THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



487 



erably, and leads to a better under- 

 standing. The word "untrue" was 

 intended to apply to the assertion 

 that we had shown our shining 

 metal in defense of the word " ex- 

 tracted ■' as a name for honey out of 

 the comb. As Bro. D's article was 

 imritten before we had stated our dis- 

 approbation of its continued use, that 

 clears the matter up. 



As Bro. Demaree is also dissatisfied 

 with the term " liquid " as a commer- 

 cial name for honey out of the comb, 

 we asked him how he liked " combless 

 honey " as a name for honey out of 

 the comb, and here is his reply : " My 

 objection to ' combless honey,' is that 

 the expression combless implies that 

 the honey never was in any comb. 

 Just as ' seedless grapes ' implies that 

 the grapes never had any seeds, and 

 'boneless codfish' signifies that the 

 cods were bom and lived without 

 bones in the edible parts of the fish." 



The argument is good so far as it 

 goes ; but it is defective in an impor- 

 tant point : it does not, even gener- 

 ally, show that when less is added to a 

 word that it means anything else 

 than " without!''' 



On page 490, Mrs. O. F. Jackson 

 says that the air was " full of home- 

 less bees " — does that word indicate 

 that they never had a home ? We all 

 know to the contrary ! 



If we say that a man is sick and 

 fiiendless, does that prove that he was 

 always without a friend ? Nay, 

 verily ! 



Or, to demonstrate that the argu- 

 ment of Bro. Demaree is almost point- 

 less, and not entirely faultless, would 

 any sane person ever assert that a 

 "motherless boy" never had a 



MOTHER ? 



That argument of Mr. Demaree's is 

 non-suited ; doubtless it is entirely 

 harmless, but it is also useless and 

 worthless.' All will discover, how- 

 ever, that it is not pun- icss.— Ed.] 



For tbe American Bee JouniaL 



Tbe Season— Over Procinctioii, 



M. MILLER. 



The honey crop in this part of the 

 country is almost a total failure, on 

 account of the dry weather. We did 

 not have enough rain to do the grow- 

 ing crops much good for twelve 

 months and four days. The white 

 clover bloom has come and gone, also 

 the basswobd, and neither of them 

 yielded any surplus. We have had 

 copious rains the last few days, but 

 they came too late to do the white 

 clover any good, and just in time to 



Erevent the bees from working on the 

 asswood. There is still a prospect 

 of a fall flow of honey, if the weather 

 continues favorable. The hives are 

 "boiling over ■" with bees, but very 

 few swarms have issued yet. Even a 

 flow of houey-dew would be accejjted 

 this season without much fault-find- 

 ing. 



OVER-PRODUCTION OF HONEY. 



Let me name some of the causes of 

 over-production of honey : Eight- 

 frame hives ; contraction of brood- 

 chambers ; sectional brood-chambers ; 

 reversible frames and hives ; full- 

 sized starters in the surplus depart- 

 ment ; and the substitution of sugar 

 syrup in place of natural stores for 

 wintering. All of these tend to throw 

 more honey on the market. It is not 

 all caused by the miserable " one- 

 horse " bee-keeper, but it is all these 

 things combined. 



Bee-keepers are taking more and 

 more to cellar-wintering (thereby 

 meeting with less winter losses), and 

 also better protection for those bees 

 left on tbe summer stands, thereby 

 losing fewer colonies. Bad wintering 

 and poor honey crops are the safety- 

 valves of bee-keeping, and the little 

 one-horse bee-keeper is the one that 

 will continue to lose his bees, gen- 

 erally being satisfied to let the calling 

 alone after a disastrous winter or two. 



Dr. C. C. Miller seems to be willing 

 to cease arguing the question of bee- 

 legislation. It is a little like the 

 Langstroth frame controversy some 

 two or three years ago in the Bee 

 Journal ; after a long discussion pro 

 and con, all parties were of about the 

 same opinion as they were at first. 



Le Claire, o» Iowa, July 9, 1887. 



HUrs National Builder. 



