152 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



August 



The report shows conclusively that 

 the bee-keepers had a jolly time, 

 and we hope a profitable time was 

 spent, of which there is no occasion 

 for doubt. The reports of such 

 gatherings would be very interest- 

 ing, as well as generally instructive, 

 if their preparation for the press 

 could but be directed by some one 

 conversant with the science and 

 practice of bee-keeping; instead of 

 by some city-bred reporter, who, 

 knowing nothing of the business, is 

 incapable of grasping or portraying 

 any idea or incident intelligently, 

 aside from that which may occur of 

 a ludicrous nature. It is indeed re- 

 markable what unlimited scope the 

 occasional subject of bees, bee- 

 keeping or bee-keepers affords the 

 newspaper man for exercising his 

 wit and wisdom. The frequent 

 meetings of the Worcester Associa- 

 tion, at the apiaries of its members, 

 is after the style of the Philadel- 

 phia bee-keepers, and they are at- 

 tended with much pleasure and 

 profit to those who attend. 



Mr. H. T. Gifford, in Gleanings^ 

 gives some information in regard to 

 the nature and habits of the red 

 ant which is so destructive to bees 

 in the South. All our published 

 works on bee culture bear evidence 

 of a very limited knowledge of these 

 great pests, whose methods of at- 

 tack render them most difficult to 

 combat. Coming, as they do, ap- 

 parently for the special purpose of 

 slaughtering bees, from the sur- 

 rounding country, and taking up 

 their temporary abode in an old 

 wood-pile, in the long grass, be- 

 tween the walls of a building, in a 

 hollow stump or tree, in a ventilat- 

 ed cover or thickly clustered on the 

 under side of the bottom board, or 

 in the vacant apartment of a con- 

 tracted hive having a weak colony, 

 and their frequent movings from 



place to place, render the ordinary 

 method of applying bisulphide of 

 carbon, useless. To be effectual the 

 fumes of the carbon must be closely 

 confined ; and with thousands of 

 colonies of ants scattered every- 

 where about in the woods and fields, 

 any one of which is likely to pounce 

 upon the apiary without a moment's 

 warning and entii-ely destroy the 

 colonies attacked in one night, no 

 method of treatment now advocated 

 serves the purpose at all. The man 

 who devises a practical method of 

 guarding against their ravages will 

 immortalize his name in the South. 



"MUST USE WHAT THE MARKETS 

 DEMAND." 



Mr. N. E. France, one of the lar- 

 gest producers of honey in this 

 country, in The Bee-keepers' Reme%i\ 

 writes: " If barrels are made of a 

 good quality of staves, kiln-dried 

 and iron-hooped, the barrels then 

 stored in a dry, airy room and the 

 hoops driven up the day barrel is 

 filled, they will never leak. This is 

 our experience for the past twenty 

 years; sending barrels thousands of 

 miles, and to nearly every state 

 east of the Rockies. We must use 

 such packages for honey as our 

 markets demand. The next best 

 package is the 60tb tin can, cased; 

 and where good cooperage cannot 

 be had, and at cheap figures, the 

 boxed tin can package is perhaps as 

 good as any." 



Saying that a well-coopered and 

 properly prepared barrel " will 

 never leak," is putting it pretty 

 strong; yet Mr. France is a man of 

 experience, and we believe he comes 

 pretty near stating the matter cor- 

 rectly. This matter of packages 

 appears to look quite differently in 

 the eyes of the man who produces 

 honey for a livelihood and the man 

 who buys his product at as low a 

 price as possible and sells it at the 



