134 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



May 



drawbacks for the bee keepers to con- 

 tend with ? Yes, of course there will. 

 It is a provision of nature that there 

 should be such things all along the 

 line of life, no matter what the condi- 

 tions are that govern them, but draw- 

 backs will be reduced to a minimum 

 with the apiarist of the future. 

 Mannville, Fla. 



Notes and Gomnaents. 



BY THE ASSISTANT EDITOR. 



There were, according to the Statis- 

 tical Register, 37,742 colonies of bees 

 in New South Wales, Australia, last 

 year, yielding an average of 41 pounds 

 of honey per colony. Instead of 

 clover, basswood, buckwheat, alfalfa, 

 etc., the various sources of supply in 

 that far-off land are wattles, iron bark, 

 white and yellow box, mountain ash, 

 gum, kurrajongs, ti-tree, geebungs, 

 fire corners and stinging bark. 



John Pease, in the Pacific Bee Jour- 

 nal, well says, with reference to Cy- 

 prian bees : "It would be hard to find 

 anyone among experienced bee keep- 

 ers who want anything to do with 

 them." There are others of the same 

 opinion upon the Pacific Slope, where 

 this vicious race has become establish- 

 ed, to the sorrow of nearly every bee 

 keeper. We have no doubt if Messrs. 

 Hoffman, Blood and Jones could re- 

 turn every Cyprian bee in America to 

 their European home that California 

 bee keepers would assist the enterprise 

 by liberal contributions and furuish 

 several cargos. 



sections and that was caused by ex- 

 perimenting with heavy foundation in 

 the sections. Now we know Mr. 

 Newton to be an experienced and 

 thoroughly practical honey producer, 

 but will he please explain how the 

 weight of the foundation used could 

 have any effect as claimed ? 



F. S. Brautigam, Cliff, N. M., in 

 the Progressive Bee Keeper, thinks he 

 has effected a cure of bee paralysis by 

 removing the queen and introducing 

 in her stead a " ripe " queen cell. He 

 had previously experimented by re- 

 moving all their honey, without effect. 

 Two years ago we had a colony which 

 was fast succombirig to the ravages of 

 paralysis, and in accordance with the 

 suggestion of some one now unknown, 

 we fed honey diluted with salt water. 

 The disease soon disappeared; wheth- 

 er as a result of the treatment or not, 

 we can not say, but we were willing 

 to give it the credit. 



John Newton, of Thamesford, On- 

 tario, at the Toronto Convention of 

 the A. B. K. A., said he had been 

 troubled but once with brood in the 



Regarding the golden Italians there 

 has been a great deal written pro and 

 con. Perhaps there has been enough 

 said, but while others were having 

 their say we were very busy experi- 

 menting with these " golden beauts," 

 and yet unable to speak from actual 

 experience. Their merits and demer- 

 its have been pretty thoroughly con- 

 sidered through the press, and one 

 point has, as a result, been drawn out 

 beyond question, viz : that bands are 

 no index of quality. Superior strains 

 are developed through careful selec- 

 tions in breeding and their markings 

 range from the old plain black to 

 golden yellow. The trouble with the 

 yellow strains seem to be a result of 

 competitive rivalry as to color and 



