greater than any one will suppose who has not tried it. Whoever starts with more than one kind will sooner or later be sorry for it, and I cannot urge too strongly upon those who have as yet only five or ten colonies to discard all but one kind of hive.

July 10, I went out and found the bees had been doing some swarming in their own way, as I expected they would. Although I had stopped making swarms for want of hives, my wife was not to be balked in hiving the natural swarms that came, so she fixed up all sorts of hives and yet in such a way as to have frames in them, so that with very little trouble I was able to transfer them, frames and all, into hives which I made. Eight or nine natural swarms were thus saved, and I am afraid I should not have done so well with the material at hand. Three natural swarms came out while I was there. In the case of one of them, I waited for them to return to the hive after settling, as I had seen the queen but a few weeks before and her wings were clipped. To my chagrin they arose in a body and sailed off majestically for parts unknown, leaving me an unwilling spectator of their flight. I consoled myself with the thought that before many weeks I would be with them every day and then they would not play me many such tricks. They had undoubtedly raised a young queen, having probably swarmed some ten days or two weeks previous, and their old queen had been lost or killed.

I overhauled all of the colonies taking from the strong ones frames of sealed brood to give to the young swarms I had started, and also to the natural swarms I gave one or two frames of brood each. I took about 625 lbs. of honey, nearly all extracted.

I have been best satisfied with rotton wood for smoking bees. That from maple, beech or other hard wood, having the dry rot, if just right, will hold fire and slowly burn until all is consumed. Sometimes, however, I have had no rotten wood on hand and almost anything can be made to do in a pinch, after a fashion. A pipe or cigar is convenient for smokers but I don't think I should want any tobacco about my bees, even if I were a smoker. A roll of rags makes a pretty good smoke. Wood which is not properly rotted, and even that which is perfectly sound may be made to do. Take an ash pan having the bottom covered with ashes and live coals and put therein two or three pieces of wood with the ends well burnt having the burnt ends on the coals and you will have a good smoke, the only trouble being the danger from sparks flying in the hive. For a sudden use, where you do not care to keep the fire burning, even paper will do very well. Roll the paper losely together, and after setting on fire, put out the blaze, and for temporary purposes it does very well.

Lately, being out of rotton wood, I have been well pleased with corn cobs. Keep three or four cobs burning together in an ash pan with hot coals, and if the cobs have been previously well seasoned or baked in an oven, they will keep up a steady fire without blazing. Of course different materials can be used in a smoker of any kind.

A word as to the manner of blowing. A continuous stream is not so good as shorter puffs. A continuous stream makes more perfect combustion, more fire but less smoke.

If blowing with the mouth, do not empty

the lungs, but take in full breaths, only blowing out at each puff the extra quantity in the lungs. This will prevent dizziness. B. LUNDERER.

For the American Bee Journal.

Albino Bees.

Being requested by many to give a description of the Albino bees, 1 will do so, hoping by this means to remove some of the prejudice formed against them.

When first I discovered them I was surprised and did not know to what to attribute it. I applied to different persons for information, and was advised to continue breeding them until I obtained the pure stock. did so, and in my experience have found them to be as I shall now attempt to describe them.

As to their markings, the difference between them and the pure Italians is very striking. The head in color approaches near to a purple. Beginning at the waist, they have first three yellow bands, then three white bands, all the bands being very distinct. The white is not muddy and dirty but pure. The wings are finer and of a lighter color than those of the Italian. The only marking of the drone is the hair around the waist being white, giving to it a clean and pretty appearance,

As to breeding, the queens are very prolific. Pure Albino queens produce pure Albino bees. If an Albino queen mates with an Italian drone, one half of the workers will be pure Albino and the other half will be pure Italian. I have never seen any bearing the marks of Italian and Albino mixed. The markings will not be mixed as in a cross between the Italian and black.

I have found them to be better honeygatherers and more gentle than any other race of bees I ever possessed. Smithsburg, Md.

D. A. PIKE.

For the American Bee Journal.

Notes from Southern Indiana.

