they are half finished. In inserting the 

 foundation I first run from 1 to 3 pieces of 

 fine annealed wire through the center of the 

 top and bottom pieces of the frame, giving 

 the frame a slight draw on the wires, and 

 this keeps all straight and stiff. The con- 

 clusion 1 have come to is, that foundation is 

 valuable just according to the purity of the 

 wax of which it is made. C. W. Taylor. 



Kearney, Mo., Aug. 6, 1879. 

 In the August number of the American 

 Bee Journal under head of "Prospects for 

 the Future," you put the honey crop of Mis- 

 souri at "about 20 per cent, above the aver- 

 age," which 1 think is a wild statement, or 

 rather the information is wild ; that is, if 

 in other portions of the State the yield is 

 not far, very far greater than in this portion 

 of Clay county. I have some 45 colonies, 

 and have all told taken about 100 lbs. to date. 

 Two neighbors who have nearly as many as 

 1 have, have taken only about 50 lbs. each. 

 Last year I took nearly 1,500 lbs., and those 

 neighbors each about 500 lbs. Our bees are 

 carrying the honey from the partly filled 

 boxes, below ; have been all the season dis- 

 posed to rob, and if the fall crop is not bet- 

 ter than the spring and summer to date, 

 many colonies will starve before winter. So 

 far as I am informed there has not been 

 more than 1 swarm for every 20 colonies 

 that were wintered in this county. In the 

 spring of 1878 I had only 36 colonies to be- 

 gin with, against 45 last spring. 



Edmund Haynes. 



[The article in the August number of the 

 Journal, referred to above, was made up 

 from extensive correspondence in the sev- 

 eral States, and the estimates were based 

 upon the number of bees wintered through. 

 It will be found about correct in the main, 

 but of course many districts may be found 

 both below and above the figures named. 

 —Ed.] 



Otsego, Mich., Aug. 11, 1879. 

 As but few bees are run on hired labor, I 

 send you reportof my hired man this season 

 with the extractor. The linden season was 

 ♦ short and poor; the clover fine. We have 

 27 bis. of clover and linden, or about 10,000 

 lbs., in new oak barrels made for the pur- 

 pose, which do not leak and are not waxed. 

 We use in our apiary 250 regular hives full 

 of nice old combs, and 75 to 100 empty hives 

 exact duplicates of those containing combs 

 or bees. Nearly every cell of honey is cap- 

 ped in our apiary before it is regarded fit to 

 extract, or extracted. The uncapping is 

 all done with a Bingham & Hetherington 

 uncapping knife, and the bees are controlled 

 with two large size Bingham smokers, one 

 of which is usually in use. The work is all 

 done by a hired man (I mean most all), for 

 I did uncap five hives one day for him 

 to extract, and he had combs as fast as he 

 could get out the honey. Our (spring) May 

 count was 65 colonies, all fine. Our August 

 count is 115 ready for " biz " on buckwheat, 

 and we have faith in the fall crop, as we 

 have never failed but once in 11 years— that 

 was the fall of the great tire,— so if we 



should fail again we shall expect a great 

 fire and to lose all our bees. I have seen in- 

 quiry as to how much honey is required to 

 make vinegar. Our cappings are drained 

 24 hours and then rinsed or soaked 3 or 4 

 hours in % of a barrel of spring water. The 

 cappings are then squeezed into balls like 

 snow-balls, and laid away. This rinsing is 

 continued in the same water till it will float 

 an egg. It is then put in a tub, made by 

 knocking the head out of a whisky barrel, 

 and covered with mosquito bar and loose 

 boards or the old head laid on, and set in a 

 cool place. In one year it is better vinegar 

 for all purposes, than was ever made from 

 cider, and of the most beautiful flavor and 

 color. T. F. Bingham. 



Barnesville, O., July 12, 1879. 

 Our bees are not doing much — no swarms 

 and but very little honey. On examining 

 one of my colonies a few days ago, in which 

 I had 2 cases of 4 sections each, Gallup size, 

 I found sealed drone brood in one section, 

 and thought to behead them and have honey 

 put in. On trying to remove some of them 

 found them very tender, so that they would 

 not draw out of cell. On a little examina- 

 tion, 1 thought them "wrong-end to," but 

 could scarcely believe it ; so we cut out a 

 portion of the comb, and removing part of 

 the cell, there they were, sure enough, with 

 their heads to the center and that by the 

 dozen, too ; and on both sides. As this 

 was new to me, I showed it to several of 

 my bee-keeping friends, to all of whom it 

 was also new ; but as we are mostly begin- 

 ners in bee-culture, we want to know what 

 the Journal can say about it for us. The 

 colony is a fair to good one, with nothing 

 peculiar in regard to it so far as known. 

 We have faith in the Journal. 



Peter Sears. 



[The phenomenon mentioned above is a 

 "new departure," and it would be difficult to 

 ascribe it to a positive cause. In fact, the 

 only way in which it can be determined sat- 

 isfactorily, if at all, is by close study of the 

 case, and experimenting with the queen and 

 bees possessed of such wrong-end tenden- 

 cies.— Ed. ] 



Butlerville, Ind., July 7, 1879. 

 Bees in Jennings County have done very 

 poorly this season, either in swarming or 

 storing honey. The popiar or tulip failed 

 to bloom as usual ; besides not much here, 

 and to-day bees are doing nothing— blacks 

 or Italians. The first honey harvest is 

 passed by, and was the lightest I ever knew. 

 I have bees now on all of the combs that I 

 lost bees from last winter and spring. I 

 believe that in windy weather flowers do 

 not secrete as much nectar as in calm 

 weather, even with plenty of moisture. I 

 hope we will have a better autumn honey 

 flow, as we have plenty of wild asters and 

 goldenrods which will give a good bloom till 

 frost. Bees have stored so little honey here 

 this season that some bee-keepers are going 

 to quit the business entirely. July 25th.— 

 At this time bees are doing some better, yet 

 it is dry. There is some honey-dew. On 



