THE AMERICAN BEE JOUllNAL. 



371 



WEEKLY EDITION 



OP TUE 





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BE!i;j0iiNii« 



PUBLISHED BV 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



EDITOU AND PROPKIETOK, 



925 WEST MADISON-STREET, CHICAGO, ILL. 

 "Weekly, fS'^ a year ; Monthly, SO cents. 



Vol. XXI. June 17, 1885. No. 24. 



APICULTURAL NEWS ITEMS. 



EDITORIAL AND SELECTED. 



Ouce I thoug^ht it nice to run 

 And watch the busy boe so Deet: 



But I think nuich nicer fun 

 The l>ee's nice honey now to eat. 



!Votn'Itlistaiidin<!; the inclemency of the 

 season, our bees have passed tlie winter and 

 spring in good condition, and are now well 

 supplied with honey and brood. To the wide- 

 awake bee-keeper, the prospect for a good 

 honey yield is very flattering. So remarks 

 the Kansas Bce-Kccpcr. 



IBnrniniX Words. — Deep feeling: is con- 

 tagious 1 Earnest words poured forth from 

 burning hearts arc sure to kindle a fire in the 

 hearts of others. What magic is there in the 

 tear drop ! It is a tiny thing, liut its power 

 on the hearts of others is incalculable ! If 

 the heart palpitates through every printed 

 line, and hums through every word, what 

 enthusiasm is enkindled ! 



A Norwegian Bee-Book^ containing 80 

 papres, is just received from its author, Mr. 

 Ivar S. Young, of Christiana, Norway. It is 

 nicely gotten up, and althoug-h we cannot 

 decipher the language in which it is written, 

 yet we judge, from the e.vtensiveapicultural 

 experience of the author, it will meet the 

 wants of our fellow bee-keepers located on 

 the Scandinavian Peninsula. 



The Sixth Annual Fairot the Venango 

 County Agricultural Society, will be held at 

 Franklin, Pa., on Sept. I.VIT, 188.5. In its 

 list of premiums in the department of 

 " butter, cheese, honey, etc.," are two cash 

 premiums for honej' and one for bceswa.x ; 

 also the one who secures the most premiums 

 in this department, will receive free one 

 year's subscription to the A>iekiC'-\n Bke 

 Journal. 



" mUlionK tor Defense."— We arc glad 

 to see the enthusiasm displayed when our 

 chosen pursuit is assailed. While we will 

 not make war upon any legitimate pursuit, 

 we shall make a defense when attacked, like 

 the ancient warriors, and the sinews of war 

 will not be wanting. Our "tower of strength" 

 will be in the rightfulness and justice of our 



Elleii^ant Bee.— The Bcc-Keepors' Asso- 

 ciation of the Isle of Wight has presented 

 the Princess IJeatrice with a silver be<' with 

 diumond-studded wings. The Koyal family 

 of England have often shown their interest 

 in the industry of lico-keeping. In ]M7!i, 

 when we weie at the Royul Agricultural 

 Fair, the Prince and Princess of Wales visited 

 the bee-tent, and asked many r)uestions 

 concerning "the little busy workers" there 

 on e-\hibition, appearing to be ^•ery much 

 interested in the eubject. 



The Weather In Cireat Britain.— By 



the llritisli Bee Jiiurniil we learn that the 

 weather, previous to May !,'», had been most 

 unfavorable for bees. There was snow in 

 Scotland— snow on the Cotswold Hills, biting, 

 bitter winds, with frost and no sunshine, and 

 no natural swarms. Apples, peaches, plums 

 and cherries showed an unusual amount of 

 bloom, but the bees had scarcely been able 

 to work upon it at all. It was thought that 

 should the unfavorable condition of things 

 continue a few days longer, all chance of a 

 harvest from fruit-bloom would be over. 



Teai'hlni!; .4ploiiltiire in Seliools.— At 



the Bee-Keepers' Congress held in Erfurt in 

 1881, Mr. Kwiathowski, of Lissa, stated that 

 Germany annually imports, on an average, 

 about 5,000,000 lbs. of honey, and about 

 ^!, 1.00,000 lbs. of wax. He then added : "But 

 do we export 'f I think not. Now, then, can 

 we so promote the development of apiculture 

 that the new system and the old — the ' mobi- 

 lism ' and the ' flxism ' — may both furnish the 

 I)roducts necessary for the consumption of 

 the country ? This can be done by the 

 school ; let the primary normal scliool have 

 its apiary for the instruction of the future 

 teacher ; then let the garden of this teacher 

 have also its ajiiary to assist him in teaching 

 what he has been taught ; after which comes 

 the organization of country associations for 

 the application and trial of the right methods; 

 and finally let itinerant professors be ap- 

 pointed to go everywhere to explain these 

 methods in full. " 



National Bee-Keepers' l^nloii. — The 



universal response to the suggestions given 

 on pages 3.39 and 346 of the Bee Journal is: 

 Oryanizo immediately in defense of oar rights. 



