THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



531 



^MIOAI^,.. 



■4^ 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 

 e:ditoi?,. 



Vol, nil, Al, 25, 1886, No,34. 



Prosper, and all men will love you ; 



Pawu, and tbey turn and llee ; 

 They're after your money, ai a bee is fur 

 honey, 



As you may surely see. 



Tlie Colouial Exiiibltion is to be held 

 in London, England, next month, and many 

 prominent Canadian apiarists have started 

 across the ocean to attend and exhibit 

 Canadian products. 



The Nortliwesterii Convention, usually 

 meeting during the Exposition at Chicago, 

 will this year unite in convention with the 

 National at Indianapolis, Oct. l'J-14, 1886. 

 The reasons are given in full by the Secre- 

 tary, on page 539. Let there be a general 

 rally. 



Catnip is one of the most valuable plants 

 for bees. The flowers are rich in honey, 

 and for several months, commencing with 

 June of each year, yield It freely at all 

 hours and in every kind of weather. A 

 patch may easily be raised from the seed, 

 sown the latter part of summer or early in 

 the spring.— Ziidiono Fanner. 



The Rev. W. F. Clarke intended to 

 have gone on the annual excursion of the 

 Canadian Press Association, which elected 

 him an honorary member on the .'ith inst., 

 hut this is what he says : " A had attack of 

 sciatica compelled me to forego the pleasure 

 of Joining the excursion." He intends to 

 be at the National Convention at Indian- 

 apolis in Oct. 12-14, 1886. We are sorry to 

 hear of his illness. 



XXXI 'Wander-Versanilung. — The 



thirty-first annual Convention and Bee and 

 Honey Show of the Austro-German Bee- 

 Keepers' Society will be held next Monday, 

 Aug. 30, and continue through the whole 

 week at Troppau, in Silesia, Austria. This 

 is the oldest bee-keepers' society, and the 

 largest and most important one in Europe. 



New Postal Regulations, concerning 

 the transmission of "bees," "honey," etc, 

 in the United States mails, were Issued on 

 .Iulyl7, 1880, by the Postmaster General, 

 under the title of " Order No. l+.S." 



This is the section which relates to bees ; 



8. Queen bees and their attendant ?>ees, and 

 dried insects, may be sent in the mails when 

 properly put up so as not to injure the 

 persons of those handling the mails, nor 

 soil the mail-bags or their contents. 



This governs the mailing of Uoney- 

 knlvcs: 



5. In the case of sharp-pointed instru- 

 ments, the points must be capped or encased 

 so that they may not by any means be liable 

 to cut through their inelosure ; and where 

 they have blades, such blades must be 

 bound with wire so that they shall remain 

 tirmiy attached to each other, and within 

 their handles or sockets. Needles must be 

 inclosed in metal or wooden cases so that 

 they cannot by any means prick through or 

 pass out of their inclosures. 



This section admits lioney, when properly 

 prepared for the mails : 



4. Admissible liquids and oils (not exceed- 

 ing 4 ounces liquid measure), pastes, salves, 

 or articles easily liquetjable, must conform 

 to the following conditions : When in glass 

 bottles or vials, such bottles or vials must 

 be strong enough to stand the shock of 

 handling in the mails, and must be enclosed 

 in a wooden or papier-mache block or tube 

 not less than .3-16 of an inch thick in the 

 thinnest part, strong enough to support the 

 weight of mails piled in bags and resist 

 rough handling, and there must be provided 

 between the bottle and its wooden case, a 

 cushion of cork-crumbs, cotton, felt, asbes- 

 tos, or some other absorbent, sufhcient to 

 protect the glass from shock in handling ; 

 the block or tube to be closed by a tightly 

 fitting screw-lid of wood or metal, with a 

 rubber or other pad so adjusted as to make 

 the block or tube water-tight, and to prevent 

 the leakage of the contents in ease of 

 breaking of the glass. When inclosed in a 

 tin cylinder, metal case, or tube, such 

 cylinder, case, or tube should have a screw- 

 lid with a rubber or cork cushion inside, in 

 order to make the same water-tight, and 

 should be securely fastened in a wooden or 

 papier-mache block (open only at one end), 

 and not less in thickness and strength than 

 above described. Manufacturers ordeaiers, 

 intending to transmit articles or samples in 

 considerable quantities, should submit a 

 sample package, showing their mode of 

 packing, to the postmaster at the mailing 

 olflce, who will see that the conditions of 

 this section are carefully observed. 



