12 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



January 



ers," by F. Schuyler Matthews, a book 

 which would be an addition to any bee- 

 keeper's library, since it contains a very 

 full description of the flowers of this 

 country besides having 24 colored 

 plates and over 300 other engravings 

 of flowers. The book is of a size that 

 fits readily into the coat-pocket which 

 makes it a ready reference on any 

 desired excursion. 



The flowers are arranged in the book 

 by families, with full scientific names 

 given, while the index, a very full one, 

 gives not only the scientific but the 

 common names as well. It would be 

 hard to find a book so compact in form, 

 yet giving so much valuable informa- 

 tion on our native wild flowers. 



The price of the "Field Book of 

 American Wild Flowers " is $2.00, and 

 the publishers are Messrs. G. P. Put- 

 nam's Sons, New York City. The book 

 wrapped for mailing weighs two pounds. 



men in charge, W. H. Lippold, director, 

 and J. O. Dunkin instructor in bee- 

 culture. The course occupies about 

 ten days and covers the most necessary 

 information, equipment, handling bees, 

 natural history of the bee, swarming, 

 robbing, diseases, honey production, 

 feeding and wintering. 



The example set by this well-man- 

 aged association is worthy of imitation. 

 Many a small wage earner around 

 cities can add to his income if he 

 learns how to produce honey efficiently 

 and profitably. We will follow the 

 progress of this Louisville Course and 

 will again mention it at some future day. 



Y. M. C. A. Course In Beekeeping 



The Y. M. C. A. of Louisville, Ky., is 

 perhaps the only association of this 

 kind to give a course in beekeeping. 

 In our August, 1915, number, page 263, 

 we gave a short mention of this course 

 and a photograph of the class. 



The editor has lately spent a week in 

 Louisville, and was given an oppor- 

 tunity to become acquainted with the 



Vaseline for Burr-Combs 



G. S. Oettle, writing in the South 

 African Poultry Magazine, advises the 

 use of vaseline on top bars of frames 

 to prevent the building of burr-combs. 

 He also states that "all exposed parts 

 of supers, etc., should be vaselined on 

 the bottom edge. Will some of our 

 subscribers try this and report results ?" 



spread into a clump six feet in diame- 

 ter. The bees appear to get no pollen 

 from it, only nectar, and work on it 

 from its first appearance in September, 

 until after hard freezing. He thinks it 

 can hardly be an aster, is spite of ap- 

 pearance, since it multiplies only by 

 the spreading of the roots, and ma- 

 tures no seed. 



It is possible he may be mistaken as 

 to its being anything but an aster. The 

 flower certainly looks like an aster. 

 Plants behave differently in different 

 localities, and it is rather remarkable 

 that in the northern tier of counties in 

 Illinois, while asters grow abundantly 

 they are of little or no value to the 

 bees, while in some places, as in the 

 present case, they yield abundantly. It 

 seems a little puzzling, however, that 

 they should not mature seed where 

 they yield so much nectar. c. c. M. 



Asters ? 



Rev. M. W. Millard sends a specimen 

 of a purplish-blue flower upon which 

 his bees work as if they were crazy. A 

 few sprigs that he brought a few years 

 ago from East Tennessee, where it 

 grows in yards and gardens, have 



Swedish and Dutch Bee Papers 



For some months we have been re- 

 ceiving, in exchange for our own Jour- 

 nal, copies of bee papers from both 

 Sweden and Holland. We would be 

 glad to get in touch with subscribers 

 acquainted with either the Swedish or 

 Dutch language with a view of having 

 such important articles as appear in 

 those papers translated for the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal. 



AMONG EASTERN BEEKEEPERS 



The Third of a Series of Articles by C. P. Dadant on His Trip 



Through a Portion of the East 



THE day following the Boylston 

 meeting was Sunday, Aug. 6, and 

 Dr. Gates and I spent it in Boston, 

 seeing sights, and especially the histori- 

 cal sights. Bunker Hill and Charles- 

 ton Heights disappointed me. Faneuil 

 Hall is just what its pictures represent, 

 a very old building in the center of the 

 market quarters. But the Paul Revere 

 ride. Concord and Lexington battle 

 fields are just what one might expect, 

 very interesting. Boston has a few 

 sky scrapers. I wish they could keep 

 them out. The city was full of tourists 

 and the roads were lined with sight- 

 seers. 



Back to Worcester, we started from 

 there for Amherst, on Monday, Aug. 7. 

 We had two days before the next field 

 meet at Springfield. This was my op- 

 portunity to visit the College of Agri- 

 culture. 



Amherst is on the slope of a valley 

 overlooking the Connecticut river. 

 Like all New England towns it has 

 beautiful shade trees. Two colleges, 

 Amherst and the Agricultural State 

 University, give this small borough a 

 distinctly refined air. Of course, the 

 greater part of my time was spent in 

 Dr. Gates's office and in the apiary. 



His bee library is the richest I have 

 ever seen, numbering over 900 volumes, 

 exclusive of the magazines on bees. 

 The oldest work in the collection is an 

 Italian work, published in Castel Sant- 

 Angelo in 1.539, entitled, "Le Api di M. 

 Giovanni Rucellai." He has also two 

 copies of quaint old Butler's work pub- 

 lished in England in 1623 and 1634. 



In the implement museum, composed 

 mainly of modern devices, I saw Mr. 

 Langstroth's original observing hive 

 and a queen-mating nucleus, also from 

 him, both old and weather beaten. 



In the wax-rendering room, located 

 in the basement of the Entomological 

 building, I saw some very ugly looking 

 slum gum, from which all the wax had 

 been extracted which could be secured 

 by present methods, and which I was 

 told contained still, according to analy- 

 sis, a large portion of its weight in 

 beeswax. I do not see how more wax 

 could have been secured from it. 



The college apiary and building are 

 in a fine spot, under the supervision of 

 Mr. J. L. Byard. I will speak of it 

 again later, for I had occasion to come 

 back to Amherst. 



I also wish to mention my visit with 

 Dr. and Mrs. Paige, who took me 



around one evening along the numer- 

 ous tobacco and onion fields of the 

 vicinity, for these two crops are staples, 

 tilled by foreigners, mainly Poles. Dr. 

 Paige is State Veterinarian, and his 

 museum of veterinary science is valua- 

 ble. I there learned that cows some- 

 times foolishly eat old white lead paint, 

 or paint brushes, or painted rags which 

 may have been carelessly thrown away. 

 This often kills them. A rag full of 

 paint, the size of a man's fist, taken out 

 of the stomach of a cow, was on ex- 

 hibit. So, friends, don't leave any old 

 paint where cows may reach it. 



On Wednesday the 9th, Dr. Gates and 

 I went to Springfield and traveled 

 through the Holyoke hills, following the 

 Connecticut river which passes between 

 Mount Tom and Mount Holyoke. The 

 woods are delightful, being part decid- 

 uous trees and part evergreens. But I 

 was sorry to learn that the chestnut 

 trees are fast disappearing, killed by 

 some kind of blight. Entire groves of 

 them were dead or dying. The weather 

 was pleasant, but truth compels me to 

 say that there are just as sudden 

 changes of temperature in New Eng- 

 land as in the middle West. At times 

 my light summer clothes proved in- 



