THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



651 



Bee and Honer Show In London, 

 Ontario.— We nave just liad our 

 Western Fair, and tlie apiarian ex- 

 hibit was good, sliowing quite plainly 

 that bee-keepers are on the increase 

 in Canada. We had more exhibitors 

 and more exhibits. The hi>ney sliow 

 was very far in advance of all other 

 years ; the honey exhibited was in 

 cans, jars, boxes, and sections of dif- 

 ferent sizes. Mr, Chalmers of Mus- 

 sellburg, Ontario, had the largest ex- 

 hibit, comprising honey, comb foun- 

 dation, smokers. Knives, etc.; also a 

 cage of Italian and one of l)lack bees, 

 which attracted a great deal of atten- 

 tion, and were tlie admiration of all 

 lovers of tlie little busy bee. We also 

 had the ditferent methods of winter- 

 ing explained to our satisfaction. The 

 bee men give a very poor report, as 

 regards the honey crop of Canada, and 

 a great many are talking of selling 

 out, which some of the far-seeing bee 

 men take advantage of, and are buy- 

 ing at low prices, hoping to realize 

 a handsome profit next summer, keep- 

 ing in mind the old saying that ■■after 

 a storm comes a calm." 



W. H. Weston. 



London, Ont., Oct. 3, 1S82. 



That ('hauipion Colony.— Since my 



unprecedented yield of honey from 

 the horsemint. 1 have received many 

 letters asking about the liabits and 

 growth of the great Texas honey 

 plant. There are several species of 

 the horsemint. and the best is Monarda 

 punctata — stem erect, branched, 

 glabrous, olituse, angled, whitish ; 

 leaves oblong, lanceolate, remote and 

 obscurely serrate, tapering at the 

 liase, smooth ; flowers in whorls, and 

 has from three to ten wliorls to the 

 flowerstalk ; bracts lanceolate, colored, 

 longer than the whorl ; calyx long ; 

 corollo hairy, dotted with brown, tlie 

 upper lip slightly arched, longer than 

 the lower, and completely protects the 

 nectar from rain, so it matters not, 

 rain or shine, the bees never stop only 

 when the rain is pouring down. It 

 grows almost anywhere, in the 

 swamps, on dry, loose, loamy soils, on 

 the high prairies, and on the post-oak 

 lands; grows from three fo live feet 

 high. It generally comes up about 

 tlie last of December, and first of 

 January, and begins to open it.s honey- 

 laden flowers about the 20tli of May. 

 and, if seasonable, that is, if a good 

 rainfall every 10 days, the flowers will 

 last until the 1st of July, giving the 

 wide-awake bee-keeper a chance for 

 200 lbs. and upwards of choice honey 

 from each colony. It will grow in the 

 fall, sown on the wheat and oat fields, 

 and as soon as the grain is removed, 

 about the first of May, the mint grows 

 up rapidly and begins to bloom about 

 the 1st of July ; but very few years do 

 ■we ever get any benefit from this late 

 crop, on account of drouth. It grows 

 well on pasture lands, as nothing will 

 eat it. It dies out root and branch as 

 soon as done blooming. It is not a 

 pernicious weed, and is easily des- 

 troyed with the plow or hoe. The 

 following is the report of the big 

 colony: At date of last report, 700 

 lbs.: July SO. extracted HK^ lbs. and 

 removed two upper stories"; Aug. 2.3. 



extracted 49 lbs.; Aug. 29, 22 lbs.; 

 Sept. 8, 18 lbs.; 1 allow for waste and 

 uncapping, 2i.,' lbs., which gives 800 

 lbs. from a single colony, the progeny 

 of a single Cyprian queen — no increase 

 —not an egg or particle of brood, or 

 other help, from other colonies. My 

 crop of spring honey is 6,000 lbs. from 

 36 colonies spring count. I will lose 

 over 2..500 lbs. of fall honey, as it is 

 not fit to use, so I have quit extract- 

 ing, and my hives are full of sealed 

 honey and "some swarming. I now 

 have 97 choice, full colonies, and 15 

 small colonies ; lost 15 or 20 by swarm- 

 ing to the forest. Had I been pre- 

 pared, my report would be triple this. 

 Hope to do better another year. The 

 fall honey is from the wild'camomile, 

 and is equal to quinine for sweetness. 

 B. r. Carroll. 

 Dresden. Tex.. Sept. 18, 1882. 



A Good Proilt.— My honey is not all 

 sold, but I expect to realize $15 per 

 colony, spring count, from the honey, 

 besides an increase of 100 per cent. 

 P. J. England. 



Fancy i'rairie. 111. 



Bees have Done Finely.— Since the 



first of .July the bees have done finely 

 here. Mr. M. Bailey and Mr. Braught 

 in this county have each obtained over 

 a ton of honey. A. J. Adkinson. 

