of the higher order of the Teutones 

 * * * to drink mead, or metheglin, a beverage made with 

 honey, for thirty days after every wedding. From this * * * 

 comes the expression 'To spend the honeymoon.' " 



The T Supers— Cleaning T Tins. 



One reason why we like the T super so well is because 

 every thing pertaining to it is so easily cleaned ready for use 

 again after a year's service. First, the supers after they are 

 emptied are scraped free from propolis. For this part of the 

 work a short-handled hatchet is used, and a very good tool 

 for the purpose it is. After being scraped, the supers are 

 piled in the shop ready for filling. 



Next in order is the T tins. They are always cleaned 

 with concentrated lye. A large iron kettle such as is used in 

 hog-killing (and in years past in soap-making) is just the 

 thing for cleaning the T tins, as then the work can be done 

 out-of-doors and all the muss of cleaning up in the house is 



avoided. Of course if one is not fortunate enough to be able 

 to secure such a kettle, some other vessel will do. I have 

 used a wash-boiler, but it is not nearly so convenient. The 

 kettle is hung over the fire, filled a little over half full of 

 water, and let come to a boil. Then three cans of concen- 

 trated lye is slowly poured into the water a little at a time, 

 as it makes the water boil so that there is danger of it boil- 

 ing over if a great deal is added at one time. Perhaps less- 

 lye would do, but the stronger the solution the quicker it will 

 do the work, and if several thousand T tins are to be cleaned 

 it may be that more lye will be needed. Whenever the pro- 

 polis is not quickly removed from the tins more lye is added,- 

 also more water as needed. 



The T tins are put into the boiling solution as many at 

 a time as will allow being moved up and down without being 

 too crowded. A four-tined pitchfork is used to do this work. 

 The object of moving them up and down is to allow the lye 

 to reach all parts of the tins so that no particles of propolis- 

 remain. 



If after putting in the T tins there is room for more 

 water, the kettle is filled as full as convenient to work with. 



If the lye is strong enough onlv a very few minutes will 

 be required to remove all propolis. The T tins are lifted 

 from the kettle with the fork and dropped into a tub of clear 

 water to rinse. They are lifted from the rinsing water in the 

 same way, and allowed to drain. They are as bright and clean 

 as when new. 



Now everything is clean but the separators, and we pre- 

 fer to buy new ones, as they are not very expensive, rather 

 than clean the old ones. So you see it is not a very hard job, 

 or a very long one, either, to get every thing in spick-span 

 shape for your next year's crop. 



The " Old Reliable " seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. By E. E. Hastt, Sta. B Rural, Toledo, Ohio. 



LARGE YIELD AND LARGE INCREASE. 



Dr. Archer's 890 pounds from one colony, and his season's 

 increase from 1 colony to 36, are both of them remarkable 

 results, well up toward the top of the heap. Page 734. 



SPEED IN FLIGHT OF BEES. 



Allen Latham gives us a good article on an unsolved 

 problem, page 742. It naturally worries us a little that we 

 cannot positively and exactly get a bee's speed in flight. 

 What's the odds? Approximation in this case is somewhere 

 nearly as good — quite good enough to keep us from believing 

 in the wild and unreasonable speeds sometimes claimed. 



I There are some other approximations besides those Mr. L. 

 gives. We can compare their speed with the speed of flies. 

 When you are out driving, and flies torment your horse, you 

 can put him on his speed, if he is a lively one, and run away 

 from them. But the deer-fly, brown, triangular looking fel- 

 low, cannot be run away from, not even by the deer. Got 

 up for the purpose of keeping company with the deer and 

 taking toll out of his blood. We may rudely guess the speed 

 of deer-flies at 60 miles per hour, and ither lively species at 

 30 miles. Then we can debate ad libiuim whether the bee 

 is a little swifter or a little slower tlian ordinary flies. I 

 should incline to say a little slower. Quite likely flies, never 

 having had any practice on long, straight lines, drop behind 



