356 



'FmW MmMMl^MM MMM JO^KlfMILr. 



still tliey Come.— M. W. Shepherd, 

 of Eochester, 0., writes us as follows : 



I enclose a clipping from the Family 

 (Monthly) Visitor, published in Camden, 

 N. J., for February, 18S8, showing how the 



bogus honey business is carried on 



somewhere ! Here it is : 



The industrious bee will have to be more 

 industrious than ever, now that artificial 

 honey is being made. The comb is manu- 

 factured from a white wax, placed in a jar 

 and the syrup poured over it. It is not a 

 very good imitation, and can easily be de- 

 tected, but it is much cheaper than the real 

 article. Will the dealers raise its price and 

 pass it off as genuine honey ? 



Some are determined to push these asser- 

 tions—and to accommodate them, an inven- 

 tor is now trying to make comb with cells 

 half an inch deep or more. We have seen 

 some of it, but so far no one has attempted 

 to fill it with honey and seal it over, a la 

 Wiley. The same writer adds this : 



Also inclosed you will find an article 

 clipped from the Orchord and Oa/rden, pub- 

 lished in Little Silver, J^. J., which 1 think 

 will answer tlie person who said the bees 

 had destroyed the grape industry of north- 

 ern Ohio, the particulars of which were 

 given In the Amekican Bee Journal, 

 page 84. The counties mentioned are two 

 of the smallest engaged in grape culture, 

 and if the bees have destroyed the same, 

 what must it have been before the little 

 sinners got in their work. Some people will 

 lie for fun (Wiley for instance), and others 

 will lie because they do not know any bet- 

 ter, and between the funny man and the 

 fool the poor little bee will have a hard 

 time of it. 



The article in question is written by Geo. 

 H. High, of Ottawa county, O., and in it he 

 completely refutes the lying assertions of 

 the Atlantic, Iowa, Messenger (viz., that 

 "the grape-raising industry has been al- 

 most entirely killed in Ohio " by the bees). 

 He says : 



We have had but few entire failures with 

 the Catawbas here for 17 years. My own 

 vineyard has averaged for that time 3,872 

 pounds to the acre. No vine responds so 

 quickly to good treatment. More than 60 

 per cent, of the six or eight thousand acres 

 in this and Erie counties are Catawbas. 

 More than 12,000 vines will be planted in 

 this vicinity this spring. 



The Messeng&r, it will be remembered, 

 advised grape-growers to poison bees in 

 their localities, and as an excuse for doing 

 so, Ued about the industry in Ohio— proofs 

 of the falsehood is presented above from an 

 extensive grape-grower himself ! 



IVEl^COiME: APIARY. 



Bees are Smarming.— That is the 



general tune now. The following is a sam- 

 ple of many of the letters now coming in, 

 and Is from J. H. Loudon, of Bloomington, 

 Ind., and dated May 21, 1888 : 



Bees are just booming. I had a very large 

 swarm yesterday, if it was Sunday, and to- 

 day 1 had three more. The hives are run- 

 ning over with bees, the result of keeping 

 them in chaff hives, with a cushion on top, 

 where they keep warm during cold spring 

 nights. 



The engraving represents " Welcome 

 Apiary " at Bedford, O., which was found- 

 ed by Mr. J. B. Hains, who, when a mere 

 lad, captured a fugitive swarm of bees 

 which were seeking to assert their inde- 

 pendence, while their fellow-citizens on a 

 higher plane of creation were, with perhaps 

 less order and more ardor, with fife and 

 drum and waving banner at the head of 

 their column, parading the streets of their 

 little village, celebrating the 67th anniver- 

 sary of our National Independence. 



The line of march taken by the patriotic 

 citizens and that of the absconding swarm 

 being at right angles, crossed each other, 

 the bees passing over the squad of bare- 

 footed boys who were following in the rear 

 of their elders. 



The sweet music of the bees contrasted 

 with the discordant notes of the amateur 



graving, as it is across the railroad tracks 

 that are seen in the rear of the house. 



The name of the apiary was suggested by 

 the fact that visitors to the apiary were 

 always made welcome, and being only 12 

 miles from Cleveland, on the lines of the 

 Cleveland & Pittsburgh, and Cleveland & 

 Canton Railroads, a large number favor 

 Welcome Apiary with a visit every year. 



Fiinny.— An item is going the rounds 

 of the American papers about the honey 

 product of France, which reads thus : 



At Bordeaux, a bee-keeper obtained 1,965 

 kilos (3,930 pounds) of honey in one season 

 from 71 colonies. He uses the movable 

 frame. At Claixan, in the Pyranaes, there 

 is an apiary of 100 colonies that yields an 

 annual revenue of about 350 frames, but the 

 bees are smothered every fall. 



In 1874, the honev and wax product in 

 France was worth 25,000,000 francs ; in 1875 

 the product was 10,000,000 kilos, of honey. 



martial band, and aided perhaps by the 

 visions of sweetness rising before his imagi- 

 nation, caused the boy Hains to give chase 

 to the bees which soon clustered, perhaps 

 having been thrown into disorder by the 

 noise which the boys thought to be the 

 finest of music. 



He then procured a dry-goods box and 

 dumped the bees into it. For a few years 

 boxes and salt barrels furnished shelter for 

 their decendents, presenting a motly row, 

 until the invention of the Rev. L. L. Lang- 

 stroth, which was destined to revolutionize 

 bee-keeping, was brought to his notice, and 

 changed his methods. Although he con- 

 structed a house-apiary or bee-house, at 

 quite a considerable expense, he does not 

 recommend it lor practical purposes, but 

 very much prefers chaff hives. 



This view was taken from the west half 

 of the apiary, which is not shown in this en- 



and 2.5,000,000 kilos, of wax. On Dec. 31, 1885, 

 1,731,604 colonies of bees were in France. 



What an enormous honey crop that bee- 

 keeper of Bordeaux had ! A little over 50 

 pounds per colony ! ! Had it been ten times 

 that amount there might have been some- 

 thing to crow over ! What would he think 

 of our Texan's report of 1,200 lbs. from a 

 colony, or a similar amount from 3 or 4 colo- 

 nies that in Bordeaux it took 71 colonies to 

 gather I 



At Claixan it is even a worse report. 

 That honey from a hundred colonies was 

 gathered and deposited in large brood- 

 frames— instead of tu the small American 

 sections holding a single pound of delicious 

 honey deposited in virgin combs ! 



The fact is that France is away behind 

 the times in apiculture— away behind almost 

 every other country in Europe in bee- 

 manipulatiou and honey production. 



