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spring. It we get plenty of spring rains, I 

 think that the clover will be a fair crop. If 

 not, the old story of ISST and 1888 will be 

 repeated. 1 sowed one peek of Japanese 

 buckwheat last spring, from which I received 

 nine bushels of seed. It was sown on about 

 35 square rods of ground. I had three- 

 fourths of au acre sown with the common 

 variety, from which I harvested only 12 

 bushels. All who see the Japanese variety, 

 want some (or seed. I intend to sow that 

 exclusively another year. I think that it is 

 the buckwheat. 



■test Prospects in 15 Years.— 



Messrs. Bray & Seacord, Warthan, Fresno 

 Co., Calif., on Jan. 1, 1889, write : 



The pro.'pecls are good for a large yield 

 of honey for the season of 1889. Vegetation 

 of all kinds is making a rank growth— in an 

 experience of 1.5 years, we have never seen 

 such a good prospect as the present. There 

 has been no frost of any consequence, 

 simply a splendid open winter, with an 

 abundance of warm rains for all agricul- 

 tural purposes ; in fact, it is more like late 

 spring and summer weather. When it is 

 not raining, one can do all out-door work 

 minus a coat, or any superfluous clothing. 

 Just imagine the middle of winter, with 

 your April and May climate in California, 

 and you will then understand the situation. 

 We wish the American Bee Journal a 

 happy and prosperous year, with a large 

 flow of (milk and) honey. 



rairly Oood Honey Crop.— F. M. 



Merritt, Andrew, Iowa, on Dec. 24, 1888, 

 writes : 



The honey crop of 1888 has been fairly 

 good in this part of Iowa. I commenced 

 the season with 8 colonies, and increased 

 them to 21. Three of the 8 colonies were 

 very weak, and required feeding until the 

 latter part of May, when all the colonies 

 built up rapidly on apple-bloom and dande- 

 lion, of which there are acres covered with 

 this beautiful yellow-flowered plant. The 

 white clover did fairly well, and I secured 

 about 100 pounds of honey from it, in the 

 extracted form. 1 got about 900 pounds 

 from the fall flowers, such as golden-rod, 

 wild aster and heart'sease. I have se- 

 cured 1,000 pounds of honey, about one-half 

 of it extracted, and the other half in the 

 comb. All the colonies are in winter quar- 

 ters, and seem to be doing nicely. 



Cellar <or Tl'interingf Bees.— J. 

 H. Bingham, Lee, Mich., on Dec. 31, 1SS8, 

 writes : 



I had 35 colonies of Italians and hybrids 

 last spring, which 1 increased to 4.5, by nat- 

 ural swarming, and took otf .35 pounds of 

 comb honey per colony, with the brood- 

 frames still well filled. I have made a bee- 

 cellar this fall. It is 12 feet wide, 20 feet 

 long, and 7 feet high. It is built in a hill- 

 side, with joist over the top, and plank, 

 with 2 feet of sawdust on the plank, and a 

 good roof over the top. I have 45 colonies 

 in the cellar, and the temperature is at 43°. 

 The hill is sandy. There is a ventilator 4 

 inches square in the top of the cellar, but 

 the cellar is damp, but not enough for water 

 to stand on the hives. Will the bees winter 

 well in this cellar ? 



[Bees ought to winter well in a cellar 

 made as described above, but they cannot 

 always be depended on tor safety. Losses 

 have and will occur sometimes, no matter 

 how wintered. Springing is the most danger- 

 ous, and causes more loss, usually, than any 

 kind of winter management.— Ed.] 



^Vintering- in a. Bee-Honse. — 



Samuel Snow, Faj'etteville, N. T., on Jan. 

 5, 1889, says : 



The old year, 1888, has passed on to be 

 remembered as one of the " has beens," and 

 the new year, 1889, has quietly stepped into 

 its place. While the record of 1888 has not 

 been what some of us would wish, yet it is 

 not a bad one, by any means. Let us re- 

 member it with gratitude, and with the 

 Almighty's permission, start 1889 with re 

 newed energy, under more favorable aus- 

 pices, and do more and better work. I com- 

 menced the spring of 1888 with 65 colonies, 

 increased them to some over 100, and took 

 over 3,000 pounds of nice comb honey, and 

 100 pounds of extracted. My bees are in a 

 bee-house (made so that they occupy it 

 during the summer and winter) ; in which 

 they are now tucked away in forest leaves. 

 They had a nice flight yesterday, and im- 

 proved the opportunity. 



Xlie Past Season's Results E. 



F. Meeker, Duncan, Ills., on Dec. 28, 1888, 

 says : 



I commenced the past season with .50 col- 

 onies of bees, and I have at present 109 

 colonies. I took a trifle over 2,000 pounds 

 of honey. 



but I did not succeed very well, for swarm 

 they would, and swarm they did. So I con- 

 cluded that if they would swarm, I would 

 put two and three after-swarms together, 

 which seemed to do very well, and I had 

 strong colonies soou ready for the sections, 

 which gathered the most of my honey. My 

 black bees did not amount to much, but the 

 Italians and hybrids are the bees for this 

 part of the country. I introduced one queen 

 in July, which I am well pleased with. I 

 shall try some more, if everything is favor- 

 able. I put 33 colonies into the cellar, and 

 left 2 on the summer stands to experiment 

 with. The winter has been very nice so 

 far, with the temperature at 62° in the shade. 

