520 



1 



THE JtMERipjEif <BBU JOUMnmiL. 



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Those that were one-fourth Italian, 

 got about enough to winter ; but all the 

 blacks I had to feed, taking frames of 

 honey from the Italian colonies to do 

 that feeding with. 



Right here is where many make a 

 mistake, when thej- claim that hybrid 

 bees will store more honey than the 

 Italians, as it sometimes happens that 

 the Italians under poor management 

 fail to put as much houej' in sections 

 as do the hybrids. Looking at the sec- 

 tions, it would appear as if the liybrids 

 were the Ijest, but when we come to 

 prei)are the bees for winter, then we 

 fintl that while we have to feed the hy- 

 brids to fix them so the}' will not st.arve 

 before spring, every hive having the 

 light-colored Italians in them, has an 

 abundance of stores, and often enough 

 to spare, to put the hybrids in good 

 eonilition as to stores also. 



Sdine think that it is best to have the 

 brood-chambers of the hives nearly or 

 quite empty in tlie fall, as the hybrid 

 bees generally have them, so tliat they 

 can sell the lionej' and feed the bees 

 for winter, claiming tliat bees will 

 ■winter better on sugar syrup than 

 on lioney. I know that bees will win- 

 ter well on sugar syrup, but so far my 

 observation says that thej- will do 

 equally as well on the honey. 



It is a job to feed a whole apiarj- in 

 the fall of the j-ear, when the bees have 

 stopped getting honey, and one that I 

 do not hanker after, after having tried 

 it onc(! or twice from necessity-. Mj- 

 belief is, that the Italian bees are the 

 best bees in the world, taking all things 

 into consideration. 



B(n-odino, N. Y. 



THE UNION. 



IIuw I lie Arkadclpliia Arsiiincnt 

 Prevciils Bec-Liawsuits. 



Written for the American Bee Jour^ial 



BY ,TOHN M'KEON. 



Dear Editor : — As I have a guilty 

 conscience, and think it onlj' right that 

 I confess that I have wronged you, and 

 without doubt robbed you of some 

 laurels, because, as I vmderstand, there 

 has been some under-handed plotting 

 in regard to making us remove the 

 bees out of the corporate limits, al- 

 though our bees have never troubled 

 any person or thing yet ; and they are 

 not less than 40 feet from the side- 

 walk, for they are hemmed in bj- young 

 trees, and only five houses on the 

 whole street, and only on one side at 

 that, the other .side beingfarming land. 



On June 30, three small children 

 were sent down this back street, and 

 for the purpose of getting those inno- 

 cents stung, as I could see no other 



purpose, for 'i Qui>? ones were hem- 

 med on both srw„,.„ya sw,ai-m, but they 

 were not harmed. A lawyer came 

 down, and tried to quarrel, and endeav- 

 ored to frighten the people, saying 

 that it was dangerous to pass. Teams 

 were driven by, and people that came 

 from church passed without harm. 

 (Now I don't think that it is at ;\11 nec- 

 cessary that because a man is a lawyer, 

 he must be a scamp.) 



As I kept hearing these things, I was 

 exceedingly anxious to hear of Z. A. 

 Clark's case, and when I received the 

 Bee Journal, of June 29, I was 

 happj^ I showed it to very many, and 

 said, "Read that, and compare it with 

 the rulings of that old fossil of Ithaca" 

 — I meant Judge Boardman — in the 

 rich bee-case, as they were acquainted 

 with his rulings, likening an apiary to 

 a pig-stj- and slaughter-house. Avery 

 worth}- young disciple of Blackstone, 

 after reading Judge Williams' argu- 

 ment, declared that it was a most 

 powerful defense. 



Now, Mr. Newman, if you feel hurt 

 at losing a chance to be defendant in 

 a bee-suit, then I humblj' ask your par- 

 don ; for the argument of Judge Wil- 

 liams has "cooked" those fellows. 

 But you may say, " Mc Keon, I do not 

 know you as a member of the Union." 

