396 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



June 20, 



Oeori^-c^ \\\ York, - - JidUttr. 



PUBLISHED WEEKI^V BV 



GEORGE W. YORK & COMPANY, 

 «6 Firth Avenua, - CHICAGO, IKI., 



$1.00 a Year— Sample Copy Sent Free. 

 fKntered at the Post-Offlce at ChlcaKO as Second-Clase Mail-Matter.] 



VoLfflV. CHICAGO, ILL, JONE 20, 1895. No. 25. 



rTVT"TTTVTTTTTTT"T" ▼■T"' 



Editorial Budgets 



Don't 'Wait till after your best friends have passed 

 away before speaking a kind word to or about them, or doicg 

 them a kindness. Better give some flowers now, rather than 

 to save them all for the funeral. 



The Bee-Keepers' Educational Society of 



Rhode Island will hold its next meeting on Friday evening. 

 June 21, at 8 o'clock, at No. 21 Custom House Street, Provi- 

 dence, R. I. Mr. Samuel Cushman will read an essay on the 

 " Relation of Bees to Fruit and Flowers." It is expected that 

 Mr. J. E. Pond will be present. All are invited to attend. Mr. 

 W. G. Gartside, is the Secretary, and his address is 295 Globe 

 Street, Providence. 



The Good Old Times seem almost to have come 

 to the region of Higginsville, Mo., for Bro. Leahy in the Pro- 

 gressive Bee-Keeper for June speaks very encouragingly in 

 the following editorial paragraph : 



We are now having plenty of rain— apparently just 

 enough. White clover is in full bloom, and we are sure of a 

 good honey crop this year ; in fact, part of it is in the hives 

 already. It is almost like the good old times — at least it re- 

 minds us of them— when the land, as it were, flowed with milk 

 and honey. 



•*-—*• 



Somnambulist says in the June Progressive that 

 (s)he believes (s)he must be a "veritable Somnambulist." I 

 can hardly believe it, for real "sleep-walkers" often meet 

 with accidents during their nocturnal meanderings, and so far 

 Sommy has been able to keep right side up without a slip. 

 Some have wondered who Somnambulist is. I don't. 'Cause 

 why? Why, Dr. Miller told me ;ie knew. He said Somnam- 

 bulist reads the Bee Journal. I turned right to the list, and 

 sure enough, right there is the name and address. This evi- 

 dence can't be nulliBed, even if the real name isn't "Somnam- 

 bulist." 



*—*■ 



A Foreis:n Invitation.— I am glad to acknowl- 

 edge the courtesy of Mr. F. Liodloff, the able editor of Leip- 

 ziger Bienenzeitung, in sending me an invitation to attend the 

 •40th convention of the German, Austrian and Hungarian Bee- 

 Keepers' Association, which occurs Aug. 10 to 18, at Leipsie, 

 in connection with an exposition. What a grand time they 

 will have with such great numbers in attendance as we never 

 dream of in this country. We have much to learn from our 

 German brethren, particularly along the line of bee-conven- 

 tions. I trust the gathering referred to above will be as 

 profitable and enjoyable as it will be large and enthusiastic. 



Ho'w to IVIake Honey-'Vineg:ar.— Mr. Chas. F. 

 Kehn, of Iowa, requests that the manner of making honey- 

 vinegar be again given in the Bee Journal. At the risk of 

 being charged with too frequent repetition, and yet on account 

 of the many comparatively new readers of the Bee Journal, 

 the following, by Chas. Dadant & Son, on the subject of 

 honey-vinegar, is reproduced : 



It takes from 1 to 1)4 pounds of honey to make one gal- 

 lon of vinegar. Two good authorities on honey-vinegar, 

 Messrs. Muth and Bingham, advise the use of only one pound 

 of honey with enough water, to make each gallon of vinegar. 

 We prefer to use a little more honey, as it makes stronger 

 vinegar, but the weaker grade is more quickly made. If the 

 honey-water was too sweet, the fermentation would be much 

 slower, and with difficulty change from the alcoholic, which is 

 the first stage, into the acetic. This change of fermentation 

 may be hurried by the addition of a little vinegar, or of what 

 is commonly called vinegar mother. 



If honey-water, from cappings, is used, a good test of its 

 strength is to put an egg in it. The egg should float, coming 

 up to the surface at once. If it does not rise easily, there is 

 too little honey. As vinegar is made by the combined action 

 of air and warmth, the barrel in which it is contained must be 

 only partly filled, and should be kept as warm as convenient. 

 It is best to make a hole in each head of the barrel, about four 

 or five inches below the upper stave, to secure a current of 

 air above the liquid. These, as well as the bung-hole, should 

 be covered with very fine wire-screen, or with cloth, to stop 

 insects. 



A very prompt method consists in allowing the liquid to 

 drip slowly from one barrel to another, as often as possible 

 during warm weather. 



As we make vinegar not only for our own use, but also to 

 sell to our neighbors, we keep two barrels, one of vinegar 

 already made, the other fermenting. When we draw a gallon 

 of vinegar, we replace it with a gallon from the other barrel. 



Brimstoning- Hives with Combs.— Mr. B. 



Taylor, in the Farm, Stock and Home, gave this method of 

 treating hives in which the bees had died during the winter, 

 to prevent the destruction of the combs by the moth : 



The hives containing combs from dead colonies I piled 

 four or five high, and brimstoned every ten days until used. I 

 did this by setting an empty hive-body on top of the piles, in 

 this placing an old milk-can with something under it so as not 

 to burn the combs below, then burning some rags which have 

 been dipped in melted sulphur in the pan, covering all tightly 

 with a sheet of tin or other metal. 



Editor Holtermann says in the Canadian Bee 

 Journal that he " would hardly care to see women in parlia- 

 ment." He was commenting on an editorial in this journal on 

 page 268, where I said I was "willing to give the women a 

 chance to try their hand at doing justice " to the pursuit of 

 apiculture when the " men " had failed so to do. I still feel 

 that not much of real help to any good cause need be expected 

 from wire-pulling politicians, so I'm not disappointed when 

 they do nothing. Best way is to send (jenuine workers to the 

 legislature and parliament, and not politicians. 



Value of Bees to Orchardists.— In the Ohio 

 Farmer of recent date a correspondent in Portage county, 

 Ohio, gives a short account of "one season with bees," in 

 which, after telling how he manipulated them, he says this of 

 their great importance to those interested in orchards : 



While the income in honey was probably sufficient to well 

 repay us for the time and expense placed upon the bees last 

 year, we are far from believing that this is the only benefit 

 that we have received from them. They stood just in the edge 

 of our six-acre apple-orchard, from which I took last year 

 more than GOO bushels of apples. A friend who was in the 

 orchard while we were picking, remarked ; " You may credit 

 this large crop of apples to your sheep that have fertilized the 

 soil, and to your bees which fertilized the blossoms." 



A farmer and orchardist living in an adjoining township, 

 said: "I want to get three or four colonies of bees, place 



