July, 1910. 



American l^ee Journal 



honey this year, and the mesauite is giving 

 very fine promises. Tiiere are as many as 87 

 blooms lactnal count) on catclaw twigrs a 

 foot lonu'. and tlie blooms are at least i'.^ 

 inches long. 



I want to give yon all two warnings in one: 

 Don't scn<l for bce-snpplics farther from 

 home than is absolntely necessary, let the 

 price be what it may. Be sure to be very 

 careful that yon order correctly all the way 

 through. I heard of some sections that I 

 could get very cheap away up in Wisconsin. 

 I sent for looo. and asked them to send them 

 by express, as we wanted them right away. 

 Oh! now dear they came out in the long 

 run! Actual price was $2. 85 per 1000. and the 

 express charges to San Angelo our nearest 

 express office) $5.!;o— SS.S'; in all. We had been 

 paying $5.00 a 1000. and Si.ouexpress— $6.00 in 

 all. I wanted 4x5x1^8. I got 4X5Xi!i. It was 

 a job to cut off that Vs inch 1000 times, but it's 

 a lesson I'll never forget. Expect I'll read 

 my orders over a few times before I send 

 them off in the future. I don't know for cer- 

 tain whether / was to blame or the tirm. but 

 Ii/yknow that I want you 10 profit by my 

 experience. 



We have increased to 151 colonies, having 

 120 last summer. Mks.' M. E. Pruitt. 



Eola. Tex. 



It can not fail to interest the sisters 

 to have such explicit information as to 

 how things are done by one who seems 

 to know just how to do them. Even 



the "lords of creation" may not find 

 Mrs. Pruitt's article without informa- 

 tion. How nicely little details are 

 given. Take tliat can against the wall 

 with the ball of string. Without the 

 hint that the nail against the wall must 

 be bent up just right, some one would 

 leave the nail horizontal, and the first 

 time the string was pulled the whole 

 would tumble to the floor, and the 

 thing would be voted a failure. 



Even reports of mistakes are helpful. 

 And that suggests whether one might 

 not ask in a gentle sort of way whether 

 it is not a mistake to have bee-supplies 

 sent by express. "Too much of a 

 hurry for the supplies to wait for them 

 to come by freight ?" Well, possibly 

 it is a mistake to wait so long before 

 ordering that there is any haste in the 

 case. To be sure, one does not know 

 in advance what the season will be, and 

 so one does not know just what will be 

 needed, but one can order enough to 

 meet all possibilities of a bumper sea- 

 son, and if not needed the supplies will 

 keep till another season. 



Canadian Beedom 



Conducted by J. L. Ever, Mount Joy, Ontario. Canada. 



Short Honey Crop 



Clover is yielding heavily (June 23). 

 but our bees dropped out of sight, so 

 to speak, just at the close of the 7 

 weeks of cold weather, leaving hosts 

 of young bees and great quantities of 

 brood. Of course that means a short 

 crop for us, but what bees I have in 

 good shape are certainly storing very 

 fast. 



Foul Brood and Black Brood 



Thanks, Mr. Morrison, for what you 

 say on page 182, about the naming of 

 the different brood-diseases, or rather, 

 shall I say, the attempt to change the 

 existing names to something else. Act- 

 ing on your implied advice, and my 

 own judgment in the matter, this scrib- 

 bler is done for all time with the name 

 "European" foul brood, and from now 

 on whenever I have occasion to refer 

 to the brood-diseases of bees, it will be 

 " foul brood " and " black brood." 



Bee-Keeping in Finland 



A pleasant surprise in yesterday's 

 mail (June l(tth) was a letter from our 

 friend, Paul Mickwitz, of Helsingfors, 

 Finland. Last autumn, just before Mr. 

 Mickwitz sailed for his home land, we 

 had the pleasure of having him in our 

 home (or a few days, and his visit will 

 always be remembered with pleasure, 

 as he possesses the happy faculty of 

 making you feel that he is " right at 

 home" from the moment he comes un- 

 der your roof. 



Writing under date of May 28th, he 

 says that the weather is very cool and 

 backward this spring — a condition that 

 seems to be general all over the north- 

 ern part of the globe, seemingly. In 



his bee-keeping operations he is giving 

 preference to the Carniolan race of 

 bees, and, judging from my experience 

 with these bees, I think his choice is 

 wise indeed for a climate as severe as 

 they have in Finland. In fact, for a 

 climate we have /u-i-f, for the present 

 spring at least, the Carniolans are not 

 in the same class as the Italians, as the 

 latter will not breed up satisfactorily in 

 this bad weather without being 

 " nursed," while weather makes no dif- 

 ference to the Carniolans, if there is 

 honey in the hives to draw from. I 

 borrow the word "nursed" from Mr. 

