Interesting Letter from France. 



Mons. L. Jonas, Secretary of the 

 Societc cV Apiculteur de la Somme, lias 

 written us a long letter dated Jan. 16, 

 1880, in which he says : 



" Since 1816, we never heard of such 

 floods and such cold weather as we have 

 had during the past season. Last sum- 

 mer the flowers gave water instead of 

 honey, and after such an exceptional 

 summer we now have a disastrous win- 

 ter, when we were least prepared for it. 

 Our loss of bees is at least 75 per cent. 

 I was fortunate, many of my colonies 

 are depopulated, but none are dead yet. 

 I fed them in October 10 lbs. of honey 

 to each colony. 



u At our 5th General Assembly just 

 held, you were unanimously made an 

 honorary member of our Society, and 

 our American correspondent, which I 

 trust you will accept. All the members 

 present recognized that your able 

 American Bee Journal was very 

 interesting— in fact, that it is the best 

 journal in that line published in the 

 whole world. In that respect, America 

 surpasses to a high degree the European 

 Continent. Many of our people speak 

 and read the English language, and we 

 have devoted some time in our General 

 Assembly to read and discuss the most 

 interesting portions of your Journal. 

 We have also decided this year to give 

 in our Bulletin cT Apiculteur a digest of 

 the Journal for each month. We 

 have been slow and obstinate in France, 

 but we are determined now to take a 

 " progressive step " in " scientific api- 

 culture." 



iHT A correspondent asks us to state 

 in the Bee Journal the condition of 

 the European markets as to honey. 

 There is no honey in the comb there, 

 worth mentioning ; and the markets are 

 but meagerly supplied with extracted 

 honey. Comb honey sells at satisfactory 

 prices, but the losses in breakage, 

 commissions,- fees, &c, are quite heavy. 

 To show the growth of the export busi- 

 ness in honey, we quote from Messrs. 

 Thurber & Co.'s circular: "In 1877 

 there were only 1 ,855 barrels of Ameri- 

 can extracted honey received in Eng- 

 land; in 1878 it reached 10,245; in the 

 past year it grew to 16,611 barrels, from 

 Jan. 1, to Dec. 31, 1879, and the entire 

 stock on hand there now is only 1,100 

 barrels. 



Destroyed by Fire.— We are sorry to 

 state that on January 31st, Mr. B. O. 

 Everett lost his residence and all its 

 contents, by fire. Owing to a strong 

 wind, in 20 minutes there was nothing 

 left of the house, and the family were 

 rescued with but such clothing as they 

 were clad in at the time. The fire oc- 

 curred about 8 p.m., and his two little 

 girls, who were in bed, were rescued in 

 a comforter, which caught fire from a 

 spark, and again threatened the lives of 

 the children. A ton of honey, and 

 $1,000 worth of apiarian supplies, were 

 also destroyed. Mr. Everett had just 

 issued his circular price lists for 1880, 

 and had them about ready for the mails 

 when they were destroyed, together 

 with the list of names to whom they 

 were to be sent. As Mr. Everett has 

 lost his books and accounts, those know- 

 ing themselves indebted to him should 

 lose no time in sending him the amounts 

 due. Mr. E. says he has lost all his 

 "capital, but pluck," &c, and cannot, 

 therefore, now issue a circular to his 

 customers. We would direct especial 

 attention to his advertisement on page 

 156, of this Journal. 



li^T The editor of L'Apkoltore, Milan, 

 Italy, speaking of the "improvement 

 of the Italian bee," says : "The Amer- 

 ican and German bee-keepers follow the 

 laws which lead to the preservation 

 and improvement of every kind of 

 animals, as was proved to us by the 

 Italian bees exhibited to us by Mr. T. 

 G. Newman, editor of the American 

 Bee Journal on his recent visit. 

 They were the prettiest bees that we 

 ever saw." 



igir We regret to learn that Mr. E. 

 F. Collins, of Texas, has lost all his 

 bees by foul-brood. 



igi" A wealthy man in New York has 

 offered a large amount of money for 

 the best draft of an act prohibiting food 

 adulteration. This is what is needed ; 

 it should be general, not special; and 

 applicable to every State and Territory. 



