114 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Nov. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Honey Dew. 



Mr. Editor :— I have at last caught the chaps 

 that rain down wliat is called honey-dew. In 

 localities where the common willow grows, I 

 found the most. On the Missouri river bottom, 

 which is literally covered with willows, I find in 

 June and July they are covered with small 

 insects, which at a certain age get wings and 

 fly off in large swarms, going for miles. Some- 

 times they will stop in the air, over some trees, 

 and tly around in a circle for an hour. If you 

 get them between your eye and tlie sun, you will 

 see them discharging the so-called honey-dew. 

 They will stop in one place, the same as gnats or 

 mosquitoes, which you have often seen about as 

 high as a man's head. 



Now, if any person really wants to test the 

 correctness of this, let him go to a willow grove 

 and he will find those insects for willow lice) 

 just before sun-down ; and getting the willows 

 between kim and the sun, he will see them 

 rising from every part of the tree, in small 

 squads, and collecting till they form a large 

 swarm. Then they will be seen discharging con- 

 tinually a fluid which resembles a fine sprinkle of 

 rain.. I have often seen tliose same insects dis- 

 charging a fluid on a limb, where they were 

 hatching ; and then saw large ants, wasps, and 

 yellow jackets working on it. And I often 

 wondered how it got on the very tops of the 

 trees, where no insects were to be found. I 

 think this observation will settle the matter 

 about the origin of honey-dew. 



Bees have done very poorly here until now. 

 The golden rod is in full bloom, and the bees are 

 doing well. 



11. Faul. 



Council Bluffs, Sept. G, 1870. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Caution. 



Mr. Editor : — Through the columns of your 

 indispensable Journal, allow me to say to my 

 brother bee-keepers, and "all whom it may con- 

 cern," have nothing to do with a hive called the 

 "Multilocular Protoplastic Protean Hive," 

 though it is no doubt superior to any or all you 

 have in use. Let us not step upward only one 

 step at a time to the use of this hitherto excel- 

 sior hive ; but let us take at least two steps at 

 'once, to that hive and those new principles that 

 "beat" all. Ye.s, all the long and toilsome labor of 

 a Huber and a Dzierzon is totally eclipsed ; and 

 entirely snuffed out are such lights as Lang- 

 strotli, Gallup, Quinby, Wagner, and many 

 others, who formerly shone so brightly as "in- 

 structors." Your theories, gentlemen, are for- 

 ever "cast in endless shade." The great revo- 

 lution of nature that moves all things, has thrown 

 before my vision this wonderful apistical domi- 

 cile. I have scanned it closely, and now let me 

 say to you. Rev. L. L. Langstroth, talk no more 

 of laterally movable frames, since this great 



hive has ' 'a place for every frame, and every frame 

 in its place." And you, "far-famed Gallup," 

 say no more of division boards and economy of 

 heat. 'Tis useless, as these frames are made ex- 

 tra large, and small frames for surplus set in the 

 top of the large ones, which space is left in free 

 communication with the brooding apartment, 

 till again filled with surj)lus. Speak not, Mr. 

 "Wagner, of comi>actness of form, as this mar- 

 vellous habitation stands erect, human like. 

 And now the sturdy German (Dzierzon) must 

 yield the palm and transfer it over into Indian- 

 apolis, (Ind.) the centre of bee-gravity— the place 

 where one hundred colonies are made from one 

 in a single season ! Can Ave not plainly see the 

 dawning of a dny when "the land shall flow 

 with honey, ' ' and each and every individual will 

 supply himself freely with this "sweetest of all 

 sweets," and the apiarian turn his attention else- 

 where for a livelihood ? 



James Heddon. 

 DoiDagiac, MicMcjan. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Correction Eequested. 



Mr. Editor : — My attention has been called 

 to an alleged error of statement in my article 

 on page 72, Vol. VI., of the Bee Journal, wherein 

 I say, "Mr. Langstroth was among the flrst to 

 introduce to the notice of the bee-keepers of 

 America the invaluable honey extractor." Now 

 I claim that the statement is strictly true. Mr. 

 Langstroth Avas among the first to introduce the 

 honey extractor to the notice of the bee-keepers 

 of this counti-y. taking vipon himself the responsi- 

 bility of manufacturing from a bare descrii)tion, 

 and extensively advertising the machines for 

 sale ; thus risking pecuniary loss in case it 

 should prove unpo2iular, before any other person 

 in this country, except the editor of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, spent a single dollar upon 

 them. 



Still, in order to give every man due credit 

 for any assistance given to bee culture, I will 

 here, with pleasure, state a fact in this connec- 

 tion that had escaped my recollection at time 

 of writing the jirevious article, namely, that the 

 first mention of the machine of Von Hruschka 

 in the English language was made in the Ameri- 

 can Bee Gazette,* page 85, September No., 186G, 

 edited by Rev. E. Van Slyke, in an article trans- 

 lated from the German, by the editor. And to 

 this article, M r. Langstroth Avas most probably 

 indebted for his first idea of the honey extractor, 

 as Mr. Van Slyke writes me as folloAvs — "Mr. 

 Langstroth himself, who visited me at my office 

 the very next month after the publication, 

 spoke in terms of the highest enthusiasm of the 

 article, and said that from my description as 

 published he Avas about to construct a machine 

 for honey extraction." *&c. 



R. BiCKFORD. 



Seneca Falls, N. Y., Oct. 5, 1870. 



♦Shortly thereafter merged in the American Bee Journal. 