By request, we present, on the ne.xt page, 

 a Constitution for approval. Now, sugges- 

 tions are in'order- then energetic work! 



The management must devolve upon some 

 one, and as no one has been suggested as 

 General Manager but the editor of the Bee 

 Jouun.^l, he will accept the position under 

 the temporary organization until an election 

 can be obtained under the Constitution. He 

 neither seeks nor desires the olHce, but 

 accepts it as a tii(fy under the circumstances, 

 and requests suggestions for the other four 

 temporary officers. 



A member's Receipt Book will be at once 

 prepared, and any one sending S.j cents (or 

 more) will be duly recorded as a member, 

 and receive a receipt, which will entitle the 

 person therein named to all the lienetits of 

 the L'uion. All amounts over the fee of '2o 

 cents will be credited to the Defense Fund, to 

 be used as occasion may require. 



We would suggest that the first meeting be 

 held at the same time and place as the annual 

 meetings of the North American or North- 

 western Conventions, at Detroit or Chicago, 

 next fall. 



The Value of Honey imported into 

 Great Britain during the month of .\pril. 

 lH8."),'amountcd to nearly $."1,00(10. 



H. Terraberry, a bee-keeper of Ilii.'li 

 Bridge, N. J., has had the sad misfortune to 

 lose, by death, his entire family, consisting 

 of wife and two children— one 7 and the other 

 12 years of age. His homo was visited on 

 .May 8, by diphtheria, that fatal malady, and 

 in three weeks caused the terrible havoc. 

 Mr.T. may be assured that he has the earnest 

 sympathy of the entire bee-keeping frater- 

 nity. In the East he has long been known as 

 one of the most advanced apiarists of the 

 State in which he resides. 



• 



The Belatlon of Bees to Plants is the 

 subject of an excellent article by Prof. Frank 

 Cheshire, of London, England, on pages 374 

 and .'JT.j of this issue. It is quite interesting 

 and very appropriate just now. Another 

 article on page 37(3, translateii from the 

 Biencn Zcitunij. giving extracts from Sir John 

 Lubbock, Dr. Dzierzon, Darwin, Huber, and 

 other noted apiarists and scientists : also 

 another, on the samejiage, giving the results 

 of experiments on the fertilization of the 

 clovers, by Prof. Beal, of the Michigan 

 Agricultural College, are all timely and 

 interesting now. 



Can Bees C'onunlt Trespass f — The 



Chicago Times discusses this sul)ject in the 

 following language : 



" Mr. S. I. Freeborn, of Ithaca, Wis., has 

 been made defendant in a novel suit. He 

 keeps a lot of bees at some distance from his 

 house, and about a mile from a pifsture 

 mostly covered with white clover, and occu- 

 pied by about a hundred lilo.ided sheep. The 

 owner of the pastuie ami sheep brings suit 

 to recover S-'iiiO damages done bv the bees, 

 which, he ileehii-es.ciaiiein countless hordes, 

 molest the sheep, and ilrive them from their 

 feeding- places. He also aflirms that last 

 season his shf ep became thin in consequence 

 of the annoyance of the bees, and that many 

 of them died during last winter. The bring- 

 ing of this suit has created considerable 

 excitement among bee-keepers in Wisconsin, 

 an<l the i)n.]ioKition has been made that they 

 contribute money to help pav the expenses 

 of defending the suit. It is ijnderstood that 

 this is to be a test case. It the plaintiff 

 succeeds in gaining it, other bee-keepers will 

 be likely to be sued to recover dam ages done 

 to pastures, vineyards, and gardens bv bees. 

 It is possible that the " little busy bee'" may 

 become the cause of many vexatious law- 

 suits. If damages are awarded in this case, 

 any man owning a few square rods of land, 

 devoted to almost any ]>urpose, may try to 

 recover damages from all the owners of bees 

 in the vicinity. Nearly all the naturalists, 

 from Aristotle to Darwin, have given their 

 testimony in favor of the good work accom- 

 plished by bees in fertilizing flowers, and 

 making it possible to produce large crops of 

 clover seed. Recently bees have been intro- 

 duced into various parts of Australia liy the 

 owners of extensive sheep-runs, for the 

 expresspurpose of increasing the production 

 of clover in the pastures. Many fruit-raisers 

 in this country and Ein-ope have found it 

 to their advantage to keep bees, not for the 

 honey and wa.x they gather, but for the 

 benefit they produce in fertilizing flowers. 

 Bees have been accused of puncturing 

 grapes, and now they are charged with 

 worrying a flock of sheep!" 



A few days ago some small fruit gardeners 

 called at the offlce of the Bee Journal, and 

 incidentally remarked th.at they did not keep 

 bees ft>r their products- honey or wax— but 

 to fertilize the bloom of their fruit and 

 vegetables, and thus enhanfie their busini^ss. 

 We give considerable space in this number 

 of the Bee Journal to subjects bearing on 

 this topic, believing it to be the most import- 

 ant matter now for discussion by liec-keepers. 



