THE; 3SMERICKN BfE® JOlJRNRlLr. 



531 



THOS. G.NHWMAN feSON, 



CHICACjO. IL.L. ^ 



EDITOR. 



VoiniV. An£.15,1888. No. 33, 



Augfiist— month when summer lies 

 SleeiiiiiK under ttie sapphire skies : 

 Open all the windows wide, 

 Drink the orchard's fragrant tide- 

 Breath of grass at morninp mown 

 Throuah tlie leafy vistas blown— 

 Hear the clinkinK of the scythe 

 Sound mellifluent and blithe. 



August, month when everywhere 

 Music floats upon the air, 

 From the harps of minstrel sales 

 Playing down the hills and dales. 



—Frank Dempster S)iei-man. 



We Ilavt' received photographs of Mr. 

 H. E. Hill, of Titusville, Pa., and his apiary, 

 which are placed into the Bee Jouunai, 

 Album, with thanks. Mr. Hill has had 

 charge of an apiary in Cuba, and may re- 

 turn thither this fall to superintend it again 

 during the coming winter. 



rifly Yoai-s Ago.— Mr. Lemuel Stout, 

 of Philadelphia, Pa., writes us that he has 

 been overhauling a hive of bees at the Penn 

 Hospital in that city, which the Rev. L. h. 

 Langstroth placed lliere over 50 years ago. 

 They are in a Colvin hive. Of course they 

 are not the same identical insects, but their 

 progeny ; and the hive is old. 



England is not more favored than 

 America in the matter of a honey crop this 

 year. In a letter just received from Messrs. 

 George Neighbour & Sons, of London, Eng- 

 land, they say : " This is a sad year for 

 honey producers. We are experiencing so 

 much rain." Even though misery does love 

 company, we are very sorry to hear the 

 discouraging report from our English 

 brethren. We must have a good season 

 next year, surely, after so many poor 

 seasons. 



I>ecid«><1Iy I'nplnaaant, is what 

 the Aiistrnl(isi<in lice Jowmal calls the 

 so-called "scienliflc pleasantry" of Prof. 

 Wiley. It says : 



Coming from a scientific man, the state- 

 ment was generally believed by the public, 

 and incalculable "harm was done to the 

 honey trade in America, and the fable is 

 .ftill believed by many persons. On the 

 Professor being' called to account, lie ex- 

 cused himself by saying that he meant it 

 only as a "scientilic jileasantry,'"— amusing, 

 no doubt, to himself, out declidedly un- 

 pleasant for the unt'ortunate bee-keepers 

 with tons of comb huney on hand. 



]\vl>i-:iska rail-.- Arrangements are 

 being made for a grand display of bees, 

 honey, and apiarian supplies at the coming 

 Nebraska St.ate Fair, to be held at Lincoln, 

 Nebr., from Sept. 7 lo 14. This department 

 is to be assigned to permanent quarters, and 

 $600 has been appropriated by the Board for 

 the erection of a suitable building. For 

 further information write to Hon. R. W. 

 Furnas, Brownville, Nebr. 



Mr. E. Wliitcomb, of Friend, Nebr., is 

 Superintendent of the Apiarian Depart- 

 ment. We hope that the display will be 

 even better than last year, when it was ex- 

 cellent, and a credit to the bee-keepers of 

 that progressive and enterprising State. 

 Mr. Whitcomb is editor of the weekly 

 Telegraph. 



XUe IMifliigan Farmer of last week 

 contains a very tvily article on the explana- 

 tion offered by the National Chemist. 

 Among other fallacies and foolishness, it 

 says : 



The American Bee Joubnal admits 

 that honey has been adulterated, but al- 

 leges it is not done now, but simply be- 

 cause the price is so low it does not pay. 

 Prof. Wiley's article h\thePopular Science 

 Monthly, which stirred up such a bees' 

 nest, was written in 1881. Both charge 

 adulteration, but differ in how it is done. It 

 makes little difference to the consumer how 

 he gets his glucose, it get It he must. 



While Wiley was speaking of comb 

 honey, we were writing of extracted honey, 

 and the writer of the above ought to have 

 known it, if it did not wish to deceive, and 

 in this wily way endorse the Wiley lie ! 



