1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



495 



CONDUCTED BY 



Rev. Emerson T. JLbbott, St. (Joseph, Afo. 



Xot Quite All. — "All are starving for better bee-lit- 

 erature." — J. W. Tefft. 



I fear Friend Tefft, like some others, is drawing a little 

 upon his imagination. Apiculture has about as good litera- 

 ture as any industry of the same importance. Then, if there 

 is such a great demand for a better literature, why do not 

 some of the people who know so well the defects of our litera- 

 ture go to work and improve it ? The door is wide open, and 

 there is every chance for anyone who thinks he can fill the 

 vacuum to walk in and occupy the building. It is a very easy 

 thing to stand on the outside and say what should be done, 

 but it another thing to do it. Every man who has published a 

 paper knows that it is frequently the man who is in arrears 

 for a year or two who does the most kicking. There is noth- 

 ing personal in this remark ; I only state a general principle. 



How to Know the "Wild Flowers. — Whatever 

 renders Nature more attractive, whatever adds to our store of 

 knowledge of the things with which we daily come in con- 

 tact, has not been created in vain, and should command our 

 attention. I am led into this train of thought by reading a 

 very interesting and useful book, by Mrs William Starr Dana, 

 entitled, " How to Know the Wild Flowers," published by 

 Chas. Scribner's Sons, New York. 



This is not a mere text-book on botany, but an attractive 

 and helpful talk about hundreds of our wild flowers ; yet it is 

 so arranged and the matter so classified that, with the book 

 in hand, a thoughtful, studious person will be able to properly 

 name and classify most of the common flowers of field and 

 wood with which he may come in contact. It is filled with il- 

 lustrations which materially help the reader to understand the 

 descriptive matter. [A sample of them appears on the first 

 page. — Editok.] 



The text has woven into it many apt quotations and 

 dainty bits of poetry about the flower in question, which re- 

 lieve one of the feeling that he is reading the dry facts of a 

 text-book. There is a great deal of information about many 

 flowers, which cannot be found'in ordinary text-books on bot- 

 any, and could be obtained from other sources only by a wide 

 course of reading. 



A walk in the meadow or forest, with the book for a com- 

 panion, cannot fail to furnish recreation, as well as informa- 

 tion which will be found valuable in the after walks of life. 



Comb-Building by Drones, Is It?— Do the 



drones build all the comb ? Ttie " new edition " of the ABC 

 of Bee-Culture is just out. On page o52 we read : " In 1880 

 we offered Friend Doolittle $100 for a careful going-over of 

 the 'A B C book, that he might point out its faults, and add 



such suggestions as his large experience might dictate In 



the present edition (1891) we employed him to go all over it 

 again and bring his suggestions up to present date." On page 

 360 we read : " Recognizing the value of the comments of 

 Mr. Doolittle in previous editions of this work, I have thought 

 best to solicit the aid, in a similar way, of a no less practical 

 and prominent bee-keeper. Dr. C. C. Miller, of Marengo, III. 

 Accordingly, in 1888 he reviewed most carefully this entire 

 work, and I here append the comments which he has made." 



In the preface to this edition we read : "The present 

 edition, as well as the previous editions, is not only enlarged, 

 and illustrated with many new and beautiful engravings, but 

 it has received a careful and most thorough revision." 



Now, bearing the above in mind, let us quote some from 



the text. On page 176, article "Honey-Comb," after having 

 shown up some of the errors of Agassiz and Tyndal, and hav- 

 ing explained how the wax-scales are secreted, the writer says : 



" If a bee is obliged to carry one of these wax-scales but a 

 short distance, he takes it in ftis mandibles, and looks as busi- 

 ness-like thus as a carpenter with a board on his shoulder. If 

 he has to carry it from the bottom of the honey-box, he takes 

 it in a way that I cannot explain any better than to say he 

 slips it under liis chin. When thus equipped, you would never 

 know he was encumbered with anything, unless it chanced to 

 slip out, when he will very dextronsly tuck it back with one of 

 his fore feet. The little plate of wax is so warm from being 

 kept under his chin, as to be quite soft when he gets back ; 

 and as lie takes it out and gives it a pinch against the comb 

 where the building is going on, one would think he might stop 

 awhile, and put it into place ; but not /le ; for off he scampers 

 and twists around so many different ways, you might think fte 

 was not one of the working kind at all. Another follows after 

 him sooner or later, and gives the wax a pinch, or a little 

 scraping and burnishing with his polished mandibles, then an- 

 other, and so on, and the sum total of all these manoeuvers is, 

 that the comb seems almost to grow out of nothing; yet no 

 bee ever makes a cell himself, and no comb-building is ever 

 done by any bee while standing in a cell ; neither do the bees 

 ever stand in rows and ' excavate,' or anything of the kind." 



The italics in the quotation are mine, as I want the reader 

 to get the full force of the statements. Just think of it! 

 Written by my friend, A. I., read twice by Doolittle for errors, 

 and once by Dr. Miller, and then reviewed by our wide-awake 

 and energetic friend, Ernest, and yet the he's are building 

 comb ! This,is funny ! Can we now blame the editor of the 

 Cosmopolitan for putting a few he's in his head-lines and 

 notes ? 



Say, Bro. Root, send me a check for $100, and I will 

 go through the "A B C" and clothe the bees in their proper 

 gender, and I may put different clothes on some other things 

 before I get through. By the way, this " new edition " of the 

 "A B C" is a valuable book, and every bee-keeper should have 

 a copy. I will have more to say about it in the future. 



[The publishers of the Bee Journal have the above book 

 for sale, postpaid, for $1.25 ; or clubbed with the Bee Journal 

 one year— both together for $2.00. Better order a copy, if 

 you haven't it already. — Editor.] 



Hardly. — " We need an apicultural station under the 

 national government, and Frank Benton would be a good man 

 to conduct it." — Editorial note in Gleanings. 



I cannot agree with you. Friend Root. I hardly think it 

 would be best to put a man in such a position who takes a 

 year to get out a report of a bee-convention. The best thing 

 Mr. Benton can do is to retire from public life. A man who 

 has so many personal grievances against his fellow bee-keep- 

 ers should disconnect himself entirely from them, and take up 

 some business where he can go it alone. Or at least this is my 

 idea. 



lloiicy SIS Foo«l ami Me«liciiie. — A new and revised 

 edition of this 33-page pamphlet is now issued. It has 5 blank 

 pages on which to write or paste recipes taken from other sources. 

 It is just what its name indicates, and should be liberally dis- 

 tributed among the people everywhere to create a demand for 

 honey. It contains a number of recipes on the use of honey as 

 food and as medicine, besides much other interesting and valuable 

 information. Prices, postpaid, are: Single copy, 5 ets. ; 10 copies 

 35 cts. ; 50 for S1.50 ; 100 for S3.50. Better give them a trial. Send 

 aU orders to the Bee Journal office. 



The McEvoy Foul Brood Treatment is 



given in Dr. Howard's pamphlet on " Foul Brood ; Its Natural 

 History and Rational Treatment." It is the latest publication 

 on the subject, and should be in the hands of every bee-keeper. 

 Price, 25 cents ; or clubbed with the Bee Journal for one year 



—both for $1.10. 



