D D D D D D □ D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D n a D D D n D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D ; D D D anDDDDDDaDDDDannDDDannaaaDnDDaDD D UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS LIBRARY jnnnnnDnnnDnDannnanDnnDaannDDDDD D D D D D D a D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D n D D D D D D D D D D D • i^ARY UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST, MASS. F 4 3 Si 0 ^T" CilUam«90 tn 'Bn (Unltnxt PubUshed by The A. I. Root Co., Medina, 0. H. H. ROOT, Assistant Editor. E. R. Root, Editor. A. L. Boyden, Advertising Manager. A. I. Root, Editor Home Department. J. T. Calveet, Business Manager. Entered at the Postoflfice, Medina, O., as Second-class matter. VOL. XLI. JANUARY 1, 1913 NO. 1 Editorial Beekeepers of Ohio should remember the Ohio State Beekeepers' convention at Columbus, Townsend Hall, Oliio State Uni- versity, Jan. 14 and 15 next. This promis- es to be the most largely attended conven- tion we have had for many a year. See Convention Notices elsewhere. Mr. Doolittle^ in this issue, says he would prefer to have long-lived bees for honey-gathering, even if they are not quite so numerous, rather than a populous colony of short-lived ones. This is a fruitful field for discussion. Perhaps some others would like to give their experiences. WARM PALL WEATHER CAUSING BEES TO CON- SUME THEIR STORES. In our Nov. 1st issue, page 679, we re- ported the shortage of stores in New York. Since then reports have come in from other parts of the country showing that the un- usual amount of warm weather in the fall caused the bees to consume a much larger amount of their stores than they ordinarily do at this period. We predict now that many colonies will die of starvation, wheth- er the coming winter be mild or severe. Don't take any thing for granted. Better make an investigation at the first oppor- tune time, and make sure that there are stores enough. A CORRECTION. By mistake we credited the picture of the very fine honey exhibit as shown on page 811 of the December 15th issue to Mr. Myers, manager of the Spokane Interstate Fair, whereas it was sent us originally by Mr. F. W. Van De Mark, of Stillwater, Oklahoma, and represents tlie exhibit of B. F. Bartholomew at' the Oklahoma State Fair for 1912. We do not often make blunders of this kind; but we certainly " put our foot in it " on this occasion. Mr. Van De Mark's letter was duly re- ^ ceived ; but the photograph he mentioned ^ was delayed in the mails, and did not reach •— ' us until about a week later. It so happened that, when it did come in, the same mail brought the other photogi'aph from Mr. My- ers, and these two happened to be close to- gether with Mr. Myers' letter. The letter of explanation from Mr. Van De Mark, referring to the engraving on page 811, we give herewith: I enclose a photo of B. F. Bartholomew's exhibit at the Oklahoma State Fair for 1912, just closed. The design in wax, reading " The Home of the Honeybee," and the companion piece at the other side, showing honey-plant with blossoms and bees flying, are all hand-carved work. Few persons will realize the work it has taken on the part of Mr. Bartholomew and his good wife to put this one thousand pounds of honey in glass, mount the hon- ey-plants, and place the exhibit. All of the honey and wax shown is the product of their ovsm bees, and it represents about one-fifth of their honey crop for the year. Besides the exhibit shown in the picture, there were four others, nearly as good, which speak well for a new State as a honey-producer. F. W. Van De Mark. The fault is our own in the above in- stance; but at the same time we wish that our readers, when sending photographs, would take the precaution to write their address plainly on the back of the photo- graph itself, for the wrappers are often torn or missing altogether, so that it is sometimes difficult to identify each one. In the course of a year we receive a large number of photographs, of which we can use only a small part, and it is of the great- est importance that the addresses of the senders be plainly marked on the back of each, for many times the same mail brings two or more photographs of a similar sub- ject. CHARACTER OF MATERIAL USED IN BEGIN- NERS^ NUMBER. In this issue, the first of our special num- bers for 1913, our readers will observe that we liave made no effort to select from the material sent us only such articles as por- tray the rosier side of beekeeping; in fact, we have selected such articles as bring out the mistakes commonly made by beginners. Lest any beginner reading these pages should be discouraged at the start, and im- clllo GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE agine that beekeeping is attended by terri- ble obstacles, we may say that probably the majority starting with bees, if they make something of a study of one or more text- books on the subject, the chance for costly mistakes is reduced to a minimum. As we have pointed out on another page, if this were not true there would be few begin- ners who would not become disgusted and go out of the business at once. Quite a number of our friends responded too late to our call for material to be used in this beginners' number. It is now be- coming necessary for us to have in our hands the manuscript to be used, at least three weeks before date of publication, for our plans have to be laid considerably in advance. WINTERING DOUBLE-WALLED HIVES IN THE CELLAR. We are ti-ying the experiment of putting some of our colonies, even though in dou- ble-walled hives, in the cellar during the coldest part of the winter. Two days ago we put in 100 colonies, taking those from our apiary that were the weakest and the most likely to suffer when severely cold weather should come on. We expect to keep these in the cellar until about March 1; for the stronger colonies will be left outdoors as usual. A year ago we put in the cellar something like 60 or 75 colonies that were somewhat weak, leaving the strongest ones outdoors. The winter, as every one knows, proved to be an extraordinarily severe one. The colonies in the cellar wintered by all odds the best of any we had. We made up our minds that, if another severe winter like the one we had a year ago should come again, we would put nearly all of the bees in the cellar. Fortunately these cold win- ters come only about once in tliirty years. As a general rule, fair-sized colonies in our locality winter better out of doors than in ; hence we shall continue to winter main- ly in double-walled liives. In our locality bees have an opportunity io9 flight on an average of about three or four times in winter. THAT WINTER NEST AGAIN; A RAP AT DR. MILLER. On page 6 of this issue our correspon- dent Mr. J. L. Byer takes a rap at Dr. Miller. We are not sure whether the "rap" was intended for Dr. Miller or for us. If for us we will try to paiTy the blow. Mr. Byer describes a colony that has combs sol- id with stores without any winter nest ; and he offers the implied challenge that this will not die during winter. We are inclined to agree with him, because if a colony (es- pecially if a strong one) has combs solid with stores by Nov. 7 they will have a suf- ficient winter nest by the middle of Janu- aiy, or about the time settled cold weather comes on. We do not remember what Dr. Miller may have claimed; but our conten- tion is that every colony of bees, if given an opportunity, will form a winter nest or have one before severe cold sets in. This seems to be in accordance with their natural instinct ; for when severe weather comes on it is better for one cluster of bees to be separated by only the thin midribs of the combs than by a solid wall of stores one inch thick. In the former case the cluster is practically homogeneous. In the latter it is broken up by cold slabs of stores one inch thick. They can't warm up these slabs because they project beyond the clus- ter where it is cold. These cold projections convey the cold back to the cluster. Now, Dr. Miller, it is up to you to give Mr. Byer another jab if you think he needs it. BEES TRAIL HONEY-THIEVES. The follo^ving clipping from the Satur- day Blade, of Cliicago, was called to our attention by one of our subscribers, G. F. Jones, Galax, Ya. Steeling, Col., Oct. 24. — When J. M. Cornelius, a honey-producer near Sterling, awoke the other morning he found that in the night fifteen beehives had been looted of fifty pounds of honey. He fol- lowed the dispossessed bees to the home of two brothers, living a mile away. There he found the bees swarming about the house, while the brothers, besieged, had shut the door and windows and were afraid to go out. Cornelius swore out warrants for the arrest of the men. They admitted the theft. When bees show traces of sentiment the tendency can generally be explained in an- other way. For instance, recalling the old belief that bees would follow the coffin of their owner to the grave, we know that, in the rare instances where they did so, it was because the odor of the fresh varnish used on the newly made coffin attracted the bees by its resemblance to propolis. And in the above case, while the bees apparently exhib- ited some of the detective ability of Sher- lock Holmes, it is plain that the thieves, not laiowing that bees during a time of honey dearth are also keen for robbing, did not take the necessary pains to prevent dropping some honey from the broken combs along the way. The bees, of course, immediately found this, and were busy in carrying it back to their hives. Bees are truly wonderful creatures, but they get a great deal of credit that does not rightly belong to them. We often hear of their affectionate natures — how they mourn when their owner dies, or how they know tlie one handling them so that they do not sting him, etc.; but there are enough won- JANUARY 1, 1913 ders in the life of the busy bee without going so far into the reahus of imagination. ADULTERATION AND MISBRANDING OF FIG AND HONEY CAKES. For over a year we have been looking over the special leaflets sent out by the United States Department of AgTieulture with a view of noticing in these columns any case of adulteration or misbranding, of interest to beekeepers. However.though we have found one or two, foods said to contain honey seem to be seldom adulterat- ed. It is very encouraging that one of the results of the pure-food law, unscrupulous dealers are getting tired of trying to sub- stitute glucose or other cheap sweets for honey. The last instance that has come under our notice has been that of the adulteration and misbranding of fig and honey cakes. We give here the full history of the case as given in the leaflet, as it serves to illus- trate just how Uncle Sam goes at a thing of this kind. On May 23, 1912, the United States Attorney for the District of New .Jersey, actin? upon a report of the Secretary of Ag:riculture, filed in the District Court of the United States for said district an in- formation asainst A. A. Strohecker, Trenton, N. J., alleginsr shipment hy said defendant, in violation of the Foods and Drugs Act, on August 16, 1911, from the State of New Jersey into the State of New York, of a consignment of the product known as fig and honey cakes which were adulterated and mis- branded. The product was labeled: "Fig & Honey 19 S. Lipowiez, Buffalo. N. Y." (Guananty stamped on side of box) : " U. S. Serial No. 2751. Guaran- teed under Food and Drugs Act June 30, 1906." Analysis of a sample of the product by the Bu- reau of Chemistry of this Department showed the following results: Reducing sugars as invert before inversion, 39.89 per cent; commercial glucose, 37.91 per cent; polarization direct at -1 degrees C, 58.6; polarization invert at 21 degrees C, 58: polarization invert at 87 degrees C, 61.8; weight, 17.125 pounds; shortage (marked and sold for 19 pounds), 9.87 per cent. Adulteration was alleged in the in- formation for the reason that the product being an article for food contained a substance, to wit, com- mercial glucose, which had been substituted in part for the product. Misbranding was alleged for the reason that the statement on each of the boxes con- taining the product, to wit, " Fig & Honey 19," would mislead and deceive the purchaser into the belief that the product consisted of fig and honey cakes, and that the contents of each package ■weighed 19 pounds, whereas in truth and in fact the product contained a substance, to wit, commer- cial glucose, which had been substituted in part for said product, the presence of which was not declared upon the label, and had been substituted in part for the genuine article, and the contents of each box weighed less than 19 pounds, to wit, 17% pounds; and further, in that the statement "Guaranteed under the Food and Drugs Act, .June 30, 1906," borne on the package created the impression that the product was guaranteed by the United States to be pure, whereas such was not the fact ; and further, in that the product was in package form, and the contents were stated in terms of weight to be 19 pounds, and were not correctly stated on the outside of the pack- age, that is to say, the contents of each of said pack- ages weighed only 17% pounds and not 19 pounds, as labeled. On May 27, 1912, the defendant entered a plea of guilty, and the court imposed a fine of $50. W. M. Hays, Acting Secretary of