(;i,1';a\ings in hi-:i>; cri/rrRi':. 



ways pay cash. I always feci st)rry for the 

 poor bce-keejier who sells his honey on coin- 

 mission." Air. Selser has a warm heart. 



.\ i!i:i:-Ki:i:ri:R, ;Mr. Robert Ayers, of Wood- 

 ley, l"la.. with whom .\. I. R. once stopped, 

 was stunj; in the back-<.f the neck. The sting 

 or stini^s caused a sore, and blood poisoning 

 set in, resulting, we regret to say, in his death. 

 If we were to moralize on this we should hard- 

 ly be justified in concluding that the stings in 

 this case resulted in death. Possibly a slight 

 breaking in the .skin at the same point would 

 have caused the same result, for blood poison- 

 ing does sometimes set in, even from slight 

 abrasions of the skin. 



Thi-; prospect is good for a fall flow of honey 

 this year — at lea.st around these parts. Fre- 

 quent rains have made every thing grow lux- 

 uriantly. Sweet clover has grown so thriftily 

 that around here at least it has almost all gone 

 to seed ; but the bees have worked on it busily 

 for weeks. Honey has been coming in a little 

 every day — just enough to keep down robbing 

 and to keep the bees good-natured. The sea- 

 son has, therefore, been very favorable for 

 queen-rearing. The asters and other fall flora 

 are now just coming into bloom. Truly, 

 great is the year 1897 for honey. 



I FORGOT to mention in our last issue that 

 our new type for the journal gives us about 

 12^2 per cent more reading-matter than we 

 had with our old type — that is, a gain of that 

 much on the contributed matter and editorials, 

 which were "leaded." On answers to cor- 

 respondents, travels, and Our Homes, and all 

 matter that was set with close lines, or 

 "solid," as the printers term it, the reader 

 loses about 5 per cent. But the total gain, on 

 any estimate, is nearly 9 per cent over what 

 we were giving our readers, taking the journal 

 all through; and at the same time we are giv- 

 ing them a slightly larger letter, than hereto- 

 fore, which, our foreman says, he "specs" 

 will be appreciated by the older readers. 



THK ROOT COMPANY EMPLOYEES' PICNIC AT 

 EUCLID BEACH PARK. 



Ol'R employees this season have had an 

 unusually long and heav}- run. The force 

 has been divided into day and night gangs, 

 each of 11 hours' run. We have been so busy 

 that we have had to run during Decoration 

 day and the I'ourth of July full blast. Work- 

 ing on holidays rather "goes against the 

 grain " of working-people, and I do not blame 

 them; but we had orders to fill, and honest 

 obligations to meet. 



Now that we are over the busy rush, the 

 men have planned a big picnic on the I.'Jth, to 

 Euclid Beach Park, on the shore of Lake Erie, 

 near Cleveland, about 40 miles from Medina. 

 This involves a run of about 'AO miles on the 

 cars and 10 by boat. I wish all our readers 

 might be present with us and enjoy the picnic 

 with our busy workers of the Home of the 

 Honey-bees. 



We have had, during our heavy run of busi- 



ness, al)out ISO employees. If these peojjle 

 lake along their families, their " best girls," 

 and their " best fellows," we may have a shop 

 picnic aggregating .some 400 or .■)00. On that 

 day our whole plant will be .shut uj), office and 

 all, as tight as a box, with only a watchman 

 and perhaps a clerk to take care of telegrams 

 and urgent business. 



THE '97 HOFFMAN FRAME.S. 



The new end-spacing Hoffman frame met 

 with an immediate and hearty reception; and, 

 moreover, it seems to have been ju.st what 

 bee-keepers were looking for. Mr. Nysewan- 

 der says his trade has been greatly pleased 

 with them. There are only two staples used 

 to a frame; and yet our records show that we 

 have this season bought about a ton of them. 

 There are 800 staples to the pound, or enough 

 to make 400 frames; 2000 times 400 makes 

 exactly 800,000. If this does not mean that 

 the new end-spacing Hoffman frame is popu- 

 lar, I do not know what does. 



I have experimented with and tested a good 

 many kinds of frames, including quite a vari- 

 ety of closed ends ; but I do not know of any- 

 thing that begins to suit me anywhere near as 

 well as the new-style Hoffman. It can be 

 handled twice or nearl}- three times as rapidly 

 as the old-style unspaced Langstroth frames; 

 and in these days of low prices on honey it 

 means that we must make .short cuts. Our '96 

 stjde of Hoffman was a good frame; but the 

 '97 pattern is far ahead of it. 



SMOKER fuel; dried twigs AND PLANER 

 SHAVINGS. 



For years we have been using and recom- 

 mending planer-shavings for smoker fuel. 

 For a longer period of time Mr. Bingham has 

 recommended stovewood split up into short 

 lengths. Mr. Hutchinson, in a recent num- 

 ber of his journal, saj-s it makes good fuel, 

 but it burns out the smoker-cup too fast, and 

 rather recommends planer-shavings, or fuel of 

 that sort. At our basswood yard, having got- 

 ten nearly out of the excelsior sawdust (a fuel 

 that is something like planer-shavings in its 

 results) I made an attempt to piece out the 

 fuel by breaking up, into lengths of four or 

 five inches, dead limbs or twigs from the bass- 

 wood-trees. A little excelsior fuel was lighted, 

 and the cup filled up with broken twigs. It 

 was very evident that, while the smoke was 

 not as dense, it was much more lasting, and, 

 except with the very crosse.st colonies, it gave 

 very satisfactory results ; and I am inclined 

 now to believe that a combination of planer- 

 shavings and soft dry w'ood would be more sat- 

 isfactory, generally, than either alone. 



SECOND CROP OF WHITE CLOVER. 

 We can hardly say that the honey season is 

 closed in this vicinity, and reports coming in 

 would seenrto indicate a like condition in oth- 

 er localities. There seems to be around here, 

 at least, what we might call a second crop of 

 white clover. This is particularly noticeable 

 in the fields from which grass has been cut for 



