March. IQII. 



71 



American Hee Journal 



i^^m^ i 



Miscellaneous ^ News Items 



Our Front Page Pictures The up- 

 per picture on the first page of this 

 copy of the American Bee Journal 

 shows a 22-acre white-clover field be- 

 longing to Edw. H. Roth, of Strawberry 

 Point, Iowa. It would be interesting 

 to know just how many pounds of 

 honey the blossoms of such a field 

 would yield in one season. Perhaps 

 Mr. Roth will tell us something about 

 the results he gets from his bees. 



Apiary of John P. Coburn 



Referring to the lower picture on the 

 front page, Mr. Coburn writes as fol- 

 lows : 



You will notice in the foreground a hive 

 with the winter-case which I will describe. 

 It is made to take i inch packing of cork- 

 dust on the sides, 2 inches on the back end. 

 and I inch on the front end: you will see 

 how I let the cork dust run out. A piece of 

 board H thick. 3 inches wide, is shoved in 

 between the bottom-board of the hive and 

 the stand, which, when properly in. holds it 

 in place and keeps the cork-dust in. When 

 it gets warm enough the cork is removed by 

 liftingor prying enough with the hive-tool to 

 liberate this piece, and the cork runs out 

 into a box made to receive it. I find by 

 packing in this way that I seldom lose a col- 

 ony in wintering. 



1 have done nothing the last 11 years but 

 work with the bees, and I shall be 78 years 

 old if I live until March, igii. 1 make my 

 home with my only son at Woburn. Mass.. 

 where my apiary is located. 



I sell quite a lot of bees to go into cucum- 

 ber hot-houses every spring. Last spring I 

 sold out of my apiary 10 colonies for $145.50. 

 Also several sent to me from Amherst. N. H. 



I packed for winter in my apiary 54 colo- 

 nies, and I intend to return to Woburn 

 about the middle of March, as that is about 

 the time the sale of bees commences for the 

 cucumber hothouses. There is a great 

 quantity of bees used for that purpose in 

 the vicinity of Boston John P. Cobirn. 



Bee-Keeping in China In the Daily 



Consular and Trade Reports for Feb. 

 16, 1!<11, under " Chinese Trade Notes," 

 from Consul General Leo Bergholz. of 

 Canton, China, appears this paragraph ; 



The industrial taotai of Canton has given 

 his sanction for the estaolishment of a com- 

 pany liere for rearing bees and manufactur- 

 ing commercial honey. This marks the in- 

 troduction of a new industry among the 

 Chinese which may develop to large propor- 

 tions. Foreign honey has found a ready sale 

 in this country, but little native honey has 

 yet appeared on the market. 



No doubt "manufacturing commer- 

 cial honey" is the consul's way of say- 

 ing that the honey will be produced by 

 the bees. Surely there must be a big 

 field in China for both the production 

 and consumption of honey. 



Two Little Corrections. — In the article 

 by Messrs. Hildreth &■ Segelken, in our 

 February issue, in the last paragraph 

 on page 4'>, where they advise New 

 York and Pennsylvania bee-keepers 

 "to produce extracted buckwheat in- 

 stead of comb" it should read, "to pro- 

 duce more extracted buckwheat instead 

 of comb." 



Also, at the top of the first column 

 on page 4G of the same article, where 

 the heading reads, " No. 1 White Comb 

 Honey (So-Called)," it should read, 

 " No. 2 White Comb Honey." 



Short Course in Apiculture. — -A short 

 course for apiary instructors will be 

 held at the Ontario Agricultural Col- 

 lege, Guelph, Ont., Canada, May 1 to G, 

 1911, for students and ex-students who 

 have taken lectures on apiculture and 

 wish some more advanced practical 

 and scientific work to put them in the 

 way of becoming trained apiary in- 

 structors. It is also open to bee-keep- 

 ers who have gained their elementary 

 knowledge in a more practical way. 



The list of speakers includes the fol- 

 lowing : Morley Pettit, Provincial Api- 

 arist; Prof. S. F. Edwards, Dr. E. F. 

 Phillips (of Washington, D. C), Prof. 

 R. Harcourt, Prof. C. A. Zavitz, and 

 Prof. H. H. LeDrew. 



A copy of the program, which con- 

 tains a full list of speakers and sub- 

 jects to be discussed, may be had by 

 applying to Mr. Morley Pettit, Provin- 

 cial Apiarist. Guelph, Ont., Canada. 



Apiarian Insurance in Austria. — .'\n 

 enterprising company in .A-Ustria in- 

 sures bee-keepers against loss by fire, 

 winds, floods, avalanches, damage to 

 bees generally, even by theft by human 

 bipeds, and losses caused by disease. 

 The yearly assessment is only about 

 one cent per colony of bees. I would 

 not mind having my bees insured in 

 that company, but I am afraid they 

 would not accept foreign bees. Almost 

 each year I lose some honey in out- 

 yards by thieves. .A. year ago I gave them 

 some honey before they got around 

 to steal it. That time they let my bees 

 alone. The past season they took the 

 sections out of several supers and 

 closed up the hives again, which was 

 very clever, but cost me $10. — F. 

