THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



71 



to pay it, and do not intend to over- 

 pay it. The facts are, I have dealt 

 with the W. T. Falconer Man'fg Co. 

 many years and I can find no fault 

 with them, and I am mean enough to 

 find it if it could be found. All the 

 fixings I have bought of them have 

 not been one point below their de- 

 scription of them. I want to say to 

 my brother bee-keepers that I am not 

 "gassing," when I say that I do not 

 believe Falconer's comb foundation 

 can 1)3 beat, and 1 have used quite a 

 good many kinds in the last twenty- 

 three years. 



Now sirs, I give this testimony un- 

 asked, and I wish you would print it 

 so the boys may feel as good as I have 

 in having their orders filled like as if 

 they were at the snap end of a chain 

 of lightning. I know when I wanted 

 fifty queen-excluding honey boards 

 once, I wanted them bad, for I was 

 caught in the middle of the sear-on 

 with a new and unexpected turn of 

 affairs, which demanded the presence 

 of the boards instantly. Well, it was 

 not much longer than " instantly," 

 when they came sailing up, and they 

 all had to be cut special size for me, 

 too. It was the same with my honey 

 extractor and comb foundation, which 

 I had to have on short notice. 



There is one little mistake in the 

 Chicago A. B. J. which Thomas made 

 on purpose, so he would not correct it 

 if I ask him. You see I ain't got 

 dyspepsia no how 7 , and I sometimes 

 laugh a little when I write. Well, I 

 wrote a piece for the A. B. J., and 

 happened in my merry mood to 

 stumble onto the idea that it seemed 

 to be a good year for the propigation 

 of monthly journals. Brother Thomas 



happened to have a grudge against 

 humor that morning, so he dumped 

 out all my piece but that part that 

 drove at monthlies, and in order to 

 make that part have the effect desir- 

 ed, he squeezed all the laugh out of 

 it and wrote it all over into what they 

 call "Extracted;" and sir, when 

 pressed, it made me say " I didn't like 

 monthly bee journals." Do you sup- 

 pose, sir, that this was a cold-blooded 

 plot on his part to get the monthlies 

 to drive me out, or did he try to use 

 my high standing and influence to 

 crush the monthlies ? 



John F. Gates. 

 Ovid, Erie Co., Pa., March :',, 1892.- 



Editor American Bee-Keeper, 

 Dear Sir : The following item of 

 interest is translated from a German 

 bee- paper: 



" It is a well known fact that the 

 honey bee has been fostered and cared 

 for during the dark ages according to 

 the Grecian code of laws by Solan. 

 In that country bees were kept six 

 hundred years B. C, and in the days 

 of Pericles, who died 42!) years B. C. 

 Apiculture had advanced in that 

 country so that twenty thousand colo- 

 nies of bees were found in the small 

 territory of Attica. Even the coin 

 of both silver and gold bore the 

 figures of honey bees on one side and 

 the head of an Artemis (a holy deer) 

 on the other, with the inscription, 

 "City of Ephesus," (in lower Asia 

 Minor) and the name " Theodarus," 

 (not very plain). This is one of the 

 oldest coins in the world, excepting 

 that of Ichidon, the youngest king of 

 Argus, who lived about the middle of 

 the seventh century, B. C." 



The above stated facts furnish satis- 



