Honey for Food and Medi- English horticultural papers are cine, were its health-producing prop- renewing their attack on American erties more familiarly known, would be apples, on the ground that they contain appropriated to a much greater extent arsenic, and the attacks are being genthan is found at the present time. erally copied in the daily press. The That tbis valuable information is not charge is that growers sprinkle arsenic more extensively disseminated, and a on their trees to prevent the ravages of consequent increased demand felt, for a moth which eats nothing but apples the sweet product of the bees, is largely and pears. The editor of the Horticuldue to the apathy existing among those tural Times is the author of the “arsenic who produce honey-by their failure to scare,” as it is called. Immense quantake it upon themselves to inform their tities of American apples are sold in neighbors of the facts concerning the England, and bring high prices, which, health-giving and health-keeping quali perhaps, explains the reason for the ties of this “nectar of the gods.” attack. When all appreciate the benefits to be Spraying fruit trees, plants and vines derived from its regular and constant for the prevention of the ravages of use, then will honey-producers begin to insects and fungus diseases, is no longer realize the nobility of their pursuit, and an experiment, but a necessity, in order exert themselves to supply a demand to get large crops of perfect fruit. Of that will at once arise. course the spraying must not be done while the trees are in bloom-but just as The following paragraphs, taken from the fruit is "set.”. the Chicago Daily News of recent date, For full information on this subject, endeavor to show something of the address William Stahl, manufacturer of value of honey as an article of diet and Excelsior Spraying Outfits, Quincy, Ills., remedial agent: who will send free a full and complete But few people are cognizant of the treatise on this subject. benefits to be derived from a moderate We are glad to be able to state that use of honey as food. Saccharine matter, as a rule, is apt to affect the system Mr. Stahl gives proper directions for the injuriously, but if taken in the form of time of spraying, so that no damage honey, it at once becomes a valuable i will result to the bees. He says: food and medicine. Instead of having it given to us in combination with bulk Apple trees should be sprayed twicefoods, as in the cane and beet, it is, in when the apples are the size of peas, the case of honey, mingled with fruit and again in a week or ten days. Plum juices derived from flowers highly trees should be sprayed three or four charged with medicinal properties. times, àt intervals of a week or ten Honey taken as food becomes a power days, beginning as soon as the blossoms ful medicine to the sugar-fed and half have fallen. To spray an orchard will diseased, and many people must begin cost, per spraying, for material and on small quantities and acquire an appe labor of applying the mixture as well as tite for it. Foul air, improper ventila preparing it, from 15 to 25 cents per tion, coal gas and sudden changes of acre. temperature, and exposure of lungs and throats to sudden chill are the source of Very Fine samples of thin foundano end to throat and bronchial troubles. tion are received from W. W. Cary, of A free, regular and constant use of honey is probably the best medicine for Colerain, Mass. ; two of them being of throat troubles known, and its regular white wax, and all show excellent workuse is largely corrective. manship. The Foreign participation in the The Amateur Bee-Keeper, World's Columbian Fair, up to the pres- | by J. W. Rouse ; 52 pages. Price, 25c. ent, embraces 72 Nations and Provinces. | For sale at this office. MANUFACTURES AND LIBERAL ARTS BUILDING of the World's Columbian Exposition. Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building from South-east. Within the building a gallery 50 feet wide extends around all four sides, and projecting from this are 86 smaller The main roof is of iron and glass, and arches an area 385 by 1,400 feet, and has its ridge 150 feet from the ground. There are four great entrances, one in the center of each facade. These are designed in the manner of triumphal nd on each side al vetne side arches are great panels with inscriptions, and the spandrils are filled with sculptured figures in bas-relief. The building occupies a most conspicuous place in the grounds. It faces the lake, between. The building will cost $1,500,000. 11 Taces the lake, with only lawns and promenades vrchard 5. terial de N Queries and Replies. Are Italian Bees a Distinct Race ? Living and Loving. 2. I think that the majority of im ported queens will compare favorably To live and to love is better, with the same number of home-bred When each has its object in view ; queens. 3. If we had full control of the To live and to love is blessed, mating of queens, you would see very When those objects are noble and true. few “sports.-H. D. CUTTING. To live, that when mid earth's conflicts' 1. I have no doubt there is a pure Our life is a help to some heart race of Italian bees. 2 and 3. Do not To love all, so truly and purely imagine that we Americans are the only Will both blessings and joys impart. importers of bees, and it would not be anything wonderful to receive a misThus living and loving, together, mated queen even from Italy.