AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



109 



without destroying your colonies. Put 

 a healthy colony into an infected hive, 

 and you will not have to wait long for 

 this colony to be infected, too. I am 

 afraid " a terrible lot of damage "will 

 arise through Mr. Wm. McEvoy's say- 

 ing that an " empty hive never gave the 

 disease." (See page 597.) This state- 

 ment of mine is not " guess-work " or 

 "opinion," but experience. 



It happens, of course, very often that 

 rotten brood and the Bacillus alvei 

 come together, and therefore the opin- 

 ion is often to be found that foul brood 

 only arises if there is rotten brood in 

 the hive ; but I am very sorry to say 

 that it is not correct. 



Bees Getting Water or Nectar. 



Some time ago Mr. Doolittle wrote in 

 the American Bee Journal that one 

 could not decide whether a bee brings 

 water or nectar, without killing her and 

 examining the honey-sac. I suppose 

 Mr. Doollttle was joking a little bit ! 



If you want to see what a bee carries 

 into the hive, only catch her by the 

 wings, press the abdomen gently with 

 the fingers, but mind that she does not 

 sting you, and sometimes immediately, 

 sometimes after a little more pressure, 

 she will vomit a little clear drop of 

 liquid, as soon as you put one of your 

 fingers close to her mouth. Only taste 

 this drop, and your tongue will easily 

 decide whether it is water or nectar. 



If I want to know what kind of taste 

 the nectar of a certain flower has, I try 

 to catch a bee, when busy on the blos- 

 som, and by the foregoing method I 

 know it at once, and can afterwards 

 compare it with the nectar of bees just 

 entering the hive. So I know for sure 

 what kind of flowers the bees are gath- 

 ering from. 



ConTention IVotices. 



ILLINOIS.— The summer meeting of the 

 Northern Illinois Bee-Keepers' Association 

 win be held at the residence of O. J. Cum- 

 mings, 2 miles northeast of Rockford, Ills., on 

 Aug. 15th, 1893. A good meeting is antici- 

 pated. Everybody is invited. Come and see 

 Mr. Cumming's methods of handling bees. 



New Milford, Ills. B. Kennedy. Sec. 



INTERNATIONAL.— The North American 

 Bee-Keepers' Association will hold its 24th 

 annual convention on Oct. 11, 12 and 13, 1893, 

 In Chicago, Ills. Not only is every bee-keeper 

 In America, whether a member of the society 

 or not, invited to be present, but a special in- 

 vitation is extended to friends of apiculture 

 it every foreign land, Frank Benton. Sec. 



Washington. D. C. 



CONDnCTED BY 



Greenville. Texas. 

 No. 4. — Texas and Her Resources. 



(Continued from page 77.) 

 Stock, sheep, cattle and horses do well 

 here, also poultry and swine are easily 

 raised. Last, but not least, here is the 

 paradise of the busy bee. There are 

 many large apiaries in this region, num- 

 bering from 200 to 800 colonies, and 

 their keepers are like the tongue of a 

 wagon — do not say much, but always 

 get there first ; and as Dr. Miller has 

 often made fun of my fishy stories about 

 the profits of a single colong being $10 

 in one season, I will now state that one 

 friend writes me, who runs 800 to 

 1,000 colonies of bees, that his spring 

 crop was 66 pounds of honey per colony 

 on an average, and two more crops yet 

 to gather. What do you think now, 

 Doctor ? Aren't you sorry you live away 

 up there in that snowy region '? Just 

 think of it — 800 colonies, not one or a 

 dozen, but 800, and an average of 66 

 pounds, and called a short crop, with 

 two more harvests yet ! 



I shall be located at Beeville next 

 year, and for my lifetime, I expect, 

 and will rear queens the year around. 

 Here we have no winter troubles, no 

 cellars to build, and I have often as- 

 serted that if our Northern bee-keepers 

 were here they would soon realize large 

 profits, as they will likely work hard all 

 the year as they do up North, and soon 

 run into large apiaries. And then just 

 look at our shipping facilities ! We have 

 Galveston, Velasco, Rockport, and Cor- 

 pus Christi, which open up to us a mar- 

 ket to the world, as these are all good 

 seaport towns. Then railroads pene- 

 trate the inland States and cities in all 

 directions, and ere long this fine country 

 will be filled up with a progressive peo- 

 ple, and you had better come soon if you 

 wish a home cheap, as in some places 

 land is yet donated to settlers by the 