Our honey season just closing has been unusually good. Generally, we have to depend on the poplar for our main supply of surplus honey, but this year we have had in addition to the poplar an unprecedented amount of white clover. Its white bloom seemed to be everywhere-along the wood side, in the old pastures, in the meadows, in the lawns-wherever it could crowd up its head. The very breezes were laden with its fragrance. The bees were literally "in clover," and right well they seemed to enjoy it.

have nearly all my bees in two-story Langstroth hives. Heretofore I have been able to keep them from swarming in those hives; perhaps I could have done so this season if I had kept the honey closely thrown out. But this I could not do, and the bees got the start of me. Before I suspected it, I had several exceedingly large swarms-some of them would have well filled a half bushel measure. Although these were the first swarms I had had for six or seven years, I had no trouble in finding them comfortable homes.

The honey is of an excellent qualitythick and of superior flavor. I am not trying to sell any of it; I find a very good demand for it at my own table. What I can't

dispose of there, I can give away to my friends. I find this a superb way to make and keep friends. I don't know any more appropriate present to make, or one more pleasingly received, than a few pounds, or a gallon or two even, of nice extracted honey. Try it my bee friends, I assure you it will do you good, as well as the friend to whom you give, and you will be surprised to find how kindly it will make your friend feel and act towards you. Honey is a great pacificator with the human as well as with the bee family. M. C. HESTER.

For the American Bee Journal.

City Bee-Keeping.

We had a very good honey season, both as regards quantity and quality. Having my bees on the roof of a house, and in the city, puts me to disadvantage when compared with my brethren in the country. My bees have to fly too far to pasturage; and yet up to last Saturday, I had 3,020 fbs. of choice, extracted clover honey from my 22 stands of bees. Some of my neighbors beat this very much, but I have convinced myself that nearness of pasture was the cause of it. Their stands were not stronger than mine, but their honey was coming in faster. There is enough honey with my bees yet, ready to be taken off, to make it average 150 lbs. to the hive, or more. And this is a great deal more than our average used to be, 10 or 12 years ago. The average of 15 to 20 fb. to the hive was considered a great harvest at that time. Should we grumble now if we can't sell all our honey In a hurry? The honey market is dull at present, as usual at this time of the year. A month or two later it will be in better demand, however. CHAS. F. MUTH.

Cincinnati, O., July 15, 1876.

For the American Bee Journal.

Foul Brood.

I noted in the last number of the JOURNAL mention of cure of foul brood by the use of salicylic acid. The method is substantially the same as that which I discovered and published, with the use of sulphite of soda. And I have no doubt but that the acid will cure equally, if not more certainly than the sulphite. Both are powerfully disinfectant and destructive to parasitic growths and germs.

If I could have found any foul brood in this region I would have experimented with this remedy, and also another new one (new ones are being constantly discovered) called sulpho-carbolate of soda. Salicylic acid is perfectly harmless, and is obtained from various sources, one of which is from salicine, the active principle of willow. Meadow sweet and wintergreen also contain it, but the principal source of supply is from phoenol, one of the products of coal tar. When largely diluted it is not unpleasant to the taste. This with sulphocarbolate of soda we use freely and successfully in diptheria, as an internal disinfectant. If any one is experimenting with foul brood I wish that sulpho-carbolate of soda might have a fair trial.

I have no doubt that foul brood can be thoroughly cured in any hive by disinfectants. But there is no certainty of a cure unless every cell of honey which was sealed

while the hive was diseased, and every cell which contains diseased larvæ, and every empty cell even, is thoroughly disinfected. And it makes but little difference what the disinfectant is, provided it is harmless to everything but the disease and is a thorough disinfectant. But does it pay? If valuable life was at stake, either human or animal, no amount of pains would be too much to save it, but to my mind the bother and uncertainty of curing a hive that could be so easily replaced amounts to more than value received, except the pleasure of the consciousness of having mastered the enemy, ie. cured it. EDWD. P. ABBE.

New Bedford, Mass.

For the American Bee Journal.

