1921 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



351 



sweet of the blossoms, as produced 

 by nature, is superior to our artifi- 

 cial sugars, although cane and beet 

 sugars are very much superior to the 

 corn syrup made by the chemical ac- 

 tion of sulphuric acid upon stai'ch. 

 We should use more plentifully of 

 honey and advise all our friends to 

 do the same, knowing that we are 

 thus to secure better health and 

 longer life. Pure honey contains the 

 most fragrant and delicious, as well 

 as the healthiest properties of the 

 vegetable kingdom. Think of manu- 

 facturing milk by some chemical pro- 

 cess and expecting it to be as health- 

 ful as that which is produced natural- 

 ly in the udder of the cow! The milk 

 of our cows is an essence distilled 

 from the sweet plants of our pas- 

 tures, by Nature. To quote a noted 

 French songster: "Milk contains 

 more science than all the books of the 

 metropolis." Similarly, is not the 

 honey, gathered by our bees, distilled 

 from the sweetest blossoms by a pro- 

 cess that no chemical invention can 

 ever imitate successfully? 



A German Bee Book 



Through the courtesy of Professor 

 Alfonsus, of Vienna, we have re- 

 ceived the book, "Unsere Bienen," by 

 August Ludwig, the second and com- 

 plete edition of which was published 

 in Berlin in the late Autumn of 1920. 



Written by so eminent an author- 

 ity as Pfai-rer Ludwig, who is one of 

 the instructors in beekeeping of the 

 Zoological Institute at the University 

 of Jena, the volume makes a very 

 valuable addition to our library. 



The book, comprising 760 pages in 

 all, with 474 illustrations and 28 

 plates, part of them in colors, is di- 

 vided into two parts, the first dealing 

 with the Science of Beekeeping and 

 the latter with Beekeeping Practice. 



Chapters considered in the first 

 part ai'e briefly as follows: 



1. The Significance of Beekeeping. 



2. Hypothesis for Successful Bee- 

 keeping — Honey Plants, Climate, 

 Weather, the Beekeeper Himself. 



3. History of Beekeeping from the 

 Ancients to the Present Day. 



4. Writings on Bees and Beekeep- 

 ing. 



5. Bees in Fiction — Customs and 

 Folklore. 



6. Natural History of the Honey- 

 bee — Races of Bees, Comb-building, 

 etc. — Diseases and Enemies. 



The second section, dealing with 

 Practical Beekeeping, comprises 41G 

 of the 760 pages of the book, and has 

 for its chapter subjects the following: 



1. The Beehive. 



2. Tools for Beekeeping. 



3. Care of Bees. 



4. The Bees' Products and Their 

 Profitable Harvest. 



h. Bookkeeping in Beekeeping. 



6. The Bee Association, Its Func- 

 tion and Duty. 



7. The Beekeeper's Rights and 

 Laws on Bees. 



8. Instruction in Beekeeping. 



We Americans art undoubtedly in 

 the front rank in beekeeping practice 

 and more especially in profitable man- 

 agement of bees on a large scale, but 

 many of our European contempora- 



ries have done more detailed work, 

 especially in the natural science of 

 beekeeping, as is evidenced by the 

 above mentioned woi'k. 



Nor is the study of the practical 

 side neglected by them, although pos- 

 sibly not put into use according to 

 our ideas. We find nearly every type 

 of American hive described, illustrat- 

 ed and discussed, in this volume. 



A valuable addition to the library 

 of any beekeeper having a working 

 knowledge of the German language. 



Wisconsin Bulletin on Fouibrood 



Bulletin No. 333, of the Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station at Midison, 

 Wis., 24 pages, 9 half-tone engrav- 

 ings, is before us. It has for its title 

 "How to Control American Foul- 

 brood," and was written by Prof. H. 

 F. Wilson, who is in charge o;' bee in- 

 vestigation and disease eradication at 

 that University. 



The bulletin begins by giving ap- 

 pearance and symptoms of European 

 and American fouibrood, and of sac- 

 brood, and continues with a more 

 complete description of American 

 fouibrood, its eradication and cure. 



Warnings are given to avoid buy- 

 ing brood combs unless sure of their 

 safety, and of the necessity for dis- 

 infecting by boiling in hot lye all 

 second-hand equipment. In eradi- 

 cating the disease, bees should be 

 brushed instead of being shaken, and 

 this should be done in a honey flow. 



