THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



579 



WEEKLY EDITION 



OF THE 



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^^M 



iiijtour^ 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



Vol. XXI. Sept. 16, 1885. No. 37. 



APICULTURAL NEWS ITEMS. 



EDITORIAL AND SELECTED. 



*' Keep ptisliiiis: — 'lis wiser 



Tiian sitting? aside. 

 And dreaming and sighing^ 



And waiting- the tide. 

 In life's earnest battle 



They only prevail. 

 Who daily march onward, 



And never say fail I" 



Instead of figlitliig luist'ortune, we 



too often make it a prisoner. 



Mr. Ijangstrotii has written another 

 good article, and we shall present it to our 

 readers shortly. 



Any person not a subscriber, receiving: a 

 copy of this paper, will please consider it 

 an invitation to become a subscriber to it. 



Tlie world l!< a looktng-glass: frown 

 at it, and it will frown back at you ; smile 

 at it, and it will g-ive you smiles in return. 



The time to buy is when everybody is 

 anxious to sell, and the time to stick to bee- 

 keeping is when the ABC class is trying- to 

 get out of it. 



Xlie Ontario Bee-Convention at To- 

 ronto, on Sept. 10 and 11, 188."), will be re- 

 ported by our special correspondent ; and a 

 full report may be expected next week. 



'Fbe masses deal iritli the efTeet, but 



the sages deal with the cause. Bad causes 

 will always produce bad effects. Remove 

 the cause, and the effect will cease. 



Bees ivlntering .In cellars should be 

 kept quiet. When disturbed, they begin to 

 consume their stores. A sudden jar or 

 knock drives the bees to their honey and 

 keeps them in confusion for some time. 



* Any one who begins bee-keeping with 

 the idea that he has a good, lazy job of it, 

 and that bees " work for nothing and board 

 themselves," will " get left," and will blame 

 somebody for misrepresenting the business. 



"There Is a world of information," 

 says the Planter's Journal, " iu that complete 

 book, Bees and Honey, by Thos. G. Newman, 

 which is invaluable to all those who make 

 bees a study for amusement, or business for 

 profit." 



"Oreat ery but little wool," will ex- 

 press the present condition of the sheep 

 interests. The sheep farmers are, like bee- 

 keepers, having " a hard time of it," and in- 

 stead of the former making it'aron the latter, 

 thoy should sympathize with one another in 

 their afflictions 1 That this is true of the 

 sheep interests is shown by the following 

 items from one of our exchange farm papers 

 trying to cheer up the sheep-men in their 

 distress. It says : 



This is by no means the worst time sheep- 

 growers ever saw. We have seen much 

 worse. We have seen sheep slaughtered by 

 the thousands, the pelts and tallow only 

 being saved, the rest being fed to swine. 



We have seen people cursing sheep, and 

 selling their tlocks for from 50 to 75 cents 

 per head, aqd have seen the same people 

 within two years, paying from $2 to $.3 for 

 flocks to re-stock their farms. 



Are not the sheep, even at the low prices, 

 paying as well as almost anything else on 

 the farms 't And will it not pay to hold on 

 to the flocks a year or two longer, meantime 

 weeding out and improving as much as 

 possible ? 



It will be quite useless for Mr. Powers to 

 try to make up his losses on sheep, by suing 

 his neighbor (Mr. Freeborn) for an imaginary 

 damage done by bees while visiting his 

 clover pasture ! Had the bees not visited 

 those clover fields and fertilized the sheep 

 pasture, the poor sheep might have been 

 poorer still I 



The "poiccrs that be" must have a more 

 powerful argument than any yet produced by 

 Mr. Powers, or it will be entirely powerless ! 



Mr. J. W. Tefft, of Syracuse, N. T., has 

 sent one of his reversible-frame hives to the 

 Michigan State Fair. Speaking of his sys- 

 tem of management and hives, he says : 



"The system adopted is as far superior to 

 the old method of getting honey.as the mow- 

 ing and threshing machines are to the scythe 

 and flail. Still there are bee-keepers who 

 cling to the antiqu.ited and superseded pro- 

 cesses just as there are farmers who cannot 

 be persuaded to adopt modern agricultural 

 machinery. By reversing the frames at the 

 right time, the bees elevate the honey to the 

 sections above, which also prevents swarm- 

 ing, and keeps the entire working-force at 

 home." 



