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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Dec. 3, 1903. 



fruit was in a lil<e condition, quite sound, but every vestige of honey 

 had disappeared. Tlie punctured fruit was badly mutilated and 

 worthless, beneath each puncture was a cavity, and in many instances 

 decay had set in. The experiment was continued during the follow- 

 ing week, the undipped sound fruit being left in the brood-chamber; 

 the dipped fruit was given a new coating of honey and replaced in the 

 super, and a fresh supply of punctured fruit was substitnted for that 

 which had been destroyed. 



"At the end of the second week the fruit that was sound at the 

 end of the tirst week that had been dipped in honey, and also in the 

 brood-chamber as well as the punctured fruit, was considerably de- 

 cayed, and where any openings appeared showed signs of being worked 

 on, but to no very great extent. 



" For the third week, fresh samples of fruit of all the above kinds 

 were used. The results of this test was very similar to that of the 

 first week, and being later in the season the fruit that had been put in 

 sound, some of it had began to decay. 



"After the third week the bees belonging to the two hives which 

 had been deprived of all their honey, appeared to be very sluggish, 

 and there were many dead bees about the hives; the weather being 

 cool and damp was very much against those colonies. These colonies 

 had lived for the first three weeks on I he punctured fruit, and on the 

 honey off the fruit which had been dipped; as there were at that sea- 

 son few plants in flower from which they could gather nectar, these 

 bees had died of starvation, notwithstanding the proximity of the 

 ripe, juicy fruit. This supply of food, which they were urgently in 

 need of, was only separated from them by the thin skin of the fruit, 

 which, however, this evidence seems to prove they could not puncture, 

 as they did not do so." 



The "Sweet Tooth" Should Have Honey. 



The following has been sent in by Walter Martin, of Colorado, 

 who says he " believes it worthy of copying, as it possesses some 

 really good common-sense, and is told in a very brief manner:" 



The best way of curing children of the injurious candy habit is 

 to make pure honey fresh from the hive, or properly extracted from 

 the comb, a regular feature of their diet. Not only candy, but lumps 

 of sugar, sweet-cakes and too much jam are bad. Pure honey is good. 



Honey is more easily assimilated than many " predigested " foods. 

 It is a coueenlrated food, and furnishes the same elements of nutrition 

 as starch and sugar, imparting warmth and energy. 



Honey is a valuable medicine, and has many uses. It is excellent 

 in most lung and throat affections, and is often used with great benefit 

 in place of cod-liver oil. Occasionally there is a person with whom it 

 does not agree, but most people can learn to use it with beneficial re- 

 sults. 



Children who have natural appetites generally prefer it to butter. 

 Honey is a laxative and sedative, and in diseases of the bladder and 

 kidneys it is an excellent remedy. 



Such items can not be given too wide a circulation. It would be 

 a good thing it bee-keepers everywhere could get their local news- 

 papers to publish It. 



We have several times urged that the National Association should 

 do some advertising in the daily papers, in the interest of a more gen- 

 eral use of honey. Such items as the above would be just the thing 

 to put into such advertisements. We believe that nothing else would 

 so increase the demand for honey among all the people as just the 

 kind of advertising we have mentioned. It ought to be done. And 

 the National Association is the concern that should do it. Why not? 



Box-Hives OP Straw Skeps. 



These are still used in large numbers in many parts of the world. 

 In some parts of Germany they are used almost exclusively. " What 

 .an ignorant lot they must be," do you say ? No, box-hives are pre- 

 ferred by intelligent men thoroughly versed in bee-keeping, who say 

 that for the prevailing conditions box-hives are to be preferred. It is 

 hard for us, in this country, to understand how that can be, but when 

 men of bright parts, familiar with bee-literature and modern methods 

 say it is so, we should have charity enough to say that we are not the 

 custodians of all the bee-wisdom in the world. 



A Novel Kind of Insurance. 



At least different from anything in this country, is that in Eng- 

 land, whereby a bee-keeper is insured against damage done by bees. 

 That is, if Jones keeps bees, and his bees sting Brown's horse, the in- 

 surance association will take the place of Jones to pay all damage up 

 to a certain limit. To insure his bees thus, it will cost Jones two 

 cents per colony. 



