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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. 13, 



St. Gall contains a formula to call the queen. Here is the 

 text translated from the Latin : 



"I adjure thee, mother of the bees, in the name of the 

 Lord, King of Heaven, and of the Redeemer, Son of God, I 

 adjure thee to fly neither far nor high, but to come back at 

 once to thy tree. There thou wilt alight with all thy lineage 

 or thy friends. I have there a good receptacle in which you 

 will work in the name of the Lord." 



This prayer is more interesting, for it is whole. Take 

 notice, that in all these prayers our little friends have a fine 

 role. They are begged and supplicated, and treated as 

 rational people. They are even granted faculties which they 

 do not possess ; for instance, the capacity of recognizing their 

 owner. This is a very frequent error which is not worth re- 

 futing. There will always be ignorant people who will neither 

 read a journal nor attend a convention. But even a bee- 

 keeper with movable-frame hives has asserted to me that 

 when he goes to the flower-market his bees come and settle on 

 his shoulders. 



Let me close with the text of the law concerning bees, 

 taken from the Etablissements de St. Louis. We have found 

 this also in the book of Michelet above mentioned : 



"If one has swarms and they escape, and he to whom 

 they belong sees them go and follows them at sight without 

 losing, and they settle in any place or manor, and he on whose 

 place they have settled takes them before he comes, and if he 

 says after, 'They are mine,' and the other says, 'I believe 

 you not,' then they will transport before the judge where the 

 first man will swear that the swarms are his, and by this will 

 have them and will pay the other the value of the vessel in 

 which they have been collected." (Xlllth century.) 



" Crkpieux-Jamin." 



Let me add that the writer of the above is the author of 

 a very interesting book, an exhaustive treatise on graphology, 

 or the science of discovering one's character by his hand- 

 writing. I must acknowledge that I had always considered 

 this study as absolutely useless, but a hurried glance over the 

 book, kindly presented to my father, by the author, has con- 

 vinced me that there is a great deal more in this science than 

 any one can imagine, by a hasty survey of its broadest out- 

 lines. Hamilton, 111. 



An Essay on Bee-Culture. 



Read before the Farmers' Iiistitute-at Lancaster, Calif., Dei-. 17, 1S!)5. 

 BY C. H. CLAYTON. 



It has been a matter of considerable difflculty for me to 

 prepare something upon the subject of bee-culture that would 

 be measurably satisfactory to myself and beneficial to others. 



A celebrated French author has told us that there are two 

 errors into which one is liable to fall — one may " say too little, 

 or one may say too much." The first certainly is a trivial 

 offense, and easily forgiven, but the second is almost unpar- 

 donable. Let me err by saying too little, confident that if I 

 succeed in arousing a spirit of inquiry upon this subject, will- 

 ing and abler peers will come to my aid. 



It would be easier for me to take up the subject of Apicul- 

 ture at its very beginning, and follow it along step by step to 

 the fruition of all our hopes — a fat bank account — than I find 

 it to select from the mass of material at hand such features of 

 the subject as may be submitted to you at this time. 



A BIT OF BEE-HISTOBY. 



Bees have been subject to man's control from the very 

 dawn of History. We are informed that the land where Abra- 

 ham dwelt — Canaan — was a "land flowing with milk and 

 honey." We read also, that at one time there was a famine 

 in the land, and the old Patriarch sent his sons down into 

 Egypt to buy corn, that they might not perish. The young 

 men bore with them as a present from their wise old father, 

 to the ruler of Egypt, a portion of their delicious honey. Even 

 at this early date honey was an article of commerce, and was, 

 along with corn and milk, regarded as one of the necessaries 

 of life. For centuries the method of handling bees and pre- 

 paring their product for use was far different from the method 

 of to-day. The habitation provided for the busy little workers 

 was altogether different from the convenient hive we now use. 

 The hollow-tree, the natural cave in the cliff, and later, the 

 straw "skep" of our grandfather's day lack much of the 

 utilities of the nineteenth century movable-frame hive. Then 

 the bees were usually sulphured — murdered — when the owner 

 wished to secure their stores. Noiv the whole crop of honey 

 can be secured, practically, without the loss of a bee. It is 

 difficult to realize the great change from the wasteful, bar- 

 barous and destructive ways of early times to the enlightened 



and humane methods of the present. The advancement has 

 been truly marvelous, keeping fully abreast with the best 

 spirit of this intellectual age. 



