(Entered at the Poat-Office at Cbicago as Second-ClaSB Mail-Matter) 

 Piiblished Weekly at Sl.OO a Year by Meorg^e ^f. Vurk A, Co., 334 Uearbom St. 



QBORQE W. YORK, Editor 



CHICAGO, ILL, JULY 27, 1905 



VoL XLV— No. 30 



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(Sbttortal Hotcs ^ (Eommcnts 



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Help Blow the " Honey-Horn " 



Editor E. T. Abbott, of the Modern Farmer 

 and Busy Bee, comments thus suggestively on 

 the short article we had published in the Chi- 

 cago Daily News : 



George W. York, editor of the American 

 Bee Journal, and Manager of The Honey- 

 Producers' League, has an interesting article 

 in the Cbicago News on the importance of 

 honey as a food and the folly of thinliing that 

 comb honey is manufactured. Such articles 

 in a great city like Cbicago must result in a 

 world of good to the bee-lteeping fraternity, 

 and we hope the time may come when this 

 subject will be discussed in all the large 

 dailies of the land, as well as the country 

 weeklies. The way to make a market for 

 honey is to talk about honey, write about 

 honey, and show people what honey really is, 

 and what a healthy, delicious food it la for 

 the human family. In other words, the way 

 to boom your business is to blow your own 

 horn, and get as many more people as possi- 

 ble to help you. The oftener the thing is 

 repeated in print the sooner it will attract the 

 attention of the public, and the sooner they 

 will be ready to test the merits of the claims 

 made in the articles written. 



By the way, for a two-cent stamp we will 

 mail a copy of the short article that appeared 

 in the Chicago Daily News to any of our 

 readers who may b« able to get their local 

 editors to publish it. We have it printed in 

 typewriter type, on one side of the paper — 

 just the nicest kind of " copy " for an editor 

 to hand right to his printer. If it could be 

 published in every newspaper in the land it 

 would help both consumers and producers of 

 hoDey. Not because we wrote it,' but because 

 it contains the truth about honey that should 

 be read by everybody. 



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Prevention of Swarming by inversion 



This is revived, after quietly slumbering 

 for some years, by an article in the American 

 Bee-Keeper from E. H. Dewey. He turned 

 the combs of a hive upside down, and a week 

 later he found that the bees had destroyed 

 the cells that were started. Other cells, how- 

 ever, had been started, and these in their turn 

 were a week later found destroyed as a result 



of inversion. This weekly inversion wa 

 practiced upon 4 hives successfully. But the 

 same success was obtained by others years 

 ago, only to be followed by failures on 

 further trial. This is mentioned so that no 

 one may risk too much upon a plan that 

 would be a boon to bee-keepers if it could 

 always be depended upon. 



Ventilation of Hives in Cellars 



At the Ontario convention, reported in the 

 Canadian Bee Journal, discussion brought out 

 a number of expressions to the effect that 

 cushions were not of any special advantage in 

 cellars, bees doing as well with sealed covers, 

 only so there was large enough opening for 

 change of air sunuwhere. The statement was 

 also made that experiment had shown that 

 colonies in hives placed close to the cellar- 

 bottom did apparently as well as those higher 



up. 



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Apis Dorsata to Be Investigated 



A few years ago there was some talk about 

 introducing into this country the giant bee 

 of the far East, and fears were expressed that 

 if introduced it might prove among bees what 

 the English sparrow has proved to be among 

 birds — an intolerable nuisance. There is lit- 

 tle doubt that before Prof. Benton returns 

 again to his native land we shall know some- 

 thing definite in the matter. Instead, how- 

 ever, of shipping these bees direct to this 

 country. Prof. Beolon proposes the very sensi- 

 ble plan of bringing them under test and 

 observation on " their native heath " before 

 making any shipments, and if such testing 

 proves it advisable; they can be shipped to 

 California across the Pacific. 



One of the points, no doubt, to be first set- 

 tled, will be the mooted one as to whether 

 these bees can bi; .ept in hives, or whether 

 they have the migratory habit so fully de- 

 veloped that they will desert their place of 

 abode periodically so as to interfere entirely 

 with their doiiu stication. Northern bee- 

 keepers, at least. ■ ed hardly have any anx- 



iety on the score of similarity to the sparrow 

 business, for it is not likely that they would 

 survive a northern winter if they should at- 

 tempt to occupy the land by spreading them- 

 selves about promiscuously on trees as they 

 do in their present home. If, however, tbey 

 can not be persuaded to stay hived in their 

 native habitat, it is hardly worth while to 

 take any further trouble about them. But 

 many a thing that appears impossible proves 

 possible if persevered in, and it's well worth 

 while to know positively about those big bees. 



White and Yellow Sweet Clover 



J. A. Green, of Colorado, says in Gleanings 

 in Bee Culture, that both this year and last 

 the yellow sweet clover bloomed 15 days in 

 advance of the white, and he thinks an in- 

 crease in the amount of yellow sweet clover 

 would be a good thing for bee-keepers in that 

 region. There would not, however, be the 

 same advantage in yellow sweet clover in re- 

 gions where white clover is the leading honey- 

 plant. It would then come in direct compe- 

 tition with white clover, while the white 

 sweet clover would give an additional amount 

 of surplus, because, on account of its late- 

 ness, it continues to bloom after white clover 

 is gone. 



Water for Bees 



As the honey harvest begins to wane, the 

 trouble of bees about pumps, watering- 

 troughs, etc., will begin or increase. The 

 great point is to get the bees started at the 

 watering-place you provide for them before 

 they get in the habit of going where you 

 don't want them. If nothing else, provide a 

 big crock with a few sticks of fire-wood in it 

 and fill with water, and then see that it is 

 never dry. 



Combs and Sections in Same Super 



Speaking uf this, which has been given as 

 the Town send plan, the editor of the Ameri- 

 can Bee-Kti iH' says : 



"This mithod is so old that we supposed it 

 was universally known. Mr. Samuel Cush- 

 man (then nl Pawtucket, R. I.) and the 

 writer, be!;:i'i using it about 1885, and the 

 writer ha^ um li it ever since, having hives and 

 supers spii. li.v made to facilitate such prac- 

 tice. 1 1 hsis ''<;bo mentioned by many writers, 

 if memory serves us correctly." 



