84 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



May 



Young lady near here wants to know. 

 I've just expressed to you a bottle of 

 arnica, a roll of bandage and a few 

 other conveniences. Little chaps like 

 you, shouldn't get so reckless. Pitchin' 

 into the printer, the inventor, the queen 

 breeders, the long winded fellows and 

 lastly settin' up a bit of a dictionary. 

 Printer will make you so black in the 

 face, folks'U take you for the "devil" 

 (not the one E. R. was looking for 

 though). I've warned you against in- 

 ventors before, and don't you know 

 that queen breeders not only have all 

 red clover queens, but they also have 

 thoroughbreds; all have raised the av- 

 erage yield, and as colors vary so, 'tis 

 wise tc cast an anchor to windward and 

 shout that "purity is not a chief essen- 

 tial." — Gle. p- i8i. Say. 'taint fair to 

 give away their secrets that there way. 

 But it do be queer how every time a 

 new idea about queens gets a start the 

 "boys" in the trade shout, "I've got 

 'em, and got 'em fust, too!" And when 

 they can't keep the pace, then, "the 

 new ideas ain't no good." 



"There are three ways in which men 

 take 



Ones money from his purse; 

 And very hard it is to tell 



Which of the three is worse; 

 But all of them are bad enough 



To make a body curse." 



I reckon it right mean to shut ofif the 

 long-winded chaps, particularly those 



who keep saying the same thing over 

 and over each year. Let 'em went, "for 

 they do be amusin' cusses," as Artemus 

 Ward would say. 



Really bright is this from the pen of 

 the editor of the A. B. J: "Too much 

 theory is the complaint Editor Hutch- 

 inson has from some of his readers. 

 Children don't • always know what's 

 good for them, Mr. Hutchinson. 

 Americans are nothing if not practical. 

 A man may be a good engineer with- 

 out knowing just how a locomotive is 

 built; but he will be a better one if he 

 knows just how the different parts of 

 his machine are put together." Just 

 tell Bro. York to try some more. Ver- 

 ilj' he is waking. 



B}- the way, what has become of the 

 gentleman from Creek? I don't hear 

 nothin' nowhore about him nowadays, 

 and he used to be obiquitious enough, 

 and had go' d ideas too, even if some 

 of the rest of us can't make them al- 

 ways work. And whither has the 

 swarthy Moor betaken himself? Has 

 he gone to seek some fair Desdemona, 

 or is he lost in the mazes of some new 

 contraption? Get these two boys at 

 work on some scheme whereby we may 

 be able to get early drones and queens 

 backward in late sprnigs such as this 

 has been. I mean some real good work- 

 able plant, — not one of the kind that is 

 evolved by lying awake nights. Let 

 me know how they succeed. 

 Yours as ever, 



John Hardscrabble. 



T 



THE 



Bee = Keeping World 



GERMANY. 



There are a number of mutual insur- 

 ance companies in existence in Ger- 

 many, which will insure .bee-keepers 

 against damage. The premiums paid 

 are insignificant, amounting to less than 

 one cent per colony. The Baltische Cen- 

 tralverein was called on to pay but one 

 claim (of 51 marks) in five years. All 



the other institutions have a surplus on 

 hand. 



Dr. Ejvind Astrup found honey bees 

 under the 83rd degree of latitude, ac- 

 cording to Deutcher Bienenfreund. 



"Box hives versus frame hives" is a 

 subject often discussed among our Ger- 

 man friends. The box-hives are prob- 



