Vol. XVI. 



CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, FEBRUARY, 1880. 



No. 2. 



Contents of this Number. 



Editor's Table. 



Editorial Items K9 to 76 



Last Drone of Summer 70 



Sections all in One Piece 70 



Prizes for Honey and Bees, at Fairs 70 



Smoker with Wide Shield 71 



Some New Bee Feeders 71 



Harris' Queen Shipping-Cage 72 



Grape Sugar that will Kill 72 



Electricity and Bee-Hives 72 



Bee-Culture and the Census 73 



Queens in the Mails 74 



Bee Stings as a Remedy for Gout 74 



Frogs as Bee Enemies 75 



Shipping Honey 76 



Correspondence : 



Feeding Extracted Honev to Store in Sections 77 



Advantages of Comb Foundation 78 



Market Quotations for Honey 78 



Failures in Bee-Keeping 79 



Profits and Losses for 3 years 79 



Ladies and the National Convention 80 



The Season, Honey Plants, etc 80 



Experience with a Native Colony 80 



A Cellar Above Ground 81 



Honey Season and Wintering 82 



Transferring Bees 82 



The Banana as a Honey Plant 83 



Experience with Wintering 84 



Adulteration of Food 85 



Wintering on the Summer Stand 86 



Hives made of Wood and Plaster 87 



The Wintering of Bees, etc 99 



Description of the Bee-Moth 90 



The Sourwood Honey, etc 91 



Honey Production in the South 91 



Seeking tor the Best Hive 92 



Stray Thoughts from Kentucky 92 



* Description of My Section Boxes 93 



Letter Drawer : 



C. 8. Ingalls, Chas. S. Burt, I. E. Pelham, C. A. 



Jones, B. F. Pratt 94 



J. H. Christie, C. S. Newsom, W. H. Sedgwick, 



C. A. Marsh, J. N. McColm, T. F. Bingham, 



W. H. Green, Smith & Smith, I. F. Plummer, 95 

 P. Duncan, Thomas Lashbrook. H. Alley, L. H. 



Pammel. Jr., .Ins. M. Brooks, C. Spangen- 



berg. J. F. Hershey 96 



A. W. Hale, T. Hallett, Oscar F. Bledsoe. Dr. 



N. P. Allen, Alfonso Visconti di Saliceto, L. 



Martin, W. H. Green 97 



A Subscriber, J. B. Dines, J. Lee Anderson, C. 



J. Church, Alderman & Roberts 98 



Conventions : 



Austro-German Congress 99 



Northwestern Bee- Keepers' Union 101 



Lausanne, Switzerland, Convention 101 



Indiana State Convention 103 



N. W. Illinois and S.W. Wisconsin Conventional 



H^The Agricultural Report for the 

 State of Tennessee, says that the in- 

 dustry of bee-keeping is fast gaining 

 favor in that State. Twenty-five colo- 

 nies are exempt from execution there. 



Editor's S»Wc. 



igi° In California , bees are represented 

 to be in good condition — the loss having 

 been much less than usual. The pros- 

 pects for honey this season are said to 

 be good. 



lUrThe California Agriculturist is 

 credited witli a silly article now going 

 the rounds of the agricultural press, 

 stating that tons of sugar can be con- 

 verted into honey by being fed to bees, 

 &c. &c. It is perfectly preposterous. 

 Sugar is only fed to bees to keep them 

 from starving. No matter what the 

 bees may do with it, it would never be- 

 come honey ; only sugar, first, last and 

 always. 



i^Alsike clover possesses all the ex- 

 cellent qualities of the white clover for 

 honey production, and, besides this, as 

 food for animals it is equal to the red. 

 This variety of clover is a native of 

 Sweden, and in Europe it is cultivated 

 quite extensively. It is also abundantly 

 grown in many parts of this country. 

 It has pale red flowers, a somewhat 

 lank stalk, and oval, obtuse leaves, 

 which are smaller and of a lighter green 

 than those of red clover. The flower 

 head growing from the upper leaf joint, 

 is globular, and formed of fragrant 

 blossoms supported by stems. These 

 blossoms are at first whitish and up- 

 right, and subsequently of a pale red, 

 and when the flowering has past, become 

 brown and somewhat bent. 



