1881. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



21 



BMTISH BEE JOURNAL. 



Hgf.'Tlit' editor, Mr. Abbott, speaking 

 of the late large importation of Ameri- 

 can honey in the comb, and that it pro- 

 duced (piite a "scare" among English 

 apiarists, says : 



We must not. however, attempt to 

 deny that the great import of American 

 honey was a surprise, nor that it fright- 

 ened many ; nor will we pretend that 

 its preparation did not exhibit a superior 

 knowledge of the means of cultivating 

 the bee to that which had been previ- 

 ously shown in this country, but we are 

 glad' to say that instead of producing 

 general or permanent alarm, it acted as 

 a stimulus. 



sage of pollen. The Abbe Collin had 

 abandoned the round-hole on this very 

 account, and adopted the long but nar- 

 rower hole through which a Bee queen 

 cannot pass her thorax, while a worker 

 can easily pass through with very slight 

 pressure, ami with no hindrance to her 

 pollen-carrying. 



BEE-KEEPERS' EXCHANGE. 



First Importer. — Mr. C. J. Robinson 

 says that "Mr. .1. P.. Parsons was not 

 the first to import Italians into this 

 country. Mr. Mahan, of Philadeldhia, 

 Pa., was the first. lie had charge of 

 the Government and Mr. Parsons' bees 

 while on their passage across the Atlan- 

 tic. I mailed the first queen bee that 

 went through the mails. It went to 

 Rev. Langstroth who had the Parsons 

 stock of bees." 



Bee Education.— On this subject the 

 editor remarks as follows: 



The endeavor to establish a professor- 

 ship under government has, unfortu- 

 nately, not been quite successful ; but 

 great interest has been aroused, and 

 there is reason to hope that in the en- 

 suing year the application will be favor- 

 ably received, when bee-culture becom- 

 ing a branch of national education, the 

 cobwebs of ignorance and superstition 

 will be swept out of the apiary, and 

 England will cease to be a laughing- 

 stock among Continental bee-keepers. 



Undiscovered Truths.— Comparing all 

 that is known about bees with the yet 

 unknown, Mr. Abbott says : 



Turning now to the future, we cannot 

 pretend to unveil what is hidden, we are 

 told by Dr. Dzierzon, one of the great- 

 est Continental bee-masters, that the 

 little we know of bees is but as the sand 

 on the shore in comparison with the 

 treasures of the ocean ; and we can 

 scarcely hope that the waves of a year, 

 or even a lifetime, will reveal them ; 

 but gradually they will be brought to 

 light ; step by step, one by one, the se- 

 crets of nature are unraveled, and the 

 mind of man bounds with delight as the 

 beauty of the glorious fitness of things, 

 and the mutuality of their relations are 

 discovered. 



Queen Excluders. — Upon this subject 

 the editor remarks thus : 



Zinc with round-holed perforations 

 was first brought into public notice for 

 queen-excluding purposes by Mr. Obed 

 Poole, of Uphill, Weston-super-Mare, in 

 1875 ; and a letter of his will be found 

 on page 7.5 of the British Bee Journaliov 

 that year, in which he stated that he 

 had used it for some years. Mr. Poole 

 also said, another good feature in the 

 zinc is, I believe, that it is almost im- 

 possible for a bee to get through with a 

 load of pollen ; and this fact is an im- 



Eortantoneas distinguishing the round- 

 oled zinc from the long-holed of later 

 introduction. The zinc used by Mr. 

 Poole had 3-16-inch perforations, but 

 after considerable experience it was 

 found to be a little too large ; and on 

 the recommendation of Mr. Cowan, 

 that having 5-24 came generally into 

 use; and it was with this kind we 

 covered our new-idea frame of 1877, a 

 full description of which was given in 

 the Journal, page 62, of that year, and 

 which Mr. I). A. Jones, of Ontario, is 

 now introducing into America. Subse- 

 quent to that date, and through cor- 

 respondence and personal contact with 

 Colonel Pearson, of Nancy, France, — 

 who will ever be remembeped in con- 

 nexion with improved bee-culture both 

 there and here — we were made aware 

 that the late venerable Abbe Collin had 

 been for years using sheet-iron with ob- 

 long holes in it for excluding purposes, 

 and having obtained samples, presently 

 succeeded in obtaing the correct thing 

 in zinc, as it is now largely used in all 

 English apiaries. The round-hole per- 

 foration admits the body of a worker, 

 but gives it a scraping squeeze all round 

 thereby effectually prevention the pas- 



Adulteration.— On tnis subject Mr. 

 Nellis, the editor, has the following 

 observations : 



It is highly important that bee-keep- 

 ers consolidate their efforts against the 

 wholesale adulteration of sweets, which 

 adulteration is very injurious to public 

 health, and to the legitimate production 

 of wholesale sweets. 



