THEJ; KMBRICKN ®EIJ JOURNRI,. 



331 



■i-'^^^^-^ft^*^*^*-^-'-"-*-^*-^-^-^' 



'Of these, the great majority of the 

 trees are dead — killed by (J months of 

 excessive wet. About once in 10 or 12 

 years we have an excessively wet win- 

 ter, long drawn out ; this constant 

 soaking of top and root is more than 

 some species of trees can stand. The 

 apricot suft'ers worst of all. Tliis is 

 an immense loss to the frnit-growers 

 ■of the State, for they had a perfect 

 monopoly of apricot fruit. 



The loss of young peach, prune, 

 almond, plum, and cherry trees has 

 also been immense, on all lands with- 

 out perfect natural untler-drainings. 

 This will add greatly to the boom for 

 lands in the arid districts, like tl* San 

 Joaquin valley, where they have from 

 2i to 10 inches of rain a year — where 

 they bring their rain from the moun- 

 tains in canals, and use it only as they 

 need it. That seems to be the right 

 kind of rain to have on top, especially 

 when the soil is about the richest and 

 most perfect known in the world. 



The raisin industry in the arid val- 

 leys is assuming giant proportions. It 

 is one of the simplest crops to grow, 

 most certain, and one of the most 

 profitable crops grown in California. 

 The great Southern Pacific railroad, 

 and other large land-holders, are pre- 

 paring to offer people most liberal 

 inducements to form colonies for the 

 production of raisins in the rich val- 

 le3's of Kern county — the best raisin 

 climate and soil in the world. These 

 inducements are such — are real — and 

 more liberal in their terms than any 

 great land syndicate ever oSered to 

 people before. I am in a position to 

 send inquirers full particulars. There, 

 in the foot-hills and mountains sur- 

 i-ounding Kern county, is the. ideal 

 place for apiaries. 



Petaluma, Calif., April 29, 1890. 



[*That bees mix water with honey for 

 various purposes is a well-established 

 fact, but that does not prove that they 

 " make honey." The two combined 

 make a syrup — but mixing water and 

 honey no more proves that the bees 

 make the honey than it does that they 

 make the water ! It is a misnomer ! 

 Bees do not "make honey" — they 

 simply gather what Nature has already 

 made ! No amount of sophistry will 

 prove to the contrary ! 



Under certain circumstances bees 

 will feed on grape-juice, the so-called 

 honej-dew, or even on commercial 

 glucose, when nothing else is available. 

 They 7nay mix these articles with the 

 honey already in the cells, but that 

 does not " make honey" out of either 

 the glucose, the honey-dew, or the 



grape-juice — even though the bees did 

 the " mixing." If honey-dew is gath- 

 ered- -insect-juice is deposited in the 

 cells, and that only — it does not make 

 honey ! — Ed.] 



COWVEIVTIOIV DIRECTORY. 



1890. Time and place of meeting. 



May 17. -Darke Co. Union, at Greenville, O. 



J. A. Roe, Sec, Union City, Ind. 



May 17.— Haldimanrt, at (;ayuga, Ont. 



B. C. Campbell, Sec., Cayuga, Ont. 



May 20.— Northern Ulinoia. at Cherry Valley, Ills. 

 D. A. Fuller, Sec, Cherry Valley, Ilia, 



July 17.— Carolina, at Charlotte, N. C. 



N. P. Lyles, Sec, Derlta N. C. 



In order to have this table complete, 



Secretaries are requested to forward full 

 particulars of the time and the place of 

 each future meeting. — The Editor. 



International Bee-Association. 



President- 

 Secretary- 



Hon. E. L. Taylor.. Lapeer, Mich. 

 -C. P. Dadant Hamilton, Ills. 



National Bee-Keepers' Union. 



President— James Heddon . .Dowagiac, Mich. 

 Sec'y. and Manager- T, G. Newman, Chicago, 



sci^^'^M 



jS^^f^^ 



<jioo«l Honey Season Expectetl. 



My bees are booming at this time. I lost 

 4 colonies out of 62, %vhich leaves me 58. 

 The prospects for a good honey season are 

 very flattering now. White clover is com- 

 ing along. I hope to get a good crop of 

 honey this year. S. Burton. 



Eureka, Ills., May 1, 1890. 



Oolden-Rotl— Back^vard Spring. 