 Winterset, Iowa, Sept. 30, 1882. 



Position of Pure Air in Rooms. — At 



At the Bee Convention in Toronto, 

 Mr. Cornell tried to give some light 

 on this subject (see page 644 of this 

 Journal). and if true will be read with 

 interest in connection with my re- 

 marks on page -582 of the Bee Jour- 

 nal for Sept. 2d. Mr. Corneil's re- 

 marks are a puzzle. We have been 

 tauglit that the foulest air is the 

 heaviest ; here we have it asserted 

 that the purest is both heaviest and 

 lightest, and that the foulest is be- 

 tween the two I It is lucky for small 

 animals after all, also for the giraffe ; 

 they both get the advantage ttiat we, 

 poor midway creatures, are as a gen- 

 eral thing deprived of. How is it that 

 facts of such importance are so 

 changeable y With statements of such 

 importance, men must surely give 

 opinions as facts. This impure air 

 cannot be so very destructive to life, 

 or it is not easy to tell how long any 

 one may live if he walked upon stilts, 

 with his head constantly up to the 

 ceiling ; then to overcome the diffi- 

 culty of the ditterent heights of ceil- 

 ings would require several pairs of 

 stilts. But what about the pure or 

 impure air outside of a building, to 

 correspond witli that next the ceil- 

 ing":' what height would the pure air 

 get, if the ceiling was not there? per- 

 haps some one will inform us con- 

 cerning that. We have been informed 

 that the correct distance of the sun 

 has not been given until lately ; there 

 is merely a few millions of miles of 

 error, but that is not much. Are the 

 two layers of most pure gas differ- 

 ently composed V One must be the 

 heaviest, anil the other the lightest to be 

 as stated. Edward Moore. 



Barry, Out., Oct. 2, 1882. 



Botanical.— Again I send you some 

 samples of flowers on which bees have 

 been busy, in rotation. Would you be 

 kind enough to furnish names and 

 notes as to their value as honey pro- 

 ducing plants. No, 1, the yellow 

 flower, with bowl full of milky, sticky 

 matter, is found all over the mount- 

 ains from the foothills to the timber 

 line. No. 2. the smaller yellow one. is 

 found about the same locality. Bees 

 began on them about Sept. 1st. No. 

 3, the blue flowers, are now daily 

 covered with bees. These flowers 

 are found both on tlie mountain sides 

 and on the streams. Nos. 1 and 2 grow 

 about 1 foot higli and in large bunches 

 of 12 to .30 flowers on each bush. No. 

 ■\ has 4 to 8 stalks 2 feet liigli, with .50 

 to 00 flowers on each stalk. I also 

 send you a specimen of white sage that 

 covers the mountains here. Bees do 

 not seem to notice it here. Is it the 

 same as that of California V Answers 

 to the above queries will be of interest 

 to all Colorado bee-keepers. I think. 

 PniLip Rbarden. 



Jamestown, Col., Sept. 9, 1882. 



[No.'l, Cfrindelia squanvsa. A pe- 

 culiarly western plant not known east 

 of the Mississippi *iiver. but growing 

 abundantly on the plains of Nebraska 

 and Colorado, also in Mexico. The 

 viscid characteristics of the heads and 

 flowers is interesting and peculiar. 

 Will this correspondent, who has the 

 chance observe what this last has to 

 do with inviting or preventing the 

 visits of insects V 



No. 2, Chrysopus villosus (golden 

 aster), resembles our common asters, 

 except that the flowers are yellow in- 

 stead of white or violet. Wisconsin 

 to Kentucky and westward. Very 

 common on plains in Colorado. 



No. 3. Aster Icfvis (smooth aster). A 

 beautiful plant in half shady places. 

 Common in Northern States.— T. J. 



BURKILL.] 



From Minnesota.— I started in spring 

 with 13 colonies. I had them in my 

 oats bin till tlie 1st of Mareh. They 

 were strong in bees and brood. The 

 1st of March was very fine, and they 

 being restless, I set them out. About 

 the fifth we had rain, then it became 

 cold, and before I was aware the brood 

 was chilled. The first of June one 

 was left ; but there were more bees 

 starved to death last spring. April 

 and May were so cold that there were 

 only a few days in the two months 

 that they could fly. and in May we had 

 a frost that killed nearly all the fruit 

 blossoms and the basswood. There 

 was nothing for them to get honey 

 from till in June. Some who were 

 quite extensive bee men lost all and 

 quit bee-keeping. Bee men in Brown 

 county lost nearly all. One man, out 

 of 45 had only 3 or 4 survive the cold 

 spring. They are mostly the common 

 brown bee. with some "Italians and 

 liybrids. they did not swarm till in 

 July and August. There are more 

 bees in the woods than usual. Bees 



