_.*&»« 



DEVOTED TO SCIENTIFIC BEE-CULTURE AND THE PRODUCTION AND SALE OF PURE HONEY. 



VOL. XVII. 



CHICAGO, ILL., NOVEMBER 23, 1881. 



No. 47. 





Published every Wednesday, by 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



Editor and Proprietor, 

 974 WEST MADISON ST., CHICAGO, ILL. 



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Demand for Pure Extracted Honey. 



From a recent number of the Far- 

 mer and Manufacturer we clip the fol- 

 lowing interesting item : 



A commercial exchange says that 

 the American honey trade with Great 

 Britain is growing rapidly. A recent 

 English order calls for 58,000 one- 

 pound cans of pure extracted honey. 



Yes, and soon we will have ready 

 foreign sale for every pound of pure 

 extracted honey we can spare. The 

 size and style of package is perhaps 

 the most significant portion of the 

 above item, as they indicate that the 

 honey is wanted to retail for family 

 consumption. Heretofore, the greater 

 portion of extracted honey sent to 

 Great Britain has been used for man- 

 ufacturing purposes ; now, however, 

 since it is becoming a family staple, 

 its popularity and the demand will be 

 almost illimitable. 



Again, it corroborates the policy the 

 Bee Journal has long advocated, 

 viz. : That for a retail trade, neat tin 

 cans and pails, ranging from 1 to 10 

 lbs., will be most eagerly sought for 

 by the small consumer. Properly put 

 up, of irreproachable purity, American 

 extracted honey will in the near future 

 become more popular abroad than the 

 beautiful comb honey which iias chal- 

 lenged their admiration, and at more 

 remunerative prices. 



Sweet Clover as a Weed. 



Mr. II. S. Hackman, of Peru, 111., 

 writes us the following welcome letter, 

 dated the 15th inst. : 



Please And inclosed flowers of the 

 sweet clover, picked from the road- 

 side, on the prairie, yesterday, 14th 

 inst. Sweet clover, as a weed ! Al- 

 though it has been growing in our 

 roads, on waste land, along railroads, 

 and on our hill-sides for 25 years, it 

 does not seem to get into the fields, 

 except where water has carried the 

 seeds into low places. 



I suppose I owe my wonderful sum- 

 mer success largely to the sweet clo- 

 ver. We had the hottest and driest 

 season we ever had — no rain from June 

 15 until Sept. 15. The hotter and drier 

 the more honey, seemingly. My loss 

 last winter was 163 out of 165 colonies. 

 I bought 8, and commenced this sea- 

 son with lOcolonies; my first division 

 was June 12th. I divide by moving a 

 strong colony, and start a nucleus in 

 its place, with a full hive of combs and 

 one frame of brood. This season I 

 subdivided the nuclei when the queens 

 were ready to hatch, say from 12 to 14 

 days, by giving each a brood comb 

 again. In this way I have increased 

 from 10 to 71 colonies, which could 

 only be done by dividing and subdivi- 

 ding. My hive is what I will call a 

 systematized Langs troth, 14x14, and 

 11% inches high, inside measure, hold- 

 ing 9 frames. From a number of nu- 

 clei, started June 12, July 6, 9, 17. etc., 

 I extracted 60 lbs. of honey from the 

 upper story, in September. Total 

 honey crop for 1881, 1 ,000 lbs. extracted, 

 200 113s comb honey, and bees all strong 

 and well supplied. I work on the tier- 

 ing up plan. I have taken 40 full 

 sheets of brood from my only surviv- 

 ing Italian colony, and yet it occupied 

 4 stories, containing 36 frames, and a 

 case of sections again the middle of 

 September. My other colony (blacks) 

 were not much behind this. Each 

 gave me 60 lbs. of extracted honey, 

 which was taken off in September, af- 

 ter it was all finished. 



From the time maple and fruit trees 

 blossomed— say , May 1 — until Sept. 15, 

 we have had a constant flow of honey. 

 Our principal honey-producing plants 

 are fruit trees, white clover, basswood, 

 sweet clover, wild cucumber and 

 heartsease. 



Seventy-one colonies from 10, and 

 1 ,200 lbs. of honey ! Extraordinary ! 

 And yet, with Mr. Hackman's contin- 

 uous honey flow, and his intelligence 

 to make the most of it, his success this 

 season can be made a matter of com- 

 mon occurrence. His intelligence can 

 be acquired by most of us through 

 thoughtful reading and practical ex- 

 perience, while the continuous honey- 

 flow can be much more speedily and 

 easily obtained. There are but very 

 few locations in the Northern or Cen- 

 tral States that are not already sup- 

 plied with maples, fruit trees, white 



clover or basswood (and each of the 

 Southern States has some substitute 

 for these), and judicious planting can 

 easily be made to supply the balance 

 of the season. 