Agriculture. Washington, D. C, August 13, 1912. FEEDING COLONIES SLABS OF HARD CANDY OR MOIST SUGAR DURING THE WINTER IN LIEU OF ORDINARY SEALED STORES IN THE COMBS. Elsewhere in this department reference is made to the fact that the beautiful fall weather we have been having throughout the northern States, and the comparatively mild winter weather, will have a tendency to cause the bees to use up their stores more rapidly than they otherwise would. In some of our oAvn apiaries we find colo- nies a little lighter than we feel is safe. We are making up a hundred slabs of hard candy. The hot candy when "done enough" is poured into paper pie-dishes, such as one can purchase at any of the groceries for 40 to 50 cts. a hundred. When cold, these pie-dishes will be inverted and placed di- rectly over the clusters that appear to have an insufficient supply of stores. Mr. A. C. Miller recently made the state- ment that coffee A sugar (a moist sugar) can be given to the bees direct. The ad- vantage of it is that it is ready without any special preparation. We have never tried it, but see no reason why it should not be an excellent food. Two or three cross- cleats laid on top of a dish of it will pro- vide an empty space between the cushion and the dish of sugar for a clustering space. The recipe for making hard candy for bees is as follows: HARD CANDY FOR WINTER AND SPRING FEKDING ; HOW TO MAKE IT. Into a dish of hot water on the stove slowly pour an equal amount of sugar, stirring constantly. Make sure that the sugar is all dissolved before boiling commences. If this precaution is not observed, some of the undissolved sugar is likely to burn, injuring the flavor of the candy and almost surely causing trouble with the bees later. If you have a candy thermometer, watch the temperature, and do not let it go above 275 to 280 degrees. Test frequently by dropping a very little of the syrup into cold water (about 50 to 55 degrees F.). When the boiling has continued long enough the drop of candy, when cooled in the water, should be hard and brittle when taken out ; but when placed in the mouth it should soften slightly, so that it is tough. When this time has arrived, pour the syrup immediately. The color of the candy when cold should be about that of light basswood honey. If it is darkened very much it is scorched and unfit for the bees. To pre- vent the scorching, reduce the fire toward the last so that the syrup will boil but slowly. When the candy is first made, it is hard and glassy, and perfectlj' transparent: but after it stands for a little time it becomes somewhat watery and crystalline ; but this is all the better so for as the bees are concerned, for they are enabled to take it more easily. In regard to hard candy we may say that A. I. Root, years ago, wintered a num- ber of his colonies on it when the bees had nothing but dry combs. We ap^rirehend there will be a good many of our subscrib- ers who, if they will look through their colonies, will find some that are so low that there will be danger of their staiwing be- fore spring unless fed candy or sugar. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Stray Straws Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. Light in cellar works in Marengo just as in Borodino, p. 795. As a postscript it might be added that, when bees are in best condition, they will stand a good deal of light ; if in bad condition, light is bad. A GOOD strain of Italians will not lay above the brood-nest, p. 798. May be not. Major Shallard, in Australia, where every thing stands on its head; but in tliis coun- try the better the queen the more likely to lay above if crowded below. Pfarrer Straeuli thus treats a swarm; He puts two frames of foundation in the center of the brood-chamber; places on it an excluder, and over this a story with empty combs and some honey, into which he puts the swarm. In no case has the swarm reissued. — Deutsche Bzcht. G. M. DoOLiTTLE, I had a good laugh over your trousers standing alone starched with honey, p. 795. I dislike honey on my hands exceedingly; but if I had no water, before using my trousers I'd scour the hon- ey off my" hands with earth. "Dirty?" Well, however it may look, soil does not feel so dirty as honey. Bees should have a larger entrance in winter than in summer, p. 799. That de- pends, friend Johnson. In this region, bees can hardly have too large an entrance in hot weather. Same in winter, if cellared. But ouldoooi-s they would hardly stand in winter to have so large an entrance as my bees have in summer. Contracting the brood-chamber for win- ter is advocated because it ra&kes less room for the bees to keep warm in winter. The editor of Deutsche Bzcht. says, p. 143, that nothing could be more absurd, since for best wintering the bees must cluster in a sphere, and in too small a chamber there is not room for this. [The editor of Deut- sche Bienenzeitung is evidently laboring under a misapprehension as to the amount of contraction that is ordinarily practiced in this country. No full colony is ever con- tracted down to less than five or six frames wide. Such space would give a strong colo- ny all the clustering room it could possibly require. In fact, we have seen powerful colonies contract into a ball during cold weather nearly as small as a doubled fist. Even a three-frame space would accommo- date such a cluster, and of course a five or six frame space would be ample. — Ed.] You fellows who have never had any but modern extractors don't know how blest you are. In bygone years, when I produc- ed extracted honey, I had a Peabody ex-" tractor, the pioneer extractor, with can and all revolving. This year, by means of a certain editor who is urging the production of comb honey, I got an up-to-date four- frame extractor, too late for anj^ thing else except to extract a lot of unfinished sec- tions; but, oh the delight it was to extract them! Before the extractor came I had studied just how I would manage in lifting and reversing the frames to have as little drip as possible, for the most unpleasant thing in former j'ears had been the messy drip when frames were lifted out. To my surprise, when I now lifted out the frames there was no drip ! I could hardly believe my eyes. And the delightful ease of turn- ing the crank, compared with the former stooping over to revolve the whole ma- chine! I can hardly wait to use that ex- tractor next year, unless the good Lord has something better for me to do before that time. [We hope the good Lord will spare you the pleasure of trying out a modern equipment for taking extracted honey. — Ed.] Jos. Koch, Schweiz. Bztg., 310, reports a queen, born in the early summer of 1906, still vigorous and doing good work in 1912. He is sure there can be no mistake as to her age, for she was marked red, and he has marked no queen since with that color. She is of the " Nigra " stock, and was sent to a mating station for pure fertilization. [This is a very remarkable instance of longe\dty. Had not Mr. Koch marked the queen red we should have said he was surely mistaken. The ordinary supersedure takes place so quietly that in most cases the api- arist never gets any knowledge of it ; and when he does see the new queen mother, she often looks so much like the old one that she passes for her. But we do not know any way of marking a queen red so that the coloring would not come off in the lapse of six years. If Mr. Koch or anybody else can tell us how to do this with some coloring matter that will not be injurious, he will be conferring a favor on beekeepers generally. As a general rule, however, queens are distinguished by the manner of clipping their wings, either on the left or right side, and by angle cuts. For example, a square-off cut on the left side could indicate 1912; and an angle cut (one each way) could be made to indicate 1913 and 1914. Similar markings on the right side could represent three years more, which certainly would be long enough for at least 99 per cent of all queens. — Ed.] JANUARY 1, 1913 Beekeeping in California p. C. Chadwick, Redlands, Cal. Owing to the demand for space, I will for the present at least discontinue the writ- ing of my summer trijD. I find many things of which I wish to write that will be of more interest to my readers, though there is much yet to be said of conditions and beekeepers as I found them on my trip that will be given when the time seems op- portune. * * * LIGHT-AMBER SAGE (?) In market quotations, Xov. 15, Hamil- ton & Henderson, of Los Angeles, quote " Light-amber sage." It is my opinion that this is stretching a point. If a producer attempted to sell light amber to this firm as sage they would no doubt fail, and prop- erl}- so, for there is no such grade in sage honey, and no one knows it better than Hamilton & Henderson. The world pro- duces no better honey than the true sage, which, in its purity, is white; but when containing a cjuantity of other kinds suf- ficient to put it in the light-amber class it should no longer be called sage. Any attemj^t to lower the reputation of sage honey by selling other kinds as " light- amber sage " should be resented by those who take i^ride in producing the true arti- cle, and by those who expect to obtain a fancy price on the merits of its color and qualit}' as well as its world-wide reputation. * * * SMALL ENTRANCES ALLOW MORE BEES TO WORK IN THE FIELD. Dr. Hiller, Nov. 1, p. 682, I believe the preference of bees for small entrances proves they are best for me. for the reason that what is best for them is best for me. The present agitation for large entrances I believe is not based on sufficient advantages to offset the disadvantages. There are sev- eral conditions to be taken into considera- tion in the discussion of this question. The first object should be to ascertain which will secure the greatest economy in hive service of the bee. The larger the entrance, the greater the number of bees required to guard it ; and the ability of the bees to preserve their own heat is much reduced, requiring a greater number in the cluster on the combs for that purpose, thus again reducing the field force which would otherwise be avail- able. These are two good reasons why a small entrance is preferable to a large one, and I believe them sufficient in themselves, though there are others well worth atten- tion. I will admit that a hive booming full of bees can presene sufficient warmth, re- gardless of a very large entrance, to build up rapidly in the spring; but it is accom- plished because there are sufficient bees to fill the outer edges of the space between the combs, thus keeping out the cold air with sheer bee force. Supposing, however, we reduce the en- trance to the actual size needed to allow- free entrance and exit. In that case there- will be a thinning of bees in those spaces, and a much greater force ready to take up the duties of the field. In the spring of each j-ear, when invoic- ing my stock of bees and ascertaining their condition, I often find it desirable to trans- fer a very small colony to a five-frame hive, because in this size of hive they are able to protect themselves better with fewer bees, and to preseiwe all the warmth they produce, thus enabling the queen to lay over a greater area of comb space than could possibly be kept warm in a ten-frame hive, especially with a large entrance. I am told that a large entrance will prevent or at least delay swarming. Tiaie, simply because it not only requires a greater num- ber of bees to preserve the heat of the hive, but a greater number must remain for that duty when the swarm issues, tJius requiring a longer period of breeding to reach the necessary strength, and a slower process because they are not able to protect their brood over so large an area where the en- trance is allowing the admission of such a quantity of cold air. Here is also the secret of an eight-frame hive for comb honey. Warmth is more eas- ily preserved, and, in consequence, breed- ing is more rapid, thus filling the hive much sooner, enabling the bees to pass on up to the super, and there again to develop a sufficient amount of heat to make waxwork- ing practical. It is well known that bees generate much heat when evai^orating nectar for extract- ing colonies-. I have often found it desir- able, when nectar was coming in fi-eely, ta increase the amount of comb space rather than entrance si^aee. In veiy hot weather there may be a period when it would be de- sirable to give more ventilation ; but in this climate there are indeed very few nights when they do not find it more com- fortable in the hive, out of the cold air. While we are furnishing the habitation, let us do so with an eye single to efficiency as well as economy in hive service, or else not blame the bees for doing some unavoid- able loafing about the hive in order to pro-- tect their own welfare. