even recommends the packing system. 

 He cautions against over-stocking, and 

 shows that worker larvae can be devel- 

 oped into queens. He gives humorous 

 accounts of people who would not traffic 

 in bees, as such a course would entail 

 poverty for life. The serious havoc 

 made by moths is so vividly depicted, 

 that the reader thinks gratefully of our 

 Italians and improved hives, that per- 

 mit the keeping of none but strong 

 colonies. 



Frequent references are made to the 

 North American Review, American Quar- 

 terly Review, and the New England Far- 

 mer, and Mrs. Mary Griffith, a lady 

 apiarist, of New Jersey ? who invented 

 an improved hive, is referred to in the 

 most flattering terms ; and her writings 

 in the North American Review are quoted 

 at length. Her methods are praised as 

 the very best, while her hive, which had 

 inclined sides and bottom-board, with 

 holes through the top for storing in 

 boxes above, is mentioned as superior 

 to all others, though the author had a 

 hive of his own, which consisted of 

 drawers one above another, etc. 



Dr. Smith, the author of the other 

 book, was a quarantine officer, and lived 

 on an island four miles from the main 

 land, which his bees freely visited. The 

 facts he narrates were chiefly gleaned 

 from his own experiments. His claims 

 are very modest, while his references to 

 Thatcher and Mrs. Griffith, display a 

 spirit which is worthy of imitation. 



He believes the queen a myth, the 

 workers females, and says that in 

 swarming the old bees drive the young 

 ones hence, which, with plenty of room, 

 they would never do. 



He says that bees are sources of pleas- 

 ure and profit, and thinks that they de- 

 serve better than to be put " in some 

 poverty-stricken bee-shed, nailed to the 

 gloomy side of an old barn ;" also speaks 

 of "hives hawked about by peddlers 

 with no claim to respectful attention," 

 which custom, unfortunately, did not 

 die with his time. 



He speaks of blowing smoke with a 

 bellows, praises catnip as an excellent 

 honey plant ; kept his bees in a glass 

 globe, so as to observe them ; noticed 

 that brood was often destroyed and car- 

 ried out ; and by marking the bees with 

 whitewash, by use of a brush, he found 

 that some bees were confined to the 

 hive, while others went abroad. 



It is pleasant to know that there was 

 so much of intelligence and wisdom 

 among these old-time bee-keepers, and 

 that so much of our knowledge has 

 come down from the early part of the 

 century. 



Lansing. Mich., Jan. 17, 1879. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Adulteration Again. 



BY R. M. ARGO. 



You did quite right to warn all from 

 the practice of feeding glucose to bees ; 

 so have I, but we must award all praise 

 to Mr. Dadant for his untiring industry 

 in that direction. I have for years been 

 aware of the fact that comb honey could 

 be adulterated but thought it best not 

 to tell how, for fear some might be dis- 

 honest. To adulterate a geniune pure 

 and healthy article of diet with any un- 

 healthy article known to be injurious, 

 is dishonest. I can see it in no other 

 light. Nor do I think ignorance of the 

 unhealthiness of the article fed to the 

 bees is any excuse ; for what right has 

 any one to adulterate, the purestand best 

 of all — if I may not say the only— natu- 

 ral sweet in the world r If you 



FEED BEES 



on any sort of sugar syrup, they will 

 put it in the combs. This may be done 

 m October when they have not honey 

 enough to winter on. But if you feed 

 the same article in May and June, and 

 you will adulterate the honey, both comb 

 and extracted, for what you extract 

 will contain a great portion of what you 

 fed ; if the bees are filling boxes at the 

 time, a good portion of it will be stored 

 there ! But there is this difference, 

 comb honey can never be adulterated to 

 half the extent that extracted honey 

 can be, from the fact that bees will re- 

 ject the most poisonous portions of any 

 fed to them, and with nothing but in- 

 stinct as a guide they will never do one- 

 tenth of the evil that fallen man, with 

 reason as a guide, will. 



I have never been able to get bees to 

 accept molasses or syrups from a gro- 

 cery. Is not this the surest proof of 

 adulteration of such articles V Yet 

 people are constantly loading their 

 stomachs with what bees will not touch! 

 I have fed bees frequently, but always 

 in the fall, and then if I had not the 

 honey I used the very best granulated 

 sugar syrup. I have also by wav of 

 experiment fed a little of the same in a 

 profuse flow of honey, to see if bees 

 would notice it. Not a bee would touch 

 it. They will not touch any thing but 

 honey when such is plenty. I repeated 

 this experiment one nightduring a flow 

 of honey by laying a small plate of 

 sugar syrup at the entrance of a strong 

 colony, touching the bees, and about 

 two-thirds or more of the syrup still 

 remained on the plate next morning. 

 But the question is 