Queen Trap.

I wintered 50 stocks of bees out doors; the season here is late, but bees are doing well now. I used a queen trap for the last 5 or 6 seasons, with very good success, catching the queen of first swarms and the swarm returns to the hive after discovering they have no queen. By taking the trap containing the queen from the old hive which is then removed, and an empty hive with the trap and queen put in its place, the swarm as it returns passes through the trap taking the old queen with them into the empty hive. Sometimes they will cluster and stay 15 or 20 minutes, and at other times hardly give one time to change the hives before they return. Of course, movable frames are necessary in managing bees this way, as in three days after the first swarm has left, the old hive must be examined and all queen cells but one cut out, and the hive left without a trap on it, or the young queens could not get out to mate with the drones. This trap also retains all the drones that pass into it, and they can be destroyed, let fly, or returned to the hive, as you wish. GEORGE GARLICK. Warsaw, Ontario, June 17, 1876.

From the Maine Farmer.

Surplus Honey.

A very good way to afford the bees room to store honey, is to cover the hive with section boxes. These I have made 5 inches high, the ends of the sections 1% in. wide, the tops and bottoms 14 in. wide. Thus it will be seen the ends are close fitting, while the top and bottom will be open so that the bees can pass through. By attaching comb to the top bars the bees will generally build within the bars, so that when filled the section can be separated, each section containing a single comb. The hive can be entirely covered with these sections, and when partly filled raise the whole up and place another set beneath, and the bees will readily pass down through; and if the honey season holds out, fill both sets, and in good seasons perhaps more. If these section frames are placed across the hive it would make the sheets of comb rather unwieldy to handle or to transport to a distance; so I think it better to place a rest across the centre on top of the frames, and place two shorter sets of sections lengthwise of the hive. There is another advantage in this way, and that is, as the combs run the same way with those in the frames in the body of the hive, no harm will arrive

If boxes are used, I find it better to make them large enough to have them cover the hive if placed cross-wise. The boxes can be made of a size to suit one's fancy, large or small, though I prefer larger ones, having the set just cover the hive, placing rests upon the bars for the ends of the boxes to rest upon, raising them as high as the sides of the hive project above the frames; thus giving the bees a full passage between the boxes and the top of the frames. I think it well to bore two holes in large boxes 11⁄2 in. in diameter for ingress to the boxes. In one side cut out a círcular piece 3 inches in diameter, covered with glass upon the inside by which to display the contents of the box. When the boxes are removed after being filled and the bees have all left them, cover the holes with cloth pasted tightly over them to exclude the moths. This is not always sure to exclude them, however, and consequently they will need looking after occasionally. M. F.

From the English Manual of Bee-Keeping.

Pasturage for Bees.

With the exception of an occasional gathering from honey-dew, bees gather the whole of their honey from flowers, and consequently where there are no flowers they cannot thrive. But the term flowers must be taken in a broader sense than meaning such as we cultivate for garden ornaments or home decoration. The inconspicuous blossoms of many trees, the wee modest wild flower, scarcely noticed by passers by, furnish abundant pasturage for bees. Many persons who have lived in the country all their lives, are scarcely aware that our noblest forest trees have flowers at all, but from the brave old oak and the wide spreading beech, bees gather many a pound of honey. An avenue of limes or sycamores, a field of beans or white clover, form a very El Eldorado for the busy bees, their pleasant hum on the snowy hawthorn or the sweet-smelling sallow, (palm, as it is commonly called) is very noticeable when nature is awakening from the gloomy sleep of winter, and our thoughts and feelings are glad with the prospect of returning summer. Where large heaths abound, the bees have a second harvest, and it is a common practice in such localities for bee-keepers to send their hives to the moors for about two months, the trouble and cost being amply repaid by the immense weight of honey brought home, which the common heather yields freely during August and September.

