For the American Bee Journal. 



Emerson Binder, Honey, Etc. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



I have all my Journals bound from 

 the beginning up to 1878; 1878-9 are in 

 the Emerson binder. Henceforth, I 

 shall use this method of keeping my 

 papers together, and the following are 

 my reasons for changing : With the 

 binder all our papers are in order at all 

 times, up to the very last number. They 

 are much cheaper than regular binding. 

 Most of all, when we have our Jour- 

 nals regularly bound, we miss our ad- 

 vertising pages (as no one can bear to 

 put them with a book), and with the 

 Emerson we retain them, and I always 

 read all the advertising pages as much 

 as any other page in the Journal and 

 as often wish to refer to it in some back 

 number. If there is anything new of- 

 fered I wish to know it, try it, and keep 

 up with the times. 



The basswood crop is now r over, and 

 though there never was such a bloom 

 known here before, the extremely hot 

 and moist atmosphere rushed the blos- 

 soms along so fast that we have had but 

 7 days of gathering from it. Clover 

 was a fair crop, so we shall have nearly 

 an average yield of early or bright 

 honey. 



This has been a prolific year for 

 swarms, but we have succeeded pretty 

 well in holding ours back. We have 

 now about 430 colonies in two apiaries, 

 and that is more than 230 too many. 



Dowagiac, Mich., July 16, 1879. 



Bees in the Shenandoah Valley. 



The following correspondence between 

 Messrs. Washburn, of Shiocton, Wis., and 

 Jordan, of Jordan's Springs, Va., fully ex- 

 plains itself. We append an extract from 

 the Southern Planter and Farmer which 

 is pertinent to the subject : 



Mr. E. C. Jordan, Stephenson's Depot, 

 Va.:— 4 have been favored, by Mr. T. G. 

 Newman, of the AmeuicanBee Jguknal, 

 with your address, and take the liberty of 

 writing to you for information : 1. Is the 

 Shenandoah Valley a good place for bee- 

 keeping? 2. Are there plenty of honey 

 plants? 3. Is the quality of honey good ? 

 4. Is a mountain location preferable to one 

 in the valley ? 5. Can bees be safely win- 

 tered on summer stands without protection? 

 6. What is the general market price of 

 honey ? 7. Is the demand good ? 8. What 

 are the shipping facilities? 9. Are there 

 many persons engaged in the business? 10. 

 About what time does the honey season be- 

 gin and how long does it last ? 11. Can 

 bees be fought there in the old box hive ? 



12. If so, at about what price can they' <be 

 had ? F. H. Washburn. 



Stephenson's Depot, Va., May 22, 1879. 

 1. Yes. No better honey on earth Is made 

 than here. 2. Yes. Fruit blossoms, clovers, 

 buckwheat, blackthistle and hundreds of 

 other things. 3. Yes. None better. 4. No. 

 Not by any means. 5. Yes. There is not 

 the least doubt of this. 6. No regular or 

 fixed prices. Hundreds of persons around 

 Winchester and all other places in the val- 

 ley, who do not make bee-keeping a spe- 

 cialty, take much honey to market and sell 

 it for almost any price. Last season it sold 

 in Winchester as low as S to 10c. My honey 

 has a great reputation and I sold it for 25, 

 20 and 15c; 1 have peculiar advantages. 7. 

 Yes. Much is shipped to the large cities. 8. 

 Good expresses go in all directions. 9. Yes. 

 But very few know anything about bees or 

 bee-keeping; many are tired of them. 10. 

 In April, and lasts sometimes till late in 

 November, but this is not geneialjy the 

 case. 11. Yes. Hundreds of them. 12. 

 From $2 to S3. Flimsy pretexts for Lang- 

 stroth hives sell for from $3 to $6 ; $7 or $8 

 when long credits are given. 



E. C. Jordan. 



We clip the following notice of the excur- 

 sion to Washington City a few weeks since, 

 from the Staunton Vindicator. On return- 

 ing a number of the excursionists made a 

 pleasant trip to Jordan's White Sulphur 

 Springs, of which the Vindicator says : 



"A rideof a mile and a half from Stephen- 

 son's, in one of Mr. Jordan's comfortable 

 omnibuses, on anexcellentroad, brings the 

 visitor to one of the most pleasant and quiet 

 summer retreats in the mountain, long 

 famed for the efficiency of its waters, the 

 excellence of its bill of fare, and the cour- 

 tesy of its proprietor. 



" There is an 'annex' to this establishment 

 of which no other watering place in the 

 State can boast. This is the Bee Cottage 

 Apiary, of which the Spring's proprietor, 

 Mr. E. C. Jordan, is the presiding genius. 

 He seems to be as much at home among his 

 hundred bee hives and million bees, as his 

 cook in his kitchen. The yield is several 

 thousand pounds a year, and after supply- 

 the hotel table with an abundance ot the 

 amber sweet, a large quantity finds a ready 

 market in the neighboring cities. Taking 

 the honey is an interesting process, aud is 

 executed in a judicious manner by the bee 

 robbers who, protected by wire hats and 

 long cloth capes, pass among the hives, rap- 

 idly lifting the box covers of the smaller 

 glass cases, several being under one cover, 

 when from the weight and appearance the 

 full cases are readily selected and set aside, 

 and the remaining ones left to the further 

 attention of the little 'manufacturers.' In 

 a short time several hundred pounds of the 

 sweetest, richest and whitest honey was 

 transferred from the hive to the adjacent 

 store-room. Theoutraged bees, meanwhile, 

 making frantic but harmless attacks upon 

 their mailed despoilers, or crawling de- 

 spondingly over the wreck of their wealth, 

 were driven off by smoke injected from a 

 hand bellows, and, as in remembrance of 

 the 'spilt milk' proverb, returned to their 

 labors. ' How doth the little busy bee?' " 



