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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



June 8, 190S 



bee-keepers and others who are interested in 

 the production and sale of honey. But it can 

 be done by a persistent, united effort. 



A Glowing Account of a Honey-Flow 



Arthur Laing glvcB iu the Canadian Bee 

 Journal the following account of a honey-flow 

 from logwood in the island of .Jamaica that is 

 enough to send a thrill to the heart of any 

 genuine bee-keeper : 



I noticed unmistakable evidences of an 

 almost universal bloom, and about 10 days 

 later it came out in all its glory. It was truly 

 a magnificent sight, and although the house 

 was about 500 feet from the apiary, the roar 

 of the bees passing to and fro was a sound to 

 make glad the heart of any bee-keeper. I 

 went down to the apiary one morning about 6 

 o'clock, and if I live to be 100 years old I 

 never expect to see a more stirring scene in 

 any apiary than I looked upon in that yard of 

 250 colonies. The bees seemed to be fairly 

 wild with joy, and I must say it gave me a 

 similar sensation to watch them. They kept 

 up this pace for 4 days, which brought us up 

 to a Saturday evening. I told my partner I 

 should have to put on a lot of extra supers on 

 the following Monday morning, but, alas! it 

 rained that Saturday night, and next morn- 

 ing the logwood blossoms were as brown as 

 though they had been burnt, and the flow was 

 over. Six thousand pounds for the 4 days 

 was the record. 



But the thrill is likely to become a chill 

 when later on he says : 



Prices we received ran froin a small frac- 

 tion below 2 cents per pound for dark to a 

 small fraction below 3 cents per pound for the 

 best, which was one of the finest samples on 

 the island. 



■*■ 



Hushing Up Presence of Foul Brood 



Mr. A. E. Hoshal is reported in the Cana- 

 dian Bee Journal as saying : 



I have wondered why it is we desire to 

 keep this thing covered up so thoroughly as 

 we do. My bees had the disease a while ago, 

 and I wouldn't like to be considered a crimi- 

 nal because my bees had it. It is no disgrace. 



Mr. Hoshal is right. There is no more 

 sense in hushing up a case of foul brood than 

 there is in hushing up a case of small-pox. In 

 both cases the welfare of others demands 



publicity. 



■• 



Send Questions in Time 



Now and again some one sends a batch of 

 questions to be answered in the American Bee 

 Journal, with the curt request, " Answer in 

 this week's Journal," when a very little 

 knowledge of the publishing business would 

 make the sender understand that compliance 

 with such a requestwas an utter impossibility. 

 Quite possibly the iiuestions are such as have 

 not arisen from any sudden emergency, but 

 could have been asked a month sooner just as 

 well as not. 



It would be a real pleasure it every ques- 

 tion could be answered in such manner that 

 within 24 hours the answer should be received 

 by the one who sent the question, and it is a 

 painful feeling to know that sometimes when 

 the best efforts have been made the answers 

 are so late in being received as to cause dis- 

 appointment. Although our postal system is 

 a marvel of accuracy and dispatch, still it 

 does sometimes happen that a letter is delayed, 

 and in rare instances lost. There is also the 

 possibility of loss iu some cases before the 

 letter reaches the post-olhce; and if not loss, 

 •delay. So there must be counted time, and 



sometimes overtime, for a letter to reach 

 Chicago. Then it is a matter of time to get 

 the letter to Dr. Miller, whose province is to 

 answer questions. Just so far as it is pos- 

 sible to do so, he always answers such ques- 

 tions very promptly ; but it must be remem- 

 bered that he is a practical bee-keeper, and 

 work in the apiary may be crowding so that 

 he can not at once answer. After he has sent 

 the answer to Chicago it takes time to get it 

 into type and into press. Possibly the col- 

 umns of the Journal are so crowded that a 

 postponement of a week is inevitable. 

 If all these things are taken into considera- 



tion, it will be seen that the sender of a ques- 

 tion can not reasonably expect to find his 

 question answered in the next number of the 

 paper. 



If an answer is desired as speedily as pos- 

 sible, it is always well to send the question 

 direct to Dr. Miller. The delay of a day or 

 two from sending the question first to Chi- 

 cago will sometimes make no difference as to 

 the time it appears in print, and at other 

 times it may make a clelay of a week or two. 



But be assured that it is the desire at this 

 end of the line to make just as little delay as 

 possible. 



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JTIisccllancous TXcws 3tcms 



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Mr. Benton .\fter Foreign Bees. — 



We have received the following froui Miss 

 Jessie E. Marks, who is an assistant in the 

 section devoted to apiculture, of the Bureau 

 of Entomology, iu the Department of Agri- 

 culture at Washington : 



" The Apicultural Investigator of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, Mr. Frank 

 Benton, is about to start on a tour of explora- 

 tion in the interest of apiculture. The pur- 

 pose of the trip will be to secure new and 

 valuable types of honey-bees for testing (un- 

 der control) in this country, more especially 

 the giant bees of the East, Megapis dorsata 

 (Apis dorsata), and also any honey-producing 

 plants which might prove of value in this 

 country, particularly such as would at the 

 same time serve as forage crops. 



