692 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Mov. 4, 



California. At the Farmers' Institutes praise is almost always 

 given to the bees. This is a very wholesome change. The 

 past summer I was where I had an admirable chance to ob- 

 serve bees on fruit, especially peaches. The wasps would 

 wound the fruit, and then the bees would swarm on the sweet, 

 juicy peach and save the .juice. I lookt long, and never saw a 

 bee alight on a whole fruit. They do not do things that way. 

 At the dryers they were much around the soft fruit, but I did 

 not see them on the fruit on the trays. I suppose that the 

 sulphuring keeps them away, tho the sulphuring is done for 

 another purpose. It is likely ever to come thus — any evil 

 that is necessary will soon find a cure. 



Helps in Dry Years. — There are two things that are 

 going to help out California in her dry years — the bean crop, 

 that may be made to yield abundant honey in such years ; and 

 the alfalfa crop, that will, under irrigation, yield honey lib- 

 erally even in years of greatest drouth. 



Hopeful Prospect foe 1898. — Southern California has 

 already had from two to three inches of rain, tho usually we 

 look for little until December. This makes us hopeful of 

 another wet season. Last year this place (Los Angeles 

 county) had 21 inches of rainfall; and Southern California 

 harvested a splendid crop of honey the past season. We 

 may well be hopeful that 1898 will be equal to 1897 in its 

 honey product. 



Organization and Co-operation Must Come. — Raisin- 

 growers of the San Joaquin Valley have acted together and 

 refuse to sell their crop for less than 3>2 cents per pound. 

 The walnut-growers have acted similarly regarding their pro- 

 duct. The orange-growers are taking similar steps. Why 

 not ? The lawyers act together to fix their fees ; the doctors 

 consult and fix their charges — why should not "producers of 

 our own food products, which, unlike the wares of lawyers 

 and doctors, are of certain value, fix prices on theirs ? The 

 laws when dealing with railroads and corporations always 

 grant them a ' reasonable ' per cent, on capital, etc." Why 

 not producers calculate the cost of their products, add a rea- 

 sonable percentage for investment, and then fix charges ? 

 This would be right and Just, and must come some day. It 

 will not come until producers can act together and demand 

 the same favors that are granted corporations. It is their 

 right, and they, as the great majority, have the power to 

 secure their rights. They must co-operate fully, and then 

 they can get their rights. The way to secure this complete 

 co-operation is to educate the producing classes that they 

 may know their rights, and their ability to secure them. 

 When this is done, bee-keepers will not be forced, or even 

 askt, as they are now, to take 33^ cents per pound for the 

 best honey! 



Trees and Plants for Honey. — There is no little In- 

 terest manifested in tree-planting, and many are asking re- 

 garding honey-plants. This is surely wise. Tulips, maples, 

 and basswoods East, and the most valuable eucalypti West, 

 together with the beautiful buckthorns, should receive atten- 

 tion. Close observation at such places as the Santa Monica 

 station, and Smiley Heights, at Uedlands, with their scores of 

 varieties of eucalypti, should bo given, that we may know the 

 most valuable species for bee-pasturage. 



Los Angeles Co., Calif. 



^ 



L,ang;strotlt on ttae Honey-Bee, revised by 

 The Dadants, is a standard, reliable and thoroughly complete 

 work on bee-culture. It contains 520 pages, and is bound 

 elegantly. Every reader of the American Hee Journal should 

 have a copy of this book, as it answers hundreds of questions 

 that arise about bees. We mail It for $1.25, or club It with 

 the Bee Journal for a year — both together for only $2.00. 



<< Self-Hiving and Non-Swarming Hives." 



BY F. A. GEMMILL. 



On page 626 appears an article on the above subject by 

 \. Duncan, of Georgia. I presume Mr. D. Is a naturalized 

 citizen of the United States, altho his name might lead one to 

 believe that either he or his ancestors were of Scotch extrac- 

 tion. Be that as it may, it cannot, or at least ought not, 

 make him any the worse for having, like myself, some Scotch 

 blood in his veins. 



Presuming, therefore, that Mr. D. possesses both the 

 natural shrewdness of a Scotchman, and the inventive genius 

 of a Yankee, it is not unreasonable to suppose, and I sincerely 

 trust he has combined these qualities, and really invented 

 something of practical value to apiarists. 



I may state that I am in the bee-business to stay, even if 

 I do not make such a fortune as is sometimes made in Califor- 

 nia, or even more than a partial living at following such a 

 pursuit, but whather to a much greater extent than hereto- 

 fore, depends entirely upon my ability to control and success- 

 fully manage a larger number of colonies with my limited 

 time, at a reasonable and profitable amount of expense and 

 labor. 



That I have for "long and weary" puzzled the small 

 amount of brains located in my cranium day-times, and lay 

 awake for hours night-times, "a thinkin' and a thinkin, " of 

 how best to solve the question at issue, has been no secret 

 to the person I have for nearly a quarter of a century supt 

 porridge with, and sometimes eaten oatmeal cakes by way of 

 luxury. Indeed, I have often been told that I am no excep- 

 tion to the general rule, " that every man is daft on some par- 

 ticular point," and myself particularly so on the hobby of 

 trying to get "something for nothing." Besides, having 

 failed myself to accomplish much, I have also tried in vain, to 

 a greater or less extent, every method having any appearance 

 of success, which has been presented through the columns of 

 the various bee-publications. 



Now, I hope Mr. Duncan is going to, if he has not already, 

 capt the climax, by becoming a second veritable Langstroth, 

 in conferring a lasting benefit on apiarists, second only to the 

 advent of movable combs. 



I do not know whether Mr. D.'s patent includes the big- 

 gest portion of North America (Kanada and the Klondike) or 

 not, but I will assure him that so far as I am concerned it will 

 make no difference, as I will in any case pay the royalty he 

 may claim for the use of such a contrivance, and once more 

 give a trial to another device, in the hope that I will not again 

 meet with disappointment. 



In the meantime, I'll just wait with patience the appear- 

 ance of his advertisement in the American Bee Journal, giving 

 an engraving and further particulars regarding his non- 

 swarming or self-hiving apparatus. Ontario, Canada. 



Dampening Sections — Moving Bees, Etc. 



BY CYRUS C. ALDRICU. 



Allow me to give my method of dampening sections : 



With a sponge I slightly dampen the outside of the sec> 

 tion opposite the grooves, and thou place another section out- 

 side down on tho dampened. In this way every other section 

 is wet at the proper place, and when the section becomes dry 

 it will not be loose in the joints, as it would be if wet in the 

 groove. 



To those who wish to make tight-top section-cases, with 

 two-open-sided sections, I would say turn tho section one- 

 fourth over, and cut an entrance at the bottom, and you have It. 



In answer to IJeo. H. Stipp, as to moving bees, I would 

 say that beos can be moved at any season in this part of the 

 country. My way of moving Is as follows : 



