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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Feb. 



Club Eates. 



A desire has been expressed by several corres- 

 pondents that we would hold out inducements to 

 get up clubs for the American Bee Journal. We 

 have therefore decided to make the following oifers: 

 $1.75 per year in clubs of 2, or $3.50 

 1.67 " " " 3, or 5.00 



1.50 " " " 6, or 9.00 



1.40 " " " 10, or 14.00 



1.25 " " " 20. or 25.00 



To Contributors. 



We have to thank many friends of the Journal 

 for the valuable articles they have contributed for 

 its columns. Quite a number of these articles are 

 crowded out this month, but we hope to let them 

 see the light in our next issue, and we trust that 

 all who have been accustomed in the past to help 

 fill these pages will continue their valued labors. 



Eack Numbers and Volumes. 



In reply to several correspondents, we would 

 say, that we can supply back numbers of the cur- 

 rent volume, but for the numbers and volumes up to 

 Vol. VII., inclusive, application must be made to 

 Mr. George S. Wagner, AVashington, D. C. 



Question Department. 



Having received a number of questions, we have 

 thought it might be interesting and instructive to 

 commence a "Question Department," and leave 

 them open for general discussion. Our corre- 

 spondents who are at a loss for topics to write 

 about will find "some" here. 



Question No. 1. — It is said that young bees 

 hatched in the fall, or winter, die before spring, 

 unless they can fly out to empty themselves. Is 

 this so ? 



No. 2. — Will the different varieties of honey 

 separate after being extracted ? 



No. 3. — Do bees take any rest, in the cells or out 

 of them, and if so, at what times or seasons? 



No. 4- — Will it pay to double stocks in the 

 spring? 



No. 5. — Is it possible for bees to avoid the secre- 

 tion of wax? 



No. 6. — What becomes of the wax of the new 

 swarms when kept in the old stock by bad weather, 

 or other causes, or when located in hives stocked 

 with combs? 



No. 7. — What is the best method of dividing 

 bees? 



No. 8. — Why do young swarms sometimes leave 

 the hives after being hived ? 



No. 9. — What is the best method of obtaining all 

 straight and worker combs? 



No. 10. — How early or how late in the life of 

 queens can they be fertilized ? 



No. ii.— Can eggs be transported any distance, 

 or how long will they keep good ? 



No. 12. — Is there any standard of purity of the 

 Italian, or any other variety of bees? 

 »-*-« 



Mr. Grimm on Mr. Furrnan. 



[The subjoined communication was sent to Mr. G. 

 S. Wagner, by whom it has been forwarded to us 

 with an expression of opinion that its publication 

 is an act of simple justice to the writer. Desiring 

 to pursue a just and impartial course toward all, 

 we give it insertion, sincerely regretting that Mr. 

 Grimm should be under the necessity of so defend- 

 ing himself. — Ed. A. B. J.] 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Being compelled to stay at home during the last 

 six days on account of a severe cold, I took a notion 

 to look -over some of my old correspondence for the 

 sake of shortening the time, and happened to find 

 a letter which I feared was destroyed long ago. It 

 was written by Mr. W. H. Furman, Cedar Rapids, 

 Iowa, July 5th, 1809. Mr. W. II. Furman, in the May 

 No. of the 7th Vol., page 2G0, 1st column, made a very 

 severe remark about some Italian queen bees he got 

 of me. He said, " Gallup' s blowing Grimm doesn't 

 suit me." After stating that he had received nu- 

 merous letters from parties complaining of Grimm's 

 queens, he goes on to eulogize Mr. Grimm and his 

 queens : "I have also received a great many letters, 

 and seen parties personally, who have made com- 

 plaint of Grimm's queens. I myself have received 

 twenty-one tested queens (so he said) from Mr. 

 Grimm, and not one proved what I considered pure, 

 and if Mr. Gallup breeds from such queens, no 

 wonder he has to puft' them through the papers. 

 Breeders and managers of large apiaries know that 

 a man cannot succeed in keeping his stocks pure 

 with the amount of labor Mr. Grimm reports to the 

 Department of Agriculture, as used in carrying on 

 his apiary." 



Now for facts : Mr. W. H. Furman ordered, 

 in a letter received on September 25, 1868, five 

 tested queens raised from imported stock, and ten 

 raised from my former stock. Those queens were 

 sent on October 4th following, and I heard not a 

 word from him until his letter of July 5th, 1869, 

 was received. I answered that queens reared from 

 imported mothers were darker and their workers 

 not as bright as the workers from my former stock ; 

 that the queens I sent him w 7 ere pure, so far as I 

 was a judge, but would send him three more tested 

 queens. On July 8th I sent those three queens 

 and never afterwards received another line from 

 him. Could any one think otherwise than that 

 Furman was satisfied? It will be seen that my 

 statement does not agree with Mr. F.'s. He claims 

 he received twenty-one queens. I sent him in all 

 but eighteen. He stated in his attack on my queens 

 that he considered none of them pure, while in his 

 letter of July 5th he says that only three were im- 

 pure, and that he could not raise any good queens 

 from them. In his letter Mr. F. states that he lost 

 six queens in introducing. How could he tell, then, 

 that those six were impure? To me it seems that 

 he was bound to say something; against my queens, 



