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823 



XHOI»lAS G. MEWT»IAW, 



EDITOR. 



VoiniV, May 16,1888, No, 20, 



Xlie i>li;;'Iil is iiiutlierof tlie Uay, 



The Winter ot the Spring, 

 And evpr upon old Decay 



The greenest mosses cling. 

 Behind the cloud the starlight lurks, 



Through showers the sunbeams fall ; 

 For God, who loveth all his works. 



Has left liis Hope with aU.—Whittier. 



IliTes, Sections, comb foundation, 

 and everything needed should be ob- 

 tained at once, ready for use at a mo- 

 ment's notice. 



Some very Sensible Advice is 



contained in the following paragraph which 

 is taken from one of our agricultural ex- 

 changes : 



Keep all colonies strong. Provide aBun- 

 dant bee-pasturage. Handle bees carefully 

 and intelligently. Study up beekeepintf 

 thoroughly. Every one should realize how 

 little is really known. Bee-keeping and honey 

 production does not impoverish farms or soil. 

 Bee-Reepingcan be successfully carried on 

 by women. The best hive is the one you 

 know how to handle best. The best bees are 

 the ones that have best care and feed. IJeg^in 

 small and enlarge cautiously. One or two 

 failures give more real knowledge than three 

 or tour successes. 



E. X. Flanagan, Bellville, Ills., sent 

 us his catalogue for 1888—12 pages— Bees, 

 Supplies, Carp, Seeds, and Small Fruit. 



» i ^ ■ m 



Attention is called to the first two 

 excellent paragraphs of Dr. Tinker's 

 article on page 330. That is the only 

 way discussions .should be made. And 

 yet, strange to say, since this Journal 

 was ready for the press, we have an 

 abusive letter from a correspondent, 

 for omitting his offensive personalities. 



I^al lire's Way.— We have just re- 

 ceived a small pamphlet published by E. H. 

 Cook, Andover, Conn., entitled, " G. M. 

 Doolittle's Method of Rearing Queens," 

 which Is called " The nearest approach to 

 Nature's way yet devised." It contains 30 

 small pages, is neatly printed, but poorly 

 bound, and is sold at 15 cents. On the im- 

 portance of good queens, Mr. Doolittle says: 



In no one thing in bee-keeping does good 

 quality count tor as much, as it does with 

 the queen or mother-bee. Upon her centers 

 the whole of bee-keeping. It would be im- 

 possible to secure a pound of honej; without 

 the queen. While a poor queen Is better 

 than none, yet it must be patent to all that 

 the better the queen is,the more workers we 

 get ; and the more workers we have at the 

 right time the more money we obtain. 



When we come to fully realize the great 

 value of a really good queen, one that you 

 can get to lay from 3.000 to 4,000 eggs a day, 

 six or more weeks before the honey-harvest, 

 so as to have our force of laborers when the 

 tield Is ripe for the harvest, we shall hear of 

 less queens which "cost the apiarist noth- 

 ing." 



Good queens cost something, and are 

 valuable In proportion to the pains taken in 

 rearing them. Hoping that the time is not 

 far distant when all will take more pains In 

 this part of our fascinating pursnlt.I thought 

 it might not be a bad idea at this time to 



five a plain statement of some of the plans 

 use to procure queens for my own use ; 

 always aiming each year to excel anything 

 done in the past. In doing this it shall be 

 my aim to make all as plain as possible, so 

 that even the novice can understand the 

 how and why of it. 



Concerning the advantages of the method 

 described, Mr. Doolittle remarks thus : 



This mode of preparing the colony so that 

 they will be ready with plenty of prepared 

 queen-food, is ahead of everything I have 

 ever tried. It will be seen that an hour be- 

 fore they were feeding thousands of larvae, 

 and several fiueen-cells, when, all at once, 

 they are obliged to hold the accumulating 

 chyme, and take ou an anxiety for anything 

 to feed as a queen, that is almost as strong 

 as their existence. They are now supplied 

 with from 1.5 to 20 little larvje, all cradled 

 In queen-cells, upon which they bestow all 

 the provision and caresses thev were before 

 doing for a whole hive; and let me assure 

 you if good queens can be reared outside of 

 natural swainiing, such queens as will hatch 

 out of these cells'are the good ones. 



It maybe obtained at this office at the 

 publisher's price. 



