Sept. 



1906 



American Ttec Journal 



is correct in a general way ; and yet of 

 2 colonies, each with an equal plenty, 

 one may be much more saving than 

 the other. At least that is the way it 

 seems to me. Page 687. 



Golden Weddings of Bee-Keepers. 



And so Edwin France, who is 82, 

 celebrates his golden wedding. Hope 

 and good cheer, comrade ! We'll even 

 refrain from adopting the scare senti- 

 ment Longfellow passed down to us 

 (We who are about to die salute thee). 

 We may be about to die ; but let's quit 

 bragging about it, and hustle in the 

 other direction a little. And how long 

 been wedded to the bees, comrade ? 

 Wouldn't it be nice for us to celebrate 

 golden weddings when we had been 50 

 years keeping bees. 



At getting up a 50th wedding, a 20th 

 wedding, and a first wedding, all in 

 one day, our well-known old comrade, 

 William Stolley, seems to " take the 

 cake." Hope he was able to take a 

 liberal amount of each of the 3 wedding 

 cakes. Page 686. 



Something of a Swarmer. 



If J. L. Patterson, of Georgia, has a 

 log hive that sends out 8 swarms each 

 year (2 sets of 4 each), he should have 

 a belt, or a pennant, or something. Or 

 we might choose him President of a 

 Swarm-Nuisance Society. Page 686. 



Civilization's Offenses — Chestnut 

 Bloom. 



Doolittle's excellent article on page 

 685, is rather devoted to the correction 

 of errors, and therefore should be a 

 little shy of errors itself. I put in an 

 objection to the clause, " our forests 

 are fast becoming obliterated by the 

 advance of civilization." Say, rather, 

 our forests are fast becoming obliter- 

 ated by the criminal heedlessness both 

 of individuals and of the State govern- 

 ments. Might as well credit the per- 

 fume of the Chicago stock-yards to 

 civilization. Civilization makes great 

 changes ; and concurrently with the 

 changes heedlessness and inborn bar- 

 barism pollute rivers, and make con- 

 tinual bad smells, and blacken all the 

 face of Nature with soot, and extermi- 

 nate the song-birds, and introduce for- 

 eign weeds and destroying insects, and 

 so on ; getting in so long a list of 

 offenses against civilization that we 

 doubt sometimes whether humanity 

 has realized a gain or suffered a loss in 

 the process. 



I see also he names the chestnut as 

 one of the kinds of bloom that never 

 yield nectar. Perhaps that was a sort 

 of slip of the pen. Here bees often 

 roar very loudly on the chestnut bloom. 

 And this even happens when bass- 

 wood takes a notion to bloom at the 

 same time. Also, perfume seems to be 

 Nature's advertisement, saying, "Come, 

 and get some honey." And those trees 

 which really never yield nectar, I 

 have never noticed sending out any 

 perfume worth mentioning. But chest- 

 nut in bloom sends out a powerful per- 

 fume. Some might vote it not so very 

 agreeable, but I guess they would 

 hardly deny that it is entitled to the 

 name. I can imagine that some might 

 be greatly pleased with it. 



Our "~~ 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



A Colorado Sister's Experiences 



Dear Miss Wilson : — I send by this 

 mail some of my bee-keeping photo- 

 graphs, in response to the request on 

 page 597. I send several, so that you 

 may choose the ones you consider best 

 for engraving. 



I am sorry to read that you are hav- 

 ing so poor a yield of honey this year, 

 and hope that by November the second 

 crop of clover may have given you and 

 your bees more than you expected. 

 We went through the same experience 

 here last year with alfalfa, but I am 

 glad to say that this year the honey 

 crop is a very fine one. 



I was much amused, on opening my 

 last American Bee Journal, to read the 

 letter signed "X. Y. Z.," as I think I 

 am the culprit who mixed syrup in a 

 bread-making machine. When spring 

 came and more feeding was required, 

 I did it again and again. Nothing 

 could mix it better. Thank you for 

 defending me. Should chance ever 

 bring you in our direction, I should be 

 only too happy to have you " eat 

 bread " with us, and I don't fear that 

 " there is death in the pot " for man or 

 bee, when my sisters or I have cleansed 

 it. 



Last fall, a more experienced bee- 

 keeper warned me to look well to my 



"Colorado. — Light crop; some lost 

 bees heavily in winter." And I wrote 

 to you of my efforts to save mine. 



Now, perhaps " X. Y. Z." will let me 

 appeal to the homely old proverb, 

 " The proof of the pudding [also of the 

 syrup] is in the eating." That I did 

 not, through lack of " common-sense," 

 poison the bees with fermented syrup, 

 is, I think, proved by the fact that, as 

 I wrote to you in June (page 109), I 

 wintered without the loss of a single 

 colony, and only 4 were really weak 

 ones. 



My colonies, spring-fed with the 

 same fearsome mixture, are now as 

 strong as the heart of a bee-keeper 

 could wish, and are filling supers al- 

 most faster than I can handle them. 



I will, therefore, only wish that "X. 

 Y. Z." may always winter his bees as 

 well as I did, and have as successful a 

 honey-season each year. 



I do, however, agree with him in 

 thinking it unwise to start fermenta- 

 tion in the hives, and I am very care- 

 ful indeed that my bees never have ac- 

 cess to the cider-press. Colorado. 



August 17. 



There is a second crop of red clover, 

 but, properly speaking, there is no 

 second crop of white clover. Being 

 grazed down, itkeeps co m ing up con 



Aviary of Miss "Colorado," near Delta, Colo., 

 5400 Feet Above Sea-Level. 



colonies, as there would be a heavy 

 loss of bees all through Colorado in 

 the winter. That this warning was 

 justified, the last bulletin of the Na- 

 tional Bee-Keepers' Association proves: 



tinuously, but, although blooming often 

 late in the season, the later blooms 

 seem of little use as far as nectar is 

 concerned. Some years the white 

 clover yield continues until in August 