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Notes from Canada J. L. Byee, Mt. Joy, Ont. FLAVOR VS. COLOR. Regarding the matter of choice in taste of honey being one of color or flavor I can agree with Dr. Miller that, if dark honey tasted all right, more would like it. Wliite honey is preferred by the majority as a mat- ter of taste, and yet taste can be cultivated to a certain extent. Who ever liked his first olive? And yet manj^, including the wi'iter, ai'e very fond of them. In our home at the present we have splendid honey of both basswood and clover; yet for a change we are using once in a while some buckwheat granulated honey of a very smooth texture. Formerly we could eat none of it at all ; but we have learned to like the taste. Yet as a " stayer " we all like the white honey best, and I sujipose this will be the case for all time with the majority, no matter how much we may boom our buckwheat. * « * THE ONTARIO CONVENTION. The Ontario Beekeepers' convention, held in Toronto Nov. 13, 14, and 15, was a suc- cess in the matter of attendance, interest, and good fellowship, and in all of these respects it possibly eclipsed all past meet- ings of the association. A number of our cousins from " over the line " graced the meeting with their attendance — sometliing that was appreciated very much indeed by us Canucks, and we hope that they all en- joyed their short sojourn with us. In some future issue I hope to give some of the best thoughts of the meeting, after I have had time to digest somewhat the great amount of good thing's received while there. Offi- cers for next season are practically the same as for last year, with the exception that Mr. Pettit assumes full responsibility as Secretary instead of Mr. Hodgetts, who was relieved on account of having so much work along other lines. Mr. Denis Nolan, of Newton Robinson, is again President. All communications in connection with the association work should be sent to Morley Pettit, 0. A. C, Guelph, Ont. * * * On "Wednesday and Thursday, Nov. 21 and 22, the bees had a splendid flight; and on Friday, the 23d, those at the east yard, 200 miles from home, were all put into the caves at that place. Conditions have been thus ideal for cellar wintering in so far as the start in the game is concerned; and with a normal season from now on, the bees wintering inside should come through in good order. At the home apiaries, all the bees had a good flight on the days mention- ed ; and since then up to the present time, Dec. .5, we have had no cold weather to speak of. To-day Mrs. Byer brought in a splendid bunch of pansies; so readers of Gleanings may know that we have had a very mild fall here in Ontario. I might say that, just two days after the bees at the east yard were put inside, about two feet of snow fell. Certainly these bees went just at the right time. Here at home we had only enough snow to cover the ground, and it soon went away. As the weather has been quite mild, no doubt the most of the snow has disappeared out east too; but for all that, if the bees had been caught in a big snowfall the hives would have been in bad condition to carry inside. * * * With no desire to start a controversy over a matter that has been pretty well thrashed out in the past, I can not refrain from telling Dr. Miller of an experiment I am trying. Some time ago our good friend stated that if a colony of bees had solid combs of honey with no clustering space except the sj^aces beween the combs, said colony would die during a prolonged cold spell. Without taking the trouble to look up the matter referred to, I believe that the doctor will remember the circumstances in connection with the discussion when he made the statement. During the last week in October a very strong colony in a regular Danzenbaker hive was fed all the bees it would take into the brood-nest. I might say that the colony is so strong that it was with difficulty the bees could get in the hive after the supers were taken off; in fact, during the coldest weather we have had yet, the bees are snug in every corner of the hive, although no packing is over them yet, all the covering over the frames being a quilt and roof above. Nov. 7 a feeder was again put on the hive, and they have carried down food until every cell must be filled, as they refuse to take any more, and start to build comb in the opening of the feeder. Now, these frames are spaced but 1% inches apart ; and with solid frames of stores in the middle of November what will the bees do for a "winter nest" during the weeks and weeks of cold zero weather that we are pretty sure to have before spring — the colony being wintered on a summer stand, packed in a rough case? Will they die? If the writer is alive next spring, he will report, and in the meantime he will lose no sleep over the fate of that abused colony. JANUARY 1, 1913 Beekeeping Among the Rockies Wesley Poster, Boulder, Colo. Brother A. C. Miller, let's have a game of chess with your apiary-record system on page 666, Oct. 15. The ordinary beekeep- er with 300 colonies or more will not have the patience to master your method. First you will have to educate him to feel the need of a book-record sj'stem; then you will have to give him a thorough course in hieroglyphics. You have laid plans for a 200-colony apiary, and I doubt whether a beeman can be prevailed upon to use it if he has that many colonies. LESS ALFALFA BEING GROWN. With the gradual development of the West from a stock-growing, cattle-feeding country to. a general farming and fruit- growing section, less alfalfa is being grown. Alfalfa is being plowed up to make place for sugar beets, potatoes, onions, and ap- ple and peach orchards. With this devel- opment comes a closer and more intensive cultivation. The fence-corners and ditch- banks are kept free from sweet clover, and the roadsides are pastured by the farmers' cattle. Dandelions, sunflowers, and the res- inweed produce very inferior honey, and the bees store large quantities of these honeys when the range for alfalfa and sweet clover is limited. These things ac- count for the poorer quality and smaller quantity of honey jjroduced in some of the regions of the West. » * » AFFILIATION OF BEEKEEPERS' ASSOCIATIONS. The local and county association has a work to do that the State association can not do. The latter has work that neither the local nor the National Association can do. The National has Avork to do that neither the local nor the State associations can do. The problem before the beekeepers is, how to get all local. State, and national associations affiliated where each will help and be an aid to the other. If being affil- iated with a State association draws strength from the local association, success is not permanent, and either the local goes down or the local withdraws from the larg- er association. At the present time there are three local associations in Colorado, none of which are affiliated with the State association. Several members in each local are members of the State association, and that is as far as it goes. The local association does not seem to be able to survive unless there is some financial gain to be had. This financial gain is secured through ordering supplies in a body. Shipping honey to- gether is also done on a limited basis. The fraternal association solely is going; and if local. State, and the national can be united on a business basis with the frater- nal part on the side we can expect a larger degree of success all along the line. * # « STARTING ON A LARGE SCALE. The beginner can start more varied trains of thought on beekeeping than a seasoned veteran would think of in several days. The veteran has mastered and forgotten so many things that the beginner asks about that a writer can not do better than to talk with some beginner in order to get original subjects for his writing. The proverbial advice to beginners is, to start with a very few colonies and build up. That is all very well ; but I have seen the beginners start with a hundred colonies, and make a success from the start. It de- pends on the man. A farmer or other rural Avorker who has had experience with farm- ing, gardening, fruit-growing, etc., and has made a success at these, can begin with bees and make a success without the long tedi- ous building-up from one or two hives. The trouble with the beginner is that he is so enthusiastic that he goes through his one or two hives every day or two, and worries them to death, or at least he secures only a partial crop. The man with more colonies will not have the time to open his hives so often, and will confine his operations more to preparing supers, arranging the apiary, taking honey, handling increase, etc. The beginner will probably have a lot of experi- ence hiving swarms the first year ; and when he runs up against difficulties he will seek out the experienced man for advice or will hunt up the points desired in the bee-jour- nals or bee-books. I would disabuse the beginner of the thought that, because a man is making his sole living from bees, he is a master beekeeper. His success may be largely due to a favorable location. I have known men who have done well with bees for a term of years, and then when foul brood or poor seasons came they lost out completely. Beekeeping is pleasant work, and should yield as satisfactory returns as any other rural pursuit. The field is open, and much money is not required, and I hope that we may have a good number of eager beginners added to our ranks during the coming year. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Conversations with Doolittle At Borodino, New York. PROLIFICNESS OF QUEENS VS. LONGEVITY OP BEES. " As I am a comparative beginner, and much interested in the improvement of bees, will you not write something for your de- partment regarding prolific queens, for my queens are disappointing in this respect?" " I am aware that a hive full of brood at the right time of the year is a sight that en- trances any apiarist; therefore prolificness in queens is something almost invariably desired, and that especially by beginners. I remember well when I used to read with wide-open eyes and mouth about certain queens being able to keep ten Langstroth frames full of brood for weeks and even months at a time. As I had few, if any, of which this could be said, I often thought the bees I had were not what they should be, which led me to buy queens of those claiming to have the most prolific strain in the world, but they were not much better. " At our bee conventions a third of a century ago, in summing up the desirable qualities of any race of bees, or of a queen, prolificness was the quality almost always put at the head of the list. But some of us have changed our minds considerably since then, and consider that there are other points of more importance than great pro- lificness. Some have even asserted that great prolificness is often at the expense of other desirable qualities. There are few beekeepers who have not had it impressed upon them that it is not always the most prolific colony that gives the most surplus. " I now consider quality in bees more to be desired than prolificness, for the more bees of poor quality one has the worse off he is. Some of our older heads are prone to stick to the ideas of half a century ago ; but there are few classes of men more anx- ious to adopt progressive ideas and meth- ods than are apiarists. But, no matter what our ideas, the fact remains that the colony of bees which gathers the largest surplus during each season, and consumes the small- est amount of this suri^lus in maintaining a good healthy existence between and after the houey-fiows, is the most profitable one, and therefore the one to breed from. And in order to set to work intelligently for the improvement of stock to the highest stand- ard of excellence, it is necessary to know the qualities which stand first in the make- up for fij-st-class honey-gatherers. " About twenty years ago thei'e were daughters of a certain queen in my apiary whose bees forged ahead of the rest of the colonies; but repeated examinations show- ed that these queens were hardly up to the average as brood-producers. In fact, with the exception of one or two, six Langstroth frames were the highest amount of brood any of these gave. And I began to study on this to find out the reason. I got up early in the morning, mistrusting that I would find them out at work while the colo- nies with a greater amount of brood and bees were asleep; but they did not get out earlier in the morning, nor seem to do a rushing business at any time, but just plod- ded away with a steady piill all day, with no seeming advantage along this line above the other colonies in the apiary ; and this, not for one week, one month, nor one year ; but a continual keeping ahead as regards the surplus produced, with fewer bees and no longer hours of work. Six frames of their brood seemed to give jvxst as good results as eight or nine of other queens. This seemed unaccountable to me till one August a change of queens was necessary in one of the hives. As the new queen gave bees of a somewhat different color, and change solved the mysteiy, for I found many bees from the original queen busily at work bringing in honey clear up to the last of the following June. The longevity of these bees saved the labor, the honey, and the pollen necessarj^ to rear two or three extra frames of brood reared by the more prolific queens, and this saving served to lengthen their time of service as field workers. Then I found that for out-apiary work, the small amount of brood for the size of the hive (I use a ten-frame Lang- stroth hive at the out-apiary) tended to discourage swarming. This was a gain of much value. Then less heat was required to rear a smaller amount of brood in early spring, and all tended toward longer life, which longer life gave the increased yield of surplus, and at less expense of bee force. " After