TMm MMERicMN mmm j@ukmmi*. 



317 



>j» * j» « ^ > 1 • m^m A a> > «> »,» « ■ 



in full bloom. It Is warm to-day, and bees 

 are boomliiK for this time of the year. The 

 melting of that heavy snow-fall has made 

 the creeks and rivers very lil«h. The Zum- 

 bro river has not been so high sinoe 18.59. It 

 has swept away nearly all the bridges and 

 fencing, and the fields are flooded. The 

 railroad was badly damaged. I had no mail 

 for nearly two weeks ; but it is all right 

 now. 



Ciatheriug: Pollen.— U. M. Seeley, 



Harford, Pa., on April 27, 1888, writes thus : 



I know of three who have received seed 

 of the Chapman honey-plant from the Com- 

 missioneror Agriculture ; I being one. We 

 received it very promptly. My bees gath- 

 ered the first natural pollen yesterday, and 

 all are doing finely. 



Immense Forest Bloom.— N. D. 



Coffin, Westland, Ind., on May 1, 1888, 

 writes : 



I sent to Konnan J. Coleman for the 

 Chapman honey-plant seed, and received a 

 package promptly. The bees are doing 

 well. The forest bloom is immense ; but 

 the prospect for white clover is notflatter- 

 iug, by any means. 



!^o I>oss in IrVinlering.- Horace S. 

 Ball, Granby, Quebec, on April 28, 1888, 

 says: 



It is quite warm here to-day— 80° in the 

 shade. 1 put my 40 colonies of bees out on 

 April 25 and 26. They were in good condi- 

 tion after being 160 days in the cellar. Those 

 in Langstroth hives came out in the best 

 coudition, as they always do with me. The 

 first pollen was brought in ou April 27. 



Hiving^-Uox— Honey -Plant Seed. 



—Randolph Graden, Taylor Centre, Mich., 

 writes : 



I used just such a hiving-box as is de- 

 scribed on page 275. I find it the most con- 

 venient of any method that I know any- 

 thing about. 



I sent to the Commissioner of Agriculture 

 immediately alter I saw the item, in the 

 American Bee Joitrnal, that tlie Chap- 

 man honey-plant seed could be had by ap- 

 plying to that Department for it. I re- 

 ceived it with several other varieties of seed 

 about three weeks ago. 



Clovers 'IVinter - Killed, etc.— 



Alex. Rose, Sullivan, Ills., on April 30, 1888, 

 writes as follows : 



I wrote to Norman J. Coleman, Commis- 

 sioner of Agriculture, for the Chapman 

 honey-plant seed, and induetime it arrived. 

 I am an agricultural correspondent for this 

 (Moultrie) county ; I will also report bee- 

 statistics for the county. I have three per- 

 sons who will assist me in getting statistics. 

 I find the employes of the Department at 

 Washington very prompt in granting all 

 reasonable requests that come under their 

 care. Almost every county in the United 

 States has regular correspondents who no 

 doubt will look after the reports of bees and 

 honey. 



Bees have wintered poorly as a rule in 

 this county. Some bee-keepers have lost 

 )^, some >8, and some almost all ; a few 

 have lo't none. Bees seem to be healthy, 

 though weak. The white clover seems to 

 be about all dead, and red clover is all dead. 

 The apple, peach, cherry and plum trees 

 are all in full bloom, but seem to yield but 

 little honey. The hard maple or sugar trees 



are in full bloom, also red-bud, which seems 

 to have .some honey. 



I am selling my old Iwmey at 25 cents per 

 pound. I averaged about 25 pounds per 

 colony last season. allot it being of areiUlish 

 cast. There was scarcely any white clover 

 honey last year, and but little linden honey. 

 Our crop was mostly from wild bloom, and 

 red clover cut short by drouth, which made 

 the blooms short, so that the bees could 

 reach the honey. 



I have no use for separators iu sections ; 

 I look upon them as a nuisance. I find but 

 little trouble in making foundation stick in 

 the sections. 1 use full sheets in one-pound 

 sections. 



Resnlts of the Season of 1SS7. — 



C. H. Jones, Pierceton, Quebec, on April 



25, 1888, writes : 



In the spring of 1887 1 commenced with 13 

 colonies, 7 of them in box-hives, and in- 

 creased them to 34 colonies. I bought 19 

 colonies in the fall, making 53 in all. I 

 secured 500 pounds of linden and clover 

 honey, and transferred those in box-hives, 

 getting 41 pounds of wax. I use the Sim- 

 plicity hive, and winter my bees in the 

 cellar. The temperature has been from 38' 

 to 42° all winter. I have lost 6 colonies. 



