Mr. Editor:—We are doing a fine thing in the bee business here this season. We (my brother and I) are creating quite an interest in bee-culture around here, by the use of our Hruschka. The way we sling the honey out is a caution. We have obtained six hundred and twenty-five (625) pounds of extracted honey, and six hundred and fifty (650) pounds of box honey from eight colonies of bees, and have increased them to twenty-two; and all the hives are full of honey now—the result of scientific bee-culture.

Old fogy bee-keepers begin to open their eyes, and think that bee-keeping is not all mere luck. The light begins to shine, and bee-keeping is advancing.

The Italian bees are more and more approved, and taking the place of the black bees; and I am in hopes we shall in a short time have none but Italians around here.

We have tried friend Alley’s plan of introducing queens with tobacco smoke, and failed several times, simply because we did not smoke the bees enough. We introduce now successfully with tobacco by smoking them till they are nearly stupefied, and then they will receive the queen without fail. We find the Italians will receive a queen quicker or more readily than the black bees, without any smoking. The Italians are better every way than the blacks. They are as much in advance of the latter as the mowing machine is in advance of the scythe.

D. L. Coggshall, Jr.

West Groton, N. Y.

[For the American Bee Journal.]