VALUE OF BEES TO FRUIT-BLOSSOMS. 



Modern bee-keeping has attained to the dignity of a pro- 

 fession, and its usefulness to all branches of agriculture and 

 horticulture is everywhere recognized. The product gathered 

 by the bee, which would otherwise be wasted, although val- 

 uable in itself, is probably of far less importance to the farmer 

 and orchardist than is the work of fertilization so thoroughly 

 performed by the bees in passing from flower to flower. Some 

 flowers are self-fertilizing, but there are many that remain 

 absolutely sterile unless pollen is conveyed to them by me- 

 chanical means from other blossoms of the same species. For 

 example, I might name the " stone-fruits," such as the peach 

 and cherry, and apricot. The Bartlett pear is another fruit 

 that will not " set " unless pollination is effected by mechani- 

 cal means. I mention these fruits because they have fallen 

 more directly under my notice. You will readily call others to 

 mind from your own observations. There can be no longer 

 the shadow of a doubt that many crops of fruit, grain and 

 vegetables are greatly improved in both quantity and quality 

 through the agency of the bees in bringing about perfect fer- 

 tilization of the blossom. 



In the early settlement of the country, this fertilization 

 was perhaps fully accomplished by native insects, but the 

 orchards and fields have been so enlarged that it has become 

 a physical impossibility for the few native insects to accom- 

 plish proper fertilization, hence we must more and more de- 

 pend upon the bee. 



Some plants never produce seed because the insects that 

 feed upon their blossoms were not imported with the plants. 

 Red clover was imported into Australia and remained barren 

 until " bumble-bees" were also imported, when it bore seed as 

 in this country. 



Fruit-growers, as a matter of self-interest, should be in- 

 terested in bees, and I feel sure that within a very few years 

 it will be an exceedingly rare thing to find a successful fruit- 

 grower who does not also keep the honey-bee, the main object 

 being to secure perfect pollination of his fruit-bloom, and, in- 

 cidentally, the production of some honey for his own table. If 

 he produces some to sell, so much the better, it will be a wel- 

 come addition to that " fat bank account." 



I am engaged in the production of honey for the market, 

 and your production may increase the supply, and this may 

 mean lower prices. Cheaper honey means the ultimate exten- 

 sion of the market. The immediate profits may not be so 

 great, but the foundation for a permanent market will be the 

 more easily and securely laid. We must meet this lower price 

 with better and cheaper methods of production. 



In some portions of the country bee-keeping is conducted 

 as a specialty, and under favorable conditions has proven very 

 profitable. But localities where this obtains are compara- 

 tively few. 



THE LOCATION OF AN APIARY. 



It may be proper for me, at this point, to say a few words 

 regarding the location and management of an apiary. If you 

 intend to engage in the business to any considerable extent 

 the question of location with reference to feed, water, etc., is 

 a vital one. Perhaps I can best tell you what you need by 

 describing my own location, which I consider a fairly good one 

 as demonstrated by results : 



My apiary is in Soledad canyon, a quarter of a mile from 

 a shipping station, on level ground. There is a range of hills 

 on the southeast, south and southwest, at a distance of from 

 a quarter to a half mile ; a range of hills also at about the 

 same distance to the north. These hills shelter the bees from 

 the southeast and southwest storms of winter and the hot 

 northers of summer. The hives are placed in double rows, 30 

 inches from centers, and rows 8 feet from outside to outside. 

 This leaves an alleyway about 43^ feet wide between the rows 

 for workway. A space of 25 feet is left between each set of 

 double rows. There are openings left through the rows at 

 convenient intervals. Each hive is placed so that the end of 

 the frame as it hangs in the hive is toward the 2-o'clock sun. 

 This throws one-half of the entrances a little west of south, 

 and the other half in exactly the opposite direction. This 

 position reduces the danger of melting down from the great 

 heat we sometimes experience, by exposing to the hottest sun 

 two thicknesses of wood with bee-space between. If the sun 

 shines upon the side of the hive you have only one thickness 

 of wood for protection. Those of you who have had young 

 fruit-trees blistered by the sun, will know why I say the " 2- 

 o'clock sun." That is the side of your tree that suffers the 

 worst from the heat. For additional protection I leave a 