having found out some of the qualities, at least, which made for first-class honey-gatherers, I then set about working along the line of getting these queens in a way of putting the maximum number of bees on the stage of action at the time of the honey-flow or flows as they came in this locality, and only a sufficient number at all other times for a good healthy existence, as I have told the readers of the bee papers once or twice before. And this last is not by any means the least, for herein lies one of the gi'eatest gains possible to make along the line of the improvement of any race." JANUARY 1, 1913 General Correspondence EXPERIENCES AND MISTAKES OF BEGINNERS BY J. L. BYER In glancing over the subjects outlined on the inside of the front cover of Gleanings for Dec. 1, the one in connection with mis- takes and experiences of beginners struck me most forcibly. , WHiile not a beginner any more in the strict sense of the word (yet after all it seems but a short time since I was struggling to get enough bees to make a living) there are as yet no veteran feel- ings in my own mind; and as for experi- ences, naturally I have had the usual amount that come to the lot of anybody who starts in any business with no capital and with a family to support. My first bees were bought on credit, but were not taken on those terms until ear- nestly requested to do so by the friend who bad them for sale. My note for 12 months was given, and the bees Avere moved in November. They were in single-walled hives when bought, and after that date I trans- ferred them into packed hives I had made, lifting the combs out two by two from one hive to another. Any one familiar with our climate knows that transferring bees in November here in Ontario is not good pol- icy, but in this case luck favored me, and they wintered all right. The crop was good that season, and I paid for the bees, and had a bit of cash left. This was, of course, "experience;" but I am at a loss to say whether I would consider it a " mistake " for a person situated as I was to go in debt for bees or not. Certainly it is at best a risky way of starting. Just here I might state the promise of the man, that, in case I could not meet the note when due, he would not sue me any way. While he was perfectly honest in this assurance, I suspect it would have done him little good to take such a step, as it " is hard to get blood out of a turnip," as the old saying goes, and so just as useless to try to get money from a man Avho has none. In looking back over the past few years I note many things that have been done that seem now to have been " mistakes," and yet under the circumstances I am led to wonder whether some of these " mis- takes " could have been avoided. With only a few bees, it was impossible to think of making a living for the family, and of course the thing that came to my mind as a solution of the problem was in line with the advice of our departed friend Hutchin- son, " Keep more bees." With practically no capital, it was im- possible for me to discriminate in the mat- ter of hives, etc. ; and, as a result, bees were bought anywhere I could get them, and in all kind of hives. This proceeding natural- ly gave and is giving me lots of " experi- ence," and to the minds of most men it will no doubt be classed as a "mistake;" yet if placed in the same position again, I no doubt ■ would do just as I did before, with some moditications learned by hard experience of the past. It certainly is, under ordinary conditions, a great mistake to have a num- ber of different sizes of hives; but under exceptional conditions there is license for almost any thing, and the position I was in called for radical methods if I was going to keep on top. During the time I was buying up bees here and there, many more colonies were kept by farmers than is now the case, and I soou learned that I could profitably buy first swarms, when they were offered to me, at about $1.00 each. Many a night have I driven six or eight miles after a hard day's work on the farm, in order to bring home two or three colonies from some man to whom I had taken empty hives earlier in the season. I remember in particular a farmer friend who complained bitterly be- cause his bees tlu'ew out so many after- swarms; and to help him out I told him to hive the first swarms on the old stands a la Heddon, and after six days move the old stock to a distant corner of the apiary. After a week or two he sent word to me to come and get the swarms he had hived for me; and, imagine my surprise to find the said swarms with all foundation drawn out, and the bees hanging outside the entrance ni great clusters! He remarked, "I fixed the beggars this time so that they would not swarm the second time." He had followed my advice in the matter all right ; but little did I suspect that I was going to profit by it at the time. As the man in question sel- dom tried to get any honey from his bees, my conscience did not bother me any, and I took the bees home, getting about 100 pounds of clover honey from each, Tliis little episode gave me " experience " all right ; and even up to the present I can not admit that there was any mistake so far as I was concerned. About this time I contracted a disease that I am afraid has become chronic — name- ly, a desire to talk in the journals as well as face to face with people. Accordingly an article was sent to Gleanings in which I told of the advantages of big hives, in- cidentally mixing in some other twaddle as GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE well. Being more bashful tlian at the pres- ent time, my name was signed " Jack Ca- nuck, Hoodstown, Out." Hoodstown was the name of a postoftice in the north that I visited once, but which I knew was closed up at the time of writing. I was rather surprised to see the article printed, and to note tliat friend E. R. had appended a nice friendly footnote to the same. This made me bolder, and I immediately sent another article and received the surprise of my life when I got a letter from the publishers with a " credit note " enclosed. Doubtless poor Jack Canuck, of Hoodstown, had re- ceived a " credit note " also, and this on my part was a " mistake," and I have never since signed any name but my own, for fear some " credit note " might go astray. To beginners in beekeeping, let me say that the "habit of getting mixed up in the journals is very hard to " get cured off " when once contracted; so my advice is, never start it if you want to be saved a lot of work and the trouble of answering a pile of correspondence. Of course, if you have no objections to the things mentioned, go ahead, and probably you will get a lot of fun for your trouble, to say nothing of the bit of " pin money " that comes with it as a consoling reward. The question will naturally be asked hoAV foul brood was avoided when 1 bought bees in so many places. I was fully alive to the danger of this pest; and as I had never seen a case of foul brood I got in touch with friend McEvoy, and he sent me word when he was going to visit an infected api- ary about 25 miles from my home. 1 made the journey of some 50 miles all told, and I think it paid me well, for from that time it has been no trouble for me to tell the dis- ease at a glance — a cell of foul brood look- ing muchlike a blot of ink on a sheet of paper, if I dare make such a comparison. American foul brood has distinctive charac- teristics that can not be mistaken to the practiced eye, and 1 have often wondered at hearing some say that they could not learn to detect it. One thing is certain: The beginner to-day must learn to know bee diseases if he wishes to stay on the job. The trip I have mentioned was worth much to m.e, for shortly after that time I bought some bees at a sale and found they were diseased. They were promptly cleaned up : and although I have twice since that time bought it again (once knowingly, so as to avoid the bees being scattered all over the country), never have T had any difficulty in cleaning up; and at the present, in so far as I know, there is none in any of my vards. After getting about 100 colonies in two yards, 1 had rather severe winter losses, and I came to the conclusion that this mat- ter had to be solved if I wished to make a living out of bees. Diagnosing the dead colonies in the spring, I always found that the bees had either starved outright or else part of the cluster had run out of stores, the rest of the bees usually perishing later on in the spring from dysentery. I used to read about giving 25 or 30 pounds of stores for wintering; but gradually I learn- ed that, for outdoor wintering, at least in our climate, it is necessary' to have more than that amount, and that, generally sjaeak- ing, it is a mistake to have a lot of unsealed pollen in the center of the brood-nest for the bees to cluster on. I visited some of our most successful winterers, and came awaj^ with the idea that their success was not due to any particular kind of hive, packing, location, or other minor factors, but simply because they gave their bees abundance of good stores. After a number of years' " experience " with many " mistakes " made in the mean time, I have never changed that view, and upon that main principle rests the success of good wintering, all other factors mentioned such as hives, packing, etc., being mere inciden- tals. To the beginner I would urge due at- tention to this matter, especially if living in a cold climate, otherwise he will not only have unpleasant and unprofitable " experi- ence," but in the end will have to pronounce his beekeeping career as a huge " mistake." When taking a retrospective view like this, many events come to one's mind which, while interesting to the parties directly con- cerned, are not so to readers in general, so I will close this random article, but I wish to add that, with all my varied ups and downs in the struggle to make a living from bees, never once have I regretted my choice of a life vocation ; and while we have not made so much money, the friends and asso- ciations formed during the time our work has been going on are valued far above monetary considerations. The help received so ungrudgingly from many friends in the past in the way of advice, etc., is remem- bered with pleasure, and it is always a source of pleasure for m.e to help others struggling along, when it is in ray power to do so. Never once do 1 recall asking for any favor from a beekeeper but that it was granted in a spirit showing that the help was given freely. Last, but not least, the best help I have had in the matter of at- taining any little success in life that has come our way is the company of a good u\fe; and let me say that every beginner JANUARY 1, 1913 needs this " experience," otherwise his life is apt to be pretty much a series of big " mistakes." Mount Joy, Ontario, Canada. AN EXPERIENCE WITH BLACK BEES A Fight with Hornets BY OSCAR L. GOSSET The latter part of June I found a small swarm of black bees hanging on a bush in the pasture. As I did not have a hive I made a box of nice clean lumber. The boards were 12 inches wide, and 1 cut them so as to make a box 12 inches wide, 12 in height, and 24 long. I hived the bees ; and, although it was a small swarm, the colony went right to work. I left the bees under the bush where I had hi\ed them, for about one week. It happened that the hive was placed near a ditch; and in case of a hard storm the water might liave risen and washed away the hive. One evening, about ten o'clock, there were indications of an approaching thun- der shower. The bees were my first thought. As it was so late in the evening, I knew that they would all be in the hive, and I thought it would be a good time to move them near the house, a distance of about sixty rods from where the hive was then located. I set the hive down not far from the house, where I could watch the bees. A day or two after I had moved them 1 found verj^ few bees in the hive; so I went back to the pasture to the spot where the hive had been, and found most of the swarm clustered on a branch of the same bush on which I had first found them. I returned home, made another small box, went back, and shook the bees from the branch in front of the box, and they all went in. That evening after sunset I brought the box with the bees to the house and emptied them in front of the first box. They all went in ; and as they had made quite a large piece of comb in the first box I thought they would soon stay there. The next day I discovered that a few of the bees had returned to the bush in the pasture. 