quired by reading. The periodicals 

 devoted to bee-keeping are indispensa- 

 ble to him who would keep up with his 

 business. And the valuable books of 

 Prof. Cook, L. C. Root, A. I. Root, and 

 T. G, Newman should have a place on 

 the book-shelf of every enterprising 

 student of this fascinating employment. 

 I venture to suggest that John Allen's 

 14 Blessed Bees" could be read by all with 

 profit. The truth is often most forcibly 

 taught in the guise of fiction. If all 

 bee-keepers would work with the spirit 

 and system I have endeavored to teach 

 in the "Blessed Bees," I am sure they 

 would have greater delight and greater 

 profit in their calling. 

 Iowa City, Iowa, 28th Sept., 1880. 



[The foregoing was contributed to the 

 essay department of the North Ameri- 

 can Bee-Keepers 1 Convention, recently 

 held in Cincinnati, but did not reach 

 the Secretary in time to be read. There 

 are so many valuable suggestions con- 

 tained in it, that we publish it entire as 

 correspondence. — Ed.] 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Fertilization in Confinement. 



LEVI FILBERT. 



A year ago last August, I thought I 

 would try an experiment. Having a 

 queenless colony, I made a frame of the 

 same material that I make frames for 

 the hive, only larger, so that it would 

 fit down tight all around. I then cov- 

 ered it with wire-cloth, and removed the 

 first comb from the eiidof the queenless 

 colony, placing in my wired frame. I 

 then went to a hive and took out a queen 

 cell, where the queen was just begin- 

 ning to cut through ; I took my pocket- 

 knife and cut the queen out and placed 

 her in the end of the hive, with a good 

 portion of bees and drones. I left her 

 there three days, when I changed her to 

 the other end of the hive with other 

 drones. In this way she became fertil- 

 ized and proved to be a good layer, and 

 she " holds the fort" to-day. 



Now I do not wish to be misunder- 

 stood. I do not say this will always be 

 a successful way, but it worked like a 

 charm the first time I gave it a trial. I 

 intended to give this another trial this 

 season, but my bees did poorly, so I 

 dropped it for the present. I wish some 

 other bee-keeper would try this plan of 

 fertilization. 



I have united my bees from 74 down 

 to 51 colonies. I put 2 and 3 together, 

 along with all the young brood and 



honey, and removed the empty frames. 

 This I think is the only safe way. I am 

 not the only unlucky man here ; if I lose 

 my bees, others will lose theirs. Suc- 

 cess to the Bee Journal and all bee- 



Port Byron, 111., Sept. 29, 1880. 



For the American Bee JournaL 



Bee Pasturage and Other Items. 



WM. CAMM. 



Editor Bee Journal : In my last 

 you made me say "under feet," where I 

 wrote tender feet. I meant that the two 

 bad seasons would drive out many, or 

 most beginners, who would become cus- 

 tomers rather than producers, and the 

 ultimate advantage would be to those 

 who intelligently persevered in apicul- 

 ture. I have saved seed of melilot and 

 figwort; shall sow and cultivate the 

 best honey plants side by side, and care- 

 fully note results. 



Since writing you last I have observed 

 bees, in the same flight, many times 

 pass from purslane flowers to those of 

 another, weed closely resembling them 

 in color and size. In one particular 

 spot where I often watched, contrast- 

 ing flowers were mixed, but I saw no 

 crossing in the same flight except be- 

 tween buckwheat and smartweed, whose 

 flowers, though differently shaped, were 

 of nearly the same color. Here I saw 

 almost every bee that visited the clus- 

 ter cross, and saw them do so hundreds 

 of times. Color, then, seems to guide 

 the bee. and not only the bee but birds, 

 for while making these observations I 

 was one day painting farm implements 

 with a bright red, some of the paint was 

 spattered upon plants, and I saw a hum- 

 ming bird repeatedly stick his bill in the 

 paint on different plants, and several 

 times tried even the tongue of a reaping 

 machine. The little fellow seemed sur- 

 prised, and before giving it up alighted 

 on the tongue in the fresh paint, so close 

 to me that I tried to put my hand on it. 

 Several parties were standing close by, 

 and we were conversing with a good 

 deal of animation, yet the bright color 

 seemed to attract the bird more than 

 our presence and noise overawed it. 



Desiring last week to introduce eight 

 Italian queens, I tried six of them by 

 making a sweet infusion of peppermint 

 leaves, removed the old queen, sprinkled 

 the hive and bees with the infusion, also 

 the new queen, then lifted a comb, put 

 her on it, and after watching to see that 

 the bees did not hurt her, put the comb 

 in its place. Out of the six, five were 

 successful. In looking for one black 



