THE MMERICSN BEE JQURNSIL. 



3G1 



not an ample reward for labor be- 

 stowed in the pursuit of apiculture. 

 Bainbridge, O. 



LUCK. 



A Liltlc Talk with IMr. Old 

 PUogy. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY L. -W. LISHTY. 



How did your bees do last season, 

 Mr. Old Phogy ? Not very well. 

 Did you get any honey ? No. 

 Did the bees get enough honey to 

 winter on ? I do not know. If they 

 want to starve themselves, I have no 

 objection. 



Did you pack them for winter ? No ; 

 I concluded that if they would store no 

 honey for mc, they must look out for 

 themselves. 



How many colonies have 30U ? Ten 

 or twelve. I don't know for certain. 

 I didn't count them for sometime. 



AA'hat kintl of a hive do you use ? 

 Dr. Greenhorn's patent moth-proof, 

 double-ventilator, with a non-swarm- 

 ing attachment. 



Ah ! and has it movable frames, 

 where the combs are built in ? No \ 

 what would you want to move the 

 combs for ? 



To examine the condition of the 

 colony, of course ! 



Oh, my hive has a glass at the side, 

 and I can examine the colony without 

 tearing out the comb. 



How do you secure 3-our surplus 

 honey ? I did not secure an}- for some 

 years. 



Well, but what preparations had yon 

 for the bees to store honey f<jr you ? I 

 bored a hole in the top of tlie box, and 

 put a lozenge box on, but never a bee 

 entered. 



Let me sell you some nice, white 

 clover honey, in one-pound sections. 

 Ah ! I see you have some of that .stuff 

 the}' manufacture to order, at Chicago, 

 or somewhere out West, and call it 

 " white clover hone}-." I don't want 

 any of that stuff ! 



Now, see here, Mr. Old Fogy, you 

 certainly believe a false report. A. I. 

 Root, of Medina, Ohio, who is a re- 

 liable man, offered $1,000 to any per- 

 son who would point out the exact 

 location of the factory where comb 

 honey is manufactured, but it cannot 

 be found, because there is none ! This 

 season honey is scarce and high — why 

 do they not supply the market and 

 make a fortune ? 



•' Oh, well :" replied Mr. Old Phog}-, 

 " I noticed it in my neighbor's news- 

 paper. 



Mulberrv, Pa. 



OUR SWEETS. 



Soiirce§ for Obtaining Sweets in 

 the middle Asen. 



Read at the Wiscunsin Farmers' Iristitute 



BY MRS. II. HILLS. 



The question, from what source do 

 all the teeming populations of ancient 

 times, and of the succeeding middle 

 ages obtain their sweets ? becomes one 

 of considerable interest. As possibly 

 affording some clue to the solution of 

 this question, there may be found, it is 

 said, in one of the earliest extant trea- 

 tises of botany, written in the third 

 century before Christ, an allusion to 

 "honey in reeds;" just as a similar 

 treatise at the present day might con- 

 tain an allusion to " sugar in bees." 

 The phrase is certainly a very sugges- 

 tive one, and appears to indicate that 

 the word " honey " at that time was 

 used in much the same sense as is the 

 word sugar with us. More than 2,000 

 years have passed since the ancient 

 botanist wrote his treatise ; and the 

 curious honey-producing reeds, of 

 which he knew so vaguely, have made 

 their way around the globe, and (ilayed 

 their part in shaping the civilization 

 of a new hemisphere. 



How familiar to our ears have be- 

 come the accounts in the Bible, of the 

 " land flowing with milk and honey." 

 And now among the old land-marks 

 that are being swe]it away by the re- 

 lentless searchings and siftings of the 

 modern student, in both sacred and 

 profane records, we are told that this 

 familiar phrase might perhaps be more 

 properly rendered, " a land flowing 

 with milk and grai>e-juice." What a 

 startling idea ! If mankind progresses 

 in circles or in spirals, we might al- 

 most imagine that we, in our day, had 

 just arrived at the very identical point 

 again. Grape-juice, indeed ! Let us 

 hasten forward, to the safe gi-ound, 

 where the bee is monarch and queen. 



The earliest Semitic and Indian 

 records, Eg}-ptian sculptures and 

 papyri, as well as the poems of Homer, 

 all testify to the early cultivation of 

 bees, by man, for <lnmestic purjjoses. 

 And their frequent representation in 

 Egyptian hieroglyphics, wherein the 

 bee occurs as the s\ rabol of royalty, 

 clearly shows that tlieir economy, with 

 a monarch at its head, was known. A 

 hive, too, figured on a veiy ancient 

 tomb at Thebes, is evidence of the 

 early domestication of the bee there, 

 and how early, even historically, it 

 was brought under the special domin- 

 ion of man. 



It was estimated over 300 years ago, 

 by De Montfort, who then wrote a 

 work on bees, in Fn-nch, that between 

 500 and GOO authors had preceded him 



on the subject of bee-keeping. Most 

 of these books were written in Latin, 

 and are lost to the world, very few 

 having been handed down to us. From 

 remote antiquity the practice has pre- 

 vailed in Egypt, of collecting great 

 numbers of hives in vessels on the Nile, 

 and transporting them from pasture 

 to pastui-e according to the succession 

 of flowers in the different districts. A 

 somewhat similar practice prevails on 

 the Rhone in France, and the convey- 

 ing of bees from place to place, has 

 been usual in Greece, Asia Minor and 

 Persia, from the earliest date. 



Strange to say, it is claimed that the 

 honey-bee was not a native of the 

 western continent. We are told that 

 without doubt, there were no honey- 

 bees here until introduced by the Cau- 

 casian race. This seems the more 

 strange, as it is said that all the con- 

 tinents and islands on the eastern 

 hemisphere abound with them. It is 

 one more illustration of the inextrica- 

 ble puzzles connected with the geo- 

 graphical distribution of animals. 



Mt. Hybla, in Sicily, on account of 

 its great variety of odorifeorus flowers 

 and abundance of honey, has been 

 poetically called " the empire of bees," 

 and Hymettus in Attica, is in the same 

 way famous. The German, black or 

 brown bee, is the variety best known, 

 as through all the ages it has been 

 most widely distributed. We tind, 

 however, that the Italians were known 

 both to Aristotle and Virgil, who sang 

 of the variegated, golden bee. It is 

 said that the wider distribution of the 

 German bee can only be accounted for 

 by considering the more vigorous, 

 pu.shing habits of the Germanic races 

 of men : who not only over-ran and in- 

 fused new life into southern Europe, 

 but have vitalized all Christendom. 



Sheboygan Falls, Wis. 



CONVENTIOlSr. 



The Ohio Bee-Keepers of the 

 IVorth meet and Talk. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY MISS DEMA BENNETT, Sec. 



The semi-annual meeting of the 

 Progressive Bee-Keepers' Association 

 was held at Bainbridge Centre, Ohio, 

 on May o, 1888, with President J. B. 

 Hains, of Bedford, in the chair. 



After the usual order of business 

 was disposed of, it was thought best to 

 open the Question Box. All were 

 given an op])ortuuity to express their 

 opinion on the dift'erent subjects, and 

 many did so, but as this report must 

 necessarily be somewhat brief, I will 

 in the main give only a .synop.sis of 

 the thoughts expressed. 



