•without brimstone, I put them there, and 

 when opportunity oifers carry them out for 

 a fly, and return them, eacli time many bees 

 less. Being confined, and more or less dis- 

 turbed, they become uneasy, and when put 

 on their summer stands tliey are weak, ex- 

 hausted, and soon perish, and by tlie 1st of 

 June they are all gone. I have been tugging 

 in and out all winter, and gained my object. 

 But by way of excuse term it "spring 

 dwindling." H. W. Garrett. 



Coeyman's Hollow, Albany Co., N. Y. 



A Valuable Receipe. 



The following recipe I have used for the 

 last 13 years, for hog ciiolera, saving at least 

 75 to 90 per cent, of all treated. In consid- 

 eration of the present wide destruction of 

 hog property, 1 have concluded to make it 

 public, so that an end may be put to the 

 plague. You will confer a favor on all 

 owners of hogs by its publication. 



Tincture aconite root, nux vomica, each, 

 33^ ounces; rus tox, belladonna, secale, 

 buptina, each, )i ounces ; wiiite arsenic, 10 

 grains. Mix. 



I have kept the cholera down in my im- 

 mediate neighborhood for the last 13 years, 

 and as the medicine can be had at almost 

 any country drug store, the publication of 

 the recipe will do a great deal of good. It 

 is a sure preventative. Directions as a pre- 

 ventative. Five drops once a day to each 

 hog in his swill. When the hog is down 

 with the cholera, 10 to 20 drops down either 

 mouth or nostrils. Some claiming each 

 method tlie best to administer the medicine. 

 Always label the bottle deadly poison, and 

 keep in a safe place away from children. 



Buffalo Grove, Iowa. J. M. Price. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Motherwort. 



I have watched with a great deal of inter- 

 est to see if anyone considered motherwort 

 a bad weed. I believe it to be a good bee 

 plant, and think in many soils it may not be 

 troublesome. 



When I lived in the State of New York I 

 saw it growing in out-of-the-way places, by 

 the side of the road, and neighbors garden 

 and classed it with catnip. Twenty-one 

 years ago my mother sowed a little seed 

 here. It did not come up at first ; but after- 

 wards, wlien we found a few plants, we 

 greeted them as an old friend. After a 

 while we thought it was increasing faster 

 than we wanted it, but had no fears of it, 

 till a friend visiting us says, you have quite a 

 patch of motherwort. I asked if she would 

 not like a few plants. The reply was. 

 "Don't you put any of that on to our farm." 

 And then she said, "I have it in my flower 

 garden. I suppose it was sown with some 

 seed, but I cannot get rid of it. It will keep 

 coming up." We found it an easy matter to 

 dispose of the roots, but there was the seed 

 in the ground. We were not as thorougli 

 about it as we ought to have been ; plants 

 did go to seed. Still we kept it from spread- 

 ing. The place was rented for three years. 

 When I came back four years ago this spring. 



it had come up several rods from where it 

 was first sown. And the first thing that was 

 done was to have all the roots dug up with a 

 determination tliat it should not go to seed 

 again if we could help it. 



The second fall we seeded down what 

 ground we could, but that grass had to be 

 weeded as you would a flower garden, till 

 it formed a good sod ; and to-day the little 

 plants are coming up from seed, and I do 

 not think there has been any seed scattered 

 since five years ago this fall. 



Anything that produces so much seed, 

 and if the seed will be so long in the ground 

 and germinate, is a bad weed in our prairie 

 soil, especially if its perrenial. I think 

 corn could be successfully cultivated where 

 it has grown. But as clover ground is 

 sometimes planted to corn, for three or four 

 years, then sowed to small grain, and in the 

 fall it is seeded to clover again. I think you 

 would invariably find it so with motherwort. 

 I would like a good bee plant, but 1 am 

 afraid of it. C. P. Allen. 



Cambridge, 111., Sept. 23. 1878. 



" The Blessed Bees." 



I have just received from my friend the 

 author " The Blessed Bees, by John Allen," 

 and I scarcely looked up from the volume, 

 before I had scanned all its fascinating 

 pages. 



The book is simple in style, yet very terse, 

 and will charm no less than instruct the 

 reader. 



This work graphically portrays what 

 may be done in apiculture, even the first 

 year, if proper preparation is made. Once 

 to think of spending 334.65 for reading 

 matter, before even commencing the practi- 

 cal part of the art ! Yet a thorough mastery 

 of the works procured, by this seemingly 

 extravagent outlay, was the necessary pre- 

 lude to the author's unparalleled success. 

 His previous study and discipline made 

 this mastery possible. 



I have read the book with the more 

 pleasure, as it exemplifies what I have long 

 felt to be true, and often stated, that api- 

 culture offers rare inducements to him who 

 will adopt its pursuits intelligently and 

 energetically, not only for its pecuniary 

 possibilities, but also for the wholesome 

 pleasure which it yields. Nor is it a light 

 joy to think that 1 induced one to undertake 

 a work which, in the retrospect, makes him 

 to exclaim "The Blessed Bees." 



In concluding this brief notice, I would 

 enforce the caution urged by the author: 

 "Every person who begins bee-keeping 

 must not exi)ect as great success as I had 

 the first year. There are few who will study 

 the business as I did ; there are few who 

 can secure locations as favorable as mine, it 

 is not always that the season is as good as 

 was my first y^^ar. That when the con- 

 ditions are as favorable, a success as great 

 as mine can always be achieved, I am 

 thoroughly convinced." I would add that 

 success like that detailed in these pages 

 will be very rarely i-epeated ; but a result 

 much less might well make the young 

 apiarist radiant with delight. 



Lansing, Mich. A. J. Cook. 



