498 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



crease of swarms is over one hundred 

 percent.'" 



In our o^vn neighborhood the late 

 swarming is unparalleled. Frequent 

 rains, with a hot, humid atmosphere, 

 have encouraged honey secretions, 

 and. although the bees can only work 

 at intervals, it is wonderful to contem- 

 plate the honey they gather. Should 

 frosts be tardy in their appearance, 

 the asters, goldenrods.Spanishneedles, 

 heartsease, bergamot. and other hon- 

 ey-producing flora will be most abun- 

 dant: and the excessive breeding yet 

 being kept up, will give ample oppor- 

 tunity to gather fall honey for win- 

 ter stores, besides a liberal surplus for 

 market. White clover at this writing 

 (Aug. -5) is yet as plentiful as ever, 

 but deserted for the magnificent sweet 

 clover (Melilotns alba). 



Yet. with the prospective liberal 

 production of honey this season, bee- 

 keepers need borrow no anxiety about 

 prices. In Europe the crop promises 

 to be very light, while in California 

 there will be comparatively none for 

 export. Agents of European and Eas- 

 tern houses have found it impossible 

 to have their orders filled there, for a 

 strictly first-class article, and will have 

 to look to the Eastern markets and 

 those of the Central States to supply 

 the demands of trade, while the for- 

 eign consumers will be obliged to 

 draw on the Atlantic, instead of the 

 Pacific Coast. Beeswax is already 

 ranging at fabulously high figures, 

 and we now believe will never decline ! 

 to its former quotations. We there- 

 fore advise all to put up their honey in 

 first-class marketable shape, properly 

 grading it, and to make no sacrificial 

 sales in order to effect an early disposal. 



Bee-Keeping iu Our University. 



laereasing Popularity of Cook's Man- 

 ual.— So rapid has been the increasing 

 popularity of " Cook's Manual of the 

 Apiary,'' that we have recently been 

 obliged to issue another edition, mak- 

 ing 9,000 published to date. Apiarists 

 have been particularly fortunate in 

 the high order of talent devoted to 

 the preparation of text-books, but 

 "Cook's ilanual"' has rapidly taken 

 the front position, and the Professor's 

 scientific and practical education will 

 enable him easily to keep his excellent 

 book in the advance, as the frequency 

 of the editions give him opportunity 

 to anticipate the progressive steps. 



1^" Articles for publication must be 

 written on a separate piece of paper 

 from items of business. 



We cannot now recall the name of a 

 solitary apicultural writer of promi- 

 nence, whom we would prefer to have 

 criticise the editorial matter or gen- 

 eral management of the Ajierican 

 Bee Journal, than Mr. James Hed- 

 don or Rev. Wm. F. Clarke. Both 

 are independent in their opinions, in- 

 genuous in their expressions, and 

 candid to admit it when convinced 

 of error. On pages -501 and .503 of this 

 number, they have reviewed the edi- 

 torial which appeared on the first page 

 of our paper of July 26th. and to save 

 space we will answer both articles 

 with one. 



First, without wishing to rob Mr. 

 Clarke of his introductory consolation, 

 we must insist he is no" peacemaker;"' 

 as between Mr. Heddon and ourself 

 there is no dispute— perhaps scarcely 

 a controversy — and we believe not 

 a difference of opinion regarding api- 

 culture in our University, when that 

 gentJenum has maturely considered 

 the subject. 



Mr. Heddon has partly understood 

 our position, ajid so far agrees with 

 us ; but in order more fully to explain 

 we must review his several proposi- 

 tions in order. If we must have theo- 

 ries, then, of course, we want correct 

 theories ; but less of theories and 

 more of scientific facts — sound, hard, 

 solid facts — are what we need, and so 

 long as each must grope along iu the 

 theoretical wilderness, with but the 

 glimmering hand-lamp of a half-obso- 

 lete theory to guide him in his search, 

 he may pass and re-pass the scientific 

 truth, and not be able to recognize it. 

 Nor do we think that by practice 

 alone— real bread-and-butter practice 

 — will we be able to " separate the cor- 

 rect from the incorrect," except upon 

 scientific principles ; therefore, we 

 would have a practical apiary in con- 

 nection with the University, where 

 science can test and demonstrate all 

 the abstruse facts which go to make 

 successes and failures in bee-keeping. 

 We would have the apiary self-sus- 

 taining if possible, but certamly its 

 continuance should not be dependent 

 alone upon the amount of revenue, i. e., 

 "food and_ clothing" it earned. Nor 

 would it be a generous valuation to 

 expect the scientific knowledge gained 

 to be equal to the capital required to 

 " stock an area of one apiary's flight." 

 It certainly would be no detriment 

 to the graduated student to spend a 

 season in some practical apiary, run 

 upon scientific principles, even though 



" the necessity for dollars and cents" 

 was its corner-stone, and every comb 

 of honey represented a feast for a fam- 

 ishing family. Even the backwoods- 

 man with his rimless hat, and shirt- 

 sleeves and breeches serrated at the 

 elbows and knees, found it a long fast 

 watching for the exit of a woodchuck 

 from the stone-heap in which there 

 was none ; and still there was no other 

 meat in the house. Necessity may be 

 a stimulous, but is not the guaranty 

 of success. It is not tlie practical 

 laborer whose family eke out a sub- 

 sistence on the fruits of his toil, that 

 does most in webbing our country 

 with railroads, but the engineer who 

 plans his work ; to the men who drive 

 the nails and place the bricks we are 

 not most indebted for our wonderful 

 factories and magnificent houses, but 

 the science-cultured brain that tells 

 them where to drive the nails and how 

 to place the bricks. And so with all 

 successful professions and labor. The 

 practical labor is necessary to com- 

 pletion ; but the scientific preparation 

 is necessary for conception and over- 

 sight or direction. 



If the University education will 

 polish and enlarge the talents for bee- 

 keeping, the practical will quite rap- 

 idly follow the acquisition of the 

 science. Tact, as commonly applied, 

 is but a make-shift for the present, 

 while talent insures a success in the 

 future, and perhaps after the emula- 

 tive strife between the apiarist who 

 runs with tact as his sole guide and 

 he who has talent for his support, it 

 will be found that tlie latter's five col- 

 onies, at the end of a series of years, 

 have netted more profit than tact's 

 initial fifteen colonies. 



With Mr. Heddon's fourth para- 

 graph we cordially agree in the main ; 

 but to his fifth we must take excep- 

 tions, and will answer his closing 

 question, Yankee style, by asking an- 

 other : Were you employing a super- 

 intendent for your extensive apiary 

 for a series of years, and the choice 

 was offered you between a graduate 

 of the Michigan Agricultural College 

 with a view to making apiculture a 

 specialty, and one who had received a 

 year's practical experience in some 

 extensive apiary where tact was the 

 system adopted and bread-and-butter 

 the motive, whicli would you employ, 

 all other things being equal ? Would 

 you not expect to devote as much time 

 to weeding out pernicious theories, 

 inculcating wholesome precepts, and 

 creating proper conceptions, with the 