Bees Wintered IVeU.— Mr. John R. 

 Sample, Elizaville, Ind., on April 25, 1888, 

 says : 



My bees have wintered well. I com 

 menced in the spring of 1887 with 3 colonins, 

 increased them to 8, and took 100 one-pound 

 sections of honey. I nacked 8 colonies last 

 fall for winter, of which 7 are strong, and 1 

 is weak. 



Liiieeme and Siireet Clover 



Honey.— George Hone, Jr., Benjamin, 

 Utah, on April 27, 1888, writes : 



1 have wintered 1.50 colonies on the sum- 

 mer stands without loss. I took 2,500 pounds 

 of comh honey, and 14,000 pounds of ex- 

 tracted honey last season, which was gath- 

 ered from lucerne and sweet clover. This 

 honey was gathered by 138 colonies, spring 

 count, with an increase of only 12 colonies. 

 I find that giving bees plenty of room is the 

 best method to prevent increase. Last sea- 

 son was a very good one for honey in this 

 locality. 



Fairly Strong: Colonies, etc. — Ira 



Adamson, Winchester, Ind., on April 26, 

 1888, says : 



I began the past winter with 21 colonies 

 of bees, and I have now 13. Two colonies 

 died with the diarrhea, 1 was killi-d by rob- 

 ber bees, and 5 became queenless. The rest 

 are tolerably strong. I have been feeding 

 some. If a bee-keeper has but 1 or 2 colo- 

 nies of bees, it will pay him to take the 

 American Bee Jouex.vl. I am sorry to 

 hear of Mr. Z. A. Clark's persecutions. 

 Suppose his bees were just outside of the 

 corporation ; if there was anything inside 

 of that corporation to work on, how long 

 would it take the bees to get to it ? The 

 bee is a privileged chaaracter, and if there 

 are any sweets to be gathered, it will have 

 them, or will work very hard to secure 

 them. I have received a package of the 

 Chapman honey-plant. 



A Pocket I>iotionary will be pre- 

 sented for tvvo subscribers with S2.00. It is 

 always useful to have a dictionary at hand 

 to decide as to the spelling of words, and to 

 determine their meanuig. 



AL,FRE» H. r¥EWT»IAI^, 



BUSINESS MANAGER. 



business gtotitjcs. 



If Yon I..ive near one post-office and 

 get your mail at another, be sure to give the 

 address that we have on our list. 



Hilton's new pamphlet on Comb Honey 

 Production has been reduced in price to 5 

 cents. For sale at this oflice. 



Give a Copy of " Honey as Food and 

 Medicine " to every one who buys a package 

 of honey. It will sell lots of it. 



If yoM I>ose Money by carelessly en- 

 closing it in a letter, it is without excuse, 

 when a Money Order, which is perfectly 

 safe, costs but 5 cents. 



Please <o get yonr IVeiglibor^ 



who keeps bees, to also take the American 

 Bee Journal. It is now so cheap that 

 no one can afford to do without it. 



Preser»'e Yonr Papers for future 

 reference. If you have no BII\I>ER we 



will mail you one for 60 cents ; or you can 

 have one FREE, if you will send us 3 new 

 yearly subscriptions for the Bee Journal. 



Please write Ajmerican Bee Journal 

 on the envelope when writing to this office. 

 Several of our letters have already gone to 

 another firm (a commission house), causing 

 vexatious delay and trouble. 



The Convention. — The pamphlet 

 containing the report of the proceedings of 

 the Union Convention in Chicago, is now 

 published, and can be obtained at this office 

 for 25 cents. Or bound up with the history 

 of the International Society, and a full re- 

 port of the Detroit and Indianapolis conven- 

 tions, for .50 '.'ents, postpaid. 



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. 



Always mention your Post-Offlce, 

 County and State when writing to this 

 office. No matter where you may happen 

 to be for the hour when actually writing— 

 never mention anything but your perma- 

 nent address. To do otherwise leads to 

 confusion, unless you desire your address 

 changed. In that case state the old as well 

 as the nfw address. 