1 managed to get them into the box, and took them liome in the evening, emptying them in front of the hive as before. The next day the bees were working well. 1 no! iced, about the middle of August, that the colony was not increasing very much. A few drones had hatched. I also noticed tliat tl:e bees did not have a very large amount of honev. so 1 ordered a Boardnian feeder and proceeded to feed them. They had carried in about one quart of the syrup from the jar when one day I noticed some black hornets near the en- trance, fighting the bees. The bees were out on guard as if attacked by robbers. I killed about a dozen of the hornets; and as there were no more in sight I stood watching the hive. A bee came out with a young bee which seemed to be dead, for it showed no life when I picked it up from the entrance where the bee dropped it. It hjoked as though it had been cut from the cell before time for it to come out, as its wings were shriveled. A day or two after this I took a look at my bees. As I approached the hive I saw no bees flying; so I raised the hive, but found only about half a dozen dead bees lying on the bottom-board, and about half a dozen hornets sucking the comb in the hive. The honey and syrup that I had fed the bees had been all carried away, for the combs were almost dry. There was a little brood in one of the combs. Now, did those hornets chase the bees out of the hive and rob them? or did a strong colony of bees lob my bees? There were no other bees nearer than half a mile. Maiden Rock, Wis., Sept. 24. [Your principal mistake was in moving the colony after it had once been located and the bees had marked their location. Carrying a hive away in this manner with- out taking any j^recaution to make the bees mark their new location will alwaj's result in weakening the colony greatly, for the bees will keep attempting to go back to the old location, and many of them will be lost. Undoubtedly the hornets bothered the bees considerably ; but we think the chief trouble was that the colony was so small tiiat the bees became discouraged. They may have left the hive in a body because the conditions were abnormal, or, as you suggest, the bees of some other colony might have completely robbed them out, so that they abandoned the hive because there was practically no honey left. Jt is expensive business attempting to nurse a weak colony. We presume that beginners ]:ave more trouble because of La. irg their colonies too weak than from any other source. — Ed.] T raised 100 daughters from a fine breeding queen ^^ili(•h I bought last spring. I hope she will live an- other year. I have 200 colonies, and have handled ) ^•esj for many years, but they are the first bees I ever sa\v that wouldn't sting. I handle them without smoke. Freewater, Ore., Nov. IG. C. A. Msubject. In fact, I made a study of it. 'There was a fascination about every thing. 'Then I branched out into Langstroth, Mill- ■er, Alexander, Doolittle, Townsend, and ■Cowan, and devoured Gleanings, the Amer- ican Bee Journal, and Review, not to men- tion all the pamplilets available. By these means I gained views on beekeeping from ■various points, and began to consider a system for managing my embryo apiary.^ But, to return to my story. That first reason stands out as including more experi- ences and a greater variety of ways for the acquiring 'of bees than ordinarily come to the beginner, even after many seasons. My f.rst was a swarm, the swarm. The next •came by purchase (this colony contained a $2..50 tested queen, and it has been my very best to the present moment, having given three frames of sealed brood and over 90 pounds of extracted this season. The queen was superseded the second sununer). The next was a swarm, caught by my son. The next was a two-frame nucleus from No. 2. The next was chiseled out of a hollow tree in the middle of a hot August day. The next (the sixth and last of that first season) was a cluster of the field bees not captured with the combs and bees from the hollow tree two days before. Owing to inexperi- ence and a strong desire for more bees, these were not united, but both were carried through the \vinter successfully. The queen having been lost by reason of inexperience, each ''swarm" was supplied with a new queen. Through all that season's campaign each member of the family became initiated by at least one sting. I myself taking no more than four degrees. That autumn I made jackets of old carpet which were slipped over each hive bodj^ and then wrapped with an asphalt roofing felt, which was held closely by string and tacks. That season is recorded as " the worst ever;" but having fed liberally, all came out the following spring in good con- dition. The number was increased to ten the second season by divisions and one swarm. That one swarm came out with a virgin queen. Tortunately I was at home, and with the aid of a hose I secured them with- * out trouble. Seven young queens were found running around in the old hive, and many queen-cells in all stages, but no brood and but little stores. One supersedure and a colony queenless in October, together with some experimenting, made up quite a pro- gram. That was also a poor season, so there was yet no surplus, and some feeding was required. The same winter arrange- ment was used, and all came tlu-ough in good condition. This spring I began to make the hives over with double walls. They are now all double-walled, six with the old %-inch hive- body having a sjDace of about % inch. Some were packed with mineral avooI and otliers with sawdust, all having %-inch out- er walls. Four are regular double-walled with deep slip covers. All have three to five inches of sawdust on top. I use super covers all the year through. All have two- inch rims between the bottom-board and hive body, and eight-inch winter-entrance boards, which were described and illustrat- ed in the Sept. 1st number of Gleanings. Continiied on page 2S JANUARY 1, 1913 13 By Boulder Creek. — Photo bv Wesley Foster. Along the streams the willows, maples, and cottonwoods are the first to gladden the bees with offerings of pollen and honey. EDUCATION AND THE CAMERA BY WESLEY FOSTER [Few have realized that our department editor from Colorado is a picture-lover. He is not a kodak Send who snaps every thing ana yet makes no real pictures, hut an enthusiast who sees the beauties of nature with artistic eyes, and who is able, by the aid of his camera, to make i^ermanent what he sees. We give place to this article here, not so much because it will be a help to beginners in beekeeping, but because it will serve as an introduction to sev- eral other beautifully illustrated articles by Mr. Fos- ter, to appear in the near future, that will make beekeeping more intelligible to beginners and more interesting to all. The cover picture for tliis issue, " Nature's Own Parking," is the third photograph submitted with this article. — Ed.] If some educational dreamer had arisen twenty j-ears ago and advocated the intro- duction of picture-taking as a part of the school curriculum he would have been laughed at ; but to-day we already have the dark-room along with the laboratories in our modern schools. The old idea about picture-taking, stere- opticon entertainments, and such like, was that they were merely diversions, while now it is recognized that we learn Cjuicker and retain longer what has been absorbed in an atmosjihere of pleasure. And in everj- vil- lage, where there are camera " fiends "' I hope they will lay the matter of a picture- making studio before the school board when a new building is to go u^i or an old one remodeled. The camera will be an aid to all other studies — the mathematics of correct expos- ures, the chemistry of development, the bot- any and geology shown in the pictures, and the cultural development from the study of comi^osition. You can well nigh get an all-i'ound education with your camera. Nature is the mother of us all; and any means of getting a closer view of her w'ork- ings should be eagerly seized. The camera will fix the various phases of nature indel- ibly in the mind, and be a constant source of pleasure to the possessor of the memo- ries of the walks in the fields, together with a pride in the pictures taken. Awaken the spirit of observation, and the world increases in interest. The weeds by the roadside, with their seed-pods held high above the snow in winter, furnish the birds with their winter food. Stop in your walk and watch them getting their dinner. If your camera is along, take a picture. What kind of birds are they? If you do not knov.-, the work of taking the picture will give an opportunity to note their markings and characteristics, so that, when at home, they can be looked up. Take a walk through the woods in the JANUARY 1, 1913 15 fall. There before 3'ou is a side hill down which the road winds into the valley and across a bridge over a creek in the valley. From among the trees is disclosed the outline of a house, smoke rising from the chimney. To the ear comes the dog's bark, and the fa- miliar farmyard sounds of cattle and chickens. There is a picture with road and hillside for a foreground, and the road leading the inter- est riglit up to the farm- stead; and as the feel- ing of content wells up within, you will almost instinctively find the spot where j'ou can ex- press the spirit of the scene by eliminating most of the irrelevant things in the landscape. But few things need to be shown — • the farm- stead and the naked trees with the road and bridge leading up to the house. What is desired is balance in the picture — not all the light or shade on one side or the center of interest placed right in the middle. Have it a little above or below and to one side of the center. What is essential is that you feel the meaning, and the results are sure to be better than if pictures are made hur- riedly. The scene is a beautiful one, and 3"ou should absorb the impressions along with the film. The technique of making correctly timed exposures is nearly equal to mathematics for mental drill. The animation of the cam- erist dispels the thought of drudgery. With a R. R. lens the bulk of my exposures are made in 1-10 second stopped down to 32. I vary this according to the light, and have fair success in getting landscapes. I do not like to take many pictures in the brightest sunlight, preferring some clouds, for softer tones seem to be the result. An expensive outfit is not necessarj'. A six-dollar camera taking some of my best pictures was the one that got me interested in taking pictures. A medium-priced cam- era is the best to start with, and a better outfit may be bought later on. At first it may pay to take the films or plates to a photographer for developing '■ Fools not all dead yet." The section shown in tliis illustration was folded inside out ; and although the corners broke it held together long enough to be put into the super, and then the comb held it together. and printing. If he is talkative you will soon learn points that will help in doing this work yourself. The cau.'.^L-s and book- lets sent out by the photo-supply dealers will soon give one a good working know- ledge if they are studied. Composition is the whole thing in pic- ture-taking. Some say it is all in the lens; but the best lens will not make a picture out of a piece of landscape if the elements that make up a picture are not brought to- gether in right relations on the film. The cheapest of lenses will make a picture if the limits of the lens are taken into account. Camera catalogs warn against taking pic- tures with the lens pointed toward the sun ; but by shading the lens from the rays of the sun, atmospheric effects can be obtained that are hard to secure any other way. " By Boulder Creek " was taken with the camera facing the sun, shading the lens ■with my hat. The feeling of spring is there ; the buds are just opening, and the bees are getting their first pollen. Boulder Creek has not yet begun to rise from the melting snow in the mountains. There is not the detail in the shadows that I should like; but be- ing only an amateur I have not learned how to make a picture more attractive after it has he*m taken. " Majesty of the Hills " GLEAJ^INGS IN BEE CULTURE Colony of bees transferred from the wall of a garage to the hive shown. shows the mountain forests and tlie timber line, tlie peak shown rising' to an altitude of about 13,000 feet. A cloud hangs down over one of the peaks. The pine-laden can- yon is nearly two miles wide; and as I focus my camera the pine squirrels and bluejays are scolding each other in the trees, while the Avater-ouzel fishes for bugs and worms in the stream, faintly heard in the canyon's depth. We rejoice that we can keep these memories fresh Avith the lens and plates of our camera. Boulder, Colo. BEES THAT WORKED IN THE RAIN BY FRANK S. LOCKE I am sending a picture of a very remark- able colony of hybrids — at least they ap- pear so to an amateur such as myself. 