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XHOmAS G. WE^VIUAW, 



EDITOR. 



Vol. mi, Sept. 6,1890, No. 36, 



Dr. A. B. Mason is to award the 

 Premiums at the Michigan State Fair in 

 the Honey and Vegetable Department. He 

 is an expert in these lines, and will do 

 creditable work. 



Xlie Anard of the Premiums^ at 



the Detroit Exposition gave universal sat- 

 i-sfaetion to all the exhibitors. It is a pleas- 

 ure to act as " judge " for such an intelli- 

 gent and agreeable body of exhibitors as 

 were there. 



<»Hr Fi-ieiMl. Mr. H. D. Cutting, has 

 done nobly in getting a grand exhibit of 

 honey at the Detroit Exposition, notwith- 

 standing the poor honey crop. He is a 

 icoj'fccc, and the " Management " are to be 

 congratulated upon having secured such an 

 •able and reliable Superintendent of the 

 Apiary Department. 



Tlie Xri>!!$tate Fair will be held in 

 Toledo, O., from Sept. 8 to 13, 1890. We 

 regret to notice that the Premiums in the 

 Apiarian Department have been cut down 

 to *60. Last year, and, indeed, for several 

 years quite liberal Premiums have been 

 offered. This will necessarily cut down 

 the exhibits very much. It is very poor 

 policy to do this, but we understand that 

 the "Management" has gone into other 

 hands— and, we might add, into greener 

 hands, in more ways than one. They will 

 likely see their mistake as the years roll on. 



What a contrast is presented between 

 the Premiums at Toledo and Detroit— the 

 latter are over $500— nearly ten times the 

 amount of the aggregate Premiums at 

 Toledo. Dr. A. B. Mason is the Superin- 

 tendent at Toledo, but is in no way respon- 

 sible for the cut in Premiums. 



Xlie I'^ttiior having agreed to serve as 

 judge at the Detroit Fair and Expostion, 

 in the Apiary Department, concluded to go 

 to Ohio and visit relatives for a few days, 

 returning by the way of Detroit, and make 

 a short visit to some beekeepers that 

 might be on the route, as circumstances 

 permitted. 



At Medina, Ohio, we stopped over a 

 train to call on our friend and co laborer, 

 Mr. A. I. Root. We found him busy, as 

 usual, in the management of his larje 

 manufacturing establishment and bee- 

 keepers' suppjy bouse. His son-in-law, Mr. 

 John Calvert, showed us all over the 

 premises, and although it is now quite 

 extensive,Mr. Root is adding to its capacity 

 by the erection of another large building, 

 in order to accommodate his rapidly-in- 

 ci-easing business. He makes almost every- 

 thing used by apiarists, and it requires 

 much room and machinery, as well as 

 many hands to do it. Ernest was away in 

 New York visiting apiaries, on his bicycle, 

 and so we were disappointed in not seeing 

 him and his excellent wife. The ladies of 

 the "Root" family— Mrs. A. I. Root, Mrs. 

 Calvert (her daughter), and Mrs. Ernest 

 Root — are charming, and the young ladies, 

 the heads of departments in the office, are 

 intelligent and faithful workers in that 

 "hive of industry." 



We had an excellent visit there, and as 

 the train we expected to take did not put 

 in an appearance in time for us to make 

 connection with the New York, Pennsylva- 

 nia & Ohio railway going east, " John " 

 kindly took us iu a buggy, and drove to 

 Russel (14 miles). This gave us a chance 

 to have a long visit with him, and see the 

 fine country between these two points. 

 This we enjoyed most fully, and arrived at 

 Kent, in Portage county, on time. 



Here Mr. Benj. Harding, our nephew, has 

 a small apiary, but the drouth prevented 

 the bees from gathering honey, and so far 

 only a few pounds of comb honey is the 

 result of the season's operations, where 

 there should have been many hundreds of 

 pounds. Mr. H. resides about two miles 

 east of Kent. In the city, Mr. L. G. Reed 

 has the principal apiary. It is a marvel of 

 neatness, but the same atmospheric condi- 

 tions have cut his honey crop short. 



We were unable to stop over at Bedford, 

 to see Mr. J. B. Hains and Miss Dema 

 Bennett. We saw the apiary, however, as 

 the ti-ain was pulling out of that place. We 

 presume Mr. Hains' crop is also short. 



At Cleveland we also visited relatives, 

 and then took the steamboat for Detroit. 

 At the Exposition we found a magnificent 

 apiarian exhibit— about double the quan- 

 tity exhibited last year ; it was of excellent 

 quality, and arranged most attractively. 



This is written at the hotel, after looking 

 the exhibit over, on Wednesday evening. 

 To-morrow we are to award the premiums, 

 and will give more details of the display 

 next week, after we return home. 



The "Management" of the Elzposition 

 have been very liberal with Premiums 

 (over $500), and this has made the exhibit 

 what it is. Several of the exhibitors have 

 displayed their whole croi)s. 



Mr. H. D. Cutting (the Superintendent) 

 has been working very hard to get a credit- 

 able display ; so has Mr. W. Z. Hutchinson, 

 Mr. M. H. Hunt, Mr. O. L. Hershiser, and 

 others. Dr. A. B. Mason and Mr. J. Y. 

 Detwiler are here from Toledo, and to- 

 morrow and Friday there will be a pleas- 

 ant re-union among bee-men. 



A Honey Xliief was the heading of 

 an item in the Chicago Mail of Aug. 23, 

 1890, and the account of the honey-steal- 

 ing was told in the following "short and 

 sweet" manner : 



A sweetlooking thief was John Snyder, 

 of Lawndale, as he stood before Police 

 Magistrate Doyle this morning, charged 

 with stealing the honey from the hives of 

 Officer Fairchild of the above suburb. 



Said the officer : " I have lost the honey 

 from my hives for the last four years, and 

 I firmly believe that this fellow has been 

 the thief. 1 captured him the other uight 

 while making off with a tubful of the 

 sweetness." 



The prisoner, with swollen face, did not 

 deny that he was the guilty party, and he 

 was held to the grand jury on the charge 

 of grand larceny. 



Officer Jesse Fairchild is one of our host 

 of readers and customers, and has quite a 

 large apiary which he has run successfully 

 in connection with his official duties for the 

 past few years. We are glad that the bees 

 helped to catch the thief by "marking" 

 him in their accustomed effective way. He 

 will think twice next time ere he tackles 

 the possessions of the hard-working bee. 



A ltee-I..ine is frequently spoken of, 

 and its origin no doubt can be traced to the 

 bees themselves, as they are very strong, 

 and can fl.y very fast and for a long time 

 without taking a rest. Their eyes are made 

 to see a a great distance, and when away 

 from their habitations they mount up iu 

 the air until they see the place where the 

 hives are situated, and then fly toward it 

 in a straight line with great velocity ; 

 hence the shortest line between two given 

 points is often referred to as a " bee-line." 

 This habit is taken advantage of by hun- 

 ters of wild honey, to trace the hives in the 

 woods. 



It is a ^Vell KnoMii Fact that bees 

 never visit two or more distinct classes of 

 flowers on the same trip, but always pro- 

 cure a full load of pollen or honey of which- 

 ever kind they commence on first, and 

 return to the hive or home to unload be- 

 fore making a change. While this is so, 

 bees frequently visit flowers of the differ- 

 ent kinds of clovers on the same trip, for I 

 have seen occasionally a bee go from a 

 white clover blossom to that of the red, 

 then to that of the Alsike, al! on the same 

 trip ; but the first holds good generally, 

 even with the different kinds of clovers. 

 Exchanfie. 