-MRS. J. When wisely and well it is done, N. HEATER. Will yield in its highest fruition 1. Our best authorities have long been A Heaven on earth begun. a pure race. Still, it is sufficiently fixed to entitle it to the distinction it has so long held. 3. They "sport” so much · because of the admixture of some other race.-G. L. TINKER. runnenvenuinusururururunun As I understand the matter, all bees in Italy are not yellow, but are more or less crossed with dark bees. Our AmeriQUERY 810.-1. Is it your opinion can breeders have taken great pains to that the Italians are a pure and distinct breed for color, hence, as I believe, queens reared by our best breeders will race of bees? 2. If so, why do not our imported queens produce as beautiful, not sport as much as those that come from Italy.-E. FRANCE. evenly and well marked bees, as some of our home-reared queens? 3. What 1. Practically speaking, yes. That is, causes the Italians to "sport" so much? they are pure in the sense that short-North Carolina. horn cattle are pure. 2. I believe they do, unless by in-breeding our home-bred I really do not know.-C. C. MILLER. queens are hightened in color. 3. Every1. No. 3. Because the type is not thing sports. Name a race of animals, thoroughly fixed.---J. A. GREEN. or a family of plants, that all look ex actly alike.-EUGENE SECOR. . 1. No race at all-only a variety. 2 and 3. Because they are not a fixed type. 1. No, not a fixed type. It takes a -J. P. H. BROWN. long period of time and careful breeding 1. Only a thoroughbred. 2. Will you to establish a fixed type, or race, of any tell ? 3. Because they are not a distinct animal or insect. 2. They are not a fixed or established type or race of bees, race.-G. M. DOOLITTLE. hence, the disposition to "sport" or 1. Yes. 2. Because our queen-breed- || vary. 3. The same as No. 2.-MRS. L. ers are breeding more to beauty than HARRISON. other characteristics. 3. This is a 1. Yes, just as the Norman horses are mooted question.-J. M. HAMBAUGH. a pure race. 2. Because our home-bred 1. Yes, if there are any pure races of queens are bred for color, while the imbees. 2. Like Dr. Miller, I must say, ported ones are not. 3. I think the so“I don't know.” 3. Ask something called sporting is caused by mixture with easy.-C. H. DIBBERN. other races of bees.-R. L. TAYLOR. 1. Certainly it is. 2. They have not 1, I do not think they are, if we figure been bred and selected with color alone down fine ; but they may be so considin view. 3. It is true of all races of ered practically, as their characteristics animals, and why not of bees ?-A. J. are fixed sOpermanently that they Cook. duplicate themselves with certainty. 2. I have just been reading Ernest | The matter of color is not a test of Heckle on evolution and the descent of purity at all; the tests are peculiar man, which convinces me that it would formation, and three rings or more, of require two pages of the BEE JOURNAL | various shades of yellow. 3. Pure and to give space to a comprehensive answer | purely bred Italians ao nous purely bred Italians do not sport to any to your questions.-JAMES HEDDON. extent, in my experience.-J. E. POND. 1. From what I have read, and judg queens take their chance among a whole ing from my own experience, I lean to a piary of Italian bees, but favor them the opinion that the Italians are a mixed with the yellowest drones. Hence, the race. 2. It is claimed for the imported bees are brightest. This is measuring queens that they produce as evenly everybody's corn by my half-bushel. 3. marked, and as good or better workers, For some of the reasons above, and than home-bred Italians, but none as others that I do not know, but our potafinely marked as the handsomest Ameri toes, cabbage, and the like, will sport can-bred.-S. I. FREEBORN. anyhow, and for what reason I cannot 1. Yes, as much as the black or the tell. This is a deep question.-MRS. JENNIE ATCHLEY. Cyprian. 2. Because our ideal Italian bee is above the existing standard in 1. I think the most of the Italian bees color. 3. The same causes that make are a pure and distinct race of bees. sports in all races of animals. Black There are distinct races of men, but bees are not all alike. If they were, no they all “sport” in color as well as in one could try to introduce varieties like other characteristics. 2. The Italian the Carniolan and the so-called Punic, bee is not so much bred for color in which evidently differ slightly from Italy. Some breeders in this country, other black bees.—DADANT & Son. by breeding in-and-in, and by the intro1. As the word “race " is usually un duction of Cyprian blood, have produced very beautiful bees. This is all right if derstood, the Italians are a pure race. the more valuable characteristics are 2. For the same reason that some of our preserved, which too often is not the home-reared do not " produce as beauti case. 3. I do not know that they sport ful, evenly and well marked bees” as in color more than the general law of some others do. 3. I suppose it is be variation produces in pure races.-P. H. cause they like to “sport,” but I do not ELWOOD. believe they "sport" more than others, and then for the same reasons.-A. B. 1. Italian bees are certainly a distinct MASON. variety, or as some call it-race. 2. 