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863 



XHOniAS «. ME^VMAW, 



EDITOR. 



Vol. mi. May 31, 1890. No. 22, 



You ask me what la life ? 



'Tia like the slow unfolding of a rose, 



Whose heart of gold Rlints thro' the folded leaves ; 



A hint of fuller life that is to be. 



A picture where the sun and shadow blend, 



-(Ah ! me, there's shadow oftener than sun) ; 



A lost chord from some harmony divine, 



A harp with golden strings, which, rightly touched, 



Evoke such melodies as angels love ; 



A never ending struggle for some goal 



That few may reach, but, ah, so many miss ; 



A segment of that circle infinite 



■We call Eternity : a boundless plain, 



"Whose center and circumference is Love. 



F. A. Jones. 



Be Caretiil to use none but nice clean 

 sections for comb honey. Old and soiled 

 sections should be used for kindling rather 

 than for honey. New ones are so cheap 

 now that to use any other than those in 

 first-class condition is inexcusable. 



Patriotism is the subject of a new 

 book of over 300 pages, written by that 

 eminent and popular preacher and author 

 — R«v. H. W. Bolton, D.D., L.L.D., of Chi- 

 cago. The " Introduction " is by Col. Jas. 

 A. Sexton, an enthusiastic and well-known 

 member of the Grand Army of the Republic, 

 among whose constituency the work wUl no 

 doubt find a ready demand. The book 

 consists of a series of very interesting and 

 instructive lectures given by the author 

 before various patriotic organizations, 

 ■which, besides being illustrated, should 

 command a large number of readers, es- 

 pecially of those who fought in the late 

 War, and of the sons and daughters of veter- 

 ans, in fact, any one possessing a single spark 

 of patriotic feeling. It is handsomely 

 bound in cloth, and is published by Messrs. 

 Transue & Grimm, of Chicago. 



Painliiie H«'c-IIives.— The paint- 

 ing of hives is now under discussion again, 

 and in last week's Western Plowman Mr. 

 C H. Dibbern makes these remarks about it: 



Shall we paint our bee-hives ; This 

 question has lately been raised again, and 

 there are some reasons for leaving them 

 unpainted. They are not so hot in summer, 

 nor so cold in winter. The cost, too, is 

 quite a consideration. But on the other 

 hand they do not look so well, nor last so 

 long. Boards are also more apt to curl up, 

 and roofs become leaky. Some 15 years 

 ago we used unpainted hives, but after a 

 few years of experience we commenced 

 painting them again. The same reasons 

 for painting hives apply to houses. I 

 believe there is a colony in Iowa who do 

 not believe in painting their houses, be- 

 lieving that it is cheaper to buy new boards 

 occasionally than spend money tor paint. 

 This may be a fair question for discussion, 

 but what a looking spectacle does an un- 

 painted apiary or town present ! As nearly 

 all civilized people paint their houses, we 

 must conclude that the weight of evidence 

 is vastly on that side. 



What if the paint does cost a few cents, 

 who, having any eye for beauty or the 

 appropriateness of things, would want to 

 see unpainted hives in an apiary ? To our 

 mind the idea is simply preposterous ! 

 Look at the lovely floral offerings now to 

 be seen on the trees which are soon to yield 

 their fruits for the pleasure and sustenance 

 of man. 



See the lovely carpet of verdure spotted 

 with flowers of gold, which Nature has 

 spread before our eyes in meadow and on 

 hillsides ! 



Contemplate the variegated loveliness of 

 autumn's landscape, spread before our 

 wondering eyes by the Giver of all Good. 



Just think of the grandeur and beauty 

 with which Nature greets our astonished 

 vision, and then try to imagine an Apiary 

 where the hives are unpainted, and the 

 ugly and dilapidated boards are going to 

 ruin and destruction ! 



It is a burlesque— a disgraceful " Cheap- 

 John" idea, which should find no favor 

 anywhere in a world which God has made 

 beautiful for man's comfort, satisfaction 

 and consolation ! 

