THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



795 



otherwise go to waste, and in a year's 

 time it amounts to thousands of 

 pounds in tlie aggregate. 15ut what 

 I mean is, tliey eannot run an apiary 

 exchisivelv for wax and nuilve nearly 

 so great a'prolit witti wax at tliirty- 

 tive cents per pound, as tliey can by 

 running for lioney and selling it at 

 ten cents per pound. Am I not right V 



Now. what should be done about 

 this state of affairs? We must have 

 comb foundation, and that, too, at a 

 reasonable price, and. therefore, we 

 must have wax which we confess we 

 are unable to produce in sulticient 

 quantities to meet the demand, even 

 at the price which we all consider too 

 high when we have to buy it. I think 

 that the most reasonable thing to do 

 is to look elsewhere, outside of our 

 own country, for our future wax sup- 

 ply ; for I ain convinced that it can be 

 produced in Europe at a much less 

 cost than American bee-keepers can 

 afford to produce it ; and that we can 

 import it at a much less cost than the 

 present market price of wax. 



If there is a duty on wax, I think 

 the bee-keepers of this countiry should 

 petition Congress to abolish that duty 

 without delay. 



I have often noticed that supply 

 dealers announce in the bee-papers, 

 that if the supply of wax was not 

 equal to the demand, or if prices con- 

 tinued to advance, they would be com- 

 pelled to import it. 1 do not know 

 whether they have done so, but if they 

 have, I should Judge, not in suUicient 

 quantities to affect the market here. 



The value of the annual yield of 

 honey in the whole empire of Russia 

 is not far from 84,000,000, or about 

 18,000 tons To this must be added 

 nearly 5,000 tons of wax worth $2,000,- 

 000. This is about all consumed in 

 Russia, the exports being very small. 



Russia annually produces nearly 5 



Eounds of wax to every IS pounds of 

 oney. If American bee-keepers 

 coulfl do this, or even half as well, it 

 is safe to say that we would have all 

 the wax which we should require for 

 comb foundation, or for other pur- 

 poses, and yet have some to spare. It 

 will also be seen that 5.000 tons of 

 wax is valued at §2,000,000 (20 cents 

 per pound), or from 5 to 10 cents less 

 than the market value of wax here ; 

 and that 18.000 tons of honey is val- 

 ued at 54,000,000, or a fraction over 1 1 

 cents per pound, and, as I suppose, 

 this is comb honey. Who will doubt 

 that Russian bee-keepers can produce 

 botli wax and honey at a less price 

 than we can ? 



I should think that wax could be 

 imported at a cost over the first price 

 of not more than 5 or 6 cents, thus 

 making the cost of it, delivered here, 

 about 25 or 26 cents per pound, and, 

 as it could be worked up into comb 

 foundation for from 15 to 20 cents per 

 pound, the foundation made from it 

 could be sold from 40 to 50 cents per 

 pound, a price at which every one 

 could afford to buy in as large quanti- 

 ties as his necessities demanded. If 

 it can be accomplished at the figures 

 which I have given, it wiil be a boon 

 to many bee-keepers. 

 Kortn Indianapolis,© Ind. 







Small Honey Crop, 



Our honey crop was small, being 

 only.about two-thirds of the average. 

 Our principal source was the poplar ; 

 while it lasted, which was for three 

 weeks, all the strong colonies stored 

 from 30 to 100 ponnds of honey, which 

 I extracted. 1 had 2fi colonies in the 

 spring, and increased them to 54. I 

 give them no attention, owing to 

 sickness in my family, and the death 

 of my father and my wife. I obtained 

 1,000 pounds of honey, mostly ex- 

 tracted. J. A. P. Fanciier. 



rancher's Mills,© Tenn. 



A Poor Season. 



We have had a poor season liere in 

 Northeastern Kansas. The weather 

 was too cool most of the time for the 

 secretion of honey. I have increased 

 15 colonies to 23, and have secured 150 

 pounds of surplus comb honey. New 

 colonies were built up by a liberal 

 use of comb foundation, and the sur- 

 plus honey is mostly in an unfinished 

 condition, not being capped over, and 

 has a rank taste. The colonies have 

 reared no brood since Sept. 1 , and con- 

 sequently are weak in bees, and none 

 are very heavy with honey, but I 

 think tliat they have enough to last 

 until they are set out in the spring, 

 when those which need honey will be 

 fed. I shall put them into the cellar 

 as soon as the weather turns cold. 

