1871.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



71 



portion of a plant on which I found the bees working 

 very strong. I wish you to ascertain its name, and 

 report in the Journal. It is a strong growing plant, 

 reaching about two feet in height, branches at the 

 ground into eight or twelve shoots. Grows on thin 

 land. I never saw it till this season. — T. L. Stden- 



STRICKER. 



The plant mentioned is the Echium vulgare, or Vi- 

 per's bugloss. It is found plentifully in some parts of 

 Maryland and in Shenandoah valley, Virginia. It 

 blooms from June till the frost cuts it down ; yields 

 honey abundantly and of good quality ; and is said to 

 be the famous Russian bee plant. The books on farm- 

 ing say it is troublesome ; but we have never known 

 it to interfere with proper tillage of good laud. — Ed. 



Chariton, Iowa, July 24. — Bees here are doing 

 better than they have done for the past two years. I 

 liave had nineteen swarms from nine stands — three 

 artificial and sixteen natural. They were Italian and 

 hybrids. My black bees have not done near as well, 

 as I have only had one swarm where I ought to have 

 had sis or eight. Ihis is to me co)iclusive evidence 

 that the Italians are the beet. Our neighbors are be- 

 coming more interested in bee-culture ; quite a num- 

 ber come to see my Italians. — J. A. Bkown. 



IVIatville, "Wis., July 35. — Is it not strange that 

 I read on almost every page of the American Bee 

 Journal, how much earlier the Italian bees swarm 

 than the black bees ; and yet my Italians do not like 

 to swarm at all this season ? Blacks, however, cast 

 swarms in the latter part of May. Till now, there- 

 fore, not very favorably impressed with the Italians. 



— A. W. LUECK. 



NoBLESviLLE, Ind., July 25. — The severe drought 

 in this part of the country has been very hard en bees, 

 especially on the common kind. People in our neigh- 

 borhood now see the superiority of the Italian bee. 

 ]My Italians have gathered honey through the dry 

 weather, but the common bees had to fall back on 

 their gathered stores. I have just Italianized my 

 last stand of blacks. I introduced an Italian queen 

 on the morning of the 21st, and on the eveuing of 

 the 22d — thirty hours after introducing— I went to 

 release her, but found the bees had already let her 

 out. I looked through tlie hive, but could not find 

 her. As I was about shutting up the hive, I saw her 

 sitting on a weed about six feet from the hive. 

 When I went to pick her ott', she took wing and flew 

 away, but in a few minutes I saw her alight on the 

 side of the hive. I picked her oIT, and she curved 

 herself in every shape, thrusting her sting out as if 

 she wanted to sting my fingi-rs ; but my fear of losing 

 her prevented me from giving her a chance. She is a 

 young queen that had just commenced laying in a 

 nucleus. I united two colonies, during the drought, 

 without losing a single bee, by spriukling them with 

 sweetened water scented with peppermint. My bees 

 are doing well since the middle of July. The bee 

 fever seems to be contagious in this part of the coun- 

 try. I use the Langstroth hive, and think it the best, 

 of course.— J. W. Wamplek. 



Seneca Falls, N. Y., July 26.— Bees have done 

 only moderately well this season ; still it is not wholly 

 over yet. I have had not over half a dozen swarms 

 from forty-two colonies. — R. Bickfokd. 



Chambersbukg, Pa., July 27. — Bee culture has not 

 made much progress in this part of Pennsylvania. 

 There are plenty of bees kept, but on the old plan of 

 luck or no luck. Scientific bee culture has yet to 

 take a start here. This, so far, has been a very good 

 honey season here — more so than for several years 

 past. Last year was the poorest I ever knew. White 

 clover was abundant, but did not yield honey ; but 



this year both white and red seem to yield honey 

 freely, and my Italians make good use of the great 

 supply. At gathering honey they are superior to the 

 natives ; and, by-the-by, when any man pretends to 

 say that they are no better than the native bee, I 

 think (I suppose I may think) that he has yet much 

 to observe and much to learn. — S. F. Ketnolds. 



Fredonia, N. T., July 27. — Bees have done well in 

 this section, thus far. The Italians are in my opinion 

 far ahead of the natives. So far as our experience uoes, 

 they are more peaceable than the blacks, work earlier 

 and later in the day, in cool weather, and on days 

 when the others will not work. We think they col- 

 lect at least one-half more than the natives. They 

 Bwarm earlier ; and swarm in seasons when the 

 native bees do not. In short, they are the model bee, 

 in our opinion. — H. A. Burch. 



Wilfrid, Canada, July 28. — My bees began to 

 swarm early this season, being in latitude 441 o^ and 

 wintered on their summer stands (no shed), without 

 any protection but the hives. The first swarm came 

 May 19th. I have increased from twenty-eight stocks 

 to seventy-six ; all very strong, with a large quantity 

 of surplus honey. — D. Reekie. 



Madison, Wis., July 28. — I made a honey-empty- 

 ing machine this year, with the outside case station- 

 ary, and like it better than having the whole revolved, 

 as I had it in 1SG9. I see one patented, and patent 

 applied for, on the same principle. I got twelve hun- 

 dred (1200) pounds of honey from fourteen stocks, 

 besides making twenty young colonies, this summer. 

 The honey was very plenty in June and till about 

 the lOth of July ; now there is scarcely any here. I 

 was up about Wisconsin river this week, in a sandy 

 country. I found there a plant that the bees gather 

 lots of honey from. A bee-keeper told me that 

 August was their best honey month, from that plant. 

 I intend to get seed of it this fall for my ov/n use. It 

 grows about a foot high. I enclose the flower. It 

 may grow on any land, if cultivated. Perhaps you can 

 ascertain the name of it. If I could get it introduced 

 here, it would be worth a good deal to me, as my bees 

 can scarce live from this time till fall. There is no 

 buckwheat near me this summer. — J. McLat. 



Batavia, III., July 29. — Bees have swarmed well, 

 and made considerable box honey. On the whole it 

 has been a fair season. I have Italians and black 

 bees. Of these, the black bees have done best ; but 

 the hybrids have outdone both the blacks and the 

 Italians. I find my Italians fractious, and very bad 

 to handle, and pr«fer the half-breeds to any other 

 bee.— S. Way. 



Deeking, Me., Aug. 1.— Our honey crop this sea- 

 son, thus far, has been a failure. The white clover 

 yields comparatively nothing. The weather has been 

 60 very dry here since the fruit trees blossomed that 

 there was little food for tlie bees. My bees have not 

 swarmed this season, and very few have swarmed in 

 this county. We have had some wet weather of late, 

 and hope the drought has been broke. I shall not get 

 more than twenty-five (25) pounds of box honey from 

 five colonies, though my hives are full of bees. — Jos, 

 Batcheldeb. 



Hartland Four Corners, Vt., Aug. 1-— We are 

 having the poorest season for bees in this vicinity, 

 thus Jar, that we had for several years. From twenty- 

 five stocks of black bees, I have not had a smgle 

 natural swarm, and many of them will not give any 

 surplus honey. All of my Italian stocks have given 

 swarms, except one ; and from that one I have taken 

 one hundred (100) poimds of surplus honey at this 

 time (Aug. 1). 1 have already iutroduced more than 

 twenty-five Italian queens thisseason, without a single 



