AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



591) 



Glad Summer is Near. 



The finches are singing, 



The glad bees are humming-, 

 The grasses are springing. 



The Summer is coming, 



For May is here. 

 With sunshine and shadow. 



Refreshing and cheering. 

 How green is the meadow ! 



Where daisies appearing, 



As stars, shine out clear. 



The tree-tops are swaying. 



With nests on their branches ; 

 The rabbits a-playing. 



Or sit on their haunches, 



As striving to hear 

 The church bells' far pealing. 



Now swelling, now sinlsing. 

 Through the wood the stream stealing. 



Seems joyously thinking 



Glad Summer is near ! • 



Xlie Season in Bngland lias 

 not been as favorable since our last 

 report, given on page 536. The British 

 Bee Journal for April 9, thus describes 

 the change : 



The genial warmth and bright sun- 

 shine which bees and men were so thor- 

 oughly enjoying when last we wrote in 

 this column, was followed by some wel- 

 come rain, only to be succeeded by a 

 return of cold northeast wind and more 

 gloomy dullness. The present backward 

 condition of the fruit bloom everywhere 

 in the south makes it unsafe to hope for 

 any very early honey from that impor- 

 tant source of supply, but we have the 

 comforting reflection that the tender 

 blooms, so snugly folded away in the 

 roundness of plump buds ready to burst 

 forth, are safe from sharp frosts and 

 drying east winds. Passing through 

 some acres of fruit gardens daily, we can 

 see abundance of promise for the bees ; 

 but even th(i black-cijrrant bloom is only 

 just showing its tiny purple pellets half 

 hidden between the opening leaves, 

 while plums, which we thought to have 

 seen white with blossom by this time, 

 are still a thing of beauty which " is to 

 come." We do not share the prognosti- 

 cations of a cold Summer some talk of 

 one bit — at least, so far as that unhoped- 

 for condition of things is to be associated 

 with a poor honey harvest. All our 

 experience points to the fact that very 

 severe and long Winters have been fol- 

 lowed by good bee-seasons, and we trust 

 1891 will be no exception. 



Price-L,ists are received from Ed. 

 E. Smith, Watertown, Conn., and O. H. 

 Hyatt, Shenandoah, Iowa. 



"Xhe IJVisll is Father to the 

 thought." This is manifestly true with 

 respect to the coming honey crop. We 

 wish for a good honey season, and often 

 we are led to think that it will be so. 

 But we cannot tell with certainty any- 

 thing about it until it comes. There are 

 many contingencies, but at present the 

 prospect is good. We hope nothing will 

 prevent its realization. This reminds us 

 of a paragraph in Oleanings for April 

 15, which reads thus : 



Hope is the word engraven on the 

 heart of every bee-keeper at the begin- 

 ning of every season. " We are going 

 to have a good season this year," and so 

 preparations are made. Without hope 

 or expectancy there would be no prepara- 

 tion, and consequently no honey crop. 

 Without bees and proper appliances at 

 the right time, a big honey-flow does not 

 amount to much ; and so it behooves us 

 to be ready for whatever may come. 



A Queen Restrictor is received 

 for our Museum. On page 609 will be 

 found an illustrated article descriptive 

 of it and its uses when rearing Queens, 

 while there is a laying Queen in the 

 hive. When sending it, Mr. C. W. Day- 

 ton remarks as follows concerning it : 



After what has been said in regard to 

 the Queen Restrictor in the bee-papers, 

 I thought you might care for one to put 

 in the American Bee Journajl, Museum 

 for inquiring visitors. 



It is claimed, and it has proven to 

 .perform the function usually ascribed to 

 reversion, contraction and exclusion, 

 and preventing swarms by obviating the 

 construction of queen-cells, by inversion 

 every four days, which is as simple and 

 easy as the reversion of a single reversi- 

 ble comb. It solidifies brood and honey, 

 thereby saving labor in extracting. 

 Drone-rearing in the honey-combs is 

 avoided, which in its broadest sense is 

 economy of hive combs ; admits the 

 field-bees to the surplus apartment more 

 readily than to the brood apartment, etc. 

 C. W. Dayton. 



Prof. Xotten, of Yale University, 

 in an editorial contribution to Frank 

 Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper thi? week, 

 predicts that the millennium will arrive 

 "early in 1899. 



