President, the Baroness Burdett-Coutts), 

 also took place, and the meeting is to be 

 brought to an end by the presentation of 

 prizes by the Countess Brownlow. 



To the indefatigable Honorable Secretary, 

 the Kev. H. R. Peel, and the untiring com- 

 mittee, much praise is due for so success- 

 ful a meeting under the depressing circum- 

 stances of the season. 



The London Times, the most influen- 

 tial paper in Europe, gives a good 

 report of the Bee and Honey Show from 

 which we copy the following : 



The prize for the best hive for the pur- 

 poses of observation has been awarded to 

 Mr. J. A. Abbott, the well known bee- 

 master of Southall, for a hive of very simple 

 construction, formed by putting loose 

 frames in a box made of plate glass. Very 

 noticeable in this observatory is the habit of 

 the bees to cluster together for warmth on 

 one comb, leaving the others entirely de- 

 serted. 



For the best and most complete movable- 

 comb hive, with covering, stand and facilities 

 for storing surplus honey, the first prize is 

 taken by Mr. J. M. Hooker, of Sevenoaks, 

 with the improved Alexandra hive, a vast 

 American hotel for bees. In the same class 

 Capt. P. E. Martin, of King's Som borne, 

 near Stockbridge, Hants, shows the simple 

 bar-frame hive which he calls "The Sailor," 

 used on a large scale in Hampshire to sup- 

 ply honey to the London market. One of 

 the co-operative stores lays out £50 or £60 

 in a month for honey from Mid-Hamp- 

 shire, made in these and the like hives from 

 the sanfoin grown on the chalk. 



Mr. T. G. Newman, of Chicago, exhibited 

 some American "supers," which were a 

 very great novelty. They are little sections 

 of one piece of wood nearly cut through at 

 three points, with enough wood left to serve 

 as a hinge, and mortised together at the 

 fourth angle. They are marvels of neatness 

 and cheapness in construction. Some of the 

 American " supers " cost only 24s a 1.000. 



Mr. J.- A. Abbott wins first prize for 

 golden-banded Ligurians, Messrs. Neigh- 

 bour and Baldwin tie for the brown Eng- 

 lish bees. In the general foreign class 

 Messrs. Neighbour show Carniolans, Mr. J. 

 P. Jackson Cyprians, imported from Cyprus 

 by Cori, of Bohemia. No one sends Egyp- 

 tian bees, but there is an Egyptian hive— a 

 long, hollow cylinder rolled together out of 

 Nile mud and straw— in Messrs. Abbott's 

 collection. 



The prize for the largest and best harvest 

 of honey in the comb from one stock is 

 taken by Mr. S. Thome, of Baldock. It 

 consists of 40 lbs. gathered on the border- 

 land of Herts and Cambridgeshire from the 

 blossoms of fruit trees, sanfoin and clover. 



Mr. C. N. Abbott takes the first prize for 

 rich heady mead, 5 years old, such as his 

 Saxon namesakes may have quaffed. The 

 same exhibitor wins the first prize for a col- 

 lection of hives, bee-furniture, etc., masks 

 to protect the face of the bee-driver, censers 

 to smoke the bees for a time out of their 

 hives, etc. Messrs. Neighbour show in the 

 same class sprinklers to scatter salicylic 



387 



acid through the hive and so avert the pesti- 

 lence of foul brood, and a roller to turn a 

 plain sheet of wax into the nucleus of a 

 honey comb, and give additional regularity 

 and precision to the marvelous building 

 instinct of the bee. The honey extractors 

 in which the combs are placed, and the 

 fluid slung out of them by centrifugal 

 force, are a modem invention and a most 

 useful one, allowing as they do, the combs 

 to be returned to the hives and the bees to 

 be saved the many valuable days of sum- 

 mer which otherwise would be consumed 

 in building up fresh combs. The first prize 

 is taken by Mr. T. W. Cowan, of Horsham, 

 with the Express Extractor, by means of 

 which the honey on both sides of the comb 

 can be extracted without touching the 

 frames. Mr. Walton shows extractor which 

 has the advantage of being covered and so 

 protected from the crowds of curious bees 

 who otherwise inspect the operation and 

 become imprisoned like flies in amber in 

 the run honey. 



Mr. John Hunter, the well-known apiarian 

 writer, whose "Manual of Bee-KeeDing " 

 has just been issued in a new edition, shows 

 a good collection of microscopic slides illus- 

 tratingthe natural history of the bee. The 

 first prize for the best display of British 

 bee flora goes to Ellen Booke, of Lyming- 

 ton. Most interesting specimens of flowers 

 are shown in the class, crocus, the blossom 

 of the withy, cinerarias, polyanthus, box, 

 dandelion, wood anemone, celandine, ber- 

 berry and the most serviceable of bee 

 plants, blue borage, which hangs its blos- 

 som downwards, so that the bee can labor 

 in it protected from the rain, and the honey 

 is never washed out. An acre of borage 

 feeds 100 colonies. 



Mr. F. Cheshire, of Acton, exhibits beau- 

 tifully drawn and colored diagrams of the 

 bee and its relation to flowers, enlarged 

 from the microscope. In these the fact is 

 brought out that the drone cells are sealed 

 with much larger and stronger fastenings 

 than those the bees affix to the cells of 

 female bees. M. Dennler exhibits the Al- 

 satian bar-frame hive and the Alsatian bee- 

 journal published in German and French at 

 Strasburg. 



In the honey fair, delightful white Amer- 

 ican supers of honey from Mr. Isham's are 

 shown by Messrs Thurber. 



In a tent on the grounds, where the Horse 

 Guards' band played, a keen competition 

 went on on Tuesday for the driving prize. 

 The duty of inducing bees to leave their 

 hives while the honey is extracted, or trans- 

 ferring them to a new hive, is that which 

 most tests a bee-master's skill. 



Mr. Ingram, of Belvoir castle (the Duke 

 of Rutland's gardens), read an interesting 

 paper on the flowers which the bee-master 

 should plant to give his colonies food at all 

 seasons. 



On Wednesday, Mr. Newman, of Chicago, 

 the official representative of the American 

 Bee-Keepers' Association, gave a lecture in 

 the tent on American bee-keeping, and 

 denounced unsparingly the ordinary Eng- 

 lish method or want of method. Mr. New- 

 man proceeds to the Perth Show, and 

 thence to a great show at Prague, and 

 others in France and Italy. 



