November, 1909. 



American Hee Journal 



their success. E. M. Gibson, whose 

 business is on such a scale that he runs 

 three S-frame power extracting outfits, 

 says in Gleanings, that with full sheets 

 of foundation, " if splints are used in 

 the way that Dr. Miller recommends, 

 the combs will be almost perfect. I 

 bless the Doctor every day as I look at 

 those combs built clear down to the 

 bottom-bar with no buckling or elon- 

 gated cells — a result that is impossible 

 for me to get by the use of wires." 



Where the splints work successfully, 

 their advantage is to be seen at two 

 parts of the comb — at the top. and at 

 the^bottom. At the top all the cells 

 will be perfect, whereas with horizontal 

 wiring more or less of the cells will be 

 more or less stretched — perhaps not 

 enough to be readily recognized by 



the eye. but enough so that the queen 

 will not occupy them. At the bottom — 

 and originally this was the only object 

 sought by the use of splints — the comb 

 is built entirely down to bottom-bar. 



Some of the failures — probably the 

 great majority — come from giving 

 splinted foundation to the bees at a 

 time when they are not building — in 

 other words, when they are not gath- 

 ering. At such times bees are not 

 likely to use foundation in a kindly 

 manner, and if splints are present the 

 bees, not being crowded with other 

 work, employ their leisure in gnawing 

 at them, beginning at the lower part. 

 Even in that case there will still be the 

 benefit of perfect cells at the top. 

 which is the more important consid- 

 eration. 



Aiiierifan Bee Journal's oOth 

 Year— 1910 



Next year will be the American Bee 

 Journal's 50th or Jubilee Year. We 

 want to make it memorable by cele- 

 brating this unusual anniversary in 

 several ways. 



First, we want the contents of the 

 American Bee Journal next year to be 

 better than anything that has appeared 

 before in its columns. 



Second, we want to increase its list 

 of regular subscribers to lo.OOO. In 

 this we shall hope to have the hearty 

 co-operation of all of its present read- 

 ers. As mentioned on another page, 

 the subscription price after ne.xt Jan. 

 1st, will be $1.00 a year. Until then, 

 7.") cents. We oflfer many premiums to 

 our present subscribers for the work of 

 securing and sending in /lea- subscrip- 

 tions. But if any do not care for the 

 premiums oflfered, we will accept SO 

 (fills (in stamps or otherwise) for each 

 and every iie;f subscription sent us 

 by a present regular subscriber before 

 next Jan. 1st. This will give you 2."j 

 cents for your trouble. Now it seems 

 to us that ei'ery one of our present sub- 

 scribers could get at least one new sub- 

 scriber during the next 50 days. If 

 that were done, we'd have several thou- 

 sand over the 15,000 before Jan. 1st. 

 Then we could go on to 20,000 by the 

 end of rjlD. But let's get that 15,000 

 /'list. Who will help do this? Don't 

 stop at just one new subscription, but 

 send in all you can. But any one could 

 order the American Bee Journal for a 

 bee-keeping friend for 1910 as a Christ- 

 mas present. Why not do that? It 

 would be only 50 cents, as before stated. 



Third, we want to increase our adver- 

 tising patronage for 1910. It ought to 

 be two or three times what it is now. 

 With the increased circulation it will 

 not be a difficult matter to secure 

 much more advertising of a general 



character. .\nd when that is had. i 

 will help us to improve the contents 

 again ; will enable us to give more 

 pages each month ; in fact, will aid in 

 doing a number of things that we have 

 in mind for the great benefit of our 

 readers. 



The foregoing is a part of our pro- 

 gram during the coming year. Can we 

 not have the earnest co-operation of 

 n// OUT readers in this effort for mutual 

 advancement and benefit? 



Hoiie.v-Dew Stores 



The editor of the Bee-Keepers' Re- 

 view says this in his November num- 

 ber: 



" Mr. D. K. L'liommedieu. of Iowa. asks why 

 not feed about is poinids of sugar late in the 

 fall, and leave tlic honey-dew riglit in the 

 hive for rearintf bees next spring? Tins is 

 certainly a good suggestion. If I had colo- 

 nies of bees with much honey-dew in their 

 combs. I would sooner try this ijlan tliau 

 that of extracting and feeding at this lati- 

 date." • . 