1 know that I am working at something a little out of my line; but the study has become so interesting to me that I shall have to be tolerated by those wlio think me over-enthused. I am a chauffeur by profession, and an ardent admirer of the ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture, to say nothing of Gleanings. J[ spend six months of the year in the country; and during the early part of this summer I was attracted by a swarm of bees which were making tlie air merrj^ about my garage. I started the motor of a six-cylin- der car, making much noise, and Avas finally rewarded by seeing the mass cluster on a tree near by. I knew absolutely nothing of bees or their habits at the time, but made up my mind to ascertain a few things on the sj^ot myself. I shook the swarm into a box, then transferred them to a hive lat- er. They made a break a few days after- ward because I moved them, not knowing any better, and absconded for parts un- knoAvn, but my interest did not go with them. I looked at the hive (quite em^Dty now), and found that I had only a small piece of comb, seven frames with starters, and last, but not least, a keen desire to see tliose little rascals busily engaged again. Therein lies my tale. You will see in the photogTaph a win- dow, at the up23er left-hand corner of Avhieh was the flight-hole of a stray colony that had been there for three years. Lower down, near the entrance to the hive, you will ob- serve an escape which I manufactured from a tobacco-box of tin. A fine spiral spring did the work. Before putting on the escape I nailed screen wire over every available JANUARY 1, 1913 17 exit they might find, then cut a small square liole lower clown, over which the escape noAV lies. In two days every bee in the house was using my new hole as an entrance; then I put on the escape, placing my hive in position at the same time. I do not know how the Porter works; but I must say the bees simply fell through this one of mine. They just crowded one another out through tliis spiral sirring flapper I made. Any bee that once crawled into the tin was forced bodil}- out. I can move the flapper out by blowing on it, but it opens out only. No bee ever crawled back. Now for the queer part : Those bees accepted a hive without eggs, bees, or brood. They had foundation start- ers only. They built comb, filling it with honey. There were no laying workers among them, and no queen, as I ascertained later, before introducing an Italian queen. They were three weeks without a queen, and simply went crazy with joy when I gave them their new mother. She was of good quality, laying on the second day after coming through the mail. They start at daylight, working like mad, and I can say in all sincerity that, during the past two days, those same bees have been flying at work in a steady rain which has left large puddles everjnvhere one looks. The whole business looks queer to me as they come in all Avet Avith their Avings spread wide as they Avalk — no stopj^ing them. I Avish I liad about 100 colonies of such bees. I'd stop driving automobiles. San Mateo, Cal., Sept. 7. BEES BUILDING WORDS IN COMB HONEY BY I. HOPKINS In the August 15th issue, page 515, you ask for articles on the method of making the bees build letters in comb. The ac- companying photo shoAvs the Avords " State Apiary '' built by the bees Ave had in the government model apiary, established a feAV years ago at our international exhibition. The body of the photo is an exhibit of a portion of the honey raised at the model apiary; but oAving to the photographer not using a color-screen on his lens the amber- colored honey in the glass jars came out black like ink. The case over the exhibit contains the Avords mentioned, in comb honey. The case was nine feet long, and the words occupied a length of nearly eight feet. At each end of the case is a bell glass filled with comb honej", built by the bees also. Each letter New Zealand Honey Exhibit. The words, " State Apiary," were built by the bees in comb honey. 18 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE James Woodzell, Webster Springs, W. Va., and his apiary of 38 colonies. Tlie shade-boards are the covers of winter cases made from coffee-boxes. was eight inches in height and two inches broad in the stroke. HOW THE LETTERS WERE ARRANGED. First of all, I made frames one inch wide out of quarter-inch stuff, similar to brood frames. I then obtained some bare half - inch well - seasoned boards, screwed them together, and cut them to fit the frames. They were then handed over to a man having a fret-saw, to cut out the let- ters right through the two boards. Each frame afforded space for two letters. The boards were next taken apart, and a sheet of foundation laid between the two boards, and the latter screwed together again. Now, the only places within the frames the bees could build when they were in place was where the letters were cut out on each side of the boards. HOW TO GET THE LETTERS BUILT OUT QUICKLY The quicker the letters are built, the bet- ter appearance they will have. For this purpose, choose extra strong two or three story colonies, and see that the queen is confined to the brood-chamber with an ex- cluder above the frames. Place a couple of frames of lettering in the center of the top box immediately above the brood-chamber, with one frame of comb between, and re- move them directly. The comb in the let- ters are capped over. The lettering should be done when the honey-flow is fully on. My first attempt was made over thirty years ago. Auckland, N. Z., Sept. 16. WINTER CASES MADE OF COFFEE-BOXES BY JAMES WOODZELL The i^icture shows a corner of my apiary of 38 colonies, all of which are in eight- frame dovetailed hives. Grapevines on three sides, and a wood-house and dairy on the other side, give considerable protection from cold winds. I winter my bees on their summer stands. I take coffee-boxes, such as are used for Lion's or Arbuckle's 100-lb. packages, and cut off the bottoms and tops. Then I cut out three inches from the bottom of one end and nail the piece back in such a way as to make a shelf over the entrance. I set this prepared box over the hive, and thus have about three inches of space on all sides, and nearly as much over the top, Avhich I fill with hay. The tops and bottoms of the boxes make the covers, Avhieh are used in the summer for shade-boards as shown in the engraving. I nail four pieces of narrow boards together, making a frame- work on which are nailed the- top-boards of the coffee-box. Then I cover the whole thing with cheap felt roofing. These covers telescope over the winter cases. By using these cases I have had very little winter loss. My hive-stands are made by nailing ten- inch legs on a square framework made of four narrow boards, and covering this with one-inch boards for a top. JANUARY 1, 1913 For my sui'i^lus honey I use shallow ex- tracting supers, and cut the honey from the frames in four pieces, weighing ap- proximately one i^ound each. 1 have no trouble in disj^osing of all of it at 20 cts. per pound. Webster Springs, W. Va. EXPERIENCES OF A FOUL-BROOD INSPECTOR Different Types of Beekeepers Met BY J. E. CRANE GRANDPA NICKEL BY MRS. MARY EOBISON I am sending you a picture of grandpa Nickel, a dear lover of Gleanings. He is very much interested in all of its articles, especially in the Temperance and Our Homes departments. He is a retired farm- er, and keeps a small apiary for pastime and pleasure. His honey, of which he al- ways has a good supply, he divides among Ills children, grandchildren, and friends. He does not know I am sending his picture, and 1 want to surprise him. Grandpa Nick- el is my father. Concord, 111. Grandpa Nickel among his bees, Concord, 111. Continued from page 815, Dec. 15. There is reason to believe that there are some persons who are not fond of seeing an insj^ector. One man told me that last spring the cattle commissioner condemned and killed most of his cows, and now I had come to kill his bees, and he seemed to feel as though his lot were a hard one. A good lady was afraid the inspector would open her hives and set the bees to robbing (as no honey was coming in), make them cross, and that they would sting the domestic animals and even poultry, causing any amount of mischief. She reasoned well, only she did not know the inspector. (One man told me that last year he lost 75 turkeys by the bees stinging them to death. I can not vouch for the truth of his story; but I think there may be some truth in it, as I believe his bees were the Grossest I have ever seen.) But there was no disease among this woman's bees. On the contrary, I found that her hives had had the nicest care, and her surplus combs were the finest I had seen anj'where. I have sometimes thought that beekeeping is not adajDted to women, nor women adapted to keeping- bees ; but since I have seen the success of this woman, and of others whom 1 might mention, I have decided that it might be well to revise my opinion on the subject. One woman went with her husband to look over the bees on a hot summer day. He had on a thick coat, gloves, and veil to protect him from stings, while she walked around fearlessly with bare liands and arms. Still another woman, the mother of five small children, I found helping her grand- father, who was eighty-three years of age, and nearh' blind, caring for a large j^ard of bees. With me she looked through the entire yard to find any diseased colonies. She told me she was in perfect health, and enjoyed the outdoor life. An inspector has many opportunities to receive as well as to give instructions. In going around among all sorts of beekeep- ers he finds many persons who excite his l^ity or sympathy. One of these, an old man with a farm and a few bees, appeared feeble, and had but one hand. I have seen many one-armed people, but never before one that appealed to me as he did. How could he care for his bees with but one hand? I often find myself wishing I had three when I am working with them. iieekopping as taught in some of the rural schools of England. JANUARY 1, 1913 One woman whose bees I went to inspect lived in an old honse. Her clothes were in rags, and were thrown carelessly upon her person. Her house was in the utmost dis- order. She seemed to think I had some sinister motive in asking her name, and would not tell me. I have since wondered if some Christian woman could not go to her, carrying some of the comforts of life, and take her hand and tell her that the good Lord loves and cares for her, and bring some light, cheer, and hope into her desolate abode. And yet another. His neighbor carried me over to see him, and told me on the way that he was somewhat cranky. On reach- ing the place he introduced me to him. I offered him my hand, which he refused, saying, as he drew back, " I don't know 3^ou, sir." As I looked into his face and saw the wild, strange exj^ression, I recog- nized that he was insane. Yet he was liv- ing alone, caring for himself. He had a good garden, and one of the largest yards of bees in the town. I suggested looking at his bees. He told me it was unnecessary. He knew all about bees, and said that they had no disease. Nothing I could say would convince him; but I admired his large patch of fragrant onions without a weed; his thrifty turnips, and his potatoes so free from beetles. He slowly relaxed ; and while his neighbor engaged him in conver- sation on the value of different varieties of potatoes I managed to look into several of his weaker colonies where disease would be most likely to show itself if present. When I was ready to leave he bade me good-by with a hearty hand-shake, and asked me to come again. How sad to see the marvelous mechanism of the human body so disorder- ed as to give the mind distorted thoughts and views of life ! A LARVA FOUND WITH ITS HEAD AT THE BOT- TOM OF THE CELL. In looking over brood constantly for dis- ease I have found that one becomes more observing, and sees some things he never saw before. Last winter, in giving a talk on bees before a Young Men's Christian Association meeting I told them that in all my experience I had never known a young larva to spin a cocoon and to change from the larval state to a perfect bee with the head toward the bottom of the cell, possibly because larvae instinctiveh^ sleep with their heads in the direction of the mouth of the cell, ready to walk right out when mature. This season, however, I saw one such case, and I ]]ad the pleasure of helping the little witless tiling from its cell, rear end first. 21 I wonder if it will know enough when it gets to work to come home when it rains. ANOTHER BROOD DISEASE. There are diseases that afflict the larvee of bees, other than foul brood; and I have been surprised to find how general one of these is. It seems to be everywhere; and, while not very destructive, it should be studied, and, if possible, some remedy found for it. I sent a sample of it to Wash- ington, and was informed that I need have no anxiety about it. The disease seems to kill the larvje after they are sealed up, and at almost the same time, as they all look alike when the cell is uncapped. These dead larvae do not decay in the cell as those do that die from American foul brood, but retain their form, and seem to dry up when they are removed by the mature bees. I observed it several years ago, and in some cases it was very bad — almost evei*y larva in large patches dying, and then it would disappear and I would scarcely see a cell of it for two or three years. While it is not so bad as foul brood, the loss in the aggregate is considerable. SHAKING INTO A BOX FIRST. I have noticed that, as a rule, the advice given to beekeepers who have foul brood is to shake their bees upon frames, these to be taken away in four days, and a clean hive given them. After a little experience I have advised shaking into the brood-box or any other box for the first time, and after four days giving frames of foundation. This has seemed to work well, and I have failed to hear of a single case where disease has reappeared because the old brood- chamber was used without being disinfect- ed or burned out. It seems well to make it just as easy as possible, within the bounds of safety, for beekeepers who have dis- eased colonies. I have been more careful with inexperienced beekeepers than with those of more experience. Middlebury, Vt. To be continued. BEEKEEPING TAUGHT IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS BY JOSEPH TINSLEY In Gleanings for Nov. 1 I notice Dr. E. F. Bigelow refers to his experiment of teaching beekeeping to boys who, he says, are