1146 



GI.KAXIXCS IX REE Cl'L/rURE. 



Dec. 15 



are well filled with matters of interest to all 

 bee-keepers, and Mr. Craig is doing all he 

 can to merit the support he receives. As 

 that is the only bee periodical in the English 

 language, north of the United States, it 

 should have a good support. This leads me 

 to ask what has become of its founder, Mr. 

 D. A. Jones, who shone so brightly in the 

 constellation of the Bee-hive some twenty 

 years ago. Just 25 years ago he and Prof. 

 Frank Benton were in Medina preparatory 

 to their long trip to Asia in search of new 

 races of bees. 



m 

 A writer in the British Bee Journal says: 



f Having read about birds, when catching bees for food, 

 carrying off drones and not workers, my interest was 

 aroused in the question of birds and bees, and I shot 

 several birds seen flying about my hives one day when 

 bees were on the wing, but none of the birds killed (in- 

 cluding swifts, swallows, and martins) showed any trace 

 of having captured bees, either workers or drones. I 

 found lots of small flies. Twice this year I have watch- 

 ed the common house sparrow snapping up bees. I 

 drove off the little marauders before giving them time to 

 devour their prey, and in each case the bee's head had 

 been bitten off by the bird before eating the body. 



Those same sparrows are a national nui- 

 sance here ; and how to destroy them is the 

 question. 



\<u 



The Bee-keepers' Review for November is 

 a fine issue, and has, among many other good 

 things, an article on the sale of honey, by 

 C. F. Smith. From it I make the following 

 extract which is full of good ideas : 



Not every person likes honey, but there are enough in 

 every 5000 to consume from 15.000 to 20.000 pounds of 

 ripe extracted honey each year; but you have got to 

 take it to their doors, show them what you have, and. if 

 necessary to remove a lot of false impressions, let them 

 sample it. It's the only way to sell large amounts. 

 You can't depend on mail and telephone orders for sell- 

 ing extracted honey from advertising. Nearly all peo- 

 ple are prejudiced against exti-acted honey, from having 

 eaten an unripe or improperly handled article. I want 

 to impress it upon producers that, although they have 

 sold lots of unripe honey, they can't always do it. I my- 

 self have bought honey by the ton of men who can't sell 

 ■me any more. The best honey I ever bought had to re- 

 main in the combs until I got the cans fmpty from a 

 former lot and sent back. Such honey is worth five 

 cents a pound more for my table, or my trade, than is 

 half -capped stuff. 



A French judge reversed the decision of a 

 local magistrate who fined a bee-keeper be- 

 cause his bees were said to injure the grapes 

 of his neighbor. Here is the decision of the 

 judge, and his reasons for reversing the de- 

 cision and compeUing the plaintiff to pay all 

 the costs of the suit. I am indebted to the 

 British Bee Journal for the translation, as 

 we do not get the paper it was copied from. 

 It is worth preserving, for the judge's rea- 

 soning was sound. 



Whereas, first, it is demonstrated scientifically that- 

 differing from wasps and hornets— the mandibles of 

 bees are not constructed to enable them to perforate 

 .grapes; that they are not able to gather the juice ex- 

 cept in those bsrries that are already perforated by 

 birds and insects or split by the temperature; and. 

 whereas the bees could not have caused the appreciable 

 damage; that, in fact, on the evidence of the plaintiff, 

 his are early table grapes, and not those intended for 

 fermentation; that in any case it is admitted that grapes 

 are not meH-fe'CU?- that is to ssy, that bees are not 

 eager to collect fiom them, there is no proof that the 

 damage done to the complainant's grapes had been, or 

 could have been, caused by the bees, but, on the con- 

 rary, might have been done by birds and insects, etc. 



WHAT TO DO DURING WINTER. 



"Fine evening for a winter night." 



"Yes, Mr. Johnson, it is a nice night aft- 

 er a pleasant winter day. In fact, our fall 

 has been an unusually pleasant one for this 

 portion of New York 'State. Have you your 

 bees all ready for winter?" 



"Yes, as I consider it my bees are all fix- 

 ed for winter, they being all nicely tucked 

 away in chaff" hives, each having from 25 to 

 40 pounds of nice sealed stores. Having 

 them thus fixed I thought I would call on 

 you a little while to-night to see if you thought 

 I could do any thing along the ' bee-line ' 

 till spring." 



"You have heard the old saying, ' In times 

 of peace prepare for war,' have you not?" 



"Yes; but I do not wish to make sections 

 nor prepare many hives till I know how my 

 bees will come out in the spring; for if they 

 die, as they did last spring, I shall want no 

 more hives and sections than I have on hand 

 now." 



' ' Well, I am not sure you are right on the 

 point of having hives enough; but admitting 

 that, for the time being, you can do much 

 along the bee-line otherwise." 



" How is that?" 



"To the one who expects to succeed, these 

 long winter evenings give the time in which 

 to gain knowledge along the line of the pur- 

 suit he has chosen in life, and in no business 

 engagement is this more imperative than 

 where the culture of the bee is the chosen 

 occupation." 



" How can I gain such knowledge?" 



"I know of no way this can be done to 

 any better advantage than by reading the 

 bee literature of the day. From such read- 

 ing the mind is to be stored with useful 

 knowledge which can be put into practical 

 use as soon as the season of 1905 opens." 



"Was that the way you commenced?" 



"Yes. When I commenced bee-keeping I 

 was greatly benefited by the writings of E. 

 Gallup, L. L. Langstroth, M. Quinby, A. I. 

 Root, Adam Grimm, and many others of 

 those early writers on this subject. The 

 winter evenings were not long enough, it al- 

 most seemed, so interested was I in what 

 they had to say on this subject." 



"What was the result of your putting 

 what you read in practice?" 



The first year (the poorest I have ever 

 known) resulted in 12 pounds of comb honey 

 and one swarm, from the two I purchased 

 to comm' nee with. The next year I obt ained 

 25 lbs. of surplus from each colony I had in 

 the spring, on an average. At the end of 

 the fourth season I chronicled an average of 