This is a valuable suggestion. In 

 such a case, if the honey-dew is of the 

 dangerous kind — and generally it is — 

 it might be better to feed the syrup in 

 December than to leave the bees to the 

 tender mercies of honey-dew. Almost 

 certainly the bees would consume first 

 the syrup, and if later the honey-dew is 

 used the result would be better than an 

 earlier diet of that article. 



Pictures of Apiarists aiKl Apiaries 



EoiTOR Amkrkan Hf.k Journai.:— I am 

 sure you are too modest and courteous to 

 your subscribers to complain or ignore the 

 egotistic wishes of some of them, therefore 

 for the hcnt-Ht of a few of a different turn of 

 mind (inchiding myself) I will say: 



'I'licreare certain subscribers wlio think 

 ^and they an- more often than f)therwise be- 

 ginners) that simply because they take your 

 valuable Journal, they have a right to place 

 their faces and a few hives of bees before 

 the gaze of the readers of the American Bee 



Journal every month. One says, "I am send- 

 ing a picture of mvse/f and part of my apiary, 

 which consists of 20 colonies." Another 

 says, "lam sending a picture of »;f and my 

 f) colonies." It seems to me that iiiyse/f and 

 me in each case is the weightiest side of the 

 business. 



Now, my dear brother apiarists, I mean no 

 harm or ill-feeling toward anyone by these 

 remarks. We are not all similarly consti- 

 tuted, by any means, but I, for one, of your 

 subscribers, feel that space in your valuable 

 Journal is far too \'aluable and always con- 

 tains too much good bee-talk to be taken up 

 in this way. I will venture far enough beyond 

 the pale of modesty to say, that others have 

 said that I have one of the neatest, best kept, 

 and most beautiful apiaries in Southern 

 California, and I am quite sure there would 

 be nothing that would tempt or induce me to 

 offer the picture of my apiarj- {which con- 

 sists of 164 colonies) and of myself, for publi- 

 cation, unless the request were made of me 

 to do so by some brother apiarist and a sub- 

 scriber. C. L. Grigsev. 



EI Casco, Calif., Sept. 23. 



We believe that zee for some time 

 published a request that our readers 

 send us pictures of their apiaries for 

 use in the American Bee Journal. 

 Really, we don't see just why anj' one 

 should object to such pictures being 

 used in these columns. They certainly 

 are appropriate to a bee-paper, and the 

 small space they occupy — well, it isn't 

 much. And they help to brighten the 

 pa.ges. we think. 



We really hope that some one of our 

 subscribers will write to Mr. Grigsby, 

 asking to send to us a picture of his 

 beautiful apiary. We'd like to see it. 



The Chicago daily newspaper that we 

 take has two pages in each issue de- 

 voted to sporting events. Now, we 

 never look at that department at all, 

 and yet we would never ask the pub- 

 lishers to omit it. Why? Because the 

 rest of the paper is worth the price, 

 any way. 



But, after all, we are glad to receive 

 criticisms that are meant to be helpful, 

 though we may not always agree with 



them. 



••■ 



Honey and Beeswax Imports 



The Year-Book of the Department of 

 Agriculture for 1908. shows that during 

 the year ending with June 30, 1908, 

 there was brought into the United 

 States, 211.992 gallons of honey (or at 

 12 pounds to the gallon, 2,543,904 

 pounds) ; and 071,526 pounds of bees- 

 wax. It would seem from this that the 

 home demand for both honey and 

 beeswax is not as yet met by the home 

 production. 



Ozokerite — Looks Like Beeswax 



Mr. C. P. Dadant recently sent us a 

 clipping taken from "The Oregonian." 

 which was forwarded to him by a friend 

 in the West, telling something about 

 ozokerite, which Mr. Dadant says 

 " looks very much like beeswax, but is 

 lighter and harder." The clipping gives 

 the following information : 



That the product found in the sand at the 

 mouth of the Nchalcm River, popularly be- 

 lieved to be beeswax from a wrecked Span- 

 ish galleon, is valuable substance known to 

 chemistry as ozokerite, was the statement 

 made yesterday by J. J. Walter, president of 

 the Necarney City Hydrocarbon Oil Com- 

 pany, a corporation organized to exploit the 

 product, l-'or years visitors to that coast 

 nave picked up the wax-like lumiis that have 

 strewn the beach there. The general opin- 

 ion has prevailed that it was beeswax 

 brought from Manila for one of the Spanish 

 settlements in California, and that the ship 

 was wrecked there. Tlie discovery was 

 made as early as iBij by the Indians who 



