194 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



Mar. 30. 1899. 



of the chemicals they pour in — some nice acid honey, and 

 some abominable acid honej-. Mr. Andrews (page 110) has 

 struck a g-ood kind. Possiblj- the decided novelty of its 

 tamarind-like deliciousness may stir up a market for it 

 som.etime. And you see he has a paper-making bee that 

 stores honey — and also belong's, like our bees, to the non- 

 chemical rank. 



NO HUMAN HOGGERY WANTED. 



If six respectable business men should consent to act as 

 Tvinesses in such a di-sgusting- show of human hogg'ery as 

 that proposed on page 124, I should be surprised. Let's be 

 decent — and gobbling- down (of anj- kind of food) a pound 

 and a half in a minute and a half is not decency. 



APIS DORSAT.^ — GOOD EXAMPLE TO FOLLOW. 



You hit 'em well, Mr. York, on page 120, about those 

 howls against Apis dorsata. Let the big bee have judgment 

 on the merits (or demerits) of its own case. What's the use 

 of forever looking at it thru the specter of Frank Benton — 

 and then going into a spasm ? F. B. is certainly not a pet 

 at the American Bee Journal office, yet our Editor's posi- 

 tion is as you see. Right good example to follow. 



"years HAVE COME, AND PAST AWAY." 



We're growing old, we're growing- old. For IS consecu- 

 tive years Thomas G. Newman has held the helm of the 

 National Bee-Keepers' Union — with signal ability and suc- 

 cess. Of them that were given him to defend he lost none. 

 Especially we should remember that his victories have re- 

 dounded to the protection of all the rest of us, outside the 

 Union. And now he says this must be the last time. Thus 

 to us all, sooner or later, there comes the time for us to 

 sing-- 



" I do not pass this way again." 



GRADES OF HONEY TO HAVE THEIR " PICTER TOOK." 



And so that breezy and irrepressible Colorado conven- 

 tion is going to have photographs prepared illustrating 

 its grades of honey. Tiptop idea. Language can be 

 twisted with dreadful ease ; but " photos," while not always 

 competent to straighten out folks who have a twist in their 

 moral natures, are not easy to pervert. And how pleasantly 

 photographing would relieve us of impossible grades of 

 honey ! 



COLONIES RUN FOR COMB VS. EXTRACTED. 



Two similar colonies, one run for section honey and 

 one for extracted, and the former will close the season with 

 plenty of honey below, while the chances are that the brood- 

 frames of the latter will be very light. Comrade Aikin 

 makes a good point when he shows this up, on page 115. 



Cuba's "skeeters" and sn.akeless porto rico. 



Queer about those mosquitoes in Cuba that Mr. Popple- 

 ton tells of, on page 114. Does cowardice affect all animate 

 creation on that flowery and languid isle ? That both 

 Spaniards and Cubans fought by shooting off their guns 

 and falling back, we've heard before ; but '" 'skeeters " that 

 shoot off their music at a distance, and then flee to cover, 

 are a novelty. 



Porto Rico's exemption from snakes maj- be from hav- 

 ing (some time in the remote past) a verj' dense population 

 of snake-eating-people, often hungrj- to bed ; but that Cuba, 

 -with its immense swamps, should have no venomous snakes, 

 and few of any kind, is curious indeed. 



BEWARE OF BEES that BUILD TOO MANY QUEEN-CELLS. 



If we obey Mr. Doolittle and all learn to be queen- 

 breeders, perhaps Dr. Gallup's method, page 114, will serve 

 as a good way to begin — strong unqueened colony made 

 still stronger by shaking in hosts of bees — not a too-old 

 larva left in the hive anj'where — plentj- of eggs, both for- 

 eign and domestic, in center, and also on each side. Not 

 surprising that he got 36 at a lick under such conditions, 

 even from a first-rate colony. Beware of the strain of bees 

 that builds two or three dozen cells under circumstances 

 where ordinary bees would build only half a dozen — degen- 

 erates, Cogitator thinks, backsliding into bumble-beeism. 



GOT him at last ! — SWEET CLOVER TRICKS. 