 We should paint our houses, our barns, 



our fences, and our hives, for the same 



reason that God has painted the rainbow, 

 and studded the firmament with stars ! 



MiK» KouimIm near the road, for 

 farmers who have honey or any other 

 article to dispose of, are very useful, and 

 withal they will pay. A correspondent in 

 the Orange Judd Farmer offers these sug- 

 gestions and remarks : 



Every farmer should have a bulletin- 

 lioard, or small black-board 2x4 feet, and 

 when there is anything to spare, write it on 

 the board and stand it up by the roadside. 

 It may be a milch cow, a spare horse, a fat 

 hog, a calf or colt, a few seed potatoes, 

 plants or seeds, or any other commodity. 

 It is your surplus; somebody wants it, and 

 would buy it if he knew where it was. 

 A few years ago I wanted to buy a cow. I 

 rode three days and stopped at many 

 houses to make inquiry. It occurred to me 

 then that a farmer's Bulletin-Board would 

 be a good thing for buyers and sellers. 



We fully agree with this suggestion, and 

 as many honey-producers are already prac- 

 ticing it, why do not bee-keepers generally 

 use it, and thus reap the full benefit ! 



ABC of Bee-Ciiltitre, by A. I. 



Root, has again been revised and enlarged, 

 and the new edition is now on our shelves. 

 It contains 420 pages, and is profusely 

 illustrated. It is the cheapest, and one of 

 the best— if not the very best of all the 

 books on apiculture in existence. We con- 

 gratulate friend Root upon the perfection 

 and excellence of his book. The author 

 says : "The subjects in the body of the 

 book, that have received special revision, 

 are Comb Honey ; Feeding (the latter being 

 entirely re-written) ; Extracted Honey ; 

 Hive-making, with a description of how to 

 make the new Dovetailed hive ; Queen- 

 rearing, with a brief summary of Doolittle's 

 method of procuring and completing cells 

 in full colonies with a laying queen; 

 Swarming ; Veils, and Wintering. The last 

 subject was entirely re-written, so that it is 

 the very latest in regard to the in-door and 

 out-door methods. The whole subject is 

 well illustrated." 



Hon. James Heddon, Mayor of that 

 enterprising city of Michigan — Dowagiac — 

 was in the city last week on official business, 

 •and made the Bee Journal a friendly visit. 



Xlie Missouri State Bee-Keepers' 

 Association has affiliated with the " Inter- 

 national." That is right. The sooner the 

 latter becomes a representative body, the 

 better. It may then become in fact what 

 it is now in name only — International. Let 

 the good work go on until every State, 

 District and Local Society is represented in 

 it, and then its power and influence for the 

 good of the pursuit will be felt in every 

 part of our common country — America. 



Jamestown, N. Y., should have been 

 the address of the W. T. Falconer Manufac- 

 turing Company, on page 348. The printer 

 had it in New Jersey instead of New York. 



To Equalize the population in the 

 hives, it is now high time, so that all the 

 colonies in the apiary may be ready to 

 gather the June harvest. Mr. C. H. Dib- 

 bern, in the Westd-n Plowman, remarks 

 on this subject thus : 



May is pre-eminently a month of prepara- 

 tion and anticipation for the bee-keeper. 

 Every care and attention should be given 

 every colony in the apiary to place each in 

 the most favorable condition to breed up 

 rapidly. It is the bees produced this month 

 that will gather in the clover harvest in 

 June. It will pay well to equalize colonies 

 now, and place aU on an equal footing. 

 Where no attention is given on this point, a 

 few will be booming, and will swarm by 

 the time the first clover blossoms appear, 

 while many others will be so weak that 

 they have barely managed to hold then- 

 own. It is more profitable to have all do 

 well than to have a few that produce extra 

 yields, and manj; that yield next to noth- 

 ing. During fruit bloom is a good time to 

 do this equalizing, as there is then little 

 danger of robbing. 



In some places it is too late to do this — 

 in others, further North, it will be in time. 



