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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Meanness.— The editor of the 

 News of Miami, Mo., is trying to incite 

 a crusade against the bees in that town. 

 As stated on page 563 of the Bee 

 JouENAL for last year, one of our bee- 

 keeping ladies has an apiary in that 

 city, and the Mayor, who also edits a 

 jsmall local paper there, is endeavoring 

 to array the neighbors of Mrs. J. M. 

 Null against her bees. As a sample of 

 his meanness, here is an item from his 

 paper of last week : 



The little busy bees are mighty busy 

 making honey these days, and the way 

 they destroy grapes is shameful. For 

 our part we vote them an infernal 

 nuisance, that ought to be abated. 



No gentleman would have penned 

 such an item. No one having ordinary 

 intelligence, such as an editor should 

 possess, would have charged the bees 

 with destroying the grapes. They do 

 no such thing. Bees do not puncture 

 the skin of a grape, and only take the 

 oozing juice when it is going to waste, 

 and that to their own detriment ! 



The only " shameful " thing about it, 

 is the false charges of that editor ! If 

 he, as Mayor, wants to "abate" any 

 "nuisances," he should pounce upon 

 that dirty sheet, the Neivs, and abate it ! 



Just think of the want of gallantry in 

 a man armed with the powers of a 

 Mayor, and possessing the lever of a 

 printing press, going around among 

 neighbors, and endeavoring by false 

 charges and untruthful assertions, to 

 array them against an innoflfensive lady, 

 who happened to keep a few bees for the 

 love of the pursuit, and the production 

 of a few pounds of honey ! It is sur- 

 prising that such a ease could be found 

 in this enlightened age, and in the 

 country noted, the world over, for its 

 gallantry and consideration for the 

 ladies, and for maintaining their rights 

 and privileges. 



Mrs. Null has been a member of the 

 National Bee-Keepers' Union for years, 

 and her rights; and privileges under the 

 Constitution of the United States will be 

 asserted and defended. 



The injury charged to the bees is the 

 result of over-ripeness or decay. Birds 

 and wasps also are pilferers, but bees 

 never puncture the sound skin of grapes. 



A Correspondent sends us the 

 following item, clipped from the Kenton, 

 (O.) Herald, and asks: "Who is Sir 

 John Lubbock ?" 



Sir John Lubbock kept a queen-bee 

 for 15 years, a test proving her eggs to 

 be just as fertile at that age as they 

 were 12 years before. 



Sir John Lubbock is a prominent 

 English scientist, and any opinion he 

 may express is worthy of consideration. 

 The foregoing item may not express his 

 views. There may be a typographical 

 error in the number of years, or the 

 framing of the item by some reporter 

 may have been unfortunate. Some years 

 ago Sir John Lubbock stated that 

 queen ants, in his nests, had been vigor- 

 ous layers for 13 years. Perhaps the 

 reporter got this statement mixed with 

 queen bees. Usually, queen bees, after 

 3 or 4 years, either cease to lay, or lay 

 only drone eggs. 



lYater Swallo^ws are now re- 

 corded as bee-enemies. Mrs. L. Harri- 

 son gives this incident in last week's 

 Prairie Farmer : 



An amateur bee-keeper who is fond of 

 fishing, called the other day and said 

 while crossing the Illinois river in a 

 skiff, he saw many dead bees floating on 

 the water, and that he lifted out a live 

 one on his paddle ; and he thought that, 

 the water swallows, which are very 

 numerous, caught the bees and also 

 knocked them into the water in their 

 rapid flight. 



A Warm "Wave traveled across 

 the continent last week. The tempera- 

 ture ranged around the nineties, and 

 was very oppressive. The temperature 

 in the States of Dakota, Minnesota, Wis- 

 consin, Michigan, and Northern Illinois 

 and Northwestern Iowa, was the highest 

 for this season of the year, that the 

 weather buaeau has anv record of. 



