272 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[J ULY, 
Bee Notes for July. 
BT L. C. BOOT. 
It is all important that everything should be in 
proper condition for securing surplus honey during 
the present month. Basswood will begin to blos¬ 
som about the middle of the month in Central 
New York and similar localities. We expect our 
largest yield of best honey from this tree, hence 
the necessity for abundant storing space, whether 
box, pr extracted honey is to be secured. If box 
honey is desired, supply each box with a starter of 
either white comb or comb foundation. The 
amount of honey which can be secured by using 
full cards of comb foundation will be found much 
greater than when only starters of natural comb 
are used. The very great advantage to be gained 
by the use of comb foundation, both in the brood 
chamber and surplus boxes, should be investigated 
by every bee keeper who reads these Notes. 
If the surplus honey is to be taken with the Ex¬ 
tractor, a sufficient number of good extra combs 
must be supplied. These may be added at the 
sides of the brood nest, or at the top of another 
story to be added to the hives. Another advantage 
in the use of comb foundation is seen in case there 
is not a sufficient number of surplus combs at 
hand, the frames may be filled with foundation, 
which will soon be formed into combs and filled 
with honey. When these are filled the honey may 
be thrown from them by the Extractor, and the 
combs be returned to the hives to be refilled. 
Boxes should be removed promptly when com¬ 
pleted, as the appearance of the honey is injured 
if left upon the hives, where the bees travel over it. 
Italian Bees. 
manner, and then soaking. Another was, first to 
put a strong ley into the barrel, soak some days 
with frequent rolling, and then long soaking in 
water. The testimony was general to the fact that 
barrels so treated could be used for both cider and 
vinegar without communicating the taste of oil to 
these liquids. We do not think that syrup was 
mentioned in these replies. After all we should 
hesitate to risk the spoiling of a barrel of syrup 
by placing it in a barrel that had ever held coal oil. 
Sundry Humbugs. 
It is interesting and 
instructive to look 
back upon our hum¬ 
bug articles of 15 or 
20 years ago, and 
compare the schemes 
then prominent w r ith 
those of the present 
day. In those days, 
the last of the war 
1! and the first of the peace, 
money matters were in great 
| confusion; at times it took 
almost three dollars in paper 
1 money to buy one dollar in 
gold, and for a long time there 
was a difference, greater or less, between the paper 
and the gold dollar. Those were great times for 
swindlers, and it was not unusual for us then to 
mention each month a dozen new names of those 
offering to sell counterfeit green-backs, or who, as 
in the slang of the day, were engaged in 
Shoving the “ Queer.” 
I am asked “If the Italian bees are really as 
much preferable to the Natives as many claim they 
are.” I can truly say that I have never been able 
to speak more emphatically upon the desirability 
of the Italian bee than at the present time. The 
unusual winter and spring through which we have 
just passed, have been a severe test of the relative 
merits of the two races. While we could observe 
no marked superiority in either while they occu¬ 
pied their winter quarters, we could see a difference 
after they were removed to their summer stands, 
that was unmistakable. I have been severely 
criticised since I prepared our new work, “ Quin- 
by’s New Bee Keeping,” for not expressing 
stronger preference for the Italians. I say to the 
readers of these Notes, as I did in the book, that 
each bee-keeper should try them for himself. 
This spring the difference has been so marked 
that the most skeptical would be convinced of 
the great superiority of the Italian bees. 
Extracted Box Honey. 
It is asked which it will pay best to produce, 
extracted or box honey. This will depend much 
upon the demands of the market. It can best be 
decided by producing both and testing your market. 
Improving a Milk Stool.— “ P. C. 
W.,” Essex Co., Va., among various other useful 
hints, says : “A simple handle to milking or other 
stools is, to cut an oblong hole in the top, 
through which you can put the fingers. A person 
who has never tried this, will be surprised at the 
improvement it is to any ordinary stool, which is 
usually very awkward to carry with one hand.” 
Kerosene Barrels.- “C. G.,” Iroquois 
Co., Ill., asks how to clean kerosene barrels, so 
that they may be used for syrup. A few years ago 
we published a request for information from those 
who had successfully cleansed kerosene barrels, 
and received a large number of replies, many of 
w hich were published. The testimony of the ma¬ 
jority was, that long continued soaking in water, 
either by sinking in a stream or by placing the 
barrel under a rain-water spout, where the water 
would be changed at every storm, would do the 
business. The variations were : first burning out 
the barrel, by removing one head and placing some 
shavings in the barrel, which were set on fire, tak¬ 
ing care to treat the removed head in the same 
At first counterfeit money was offered and sold, 
but the sharpers soon found that it was safer and 
more profitable to offer counterfeit money for 
good, get the good money from their victims and 
send them off with nothing; then followed the 
period of “saw-dust” swindles. The greenhorn 
who took the bait, gave up his good money, and 
received in return a package of saw-dust or other 
bulky stuff. It took a long time to break up this, 
but exposures and arrests at length so far reduced 
the operations that they ceased to be frequent, 
though they may not have been at any time entirely 
abandoned. The operators in this line understand 
human nature, and knowing that 
The Offer of Something; Very Cheap 
will find takers, this form of swindling has been 
kept along quietly, and during the present year 
seems to have started with new life. The operators, 
though few, show great ingenuity and more bold¬ 
ness than formerly. A few years ago their circulars, 
with much circumspection offered their counter¬ 
feits as “national portraits” or “goods,” or 
“cigars,” and under other disguises. At present 
they offer outright “close imitations of green¬ 
backs.” A recent “confidential circular” at hand 
offers “One Thousand Dollars” for $150, and 
larger amounts at cheaper rates. If there were 
any counterfeit money in these transactions, this 
business would be a dangerous one. In former 
years we have shown that this business of dealing 
in counterfeit money is carried on 
Without a Dollar of Counterfeit Money. 
