Council Grove, Kansas, July 7, 1878. 

 Dear Editor:— I send you tlie stalk (in 

 sections), leaves and tlowers of a weed or 

 plant growing thickly on a neglected field, 

 of which the bees are very fond. They al- 

 most entirely neglect the buckwheat in 

 bloom near by and go one-half a mile for 

 this weed. 1 was wondering what tliey 

 found to suit them better than the buck- 

 wheat, when I chanced to pass through this 

 field, and the mystery was solved. 1 saw 

 bees by the thousand extracting honey from 

 the flowers of this weed. Can you tell what 

 it is? D. P. Norton. 



[The plant is Teucrium Canadensis, 

 American germander, or wood sage. Prof. 

 Beal tells me that it is common even in this 

 latitude. It is a mint, and thus a relative of 

 motherwort and catnip. These latter, es- 

 pecially motherwort, hold out great promise 

 to the bee-keeper. Ours have been in blos- 

 som now for many days, and even after 

 heavy rains, of which we have had many, it 

 would be found swarming with bees, while 

 the mignonette, white, sweet, and alsike 

 clover would be deserted.— A. J. Cook.] 



Litiz, Lancaster Co., Pa., July 6, 1878. 



"The Bee Association, of Lancaster Co., 

 Pa., will hold its next regular meeting in 

 Lancaster City, on the second Monday in 

 August. We shall meet at Centre Square, 

 at 1 o'clock, p. m., where our friends who 

 are interested;in'bee-culture will be cordially 

 welcomed. Many matters of interest will 

 be discussed, and tiie meeting will, no doubt, 

 be profitable as well as interesting. 



The wet season has been somewhat 

 unfavorable, but bees generally are doing 

 well. Among my own bees, I have at one 

 place 18 natural swarms from 15 colonies 

 of bees. Others are not doing so well, but 

 taking all things into consideration, we 

 can not complain." P. S. Reist, Pres't. 



Wesley, Ind., July 5, 1878. 

 "Bees are doing well. I never saw such 

 a crop of white clover as there is this sum- 

 mer, and bees are very rich in stores of 

 honey. I had 8 colonies in the spring ; now 

 I have 34, 2 having gone to the woods.— 

 They are all black bees, but I want to 

 Italianize them all next summer from the 

 queen you are to send me." S. Quick. 



Spafford, N. Y., July 14, 1878. 

 " I wintered my bees successfully last 

 winter ; a part on their summer stands, and 

 the remainder in the cellar. All came out 

 strong, with the exception of 2 that lost 

 their queens. April was warm, with bees 

 apparently ready to swarm. May was wet 

 and cold, which put them back ; they 

 destroying most of their drones. But June 

 and July has been warm, with white clover 

 in abundance ; and now basswood is open- 

 ing and they are all the time at work when 

 it is light enough for them to see. I had 30 

 colonies in the spring ; have had over 40 

 swarms from them." 



Edavin S. Edwards 



Davis, Mich., July 8, 1878. 

 "The imported queen was duly received 

 in good order. I placed a wire cloth over 

 the shipping box and put her into a hive 

 about .5 hours ; then I liberated her. She 

 was accepted, and is now doing a good busi- 

 ness. I am well pleased with her." 



Wm. p. Evritt. 



Geneva, 111., July 15, 1878. 

 " When I had to feed my bees up to the 

 middle of June. I felt a little discouraged ; 

 but, I tell you, they are now making up for 

 lost time. I never saw them working as 

 well as they do now. Success to the bees 

 and the American Bee Journal." 



Geo. Thompson. 



Strawtown, Ind., July 15, 1878. 

 "Our imported queen stock have out- 

 stripped everything, far or near, in gather- 

 ing honey. One colonj' has gathered US- 

 lbs. of comb honey ; another gave 75 lbs. 

 and one colony. Quite a number have 

 gathered from 75 to 80 lbs. of comb honey. — 

 It has been a splendid season for honey. — 

 The ' crate ' is a grand success." 



John Booker. 



" It is said, if we take a queen away from 

 a colony of bees they will rear another 

 queen. Last Friday, i took a queen from a 

 good half colony ; she had been there and 

 laying for three weeks. There were lots of 

 young bees crawling on the comb, eggs and 

 larvfe in all stages, when I took the queen 

 away. I thought I would let them raise a 

 queen from her brood, for the bees looked 

 so nice. The next Friday I looked to see 

 how many cells I had. Imagine my sur- 

 prise when I looked but could find no 

 signs of any. The brood was nearly all 

 hatched out. I thought it could not be 

 possible that they had no queen. I put in a 

 ripe cell, and the next day it had a queen. — 

 The cell was uncapped as naturally as 

 could be. Did you ever hear of the like ?"" 



A Novice. 



[We liave never known of a queenless 

 colony to refuse to start queen-cells, if given 

 the opportunity. The only way we can ex- 

 plain the above would be to suggest that the 

 observation was not thorough, and that a 

 queen-cell had been overlooked.— Ed.] 



Grandville, O., July 18, 1878. 

 "Our bees are doing splendidly this sea- 

 son. Will get over two tons of honey in the 

 'Union Apiary." The 'French Pavilion' 

 gives us up to this time 1.500 lbs. of ex- 

 tracted honey; 'Carpenter's Hall,' over 

 1,000 lbs. of extracted honey, and 'Sugarloaf 

 Apiary' has been run mostly to small sec- 

 tions; about 800 lbs. thus far. I think we 

 will find a local market for all our honey at 

 10 to 15 cts." W. H. Sedgwick. 



Light Street, Pa., June 20, 1878. 

 "Cook's Manual came to hand, and I am 

 well pleased with it. It fills a want in bee 

 literature that was imperative. Bees have 

 had a very poor spring up to about a week 

 ago, when it got warm, and now they have- 

 a plenty of white clover to work on. Thejr 



