THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



779 



from market with my nice winter 

 bonnet. C. F." 



This spicy letter from Mrs. Foull*, 

 though rather adverse to bee-cultnre, 

 must be allowed to appear in print. 

 If her " liubby " is really guilty of the 

 charges she brings against bee-keep- 

 ing, he must be put down among the 

 most huvgling bee-men of the age. 



Galena, c$ Md. 



For tlie American Bee .loumal. 



Selling Extracted Honey. 



10— JOHN KEY, (25—68). 



It is only a few years since I began 

 to produce extracted honey, but I 

 could never get any sale for it (except 

 a few pounds here and there), and I 

 saw that it was uiiprolitable to pro- 

 duce extracted honey when there was 

 no sale for it. But I at last hit upon 

 this plan : I saw advertised in the 

 Bee Journal, " Honey as Food and 

 Medicine," and the Leaflets, " Why 

 Eat Honey," which 1 obtained, and 

 every time I sold any honey I would 

 give the buyers one of the pamphlets, 

 " Honey as Food and Medicine," and 

 they would be sure to come again for 

 honey. They would tell me that they 

 never knew that pure extracted honey 

 would granulate. It is impossible to 

 make some people believe, by talking 

 to them, that pure extracted honey 

 will granulate. When tliey see that 

 the honey is getting thick, they say, 

 " You liave Ijeen getting a little too 

 much sugar in that honey," etc. ; but 

 when you give your customers these 

 Leartets, and they have it in print 

 before their eyes, they will read it, 

 and discover that pure honey will 

 granulate. They will always come 

 after some more "honey, and three out 

 of live will want that which is granu- 

 lated. I have some customers that 

 wont take it unless it is granulated, 

 when three years ago these same per- 

 sons would look at it and wonder how 

 much sugar I had put into it. 



In 1884 I extracted 600 pounds, and 

 had it all sold before Christmas ; this 

 season I extracted 1.300 pounds, and 

 it is aU sold now, and I have orders 

 for more. What sold itV Why, the 

 Leaflets, and " Honey as Food and 

 Medicine," of course. 



East Saginaw, ©Mich. 



For tbe American Bee JoumaJ. 



The Season— Farmer Bee-Keepers. 



CHAS. SOLVESON, (40—64). 



I have just finished carrying into 

 the cellar 54 colonies of bees, while I 

 leave 10 outside, and packed a la 

 Heddon. Nearly all of my bees have 

 been fed sugar syrup, from 5 to 20 

 pounds each ; and after several yeans 

 of sugar feeding, I can fully endorse 

 Mr. Heddon's views on wintering. 

 He certainly has told us how to winter 

 bees. 



This has been the poorest season 

 for many years. From 40 colonies in 

 the spring, I have obtained only about 

 1,000 pounds of honey, half comb and 



half extracted. White clover, from 

 which we usually get our largest 

 crop, yielded only enough for brood- 

 rearing. The bassvvood opened on 

 July 15, and the low of honey from it 

 closed on July 26, with a shower of 

 rain every day excepting two. At 

 that time the season for 1885 ended; 

 for since July 26 bees have been con- 

 suming their stores, and unless bees 

 in this vicinity are fed this fall, the 

 losses will be even heavier the coming 

 winter, than they were the last. 



With two poor seasons in succes- 

 sion, and the honey so cheap, those 

 who supposed that there was a 

 " fortune "' in a half-dozen colonies of 

 bees, are now anxious to "sellout." 

 The advice that "every farmer 

 should keep a few colonies of bees," 

 and that " there is as much profit in a 

 colony of bees as there is in a cow," 

 has done a great deal of harm to bee- 

 keepers. In a good season those 

 " half-dozen-colony bee-keepers " will 

 take their honey to the market and 

 sell it at the huyer\s price. 1 have seen 

 it sold at from 7 to 10 cents per 

 pound, and that, too, for honey in 

 sections, and in faircondition. Though 

 it would not last long, the damage 

 done was suBicient to compel those 

 bee-keepers who make it something 

 of a specialty, to ship their honey to 

 large cities, as it is next to impossible 

 to sell honey at a fair price in a 

 market where it has once been sold so 

 cheap. Those bee-keeping farmers 

 could have bought their honey from 

 regular bee-keepers, and saved money 

 by so doing, while they now have lost 

 money, as they now offer to sell their 

 hives (some empty and some with 

 bees in them). They will now say 

 that there is more money in the 

 " cow ;" and the sooner this is recog- 

 nized, the better for all parties con- 

 cerned. 