the sons of wealthy parents. I am pleased to inform your readers that we in Staffordshire are a great way in front of this. We have actually ten public element- ary schools where beekeeping forms part of the school curriculum. The schools select- ed for this experiment were purely rural 22 ones, situated right in the heart of the country, and are naturally attended chiefly by sons of agricultural workers. Such teaching is bound to bear fruit in time, whether at home or abroad; and now we have made a start I anticipate the whole of the schools in rural districts will be drawn to adopt a similar coui-se of study, and in time beekeeping will form the sylla- bus of every country school. The photos will explain themselves, and were all taken at one particular school at different times of the year. The first four photos have previously appeared in that excellent little journal, Tlie Beekeepers' Ga- zette, but I have Editor Digges' permission to utilize them in this direction, as it is not often that we are in front of our cousins across the water. The remaining photos have not previously appeared in any paper. You will naturally ask how beekeeping came to be taught in the schools at all. It was chiefly due to my owm personal repre- sentation and to the good work of our asso- ciation (though at the same time I must admit that the education in this country is undergoing a vast change, particularly in rural parts) that the Staffordshire" Educa- tion Committee agreed to the experiment. The difficulty then presented itself, how could the schoolmasters and mistresses teach the subject, not knowing it? Such obstacles can be overcome, and they were overcome by my giving tiiem a series of lectures and demonstrations; and here let me remark that it was not only an easy task, but a very simple one. Highly trained men and women can be taught a subject, or, rather, the ele- mentary portion of it, in a very little time. They are apt pupils; and when I explain- ed the anatomy the enthusiasm for the sub- ject was apparent. I need scarcely say that the children ex- hibit no fear at "all. The trouble is to keep them back. Each school is supplied with two up-to-date hives, with accommodation for the storing of 60 lbs. of honey, two stocks of bees, ten veils and a smoker, while there are extractors and honey-sieves to go from school to school. The children are thus educated in all the various branches. We already see some results by parents of the children buying a hive of bees instead of the pet rabbits, cats, pigeons, etc. The educational feature has been a great success, and the financial side has also been satisfactory, one school haxing made $15.00 from the sale of honey from the two hives. At one school, where the schoolmaster has developed rapidly into a first-class bee- keeper, an observatory hive was fixed in the school window, and tliis lias proven an ex- GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE cellent educative feature, the children being able to observe the bees at work in every detail. It is intended to fit more schools in a like manner in the future. The children are taken to the colonies, and a practical lesson is given, according to the time of the year. The scholars then write, unaided, an account of the lesson, thus marshaling their thoughts and setting them down on paper. These are very clev- erly done. At some schools the girls are instructed in cookery, and these girls are taught the art of making bee foods. Wood- work is another subject that is being taught, and here also the boys are instructed into making articles for the apiary, thus making the subject doubly interesting and practi- cal. A profit-and-loss account is kept in all the schools by the children, thus enabling them to be keenly attached to a subject in which they have a personal interest. Stone, Staffordshire, England. HOW I STARTED BEEKEEPING IN A LARGE CITY BY ALBIN PLATZ On July 6, 1908, I started my career as a beekeeper on a small scale, engaging in the pursuit principally for the recreation it affords, and to keep myself and friends supplied with the finest and i^urest of all. sweets — honey. I bought my first colony on the evening of the day mentioned, pay- ing $5.00 for it, which also included all fix- tures, such as queen-excluder, super com- plete, etc. The day was exceptionally hot and sultry; and in order to confine the bees securely while they were being transported to my home the beekeeper of whom I bought them nailed a piece of wood over the entire entrance, excluding all air. They were thus confined over three hours, and I have often wondered why the combs did not melt down and the bees smother. However, no such thing happened, and I received them in first-class condition. During October of the same year I jDurchased my second colo- ny of a woman in the eastern end of Cin- cinnati, for $3.50; and from this colony I raised my best stock and queens. I bought both of these colonies too late in the season for them to store any surplus, but they went through the winter in fine shape and were exceedingly strong in bees in tlie spring. Now, thought I, having read all of the literature on bees I could get hold of dur- ing the winter, and knowing it all theoreti- cally, I can not fail to harvest a nice croi. JANUARY 1, 1913 of honey; for every thing presaged a good honey year. That was in 1909. But I was sorely disappointed ; for not only was there no honey, but, on the contrary. I had to feed the bees to keep them from starving. That made two years of failure to start with — somewhat discouraging for a brand- new enthusiast. Xaturally I had to stand a good deal of chaffing and ridicule about this time, and many advised me to give it up, saying that it requires an expert to make bees produce honey; and. moreover, they never would store any surplus in the city where the pas- turage is so limited. '' Give me one more year," I said; and if the third season would prove a failure I would acknowledge my- self beaten and throw up the sponge, so to speak. Well, the spring of 1910 rolled around, and I increased my two colonies to four by dividing. Fruit bloom and locust 3'ielded nicely, and then came white and sweet clover; and with the latter, lots of honey. I had two swarms, and har\ested almost 300 lbs. of honey, besides saving almost 50 lbs. in sealed combs to use for feeding if necessary. I sold mv entire crop for 20"cts. per lb. Every thing looked rosy to me now, and I made great preparations for 1911, inteixl- ing to increase my six colonies to a dozen or m.ore, and to increase my honey sales. But a fine surprise awaited me. Ore morn- ing in early June, wliile eya'iiining my colonies I was shocked to discover Ameri- can foul brood in one of them. I imme- diatelj- sent a sample of diseased brood to Dr. Phillips, at "Washing-ton, and he told me the bees bad American foul brood, and gave me instructions for treating it. Be- fore I had his reply, however, the other colonies became infected, two of them be- ing virtually rotten with the disease. Here was a fine state of affairs. No honey was coming in, and foul brood to fight ! Well. I ])repared six clean hives with full sheets of foundation, and gave them the McEvoy treatment, shaking some in the morning and some in the evening; and in no case did the disease reappear. It was cured completely : but the cure cost me over a hundred fine brood-combs and about 150 lbs. of sugar. Thus ended the season of 1911. Af'er having sur\ ived the most severe winter (1911) in forty years my bees came through in fair shape for 1912 — no loss, although the average mortality was over 75 per cent. By swarming and making a few nuclei I increased to eleven colonies, and secured 415 lbs. of honey. I produce only extracted, and it sells readily for 20 cts. per lb. My best colonv of Italians stored 155 lbs. ; and my worst, a colony of Banats, 37 lbs. I have two colonies of goldens ; and while they are good honey-gatherers, they are also great robbers; and after the honey- flow is over it is almost impossible to keep them under control. I had one case of rob- bing this fall, and carbolic acid had no ef- fect on them. As for the Banats, no more for me. They are extremely excitable, poor comb-builders, great stingers, poor honey- gatherers, and it is next to impossible to find the queen in a populous colony. All things considered, no strain can com^Dare with good Italian stock. They are gentle, and by far the best workers. Befoi'e I close I should like to give a few pointers to beginners. Adopt the ten-frame hive and stick to it. Don't practice stimu- lative feeding in the spring. Keep the best strain of Italian bees. Use absorbent cush- ions in wintering (not sealed covers), and don't tinker with the bees too much. By reading Gleaxi^^gs and keeping a copy of the A B C of Bee Cultui-e at hand,'^ the theoretical part may be acquired to perfec- tion. The practical part will naturally take care of itself. Cincinnati, Dec. 12. A SCHOOLTEACHER'S EXPERIENCE WITH BEES BY V. ROSS NICODEMUS The shades of night had already fallen when I arrived at the old beei'.eeper's stand, three miles from home. He expressed his doubts as to whether I could get my colony home; but I assured him that, if he would get it ready, I would run the risk. I had not gone far on my homeward way before I saw the reason for his doubts. The little box which seiwed as a super jolted loose, and at every chuck in the road threatened to release the prisoners. I soon fixed tliis, however, by sitting on the hive; and, driv- ing old Dobbin at a brisk trot, I arrived safely home without becoming aware of a single bee getting through the cover board. Later I bought two more colonies, one of which died before spring. Every day when I returned home from a strenuous day's work in the schoolroom, I Avould slide the lid of the hive to one side and peep in just to see how the bees were getting along. This first colony I transferred to a modern hive. Later I clipped the queen's wings — too closely, perhaps, for she died soon aft- ei^ward. In June I purchased Iavo two- frame nuclei of goldens, and put them into new hives. I thought I was getting along r;i(elv in the la"d of beedom. Little did I GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE know that iny birchbark eauoe was di'ifting , clown the sti'eani instead of up. The summer of 1911 here was poor, as it was in so many other localities. In Sep- tembei' the bees almost starved, and no hon- ey, although I had two supers on one hive all summer. I fed enough sugar to last them over winter. When winter began I had tine colonies; and Avhen spring came I had none. Not dismayed, however, I purchased an- other, and, profiting by my experience of the past, 1 was able to increase from one colony to six by buying some queens and a nucleus. 1 now have six, and secured about 40 lbs. of honey. This amount has cost me no small outlay of money, and a greater amount of time, and a few stings; but the experience that I have gained, and the pleasure I have had in working with them have amply repaid any deficit on that score. I shall try again. Henrietta, Pa. SOME EXPERIENCES IN LEARNING TO KEEP BEES Reading Necessary as well as Practice ; Clipping a Leg as well as a Wing BY W. M. SHIELDS My first experience with bees was with a colony of blacks which some one had ad- A'ised me to winter in a hole in the ground. The hole Avas lined with boards in order to avoid dampness. The hive was put in and covered over with boards and earth, all being done according to directions given by my neighbor. When opened in the spring the hive was floating in water, and the bees Avere dead. The same neighbor, by Avay of encourage- ment, offered me another colony at half price. I bought it, wintered it in the same hole, first taking care to put in a drain. This hive, when taken out in the spring, Avas covered Avith Avhile mold, but it con- tained liA'e bees. For some years, through lack of know- ledge of bees and their ways I never got beyond three or four colonies. I read much about bees in various papers, but the arti- cles happened to be Avritten for those who already kneAv something about them, and generally left me in a rather muddled men- tal state. Later I bought the A B C of Bee Culture, Langstroth on the Honeybee, and subscribed to Gleanings. Tt Avas after looking into these books that my interest in bees took a start. Tlien a two Aveeks' course in apiculture at Guelph kindled my interest into a flame. My original colony Avas in a home-made unpainted box Avith fixed frames. I had, however, gTadually changed to the eight- frame Langstroth hive, and last spring I changed to the ten-frame Langstroth. With these standard hives I purpose to stay. I read and reread bee literature during the winter; and Avhen sirring came I very naturally felt that I kneAv all about bees. I kneAv just what I should do and Avhat I Avantecl to do. My three colonies had been Avintered in the house cellar, each one in a box by itself. When taking them out in the spring, one hive slipped and slid about on its bottom-board, and the bees came out in thousands. That was the first event. Then I discovered that one colony sti'ong in bees had no honey. What should I do? My reading came to hel}) me in a jumble of " avoid spring feeding," " Boarclman feeds freely in the spring," " better not to have to feed at all." I had to feed — no doubt about that ; but how