AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



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EDITOR. 



Voinyil, May 28, 1891 No. 22, 



Editorial Buzzijigs. 



Ask the wild bees hovering over 

 Yon wind-drifted bank of clover. 

 Why they loiter so. 



Some refer tcrthis as a " backward 

 Spring." But we must not look forward 

 for any Spring belonging to this year. 



"We Mad a pleasant call from Dr. 

 C. C. Miller last Friday. He has re- 

 covered from his severe attack of La 

 Grippe, and is now "himself again." 



Honey from fruit blossoms has been 

 plentiful this season, and the bees have 

 far^d well on it for stores and brood. 



Rain, in generous quantities, has 

 refreshed vegetation all over the North- 

 ern States. It has been worth millions 

 of dollars to the tillers of the soil. In 

 many places it was getting very dry, and 

 the rain was sadly needed. 



Prof. Cook will go to Washington 

 about Aug. 15, and will "leave no stone 

 unturned" to accomplish the reversal 

 of the ruling concerning the necessary 

 proofs of pedigree, etc., in order to 

 admit imported queens free for breeding 

 purposes, and thus at the same time 

 permit them to be sent from Europe to 

 America by mail, for making them sub- 

 ject to duty on arrival is the only reason 

 for them not being mailable. Prof. Cook 

 adds: "I believe that 1 can secure a 

 ruling that will make it all right. If we 

 cannot secure that, then we will have 

 the law modified by the next Congress." 



Frosts have been doing much dam- 

 age in some of the Northern States. A 

 letter from Kalamazoo, Mich., on May 

 18, thus records the present condition 

 of crops in that vicinity : 



Frost last night and the night before, 

 in the fruit district, did more damage 

 than the one two weeks ago. Ice formed 

 half an inch thick. Strawberries are 

 badly hurt ; raspberries not so much ; 

 cherries nearly destroyed ; peaches not 

 much injured ; grapes on low ground 

 pretty badly bitten, on the hills not so 

 badly. All crops are suffering from the 

 prolonged cold weather and drouth. 



Xlie Honey Crop of California, 

 in 1890, was good — not equal to 1884, 

 but much better than for several years 

 past. Messrs. Schacht, Lemcke & 

 Stein er, of San Francisco, estimate the 

 crop at 4:}4 millions of pounds of ex- 

 tracted, and half a million pounds in the 

 comb — making 5 millions in all. The 

 quality was very choice, and nearly all 

 of it has been sold, leaving the markets 

 almost bare. Much of it has b^en sent 

 to Europe. The average price of comb- 

 honey has been 12 to 13 cents ; for 

 extracted-honey 53^ to 6 cents. The 

 one-pound sections have nearly driven 

 the two-pound California frames out of 

 the market. The latter were the popu- 

 lar size only a few years ago. 



The honey crop for the present year is 

 very satisfactory so far as reported. 



