greatly indebted to our bee-keeping friends 

 for many valuable hints and although other 

 bee papers are good, still the " old reliable " 

 keeps the lead and still improves. 



S. S. Butlef, M. D. 



DeVall's Bluff, Ark., Sept. 15, 1879. 

 Inclosed find a few sprigs indigenous to 

 this region. This is one of the very best 

 honey plants that we have, in fact it has no 

 equal this season. It has been in blossom 

 for the last 2 months or more, and is covered 

 with bees all the time. The berries, when 

 ripe, are dark red or brown. Please give 

 its name in the Journal, for the plant is 

 valuable. S. K. Mason. 



[The above is Indian currant or coral 

 berry (Symphoricarpus vulgaris). It has 

 always been very highly extolled by bee- 

 keepers.— W. J. Beal.] 



Sussex, Wis., Nov. 3, 1879. 

 1 have 63 colonies of bees in good condi- 

 tion for winter from 30 in the spring, and 

 got 1,200 lbs. of honey from the same. I 

 sold 3 colonies in the summer and 1 good 

 colony this fall. I am not discouraged yet. 

 T. E. Turner. 



London, England, Oct. 11, 1879. 

 Do you know of any successful means of 

 closing the space at the ends of combs with- 

 out propolization ? I have been experi- 

 menting this year and so far as my experi- 

 ence goes I find that by closing the ends of 

 the frames with india rubber, so as to ren- 

 der the joint perfectly air-tight, that the 

 bees do not propolize as in the ordinary 

 course, if an airspace is omitted. As regards 

 my experience with this method — I com- 

 menced the experiment at the end of June — 

 it has therefore had nearly 4 months' trial. 

 C. I. Stevens. 



Ada, 0., Nov 3, 1879. 



To the readers of the American Bee 

 Journal I would say that another honey 

 harvest is past and we have our bees about 

 all snugly "prepared on their summer stands 

 for Jack Frost and his zero sword, with 

 which last winter he slew so many of our 

 little heroes]; though let it be remembered 

 that poor rations makes more corpses among 

 our pets than king zero. 1 sold quite a num- 

 ber of colonies leaving about 40; which in 

 spite of the drouth in June and the wet 

 weather following, I increased by division 

 to something over 100 colonies, and got over 

 1,500 lbs. of comb and extracted honey. My 

 imported Italian and home-bred mothers 

 produced the bees that filled my section 

 boxes with honey that sold this fall for 20c. 

 per pound. I sold extracted honey at 15c. 



My Italian bees wintered better than the 

 blacks, and come out stronger in numbers in 

 the spring ; and of course spring dwindling 

 did not occur. I find no difference between 

 the imported mothers or home-bred ones, 

 for wintering, honey gathering or prolific- 

 ness, but I do claim that we have home-bred 

 mothers that produce lighter and more 

 handsome workers than the imported ones, 

 that I have, or have seen anywhere. I have 

 spent both time and money, importing bees 



direct from Italy and buying from American 

 breeders, in order to get a lighter colored 

 strain of bees ; and at the same time 1 have 

 done my best at home, in rearing queens of 

 the ones I had bought. Some of the young 

 queens I reared was worth §5.00 to me, a 

 few worth $3.00 and quite a number $1.00 

 (less 99c). 1 did not find the colored bees 1 

 wanted, till I received some from D. A. 

 Pike, the Albino bee man. I care not what 

 he calls his bees, where he got them, or how 

 he came by them, they are the colored bees 

 that suits me. J. B. Murray. 



Enfield, 111., Aug. 27, 1879. 

 I send you the top and bloom of a honey 

 plant which grows in our wet land to the 

 heighth of 3 or 4 feet, branching within 10 

 inches from the grouud. The flowers are 

 sweet-scented, and produce very light-col- 

 ored and pleasant-tasting honey in abund- 

 ance. Please give us the name of it in the 

 Journal. The plant is spreading to the 

 upland, and is highly prized. I must have 

 Italian bees, if they will gather nectar from 

 red clover. I have about 20 colonies of 

 black bees, and will remove to my farm in a 

 few months where red clover is abundant, 

 with none but bumble-bees working on it, 

 which profit me nothing in honey ; so I 

 must try others. If they will, I shall Ital- 

 ianize as fast as possible. G. A. Willis. 



[ This is an aster, and produces excellent 

 honey.— Ed.] 



Davenport, Iowa. Nov. IS, 1879. 

 I have 220 colonies of bees in fine condi- 

 tion for the winter. I have sold 7,500 lbs. 

 of comb honey. I had but 15 swarms this 

 season from my 210 colonies. The honey 

 yield has been light all through Iowa. I do 

 appreaciate the American Bee Journal 

 very much ; it is a great help. 



E. R. Wright. 



Wahalak, Miss., Oct. 15, 1879. 

 I am a novice in apiculture (I mean mod- 

 ern apiculture). Although I have had bees 

 for more than 30 years in the old style box 

 or gum hive, I have never produced much 

 honey and no profit. Last February I pur- 

 chased a right from N. C. Mitchell, of In- 

 dianapolis, Ind. I purchased about 22 colo- 

 nies in gums and boxes, which were in bad 

 condition, and by the middle of March they 

 died out and were reduced to 17 gums. 1 

 made 30 or 40 Mitchell hives preparatory to 

 swarming, expecting at least 50 or 150 swarms. 

 As a usual thing we have from 3 to 5 swarms 

 from each hive, but as the spring was cold 

 and wet, we had an extraordinary poor 

 honey season, and consequently had but few 

 swarms, only 8 or 10 in all. In May, after 

 finding they were doing nothing in the way 

 of swarming or getting honey, I concluded 

 to transfer from the old hives. In doing 

 this I lost several colonies by the robbers. 

 I found the bees in my new hives and those 

 in the old gums were making but little 

 honey, and that of an inferior quality, very 

 dark and of a peculiar taste. From the 15th 

 of June to the 15th of August, they scarcely 

 gathered enough to support them ; after 

 that they commenced business, gathering 

 honey rapidly, and to my surprise, on the 



