788 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL,. 



extracted honey. A friend of mine com- 

 menced with one colony that gave him 

 three swarms and 400 pounds of honey 

 in one Summer. 



L. Hammekschmidt. 

 Amana, Iowa. 



Small Fall Crop of Honey. 



I boughtone colony of bees last March. 

 They swarmed twice, and gave 42 

 pounds of honey in one-pound sections. 

 I take the American Bee Journal, and 

 your book "Bees and Honey" for my 

 guide. Bees did very well here early in 

 the season, but it was too dry. Bees 

 gathered a very little nectar in the Fall 

 from smartweed and golden-rod. 



Midland, Mo. A. D. Wallis. 



Southern Moss for Christmas. 



I have received several letters from 

 friends, asking if I would send them 

 some of our lovely Southern moss for 

 Christmas decorations. Certainly ; I will 

 forward it with pleasure to all who send 

 stamps for postage, as there is plenty of 

 it here, it is easy to get, and I have 

 ample time to do it. Send postage at 

 the rate of 16 cents per pound, or if you 

 wish a large four-pound roll of moss, 

 send 64 cents in stamps, and I will mail 

 that amount to you. Do not plant the 

 moss, as it is properly an air-plant, but 

 hang or drape it anywhere. Keep it 

 moist and it will continue growing. 



Mrs. F. a. Warner. 



St. Nicholas, Fla. 



Butler's Anti-Honey-Board Frame. 



I would like to say a word in favor of 

 Mr. Butler's anti-honey-board frame (see 

 page 709). This frame, with a flat bar, 

 instead of the V-shaped strip, deserves 

 more credit than some think best to give 

 it. About 8 years ago I experimented 

 largely with brood-frames. I made and 

 tested them with top-bars of various 

 patterns. My object was to get rid of 

 both burr-combs and honey-boards. A 

 few tests proved to my own satisfaction 

 that the break-joint feature of the honey- 

 board was all a hoax, that brood-frames 

 with a double top-bar, accurately spread, 

 compared favorably with the slatted 

 honey-board. Why not ? Bees are in- 

 clined to bridge the first bee-space. This 

 privilege is not denied them. The burr- 

 combs and passages are between the 

 double-bars. Why, then, use a honey- 

 board or Hill's device? 



Belle Vernon, Pa. A. B. Baird. 



Bee-Keepers and Raisin Growers. 



I am glad to be able to state that the 

 fruit men are getting to look at the bees 

 in a different light — more of them ac- 

 knowledging that they are a benefit to 

 the friut industry. Even one of my 

 worst opponents was heard to remark 

 the other day that the trouble between 

 bee-keepers and grape-growers was not 

 so much the fault of the bees as it was in 

 the handling of the grapes while drying. 

 This same man swore in court that fogs 

 and light rains were a benefit to the 

 raisins while drying. This Fall the 

 weather has been very dry and warm, 

 and the raisins are all dried, even the 

 second crop, without loss. 



Messina, Calif. Gustav Bohn. 



Bees in the Cellar. 



I always see that my bees are comfort- 

 ably housed by Nov. 1, and that they 

 have plenty of stores. If the tempera- 

 ture is kept at about 45°, about 12 

 pounds of well-ripened honey will suffice 

 for ordinary colonies. I have had them 

 come out in good condition when they 

 had only 10 pounds of stores for Win- 

 ter. I have lost none for two Winters. 

 My cellar is dry. The past season was 

 very poor for honey gathering. Many 

 bee-keepers got no surplus. My bees 

 did well, giving 700 pounds of nice 

 comb-honey, which I sold at home at 15 

 cents per pound. J. Arrowood. 



Swan Lake, Minn. 



Foul-Brood. 



I have seen so much of late about foul- 

 brood, that I thought a word from one 

 who has had long experience with it 

 would not be amiss. During the year 

 1880 I lost, out of about 100 colonies, 

 all but four with foul-brood. I notice 

 that some claim that the spores only are 

 carried, and that the disease is spread 

 by honey alone. But my bees contracted 

 the disease from an empty hive that I 

 bought in Dallas and carried home. A 

 foul-brood colony had, of course, occu- 

 pied the hive, and I found that the dis- 

 ease would spread from hive to hive by 

 robbing, by changing queens or hives, or 

 by keeping diseased colonies in the 

 yard. Others took it whether they 

 robbed or not, and the scalding or the 

 starving plans, or putting empty hives 

 on foundation, did no good. It kept 

 on until the whole apiary was destroyed. 

 When I extracted any honey, there 

 would be enough of the foul-brood mat- 

 ter to make the honey look and act like 



