February, 1913. 



American Hee Jonrnal j 



lower one is fine enough to leave the 

 honey entirely clean. With this ar- 

 rangement a large amount of honey 

 will pass through before there is any 

 clogging. The lower one is the most 

 inclined to clog, and so an extra lower 

 strainer goes with each apparatus. The 

 whole apparatus is 40 inches high, and 

 the strainers are a foot in diameter. 

 Each strainer may be taken out sep- 

 arately. It is called " Fix," " fix " be- 

 ing the German word for " quick." It 

 sells in Germany for about $5.00. 



Even with this improvement upon 

 the initial methods, the work of strain- 

 ing thick honey is probably anything 



but "quick." 



^ 



Manipulation of the Wax Scales by 

 the Honey-Bee. — We received some time 

 ago, from the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, through the cour- 

 tesy of Dr. Phillips, a pamphlet on the 

 above-named subject, by D, B. Casteel, 

 of the University of Texas. We found 

 it so interesting that we tried to secure 



tion as manufactured by the Weed pro- 

 cess. 



They build their homes in an im- 

 provident manner, " settling in the dry 

 season where the rainy season will 

 wash them out, or making their home 

 in the rainy season where in the dry 

 season the sun will melt their combs ; 

 in holes in the earth, between rocks, in 

 the walls of kouses, under a fairly 

 dense bush, under a palm leaf in the 

 open." 



The color of these bees is very simi- 

 lar to that of the Italians. 



nan's Handicraft and Nature's Pro- 

 visions for Vegetation. — The accompa- 

 nying picture shows the north half of 

 the immense power plant now being 

 built at tbe foot of the Keokuk bluffs, 

 opposite Hamilton, for the big dam 

 across the Mississippi River, just be- 

 tween the two cities. This photograph, 

 which was specially taken for the 

 American Bee Journal by courtesy of 



The River Bottom is a Natural Seed Bed. 



two of the cuts illustrating the subject. 

 These we are unable to get. Those of 

 our readers who may be interested 

 should write to the Department of 

 Agriculture and ask for Circular No. 

 161, Bureau of Entomology. 



The Nyasa Bees The British Bee 



Journal contains a series of articles 

 concerning the Nyasa bee. The Nyasa 

 Land is situated west of Portuguese 

 and German South Africa and east of 

 Rhodesia. 



These bees are smaller than the com- 

 mon honey-bee. The writer, L. W. J. 

 Deuss, reports their cells to number 

 65.6 to the square inch, while our bees 

 have only 57.6 in the same space. Their 

 drone-cells number 49.2 per square 

 inch, while ours have only 37, or a 

 fraction under this. It appears, how- 

 ever from the report, that they can and 

 do use without difficulty comb founda- 



the Mississippi River Power Company, 

 also illustrates the contrast of Nature's 

 work and man's handicraft, to which 

 few people have given a thought. This 

 part of the Mississippi Riverbed, which 

 is 12 feet, more or less, below the sur- 

 face, was, for the first time in the exis- 

 tence of the stream, laid bare by the 

 building and pumping out of a 35-acre 

 coffer-dam in May, 1911. H'i/kui liro 

 icecks itftt'r the icatcr zcas pumped out^ 

 honey-plants and weeds, such as sweet 

 clover, persicarias, hearts-ease, Span- 

 ish-needles or bur-marigold, cockle- 

 burs, rag-weeds and aquatic plants 

 sprung up spontaneously wherever 

 man's foot did not trample. 



Think of it! This means that the 

 entire bed of the mammoth Mississippi 

 River, 1500 miles in length, and aver- 

 aging more than a mile in width, must 

 be at all times covered with drifting 

 seeds which await only an opportunity 

 to grow. Does this not indicate, bet- 



ter than anything else that we might 

 mention, the plentifulness of Nature's 

 provisions ? 



The magnificent structure in the 

 background, of which only one-half 

 shows in the photo, is the largest power 

 house in the world, and is connected 

 with the big dam shown in our issue 

 of May, 1912. It is the work of Hugh 

 L. Cooper, hydraulic engineer of im- 

 perishable fame. This work is next in 

 magnitude to the Panama Canal, and is 

 creating a lake 65 miles in extent in 

 lieu of the shallow Des Moines rapids 

 of the Mississippi. It will enable ships 

 of greater draft than formerly to de- 

 scend the Upper Mississippi to New 

 Orleans, thence to reach Panama. 



The 30 big arches at the base of the 

 building, which are the intakes for the 

 turbines of 10,000 horse-power each, 

 will be completely submerged, and the 

 river bed shown in the picture will 

 then be 50 feet under water. The 

 smaller buildings are temporary shops 

 within the coffer-dam. The earth wall 

 which hides the base of the buildings 

 in the background was a temporary 

 coffer-dam dividing the area originally 

 into two sections. 



A full view of the entire works, from 

 the Keokuk bluffs, will be given in this 

 magazine ere long. 



Youth Restored to Joaquin Miller by 

 Honey and Hominy. — Hominy and honey 

 may once more be regarded as some- 

 thing good to eat. Joaquin Miller, the 

 California poet, has made the dicovery. 

 Upon the homely diet of his fore- 

 fathers he has entirely recovered from 

 his recent illness, and at the age of 75 

 years has undertaken what he consid- 

 ers the greatest poem he has ever 

 worked upon. 



The explanation has come in the an- 

 nouncement of his daughter, Juanita, 

 that his diet for the past year has been 

 restricted to hominy and honey. She 

 says that her father has eaten it as 

 often as three times a day, and during 

 the past few months he has urged the 

 food upon his visitors. 



A large pan of the food has become 

 a sort of an institution at the Miller 

 home on the " Heights," back of Fruit- 

 vale. Questioned about his health, the 

 poet declared that he never felt better 

 in his life. 



The poet is advancing the contention 

 in his new poem that " God's way with 

 man will not be done until these two 

 seas are made as one," referring to the 

 merger of the Atlantic and Pacific 

 Oceans through the medium of the 

 canal. — Ciiuinnali Fast 



Meeting of National Association Dele- 

 gates Notice is hereby given that the 



Delegate meeting of the National Bee- 

 Keepers' Association will be held in 

 Cincinnati, Ohio, Feb. 12 and 13, 1913. 



While all sessions will be open to the 

 members and visitors, some sessions 

 will be devoted ivliolly to business, 

 through the delegates. ' At least one 

 session each day will be set aside for 

 the members to discuss such subjects 

 as may be decided upon later, notice of 

 which will be given out by the Secre- 

 tary. 



The subjects that will likely be se- 

 lected for discussion will be of national 



