any at all. If we use a small brood- 

 chamber it will be seen that the brood 

 comes clear to the tops and sides of 

 the frames or hive, and consequently 

 very close to the boxes, both at the 

 sides and top, hence the bees readily 

 enter the boxes, while with a large 

 brood-chamber, the bees store the comb 

 the queen does not occupy, with honey 

 at the beginning; of the harvest, so that 

 the boxes are excluded from the brood 

 by several inches of sealed honey, 

 therefore they do not readily enter 

 them. This I think fully accounts for 

 our hearing so much about the Italians 

 not entering the boxes as readily as the 

 blacks. 



I never yet had a colony of Italians 

 refuse to go into the boxes, when they 

 were in proper condition for storing 

 honey. Mr. Gallup was aware of the 

 fact, that the combs must be filled with 

 brood and not honey for profit, for he 

 says on page 6, Vol. IV., American 

 Bee Journal : "We must never 

 allow the bees to get in advance of the 

 queen, for if we do, the prosperity of 

 the colony is checked at once ; that is if 

 the bees are allowed to fill the combs 

 with honey in the spring before the 

 queen has filled them with brood, the 

 colony will be an unprofitable one." 



"We cannot get honey without bees, 

 1,000 square inches of comb as given 

 above, as the right size of the brood- 

 nest, will give (exclusive of pollen) 

 45.000 worker bees every 21 days, and a 

 queen that is good enough to be kept, 

 will keep these combs full of brood. If 

 you have on boxes with such a force of 

 bees as that in July and August ; but 

 give the same queen but 5,000 to 10,000 

 bees, and these old ones, they will crowd 

 her down so as to be unprofitable 'every 



Then, again, the boxes should be 

 managed so that in the fore part of the 

 harvest the bees are incited to greater 

 activity by putting empty boxes where 

 they will take possession of them the 

 most readily, while towards the close, 

 the box room should be reduced so as 

 to have them finish the partly-filled 

 boxes in preference to starting in new 

 or empty ones. Thus we should strive 

 in the fore part of the honey harvest to 

 get them at work in as many boxes as 

 we can, and at the latter part strive to 

 make them finish all they have com- 

 menced to work in. Thus we have but 

 few boxes that are part white and part 

 dark honey, or but partly filled at the 

 end of the season. Much more could 

 be said on the subject, but this article 

 is already too long. My next article 

 will be a description of the hives I use. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Clethra Alnifolia, or Sweet Pepper. 



BY A. PARSONS. 



Here on the Atlantic coast, if bees 

 winter well, and are strong swarm- 

 ing occurs in June, and again in August, 

 when the sweet pepper bush comes into 

 bloom. Our people and the school 

 children call it honey dew, from its 

 delightful odor ; in fact, the plant is 

 known here by no other name. I found 

 by anlysis that both Gray and Wood 

 give it the name of Clethra Alnifolia ; 

 but sweet pepper bush is much the 

 sweeter name to me. I have a fancy 

 for the common every day names, and 

 for this reason prefer Wood's class book 

 of botony to Gray's; he has more tech- 

 nical terms and I think Wood's much 

 easier. I learned botony from "Wood's 

 class book," and perhaps should not ex- 

 press my opinion in favor of it. I use 

 Gray's large work as reference merely. 



The sweet pepper grows wild here in 

 the greatest abundance in the swamps, 

 and wet places, and I never knew it to 

 fail to bloom from any cause whatever. 

 Dry seasons do not affect it, because 

 its home is generally in wet places ; and 

 again no cold appears ever to harm it. 

 The honey is about white, thick and 

 of fine flavor. 



I send you a picture of the Clethra 

 Alnifolia which is a correct and beauti- 

 ful likeness, bringing the dew of honey 

 before one ; also a glowing description 

 of the same. 



[This hardy flowering shrub is well 

 illustrated by the excellent engraving 

 on the opposite page which we 

 have obtained from Mr. J. W. Manning, 

 proprietor of the Reading, Mass., Nur- 

 .sery, of whom plants may be obtained. 

 In Mr. M's catalogue we find the follow- 

 ing description : "Its leaves are light 

 green ; flowers are pure white, in spikes 

 3 to 6 inches long. A group of this 

 Clethra in bloom will perfume the air 

 for 20 rods around ; a handful will fill 

 a room with its delightful fragrance. It 

 blooms from July 1st to September ; its 

 cultivation is simple, growing to perfec- 

 tion where the lilac will succeed. It 

 never fails to bloom after a hard winter. 



" Its effect is impressive when, grown 

 in large masses, as produced by a dozen 

 or more plants set in a group. It has 

 never been so well shown to the public 

 as in Central Park, New York." — Ed.] 