Miscellaneous Items 





Mr. Thos. Dougherty, of Bureau Co., Ills., has been a bee- 

 keeper for nearly 40 years. Last spring he began with 31 colonies, 

 increased to 44, and harvested 2100 pounds of extracted honey, and 

 2000 pounds of comb honey. 



Mr. E. Kretchiner, of the Kretchmer Mfg. Co., of Montgom- 

 ery Co., Iowa, returned recently from a trip to Europe. He was ab- 

 sent about 14 weeks. Bee-Keepers are getting to be great travelers— 

 at least some of them. Perhaps Mr. Kretchmer will tell the readers of 

 the American Bee Journal ."lomething about his trip across the water. 



The Illinois State Convention, which was held at Spring- 

 field Nov. 17 and 18, arranged it so that the annual dues of .?;1.00 would 

 pay membership in both State and National Associations. A list of 23 

 names was sent to the National, with others to follow. The following 

 were elected as ollicers: 



President, J. tj. Smith Vice-Presidents: Ist, John S. Dowdy; 

 2d, J. W. Prinman; 3d, Aaron Coppin; 4th, Jas. Poindexter; 5th, S. 

 N. Black. Secretary, Jas. A. Stone, Route 4, Springfield, Ills. Treas- 

 urer, Chas. Becker. 



Mr. W. A. Pryal, writing us Nov. 21, from San Francisco Co., 

 Calif., had this to say about the glorious rains they are having: 



Dear Mr. York : — For the past week we have been having rain 

 galore in this and the northern portion of the State. I understand 

 the storm has been doing some good in the south land; it is in the 

 northern and north central sections that the greatest precipitation has 

 taken place. Just think, in the county just north of this — (Marin), 

 the great dairy or cow county — the rainfall has been as much as three 

 inches a day. The rains have come late, which, according to long 

 observation, mean.s a wet winter. 'Rah for next year agriculturally — 

 also bee-culturally. W. A. Pbtal. 



Mr. James U. Harris, of Grand Junction, Colo., president- 

 elect for 1904, of the National Bee-Keepers' Association, in referring 

 in a private letter to the place of meeting next year, wrote us Nov. 14 ; 



'■I should be pleased to have an expression through the bee- 

 papers as to what the National members would think the best meeting- 

 place for next year." 



It might be a good idea for the members, when voting soon, 

 also to say where they would prefer to have the meeting of next 

 year. While such a vote would not be binding at all on the new 

 executive committee, it would perhaps help them in making their 

 decision. , 



As we understand it now, the following cities have been men- 

 tioned: St. Louis, San Antonio, ClQeinnati and Salt Lake City. Our 

 preference is for the cities in the order here given, though, of course, 

 what we would choose has nothing to do with what other members 

 prefer. We would not attempt to influence & single vote on this 

 matter. 



Bee-Exhibit in the Public School.— Mr. Thos. Chantry, 

 of South Dakota, wrote us as follows, Nov. 19; 



Dear Mr. York: — I surely get lots of comfort and good out of 

 the American Bee Journal. I send some clippings from papers here 

 which explain themselves. By a chain of circumstances I exhibited 

 an observatory hive with no thought of anything more than my in- 

 terest in pleasing and benetiting the children. There are many grown- 

 up people in Dakota who have never seen a honey-bee. I also thought 

 it might help to show how impossible it is to manufacture comb 

 honey, etc. And the awakened interest in the homes all over the 

 city caused indirectly a much larger use of honey, and made many 

 friends. It seems now to show promise of a lasting advertisement. 



Thos. Chantrt. 



The clippings referred to by Mr. Chantry, consist of compositions 

 by pupils in the public school where Mr. Chantry made the exhibit 

 and gave his talk on nature study as it relates to bees. 



We did the same thing as Mr. Chantry mentions on two occasions, 

 several years ago, in one of the Chicago public schools. It seemed to 

 create a good deal of interest among the school pupils. We think it 

 was in the 6th and Sth grades. Such object le.ssons always pay well, 

 as it adds to the fund of useful information of the pupils, and also 

 creates an interest in bees and honey. 



