116 



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Europe seems to have exchanged 

 weather with America this winter. The 

 latest advices report the wind furious, and 

 the weather bitterly cold. A cablegram of 

 Feb. 9, dated at London, says : 



The gale in England and Scotland still 

 continues. Telegraphic communication has 

 been interrupted by the storm, and a num- 

 ber of houses has been blown down. In 

 Scotland a heavy snow-storm prevails, and 

 the railways are blocked. All along the 

 coast there have been numerous wrecks. A 

 bark has been lost off Grimsby, and all 

 hands were drowned. 



From Berlin, the capital of Germany, on 

 the same date, comes the following : 



No evening train has arrived at Cassel or 

 Frankfort. Traffic on all lines is inter- 

 rupted by snow. 



Insects.— Prof. Lintner, State Ento- 

 mologist of New Tork, gives the known 

 number of species of insects in the United 

 States as 35,000, in the world, 325,000, with 

 probably a still larger number not yet 

 known. The number of plant-lice on a sin- 

 gle cherry tree has been computed at twelve 

 millions. In one year the entire wheat crop 

 of the State was destroyed, causing a loss of 

 $30,000,000. There are 323 different species 

 of insect enemies to the apple. 



fVliite Clover iu Poor Condition. 



—Henry Willson, Clinton, Ills., on Feb. 9, 



1889, writes : 



It seems that nearly all bee-keepers report 

 the white clover in good condition, but here 

 it is not, and I do not expect the bees to 

 make more than a living from it the coming 

 season ; last season it did not do even that 

 well. My bees averaged 33 pounds per col- 

 ony last year, spring count (nearly all of it 

 being comb honey, and all from heart's- 

 ease), and enough to winter on. Some of 

 my colonies swarmed without an ounce of 

 honey in the hive. I have 34 colonies in the 

 cellar, but they are not very quiet. 



We would like to hear from all apiarists 

 who find that white clover has been damaged 

 this winter. It will be interesting to know 

 this. Will they please report ? 



SovrinjS the Seed of general knowl- 

 edge about bees is now quite common. Mr. 

 Frank A. Eaton, of Bluffton, O., wrote us 

 on Jan. 31, 1889, as follows upon the matter 

 of scattering knowledge' concerning bees in 

 Toledo, Ohio, in addition to that given by 

 Dr. A. B. Mason, mentioned some time 

 since : 



Prof. Frank M. Maguire, superintendent 

 of one of the Toledo public schools, re- 

 cently gave a oae hour's lecture on " Bees 

 and Bee-Keeping," to the Century Club of 

 that city, one ot the leading literary so- 

 cieties of Toledo. He illustrated the lecture 

 with a living queen, drone, and worker-bee. 

 He also exhibited a queen-cell, section, 

 comb foundation, and (fiawn-out comb. It 

 was a revelation to the Club, many of them 

 never having before heard or dreamed of 

 the true character of the bee. 



Explanatorj'.— Kelative to the " omis- 

 sion " mentioned by Mr. R. McKnight, oa 

 page 100, Mr. Holtermann sends the follow- 

 ing explanation, which will end that matter 

 in our columns : 



Tou, Mr. Editor, knew that the article 

 was in type, and proof sent to you before 

 my departure for Owen Sound. I there 

 omitted the clause with the kindest inten- 

 tion and best will towards all ; I took a lib- 

 erty in so doing, and perhaps I should have 

 read it as it was. On Mr. McKnight at least 

 my good intentions were lost. 



In reference to the omission of Mr. 

 Pringle's essay, let me say that I did not 

 know that I had omitted it until I hunted 

 the matter up, when my attention was 

 drawn to it last week. The supposition 

 that any " personal pique " existed between 

 Mr. Pringle and myself is erroneous, for at 

 that very meeting I happened to have paid 

 Mr. Pringle's membership fee before the 

 election of officers, so as to make him 

 eligible for directorship for his district. 

 Mr. Pringle and myself have, perhaps, very 

 little in common, yet that does not prove 

 any pique ! I might explain matters a little 

 more fully, and take exception to Mr. 

 McKnight's statement as to the value of the 

 matter excluded, but I do not wish to be the 

 cause of producing any ill-feeling, or in- 

 tensifying that which apparently exists. I 

 find the school I have been in for some years 

 an excellent one ; it will make me more 

 careful, knowing that I am watched so 

 closely, and caught up so quickly at the 

 slightest slip by some ; and if I could always 

 think that their criticisms were in a kindly 

 spirit, I would find it less difficult to be 

 thankful for them. 



TSew Bee-Association.— Mr. J. G. 



