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99 



THOMAS G. r«E«'9IA]\, 



EDITOR, 



YoLIIlV. Feb, 15, 18 



No.]. 



How" dear to my heart is the fierce howling blizzard, 



Which comes from the North like a wolf on the fold. 

 Predicted by Foster, or some other wizard, 



The charger of snow, and the demon of cold ; 

 How sweet to be caught in its grasp like a feather. 



And find yourself wrapped round a telegraph pole : 

 O, how we adore it, this wild winter weather : 



The blizzard that comes when we're all out of coal ; 

 This wild,whirling blizzard. the razor-edged blizzard, 



The loud, howling blizzard, freah from the North 

 pole. —Lincoln Journal. 



That i.5 poetic— but tlie blizzards very soon 

 drive away all poetry, when they take full 

 possession of a locality. 



Sir. Riflisird Grinsell, of Baden, 

 Mo., well-knowij to many who attend Fairs 

 iu Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri as 

 an exliibitor of bees and honey, is dead. 

 He was an intelligent and progressive 

 apiarist. 



"Pcrliaps llie Clearest and best 

 idea."— That is how the first line of the last 

 paragraph but one on page 87 should have 

 read. It was an oversight of the printer. 



XIic Peiiii. rarniors' Iiiistitutc 



is now in session at Oxford, Penn. To- 

 morrow morning S. W. Morrison, M. D., 

 Rives an address before it on " Bee-Culture." 

 The Doctor will, no doubt, give them an 

 enthusiastic talk— for it may be truthfully 

 said that "every bee-keeper is an en- 

 thusiast." 



Home Markets for honey can be 

 made by judiciously distributing the 

 pamphlets, " Honey as Food and Medicine." 

 Such will create a demand in any locality at 

 remunerative prices. See list on the second 

 page of this paper. 



Itird.>< and Triiit.- Mr. W. M. Bom- 

 berger, of Harlan, Iowa, whose article on 

 "Poisoning the Bees" was on page 84 of 

 last week's issue, writes as follows concern- 

 ing the birds who injure the fruit in this 

 locality : 



We are in a prairie country. Our planted 

 groves, near which vineyards and small 

 grape patches of farmers and others are 

 situated, being the nesting place and nat- 

 ural ?tabitot of birds, literally swarm with 

 the feathered tribe in summer, when the 

 open stretch of prairie country afford them 

 an excellent feedini; yround. An open 

 prairie country under higti cultivation is put 

 to a great disadvantage by injurious insects 

 that at times destroy whole crops. Timber 

 planting and a greater annual advent of 

 birds will help cure the evil. Since they 

 have a good livina, a surfeit of in.seclfond, 

 it seems to create in them a voracious appe- 

 tite for fruit, especially grapes, as a surfeit 

 of meat in man does an appetite for the 

 same. 



The " birds " are the destroyers— not the 

 bees I The farmers should be correctly 

 informed concerning their friends and 

 enemies. Then the bees will be found to 

 be their greatest benefactors— fructifying 

 the bloom, and causing their trees to bear 

 fruit abundantly. 



Corlc ibr M'iiiter Pa-clciiig-.- J. H. 



Howe, Mansfield, Mass., on Feb. 5, 1888, 

 asks about " cork " for packing : 



My bees had a good flight to-day, the 

 thermometer indicating 52° on the north 

 side of ray house. I also examined one 

 colony, and found the bees in good condi- 

 tion. We have had three weeks of very 

 cold weather. It was 30° below zero on one 

 morning, but not much snow. Is ground 

 cork good for packing chaff hives for win- 

 tering bees ? ..rf ,r» - --= .._S fei.. ' 



Yes ; " cork " has been used for winter 

 packing for bees. Imported white grapes 

 are often packed in ground cork, and it can 

 be obtained from fruit-stores very cheaply. 

 Its advantages are that it never becomes 

 musty, and it is odorless. Cushions can be 

 made of cloth and filled with the cork, for 

 winter packing. 



