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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



July 25, 



George 'W, VorJc» - - Editor, 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



GEORGE W. YORK & COMPANY, 

 36 Fifth ^i venue, - CIIICA.GO, ILL. 



$1.00 a Year— Sample Copy Sent Free. 

 [Entered at the Po8t-0£Sce at ChicaKO as Second-Class Mail-Matter.] 



VoiniV. CEICAGO, ILL, JOLY 25, 1895. No, 30. 



Editorial Budgets 



The Annual Report of the convention of the On- 

 tario Bee-Keepers' Association held at Stratford, Oat., last 

 January, is on my desk. It is a 64-page pamphlet, and gives 

 the proceedings in full. It is an interesting publication, and 

 should be in the hands of every Canadian bee-keeper, at least. 

 It can be had free by addressing the Honorable Minister of 

 Agriculture, Toronto, Ont. The list of members, as given in 

 the annual report, shows exactly 176. Pretty good ! 



Dr. O. S. Brown, of Londonderry, Ohio, at the re- 

 cent meeting of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture, was 

 selected as expert judge of bees, honey, apiarian supplies, 

 maple products, etc., to serve during the Ohio State Fair at 

 Columbus, Sept. 2 to 6, inclusive. Dr. Brown was present at 

 the World's Fair convention of the North American, where I 

 had the pleasure of meeting him and his wife. The bee- 

 keepers of Ohio should make a good display, if possible, at the 

 State Fair, and thus give the apiarian Judge a good chance 

 to show what he can do in the position to which he has been 



appointed. 



*-»-* 



Tbe Premium and Clubbing: OflTers pub- 

 lished in the Bee Journal are fairly clear, I think. Please 

 read them carefully, and then do not ask or expect anything 

 more than is offered. For instance, the premium book " Bees 

 and Honey," is now given to a new subscriber only when he 

 or she sends the full SI. 00 for the Bee Journal. Understand, 

 please, that hereafter only one premium is given for sending 

 a new subscriber. Please read the premium offers carefully, 

 and then no misunderstandings will arise. 



Orang-e Blossom Honej is reported in Glean- 

 ings, by Rambler, who says that Mr. G. K. Hubbard, of River- 

 side, Calif., has produced over a ton of the article. He also 

 says, "There is no slipshod management about Mr. Hubbard's 

 apiary, and a few more such expert bee-keepers would have a 

 marked influence upon the value of our products in the 

 markets." 



That's a tally for Indiana, for Mr. Hubbard removed from 

 Ft. Wayne on account of his wife's ill-health. If his wife has 

 better health in California, and he has the best houey, I don't 

 see any reason for complaining in that household. Health 

 and honey ought to go well together. And 'tis said they have 

 lots of the former (health) in many parts of the Golden State, 

 and much of the latter (honey) quite often. 



Bees and Grapes. — It has often been insisted upon 

 by those who are not better informed on the subject, that bees 

 injure grapes. I happened to run across two testimonies on 

 the subject, which are given here for the benefit of those who 

 may have occasion to need something of the kind in order to 

 effectually answer any complainants. 



The following item is from the Country Gentleman — a 

 well-known country weekly, published at Albany, N. Y., evi- 

 dently a reply to an inquiry upon the subject : 



6. T. G. must be mistaken about the bees injuring his 

 grapes, or he has a different race of bees from mine. I have 

 three kinds, 50 colonies in all, placed between the grape-rows. 

 The grapes have never been injured in the least by them. A 

 neighbor has 1 yO colonies of bees also between the rows of 

 grapes. I know the grapes have been perfect, for I have 

 bought and sold them for five years for first-class grapes for 

 hotel-table use. If G. T. G. will look at his grapes, he will 

 probably find three-cornered punctures, with a piece of skin 

 pressed in. If so, it is the work of birds. After the skin is 

 broken the bees will take the juice, but not before. The ex- 

 periment has been tried of putting a colony of bees in a green- 

 house grapery without food. The bees did not break a single 

 grape, but died for want of food. It is a mistaken idea of bees 

 puncturing grapes ; I think bees and grapes go well together. 

 The neighbor of whom I spoke is a widow 50 years of age. 

 She has sold as high as S800 worth of grapes and honey from 

 three acres of land occupied by the bees and grapes. 



Onondaga Co., N. Y. Chas. Mills. 



The other item was found in the Montreal Witness, and 

 reads thus : 



An enquirer some time ago wished to know if bees were 

 injurious to grapes. In confirmation of the negative reply 

 then given, the following testimony is to the point: 



We have had grapes and bees for 15 years, and never had 

 the former injured by the latter, or even seen bees on the 

 grapes with the exception of two years. On these two occa- 

 sions a strange flock of orchard orioles visited ray vineyard 

 and destroyed nearly all my Brighton, and some Jeffersons. 

 After these birds had cut the skins witb their sharp bills, the 

 bees flocked to the grapes and sucked their juices but those 

 two years, and other years I never saw bees on grapes that 

 had not first been skin-broken. 



There is no proof extant that bees ever injure sound 

 grapes, or that they are able to do so. 



Such direct testimony should count for much, and help to 

 silence the assertions that bees do destroy grapes. They only 

 help themselves after the grapes have been first punctured by 

 some bird or other insect. 



The " lo ^eeks for lo Cents " Offer to new 



subscribers was withdrawn July 15, as advertised. To any 

 received after that date, 10 back numbers of this year's Bee 

 Journal have been sent, and we will renew the offer of " 10 

 cents for 10 weeks" (or 10 back numbers) so long as our 

 stock of back numbers of 1895 holds out. So, to any one 

 sending 10 cents, we will mail 10 different back numbers, all 

 to be since Jan. 1, 1895. Ten of such numbers are just as 

 good for getting a fair idea of what the Bee Journal is, as 

 would be 10 future numbers. The 10 back numbers will all 

 be of different dates, but will not be consecutive numbers. 



^-.-^ 



The "W. T. Falconer mfg. Co., of Jamestown, 

 N. Y., large dealers in bee-keepers' supplies, say this 

 in the July American Bee-Keeper, in reference to the business 

 they have done this year : 



Taking it altogether, we have done a much better business 

 than for several past seasons, although the late frosts, fol- 

 lowed by extremely dry weather, caused trade to stop very 

 suddenly about the middle of June. 



The Amalgamation of the North American and 

 the Bee-Keepers' Union is favored by Gleanings also. So far 

 as I have seen, all the bee-editors are in favor of it. If the 

 amalgamation is effected, certain bee-periodicals will surely 

 push for a large membership in the united society. 



