36 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. 2, 



THOMAS C. NEWMAN, 



Editor and Proprietor, 



CHICAGO, ILL., FEB. 2, 1881. 



(^ This Number of the Bee Jour- 

 nal, being the first issue of the Month, 

 goes to all our subscribers— the Monthly 

 and Semi-Monthly, as well as the 

 Weekly. 



6^" The Michigan Farmer, a first- 

 class agricultural paper published at 

 Detroit, Mich., says : " The American 

 Bee Journal is now published weekly, 

 and is very acceptable in its new form." 



^* Mr. W. J. Davis, of Youngsville, 

 Pa., like all bee-keepers, is an enthusi- 

 ast. The Warren, Pa., Mail of Jan. 18. 

 gives him the following notice : " Our 

 friend, W. J. Davis, Esq., of Youngs- 

 ville, was up the other day and made us 

 a pleasant call. It is always pleasant, 

 as well as instructive, to hear him talk 

 about honey bees. His apiary, for qual- 

 ity at least, is probably the best in the 

 United States. He keeps the Italian 

 bees, which are considered something 

 extra. He says he is about out of bees 

 —having now only 116 hives I He some- 

 times keeps over 250." 



gy Mr. W. M. Hoge, who has lately 

 arrived home from London, is now in 

 the employ of Messrs. W. Harrison & 

 Son, of London, England, having 

 severed his connection with Messrs. 

 Thurber & Co., of New York. Respect- 

 ing the Bee Journal Mr. Hoge in a 

 letter says : " I certainly think you 

 deserve the warmest commendation for 

 bringing out the Bee Journal as a 

 Weekly, and I trust that the bee-keep- 

 ers throughout the country will extend 

 to it a hearty support." 



Naughty Lizzie Cotton. 



We are sorry to see that the Farmers' 

 Iteview of this city is publishing the ad- 

 vestisement of that fraud— Lizzie Cot- 

 ton. The Kansas Farmer has been so- 

 licited to do the same, but declines, and 

 publishes the following: 



Lizzie E. Cotting!— Ah, Lizzie ! you 

 cruel siren, you wish to advertise your 

 remarkable " New System" of bee- 

 keeping in the Farmer. Well, Lizzie, 

 you can't do it. The bee folks say you 

 are a fraud. In fact, Lizzie, they go so 

 far as to say you are a confidence man. 

 We advise all' young bee-keepers to stop 

 their ears or tie themselves to the mast 

 while passing the hice on which you 

 sing, like the old mariners when passing 

 the fatal island where the famous three 

 of mythology sang. 



She advertises a hive, that is a useless 

 trap, when sent ; but usually she re- 

 turns nothing for the money sent. Her 

 " book" exists only in advertisements 

 or imagination. Mr. A. I. Root sent 

 her a dollar for the same book years 

 ago, and has her letter of acknowledge- 

 ment, and later ones promising the 

 book as soon as published, yet the book 

 fails to appear. 



Mrs. L. Harrison, in the Prairie 

 Farmer, makes the following remarks 

 concerning her [or him.] 



" In Mrs. Cotton's circular, she says 

 that by using her hive two hundred 

 pounds of honey can be obtained, in lo- 

 calities where forty pounds by other 

 methods, is considered a large yield. A 

 wonderful hive surely ; we always 

 thought that bees gathered the honey, 

 but it would appear from Mrs. Cotton's 

 circular that the hive made it. 



There is another wonderful apiary 

 (on paper) located in Missouri which 

 we would caution our readers against 

 sending money to. This swindler is 

 known by the name of N. C. Mitchell." 



^° Please remember that if you for- 

 get our name and address, and it is not 

 convenient to refer to a copy of the 

 Journal for it — it is no use to address 

 " Tom Newman, Chicago." Two let- 

 ters addressed like that have been sent 

 to the Dead Letter Office in Washing- 

 ton and returned to the writers— and 

 are now on our desk, after a month's 

 delay. If you forget everything else 

 and want a letter to reach us, and ad- 

 dress it "Bee Journal, Chicago"— 

 that will find us, sure ; for though there 

 are many Newmans, there is but one 

 Bee Journal, and the postal clerks, 

 are well acquainted with it. 



Our Portrait.— The following let- 

 ter is one of many similar ones : 



" Holland, Mich., Dec. 15, 1880. 