Graham, of Agency, Mo., writes as follows 

 concerning the formation [of a new bee- 

 society : 



The bee-keepers of Agency, Mo., and 

 vicinity, met on Feb. 2, and organized "The 

 Agency Bee-Keepers' Association," with 14 

 members to start with. J. G. Graham was 

 elected President ; Rev. S. H. Murray and 

 E. F. Gordon, Vice-Presidents ; T. S. Smith, 

 Secretary ; and J. E. Wallace, Treasurer. 



Bees were reported as wintering well. 

 The subject of hives was discussed ; each 

 preferring his own or the Langstroth. The 

 next meeting will be held on the last Satur- 

 day in March. The subjects for discussion 

 are comb and extracted honey, and founda- 

 tion for brood-chamber and surplus recep- 

 tacles ; the kind and the extent to which it 

 should be used. 



Coins by Mail.— An invention that is 

 being used for sending coin through the 

 mails consists of a piece of pasteboard about 

 the size of an envelope. In it are holes the 

 size of a silver quarter, a half dollar, and a 

 dollar, with red paper seals ready to paste 

 across each slot. A coin can be put in and 

 sealed, inclosed in an envelope, and sent 

 through the mails in safety. 



Coins should never be sent through the 

 mails in ordinary envelopes. 



Catalogues for 1889 are on our desk 

 from— 



H. G. Frame, North Manchester, Ind.— 

 4 pages— Bees and Queens. 



George Pinney, Evergreen, Wis.— 16 pages 

 —Nursery Stock. 



Cleveland Nursery, Lakewood, O.— 48 

 pages— Strawberries, Grapes, Gooseberries, 

 etc. 



Planting for Honey.— Mrs. L. C. 



Axtell, reports her experience with plant- 

 ing for honey thus, when writing to the 

 Farmers' Review : 



One year ago last summer we purchased 

 one pound of Japanese buckwheat for 

 which we paid 50 cents, sowed it, and it 

 yielded three pecks. Again last summer we 

 sowed the three pecks and got 16 bushels. 

 It is a larger kernel by nearly one-third, 

 and grows more thrifty than the other buck- 

 wheat. It hardly had a fair chance to do 

 its best last summer, either, as the ground 

 was weedy, and the weeds got ahead of the 

 young buckwheat. 



We had a 10 acre field of Alsike clover 

 that was as handsome as a flower garden, 

 last fall, with all the three kinds of clover 

 in bloom at the same time, the Alsike, the 

 red, and the white clover ; but as bees do 

 not get much honey from clover in the fall, 

 we could not tell how good a honey-plant 

 the Alsike was. It has a most beautiful 

 flower : the top of the clover ball Is bright 

 pink, and the lower is white, and many 

 heads on a stem. It is in size about half 

 way between the red and the white. 



Xlie mild ^Vinter has saved millions 

 of dollars in fuel, and allowed builders and 

 others to work nearly all the time— thus 

 proving a blessing to those who need the 

 results of labor. 



Clothiers and those merchants who have 

 large stocks of seasonable goods have suf- 

 fered this time with coal dealers, but on the 

 whole the mild season has been a blessing. 



As to winter coming later on, an ex- 

 change wisely remarks that " we are now so 

 far advanced in February that there is no 

 reason why much attention should be paid 

 to those croakers who say winter may yet 

 come. Doubtless there will be unpleasant 

 days this month and next, but there will be 

 none of those bitter blasts that threaten 

 the life of man and beast. The winter is 

 far spent ; the days are lengthening out ; 

 the sunshine grows stronger ; the spring is 

 approaching." Let us all be happy and 

 prepare for it. 



Xhe Bee and Honey Exhibit for 



the Paris Exposition, under the superin- 

 tendence of Mr. N. W. McLain, is now com- 

 plete, and has been shipped to Paris. It is 

 a part of the exhibit by the United States 

 Government for the International Exposi- 

 tion to be held in Paris during next sum- 

 mer. 



Mr. McLain has been in Washington nine 

 weeks preparing the articles collected for 

 transmission, and has a very good assort- 

 ment of bee-products and bee-keeping im- 

 plements. He is now at work on the Meat 

 and Dairy Products. 



Seed.— The United States Commissioner 

 of Agriculture, Hon. N. J. Colman, has pur- 

 chased a quantity of the Chapman honey- 

 plant seed for free distribution. Applicants 

 desiring packages of the seed will be sup- 

 plied while the seed lasts, in the order of 

 their applications. The request for seed 

 should be addressed to the United States 

 Commissioner of Agriculture (Seed Divi- 

 sion), Washington, D. C. 



