18 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



also an elevator that will take up thirty per- 

 song at once. It nearly always goes up full 

 and leaves more waiting. It requires half 

 an hour to make the round trip. I went up 

 in the elevator and came down the stairs. 

 The noise of the city does not reach the ob- 

 server at the top. I never before realized 

 the immense amount of "nerve" that it 

 must require for an aeronaut to make a 

 " drop " from a balloon. The people skat- 

 ing out on the Potomac looked like ants 

 standing on their hind legs. Some lish ponds 

 that seemed to come almost up to the foot 

 of the monument, were found to be at least 

 forty rods away. Railway trains going out 

 of the city seemed to move at a snail's pace , 

 but the motion of the side-rods to the engine 

 showed that they were making fair speed. I 

 suppose there was no danger in this aerial 

 trip, yet I experienced a feeling of relief 

 when I again placed foot upon mother 



Mr. A. I. Root and wife and Ernest Root 

 and myself all started for home the same 

 evening by the Pennsylvania route. When 

 in the station I happened to think that that 

 was the place where Garfield was shot. I 

 asked the policeman about it and he pointed 

 out the spot. Inlaid in the floor is a silver 

 star about five inches in diameter. 



Unfortunately, I passed through the beau- 

 tiful mountain scenery of Pennsylvania, 

 both in going and returning, in the night. 

 We arrived at Pittsburg about nine in the 

 morning. I had often heard this city called 

 the " smoky city," but I was not prepared to 

 find the smoke quite so thick. Switch lan- 

 terns are kept lighted all of the time as the 

 gloom is so great that the signals cannot 

 otherwise be sean. We passed near a church 

 and I noticed that the top of the spire was 

 scarcely visible. I suppose people living 

 here are happy, but it does not seem as 

 though I could be. 



At Alliance, Ohio, Mr. Root's car branched 

 off for Cleveland. I reached Mansfield at 

 about four P. M. I found that my train 

 would not be along until nearly midniglit, 

 and, as I was so tired, I stopped all ni^htaud 

 went on the next day, reaching home with- 

 out incident, at about nine in the evening. 



As I caught a glimpse of my own humble 

 home nestled in behind the evergreens, and 

 saw my wife watching at the window, it 

 seemed as though my trip away had been a 

 dream from which I was just awakening. 

 The baby stared at me in a surprised way for 

 a moment, then broke out with a smile of 



recognition. I was now enjoying the pleas- 

 antest part of the trip — that of getting home. 



What of the convention ? As I expected, 

 it was not largely attended. It was too far 

 to one side.of the country. It was like locat- 

 ing an apiary on the banks of Lake Michi- 

 gan — the supply of nectar is cut off from one 

 side. The attendance was mostly of prom- 

 inent bee-keepers and the meeting was very 

 interesting and profitable. 



That old, knotty question of "grading of 

 honey " was brought out and discussed with 

 old-time vigor. When there seemed to be no 

 chance for an agreement it was laid aside 

 and then taken up at some future session. 



There seems to be no use in having a su- 

 perfine grade — one that is perfection. The 

 dealers say they don't want, don't need it, 

 and that it will work against the sale of the 

 ordinary No. 1 honey. Two grades are a 

 plenty, say the df-alers, and after an almost 

 endless discussion in which the matter was 

 carefully gone over in detail, a modification 

 of the Chicago grading was adopted. It 

 reads as follows , — 



Fancy.— All surtiousto be well filled : combs 

 straight, of even tliickness, and firmly attached 

 to all four sides : both wood and comb unsoiled 

 by travel stain, or otherwise ; all the cells sealed 

 except the row of cells next the wood. 



No. 1. — All sections well-filled, but combs un- 

 even or crooked, detached at the bottom, or 

 with but few cells unsealed ; both wood and 

 comb unsoiled by travel-stain or otherwise. 



In addition to this the honey is to be classified 

 according to color, using the terms white, ainber 

 and dark. That is, there will be "fancy white;" 

 "No, I dark," etc, 



I do not consider the above perfect, but I 

 do think that it is the best system that has 

 had the endorsement of the North American. 



Self-hivers were discussed and it was 

 brought out most clearly that any hiver to be 

 a success must allow the bees to return to 

 the old entrance. E. R. Root had tried about ' 

 a dozen last season. Tliey were of the Pratt 

 style in which the bees are hived in a hive 

 below the old hive, the bees passing through 

 this lower hive when at work, before they 

 swarm. These hivers can he furnished for 

 fifty cents. They will hive the bees all right, 

 but what can be done and what can be 

 pmfifdhhj done are two things. Mr. Root 

 was not yet ready to encourage bee-keepers 

 to invest largely in them un il they had given 

 them an extended trial. 



" .\dulleration of honey " was brought to 

 the surface by a paper from Prof, Cook, in 

 which he showed how the adnlleration of 

 honey by glucose or by cane sugar could be 

 detected, but that the feeding of sugar to 

 bees, or rather the bees, when sugar is fed to 



