552 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Sepiemicr 1, 



GEORGE W. YORK. EDITOR. 



PUBI.ISHT WEEKLY BV 



118 Michigan Street, CHICAGO, ILL. 



[Entered at the Post-OIBce at Chicago as Second-Class Mail Matter.] 



UNITED STATES BEE-KEEPERS' UNION 



Organized to advance the pursuit of Apiculture; to promote the interests of bee 

 keepers: to protect its members ; to prevent the adulteration of honey; and 

 . to prosecute the dishonest honey-commission men. 



AXeinbersiiip JFG0—91.OO per Annum, 



Executive COMMIXTEE-Pres.. George W. Yorfe; Vice-Pres., W. Z. Hutchinson; 



Swretary. Dr. A. B. Mason, Station B. Toledo. Ohio. 

 Board op Directors— E. R. Root; E. Whitcomb^ E. T. Abbott: C. P. Dadant; 



W.Z.Hutchinson: Dr. C. C. Miller. 



General Manager and Treasurer— Eugene Secor, Forest City, Iowa. 



J*7aoe and JL>at& of A'e-vt ilXeeting-f 



Omaha, Nebr., Sept. 13, 14 and is. at the Delone Hotel, Cor. 14th Street and 

 Capitol Avenue. 



VOL.38. SEPTEMBER 1, 1898. NO. 35. 



Note. -The American Bee Journal adopts the Orthozraphy of the following 

 Rule, recomnienneri Ijy the Joint action of Ihe American Philological Asso- 

 ciation and the Philological Society of England;-Change "d" or "ed" final 

 to 't ' when so pronounced, except when the "e" affects a preceding sound. 



Migratory Bee-Keepiiig in Europe is more 

 common than In this country. Colonies are moved to get the 

 benefit of rape-flelds in some cases, In others heather-fields or 

 buckwheat-fields may be the point of attraction. Graven- 

 horst's Deutsche Illustrierte Bienenzeitung gives two Illustra- 

 tions showing a load on each ready to start for the buckwheat- 

 fields in the great buckwheat-region of Marchfeld. The 

 wagons are very long-coupled (ladder-wagons), perhaps three 

 times as long as common wagons. One of them takes 40 to 

 50 movable-comb hives, or TO to 80 straw skeps. 



The Xaine "Old Reliable."— Mr. John H. 

 Martin, in a department In Gleanings in Bee-Culture called 

 "California Echoes," gives this " echo " which will be of spe- 

 cial Interest to our readers : 



The other day when Mr. Levering was washing dishes 

 and I was wiping them (you see we are baching together), 

 said he, " Do you know where the term ' Old Reliable ' origi- 

 nated, as applied to the American Bee Journal ?" 



"No, I have not the least Idea," said I. 



" Well," said he, "when I lived back In Missouri there 

 was a stage-driver whose arrival was as regular as the rising 

 of the sun, and seemingly the most violent storms would not 

 interfere with his regularity, and he became noted far and 

 near as the ' old reliable." When I edited the bee-department 

 In the Los Angeles Herald the American Bee Journal came to 

 the office so regularly that I was reminded of the old stage- 

 driver, and noted the fact, and in the next issue inserted an 

 Item calling it the "Old Reliable." Soon after I saw it copied, 



and from that time to this It has borne that name. Now, 

 some one else may have suggested the same name, but never- 

 theless the term applied was original with me." 



We are glad to know this, even if it did occur years before 

 we were publishing the American Bee Journal. But we have 

 striven ever since to keep up its former reputation, and think 

 we have succeeded pretty well in so doing. It takes planning 

 and steady work to do it, but with a fair degree of health, 

 love of the work, and faithfulness and devotion on the part of 

 our employees, we have been enabled to keep the " Old Re- 

 liable" as reliable as ever in Its weekly visits to its far and 



near subscribers. 



♦-.-^^ 



Englisb View^s of American Appliances.— 



W. Woodley, a leading contributor of British Bee Journal, does 

 not seem to be greatly taken with some of the things that are 

 exciting interest on this side of the water. He has tried the 

 plain section and fence, and finds no advantage over the ordi- 

 nary two-bee-way section, the latter being just as well filled, 

 easier to handle, and presenting a better appearance. It may 

 be remarkt by way of parenthesis that Gleanings presents 

 some very favorable reports on the plain section and fence. 



Mr. Woodley sees no advantage In a section-folder, as the 

 sections fold easily by hand and are readily lockt together by 

 a little hand pressure. Some bee-keepers on this side whO' 

 have several thousand sections to fold find it to their advan- 

 tage to have the machine because little folks can fold sections 

 with it whose hands would not be strong enough to force the 

 dovetailed ends together. He has no use for a "section- 

 cleaner," no scouring or cleaning being required, as his sec- 

 tions are never made dirty. 



"Weiglits of Bees and their L,oads.— Mr. C. 



P. Gillette, In the report of the Sth annual meeting at Detroit 

 of the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science, 

 shows In a table the results of some Interesting experiments 

 regarding the weights of bees and the loads they carry. Edi- 

 tor Root, in Gleanings, says of it: 



Accordine to the table there would be In a pound, on an 

 average, 5,578 unloaded worker-bees; 3,532 honey-laden 

 bees; 5,060 pollen-bearing bees; 5,447 unloaded pollen- 

 bearers ; 5,894 idlers taken on the front of the hive ; 2,206 

 drones; 10.965 loads of honey; and 40,580 loads (the 

 amount carried on both legs) of pollen. 



These experiments are interesting, as they confirm largely 

 the work of others. They also show what Is very Interesting 

 to me, that a worker-bee may carry a weight of honey equal 

 to its own weight, and that pollen-loads do not usually ruD 

 more than a tenth of the weight of the bees. 



A Japanese Bee-BooU, called simply "Bee-Cul- 

 ture," Is one of the curiosities that we received recently from 

 the publishers, J. Ikeda & Co., of Tokyo, Japan. The author 

 is Prof. Tamari, once a student in the Michigan Agricultural 

 College, when Prof. Cook was connected with that Institution. 

 The book is, of course, printed In the Japanese language, 

 which in appearance looks very nearly like Chinese. When 

 we went to Dr. Miller's, a few weeks ago, we took it 

 along for the Doctor to review, but he seemed to think he'd 

 have to " draw the line " on that book. And we think even 

 Mr. Cowan would have to add another language to his present 

 number before he could do much with it. But we wouldn't 

 advise him to attempt to learn Japanese thus late In life. 



Accompanying the Japanese bee-book was the following 

 letter, from Mr. J. Ikeda, who writes English fairly well : 



Tokyo, Japan, June 1, 1898. 



Gentlemen: — We are told that your American Bee Jour- 

 nal is the oldest American bee-paper, and Influential on this 

 line. In Japan bee-culture is not developt yet, and the spe- 

 cies of bee belong to some inferior kind. 



Prof. Tamari, of our Imperial University, studied this 

 line with Prof. Cook, during his stay at the Michigan Unlver- 



