408 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



December 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



=S Eitabllshtd by SamutI Wigntr In 1861 C= 



The oldest Bee Journal in the English language. 

 Published Monthly at Hamilton, Illinois. 



Entered as second-class matter at the Postoffice at Hamilton, Illinois. 



Subscription Rates — In the United States and 

 Mexico, $1.60 per year; five years, $6. 

 Canadian postage 15 cents, and other foreign 

 countries 26 cents extra, per year. 



AH subscriptions are stopped at expiration. Date 

 of expiration is printed on wrapper label. 



THE STAFF 



C. P. Dadant Editor 



Frank C. Pellett Associate Editor 



Maurice G. Dadatjt Business Manager 



(Copyright 1920 by C. P. Dadant.) 



THE EDITOR'S VIEWPOINT 



Dr. Miller 



The following appreciations of Dr. 

 Miller were received from Europe: 



From Mr. Crepieux-Jamin, of 

 Rouen, the man who was honored 

 with the order of Leopold, by the 

 King of Belgium, for having cared 

 for 3,000 wounded Belgian soldiers: 



"My condolence compliments to 

 Mrs. Miller. Dr. Miller's death is 

 to be regretted. Your father and he, 

 those were two MEN." 



From Mr. Ph. J. Baldensperger, of 

 Nice, France : 



"My cordial sympathy goes to the 

 Miller family and to you for the loss 

 of our beloved and venerable dean, 

 the patriarch, Dr. C. C. Miller. The 

 sympathy of the apiarian world must 

 be but small relief for his people. 

 Who will entertain us as positively 

 and joyously as he did, on the ups 

 and downs of beekeeping?" 



From Mr. Leon Tombu, of Bel- 



"I was very sorry to learn of the 

 death of the venerable master, who 

 was Dr. Miller. It is not a sorrow 

 for the American beekeepers alone, 

 but for the beekeepers of the whole 

 world as well. The American Bee 

 Journal loses with him one of its best 

 writers." 



Meeting Changed. 



The meeting of the Minnesota Bee- 

 keepers' Association has been 

 changed from December 7-8 to 

 Thursday and Friday, 9th and 10th. It 

 will be held in the meeting rooms of 

 the Hennepin County Medical Asso- 

 ciation, Donaldson Building, Seventh 

 and Nicollet, Minneapolis. 



American Honey Producers' Emblems 



The American emblems to wear as 

 rallying signs at conventions of bee- 

 keepers ordered to be struck at the 

 Buffalo meeting last spring, are at last 

 ready. We can furnish them of either 

 gold or bronze, and cither in pins or 

 screw buttons. They represent a 

 queen on a comb; they are of the size 

 of a dime, very neat and pretty, and 

 are warranted to wear for years with- 

 out tarnishing. As a much larger 

 number was ordered than at first in- 

 tended, they are supplied more 

 cheaply than formerly announced. 

 Remit SO cents for single emblem, to 

 be delivered by mail, or 35 cents each 



in lots of 20, to be supplied at con- 

 ventions. 



Diseases of the Adult Bee 



We are indebted to Mr. John An- 

 derson, of Aberdeen, and A. H. 

 Wood, for a clipping of the Aberdeen 

 Free Press of November 2, indicating 

 that the true cause of the Isle-of- 

 Wight disease is a mite, which it is 

 proposed to call "Tarsonemus 

 Wo'odi, which enters a particular 

 breathing tube of the bee, feeds on 

 the bee's blood, blocks the air pas- 

 sage, and thus cuts off the supply of 

 oxygen from certain muscles and 

 nerve centers concerned with loco- 

 motion." We trust this may be cor- 

 rect and a solution of one of the 

 most baffling diseases of the adult 

 bees. In that case, the discoverers 

 of this cause will have deserved 

 great praise from the beekeepers, 

 for it may lead to correct diagnosis 

 of the cause of the so-called May dis- 

 ease, paralysis, vertigo, which have 

 never been fully acounted for. Should 

 this discovery be confirmed, we will 

 give a history of it with credits to its 

 author. 