 L. C. Clark. 



Granada, c$ Kans., Nov. 25, 1884. 



Is Dodder a Destructive Plant ? 



Let me sound " a note of warning " 

 in regard to that plant called " dod- 

 der," which was illustrated on page 

 755. I found a description and cut of 

 this plant in a book called " Rays 

 from the Realms of Nature," by Rev. 

 James Neil, M. A. The cut is very 

 similar to the one given in the Bee 

 Journal, and after speaking of other 

 parasitic plants, he describes dodder 

 as follows : " Another deadly English 

 parasite is the curious " Cuscuta " or 

 "dodder." It appears in the form of 

 long filaments which attach them- 

 selves by means of suckers, to the 

 stems of certain plants, around which 

 they twine in a tangled mesh. They 

 are at times as terrible a visitation as 

 a flight of locusts, destroying whole 

 crops of lucern clover and flax." 

 Now, I am anxious to have new 

 honey-producing plants introduced, 

 but I think that we should know all 

 about them, both the good and the 

 bad qualities. The article on page 

 755, speaks of it being destructive to 

 alfalfa only, but the above quotation 

 says that it is also destructive to 

 clover and flax, two of our very im- 

 portant crops. Let us leave it in 

 California, it we cannot push it into 

 the Pacific ; we do not want it any 

 nearer to us. 



P. D. MiTCHEL. 



Paris, Ont., Dec. 1, 1884. 



Bee-Keeping in Texas. 



As far as I can ascertain, bees have 

 done very poorly here this season. 

 They swarmed but little, and stored 

 very little surplus honey. I have I'e- 

 cently purchased it colonies, which I 

 have been Italianizing. I have kept 

 bees on a small sc:ile for 20 years, ni 

 Maine, and I think that I shall now 

 go into bee culture quite extensively. 

 Texas honey is very inferior compared 

 with Maine honey. I do not think 

 that one-half of the colonies have 

 honey enough to winter on. I have 

 my doubts about this section being 

 very good for bees, but the people say 

 that in some years much honey is pro- 

 duced, although the last two years 

 have been very poor ones. Bee-keep- 

 ers lose many bees in the winter; 

 some say that tlie bees freeze, while 

 others attribute it to other causes. 

 Here they have winds from the north 

 in the winter, which they call 

 '■ Northers." These winds make it 

 very chilly, and they come so sud- 

 denly, that such may be the cause of 

 the loss of many colonies. I would 

 like to hear from some practical bee- 

 keeper in Texas, what care is given 

 their bees in winter, etc. 



C. M. Davis. 



Denison City,(^ Texas, Dec. 2, 1884, 



&" The [Tnion' Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation of Western Iowa will meet la 

 Stuart. Iowa, at 10 a. m. on Saturday, 

 Dec. 27, 1884. All who are interested 

 are invited to attend. 



M. E. Darby, Sec. 



^ The Willamette Valley Bee- 

 Keepers' Association will hold its 

 second meeting at La Fayette, Ore- 

 gon, on the third Tuesday in June, 

 1885. All who are interested are in- 

 vited to attend. 



E. J. Hadley, Sec. 



F. S. Harding, Pres. 



t^ There are a few general rules 

 which beginners should adhere to 

 closely in the handling of bees, first 

 among which is in regard to the use 

 of smoke. If they fail to do this, as 

 many do, they should not grumble at 

 the result. If in after time one pre- 

 fers to take the chances of being 

 stung, rather than to go to the bother 

 of lighting up the smoker, he only 

 chooses what he considers the least of 

 two evils, trouble or pain. — Exch. 



Preparation of Honey for the Mar- 

 ket, including the production and care 

 of both comb and extracted honey, 

 instructions on the exhibition of bees 

 and honey at Fairs, etc. This is a 

 new 10 cent pamphlet, of 32 pages. 



^" To Canadian subscribers let us 

 say that we have made arrangements 

 so that we can supply the Fmmi'r's 

 Advocate of Loudon, Ont., and the 

 Monthly Bee Journal for one year 

 at $1.25 for the two. 