 The bees on the summer stands had a good 

 flight on Dec. 23. Since Jan. 1, the tem- 

 perature has been from 38° to 40° above zero. 



Killed I>y Accident. — Mr. Fred J. 

 Mudgett, of Meredith, N. H., writes thus 

 concerning the death of his brother : 



My dear brother, Raymond L. Mudgett, 

 was shot and killed by the accidental dis- 

 charge of his gun while hunting on Oct. .3. 

 It is a terrible blow to me ; he was my only 

 brother, a promising young man, 18 years 

 of age, and it seems hard to have our loved 

 ones cut down in such a terrible way. How 

 many there are in this broad land of ours 

 that have been called upon to pass through 

 just such sad scenes. 



Fed tlie Bees for 'Winter.- C. W. 



Bradish, Houseville, N. T., on Jan. 1, 1889, 

 says: 



The past was the poorest season for bees 

 that I ever saw. I had 75 colonies on June 

 1, and 90 in the fall, and took about 400 

 pounds of comb honey. I had to feed two 

 barrels of eranulated sugar made into 

 syrup, and 500 pounds of extracted honey, 

 to winter them. Those who have not fed 

 their bees, will lose all this winter. 



My Experience -vritli Bees.— W. 

 A. Shafnit, Brighton, Iowa, on Jan. 4, 1889, 

 writes : 



I started with 1 colony of bees, which I 

 found when mowing weeds along a hedge 

 fence on July 4, IS83, and put into a box. I 

 then had bees, but I did not have any 

 honey the first two years. I concluded that 

 I did not want them unless we could have 

 honey, so I adopted the 8 frame Langstroth 

 hive, and commenced to read and experi- 

 ment, and killed some bees, by my ignor- 

 ance, as some say. The third year 1 ob- 

 tained 80 pounds per colony, of comb honey. 

 The fourth year the yield was only about 25 

 pounds per colony, b^ing a very dry year, 

 and the bees did nothing. They went into 

 winter quarters very light, and I had a 

 heavy loss in the spring, as the season was 

 backward and cold. The fifth year the bees 

 did tolerably well, averaging about 50 

 pounds per colony, spring count. My great- 

 est trouble is, that they swarm too much. I 

 have been working the past season by the 

 Heddon method of preventing after-swarms, 



Poor Season l^ast Year. — Jacob 



Copeland, Allendale, Ills., on Jan. 7, 1889, 

 says : 



The last year was a poor one for bees and 

 honey in "this neck of woods." From 55 

 colonies I obtained about 5.50 pounds of 

 honey, or an average of 10 pounds per col- 

 ony of nice comb honey in one-pound sec- 

 tions. One young colony and one old one 

 gave me 50 pounds each, and the yield was 

 from that all the way down to less than 

 nothing. I suppressed the increase— which, 

 by the way, was not hard to do— so that I 

 have only about 60 colonies now. 



Bark Honey, etc. — I. S. Herron, 



Marshfield, 0., on Dec. 31, 1888, says : 



I have my 47 colonies ot bees stowed in 

 the cellar, and they appearto be doing well. 

 Last year there was not much ot a honey 

 season here. I started in the spring with 27 

 colonies, increased them to .52, and nave lost 

 5 colonies through queenlessness ; being 

 late swarms they did not store suflicient 

 honey to last them even until winter, and I 

 neglected them. I took about 400 pounds of 

 comb honey, mostly in 2pound sections. 

 All the honey gathered in this county was 

 dark in color, being mostly gathered from 

 poplar, raspberry and blackberry. There 

 was no clover honey. 



Very 91ild Winter, etc.— Jas. A. 

 Matney, St. Joseph, Mo., on Jan. 7, 1889, 

 writes : 



1 like to read the experience of bee-keep- 

 ers from all parts of the country, as printed 

 in the American Bee Journal. Bees in 

 this section of Missouri were not profitable 

 the past year. 1 had 13 colonies last spring, 

 and have only the same number now, and 1 

 had very little honey from them the past 

 season. If my bees winter all right, I shall 

 be able to start next spring where I was last 

 spring. We have had a very mild winter so 

 far. Bees were flying last week. 



<jSoo<1 Results tlie Past Season. 



— S. E. Daggett, Conrad Grove, Iowa, on 

 Dec. 25, 1888, wrote : 



On Dec. 1, 1887, 1 p\it 6 colonies of Italian 

 bees into the cellar, and took them out the 

 first ot last April in good condition. I in- 

 creased them to 18 colonies, and obtained 

 .500 pounds ot very nice comb honey, which 

 1 am disposing of at 20 cents per pound. 

 These results were obtained by close atten- 

 tion. My bees are in the cellar, with 

 plenty of stores for winter. I am a be- 

 ginner, but I have learned to love the bees, 

 and we get along nicely together ; thanks 

 to the American Bee Journal for its 

 useful instruction. 



