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195 



EDITOR. 



VolIXIV. MarcH 28, 1888, No. 13. 



Soon the Bees will (rally hover, 

 O'er the fields of blooming clover ; 



Searching for the sweets there yielding. 

 When caressed by love's gay rover. 



Have you heard the Jolly varlet? • 

 Scarlet-breasted, piping clear, 



Robin's sure that earth is waking. 

 Shaking sloth, and Spring is near I 



The gentle showers soon will come. 

 From more genial Southern skies. 



On the barren hillsides falling. 

 And bid the flowers to " Arise I" 



Statistics.— In offering his service as a 

 reporter of bee-keepers' statistics for Yates 

 County, N. T., Mr. A. F. Robson remarks 

 as follows : 



I am interested in this matter, as I own 

 300 colonies, and 1 think that this is the 

 method. The plan of pathering the statis- 

 tics by the assessors will not work in this 

 (N. Y.) State, for personal property is ex- 

 empt to the amount of one's debts, and so 

 in most cases no questions are asked. 



It is very diflicult to mention any method 

 which will be suitable to such a vast coun- 

 try as America. 



We Regret to learn that Mr. A. Pink- 

 erton, of Marshalltown, Iowa, was thrown 

 from a load of wood some six weeks ago, 

 and dislocated his shoulder, as well as in- 

 juring his neck. He is getting better now, 

 but it was a great atfliction for the family — 

 his wife having been afflicted with dropsy 

 for several years. His report concerning 

 the wintering of his bees, is as follows, and 

 is dated March 33, 1888 : 



My 133 colonies of bees are all very quiet 

 in the cellar. The mercury stood at 41° this 

 morning, in the cellar, and has stood at 

 from 40° to 43° all the winter, except one 

 cool morning when it got down to 37° for a 

 short time. My bees have been very quiet, 

 so 1 think they are doing well. 



It Oiig'Iit to nave a hundred thou- 

 sand subscribers ! This is what Dr. A. B. 

 Mason says of the AMEBiCA>f Bee Jour- 

 XAL. It could have them very easily if its 

 many friends would exert tlieir influence 

 f.ir it ! We have done and are doing all we 

 can to make it of permanent value to all the 

 bee keepers in America, and the more sub- 

 scribers it has, the more it can do for the 

 pursuit. Will our friends kindly induce 

 their acquaintances wlio keep bees to send 

 in their subscriptions ? The Doctor says : 



I do not want to praise it too much, but I 

 must say that the American Bee Jour- 

 nal is " just a dandy!" It ought to have 

 100,000 subscribers, if any other l)ee-paper 

 is worth $1.00, what is the American Bee 

 JounNAL worth ? 



It looks up at me, when I take the wrap- 

 per off, with a bright, clean face ; eyes wide 

 open and intelligent. I am Justin love 

 with it, and I do enjoy speaking well of my 

 friends when they do a good thing. 



As an inducement to our friends to en- 

 large the number of our readers, we will 

 present a copy of the "Bee-Keepers' Con- 

 vention Hand-Book," by mail, post-paid, to 

 any present subscriber who will send to 

 this office two new subscribers, with $2.00. 

 Remember you must claim the book when 

 sendhig the subscriptions. It contains a 

 simple Manual of Parliamentary Law and 

 Rules of Order for the guidance of officers 

 and members of Local Conventions— Model 

 Constitution and By Laws for a Local So- 

 ciety—Programme for a Convention, with 

 subjects for discussion— List of Premiimis 

 for Fairs, etc., etc. It is a valuable assis- 

 tant to every bee-keeper. 



X© Clarify Beesvrax.— Major A. 

 Shallard, of Glenbrook, New South Wales, 

 Australia, asks the following question : 

 "What is the best way to clarify or clean 

 cakes of dark wax and second quality wax?" 



Melting the beeswax in a kettle of clean, 

 hot water will do it. The dirt will separate 

 from the wax and go to the bottom, leaving 

 the wax to "cake " on the top of the cooling 

 water. This will also improve the color of 

 the wax. 



Any clean, bright tin-pan will do to put it 

 in, if itytare.s at the top. An iron vessel 

 will generally spoil melted wax when put 

 into it. 