 Well, i am one by proxy, for my wife 

 is. In 1882 she said that she would 

 bu}' two colonies if I would take care 

 of them. A few years after, I said to 

 her that if she kept bees she must join 

 the Bee-keepers' Union. She replied, 

 " John, 3-ou don't think that we will 

 ever have any trouble, do you ?" I said. 

 "No; yet we can't always tell, and it is 

 better to jirepare for war in time of 

 peace." 



Buckwheat is just beginning to bloom, 

 that is, the earliest sown, and if the 

 weather is only favorable, we shall get 

 a good crop of honey, as there is a 

 large acreage of it in range of our bee- 

 yard, — perhaps not less than 200 acres, 

 and maybe more. The farmers tell me 

 that there is more sown than ever. 



Dry den, N. Y. 



[No, indeed ; the Manager of the 

 Union is in no wise " hurt" over such 

 a matter. He does not covet lawsuits 

 and all their consequent annoj'anees. 

 He was dra\\'u into the i)osition witli- 

 out anj' thought of what it entailed, or 

 he would nothave dared to have accep- 

 ted the ofllcc. It has taken months of 

 labor, and caused many a sleepless 

 vigil. And all he gets for it is the 

 " glory " or " laurels " you mention — 

 but he is quite willing, yes anxious to 

 divide them, in cases similar to the 

 above. — Eu.] 



BEE-TALK. 



Hints about Bec-Kcepers' Con- 

 ventions, etc. 



Written for Olcanings in Bee-Culture 



BY DR. A. B. MASON. 



It may not be uninteresting to learn 

 that, in this locality, or within the 

 bounds of our Tri-County Agricultural 

 Society, comjirising the counties of 

 Lenawee and Monroe, Michigan, and 

 Lucas, Ohio, the bee-keepers are awake 

 to the importance of improving ever}' 

 opportunity to educate the people in 

 regard to our important and growing 

 industry. 



A year ago last winter the society 

 held a three-days' meeting at Monroe, 

 Mich. It was just " chock-full" of 

 enthusiasm, and the bee-keepers did 

 their full share. It was so arranged as 

 to have our specialty discussed in the 

 evening, when there would be a full 

 attendance of people from the city, 

 whom it is quite desirable to disabuse 

 of ther false belief in regard to the 

 adulteration of our product, and cor- 

 rect the false impressions made by 

 "Wiley" lies and newspaper squibs — 

 the product of the fertile imaginations 

 of reporters. 



Th<! next week after the above-men- 

 tioned meeting, a farmers' institute, 

 under the auspices of the Ohio State 

 Board of Agriculture, was held in the 

 county, ten miles from Toledo, at 

 which our friend T. B. Terry was one 

 of the lecturers, and our specialty was 

 again brought to the notice of the farm- 

 ers and others by the reading of a 

 paper by myself, and the subject re- 

 ceived its share of attention. And 

 again at a like institute held in another 

 part of the county, on the last day of 

 last year and the tirst day of this, the 

 subject was again presented by an essay 

 that gave something of the natural his- 

 tory of bees, and the benetit they are 

 to the farmer and to the agriculturist. 

 Last winter at Adrian, Mich., was 

 held the anniversary of the Lenawee 

 County Horticultural Society, and one 

 of the principal addresses, through the 

 eflbrts one of } our patrons, Mr. D. G. 

 Edmislon, of that place, was on the 

 relation of bee-culture to horticulture. 

 It was well received. Again in Jan- 

 uary last was held at Adrian the meet- 

 ing of the Lenawee County and the 

 Tri-C(ninty Agricultural Societies ; and 

 on the programme for one of the eve- 

 ning sessions, half of the time was 

 given to an essay on bee-keeping, etc., 

 by H. D. Cutting, of Clinton, Mich., 

 and to one by your humble servant. 

 The subjects of "both pai)ers were dis- 

 cussed by such bee-keepers as D. G. 

 Edmiston, Mr. Ellis, A. M. Gander, 

 and others ; and the discussion showed 



