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Rhode Island State Fair.— In the 



Providence Evening Telegram we notice 

 the following as the awards in the depart- 

 ment of " bees, honey and wax :" 



The judge of this department was L. C. 

 Root. 



Awards— S. A. Dexter, Providence, comb 

 honey, third ; Samuel W. Lewis, Olneyville, 

 package of comb honey, first ; liquid ex- 

 tracted honev, second ; extracted honey, 

 third ; granulated extracted honey in glass, 

 first ; 10 pounds of wax, second. 



A. C. Miller, Drownville, 10 pounds of 

 comb honey, second ; 10 pounds of liquid 

 extracted honey, second ; display of drones, 

 third ; hatching queen-cells with bees, sec- 

 ond ; complete hive for comb honey,second ; 

 complete hive for extracted honey, second ; 

 thin foundation for honey boxes, first. 



Samuel Cushman,Pawtucket,comb honey, 

 first; assortment of comb honey, first ; one 

 pound of comb honey, second ; display of 

 comb honey, first ; 300 pounds of extracted 

 honey, first ; 10 p<mnds of the same, first ; 

 variety of exti acted honey, first; package 

 of the same, first ; drones, workers, etc., 

 first; hatching queens in cells, third; dis- 



Elay of queens, first ; hatching colony, first; 

 ive for comb honey, first ; hive for ex- 

 tracted honey, first ; extracted honey, first ; 

 display of apiary improvements, second ; 

 largest exhibit, first. 



Mrs. S. M. Lackey, Providence,200 pounds 

 of extracted honey, third ; variety of ex- 

 tracted honey, second ; beeswax, first ; 

 drones, queens, etc., second ; hatching cells, 

 second ; display of queens, etc., second ; 

 hive of comb honey, third ; hive of extracted 

 honey, third ; honey extractor, second ; 10 

 pounds of comb for brood, first. 



Judge L. C. Root makes the following re- 

 port on this department : 



The bee-keepers of Rhode Island have 

 reason to be proud of their exhibition in 

 this department. While they all rank well, 

 1 should be unjust to myself, to the society 

 and to the bee-keepers of Rhode Island it I 

 did not express mv personal gratitication at 

 the marked standard of excellence to which 

 Mr. Samuel Cushman, of Pawtuckft, has 

 attained as manifested in his exhibit. In 

 the average of his exhibits I observed a 

 most marked degree of neatness, attractive- 

 ness and mechanical skill which is the very 

 foundation of success in our business. 



A Mew Enemy.— In the new entomo- 

 logical periodical published by the Govern- 

 ment at Washington, D. C, entitled I?isec£ 

 Life, No. 3 for September, 1888, we notice 

 the following under the captioii of "A New 

 Enemy to Honey-Bees," which is worth 

 making a note of. It reads as follows : 



Several predaeeous bugs have been re- 

 corded from time to time as feeding upon 

 honeybees, and in Bulletin 13 of this 

 division (page 44) we mention the fact that 

 the common wheel bug {Prionidus crisPi- 

 tus) was in the habit of lurking about the 

 hives and preying upon the bees at Win- 

 chester, Va. Last summer we received in- 

 formation from Mr. J. W. Lanford, of Law- 

 rence County, S. C, that another bug had 

 been captured by him in the act of piercing 

 the honey-bee, and that his neighbors had 

 noticed the same insect lurking about their 

 hives. The specimen captured in the act 

 was forwarded to us, and proved to be 

 Euthyrhvnehvsfloridiinus,a. species which 

 is rather common throughout the South. 



Postal Reiorm.— Farm Life com- 

 ments thus on this matter: "The Senate 

 Committee to whom was referred the bill 

 reducing the postage on fourth-class matter 

 from 16 to 8 cents per pound, have reported 

 favorably, giving the reasons why the 

 change is advisable. The objection that 

 the lower rate would lessen the revenue is 

 clearly shown to have no foundation. While 

 Farm Life is in favor of the 4 cent rate, it 

 may be that a trial of the 8 cent rate will 

 the better prepare the way for the adoption 

 of the desired reform. The arguments now 

 used by the Senate Committee will be found 

 equally effective in a year or two for the 

 lower rate. Four cents a pound for mer- 

 chandise, and oae cent an ounce for letters 

 are the rates demanded by the people, and 

 these they are certain to have before the ag- 

 itation ends. We append a small part of 

 the Senate report : 



On the present estimated volume of fourth 

 class matter (excluding seeds, etc.), the 

 immediate loss by the proposed reduction 

 of the rate would fall considerably short of 

 $1,000,000 annually, a sum that seems in- 

 significant in the present magnitude of the 

 postal revenue. The stimulus of a lower 

 rate would, however, greatly augment the 

 number of parcels mailed, bringing a cor- 

 responding increase of revenue. Moreover, 

 the carriage of fourth-class matter inci- 

 dentally involves much extra revenue, 

 through circulars, money-orders, postal 

 notes, registered letters, and ordinary writ- 

 ten correspondence connected with the 

 transactions ; and this extra revenue, aris- 

 ing almost wholly from exceedingly profit- 

 able sources, would increase just in propor- 

 tion to the increase of tourth-class matte-r. 