Holding tlie Itreath to Prevent 

 Stinging.— J. H. Amos, Andes, N. T., 

 on Jul^ 30, 1888, says : 



On page 467, there was an item on how to 

 prevent stinging, It said that by holding 

 the breath, bees, hornets, etc., could be 

 handled without stinging, thus being unable 

 to sting, as hnldinc the breath closed tlie 



Eores of the skin. Now I believe such to 

 e untrue, as I have tried it myself, and 

 have seen it trieil, \intil I am satisfied that 

 it is a hunibue ; or else I lack knowledge 

 of how to hold my breath. If there is any 

 truth or virtue in the thing, please let me 

 know in your next issue. 



We published it for just what is now 

 being enacted— experiments. The reports 

 ' already received are against the theory ad- 

 I vanced. Next. 



XUe roreNiM and Itniu I'all 



Last year the theory was advanced that the 

 destruction of the forests was the cause of 

 the drouth. Now the opposite is the case ; 

 rain is abundant, and Mr. J. A. Foote, in 

 the IndUniii Farmer, makes these un- 

 answerable arguments against that theory : 



Will you now be so kind as to tell us 

 whether the forests have been restored? 

 ibis is not a child's question— it is perti- 

 nent—it is unanswerable. If the want of 

 forests was the cause of drouth last year, 

 why do not they prevent rain this year. 

 The only possible answer is that there are 

 other and greater factors in the case. That 

 <s exactly what I have all along contended 

 for. The causes of rain and drouth are 

 world wide-beyond man's control, unless 

 he can erect barricades like the Rocky 

 Mountains, in other directions across the 

 continent, or pump the Gulf of Mexico dry, 

 or do some such feats as these. 



Some one, in your columns last year, in 

 view of the serious drouth, proposed as a 

 remedy, numerous ponds throughout the 

 State, on the theory that these would 

 furnish moist air to be precipitated in rain. 

 If he had only taken a moment to look at 

 Wisconsin, bordered on two sides by great 

 lakes, and spotted throughout with little 

 ones, and observed that the drouth was as 

 bad there as in Indiana, he might have 

 saved the premature birth of that theory. 

 Then later, in your columns Prof. Barker 

 showed that the rainfall near Lake Michi- 

 gan was less than in the interior of Indiana. 

 That was conclusive too, as regards that 

 theory. 



Tlie Prairie Farmer of last week 

 was silly enough to defend "the Wiley lie," 

 claiming that glucose was cheap, and like 

 oleomargarine, was healthy, and would be 

 used because of its low price. It also ap- 

 proves of the assertion of Mr. Wiley, when 

 he said that " the adulteration of honey is 

 practiced now to an alarming extent"— 

 when every one knows that it is not so 

 practiced, because it will not pay to do so, 

 on account of the low price of honey. 



Tmo Fine Pliotograplix of our 



friends Charles Dadant and Son are received 

 and placed in the Bee Jouhnai, Album. 

 The likeness is striking in each, and it 

 seems almost as though they could speak— 

 they are so natural. 



Fnnny-dote. — The Crawfordsville, 

 Ga., Democrat is responsible for this amus- 

 ing item : 



Charley Mason, of Crawfordsville, Ga 

 was intently watching the processor taking 

 honey from a hive when a hee flew into his 

 ear and was immediately out of sight 

 Charley turned in alarm to the doctor' 

 " Hold perfectly still Charley, maybe he'll 

 come out." Charley, with wo'nderful nerve 

 did as directed, and stood like a statue In 

 the meantime his adviser, in deep sympa- 

 thy, watched for the appearance of the bee 

 Pretty soon, to his great delight, he saw the 

 insect slowly backing out, and Charley had 

 not yet been stung. But here conies the 

 fun. No sooner did the bee get freedom of 

 his winu, that it made a centre shot for the 

 doctor, and became entancled in his hair 

 Maybe you have read "Sut Lovingood's 

 daddy acting boss and plowing into a hor- 

 nets' nest.'' Charley held perfectly still- 

 the doctor didn'L 



