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131 



> PUBLISHED HY^ — — — 



THOS. G.NEWMAN ^SOjS, 



CHICy\GO, I LI- ^ 



XIIOillAS G. MEWaiAIX, 



EDITOR. 



Vol.niV. Feu, 29, 18 



No, 9, 



EbIWRWL BmElEGS. 



Bpe-men are fn trouble I O. hear them call 

 On the *' Union "—inviting one and all, 

 To join them, and nobly " the flght" endure. 

 For " pluck " shall win, and the outcome is sure ! 



Let us fare the issue, but never shirk. 

 And our duty do in this grand good work. 

 The battle tight bravely— our rights to gain. 

 Help the weak brothers, their cause to maintain. 



It is a Pleasure to announce tliat Mr. 

 W. Z. Hutchinson is now recovering from 

 his severe illness. Mrs. H. writes us that 

 she expects soon to have him " up " again. 

 Their daughter is also (we are glad to say) 

 getting well— thanks to the faithful exer- 

 tions and nursing of the " angel of the 

 household," whom friend H. has often men- 

 tioned to us with the most endearing words. 

 Oh ! what is there in this world to compare 

 witli a faithful wife and fond mother ? By 

 her a " heaven " can be made on earth. 



Xlie Rev. C P. G. Jenynss, rector 

 of Kiiebworth, Herts, England, died sud- 

 denly on Jan. 36, and was buried on Feb. 1, 

 1888. Mr. Jenyns was a very energetic and 

 enthusiastic apiarist, and a member of the 

 British Bee-Keepers' Association. He was 

 the author of a book about " Bees for the 

 Young," which was noticed in these columns 

 on pages 6.59 and 771. He will be missed in 

 the much-depleted ranks of modern pro- 

 gressive apiarists. 



Trees — Geo. Pinney, of Evergreen, 

 Door Co., Wis., is out with a catalogue of 

 Evergreens and Timber Trees, and Seeds. 

 He offers to send a copy to any person ask- 

 ing for it. 



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^'■^'■^'^'■ — - — '■ — ' -.^ f .^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ 



Scatter the I^eaaets.— Look at the 

 list (with prices) on the second page of this 

 paper. 



Securing: the Stsitistics of ]tee> 



Keeping-.— That reliable statistics of the 

 products of the apiary would be both inter- 

 esting and valuable is quite beyond ques- 

 tion ; but the great problem which con- 

 fronts the apicultural fraternity of to-day 

 is, the best method to be employed in secur- 

 ing reports of the animal production of 

 honey and beeswax in tlie United States. 



The plan which we deem to be both fea- 

 sible and easily introduced, is briefly out- 

 lined as follows : 



Have " bees and their products" included 

 in the blanks prepared for the use of the 

 assessor in each townsliip of each county in 

 the United States. At the head of one col- 

 umn place the words, " number of colonies;" 

 another with, "pounds of comb honey ;" 

 one with " pounds of extracted honey;" and 

 still another with, " pounds of beeswax." 



Then, when the assessor visits a farmer 

 next May or June, and inquires as to the 

 number of horses, cows and sheep owned, 

 how easy it would be to ask at the same 

 time these questions : How many colonies 

 of bees have you ? And if the number is 

 stated, ask, How many pounds of comb 

 honey produced in 1&S7 ? How many pounds 

 of extracted honey ? How many pounds of 

 beeswax ? To ask these questions and re- 

 cord their answers would be the work of 

 but five minutes (and perhaps less) at each 

 farm ; and if all understood that such ques- 

 tions would be asked by the assessor, those 

 who keep bees would have the answers pre- 

 pared in advance, especially after the first 

 year's experience with this method of ob- 

 taining statistics of bees, honey and wax. 



There is no good reason why the statis- 

 tics of the great industry of bee-keeping 

 should not be as complete and reliable as 

 that of the agricultural interests of this 

 country ; and that they may be so, is clearly 

 proven by the correctness attained in the 

 statistics of all other departments of rural 

 pursuits. 



