1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



117 



publication of articles of a statistical, 

 historical, and descriptive character, 

 relating to honey, its production and 

 healthfulness as an article of food. 

 Such matter if creditably compiled, 

 would be acceptable to almost any 

 newspaper, and a great improvement 

 in the demand for our product would 

 certainly foll®w such educational 

 work. 



The production of beeswax is a 

 matter that is eugrossiug the attention 

 of some Southern bee keepers, I am 

 pleased to note, as I am firm in the 

 belief that wax production is destined 

 to become a paying branch of South- 

 ern apiculture, I also believe that 

 Mexico affords the necessary require- 

 ments to its successful persuit, to a 

 greater extent than any other part of 

 the American continent; Mr. Hasty's 

 informal criticism, notwithstanding, 



" Persian restaurant-keepers mix a 

 little honey with their butter. This 

 gives it an agreeable flavor and makes 

 inferior butter more palatable." — 

 Press, 



The fact that bees in California are 

 more pugnacious (?) at swarming 

 time and during a flow of hone}', than 

 at other times, is doubtless, attribut- 

 able to the Cyprian blood with which 

 beedom of the Pacific coast is perme- 

 ated. 



Mr. Aiken, in Gleanings, observes 

 that " We must lessen the cost of re- 

 tail packages for honey. " " Som- 

 nambulist," in Progressive, thinks 

 the question of greatest concern to 

 bee-keepers just now is to get some- 

 thing to put into any kind of a pack- 

 age. From this we infer that the 



honey crop has been light in " Dream- 

 land" as well as in the '-United 



States and New Jersey. " 



Frank Coverdale, of Iowa, in A. B. 

 J., states that $637 were the net pro- 

 ceeds from 25 acres of alsike clover 

 grown in 1894. This does not in- 

 clude any revenue that may have 

 been derived from the excellent for- 

 age it would afford for bees. In view 

 of the fact that such satisfactory re- 

 sults are obtained by those who have 

 given it a trial, it is strange that 

 greater interest is not manifest in al- 

 sike culture by bee-keeping farmers. 



According to Edwin Bevins, in A. 

 B. J., the black bee excells the Italian 

 in comb-building, only when a good 

 brisk flow of honey is present. That 

 honey stored and capped by black 

 bees is more beautiful than that of 

 Italians, is generally conceded fact, 

 but I have never observed the follow- 

 ing point, claimed by Mr. Bevins, 

 with reference to the "blacks:" "Let 

 the flow be scant or intermittent, and 

 they will do the most inartistic job of 

 patch-work of any bees in existence, 

 with the exception, perhaps, of the 

 bumble-bee. " 



Whether bees do or do not possess 

 the sense of hearing, is a question 

 which, though having no direct influ- 

 ence on the honey crop, in which our 

 interests are more generally centered, 

 is receiving considerable attention 

 through the journals; the conclusion 

 to which we are led discussions as 

 well as observation , is that though 

 bees have no ears, their organism is 

 such that sound waves are readily 

 susceptible to them. 



