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371 



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. > PUBT.ISHKD HY '„„„ 



THO S. G.NEWMAN g > SON. 



' CMIC^CO. Il^t^. • 



EDITOR, 



Voinv. JnnelS.m No. 24. 



Xhe Matioual FIoM-er of America 

 is now receiving attention. Bee-keepers 

 should vote for the Golden-rod. 



En^clantl boasts of glorious weather 

 just now, with heavy bloom everywhere, 

 and the bees are gathering honey rapidlj'. 

 The Hecirrd is rejoicing over the fact. 



Xhe Western Apiarian is a new 



bee-paper published in Placer county, Calif. 

 It contains 16 pages and a cover ; and is 

 published monthly at 50 cents a year, by S. 

 L. Watkins and F. E. McCalluni. 



Xhe Present Hiffh Price of 

 Sug:ar will help the price of honey, if it 

 continues a little while longer. Honey may 

 be used to advantage in place of sugar— nay, 

 it is vastly superior to it for preserves, and 

 in making many kinds of cake, palatable 

 summer drinks, as well as in cooking. Let 

 bee-keepers see to it that it shall be thor- 

 oughly introduced, and its use secured in 

 every available manner, both by house- 

 keepers and manufacturers of mead,candies, 

 pastry cooks, etc. 



A Painted Bee.— Mr. W. F. Kenne- 

 cott, Lax, Wis., sent what he called "a 

 queer looking bee taken from an Italian 

 colony." Prof. Cook remarks thus concern- 

 ing it : 



The bee sent by Mr. Kennecott is simply 

 covered with red paint. I had always sup- 

 posed that bees had too good sense to prac- 

 tice these questionable methods. But this 

 is a genuine worker bee, and the brilliant 

 carmine seems genuine. Either some one 

 has been trying experiments, or else this 

 bee got into a tight place with paint all 

 about. 



An AppalliuK Calamity has over- 

 taken the inhabitants of Coaemaugh Valley, 

 I'a. On Friday alternoon, May 31, the dam 

 gave away up in the mountains, and a flood 

 of water rushed down the valley, sweeping 

 everything before it. The villages were de- 

 stroyed—buried beneath 40 feet of water. 

 Over 13,000 persons were drowned. There 

 was no time for escape. Before the irresis- 

 tibledeluge houses, stores, factories, public 

 buildings were torn to fragments and swept 

 away. 



The stone railway bridge below tlie city, 

 on the Conemaugh river, resisted the pres- 

 sure of the flood ; its arches became choked, 

 and tliere a huge mass of debris accumu- 

 lated. The many hapless ones on the rafts, 

 and in floating houses, on that angry flood, 

 were burned in the fire, which ignited from 

 the fires and lamps in the houses. The hor- 

 rible torture of that doom is appalling. 



An unknown man rode down the valley, 

 mounted on a big bay horse, just before the 

 flood, shouting, " Run for your lives ! Run 

 to the hills !" The people were awe-stricken. 

 But few comparatively fled, for in a few 

 moments there came a cloud of ruin down 

 the broad streets ; down the narrow alleys, 

 grinding, twisting, hurling, overturning, 

 crashing, annihilating the weak and the 

 strong ! It was the charge of flood wearing 

 its coronet of ruin and devastation, which 

 grew at every instant of its progress. On 

 and on raced the rider, and on and on 

 rushed the wave ! Dozens of people took 

 heed of the warning, and ran up the hills. 

 Poor, faithful rider I It was an unequal 

 contest. Just as he turned across the rail- 

 road bridge, the mighty wave fell upon him, 

 and horse, rider and bridge all went out into 

 chaos together. 



The whole country is touched in sympa- 

 thy, and from East, West, North and South 

 flnancial aid, food and clothing are pouring 

 in to the relief of the stricken inhabitants 

 left in the valley. Our people are noted for 

 giving full-rein to the most generous 

 promptings of practical sympathy. This 

 gives strength to our confidence in humanity. 



