Wilmington, N. C, Aug. 18, 1879. 

 I am at a loss to think the Albino queens 

 have been bred from the Italians. You have 

 not written me how it was done, and it re- 

 mains a mystery to me. My Italians have 

 the distinct three yellow bands, and are 

 very light ; drones are very good, but I have 

 had no workers with three white stripes till 

 I got from you what are so-called Albino 

 queens. How you have succeeded in breed- 

 ing them I do not know ; this much I am 

 certain of, that they are a great improve- 

 ment on bees— the Albinos are far superior 

 to the original Italians. They are larger, 

 stronger and far ahead of the Italians in 

 gathering honey, so far as I have tested 

 them. 1 have proven that a queen is not 

 fertilized for life, and can take a bet of a 

 $1,000 on it. I have many patent rights, 

 which I paid for, that are of no account. I 

 have invented my own hive, and it is suffi- 

 cient to say it proves satisfactory to me and 

 my bees. I do not use frames in these of 

 my hives. I use for the surplus honey 6 lb. 

 glass boxes, 4 to each hive. 1 have got this 

 season 150 of these boxes, and have sold all 

 at $1.00 per box. I have a good many mov- 

 able frame hives, but do not like them so 

 well as my own patent, for the simple rea- 

 son that here in North Caroline, there is too 

 much pitch-pine and gum which the bees 

 bring into the hive, and glue the frames and 

 contents so that it is hardly possible to open 

 them or pull the frames out. I have seen 

 Mr. Taylor pull with all his might to get 

 the piece of canvas from the top so he could 

 take the frames out and show them to me. 

 Well, he calls me a "box-hive man," and 

 yet he has not got a pound of honey from 

 his bees procured from Dr. Brown. The 

 editor of the American Bee Journal 

 must be a poor editor, and not very experi- 

 enced, for the simple reason that he pub- 

 lishes such slang from a man like Taylor. 

 H. H. Bloom. 



[The foregoing is extracted from a letter 

 forwarded us for publication by friend D. 

 A. Pike, of Smithsburg, Md., and is in- 

 tended, we suppose, as a refutation of the 

 pleasantry indulged in by Mr. E. C Taylor, 

 on page 376, August number of this Jour- 

 nal, in his query regarding Albino bees. 

 Much of Mr. Bloom's letter has been 

 omitted, because of its too personal na- 

 ture. Mr. Taylor undoubtedly meant no 

 offense, and certainly mentioned no names 

 in his query ; and being a question of a gen- 

 eral nature we took pleasure in publishing 

 and answering to the best of our knowledge, 

 as we would had it been propounded by Mr. 

 Bloom, or anybody else. We yet have had 

 no cause to change our opinion of the Al- 

 bino bee ; if wrong, will friend Pike, who 

 has, we believe, been quite a breeder of 

 them, correct us, and give nativity and 

 origin ? We do know Mr. Pike is a very 

 careful breeder, and if any new develop- 

 ments were to be made, he, as soon as any, 

 would discover the mode. We have re- 



ceived queens from him whose progeny 

 were very fine, and expect a nucleus with 

 an Albino queen, upon which we will re- 

 port when we have had time to form an 

 opinion. — Ed.] 



Wittsburg, Ark., Aug. 16, 1879. 

 Bee-culture in this State is in its infancy. 

 Bees have done well this year. This State 

 is as good for bees as any, except Califor- 

 nia, as all trees and plants will grow here 

 that will grow anywhere. We have the 

 poplar tree in large quantities, and it is a 

 fine honey producing tree. It blooms about 

 the 20th of April and lasts about 25 days. 

 Our honey harvest begins about the 1st of 

 April and continues until the 1st of June ; 

 then we get no more honey until the last of 

 August. I have sold all my honey at home 

 this season at 12>£c for comb and 10c for 

 extracted. I have noticed my bees working 

 on red-top grass while in bloom in large 

 quantities ; they were gathering from it, I 

 suppose. They never commenced work on 

 it until 3 o'clock p. m. Would it not be 

 profitable for bees as well as for stock ? I 

 have been keeping bees for 2 years in the 

 movable-frame hive, though I have worked 

 with bees in the log-gum for 15 years. I 

 never use any protection when working 

 with my bees except the Bingham smoker. 

 I have been successful with bees by giving 

 them my attention, and carefully reading the 

 American Bee Journal. On page 298, 

 of the Journal for 1879, one W. Boiling 

 asked how to keep ants off of honey boards. 

 Take strong soap suds and wash them off 

 with it, and they will not bother it for 3 or 4 

 weeks. W. H. Newsom. 



Mortonsville, Ky., Sept. 8, 1879. 

 Enclosed find 2 top stems with flowers and 

 a few of the summer leaves of some kind of 

 weed that grows on the cliffs of the Ken- 

 tucky river, which the bees work upon all 

 day, and seem to be very fond of. The 

 lower part of the stalk has a square appear- 

 ance. Please give me the name of them. 

 This has been a poor season for bees on 

 account of drouth ; very few swarms and 

 but little surplus honey. Bees will have 

 plenty to winter on. J. T. Wilson. 



[One is a species of bidens or Spanish- 

 needle (see Manual, page 234), the other is a 

 species of eupatorium or boneset (see Man- 

 ual, page 238, fig. 97).— A. J. Cook.] 



Atlantic, Iowa, Aug. 16, 1879. 

 I think that no one can do without the 

 American Bee Journal and keep bees 

 successfully, as it is truly agreat instructor; 

 and when you get fairly down to business 

 it is quite cheering when something new 

 turns up, to find some of its numerous cor- 

 respondents have been there too, and have 

 unraveled the whole mystery in a very sci- 

 entific manner. The introduction of queens 

 for instance, a knowledge of which is very 

 valuable, and quite simple when one knows 

 how. I have tried various ways, but find 

 the most successful plan is to get your bees 

 well filled with honey ; remove the old 

 queen, if any, take bees and comb out, and 



