1871.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



83 



keeper. The new volume has started as an 

 advance on the old ones, and we feel assured that 

 if supported as it ou<;ht to be, it will continue to 

 improve from month to month, and from year to 

 year. Beekeepers want a paper that they can, 

 in all respects, rely upon ; that has no interest 

 in misleadinjj^ any ; and is ready to stand up 

 fearlessly for the right on all occasions. Such a 

 paper we have in the American Bee Journal-. 

 Let us all join in giving it an adequate and cheer- 

 ing support. Sustain it well, and we shall save 

 money by being kept from the clutches of har- 

 pies. There are many also just beginning to feel 

 an interest in bee-culture, since it has been shown 

 to be a profitable business when managed with 

 ordinary care and intelligence. All these shovxld 

 have the Journal to pioneer them on their way, 

 and give them the rich experience of practical 

 men who have been long and successfully 

 engaged in this fascinating pursuit. 



Let me add a few words more, of local interest. 

 Beekeeping here is progressing of late. Form- 

 erly it was managed on the old-fogy principles. 

 We have not much natural pasturage here for 

 bees, and the country is still so new that artificial 

 pasturage is not yet plenty ; but bees are doing 

 tolerably well at present, everything considered. 



E. LiSTON. 



Virgil City, Mo., Aug. 29, 1871. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Bee Season's Operations. 



Mr. Editor : — The past was a remarkably 

 early season. I set out my bees on the 10th of 

 February, calculating that I shoidd have to re- 

 turn them, as I still expected cold weather. In 

 this I was disappointed, as the bees continued 

 flying daily, as if it were summer. This caused 

 them to use up their stores very fast, and I 

 judged that, at the rate of consumption going on, 

 they would soon run out of stores. I resorted 

 to feeding, and gave them a considerable quan- 

 tity of syrup to save them from perishing — pur- 

 chasing for this purpose three hundred pounds of 

 sugar. Some old beekeepers around remarked 

 on this, that beekeeping did not pay ; enjoying 

 a laugh at me for feeding my bees. I let them 

 laugh, as I felt confident there was a good time 

 coming for me and my bees. Well, swarming 

 time came on, and the old fellows kept looking 

 for swarms, but were doomed to disappoint- 

 ment ; while I was getting honey by the ton, 

 and making plenty of artificial swarms. Then, 

 as an old negro said — " they begun to laugh out 

 of de odder side of their moufs !" 



We shall be more careful hereafter, and 

 always keep honey enough in reserve to give 

 each colony ten jjounds if necessary. They will 

 be sure to pay it back richly. No honey worth 

 mentioning could be obtained by the bees till the 

 10th of May. Though the trees bloomed in pro- 

 fusion the bees were kept from visiting them by 

 constant high winds from the south. After the 

 10th, they gathered suflficient for their own use ; 

 though the hives were not near as populous at 

 the end of May as they had been at the begin- 

 ning of April. Still, by a little attention prop- 



erly directed, they were kept in good condition 

 for summer's operations. We pitched the honey 

 out Novice fashion, when the season fully opened. 

 Any person who would secure the most honey 

 from his pure Italians, will use the honey ex- 

 tractor. This we find to be of vital importance 

 with the Italians ; but in an apiary of five or six 

 hundred stocks, several extractors would be 

 needed, with suitable assistants to operate them, 

 otherwise even Novice would be kept on the 

 run. 



I notice in the August .Journal an article from 

 the pen of N. Cameron, of Kansas, pitching 

 into some of our old bee-writers pretty strong 

 for a man from the wild country, and charging 

 the veteran Galluj) with seeking to impose some 

 device on the public. If Gallup does not deserve 

 a place in the Journal and allowed to have his 

 say, I think no one does. All novices in bee- 

 keeping that have been reading Gallup' s articles, 

 should hold him up as their teacher. It is plain 

 enough to me why Gallup made the statement 

 he did, since I have studied the matter over. I 

 have come to the conclusion that he adopted that 

 plan merely as an excuse for not writing awhile. 

 Headers have become so attached to his writing 

 that they expect him to lose too much time from 

 his farm. He is right in the covirse he takes, 

 for like some of our queen breeders, he ought to 

 look out a little for his own interest. 



J. N. Walter. 

 Winchester, Iowa. 



[For tlie American Bee Journal.] 



Comments on the Past Season. 



Mr. Editor : — Here we are again with our 

 bees in Sei_>tember, and we shall have to confess 

 that ours have not done as well as we ex]3ected 

 they would in the s]Dring. Still, we are not going 

 to complain, when we look at some of our neigh- 

 bors, whose bees have not done as well as our 

 own. 



The month of March was very warm here, and 

 in the latter j^art of it the bees brought in a con- 

 siderable quantity of jjollen. But April was 

 cold and wet, and the colonies rather lost than 

 gained in population ; and when the weather be- 

 came warm my hives were crammed with brood. 

 By the way, spring feeding is a " big thing." It 

 tells for the next three months, and in fact for 

 the whole season. We did not have much fruit 

 bloom here, and as we had got uji our bees to 

 the swarming pitch, some colonies nearly ran 

 ashore for honey, having so many young bees to 

 feed. But we carried them through safe till 

 clover came into bloom, and then got out our 

 machine and took out two hundred and thirty 

 (230) ])Ounds of nice honey, when a drouth came 

 on and stopped our work in that line. 



Our bees were ready to swarm early, and were 

 through with that before our neighbors hatl any 

 drones flying. I did not let them swarm as 

 much as some do, for I was fearful of a bad sea- 

 son ; and in this I think I hit the nail on the 

 head. At the present time I have twenty-four 

 colonies in good shape for wintering. Buck- 

 wheat has yielded a good lot of honey ; the hives 



