THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



755 



WEEKLY EDITION 



OF THE 



^^^^M.^^^^A^u,x, 







THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



Vol. XXI. Dec. 2, 1885. No. 48. 



APICULTURAL NEWS ITEMS. 



EDITORIAL AND SELECTED. 



In Speakiiis of a person's faults. 



Pray dou't forget your own ; 

 Remember those with homes of glass 



Should never throw a stone. 

 If we have nothing else to do 



Than talk of those who sin, 

 'Tis better we oomraence at home, 



And from that point begin. 



Before our Next Paper is in the hands 

 of its subscribers, the Detroit Convention 

 will be in session, and we hope it will be 

 attended by all who are able to go. The 

 Secretai'y has gotten up a very interesting 

 programme, and one that should call out a 

 lai-ge attendance. The Rev. L. L. Langstroth 

 intends to be present, and the editors of 

 nearly all— perhaps all— the bee-papers will 

 be there. A large number of the prominent 

 bee-keepers of the United States and Canada 

 have also promised to be in attendance and 

 take part in the deliberations. The follow- 

 ing societies will meet in joint convention : 



The North American Bee-Keepers' Society 

 The Northwestern Bee-Keepers' Society. 

 The Michigan State Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion. 



The Southern Michigan Bee-Keepers' 

 Associa/tion. 



The Indiana Farmej- remarks as follows 

 concerning the advantages to be derived 

 from attending bee-keepers' conventions : 

 *' These society meetings are of vast impor- 

 tance to the industry, and should be 

 attended by every one who is at all inter- 

 ested in this growing specialty. Said a 

 veteran bee-keeper to us some days since, 

 ' I make it a point never to miss a meeting 

 of bee-keepers held any place within my 

 reach. I read all I can And on the subject, 

 learn all I can from my neighbors, and 

 pride myself on keeping up with the times, 

 but I believe I have never yet attended a 

 meeting of the kind, that I have not learned 

 some one thing that has psud me well for 

 my time and trouble.' " 



The programme will be found on the ne.xt 

 page, to which we desire to call especial 

 attention. Let all who can do so, make all 

 necessary arrangements to be there, and 

 €njoy a pleasant re-union. 



What AstoiilKliiii{£ Imioranro ! is 



shown by the following item now " going the 

 rounds of the press," credited to the 

 Montana Miner : / 



Of the two first hives of bees ever taken 

 into Northern Montana, one froze out com- 

 pletely last winter, and the other lost its 

 queen and refused to work. The owner, 

 Charles Roth, substituted a big horse-fly for 

 the dead tjueen, whereupon the bees became 

 as busy as ever. The horse-tty takes to 

 royalty with the greatest ec|uanimity. 



The idea of substituting •' a big horse-fly " 

 for a queen-bee, and thereby deceive the 

 bees, is too ridiculous for anything 1 The 

 Montana scribbler does not know that the 

 queen is the mother of the colony, laying all 

 the eggs to produce worker bees and drones, 

 and even to re-produce herself, f Evidently, 

 when the queen was killed, the colony 

 reared a queen from the eggs or larviB in 

 the hi\'e, and knew much more than did the 

 Montana paragrapher ! He might as well 

 have put the horse-fly into a bird's nest for 

 all the good it might do I 



Eloquent FooIIstaness was the title we 

 gave to the article from the Grant County, 

 Wis., Herald, on page 739 of last week's Bee 

 Journal. We took it to be an attempted 

 defense of the sheep interests, but a corres- 

 pondent suggests that it was a burlesque- 

 using " irony " to ridicule the action of Mr. 

 Powers. To be charitable wo will adopt that 

 view, and call it "ridicule," instead of 

 " foolishness." But there is only a shade of 

 difl'erence in the two words ! Webster gives 

 one word as a synonym of the other. If 

 intended as " irony," it is an amusing piece 

 of eloquent foolishness ; that is to say— 

 ridwule, satire, or sai-casm ! Call it which 

 you please. 



Bees aud Bee-Keeplug is the title of a 

 new book now being issued in England, in 

 parts. It is printed in the highest style of 

 the art on finely-calendered paper, and the 

 engravings are faultless. It is written by 

 Frank Cheshire, Esq., F.L.S. ; F.R.M.S. — 

 The author is undoubtedly the highest living 

 authority on the anatomy and physiology of 

 the homey-bee. He has made it a lite study, 

 and under powerful microscopes has made 

 the minutest examinations of every part of 

 the bee. The work is published in parts, 

 price 7d., by L. Upoott Gill, 170 Strand, W.C, 

 London, and will be completed in 19 parts. 