In Scotland and on the Continent cartloads of hives may be seen traveling to and from the heather. Often they are looked after on the spot by some resident cottager who receives à gratuity of 1s. per hive from the proprietors of the stocks. In the south of England this practice is not pursued, although I do not see why it should not be in many places, there being miles of heather

equally available as in Scotland. On the Nile there are bee-barges which travel only at night, stopping in the day-time at any place that affords abundant pasturage for bees, and we read in Pliny that this was likewise the practice in Italy in his time. "As soon," says he, "as the spring food for bees has failed in the valleys near our towns, the hives of bees are put into boats and carried up against the stream of the river in the night in search of better pasturage. The bees go out in the morning in quest of provisions, and return regularly to their hives in the boats with the stores they have collected. This method is continued till the sinking of the boats to a certain depth in the water shows that the hives are sufficiently full, and they are then carried back to their former homes, where the honey is taken out of them." And this is still the practice of the Italians who live near the banks of the Po, the river which Pliny instanced particularly in the above-quoted passage. It was the advice of Celsus that after the vernal pastures were consumed, the bees should be transported to places abounding with autumnal flowers, as was done by conveying the bees from Achosia to Attica, from Euboea and the Cyclad Islands to Scyrus, and also in Sicily, where they were brought to Hybla from other parts of the island. What portion of our fertile land does not afford sustenance for bees? Mr. Alfred Neighbour, in his work, "The Apiary," devotes a chapter to Beekeeping in London. Could we ever imagine a more unpromising field for honey-gathering?-London! Foggy, smoky London! But think a moment. London has parks,squares, gardens, and each of these has trees, flowers and shrubs. What matter if the flowers be dirty-their nectaries secrete the coveted sweet, and the natural filter of the bees will clarify it better than any artificial one could do. Only last year a lady living in Kensington told me she kept bees there. They throve well and had furnished her with a super of fourteen pounds weight. It has been asserted that bees will fly five or six miles for honey, if a supply nearer home be not attainable. They may, but such an extreme labor would not allow the stock to thrive. Too much time and muscular strength would be consumed in making the journey. The great danger to bees is their liability to be tempted into shops, such as grocers, confectioners, etc., where they get bewildered, fly to the window, and in vain attempt to penetrate the glass, they die. Breweries are also fatal places, the sweet work attracting numbers which perish by drowning.

Most bee-keepers have a garden, and in it can be grown many flowers pleasing to the eye, grateful to the nose and useful to the bees.

Mignonette, borage, honeysuckle, hyacinth, crocus, laurustinus, lavender, lily, primrose and many other flowers are visited by bees, and may well be cultivated with advantage. The arable fields supply buckwheat, beans, mustard, clover and lucerne, which all give an abundant supply of honey; and if we follow America's example, we should sow, when possible, special bee flowers.

Borage has the reputation of being the best of all bee flowers. It blossoms continually from June till November, and is frequented by bees even in moist weather.

The honey from it is of superior quality, and an acre would support a large number of stocks.

Dwellers in the country cannot fail to have observed occasionally, that the leaves of the trees and shrubs have a gummy_appearance and are sticky to the touch. If a leaf so covered be put to the tongue it will taste sweet. This is honey-dew, and is a secretion of some spieces of aphides, ejected from their abdomen in little squirting streams.

This substance the bees readily gather, and when it is abundant make large additions to their stores. It is generally most plentiful in June or July, and is chiefly found on forest and fruit trees, although often on low-growing bushes. At the season of its greatest abundance, the pleasant hum of the bees engaged on it is very audible. JOHN HUNTER.

From N. Y. Grocery and Provision Review. National Bee and Fish Culture.

Bee culture-hitherto one of our most neglected yet most profitable industries-is gradually attracting increased attention and slowly assuming its proper importance among our sources of national wealth, while our exports of its product-honeyare already reaching considerable proportions since the production has begun to exceed the demand for home consumption. As we consider the neglect of our people to develop this industry, and the unlimited capacity of the country to produce this wholesome and nutritious article of food, and the annual enormous waste of the product of one vast department of Nature-the floral kingdom-we are tempted to moralize upon the proverbial waste and extravagance of the American people. So many have been our sources of vast and almost inexhaustible wealth, already employed and developed, that we had neglected to look about for wholly unemployed sources, and in the eager pursuit of old, we saw no new ones. This state of primeval extravagance and waste is slowly giving way, however. before harder times, denser population, higher values, and the causes which always operate as a community grows older, to utilize more and more its resources. This tendency has been seen for some years past, in the experiments of our State Governments in the direction of fish culture, until many of them have now a fish commissioner, whose duties are chiefly to stock their rivers which have been deprived of native fish, and to restore this great and almost lost natural source of cheap and free supplies of animal food.

