104 



THE AMERICAl^ BEE JOURNAL. 



frame, to see the condition of the 

 colony. I cut holes into the combs 

 and looked for queens, and must say 

 that I never got a slimpse of one. 

 Now, that is what makes bee-keeping 

 a mystery to me. If I could find the 

 queens and other conditions of the 

 colony as easily as others do who 

 write bee-literature, I could go 

 ahead. 



I began the bee-business with con- 

 siderable enthusiasm, but I must say, 

 all things considered, that it does not 

 pay in this section, or in any other 

 section since sugar has become so 

 cheap. I think, from the indications 

 of the markets, tliat honey will soon 

 have to be sold with a chromo. Every 

 place it is marked dull or no honey 

 wanted. 



Last summer 1 had a trial of ped- 

 dling honey in my home market, and 

 1 found it a pretty sticky business. 

 The only hopes I have now is to get 

 my honey in a little nicer shape in 

 sections. 



What do those signs indicate before 

 the names of States V 



Pine Grove, J Ohio. 



[The signs referred to indicate the 

 part of the State in which the partic- 

 ular correspondent resides. Please 

 see page 101.— Ed.] 



For the American Bee JouraaL 



Moving and Wintering Bees. 



MRS. EMMA HULETT. 



The season of 1881 was the poorest 

 known here for tlie past 10 years, 

 there being only half a crop of clover 

 and no basswood. We secured only 

 one-half a crop of honey, and we 

 never saw bees swarm so little. We 

 moved our bees IJ^ miles about the 

 middle of October. We put wire- 

 cloth over the hive-entrances, and 

 moved them in the afternoon of a 

 quiet, cloudy day, on a hay-rack cov- 

 ered with straw, making "two loads 

 from 5.5 colonies. 



Early on the next morning my hus- 

 band laid out the new apiary grounds 

 on a small knoll in an orchard south 

 of the house. We removed the wire- 

 cloth and gave them their liberty, all 

 having been put up in good order be- 

 fore noon, and they then had a nice 

 " fly." In the afternoon we went to 

 the old location to pack lioney, but 

 not one bee came back. We had 

 noticed considerable pilfering around 

 the hives previous to their removal, 

 but afterward they were the most 

 quiet lot of bees that I ever saw. 

 They flew nearly every day all fall 

 until thev were put into winter quar- 

 ters on Nov. 2i, 1884. 



We have always wintered our bees 

 in an out-door cellar, until this win- 

 ter, and now they are in the cellar 

 directly beneath the sitting room. 

 Tliere is a o-inch pipe extending from 

 the cellar to the pipe above, and each 

 has a close fitting damper which can 

 be governed at will. The celL^r is 

 large and dry, and the bottom is 

 flagged with large flat stones. Tliere 

 is plenty of air-space above and 

 around the bees, and the fire above 



them carries off the impure air and 

 causes a circulation of pure air in the 

 cellar. I do believe that artificial 

 heat is needed around a bee-cellar. 

 The mercury varied only 7^ from Nov. 

 2-1 to Feb. 1, and we liave had some 

 warm days and some zero weather, 

 but sudden changes do not affect it 

 unless the wind blows hard from the 

 right direction. The bees are very 

 quiet, and as yet no dead bees are on 

 the cellar bottom. 

 South Dayton, p N. Y. 



Bee-Keepers' Magazine. 



Another Pioneer Gone. 



EHRICK rARMLY. 



William W. Gary was born Feb. 24, 

 1815, and died Dec. 9, 1884, at Colerain, 

 Mass. 



MR. WM. W. GARY, DECE.ISED. 



The pioneers in modern bee-keep- 

 ing are fast passing away. Still, we 

 have the father (Rev. L. L. Lang- 

 stroth) with us. Those who by tlieir 

 energy and ability have added to the 

 fund of knowledge, whose lives have 

 elevated the work their hands found 

 to do, deserve from us some fitting 

 notice of their labors, to encourage 

 the young to imitate them in their 

 lives, and their brother pioneers to 

 not feel that they are forgotten if the 

 hand of time has lessened their power 

 to work in the field of their choice. 

 Our departed friend, from his early 

 childhood, had a great love for bees, 

 and never lost an opportunity to study 

 their habits when he chanced to be 

 where they were kept. This impulse 

 was so strong that it led him away 

 from the ordinary amusements of boy- 

 hood. 



When thirteen years of age he met 

 with an accident that deprived him of 

 motion in one knee. Tlie joint liecame 

 ancliylored in a partially fixed posi- 

 tion, causitjg him considerable incon- 

 venience in moving about lumber piles 

 and the ordinary work of his mill, 

 which is only a few rods from the 



dwelling in the village of Colerain, 

 Franklin Co., Mass. 



Being thus crippled did not affect 

 his energy or enterprise. In the au- 

 tumn of his eighteenth year he ob- 

 tained his first colony of bees, and 

 from that time has never been with- 

 out bees. 



His last illness was long and pain- 

 ful, nearly eighteen months. He im- 

 proved somewhat during the fine 

 weather of last September and Octo- 

 ber, and one day walked out to the 

 bee-yard and said he wanted to see 

 the inside of a hive once more, and 

 made several suggestions about pre- 

 paring some of them for out-door 

 wintering. He had 300 colonies. He 

 also rode out several times, and his 

 family felt much encouraged, but this 

 improvement was of short duration. 

 He grew rapidly worse, and died Dec. 

 9, 1884, in his 70th year. 



He had been a bee-keeper for 52 

 years, and I may say he had been a 

 student during all of those years, for 

 he had in him by nature the true spirit 

 of original research. 



About the year 18-50 he made the 

 acquaintance of the Rev. L. L. Lang- 

 stroth, who was then living in Green- 

 field, Mass., and they spent some time 

 together in experimenting with bees 

 and hives. At that time he com- 

 menced using the Langstroth movable 

 comb hive, determining to make all 

 the experiments he could think of that 

 promised to shed any light on the 

 subject, without regard to tlie season's 

 surplus, that he might later work 

 more safely, intelligently and profit- 

 ably. 



I would here make note of the life- 

 long friendship that existed between 

 Mr. Langstroth and Mr. Cary. Their 

 enthusiasm and devotion to the study 

 of the honey-bee, and thorougti hon- 

 esty of purpose, placed them on the 

 same level. The distinctions made 

 by the world, having their origin in 

 the difference of position, education 

 or calling, were unknown to tliem; 

 and had I reaped no other pleasure or 

 benefit from bee-keeping than the 

 friendship of such men in the ranks, 

 I should feel more than repaid for the 

 time spent in its study. 



Early in March, 1860, he learned 

 that Mr, Samuel B. Parsons, of Flush- 

 ing, N. Y., had succeeded in import- 

 ing a few queens from Italy. He 

 visited him and spent the entire sea- 

 son in Flushing propagating queens, 

 having the whole charge of Mr. Par- 

 sons' apiary. Bees for several miles 

 around were bought or Italianized, 

 and every precaution was taken to 

 prevent admixture. Since then he 

 has uninterruptedly bred tlie Italian 

 queens, and has used many imported 

 mothers in his apiary. His only sou, 

 Wm. Whiting Cary, was associated 

 with him in business, and having 

 handled bees from early childhood, 

 acquired a skill and quickness that 

 few ever attain. 



Mr. Cary look great interest in the 

 importation of other races of bees, and 

 made transportation boxes which he 

 sent to foreign countries accompanied 

 by full directions ; but these attempts 

 did not meet with any success. A few 

 years ago, a missionary from Ceylon 