 Mr. Thomas G. Newman : Dear Sir- 

 Will you please give to your readers in 

 the first Weekly Bee Journal, an en- 

 graving of your likeness. Many of us, 

 who have never seen you, would like to 

 see it. Martin Pelon." 



We could not give it in the first num- 

 ber, as there was not time enough to 

 get it engraved and ready, so we con- 

 cluded to leave it for the first number 

 in February, and to-day it may be found 

 in the first page. Those who have seen 

 it, say it is a good likeness. 



m" Prof. A. S. Knapp, of the Iowa 

 Agricultural College, makes the follow- 

 ing mention of the Bee Journal in 

 the Gate City, Keokuk, Iowa : " The 

 American Bee Journal is the oldest 

 bee paper in America, established in 

 1801, in Chicago, by Thomas G. New- 

 man, and has been conducted with 

 marked ability and success. It is cos- 

 mopolitan ; it covers the practical and 

 scientific, the home and foreign. Who- 

 ever reads it will be well informed upon 

 the history, progress and practice of 

 bee-keeping." 



©"We were agreeably surprised with 

 a New Year's call from Mr. F. F. Col- 

 lins, Vice President of the North Amer- 

 ican Bee-Keepers' Society for Texas. 

 Mr. Collins' headquarters are now at 

 Houston. He reports the past season 

 to have been very satisfactory to bee- 

 keepers in his State, except in the vicin- 

 ity of Dallas, where foul brood prevails 

 to a considerable extent, he having lost 

 all his again last season from that cause. 

 Our bee-keeping friends visiting Texas 

 will find Mr. Collins one of those large- 

 hearted, whole-souled gentlemen whom 

 it is a pleasure to meet. 



®" We desire to cut and paste the 

 leavesof the Bee Journal, and should 

 have introduced this feature a month 

 ago, but it requires costly machinery to 

 do it. But few are in the city, and these 

 are constantly employed. More are be- 

 ing introduced, and as soon as possible, 

 we shall add that improvement to the 

 Journal. 



^FWhen changing a postoffice ad- 

 dress, mention the old address as well 

 as the new one. 



Melilot Clover as a Honey Plant. 



I find by the Bee Journal that it is 

 altogether in favor of melilot clover, as 

 being the most profitable for bee pas- 

 turage. I desire to try it. 



1. Where can I get the seed, and 

 what will it cost V 



2. How much is required to the acre, 

 and when ought it to be sowed V 



3. What kind of ground will be the 

 best, and what amount is necessary for 

 50 colonies V 



4. After once seeded, will it seed 

 itself ? 



5. Does it have to be seeded every 2 

 years ? 



I have about 00colonies,and am using 

 "the winter hive." 



Rev. A. McKnight. 

 Bible Grove, Ills., Jan. 4, 1881. 



answers. 



1. We think you can obtain the seed 

 from almost supply dealer ; Mr. Alfred 

 H. Newman, Chicago, keeps them in 

 stock at 30c. per lb. 



2. Five pounds per acre ; during the 

 first spring rain is as good a time as any. 

 Scatter the seed thoroughly . then harrow 

 it in lightly. 



3. 'We have never seen any soil too 

 good nor too poor "for it ; it will appre- 

 ciate any waste spot donated to it. The 

 amount required depends upon the want 

 to be supplied. If there is plenty t>f 

 white clover and basswood, then two or 

 three acres of melilot will supply honey 

 for them to subsist on and keep up 

 breeding nicely till fall bloom sets in. 

 If there is neither white clover nor bass- 

 wood, then more melilot is required, say, 

 one acre for every five colonies — we can- 

 not answer precisely, as we have no pos- 

 itive data. At the Bee Journal 

 apiary last season we kept an average 

 of about 100 colonies, which had noth- 

 ing but the melilot that grows spontane- 

 ously along the streets and a few waste 

 places in our neighborhood, from which 

 to gather stores. White clover yielded 

 no honey, nor did basswood. We run 

 but four colonies for honey, and obtained 

 perhaps a hundred pounds of extracted 

 from each. We cannot determine what 

 the others might have done, as we were 

 continually dividing them, testing or 

 nursing queens ; they were often queen- 

 less, and experiments were the rale 

 rather than the exception. From some, 

 perhaps all, we extracted a little, some- 

 times close, and at other times but a 

 trifle, as the nature of an experiment 

 required. But we put away our bees 

 with sufficient honey to live on under 

 ordinary circumstances. This was from 

 the spontaneous growth of sweet clover, 

 certainly not more than enough to cover 

 ten acres, perhaps not much over five. 

