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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Invocation to Spring. 



C. J. ROBINSON. 



Come, O, Spring ! with skies of azure ; 

 Come, and bring us joy and pleasure ! 

 Come, with bees through bright skies winging: 

 Come, with waters gaily singing ! 



Come, fair Spring, enrobed with flowers ; 

 Come, with earth-refreshing showers ; 

 Quickly come, for we ai-e weary 

 Of old Winter, stern and dreary ! 



Come ! with thy soft lights and shadows. 

 Gliding o'er the bright green meadows ; 

 Come ! for young hearts full of lightness. 

 Dream of thy long days of brightness. 



Come ! the brook would fain be dancing, 

 'Neath thy dewy eyes, clear glancing; 

 Hear it sighing for the flowers 

 And green leaves, to deck its bowers. 



Come ! The forest old rejoices, 



Lifting up its myriad voices ; 



Like an anthem, rising, falling— 



"Come, fair Spring ! O, come !" 'tis calling. 



Come ! the merry bird with trilling 

 All the sunny air is filling ! 

 Hum of bees is touched with sadness. 

 Till thou com'st with light and gladness. 



Come ! we're sighing for thee daily, 

 Come ! and deck the old earth gaily ; 

 Chase away the heart's dull sadness, 

 With thy merry hum of gladnes.s. 

 Richford, N. Y. 



"Winter Cases for hives have been 

 endorsed quite freely of late, but they 

 are not "a new idea." Henry Alley 

 claims to have had a patent on them 

 some 19 years ago, and has used them 

 in the Bay State Apiary ever since that 

 time. He says he is glad that Mother 

 Earth did not claim him before some of 

 his ideas in bee-culture were adopted. In 

 this, Brother Alley is ahead of many 

 worthy men, whose ideas were not put to 

 practical use until they were dead. 



All Eig:lit-Fraiiie Hive, very 

 similar to the dovetailed hive, has been 

 made by the Falconer Manfg. Co. The 

 material of the sides is % of an inch 

 thick, and the ends are made out of ■% 

 inch lumber. Of course, an outer case 

 must be used in Winter, if the bees are 

 not housed. 



Discourag^itig: reports come from 

 the East. Many bees are now starving, 

 where not fed ; their meager stores of 

 last Fall were gone before fruit bloom 

 came to replenish them 



Prof. A, J. Cook wrote us thus 

 on April 30, 1891, giving us an indica- 

 tion of his views concerning the outlook 

 — present and future : 



Dear Friend : — Our bees gave us 

 quite an amount of autumn honey last 

 Fall, and had enough for Winter. They 

 wintered very well, both out-doors and 

 in the cellar. The soft maples gave us 

 three or four days, and the bees gath- 

 ered much from them. Now they are at 

 work on hard maples. The fruit bloom 

 is close at hand. With good weather, 

 we shall have another boom. White 

 clover promises well, and with full colo- 

 nies of bees, we may hope for an ex- 

 cellent year. A. J. Cook. 



Kriend. — A correspondent in the 

 Canadian Bee Journal expresses his 

 opinion of the use of this familiar term : 



I do not like to be addressed as 

 "friend" by a man 1 never saw. A 

 community of sentiment on one partic- 

 ular subject does not warrant men in 

 employing it when speaking of or to 

 each other. " Nobody uses it under such 

 circumstances except American bee- 

 keepers. 



We fully concur in his opinion, and 

 never use that term in addressing any 

 but those whom we know to be friends. 



Supply Dealers desiring to sell our 

 book, "Bees and Honey," should write 

 for terms. 



Contention I^otices. 



1^" The eighth semi-annual meeting and basket 

 pk nic of the Progressive Bee-Keepers' Association, 

 win be held on Thursday, May 7, 1891. at A. H. Will- 

 iams' Hall, Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Those interested 

 in bees and honey are cordially invited. 



Miss Ann Dutton, Sec, So. Newbury, Ohio. 



tW The 8th semi-annual meeting of the Susque- 

 hanna County Bee-Keepers' Association will be held 

 at Montrose, Pa., on Thursday. May 7. 1891. 



H. M. Sebley, Sec, Harford, Pa. 



^^ The bee-keepers of Western Connecticut who 

 are interested in forming a Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion, are requested to meet at Mr. Edwin E. Smith's, 

 in Watertown, Conn., May 13, as early in the day as 

 possible. A good time is expected. 



Edwin B. Smith. 

 Edward S. andrus. 



t^" The Des Moines County (Iowa) Bee-Keepers' 

 Association, will meet at the Court House in Bur- 

 lington. Iowa, on Tuesday, June 2, 1891, at 10 a.m. 

 It is intended to organize a Southeastern Iowa As- 

 sociation. All interested in bees and honey are 

 cordially invited to attend. 



John Nau, Sec, Middletown.Iowa. 



Geo. Bischopf, Pres., Burlington, Iowa. 



