1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



653 



also comb foundation. Mr. M. was present with his display 

 and gave all the necessary information concerning the con- 

 struction of hives, the habits of bees, the method of handling 

 them, etc. This is probably the first time that bees in ;ill 

 their workings have been shown in Cowley county during an 

 agricultural Fair. 



What better way is there to advertise honey and the bee- 

 business than the above ? Such displays are great educators, 

 and will aid much in dispelling the prevalent misconceptions 

 concerning the bee and its management. Bee-keepers should 

 embrace every opportunity possible to place the bee-keeping 

 industry before the public in its true light. 



Xlie Xoronto Convention Report.— The last 

 installment of this Report came to the Bee Journal office, from 

 Secretary Hutchinson, to-day, Oct. 2 — within less than a 

 month after the meeting closed ! And this while Bro. H. has 

 not been at all well. It has been a real pleasure to me, to re- 

 ceive the Report so promptly, after the unfortunate experi- 

 ence of a year ago. 



By the way, that undelivered balance of the St. Joseph 



Report must still be quietly snoozing somewhere down in 



Washington, D. C. At this writing, it has not been received at 



this office. 



^-.-». 



Mr. Byron 'Walker, of Evart, Mich., called last 

 week. He reports a crop of 30,000 pounds of willowherb 

 honey alone, this year. Mr. Walker usually spends several 

 months each fall and winter in Chicago selling honey. 



^rr)or)^ \\)€ Bee-Papers 



SOME STBAT STRAWS FROM GLEANINGS. 



Crimson clover is also called scarlet clover, German clover, 

 German mammoth clover, and Italian clover. Its botanical 

 name is TrifoUiim iiicarnotttm. 



Punic bees are no longer mentioned. Yet wherever any 

 of that jet-black blood is left in my apiary I find good workers. 

 But they're cross, and not Si to make comb honey. They 

 make watery combs, and, oh the bee-glOe ! 



Honey-vinegar is perhaps not made as much as it should 

 be. A writer in British Bee Journal says: "By using an 

 extra quantity of honey one gets a splendid acid beverage 

 that will compare favorably with raspberry vinegar." 



In England, where crimson clover is grown with some dif- 

 ficulty, it is said to winter-kill if sown on newly-plowed land, 

 but to pass the winter uninjured if merely harrowed in on 

 stubble." — Bulletin 125, Michigan Experiment Station. That 

 is, sow on hard rather than mellow ground. 



Rape is a great honey-plant in Germany and elsewhere, 

 but is little known in this country. The Stockman thinks it is 

 destined to become much better known here ; and Prof. Thos. 

 Shaw is '• certain that it is to bo a great factor in solving the 

 problem of cheap-mutton production." "Am pasturing six 

 sheep and ten lambs in fine form on an acre of land." 



THE WEIGHT OF BEES LOADED AND EMPTY. 



Prof. B. F. Koons, President of the Connecticut Agricul- 

 tural College, has given some very interesting figures in 

 Gleanings. Two years ago he found 4,141 to 5,669 workers 

 in a pound, using scales so delicately adjusted as to show one- 

 millionth part of a pound. This year he investigated the load 

 of a bee and says : 



"The following is the result of weighing several hundred 

 each, of the returning and outgoing bees. The smallest num- 

 ber of bees necessary to carry one pound of honey, as shown 

 by my results, is 10,154; or, in other words, one bee can 

 carry one ten thousand one hundred and fifty-fourth part of a 

 pound of honey; and the largest number, as shown by the 

 results, required to carry a pound is 45,641 ; and the average 



of all the sets weighed is 20,167. Perhaps, then, it is approx- 

 imately correct to say that the average load of a bee is one 

 twenty-thousandth of a pound ; or in other words, if a colony 

 has 20,01j0 bees in it, and each makes one trip a day, they 

 will add one pound to their stores. Of course, not all the bees 

 in a colony leave the hive, the nurses remaining at home, hence 

 necessitating more trips of those which do ' go a-field.' 



