TilJL BEhj-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



85 



I also ouce seut several thousaud pounds to 

 New York, where it was sold, ou comuiis- 

 siou, at the very highest notch, and returns 

 made promptly. I would not send honey to 

 any man to sell for me unless I had perfect 

 faith in his honesty, integrity and ability. 

 .\s a rule, a man will secure more for his 

 honey if it is sold ou commission. If a man 

 is doing business "on your capital, " as Bro. 

 Abbott says, he can afford to do a little bet- 

 ter for you than he could if he furnished the 

 capital himself. If a man has got to put 

 his own money into goods, and then take 

 his chances of selling them, he surely cannot 

 pay so much as he would probably get, less 

 his commission, if he sold them for you on 

 commission. If your commission man is 

 the right kind of a man, and he is selling 

 for you on commission, you will get all that 

 it is possible for you to get in that market 

 Aside from the losses to shippers, such in- 

 cidents as that of the Horrie & Co. affair 

 are unfortunate in that they lessen confi- 

 dence in a class of men many members of 

 which are wholly deserving. 



The Benton, Bee Bulletin. 

 Mr. Frank Benton has written, and the U. 

 S. Government has printed a bulletin on 

 bees. For the purpose for which it is intend- 

 ed, that of giving the main facts in bee- 

 keeping to some one who is interested in 

 bees, but is not a professional bee-keeper, 

 the book is excellent. It is a difficult book 

 to review. I have tried several times to get 

 up a review of it, but could not succeed to 

 my satisfaction. The trouble is that a great 

 share of the book is a condensation of well- 

 known facts in bee-keeping— that is, well- 

 known to bee-keepers. As might be expect- 

 ed there is a freshness about the description 

 of the different varieties of bees. In this line 

 Mr. Benton is at home. Nearly half of the 

 engravings are new and most excellent. ( )n 

 the whole, though, I doubt, if I can do bet- 

 ter than to copy the following from the 

 American Bee -lourual. I presume, but 

 " don't know, " that it was written by Dr. 

 Miller. 



" 'The Honey-Bee ; A Manual of Instruc- 

 tion in Apiculture.' By Frank Benton, M. 

 S. — This book, already mentioned, is issued 

 as Bulletin No. 1, new Series, U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, Division of Entomolo- 

 gy. It is (') X 9 inches, paper cover, 118 pages, 

 11 of them being blank, the obverse of the 

 beautiful full-page engravings. As already 

 mentioned, the many illustrations are ex- 



ceedingly fine, theie being 88 in all, includ- 

 ing the 12 full-page plates. Of course, some 

 of the engravings are the old ones with 

 which all readers of bee-books are familiar, 

 but most of them are new. more than 30 be- 

 ing original, ( )n page I^J are three cuts that 

 seem to be put in to fill up, no reference 

 being made to them in the reading matter. 

 They represent the manner of handling a 

 frame so as not to have the comb break out 

 —a manner of manipulation that it is hardly 

 worth while to give in these days of wired 

 frames. 



The book is divided into 12 chapters, 

 treating of Classification, Kinds of Bees, 

 Manipulation, Establishing an Apiary, Hives 

 and Implements, Pasturage Spring Manip- 

 ulation, Securing Surplus Queen-Rearing, 

 Increase, Wintering, Diseases and Enemies. 



The author sets the amount of honey nec- 

 essary to produce a pound of wax at a high- 

 er figure than many do in these latter days, 

 saying that IS to 20 pounds are necessary to 

 produce a pound of white comb. 



The use of the quilt is taught as one of the 

 regular things, although in the most popular 

 hives of the present day no quilts are used. 

 Possibly the extra warmth obtained through 

 quilts would more than repay their extra 

 trouble. 



Here is an extract with regard to the use 

 of the veil that some would do well to con- 

 sider : 'To dispense entirely with the bee- 

 veil is a more important consideration, es- 

 pecially to the professional bee master, than 

 is at first apparent to the inexperienced. 

 Its use injures the eyesight seriously, espec- 

 ially where one is obliged to strain his eyes 

 for hours to see eggs, larv», etc., in the 

 cells ; to hunt out queens and queen-cells, 

 and adjust frames. Besides this, the hin- 

 drance to rapid work which the veil causes, 

 as well as the great discomfort of wearing it 

 for hours during hot weather, are consider- 

 ations worth weighing. ' 



The statement, ' If the combs are so old 

 as to be nearly black and to show cell-walls 

 much thickened, they are very objection- 

 able. ' would be more readily endorsed in 

 England than in this country. 



The author has evidently given much at- 

 tention to the matter of honey-plants, and 

 he strongly rpcommends to bee-keepers in 

 Middle and Northern regions a trial of Japan 

 and suUa clovers. A list of honey- plants is 

 given for the North above latitude 40 de- 

 grees, for the South below :'>;"> degrees, and 

 one for the Middle section between 35 de- 

 grees and 40 degrees. The relative im- 

 portance of the plants is shbwn by four dif- 

 ferent kinds of type. The most important, 

 given in full capitals, are, for the North- 

 raspberry, white and Alsike clovers, linden 

 and buckwheat ; for the Middle section — 

 tulip tree, sourwood, alfalfa and sweet clo- 

 ver ; for the South — white sage, horseraint 

 sourwood, saw a"d cabbage palmetto, black 

 mangrove and alfalfa. 



For full sheets in sections, 'thin ' founda- 

 tion is advised on page 90, and ' extra thin ' 

 on nage 5.5, 



The author says he has seen .3.50 queen- 

 cells constructed at one time by a single col- 