S-*Tect Clover.— Mr. C. H. Dibbern 

 talks about sweet clover, in the Western 

 Plowman, and gives his way of manage- 

 ment in these words : 



This year our three-acre field of sweet 

 clover will be no good, that is for the bees, 

 as we have sown it in oats. I have experi- 

 mented a good deal in the past ten years 

 with sweet clover. How to get a good stand 

 of clover every year has been the problem, 

 and I have come to the conclusion that it 

 cannot be done. I think 1 have hit on a 

 better plan. • . , . , j 



I think that no biennial plant can be made 

 to flower on the same piece of land every 

 year. In the case of melilot or sweet clover 

 it is, perhaps, best to sow it with oats early 

 in the spring, and that season a crop of oats 

 will be harvested. After it is cut the clover 

 will take possession of the land. The next 

 season it will simply he immense, and grow 

 taller than one's head, and blossom pro- 

 fusely. It will so shade the ground, how- 

 ever, that nothing else can grow, even the 

 seeds scattered by the sweet clover will 

 germinate during the fall. Now it is evi- 

 dent that nothing for the bees will be pro- 



duced the following year, and the use of the 

 land would be wasied. 



I have decided to utilize the land during 

 these otT years by going ovf r it with a disc 

 harrow and thorouahly cutting up the stalks 

 which also works thi^ soil up nicely by going 

 over it several times, and aaain sowing it 

 with oats. 01 course tlie around is covered 

 with the sweet clover seed, and will take 

 care of itself. 



If it is desired to liave a crop of sweet 

 clover every year, two pieces of land will 

 be necessary, and keeping it alternately in 

 oats and clover. Land treated in this way, 

 if ever so poor, I believe, will be greatly 

 benefited, as the great quantities of rolling 

 stalks are about as good as a coating ol 

 manure. 



Foul Brood among bees, in England, 

 seems to be rampant. The Dritish Bee 

 Joxirnal for May 23 has this to say about its 

 spreading, and the negligent stupidity of 

 those who are responsible for its ravages : 



This appears to be one of the perpetual 

 troubles of beekeeping. The chief diffi- 

 culty lies in the fact that although all the 

 bee-keepers save one in a district may take 

 every precaution to eradicate the disease, 

 that very one, either by his negligence or 

 stupidity, may again poison the whole dis- 

 trict. Can any of our readers say whether 

 it is a legal offence to sell bees suffering 

 from foul brood, even when no guarantee is 

 given ? 



Much obloquy has been cast upon expert 

 work on account of some unprincipled men 

 ignoring even the most rudimentary safe- 

 guards. We say most emphatically tliat it 

 is unjust to thus condemn experts as a body 

 for the sins of the few, but we do desire 

 some means of so dealing with tlie black 

 sheep, that they may for ever afterwards be 

 prevented from demoralizing that which is 

 a most honorable calling when properly con- 

 ducted. We have reason to believe that 

 some of these black sheep positively conceal 

 the fact of foul brood being in nxistence 

 lest they might lose custom. Was there 

 a more short-sighted policy ? Could the 

 committee of the British Bee-Keepers" As- 

 sociation consider this question in all its 

 bearings ? 



Fruit Bloom.— Mrs. L. C. Axtell, of 

 Roseville, Ills., in the Farmers' Review, re- 

 marks as follows about the bees, and fruit 

 blooming all at the same time : 



Since fruit-trees have been in blossom, the 

 weather has been so cool and cloudy that 

 most of the time bees have (;atli.-red very 

 little honey, and as bees at this time of the 

 year consume large amounts of honey in 

 brood rearing, many colonies will run out 

 of stores unless fed. A few pounds ot syrup 

 fed now will pay the beekeeper in larije re- 

 turns in a short time. Use the first time or 

 two, sugar sj rup, then add cheaper syrup as 

 the bees learn to take it. This year is the 

 first time I ever noticed the peach, cherry, 

 and apple trees in bloom at the same time. 



Peacli Ilonej'.— Mrs. L. Harrison re- 

 marks thus in the Prairie Farmer about the 

 honey gathered this spring from peach 

 blossoms : 



Tlie bees liad a rare treat this spring- 

 peach honey. Tliere has been n<> liloom on 

 peach trees in this locality since 1SS3. and it 

 was a welcome sight. An older settler said 

 to me lately : " 1 well r.Miieniber the time 

 when peaches were so plenty in I'eoria that 

 boys wouldn't steal them ; nice rip- peaches 

 would fall from the trees to the sidewalk, 

 and no one cared to pick them up." 



