THl© MMERICJKP* ME® JOiafRNKtr. 



Gil 



EDITOR. 



VfliniV, Sept, 19, 1888. No, 38. 



Ebitorml Bueemgs, 



" Xliougfli the mills of God grind slowly, 

 Yet they grind exceeding small ; 



Though with patience he stands waiting, 

 With exactness grinds he all." 



Our <liivry Uepartineut is not con- 

 ducted for the purpose of answering catch- 

 questions or puzzling conundrums. It is 

 solely intended to aid earnest seekers after 

 knowledge in our pursuit. 



Xlie IiKliana State Fair com- 

 meuced on Monday. We learn that there is 

 a creditable display of honey among the 

 exhibits. 



■n I-'raiice, the month of August has 

 been better for honey-production than July. 

 The honey crop is less than the average, 

 and in some parts the amount of white 

 honey is exceedingly small. 



l^inc Fences divide property, and keep 

 cattle and horses on their owner's land, 

 but bees pay no attention to such divisional 

 lines. The air is their highway, the sun- 

 shine their invitation to roam, and the 

 flowers their banqueting halls. Happy, 

 basking, smiling, buzzing, frugal bee I 

 Cunning, stinging, robbing bee ! 



■We have Received a copy of a 

 pamplilet issued by The St. Louis Academy 

 of Sciences, on the Pollination and Perfora- 

 tion of Howers. It is written by Mr. L. H. 

 Panimel (who is well known as a corres- 

 pondent of the Amehican Bee Joxjunal), 

 as a contribution from the "Shaw School 

 of Botany." it is very interesting, and we 

 will make some extracts from it in our next 

 issue. 



Hotel Arrang^eiuents a.t Coluni- 



I»i»s.— Concerning these. Dr. A. B. Mason 

 wrote us from the Centennial Exposition 

 Grounds at Columbus, O., on Sept. 13, 1S88, 

 asking us to publish the following notice to 

 bee-keepers who intend to be present at the 

 convention : 



If tliose in attendance at the next meet- 

 ing of the North American Bee-Keepers' 

 Society will report to me at the place of 

 meeting in the hail of the House of Repre- 

 sentatives at any time after 10 a.m., Oct. 3, 

 I will try and be able to tell them where to 

 obtain such entertainment as they may 

 wish. As yet I have not been able to ob- 

 tain reduced rates at hotels, but may suc- 

 ceed in doing so. Let thnse coming to the 

 convention take advantage of the reduced 

 railroad rates to the Centennial at Columbus. 



An effort has been made to secure reduced 

 rates through the Tratlic Associations, but 

 without success. 



It is a Poor Economist, says an 

 exchange, who lets surrounding available 

 treasures go to waste. What would you 

 think of the farmer who would not gather 

 the golden grain when it was ripe and 

 waving in the field ? Or what would you 

 think of the man who would harvest the 

 new crop and let the old crop go to waste ? 

 The man of thrift gathers and saves from 

 every possible source. He lets nothing go 

 to waste. He gathers in his corn and his 

 wheat, his rye and his barley, and he gathers 

 also the honey from the flowers of his fields. 

 It is his, he pays nothing for it. Genial 

 nature plants the flowers and fills their 

 cups with honey, and all he has to do is to 

 get the bees and care for them, to save what 

 would otherwise be lost. 



Itees Imprison a Rattler. — The 



Atlanta Constitution relates that a party of 

 men cut a bee-tree near Trompville, Ga. The 

 hollow was found to be filled with honey 

 and comb for a distance of 15 feet. After 

 securing the honey, one of the boys cut into 

 the tree above the portion used by the bees, 

 and found a rattlesnake 3 feet long. As 

 there was no hole in the tree, except the 

 one which contained the honey, the suppo- 

 sition is that the snake crawled up the 

 hollow before the bees began to hive, and 

 the honey-comb had blocked its exit.3 



Orange Jiicid, so well known as an 

 agricultural editor, has purchased the 

 Fai-mer of St. Paul, Minn. ; has moved it to 

 Chicago, and the first number is on our 

 desk, the name changed to Orange Judd 

 Farmer, and making a very creditable ap- 

 pearance. We wish it a very prosperous 

 career, and extend to friend Judd the right- 

 hand of fellowship. With such a manager 

 and editor it must succeed. 



A l^eat Pamphlet of 32 pages is on 

 our desk, from the St. Joseph Apiary, Mis- 

 souri. It is written by the Rev. Emerson 

 T. Abbott, and is intended for distribution 

 at the coming fair in that city. 



Uee-Sting-s — In an exchange Prof. A. 

 J. Cook is credited with the following ad- 

 vice as to what to use for relief from the 

 effects of the stings of bees : 



I have ammonia, or hartshorn as it is 

 usually called, always about our apiary, and 

 have found nothing better tor bee-stings. 

 This is correct in theory as well as in prac- 

 tice ; the active poison of the bee is or con- 

 tains formic aeul ; ammonia is an alkali, 

 and neutralizes the acid and so the poison. 

 Dashing the part stung into ice water also 

 gives partial relief ; it stops the circulation, 

 and so prevents absorption of the venom. 

 A strong extract of cheap tobacco, made by 

 turning hot water on a cheap cigar is also 

 a partial alleviative. Some regard it supe- 

 rior to ammonia. It is a well-known fact 

 that the bee-poison is itself a kind of vac- 

 cine ; the more one is stung the less is he 

 affected. 



Xiie Old Story about bees puncturing 

 grapes and other fruits, says an exchange, 

 to suck the juice therefrom is pretty well 

 exploded. That they will suck the sweets 

 from any of these fruits tliat they may find 

 already broken, is true ; and seeing them 

 doing this, unthinking persons have jumped 

 to the conclusion that the bee was the 

 original trespasser. A little study of the 

 organism of the bee will show that it has no 

 tools wherewith to comit such depredations. 

 Nature took care of the fruit as far as the 

 bees are concerned, by incapacitating the 

 bees from cutting or boring into it. 



^Ve had a Call from Mr. Herbert 

 Brown, who has been sent to the Eastern 

 States from Ventura county, Calif., to 

 " place " several carloads of extracted 

 honey. He reports the California honey 

 crop as larger than it has heretofore been 

 estimated. He says that some of the bee- 

 keepers there have "bought up" all the 

 honey on the market, and "hold it" 1o 

 " stiffen the prices," as well as to judiciously 

 place it upon the market ; thus reducing to 

 a minimum the damage usually done by 

 small producers whose impecuniosity leads 

 them to sitcriftcc their honey crop by ac- 

 cepting the first and lowest amount offered. 



Onc-Xhir«l of a Crop — A. Reusch, 

 of Chariton, Iowa, says he expects to ob- 

 tain only )-i of a crop of honey this year. 

 He writes us thus on Sept. 13, 1888 : 



The bees in this locality have done but 

 little until Aug. 30. They had been doing 

 well up to last Monday, Sept. 10, when it 

 turned cold, and the wind was in the North. 

 I expect to get a third of a crop of fall 

 honey. 



Frank I^eslie's Sunday Masa- 

 zine for October contains many interest- 

 ing and valuable articles, all freshly written 

 and brightly illustrated. The continued 

 story, " Genevieve," opens the number. It 

 is a story of the Huguenot troubles in 

 France. The poems and short articles are 

 numerous and good, and there are a number 

 of full-page engravings of much beauty. It 

 is a specially good number of this favorite 

 family magazine. 



