458 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



01d=Ximc Songs. 



The songs we used to sing? Ah, mel 

 I love them, and if I could bring 

 My voice their sad, sweet notes to sing. 

 The air should with an anthem ring 



Of sweetest melody. 



The songs we used to sing? Ah, mel 

 Their music fills my heart with tears, 

 For those lost hopes of long gone years, 

 That Time's eternal river bears 



On to Eternity 



The songs we used to sing? Ah, me! 

 In dreams I hear each tender strain. 

 In mystic minor sung again— 

 I wake, and dies the sweet refrain 



To all but memory. 



—New Orleans Times-Demoerat. 



Topics of Interest. 



Create a Home Market for Honey. 



GEO. M. DEEK. 



The honey crop in this locality this 

 year is only about one-fourth of an 

 average. The weather was so dry early 

 in Spring that white clover was about 

 dried up, and basswood did not yield 

 much nectar. The Fall bloom amounts 

 to nothing, and I shall be compelled to 

 feed sugar to my bees, and buy honey 

 for my home trade, which, I think, will 

 require about 5,000 pounds. This is an 

 illustration of how much honey can be 

 sold by one man, if he only has it in 

 such shape that the people can handle 

 it, and I think I could sell 10,000 

 pounds by working hard. 



I believe in building up a home trade, 

 and not shipping so mii(;h to large 

 cities, thereby flooding the market, and 

 depressing the price to the detriment of 

 all bee-keepers. Sell some to your 

 neighbors, who have not enough honey 

 to supply their customers, and keep all 

 the honey possible out of the markets 

 that govern the price. By so doing 

 better prices will prevail in course of 

 time. 



Let the public know that you have, 

 honey for sale, and the price per pound. 

 Tell them that it is not a dear article, 

 and when you once induce a man to try 

 good honey, you have another customer, 

 and he will tell his friends, and they, in 

 turn, will speak of it to others, and in 

 course of time you may have to adver- 

 tise for honey to supply the demand. 



Perhaps some of your neighboring 

 bee-keepejs will liave their honey stored 



away, and as they make no effort to sell 

 it, no one knows that they have it for 

 sale, except their near neighbors and 

 friends, and if they cannot get a fair 

 price, they will sell their honey for what 

 they can get, thus lowering the price. 

 The best way is to hunt up such per- 

 sons, and buy all they have for sale, and 

 in that way uphold prices. 



There would be vastly more demand 

 for honey, if the public were only taught 

 that it is not an expensive luxury, but is 

 the best kind of medicine for various 

 ailments, and that it is not bad to eat 

 when a person is enjoying good health. 



If bee-keepers would try to build up a 

 home trade, instead of shipping their 

 honey to the large cities, it is my opin- 

 ion that the demand would soon be so 

 great that we could as easily obtain 15 

 cents per pound for our product as we 

 now obtain the ruling prices. 



Riga, Mich. 



Naliye or Black Bees, and Italians. 



a. W. DEMAKEE. 



It is a little singular to notice that some 

 one steps into the ring at stated intervals 

 to defend the native, or black bees. This 

 seems strange to me in view of the fact 

 that the native bees are to be found 

 everywhere, and if there is so much 

 good in them, honey-producers will 

 discover it. People do not carry their 

 delusions always where the dollar is 

 involved. 



Mr. Ellingwood, on page 399 of the 

 Bee Journal, makes a modest defense 

 of the good qualities of the native, or 

 black bees. But in comparing these 

 with the Italian race, he makes these 

 very important concessions in favor of 

 the Italians : 



1. The Italians bees are more beauti- 

 ful to look upon. 



2. They can gather honey from certain 

 flowers that the blacks do not work 

 upon. 



3. They protect their hives better. 

 "Here," he says, " are three points of 



superiority." But he refuses to admit 

 any more. We will see about this 

 further on. 



Does Mr. Ellingwood know how much 

 he has conceded to the Italians, as he 

 puts it ? Any farmer who has no regard 

 for beauty in his domestic animals after 

 their kind, would be regarded as a poor 

 farmer in any thrifty locality. 



That trait of gathering honey from 

 flowers never visited by black bees can- 

 not be offset by any superior trait of the 