I am still alive and able to make my 

 best bow. Although badly used up by the 

 many severe drubbings received from the 

 correspondents of the Bee Journal, who 

 are the friends of "golden-rod." I thank 

 them for their criticisms, and hope that 

 they (as well as myself) have been bene- 

 fitted by the exchange of ideas. I admire 

 their pluck in defense of their pet, and they 

 remind me of a colony of Italian bees 

 defending their stores from robbing neigh- 

 bors. I only gave it as my own belief, from 

 personal observation and that of our neigh- 

 bors, and had no idea of accusing people of 

 dishonesty, when they said that golden-rod 

 produced honey. I had not seen it with 

 bees about it, and was only going on the 

 plan of "seeing is believing." I make my 

 best bow, raise my hand, and say " So mote 

 it be" — at least, until we receive more 

 light. 



Bee-keepers seem to have fared badly in 

 this part of the country (southern Illinois), 

 as the fine spring weather in December and 

 January produced brood in quantity, and 

 stores were exhausted before bee-keepers 

 knew it ; some have lost most of their bees 

 in this manner, not dreaming that they 

 were short of supplies. I have saved all of 

 mine by feeding when others thought it 

 useless. The extremely wet and backward 

 spring has produced very little nectar from 

 any of the bloom, and, in fact, there was 

 little but apple-bloom for them to work on ; 



and while it was in bloom, it was raining 

 nearly all the time, so that was almost a 

 failure. The prospect for white clover 

 was never better than at the present 

 time, and it has just begun to bloom. We 

 hope to be able to report a good yield from 

 this and other blooms. Ika Keeves. 



Carmi, Ills., April 30, 1890. 



[We are glad to note that our suggestion 

 was correct — on page 106, in reply to the 

 letter by Mr. Purvis— that Major-General 

 Reeves ''■could not mean to record any- 

 thing more than the observations of him- 

 self and his neighbors in that locality," 

 regarding the yielding of nectar by golden- 

 rod, as stated in his first letter on page 58. 

 "All's well that ends well."— Ed.J 



Elarly Honey-FIovf in j^linnesota. 



If I am not greatly mistaken, the reader 

 will soon hear reports of a honey-flow in 

 April in Minnesota. Last year we were 

 feeding our bees up to June 1 — now, every 

 tree with a bud or tag or tassel is swarming 

 with bees, and the brood chambers are 

 tilled with a dark 'honey that I felt sure was 

 stored this spring. I heard yesterday from 

 a hundred-colony apiarist, and he reports 

 his bees storing lots of honey from cotton- 

 wood, which is the only tree near his 

 prairie apiary. My bees have had soft 

 maple, poplar, elm, and now cottouwood 

 and pussy-willow. Last year I did not see 

 a bee on an apple-blossom or wild plum — 

 on nothing until we had box elder and 

 white willow. Now the apple and plum are 

 crowded with buds. A neighbor who made 

 sugar from the maples this spring, reported 

 an unusual flow of sap. I wondered if that 

 was what ailed all the trees. May the good 

 work go on, until the linden bloom shall 

 respond likewise. I hope that the same 

 condition of things extends all over the 

 State, and that every bee-keeper in the 

 State has enjoyed the busy hum of the bees 

 every day for ten days, as I have. My bees 

 have lost but one entire day since I took 

 them out of the cellar, which was on April 

 10. Mrs. B. J. Livingston. 



Center Chain, Minn., April 38, 1890. 



A Comment on Bee-E.scapes. 



It would seem to be unanimously decided 

 by the correspondents of the American Bee 

 Journal, that in the bee-escapes published 

 the past winter, they had found success in 

 removing the bees from the section-eases — 

 in fact, perhaps they have, but it would 

 seem to me very much like a man, who, 

 finding his house full of thieves, would 

 simply bolt all his doors lest more should 

 enter, but allow all those in to depart un- 

 molested with all they could carry. The 

 The bees would not only carry away con- 

 siderable honey, but do more damage by 

 uncapping honey. We want, and do have, 

 the bees to depart at once when we go for the 

 honey — they must not stop to make reply, 

 nor take any honey with them, either, but 

 " get up and get." If the escapes could be 

 placed on the hives without disturbing the 

 bees, they would be all right. 



Ch.vs. B. Fritts. 



Niles, Mich., April 30, 1890. 



Oood Prospects tor Clover. 



Bees are doing well, working on fruit- 

 bloom at present. Prospects for clover 

 are very good. Bees wintered well, but 

 used a great deal of honey ; I had to feed 

 some. My loss was 5 colonies out of 108. 



D. W. MCD.INIEL. 



Hamilton, Ills., May 1, 1890. 