Why should not our governments-national and state-stock our fields with the "busy little bees," as well as our streams with fish?

The untold and unknown wealth of flowers is now largely wasted. Like rivers they are performing but half and less than half their natural functions. It would, perhaps, cause a smile of derision to suggest the paying of the national debt by stocking the country with bees. Yet the opinions of authorities, and their estimates, state that the unutilized honey of the flowers is wasted annually in sufficient quantities, for want of bees to gather it, to pay the interest, if not the principal of the national debt.

Mr. Harbison, the great apiarian of California, estimates that the evaporation of honey from the flowers of that State causes an anuual loss greater than its gold product. Why then should not this industry receive government recognition as well as fish culture? Here is one vast domain of nature, created not only for the eye, but for the taste and the stomach, left literally to "waste its sweetness annually on the desert air," while millions of our people are but half fed, and all, simply for the want of the "busy little bees" to gather it, whom our ignorance, cruelty and neglect have left to be destroyed, yearly, in order to get the fruits of their labor, which, by a proper system could be made to yield more than four-fold greater returns, ahd at the same time not rob these workers of their winter stores. Certainly the government should take steps to protect the most productive and industrious of our "workers" from the ruthless depredations of the human drone, and at the same time repair the damages done by their decimation, by importing Italian queens for breeding rapidly, as is now the custom among apiarists. This can be done more rapidly than fish can be bred, and there is no good reason, in fact none at all, why this step should not be taken.

Indeed, we are told, that those interested in bee culture will endeavor to place the matter before Congress at the next session, with a view to this end, and we hope such will be the case, and that it will succeed.

From the Phrenological Journal. The Australian Bee-Hunter.

Insect food is much esteemed by the Australians, especially honey. In the procuring of the latter they show great agility and no little ingenuity; but it will be seen that the intellectual skill of the American bee-hunter has a great advantage over these untutored savages. When a native sees a bee about the flowers and wishes to find the honey, he repairs to the nearest pool, and, having filled his mouth with water, stretches himself on the bank of the pool, and patiently awaits the arrival of the bee. After awhile one is sure to come and drink, and the hunter, watching his opportunity. blows the water from his mouth over it, stunning it for a moment. Before it can recover itself, he seizes it, and by means of a little gum attaches to its body a tuft of white down obtained from one of the trees. As soon as it is released the insect of course makes for its nest, but its flight is somewhat retarded by the down. Now ensues a race. Away goes the hunter after the bee at his fullest speed. Whatever obstacle he meets with on his course he leaps over or plunges through, if possible, making light of the severe bruises from falls sustained in his headlong career. Having thus tracked the bee to its nest, the Australian looses no time in ascending to the spot, if in a tree, taking with him a hatchet, a basket and some dry leaves of grass. He lights the leaves, and under cover of the smoke, chops away the wood until the combs are exposed, then putting these in his basket, he descends and departs with his booty. Should the nest be a very large one, he is supplied by his friend, whom he acquaints with his discovery, with baskets or other vessels for its transportation from the tree to his hut.

Madison Co., Iowa, June 24, 1876.-"I had full 2,000 lbs. of honey last season. Our bees averaged 50 lbs. or more to the colony, last season. I lost none from disease in the winter." MOSES BAILEY.

Indianapolis, Ind., July 8, 1876.-"I have had good success with my bees. I wintered 40 colonies, and lost but one, and that was queenless. I sold 2 early stocks for $40, before increasing; since then, have sold 15 more at $15 each, and have extracted 1,000 bs. of honey. I have now 120 stocks in good condition, which I can dispose of at $10 each. I wish the old AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL much success.'

