Dec. 14, 1899. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



793 



field of strawberry-plants, I grew only buttons, and my 

 loss on the crop was several hundred dollars. During the 

 blossoming period it rained most of the time, so there were 

 only a few days of sunshine when the bees could work in 

 them. There were no bees kept very near the field, and I 

 have reason to believe that the cause of the imperfect pol- 

 lenization of the blossoms was that there were not enough 

 bees to do the work in the few days that the sun shone 

 when the plants were in blossom. It is evident that twice 

 the number of bees would have fertilized twice the number 

 of blossoms in the same time, and therefore it would have 

 been profitable for me to have had more bees in the field. 

 I made the mistake of depending upon the bees kept by a 

 neighbor living a considerable distance from me, when I 

 should have kept a few hives on my farm. More bees 

 would have been working in the field, more blossoms would 

 have been pollenized, and the result would have been larger 

 berries. 



Experiments have shown that if the blossoms of pistil- 

 late varieties are covered so that bees or insects cannot get 

 to them, they will bear no fruit. From the experience 

 of a rainy season we learn the importance of having plenty 

 of bees close at hand to do as much as possible when the 

 sun shines. Last year some orchards on farms where 

 there was a large apiary, bore good crops of fruit, and other 

 orchards in the vicinity bore no fruit, which seems to prove 

 that the bees are needed for the orchard as well as for the 

 strawberries. — W. H. Jenkins." 



Bee.Journals for Bee.Keepers, — In the Canadian Bee 

 Journal Mr. J. D. Evans gives his ideas as to what a good 

 bee-journal should be. Three specifications : 



1. " It should strictly exclude from its columns all re- 

 ports of big crops ; they are seldom true, and always mis- 

 leading." (Rather tough on the veracity of bee-keepers.) 



2. " It should honestly publish failures." (Is the truth 

 to be told when one has a failure, and supprest when one 

 has success ?) 



3. Reports of conventions " should not be printed in 

 full, but only a synopsis containing' the practical points 

 brought out." (But " there are others," Mr. Evans, who 

 consider the very best feature of the Canadian Bee Journal 

 its full convention reports.) 



Mr. Evans further says : "Ihnow of no journal pub- 

 lisht entirely in our interests. If the publishers of bee- 

 papers are not induced to boom the professio:'. in order to 

 have more customers to whom they may sell supplies, or 

 from whom they may buy cheap honey, the desire for a 

 larger field from which they may secure subscribers pro- 

 duces the same result, but would we be any better if the 

 Canadian Bee Journal came under the control of the Onta- 

 rio Bee-Keepers' Association ? I am afraid not. I doubt 

 whetlier we could agree as to what should be inserted 

 therein." 



In Germany, where a large proportion of the bee-jour- 

 nals are run by bee-keepers' associations, they do not seem 

 to differ from the bee-journals of this country in this re- 

 gard, unless it be that they do a little more toward urging- 

 bee-keeping for all. Whether the climate of Canada differs 

 greatly from that of Germany in this respect may never 

 be certainly known, unless the Ontario association should 

 become the publisher of a bee-journal. 



Start the Children in Bee= Keeping. —In the Country 

 Gentleman of recent date we find the following paragraphs 

 written by L. W. Eighty, of Adams Co., Pa., which we 

 particularly wish parents to read : 



Parents make a big mistake when they keep their chil- 

 dren dependent until they are full grown. Give that 10- 

 year-old boy a pen of pure-bred fowls, and the 13-year-old 

 girl two colonies of pure Italian bees, and buy the products 

 at market price and pay them in cash. Sell them the feed 

 and supplies, and you will be astonisht at the business tal- 

 ent they will develop. Nearly always one member of the 

 family will take a delight in the bees, and undertake to 

 manage them. 



Manj' farmers have a pleasant little home at one end 



of the farm for their hired man. He generally has a gar- 

 den and lot, and if the proprietor does not wish to keep 

 bees, it might be quite an incentive to the hired man if he 

 or his family were allowed to make some money from a 

 small number of colonies. The bees would be a benefit to 

 the land-owner, especially if he were growing fruit. 



Start with one or two good colonies, but do not have 

 scrubs or cross, malicious hybrids. Good, thorobred stock 

 pays just as well in the bee-yard as in the poultry-yard or 

 cow-stable. 



We want to emphasize the suggestion that the children 

 be encouraged to "take to bees." Many of them will be 

 wonderfully pleased to have one or more colonies all their 

 own, and manage them alone as far as possible. It will 

 pay to interest the children in a way that will help to keep 

 them in the country, instead of their crowding into the un- 

 healthy cities with their awful competition in all lines pf 

 work and business. 



Begin this winter to interest the boys and the girls in 

 bees, and when spring comes again, give each a colony of 

 bees, or something else, to manage as their own, and thus 

 let them learn how to plan and carry on business early in 

 life. Of course, they will often need your helpful counsel 

 and wise advice, and you will greatly enjoy giving them 

 all they may require. 



We believe fully in the boys and girls, and want to en- 

 ter a strong plea that they be started in business for them- 

 selves while under the care and direction of blessed home 

 influences. 



A Record for Extracting is given by Harry Howe in 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture. He and three others of W. E. 

 Coggshall's hands (one of them Mr. Coggshall's youngest 

 son, weighing 70 pounds) extracted 1,400 pounds in 75 min- 

 utes — more than 1,100 pounds an hour. At another time a 

 boy and a man extracted 2,500 pounds in a day. But the 

 best record is 900 pounds an hour for two men. 



Hon. Eugene Secor, of Winnebago Co., Iowa, re- 

 ported "the first snow of the season " Nov. 30— Thanks- 

 giving day. 



♦ * « ♦ * 



"Shorter Spelling."— Stenog says in Gleanings in 

 Bee-Culture : 



" Dr. Mason favors a shorter spelling, but adds : ' If I 

 were to try this new-fangld way I'm sure I'd make a failur 

 of it.' He calls it 'od.' But that spells oarf. He means aZ/rf /" 



That those two men cannot agree as to the spelling of 

 " odd " seems odd. Must be a matter of locality ! 



* * * ♦ * 



Mr. G. M. DoouttlE, of Onondago Co., N. Y., wrote 

 us as follows Dec. 4 : 



" I have been badly crippled with rheumatism for the 

 last three or four weeks, so I have not been able to take the 

 intended rest by hunting and tramping. Then a week or 

 10 days ago I threw my left shoulder out of joint, and have 

 what'the doctor calls a 'dislocated shoulder.' He comforts 

 me by saying- 'it is nothing serious, but may be quite an- 

 noying.' But the annoy in g part ykd'/i quite seriousat times." 



Mr. Doolittle seems to have been somewhat unfortunate 

 with his bones the past year. We believe he broke one or 

 two ribs awhile ago, and now he has been " striking out " 

 too hard, we presume, " over the left," and has to .suffer the 

 consequences. It seems to us that a " big, fat boy " like 

 Mr. Doolittle, ought to go slow, and take better care of 

 himself. 