1. It is not. 2. As the type is not Italians do not breed their bees for color, beauty or golden-bands; while here in fixed, they cannot expect to be uniform. America, that appears to be the greatest I am of the opinion that all of our bees aim of breeders. In Italy the bees are -Italians, Cyprians, Syrians, Carnio dark, and there are black (or what aplans and Germans—are of one species, pear to be black) bees there too. We and sprung from the same stock. Hence, noticed this fact while there, and to it I think it an error to call the crosses we called the attention of the gentlemen between any of these varieties “hy who accompanied us, while on the brids." There are no hybrid bees. 3. spot.” 3. Italian bees do not "sport" The above answers No. 3.-M. MAHIN. any more than any other animals or 1. No. 2. The reason is, American plants.—THE EDITOR. : breeders select the finest marked specimens to breed from, and thereby increase the beauty and uniformity of the Five-Banded Bees.—Mr. O. F. home-bred bees. 3. The Italian bees Wilkins, of International Bridge, Ont., "sport" in breeding, because they are on March 8, 1892, asks this question : not a pure race in the sense of unmixed blood. No pure-blooded race will habit Who was the originator of that strain ually sport in breeding as do the im of Italian bees known as the “ fiveported mothers from Italy. But the banded golden Italians ?” Italian bee is a distinct type or variety of bees, and there is no impropriety in As we might not give credit to the speaking of them as pure Italians.-G. right person, and thuz do some injustice W. DEMAREE. by answering hastily, we invite those 1. Yes. I know this will meet some interested in these bees to present their opposition, but I do believe the queens claims to priority in private letters -to and bees we get from Italy are pure Italian bees, regardless of color. There the editor. Then an answer will be may be a slight mixture, but no history given in the BEE JOURNAL in accordthat I have read substantiates it. 2. ance with the facts ascertained in the One reason is, they strike a sporting” country when they come to America, case. To publish all the letters would and our fancy-minded bee-keepers are result in confusion, and may not be not satisfied to let their home-bred | advisable. We will determine that later. CONVENTION DIRECTORY. be found on an acre. On examination I made numerous inquiries of farmers The crop of Alsike clover seed in this section was the heaviest we have ever raised, some pieces yielding seven or eight bushels to the acre. I imagine one reason of the large yield was, that there was but little honey in the white clover, and the bees worked the Alsike for all it was worth. Elgin, Minn., Feb. 27, 1892. Time and place of meeting. 1892. Apr. 6, 7.-Texas State, at Greenville, Tex. A. H. Jones, Sec., Golden, Tex. Apr. 7.-Utah, at Salt Lake City, Utah. John C. Swaner, Sec., Salt Lake City, Utah. Apr. 21.-Colorado State, at Golden, Colo. H. Knight, Sec., Littleton, Colo. May 5.-Susquehanna Co., at Brooklyn, Pa. H. M. Seeley, Sec., Harford, Pa. May 28.-Haldimand, at Nelles' Corners, Ont. E. C. Campbell, Sec. Cayuga, Ont. Rex In order to have this table complete, Secretaries are requested to forward full particulars of the time and the place of each future meeting.—THE EDITOR. North American Bee-Keepers' Association Wayside Gleanings. Bee and Honey Gossip. National Bee-Keepers' Union. PRESIDENT—James Heddon .. Dowagiac, Mich. Our heaviest burdens are those we bor- | SEC’Y AND MANAGER-T. G. Newman, Chicago. . row. How easy it is to admire people who agree It is a great deal easier to be contented B Do not write anything for publication mistakes never teach him anything. on the same sheet of paper with business matters, unless it can be torn apart without If the earth were covered with flowers interfering with either part of the letter. all the year round the bees would become lazy. Any fool can ask questions, but it takes Good Prospects for Cloyer. somebody who knows something to answer I found every colony of my bees alive them. last Spring, and commenced the season Paint the tools and they will last with 72 in fair condition. Increased to longer. 90 colonies, and obtained 5,043 pounds Irregular feeding makes an uneven of honey, all extracted but about 150 fiber of wool. pounds. Included in the above was Numbered with potatoes that are 1,300 pounds mixed with honey-dew. I had no white honey. Bees are going everywhere receiving commendation are through the Winter here so far in fine the varieties Rural New Yorker No 2 condition-no loss so far. The prospects and the Thorburn potato. are fine for clover this season. We live In pruning small orchards the thumb in hope. BYRON IIAMS. and finger were declared to be the best Worcester, Mo., Feb. 24, 1892. The Bee-Keepers' Union. I am surprised that the whole list of points considerably north of where the members of the National Bee-Keepers' Union is so small. Of the bee-keepers in planting is done. We are not so certain the country we ought to have a memberthat the reverse of this rule, in going ship of 10,000, then we should be a toward the equator for planting stocks, body that would be invincible. The is equally true, says The American Gar work that has been done shows what a dening. few can do ; if that number was largely |