The Exchange from its first numbers 

 until now, has put forth its efforts in 

 the development of the honey market, 

 and towards the suppression of the 

 miserable adulterations that are now 

 allowed to boast their ability to deceive 

 the ignorant consuming public. The 

 interests of producers and consumers 

 can thus be promulgated in the same 

 journal, and to this end the Exchange 

 will bend its energies in the future. 



We are glad to find Mr. Nellis on the 

 right side of this question — but would 

 prefer not to see the advertisement for 

 glucose on the cover of the same paper. 

 It is best not to touch or handle the 

 filthy fraud. 



as disastrous to bees as to the farmer in 

 respect of his corn and hay crops. 



The result of the year's bee-keeping 

 above given, surely teaches the lesson 

 A;/ desverandum, a.nd should encourage 

 all to take the utmost pains and to 

 spare no expense in feeding up their 

 stocks of bees in good time during the 

 warm days and DightS of mid-autumn. 

 Instead of all dying during the winter, 

 as they certainly would have done, and 

 left nie in beggary as an apiarist, my 

 colonies of bees now number 12 all in 

 good health and full of promise, worth 

 at least 30s. apiece, in all els. and the 



profit of the year £13 additional, so 



that I am fully 631 better of than 1 

 should have been if I had despaired or 

 neglected my bees as did so many of my 

 hapless neighbors. 



BEE-KEEPER. 



(gTAs usual, this is tilled with per- 

 sonal abuse ; this time it is Prof. Cook 

 who receives a good share of attention, 

 but no disclaimer from him is necessary 

 to persuade his acquaintances that he 

 never used the language therein attrib- 

 uted to him. That the writer of the ar- 

 ticle was so informed we do not doubt, 

 but more is required than the mere 

 assertion (or even affidavit) of his in- 

 formant, to convince any one that Prof. 

 Cook made use of such an expression. 



The paper is so badly printed as to be 

 a disgrace to the art of printing, and 

 with its persistently-repeated slanders 

 and misrepresentations, it is a libel on 

 the journalism of the world. 



A writer in an exchange thus forcibly 

 expresses his noble thoughts : 



"A noble-minded person will never 

 resent the omissions of others, or falsely 

 construe their motives. The brave 

 only know how to forgive, and, as far as 

 possible, to forget, real or imagined in- 

 juries; but the coward never forgives ; 

 he waits in ambush for an opportunity 

 to strike in the dark or stab in the back. 

 Small minds are hurt by small events ; 

 but great minds see through and despise 

 them. True self-respect is always full 

 of respect toward others, and wastes no 

 thought on petty grievances." 



LONDON JOURNAL OF HORT. 



The Honey Harvest. — The accounts 

 which are coming in from various parts 

 of the country giving reports of the 

 honey harvest are various. In some 

 counties hardly any honey seems to 

 have been taken. The midland counties 

 seem to have suffered worst in every 

 way, owing to the deluges of rain fol- 

 lowing upon the constantly recurring 

 thunderstorms of June and July. — 

 Of course this weather must have been 



Straw Hive Controversy.— In England 

 they are having a discussion on the ad- 

 vantages of bar-frame hives, as com- 

 pared with the old straw skep. Mr. 

 Pettigrew is the champion of the latter 

 and has thrown out a challenge to the 

 bar-frame hive men to show results. 

 Several of the latter are after him with 

 facts and figures. Mr. Wm. Mann, who 

 has been converted from the straw 

 skep method, remarks as follows : 



I do not keep a i ecord of every hive, 

 but I did of one this year. It gave me 

 122 lbs. of comb honey in 1-lb. sections, 

 30 lbs. extracted honey, and has over 40 

 lbs. left to winter on ; yet I consider this 

 has been a poor honey season. I sold 

 the honey taken from "this hive for £9 

 lis., and have my colony left to me well 

 supplied. 



Mr. James Anderson, of Scotland, 

 says : 



Your correspondent has a good right 

 to praise his own system, but with your 

 permission I will give one instance that 

 came under my own observation of the 

 benefits of the Stewarton system in 

 Arran this most productive season. 

 From one colony James Crawford, a 

 mason, obtained the following results : 

 Old colony, 1401bs.; first swarm, 187 lbs.; 

 second swarm, 1.54 lbs.; total 481 lbs. 



It seems very strange to us that in 

 this age of enlightenment, any one (and 

 especially Mr. Pettigrew), could be 

 found to champion that old-fogy sys- 

 tem of past ages. It is true, with good 

 management and careful study, good 

 results can be obtained from almost any 

 hive in existence ; and in this Mr. P. 

 seems to rely for his supposed superiority 

 of the straw hive. He is a careful and 

 enthusiastic bee-keeper, and would 

 have good results with any hive. 



