8 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



So great has been the demand for Michigan 

 honey that all old honey was sold last fall, 

 and it was impossible to procure a suitable 

 exhibit for the World's Fair. 



I have just returned from Chicago, after 

 making final arrangements for an exhibit 

 of Michigan honey, wax, etc. To make that 

 exhibit, I must appeal to the honey-pro- 

 ducers to come forward and lend a little 

 help. The amount granted for a honey ex- 

 hibit, by our State Commission, was so 

 small that it is impossible to buy honey 

 enough to make a suitable exhibit worthy 

 of Michigan, but if ijon will Jen.d just a little 

 of your assistance, we will be enabled to 

 make up a fine exhibit. 



I would like to correspond at once with 

 any honey-producer in Michigan, and will 

 give all particulars. Let us all unite in 

 getting up a fine exhibit, and when you go 

 to the World's Fair you will be proud to 

 find " Michigan, my Michigan !" well up in 

 the front rank of honey exhibits. 



Tecumseh, Mich. H. D. Cutting. 



As the time is short, action should be 

 taken now. Bro. Cutting has the promise 

 of several lots of nice honey. He is work- 

 ing hard to make a success of the matter, 

 for a fine honey exhibit will help the sale 

 of honey all over the country. It will not 

 only help the producers, but publishers and 

 dealers. It is an opportunity that must be 

 improved by all. It will show the people 

 that Pure Honey is produced, and that 

 they can procure it in its pure state . Let 

 every bee-keeper help to call attention to 

 the honey exhibit made in the Agricultural 

 Building at the greatest Fair on eai'th, and 

 thus educate the people in the sweetest and 

 purest sweet produced. 



PiirifyinS" Oarlc H»ees>»'ax.— The 

 Progressive Bee-Keeper gives the following 

 directions for purifying dark wax, that 

 may help some of our readerfi who have 

 desired to know how to do it: 



If you have any dark beeswax, put it 

 into a tin or iron boiler, get it as hot as you 

 can without boiling over, pour off in a 

 wooden vessel of sufficient svte to hold the 

 wax — a water bucket for a small lot, or a 

 barrel for 100 pounds or more. After you 

 get it into the wooden vessel, add to the 

 wax 14 pound of sulphuric Hcid to every 50 

 pounds of wax; let it settle? for :30 minutes, 

 and dip off in small vessels for cooling. 

 When cooled it will be c.f a bright straw- 

 color. The acid can be obtained at almost 

 any drug-store at 30 centfi per pound. One- 

 fourth pound will purify 50 pounds of wax. 

 Try it, and get from 2 to 5 cents more per 

 pound for your wax. 



Read our great offer on page 5. 



Xlie ^Vimter I^osses of bees the past 

 winter were not as great as was at first 

 supposed. Here is what Bro. Root says 

 abouo the matter in Oleanings for June 15th : 



In our issue for May 15th we called for 

 reports as to how the bees had wintered. 

 The first question was this: What percen- 

 tage of your bees have wintered ? and the 

 second, What percentage of the bees in 

 your locality, as nearly as you can esti- 

 mate, have wintered ? 



By' summing up all the reports that have 

 been received within the two weeks just 

 past, we find the total aggregate is 77 per 

 cent, to Question No. 1 ; for No. 2 the per 

 cent, is only 57. This is much better than 

 we expected it would be, as it seems the 

 losses were not as heavy as the reports 

 seemed to indicate early in the season. 



The greatest mortality seems to have 

 been in New York, Indiana. Wisconsin, 

 Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan, in the order 

 named. Throughout the whole South there 

 seems to have been, as usual, but little if 

 any loss, and that only from starvation. 

 The reports were not as numerous as we 

 could have desired, yet they are sufficiently 

 so to give us a very fair idea of the condi- 

 tion of bees througout the country. 



Sampler of roiiiMlatloii we have 

 received from Mr. W. H. Norton, of Skowhe- 

 gan, Maine. They are very fine, ijideed, 

 and show what superb work is being done 

 now-a-days in the manufacture of comb 

 foundation. 



4i<eriiiaii ^VritiMg', we find, is not 

 one of Dr. Miller's many accomplishments. 

 On page 775, we made some reference to 

 one of his contributions to the Ceutralblatt, 

 a German bee-paper, but the following letter 

 explains how it happened to be published 

 in such "fine German language:" 



Maren«o, m., June 23, 1893. 



Deak Editok: — That communication in 

 the ('entraR)latt, of which you speak on page 

 775, " Written in as fine German language 

 as any one could wish for," when it entered 

 the post-office at Marengo was written in 

 fairly good English. Do you suppose the 

 salt sea air, as it crossed the ocean, changed 

 it to German '. I strongly suspect that Herf 

 Lehzen, the able editor of the CvntraUilalt 

 took liberties witli that manuscript, anr 

 that the '• fine Gernuvn " is his. But as A 

 am not one of those who insist that an edi- 

 tor must make no change, and tliat every- 

 thing must be published .y«.s7 lus written, I caa 

 find no fault. 



The truth is, that I wouldn't be sure of 

 writing even a very short sentence in Ge' 

 man without making sucli ridiculous blui 

 ders that it would be dangerous to pr" 

 them in a German paper for fear of kill' 

 off some of the German population ' 



