THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



169 



warm, sunny day, I heard — oh, good- 

 uess ii;rat'ious ! wliore is that trap? 



All tlie lobsters tliat ever came out 

 of a pot, never were as red as my face 

 as I flew up and down, after tliat trap. 



Queer, is it not ? that you never can 

 remember where you put a thing, just 

 when a swarm of bees are coming out. 



They came, Avent off into a ueigh-' 

 bor's yard, and I after them. 



Au hour or more later 1 came into 

 the house again, to search for that trap. 



I searched by spells all summer. 



Meantime I sent for a self sw^armer, 

 and that I laid in a prominent place 

 and kept my eye on it. 



It is December now, and I have 

 found the Alley trap, all right, just 

 where I had put it, but the season has 

 gone by, and 1 have not a mite of a re- 

 port to make as to the effectiveness of 

 either the trap or swarmer. 



Looks as if the joke was on me, 

 doesn't it ? 



But it is not. It is on the bees, for 

 they did not swarm again all the sum- 

 mer. 



And now, I am to address the East- 

 ern Iowa Beekeepers' Convention, at 

 Detroit, Iowa, and Avhat shall I say 

 to them on this subject ? 



A \Noman can't keep bees if she has 

 to climb very tall trees. I've demon- 

 strated that myself and if she cannot 

 make a success with these queen-catch- 

 ers— ? What then? 



Oh ! why didn't 1 know where I had 

 put ni}^ drone trap before my one lone 

 swarm came out? 



Echo answers, why? 



Kit Cloveh. 



INTKRESTING EXTRACTS 

 BORROWED FROM OUR EXCHANGES. 



FRO.M GLEANINGS. 



It is now approaching the time to 

 start another crop oif bee-journals. 

 Perhaps a suggestion to pi'ospective 

 editors may not be out of place. If 

 you think there is a mint of money in 

 bee-journalism, you may be disap- 



pointed ; and if 3'ou think it will ad- 

 vertise your supply business, and lead 

 you on the highway to success, you 

 may be disappointed again. At any 

 rate, do not put out the first edition 

 poorly printed with poor ink on poor 

 paper. Jf you do, its doom is sealed 

 at once. Beekeepers as a class have 

 come to be quite fastidious. 



It has sometimes been doubted 

 whether it is necessary to go to the ex- 

 pense of importing queens, the argu- 

 ment being that we can breed at home 

 a great deal better stock. This may 

 be true ; but the average home-bred 

 queens, inour experience, are not quite 

 as good for real husiness. Here is a 

 letter that speaks for itself, and which 

 came unsolicited : 



Mil. Root: — The best imported queen 

 arrived iu good shape the day after being 

 mailed at Medina. I introduced her suc- 

 cessfully, and her progeny have now 

 hatched in large numbers, notwithstand- 

 ing her being introdueed so late in the sea- 

 son. They are also far better workei's 

 than my five- banded stock, especially ou 

 cool days 



As we have reiterated before, stock 

 that is bred for color is pretty apt not 

 to be equal to that which is bred for 

 business, and where color is made en- 

 tirely secondary. 



FROM CANADIAN BKE JOURNAL. 



A new bee paper called the Journal 

 of Winona is started in Minnesota. 

 I w^onder if the editor knows what 

 kind of a contract he has ou hand? 

 Unless he possesses almost superhu- 

 man advantages tinanciallj^ and intel- 

 lectually, as well as a vast amount of 

 experience, it is almost an impossibil- 

 ity that he will reap much return for 

 his labor. There is room for a certain 

 number of bee journals, but the old 

 stand byes that have been for years 

 before the public are not making a 

 fortune. Ko doubt all the journals 

 should receive more patronage than 

 thej' do, because the more bee jour- 

 nals a beekeeper takes, if he i-eads 

 them, the better he is prepared to man- 

 age his bee business successfully. 