BEE-KEEPERS' INSTRUCTOR. 



We are glad to see the improved ap- 

 pearance of the Instructor. It makes a 

 very creditable appearance typographic- 

 ally, and is full of good matter. 



Selling Extracted Honey.— J. H. Mar- 

 tin thus describes his new plan for sell- 

 ing small quantities of extracted honey : 



Provide yourself with a tray, or sev- 

 eral of them ; you can make them of 

 wood, but they are better made of tin. 

 Make the tray three inches deep, and 

 two by three feet. Warm up your 

 candied honey, so you can mash it into 

 a homogeneous mass, and (ill your tray. 

 Now have several thin strips of wood, 

 or tin, three inches wide, and insert in 

 the honey so as to cut the honey into 

 cubes of 2fx2l, and set your tray away 

 in a cool place. It will soon candy 

 solid, and you can then separate your 

 cubes and you will have just a pound in 

 each cube. In like manner you can 

 make cubes of honey weighing three 

 and five pounds. 



Now place a neatly made glass case 

 in your nearest store and expose this 

 honey for sale. Provide clean paper to 

 wrap the chunks in or provide small 

 paper pails. 



Shipping (Jiieens. Mrs. 1,. Harrison 



gives her experience as follows : 



Last season desiring to ship some 

 queens by mail, we procured "Harris' 

 provisioned mail and introducing cage." 

 We forwarded a queen in one of these 



Cages to Kansas, and in due time re- 

 ceived notice that the queen and her 

 attendants were dead, on arrival. We 

 immediately mailed anotherone, in the 

 Harris cage. Before doing so, however, 



we poured water into the cage until the 



pro\ is ion was somewhat moistened, and 

 also put in a sponge saturated with 



honey. This time the queen made the 



journey in safety. These cages are 



well made, and we consider the intro- 

 ducing part alone, worth all that we 

 paid for them. We would like to have 

 others "tell their expereience " with 

 provisioned mailing cages without any 

 honey or water. 



Cook's Manual of the Apiary. 



Nature, the most noted scientific 

 journal in the world, is published in 

 London, England. It has a long notice 

 of the above named work, from which 

 reprint the following extracts : 



" Prof. Cook's work differs from Eng- 

 lish works on the subject, in its combi- 

 nation of science with utilitarianism, 

 while the amateur, pure and simple, is 

 hardly recoginized at all. 



" More than one-third of the book is 

 devoted to an account of the natural 

 history of the bee, its place in the ani- 

 mal kingdom, its anatomy, physiology, 

 habits and economy. Then follows the 

 chapters on bee-keeping proper ; and 

 the author here addresses himself al- 

 most exclusively to those who make 

 bee keeping a business, and we are led 

 to understand how much this branch of 

 industry is advancing in America, 

 where honey is now produced on almost 

 as large a scale as corn. 



" Prof. Cook has a chapter on ' mar- 

 keting honey,' ' tempting the consumer ' 

 and other mercantile details, and 

 throughout the book we find constant 

 indications that bee-keeping is looked 

 upon as a business rather than a hobby 

 and that, in all its details, economy of 

 labor, and materials must be studied, 

 and all processes judged by the test of 

 the maximum of cost. 



" An interesting chapter is devoted to 

 • honey plants,' the principal species 

 from which the bees obtain their honey 

 in America being " figured.' 



" The English bee-keeper will no 

 doubt obtain many useful hints from 

 this excellent Manual of Bee-Culture, 

 as practiced by our ingenious and ener- 

 getic cousins across the Atlantic." 



©■An old subscriber asks: "If I 

 subscribe for the Monthly, shall I get 

 all the matter contained in the Weekly, 

 in a condensed form ?" No ; subscri- 

 bers for the Monthly will receive the 

 first weekly number (likeihis) published 

 on the first Wednesday of each month, 

 and will miss the next three numbers. 

 Semi-monthly subscribers will receive 

 the first and third weekly of each month 

 (missing the second and fourth). Sub- 

 scribers for the Weekly only will get all 

 the reading matter. We advise all to 

 take the Weekly who are keeping bees; 

 it will pay them to do so. Any one who 

 has subscribed for the Monthly or Semi- 

 monthly, can change to the Weekly upon 

 paying the difference. 



(sy Please examine the date after 



your name on the wrapper label of this 



Journal and see that proper credit is 



1 given. Such is often a sufficient receipt, 



| now that the Journal comes weekly. 



j In the great rush of the past week or 



I two, some mistake may have occurred 



which we shall be most happy to correct 



if our attention is called to it. 



