.^. 



£)' (^ OLDEST BEE PAPER^ - ^■^ " 

 IN AMERICA 



VOL. XIX. 



CHICAGO, ILL., JULY 18, 1883. 



No. 29. 



Published every Wednesday, by 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



Editoh and Proprietor, 



Bee-Keepers' Week ! 



This sounds rather new and some- 

 what novel. Perhaps it is not yet set 

 down in the Calendar, to be observed 

 as a feast, but it is to be observed at 

 the great Southern Exposition at 

 Louisville, Ky., as we see by the 

 Louisville Courier -Journal of July 8, a 

 copy of which has been sent to us by 

 Mr. W. Hamilton, of that city, with 

 this paragraph marked : 



While every day during the E.xposi- 

 tion, from Aug. 1 until the closing, 

 will be full of the most interesting 

 features, certain days have been set 

 apart for special attractions, which 

 will be of direct interest to a large 

 number of people. The programme 

 on the opening day will be very elab- 

 orate ; business throughout ihe city 

 will be suspended during the day, and 

 the Exposition will be opened by the 

 President of the United States. On 

 Tuesday, Aug. 2S, begins a week to 

 be known as Bee-Keepers' Week and 

 Horticultural Week. Prizes will be 

 awarded, and arrangements have 

 been made by the Kentucky Bee As- 

 sociation to have many hives of many 

 kinds of bees within the grounds. 



The Kentucky apiarists are evi- 

 dently at work in the right direction, 

 and we would encourage them by 

 every means in our power to make 

 thorough work of it. It will be re- 

 membered that President Demaree 

 issued a card to bee-keepers, which 

 we published on page 339 of the Bee 

 JouKNAL for July 4, and we would 

 here call especial attention to it. 



Every bee-keeper within a reason- 

 able distance of the Exposition, 

 whether in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, 

 Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas or Ten- 

 nessee, sliould see to it that there is a 

 grand display of bees and honey, and 



everything to be made of honey, and 

 that the "Bee-Keepers' Week" may be 

 made notorious by the magnitude of 

 its exhibit. There will be plenty of 

 honey. This is " a year of plenty," 

 the like of which has not been known 

 for a very long time 1 Let the display 

 then be commensurate with the honey 

 harvest, and it will advertise the 

 honey crop far and wide, and cause a 

 corresponding demand for the sweet 

 product. 



When that 180 tons of comb honey 

 was sent to England, and was dis- 

 played like a huge mountain at the 

 "British Agricultural Fair," with the 

 words " AMERICAN HONEY " 

 painted in large letters on canvas at 

 its top, with American flags arranged 

 in graceful folds on each of its sides, 

 the people of that " beautiful garden 

 spot," opened their eyes and gazed 

 with admiration ! The result was that 

 ton after ton of it was quickly sold, 

 and it graced the tables of Her 

 Majesty, Queen Victoria, and aristoc- 

 racy and nobility vied with each other 

 in appropriating its sweetness, being 

 captivated by its beauty and the mag- 

 nitude of its display. It is safe to 

 assert that now the demand for honey 

 in Great Britain is ten fold greater 

 than ever it was before that display 

 was made, and year by year this de- 

 mand increases. Why may not this 

 teach us a lesson V for the Bee and 

 Honey shows of Europe now lead us, 

 both in their magnitude and educa- 

 tional results. 



The year 1883 will long be remem- 

 bered as America's Great Honey 

 Year, let it also be recorded as the 

 year of its Grand Honey Shows— the 

 Year of Jubilee for the thousands 

 who are being poisoned by the glucose 

 frauds and adulterated sweets. 



Let the " Bee-Keepers' Week " in- 

 augurate a new era— when " Feasts " 

 may be spread at hundreds of Fairs, 

 all over the country, inviting all man- 

 kind to come and partake of God- 

 given sweets, distilled in Nature's 



own laboratory, and gathered under 

 heaven's smiles by the "blessed bees," 

 both for man's sustenance as food, 

 and for its health-giving properties 

 as medicines. 



Let the invitation be given to all- 

 Let the apiarist and exhibitor say. 

 Come ! Let him that heareth say. 

 Come ! and whosoever will, let him 

 Come, and partake of the Honey 

 Feast — it will create a sweet disposi- 

 tion, and produce a bright intellect ! 



The Balsams as Honey Producers. . 



Dr. L. Knorr, Savanna, Ga., has 

 sent us a copy of the Rhode Island 

 Wochenblatt of June 16, in which it is 

 stated that in Germany they are very 

 enthusiastic about a new honey-pro- 

 ducer — the giant balsam— and that it 

 is being cultivated extensively near 

 Berlin for the bees to work on. The 

 balsams of America yield honey, but 

 we do not think they are as good 

 honey-producers as many others. Mr. 

 A. A. Fradenburg stated at the Na- 

 tional Convention held in Cincinnati, 

 Ohio, in 1889, that he had cultivated 

 them for that purpose, and they 

 yielded honey well. 



The balsam poplar, and the variety 

 known as "balm of gilead" yield 

 propolis also, in good quantities. 



Labors of the Bee.— As a sample of 

 the labors of the bee in gathering 

 honey, an exchange remarks as fol- 

 low^s : 



The bee has long been a type of the 

 industrious worker, but there are few 

 people who know how much labor the 

 sweet hoard of the hive represents. 

 Eacli head of clover contains about 60 

 distinct flower tubes, each of which 

 contains a portion ■ of sugar not ex- 

 ceeding the five-hundreth part of a 

 grain. The proboscis of the bee must, 

 therefore, be inserted into 500 clover 

 tubes before one grain of sugar can 

 be obtained. There are 7,000 grains 

 in a pound, and, as honey contains 

 three-fourths of its weight of dry 

 sugar, each pound of honey represents 

 2,500,000 clover tubes sucked by bees. 



