198 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



June 



whole live bee by macerating the bee 

 in alcohol. The action of the remedy 

 is chiefly on the kidneys and bladder. 

 It has been used with success by the 

 homeopaths in the treatment of rlieu- 

 niatism, dropsy, eczema and various 

 affections of the mucous membrane. 

 The homeopathic school of medicine 

 also uses a preparation made from 

 the sting of the honeybee. We buy 

 l)oth the honeybee and the stings for 

 medicine. At the present time we 

 need about 5,000 stings of the honey- 

 bees, and could use about 20 or 25 

 pounds of bees." 



Straw Skeps of Bees From Central 

 France to the Liberated Regions 



I am sending you two photos of 

 bees in skeps packed in sacks and 

 shipped to the liberated regions. 

 There are lots of bees in the moun- 

 tains of Puy-De-Dome. But they are 

 not yet posted on modern methods. I 

 have sold a number of skeps at 100 

 francs each, prepaid (about $6, at 

 present values). But there is de- 

 mand for more than we can supply. 

 The trouble comes from the brim- 

 stoning of skeps by ignorant honey 

 producers. 



I will try and send you some pho- 

 tos of mountain apiaries by and bv. 

 TOURAUD QUINTIEX, 

 Puy-De-Dome. 



Bee and Queen Advertisements 



By W. H. Gray 



There is a great diiTerence in the 

 way people advertise their products, 

 and I suppose the prospective buyers 

 are differently affected by what they 

 read. So my views on the subject 

 must be taken as entirely personal. 

 When I read over the long list of 

 people who have queens to sell, I wish 

 to know at a glance where they are 

 situated; and here I must confess 

 my ignorance. I cannot always make 

 out 'the abbreviations used by the 

 postal authorities, and the public, to 

 denote the different States. So, 

 sooner than worry it out, I pass on to 

 an "ad" that 'tells me where the 

 breeder lives, without the help of the 

 atlas. It is very natural that the 

 buyer of bees and queens should want 



to know the location of the sender. 

 When other things are equal there is 

 no use in ordering from the farthest 

 point on the North American Conti- 

 nent. If the buyer in Quebec orders 

 queens from California, or the buyer 

 in Washington State from Florida, he 

 knows his queens will be a long time 

 in the mails. 



Then, again, with so many good, re- 

 liable breeders, why should I have 'to 

 write for the catalog of one before I 

 can get his prices? Why can't he tell 

 at once? And also say when he will 

 start shipping? It would probably be 

 all the better if he stated the other 

 general particulars that the buyer 

 wants to know, such as color, strain, 

 and if safe delivery is guaranteed. 

 Somei breeders include Canada in 

 their safe delivery, and they probably 

 get their reward in trade. A con- 

 servative buyer might hesitate to or- 

 der from a very large advertiser 

 whose prices were about half 'those 'of 

 the vast majority. But he might give 

 him a small trial order, which might 

 lead to big business later if every- 

 thing was O. K. 



I bought a very good queen last 

 year for 60c, but heard later that the 

 breeder had cleared out with other 

 people's money. If a breeder is ship- 

 ping diagonally across the continent 

 I think he would be well advised to 

 use the large cage, 'or two of the 

 small ones fastened together with a 

 hole cut throug'h. In this latter way 

 a queen came from England to Brit- 

 ish Columbia in splendid condition 

 after 14 days' traveling. 



It would be only fair to the breeder 

 if the buyer would always re'turn the 

 cage with the dead queen and bees, if 

 he expects replacement. For I am 

 sure there are people who victimize 

 breeders in this way, depending on 

 him not to doubt their word. On the 

 other hand, I have returned a dead 

 queen and then had a letter assuring 

 me that the queen was probably only 

 numbed, and if I had only put her in 

 a warm place she would have been all 

 right. The same concern sent me a 

 used hive, when I paid for a new one. 

 But it is only very occasionally that 

 these things occur, on account of the 

 care the bee journals take before ac- 

 cepting doubtful advertisements, and 



if a scamp does get a start, he doesn't 

 last long. 



A very important thing for both 

 parties to remember is not to neglect 

 to answer correspondence that needs 

 immediate attention. Openness and 

 honesty will do the rest. 



June Tour of Western New York 

 Honey Producers' Association to 

 be Held June 10. 



10:30 a. m. — Beekeepers will assem- 

 ble at the apiary of Wm. F. Vollmer, 

 which is located on the Akron-Crit- 

 tenden Road, near Hawkins' school- 

 house, two and one-half miles north 

 of Crittenden, three miles south of 

 Akron. 



12:00 m. — At apiary of J. Roy Lin- 

 coln, Pembroke, N. Y., in the village, 

 on main road. 



1 :00 p. m. — At apiary of John N. De- 

 muth, also of Pembroke, N. Y. 



2:00 p. m.— At apiary of F. W. De 

 Temple, Darien Center, in the vil- 

 lage, on state road, Broadway. 

 . Other yards will be visited, time 

 permitting. Demonstrations will be 

 given at all the above named yards, 

 and standard time will be observed. 



Not potatoes, but bees in straw skeps done up in rough sacks for shipment frum ruyUe-Uonie 

 to the devastated regions of Northern France. 



Australia, the Beekeeper's Paradise 



By Tarlton Rayment, author of 



"Money in Bees," Etc. 



(Concluded) 



Victoria 



THE third state to undergo re- 

 view is "Vic," which is the 

 smallest on the mainland; but 

 we must hasten to explain that Vic- 

 torians do not admit being third, or 

 even second, to anyone on earth. To 

 "do" Victoria on two sheets of fools- 

 cap on the lines of these articles 

 means that injustice will be meted 

 out to something or some one. We 

 can't help that, two pages are the 

 limit. 



Any physical geography will show' 

 at once that Victoria is a land of 

 forests. The range of mountains that 

 has its beginnings in South Australia 

 stops short for a space near the Vic- 

 torian border, then the dividing 

 range runs across the center of the 

 state from west to east, thus furnish- 

 ing watersheds for a lot of rivers 

 that flow north into the Murray 

 River and a lot more that flow south 

 into the Southern Ocean. And the 

 forests are everywhere, on both 

 slopes of the mountains and even 

 down onto the plains to the west. All 

 kinds of botanic life may be found, 

 and the state ought to be proud of 

 the immense variety of eucalpyts 

 found within its borders. It is a great 

 honey-producing state, perhaps the 

 greatest in the world, for the large 

 majority of indigenous plants yield 

 both honey and pollen. On the 

 mountains are red box (E. polyan- 

 themos), stringybarks (E. eugenio- 

 ides) and other species, white gums 

 (E. paludosa) and other species, spot- 

 ted Riuns (E. goniocalyx), apjile box 

 (E. Stuartiana), messmate (E. obli- 

 qua), ironbark (E. sideroxylon), pep- 

 permint (E. amygdalina). 

 Along the rivers are red gum (E. 