For most locations nothing will be 

 found so available as sweet clover. 

 Blooming early, as it does, it will di- 

 vide the attention of the bees with 

 white clover; a portion fenced off will 

 afford a succulent, nourishing pasture 

 for horses, cattle and calves till July 

 1st, or it can then be mown for hay, 

 and be again allowed to sprout up anew 

 and bloom continuously until winter, 

 cheerless and cold, has with its icy 

 em brace overcomes it. With but little 

 care it can be made to bloom and yield 

 nectar, except when rains are falling 

 or during the prevalence of strong, 

 adverse winds, from the middle of 

 June till past the middle of October — 

 certainly as long a period as our impa- 

 tient little workers can utilize it; nor 

 will it then cease to " waste its sweet- 

 ness on the desert air," but after the 

 advent of winter, when all else has 

 passed into " the sere and yellow leaf," 

 its modest flowers will waft a fragrant 

 good-bye to the bee when on its last 

 flight, and leave pleasant memories for 

 its long winter dreams. 



We thank Mr. Hackman for his tes- 

 timony, corroborating that of many 

 others, that it is not an obnoxious 

 weed. Many have abstained from 

 planting it because of the foolish and 

 unfounded prejudice against it. On 

 the contrary, it can be used to advant- 

 age as an exterminator of obnoxious 

 weeds. Where dog-fennel pollutes the 

 evening air with its nauseating stench , 

 there scatter the sweet clover seeds 

 and harrow them in ; where ragweeds, 

 wild buckwheat and burdocks make 

 the fence corners and roadsides look 

 hideous and slovenly, scatter the seeds 

 and make the weary traveler glad in 

 future years when its fragrance greets 

 him, and you, reader, will feel grate- 

 ful when you send the Bee Journal 

 yourcrop report reading like the above 

 — " 120 pounds of honey per colony in 

 the spring, over 600 per cent, increase, 

 and bees all strong and heavy with 

 honey." It depends on yourself to do 

 so, not the bees. 



®"Some time in October we were 

 sent a purple specimen flower for 

 identification, but the letter with the 

 name and address of the sender has 

 been mislaid. Prof. Cook says it is a 

 mallow, probably escaped from culti- 

 vation, as it is undescribed in Gray. 



Dr. Tinker's Golden Honey Plant. 



We are frequently in receipt of let- 

 ters of similar import to the following, 

 which we have received from Mr. 

 Louis Hofstatter, Louisville, Ky. : 



Please give the common name of the 

 so-called golden honey plant. It may 

 be growing near many bee-keepers 

 who will send money for the seeds, and 

 by being posted through the proper 

 channel— the Bee Journal— could 

 save their money, or invest it accord- 

 ing to the value of the plant for their 

 locations. 



We are not aware of any common 

 name for the plant, and have no defi- 

 nite knowledge regarding it except 

 that imparted from time to time in 

 Dr. Tinker's correspondence. Prof. 

 Cook, whom we have addressed for 

 the common name, kindly answers 

 there is none "except Actinomeris ; it 

 is a composite plant, near Coreopsis." 

 How far it may be desirable to have 

 it growing in the vicinity of farms 

 and orchards we cannot say, nor do 

 we know regarding its adaptability to 

 certain soils and climates. 



Early recognizing the vital import- 

 ance of encouraging the cultivation 

 and development of every species of 

 honey plant, in order to determine the 

 most available for certain soils and 

 localities, as well as to secure a con- 

 tinuous honey flow, we have gladly 

 availed ourselves of every opportunity 

 for observation, and have taken every 

 occasion to impress upon the apiarists 

 of America the benefits of planting 

 for honey. It should not be satisfac- 

 tory to them that Dr. Tinker finds 

 golden honey plant most desirable for 

 his locality in Ohio, nor that Mr. 

 Dodds is enthusiastic over cleome for 

 Iowa, while Mr. Hackman attributes 

 his wonderful success in Illinois to 

 sweet clover. Planting, and what to 

 plant, are problems which every bee- 

 keeper should, and eventually will, 

 solve for himself, if he would make 

 the most of his surroundings with a 

 view to the greatest success. 



(ST " The production, care, and sale 

 of extracted honey," is a subject of 

 much importance, and we are prom- 

 ised a series of articles on it from the 

 pen of Mr. James Heddon, to com- 

 mence in January next. That is the 

 staple article, and to it we give special 

 and critical attention. We are glad 

 to welcome Mr. Heddon to a place in 

 the Bee Journal on this subject. 

 He has had much experience, and his 

 articles will be valuable. 



