(yj^' 



u Journal 



DEYOTKl) TO TIIK INTERESTS OF THE PRODUCERS OF HONEY. 



VOL. XX. 



CHICAGO, ILL., AUGUST 13, 1884. 



No. 33. 



Published every Wednesday, by 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



EDITOF aNU Pbopuietou. 



1^ Every subscriber sliould care- 

 fully preserve the numbers of the 

 Bee Journal for reference. Many 

 an article is worth the price of a 

 year's subscription. When the in- 

 formation therein contained can be 

 readily referred to, it is doubly val- 

 uable. We can, therefore, do our 

 readers no greater service than to 

 recommend them to procure a Binder, 

 and file away each number as fast as 

 received. 



i^" We regret to have to note the 

 death of one of our subscribers and 

 correspondents, F. M. Clieney, of 

 Sutton, N. H. He went to Tennessee 

 last spring to take charge of an 

 apiary for H. E. Andrews, of about 

 100 colonies, and died about the mid- 

 dle of last mouth of malarial fever. 



1^" We regret to learn that Mr. J. 

 T. Wilson's house was burned early 

 on the morning of Aug. 5, at Mortons- 

 ville, Ky. He writes us that many 

 bee-keepers are owing him, and with 

 this calamity he is crippled finan- 

 cially. These who owe him should 

 at once send him the necessary funds 

 to help him in this, liis " hour of 

 need." 



1^" The aphidse that trouble pot 

 plants are green, and the tender new 

 growth on plants often becomes com- 

 pletely covered with them before they 

 are noticed. These lice are often 

 called the ants' cows, because the 

 ants follow them to gather a honey 

 that exudes from their bodies ; there 

 is a white aphis that attacks the roots 

 of plants ; the ants follow this also.— 

 Exch. 



Are Bees an Injury to Fruit? 



Mr. L. A. Lowmaster, of Belle 

 Vernon, O., has sent us a long ex- 

 tract from the New York Sun, con- 

 taining the usual charges against the 

 bees, J. e., that they are an injury to 

 fruit growers, the following being the 

 last paragraph : 



Admitting that the accusations 

 made against bees in regard to their 

 destructiveness of fruits, have been 

 fully established, the question nat- 

 urally arises as to the rights of the 

 bee-keepers in this matter. Has any 

 man a right to raise and keep an in- 

 sect that is likely to annoy his neigh- 

 bors in various ways, in addition to 

 destroying bis fruits? We believe 

 this question has already been taken 

 into the courts, and decided against 

 the bees, and it will, no doubt, be 

 taken there many times in the future, 

 if the bee-keepers continue to increase 

 their stock of bees as rapidly in the 

 next few years as they have in the 

 past two or three decades. Honey is 

 no doubt a very desirable luxury, but 

 scarcely so important, or of so much 

 value to man, as is fruit ; and while 

 we admire the " busy bee," and its 

 stores of nectar, there must be a 

 limit even to tlie multiplication of an 

 ordinarily useful iusect. 



Mr. Lowmaster asks what we think 

 of the article, and says tbat it has 

 been copied into many of the leading 

 newspapers, and is doing bee- keepers 

 a serious injury. 



It is the old story of re-vamped — 

 assertions without proof — vindictive- 

 ness without alloy. 



Without the bees, fruit growers 

 would soon be in search of other em- 

 ployment. The value of the bees in 

 fructifying the bloom, by carrying the 

 pollen masses from the male to female 

 flowers, is everywhere acknowledged. 

 Should this war upon the bees be pur- 

 suecl until they become extinct, fruit 

 and flowers would soon also cease to 

 oifer food for man and beast, as well 

 as to beautify the face of nature. 

 Then fruit-growers would mourn and 

 wa(7— liaving destroyed their best 

 friends, the bees. And the fact that 

 "through ignorance they did it," 



v/ould not offer the least excuse for 

 such insane folly. 



The Weather. 



Cold weather in every month in the 

 year seems to be the rule, so far. To- 

 day (Aug. 8) when it should be ex- 

 pected to be uncomfortably hot, it is 

 cold enough for an overcoat ; in fact 

 we have had but little weather so far 

 that has been what may be called 

 " seasonable." In Europe it seems to 

 be about the same. The London 

 Journal of Horticulture of July 2S, has 

 the following " notes of the season :" 



Although the weather during the 

 latter part of May and beginning of 

 June was dry with bright sunshine, 

 tlie thermometer sank often at night 

 during that time to Sff-" and 3^^, con- 

 sequently vegetation made little pro- 

 gress. Large tracts of strawberries 

 are almost totally destroyed through 

 the drought and insects. Plums that 

 promised a great crop have dropped ; 

 apples and pears are stunted ; goose- 

 berries, where they were not over- 

 pruned, are a fair crop ; but with the 

 exception of the last-named and cur- 

 rants, the fruit prospects are very 

 poor. 



I only removed the feeders from my 

 hives on June ij, as up till tliat time 

 little or no honey was to be had. On 

 the morning ot the 26th it was doubt- 

 ful whether I had acted wisely in re- 

 moving the feeders, but a favorable 

 change came, and on the 27th I put 

 on supers, which were at once taken 

 possession of by the bees, which 

 wrought vigorously, especially in the 

 afternoon, as it was too hot at mid- 

 day. On Saturday the thermometer 

 stood at 88° in the shade, but cooling 

 down a little the next five days, when 

 it culminated in a severe thunder- 

 storm and deluge of rain. During 

 that one week the bees increased 

 much in weight, the strong ones com- 

 pleting from 12 to 15 pounds of comb 

 honey in supers, besidiis storing much 

 in the body of the hive. 



1^- Travis county, Texas, has 

 appointed the following committee to 

 represent it in making a Bee and 

 Honey exhibit at the New Orleans 

 Exposition : J. G. Taylor, Chairman ; 

 W. W. Madaris, Dr. W. Styles, 15. 

 Palmer, and R. J. Kendall. 



