42 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[August, 



proportion as the two thousand inch hive. Our 

 late friend, Mr. Wagner, said, if I mistake not, 

 that a queen under favorable circumstance would 

 produce in eggs three times the weight of her 

 own body in twenty-four hours. Again, when I 

 read in a small pamphlet of Mr. Adair's, that a 

 queen would occupy a hive of four thousand 

 cubic inches with brood, I understood it to be 

 occupied in the usual manner. But I thought 

 either Mr. Adair's climate was different from 

 ours or he was mistaken. Somebody was mis- 

 taken, and instead of crying out liar, &c, we 

 went to work to find out where the mistake 

 was, and we soon found that Gallup was mis- 

 taken. Mr. Adair was correct. Our friend in 

 his figuring and ignorance of the manner that 

 a queen occupies a hive, has made a slight 

 mistake of about seven thousand — not much 

 mistaken in a queen's laying something after all. 

 Again, he says he would have hired some poor 

 man to take his place in the harvest field. When 

 the reader understands that a boy fourteen 

 years old, can prepare with a good team and the 

 necessary implements, and put into crop, one 

 hundred acres of our prairie, and that every poor 

 man can get a team and land on shares, so that 

 when we go to harvesting we have to press our 

 wives and daughters into the harvest field, and 

 every available man from our cities and villages, 

 will understand that his talk about hiring is all 

 moonshine. 



It cannot be done. So far ahead of the sup- 

 ply is the demand, that to-day the harvest hands 

 are talking of five dollars per day for the pres- 

 ent harvest. My youngest daughter has driven 

 the harvester for the past four seasons. 



Again, about one of my hives losing its queen, 

 and the product beii.g small, the queen began to 

 fail of old age, and by the time the bees had 

 superseded her, the swarm had dwindled down 

 to one-fourth its natural size. We don't know 

 but he can raise queens that will breed bees 

 under these circumstances, that will gather more 

 honey, for thirty days in succession, without a 

 queen than with one. But our bees are not of 

 that breed. Send us a queen of that variety and 

 we will blow you higher than a kite. 



Again, we did not suppose that any beekeeper 

 was so green as to understand us as saying that 

 the honey dripped from the trees, only that the 

 blossoms were completely smeared. As I have 

 never sold queens, patent hives, &c., I do not see 

 very well how I am to get the dollars out of the 

 Novices of Iowa. Mr. Grimm has been to Italy 

 and has seen the Italians in their own country, 

 therefore, we, being personally acquainted with 

 him, take it for grant that he is as good a judge 

 as Mr. Furman can possibly be, and to-day we 

 would as soon send to Mr. Grimm for a good 

 queen as any man in the United States. 



Then, about insulting queen-breeders. The 

 reader will understand that I never have said 

 that all light-colored queens were impure, but 

 that extra light-colored queens and three-striped 

 workers were no test of purity ; neither is a queen 

 always impure because she is dark-colored, and 

 under favorable circumstances produces dark- 

 colored queens. 



Read Mr. Langstroth's articles on queens in 



June and July Nos., for they give the truth of 

 the matter just as it is. Again, he says some- 

 thing about not seeing it. There, Mr. Editor, 

 was a joke on somebody, and I don't know to 

 this day. 



The joke, I suspect, was on Gallup. I will 

 tell you the story and leave you to judge. Soon 

 after coming into this State I was threatened 

 with prosecution for having no right, but found 

 the party threatening had no right himself, and 

 I also found that Mr. Furman owned the State. 

 Shortly a Mr. Goodhue came along claiming to 

 act as Mr. Furmairs agent. I acknowledged 

 my willingness to pay. But Mr. Goodhue said 

 (or in language to that effect) that he wanted 

 some place to stop ; that if he could stop with 

 me, he should charge nothing for the right. 



In about one year Mr. Furman and Mr. Good- 

 hue both called and stopped over night (all free 

 of charge, for w T e rather like to have beekeepers 

 call on us). In course of our conversation some- 

 thing was mentioned about our writing for the 

 Journal. Mr. F. spoke up rather sharply, say- 

 ing that he paid cash for everything, and exacted 

 cash from customers. But he had no blank deeds, 

 nor had 1. Afterwards I obtained one from Mr. 

 J. E. Benjamin, Mr. F.'s agent, and as Mr. F. 

 only got five dollars, and five dollars went to the 

 agent as commission, he only saw five dollars 

 instead of ten dollars, which he would have seen 

 had he obtained it direct from me. Now you 

 can tell where the joke lies as well as I can. Mr. 

 Editor just let him give us another broadside. 

 We rather enjoy the sport. 



E. Gallup. 



Orchard, Iowa. 



From the London Gardener's Chronicle.] 



Bee Notes. 



It would do any beekeeper's heart good to see 

 how my bees have been working at the ivy blos- 

 som during the last week or so, both for honey 

 and pollen. Bees here have the monopoly of the 

 ivy this autumn, wasps being scarce in this 

 neighborhood. [This is not the case in some 

 parts of Devonshire, wasps being exceedingly 

 numerous.] I have not as yet destroyed a single 

 nest, though there are a few near ; but whether 

 they are plentiful or otherwise, does not matter 

 to me in the slightest, as it is only the poor, 

 weak, or nearly worn out old hives that are 

 molested by them ; and I always make it a point 

 to keep my stock up to the best possible strength 

 and condition. 



A short time since I met with a curious cir- 

 cumstance in the apiary of one of our magis- 

 trates. Having to drive a hive — one in a bee- 

 house containing three stocks — and having made 

 all the preparatory arrangements very carefully, 

 I lifted out the hive with its board, and ex- 

 tremely heavy I found it to be; but upon start- 

 ing it from its board and turning it up, there 

 were few bees to be seen, only three or four 

 being in it. The combs were full of honey to 

 the very edge ; not an ounce more could have 

 been stored in them. I at once came to the con- 



