IS'.fJ 



(;i,KA\lN(iS IN IlKK rl I/I'IIM-:. 



31 



- wjtei 





In ihi' imiltitiulo of oouiisflors tht-ro is safety. —PR. II: 14. 



Willi. K this issii(> is goiiiR to v»n»ss we cxpcot 

 to t:il<<' ill tlif Mioiiigan oonvontion at (irand 

 liapids. w hii'ii will be hold 1)ih'. 31 ami .Ian. !. 



Wk have siivtMi iniitc a long lepoit ul' the 

 North .Vnicrifan in this issue, but by no means 

 so full as will ai)pt\ir in tiic Amerinin Bee 

 .Inurniil. of ("hiiMSO. Thomas (!. Newman i^ 

 Son. publishers, will be glail to mail you sam- 

 ple copies. 



Thk December Bee-Keepers' Hevleir comes 

 out with a new feature; i. e.. a small portrait, 

 in half-tone, of its regulai- con-espondents, at, 

 the head of llieir afticles. At conventions we 

 like to see as well as h(>ar the big bee-guns. 

 Ijro. llutchiiiM)!! is going to gi-atify that desire, 

 so fai' as it can ho done on paper, for a time at 

 least. 



Wk receive a great many kind letters, espe- 

 cially at this time of the year. They are of the 

 real, homelike, chatty sort, containing words of 

 cheer and encouragement. Such letters are 

 always welcome, and have their influence in 

 molding the future policy of the journal. It is 

 impossible to answer them all. but we extend 

 our thanks here to one and all. 



It has been observed that bees will winter on 

 honey-dew: but just how much better they 

 would have done on sugar syrup is somewhat 

 of an open question. Here is a little item in 

 point, from a subscriber, Mr. E. E. Smith, of 

 Carpenter. III. He writes: 



Bees wintering' on honey-dew are rearing brood; 

 Imt there are about twice as many dead bees in 

 front of theii- hives as there are of tho.se fed on 

 siifrar s.\ r\ip. 



TnK senior editor is not " enjoying " the best 

 of health. He has had one or two slight re- 

 lapses, the last one being at Portland. On'gon. 

 At last reports he luid left Portland for Fidal- 

 go. Washington, the place where H. A. March. 

 a bee-keeper and supply-dealer, holds forth. 

 From his last letter we presume he is. ere this, 

 on his way to a convention in Los Angeles, to 

 be held .Ian. <■, and 7. When he gets that far 

 south, we hope that his malaria. f)r tendency to 

 fever and chills, will entirely disappear. 



SixcE our article in our last issue, we have 

 had some iniiuiries as to whether the improved 

 HotTman frame will go in the Dovetailed 

 hive. Why. to be sure.- The real purpose of 

 the article was to explain how the Hoffman 

 frame had been adapted to that hive. Yes. 

 this frame will go in any standard I.angstroth 

 hive, such as the Dovetailed. All our frames 

 of standard size are interchangeable with any of 

 our standard hives. The new Hoffman wilfgo 

 in the old-style Simplicity as well as in the lat- 

 est Dovetailed hi\^^^ 



No one should attempt to secure a patent on 

 some device unless he is passably familiar with 

 the literature' relating to it — certainly not until 

 he has read one or more of the excellent text- 

 books. The patent-offii'c rejioi-ts show that 

 even now patents are being granted to parties 

 who are lamentably ignorant of the first princi- 

 ples of bee-keeping and of what it requires. 

 <li-KAXix«s of to-day is not opposed to i)atents 



granted to practical mum: Inii it uniti'swilh the 

 Aiiierii(tn Bee .hninidl in protesting against 

 lliN u.seless waste of money when tlie pali'iil 

 ran lie of no possible usi> lo i he ow ner. 



\Vk ai'e soj-ry to note that la gri|)pe is still 

 seiioiisly inconveniencing Thomas (1. Newman 

 iV .Son. it has tiiken a severe hold upon tin' 

 junior nminber of the lii'in. contining him to his 

 residence; and even Thomas (i. himself is near- 

 ly ill. We sincerelv hope for their speedy re- 

 covery to hciilth. \Ve have already ourselves 

 had a mild attack of trrii). inlluen/.a. or some- 

 thing else, but we are liapp.\' to say. at this writ- 

 ing, that we are on top. Dr. ('. C .Miller is an- 

 other one who has been sufVei-ing (piite s(^verely 

 from the ravages of the epidemic. Although 

 quite weak, he is still able tcj attend tf) some of 

 his correspondence^ 



I.\ one of our subscription blanks, the follow- 

 ing woi'ds are written: "' I'lease discontinm'." 

 No name oi' atldress was signed. .\s this thing 

 is continually coming up, both for discontinu- 

 ances and for renewals, accompanied with re- 

 mittances, we must remind our sul)scribers 

 again to please let us know who they ai<'. We 

 have no way but to wail for a growl, and per- 

 liaps oui' subscriber who desired us to discon- 

 tinue may be very iinicJi tttad because we do 

 not obey orders; and no doubt tne other fellow 

 who has sent us a dollar for renewal will be 

 very much put out because the date of his 

 journal wrapper has not been changed in due 

 time. 



Ix another column 8. T. Fish A: Co. give us 

 some startling news, to the effect that at least 

 one large bakery has abandoned the use of ex- 

 tracted honey, and is now using, and will con- 

 tinue to use. granulated sugar, because it is so 

 cheap, and because it is so much better. We 

 have been a little skeptical about the low price 

 of sugar affecting the honey-business, hut per- 

 haps we shall have to give up. If it does any 

 thing, it will affect only the sale of the poorer 

 gradi's of I'Xtracted honey. Comb honey of all 

 kinds will hold its own just the same. The 

 Ijoorer and darker grades ol e.rtntrted may suf- 

 fer considerably from competition in just this 

 wav. Let us have the; facts. 



Eememhkr. any subscriber may have his 

 journal stopped at the time paid for if he will 

 simi)ly so order when remitting. Those who 

 are of this class can be accommodated as well 

 as those who are in the great majority, who do 

 not want their journal stopped, and who will 

 remit as soon as they can make it convenient. 

 But all should remember that we do not allow 

 any one to get very far in arrears before his 

 journal is stopped, or, at least, some arrange- 

 ment has been made whereby it can be con- 

 tinued. We are glad to state that we have no 

 deadheads on our list. It is practically all paid 

 up. Our advertisers get the advantage of a list 

 of live subscribers. A deadhead list, however 

 large, would be of no practical benefit to adver- 

 tisers, but a large expense to us. 



It is no doubt a fact that more Imyje bee- 

 keepers were present at the North American at 

 Albany, and. as a natural result, a larger ag- 

 gregate number of colonii'S weic re|)i-(vsented. 

 than at any other bee-convention in the history 

 of the North Ann-rican. There have been 

 larger attendances at other conventions, but 

 never a larger nutuber of men who count their 

 colonies by tlie seveial hundreds. There was 

 not only present th(.' largest bee-keeper in the 

 world, but a considerabh; number who own in- 

 dividually in the neighborhood of 3(K) or 4(X) col- 

 onies; and yet they are not always the ones 



