34 



TUB AMERICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



[August, 



fear his reputation will suffer. Some people 

 mifjlit conclude that others besides the *' heathen 

 Chinee ' ' are up to ' ' ways that are dark, and tricks 

 tliat are vain." 



I hope with the present volume will commence 

 an increased interest in the Journal, and an in- 

 creased eftbrt on the part of bee-keepers to aug- 

 ment its list of subscribers ; and that the time 

 will soon come when yon will find it your interest, 

 as well as that of your readers, to make it a 

 semi-monthly publication. I send the names of 

 three old and one new subscriber. 



C. N. Austin, M. D. 



Lewisbury, West Va., June 20, 1871. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Letter from Kansas. 



Mr. Editor : — Bee-keeping in Kansas is just 

 in its infancy. Not many have as yet adopted the 

 modern improvements. Many believe in signs, 

 and wonders, and luck. They are too supersti- 

 tious, and consequently this has been a good 

 field for humbug ])eddlers. Last fall we organ- 

 ized an association for this county (Douglas), 

 the first one organized in this State. Tlie so- 

 ciety holds montlily meetings, and has created 

 quite an interest in the bee line. Such associa- 

 tions are the surest preventives of being hum- 

 bugged by patent vendors. 



Bees do very well here. In fact, we think it a 

 good bee country, considering that we have not 

 many of the best honey plants, such as white 

 clover, alsike clover, &c., which, however, can 

 easily be introduced ; jj,nd we would advise Mr. 

 W. F. Bason, who " Avants to know where there 

 is a good honey district," to come to Kansas 

 and select a good location, where he would have 

 plenty of sumac of the different varieties, and 

 lindens, — a timber range being necessary for the 

 best results. Then buckwheat and clover, or 

 any other honey-producing plant, should be 

 sown, to promote a continuous supply as far as 

 possible. 



We have known a hive to throw off six swarms 

 in one season ; and all, including the old stock, 

 wintered well on their summer stands, without 

 feeding, besides giving some suri^lus honey. The 

 fall is our surplus honey season, and we like it 

 much better than when we have to depend on 

 getting our surplus at swarming time. Here we 

 get through with our increase of colonies, and 

 have them in just such condition as we want 

 them to be, when the honey season sets in. A 

 good swarm in August will, in a good season, 

 store fifty pounds surplus in boxes, besides stor- 

 ing in the hive from fifty to seventy-five pounds, 

 thus completely putting the old English adage 

 about swarms out of countenance. If the Ex- 

 tractor will do what is claimed for it, we think 

 a person could take from an August swarm, 

 with the above conditions, from one hundred 

 to one hundred and fifty pounds. We made 

 a forced swarm last year about the 20th of 

 September, and it nearly filled the hive with 

 comb, and stored enough honey to winter on. 

 Yet that was the poorest honey year we have 

 had for some time. If it had been a season like 



that of two years ago, we would have got at 

 least twenty-five pounds of box honey. 



We have been mucli pleased to see some of 

 your correspondents hitting the various humbug 

 patents and hive venders just about as they de- 

 served. But we were astonished beyond meas- 

 ure to see, in the last number of the Journal, 

 one of the humbug killers set himself up to be 

 killed in turn. Yes, brother Gallup has got -a 

 recipe for making bee-hives for the moderate sum 

 of one dollar ! This is what we would call a 

 Simon pure humbug, selling a description of an- 

 otlier man's patent hive. We hope bee-keepers 

 will hold fast to their dollars, at least till friend 

 Galluj) tests his hive ; for he informs us that he 

 has just put bees in them, though he puts forth 

 extravagant claims for it. The standard Lang- 

 strotli hive is nowhere in comparison (as his 

 language implies). "The advantages are too 

 numerous to even think of," at one time. Now 

 as competition is the life of business, we propose 

 to furnish Gallup'.: descriptions at the extraordi- 

 narily low figure of three cents apiece by the 

 thousand. If Mr. Gallup can't afford them for 

 less than a dollar, we think printing costs more 

 down at the '"Orchard" than it does out here. 

 To any one ordering from us, we will throw in 

 the "Twining six secrets" for handling and 

 managing bees, for which the inventor charges 

 ten dollars ; by means of which secrets you can 

 increase one swarm to sixty-four in one season, 

 and, in combination with the Oallup hive, you 

 could undoubtedly make one hundred, and se- 

 cure a ton of honey from each hive every year. 

 Novice would be tlirown quite in the shade with 

 his 330 pounds, and his dollar honey knife. You 

 see every one is after the almighty dollar. Here is 

 another after it, but, as Novice says, ' ' indirectly. " 

 G. M. Doolittle, on page 10, discourses on pure 

 Italian queens. The inference from the article 

 is, that he wants to do little and get large pay ; 

 thus, "Let the price be kept up at a paying 

 figure." Therefore he makes many statements 

 and assertions which, we doubt, will not stand 

 the test of proof. But hear what he says : " The 

 queen, beside-^ producing workers icith three yelloto 

 bunds, must duplicate herself ; in other words, 

 Iter queen progeny must be exactly like herself. — 

 One word to those who wish to purchase queens. 

 I would say, get a queen that produces all three- 

 banded workers, uniform in color, and the 

 queens from all duplicates of herself. Then 

 you will get a queen worth having, and anything 

 short of this will be dashed with black blood. 

 Such a queen cannot be raised short of eight or 

 ten dollars."* All of which means that he is the 

 only one that keeps pure queens, and you can 

 get; them for ten dollars. On page 241 of volume 

 vi. of the Journal you can read what we take to 

 be a deal better authority than these statements. 

 It is from Mr. C. F. H. Gravenhopst, of Brauns- 

 chweig, Germany. He says : " They invariably 

 show three yellow bands, sometimes more and 

 sometimes less distinctly impressed. The color 

 of these bands (of which two are broad and one 

 is naiTOw) varies somewhat according to locality. 



* We think Mr. D. does not raise queens for sale. 

 -[Ed. 