" I also repeated my observations of two years ago on the 

 weight of bees, and found that my numbers ran from 3,680 

 to 5,49.5 in a pound, and the average about 4,800, the same 

 as in my former test. I likewise secured the following on the 

 weight of drones : Of a dozen or more weighed, the largest 

 would require 1,808 to make a pound, and the smallest 2,122 

 or an average of about 2,000 dones in a pound, over against 

 nearly 5,000 workers." 



SOME LITERATURE AT TORONTO. 



The practice of circulating special circulars and dodgers, as 

 was done at the last meeting of the North American Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association during its sessions, was not very creditable to the 

 writers of such matter, or considerate to those in attendance, 

 especially the person who happened to have the floor at the 

 time. If the pet notions and supposed grievances of the writ- 

 ers of these circulars cannot bo brought to the attention of 

 bee-keepers in any other way, it were better that they remain 

 in oblivion. Such practices were condemned at the time, and 

 always should be. We refer to the distribution of the pam- 

 phlet entitled "Bees," attacking Geo. W. York and others, 

 by Frank Benton, and a dodger advertising a booklet by 

 W. F. Clarke, defending sugar-honey production, and attack- 

 ing Ontario's foul-brood inspector, Wm. McEvoy. — Editorial 

 in Gleanings. 



DOOLITTLE AT TORONTO. 



An editorial in Gleanings says : 



" G. M. Doolittle's genial face, and eloquent words on 

 some things of interest to bee-keepers were a treat indeed. 

 The address deserved a larger hearing. His first plea was for 

 more brotherly love, less desire for honor and self-aggrandize- 

 ment, more willingness to impart, for the common good, valu- 

 able ideas gained in our own experience. ' Freely ye have 

 received, freely give.' Along the line of honey-adulteration 

 he believes that more work (detective work, if need be) and 

 less talk would accomplish a great deal more. At present, 

 though a great deal has been said, practically nothing has 

 been accomplished to stop adulteration. Here is work that 

 the Union ought to take up. If a few samples were made in 

 convicting aud punishing adulterators, they would be more 

 careful." 



Cai;)adiat) Beedoj^^ 



Mr. McArthur's Bees and Bee-Forage. 



The Toronto Convention had no lack of side-shows and ex- 

 tra attractions. There was the city itself, with its lovely pri- 

 vate homes, beautiful parks, business palaces, and magnificent 

 public buildings. The Industrial Fair was going on, which 

 Toronto people, with pardonable pride, are fond of calling 

 "the biggest show on earth." But to bee-keepers, the most 

 attractive side-show was that of Mr. John McArthur, who cor- 

 dially invited all and sundry to visit his isolated bee-yard, lo- 

 cated on the island. About 40 of us accepted the invitation, 

 and enjoved a rare treat. Toronto Island is a tract of land 

 ■formed o'f sand washed up by the rivers— Niagara, Humber 

 and Don— situated in Lake Ontario, directly opposite the city, 

 and forming a spacious harbor. The island is about two miles 

 from the main land, comprising 5,000 acres, and some two 

 miles, or a little less, in width. Ten years ago it was a barren 

 desert. Now part of it is laid out in a large park. Thousands 

 of nectar-yielding trees have been planted, white clover grows 

 luxuriantly, aud there is a greatly varied flora. The city 

 owns the island, and a permit is needed to put anything on it, 

 even bees. Mr. McArthur has obtained a concession of a large 

 portion of it, on the condition of bis seeding it down with plants 

 fitted to keep the sand from shifting and drifting with the 

 wind. He has already sown well-nigh all the honey-produ- 

 cing plants that will flourish in this climate, and what was 

 formerly a wilderness and a solitary place, now "blossoms as 

 the rose." Its isolation from wild and other bees is complete, 

 and it is the very ideal of a spot for breeding queen-bees " to a 

 feather." 



To this lovely seclusion we made our way on one of the 



