THF BEE-KEEPERS' REViJ^W. 



Wolf ! Wolf ! ! Wolf ! ! ! Cuba's going to be 

 free. Spirit of the age is against any more 

 petty nations. Some of our folks will advise 

 them strongly to join Mexico ; but they have 

 no inclination that way. They think the 

 price of land would boom faster, and the 

 sugar business develop to greater propor- 

 tions if they were a part of the American 

 Union. Heads level on that point, no man 

 can deny, if they can ignore race and re- 

 ligion differences. So Cuba is very likely to 

 tumble to us in spite of everything. And 

 then will come, duty free, more honey than 

 all our markets can carry. What shall we 

 do about it, climb a tree, or go to Cuba V 



CANADIAN BEE JOURNAL, 



Its "head'" is not level, but quite slantin'^icular; 

 Its face is so prude, and ijrim. and particular, 



You'd think it had come in natural gradation 

 From good Quaker blood of a past generation. 



Yes, and that square in the lower right hand 

 corner, in which is sometimes a poet and 

 and sometimes a poetry, sometimes a pirate 

 and sometimes a pie without the rate ( or if 

 the two latter have not yet appeared they are 

 liable to) thi^ is unique, and gives us an 

 acquainted-like feeling. 



The last number makes a cheerful shout 

 over the passage of the legislation they have 

 been trying for so long, the anti-sugar-hon- 

 ey bill. It has been amended somewhat, it 

 seems ; and lack of time, or modesty, or 

 some other reason, keeps them from giving 

 usthetexr. So we cannot see for ourselves 

 just what sort of a looking " critter " it is. 

 Venture to guess that the Solons of the gov- 

 ernment have given them enlarged penalties 

 against real adulterators and evil doers, and 

 shorn their power to persecute innocent 

 neighbors. In such a case we may all cheer- 

 fully rejoice together. 



The Canadian experimenters, as we see 

 from page <>7!» of December, tried black 

 foundation to discover how far the wax con- 

 tained in the foundation was pulled out. 

 The result was a regular gradation of color 

 from the black center to the white tips of 

 the cells. 



The February number has an article on 

 the possible use of bees as message carriers 

 in war. It is copied from the N. Y. World. 

 Carrier birds can be shot, or caught with 

 falcons, but carrier bees would be nearly 

 impossible to halt on the road. It is alleged 

 that an English bee-man succeeded in fasten- 

 ing tissue paper letters to the backs of bees, 



and sending them four miles. Granted that 

 this one man succeeded, we may well sus- 

 pect that ten men would fail for lack of 

 sufficient delicacy of touch and craft. It 

 is suggested in the article that bees could be 

 used on a course of fifty miles in length. 

 Neither bees nor birds can be used on 

 long courses without being practiced over 

 the ground ; and this preliminary training 

 in the case of bees would be troublesome, to 

 say the least. Untrained bees could not be 

 depended on for much over two miles, while 

 untrained birds are good for much more 

 than that. Birds can also be kept longer 

 awaiting service than bees can. Captive bees 

 seem to get attached to their quarters very 

 soon. Whether this attachment is real, and 

 strong enough to hinder them from start- 

 ing home promptly, I am unable to say. 

 Bunglers of course would be liable to get 

 young bees that would be hopelessly lost if 

 they were taken away even forty rods. 



The best point of the bee as a war mes- 

 senger was not mentioned in the article. 

 Nothing I think of can compete except dogs; 

 and dogs would be sure to be shot. An apiary 

 could be planted seven miles from a fortress 

 likely to be besieged, and the bees taught to 

 go in crowds to the fortress for honey every 

 day. When needed the bees at the fortress 

 would lie trapped at an appointed hour, and 

 those at home temporarily shut in ( or bet- 

 ter yet, smoked just enough to keep them 

 from going out. ) Then, after a few minutes 

 the signals from the fortress would be sent. 



Now I am going to unfold a new, patent 

 method— and who knows but some big gen- 

 eral will be after me as his chief of staff ? 

 Send the bees home at short intervals, and 

 let each invoice of them represent a letter 

 of the alphabet, by a sort of Morse Code. 

 S!iy let one black equal A ; one Italian equal 

 E ;one of each equal I ; two blacks equal (); 

 two Italians equal U : three blacks equal B ; 

 three Italians equal C ; and so on. If a 

 minute of time proved sufficient for the in- 

 tervals the telegraphins would get ahead at 

 the rate of about twelve words per hour. 

 To telegraph the other wpy each hive in- 

 volved would have to be caged in with wire 

 cloth ; and to release just the right number 

 out of a crowd inside the wires, without 

 frightening them enough to spoil results, 

 would be a delicate affair, yet I guess it 

 could be done. It's a pity so much genius 

 should be wasted : but between the helio- 

 graph and the balloon I'm " afeered " my 