We have already obtained the attention 

 and approval of the United States Statis- 

 tician, as shown on page 132, where he ex- 

 presses great willingness, on the part of the 

 Government, to aid in every way possible 

 in securing to bee-keepers what they so 

 much desire in the line of ascertaining as 

 nearly as possible the exact number of colo- 

 nies of bees kept in the United States, and 

 the number of pounds of comb honey, ex- 

 tracted honey, and of beeswax annually 

 produced. 



In 1883 the Illinois Board of Agriculture 

 inaugurated a plan similar to the one out- 

 lined above, and we published the table on 

 page 51 of the Bee JotrKNAL for Jan. 34, 

 1883. Some similar plans have been adopted 

 in other States, but what we need is a uni- 

 form method for every county of the 

 United States, such as can be had, if it is 

 taken hold of by the United States Statis- 

 tician. We very much doubt the feasibility 

 of the plan to obtain reports from two cor- 

 respondents in every county, as suggested 

 on page 133. The only reliable method is 

 through the assessors. Of this, we feel 

 positive, and commend it to the Statistician. I 



Important Points in Ureetling 



Bees are often lost sightof. Among these 

 are the careful selection of mothers, and 

 keeping a record of the queens in an apiary 

 register. Every bee-keeper who would be 

 considered an apiaiist should keep a Regis- 

 ter. We approve in the main the points 

 presented in the following written for the 

 American Agriculturist by Mr. A. H. 

 Duff: 



Queens for breeding should be selected 

 with much care. This is overlooked by too 

 many breeders, and the result is inferior 

 stock which will not produce as well as 

 that of better selections. Some breed mainly 

 tor color, others for the best workers regard- 

 less of color. Some think that an imported 

 queen la the only one fit to breed from,while 

 others are willing to use any queen that 

 produces bees showing the three yellow 

 bands characteristic of the Italian. This is 

 a mistake. While a selected imported queen 

 is doubtless the best to breed from, we have 

 found by experience that not all imported 

 queens are good breeders. We would not 

 by any means discourage breeding from im- 

 ported queens, but we are certain that by 

 careful selection from home-bred stock as 

 good results have been obtained as from 

 any imported. There is no certainty in 

 selecting a queen by her looks for breeding 

 purposes. An inferior-looking queen may 

 prove to be the best breeder. Neither can 

 we tell to a certainty the superiority of a 

 queen by testing her a single season. Colo- 

 nies even with not the best of queens often 

 have such advantage in condition as to come 

 out ahead. We have often been greatly 

 disappointed by queens apparently proving 

 superior the first season, and afterwards 

 turning out very poorly. 



A yearly record should be kept of such 

 queens as are in view tor breeders, and, by 

 close observations, in a few years a strain 

 may be found having the desired qualities. 

 It IS not necessary to wholly disregard color 

 in order to get working qualities. Those 

 two points can be readily combined. The 

 three golden bands encircling the body of 

 the Italian bee should never be lost sightof. 



The Elms in Bloom,— Mr. David 



Grossman, of Terrell, Texas, on Feb. 17, 

 1888, sent us some bloom of the elms on 

 which his bees had been at work since Jan. 

 31, and had carried into their hives thou- 

 sands of loads of pollen. It will be our 

 turn to have bloom soon, here in the North. 

 Everything seems to promise an early spring. 



C'lorgymcM and Bees An ex- 

 change, in speaking of the fostering care of 

 the art of bee-keeping by clergymen, says : 



The bee-keepers of this country are under 

 great obligations to the clergy for the nros- 

 nerity of their peculiar industry. To Rev 

 L. L,. Langstrotli belongs the credit of first 

 inventing and introducing to American bee- 

 keepers, and to the world, the movable- 

 comb frame, which has well-nigh revolu- 

 tionized apiarian pursuits, and" done as 

 much tor the production of honev as the 

 South'"^'" has for the great staple of the 



By its use a colony of bees is almost 

 wholly under the control of the bee-master- 

 One .interesting illustration of its manv 

 uses IS found in the lessened production of 

 drones, which are non-producers and vet 

 great consumers. The skilled apiarist now 

 cuts out from the movable frames aim- 

 nearly all, of the drone comb, and substi- 

 tutes workers' comb instead, and so rears a 

 race of industrious workers in place of a 

 hungry, worthless horde of drones 



