1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



189 



THE AMERiCAN BEE JOURNAL 



Washington, February, 1872. 



Ill health during part of the past month, pre- 

 vented us from giving the Journal the usual attention, 

 though we flatter ourselves that we have managed, 

 notwithstanding, to make up a very readable paper. 



On the 14th ult., a subscriber mailed to us at 

 Byron, Mich., a letter enclosing two dollars, but 

 omitted to give us his name. Whom shall we credit ? 

 Another subscriber, writing from Ipswich, Mass., 

 on the 8th ult., enclosed two dollars, but likewise 

 failed to give his name. In his case, we ventured to 

 guess. If wrong, will the writer please correct us ? 



Mr. G. W. Childg has sent us a copy of the 

 Public Ledger Almanac for 1872, containing a large 

 amount of statistical and other information, in a con- 

 densed and compact form. The almanac is not for 

 sale anywhere, but ninety thousand copies of it were 

 printed by Mr. Childs, to be presented to subscribers 

 to (Philadelphia) Public Ledger. 



B^" Mr. A. Gray, of the firm of Gray & Winder, 

 Cincinnati, Ohio, intends going to Europe in the 

 spring, to procure a supply of pure Italian queen 

 bees for his own apiary. He will also take a limited 

 amount of orders from others desiring such queens, 

 to be sent to them by express from Cincinnati on his 

 return. Terms $15 per queen. Orders accompanied 

 by the cash, either in registered letters or post office 

 money orders, should be addressed to him prior to 

 March 15th next. Mr. Gray is an experienced bee- 

 breeder, and will no doubt, make careful. selections. 



To Mr. Langst; oih's exposure of H. A. King's 

 operations, and his dispassionate and dignitied' notice 

 of the Baron of Berlepsch's Declaration, we need not 

 invite attention— the interest felt iu the subject will 

 command it, of course. 



We purpose next month to insert the Baron of 

 Berlepsch's Declaration, into the making of which 

 he was unwarily entrapped by the wily misrepresen- 

 tations of H. A. King. We reserve, till then, any re- 

 marks we may have to make with reference to it. 



A slight error occurred in the January num- 

 ber, in our reference to Mr. Langstroth, which, 

 though of not much importance, we desire to correct. 

 Instead of " Befpre the spring of 185i we never 

 heard of Mr. Langstroth," read " Before the autumu 

 of 1851." We then first heard of him from the late 

 Rev. Dr. Berg ; but we never saw him or had any con- 

 versation or correspondence with him till after the 

 1st of August, 1853, as we stated last month. 



iS~ The preposterous absurdity of claims made 

 now to having invented movable frame hives twenty- 

 flve or thirty years ago, must be evident to every 

 candid man, who retiects for a moment on the pre- 

 requisites which the intelligent use of such frames in- 

 volves ; and who is aware of what was the highest ad- 

 vance which practical bee-culture had reached in this 

 country, when Mr. Langstroth made his invention 

 and published his book. We have no hesitation in 

 saying (and doubt not that all tbiuking beekeepers, 

 old enough to know the facts as they theu existed, 

 will agree with us), that when Mr. L. invented his 

 frames, and before he published his book, there were 

 not three men in the country (unless instructed by 

 him) who could have used a movable comb hive intel- 

 ligently and successfully, if one had been presented to 

 them ready stocked. Beekeepers had to be eihicatcd 

 to use the frames — that is, tliey had to learn how to 

 manipulate with them, before they could manage 

 them with any prospect of success. Many, very 

 many intelligent beekeepers, long accustomed to 

 manage bees in common hives, tried to use them, and 

 failed, because they relied on mere practical skill, 

 without having previously qualified themselves, in 

 some degree, by studying the science and theory. 

 Hundreds, subsequently very skilful and successful 

 operators, well remember the day when first they 

 ventured to undertake the job of opening a hive and 

 removing a comb crowded with bees ; and many laugh- 

 able stories have we heard from the lips of such, 

 when detailing their unlucky experience and frequent 

 discomfitures. 



And now, men, who still occupy only back scats and 

 the lower forms in the schools of apiculture, come 

 forward and claim that they, evc7i they, invented these 

 frames a full quarter of a century ago ! Why, they 

 might as well claim to have invented car-buffers and 

 couplings, railway switches, and track-layiug ma- 

 chines, a lustrum or two before George Stevenson 

 dreamed of the first locomotive that ever run by 

 steam ! Such people should reflect for a moment 

 how preposterous their pretensions are, ere they com- 

 mit themselves so egregiously. 



COKKESPONDENOE OF THE BEE JOUENAL. 



Los Anoelos, Cal., Dec. 35, 1871. — Bees have been 

 able to fly and work up to this time, with the excep- 

 tiou of about five days, it being rainy. But they 

 found little honey since the last of August, as the 

 weather was very dry. Vegetation is, however, start- 

 ing finely now, and bees will soon have plenty of 

 honey. There are a number of beekeepers here that 

 have one hundred or more colonies ; but the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal and improved bee hives are not 

 known to them. — J. BECKLEy. 



Lucas, Mo., Jan. 6, 1873. — Bees laid up a good 

 supply, and to spare, of liquid sweets this season. I 

 had only eleven stands or colonies ; and they aver- 

 aged two hundred and forty per cent, profit the past 

 season, above expenses, "iiowis this for high?" 



