Feb. IS, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



105 



word he uses wheii some one has spilled a lot of type, then 

 it is hardly phonetically spelled, for there are only two 

 letters to express its three sounds. 



Just how Mr. Hutchinson can believe that the chang^cs 

 adopted in this journal, "even if accomplisht, vrould brin^j 

 us no nearer the goal — phonetic spelling'," it is somewhat 

 difficult to understand. Much the same thought is exprest 

 in another place, where he says, "It is true that the newly 

 proposed changes shorten up the words, but they don't spell 

 them phonetically. They simply compel us to unlearn one 

 unphonetic way of spelling a word and learn another un- 

 phonetic method." Will Mr. Hutchinson point out a single 

 word in which the spelling has been changed in this journal 

 that was not a nearer approach to phonetic spelling ? Will 

 he point to a number of words in which the part changed was 

 not phonetically spelled ? On the contrary, it would not be 

 difficult to make out quite a list of words that are changed 

 from unphonetic to purely phonetic spelling, as past for 

 passed, misi for missed, rapt for rapped, scoft for scoffed, 

 smift for snuffed, stopt for stopped, etc. 



Mr. Hutchinson says: "If by making occasional 

 changes, as proposed by the promoters of the so-called 

 phonetic system, we could gradually change the spelling of 

 words until they were all spelled really and truly phoneti- 

 cally, I should hold up both hands in favor of the plan ; 

 but with our limited number of letters this is simply an 

 impossibility." 



Now, Mr. Hutchinson, if you and others like you will 

 stop trying to discourage, and give us the aid of your in- 

 fluence, the very thing that you would hold up both hands 

 for can easily be accomplisht. First, get all the silent let- 

 ters thrown out, and come as near to phonetic spelling as 

 can be done with our present number of characters, and that 

 being once done, it will be a short job to import a sufficient 

 number of additional characters to make the spelling 

 phonetic. 'StxA please don't sullenly fall back on the breech- 

 ing and saj', " It's no use." Stop hindering, and delight 

 us with your help. 



Alfalfa and Bees. — In a very interesting paper read be- 

 fore the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, Prof. S. J. Hun- 

 ter gave an account of a series of very thoro experiments 

 and observations made tenting on the field. Referring to 

 the fertilization of alfalfa, he says : 



The alfalfa blossom is so constructed that it is impos- 

 sible for it to fertilize itself, that is, the pollen can not fall 

 upon the point of fertilization, but must be carried to that 

 point by some agency. From the shape and size of the 

 alfalfa blossom, it is not probable that cross-fertilization 

 could be safely accomplisht by means of currents of air. 



So insects must do the work, bees being the chief opera- 

 tors, a bee while sipping its wee portion of nectar deposit- 

 ing a few grains of pollen brought from another flower. He 

 says : 



A hundred seed-pods were gathered from a field 25 miles 

 away from any known colony of bees, and another hundred 

 pods from a field less than one-half mile from a large api- 

 ary. The pods of these two groups were counted, and it 

 was found that tht pods taken near-by the bees averaged 

 two-thirds g^reater number of seed, and showed seed larger, 

 plumper, and more uniform in size. And while the bees 

 were conducting this valuable seed-making work, they were 

 likewise gathering a quality of honey which, submitted to 

 all known tests, has proven itself the equal, if not the supe- 

 rior, of any other well-known variety of honey. 



It has been my observation further that alfalfa will 

 yield the greatest amount of honey under circumstances 

 which tend to give the plant the most vigorous growth. If 

 the plant is upon upland, dry weather will alTect the secre- 

 tion of nectar before it will in the valley, such as the 

 Arkansas, where the roots of the plants extend to the water. 

 During a dry period bees will fly over fields in bloom to a 

 field which is irrigated, and is beginning to bloom. 



