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^j^ERICA^ 



43d YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, OCT. 22, 1903. 



No. 43. 



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Editorial Comments 



1 



What Have You Learnetl during the past season's experi- 

 ence? Suppose you write out some of the things that have either 

 puzzled you, or that you have solved, and send it in for publication. 

 You have been helped by what others have written, why not help 

 them by contributing from your experience during the past season, 

 or previous thereto? 



We will be glad to publish whatever we think will be interesting 

 or helpful. Who knows but you may be practicing many "short 

 cuts " in the apiary that would be new to 6ther bee-keepers. Tell us 

 about them, please. 



Photographs for Engravings.— We are constantly wanting 

 pictures of apiaries and other things of interest to bee-keepers in gen- 

 eral, for use in the American Bee .Journal. You, perhaps, have been 

 interested in looking at the picture of some other bee-keeper's apiary, 

 and doubtless others would be pleased to see yours. That is, if it is a 

 nice, up-to-date one. 



We can not, of course, promise to use all the pictures that may be 

 sent to us, but we usually find a place for nearly all of them in time. 

 Whatever pictures are sent in should be clear and bright, in order to 

 make good engravings. A good way to do is to send us the phota- 

 graph and let us report on it as to whether or not we can use it. If a 

 favorable report is received, then you can send on a write-up to go 

 with the picture in the American Bee Journal. 



The Hay and the Honey Crop.— A subscriber sends the 

 following clipped from the Lovelocks, Nev., Tribune: 



" The cattlemen claim the bees are taking the nutriment out of 

 the hay. They say that a ton of honey probably represents the 

 essence from 200 tons of alfalfa, and that the hay is just that much 

 poorer in saccharine matter. They say that it stands to reason that 

 you can't take all this houey out of the hay and still have it as rich in 

 saccharine matter. Thisbelief goes far to portend action at the next 

 legislature regulating bee-pasturage." 



Thai probably gives the views of a good many of the cattlemen 

 who are entirely honest in their opinions, but who are not well in- 

 formed. The better informed can hardly hold such views. The paper 

 from which the extract is made is to be commended for its fairness in 

 giving both sides— a thing that can not always be credited to the 

 weekly press. The clipping goes on : 



"The apiarists ridicule these claims of the stockmen. They say 

 the bees are a benefit to the alfalfa. They say that all this nectar that 

 is made inio honey would evaporate anyway and not be saved in the 

 hay. They cite the old belief that the bees injured the orchards. Now 

 the orchardists of California give the free pasturage to the bee-men! 

 The bees fertilize the bloom and make more fruit. They say that 

 there is DO complaint in California that the bees sterilize the alfalfa 

 bloom. They say that all one has to do is to read up on scientific 

 work, and see that bees are a benefit feeding on alfalfa bloom, and im- 

 proves the haj." 



Going back to the views of the cattlemen, if " it stands to reason 

 that you can't take all this honey out of the hay and still have it as 

 rich in saccharine matter," it ought not to be a difficult thing to show 

 this very clearly and positively by actual experiment. Have any of 



the experiment stations done this? Indeed, it is not necessary to re 

 fer the matter to the experiment stations. Any cattleman who thinks 

 the hay is the poorer for the bees can try the experiment for himself 

 Let him cover a plot of alfalfa with mosquito-netting so the bees can 

 not get at it. He ought to find the ripened flowers sticky with honey 

 But if, on the contrary, he finds that the nectar has all evaporated into 

 thin air, he may change his mind as to the mischief done by the bees 



The experiment might also show him that instead of being a dam 

 age the bees are a benefit; for in the covered plot, where the bees 

 have no chance to fertilize the blossoms, he would find a failure in the 

 seed crop. The case of red clover is in point. Every farmer knows 

 that seed can be obtained from the second crop of red clover, but not 

 from the first, but not every farmer has inquired why. The tubes of 

 the red clover blossoms are too deep for the hive-bee to reach the nec- 

 tar, and the bumble-bee does the fertilizing. But the bumble-bee does 

 not start in the early summer with a full colony like the hive-bee; for 

 some time there is only a single bee, and only when the second crop of 

 red clover comes are bumble-bees in sufficient numbers to fertilize the 

 blossoms. 



The probability is that the counsels of the more intelligent cattle- 

 men will prevail, and that no effort will be made to hinder the busy 

 bee in its beneficent work. 



Phacelia continues to be vaunted as a forage-plant in European 

 journals, and there is no question as to its being a good honey-plant; 

 but it any one has found it to be valuable as a forage-plant in this 

 country he is keeping very mum about it. 



The Pronunciation of Propolis is given in the British Bee 

 Journal with all the vowels short, and to speak it otherwise is pro- 

 nounced " a grievous classical blunder." That maybe all right " in 

 that locality," but the Standard dictionary gives the preference to 

 long o in the first syllable. Still, if mc were making a dictionary we 

 would say prop-o-lis, accenting the first syllable, with o short sound. 



Danger from Stray Swarms. — In some regions the past 

 year has been an unusual one for swarming, and some bee-keepers 

 have rejoiced at the sudden increase of colonies by means of stray 

 swarms coming to them. But such swarms sometimes bring bane in- 

 stead of blessing. A case is reported in the British Bee Journal in 

 which a stray swarm carried foul brood with it. It is well to give 

 extra scrutiny to stray swarms— indeed, to a fresh accession of bees 

 from any source. 



A Larger Opening for Honey-Cans.— One of the most ex- 

 tensive users of extracted honey wrote us as follows, some time ago ; 



Editor American Bee Journal : — We take the liberty of rec- 

 ommending to the bee-keepers, who put up honey in 5-gallon cans, to 

 endeavor to secure cans provided with a 2}^ inch screw-top opening 

 instead of the 1,1 .j'-inch which is now in use. The large opening has 

 many advantages over the smaller one. The principal ones are that 

 it is easier to remove the honey, and the empty can is more salable to 

 dealers who use the second-hand cans for other purposes. We under- 

 stand that a certain company that makes a large number of these 

 honey-cans, would be perfectly willing to furnish cans with the larger 

 opening, if so required by its customers. This change can be made 

 without detriment to the cans now in existence with the smaller open- 

 ing. . 



We have often thought that the screw-top opening on the ma- 



