THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



One year ago Mr. Ferris of Herkimer 

 Co., N. Y., made atrip to Florida talv- 

 ing with iiim one colony of bees. The 

 object of the visit was to investigate 

 the advantages of that state for bees 

 during the "cold season at the north. 

 The results of his observations were, 

 as will be seen by the above, that he 

 has taken sixty colonies of Italian bees 

 and gone to Florida for the present 

 winter. 



Throuah the kindness of Mr. L. C. 

 Root of^Mohawk, N. Y., Mr. Ferris 

 who was in Mr. Root's employ for sev- 

 eral years (and has furthermore had 

 ten years' practical experience with 

 bees, which with him is an exclusive 

 business), has kindly agreed to furnish 

 the "Apiculturist" with monthly re- 

 ports (under the above heading) of 

 his experiment. Ed.] 



. NOTES AND QUERIES. 



■ — AVe are pleased to inform our 

 readers that just before going to 

 press we received a very pleasant 

 communication from Mr. W. A. 

 Pryral of North Temescal, Cal., 

 who was the founder of the "Cali- 

 fornia Apiculturist," and who is 

 now conducting the beekeeping de- 

 partment in the Rural Pacific 

 Press, stating that he will furnish 

 each month for our journal commuur 

 ications from California under the 

 heading " California Notes and 

 Gleanings." These notes will be 

 of great interest to our readers. 



— We would call the attention 

 of our readers to the fact that the 

 Northeastern Beekeepers' Associa- 

 tion will hold its convention in the 

 City Hall at vSyracuse, N. Y., Jan. 

 21-23, 1885. 



We would urge all who can do 

 so to attend ; the meetings will be 

 both interesting and instructive 

 and it is well to remember that the 

 majority of those who will take 

 part in the discussions are among 

 the most prominent a^nd successful 



honey producers. We \expect xtb 

 be present and should be fileased to 

 meet there many of our brothcf bee- 

 keepers. 



— We had intended to have 

 journal out on time this month 

 but the death of the foreman i^i our 

 office, together with other circum- 

 stances unforeseen and uncontroll- 

 able, rendered this impossible, but 

 we think that the value of this num- 

 ber will more than make up for the 

 delay. There are as yet a few who 

 have not renewed their subscrip- 

 tions, and we have sent them this 

 number trusting they will find it 

 for their interest to renew at once. 

 We are aware that times are hard, 

 but you cannot afford to give up 

 the "Apiculturist" to save one dol- 

 lar. We must, however, drop with 

 this number all subscriptions that 

 have expired. 



— The matter of a new work on 

 apiculture, as referred to by " Apis 

 canadensis" opens up a broad field 

 of inquiry, and we would refer our 

 readers to the questions and ans- 

 wers, and especially to those given 

 by Mr. L. C. Root, as valuable in 

 that they touch upon this matter. 



While we favor invention and 

 improvement yet we are heartily 

 sick of the almost endless and vex- 

 ing variety of hives and fixtures, 

 many of them worthless except as 

 advertisements to one's own busi- 

 ness. We are in favor of im- 

 provement in bee literature but 

 would not lose sight of the fact 

 that we cannot afford to sacrifice 

 practical and valuable instruction 

 in beekeeping for the sake of illus- 

 trating too great a variety of fix- 

 tures. If both can be practically 

 combined all will be well. 



— Will all those who wish Vols. 

 1 and 2 reply soon? AVe hope' 

 soon to dispose of the lirst edition 

 of 1000 copies so as to issue an- 

 other. It is as cheap, and yet as 