Nashotah,©. Wis. 



Home and Farm. 



Did Bee-Keeping Become a Lost Art? 



C. II. LAKE. 



If there is any truth in books, to 

 my mind we are many years — yes, 

 ages — behind our old masters, and 

 any one who will take the trouble to 

 look into those old records of " ye 

 ancient days." cannot fail to see that 

 bee-keeping became a " lost art." 



I might name the following dis- 

 tinguished ancient writers : Aris- 

 tochimus, who studied tlieir habits 

 sixty years ; Philliscus, a life-time of 

 incessant toil among them in the 

 forest; Prince Frederick Cesi, insti- 

 tutor of the Roman Academy of 

 Sciences ; Swammerdam, Maraldi, 

 Reaumer, and many others, of more 

 recent date ; such English writers as 

 Jiutler, Gurney, Mills, Levits, South- 

 ern, Remnant, Wildman, White, De- 

 Giau, Rusden, Warden ; also those 

 who treat scientitically in their ento- 

 mological works, such as Lennseus, 

 Poda, Frahricus, Geoffery. Schoffer, 

 Vllliers, Resel, De Geer, Fourary, 

 Donavan, Coquebeit, Kirby, Latrilla, 

 Rozier and 15nzin, in his work pub- 

 lished in 1747 ; Lombard, Berthen, 



Dutchet, Ducam, Blangy, Delia Rocca 

 and scores of others. 



Jeddie, in ]6()5, published his inven- 

 tion of hives for preserving the bees 

 in taking their honey," and received 

 a patent from King Charles, 225 years 

 ago. I would like to make a few ex- 

 tracts from these earlv records. I 

 would quote from Col. Johnson, F.R. 

 S., barrister and editor, on the " Rus- 

 sian System of Bee-Management," 

 1808, which is as follows : 



"In Russia and other parts of 

 Northern Europe, honey and wax 

 constitute great sources of private 

 wealth and general trade. A large 

 amount of this honey is obtained from 

 trees in the forests, which, when not 

 hollowed by nature, are scooped out 

 by men fin' the accommodation of 

 colonies. This is termed the ' Forest 

 System,' to distinguish it from 

 another, consisting of large assem- 

 blages of hives, entitling it to the 

 appellation of the ' Camp System.' 



" These bee-camps are often re- 

 moved from place to place, according 

 to the abundance of flowers. A new 

 system of management has been 

 lately introduced into Russia, which 

 has acquired immense celebrity, not 

 only in that country, but in other 

 parts of continental Europe, to the 

 northern portion of which it may per- 

 haps be more especially adapted. 



" This Russian system owes its 

 origin and establishment to M. Pro- 

 kopovitsh, an individual who has 

 devoted more than half his life-time 

 to the subject. His reputation as au 

 apiarist is at present so high as to 

 have enabled him to establish an ex- 

 tensive school for teaching the art of 

 managing bees. His school and 

 dwelling is situated in the midst of 

 a vast garden, in which are found no 

 less than 2,500 hives, and the number 

 of his pupils is never under eighty, 

 who come from all parts of Europe, 

 and remain two years. 



The article continues thus : " In 

 studying the characteristics of the 

 queen, he made the discovery that 

 she always kept upon the comb, and 

 never creeps upon any part of the 

 hive. This ob.servation he turned to 

 advantage so as to make the bees 

 assort and dispose their honey in 

 whatever manner he desired it de- 

 posited. By discovering a plant pre- 

 eminently rich in honey, he has 

 rendered another service to liis coun- 

 try no less important than the one 

 referred to." "In doing this," says 

 a French writer, " he has rendered a 

 service to Europe similar to that 

 conferred by Parminteer, who placed 

 the potato among the number of 

 plants indispensable to the purpose of 

 domestic economy." 



The article then describes this plant 

 at length, which is a very interesting 

 production in this age of " new 

 torage," after which it takes up the 

 detailed description of the hive and 

 management. The hive is fully 

 illustrated, and is a movable-frame 

 hive, in which is worked sections, as 

 of the present day— only larger. 



A perforated metal " adapter," or 

 honey- board is also shown, " on which 

 the vaneer sections stand." The 

 " reversing " plan is also alluded to 



