270 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Apr. 25, 



information. Mr. Danzenbaker's attorney makes reply that 

 Mr. Heddon applied for a patent on the divisible brood-eham- 

 ber but was refused, and seems to think that the only thing 

 Mr. Heddon can claim is the thumb-screws and cleats to hold 

 the frames together. 



THOSE GIANT BEKS OF INDIA. 



A card in Gleanings from C. D. Holt, the man that adver- 

 tised the big bees, says, " I was led into the Giant-Bee business 

 through my ignorance, and am out .§1-4- cash. . . .and am very 

 much ashamed of having been mixed up in this matter." 



ConAtxcted by " BEE-MASTBR." 



A liate Season. 



We are having a late season here in Canadian beedom. It 

 is now the 15th of April, and on this parallel of 43- north 

 latitude, the bees are still in winter quarters. I do not know 

 a single cellar-winterer who has begun to put out his hives 

 yet. My own are still packed as they have been since the be- 

 ginning of November. Usually there are fine, bright days in 

 midwinter, when the bees can take a flight, but during the 

 past, one might almost say the present winter, there has been 

 no let up. We had no January thaw, and, until one day last 

 week, there was no weather warm enough to tempt the bees 

 out for a flight. Such a winter of steady, persistent cold is 

 not remembered by that noted personage, "the oldest in- 

 habitant." 



It does not follow from all this that we are not to have a 

 good honey season. When bees are properly housed and duly 

 protected they usually do well after a steady, hard winter. It 

 is the uncared-for and neglected colonies that are thinned 

 down and die of cold and starvation. The probabilities are 

 that when spring weather does come it will do so to " stay." 

 Brood-rearing will go on without any check. Colonies will 

 build up rapidly, so that when the honey-harvest begins there 

 will be plenty of workers to gather it in. 



The winter has been a favorable one for the protection of 

 clover and other forage plants. There has been no alternately 

 freezing and thawing weather. The fall wheat has come out 

 in good condition. I do not know whether fruit-buds have 

 been injured by the severity of the frost or not. It would not 

 be surprising if it were so, for there have been some pretty 

 low dips of the thermometer. But the main sources of our 

 honey crop have been well blanketed under the snow all win- 

 ter, and will probably give a good account of themselves as 

 soon as they are " up and dressed." 



It would not be surprising if we were to have one of the 

 old-fashioned, rousing honey seasons. There has been a suc- 

 cession of poor seasons, and the old proverb says it is a long 

 lane that has no turn. The lane is already long, quite long 

 enough most of us think, but there is One who knows better 

 than we do how to regulate the seasons, and all other things 

 in this mundane sphere. As Robert Browning sings : 



" (rod is in heaven. 

 All's right In His world." 



Bees from the Soiitli. 



Some of our bee-keepers are trying an experiment in the 

 way of importing bees from the South, as compared with win- 

 tering them over through our long, dreary winter. I know of 

 a shipment of 10 4-frame nuclei which is being made from 

 Florida to put this matter to the test. The question is, will it 

 pay to make an importation of this sort every spring instead 

 of keeping bees all the year round and risking the winter 

 losses? The nuclei, including queens, are to cost §2.50 each. 

 What the express wili be from Florida is as yet " an unknown 

 quantity." An advertisement in Gleanings, headed, " I told 

 you so," quotes a one-frame nucleus as having in the course of 

 a single season given 120 well-filled one-pound sections. This 

 appears like a somewhat " fishy " bee-story. It dates from 

 Heber, Utah. Well, if that can be done in Heber, Utah, or 

 anywhere else on the North American continent, I want to 

 emigrate there, start an apiary, and import one-frame nuclei 

 every spring. I don't think a one-frame nucleus with two or 

 three dozen workers and a little patch of brood, can achieve 

 such a feat as that even in " the Sunny South." If the 10 



Jr-frame nuclei will average 120 well-filled one-pound sections, 

 it will pay us to import them at a cost of So each, including 

 express charges. 



CONDnCTED liV 



Rei-. Emerson T, xXbbottt St, ^osep2i> JIfo. 



Bee-Keeping: a Specialty. — " Essays advising 

 that bee-keeping as a business be made a specialty lay the per- 

 sons engaged therein have been written from time to time. 

 The essayists are often eloquent in their advice, but never, I 

 believe, practice what they preach." — W. G. Hewes, in 

 Gleanings. 



It has been a theory of mine for some time that there is 

 more poetry and sentiment in bee-keeping as a business, sep- 

 arate and alone, than there is hard cash. I have also been 

 inclined to think that there are few, if any, in the United 

 States, who are making their entire living out of honey-pro- 

 duction. If there is a single man, woman or child in the 

 country with no other source of income, let him, her or it come 

 to the front and explain how it is done. I know how it's done 

 by many who claim to be specialists. One runs a newspaper ; 

 another has a farm ; another has an orchard ; another raises 

 poultry ; another has a government job ; another pulls teeth, 

 puts gold in them, and all such; another does literary work ; 

 another preaches ; another tries to cure the ills of life by pills, 

 extracts, etc.; two or three publish bee-papers and try to show 

 the other fellows how to make big money by being specialists ; 

 a large number are, legitimately I think, making or selling 

 supplies to those who, according to the theories of some, 

 should be specialists; — but I am not hunting for these. I 

 want to find the real, unadulterated specialist who can say 

 with Paul, "This one thing I do, forgetting those things 

 which are behind, I press toward the mark for the prize of the 

 high calling." Honey-production, if honestly followed, is a 

 " high calling ;" but who is laboring for this " prize " alone to 

 the exclusion of all others to gain a living for himself or her- 

 self ? Hold np your hand. 



Motlis and Butterflies.— This comment is not 

 aboui bees, but it will be none the less interesting to those 

 who have learned to heed the suggestion in the following lines 

 by Mrs. Whitney : 



"Oh. look thou largely wilh lenient eyes. 

 On what 60 l)eside tbee creeps and clings. 

 For the iiossible g'lory that underlies 

 Tho passing phase of the meanest things." 



He who has developed the faculty of seeing the glory 

 which lies hidden in nature all about him has taken the first 

 step in a liberal education. Whatever awakens the power of 

 observation in a child and leads it to ask the why of nature, 

 and to see the beauty and glory which lie all about it, cannot 

 fail to be of the greatest possible advantage to it in after life. 

 I have been led into this strain of thought by reading an inter- 

 esting and practical book on " Moths and Butterflies," by 

 Julia P. Ballard, published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, of New 

 York. Those who are interested in bees cannot fail to be ben- 

 efited by reading about anything in the insect world. 



The author of this book has the faculty of finding things 

 of beauty and interest all about her in the everyday walks of 

 life, and what is of more importance to the reader, she posses- 

 ses the ability to make others see what she sees. Her talks 

 about insects read like a fairy tale, and I know of no better 

 book for a father to place in the hands of his children. It 

 will give them many hours of pleasure and develop a closeness 

 of observation and keenness of insight which will prove of 

 great value to them all aloug the journey of life. If more of 

 this class of literature were found in every home, I think it 

 would prove a real attraction and draw many a boy away 

 from the saloon, and keep many a girl from drifting into bad 

 company. A child who learns in early life to take a lively in- 

 terest in the insect world about it is not apt in after years to 

 find time dragging heavily on his hands, or to go very far 

 astray from the path of rectitude. Buy a copy of " Moths 

 and Butterflies " for your children. It will be a dollar and a 

 half well spent. 



I'^oiindsition mils. — An Iowa subscriber says: "Please 

 ask those who have second-hand Pelham foundation mills, or other 

 makes, to advertise in the American Bee Journal." 