■We are Sorry to announce that Mr. 

 W. Z. Hutchinson and his little daughter 

 have been laid up with bilious fever. A 

 letter from Mrs. Hutchinson last week in- 

 forms us that both are improving, but, as 

 the result of this indisposition, the JJeuicw 

 for February will be a little late. 



IIoiiey-I>e^v in February. — Mr. 



George E. Hilton, of Fremont, Mich., on 

 Feb. 8, 1888, thus describes the honey-dew 

 he has seen on the ivy : 



I have just discovered that our English 

 ivy is infested with aphides, and the leaves 

 are sticky with the spray they have thrown 

 off. In one place I found a large one and a 

 ball of the stuff attached to it, half as large 

 as a kernel of wheat, granulated, and as 

 light-colored as clover honey. 



Scatter tlie l>ea acts.— Look at the 

 list (with prices) on the second page of this 

 paper. 



Pollen and Sngar Candy.— A. 



Sherington, Dutton, Mich., on Feb. 3, 1888, 

 asks the following questions : 



My bees are in good condition, and they 

 have had no flight since Nov. 20. Tlie 

 weather is now very pleasant. 1. My bees 

 have no pollen. Can they breed without it? 

 3. Can I supply them with it? If .so, in 

 what way ? 3. How is the sugar candy 

 made for the bees for winter feeding ? 



1. Bees cannot rear brood without pollen 

 or a substitute for it. 



3. Yes ; as early in the spring as they can 

 fly, you can place some rye meal at some 

 distance from the hives ; put on top of it 

 some honey on which the bees have com- 

 menced to feed. This will insure their im- 

 mediate attention to the meal. 



3. For winter feeding, use 4 parts coffee A 

 sugar and 1 part water ; simmer till it be- 

 comes quite hard on being cooled, mould in- 

 to frames of 1 inch thickness, and lay it on 

 top of the frames, using sticks underneath 

 lo'-inch square; or mould it in brood-frames, 

 tie hemp twine around to hold it in place, 

 and put it in the center of the brood-cham- 

 ber. 



Rnral \Afc is the title of a new bi- 

 monthly published at 20 cents a year by C. 

 Weckesser, of Marshallville, O. It has 16 

 pages, is nicely printed, and well edited. It 

 makes a creditable initial number. The 

 following is an editorial item on the "scien- 

 tific pleasantry" which may in time prove 

 very unpleasant to Prof. Wiley : 



The intense drouth of the past summer, 

 which shortened the honey crop so ma- 

 terially, has exposed the falsehood of the 

 statements so extensively circulated, that 

 honey is being made of glucose, deposited 

 in machine-made combs, and sealed with 

 hot irons— a statement as absurd as that 

 which was lately circulated in regard to 

 eggs being manufactured. 



If this could be done, the present .season 

 would be the time for those dextrously 

 skilled inventors to reap a golden harvest 

 by marketing the mannfactured product ; 

 but, notwithstanding the short supply of, 

 and the urgent demand at a high price for 

 honey, the bogus article is nowhere to be 

 found, for it has never been made. 



jr. P. Miller, of Chicago, has been ex- 

 hibiting bees in New Orleans, La., and 

 other cities, and has just returned. He is a 

 good talker, and describes the habits and 

 characteristics of bees while publicly ma- 

 nipulating them. He exhibited them at the 

 Museum in this city last fall, to large 

 audiences. 



It is Exti-avagant Economy not 



to have hives, sections, comb foundation, 

 etc., on hand when needed. To prevent 

 disappointment, order early what you will 

 need in that line. Then the hives can be 

 nailed and painted in odd times, and the 

 sections put together, so as to be ready at a 

 minute's notice. It is a sad disappointment 

 to need these things and then not have 

 them on hand. They should be ordered 

 very soon. We are promised an early 

 spring, and a good honey crop. 



