AMERICAN BEK JOURNAL. 



793 



eP~ Do not write anything for publication 

 on the same sheet of paper witn business 

 matters, unless it can be torn apart withou 

 interfering- with either part of the letter. 



What Caused the Alfalfa Failure ? 



Will some reader of the American Bee 

 Journal please give the probable cause 

 of the failure of a crop of Alfalfa here? 

 It was sown in the fall on a soil mixed 

 with sand and clay, and made a fine 

 growth, and was cut the next spring in 

 April, again in May, and again in June. 

 The third cutting killed it. Was it the 

 cutting so often, or some condition of 

 climate or soil ? W. Bowser. 



Enterprise, Miss., Dec. 6. 



Report for the Season. 



I have 7 colonies, and got about 200 

 pounds of honey this fall — half comb 

 and half extracted. I like the American 

 Bee Journal very much. 



Michael Laeinan. 



Moline, 111., Dec. 6. 



What I "Learned" in 1894. 



That the best plan to have pure honey 

 in the market is to produce comb honey 

 only, and throw away the villainous ex- 

 tractor that sucks out the young bees 

 and grub-gravy along with the nectar, 

 and robs the brood-chamber, and some- 

 times leads the honest bee-man into the 

 sin of selling unripe honey, doctored 

 with glucose, half and half, and in this 

 way doubling the receipts of bee-keep- 

 ing. 



That the man who keeps a bee-supply 

 shop, and the woman that rears honey 

 queens at $10.00 a head, are the people 

 that get the golden eggs, and the bee- 

 man who buys those traps and hot-house 

 queens, is the goose that lays the eggs. 



That the black bee is not subject to 

 the new dago disease — paralysis ; which 

 is probably caused by in-breeding and 

 too much coddling and petting and fuss- 

 ing, causing microbes in the blood, and 

 Uea.rt f£i,ilure. What we povy jiee^ is a 



microbe extractor. Some bee-men al- 

 ready have the eye-opener, and many 

 others have the money-purse extractor, 

 which works beautifully, and leaves 

 nothing to be desired in that direction. 



That it does not hurt a queen to ride 

 in the mail-bag— it is the sudden stop 

 that shakes her up. At this station 

 the mail-bags are thrown from the train 

 when moving a mile a minute; they fly 

 like a cannon-shot, and roll and bound 

 around for rods, until they bring up 

 against a fence or post, making the 

 gravel fly as if a comet had suddenly lit 

 near the rail-track. Of course it can't 

 injure a five or six banded queen to 

 alight in that way— the more hoops or 

 bands, the less danger of bursting up. 



Dearborn, Mich. C. W. Learned. 



In Good Condition for Winter. 



We did not average 5 pounds of honey 

 to the colony here this year, but the 

 bees are in good condition for winter. 

 P. B. Hill. 



Mt. Vernon, Ohio, Dec. 3. 



Experience with Bees. 



I have at present 10 colonies of bees. 

 I secured about 100 pounds of comb 

 honey this year, but no extracted honey, 

 and no swarms. I keep my bees on the 

 summer stands the year round. I now 

 have them packed with cornfodder, and 

 have had good results in wintering that 

 way. I bought 3 colonies this fall, at 

 $2 apiece. My bees are blacks. 



I sold 16 pounds of honey for 12j^ 

 cents per pound to the neighbors, and 

 took 14 pounds to town and got 14 

 cents a pound for it. Honey does not 

 sell well here. My bees are in good con- 

 dition for winter. W. M. Daniels. 



Perrysburg, Ohio, Nov. 30. 



Experience with Bees in Mississippi. 



I see a good many are giving their 

 reports of the honey crop, but none from 

 this State. As I am a small bee-keeper, 

 I will try to tell what we have done here 

 the last two years. The past season has 

 been a bad one for us — the worst for 20 

 years, so Dr. Blanton, of Greenville, 

 says. 



Last February and March it was very 

 warm ; trees bloomed and the bees began 

 to gather honey, and filled the hives full 

 of bees and brood. About March 18 it 

 turned cold, and on the nights of the 

 gOtli and gist it froze, and killed ^)1 



