18S.5 



GLEA^i2v"C;S 12s JJEE CL'LTUKE. 



398 



doing- that, I will try to hunt up souic more honey- 

 that has been overlooked. 



Vou will see, friend Itoot, that I am some 238 lbs. 

 ahead of my former calculation. This is occasioned 

 by overlooking- some cases that were below in the 

 honey-house— left by the teamsters, and forgotten 

 when I made up my statement. If any man, of any 

 standing- in bee culture, will assert publicly, 

 through Gi.EAMXGS, that he does not believe the 

 statement of the parties below, I will spend ten 

 dollars to get their affidavits, with certificate of 

 Clerk of Court, etc. But this is not now a ijuestion 

 merely personal to me. It stands on a broader ba- 

 sis. The query of all bee-keepers will be, " Can a 

 swarm of bees, under any circumstances, make 656 

 lbs. of comb honey? If so, what are the conditions 

 that are necessary to produce this result? Iritis 

 true, that you can get twice the amount of extract- 

 ed honey that you can of comb, then this result is 

 equal to 1300 lbs. of extracted honey. What an 

 enormous amount to come from one swarm in one 

 season!" 



Looking at the little fellows walking round on the 

 alighting-board, in the dusk of the evening, who 

 would ever dream of it? Rut, watch them in the 

 middle of the day; get down on your knees, having 

 something dark for a background. A tree will do, 

 or a hill. If you have no hill, purchase one imme- 

 diately. They are a good thing to have about a 

 farm — if there are not too many of them. Now look 

 at the great stream of the little fellows— as far 

 away as the eye can distinguish them; they are 

 trying to lower themselves down easy, so as not to 

 too strike suddenly on the board; and sometimes, in 

 their haste and hurry, one of them does bump down 

 pretty hard, turning a summersault oi- two over the 

 others as they rush in and out of the hive. Do 

 you think that bee is going to let all the rest laugh 

 at him? Not much. He .lust gathers himself up, 

 turns to the audience and lookers-on, and says, 

 " Ladies and gentlemen, it is a self-evident fact, 

 that I did that on purpose." Here he puts his 

 thumb to his nose, twills his lingers, and winks at 

 them with one eye, and darts into the hive, in as 

 big a hurry as if he had lost an hour. 



Ves, but do not forget, before you get off your 

 knees, to thank God, in your heart, that he has 

 given you this simple little insect to teach you wis- 

 iloMi, induslr-y, perseverance, and the love of home. 



CEUTItttATE. 



I h(M-eliy certify, that I have been familiar with 

 the home apiary of 18 hives spoken of in the I'ore- 

 gt)ing ciilciilations. These 18 hives gave all the 

 honey (laiincil; iudeed, I think my uncle has under- 

 estimated llie amount of untinished honey kept 

 o\'cr ami now jjut on the hives again. 1 think 

 there is iieaier a ton and a halt than a ton. There 

 was at least t!0 lbs. of honey in each of 68 hives in 

 the fall, and probably more. There are also ."•'.. 

 cases of honey here on hand that never was liauled 

 into town, eiiual to ^(W lbs. R. L. Iskaei.. 



\Vo lu riby certify, tliat we hauled into town, and 

 delivered to Messrs. Hamilton & Co., the following 

 number of cases of comb honey for Israel Bros.: 



1 load of 33 cases 



1 " :w " 



1 " 38 " 



1 " 36 " — Ul. 



Each case will net at least 56 lbs. AVe are each 

 familiar with what the other hauled, as the wagons 

 always went together. We know that this honey 

 was all produced by them. 



Apr. 1."), ISS,"). I. S. MiNTEU. 



We lici-eb,\ certify that we have recived one hun- 

 dred and forty-one cases of comb honey, of the crop 

 of 1884, from Israel Bros., for which they; hold our 

 receipts. These cases will net about .56 lbs. each, 



making 78C6 lbs. We are familiar with their busi- 

 ness, and know they bought no honey. 



San Diego, Cal., April 20, 1885. Hamilton & Co. 



I have already taken up too much of your time, or 

 I would tell you exactly how this i-esult was reache<l. 

 I have already told you of the stimulative feeding, 

 which, of course, was only the beginning of the 

 treatment. If you care to know exactly how it was 

 done, I may give it to you at some future time. 



And now in eoncl,usion, friend Root, as I am the 

 sole inventor of the method of getting 6.56 lbs. of 

 comb honej' from one colony and its progeny, in a 

 single season, I want a " moral patent "—I want it 

 immediately. If you are the "feller" that issues 

 them, please send it right away, done up with red 

 tape, blue i-ibbons, and a big splotch of i-ed sealing- 

 wax. .1. P. Israel. 



San Dieguito, San Diego Co., Cal. 



Frientl I., you do not need any moral pat- 

 ent at all. In fact. you do not need any help 

 from anybody. You are a "wliole team" 

 without any help. But I think you are in er- 

 ror in saving that anybody accused you Cali- 

 fornia folks of fraud. There was some mis- 

 statement made at the convention. I forget 

 what it was, that was evidently a slip of the 

 pen, but it was in regard to the general re- 

 sult of all the bees kept in California. Your 

 statement has never been questioned, that I 

 know of. Perhaps some of the friends ma\ 

 not remember where your report was given. 

 They will find it on inige 7.^.8. (iLEANiNos for 

 Nov. 1, 1884. I do not think your certificates 

 were needed at all; but as you sent them in 

 your letter, we have put them in. Do not by 

 any means talk of spending money for af- 

 fidavits. ]iee-keepers are, as a rule, men 

 who are not given to false statements or ex- 

 travagance. 



SOME VALUABLE HINTS TO 

 KEEPERS. 



BEE- 



HAVING AX EST.\BLISIIED I'HK E O.S Vori{ IIONEV, 

 AND HOLDINCi TO IT. 



T RECEIVED a nucleus of Italians, 3-frame, from 

 4^ C. W. Gates, Uartlett, Tenn., on the 1.5th of 

 ^L May, which came in tiptop order, and I can 

 "^ say that I am well pleased, as they are as fine 

 bees as I ever saw. To those that an- about to 

 put togetlier Simplicity hives, let me say when you 

 open a crate select one side board; set it \ip edge- 

 wise, and pick out side and end boards to match, of 

 same width. Nnmbei- them, also the rest; this will 

 enable you to mak^- a good job, as they will vary as 

 much as 'i of an inch in width. I have found this 

 out by actual experience. 



To make it easy to nmnipiilate wide frames, 

 grease them where they touch each other, with 

 mutton tallow; the wedges and the sections should 

 be treated the same way. To separate wide 

 frames, and loosen sections from separators, a good 

 long screw-driver is the best tool that I over got hold 

 of. 



About developing a home market, remember that 

 it is a good deal what you make it. If jou take 

 your honey to town, selling what you can for 25, 

 then 20, and finally taking 15 for the bulk, you will 

 find it difficult to keep a fl.ved paying price for it. 

 The way I made a honey nmrket, and kept a fixed 

 price when I lived in Missouri was this: I exhibited 

 comb and extracted honey at our county fair, and 



