during basswood bloom. The honey stored 

 then, principally mustard, was clear but very 

 thin. The first part of the season was very 

 wet." R. C. AiKiN. 



Grant, Ky., Sept. 23, 1878. 

 " Bees are doing well now on smart- weed 

 and other wild bloom; the golden rod is not 

 quite in bloom, but will be in about a week 

 from now." R. L. Aylok. 



Hubbard, O., Sept. 17, '78. 

 " The season here has been good. 1 sell 

 comb iioney at 25 cents per lb; extracted, 6 

 lbs. for $1."00. Wholesale, 15@20 cents. I 

 could not get so much were it not in small 

 sections." J. Winfield. 



Macon, Mo., Sept. 8, '78. 

 "Wintered 18 colonies; 2 starved; sold 8 in 

 the spring, at $<i. each, leaving 8. Have 

 Italianized and built up to 51 strong colonies 

 of 8 to 12 frames each. Have taken 1200 lbs. 

 of honey, and expect several hundred pounds 

 more." C. Eggleston. 



Walton, Ky., Sept. 9 '78. 

 "My bees did well, and all in good con- 

 dition for winter. I use the Langstroth and 

 Mitchell hives— the former 1 like best for 

 comb honey production, the latter for win- 

 tering." John. H. Fullilove. 



Adams Center, N. Y., Sept. 9, 1878. 

 "Early frosts and wet weather following, 

 ruined the spring honey crop. Then they 

 swarmed too much, and the extreme hot 

 weather, caused many of the combs to melt 

 down. Another year I shall try to prevent 

 swarming and work for box honey. My 

 bees are in good shape for winter. May have 

 to feed a little." C. E. Glaziek. 



Elliston, O., Sept. 9, 1878. 

 "My bees are storing honey now from 

 boneset and golden rod. L will get two or 

 three barrels more of honey. 1 lost two 

 colonies in the spring by being queeidess; 

 and two by moving them into the country. 

 Box-honey is almost a failure this season, 

 on account of too much rain." 



John P. Dipman. 



Haskinsville, N. Y., Sept. 9, '78. 

 "This has been a very poor season for 

 honey. With more bees and better advanta- 

 ges for taking honey than last year, I have 

 taken only about one-third the amount of 

 honey 1 then had. It has been a fruitful 

 season and plenty of bloom, but it was too 

 wet for honey." Geo. H. Sprague. 



Ada, O., Aug. 28, 1878. 

 "I have gradually increased from ten log 

 gums, bought in the spring of 1875, to one 

 hundred and twenty-five colonies at this 

 date. Duringthelatterpartof July and first 

 of August, the Italians worked on my large 

 English clover by the ten thousands, from 

 morn till dusk. The family house and sec- 

 tion boxes tell bad stories on the black bees. 

 It has been said, that blacks are best for 

 storing box honey, my experience is this: 

 give the Italians a Langstroth hive and at a 

 proper time the right kind of sectiiiis, and 



they will leave the black bees in the shade. 

 I have no queens for sale. All having Ital- 

 ians in movable frame hives should use an 

 extractor. Comb-foundation and the ex- 

 tractor combined with the Langstroth hive, 

 and well developed intellect, will make the 

 Italian mothers smile, while her sons and 

 daughters will not fail, under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances, to well satisfy their master. 

 Bees are doing but little now, about surplus 

 honey, though, they are feeding an unusual 

 amount of brood. Buckwheat, boneset, 

 golden rod and smart-wead, are abundant 

 and make them a good fall pasturage." 



J. B. Murray 



Berne, N. Y., Sept. 6, '78. 

 Springopened very fine, and brood-rearing 

 was far in advance of the usual season, but 

 from May 9th, to the middle of June, we had 

 more or less rain, followed by frosts and 

 cold weather. Swarms that were apparent- 

 ly about issue, killed their drones and did 

 but little. The latter part of June and 

 July has been warm and more favorable. 

 Buckwheat bloomed in August, and bees 

 are doing finely." M. Snyder & Son. 



Jonesboro, HI., Sept. 9, '78. 

 "The spring yield was poor, on account 

 of so much wet weather. The last two 

 weeks have been splendid, but I have not 

 had the bees to gather in the honey. They 

 were thinned out by the "bee Killer" during 

 the buckwheat bloom. My hives were full 

 of bees when the buckwheat began to bloom, 

 and in less than ten days they looked as if 

 they had been swarming. The "bee killers" 

 infested the buckwheat fields by thousands. 

 I saw them nearly as thick as the bees. It 

 has been a great disappointment. I fed my 

 bees all through July, and had the hives 

 crowded with young bees, to take advantage 

 of the fall flowers." W. J. Willard. 



Duncan, III., Sept. 10, 1878. 

 "I am trying the Langstroth hive. The 

 bees have built between the end of the 

 frames and the hive. I think there is too 

 much space. As to bees freezing, I think 

 there is more smothered than frozen. I 

 always give my bees more ventilation in 

 winter than in summer. I use adouble-wall 

 hive. The bees are protected against both 

 heat and cold. I have had bees for 40 years. 

 I take the American Bee Journal and 

 think it the " boss." It interests me much. 

 Success to its Editors." W. H. Pierson. 



[Evidently there was too much space be- 

 tween the ends of the frames and body of 

 the hive. It should be % of an inch. If 

 more, it is too much.— Ed.] 



Swanton, O., Sept. 3, '78. 

 " I had a heavy swarm come out early in 

 May, from a hive that lost its queen ; gave 

 it empty combs on July 2;5<.i. I extracted 

 one hundred and fifty-eight pounds of honey 

 from one colony, Aug. 2t\. I liave taken 

 nineteen queens from my yard, and had 

 twenty colonies, from which I got nine 

 hundred and eighty-seven pounds of honey, 

 and twenty-four pounds of wax. I left four 

 solid frames to each hive. I only had eleven 



