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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL-. 



Hiires and Bee^ were swept 

 away by a freshet. An agreement was 

 made to purchase the swarms issuing 

 this year, but there are none left to 

 deliver. A correspondent asks this 

 question : 



Mr. Editor : — I would like to ask you 

 the following questions about an agree- 

 ment for bees. I made a bargain for 

 30 swarms, and furnished my own 

 hives to put them in at $2 a swarm. 

 They were to remain there until Fall, 

 when I was to pay for them and bring 

 them home. There was a freshet about 

 the middle of August, which swept bees 

 and bee-hives away. Now, should I be 

 held to pay for the bees ? If so, is he 

 not responsible for my hives ? They 

 were in his possession. 



If we understand the question from 

 the statement of one party, we would 

 say that in equity and justice the one 

 should lose the bees and the other the 

 hives. 



The party who sold the bees was to 

 deliver them when called for in the Fall. 

 By means of a calamity, nature having 

 destroyed them, he has no bees to 

 deliver, and cannot make a good claim 

 for the payment without tendering the 

 bees — an impossibility ! 



It would be more equitable for the 

 party having had the hives in hi$ pos- 

 session before they were washed away, 

 to pay for them, than for the one who 

 agreed to pay for and take the bees in 

 the Fall (but which were never delivered 

 to him) to be asked to pay for them 

 without delivery, after the calamity. 



We think that you should leave it as 

 nature has left it, and call it square ; 

 thus dividing the loss. 



Secretaries of affiliated societies 

 (if they have not already done so) should 

 at once send their present addresses to 

 the Secretary of the "North American 

 Bee-Keepers' Association" (C. P. Dadant, 

 Hamilton, Hancock County, Ills.), in 

 order to receive the new medals to which 

 each association is entitled. He will 

 forward them by registered mail as soon 

 as the Secretaries are heard from. 



BiOttting- Ne^w under the Sun, 

 was an assertion of '' ye olden time," 

 before the advent of books or printing. 

 It seems as though, in bee-keeping at 

 least, there was considerable truth in 

 that idea. It is very often the case that 

 things considered quite new and original 

 have been discovered, presented and 

 described long ago ; then they have 

 been buried up for years, when, lo, some 

 one discovers them afresh, and puts 

 them to work, perhaps, with new com- 

 bination, and they " go" without much 

 opportunity to find their history in the 

 "forgotten past." In this connection 

 we reproduce from the Rural Califor- 

 nidn, the following from C. N. Wilson : 



How often, when we think we have 

 invented something new, we find by 

 referring to Quinby or Langstroth, that 

 the idea was first originated by them. 



There is a strong tendency now toward 

 the flat cover. This we find described 

 in Langstroth's work, issued away back 

 in 1852. This flat cover is all complete, 

 with cleats nailed on the end. 



Everybody now-a-days seems to be 

 going back to the eight-frame idea. 

 Why, that came from Moses Quinby, L. 

 L. Langstroth and Adam Grimm, away 

 back in the '60's. 



Thick and wide top-bars is another 

 new fad. Still, we find essentially the 

 same thing described in Langstroth's 

 book. 



Chancing a few days ago to look over 

 some old hives — some that were made 

 after Langstroth's early instruction — we 

 observed that the frames all had top- 

 bars 1 1/16 inches wide and % of an 

 inch deep. The combs had been cut out 

 of these frames, but by the propolis 

 accumulations on them, it was evident 

 that they had been used for a number of 

 years. The remarkable part about it 

 all is that they should bear no traces of 

 burr-combs. 



Again, there is a very strong tendency 

 towards fixed distances. Here, again, 

 we are going back to father Quinby. 

 Why in the world did we not catch on 

 to these things earlier? Langstroth and 

 Quinby were so generally right. 



Xlie Xama County Fair will 

 be held at Toledo, Iowa, Sept. 29 and 

 80, and Oct. 1, 1891. Will it have a 

 good exhibit of honey ? 



