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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



26th, in the morning, it was down to 14 de- 

 grees above zero on the south side of the 

 house, where the wind did not strike. 

 Everything looks black — raddishes, peas, 

 onions and lettuce are all destroyed ; also 

 lots of potatoes will have to be replanted. 

 Oats is gone, wheat is hurt more or less, 

 and fruit is mostly all gone. Where are 

 the blossoms for the bees to gather honey 

 and pollen from ? I think we bee-keepers 

 will have to go down into our pockets and 

 get our profit, and give it to our merchants 

 for sweets to feed our pets. 



George F. Yoos. 

 Central City, 111., March 29. 



The Prospects are Good. 



The honey crop was almost a total fail- 

 ure with me last season. Bees are in good 

 condition, and the prospects are good. 



M. S. Patterson. 



Grand Junction, Colo., March 27. 



Perished in the Chilly Winds. 



My bees wintered well, but thousands 

 perished in the chilly winds as they went 

 out in quest of water during the last few 

 days. The sun shone brightly most of the 

 time, which induced them out, but the 

 wind chilled them before they got back. 

 A. H. Snowberger. 



Huntington, Ind., March 2. 



Cold "Weather — Hopes for the Best. 



March, for the greater part, has been 

 very warm, and bees gathered pollen in 

 abundance, and began breeding rapidly, 

 but for the last week it has been cold — some 

 days extremely so. The mercury, was, on 

 one morning, only 14 degrees above zero. I 

 fear much loss. The pollen-bearing buds 

 are all killed. It snowed to the depth of 

 about 4 inches during last night. I am try- 

 ing to hope for the best. 



Rev. S. L. Craig. 



Oakland, Iowa, March 29. 



Good Prospects for a Honey Crop. 



Bees are gathering some honey at present 

 here, though they have had a hard time of 

 it. Last year was the poorest honey season 

 we have had for 15 years. Black bees in 

 this county are about all dead. Italians 

 and hybrids gathered about enough honey 

 to pull through on. The prospects for a 

 honey crop this year are good. Horsemint 

 is up, and there are great quantities of it, 

 so if we can have plenty of rain in May, it 

 will yield lots of honey. I never saw it fail 

 if we have a wet May. 



Post-oak, black-jack, box-elder, and tin- 

 oak are in full bloom now, and the bees are 

 getting some honey from them. Yon-pon 

 will be in bloom in a few days, and it is a 

 good honey-yielder. Rattan will reach us 

 in about three weeks, and is a splendid 

 honey-plant. The fruit crop here is dam- 



aged considerably by the late cold weather. 

 Corn, that was up on the low lands, is all 

 killed, and on the uplands it was bitten 

 down, though it is coming out nicely, and 

 will soon be ready to plow. 



I hope Mrs. Atchley's bees are doing well. 

 I passed through Beeville about a year ago, 

 and fell in love with that beautiful country. 

 I inquired about bees, and was told it was 

 the best part of Texas for bees. I think I 

 will move my bees to that county some day 

 — probably next year. Game is said to be 

 plentiful there, and I am a great lover of 

 hunting. Large game is getting very 

 scarce here, such as turkey and deer. 



What has become of Mr. Aten ? 



W. S. Douglass. 



Lexington, Tex., April 2. 



Two Kinds of Tongue. 



In speaking of the honey-gathering quali- 

 ties of the gentle Italians, Mrs. Atchley 

 thinks they are 'not in it " when compared 

 with the vicious hybrids, and says: "The 

 bees that represent the man sitting on a 

 street corner whittling a dry-goods box, 

 are not the beesforme." Now, really Mrs. 

 A., do you want me to think that the bees 

 that represent the industrious woman with 

 a tongue and temper that continually keep 

 a fellow in hot water, are the bees for me ? 



Belle Vernon, Pa. A. B. Bairr. 



Bees Did Poorly Last Year. 



I did not send my dollar to the Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Union this year, from the fact that 

 bees have done so poorly in this section in 

 1893. Prom the last of August until frost 

 it was a continual drouth, consequently no 

 honey, and nothing but old bees to go into 

 winter quarters. They have expectedly 

 been " handing in their checks " this spring, 

 one by one — from 65 colonies they have got 

 down to 27. In 1892 I reported one colony 

 storing 120 pounds of surplus honey; now 

 that hive has not a live bee in it. 



B. F. Feazel. 



Washburn, Ills., March 29. 



A Whole "Peck" of Success. 



We are having a regular blizzard after 

 some very fine weather. Bees wintered 

 well, and have been breeding and gather- 

 ing pollen for some time, and now the 

 mercury is down nearly to zero. The snow 

 is 4 or 5 inches deep, and still snowing. It 

 seems as though it must work disastrously 

 to bees that are out-doors. 



I commenced a year ago last fall with 54 

 colonies of bees, came through with 45 in 

 the spring, in rather poor conditiion ; I in- 

 creased them to 56, and obtained about two 

 tons of surplus honey, over 3,000 pounds of 

 it being white honey, which is nearly all 

 sold in my home market. I now sell 10 

 pounds of honey where I would sell one 

 pound 10 years ago. It takes patience and 

 perseverance to build up such a market as 