We liave Received from the Travelers' 

 Insurance Company, of Hartford, a copy of 

 their new engraving, " Representative 

 Parisian Journals and f Journalists." It is 

 an interesting and well [executed; picture, 

 showing fifteen of the leading newspapers 

 of the French Capital, with the portrait of 

 the editor photographed, as it were, upon 

 each. The Travelers' has ia handsome way 

 of issuing really good; engravings, advertis- 

 ing itself, of course, in an unobtrusive way, 

 but at the same time contributing in no 

 small dgree to the common stock of popu- 

 lar information. As the largest Accident 

 'Company in the world, the Travelers' can 

 afford this class of broad advertising, which 

 creates a favorable personal feeling toward 

 itself wherever its attractive art work 

 penetrates. 



Any person not a subscriber, receiving a 

 copy of this paper, will please consider it 

 an invitation to become a subscriber to it. 



Tlie Annual Mcetins of the Indiana 

 State Bee-Keepers' Society will be held at 

 Indianapolis, Ind., in January (the day is 

 not yet named). This Society always has 

 interesting meetings, and the coming one 

 is to have a very attractive programme. 



Petrlfled Honey w.is some time since 

 found tiy Mr. A. M. Gray, of Lowell, Mass., 

 in this manner : The Lowell Courier says 

 "that he was traveling about the country, 

 seeking to recover his health, which was 

 feeble at that time. He was at one time at 

 Oconto, Wis., and while there he meandered 

 about considerably through the fields. One 

 day, in climbing over a stone wall, a stone 

 upon which he had rested his hand fell to 

 the ground. Its peculiar appearance 

 attracted his attention. In shape it was 

 oval, about the size of an ordinary stove 

 cover, and four inches thick. This stone he 

 took with him, and upon reaching Washing- 

 ton in the course of his journeying, took it 

 to the Smithsonian Institute, and there 

 sought to learn, by comparison with the 

 large and varied collection of geological 

 specimens, just what it was. However, 

 nothing like it could be found. His long 

 search and close scrutiny of the numerous 

 specimens caused one of the professors to 

 inquire what he was searching for. Upon 

 being shown the rock by Mr. Gray, the 

 professor examined it a moment, and then 

 went into ecstacies over it. He said it was 

 petrified honey, a thing which had never 

 before been known. Almost everything 

 else was known to exist in a petrified state, 

 but up to that time petrified honey had 

 never been found. When the piece was 

 broken a beautiful sight was presented of 

 perfectly formed cells with the honey 

 petrified in them in little drops that sparkle 

 like diamonds." 



A Home Honey market is the most 

 desirable and the most valuable thing in 

 connection with every apiary. Mr. John 

 Aspinwall, in the Bec-Kcepcrs' Magazine, 

 makes the following very pertinent remarks 

 concerning its advantages : 



You who ship your honey to a commission 

 house, did you ever work one-tenth as hard 

 to build up a home trade as you did to get 

 your honey ? 



After you have thoroughly drummed up 

 the trade in your immediate neighborhood, 

 have you ever spent a few dollars for fare 

 on the cars to adjacent towns, and carried 

 a sample to the difl'erent groceries and 

 drug stores? 



Do you imagine for one instant, that in 

 this great metropolis, or in any other large 

 city, the people are waiting with open arms, 

 eager to buy your honey at a good round 

 figure? If you do think so, you are very 

 much mistaken. Why, only to-day a party 

 was in our office, asking' where they could 

 sell their honey, as the large honey houses 

 in this city only offered him 10 cents for his 

 white clover honey, in one-pound boxes I 

 and yet we know where, within the last 

 week, a home market for over a ton 

 buckwheat honey in two-pound boxes, has 

 sold it at 12 cents. And this very market 

 never bought a pound until the party spent 

 a week drumming it up. He sold .'SOO pounds 

 the first day within a radius of one mile. 



The building up of the honey market 

 depends upon a demand of indls'jduals for 

 the product, and only can a taste be inocu- 

 lated by presenting the sweet at the very 

 doors of families. 



One of the prominent features of the 

 Holiday Number of the Cincinnati Graphic 

 will be a story entitled. " Taken Alive," by 

 the distinguished novelist, E. P. Roe, which 

 he considers one of his best efforts. 



