1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



89 



qualities. Her presence, her sympathy, and her counsel will be 

 sadly missed in the home circle. 



Bee-keepers everywhere in the English-speaking world, will 

 unite with me in extending heartfelt sympathy to the husband, 

 the daughters, and to the aged Mother Qiiinby. P. H. Elwood. 



We are glad to publish the foregoing tribute to the memory of 

 Mrs. Root. We feel sure that those who knew her exceptional 

 personal qualities and character must miss ber greatly. While 

 building for Eternity, she also built for others. What better mon- 

 ument than that of a lustrous, loving life ? Only such is worth 



imitating. 



*-•-*• 



" Dry 'Weatber "Vine" Honey. — A sample of 

 this honey has been received from Mr. J. C. Wallenmeyer, of 

 southern Indiana — also some of the seed, which somewhat 

 resembles thistle seed, as it has a sort of balloon attachment, 

 making it easily carried by the wind. Mr. W. says that " dry 

 weather vine " grows from seed sown in spring, and after once 

 planted always reseeds itself, increasing with wonderful 

 rapidity. He thinks one vine has thousands of little blue 

 flowers, and the hotter and drier the air, the greener the 

 plant becomes. It starts blooming in July, and continues till 

 frost. 



The sample of honey kindly sent us was gathered in 

 August, lS9-i, during a very heavy flow in a severe drouth. 

 Mr. W. says he got §22.50 worth of honey from one colony 

 in three months, mainly from this source. He e.xtracted only 

 from thoroughly capped combs. We have sampled the honey, 

 and find it of excellent body and flavor, reminding us greatly 

 of heart's-ease honey. We do not think it compares, however, 

 with pure alfalfa honey in any way, though we have no doubt 

 many people would like it well. So far, of all the different 

 kinds of honey we have tasted, we much prefer the thick, 

 rich, white alfalfa. The best we have seen came from Colo- 

 rado, though we presume in other localities where the alfalfa 

 abounds, they have just as good honey as in Colorado. 



We suppose the peculiar name — Dry Weather Vine — is 

 simply a local one. Will Mr. Wallenmeyer please tell us the 

 botanical name ? 



Bee-Escape for Honey-Room "Windows. 



— The Porter bee-escape is so well and favorably known, that 

 whenever it is mentioned all bee-keepers know at once all 

 about it. But those enterprising people have gotten up some 

 new use for it, or a new escape for a new purpose, and in a 

 recent issue of Gleanings, they described it as follows : 



Having quite a quantity of honey to extract during the 

 excessively hot weather of last September, when no nectar 

 was to be had, and robbing was at Its worst, and knowing too 

 well how ineffective cone escapes used on extracting-room 

 windows or escapes, made by extending the 

 screen wire to a considerable extent above 

 them with a bee-space between it and the sides 

 of the building were for excluding robbers at 

 such a time, to enable us to get through with 

 the work without annoyance we made, for this 

 purpose, the escape shown in the accompany- 

 ing illustration. This escape is a modiHcation 

 of the well-known form of the Porter spring 

 escape, now so extensively used for freeing the 

 surplus honey from bees automatically before 

 removal from the hives, the principle used be- 

 ing the same. It differs from that only in the 

 details of construction necessary to adapt it to 

 this particular use. 



The top, or oval part, is perforated along 

 the edges, so that the escape may be readily 

 tacked to the casing or window-frame. The 

 body is made of perforated tin, to admit light ; 

 and its open end is extended into a cone to pre- 

 vent robbers crawling in at the sides of the springs and inter- 

 fering with the bees passing out, which would occur if it were 

 left open full width. As compared with the other form, the 

 interior part is reversed in position; the springs used are 

 somewhat broader, and set slightly more open. 



