IS'.f.' 



(;i-KAMN(;s IN uKi: ( i i/nuK. 



(iT 



conrot. Mr. T. (J. Ncwniiiii callcMl tun ;iiirii- 

 tiori to till' miitt«'i\ 



1 r li;is oftt'ii bi'i'ii S!ii<l tluU Ix-c-cdnx iiil itiii>. 

 si) loiijr as we Imvo siirli cxc'cllciit liiM'-litc'i;ilnrc. 

 art' i)f no value, cxcfpt, tlic soi-ial lcatm<' ol 

 ilii'iii. Tliis is piirtly tfiie; hut soint' of llif iiuisi 

 \ alual'li' and iinporiant (lucstions laUc root in 

 I'ouvciuions and iiivc food for fuithcrdisrussion 

 tiirouirii till- licc-journals. NNC refer to the 

 matter of sprayinfj fruit-trees and poisoninii 

 bees, irradinir honey, etc. .\ convention of l)i'e- 

 l<eepeis can better |>rot.est ugainsl injurious le<^- 

 ishilion tiian all the bpo-journals put together. 



Oti; booU review, on page !>.">■.'. Dee. 1. of Mr. (i. 

 U. rieree"s booU. "The Winter I'robleiii in Hee- 

 keepiiifr," has ealh'd forth nuu'ii eoniinendation 

 and corroborative testimony. We ar(^ unable to 

 siive place to all that has been written on the 

 s\ib.ii'ct, but we will {live somethins more in our 

 next issue. It si'(>ms t liatothers ha\'e been ex- 

 lierimentiu}; in regard to the use of absorbents 

 versus non-absorbents; and the results of ex- 

 pei-imeiit,s so far seem to justify the use of a 

 sealed cover properly protected with packing. 

 We would suggest, that as many of our readei's 

 as can. conveniently, test tlie two side by side. 

 What might be true of one locality might not 

 be of am)thi'r. Let us see whether non-absorb- 

 ents are bt'tter— that is. give tlie best results 

 for all localities. 



Hko. Nkwmax. of t\u^ Aincririni Bee Journiil. 

 seems to deplore the fact that the matter of 

 spraying fruit-trees, as introduced by Prof. 

 Lintner. at the Albany convention, was not ex- 

 Ijunged from the records. The mere fact that 

 the professor seemed, for a time, to reject the 

 statement of Dadant and Hambaugh as lacking 

 proof, called forth such overirhchnuKj testimo- 

 nies that neither lie nor anyboily else could 

 doubt that spi'ayiiig fruit-hloom is decidedly 

 injurious and destructive to bees. Hee-keepei-s 

 wlio have not had experience in the matter of 

 spraying have not been positive tiiat it was a 

 damage to the bees. But Prof. Lintner's skep- 

 tical attitude has called forth such overwhelm- 

 ing facts that we for one are glatl that the mat- 

 ter came up as it did. 



A FAI.SK ALAR.M: ADUI.TEKATlOX OF IIOXRV, 

 ETC. 



0.\ page 23. .Tan. 1. 8. T. Fish v<: Co. state that 

 a certain manufacturing firm to whom in past 

 seasons they had sold carloads of honey, after 

 iiaving experimented with granulated sugar 

 found it far sutierior to honey, since the article 

 manufactured with honey as an ingi'edient 

 would sour in time. From this language we 

 gathered that it was a bakery tirm. and so stat- 

 ed it editorially on page ."Jl of the same issue. 

 We have just received a lettei- from S. T. Fisli 

 \- Co.. stating that it was not a baking concern, 

 l)ut a tobacco firm. They say: 



<)u p;ige 2:2 you quote us as havinK said it was a 

 l)akery iliat refused to purchase liouex . Now, we 

 did not flesire to mention the line of Imsiiiess in 

 wliicli they refused to liaiidle Imncy this season, 

 siiii'e we thoug'ht it of no si)ecial benefit to the lead- 

 eis; tmt since you tlioufrht llie same oujrht to lie 

 Kiven we will set you rijrlit in the matter by statinif 

 tliat it wa.s ;i tol)aceo Hrni. No doubt you are awai'e 

 thatapreat deal of lione.v is used annually tiy to- 

 bacco nianufacturei-s; t)iit whenever fault is fiuind 

 tlie.v endeavor to reruedy l)y e.\|ierini(!ntinK'; aiifl 

 oiii' fa<-tory did this in the" beUef that the hi)ne.\- 

 liad soured the tobacco after it had been in the 

 liaiifls of t he jol)bers. We exi>lained to them that 

 tlii'i-e is a difference in lione.v, and we reg'ret tliat 

 aii.v lione.v was Sold them that should not have met 

 with their entire satisfaction. 



