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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



May 7, 





.^jffj^ 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



GEORGE W. YORK & COMPANY, 

 118 Atfoiig-an St., - CHICAGO, ILL. 



REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS : 

 G. M. Doolittle, of New York. Prof. A. j. Cook, of California. 



Dr. C. U. Miller, of Illinois. Dr. J. P. H. Brown, of Georgia. 



J. H. Martin, of California. Rev. E. T. Abbott, of Missouri. 



Barnett Taylor, of Minnesota. Mrs. L. C. Axtell, of Illinois. 



Chas. Dadant & Son, of Illinois. 



$1.00 a Year — Sample Copy Sent Free. 

 [Entered at the Pos^OfDce at Chicaeo as Second-Class Mail-Matter.J 



VoLinVI, CHIGA&O, ILL, MAY 1,1896, No. 19, 



The Micliig:an ConTCntion was held according 

 to notice, April 23 and 24, but thf; attendance was not large, 

 as it was a little out of seaso:i. and spring work had com- 

 menced with the farmers. But a pleasant time was had. The 

 report of the proceedings will appear in the Bee Journal 



shortly. 



^^-•-p- 



Coutributions toy "Women.— We had hoped, in 

 this number of the Bee Journal, to have all the "Contributed 

 Articles " written by women, but we failed to get a sufficient 

 number to respond to our invitation, so we must content our- 

 selves with publishing the articles of those who did approve of 

 our idea. Mrs. Heater's is the first (see first page), which will 

 be followed by others in due time. 



'Tis a pity that the majority of the few women bee-keep- 

 ers are so modest, and backward in coming forward. But 

 probably they can't help it, so we must be satisfied with what 

 they feel inclined to do. 



I^ong-evity in Bees.— The April Review contained 

 some articles on this subject taken from the columns of the 

 American Bee Journal of 1 893, by Mr. J. R. Bellamy and Dr. 

 C. C. Miller. In a foot-note. Editor Hutchinson says : 



I think that this subject of longevity among bees is a 

 point that needs careful experiment. It would, perhaps, ex- 

 plain why one colony does so much better work than another 

 that is no more populous. Just notice if the colonies that do 

 not have so very large quantities of brood, yet store the most 

 honey, have queens that live to an unusual age. If they do, 

 here is a starting point anyway, to breed from the queens of 

 such colonies. Perhaps we will soon have queens offered for 

 sale that are bred from " queens that are five years old." 



Here is a chance for the bee-e,\periment stations to try 

 their hand. If Hon. R. h. Taylor "tackles" it, there's bound 

 to be something found out. 



Crimson Clover was thus written about by Mr. A. 

 I. Root, in Gleanings for April 1 : 



At this date (March 27) our crimson clover has stood the 

 winter, and especially the intense hard freezing and alternate 

 thawing of March, almost without injury. The piece that was 

 put in with buckwheat in July is almost a perfect stand. It 



is the greenest and prettiest piece of clover I ever saw in my 

 life at this time of the year. That sown among the early corn 

 at the last time of cultivating, about the first of August, looks 

 almost as well, but the stand is not as good, and so on clear 

 up to that which was sown up into September. The earlier it 

 was put into the ground, the better is the stand. All that 

 we sowed during the month of August will probably make a 

 fair crop ; but where it was sown as late as September it will 

 hardly be worth bothering with. Of course, our extremely 

 dry weather in the fall may have had something to do with it. 

 We may rejoice in this: Crimson clover will stand the aver- 

 age winter of northern Ohio when the seed is sown in July or 

 early in August. 



When our patch gets to its best we propose to plow it un- 

 der so as to get a place for our Thoroughbred potatoes. With 

 the present high price of hay, it seems almost wicked to plow 

 under such a crop of green feed. Of course, the great point 

 is that you have a heavy stand of clover on your ground in 

 nine or ten months after the seed was put in. 



We shall be glad to hear other reports about crimson 

 clover, for it is also a fine honey-plant, and, when better 

 known, will likely be grown more extensively wherever it will 

 stand the climate. 



Xhe California Honey Outlook for 1896 is 

 not at all encouraging for our friends on the Western Coast. 

 One of the prominent bee-keepers, and an officer of the Ex- 

 change, wrote us on April 22 : 



"The present outlook for a honey crop is very poor, and 

 at our Director's meeting to-day the opinion was freely ex- 

 pressed that there would be no production of honey this year 

 in Southern California." 



Well, what may be California's loss may be a gain to 

 other Slates that have a crop. Everything in this region, so 

 far, points to a good honey crop. We'd like to see it once — 

 just for a change. One or two good honey years would send 

 the circulation of the American Bee Journal away ahead, we 

 think. It might help the editor's circulation, also. 



Bees and Grapes.— On page 291 will be found a 

 contribution from W. S. Fultz, one of the veterans in bee- 

 keeping, whose views are entitled to respect on that account. 

 Plainly he does not believe in the innocence of the bee as re- 

 lated to fruit-tasting. The American Bee Journal has no de- 

 sire that anything but the truth should come uppermost, how- 

 ever strong the desire that the truth might run one way or 

 another. If there is clear evidence that bees puncture grapes, 

 by all means let us not insist that they never do so. At the 

 same time, it is well to be careful that no mistake is made, 

 and we have faith enough in bee-keepers to believe that they 

 are not altogether blinded by prejudice. The late discussion 

 as to bees fertilizing strawberries shows that pretty clearly, 

 for a number of them were not slow to assert that they had 

 had fair opportunity for observation without ever seeing a 

 bee working on strawberries. Certainly, it would be to their 

 interest, as bee-keepers, to keep quiet on that score. 



Neither have there been wanting those who insisted that 

 their bees did injure fruit, among them those who would not 

 be silenced if they believed they were right. If Mr. Fultz has 

 good evidence that bees perforate grapes, he is right in mak- 

 ing known his belief. He cites Dr. Miller as agreeing with 

 him, and it is true that the Doctor stoutly insisted that he 

 believed bees did pierce grapes, but he had no reply to make 

 to C. P. Dadant, when the latter asked him whether he could 

 stand up "before a wall and bite into its flat surface. Mr. 

 Dadant's argument was that the jaws of the bee could no 

 more grasp anything on the surface of the grape than the 

 Doctor's teeth could on the surface of the wall. Later on, Dr. 

 Miller admitted that when he found his grapes worked on by 

 the bees, he found the berries were first pierced with a hole 

 in the shape of a dumb-bell — a hole that would readily be 

 made by the bill of a bird at one stroke. But a still stronger 

 proof that his bees did not make the initial attack on the 



