THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



283 



How to Foretell the Weather. 



A. J. DeVoe, of Hackensack, N. J., 

 sends to the Farmers' Club of the 

 American Institute, the following nine 

 rules by which, it is said, a person in 

 any part of the Northern Hemisphere 

 (north of 15° of latitude) can form an 

 accurate opinion of the wind and 

 weather for a hundred miles around 

 him ■ 



1. When the temperature falls sud- 

 denly, there is a storm forming south 

 of you. 



2. When the temperature rises sud- 

 denly, there is a storm forming north 

 of you. 



3. Wind always blows from the re- 

 gion of fair weather toward a region 

 where the storm is forming. 



4. Cirrus clouds always move from 

 a region where a storm is in progress 

 toward a region of fair weather. 



5. Cumulus clouds always move to- 

 ward a region where a storm is raging. 



6. When cirrus clouds are moving 

 rapidly from the north or northwest, 

 there will be a cold rain storm on the 

 morrow ; if it be winter, there will be 

 a snow storm. 



7. The wind blows in a circle around 

 a storm, and when it blows from the 

 north, the heaviest rain is east of 

 you ; from the south, the heaviest 

 rain is west ; from the east, the heav- 

 iest rain is south ; from the west, the 

 heaviest rain is north of you. 



8. The wind never blows unless rain 

 or snow is falling within 1,000 miles 

 of you. 



9. Whenever a heavy white frost 

 occurs, a storm Is forming within 1,000 

 miles north or northwest of you. 



A few Seasonable Hints. 



As there has, during this spring, 

 been so much cool and wet weather, 

 the bees are suffering for food. Mr. 

 Oatman, who was in our office a few 

 days since, says he is systematically 

 feeding his bees every day in order to 

 keep them strong in numbers, and 

 ready for the honey harvest. Mrs. L. 

 Harrison, in the Prairie Farmer, re- 

 marks as follows : 



Those who are desirous of increas- 

 ing their colonies, sliould feed lib- 

 erally, whenever tlie honey flow fails, 

 either by reason of cool or rainy 

 weather, so that brood-rearing will 

 not be retarded. Large quantities of 

 stores are consumed in brood-rearing, 

 as a bee eats more in a larvse state, 

 than during tlie remainder of its life. 

 New swarms sometimes, perish dur- 

 ing long continued rainy weather, by 

 starvation. It is good management 

 to feed during intervals of honey- 

 gathering, as the queen lays, not ac- 

 cording to the stores on hand, but in 

 ratio to her income. 



Some colonies have too much 

 honey, so that the queen has not room 

 enough to lay ; when this is the case, 

 it should be removed, and may be ex- 



changed for empty comb, from a less 

 provident stock, and both be bene- 

 tited. Diluted honey, or syrup made 

 of either brown or white sugar, can 

 be fed almost any way, at this season 

 of tlie year. Great care should be ex- 

 ercised, lest robbing is induced, by 

 dropping the feed around the hives. 

 The feed sliould be thin, and the ves- 

 sels holding it should contain cut 

 straw or little floats to prevent the 

 bees drowning, or a piece of thin cloth 

 can be spread over the surface. 

 Where two story hives are used, the 

 feed can be placed in the upper one, 

 and a small aperture made to allow 

 the bees to come up from below ; or if 

 a division-board is used, it can be 

 placed back of it. Anyway that does 

 not admit bees from the outside, or 

 let the warmth from the cluster es- 

 cape. 



Bee-Keeping in Florida. 



Mr. J. M. Lisenby, of Cedar Key, 

 writes to the Florida Journal as fol- 

 lows concerning bee-keeping : 



As the interest in Florida and its 

 various resources are attracting con- 

 siderable attention, I will try to give 

 some facts in regard to bee-keeping — 

 an industry that can be made success- 

 ful in quite a large portion of the 

 State. It is true that a great deal of 

 the interior — especially the high pine 

 lands— is not adapted to bee-culture, 

 while the Atlantic coast, south of St. 

