AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



811 



soil and climate, as well as by his enter- 

 taining and instructive writings on mat- 

 ters of interest to settlers on her lands. 

 This he has done at considerable pecun- 

 iary sacrifice, for the losses are his own, 

 while the successes are shared by his 

 fellow colonists, or such of them at least 

 as choose to profit by his work, for he 

 does not put his light under a bushel 

 when its illuminating powers would be 

 likely to benefit his fellow-men. 



I am not going to attempt a detailed 

 description of all I saw or learned, in 

 this article — space in a newspaper is 

 limited, while the capacity of the recep- 

 tive mind is increased and increases 

 with each new idea, on fact, it lays 

 hold of. 



" Punctuality is the thief of time," or 

 something like that, says the proverb, 

 and the time was near for our appear- 

 ance at Mel Bonum. Arrived there, 

 we were met by the genial proprietor, 

 who first showed us over his store, in 

 which he keeps supplies of all the latest 

 novelties connected with any incident to 

 successful bee-farming, from all parts of 

 the world, and very interesting I found 

 his explanation of the different devices 

 for carrying on the business. 



"Come along," says the irrespressible 

 D. J. ("What veritable steam-engines 

 for energy those dwellers in the country 

 are, to be sure.) But I was comfortably 

 seated, and not inclined to move for a 

 bit ; just walked half a mile, you know, 

 so I said, " How did you get on at Syd- 

 ney, Harry ?" Mr. H. L. had only re- 

 turned on the previous evening from the 

 city of " our beautiful harbor," whither 

 he had been to attend a conference of 

 bee-masters. "Oh, pretty well on the 

 whole ; there were about 70 representa- 

 tives present, but I don't think Queens- 

 land has much to learn from the other 

 colonies in the way of bee-keeping. 

 They are certainly behind us in the mat- 

 ter of " strains ;" that is, we have here 

 a greater number of different breeds 

 than they have. At the same time, an 

 interchange of ideas and experience such 

 as is to be gained at such meetings must 

 be of benefit to all concerned. 



The next thing to which our attention 

 was directed was a honey extractor, con- 

 structed so as to hold four large frames 

 of comb at once. It's an extractor all 

 right. In the same room we were shown 

 a high pile of wax, which is used for 

 making "foundation" and other pur- 

 poses. While we were examining these 

 things, the proprietor was getting his 

 "smoker" ready. We came out, and I 

 at once proceeded to get my smoker to 

 work. I don't know what he loaded 



with; mine was "rough-cut. Queens^ 

 land leaf only." A few puffs from the 

 bellows, at the mouth of the hive, and 

 off comes the top. " Would you like to 

 see the queen ?" Of course we would, 

 but didn't want to quarrel with the 

 body-guard. Two or three frames were 

 lifted, and at last her majesty was dis- 

 covered, going in and out amongst her 

 subjects, a real mother to her people. 

 " That's a pure Italian," we were in- 

 formed. We didn't like her any the 

 better for that ; we would have preferred 

 an Australian. " Have you an Austra- 

 lian queen ?" I said. " Well, you might 

 perhaps call the acclimatized English 

 bees Australian, but the queen is easily 

 distinguished from the others. Of course, 

 there are the native bees, but they are 

 not cultivated." 



"I suppose an Australian queen would 

 be Mack,'' said I. I fancy my compan- 

 ions thought I meant a joke, for one of 

 them nearly upset a hive in his haste to 

 get out of the way of it. However, we 

 were shown all around, and the quali- 

 ties of the different kinds of bees were 

 explained in a way that showed our 

 tutor, for the time being, was master of 

 his subject. There was the "Carniolan" 

 from Austria, the " Punic " from North 

 Africa, and "Italians" imported from 

 Italy and America. Mr. Jones is the 

 only bee-master in Queensland who has 

 the Carniolan strain, and the only one in 

 the whole of Australia who has the 

 Punic. He does an extensive business 

 in the different strains, sending queens 

 all over Australia and Tasmania. There 

 are between two and three hundred col- 

 onies on the farm, and the quantity of 

 honey turned out must be something 

 enormous. 



We were shown some very neat and 

 novel cans and jars for packing the 

 honey in, some of which were provided 

 with air-tight caps. The honey is put 

 on the market in a most taking form, 

 and commands a ready sale. Supplies 

 of all bee-keepers requisites are kept on 

 hand, and sent to any part of the colo- 

 nies as ordered. Altogether, ray day's 

 outing proved most pleasant as well as 

 profitable, and any one in search of in- 

 formation on agriculture, horticulture, 

 or apiculture, can easily find it amongst 

 the Joneses of Redbank Plains. 



Our journey back was uneventful, but 

 pleasant memories will linger long on 

 the day I spent with genial companions 

 amongst the trees and humming bees. 



Have You Bead the wonderful 

 mium offer on page 707 ? 



Pre- 



