quainted with the commission mer- 

 chant (and I know him to be a straight 

 man), I saw a consignment of honey all 

 daubed and leaking, and the merchant 

 said to me, "There is a consignment 

 that I am satisfied was sent by a careful 

 man. I know it partly from his letter, 

 which is carefully written, and the 

 weight of every little box is set down 

 in the letter in a very careful manner. 

 But you see what condition it is in. 

 When honey comes to us leaking and 

 running over the floor, we must hurry 

 up the sale and sell for whatever we can 

 get. If our customers write to us be- 

 forehand, we advise them not to send 

 to us, for we would rather not handle 

 honey, and I don't believe it ought to 

 be mixed up with other things." The 

 packages in question were heavy boxes, 

 weighing perhaps 100 lbs., with handles 

 projecting at each end like the handles 

 of a wheelbarrow. By means of these 

 handles the box could be carried with 

 great care, without cracking a single 

 comb, and no doubt it was delivered to 

 the railroad in perfect order. But when 

 it came to be taken out of the car, either 

 to be transferred to another car or to be 

 delivered at its final destination, the 

 railroad hands would know nothing of 

 the contents, and it would receive the 

 same rough handling as boxes of other 

 goods. Suppose it is marked " Glass ; 

 with care," it is seldom that a railroad 

 hand stops to look at the marks on a 

 box, and even if lie should feel inclined 

 to do so, he can see nothing of it in the 

 back end of a dark car, and there are 

 not two men to pick it up carefully by 

 the handles, but one man pulls it out of 

 its place and tumbles it over and over. 

 Besides it is much easier to handle care- 

 fully a light package than a heavy one. 

 Try the experiment with a box weigh- 

 ing 30 or 40 lbs., and one weighing 60 or 

 100 lbs. Pick up each, carry it a few 

 steps and set it down again. The light 

 one you can set down lightly, without 

 any trouble ; but no matter how careful 

 you are, you will set down the heavy 

 one with more or less of a thump. 

 There remains more to be said. 

 Marengo, 111., Dec. 12, 1878. 



For tne American Bee Journal. 



Sundry Items of Interest. 



BY J. E. MOORE. 



The past season has been a peculiar 

 one with us in some respects, the winter 

 being favorable, also an early spring. 

 Our bees were in good condition, and 

 we commenced giving rye meal the 8th 

 of March. The bees gathered some 

 natural pollen, the latter part of the 



month but did not wholly abandon 

 the artificial, until the 11th of April. 



April 27, hives were so full of bees 

 as to need more combs, and fruit trees 

 were budded very full, promising a large 

 yield, but frost and cold east winds 

 blasted our hopes, as I never saw so 

 little honey gathered between the 1st 

 of May and 10th of June. We kept them 

 moving right along however by feeding. 

 May 20th we had a terrific storm of rain 

 and wind, lasting about 30 minutes. 

 The hive covers were lifted like feath- 

 ers by the winds, breaking them on 

 hives against which they f ell, ; for a time 

 it seemed as though our 2 years' work 

 would take to itself wings and flyaway. 

 Mr. Seaver and myself were on the 

 jump setting hives on the ground and 

 putting on the covers. Although the 

 hives inside and many of the combs 

 were very wet, we did not lose a colony. 

 Some that fared the worst gave a fair 

 quantity of surplus honey, while others 

 seemed to only hold their own through 

 the season. 



From 5th to 8th of June it was cold, 

 then ranging from 50 to 52° at 12 m., 

 with northeast winds and frosty nights. 

 Four such days in succession in June, 

 is enough to give the most enthusiastic 

 apiarist the blues, but when I passed 

 along in front of hives and saw bees 

 clustered outside, although they had 12 

 combs and it was so cold, somehow the 

 step would quicken and the eye snap. 

 It moderated considerably by the 10th, 

 and the 12th was the first good honey 

 day on clover, which yielded a good 

 crop. Basswood failed and there being 

 scarcely any buckwheat, clover was our 

 sole dependence for surplus honey. 

 Following is the record of hive yielding 

 most honey : 



Hive No. 79. April 27, gave 3 empty 

 combs, have sealed drone brood. May 

 7, removed 2 combs of brood and bees, 

 to start nuclei ; gave in place 2 empty 

 combs. June 10, gave 1 frame of 

 foundation, and 1 comb of honey ; on 

 13th removed 6 combs of brood and bees 

 to make colony, gave in place 2 frames 

 of foundation, also 1 case of side boxes : 

 17th gave another side and 1 top case of 

 boxes (side cases hold 12 and top case 

 15 sections 5x6). July 5, removed 39 

 boxes of honey— gave 39 boxes. Aug. 

 10, removed 37 boxes of honey, gave 25 

 boxes. Sept. 3, removed 27 boxes of 

 honey. Total 103 boxes honey weigh- 

 ing 208 lbs. We commenced season 

 with 62 colonies, increased to 114. Sur- 

 plus box honey 4,300 lbs. ; extracted, 

 400. lbs. 



NATIONAL CONVENTION. 



I was very much interested in the 

 papers read at the convention, partic- 