Xhe Use of Big W^ords.— Mr. G. 



B. Sanborn, of Bristol, Vt., writes as fol- 

 lows concerning the use of big words : 



I have just commenced in apiculture, and 

 am deeply interested in it, but I find that 

 the writers in this science, as in all others, 

 use too many big words. The uneducated 

 apiarist is unable to comprehend them, 

 riierefore the prolixitv of the stratagem 

 might prove detrimental to the cause, as it 

 would keep them assiduous so much of the 

 time trying to excogitate and discriminate 

 the promiscuous magniloquence. So do not 

 be quite so profuse with your big words I 



Let your conversational communication 

 possess a clariBed conciseness, a compacted 

 comprehensibleness,coalescent consistency, 

 and a concatenated cogency. In promul- 

 gating your esoteric cogitation, or articulat- 

 ing your superficial sentimentalities and 

 amicable, philosophical or psychological ob- 

 servations, beware of platitudinous ponder- 

 osity. Eschew all conglomerations of flatu- 

 lent garrulity, jejune babblement and asin- 

 ine affections ; and do not use big words ! 



Let your extemporaneous descantings and 

 unpremeditated expatiations have intelligi- 

 bility and veracious vivacity, without 

 rhodomontade or thrasonical bombast— and 

 do not use big words ! 



Sedulously avoid all polysyllabic pro- 

 fundity, pompous prolixity, psittaceous 

 vacuity, ventriloquial verbosity, and vanilo- 

 quent vapidity 1 



E. H. Cook, in the September number of 

 the Bee Hive, on page 89, proposes that ex- 

 tracted honey be obliterated from the Eng- 

 lish language,substituting " abxeszoimdym- 

 fyuvqetjtgk honey" in its place. 



Just see the prolixity of that word. I 

 should like to know the ponderosity of that 

 honey, viz : How many ounces would it 

 take to make a pound ? 



This letter reminds us of a good story 

 which is told of a public lecturer. It is 

 this : One of his audience addressed him 

 thus : " Mr. Lecturer :— Several times dur- 

 ing the evening you have used the word 

 periphrasis. Would you kindly inform me 

 of its precise meaning ?" " Certainly," 

 said he, "it is simply a circumlocutory 

 pleonastic circle of oratorical sonorosity 

 circumscribing an atom of ideality lost in 

 verbal profundity." We therefore can 

 sympathize with Mr. Sanborn, and also say : 

 Do not use big words .' 



Ignorant Bee-Keepers.— E. Israel, 

 of Oak Lawn, Miss., on March 20, 1888, 

 writes us as follows on the average intelli- 

 gence of the bee-keepers in his neighbor- 

 hood : 



There are 20 bee-keepers in this county, 

 and only myself and one more keep bees 

 for the money there is in them. Three 

 others have frame hives, but they would be 

 better off with box-hives ; they do not keep 

 them for pleasure either; they put them 

 into the fence corners, on the gromid, or on 

 a l)ox, and expect tlieni to " work for noth- 

 ing and board themselves," and then com- 

 plain of getting no honey. Moths consume 

 them, and weeds and briars hide them so 

 that you could notget to them if you wanted 

 to. You could hardly expect such bee- 

 keepers to give the assessor any informa- 

 tion, when it would look like taxing an 

 agricultural product. 



State Statistics on Iloncy, are in 



the future to be had in Illinois. We wrote 

 to the Secretary of the Illinois State Board 

 of Agriculture to ask why there was no 

 such statistical information given since 

 1883, and the following is his reply : 



SPRiNoriELi), Ills., March 17, 1888. 



Thmias G. New.man, Esq.— Dear Sir :— 

 Yours of late date is received. Each asses- 

 sor in the State will in the future collect 

 information annually in May, concerning 

 the number of colonies of bees in each 

 township in the State, as well as the num- 

 ber of pounds of honey produced therein. 



The information sent you (1883) is the 

 latest data on the subject, published by this 

 office. Yours truly, 



Charles Mills. 



We have also received one of the new 

 blanks, but we fear the information ob- 

 tained in Jfay of 1S88, as to the number of 

 colonies of bees in the year 1888, and the 

 number of pounds of honey produced in 

 1837, will be quite useless for all practical 

 purposes. 



