New Canton, 111., May 16, 1878. 

 " The Journal grows better and better 

 every month. No bee-man can afford to do 

 without it." John Barfoot. 



Marcellus, N. Y., May 14, 1878. 

 "The hills were covered with snow on the 

 12th inst. ; the thermometer stood at 27° 

 Fahrenheit." N. N. Betsinger. 



Platteville, Wis., April 13, 1878. 

 " Very cold ; heavy frost this morning ; 

 thermometer 25 above zero. Bees have had 

 a poor time of it on the fruit blossoms ; too 

 cold, and rain." E. France. 



Carson City, Mich., April. 12, 1878. 

 " My 170 colonies wintered well ; the sea- 

 son is 6 weeks ahead of anything for 7 

 years. Swarming will commence by May 

 1st, if this weather continues." 



Hiram Roop. 



Marengo, Ills., May 16, 1878. 

 " Season has been good for fruit blossoms 

 which have now lasted three weeks, but are 

 about done, and bees are killing drones." 

 C. C. Miller. 



West Chester, Pa., April 30, 1878. 

 " The long storm has prevented tlie bees 

 from gathering much honey from the apple 

 blossoms, and these are now about over. I 

 had several ready to swarm when the storm 

 ■commenced, but tiiey have changed their 

 arrangements and broken up." 



£. Penn Worrall. 



Lawson, Ray Co. Mo., April 2.5, 1878. 

 " Bees are doing well here this spring. — 

 One of my neighbors had a large swarm to 

 come out on April 17; not thinking it a 

 natural swarm, returned it to the same 

 hive, and on the next day they came out 

 and went to the woods. I then made an 

 examination, and found the hive full of 

 brood, in all stages, and several queen cells 

 sealed over. I have 150 colonies very 

 strong." J. L. Smith. 



Hilisboro, 111., May 14, 1878. 

 "On the 14th of March last, pursuant to 

 previous notice, those interested in the 

 culture of bees, in this and adjoining coun- 

 ties, met in this city and organized a Bee- 

 keepers' Association by adopting a consti- 

 tution and by-laws, and the following 

 otficers for the ensuing year, viz : I. B. 

 Shinier, President ; E. Armstrong, Vice 

 President ; Wm. K. .Jackson, ; Secretary and 

 Wooten Harris, Treasurer. Twenty-four 

 persons gave their names as members." 

 W. K. Jackson, Se&y. 



Strawtown, Ind., Jan. 21, 1878. 

 "In the Journal for February, 1877, I 

 gave a description of my cellar for winter- 

 ing bees. In the warm weather of that 

 month I gave the bees a flight. They re- 

 mained out a week or more, and flew every 

 day. The 2 nuclei started brood, as did all 

 the colonies. When the weather turned 

 •cold again, about the first of March, all 

 were put back in the cellar, where they 

 remained till the last day of March. When 

 they were taken out again, both nuclei and 



2 colonies were dead. They had suffered 

 more during March than all the time before. 

 While out in February, they started brood, 

 and the food taken to feed them had 

 decayed till all were more or less depleted 

 in numbers. We transferred the blacks 

 that we bought about Christmas, while 

 they were out in February, and killed their 

 queens and united them with weak colonies 

 of Italians, so as to have them Italianized 

 early. The cellar was a success in compar- 

 ison with our former efforts in wintering.— 

 Out of about .50 colonies, only 2 were lost ; 

 most of them came out h\ very fine condi- 

 tion. I sold 10 of them to a neighbor for 

 $120 and bought 20 of Mrs. Grimm for the 

 same amount, and never bought as strong 

 colonies before, and never dealt with any- 

 one more prompt or accommodating. I 

 commenced the season with about 55 colo- 

 nies, and sold some 20 during the summer, 

 making about 5?250 worth of sales alto- 

 gether. We also sold about 500 lbs. of 

 honey and have wintered 100 colonies in 

 the cellar. We also have our nuclei, about 40 

 in number. All are wintering very nicely, 

 so far. We aim to take our nuclei through, 

 so as to commence queen rearing in the 

 spring, just as it stopped in the fall. Our 

 comb honey was readily sold at 20c., at our 

 county seat, beside honey said to be from 

 California. They prefered ours after try- 

 ing both." John Rooker. 



Wrightstown, Wis., May 4, 1878. 

 " After being burnt out last summer, I 

 again rebuilt my dwelling house, and made 

 a large cellar with double walls of brick 

 and stone ; thinking I had a sure thing for 

 wintering my bees. But it was late before 

 I got it done, and the fall being rainy, I 

 could not get it sufficiently dry ; but 1 run 

 the risk of the damp, and put 43 colonies 

 into it, all in splendid condition, and lost all 

 but 2. The queens seemed to be the first to 

 die. My cellar was well ventilated, and the 

 temperature even, i covered them with 

 quilts and filled the caps with fine, dry 

 straw. It was either the scent of the lime 

 and cement, or the coloring in the cloth 

 with which the quilts were made of. I 

 have purchased some more hybrids of the 

 widow Grimm, and intend to fill them up 

 again this summer." Chas. R. Clough. 



Woodman, Wis., April 22, 1878. 

 Dear Editor :— " Your pamphlet on 

 'Honey as Food and Medicine' is at hand. 

 It is a stop in the right direction. What we 

 most want now is a market or demand for 

 our product, for no one will care to keep 

 bees long after keeping them ceases to pay, 

 so that is what we are all after. I raised, 

 last season, 6000 lbs. of honey, and have 

 sold 4000 H>s. of it in my home market. I 

 find the great drawback with extracted 

 honey is to convince the people it is pure, 

 when you sell it to them for less than you 

 do comb. It looks suspicious. I have 

 often been asked how it was that I could do 

 all the extra work of extracting, &c., and 

 then sell it so much less. I have one custo- 

 mer that has bought honey of me for 3 

 years, yet every little while he wants to 

 know what I put in my honey to make it as 

 good as comb honey, and yet sell it so 



