988 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15 



it a super with a bait comb. It filled the bait 

 and sealed it before touching the other sections. 



Opinions differ as to whether a colony will 

 swarm out with a virgin on her bridal trip and 

 never return, leaving the colony queenless. This 

 year No. 25 sent out a swarm, and I had reason 

 to know that it had a virgin queen. I hived the 

 swarm, gave it a frame of brood, set it on top of 

 its old hive, and when the queen began laying I 

 united it with the colony below, which had re- 

 mained queenless. No. 97 swarmed out in the 

 same way, and clustered on a tree. I knew it 

 must have a virgin, but I left it to its own de- 

 vices. In a quarter of an hour — may be half an 

 hour — it returned of its own accord, although 

 part of the cluster remained till the next day. 

 No. 69 did about the same thing. Query. If I 

 had not hived No. 25, would it have returned of 

 its own accord, or would it have left for parts 

 unknown.? Please understand, in each of the 

 three cases it was not merely a small escort ac- 

 companying the queen, but a rousing big swarm. 

 [Your experiment seems to favor the view that a 

 swarm will not go off, leaving nothing in the way 

 of a queen or cell in the parent hive. Has any 

 one else any positive e\ idence to offer on the 

 subject.? — Ed.] 



Editorial 



square. Better take a little less price, and deal 

 with a man of known reputation. 



By E. R. Root. 



A BtE-KEEPER S DICTIONARY. 



The American Bee-keeper has expressed the 

 opinion that there would be a demand for a bee- 

 keeper's dictionary. Mr. W. K. Morrison, of 

 this office, has carefully compiled such a volume, 

 adding a lot of lately coined words as well as all 

 those in current use in various parts of the coun- 

 try among bee-keepers. It has been off the press 

 now for nearly a year, and is filling a long-felt 

 want. 



A HIVE-LIFTING WHEELBARROW. 



On page 997 v\'e present drawings of a hive- 

 lifting wheelbarrow which we believe might be 

 made very effective, although we have never tried 

 it. But the trouble is, that many bee-yards are 

 located on uneven ground, where it would be 

 impracticable to use an outfit of this kind. Some 

 apiaries are located in back yards, where the 

 room is very limited. In these the hives would 

 necessarily have to be arranged so close together 

 that it would he impossible to use a wheelbarrow 

 of any kind. 



BE CAREFUL TO WHOM YOU SELL YOUR HONEY. 



The season for marketing honey has begun. 

 While it rnay seem like an unnecessary repeti- 

 tion, we desire again to caution you to be careful 

 to whom you send your honey. When you sell 

 for cash, be sure that your man is responsible. 

 If you can not learn any thing about him, you 

 had better sell on commission; for then he can be 

 held liable if he takes your honey without ren- 

 dering you returns. But he may make very mea- 

 ger returns, and delay making payment. So we 

 advise you not to trust any one unless he has a 

 good rating and a reputation for dealing on the 



EXTRA-YELLOW ITALIANS REPORTED GENERALLY 

 CROSS. 



We are getting complaints from all over the 

 country, to the effect that extra-yellow bees are 

 much Grosser than the old-fashioned hybrids of 

 blacks and Italians. This has been our experi- 

 ence year after year; but, strangely enough, we 

 are compelled to furnish this yellow stock be- 

 cause the trade will have it, in spite of its bad 

 temper and also its lack of hardiness. While there 

 are some strains of extra-yellow blood that 

 are gentle and hardy, they are the exception. So 

 far as experience has shown us, there is noth- 

 ing better than the old-fashioned leather-col- 

 ored Italians; and we are inclined to believe that 

 a little admixture of black blood improves them 

 for honey. 



A VISIT FROM A RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL. 



We had the pleasureof a visit from Mr. Dmitry 

 Arcibasheff, manager of the Farm Implement 

 Bureau of Ministry of Agriculture of St. Peters- 

 burg, Russia. He was accompanied by Mrs. 

 Arcibasheff, and the two were making a rapid 

 tour through the United States, stopping off but 

 a few hours at Medina. 



We found Mr. and Mrs. Arcibasheff very in- 

 telligent and interesting people. They were 

 gathering data on the subject of bee culture with 

 a view, probably, of carrying it to Russia. 



The Russian government has already taken a 

 lively interest in the general subject of bee cul- 

 ture. It was only recently that it appointed Mr. 

 Abram Titoff as apicultural expert with head- 

 quarters at Kieff. 



BOUNTIFUL RAINS AND DROUTH. 



We have been having some bountiful rains in 

 this locality. Only once had we begun to feel 

 the pangs of drouth; but that was almost imme- 

 diately followed by a long and copious rain. 

 White and alsike clovers are still out ; for every 

 time we get a rain like those we have been hav- 

 ing, it seems to start the blossoms out again. 



A recent trip through Southern Michigan 

 showed that that State had been suffering from a 

 severe drouth; and we observed that, along the 

 line of the Pere Marquette Railway, the grass 

 had been burned down; and as the train whizzed 

 by, every now and then we could see the burn- 

 ing fences or burning grass. The crops, too, 

 were beginning to show a lack of rain. Reports 

 show that there is drouth in many parts of the 

 country. 



THE HONEY-MARKET SITUATION. 



Very little has developed new other than as 

 reported in our last issue, page 930, except that 

 quite a number of discouraging reports have come 

 from the State of New York. But there has 

 been a good crop of clover honey in the clover 

 belt as a whole. In some sections of it, howev- 

 er, the season has been poor, especially in parts 

 of New York and Maine. The fruit crop, in 

 spite of statements to the contrary, seems ro be 

 very meager in many of the States; and this will 

 have a tendency to make the market for honey 