 Augustine, and the Gulf coast, south 

 of Cedar Key, certainly are rich 

 honey-producing sections. 



In the best bee pastures of the State 

 the season for storing surplus honey 

 only lasts about two months ; but in 

 this short lime they will store from 

 100 to 150 pounds per hive, and the re- 

 mainder of the year they will gather 

 enough for their support. 



At Cedar Key the bees commence 

 breeding in January, and continue to 

 breed until November. They usually 

 commence to swarm in March, and 

 continue until about the Hrst of June, 

 when the work of storing surplus 

 honey begins. 



The mangrove is the principal 

 honey-producing plant, and the honey 

 gathered from it cannot be excelled 

 in appearance, even by the white 

 clover honey of Vermont, and the 

 superiority of the mangrove over 

 other honey-producing plants, is that, 

 growing as it does in the marshes, it 

 is never affected by the floods or 

 drouth. 



The honey produced from the palm- 

 etto is also of good appearance and 

 flavor, yet it is not so reliable as that 

 from the mangrove. 



I have never been in any country 

 where I had as little trouble to man- 

 age bees as this. They are never 

 troubled by worms or bee-moths, if 

 they are kept in anything like good 

 condition. 



1^ Mr. Joseph D. Enas, Napa, 

 Cal., has issued a six-paged circular 

 and price list for Queens and Supplies 

 for the Paciflc Coast. 



Honey Production in Canada. 



I enclose an item of bee news, clip- 

 ped from the Montreal Witness of May 

 9, containing an inquiry and reply 

 by D. A. Jones, of Beeton, Out., 

 who edits the bee department of that 

 paper. I think Mr. Jones' reply does 

 American honey producers an injus- 

 tice. 1 have lived in Canada for 40 

 years, and my experience and obser- 

 vation have been the very reverse. 

 What is your opinion V 



Marlette, Mich. Wm. Shier. 



In answer to the inquiry, Mr. Jones 

 makes the following very extravagant 

 assertions : 



I strongly I advise yourremainingin 

 Ontario. You will lind that the peo- 

 ple of Canada are better educated to 

 the use of honey — and especially ex- 

 tracted honey, which is more protit- 

 able than comb. Packages for put- 

 ting up honey are cheaper in Canada 

 than the United States, and we seem 

 to be farahead of our neighbors in the 

 style of putting them up. The labels 

 which are being used by the United 

 States' dealers now so extensively are 

 made here in Canada, and the duty 

 they pay is high. Above all these 

 considerations there are localities in 

 Canada which are superior to any in 

 the United States. For large yields 

 of honey the West is second to no 

 country in the world, and our bee- 

 keepers are at the present time more 

 than equal in the race as regards su- 

 premacy for fine bee-keeping. Many 

 of the new devices and improvements 

 emanate from Canada's bee-keepers. 



Many persons think their own bees, 

 hives, utensils and locations are the 

 best, and, perhaps, this individual and 

 local pride dictated the reply of Mr. 

 Jones. Of course no one on this side 

 of the boundary will agree with him. 



Honey for the Children.— The Farm- 

 ers' Review thus comments approv- 

 ingly on a late editorial in the Bee 

 Journal: 



Editor Newman, of the Bee Jour- 

 nal, wisely suggests that those par- 

 ents who feed their children on candies 

 and syrups, because they want some- 

 thing sweet, to the great injury of 

 the children, would And their child- 

 ren growing healthy and happy too, 

 if given good honey instead of candies 

 that are so fearfully adulterated. 



iS^ The number of the Bulletin 

 D' Apiculture pour la Suisse Romande, 

 for May, has a full-page illustration 

 of Mr. Chas. Dadant, of Hamilton, 

 111. It is a lithograph, and is quite 

 natural. 



1^ The American Apindturist is the 

 title of a new monthly just started by 

 S.M.Locke, at Salem, Mass. It con- 

 tains 32 pages, and makes a very cred- 

 itable appearance. 



