36 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



February 



HARDSCRABBLE LETTER. 



Dear Brother Hill: I've just been a- 

 lookiii' over the January Bee-Keeper. 

 Don't look nateral; what's happened? 

 Hully gee! If that little Miller ever 

 gets after McNeal you'll see fireworks; 

 why Mac is just a-tranipin' all over his 

 preserves. Listen. — "How beautifully 

 perfect and the combs built under the 

 guidance of a home-loving queen in the 

 bloom of her youth!" Whoop! John 

 Hewitt is fixing trouble for himself 

 just about as fast as the law will al- 

 low him. Hear this. — "I see a lot of 

 silly stuff about rearing queens. The 

 so-called Doolittle system of making 

 artificial cells and putting in royal food 

 being about the favorite. All that 

 Doolittle discovered (?) will be found 

 in Huber's book published over 100 

 years ago." Poor Doolittle. But say 

 it is kind of ruff to take away the only 

 thing left of his system that had been 

 allowed as his own. Moral: Don't 

 "bori-ow." Hewitt is 'bout like the 

 rest of us; his baby is the only one 

 wuth a farthing. And like we-uns — 

 or like some of us — he speaks loosely, 

 calls using larvae two days old, rear- 

 ing queens from the egg. Its gol- 

 durne strange how blamed hard it is 

 to say things exact when it spoils our 

 story. 



"Beeswax" D — D — Alley soars on 

 lacy wings to realms of fancy on the 

 uses of the sticky yaller gum of the 

 festive bee. Huh! Why the whole 

 world's output wouldn't go quarter 

 round for the work he's laid out for it. 

 He's got another guess a-comin'. But 

 it does enter into the arts pretty well, 

 tho' the cheaper mineral waxes have 

 crowded it out of most places. 



Bees in a green house for producin' 

 colic, which is to say cucumbers. 

 Ruther interesting is that account by 

 Reeve. If 'twant for the cold I'd like 

 to go see some of them greeneries, but 

 as 'tis I'll stay where I'm comfortable. 



Bee Humbug. Who said a bee wasn't 

 a hum-l)ug? Bully, the Irishman has 

 got after Miller. St'boy! Sic him! 



"A Milk and Honey Farm" by Her- 

 ring. What's a herrin' got to do with 

 a milk farm anyhow? 



Jameson tells a nice tale about how 

 to wire brood frames. I can beat him 

 all holler. It's DON'T. 



A mysterious Act. Nothin' mysteri- 



ous about it; the bee is just takin' an 

 afternoon chaw of tobacco. 



"Large Honey Crops." Greiner 

 comes to Johnson's rescue in swell 

 shape. Not always swift, is G, but 

 most always sure and sound. 



"Best Honey Gatherers." No best 

 ones, only some more cussed than 

 others. 



"Artificial Pollen." I wish Harris 

 would tell us of some ere way to keep 

 it out of the hives, leastways what 

 part we don't want. 



"Johnson's Say." So he lacked the 

 coui'age of his convictions, did he. 

 Didn't sound so, but the human speecn 

 do be a queer thing. 



I like that picture of Old Brash. She 

 had her suspicions of you when you 

 snapped that camera. 



The Round World and Editorials 

 seem ruther biled down. 



Harry, my boy, will you never learn 

 discretion? A department for new 

 apiarian inventions forsooth. Why 

 b'gosh man ye'U be swamped with 

 stuff from every scatter-brained chap 

 in the country; yes, and out of it, 

 too. 



A nephew of mine from Colorado 

 di'opped in on me a few days ago and 

 as we talked over climates I was re- 

 minded of what Eugene Fild said about 

 that of Colorado. 



Yours as ever, 



John Hardscrabble. 



"What Eugene Field said about that 

 of Colorado," will be found on the title 

 page of this number of the Bee-Keeper. 

 —Editor. 



Dartmoor Honey. 



From the blossoms of the furze the 

 bees derive their aromatic honey, 

 which makes that of Dartmoor 

 supreme. Yet bee-keeping is a difficul- 

 ty there, owing to the gales that sweep 

 the busy insects awa.v, so that they 

 fail to find their direction home. Only 

 in sheltered combs can they be kept. 

 The much-relished Swiss honey is a 

 manufactured product of glycerine and 

 pearjuice, but Dartmoor honey is the 

 sul)h'mated essence of ambrosial 

 sweetness in taste and savor, drawn 

 from no other source than the chalices 

 of the golden furze, and compounded 

 with no adventitious matter. — S. Bar- 

 ing Gould. — A Book of Dartmoor. 



