AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



257 



last Fall. The steamboats were com- 

 pelled to abandon their business to a 

 greater extent than ever before, on 

 account of dry weather, or rather, low 

 water. Does not this show that the 

 rainfall has not been so great, as usual, 

 the past two or three years ? There 

 is no question, in ray mind, but what 

 almost all kinds of honey-producing 

 plants need a great deal of moisture in 

 order to put them in the best condition 

 for yielding nectar. Whether, as some 

 have claimed, snow has some kind of 

 fertilizing influence on the soil that 

 causes it to make the plants to yield 

 more profusely of nectar the following 

 season, I very much doubt, only as it 

 acts as a protection from severe winds 

 and inclement weather. 



Of course, as Dr. Miller would say, " I 

 don't know ;" but I want to profit by 

 experience. I am speaking only of this 

 locality. 



Upper Alton, Ills., Feb. 3, 1892. 



Bee-Scouls SelecUm a Home. 



JOHN KIDNEY. 



I find that the little bee will bear a 

 great deal of close study, and then we 

 may not understand all of its ways. Of 

 late there has been a good deal said 

 about bee-scouts, some claiming that 

 bees have scouts that go in search of 

 some proper place for their future home, 

 which they commonly find in some hol- 

 low tree before they migrate, while 

 others ridicule the idea. So I will tell a 

 little experience of my grandfather's. I 

 have heard him tell it many times. 



He was quite a bee-hunter. He says 

 he found a bee-tree, as he supposed; the 

 bees were flying in and out freely, and 

 he thought he could cut the tree and 

 save the bees in a hive, it being swarm- 

 ing time. 



So he took the hive and the necessary 

 things, and commenced cutting the tree, 

 but before he had it down, what should 

 he see and hear but a swarm of bees 

 that came and located in the very place 

 where he thought he already had a col- 

 ony. He continued, and cut the tree, 

 but instead of finding an old colony with 

 its honey, he found a swarm with noth- 

 ing but bees, which he saved in the hive. 



His conclusion was that the bees were 

 there to inspect andp repare the tree for 

 their future home, and I never could talk 

 him out of that idea. 

 - Now, a little of my own experience is, 

 that at two different times I have fol- 



lowed absconding swarms, and kept up 

 with them, one mile or more until they 

 went into a tree where they staid. They 

 went straight to their destination, and I 

 think they knew where they were going. 

 Oakley, Mich. 



Hoiiey-Dew-f liat Is Honey ? 



GEO. F. ROBBINS. 



Mr. Stone makes a mistake in his re- 

 port of the proceedings of the conven- 

 tion, on page 41, which, though appar- 

 ently slight, is not in fact so slight after 

 all. He says that none could report any 

 light-colored honey. The author of this 

 article did report 100 pounds of beauti- 

 ful white clover honey. I exhibited 

 four cases of it at the fair in Springfield. 

 Mr. Kennedy also, if I remember cor- 

 rectly, also had some there, but I do not 

 remember whether he i-eported it at the 

 convention or not. 



HONEY-DEW. 



The Secretary, in his report to the 

 convention, makes two statements which 

 I deem errors. One is, that to call 

 lioney-dew "bug-juice" prejudices the 

 mind of the consumer. If it prejudices 

 against honey-dew only, it does no great 

 harm. But I presume he meant that it 

 brings ill-repute upon the work of the 

 honey-bee in general. Others there 

 were of that opinion. It is a view in 

 which I have never shared, although I 

 did not express myself at the time — for 

 there was no lack of talkers and subject 

 matter at our meeting. 



If honey-dew were not an unpopular 

 article upon its own merits, there would 

 be good cause to hold that view. But 

 the actual test of the stuff upon the 

 table is generally sufficient to turn folks 

 against it. Some persons like it, but 

 the great majority of honey-eaters do 

 not — at least such is the weight of 

 proofs so far as I can obtain them. And 

 that is the real test of the value of any- 

 thing. If the consumer likes it, it is 

 worth something ; if not, it is worthless. 

 And to prejudice the mind by any such 

 means against that which is valueless, is 

 certainly an anomaly, if not an ab- 

 surdity. 



Now, honey-dew has found its level — 

 as an article of commerce it is practi- 

 cally worthless. For my part, I want to 

 draw the distinction between that and 

 genuine honey, strong and sharp. I 

 want my customers and the public to 

 understand that "honey-dew" is no 