 Alpaugh, who although an admirer of 

 the Italians to the exclusion of other 

 races, yet admits that they need more 

 attention than some other bees, in so 

 far as early brood-rearing is concerned. 



Mr. Mickwitz says that for winter 

 stores the bee-keepers in Finland and 

 some other European countries, use a 

 preparation called " nectarin," in pref- 

 erence to honey or sugar — the latter 

 being all beet, no cane-sugar being 

 used there. The winters are very cold, 

 and the bees are often confined to the 

 hives for a long season without the 

 option of a flight, so no doubt the food- 

 supply is a very important factor in 

 wintering — indeed, it is the main factor 

 here in our country, too. 



In reading over Mr. Mickwitz"s chatty 

 and interesting letter, I was led to 

 wonder how he in such a short time 

 became so familiar with the English 

 language — a language which is gener- 

 ally classed by linguists as being diffi- 

 cult to learn. In the whole letter I 

 doubt if there is a mistake in spelling 

 or punctuation, and yet when he ar- 

 rived in America a little over two years 

 ago, he could not speak a word of 

 English. It certainly speaks volumes 

 for his ability and "sticktoitiveness," 

 in that he so thoroughly mastered so 



great a task in so short a time. Many 

 who heard him speak at the Detroit 

 convention, in 1908, will remember that 

 it was quite difficult for him to express 

 himself, and when he came to our place 

 last fall I was surprised to see how 

 fluently he could then talk in our lan- 

 guage. 



An amusing incident just comes to 

 mind in connection with the language 

 in question, and I feel prompted to re- 

 late it to the readers of this Journal. 

 (3n the first day of Mr. Mickwitz's visit 

 with us, I happened to receive a sample 

 of some splendid basswood honey from 

 a bee-keeper near Lake Erie. After 

 the two of us had generously sampled 

 it, he turned to me and asked how I 

 liked it. 



I replied in a serious manner, that to 

 me it tasted " ?noris/i." He looked a 

 bit quizzical, but offered no reply at 

 the time, although I could see that he 

 was doing a bit of figuring on his own 

 account. Shortly afterwards, while he 

 was sitting at the type-writer in the 

 next room, I heard a jolly "Ha, ha, 

 mor-ish — like more. Pretty good, pretty 

 good." The incident shows how thor- 

 oughly he had mastered the intricacies 

 and idioms of the language — even when 

 he could discern the meaning likely to 

 be attached to such an expression as I 

 had made. 



How I wish I could speak the mother 

 tongue of Mr. Mickwitz, for indeed I 

 would then look forward to visiting 

 him some day in his far off home; as 

 it is, I count it a great privilege to be 

 able to correspond with him, and thus 

 keep in touch in a measure with the 

 bee-keeping methods of his country. 



Before dropping the subject for the 

 time, I might also add that j\Ir. Mick- 

 witz is thoroughly imbued with the so- 

 called American system of bee-keeping, 

 and will practice it in his operations. 

 It appeals to the writer as being a fort- 

 unate circumstance toward bringing 

 about a better understanding between 

 European and American bee-keepers, 

 as one so gifted as Mr. Mickwitz can 

 not but be a help towards that desired 

 end. 



"AHinnotheWise,"Etc. 



It is generous of the Editor to tell 

 the readers of the Journal that I did 

 not put that heading to the " busy bee- 

 man item " in last issue of Canadian 

 Beedom, but he might have gone 

 farther and told them also that he was 

 printing a private note sent along with 

 the regular stuff — said note being a 

 sort of apology for my being late in 

 sending the copy. Don't any of you 

 run away with the idea that I work half 

 as hard as that note would intimate, for 

 as a matter of fact I am somewhat like 

 the bees — work like fun sometimes, and 

 then loaf a whole lot at other times. 



Just as to what form of revenge I 

 will take on our Editor over the matter, 

 I have not yet decided. Any hhils from 

 readers will be acceptable. 



[Again Mr. Byer did not put the 

 above heading on this item.— Editor.] 



A Variable Season 



Right up to May 12th the weather 

 was cold — so very cold for the time 