 Greiner. 



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Denatured Sugar lor Bees Austrian 



bee-keepers are feeding denatured su- 

 gar to their bees now. It is cheaper 

 than ordinary sugar, in as much as the 

 Austrian government does not levy any 

 tax on it. the same as on denatured 

 alcohol. This sugar is especially de- 

 signed for feeding to bees, and is mixed 

 with sand and sawdust to prevent its 

 being used for human food. The 

 " Bienenvater," Wien, .Austria, says 

 that some of their bee-keepers have fed 

 this sugar, sand, sawdust and all, 

 whereas they advise to strain the syrup 

 made from it through a cloth. I do 

 not think this is necessary; the bees 

 will strain it themselves. Some kind 

 of feeders might not work well when 

 sand or sawdust is left in the syrup. — 

 F. Greiner. 



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The Bee's Reason for Living " The 



house-fly is a carrier of disease; the 

 spider seeks poison ; but the bee has 

 but one object in life — -the transporta- 

 tion of argosies of golden sweetness 

 from the wild world of Nature to the 

 ceiled dining-rooms of civilized men." 

 — Everett M. Hii.i., in "The Story the 

 Crocus Told." 



Bee-Keeping in South America An 



International Exposition of Agricul- 

 ture was held in Buenos Ayres, S. A., 

 in I'JIO. It is wonderful how little 

 North .America knows about South 

 America and the progress of that 

 country, and I'ice Tersa. Mr. C. P. Da- 

 dant sends in the following, which is 

 of interest : 



I find in the " .Abeille DeL'Aisne." France, 

 a report of the apiarian exhibit at the Inter- 

 national Exposition of Agriculture, in 

 Buenos-Ayres, in loio. The countries rep- 

 resented in the exhibit of honey, beeswax, 

 metheglin. etc.. were Argentine Republic. 

 Chili. Paraguay. Italy, and France. Thus 

 two countries of Old Europe had an exhibit 

 in a South American republic exposition, of 

 which we in the United States did not even 

 have notice. 



The Argentine Republic had on exhibition 

 honey, beeswax, honey-vinegar, mead, bee- 

 hives, and other apiarian supplies. There- 

 port concerning that exhibit is not very 

 favorable, for it is said that most of the 

 honey on exhibition was of an inferior Qual- 

 ity with very few exceptions. It appears 

 that most of the exhibit was made by the 

 Rural Argentine .Association. 



Chili had 14 exhibitors of honey and 7 of 

 beeswax. The exhibit was good, the honey 

 being of very good quality and well put up. 



Paraguay had but 2 exhibitors, with a fine 

 lot of honey and beeswax. 



Italy had but one exhibit, but the honey of 

 this lot was tine enough to draw a first prize. 



France had 22 exhibitors, under the man- 

 agement of Mr. Laurent-Opin. of Laon. 

 France, who had made the trip for that pur- 

 pose. 



The- French exhibitors carried away 54 

 prizes or diplomas at this Exposition. 



Is it not time for the United States to pay 

 a little more attention to what is going on in 

 South America, and take an interest in its 

 affairs? We correspond with Europe, and 

 deal with the German and English speaking 

 races, but our American cousins of the 

 Southern Hemisphere are entirely disre- 

 garded by us. The Pan-American interests 

 need to be looked into in bee-culture as well 

 as m other things. C. P. Dadant. 



Hamilton. III. 



A Bee-Keeper. — The following morsel 

 appears in the German bee-journal, 

 Praktischer Wegweiser fuer Bienen- 

 zuechter ; 



"The laigest bee-keeper in the world is 

 Harrison of California, who has 6000 colonies 

 of bees, and produces annually 220.000 pounds 

 of honey.' 



The writer ol that paragraph prob- 

 ably gave it in all good faith, but it 

 would be interesting to know upon 

 what foundation such an immense 

 superstructure was built. The Harri- 

 son who has done such great things 

 has certainly kept very quiet about it; 

 but probably the veteran Harbison of 

 California is meant, who at present has 

 few if any bees; but did he ever reach 

 (lOOO colonies ? We think he had less 

 than 4000 colonies as a maximum num- 

 ber. 



The modest thing in the story is the 

 yield of honey. 'That 220,000 pounds 

 makes the average for the 6000 colonies 

 not quite 37 pounds per colony. Why 

 not have the average per colony 200 

 pounds, and make the annual crop 

 1,200,000 pounds ? 



Aluminum Honey-Comb It is re- 

 ported in Praktischer Wegweiser that 

 combs are now made of aluminum, be- 

 ing no heavier than natural combs, 

 which are promptly occupied by the 

 bees for brood-rearing and storing. 

 Some time ago metal combs were in 

 use to a limited extent in this country, 

 but we have heard nothing about them 

 lately. The lightness of aluminum 

 would seem to be a gain. 



