AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



561 



Progress is the watchword of all 

 modern undertakings. The intelligent 

 bee-keeper must study incessantly. 

 Nearly every colony has its peculiarities, 

 which must be considered, and adapta- 

 tions made for its treatment — such as, 

 how much it will have to be helped or 

 stimulated to get it to the proper pitch 

 by harvest time. Success in almost 

 everything is won by attention to details, 

 and this is particularly true in bee- 

 keeping. 



In these days of progressiveness, feats 

 are heralded which in earlier days would 

 have been looked upon with incredulity, 

 but which are now received with perfect 

 credence. The sending of queen-bees 

 safely from one side of the ocean to the 

 other, or from the Western Hemisphere 

 to the Eastern, through the mails, a few 

 years ago would have been looked upon 

 as almost an impossibility, when to-day 

 it is common, and very little talked 

 about. What next ? 



To bee or not to bee, that's the question. 



The Amateur Bee-Keeper, by J. W. 

 Rouse, is a book of 52 pages, intended, 

 as its name indicates, for beginners. 

 Price, 25 cents. For sale at this office. 



Milk- Weed Honey Samples 



were received recently from Clark H. 

 Montague, of Archie, Mich. We received 

 the following from Mr. M. in regard to 

 the two samples sent, which was written 

 just before forwarding the honey : 



I will send you samples of milkweed 

 honey. One is a sample of honey ex- 

 tracted after the cells were all capped ; 

 the other was extracted just as the bees 

 commenced to cap the cells, then put 

 into a tank and covered over with 

 cheese-cloth. 



I will be much pleased if you will 

 state in the Bee Journal whether or 

 not you can find any difference, and if 

 you can, state which is which. I marked 

 one vial by tying a string around it. 

 Clark A. Montague. 



Upon receipt of the samples of honey 

 we tasted them, and noticed that the 

 honey in the vial with a string around 

 its neck was the milder tasting of the 

 two, and judged that it was the one 

 that had been extracted just as the bees 

 commenced to cap the honey. We sup- 

 pose the milder taste was due to the fact 

 that it had not been evaporated so fully 

 as the other sample. 



After forming our judgment on the' 

 matter, we wrote Mr. Montague our 

 decision, and here is his reply thereto : 



The vial with the string contained a 

 sample of " pure " " milk-weed " honey, 

 and was extracted just as the bees com- 

 menced to cap the cells. Some combs 

 showed no caps at all, and others may 

 have had % of the surface capped. 



The other vial contained nearly pure 

 milk-weed honey. I am unable to say 

 what gives it the stronger, and, to us, 

 peculiar flavor. The only pure milk- 

 weed honey we secured this season was 

 extracted before it was entirely capped. 

 The bees commenced to work on some- 

 thing else about that time. 



A commission firm of Grand Rapids 

 pays me two cents per pound more for 

 " milk-weed" honey than they have to 

 pay for best "California " honey. 



Clark H. Montague. 



Honey from milk-weed is indeed quite 

 fine, and the Michigan bee-keepers who 

 are so fortunate as to be near enough to 

 secure it, should feel grateful. 