W. A. SCHOFIELD.

Buchanan County, Iowa, June 27, 1876."My bees are doing well. I lost but one swarm in wintering. In the spring of 1875 I had 7 swarms. I sold $80 worth of box and extracted honey, and put 21 swarms in the cellar last fall. I got 20 to 25 cents per pound for the honey. THE JOURNAL has been of great service to me. I could not get along without it." E. P. BRINTNALL.

Douglas Co., Kansas, July 14, 1876.-"My bees are doing finely. Have 40 stands Italians and hybrids." C. E. DALLAS.

Marshall Co., Ill., July 17, 1876.-"I have now 41 stands of bees, and they have done well this season. I am making what I think is the most convenient hive. I have been thinking of sending one to the JOURNAL office; but as it is not patented don't know that it would pay me to do so, unless some might wish to make others from itonly buying my sample. I have sold over 200 hives to one man for his own use.

JOHN ROBERTS.

[If you send us one, we will examine it, and state what we candidly think of it.— ED.]

Hancock Co., July 17, 1876.-"My bees are doing well. I started with 16 colonies this spring, and now I have 52 colonies in good condition." WILLIAM THOMAS.

Fulton Co., Ky., June 11, 1876-"My bees are doing well this spring. From a few stands got 120 lbs. nice extracted honey; obtained from a small white clover, the first I ever got from such. Some stocks were weak in the spring, owing to the effect of cheap hives. I always get my main crop in the fall." G. ILISCH.

Warren Co., Pa., June 7, 1876.-"I cannot consent to forgo the pleasure of the monthly visit of your excellent JOURNAL. With the exception of one or two numbers, I have a complete file from No. 1, Vol. I, to the present time. I have ten Vols. bound, and I prize them highly. My 150 colonies of yellow Italians make melody in the valley of the Brokenstraw, among the hills of the old Key-Stone State, with their busy hum. Long live THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL!"'" W. J. DAVIS.

Hadley, Ill., June 17, 1876.-"I have kept bees for the last 20 years and I never knew that the common speckled grass frog would eat bees till to-day. I saw one sitting on the bottom board; I caught him; he had a number of bee stings in his mouth. I looked around the bee yard and I caught four; all had bee stings sticking in their mouths. Henceforth, I shall send all frogs caught in my bee yard to the frog land. My bees commenced swarming last week. The pastures are white with clover, and it is yielding honey this year. We are having a great deal of high wind for this time of the year. I have 94 stands; the most of them in fine condition. Some of the best ones worked a little in boxes during fruit blossoms. My bees are almost all pure Italians. It looks now as though we were going to have a good season once more." F. SEARLES.

Sangamon Co., Ill., June 15, 1876.-"We have a remarkable white clover crop, and where bees were in a condition to gather, there are no lack of good results, but many colonies derived but little from a profuse fruit bloom, in consequence of early cool weather; they were too feeble to take the floods of nectar that perfume the atmosphere in this section. There has been much swarming from box hives and the smaller brood chambers, but where 2,000 cubic inches of brood chamber are provided, it is more rare. With me there has been a terrible fatality with queens, having lost 5 out of 12 colonies since I put them on their summer stands. In some cases it was too early to raise queens and I doubled up the swarms. Three at least, did not die of old age. I have blacks, hybrids, and Italians, but the 'golden bands' will keep ahead."

Bees

July 5.-"Honey flows abundant. scarcely halt for dripping honey, if at all, and where properly managed (not managed to death) will make handsome returns for spring and summer. Have had fatality with queens that has puzzled me-unless the almost unparalleled number and variety of birds is an answer, for young queens. am satisfied that bee culture can be made a success here, though but little forest range within reach of us. Am pleased at the better spirit that prevails in the fraternity. Less hobbies and more truth-seeking, more live and let live. Ye editors have much to do for the general weal."

W. W. CURNUTT.