274 AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL.. 



many feet the other, so that I could work all around them. The exact location 

 would be — if I had one — not far from fruit-trees, for both winter and summer pro- 

 tection. There would be no spot near them that would not be covered with honey- 

 producing plants ! Yes, sir ; I'd have a regular lawn for them of white clover, and 

 I'd spade up the very fence corners to plant catnip, horse-mint, pennyroyal, black- 

 berries, raspberries, and every good thing that would grow up and choke the weeds 

 down. Then, too, I'd see that there was a fairly deep hole in a shady corner of the 

 "bee-field" — a miniature pond — where the bees could find drink ; and not far from 

 it I'd contrive a tin box to put salt in it, to help them in their work ; kept covered 

 from the rains, a handful will last a long time. You are just puckering your lips 

 to say, " Put salt on their tails !" — but no matter. 



O you think my ideas are too " fancy " and impracticable, do you ? Well, I 

 submit that it is quite as proper and easy to raise a lot of useful plants that bees 

 can feed on and store honey, as to let that great heap of weeds grow rank, to seed 

 yours and your neighbor's land ! Besides, a rich lawn, or meadow, if you so prefer 

 to call it, is not only good for the bees, but looks well, retains moisture in the 

 ground, and is useful for hay. The weeds, the pigs won't eat ! 



Bees may be kept as houses are kept — in an attractive or slovenly way. It is just 

 as easy to keep our surroundings nice, as slipshod. Besides, we owe a debt of en- 

 couragement to our neighbors in right-doing, we'd better pay as we go along. 



" You wouldn't have the time,^'' hey ? Well, I'd take time, just as I would to 

 eat and to sleep ! Suppose the mechanics, and the farmers, and the good house- 

 wife, were to say they haven't the time to do things as they should be done ? How 

 would their work, their crops, and her house look ? It is a fact that the better a 

 thing is once done, the easier it is to do it afterward, a7id it pays ! Perhaps yoii've 

 been so slack in your methods that you feel you couldn't do differently, but wouldn't 

 you try if there was more -money in it ? Well, I guess yes ! You just start in right, 

 and you'll stay there, because you will enjoy much greater pleasure, comfort and 

 profit. 



There, if you don't admit the force of these /acfs— why, I'll keep thinking you 

 ought to : 



VARIOUS NOTES A]VD COMMENTS. 



BY DR. C. C. MILLEK. 



The editor of the " Old Reliable," on page 200, adds insult to injury. "Squirm 

 as he may," he left the impression that shoes alone covered my feet, and now he 

 says he couldn't "expect to see through cowhide shoes." Cowhide! He'll find a 

 cowhide awaiting him if he ever ventures in these parts ! 



As to a contracted form for Amkrican Bee Joukxal, I don't like Am. Bee Jrnl. 

 Isn't A. B. Journal better ? Just as short, and whether you read it in its contracted 

 form or in full, it's all right. [AH right. Doctor. But you might as well make it 

 ''Am. B. Journal," and then it would be satisfactory enough.— Editor.] 



1,250 pounds of honey from one colony (page 201) takes the lead. But isn't 

 there a possibility of a mistake, with not the least intention to deceive ? Some 

 years ago I learned to be a little skeptical with regard to the yields frome some of 

 my own colonies. A number of swarms would come out about the same time, then 

 two or three go back to one hive. A big yield would result, but it would hardly be 

 from one colony. Of course, ther«! may not have been anything of the kind in this 

 Australian case. 



