548 



T'HE; fEMM-RICMH MMm JO-'CfRNSILr, 



^^,m.^^^^»<nA^K^ 



AIsil><- aiKl Sweet Clover.— Mr. 



W. Z. Hutchinson, editor of Bee-Keepers' 

 Review, some time since toolt strong 

 grimnds ajjainst plat^ting for honey. At 

 that time we concluded not to say anything 

 aliout it, because we felt sure lie was mis- 

 taken, and that time would soon demon- 

 strate the falsity of his position. It has 

 now come. In the last issue of the Review 

 we lind the following which shows that had 

 it not been for sweet clover, many honey 

 crops already gathered would never have 

 existed. The crop of honey yet to be gath- 

 gered seems to promise exceedingly good 

 results. Tally another one tor sweet 

 clover. The Review says : 



In our "Planting for Honey" number, 

 some thought that we did not do justice to 

 the laising of plants for honey; that we 

 dressed it in too somber colors. We still 

 think that it was shown in its true colors. 

 Here are two little items upon the bright 

 side, however, and we are very glad to give 



them : , , . , 



Willie riding in the cars lately, we occu- 

 pied a seat In company with a young physi- 

 cian who keeps bees in a small way in an 

 adjoining county. In response to our doleful 

 tale of frw swarms and scarcely any honey, 

 he regaled us with a report of hives full of 

 hon^y, and swarms more numerous than de- 

 sirable. Alter eiijoyingour surprise to his 

 heart's content, he finally let it out that all 

 these happy results came from a sixty acre 

 fiejd of Als'ike. We must not forget, though, 

 that he had only a few colonies; still, we 

 think, and have always believed, that the 

 introduction of Alsike, in large quantities, 

 among the farmers surnmiiding an apiary, 

 is an advantage to the owner of the apiary, 

 especially where there is no basswood, pro- 

 vided it does not bring with it a crop of bee- 

 keepers. 



The otlier item is a clipping from a letter 

 received by us, July 37, from Dr. A. B. 

 Ma-on. It reads as lollows: "Iwas'awfnl 

 'Iraid' we shouldn't have honey enough to 

 make a display at the Fairs, but the bees 

 are just booming, sweet clover is in all its 

 glory, the weather is 'just the ticket,' so I 

 guess We'll ' get there.' " 



Just as we were ready to make up the 

 "forms," the following came on a postal 

 from our friend A. Snyder, of Coeyman's 

 Hollow, N. Y. : "After testing sweet 

 clover again this season, 1 think more of it 

 than I ever did. Basswood Was a complete 

 failure, and had it not been for sweet 

 clover, we Albany county bee-keepers would 

 not have had any honey. It is such a won- 

 derfully good honey-plant that I am saving 

 large quantities of seed." 



Huniiliatecl, 1>iit yet Hardened. 



— The a^tute professor of chemistry at 

 Washington, whose humiliation was caused 

 by our persistently-administered chastise- 

 ment, jiresumes to court the favor of the 

 bee-keepers he has injured so long, and 

 without the least show of pity or remorse. 

 His check, in so doing, is astonisliing— and 

 only exhibits the characteristics of the man. 

 The following from Mr. J. F. Dunn, of 

 Ridgeway, Ont., concerning that unbnuuded 

 cheek, is commended to his careful con- 

 sideration : 



I am glad that you have at last forced 

 Prof. Wiley to attempt a defense of the 

 damaging and cowardly statements which 

 he made some years ago. He is now, 

 through several periodicals devoted to api- 

 culture, publishing what he is pleased to 

 call an explanation of the position he then 

 took, and a very "thin" reason for his 

 reticence since, and throws the blame on 

 one who cannot answer his charge, as he 

 has passed over to the "great majority." 

 He {Ihewily man, of course) is now trying 

 to gft the sympathy of the very men he has 

 greatly injured, and who will take all he 

 says with the "regulation grain ot salt." 



X have just finished reading a New York 

 letter in which the following sentence oc- 

 curs : "Among the woiiderful productions 

 of nature in the diamond family, is a class 

 called 'roundbort,' or by the French, 'ex- 

 treme durette.' One specimen belonging 

 to the Titfanys was placed on a polishing 

 wheel a hnnilred days, with a wheel revolv- 

 ing 2,700 times a minute under a pres-^ure 

 ot 40 pounds, and it never phased that 

 diamond." The question has been pretty 

 freely discussed among scientists, if there 

 was anything in nature harder than that 

 gem ; but I think it is now definitely set- 

 tled by a chemist living in Washington, 

 who is in possession of something harder 

 than Tiffany's jewel, namely, his cheek ! 

 Cheek, before which brass melts like ice, 

 and adamant crumbles into dust. 



