THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



291 



iUSCELLAjtTEOUS. 



Michig:an State CoriTeiitioii.— Mr. A. 



B. Weed gave an address before the 

 Eastern Michigan Convention, at 

 Detroit, on April 11, in whicli lie 

 criticises the State Convention in the 

 following language, as published in 

 the Michigan Farmer of last week : 



The place for holding the neict 

 meeting was warmly discussed, and 

 Kalamazoo was finally selected. Any 

 locality where the Convention is held, 

 can, of course, furnish a strong local 

 representation, and unless the choos- 

 ing of the next place is done in a spirit 

 of fairness, a majority vote is apt to 

 hold future meetings in its own neigh- 

 borhood. In this case the location 

 changed but 23 miles. The same in- 

 fluence is at work in the national con- 

 ventions. If this thing is persisted 

 in, it will, besides destroying the gen- 

 eral features of the conventions, de- 

 feat in a large measure their intended 

 object, and they will degenerate into 

 local institutions. 



Hints to Beginners. — A correspon- 

 dent in the Prairie Farmer gives this 

 advice to beginners : 



Spring is undoubtedly the best time 

 to start an apiary. The danger of 

 loss in wintering is past, and bees 

 have little brood and honey, so that 

 they can be moved easily and safely. 

 A person unacquainted with bees 

 should beware of purchasing "a pig 

 inapoke,"as every hive containing 

 comb and bees may not be a perfect 

 colony. We may infer that a colony 

 is all right if (luring the early spring 

 montlis the hive is full of bees, as 

 such a colony must contain a young, 

 vigorous queen. It is a poor policy 

 for a beginner to purchase black bees 

 in boxes and gums, intending to trans- 

 fer and Italianize. Such work as tliis 

 barely pays in the skillful hands of 

 veterans, and had better not be under- 

 taken by novices. A better plan 

 would be to select the hive of a de- 

 sired pattern for the whole apiai-y, as 

 the profit and pleasure derived from 

 it consists, in a large degree, in hav- 

 ing every part of each hive exactly 

 alike. The life of many a colony of 

 bees is saved by giving it a frame of 

 brood or honey from a more prosper- 

 ous one, and this could not be done if 

 the frames and hives were no^, alike. 

 If a person is not able to secure a 

 strong colonj; in the hive preferred, 

 then a new liive of the desired pattern 

 might be taken to a bee-keeper, and a 

 first swarm put into it. 



Bee-keeping is a science, and not 

 acquired in one day, by talking with 

 a person " who knows all about bees." 

 Therefore, to insure success com- 

 mence slowly with not more than two 

 colonies, and let your knowledge in- 



crease in like ratio to your bees. If 

 you can make money with tliese, it 

 will be safe for you to invest in more. 

 It is absurd to suppose that a person 

 who knows nothing about bees, ex- 

 cept tluit tiiey sting and gather honey, 

 could manage a large apiary success- 

 fully. 



The Detroit Convention.— In the 



Country Gentleman of last week, Mr. 

 W. Z. Hutchinson gave some "notes" 

 of the late Convention in Detroit, a 

 report of which we gave on page 264. 

 We extract the following items not in 

 that report : 



At this meeting nearly 1,000 colo- 

 nies were represented. No essays 

 were read, and there was scarcely any 

 attempt ataddresses, almost the whole 

 time being passed in a conversational 

 and sociable manner. 



Both Mr. Kobertson and Mr. Hutch- 

 inson hatch their queens in a lamp 

 nursery. Mr. Robertson found it nec- 

 essary to examine the nursery several 

 times during the night, in order to 

 cage any queens that might hatch, 

 otherwise they would bite into cells 

 and destroy unhatched queens. Mr. 

 Hutchinson examined every cell 

 about 9 o'clock in the evening, by 

 holding it up before a light, and each 

 cell that appeared nearly ready to 

 hatch was cut out and placed in a cage 

 by itself. 



When the subject of artificial pas- 

 turage was brought up, Mr. M. H. 

 Hunt, who lives near Detroit, said 

 that he raises alsike clover, and had 

 induced his neighbors to raise it by 

 furnishing them seed at wholesale 

 rates. After a farmer had given it a 

 trial, he always continued to raise it. 

