1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



203 



to see what T could realize from them. On the 

 12tli of May they cast a large swarm. I put it 

 in a two-story Thomas liive, with nine frames 

 above and below ; the lower frames ten inches 

 deep, the upper ones eight inches deep. At the 

 time I hived the swarm, I filled about one-half 

 of the frames with empty combs, putting worker 

 combs in the lower frames, and drone combs 

 mostly in the upper set of frames. 



From this swarm I took with the Extractor, 

 two hundred and sixty-one and a half (261^) 

 pounds of nice honey. The old stock was used 

 for box honey. From it I took eighty-five (85) 

 pounds. I did not extract any from this stock, 

 but think I could have taken forty or fifty 

 jKiunds of extracted honey, and the same 

 amount (eighty-five pounds) stored in boxes. 



The eighty-five pounds of box honey taken 

 from the old stock, sold for fifteen cents per 

 pound — making $12.75. The two hundred and 

 sixty-one and a half pounds taken from the 

 swaim sold at ten cents per pound, making 

 $26.15. The two amounts together make $38.90, 

 the swarm was worth $15.00 — which, added to 

 the foregoing, makes $53.90 ; from which deduct 

 the cost of the hive $4.00, and it leaves $49.90, 

 as the net profit of one stock. I know this does 

 not compare very favorably with Novice's three 

 hundred and thirty (330) pounds, but I am only a 

 young novice, while he is an old one. And you, 

 Mr. Editor, can tell Novice that I am going to 

 make a larger hive next year, and go for him 

 again. 



There are a great many bees in this county, 

 and honey is very cheap here. I got from 

 thirty colonies one thousand pounds of extracted 

 honey, and six hundred and fifty pounds of box 

 honey the past season. 



J. P. Fortune. 



Bloomfield, Iowa, Dec. 11, 1871. 



[For tha American Bee Joarnal.] 



Novel Bee Dress. 



Mr. Editor : — On our way to town, last spring, 

 our attention and that of the old mare we were 

 riding was attracted by a strange, grotesque 

 figure moving about on the road, whose manceu- 

 vres were occasionally very quick and then again 

 quite slow. As we approached it had somewhat 

 the appearance of the Ku Klux of Robinson's 

 circus, minus the head. Approaching nearer we 

 saw a pair of legs in boots beneath, when any 

 fears we might have entertained disappeared, 

 and we learned what was going on. 



A man by the name of Parrish, a near neigh- 

 bor of Old Reuben Birch, had a swarm of bees 

 come off" and pitch upon the back of a worm rail 

 fence. Having ineftectually tried to hive them, 

 in doing which the enraged bees had left from 

 ten to a dozen stings with different members of 

 the family, he sent for old Reuben, who never 

 failed, as he always did things according to rules 

 laid down in the Tar river code ; and it was he 

 we saw in the road. 



Well, Reuben was ensconced in the old wo- 

 man's Bal-moral. The drawstring, instead of 



being about the waist, was tightened just above 

 the brim and around the crown of an old high top 

 beaver. The forepart of the garment was be- 

 hind ; and the hind part, having a slit down it 

 several inches, was before. The slit being near 

 the face served as a kind of window for Reuben 

 ^o peep out at. He was also armed with a long- 

 handled broom ; and the gum was placed on a 

 coverlet on the ground, beneath the cluster. 



Old Reuben would open a little crack of his 

 stockade, to ascertain the exact locality of the 

 bees, then close up, arid with the broom, sweep, 

 sweep, he would take the cluster, and a cloud of 

 bees would in an instant be on the wing. They 

 went for that Bal-moral, but down old Reuben 

 would squat and remain motionless until things 

 became a little settled, then peep out again to 

 note progress. More of them settling again on 

 the fence than went into the gum, sweep, 

 sweep, he would again bring them down ; and 

 we had to move the old mare several rods fur- 

 ther off" as the bees were briskly circling, in 

 search of something they could get at. 



The KING having gone in after the lapse of 

 about fifteen minutes hiving, the workers soon 

 followed, and old Reuben, in triumph, walked 

 to where we were standing, and as he came out 

 from under that Bid-moral, the sweat was stand- 

 ing about in pools upon his face. We have often 

 thought since, that we never saw a man sweat 

 in earnest before ; and feel sure that twenty 

 minutes, on that day, under that Balmoral, was 

 equal to the same length of time in Nero's cave 

 at Naples. H. 



Murfreeaboro, Tenn., Nov. 20, 1871. 



[For tha American Bee Journal.] 



National Society of Beekeepers. 



Mr. Editor : — I agree with you that, in the 

 absence of jealous care, there is great danger of 

 a national society of beekeepers being so con- 

 ducted as to subserve the selfish purposes only 

 of a few individuals, whose sole object in being 

 present at such gatherings, is that of advancing 

 their own personal and pecuniary interests. One 

 of the first manifestations of such a tendency, 

 is that of some individual writing and publish- 

 ing a nicely colored report of all he puts on 

 exhibition, or of what he, or such persons as he 

 uses for mouthpieces, say upon all subjects — a 

 polished report which tends towards building up 

 a prosperous business for himself. At the same 

 time care is taken to fail to report what is either 

 exhibited or said by others, who are not tlieir 

 special instruments of profit ;— no matter if 

 what these have said or done be ever so much 

 calculated to promote the general interests of 

 beekeeping throughout the country, far above 

 and beyond anything that such designing per- 

 sons may have said or done, either themselves or 

 through their satellites. 



This matter I thought of when the first move 

 was made towards the organization of such a 

 body, but never resorted to any special means 

 of preventing such a tendency, until the North 

 American Beekeepers' Society was organized at 



