242 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



April 16, 1903. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



GEORGE W. YORK 8 COMPANY 



144 & 146 E. Erie St., Chicago, III. 



EDITOR, 



Dr.C.C.Mill: 



DEPT. EDITORS, 



R, E.E.Hasty, Em 



I A M.Wilson 



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^ Weekly Bud^t. i 



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Geo. W. Broubeck, of Los Angeles Co., 

 Calif., President of the California National 

 Honey-Producers' Association, wrote us on 

 March 2" : 



"The season here in California, until of 

 late, has again been in doubt, but recent rains 

 make it more promising, so that we now feel 

 confident of a crop. A large yield, though, 

 will require more and belter rains; but of 

 this we feel more hopeful, and I am extremely 

 anxious that this shall prove a bounteous 

 year." 



Dr. Miller's New Bee-Book is receiving 

 very flattering comments from the editors of 

 the other bee-papers. Mr. Ernest R. Root, of 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture, gives this racy 

 write-up about it: 



"FORTY TEARS AMONG THE BEES." 



In our last issue I promised to tell you more 

 about this new and interesting book by Dr. C. 

 C. Miller. I have read page after page of it 

 [Dr. Miller's new book], and the more I read 

 the more I am convinced that it is one of the 

 most practical books that was ever written. 

 There are 101— yes, lUOl— little kinks, little 

 tricks of the trade, little ideas, and big ones, 

 too, which,, while they may be old to xoiite of 

 the veterans, I am of the opinion will prove 

 to be new and useful to the majority of them. 

 The Doctor has crowded into these 32S pages 

 his ripest experience; and not only that, he 

 has drawn from the ideas of others so that we 

 have the very latest and best in the way of 

 practical information from one who has 

 actually spent "forty years among the bees." 



In our previous issue I spoke of the fact 

 that the writers of text-books, and editors of 



papers, often assume too much knowledge on 

 the part of the one they are supposed to in- 

 struct. Our author, while he is not writing 

 for beginners, does not assume anything of 

 the sort. He describes just what lie does in 

 the bee-yard, and !iow he does it. Even in the 

 simple matter of catching a queen, he goes 

 into full details, illustrating by photograph 

 each step in the operation. And that reminds 

 me that, some four or five years ago, I told 

 the Doctor he ought to get one of those little 

 pocket kodaks; that one who wrote as much 

 as he did ought to be able once in a while to 

 give a picture of the Modus operamli. The 

 next thing I knew he had bought him a little 

 camera, and was snapping it on every thing 

 right and left. Why, you just ought to see 

 how he illustrates in his book his various 

 manipulations, with that handy little instru- 

 ment. Take, for example, his method of get- 

 ting bees off the combs, as shown in Fig. 20, 

 page 83. Without the book itself I can not 

 describe to you exactly the vigorous shake or 

 " shook " he gives a comb; but with his left 

 hand he grabs the end-bar securely ; then with 

 his right hand, or fist, rather, he comes down 

 on the back of his left hand, holding the 

 frame, with a quick, sharp blow. Why, you 

 can actually see Dr. Miller's chubby fist 

 knocking every bee rleim off. Did you ever 

 try to shake a comb with two hands, giving 

 it the most vigorous kind of " shook," but it 

 would not " shook " till the bees off unless 

 they were black ones.' Well, take Dr. Miller's 

 plan, and, presto! every bee will drop in- 

 xt<{/i.ter. In Fig. 28 he shows the art of sweep- 

 ing bees off the comb; in Fig. 31 how he stays 

 up his foundation with wooden splints, and a 

 good plan it is. too. 



Again, we get a glimpseof the Doctor hold- 

 ing his Miller feeder, just as if he were de- 

 icribing its merits before a convention. 

 Another view that is most interesting is the 

 drive leading up to the Miller mansion. On 

 one side of the road is a row of beautiful lin- 

 dens, making the view from a purely artistic 

 point very attractive. Fig. 29 shows the 

 sealed brood of laying workers; and it is tlie 

 best representation in printer's ink of such 

 brood I have ever seen. Fig. 60 is a remark- 

 able view of a section filled with foundation — 

 one large top starter and one narrow bottom 

 starter. 



In Fig. Gl we see the Doctor in his light 

 summer clothing, trimming foundation up 

 for sections. Yes, we can almost see the 

 sweat rolling down his good-natured face. In 

 Fig. S3 we are forcibly reminded of the fact 

 that the Doctor believes in cool dress for sum- 

 mer work among the bees. One thickness of 

 clothing, bee-veil, and hat, shoes and stock- 

 ings, complete his regalia, and he looks very 

 neat and comfortable standing up among his 

 favorite rose-bushes. In Fig. 84, again, we 

 see Miss Wilson, his sister-in-law, in her very 

 neat bee-suit. Well, I might go on and de- 

 scribe each of the 112 pictures that are so in- 

 teresting and also instructive. 