Here are the instructions to postmasters 

 concerning these regulations : 



224. Postmasters will exercise great care 

 respecting the admission of articles of the 

 fourth class to the mails. Whenever articles 

 are offered for mailing, under the provisions 

 of the two preceding sections, postmasters 

 must carefully examine them and not admit 

 them, if the prescribed conditions of their 

 admission have not been fully complied 

 with. In case of doubt the matter should 

 be referred to the General Superintendent 

 of Railway Mail Service. 



Mr. S. Cornell has been experimenting 

 to test the correctness of Sir William Thomp- 

 son's table of thermal conductivities given 

 in the " Encyclopjedia Britannica," ninth 

 editrton. According to that table, wood 

 conducts heat nearly five times as fast as 

 does carded wool. Mr. Cornell finds that 

 this is correct, and has therefore science on 

 his side in the use of quilts lined with carded 

 wool for covering up his bees during the 

 winter. One season's use of these quilts 

 has convinced us that they are the best top 

 packing for bees that we have ever tried, 

 and we shall have more to say on the sub- 

 ject as the season for making winter 

 preparations approaches.— Kural Canadian. 



The Honey Season In Oreat Britain 



Is thus described by a Lanarkshire Bee- 

 keeper in the Lnndiin Journal of Horticulture 

 for Aug. 5. 1880 : 



The weather up until July 20, was very 

 changeable. The honey season seldom 

 extends beyond this date, and this year with 

 us it has not yet appeared. There have only 

 been seven days in July that becsstored any 

 surplus, and these days occurred at Intervals 

 being all the worse for the secretion of 

 honey. There have been only two consecu- 

 tive fine days, and the weather is, while I 

 write, gloomy with a low temperature. 

 There are some localities where a fair sur- 

 plus has been gathered, but with us it is 

 much below the average. 



During the height of the clover season, 

 and for three days in succession, the wind 

 blew a perfect hurricane, never before ex- 

 perienced here in July. At least 50 per cent, 

 of my colonies have sent off swarms, which 

 not only gave me extra labor, but ta.xed my 

 ingenuity to make the most of them. 



Among the Curiosities of Invention 



recently advertised is a bee-smoker that 

 uses no fire. The substitute for smoke is a 

 mixture of carbolic acid, oil of tar and 

 water, properly proportioned. A bottle of 

 the mixture, enough to last two seasons. Is 

 advertised in the Britwh Bee Journal for the 

 small sum of si.xpence. The recipe does not 

 appear to be for sale. In the absence of a 

 particular description of the way of using 

 this mixture, we suppose that a sponge is 

 saturated with it. The instrument by which 

 it Is applied can be affixed to an ordinary 

 smoker. Among the testimonials of the 

 efficacy of this plan, there is one bearing the 

 distinguished name of Frank Cheshire, who 

 says : " I find by experiment that the most 

 vicious of Eastern bees are utterly beaten 

 at once." So says the Rural Ca^iadian. 



Mr. J. Stenrart, Secretary of the North- 

 western Illinois and Southwestern Wiscon- 

 sin Society writes us that he made a mistake 

 in the date of the convention called on page 

 .523. It should be Tuesday, Sept. 7, 1886. It 

 is correctly stated on page M9 of this issue 

 of the Bee Journal. 



A Siriss Bee-Keeper Cures Foal 

 Brood by means of thyme. This common 

 herb is dried, put into an ordinary smoker, 

 set alight, and the smoke blown plentifully 

 into the hive by the entrance. After doing 

 this eight evenings, he found the larvae, 

 which had died from the disease, quite dry, 

 and the new brood in a perfectly healthy 

 condition. He continued the fumigation 

 another eight days, which ended in a com- 

 plete cure of the disease. So says the 

 British Bee Journal. 



When placed under a microscope the 

 sting of a bee presents a polish of dazzling 

 beauty ; but when placed in the end of a 

 man's nose the polish is missing, and the 

 appearance more like that of rat-tail file 

 dipped in vitriol. This is official.- Lige 

 Brown. 



The American Agriculturist for Sep- 

 tember, contains the Fair List for this year. 

 This List has been gathered by special cor- 

 respondence, and is very complete. In 495 

 counties no fairs will be held this year. 



