204 



or to save them from starvation, and in such 

 cases it would do no harm to the public; 

 but feeding glucose to adulterate the honey 

 for sale is a great dishonesty. 



The highest praise is due to the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal and such of the Ameri- 

 can bee-keepers who have never ceased to 

 condemn this adulteration. 



Brunswick, Germany, March 28, 1879. 



Foreign Items. 



GLEANED BY FRANK BENTON. 



The man to whom the bee-culturists of 

 Frankenthal, Rhenish Bavaria, readily ac- 

 corded the title " Frnnkenthaler Meister," 

 Herr J. Mehring, died at that place, last 

 November, aged sixty-three. On page 298 

 of the American Bee Journal for Sept., 

 1878, is a short account of Mehring's great 

 invention — comb-foundation. This alone 

 would assure him a place in the annals of 

 bee-culture, yet his active part in numerous 

 apiarian discussions, ranging over a long 

 period, give him an additional claim thereto. 

 To poultry and bird-raisers in Germany the 

 name Mehring is not unknown. 



Bee Culture in Tropical Lands.— 

 " Mr. W. Hepworth haa visited the island 

 of Cyprus, and in a letter written last Sep- 

 tember he makes the following observations 

 concerning the Cyprian bees : 'The bees fly 

 busily and collect their stores of honey for 

 the moderately long winter. In a land 

 where there is no milk, and hence no but- 

 ter, honey is quite a valuable product. Yet 

 the bees are like the negroes, Bedouins, and 

 other improvident creatures ; they collect 

 no great store of food. The best of it is, 

 they do not need to do so. Their greatest 

 enemies here are the hornets, which with 

 evil intent, lie in wait for the returning bees, 

 pounce upon them, rob them, and often kill 

 them. These waylayers are easily captured, 

 a bottle half full of water serving the pur- 

 pose. The hornet is a thirsty creature and 

 takes to the water like a drunkard to his 

 grog '." — Oesterreichische Blenen-Zeitung. 



Statements to the effect that bees cease to 

 store a surplus of honey when taken to 

 warm climates have been for some time 

 going the rounds of the newspapers. It is 

 well known that Southern California with 

 its mild, even sub-tropical climate, gives 

 wonderful returns to the skillful apiarist ; 

 Cuba, situated wholly within the torrid 

 zone, sends considerable honey to the 

 United States every year. Correspondence 

 which the writer has had with bee-keepers 

 residing in the torrid zone, shows that the 

 newspaper statements referred to are incor- 

 rect ; besides, the accounts of travelers all 

 agree that honey is raised in considerable 

 quantity in most tropical lands, even where 

 the system of bee-management is very rude. 



The honey harvest in tropical climates is 

 very likely to be extended over a greater 

 portion of time than it is in temperate re- 

 gions, yet it does not follow from this that 

 the bees store more honey ; for the yield at 

 any one time is not as likely to be as large a 



one as that of a more temperate climate, 

 and hence there is more probability that the 

 honey will be used in brood-rearing about as 

 fast as gathered, so that, unless an improved 

 system of bee-culture be followed and the 

 honey removed often during the gathering 

 season little surplus will be obtained. 



In the new Austrian bee journal, edited 

 by R. Mayerhoeffer, is the following : " More 

 than one Yankee bee-brother has already 

 proved satisfactorily that bee-cnlture is by 

 no means mere child's play which robs us of 

 time and money, but, on the contrary, prop- 

 erly taken hold of, can become a real gold 

 mine. In Germany and Austria, so far as 

 we know, the manuiacture of bee-hives and 

 apiarian implements is conducted on a large 

 scale by three firms only." 



Schmidt. — The Honorary President of 

 the Apiarian Society of Alsace and Lor- 

 raine, Jean Schmidt, died at Barr, Alsace, 

 last December, aged 45 years. He was one 

 of the founders of the Alsatian Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association ; and in 1875 Second Presi- 

 dent of the German and Austrian Itinerant 

 Apiarian Society. He did much for bee- 

 culture, grape-culture, and general agricul- 

 ture in Alsace, besides occupying various 

 important civil offices in his city and can- 

 ton. Mczge ihm die kuehle Erde leicht sein 

 und sein Andenken in der Imkerivelt er- 

 halten bleiben ! 



Jakou.— On the 17th of December, 1878, 

 Herr Petrus Jakob died at Fraubrunnen, 

 Canton of Bern, Switzerland, aged 62 years. 

 Herr Jakob was the founder of the Bernese 

 Bee-Keepers' Association and of the Swiss 

 bee paper, Die Schweize Bienen Zeitung, 

 which he edited until 1877, when he 

 nominally retired, though he really re- 

 mained one of its active contributers up to 

 the close of his career. He was an upright 

 man, and a skillful apiarist and editor. May 

 he long be remembered in the bee-keeping 

 world !— Oesterreichische Bienen Zeitung. 



" The Practical Bee-Keeper."— The 

 second edition of C. J. H. Gravenhorst's work 

 on bee culture, " Der pruktlsche Imker" 

 has been published at Brunswick, Germany. 

 The book is the work of one of the German 

 masters in apiculture, and as such could not 

 but contain much that is of value. The 

 hives and hence the methods of manipula- 

 tion would hardly suit most Yankees, for 

 the. author prefers the " Bogenstuelpher," 

 a style of hive which the needs of his local- 

 ity and the methods of management in later 

 times have led him to construct, taking the 

 old straw hive as a basis. The "Bogen- 

 stuelper " looks outside very much as would 

 a good-sized trunk made of plaited straw 

 and having a top arched from front to rear. 

 In order to get at the combs which are built 

 in U-shaped frames, this round-topped straw 

 box is tipped back on one side or rolled clear 

 over ! Gravenhorst claims that in the straw 

 hive with round top, bees winter best ; 

 further he says : "Experience has fully 

 shown that the length of the movable-comb 

 hive has no unfavorable influence in winter- 

 ing." The Cyprian bees are regarded by 



