THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



195 



WEEKLY EDITION 



OF THE 



^^^.^M^^^IOA^,.^ 



PUBLISHED BV 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



KniTOK ANP PHOPUIETOU, 



925 WEST MADISON-STREET, CHICAGO, ILL. 



Weekly, »a a year ; Monthly, 50 cents. 



Vol. XXI. April 1, 1885. No. 13. 



1^ For harness-galls, a horseman 

 sends us the following recipe, and de- 

 sires its insertion in the Bee Jour- 

 nal: " For scratches in horses take 

 white pine pitch resin, beeswax and 

 lioney, one ounce each ; fresh lard, 

 one-lialf pound, melt well together 

 over a slow lire, stir quite thick, so 

 that tlie parts may not settle and 

 separate. This also makes an excel- 

 lent application for harness-galls, cuts 

 and sores of all kinds, on horses and 

 cattle." 



Blissful Ignorance. 



Just as long as " those who sit 

 in darkness '' refuse the light which 

 the experience and intelligence of the 

 present decade has brought to the bee- 

 keepers of the World, they will be 

 willing dupes to all kinds of confi- 

 dence operators. Feeling the force of 

 this thought, Mr. Henry Langkamp, 

 of Beach City, O., on March 17, 1885, 

 wrote as follows : 



The patfnt bee-liive man is operat- 

 ing on tlielwx-tiive bee-keepers in tlie 

 vicinty of Dundee, Tuscarawas coun- 

 ty, O. I do not know the name of 

 the hive (if it has one they never 

 mentioned it to me), and the name of 

 the patentee I have forgotten. The 

 liive is a one-story, single-walled, 

 with movable end-boards, two zinc 

 division-lioards, and it has frames 

 and four legs, and intended to stand 

 in tin pails filled with water to keep 

 out ants. A piece of tin about 2 

 inches square is tacked in the centre 

 and above tlie entrance to regulate it. 

 They said tliat there were 14 patents 

 on the tin piece. The right costs $10. 

 1 trust that no one will invest. I have 

 often asked the box hive bee- men to 

 come and see my apiary, and sub- 

 scribe for a bee-paper, but they think 

 that tliey know best. Of course it is 

 a free country, and if they have an 

 eye-tooth which bothers them, per- 

 liaps the best thing for them is to 

 liave it drawn. 



Local Markets for Honey. 



Our persistent advice to bee-keep- 

 ers in every locality has been to create 

 a local market for their crops, and we 

 verily believe that to be the best 

 policy. Ttie only question has been 

 liow to do it, and upon this subject 

 Mr. Thos. (Torsuch,of Gorsuch,Pa.,on 

 Man^li 20, I88"), writes as follows: 



I notice that great stress is placed 

 upon creating local honev markets, 

 by scattering the Leaflets,"" Why Eat 

 lioney V" I have been trynig this 

 plan, and find that it will greatly lielp 

 to sell in a home market. If apiarists 

 would give this subject more atten- 

 tion, instead of rushing tlie honey to 

 city markets, it would be better for 

 both the producer and the consumer. 

 The Leaflets could be made to answer 

 two purposes by making them large 

 enough to fold around a pound sec- 

 tion of honey ; that is, if 1 sold a case 

 of honey or left it on sale, if it con- 

 tained 24 pounds I would furnish 24 

 Leaflets; and if it was thought best, 

 the apiari.st could have liis name and 

 address added to it. I am also greatly 

 interested in the discussion of the 

 " hibernation theory." I wcnider how 

 many of the readers of the Bee Jour- 

 nal have tried it. 1 hope the num- 

 ber IS large, and that they will report 

 in due season, whether it is a success 

 or failure. 



It would certainly be a good plan 

 to give a Leaflet with each package of 

 honey sold (no matter whether it be 

 comb or extracted), but to attempt to 

 make the Leaflet a wrapper, would, 

 we think, defeat the object in view by 

 its becoming defaced and soiled. It 

 would be better to give the Leaflet 

 separately. 



There can be no doubt about the 

 efficacy of this method of educating 

 the public concerning the use of 

 honey, iind we verily believe that if 

 there were a judicious distribution of 

 the Leaflets, entitled " Why Fat 

 Honey V" the crop would all be sold 

 before another crop is produced. 



Another point of vital importance 

 is the fact that more than double the 

 price can easily be obtained in the 

 local market (when we consider the 

 cost of barrels, transportation, com- 

 missions, and leakage) to that price 

 which can be obtained in quantity in 

 the wholesale markets. 



There are many methods of adver- 

 tising honey for sale, which will be 

 found to pay well. A sign at or near 

 the residence or apiary with " Honey 

 tor Sale " in large letters, will be a 

 valuable help. A few lines in the 

 local paper, announcing the fact, will 

 be valuable. Scattering " Leaflets " 

 or " Honey as Food and Medicine," 

 with the producers card printed on 



them, will sell tons of honey in almost 

 any locality. 



During the coming season let these 

 methods be judiciously employed, and 

 we think no more will be heard about 

 a " glutted honey market," or honey 

 crops unsold. 



^" Mr. (J. Ilillje, Schulenburg, 

 Texas, has sent us another device for 

 reversing frames. The frames must 

 have flat top and bottom bars, and 

 just alike, but no projecting ends. 

 His device consists of a piece of tin 

 about 1 inch long and J^ of an inch 

 wide, having the ends rolled up into 

 loops ; this is passed through the end 

 of the comb close to the top-bar, leav- 

 ing a loop on either side. He then 

 has a piece of wire to pass over the 

 top-bar bent down over its sides 

 about an inch from the end, with the 

 two points passing through the loops 

 and out over the end, forming the 

 projecting rest for the frame on the 

 hive rabbets. We do not think it as 

 desirable a method as many others we 

 have seen. 



1^ X. L. Minor, a deaf-mute bee- 

 keeper of Clarksville, Mo., on March 

 17, 188o, writes as follows : 



This is a great basswood and flower 

 region, situated on the west bank of 

 the Mississippi river, opposite Cal- 

 houn county. Ills., and it is a good 

 location for bees. As this place is on 

 the south part of a hill which slants 

 southward, there will be less damp- 

 ness in the hives, especially when ex- 

 treme cold weather comes. My bees 

 were out-doors during the past win- 

 ter, on the south side of a hill, and 

 the sun shone on the hives so very 

 warm that there was no dampness in 

 the hives. I covered the frames with 

 dry sawdust cushions, and I have not 

 lost a colony. I believe that hilly 

 country is the best shelter for bees in 

 winter. I have neither chaff hives 

 nor a bee-house. I had bought 15 col- 

 onies in box-hives, and the bees were 

 affected somewhat with diarrhea, but 

 I transferred them to movable-frame 

 hives, and they are- now in splendid 

 condition. 



^" The second annual meeting of 

 the Western New York and Northern 

 Pennsylvania Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion will be held at Cuba, N. Y., on 

 Tuesday, :May 4, 1885. A very large 

 attendance is anticipated, as the ter- 

 ritory covered by this Association 

 embraces many prominent bee- 

 keepers. W. A. Shewjian, Sec. 



1^" The Wabash County Bee- Keep- 

 ers' Association will hold its spring 

 meeting in the Court House at Wa- 

 bash, Ind., on Saturday, April 11, 1885, 

 commencing at 9 a. m. All who are 

 interested in bee-culture are cordially 

 invited to attend. H. CRirE, Sec. ' 