Relative to the ai-tieli' from M, H. Tweed, on nage 

 :J2, we quite agree with him; and while we iis sellei-s 

 can not |ilai-e oui'selves in a positiun open to crlti- 



rism, we ha\ 1' rm (iciiibl I ha I \ nii « (iiilil he in a pi)si- 

 lioii (d lliid nioi'e Ih.iri I wo iliiiis in Ihc West who 

 luaUr a business of adull eial ion. We a I'e nut of 

 the opinion tlial >iiu I'oiild Rain a n.\ t hluK by pub- 

 lishing tlieni; but whene\-ei- it is decided to lake 

 aii.\ art ion. and we are con stilled, we believe wf! can 

 jii\i' \oii consideiable information. 

 Chicago, III.. .Ian. K. S. T. Kisii & Co. 



\V(' shall be very glad to avail ourselves of 

 your assistance in ferreting out this matter of 

 adulteration. The editor of the .1 //k'/'K'ok Bcr 

 JiiiniKil. who is also manager of the ISee-keep- 

 ers" I'liion. of your city, Mr. T. (;. \ewman, !!)'.» 

 East Randolph St.. is the one the most compe- 

 tent to deal with the matter. We suggest that 

 you confer with him at an (!arly dav in regard 

 to it. 



SNOW. A.NI) rrs IJKI.ATIO.N TO TIIK KAII.IUIO OF 

 TIIK IIO.NKV CKOl'. 



Wnii-K we were sitting at the table in tln^ 

 hotiil at Grand Rapids it was our phnisuri* to 

 make the acquaintance of Mr. A. .1. Pierce, 

 whose name we have referrtMi to in our conven- 

 tion repoi't. In speaking of the past four or live 

 years of almost total failure in bee-keeping in 

 Michigan, he gave it as his ojiinion that it was 

 owing to the lack of snow in winter. He be- 

 lieved that it was necessary to pi-eserve the 

 young clover, and also to give it sufficient mois- 

 ture for its best development. We had never 

 thought of this before: but. as nearly as we can 

 lecollect. there has been rather a scarcity of 

 snow for the last three or four winters, in re- 

 gions whei'e bee-keeping has been almost a 

 total failure. There was no snow last year — at 

 least, none of any account, in Michigan, and a 

 poor season for bees followed. In York State 

 and Vermont last winter they had very heavy 

 snows, and through all that section of country 

 they had a good year foi' the bees. It might be 

 interesting to have some statistics prepared, to 

 see what relation there is between snow and 

 poor honey years. Possibly there is no relation 

 at all: and what seems to point that way may 

 be only a mere coincidences Perhaps some of 

 our readers may be able to furnish us some 

 statistics or facts as to whether winter snow 

 has any bearing on the mattei'. 



keports of hee-c()nvention.h ix the daily 

 papers; a np;wspaper reporter's 

 version of one of the essays 

 read at grand rapids. 

 On page 4."). cturiuit issue, President Elwood. 

 in his address, makes an excellent suggestion, 

 to the effect that the .secretary furnish news- 

 paper reporters reliable matter for their papers. 

 It is very well known that they do sometimes 

 make ridiculous bungles, and some bee-keepers 

 have been too much disgusted to even turn 

 their hand over to help them. The reports tliat 

 appeared in the daily papers of Grand Rapids, 

 of the Michigan convention, were very good as 

 a whole; but to show how tiven the best of re- 

 porters do S(mietimi's get things mixed, we will 

 give you an illustration. In our essay on the 

 subject of •' Bicycle vs. Horse for Out-apiary 

 Trips" we incidentally referred to th(i fact that 

 we had on this machine visited bee-keepers in 

 localities in New \'ork State wiiere there were 

 thousands of colonies. In anotluM" part of the 

 paper we had referred to the use of the bicycle 

 in visiting out-apiaries, and told how we had 

 gone seven miles to the yard, and returned. 

 Well, how do you think the reporter got it? 

 We failed to secure a cojiy of the paper for our 

 own use: but as wv remember, it was something 

 like this: " E. R. Root has used the bicycle to 

 good advantage. On it he has gone seven miles 

 into York State, and visited thousands of apia- 

 ries. He thought the bicycle a good thing for 

 tlie bee-keeper." A bee-keeper would natually 