The greatest activity in apiculture in this State is to be 

 found in the alfalfa regions. In the alfalfa-growing por- 



tions of the State the average yield per colony in 1898 ex- 

 ceeded 60 pounds, while in portions of the State where 

 alfalfa was not a prominent factor in the honey-production, 

 the bees did well to procure a livelihood for themselves with- 

 out furnishing a surplus for their masters. Some colonies 

 situated in the alfalfa region were able to yield that season 

 a surplus of 200 pounds of comb honey. 



The conclusions of the three years' study of the alfalfa 

 regions of this State, then, briefly stated, are, that the 

 highest returns from the alfalfa meadow are to be secured 

 by an early spring^ cultivation of roots with the disk har- 

 row, and a summer visitation of the blossoms by the honey- 

 bee. 



Rev. M. Mahin, D. D., for nearly 30 years a reader of 

 the American Bee Journal, is still interested in bee-keeping, 

 tho he has preacht 107 times since the last session of his 

 conference — the North Indiana — last April. He has been 

 doing the most of the work of a presiding elder who is an 

 invalid. 



Mr. F. G. Hbrman, of Bergen Co., N. J., has lately 

 had the picture of his nice apiary printed in his local news- 

 paper, using the same engraving and sketch as we gave on 

 the first page of the Bee Journal for Oct. 5, 1899. Mr. Her- 

 man's apiary is in an ideal spot, and its appearance in the 

 newspaper referred to will doubtless help the sales of his 

 honey. Others might follow this example and be the gain- 

 ers thereby. 



Mr. L. A. Hammond, of Washington Co., Md., wrote 

 us Feb. 2 about an effort being put forth in their State leg- 

 islature, looking toward the enactment of a law against 

 glucose adulteration. Hon. Chas. G. Briggs, who intro- 

 duced the Bill into the State Assembly, reported to Mr. 

 Hammond that the committee to which it was referred, re- 

 ported unfavorably upon it, taking the "position that the 

 adulteration of honey with glucose was not necessarily in- 

 jurious, and said this should not make it a crime." Beauti- 

 ful argument that, isn't it ? If that is a fair sample of the 

 great ability of Maryland legislators, it is high time that 

 some honorable members are elected to make their laws. As 

 adulterating milk with water would not necessarily be in- 

 jurious, we presume that wonderful committee would say it 

 would be all right 1 



We want to say that Mr. Briggs did all he could to have 

 the Bill enacted, and regretted very much the unfavorable 

 action of the committee. 



What is first needed is a strong National law against 

 food adulteration, and then uniform laws by all the States 

 along the same line. That is a goal worth working for. 



Mrs. R. C. AiKiisr, of Larimer Co., Colo., in Gleanings 

 in Bee-Culture, referring to the spelling reform, says : 



" Tho it will be like parting from an old and esteemed 

 friend for me to adopt any other method of spelling phthisic, 

 beaux, etc., yet I believe it will save much wear and 

 tear on the coming generation to leave out some of the 

 superfluous letters. By the way, I should like to ask if Dr. 

 Miller, Mr. A. I. Root, Mr. York, or any of the other breth- 

 ren, have ever eaten any ghoughphtheightteeaux. If not, 

 I should like to have the pleasure of cooking some for them 

 if they will make us a visit." 



Thinking of phthisic and a few other words, one can 

 easily puzzle out that "potatoes" may be the name of the 

 article of diet referred to by Mrs. Aikin, and the spelling is 

 legitimately copied from other words, all but the gh at the 

 beginning ; surely gh never has the sound of p in any Eng- 

 lish word ! Hold hard ; what about gh in hiccough (pro- 

 nounced hic-up) ? L,et us be very careful that no ruthless 

 hand be laid upon our l)eautiful and symmetrical spelling t 



But we have no doubt that if Mrs. Aikin has good 

 queoughugheaei to go with her potatoes, etc., almost any 

 bee-keeper would enjoy a meal at her table. 



See ad. of Golden's Combination Hive in this issue. 



