72 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Jan. SI, 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



GEORGE W. YORK & COMPANY, 

 58 FiStli AveniK^, - CHICAGO, ILL. 



$1.00 a Year— Sample Copy Sent Free. 

 tEntered at the Post-Offloe at ChlcaKo as Second-Class Mail-Matter.] 



OEOK-C3-B -W. "S-OR-K:, 



EDITOR. 



Assisted by the following Department Editors : 

 Dr. C. C. Millek - - - "Questions and Answeks. 

 Mrs. Jennie Atchley - - - "The Sunny Southland.' 

 "Gleaner" .... "Among the Bee-Papers.' 



"Bee-Master" " Canadian Beedom.' 



Dr. F. L. Peiro " Doctor's Hints.' 



Vol. inv. CHICAGO. ILL,, JAN, 31, 1895, No, 5. 



Editorial Con)rr)cr)i$^ 



Xlie K.xiruoted Honej' Arlicle, by Mr. Chas. Dadant, 

 is omitted this week on account of its not getting here in time. 

 But the series will likely be completed in these columns in good 

 time for use the coming season. 



A. Creat llee-IIive is what the Mammoth Cave, of Ken- 

 tucky, is becoming. So says an exchange. Judging from what I 

 have heard about its capacity, it would take a pretty good-sized 

 crop of honey to fill it. Still, some of the California friends, in a 

 good season, might doubt its ability to hold their big yields ! 

 ■*-•-* 



•>•*• J. I*. H. llroM'n, of Augusta, Ga., wrote me as fol- 

 lows on Jan. 17: "This has been the coldest winter since 1S86. 

 This is not the ' Sunny Southland ' now." It has been pretty cold 

 here in Chicago, also, this winter, but nothing very severe yet. I 

 think that 8 degrees below zero is the coldest so far. Still, there is 

 time enough yet for real cold weather here. 



Empty Coinl> sin«l <:^oiiil> Foundation will be val- 

 uable in California this year. Mr. N. Levering says this about it 

 in the January California Cultivator: 



There never has been a season since the introduction of apicul- 

 ture in California when empty comb and comb foundation will be 

 so highly prized, and their true worth so correctly estimated, as in 

 the coming season of ]S',)5. 



Mr. %Vni. A. Sel!<er, who lives near Philadelphia, Pa., has 

 been traveling about 3,000 miles over the State of Florida the past 

 month or two. On page 07 he begins to tell something about his 

 visit, for the readers of the American Bee Journal. Mr. Selser 

 called on Gleanings on his way home, and Editor Root says this 

 about him and his trip: 



He had been all over the State just previous to the great freeze, 

 and all over it again just after it. He reports that all the beauty 

 of that remarkable State is gone. Everything seems to have been 

 killed from one end of the State to the other; and the mangrove- 

 one of the main stays tor honey — has been so thoroughly killed 

 that it will take it three or four years to recover. Although the 

 bee-keepers will get honey as before from palmetto, their large 

 crops will be cut down very materially imtil the mangrove can be- 

 gin to yield. There is desolation in the orange-groves, and they 

 are characterized as "slop-tubs," by reason of the carloads of de- 

 caying fruit. 



The article on page 07 was written before " the great freeze," 

 referred to in the above paragraph. 



Poop Seasons come to all other industries, as well as to 

 bee-culture. Mrs. L. Harrison, whose home is in Peoria, 111. (but 

 in winter at St. Andrew's Bay, Fla.), offered some encouragement 

 to those who have suffered from poor honey seasons, in the Prairie 

 Farmer, awhile ago: 



Another poor honey season has come and gone. Well, bee- 

 keepers are getting used to it, like the poor lobsters that the 

 woman had been cooking alive for so many years. Bee-keeping 

 has been painted in such bright colors by many writers, it is well 

 to look on the shady side occasionally. Dr. Miller, of Marengo, 

 m., who is a veteran bee-keeper and voluminous writer, and whose 

 bee-songs have a world-wide reputation, reports his crop of honey 

 for 1894 as averaging 1}4 ounces per colony. He has not marketed 

 his crop, so does not report his sales. To his out-apiaries, and to 

 the one at bis home, he fed 1,.500 pounds of sugar to keep them 

 from starving. 



