Austro-German Congress. — The 25th 

 annual meeting of the German and 

 Austrian hee-keepers will be held at 

 Cologne, on the Rhine, Sept. 6-9, 1880. 



This is the largest and most influen- 

 tial association of bee-keepers in conti- 

 nental Europe, and its Report of Pro- 

 ceeding is copied by all the continental 

 bee papers. We attended this Congress 

 last year, and there met some of Eu- 

 rope's most noted bee culturists. Each 

 night we wrote out a report of the pro- 

 ceedings and sent it on to the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, and we had the 

 honor to publish the first report. Even 

 European bee editors who were not 

 present admit that our enterprise gave 

 them the first inkling of the doings of 

 that celebrated "Bee Congress." The 

 American Bee Journal was received 

 in Europe a full month before the bee pa- 

 pers of Germany gave even the least re- 

 port of its sessions, or of its magnifi- 

 cent display of bees and implements for 

 the apiary. The following from the 

 December number of the Bulletin D' 

 Apiculteur, published by Mons. Ed. Ber- 

 trand,atNyon,Switzerland,gives Amer- 

 ica the credit for enterprise in this par- 

 ticular : 



The Honorable Representative and Pres- 

 ident of the North American Bee-Keepers' 

 Association, Mr. Newman, for the purpose 

 of fulfilling his mission conscientiously in 

 Europe, has made an energetic trip— a real 

 " forced march." Starting from Chicago on 

 the 14th of June, he returned on the 9th of 

 October. In the meantime he visited Eng- 

 land. Scotland, Wales, France, Alsace, 

 Switzerland, the northern and southern 

 parts of Italy, Munich, Vienna, Prague, 

 Dresden, Berlin, Cologne, Brussels, etc., 

 visitiiiK bee and honey exhibitions, meeting 

 with prominent apiarists and committees of 

 bee societies. On his way over the ocean 

 he met with two accidents, endangering the 

 ship and lives of the passengers. 



The full description of his journey has 

 appeared in the October number of the 

 American Bee Joukxal, by which paper 

 and L'Apicotore, of M i I an, we have received 

 the first particulars of the Austro-German 

 Congress at Prague— a month earlier than 

 the German bee-papers began to speak of 

 that great meeting. Truly, the Americans 

 know the value of time ! 



The opinion which Mr. Newman ex- 

 pressed concerning apiarists in Switzerland 

 is very favorable. Concerning the meeting 

 of the Association in Lausanne he says : 

 "The Swiss are certainly not behind any 

 other country in respect to the culture of 

 bees." He is a good judge, and his opinion 



should encourage us to persevere and to in- 

 crease our etforts for success in that line. 



As we had the honor of entertaining Mr. 

 Newman for five days, we improved the oc- 

 casion by informing ourselves well con- 

 cerning the points and methods of specialist 

 bee-keepers in America, which the books 

 do not mention. We also obtained many 

 points and references which we shall pub- 

 lish in the Bulletin as occasion may pre- 

 sent. We sometimes feared we might be 

 troublesome with our many questions, but 

 our visitor was kind and agreeable, and was 

 always ready to give us all the information 

 that we desired. 



Localities for Apiaries in the South. 



— The most suitable localities for apia- 

 ries are within reach of the water- 

 courses, where usually abounds an 

 abundance of natural forage. An api- 

 ary may be well located as regards ev- 

 ery natural advantage, and still there 

 may be a failure in some seasons of a 

 honey crop. The abundance of the 

 honey secretion by the nectaries of the 

 flower, is dependent upon certain favor- 

 able conditions, which are controlled 

 pretty much by the same laws that gov- 

 ern the growth and maturity of many 

 farm crops. When the farmer sows his 

 grain, or plants his potatoes, corn or cot- 

 ton, he has no positive assurance that 

 he will reap a paying crop. Unless 

 those elements, over which he has no 

 control, are propititious, his most skill- 

 ful tillage will prove of no avail. But it 

 is very rarely in one season that all crops 

 prove a failure. If one meets disaster, 

 another may yield abundantly and be 

 profitable. There are not many places 

 where it would be prudent and wise to 

 settle down and depend wholly upon 

 bee-keeping for a living. But this 

 branch of industry, in connection with 

 others, such as gardening, fruit culture, 

 farming, poultry, dairy, etc., will go a 

 great way towards making an excellent 

 support ; and I know of no portion of 

 the United States better adapted to the 

 successful prosecution of the above- 

 named pursuits than the South. — Plant- 

 ers' 1 Journal. 



The Extractor. — As the honey season 

 slacks off, the extractor must not be 

 used too freely. Many have very much 

 injured their bees by extracting too 

 freely in or just before a drouth of 

 honey. One who uses the extractor 

 must be prepared to feed if they need 

 it in the summer, or to furnish winter 

 supplies rapidly if much fall honey is 

 extracted. Judiciously used the ex- 

 tractor is a great benefit, but in careless 

 hands it proves the death of many colo- 

 nies by starvation.— Indiana Farmer. 