The Kansas Bee-Keeper, which has 

 struggled hard for a few months as a 

 " weekly " bee-paper, has *' succumbed to 

 the inevitable." The last issue was dated 

 July 25, and we are informed that the Te.xas 

 bee-paper is to fill out its unexpired sub- 

 scriptions. Mr. Scovell has struggled hero- 

 ically to keep it up. but it was unavailing — 

 it died for want of patronage. These are 

 " hard times " for new bee-papers, and we 

 may have to record the death of another 

 very soon. 



This stupid Item is going the rounds of 

 the pi-ess ; we captured it from Sunday's 

 Inter-Ocean : 



A gentleman of Jackson county has a 

 swarm of bees that gave him some trouble 

 about staying in the hive. He concluded 

 that the queen was outof pocket or dead, so 

 he caught a wasp, extracted its sting, and 

 tied it witii a string. He then bored a gimlet 

 hole thi-duirh the head of the gum, drew the 

 strijig through the same, and confined the 

 wasp inside with same. Since that time the 

 bees have t)een doing very well. — Savannah 

 (Ga.) News. 



The idea that a toasp could be snbstitiited 

 for a queen honey-bee, and cause the bees to 

 be " doing very well," is supremely ridicu- 

 lous ! What an ignoramus the writer of 

 that item must be II 



The harvest Is past; the summer end- 

 ed ; l)ut the bee-keepers generally say that 

 it was the poorest season for honey that 

 they have known for many years. This year 

 has been disastrous not only to bee-keepers 

 but also to supply dealers and publishers of 

 bee-papers. But all must bo brave, and 

 while looking for " the good time coming," 

 should hold on to the pursuit and be happy I 

 This reminds us of an anecdote : 



A little boy went to his mother with a 

 broken arrow, and begged her to mend it 

 for him. It was a very beautiful arrow, and 

 the delight of his heart ; so his mother was 

 not surprised when she saw his quivering 

 lip and the tears in his eyes. " I'll try to 

 mend it, darling," she said; "but I am 

 afraid it will be impossible." He watched 

 her anxiously for a few moments, and then 

 said cheerfully, "Never mind, mamma, if 

 you can't fix it, I'll be just as happy with- 

 out it." 



As it is now impossible to obtain a good, 

 or even an a\'erage honey crop this season, 

 let all agree to " be just as happy without 

 it." With friends, food and raiment let us 

 be content— aye, happy ! 



Let us give a hint : A good way to help 

 one another in these trying times, is for 

 each one to pay, as fast as possible, any 

 little debt thjit may owing. It is surprising 

 how many debts a dollar or two will pay in 

 a month ! Just try it, and make hundreds 

 happy 1 



The North ivestern Convention.— In 



an editorial note last week, we stated that 

 the annual Convention would be held in 

 Chicago, on Oct. 14, 1885. Wo wrote to the 

 President and Secretary concerning the 

 meeting, but the President being away from 

 home, " by a sick-bed," we did not receive 

 his reply in time for last week's Journal. 

 We announced the meeting according to 

 adjournment last fall, because some had 

 inquired about it. We now find that the 

 otBcers, having the deciding vote, have 

 agreed to meet in Detroit, at the same time 

 and place as the "North American" and 

 " Michigan State " Conventions, on Dec. 8 to 

 10, 1885— as was suggested in the Bee 

 Journal last January and February (see 

 pages 115 and ]7'2)— the vote having decided 

 it in favor of Detroit. One large and in- 

 fluential meeting will be much better than 

 three smaller ones ; so let there be a grand 

 rally on Dec. 8 at Detroit, Mich. 



Preparations for IVinterlng Bees — 



says the Indiana Farmer — "should com- 

 mence at once. In localities where there is 

 a fair yield of fall honey, the bees will need 

 but little help so early, but one should know 

 that they are in the best condition to help 

 themselves. Weak colonies or nuclei 

 should be assisted with frames of brood 

 from stronger colonies. Queens should not 

 be cramped for room in which to lay, as is 

 very frequently the case at this season of 

 the year. Honey coming in slowly is apt to 

 be stored in the brood-chamber, even 

 though there be plenty of room above. We 

 give much more concern to the age of the 

 bees which are to form the winter pluster 

 than to the size of it. Bees hatched out 

 during the latter part of July, or in the 

 month of Auguat, go into winter quarters 

 with their life about half spent, they do 

 nicely and forma strong cluster until De- 

 cember or January, when they have worked 

 out their allotted time and die." 