 The little honey obtained from the wil- 

 low, elm and maple shade trees was 

 consumed as rapidly as gathered, in 

 early spring, in brood-rearing. 



4. Yes; we think it will. If, however, 

 the same ground be planted in early 

 spring and again in the fall, it would in- 

 sure a prof use annual bloom, and as it 

 replants itself biennially, all trouble of 

 cultivation is at an end. 



5. Answered above. 



Flashy and Trashy Literature. 



igg" It would save us much trouble, if 

 all would be particular to give their P.O. 

 address and name, when writing to 

 this office. We have several letters 

 (some inclosing money) that have no 

 name. Many others having no Post- 

 office, County or State. Also, if you 

 live near one postoffice and get your 

 mail at another, be sure to give the ad- 

 dress we have on our list. 



For the past two or three years there 

 seems to have been a perfect mania for 

 publishing books, circulars and maga- 

 zines on bee-culture. Of course, those 

 only that are valuable will survive, and 

 the rest will soon be lost to memory. 

 We were strikingly reminded of this 

 upon reading the following " notice " 

 given by the Daily Telegraph of a new 

 pamphlet, published in London, Eng- 

 land, The Telegraph says : 



"British Bee-Farming; its Profits 

 and Pleasures." By James J. Robinson, 

 London : Chapman and Hall. — During 

 the past three or four years various 

 manuals of bee-keeping have appeared. 

 The displays at the Crystal Palace and 

 elsewhere of the operations of bee 

 driving, &c, have called public atten- 

 tion to the pursuit, and those who wish 

 to undertake bee-keeping scientifically 

 have only to consult one of the various 

 excellent manuals, or, better still, the 

 very excellent monthly publication 

 issued by the well-known bee-master, 

 Mr. Abbott, of Hanwell. The subject 

 there has been so thoroughly ventilated 

 that we expected that some advance at 

 least would mark any new work upon 

 the subject. Such is not the case with 

 the book before us; indeed, so completely 

 behind the age is it that after reading 

 for a wliile we looked backed at the 

 title-page to see whether it was not a 

 new edition of some work published 

 half a century since. It is somewhat 

 carelessly and hastily written. One 

 passage contradicts another; one in- 

 struction nullified one that has gone be- 

 fore; while the sanguine calculations of 

 profits are calculated to do infinite harm 

 both to those who, on the strength of 

 the profits held out, may embark upon 

 the culture, and so by their failure and 

 disappointment may hinder the spread 

 of what is a really valuable addition to 

 the laborer's cottage garden. We could 

 multiply instances of the slovenly way 

 in which the hook is put together. An 

 advanced apiarist will know what to 

 think of it when he finds that in joining 

 weak colonies no advice is given as to 

 the previous capture of one of the 

 queens, or the sprinkling both colonies 

 with some slightly perfumed liquor, 

 precautions taken by all who can pre- 

 tend to be scientific bee-keepers nowa- 

 days. The deceptive nature of the 

 statistics of the book may be judged 

 by the fact that it is solemnly recorded 

 that the annual product from each colo- 

 ny should be worth ten pounds— more 

 in good seasons; but even in poor sea- 

 sons it should clear six. It need not be 

 said that any one who takes up bee- 

 keeping with Mr. Robinson's book in 

 hand, and with his head filled with Mr. 

 Robinson's calculation as to the profits 

 to lie derived from each colony, is des- 

 tined fo a dismal and disastrous 

 awakening to the facts of bee-keeping." 



With "N. C. Mitchell," "Lizzie Cot- 

 ton," and some others, who are pub- 

 lishing trashy and flashy literature with 

 which to beguile the uninitiated, we can 

 sympathize with our British brethren. 

 Care should be taken to follow the 

 teachings of those only who are known 

 to be successful apiarists. The work 

 of Messrs. Geo. Neighbour & Son being 

 a standard book for England, as Cook's 

 Manual, Quinby's New Bee-Keeping 

 and Root's ABC are the standard 

 books of the present day for America. 



63T Sample copies of the Weekly 

 Bee Journal will be sent free to any 

 names that may be sent in. Any one 

 intending to get up a club can have 

 sample copies sent to the persons they 

 desire to interview, by sending the 

 names to this office. 





6^" Notices and advertisements in- 

 tended for the Weekly Bee Journal 

 must reach this office by Saturday of 

 the week previous. 