Extracting combs removed from a 

 fouibrood colony should not be used 

 again, though apparently safe and 

 dry. Experiments made show that 

 there is a 25 per cent chance of re- 

 infection from this source 



Nor does Prof. Wilson deen. it ad- 

 visable to use the plan adopted by 

 some of leaving one dry comb in the 

 hive to catch the infected honty, the 

 same to be removed the next day. 

 He argues that by that time '.he bees 

 may have drawn out foundation and 

 may transfer some of the honey from 

 the old comb to the new ones. 



Bulletin on S^varm Control 



Farmers' Bulletin No. 1198. of the 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture, has 

 for its title "Swarm Control." It 

 comprises 48 pages and was written 

 by George S. Demuth. 



Designed for general distribution to 

 all keepers of bees, it is not only a 

 manual of instruction, but a thorough 

 discussion of the underlying princi- 

 ples governing swarming and swarm 

 control as well. 



The desirability of swarm control 

 is self-evident to the experienced bee- 

 keeper. The reading of this bulletin 

 should make it so to the novice. 



Although the causes of swarming 

 are not definitely known, some of the 

 factors influencing the tendency to 

 swarm are: 



1. Hereditai-y influence through 

 lack of breeding from desirable stock. 



2. Wrong size and shape of brood- 

 chamber and poor combs. 



3. Improper distribution of bees 

 within the hive. Mr. Demuth cutlines 

 some of the most important consid- 

 erations in swarm prevention meas- 



ures as being: selection of stock in 

 breeding, large brood-chambers, good 

 worker combs, free expansion of the 

 brood nest in spring, wider spacing of 

 combs, deep spaces below the combs, 

 large entrances and additional ven- 

 tilation if necessary, proper shading, 

 prevention of building of barriers of 

 sealed honey in the brood nest; induc- 

 ing bees to occupy supers, and empty 

 combs for the ripening of incoming- 

 nectar. 



A part of the bulletin is devoted to 

 instructions in case of swarming, rela- 

 tion of prime swarm and afterswarm 

 to the parent colony, and manner of 

 treatment to anticipate swarming. 



The text is illustrated with several 

 drawings, mostly showing diffeient ar- 

 rangement of hives and supers in hiv- 

 ing swarms and in swarm control. 



Boost Your Local Sales 



Questionnaires sent out by the 

 Texas Honey Producers' Association 

 reveal the fact that only two per 

 cent of the honey of members is sold 

 locally. Probably a condition which 

 is general through the country, and 

 especially in the larger producing 

 districts. Surely there is no good 

 reason why this could not be in- 

 creased five fold with a little eff'oi-t 

 in stimulating local sales. 



Northern Ontario 



The editor of "L'Abeille," of Que- 

 bec, Mr. C. Vaillancourt, gives in this 

 magazine a description of the Abitibi 

 region, located about 200 miles north 

 of Georgian Bay, which he reports as 

 a fast growing settlement in which 

 clover grows abundantly. This is a 

 newly settled region, the streams of 

 which run towards James Baj It is 

 said to produce the willow-herb or 

 fire-weed in large quantities. 



Conventions 



Perhaps fifty conventions of bee- 

 keepers have been held within the 

 past thirty days. Not many years ago 

 a bee meeting was sufficiently rare to 

 be worthy of extended notice in the 

 magazines devoted to honey produc- 

 tion. Now it is impossible even to 

 give the place and date of them all. 

 Hardly a' day passes without such a 

 convention being held at some point 

 on the North American continent. 

 This indicates a better state of the in- 

 dustry. While from the census we 

 learn that there are less people keep- 

 ing bees than was the case formerly, 

 there are moi'e specialists, and it is 

 the specialist who develops an indus- 

 ti-y. We learn much from each other, 

 and the personal contact at these 

 meetings, large or small, adds i.iuch to 

 the interest as well as pleasure of 

 one's work. 



Lime Soil for Sweet Clover 



At the Chippewa Falls meeting. Dr. 

 Phillips made it clear that a soil con- 

 taining plenty of lime is absolutely 

 necessary to produce sweet clover 

 freely and that this plant is not a 

 good honey yiclder in any soil but a 

 lime soil. 



