594 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL-. 



the apiarian tower have failed to break 

 silence so long. I have a sample in my 

 possession of that selfsame glucosed 

 honey. No chemical test is necessary to 

 discover its ear-marks. They are glu- 

 cose. 



When the sample was first sent to me, 

 and had undergone a close examination, 

 it began to throw much light on some 

 mysterious things I had read in the bee- 

 papers some years ago about '"short 

 cuts" in the science of honey (?) produc- 

 tion. Let us have the " light turned 

 on." Some of us want to continue to 

 offer "bees' honey" for sale, and we 

 can't compete with a glucose factory ! 



THERE IS A PATENT ON IT. 



If the indispensable Mrs. Atchley 

 would consent to drop the monotonous 

 familiarism of " Friend Tom," and 

 " Friend Dick," etc., when addressing 

 querists, and substitute for it plain " Mr. 

 Tom," some of us would like to read her 

 "corner" much better than we do, if 

 that is possible. There is not more than 

 one man, or may be one woman, in this 

 vast country of ours, who can indulge 

 in such palaver as that constantly, with- 

 out making people tired. TJiere is a pat- 

 ent on it, anyhow, that ought not to be 

 infringed upon. 



Mrs. A. is a "Sunny South" sister, 

 and she will know how to appreciate a 

 friendly criticism. 



TBANSFEERING ROYAL LARV-E. 



Dr. Tinker thinks that he is one of the 

 first, if not the first, to transfer larvae 

 from a worker cell to a royal cell. I do 

 not have time now to go through old files 

 to hunt up historic facts, but I remem- 

 ber that a Mr. Davis first wrote of trans- 

 ferring larva3, and 1 practiced it soon 

 afterward, and that was many years 

 ago. 



BEE-PARALYSIS. 



When this bee-trouble is properly un- 

 derstood, it will be talked less about. I 

 discovered in 1883 that soporous nectar 

 is the true cause of the affliction. The 

 symptoms are, if closely watched, first, 

 stupor or sleep, from which state some 

 recover, but the greater number lapse 

 into convulsion and death. The' last 

 stage of the struggle is very much like 

 the effects of the sting of another bee. 

 The symptoms are never present during 

 a brisk honey-flow, because there is no 

 deranged secretion of nectar at such 

 times. 



Copious feeding of thin syrup, or 

 rather, sweetened water — a little salt 



added, no doubt, is good — is a sure 

 remedy, if tlie attention of the bees can 

 be attracted to the feed. 



TIRING OUT SWARMS. 



Alas ! in a good honey season the 

 swarms were sure to tire me out before I 

 learned to raise the brood from the 

 lower story of the hive to the super 

 above, with a queen-excluder between, 

 thus compelling the queen to start anew 

 below the excluder. I now can lire 

 swarming entirely out of my bees. 



SAM WILSON'S PREDICTIONS. 



There is no " hoodooism " in Bro. 

 Sam's prophesying. He simply waits to 

 see when the rainfall occurs, and draws 

 his conclusions. In a general way I have 

 relied on these "signs" for 10 or 12 

 years, and they never fail unless crooked 

 weather strikes at the wrong time. A 

 wet season should be succeeded by a 

 good honey year, and vice versa. 



DARWIN ON BEES. 



I always smile when reading the 

 learned works of scientists, when they 

 alight upon the subject of bees. It hauls 

 down the curtain, gives me a peep into 

 the soundings of their mighty achieve- 

 ments in science, and helps me to put a 

 proper estimate upon their assumptions, 

 generally. 



SCIENCE OF MATING QUEENS. 



Has the modus operandi been dis- 

 covered? Let the spring of 1894 be 

 the beginning of the new era in the 

 breeding science. " Hand around" the 

 "hat!" We have something already 

 " made," and ready to " drop in," when 

 it comes around this way. I have spent 

 too many years in search of this hidden 

 treasure to fail to appreciate its dis- 

 covery (?). 



THE WEATHER — ITS EFFECTS. 



The month of March, up to the 24th 

 day, gave us as fine weather as one could 

 wish to see in May. The result was, 

 vegetation was teaming and throbbing 

 with life, and our bees were working in 

 full strength — when the cold wave of 

 the 24tli sent the temperature down 

 16- below the freezing-point. No green 

 thing could survive this unscathed. The 

 oats crop was killed outright, wheat 

 badly injured, tobacco plants and young 

 clover wiped out, and the entire fruit 

 crop, with the hopes and joys it brings, 

 are no more. It is over two weeks now, 

 since then, and vegetation has tried 



