AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



535 



the same time as the Sixth District Ag- 

 ricultural Fair will be held, and we look 

 -for a good attendance, although the 

 yield of honey for this year has not been 

 very bountiful. C. N. Wilson. 



Los Angeles, Calif. 



Four Bee-Trees. 



This was my first season in bee-keep- 

 ing, and despite the poor result, I am 

 not discouraged, for I shall learn better 

 how to manage the bees, and if I realize 

 no great profit, working among and 

 watching my little pets will be a source 

 of pleasure to me. During the Summer 

 I spent three afternoons in the woods, 

 and found four bee-trees. I commenced 

 with 3 colonies of common bees in the 

 Spring, which increased to 9, but they 

 did not give me 100 pounds of surplus, 

 though the brood-nests are well supplied 

 with honey and bees. White clover was 

 abundant, but it yielded no nectar. 

 Autumn flowers — heart's-ease, golden- 

 rod, asters, etc.— were plentiful, also, 

 but the drouth dried them up so that 

 very little or no honey was stored from 

 this source, which was the last chance 

 for a honey crop. One mistake that I 

 . made, was in giving the bees too much 

 surplus room, and the result is that not 

 one section was fully finished. 



D. A. Cadwalladek. 

 Prairie du Rocher, Ills. 



Mucli Below an Average. 



The yield of fine honey in our State is, 

 I think, much below an average crop 

 this year. It is certainly so in the 

 Shenandoah Valley. I do not suppose 

 any State has a large crop. 



Marlboro, Va. J. E. Pitman. 



Why They Do Not Prosper. 



I notice that several of the new bee- 

 periodicals are already dead. The cause 

 of this is, no doubt, that they spring 

 into existence, expecting to supplant 

 some old established periodical, and as 

 that is a very difficult undertaking, the 

 new one dies in the attempt. Only those 

 succeed which mark out an independent 

 course, and pursue it, and at the same 

 time cultivate the good opinion of apiar- 

 ists and the periodicals already estab- 

 lished. The world is never too full for 

 bright ideas, well expressed, and for 

 original ideas. The new bee-papers die 

 because imitation is stamped on them 

 throughout. When bee-keepers see an 

 imitation, they always go for the origi- 



nal. That fire which glows on one's 

 own grate cannot be induced to burn in 

 another by refiection. 



Buffalo, N. Y. J. W. Tefft. 



Wavelets of News. 



The Honey Crop of 1891. 



The honey crop of the East will be 

 short, at least 50 per cent. In Califor- 

 nia, the best authorities claim that only 

 one-fourth of the amount produced in 

 1890 was produced there this year. 

 The flora of California failed to yield the 

 usual flow of nectar, and the honey was 

 gathered principally in the alfalfa dis- 

 tricts. In the East, heavy and continued 

 rains in some States checked the flow, 

 and retarded the work of the bees ; 

 while in other States, notably in Illinois, 

 Indiana and Michigan, drouth dried up 

 the nectar fountains, or burned up the 

 wild flowers.— Colorado Field and Farm. 



Minorcan and P\inie Bees. 



An American journal publishes a 

 notice of this variety of bees, calling 

 them " the most marvelous bees in the 

 world." So far as we are able to make 

 out, this much-vaunted variety is none 

 other than what we call the Minorcan 

 bee. It probably comes to us from the 

 nouth of Africa, hence its history. 



Latee.— Since writing the above, we 

 notice in the British Bee Journal that a 

 Yankee apiculturist offers for sale 

 queens of the Punic variety (are we to 

 see here an allusion to the proverbial 

 faithlessness of the Carthagenians ?) at 

 five pounds sterling each ! 



Another dealer of the same enterpris- 

 ing section of the Anglo-Saxon race, a 

 certain Mr. Pratt — we must not omit 

 his name, for surely he has a good 

 chance of being immortalized — asks only 

 the modest sum of 80 pesos— or 400 

 pesetas ($80). This is practically giving 

 them away ! — Revista Apicola. 



Apiarian Exhibit at Indianapolis. 



The "busy little bee," all its products 

 and everything pertaining to apiculture, 

 were represented in the handsome ex- 

 hibit of Walter S. Pouder, who is an 

 authority on apiculture. The bee-keep- 

 ers, who constantly consulted him, took 

 much pleasure in his exhibit.— /7idian- 

 apolis Neivs. 



