T'MEE! MMBRKCMH mMl& JOURMSIIL. 



99 



THOS. G.NKWMAN fcSON, 



tnic/\ao, II I 



K^^PSi®S»5ss 



XH091AS G. r«EYV91AI«, 



EDITOR. 



Vol. mi. FeU, 15, 1890. No. 7. 



■ The honey-bee is a regular merchant. 

 It " cells " combs for a living. 



' One apiarist first ordered a thousand 

 Almanacs. These worked so well in dis- 

 posing of honey, that he has just bought 

 3,000 more. It pays to scatter them 

 liberally. 



Mr. George Ilentlerson, for many 

 years sub-editor of the British Dee Journal, 

 died on Dec. 21, 1889. He was an accom- 

 plished linquist, a Greek scholar, and a 

 highly-esteemed gentleman. 



Among those prominent apiarists 

 who have been visited by la Oi'ippe, we 

 may mention G. M. Doolittle, C. P. Dadant, 

 Ernest Root, J. Van Deusen, James Hed- 

 don, J. E. Pond, E. L. Pratt, and many 

 others whose names we do not now recall. 

 They all have our sympathies. 



Oiii* XIianl<»> are due for the many 

 kind allusions to our late illness in the bee- 

 periodicals, as well as in hundreds of pri- 

 vate letters. We are sorry to learn that 

 many of the editors of the bee-papers have 

 suffered from la Orippe, in more or less 

 severity. We never recovered so slowly 

 from any previous illness, and this seems 

 to be the case with others. The gi'ip on our 

 vitals was a tight one ; and to-day, after a 

 month's tussel with it, we are not able to 

 do half as much as formerly in the same 

 time. We do not want to have anything 

 more to do with anything Prussian — the 

 Cossacks may keep it at home, or else 

 banish it to Siberia, as they do all the rest 

 of their unwelcome things. 



Ilouey for I..:i 4iiri|>l>c. — The item 

 on honey for la Oripiic, published on page 

 35, is being copied quite largely, through 

 the influence of beekeepers all over the 

 country. The Elgin, Ills., News published 

 it, and then followed it twith these addi- 

 tional lines: 



We know of one family that has eaten 

 freely of honey for a couple of weeks or so, 

 and while neighbors have had the grip, it 

 has not invaded that household. 



Honey is both good as a preventive and 

 to build up the system after la Orippe has 

 departed, and if the legacy of complications 

 is not too great, it will soon restore the 

 patient to the usual strength of body and 

 mind. 



If the complications are too numerous, of 

 course it will take time to overcome them, 

 as will the most careful nursing, and the 

 most efficient physician's prescriptions. We 

 knou', for we have had lots of experience 

 in that line for the past month or more. 



Xaxing; Hees iu Iowa. — Mr. G. B. 



Olney, of Atlantic, Iowa, has sent the fol- 

 lowing to his local paper, the Democrat, 

 which published it in a late issue : 



Last winter our assessors were insti'ucted 

 by the Board of Supervisors, to assess bees 

 at $2 per colony. This year they dropped 

 one-half. Well, just drop another dollar, 

 and you will come to a standard of a true 

 interpretation of the revenue laws of Iowa. 

 Bees are exempt, and you cannot read the 

 law any other way. 



The very convincing article by Mr. 

 Eugene Secor, published on page 666 of 

 last year, settles the point that, in Iowa at 

 least, bees are not taxable. Mr. Olney adds 

 the following about the sale of bees at auc- 

 tion in that locality ; 



Bees, at a public sale near here a few 

 days ago, sold at ?;-l per colony. This is 

 much better than I have seen for many 

 years. 



Xlie Xliree bee-periodicals heretofore 

 published in England have been consoli- 

 dated under one management, viz : Mr. T. 

 W. Cowan and Mr. W. B. Carr. The British 

 Bee Journal is published weekly, and the 

 Record and Adviser have been united, and 

 will be published monthly, as heretofore. 

 The sizes have been changed, and excepting 

 the narrow margins, both periodicals make 

 a good appearance. We wish both them 

 and the editors much success. 



An Enigma. — On page 72, Mr. Pratt 

 makes an allusion to Messrs. Holtermann 

 and Young. The article was put in type 

 while we were unable to pay much atten- 

 tion to such matters, and, in answer to 

 several inquiries, we must say that we 

 have not yet discovered what the writer 

 was driving at. Our English friends seem 

 to relish such items written by "Amateur 

 Expert," but we do not think that we have 

 any use for them in America. Please do 

 not ask us to explain any more of the 

 riddles. 



A II«e lor I*ro|tuliH.— It ap| e.-trs that 

 in Russia propolis is used tor varui.shiug 

 wooden ware, and resists the dissolving 

 powers of hot water. Mr. A. Toulareff 

 states that it is purchased by the huck- 

 sters, who pay about one halfpenny for 

 permission to scrape or plane the hive that 

 has lost its bees. The shavings covered 

 with propolis are heated, put into a wax 

 press and subjected to the treatment used 

 in the extraction of beeswax ; the propolis 

 is then purified iu hot water, to which sul- 

 phuric acid is added. About 50 per cent, of 

 propolis is thus obtained, which sells at 40 

 cents per pound. The propolLs is poured 

 into hot linseed oil and beeswax in the fol- 

 lowing proportions : Propolis, 1 ; beeswax, 

 J<.'; oil, 2. Previously the oil should re- 

 main hot on the stove for 15 to 20 days 

 without boiling, to give it the property of 

 drying. 



The wooden ware is dipped into the 

 above-mentioned preparation, and must re- 

 main in it for 10 or 15 minutes, after which 

 it is cooled, and rubbed and polished with 

 woolen rags. Propolis is so plentifully 

 collected by the bees in some parts of this 

 country, that I should imagine it would re- 

 pay the bee-keeper to save it. It would do 

 capitally for coating the interior of wooden 

 feeders, etc. — Australasian Bee Journal. 



James Tick, seedsman, of Rochester, 

 N. Y., offers $1,000 in cash premiums, to 

 be awarded at the Illinois State Fair, to be 

 held at Peoria, Ills., Sept. 29, 1890, by the 

 society's judges, for best cabbage, celery, 

 potatoes, cauliflower, tomatoes, musk 

 melon, onion, and mangel. Last year the 

 prizes awarded at the New York State Fair 

 went to Pennylvauia, Michigan, Iowa, and 

 New York. This year we are anxious to 

 see Illinois take the lead, and hope that all 

 interested in vegetables will send to Vick, 

 of Rochester, for particulars regarding this 

 offer. No doubt it will be one of the prin- 

 cipal features of interest at the Fair. 



The Vicks will erect a separate building, 

 or tent, in which they will make a grand 

 show of flowers with the vegetables, and 

 will be on hand to receive their friends. 

 Every person growing vegetables should 

 send 10 cents for a copy of " Vick's Floral 

 Guide," and learn the facts. It costs noth- 

 ing to try. 



" Vick's Floral Guide " is one of the 

 handsomest catalogues published. The 

 illustrations are intended to give the reader 

 a correct idea of the plant or flower illus- 

 trated. 



During January, the weather was 

 warm and moist iu the Northwest. Februa- 

 ry comes in with snow and colder weather. 

 The bees wintered on the summer stands 

 have been "on the wing" considerably, 

 and if the " spring dwindling " is not very 

 severe, there will be plenty of bees to 

 gather the harvest next season. We have 

 not had such a winter for more than a 

 dozen years. 



