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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 10, 19C6 



load of bee keepers from North and East to take the trip 

 together from Chicago, as the round-trip rate will be only 

 $25, leaving here on Tuesday, Nov. 6. There will be home- 

 seekers' rates every Tuesday until the end of November. 



miscellaneous 

 Hctps * 3 terns 



^ 



J 



The Progressive Bee-Keeper, published for many 

 years by the Leahy Mfg. Co. at Higginsville, Mo., has been 

 purchased by The Helpful Hen, of Topeka, Kans. — a new 

 monthly publication devoted to poultry, bees and pigeons. 

 Mr. R. B. Leahy, founder of the Leahy Mfg. Co., recently 

 passed away, also. 



The Humming of the Bees— words and music by Mr. 

 James Roat, of Canandaigua, N Y. — is very appropriate 

 just now. By placing it on our first page it will doubtless 

 be sung by thousands of bee-keepers, and also enjoyed by 

 them. We can furnish extra copies of the song, oo single 

 sheets, for 10 cents each, postpaid ; or 3 copies for 20 cents 

 <stamps or silver). Address all orders to the office of the 

 American Bee Journal. 



J. D. Forsyth, a bee-keeper of Orange Co., Fla., when 

 on his way to Nebraska, last week, made this office a brief 

 call. He had 30 colonies of bees, and during the orange 

 bloom, which began April 1, he secured about 70 pounds per 

 colony. He sold it all in his home market, the most of it 

 going to Northern tourists who had been spending the win- 

 ter in "The Land of Flowers." Doubtless they took some 

 of it home with them, as they were about to return to the 

 North. 



Appendix to Dr. Miller's "Forty Years."— All who 



have the first edition of " Forty Years Among the Bees " 

 should also have the Appendix which appears in the new 

 edition, issued in April. The complete new 344-page book, 

 bound in cloth, is sent postpaid for SI. 00 ; the Appendix 

 alone for 10 cents. Or, the book and the American Bee 

 Journal a year — both for $180; the Appendix and the 

 American Bee Journal a year in advance, $1.00. Send all 

 orders to the American Bee Journal office. 



The San Francisco Earthquake and Fire are again 

 referred to in the following from Mr. W. A. Pryal, who suf- 

 fered quite a good deal of loss thereby. Last week we pub- 

 lished a brief postal card extract from him, but in this Mr. 

 Pryal goes into detail a little more : 



Oakland, Calif., April 24, 1906. 



Dear Mr. York :— You have had my recent postal, I'm sure. Be- 

 sides, you read the news of our calamity. From what I can learn, the 

 Eastern papers exaggerated it. 'Twas bad enough, to be sure, but 

 why lie about it? It seems in the matter of " doing " an earthquake 

 or a fire story, those paper-men have to keep as far from the truth as 

 they do when they are dealing with bee and honey stories. 



But the 'quake was big, but not bad— not as bad as reported, by a 

 -whole lot. I had a letter to-day from an Eastern cousin. She im- 

 agined, from the paper reports, that we were doomed — that the cities 

 hereabouts were entirely ruined. Why, bless you. the sky-scrapers 

 are all standing, with hardly the loss of a stone; but some of the 

 poorly-constructed wood or brick buildings went down, and these 

 mostly on the filled portion of the city. Most of the water front, and 

 some other portions, were filled in. In the '50"s and '60's lots of the 

 sand-hills were graded to fill in the bay and boggy places. These por- 

 tions of the city are consequently unstable. 



It is not known how many were killed by the earthquake. There 

 may have been several hundred. It was the fire that was awful. 



No one was allowed to get into the city for some days. I got on 

 two boats the morning of the 18th, in hopes of getting over to attend 

 to my affairs, but, with others, was ordered ashore. So my office was 

 blown up, and burned. My loss, individually, to clothing, books and 

 household articles that I had stored there, as also my interest in the 

 copartnership, fixtures, etc., is considerable. I did not move over 

 permanently when I came here nearly a year ago, but lately I decided 

 to send all my effects to this side of the Bay, and had them pretty 

 much all packed to send over. 



The 17th was my birthday. Before coming over that evening I 

 hastily packed up 7 or 8 of my works on bee-culture, and brought 

 them home. Some 5 or 6 I left behind. Before that I had brought 

 over others. I lost those 5 or bee-books, a lot of volumes of Glean- 

 ings and the Bee Journal, besides about 200 other volumes— about 

 half of my library. If I had gotten over I should have saved them, 

 and a lot of other things. 



We lost 2 typewriters, 5 desks, etc. Well, they are all gone with 

 the other things that went to make up the biggest fire in the history 

 of the world. 



San Francisco is to be rebuilt on a grand scale — a plan that will 

 make it the most modern and finest eity in the world. If they keep 

 out " graft " and saloon politics, the city will be a paradise. 



The fire has made Oakland hum, and it will spring up to impor- 

 tance. It is on the right side of the Bay, and can't help growing; 

 and, still, San Francisco has the best water frontage. It's the center 

 of the Pacific shipping interests, and always will be, I think. 



W. A. Petal. 



We thought the foregoing authentic report would be of 

 interest to our readers. Of course, all will learn the fuller 

 details in other sources. It would not be appropriate to use 

 more space in a bee-paper, we think, to describe the terrible 

 calamity further. We hope what bee-keepers may have 

 been affected will soon recover from their loss. The man- 

 ner in which the whole country has responded is indeed en- 

 couraging, showing that there is genuine sympathy and 

 generosity still in the hearts of the people as a whole. 



Feeder for Spring Feeding— A. W. Swan, of Cen- 

 tralia, Kans., sends one of his spring feeders, which is made 

 something like the Miller feeder, but on a smaller scale. 

 Here is what he says of it : 



I have arranged the best feeder for spring feeding that I have ever 

 tried. I send one under separate cover by this mail. Place the feeder 

 over the brood-frames, and put on an empty super and the cover. To 



keep the bees warm, place a cloth of some kind over the feeder. When 

 you wish to feed, simply raise the quilt, pour in the feed, and cover 

 up the feeder, and your bees are not disturbed. And no bees fly in 

 your face. A. W. Swan. 



A hole is cut in oilcloth a little smaller than the feeder, 

 4x11 inches; and then the oilcloth is tacked to the bottom 

 edges of the feeder. A wire-cloth is tacked on top of the 

 feeder, through which the feed is poured. As will be seen 

 from the picture, the bees can come up from below and get 

 to the feed, but can not get out anywhere, as the oilcloth 

 and feeder cover all the top of the brood-frames. For feed- 

 ing small quantities it is a fine arrangement. Of course, 

 an empty super must be on the hive, in order to have room 

 for the feeder and packing. In fact, the oilcloth and feeder 

 could be put in place in the fall, when preparing the bees 

 for winter. Then it will be ready to feed at any time in the 

 spring. 



Mr. T. F. Bingham, of Farwell, Mich. — the well-known 

 Bingham bee-smoker man — reports a fine trade so far, and 

 that it promises to continue. He also writes, under date of 

 April 30, that his bees have wintered well. 