 Mr. Robertson had not only found al- 

 sike clover to be an excellent honey 

 producing plant, but it makes splen- 

 did hay, and is unsurpassed as pasture 

 for stock. Mr. Robertson's bees had 

 access to -500 acres of alsike clover. 

 Mr. Hunt has an interest in an apiary 

 located near D. M. Ferry's seed farm, 

 and he found that the bees gathered 

 enormous quantities of honey from 

 the onion blossoms. This honey is of 

 a green-glass color, and is nearly as 

 good as white clover honey. Mr. 

 Robertson had tried sweet clover, and, 

 not finding it valuable, had plowed it 

 up, and summer fallowed the field, 

 which completely eradicated tlie clo- 

 ver. But he had lately seen so many 

 favorable reports in regard to it, that 

 he thought he should give it anotlier 

 trial. He thought that the season and 

 locality might have an influence upon 

 the honey producing properties of this 

 clover. 



During the discussion about the 

 different varieties of bees. Otto Klei- 

 now, of Detroit, raised quite a laugh 

 by saying that honey boxes given, 

 last July, to a colony of Syrian or 

 Holy Land bees, were yet in the hive, 

 the txies being so ferocious that it is 

 impossible to remove the boxes. He 

 had found that it is impossible to sub- 

 due this variety of bees with smoke. 

 He had found them very prolific, but 

 not more so than some of his Italians. 



American Express Company's Money 

 Orders. — The Chicago Herald of last 

 Thursday gives the following item re- 

 garding these money orders : 



The new money order system re- 

 cently adopted by the American Ex- 

 press" Company is working so advan- 

 tageously that the Company has felt 

 called upon to still further enlarge its 

 operations. Heretofore money orders 

 have been issued from each of the 

 4.000 ofiSces scattered all over the 

 United States, but at only compara- 

 tively few of these have paying oflices 

 been established. The Company has 

 now determined upon making all of 

 its oflices both paying and issuing of- 

 fices, and yesterday orders to this ef- 

 fect were issued by the President of 

 the Company, Mr. Fargo. 



Bee-Keeping in Europe. —Dr. E. 



Family, of Xew York, has sent us an 

 article from the London Globe, which 

 though mostly of local interest only 

 contains the following : 



During the present month an inter- 

 national exhibition of bees, of bee 

 products, and of the apparatus tised 

 in bee-culture, will be held in Vienna. 

 In England such objects are fre- 

 quently exhibited at our agricultural 

 shows, but only as minor supple- 

 ments to machinery and farm pro- 

 duce. That Austria should devote an 

 entire exhibition to it is significant of 

 the high esteem in which bees are 

 held in many parts of the Continent, 

 and of the intelligent and widely dif- 

 fused interest they excite. In Ger- 

 many and Switzerland particularly, 

 the bee is an important agent in the 

 economy of a household ; for in those 

 cotmtries honey is in far more fre- 

 quent use tlian with us. The Ger- 

 mans hold periodical conferences on 

 bee-culture, and the small towns, and 

 many of the villages, have their bee 

 societies, wliere notes are compared 

 as to different methods of manage- 

 ment, and the results of experiments 

 are communicated. In addition to 

 this, apiculture is taught in schools 

 and colleges, as in Bavaria, for ex- 

 ample, where it forms part of the 

 course through which horticultural 

 students must pass. 



Local Convention Directory. 



l8-*2. TiTnt and Place of Meeting. 



May 11— Champlain Valley, at Middlebury, Vt. 

 T. Brookins, Sec. East Shoreham, Vt. 



16— iST. W. 111. and S. W.Wls., at Rock City, III. 

 Jonathan Stewart. Sec, Rock City, 111. 



25— Iowa Central, at Winterset. Iowa. 



Henry Wallace. Sec. 



June 3— Hurt County, Ky.. at Woodsonville, Ky. 



Oct. 5— Kentucky Tnion, at Shelbyville, Ky. 



G. W. Demaree, Sec. Christiansburg, Ky. 



t^" In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetintw.- ED. 



Ribbon Badges, for bee-keepers, on 

 which are printed a large bee in gold, 

 we send for 10 cts. each, or $8 per 100. 