 It may well be doubted, therefore, whether 

 there would be any decrease of revenue 

 from this source at the very outset, and in 

 the end there would surely be a very large 

 increase. 



The measure would not involve a propor- 

 tionate outlay, since usually merchandise is 

 carried within restricted areas, and to a 

 large degree over " star routes," the cost of 

 which is not sensibly affected by the weight 

 of the mails. 



"The United States, while having the 

 cheapest letter and (newspaper postage, and 

 in many respects the best postal service of 

 any country in the world, is far behind 

 nearly every other leading government in 

 providing facilities for the carriage of mer- 

 chandise and miscellaneous articles in the 

 mails. 



"We are almost alone in being with- 

 out the parcels post system, which has be- 

 come a marked feature in the postal estab- 

 lishments of other countries. Under this 

 system, merchandise and other matter of 

 almost every description are carried in the 

 mails at a small fraction of the charge, and 

 in quantities greatly in excess of that 

 allowed on fourth-class matter in this coun- 

 try. The present charge of 16 cents a pound 

 is prohibitory in its effects, often compelling 

 people to deny themselves of small articles, 

 whether of necessity or comfort, which they 

 cannot procure otherwise than through the 

 mails. The hardship falls most heavily 

 upon those living in the rural districts, 

 where the home markets are scantily sup- 

 plied, and where the usual means of private 

 transportation do not exist." 



Fall Flo'wers and Honey.— Mrs. 



L. Harrison, in the Prairie Farmer for last 

 week, thus speaks of the fall flowers, prai- 

 ries and fall honey of Illinois : 



The Hope so fondly cherished, that fall 

 flowers would yield sufficient honey for 

 winter stores, has been realized. In a letter 

 before me from a lady bee-keeper of South 

 Evanston, Ills., is the following : " I shall 

 not have to do any feeding ; the hives are 

 loaded in the brood-chamber, yes, crowded 

 with honey ; and the queens have been 

 making up the time they lost in the spring. 

 If honey and young bees will insure good 

 wintering, I ought not to lose any." 



On the prairits, where corn and sky meet, 

 and wet places are tile drained, there may 

 not be a sufticiency of fall bloom to yield 

 honey for the support of the bees during the 

 coming winter. Timber-lands, and those 

 along watt'r courses, subject to overflow, 

 where Spanish-needles and motherwort 

 flourish, are the best bee-pastures in the 

 fall. 



1 am an old settler of the State of Illinois; 

 came here in 1836, and have lived here and 

 in the vicinity ever since. I was born in 

 Ohio, and it is a good State to be born in, if 

 one only emigrates soon enough, as I did, 

 in time to enjoy the beautiful prairies in 

 their pristine loveliness. On these mead- 

 ows roses, lilies, Indian pinks and lady- 

 slippers, with many more, budded and blos- 

 somed and nodded in the breeze, with no 

 tear that the cruel reaper would cut them 

 down. There were two kinds of lady slip- 

 pers, yellow and delicate pink-and-white 

 ones. I have not seen one for years, but it 

 would give me more pleasure to see one 

 than the rarest exoiic. 



An old settler of this county said that he 

 was like the mountain thatsaid to Mahomet, 

 " I cannot come to you, so you must come 

 to me," and invited the old settlers to picnic 

 on his grounds. More than one hundred 

 responded to the call, and on the way 

 thither on the cars, some remarked: "I 

 rode over this ground when there was not a 

 single house." And now, what a change! 

 Farm houses and towns. My old friends, 

 the prairie flowers, had given place to corn 

 and stub'de-fields ; the plow, reaper and 

 mower had ruthlessly cut them down, and 

 they waved there no more. The cahin, lye- 

 hopper and old bee-gum have disappeared, 

 and large, commodious farm-houses occupy 

 their sites. In lieu of the buzzing of the 

 wheel, the note of the organ and the whirr 

 of the sewing-machine are heard. The 

 sound of the flail is heard no more in the 

 land, nor the tread of horses on the ground 

 threshing-floor, but instead there falls on 

 the ear the whirr of the steam-thresher, as 

 the stream of clean grain runs into a sack, 

 while the clean, bright straw is deposited 

 on the stack. 



There are some " old settlers " among the 

 flowers yet remaining, that the reaper and 

 plow have not destroyed. Golden-rods and 

 asters have taken up their abode under the 

 pro'ection of hedges, fences, and rough, un- 

 tillable land. Tile drove them from wet 

 places, and now they are on the ragged- 

 edge. May the day be far distant when they 

 are driven from the highways and fences ! 



Xlie Credit Belonsrs to tbe Bees. 



—Farmers say that honey is their only pro- 

 duct that is free from vermin. Let due 

 credit be given the bees for this. They cer- 

 tainly take great pains to "comb" it.— 

 Binghamton Republican. 



■We -will Present a Pocket Dictionary 

 for two subscribers with S3.00. It is always 

 useful to have a dictionary at hand to decide 

 as to the spelling of words, and to determine 

 their meaning. 



