AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



505 



A Patent was granted on April 7, 

 1891, to an apiarist in Nebraska on a 

 bee-hive, having a "latticed queen- 

 excluder" in the honey-board, and "a 

 pivoted cut-off or valve located between 

 the sections, fitted to open and close the 

 excluder " — whatever that may mean ! 



He claims that by this hive he can pro- 

 duce more than three times the honey 

 than by any other. He adds: "My 

 queen-excluders enabling me to fully 

 control the queen, for when not brood- 

 ing, honey is making, and the honey- 

 receiving combs are, by my invention, 

 kept free from brood, and are hence 

 clean and pure, and the honey commands 

 a higher price in market." 



What nonsense ! Does the inventor 

 imagine that bee-keepers are yet operat- 

 ing in tlie old way of cutting comb- 

 honey out of the brood-chamber ? His 

 claims are pretty conclusive evidence 

 that he is not posted in the methods of 

 modern honey-production. 



It is foolisli to claim an increase of 

 300 per cent, in honey-production upon 

 the use of any hive — no matter what 

 may be its features or excellence. Bees 

 in log-gams, box-hives, or even in trees 

 in the woods, will generally store as 

 much honey as those in hives of the most 

 improved construction. The advantages 

 of the latter are in their ease of manipu- 

 lation, and in the more marketable con- 

 dition of the product. 



Xlie Columbian Fair.— Mr. C. 

 H. Dibbern, in theWestem Plowman^ asks 

 this very important question, which the 

 bee-keepers of Illinois and elsewhere will 

 do well to give due consideration : 



Well, what are beo-keepers going to 

 do for the World's Columbian Exposi- 

 tion ? True, we still have two years to 

 prepare in, but in our pursuit, like the 

 Exposition Itself, we will need all the 

 time there is, if we would make a credit- 

 able display. 



I am pleased to note that some of the 

 leading bee-keepers, are taking the mat- 

 ter in hand, and forming a State organi- 

 zation. It may be many generations 

 before we have another World's Fair in 



our State, and it would be a lasting 

 disgrace if we "got left," and did not 

 even make a reasonable effort. 



What would our trans-Atlantic friends 

 think of us, to come to the great State 

 of Illinois — a land flowing with milk and 

 honey — to find only a meager display of 

 lioney from the State, while the blue 

 ribbons were fluttering from the elegant 

 pyramids displayed by some native of 

 the Fiji Islands ? 



Of course, we do not intend to let that 

 tiling happen, but we must be up and 

 doing, as even greater surprises have 

 liappened. Our display sliould be large ; 

 so large, in fact, that it will astonish 

 people. Of course no one person can do 

 this, but if we unite our efforts, the honey 

 and wax display will be grand. 



Apiary Destroyed. — As the sub- 

 ject of spraying fruit-trees while in bloom 

 is now before several Legislatures, the 

 following letter will prove very interest- 

 ing reading, copied from page 331 of the 

 Bee Journal for 1889 : 



The past Winter was very mild in this 

 locality, and bees have wintered well 

 generally. I never had my bees in bet- 

 ter condition up to within two weeks 

 ago — in fact I was too much elated over 

 the prospect of harvesting the largest 

 prospective crop of Spring honey that I 

 ever saw ; white clover never looked 

 finer, nor promised a greater yield of nec- 

 tar, than it does at this time ; but, alas! 

 the apple-bloom proved a "death war- 

 rant" to millions of bees in this imme- 

 diate neighborhood. One of my neigh- 

 bors, owning an orchard of about 100 

 acres of apple trees, sprayed the trees 

 with paris green dissolved in water, just 

 as the trees were in full bloom ; and, lo, 

 our bees got the full benefit. The result 

 is, that about ten or twelve bee-keepers 

 have been totally ruined, as far as get- 

 ting a Spring crop of honey is concerned. 

 The young bees of the colonies that had 

 never been out to the fields, came out of 

 their hives by the thousands, and went 

 hopping all over the grounds ; the larvae 

 in all stages of growth, both drone and 

 worker, were thrown out of the hives 

 by the (I suppose) well bees. Yesterday 

 I examined 4 colonies of the poisoned 

 bees belonging to Mr. Charles Dodge, and 

 I could not find any queen or freshly- 

 laid eggs. I do not know whether the 

 queens are all killed by the poison, or 

 not. Truly, the path of the bee-keepr i 

 is a hard one. John G. Smith 



Barrv, Ills., Mav 15, 1889. 