Canse of Drontli anfl Cyclones. 



THOS. E. HILL. 



During a recent journey to Europe 

 the passage across the ocean was es- 

 pecially unpleasant, because of fogs, 

 the only consolation in contemplating 

 them being that they represented the 

 work of Nature in drawing moisture 

 from the water, which, wafted inland, 

 fell upon the soil in refreshing rain, 

 gathered in the brooks and rivers and 

 flowed to the sea, to be again thus 

 sent back to freshen and brighten the 

 parched earth. 



The speed of our vessel was ma- 

 terially retarded by winds from the 

 west, a common occurrence in the 

 summer season. The fogs and mois- 

 ture through these winds are driven 

 upon the Continent, where drouth 

 seldom prevails, and particularly do 

 they freshen the verdure of Ireland, 

 and hence the brilliant green of the 

 Emerald Isle. 



In reflecting upon this subject, I 

 contemplated the drouth then pre- 

 vailing in several of the Western and 

 Middle States of the Union. What 

 had they to gather rains from y Alas, 

 what have they V For a generation 

 our farmers have been draining their 

 lands of moisture. Thev have run 



their tiling through every slough ; 

 they have drawn out the water from 

 every swamp ; they have dried up the 

 pond ; they have obliterated the beau- 

 tiful little lake. In doing this they 

 have made such easy and rapid egress 

 for rainfall from the soil as to endan- 

 ger the homes and farm lands of all 

 the settlers along the great rivers in 

 the southern regions of our country, 

 already inflicting great distress, loss 

 of life, and property equaling in value 

 many millions of dollars— an evil 

 which is growing in magnitude each 

 year. 



The result of this wholesale drain- 

 ing of the upper country of water is 

 not only thus disastrous to life and 

 property along the larger streams, 

 from frequent overflow, but there is 

 such absolute drainage of moisture 

 from the earth as to produce severe 

 drouth, accompanied by such intense 

 heat and dryness of atmosphere as 

 results in the hurricane, the cyclone, 

 and innumerable village, prairie and 

 forest fires. 



In the early days when the process 

 of evaporation of moisture went for- 

 ward from the swamps, the ponds and 

 lakes of our Western and Middle 

 States, an extended drouth, with ex- 

 tremely intense heat, was a rare oc- 

 currence. In those days sun- stroke 

 was very uncommon, and the cyclone 

 was comparatively unknown. This 

 year we are in the second season of 

 drouth in various portions of the 

 country, while every year brings its 

 devastation from wind, the result of 

 an excessively dry and frequently dis- 

 turbed condition- of the atmosphere. 



With the land thus denuded of 

 natural water supply, there is but one 

 course for our farmers to pursue to 

 save themselves from these evils. 

 They may drain their soil, but they 

 should gather the rainfall in ponds 

 and lakes scattered throughout their 

 lands. Instead of running the drains 

 through and out of the swamp, they 

 should lead to an excavation of such 

 size as circumstances will permit, 

 which should be made at a depth of 3 

 or 4 feet, where the water can gather 

 and will remain throughout the year, 

 quenching the thirst of animals, 

 giving drink to birds, a reservoir in 

 case of fire, a home for fish, a place of 

 beauty on which one may sail the 

 boat, an opportunity for the bath and 

 for teaching the young people to swim. 

 This will yield ice for the family, 

 provide skating for the happy youth 

 in winter time, and moisture, which 

 through evaporation, will pass into 

 the cloud to be returned again through 

 rainfall to the needy earth. 



No fear need be entertained of stag- 

 nation from water thus held in re- 

 serve. Fish will of themselves purify 

 it. Every rain will change it, while, 

 if the lake covers an acre or more in 

 area, the wind will constantly keep it 

 pure. In proof of this, the writer has 

 an artificial lake on his farm, the re- 

 sult of dredging a swamp, which is 

 filled only by rainfall, tbe water 

 being, in the dryest season, always 

 perfectly clear and fresh. 



On the low lands the general 

 abandonment of farms and homes 

 from river overflow will be the inev- 