In some localities of Illinois, especially along water-ways dur- 

 ing the fall, bees were able to store some surplus. Our bees aver- 

 aged 12' o pounds of surplus, and had abundant stores for winter, 

 without feeding. 



Dandelions were blooming Nov. 1, and bees carrying water, 

 which was unusual. 



Bee-keepers should make a note of this: That is, of young 

 bees being reared so unusually late in the season, and see whether 

 the colonies come out in the spring stronger on account of it. The 

 fall was favorable for the development of white clover, and bee- 

 keepers should look well after their colonies, for the wise man says: 

 " What has been will be again." and we may again be favored 

 with nectar secreted in the corollas of white clover blossoms. 



Ii*oniugf-l*a<I. — It is always a pleasure to learn new and 

 practical uses for honey or beeswax. I believe that all good reci- 

 pes using either of them in their make-up, should be published, so 

 that everybody may know about it, and thus help to create a 

 greater demand for these two products of the apiary. Mr. Jas. A. 

 Minnick, of North Anderson, Ind., has sent us another recipe using 

 beeswax : 



Procure a strip of muslin seven or eight inches wide, and 34 

 inches long. Now place a sheet or two of hard calendered note- 

 paper, about five inches wide, across one end of the muslin ; scatter 

 a few thin chips of beeswax on the paper (or, better still, a cloth 

 four by six inches dipped in melted beeswax). Now pass the long 

 end of the muslin over the top of the wax and around underneath 

 and over again, so that about two thicknesses will be over the 

 wax. While ironing, occasionally pass the iron over the pad. My, 

 how slick the irons slide over the clothes ! It also removes rough- 

 ness, and prevents rust. 



Pretty <aoo<I Advice. — In one of my exchanges I read 

 this paragraph : 



At the beginning of the new year forgive all who have wronged' 

 you, and let tliem take their own road to ruin. They will go there 

 fast enough if they really are as mean as they seem to you. But 

 love all your friends the more. Genuine affection and good-will 

 are the scarcest commodities in the world, scarcer even than 

 money, and more to be prized. The world is languishing and dying 

 for them. 



I want to commend the above paragraph to all those who are 

 afflicted with chronic jealousy, and a burning desire to build them- 

 seves up by trying to tear others down. Friends, j7 cuh^I be. done, 

 for the more some kind of people are persecuted the greater their 

 prosperity. The more the ancient Israelites were oppressed in 

 Egypt, the faster they multiplied. It doesn't pay to fool with a 

 boomerang, nor to mind other people's business. » 



Honey vs. ICiitter. — In reply to the questions, " What is 

 honey?' and " Which of the two— butter or honey — is the most 

 beneficial as food ?" Mr. Thos. Wm. Cowan, editor of the British 

 Bee Journal, says : 



Honey is composed of the sweet nectar exuded by certain 

 flowers, and gathered therefrom by bees. We don't quite know if 

 our correspondent's query is intended to ascertain the component 

 parts of honey from the chemical standpoint; but it certainly 

 would not assist sales to inform buyers what proportions of oxy- 

 gen, hydrogen, and carbon are embodied in it. It is more bene- 

 ficial than butter as food for children, because of its readily assimi- 

 lating with whatever food is partaken of along with it. 



Very Kind l^otioes are being given the American Bee 

 Journal by many of my brother editors, as well as a host who have 

 expressed their satisfaction and pleasure by mail privately. I 

 should like so much to print all the generous commendations re- 

 ceived, but if I did so I fear there wouldn't be room in the Bee 

 Journal for much else. I trust that all who have been so very 