Yes, the book is full of good things — 

 packed full of them, and I question very much 

 whether aiiy progressive bee-keeper, beginner 

 or veteran, can afford not to read this book 

 clear through. You may say you have read 

 the Doctor's writings for years. Granted. 

 But you will find that there are many little 

 kinks that he describes in his book that he 

 has never put on the pages of a bee-journal — 

 not because he was not willing to impart what 

 he knew; but because, when he sat down to 

 write a book, one thing after another sug- 

 gested itself until he unfolded a new story 

 that is as good as a story, and far more profit- 

 able. 



Editor W. Z. Hutchinson, of the Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Review, had this to offer after having 

 " dipped into it here and there:" 



" FORTT TEARS AMONG THE BEES." 



A few years ago Dr. C. C. Miller wrote a 

 readable and instructive book called " A Year 

 Among the Bees.'' In this book he gave 

 advice for conducting the affairs of the api- 

 ary from the Ijeginningto theeud of the year, 

 hence the name. The demand was such that 

 the book was soon out of print, and I have 

 often wondered why the good Doctor did not 

 get out a new edition. 1 have always attrib- 

 uted this to a lack of time on the Doctor's 



part, as he once told me that, years ago, he 

 had looked forward to the time when he 

 might have a little leisure, but, later, he had 

 given up all such hopes. It seems, however, 

 that he has been using his time of late in 

 writing an entirely new book, with a title 

 that sounds very much like the old one, but 

 it means forty times as much, as it is " Forty 

 Years Among the Bees." In this the author 

 goes briefly, but concisely, over his forty 

 years of bee-keeping, for he has really kept 

 bees for forty years. Not only this, but he 

 gives us a delightfully written biographical 

 sketch of his boyhood in Pennsylvania, his 

 heroic struggles in securing an education, in 

 which he boarded himself, cutting his weekly 

 expense for board down to only lib cents a 

 week, which so affected his health that he 

 has never fully recovered from it. I found 

 this account of his early life so interesting 

 that 1 read it aloud to the whole family. 

 Most vividly did it recall my own boyhood's 

 days, in which I roamed the forest as free as 

 the wild things in whose lives I became so 

 interested. 



Another very interesting feature of the 

 book is the large number of kodak pictures 

 with which its pages are embellished. The 

 Doctor has surely learned how to " push the 

 button," or have some one do it for him, with 

 considerable proficiency. 



I have not yet said one word about what 

 is probably the most important part of the 

 work, that is, the main body that gives the 

 solid instructions regarding actual work in 

 the apiary. There are two reasons for this: 

 One is the lack of room in this issue to do the 

 subject justice, and the other is that I have 

 not read it. I have done this, however: I 

 have dipped into it here and there, just 

 enough so that I feel warranted in saying 

 that it is the master-piece of the author's 

 forty years among the bees. I shall read it, 

 however, every word, and future issues will 

 contain frequent comments upon what I have 

 read in " Forty Years Among the Bees." 



The postpaid price of Dr. Miller's book is 

 SI. 00; or with the American Bee Journal one 

 year — both for only Jl. 75; or we give it free 

 as a premium to any one who is now a regu- 

 lar paid-in-advance subscriber to the Bee 

 Journal, and who sends two new subscribers 

 to the Bee Journal for a year with $2.00 to 

 pay for same. 



Mr. L. C. Medkiff's Apiary is shown on 

 the preceding page. He wrote thus, whea 

 sending the picture: 



I send a picture of my apiary taken in the 

 fall just before taking off the upper hive- 

 stories. I had a fair crop of clover honey, 

 but one of the poorest fall crops I ever knew 

 or heard of for this locality. We bad lots of 

 llowers, but it rained so much and was so 

 cool that the bees gathered very little. I had 

 to feed about half of my colonies, of which I 

 have 51. 



The hive that I am standing by, with a 

 smoker resting on it, contains one of my 

 favorite colonies, and is one of superior stock. 

 L. C. MedivIff. 



Stenog — the man on the fence who is noted 

 for his " Pickings from Our Neighbors' 

 Fields " in Gleanings— had the following ap- 

 preciated paragraph about this journal in his 

 department recently : 



"Although I have not had much to say- 

 about the • Old Reliable ' lately, it is not be- 

 cause it does not deserve it. Mr. Y'ork is not 

 relaxing any of his efforts to make his jour- 

 nal indispensable to every bee-keeper. The' 

 high moral tone of the journal is very com- 

 mendable. Mr. Hasty is always at his best 

 here." 



Mr. Thos. Wm. Cowan expected to start 

 from California about Easter for Boston, 

 thence to Europe, and possibly Africa, to be 

 gone a year. Mr. Cowan is a great traveler 

 when once he gets started. 