Appreciation of Dr. C. C. Miller 



We are in receipt from Mr. Thos. 

 W. Cowan, President of the British 

 Beekeepers' Association, of the fol- 

 lowing resolution : 



"The British Beekeepers' Associa- 

 tion desire to record their sorrow at 

 the news just received of the death 

 of Dr. C. C. Miller, at the age of 89 

 years, who by his work and writings 

 had done so much for beekeeping, 

 and by his personality had endeared 

 himself to those with whom he came 

 in touch. They also desire to record 

 their sense of the loss sustained by 

 the world of beekeepers who valued 

 his advice, and to extend to Mrs. Mil- 

 ler and family their deepest sympa- 

 thy in their bereavement." 



A Memorial Fund 



The suggestion has been made on 

 the part of several friends of Doctor 

 C. C. Miller, that a fund should be 

 raised by the beekeepers for the pur- 

 pose of establishing a permanent me- 

 morial. There is some difference of 

 opinion as to the form this memorial 

 should take. We think that the es- 

 tablishment of a research scholarship 



in beekeeping in an agricultural col- 

 legt would be very appropriate. In 

 case such a move is started, all the 

 bee magazines should join together to 

 raise it. We will be pleased to hear 

 trom our readers as to what they 

 think of the plan. 



Prayers to Stop Swarms 



I have heard from many persons 

 that there is a prayer which, when 

 said directly ahead of a swarm of 

 bees, will compel them to land at 

 once. Please inform me if I can in 

 any way get the words of this prayer. 



Connecticut. 



There has been at all times more or 

 less belief in the efficacy of certain 

 forms of prayer. We read lately that 

 it was once the belief that a printed 

 copy of a prayer to St. Margaret 

 would cure pain, if applied on the 

 seat of the trouble. We have looked 

 for information, in several ancient 

 works 'on prayers as applied to bees, 

 and find the following: 



According to Jules De Soignies, a 

 Belgian author, through a popular be- 

 lief in the Golden Hills of Burgundy 

 and in other parts of France, the fol- 

 lowing prayer was recommended to 

 stop swarms : 



"Bees, the Lord has given you birth 

 here and asks you to remain here." 

 This was to be followed by making 

 the sign of the cross. 



In the Ardennes, they kept the 

 swarms from flying away by planting 

 a branch of consecrated boxwood in 

 front of the hives on Palm Sunday. — 

 (L'Abeille a Travers Les Ages). 



According to Margatet Warner 

 Morley (The Honey Makers, page 

 327), an exorcism was found in a 

 Latin ecclesiastical work as follows: 

 "I implore thee, mother of the bees, 

 through God, the King of Heaven, 

 and through the Redeemer, the Son 

 of the Lord, that thou fliest not high, 

 nor far, but that rather thou comest 

 at once to a tree; there gather with 

 all thy kind, or with thy companions. 

 There have I prepared for thee a 

 good hive, that there thou mayest la- 

 bor in the name of the Father, the 

 Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen." 



Both of these authors also report 

 that it was a common belief in Lux- 

 emburg that the Lord tried to re- 

 strain the honeybee from working on 

 Sunday, and that the honeybee re- 

 plied: "It is often rainy during the 

 week, and if I do not work on Sunday 

 I may not be able to supply wax for 

 the altars." Whereupon the Lord 

 punished the bees for their disregard 

 of Sunday, by closing against them 

 the corolla of the red clover, making 

 it too deep for them to reach the 

 base of the calyx. 



First or primary swarms rarely fly 

 away, as they emerge from the hive. 

 They nearly always settle at least 

 once, when they may be easily hived. 

 So if our correspondent tries one of 

 the above prayers upon a primary 

 swarm, he will have the pleasure of 

 seeing it succeed. But if he triesit 

 upon an afterswarm, it may be quite 

 a different thing. We would prefer 

 to rely on a spray of water from a 

 force pump. 



