344 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



December 



were painted over with paraffine. 

 Some of these cages thus prepared 

 were sent to Italy and returned with 

 bees and queens. I was greatly sur- 

 prised to note that the bees refused to 

 gnaw through the capping that had 

 been paraffined over, but close exam- 

 ination showed that they had actually 

 tunnelled under the capping into the 

 sides of the comb untouched by par- 

 affine just about as moth worms do. 

 In the same way bees may show aver- 

 sion to paraffine paper. 



CLIPPINGS. 



Current Newspaper Items Quoted With- 

 out Comment. 



The world over there are about fifty 

 different kinds or species of maples. 

 Of these about ten grow naturally 

 within our territorial limits — in the 

 United States. So it will be noted 

 that in the maple distribution we have 

 our share. — Forest Leaves. 



To hive a swarm of bees it isn't 

 necessary to have a full brass band. 

 A gude-wife on Cape Elizabeth 

 brought a swarm into a hive the other 

 bay by beating a vigerous tatto on a 

 tin dishpan with a pewter ladle. The 

 musical instincts of bees are Chinese. 

 — Boston Post. 



Silas Adams, a saw-logger, living 

 about nine miles north of Russell ville, 

 Ky., on Muddy river, cut down an 

 immense oak tree that stood on a hill- 

 side. It fell in a different direction 

 from that intended and struck a large 

 poplar, knocking it down. When the 

 tree struch the ground the poplar 

 burst and millions of bees flew out. 

 Mr Adams built a fire of leaves and 

 the smoke soon drove the bees away, 



when he found that the poplar was a 

 calossal bee hive and contained about 

 three barrels of the finest and cleanest 

 honey. Mr. Adams went to his home 

 and procured all the vessels and buck- 

 ets he could spare and filled them with 

 the honey, and several of his neigh- 

 bors did likewise. Much of the honey 

 was lost in the smash -up, but there 

 was sufficient left to supply several 

 families for some time. It is thought 

 there were a number of swarms of 

 bees in the tree and that they had 

 stored honey in it for years. — Farm- 

 ers' Voice. 



The queerest of all industries is car- 

 ried on by two young Pennsylvauians 

 who are making a regular business of 

 extracting the poison from honey bees. 

 According to the accounts they have 

 two different ways of collecting their 

 crop of venom. In the first the bees 

 are caught and held with their abdo- 

 mens in small glass tubes until the 

 poison sacs have been emptied. In 

 the second they are placed in a bottle 

 on wire netting and enraged until 

 the tiny drops of venom fall into the 

 alcohol which fills the lower third of 

 the bottle. 'J'his vennom is said to be 

 a sovereign remedy for cancer, rheum- 

 atism, snake bite, and a hundred oth- 

 ers of the more terrible ills of humani- 

 ty. — Pittsburg Post. 



MONEY IN BEE CULTURE. 



Bee keeping is an industry that is 

 adapted in some degree to almost 

 every section of our country, that is 

 not overdone, and can not be over- 

 done until honey is as common on our 

 tables as milk, writes James Knapp 

 Reeve, author and critic. It is an in- 

 dustry that does not demand any se- 



