cheap. When I explain the process, and 

 saving in comb, most men will understand 

 and accept the explanation. I have been 

 thinking of getting some circulars printed 

 witii some appropriate heading like this, 

 perhaps, 'To the lovers of pure honey;' 

 and then go on and explain tiie process of 

 extracting, and the advantages, and leave 

 them in the stores for distribution, endeav- 

 oring to post the public as to vi^hy we could 

 furnish a pui'e article of extracted cheaper 

 than comb honey." H. F. Walton. 



Baraboo, Wis., May 9, 1878. 

 " Bees have done well until now; cold to- 

 day, very. My Italians threw off a large 

 swarm the 5th, and that without stimulation. 

 Bees are strong. Drones have been flying 

 for two weeks." Wallace Porter. 



Dundee, 111., May 24, 1878. 

 " We have been literally over run with 

 orders, and have worked almost day and 

 night. Our whole page advertisement in 

 the American Bee Journal is the cause 

 of it. It is the best investment we ever 

 made. Look out for a " spread " next year." 



J. O ATM AN. 



Scott Co., 111., May 25, 1878. 

 "Boxed 4 colonies April 15, 3 May 20; 

 none worked in the boxes till the 31st. inst., 

 and now combs are built to the bottom in 

 many of them. The section boxes, put on 

 in trays or crates, seem most attractive to 

 the bees and are ahead. Perhaps they are 

 more accessible. White clover is abund- 

 ant." Wm. Cam. 



Waverly. Mo., May 10, 1878. 

 Editor American Bee Journal :— " It 

 seems that you and ' Novice ' don't alto- 

 gether agree. I am more than pleased with 

 the stand you have so promptly taken. — 

 His erroneous ideas and conclusions have 

 long been a source of annoyance to many 

 practical and well-informed bee-keepers." 



Alsike. 



Peoria, Wyoming Co., N.Y.,May 8, 1878. 



"Your pamphlet on Honey as Food and 

 Medicine, was duly received. Thanks. It 

 seems to be just the thing to open the eyes 

 of both producer and consumer to the value 

 of honey as an article of food, not as a lux- 

 ury only, but a staple, supplied by nature in 

 her most beautiful form — the nectar of flow- 

 ers. It can but be received with favor by 

 all lovers of this delicious sweet." 



C. R. ISHAM. 



Stevensville, Mich., May 8, 1878. 

 "I wish to tell my experience in stopping 

 bees from going to tlie woods. Twenty-five 

 years ago, more or less, my father kept bees 

 in Western New York, and having lost sev- 

 eral swarms by their " lighting out," an old 

 man told us to shoot among tiiem. The 

 next swarm was hived, but didn't act like 

 staying, so I loaded my little shot gun and 

 didn't have long to wait before out they 

 came, and I kept ahead of them and fired 

 away. Four shots in perhaps as many min- 

 utes caused them to alight, 6 or 8 rods from 

 their starting place, and they were hived 

 and did well. Another swarm undertook 



to go, and got about 10 rods on tlieir way 

 before we got a shot into them. Ten rods 

 farther another shot was fired, and they 

 soon alighted on a tree and were hived and 

 taken back. Oil up your old shot-guns, 

 friends, load with powder and ' wad,' only, 

 blaze away and report. A neighbor had a 

 swarm come off the 6th inst." 



A. C. Owen. 



Hamilton, Ills., May 6, 1878. 

 "Please inform N. C. Mitchell, through 

 your paper, that his patent on division 

 boards is useless and void. We used divis- 

 ion boards with cloth or rubber edges in 

 1869 and ever since, and can prove it. His 

 patent is too late for any purpose." 



Ch. Dadant & Son. 



[True; but are not the rubber strips on 

 these division boards worse than useless, 

 friends Dadant? Certainly, we have no use 

 for them! As before stated, let us repeat- 

 simple division boards are neither patented 

 nor patentable.— Ed.] 



Northville, Mich., May 11, 1878. 

 "The smoker came duly to hand, and 

 works to a charm. Thanks for promptness. 

 We have had bad weather during the last 3 

 weeks for the bees. It has rained nearly 

 every day, and ended with a good frost last 

 night. One of my neighbors lost 21 colonies 

 of bees out of .50 since the 1st of April. He 

 says that they dwindled away to a handful 

 before the queens died, and some of them 

 had brood in the cells when the queen died, 

 but took no steps to raise another. Some of 

 them would swarm out of the hive and go 

 off. The combs are clean and good; some 

 hives having 30 lbs. of honey in them after 

 the bees were all dead. He wintered on the 

 summer stands, without any protection." 

 Ransom Allen. 



Los Angeles, Cal., April 30, 1878. 

 "I have received your pamphlet on 

 ' Honey,' and find it very interesting. My 

 bees are mostly Italians, some hybrids, 

 none blacks. I have, at present, about 90 

 colonies. They are doing first-rate. The 

 copioiis rains we have had this season have 

 produced a great abundance of wild flowers. 

 The white sage is coming out finely, and 

 will commence blooming in a week or two. 

 We expect a good honey harvest, though, of 

 course, not as large an aggregate as former- 

 ly, on account of the great loss of bees last 

 year. The newspapers say, that out of 

 25,000 colonies of bees there were only 

 between 5,000 and 6,000 left in the county at 

 the beginning of this season." 



Wm. Muth Rasmussen. 



Ft. Worth, Texas, May 13, 1878. 

 "I am a reader of your valuable Jour- 

 nal, and have learned to love it. I found 

 one of my colonies without a queen this 

 spring— killed by moving in wagon about 70 

 miles. We put in brood from a strong col- 

 ony and raised a queen ; she is doing but 

 little good in an official capacity. I have 

 sent for an Italian and hope to succeed 

 better with that. I use the Langstroth hive, 

 and the only trouble I find with it is, some- 