Many Compliments have been re- 

 ceived concerning the excellent typographi- 

 cal appearance of the American Bee 

 Journal since the new volume com- 

 menced last January. Much of the credit 

 is due to the exquisite face, finish and gen- 

 eral excellence of the body type, which was 

 made expressly for the Bee Journal by 

 Barnhart Brothers & Spindler, manufac- 

 turers of the celebrated " Superior copper- 

 mixed type," at their type foundry at 115 

 and 117 Fifth Avenue, Chicago. We have 

 'dealt with this firm tor 20 years, and cheer- 

 fully commend them to our " brother typos," 

 for their business methods are the very 

 essence of integrity and honor, and their 

 make of type excellent and durable. Our 

 "old dress" was made by them, and after 

 using it regularly for seven years, one bee- 

 publisher remarked incidentally that it still 

 appeared so well that he did not see the 

 necessity for our buying new type. This 

 was a very flattering remark to our type 

 founders and printers. 



Apiciiltiiral Experiments.— Prof. 



A. J. Cook, of the Michigan Agricultural 

 College, remarks thus in the American 

 AptculUirist concerning his intended ex- 

 periments : 



Under the new Hatch Billl am going to 

 undertake two new lines of investigation 

 looking to the advancement of bee-keeping. 

 First, I shall select and breed with great 

 care to secure a better bee. I have been 

 at this for some years, using Syrian and 

 Carniolan stock. The other is to experi- 

 ment to see whether it will pay to plant for 

 bees. If so, what ? 



IV^itli Rain plentifully distributed over 

 the country, warm sunshine inter- 

 spersed between the showers, and pro- 

 fuse fruit bloom with other early 

 blossoms, a good honey harvest may 

 very naturally be expected. 



Xlie Nebraska Slate Fail- will be 

 held at Lincoln from Sept. 7 to 14, 1888. 

 There are $30,000 offered in premiums. Class 

 L. Is devoted to bees, honey, and apiary 

 goods, and E. Whitcouib, of Friend, Nebr., 

 is superintendent. Here is the list of pre- 

 miums in this department : 



1st 2d 



Pre. Pre. 



Best comb honey, not less than 20 pounds, 



crated and in single comb sections, 



weighine not more than 2 lbs. each... $10 95 



Best gallon of extracted honey 5 3 



The above to be limited to competitors producing 

 their own honey in Nebraska during the year 1888. 

 Best colony of bees $io $5 



" 20 lbs. of granulated honey 5 3 



" and largest display by any one, includ- 

 ing bees, extracted honey, apiary sup- 

 plies 20 10 



The test for colonies shall be the net gain in 

 stores, and will be determined bv the weight of 

 honey that can tte extracted from the combs of the 

 hive. Each colony shall be weighed, inspected, and 

 sealed at the commencement of the trial, and ex- 

 tracted as above stated at its close. The test of 

 colonies sliall end on Wednesday morning of the 

 Fair, and begin on Wednesday morning two weeks 

 previous. No caging of queens will be allowed, or 

 any other practice by which a colony is put out of 

 a normal condition. The bees of each colony shall 

 be the sole progeny of the queen therein, and no 

 colony shall be entitled to compete for a premium 

 not showing, when handled, the ordinary amiability 

 of pure Italians. 



No colony shall be admitted coming from any 

 locality in which there is reason to suspect the 

 presence of foul brood. 



The test for colonies shall end on Tuesday of the 

 State Fair. 

 Best exhibit of brood and surplus comb 



foundation full, to partly drawn 95 92 



Best exhibit of apiarian implements and 



supplies 10 5 



Best display of honey in marketable shape. 5 2 

 Best candied honey 5 3 



These premiums amount to $113 in all. 

 Full particulars, blanks, etc., can be ob- 

 tained of the superintendent. 



Frank Ivcslie's Sunday IMagfa- 



zine for June is a number timely to the 

 season, and two of Its articles relate to Lake 

 Champlaln. Both are finely and fully 

 illustrated, and they make one long to go 

 thither. Lake George has so long monopo- 

 lized attention that it is an agreeable change 

 to find Lake Champlain receiving the recog- 

 nition its beauties merit. Dr. Talmage con- 

 tributes a capital article on " Woman her 

 own Defense." The shorter articles are 

 numerous as usual, and very interesting. 

 The whole number is valuable. 