'•He intends to go by way of England and 

 across the continent to Constantinople, thence 

 to the Caucasus, where he hopes to obtain a 

 good supply of the gentle Caucasian queens; 

 across the Caspian Sea to Bokhara, and from 

 there southward over the long stretch of some 

 SOO miles across Afghanistan (by caravan 

 since there are no railroads in that region) to 

 the Punjab in India, thence eastward 

 through the northern part of Hindustan to 

 Calcutta, whence the route will be by steamer 

 via Singapore to Manila." 



We trust Mr. Benton will keep the bee- 

 papers of America informed concerning his 

 foreign investigations, so that they in turn 

 can pass the information on to their readers, 

 who will be greatly interested in the proposed 

 trip and its results. , 



Invention of the Movable-Frame 

 Hive. — It is a pleasure to have the following 

 explanation from one who is so thoroughly 

 familiar with bee-keeping in Germany, and 

 who stands as authority on both sides the 

 ocean: 



To the notice on page 340, I have to make a 

 few remarks. This matter has been discussed 

 very often, nevertheless some mistakes re- 

 main to be corrected. The different opinions 

 can easily be explained if we distinguish 

 movable frames and movable combs. 



Nobody in Germany claims that Dzierzon 

 invented a movable-frame hive, even the 

 movable comb attached to a bar was known 

 long before him, among others Delia Rocca 

 using this bar. But it is claimed in Germany 

 that Dzierzon was the first who made such 

 bar-hives fitted for practical bee-keeping, 

 because his hive opened on .the side, conse- 

 quently the combs could be cutoff from the 

 ends more easily than in the top-opening 

 hives used before him. Certainly his hive 

 caused remarkable progress in practical bee- 

 keeping in Germany. 



Baron Berlepsch is considered as the inven- 

 tor of the movable frame in Germany. He 

 invented his frame with the bee-space all 

 around it, and very similar to the Hoffman 



frame (lately recommended in the United 

 States), at the same time that Langstroth 

 invented his movable-frame hive. Certainly 

 both inventions were made public the same 

 year, and not one of these inventors knew 

 anything of the other. The two hives are so 

 much different that nobody can doubt that 

 each invention was made independently of 

 the other. 



The Berlepsch hive is still in general use in 

 Germany, like the Langstroth hive in America. 

 Of course both are considerably modified at 

 present. 



Certainly we should perceive and honor the 

 merits of all these men, just in the way they 

 are entitled. L. Stachelhausen. 



Bexar Co., Tex. 



The Apiary and Buckwheat Pic- 

 tures on the first page are described by Mr. 

 Murphy as follows : 



I send two pictures, one is a patch of buck- 

 wheat in bloom, and the other my apiary, I 

 was a beginner in HW4, and had only 4 colo- 

 nies, which I united this spring to 3. 



The buckwheat pictured is the silverhull, 

 and I sowed it broadcast June 1. 1904. It 

 bloomed for 25 days, and I let it stand and 

 fall off by the midsummer rains, when it 

 sprouted up again and bloomed, with a good 

 flow of honey till frost, which was late last 

 fall. Now this spring there is no volunteer 

 buckwheat to bother the corn crop. 



Last summer colony No. 1 gave me 70 full 

 sections of honey, and 14 partly filled sections, 

 besides about 25 pounds in the brood-cham- 

 ber. The honey was fine and rich. 



The two boys in the picture are my Damon 

 and Loyal, who are not afraid of bees and 

 never get a sling. They love to watch and 

 study them. Wm. W. Murpht. 



Good Reports— National Convention 



— General Manager France, writing us May 

 2", had this to say : 



Nearly every State reports good honey pros- 

 pects. 



The Texas Committee on the next National 

 convention at San Antonio, has planned a 

 free banquet for all members who attend, the 

 food to be composed wholly of Mexican 

 dishes; :ilso a 4-hour trolley ride is arranged. 

 There will be a big Fair in San Antonio, Oct. 

 21 to Nov. 1, so they have asked that our 

 meeting be held between those dates. One 

 day at the Fair will be " Bee-Keepers' Day." 

 Texas certainly will do her part. 



N. E. Fkancb. 



We don't know about those red-peppery 

 "Mexican dishes." They will likely be 

 pretty " hot stuff," and so A. I, Root and Dr. 

 Miller will have to go " tenderfootedly " 

 down there even when eating "with their 

 fingers." But perhaps they will have their 

 rubber bee-gloves on to protect them when 