The method of applying these escapes to the window is 

 almost too apparent to require explanation. Merely make 3j 

 or % inch holes through the screen wire at its upper corners ; 

 or, in case it is desirable to make holes without injury to the 

 wire cloth, thus leaving it so that it can be replaced when the 

 escapes are removed, if desired, remove the tacks from the 

 corners and turn them down till triangular holes of corres- 

 ponding size are formed, and then tack the escapes in a verti- 

 cal position over these openings, so that the bees can pass 



through them into the escapes. In case the window is pro- 

 vided with an escape made by extending the wire cloth above 

 it, close the bee-space with a strip flush with the top of the 

 window, and proceed as before. If escapes are not to be used 

 on all the windows of the honey-room, preference should be 

 given to those opening to the south or west, so that, on cold 

 days, the bees may have the benefit of the afternoon sun. 



After putting these escapes to the severest possible test 

 under the most trying conditions, we have found them to meet 

 all the requirements of a perfect device for this purpose. Since 

 using them we realize as never before how many of the dis- 

 agreeable features of bee-keeping are removed, and how much 

 pleasure and satisfaction are added to the pursuit by having 

 all windows of honey and extracting rooms supplied with es- 

 capes through which all bees that get in when doors are being 

 opened or closed, or in any of the other ways these persistent 

 little insects have of effecting this end, can pass out easily and 

 rapidly, and not a single robber can enter. 



R. & E. C. PORTEK. 



It is almost needless to say that these new escapes will be 

 sold by all the principal supply dealers, though The A. I. Root 

 Co. control the sale of all Porter bee-escapes in this country. 



That " Free" Bee-Book. — On page 56 we men- 

 tioned that "Gleanings for Jan. 1 made favorable mention of 

 Government Bulletin No. 1, entitled, 'The Honey-Bee ; a 

 Manual of Instruction in Apiculture, by Frank Benton ;' " and 

 that the " price" is " 15 cents per copy." Shortly after the 

 notice was published, Dr Miller wrote us thus : 



Mr. Editor: — On page 56 you speak of "A Free Bee- 

 Book," and then say it would be ready for distribution " at 15 

 cents per copy." Is that straight, or is it a mistake? Glean- 

 ings, from which you quote, says nothing about "15 cents." 

 I made application for the book, and if you're right, I want to 

 hustle that 15 cents on to Washington. C. C. Miller. 



We can best answer the Doctor's question by quoting the 

 following paragraph from the circular notice about the book 

 referred to which we received ajur we had seen what Glean- 

 ings had said in regard to it: 



"' The Honey-Bee : A Manual of Instruction in Apicul- 

 ture,' by Frank Benton, M. S., of the Division of Entomology 

 of the department of Agriculture, is just issued. .. .This Bul- 

 letin, which is No. 1, new series, of the Division of Entomol- 

 ogy, has 119 pages, 12 plates, and 76 text figures. The 

 edition is limited by the law of Jan. 12, 1895, to 1,000 

 copies. This is barely suSicient to supply the libraries on the 

 Department's list, the agricultural colleges, and those to 

 whom the Department is indebted ; a limited number, how- 

 ever, will be disposed of by the Superintendent of Documents, 

 Union Building, Washington, D. C, at 15 cents per copy." 



It was our mistake in calling it a " free " book. That 

 part of the item was put in type before we learned of the 

 charge for it, and we overlooked it when changing the reading 

 further on from "free" to " 15 cents." Remember that the 

 Supt. of Documents will not receive stamps or personal checks. 

 We sent a dime and a nickle. 



TllE||[[» 



Honey-Boards or Non-Burr-Comb Top-Bars. 



In the American Bee .Tournal, Query 999, this question is 

 asked: " To prevent burr-combs, is anything as good as the 

 Heddon slatted honey-board ? If so, what?" Of the 2-4 who 

 answer, 4 give it as their opinion that there is nothing as good; 

 17 think there is something just as good, and better. Of this 

 number some lay stress upon exact bee-space, and generally !4 

 inch, and not over that, and others on thick and wide top-bars 

 in co7Uicctio?J ivith exact bee-spaces. Only three of the entire 

 number — that is, out of the 24 — express themselves as not be- 

 ing competent to speak on the subject. 



When this question was propounded a few years ago in 

 the same journal, and in the same department, a great major- 