Glad we've got him. I'm as happy as the aged husband 

 was when his wife (after 40 j'ears of nightly search) found 

 a sneak-thief under the bed. After many years of multitu- 

 dinous denials from the chaps who didn't sow sweet clover 

 by the roadside, behold the man ! It was honest-looking 

 Mr. Stolley, page 113. But I hope community will decide 

 that the fellows who didn't confess need "massacreeing " 

 more. 



It is a mitigating circumstance tliat he " squeals "' on 



his favorite plant, and tells us a bad trick of it that we had 

 not heard before — sprinkles itself all over the natural 

 prairie-mowing grounds, and gets dead and dry like hazel- 

 brush just as the late prairie-grass is ready to cut. 



Indian ponies had to be taught before they would eat 

 corn — white man's ponies have to be taught before they 

 comprehend sweet clover. Verj- pretty aphorism. 



COGITATOR. 



A Crisis in California Apiculture. 



BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 



WE have all read of the person who " when she -was 

 good she was very good, and when she was bad she 

 was terrible." At present that seems not an inapt 

 characterization of Southern California. In good seasons 

 like that of 1897, from 100 to 500 pounds of honey are often 

 secured from each colony-, and that even with three or four 

 hundred colonies in the apiary. No one will say that that 

 is not "very good." Yet close upon this excess of sweet- 

 ness comes 1898, with a severe drouth, and no nectar-secre- 

 tion by the flowers, and no honey product from the bees. 

 The provident bee-keeper did not take too severely from the 

 bees the previous season of abundance, and so his colonies 

 were well supplied, and past the season with no loss. Less 

 careful bee-k-eepers removed so much of the honey that no 

 margin was left to bridge over a year of honey-dearth, and 

 so, long before 1898 had past, the bees were victims to greed 

 on the part of the owner thru starvation. 



But now comes 1899, and all prospects point to a greater 

 drouth than that which confronted us a year ago. As j-et 

 we have only four inches of rain, whereas we 'need many 

 times that amount. Even the bees of our most expert and 

 careful bee-keepers are short of stores, and unless rain 

 comes soon, or liberal feeding is practiced, there will be 

 few bees in Southern California to greet the incoming cen- 

 tury as 1900 dawns upon us. Very likely floods of water 

 and floods of honey will come with the new century, if the 

 bee-keepers are ready to avail themselves of the restored 

 conditions of prosperity. 



It is, then, a question of great practical import to the 

 bee-keeper, how he may best and most cheaply hold on to 

 his bees, and maintain them in health during the protracted 

 famine. To keep full colonies breeding, and feed enough 

 to sustain all, is too costly, and not wise at all. Simply 

 working to keep queens, and just sufficient brood-rearing 

 and bees to keep her in good thrift and vigor would seem 

 the wisest plan. Could not this end be met, and at the 

 same time economy be served, by securing at the same time 

 young, vigorous queens in all cases where such were not 

 already in the hives ? Nearly all of us have at times taken 

 a queen with a pound or less of bees, and in a few weeks 

 have had a good colony. Is this not a good year to make 

 nuclei a main or entire feature of the apiary ? Why not 

 rear queens in small nuclei until we are sure we have only 

 young queens, and all from our best stock ? 



Then, whj' not keep our bees reduced so as to save the 

 energy of the queen, and at the same time save to the ut- 

 most in the expense of feeding ? Scant stores usually les- 

 sens the working energy of queen and workers alike, and 

 so a minimum of food, consistent with the well-being of 

 the bees, will save alike in the expense and in the wear and 

 tear of both queen and bees. I believe a little labor in re- 

 ducing the bees to nuclei and in requeening where such a 

 course is desirable, may save much, and paj- good profits in 

 the time spent. 



It is very probable that 1900 will be a season of rains 

 and honey, and fortunate indeed will he be who is ready to 

 avail himself of the riches that come so generously at such 

 seasons. 



PRESERVING THE EMPTY COMBS. 



There is one more thing that should be kept in mind. 

 Good combs are very valuable, and, with an abundance on 

 hand, colonies can be built up with great rapidity when the 

 time comes to prepare for the harvest. It is verj' wise, 

 then, to look to it that, the moths do not ruin the combs set 



