AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



733 



able cures were affected by it down in 

 Indiana, where he was living, and where 

 the best physicians have failed to make 

 a cure. 



The herb is found on the roadside and 

 desolated house-places, and seems to be 

 spread over a large territory in the 

 United States, and also in Germany. A 

 German lady brought it to notice, but no 

 one seems to know the name of it. 

 Neither is it found, to my knowledge, in 

 botanical books, and all interested will 

 be very much obliged if you will give us 

 the name and nature of the plant. 



C. Theilmann. 



Theilmanton, Minn., Nov. 11, 1892. 



Prof. Cook reports as follows concern- 

 ing the plant sent by Mr. Theilmann : 



The plant is verbena bracteosa. It be- 

 longs to the same genus as our blue and 

 white vervains, both of which are fine 

 bee-plants. Prof. Wheeler, who identi- 

 fied this plant, informs me that it grows 

 plentifully in the Northern Peninsula of 

 Michigan. 



It may be effective in the cure of can- 

 cer, but I should not like to have the 

 opportunity to prove it. There is a deal 

 of — shall I call it superstition, or non- 

 sense ? — about this whole matter of medi- 

 cines. Why not be temperate, careful, 

 in line with Nature's laws, and not need 

 medicine ? If we do get sick, are not 

 good care and nursing far more effica- 

 cious than medicine, to set us right? I 

 believe it. A. J. Cook. 



Bees and Honey at the Fair. 



I have read what Mr. W. I. Buchanan 

 and Mr. F. Hahman have to say on page 

 524, on the bee-keepers' exhibit at the 

 World's Fair. Mr. Hahman is right, in 

 my opinion, except taking the colonies 

 out in the open air. In place of taking 

 them out, leave them stand in their 

 place, and stretch a wire-screen 3 feet 

 back of the hives, and 7 feet high, and 

 cover with cheap oil-cloth, so the bees 

 could not get into the building, and the 

 bee-keeper could go in and take the bees 

 out of the hive, and hold them up to the 

 wire so the people could see them, with- 

 out any danger. Bees would not stop 

 work, and as they left the combs, they 

 would go outside of the building through 

 a window or place made purposely. 



The honey should be in behind the 

 screen in the same way, so that the bees 

 could not get to it, and that would show 

 better than if in cases. 



Murray, Nebr. Noah Clemmons. 



Bee-Keeping: in Central Michigan. 



I have made inquiry among men in 

 the pursuit of apiculture, and those that 

 kept their bees from swarming through 

 the month of June, received, on an aver- 

 age, as near as I can count, 50 pounds 

 per colony. I let all my bees swarm ex- 

 cept one colony. I had 18 colonies, 

 spring count, and had 15 swarms that 

 I hived. I made 3 nuclei. One colony 

 had a laying worker, and before I was 

 aware of it, until I saw bees robbing ; I 

 never saw a laying worker before, but I 

 will know what it is now. 



I obtained 15 swarms, 450 pounds of 

 comb honey, and some 7 gallons of ex- 

 tracted. I think that 30 pounds to the 

 colony, would be about the average in 

 this locality. The first swarm I had 

 was on June 6. On April 3 the first 

 pollen gathered from outside substances. 

 On May 6th the first drones flew. On 

 May 17th I unpacked the bees on the 

 summer stands. The first head of clover 

 was in bloom on June 5 — 7 days earlier 

 than in 1891. Bee-men seem cheerful 

 over the result of honey they got the 

 past season. Bees go into winter quar- 

 ters in good condition. If they have not 

 honey, it is because their masters have 

 robbed them. I cannot think that any 

 one would be so cruel. 



Jacob Mooee. 



Ionia, Mich., Nov. 22, 1892. 



Had to Feed for Winter. 



The honey crop in this locality has 

 been an absolute failure this year. My 

 bees did not store a pound of surplus 

 honey — they barely made their living 

 through the summer. I had 63 colonies, 

 spring c»unt, and only two of them 

 swarmed. This fall I doubled up sev- 

 eral, as I had to feed a good deal — 

 hardly half of them have enough to go 

 through the winter. I now have 58 

 colonies. We had a very heavy snow 

 on Nov. 9 — the earliest for years. 



Abend Nyhuise. 



Chandler, Ind., Nov. 13, 1892. 



No Foul Brood in Comb-Cells. 



On page 606, Mr. C. J. Robinson 

 makes the assertion that he has dis- 

 covered that there is no foul brood virus 

 in comb-cells. As this was promulgated 

 eight years ago by Mr. Frank Cheshire, 

 in an essay on foul brood read before 

 the British Bee-Keepers' Association, 

 Mr. R.'s discovery is too late for him to 

 claim any credit. In case the reader 