Minorcan «tneems.— Mr. Simmins, 

 of Kottingdean, informs us that he has re- 

 ceived a queen from Mr.An9reu,of Minorca, 

 and that he has successfully introduced her, 

 and nine other queens, to their respective 

 hives, by his method of "direct introduc- 

 tion." There are now in England three 

 Minorcan queens safely introduced by three 

 eminent bee-masters, Messrs. Abbott, Blow, 

 and Simmins. Bee-keepers will therefore 

 in the coming season have an opportunity 

 of comparing the virtues ot this new race 

 With those ot Caruiolans and Ligurians.— 

 British Bee Jnuriuil. 



Indiana Slate Fair.— The year 1S8S, 

 although a campaign season, with so many 

 and varied counter attractions, does not 

 diminish the interest which exhibitors take 

 in the Indiana State Fair. 



An immense two story amphitheatre is 

 approaching completion, ready for the 

 opening, Sept. 17. The steady growth of 

 the State Fair proves its importance as an 

 educator in those matters which so interest 

 and are indispensable to the most successful 

 farming. 



Frank I^eslie's Sunday :VIas'a> 

 zine for September concludes George 

 Macdonald's beautilul story, "The Elect 

 Lady," and gives two more chapters of the 

 new story, " Genevieve ; or, The Children 

 of Port Royal," begun in the August num- 

 ber. It contains also a short story by 

 Florence B. Ilallowell, entitled "A Little 

 Flirtation," with a very excellent moral. 

 Dr. Talmage's sermon is "Songs in the 

 Night," and editorially he comments on 

 " War against Newspapers," "The Power 

 of Prayer," " Good Examples," and "The 

 Best of Friends." The departments are 

 well kept up, and poems and short articles 



ICees and Honey in Kng;Iand. 



The following from the last number of the 

 British Bee Journul, for Aug. 2, 1888, will 

 give our readers a good idea of the state of 

 apiculture in England at the present time. 

 It is very discouraging, not only in the 

 United States and Canada, but also in 

 Europe. But here is the matter referred to 

 bj' our cotemporary : 



The weather does not improve, and affairs 

 now look very serious indeed. We hear on 

 all sides not only of hay rotting iu our 

 fields, but of wheat, barley, and oats in little 

 better conditiou. Wind-storms and pour- 

 ing rains have "laid" the crops, and an 

 almost total absence of sunshine, with a 

 very low temperature, prevents the ear 

 from filling, the grain from formina, and 



mildew has already appeared Grass and 



corn crops would seem to have no better 

 fate in store than ensilage, and farmers who 

 devote them to this are probably the wisest 

 of their class. In an equal degree with 

 vegetation do our little sun-worshippers, 

 the bees, suffer. The white clover has failed 

 to secrete nectar, the limes are in bloom, 

 and beginning to fail, and the bees have 

 little or no opportunity of visiting either, if, 

 indeed, it were of any use for them to do 

 so. 



Still, in the midst of all this discourage- 

 ment, swarms have rarely been more 

 abundant. The aim of all skilled apiarists 

 is to obtain colonies over-flowing with bees 

 by the arrival of the main lioney-ftow. 

 When that comes, with bright, settled 

 weather, the spreading of the brood-nest is 

 checked by the storage of honey, and a 

 limit is placed on the production of bees, 

 the queen being said to be "crowded out." 

 During the present season there has been 

 no honey to check the fertility of the 

 queen. Hence every cell is tilled with 

 brood, and the hives, being over-crowded 

 (almost to suffocation) with bees, swarming 

 follows as a necessity. In our own apiary 

 we have instances of the departure of large 

 swarms before even a rudimentary queen- 

 cell has been commenced. Returning 

 swarms to the parent hive, queen-cells hav- 

 ing previously been cut out, would seem to 

 be useless, since the swarm, in a few days, 

 re-issues. Iilany of our colonies, over-flow- 

 ing with population, have less honey than 

 they possessed in April, and we are feeding 

 largely both swarms and swarmed colonies. 



Hold yonr Brealli while you read 

 the following from Prof. A. J. Cook, of 

 Agricultural College, Mich., written for 

 Ol&mings, and pubished in the Aug. 15 

 number : 



I heard years ago ot the absurdity, that 

 holding one's t>reath would exempt him 

 from stings. I thought at once that it was 

 nonsense, but put it to the test. It was one 

 of the most satisfactory experiments that I 

 ever tried. I think the bee appreciated the 

 joke, for I rarely get a more painful thrust. 

 It was like Bro. D. A. Jones' ice water. He 

 told me the ice water would prevent all 

 pain from a bee-sting. I said, "Produce 

 the water." I pinched a bee, got the sting, 

 and at once thrust my hand into the cold 

 water. 1 do not think 1 was hurt worse 

 from a bee-sting that whole season. 



all entertaining and useful, 

 summer number. 



This explodes, most fully, another "scien- 

 tific pleasantry " given in a recent number 

 of Science, and signed by one W. L. Wilder. 

 Surely, the so-called scientists grow wilder 

 and M'HtZeron every matter they attack — or 

 they are so full of wild theories and scien- 

 It is a goodltific pleasantries that they can give real 

 I science no time or attention. 



