192 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



October 



venient to afford relief, by permit- 

 ting us to put the plan into practice. 

 Mr. Alley will contribute an article 

 to the coming queen -re aring 

 number. 



Of the various methods recom- 

 mended for the starting of queen- 

 cells, where artificial cups are used, 

 it is doubtful if any will yield as 

 large a percentage of perfect cells 

 as that of confining the bees on 

 combs of honey without brood, for 

 several hours. One great objec- 

 tion to the practice of this plan .is 

 the loss of bees which escape while 

 the cups are being given. After 

 being thus confined they will, of 

 course, "boil" out of the hive as 

 soon as it is opened. We have de- 

 vised a practical method of giving 

 the cups without opening the hive, 

 hence, it is impossible for a single 

 bee to escape. The plan will be 

 illustrated and explained in our 

 queen-rearing number, which we 

 are now arranging to get out. 



Dr. E. Gallup, in Am. Bee Jour- 

 nal, says San Diego County, Cal., 

 has produced this year about four 

 hundred tons of honey, nearly all 

 of which has been sold in the Ger- 

 man markets at from 5 to 6^ cents 

 a pound. It becomes more clearly 

 evident that the European market 

 is to afford relief from the out- 

 rageous freight rates to Eastern 

 points, to which the producer of the 

 Pacific Slope has heretofore been 

 subject. The question of trans- 

 portation was for some years the 

 gravest problem which confronted 

 the California bee-keepers. It now 

 appears that the excessive charges 

 imposed by railway companies, in 

 carrying the crops to the Eastern 

 markets of our country, is to result 

 beneficially to the producers. "Ill 

 blows the wind," etc. 



A recent letter from a friend in 

 Ecuador states that he has never 

 seen honey in the markets of that 

 country, and that, after a great 

 deal of inquiry, he ha«i failed to find 

 anyone having any knowledge of 

 bees. Take into consideration the 

 fact that our correspondent dates 

 his letter from Guayaquil, the chief 

 maritime port of the republic, it 

 would appear that the world is not 

 yet overcrowded with bee-keepers. 

 It is not improbable that succeeding 

 generations may see the bee-keeping 

 industry in extensive operation in 

 all parts of the world, with a list of 

 representative journals correspond- 

 ingly increased. There is obviously 

 much room for expansion and im- 

 provement in every department of 

 the business. Some of our apicul- 

 tural editors evidently faw to 

 appreciate the great possibilities 

 before us. 



The Westet'?i Apiar)/, edited and 

 published by C. H. Gordon, Boulder, 

 Colorado, is the latest candidate for 

 public favor in the field of apicul- 

 tural journalism. It is a sixteen- 

 page monthly, very nicely gotten 

 up and contains very readable mat- 

 ter, both original and selected. 

 This gives Colorado two bee-papers, 

 The Western Bee-keeper and The 

 Western Apiary. The more good 

 journals we have, the better; but 

 it is extremely questionable that 

 both of these shall live to realize 

 their youthful dreams of ultimate 

 success. We see no good reason 

 why a good representative journal 

 should not find suppox't in the West. 

 If both succeed, all the better. It 

 is our wish that they may; but it 

 will doubtless be a case of the 

 survival of the fittest. 



At the convention of Ontario 

 bee-keepers, Toronto, reported in 

 Canadian Bee Journal, some of 