The swindlers show great shrewdness. They know 
that only those accept their propositions who are 
willing to pass counterfeit bills, and that these, if 
once in their power, can be acted on by their fears. 
Their circulars make the condition that the buyer 
must meet the seller of the counterfeit money in 
person. The buyer must come to New York, which 
is the headquarters of this swindle, go to a desig¬ 
nated hotel, and stay in his room until he (the sel¬ 
ler) comes. The “ Private Instructions ” are amus¬ 
ing in their cautions, and we wish we had room to 
give one in detail. They show a great knowledge 
of human nature. One who starts out for the pur¬ 
pose of buying counterfeit money knows he is in 
bad business, aud the circular works upon his fears. 
The victim must, on reaching the hotel, go at once 
to his room and “ speak with no one,” until swin¬ 
dler comes, who, by showing victim his own letters, 
will give proof that he is “ the right man.” The 
result will be, as it has been in so many cases; the 
poor fool will give up his good money and get in 
return a package which he must not open until he 
is well out of the city, as detectives are everywhere. 
Indeed he saw a detective down stairs when he 
came in, and advises victim to hide the parcel in 
his carpet-bag, and to get out by the private en¬ 
trance at once. He, the swindler, will show the 
shortest way to the ferry, and when victim crosses 
the river, will be safe. The frightened fool is only 
too glad to get on his way home. When he thinks 
he is safe, he will open his parcel and find only 
some old newspapers, or some other worthless 
matter, in the parcel, for which he has paid good 
money. These chaps are not fools enough to be 
at the trouble of making counterfeit money, as they 
can carry on their trade without it. Still there are, 
each year, hundreds of such victims caught by this 
swindle. We do not suppose that many such read 
the American Agriculturist , but our readers may 
know of those who, in their poverty, are tempted 
by these offers, and we show them the facts in the 
case that they may give proper warning to any thus 
tempted....With the general revival of business, 
we must expect all sorts of swindling schemes to 
be proposed. We have before us one from a 
Western city, which looks much like a proposed 
fraud Upon Farmers. 
It is a lithographed confidential letter, represent¬ 
ing to the party addressed, that there is to be a 
great demand for farms by people in Europe, and 
suggests that he shall go among his neighbors, and 
get them to sign contracts to sell their farms at low 
prices. The whole thing seems roundabout and 
complicated, and while it may be all right, it looks 
suspicious. We advise farmers, as a rule, to sign 
no contract whatever out of the usual way, and 
especially none to sell their home at a future time, 
at any price whatever. If there is to be an ad¬ 
vance in property, they should have the advantage 
of it, provided they wish to sell. It is safe to 
avoid all unusual ways of doing business. If one 
wishes to buy your farm at a given price, sell, if you 
wish to do so, but do not contract to sell at the end 
of six months or a year at any price.... In looking 
over some documents we recently came across “The 
Columbian Calendar, or Almanac, for 1806.” This 
contains a burlesque advertisement intended to 
ridicule the manner of advertising 
The Patent Medicines of the Day, 
and shows that such medicines were quite as much 
open to ridicule then as now, and that the certifi¬ 
cates of cures were quite as absurd as at the present 
day. The medicine is called “ Ramrod’s Essential 
Tincture of Gridiron, otherwise Nature’s Grand 
Restorative,” and is set forth in a manner which is 
so like the advertisements we see at present, that 
the coincidence is remarkable. We are told that 
Dr. Ramrod has discovered that gridirons “con¬ 
tain a subtile invigorating fluid sympathetically 
allied to the magnetic fluid of the human body.” 
Indeed the whole seems like a paraphrase of a 
thing of the present, and the certificates of cures 
are very much like those offered now....Among 
Medical Humbugs, perhaps the most successful at 
present are those that take the patient into the 
confidence of the advertising “Doctor,” and offer 
A Recipe Free of Cost. 
The Inman fellow, being perhaps the oldest, 
may be taken as the type of these frauds. All 
over the country, even in respectable papers, it is 
advertised that those suffering from “nervous de¬ 
bility,” etc., can get a “recipe free” by sending 
to him. Those who apply get a pretended “recipe,” 
which, as we have shown, is a jargon of absolute 
nonsense. It calls for articles that have no real 
existence, and are not to be bought. The recipe 
states, that as the things may not be procured at 
the drug shops in good quality, the stuff will be 
furnished by Inman’s agent at a round price. A 
similar dodge is played by those who advertise 
“Dr. Churchill’s” prescriptions. The circular sets 
forth the horrors of “seminal weakness.” Relief 
is, of course, to be found in “ Dr. Churchill’s Pre¬ 
scription.” The patient is taken into confidence. 
