AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



503 



Wavelets of News. 



Fairs and Bee -Lore. 



I am pleased to see that these grand 

 reunions of our people are generally so 

 well attended throughout the country 

 this season, and that they have so many 

 interesting features, as, for instance, old 

 settlers' and children's day. Here we 

 meet old friends and schoolmates of our 

 early days, and are reminded of the past 

 intervening years. 



At one of these fairs I met an old 

 schoolmate whom I had not seen for 40 

 years, and I said, "Sarah, what have 

 you been doing all these years ?" She 

 answered sadly, " O, cooking and wash- 

 ing." It is important that cooking 

 should be done as long as people must 

 eat, but the sadness of this woman's 

 voice caused me to think that her soul 

 was hungry, and had not been properly 

 fed along with her body, as is the case 

 with many. 



When bee-keepers meet at the general 

 round-up, we always ask, "What papers 

 do you take ?" One who is fully up to 

 the times, has learned by reading the 

 opinions and practices of all the promi- 

 nent bee-keepers of the world. Bee- 

 culture has advanced with rapid gait 

 during the last decade, and as soon as 

 one forward step is taken, it is heralded 

 all over the world through the agency 

 of the press. — Mrs. L. Harrison, in the 

 Prairie Farmer. 



How to Rear and Preserve Drones. 



It is well known to most bee-keepers 

 that colonies having fertile queens will 

 not rear nor permit drones to live in the 

 hive late in the season, and seldom when 

 forage is scarce. 



If queen-rearing is going on, drones 

 must be procured at any cost, and some 

 means must be adopted to rear and pre- 

 serve ttem for use in the latter part of 

 the season. To do this, the following 

 method is necessary. Have at hand 

 several extra frames of drone comb, 

 insert one in the center of the colony 

 from whose queen you wish to rear 

 them. Feed this colony liberally if 

 forage is scarce. 



Examine them in the course of a week; 

 if the comb is well filled with eggs and 

 larvae, remove it to a queenless colony. 

 Instinct teaches queenless bees the 

 necessity of rearing and caring for 

 drones, hence they can always be 



depended upon for this, provided the 

 brood is given them. 



Replace the comb just removed with 

 an empty one, continue this as long as 

 the queen can be induced to lay drone 

 eggs. Remember that queenless bees 

 never destroy drones, while a colony 

 having a fertile queen will invariably do 

 so, unless encouraged to preserve them 

 by being fed, — A. Reusch, in Chariton 

 (Iowa) Herald. 



Lighting a Smoker. 



We have just learned a new way to 

 light the Clark smoker. We cram it 

 with excelsior sawdust, then close the 

 door tight. We next strike a match on 

 the sandpaper, work the bellows, and 

 then hold the blaze directly against the 

 perforations U7ifZer the smoker, just back 

 of the front legs. The flame will shoot 

 in, ignite the fuel, and the smoker so 

 lighted is almost sure to stay so. 



English Ivy and the Bees. 



English ivy is blooming profusely 

 about the carved stone newel posts of 

 the terrace stairway in Central Park, 

 and myriads of honey-bees haunt the 

 region. The English ivy is thoroughly 

 domesticated in the park, but of all the 

 climbing plants cultivated in the park, 

 the Japanese ampelopsis, or ivy, is the 

 most satisfactory. It is hiding all the 

 ugly walls about Central Park, and will 

 eventually be trained along the bluff side 

 of Morningside Park, so as to make for 

 that charming strip a solid background 

 of green. — New Yor'k Sun. 



Bees vs. Fruit. 



HorticulttfVists throughout the coun- 

 try complain of bees damaging their 

 fruit. They should remember that it is 

 owing to the services of bees in fertiliz- 

 ing the bloom that they have a crop of 

 fruit. Bees do not tear open the skin of 

 pears, peaches and grapes, but when it 

 is broken by birds or wasps, they suck 

 out all the juice. 



Lately I was gathering some grapes, 

 and there was not a bee to be seen upon 

 the bunches upon the vines. The grapes 

 were very ripe, and were easily broken 

 from the stem, and I soon noticed that 

 the basket was lively with bees. Very 

 ripe peaches were not molested unless 

 the skin was broken. 



I tried drying peaches in the sun, but 

 I soon found that they were covered 