much or how little I could not remember, so I had to go back to my ABC book. I kneAv, or at least I thought I did, all about clipping queens' wings, and knew hoAv to find a black queen; for hadn't I read Doolittle on the subject until I could say every Avord? The colonies had been out of the cellar a day or Iavo Avhen a grow- ing anxiety about these wings led me to try things a la Doolittle. My AAdfe thought she Avould like to help me. The day was cold and Avindy, so Ave took a folding screen from the liouse to shelter the hive and our- selves, and then began the hunt. We had transferred the frames, and hunted the hive several times, when my Avife ventured the remark that perhaps Mr. Doolittle was joking (I had been quoting parts of his article to her). It Avas no joke, I thought. At last my wife said, " Look ! I believe that is the queen." In the excitement of trying to see a queen for the first time, our heads bumped. Our straw hats Avere knock- ed awry, and we lost sight of her. After a Avhile she Avas found, and Ave clipped her Avings. It will be well, perhaps, not to dAvell on the furious bees Ave had that day, and', in spite of veil and gauntlets, on the stings Ave both got. I knoAv noAv, of course, that, although it is a A^ery good practice to clip the queen's wings, we had no business poking about a hive on such a cold day nor so early in the season on such an errand; but when a fellow is sure he knows all about it he is apt to overlook some details and forget to put two and two together. Then a bulletin on foul brood, and the need for Italianizing, came to hand. I had read about foul brood; but Italianizing JAKUARY 1, 1913 was something new. I had apparently skipped it in my reading. I looked it up, though, and sent oil" for an Italian queen. This was in June, I think, just when the colony was strong and fit to gather in a heavj^ white-clover honej^ harvest. The queen arrived, and we (the same two), hunted long for the black queen, found her and killed her, and also destroyed all the queen-cells we could see. "When the hive was put in order again, and the cage with the new queen was in i^lace and the cover on, my wife said, " Now, Willie, are you quite sure it was the queen that you kill- ed?" I immediately began to think it wasn't the queen, for now I come to think of it, it was perhaps a drone. However, I said to her, "' What is the use of making a fel- low doubt his ability as a beekeeper?" Didn't I know a queen? It was the queen, though, as after events proved. A week or two after that, we looked for her majesty, and it was very easy to find her among her black retinue. We clip- ped her wings ; but in doing it we also took a piece off one hind leg — by mistake of course. Fortunately she has turned out to be a good queen. Xow, this bit of Italianizing was rather costly. I should not have meddled with the hive at the time I did, for the operation stopped the laying of eggs for some days, and made a very marked decrease in the working force. I got little or no surplus honej' from that colony, when, bj^ delaying the Italianizing until after the honey-flow, I might have had two supers of honey to extract. These are some of the more serious blun- ders I have made while learning, and I con- sole myself with the thought that we all make mistakes. I should like to say for the benefit of other learners that, time and time again, I have found the reading I did, and experience obtained in other ways, of much practical value. The reading enabled me to increase my apiary from three colonies to six, all very strong, and with young queens to Italianize all of them, and to ex- tract 185 lbs. of honey. I do not think the business of beekeeping can be carried on successfully without considerable reading combined with practice. O'Connell, Ontario, Canada. [Occasionally beginners accidentally cut off a leg of a queen while endeavoring to clip her wings. As far as the queen herself is concerned this seems to do no gi-eat harm, although the bees sometimes supersede a queen thus crijjpled. Clipping is really very easy, but still, if there are drones in the hive it is well to practice on them first. —Ed.] HOW TO LOAD HIVES OF BEES ON A WAGON The Necessity of Thorough Preparation BY ELIAS FOX I have been reading the dangerous and hair-raising experiences of the two boy bee- keepers in moving 30 colonies of bees 40 miles on a wagon, p. 688, Nov. 1, and I am prompted to write a few lines on moving bees by wagon or rail, as I think I have had as much practical experience as any one beekeeper. These directions will apply especially to strong colonies in warm weather. First of all, they should be in good solid hives ; and if not so, the hives should be put in the best possible repair. If the frames are liable to loosen and crowd together, nail each end with a small nail, or insert between each two, at ends, small blocks, and nail fast: then make frames of common rough lath to fit the top of the hives, and lay screen on top, and put another frame of lath on top of this, and nail down through into the top of the hives. If they are very strong, and the weather is propor- tionately warm, nail a comb-honey super on top of the brood-chamber, and fasten screen on top of this; and if the su^jer is full of empty or partially empty sections it will be all the better, as it affords better clustering facilities. Now comes the closing of the entrance. The majority of people close it by tacking screen over it, wliich is the poorest way of all, for this reason : If screen is tacked over the outside of the entrance, it leaves it open the full thickness of the lumber, and the bees sometimes crowd the entrance solid full, and are so heavily clustered over the inside of it that bees can not get back, and thus cut off practically all this source of ventilation. A much better and safer way is to take strips one inch or even % ii^cli square, and cut proper lengths to nail on the front end of the hives, making a rim on either side and at the top ; then tack your screen firmly to the outside of this rim and let it run down to the alighting-board and tack a strip of any light material across this, one inch from the entrance; then you have a cage the whole size of the front end of the hives (less the three strips), and the bees will be just as comfortable as it is possible to make them in confinement, with no prob- abilitj^ of any harm coming to them. Be sure to do all nailing before dark, excepting the simple closing of the en- trance. Should anv small unnoticed holes GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE show leakage of bees when loading, calk them tight with cotton batting. Take a good bundle of it along with you to use in the same way in ease of emergencies which may occur. Load the hives firmly on the wagon with a liberal suj^ply of straw under them; and when all are on have plenty of %-inch rope so that you can have one strand passing over the middle of each tier of hives. Draw as tightly as possible, and fasten securely. Then take more of the same size of rope and go two or three times around the entire load horizontally, and take one turn around each strand of body rope and draw as tight- ly as possible each time, and fasten secure- ly, and I will guarantee with this method of preparation in loading, roping, and side lacing, that bees can be hauled for hundreds of miles without loss of a colony if you keep them supplied with water. Union Center, Wis., Nov. 18. ONE SUMMER'S BEEKEEPING BY OPIE QUEUE This is to be a little record of my first year's beekeeping, so I shall start with the \evy beginning and gradually lead up to the grand finale which will be — but then, that is anticipating. I started by buying from a friend a ten- frame hive of beautiful gentle Italians at a cost of eight dollars. I also purchased one shallow super with frames and founda- tion, ready for use, which cost another dol- lar. The hive was placed nearly in the cen- ter of the half-acre of ground that I call my own. Here, in the shade of an old ap- ple-tree, Mr. K., who ^had sold the colony to me, opened up the hive while I stood at a respectful distance from him. I Avas very much suri^rised that he used no protection whatever — not even a hat, and he was bald- headed at that. Yet not a single bee at- tempted to molest him, and so I became bold enough to come to his side and look on ; and I, too, remained unhurt. When all necessary work had been done, and I had been shown some frames of brood and bees and the super was in place, Mr. K. left and my career began. Now, I knew practically nothing of bees. I had never in my life been within a rod of a closed hive, and never, to the best of my knowledge, within a mile of one that was open. Quite naturally I felt some trepida- tion as to the outcome of my venture. Yet I was determined to learn all I could to succeed and to make my bees pay for them- selves., To that end I sent for the ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture ; also for numer- ous government bulletins and other pam- phlets treating on bees. And while waiting for these to arrive I had every one who pretended to know any thing about bees tell me about them. It would have been better, as I was soon to learn, if I had first gotten my books and had studied them, and then bought the bees; also, if I had not lieard quite so many people talk. It was the middle of June. Day after day I went down to watch my bees at work. They were busy from the first, as I could see by their hurrying in and out of the hive. Moreover, a delicious aroma of delicate sweets came to my nostrils. The tempta- tion arose within me to open the liive and to peer into it. Indeed, though I had nei- ther veil nor smoker nor gloves, the tempta- tion became so strong that I could not re- sist. At first I raised the telescope cover just a trifle. When nothing happened I slowly took it off. Then I partly drew off the oil-cloth cover. Again nothing happen- ed. I drew it off entirely, laid my hands on the frames, took one out, then took them all out, and nothing happened. Not con- tent with this I took the super off entirely, and drew some brood-frames out of the lower chamber; and all the while not a bee came near me. This was on the second day after receiving my bees. It was all quite natural. The bees, being very busy, were also very gentle; and I, being a novice and very timid, was vei\y gentle, and that is why I got along so famously. As to the condition of things within the hive, I was on this occasion very pleasant- ly sur23rised. The foundation in the super was jjractically all drawn, or in process of being drawn. Indeed, I saw quite a little honey in the combs. As the days went by, the super gained noticeably in weight. Seven days of beautiful weather and unin- terrupted flow filled it completely. It had the weight of a box full of lead. I tele- phoned to a beekeeping friend in the city, asking for advice. He told me to get some more supers, frames, and foundation. I asked when the new suj^er should be put on. He said that he generally waited till the combs in the first super were partly capped over. The next day I got five shallow supers, 100 frames, two pounds of foundation, a veil, a smoker, and a pair of gloves. Hav- ing prei^ared one of these supers, I waited for a sign of cappings in the first super. Alas! day after day went by and I could not find a trace of cai3pings. The bees got lazy, and would not work. The brood-frames contained numerous queen-cells. These, as JANUARY 1, 191c I saw them, I i-eligiously cut out. In doing this I Avas following a bit of advice that some one had given me. I did this daily until the fourteenth day after I had re- ceived my bees. On the fifteenth, confident that things were in a safe eonditon, I left home to attend a convention that was to last a week. It was on Tuesday afternoon, about 2 o'clock, when I returned home. I found a great uproar within my household. My wife was pale and panting; my mother-in- law was half sick; and the farmer from the neighboring field sat on his plow, scratch- ing his head. My bees had just swarmed and hied themselves to regions unknown. I have always been by nature somewhat of a fatalist ; and when I was confronted with this situation all I said, or at least thought, was: " Well, it's too bad; but then, if they are gone they are gone, and that is the end of it." One colony of bees I still had, so why should I lament about the other that I didn't have? Now another bit, not of advice, but of ignorance, came into play. Where I re- ceived this information, or whether I re- •ceived it at all, I am unable to say. At any rate, I was firmly of the opinion that it is not the old queen, but the young one that leaves with the swarm. I reasoned thus : The young queen left with the swarm, therefore the old queen is still in the hive. I found numerous queen-cells. But, I thought, if the old queen is here, what is the use of the queen-cells ? Out with them ! I didn't want any after-swarms. And the result? Well, it was something like this : Every day I went do"' life to make her a little call every Sunday afternoon, and I did this before I was a professing Christian. Very likely these Sunday-afternoon calls had much to do with the fact that I finally accepted my mother's religion and her Savior. Since her death I have been in the habit of call- ing on my sister, for only one is left now out of four. And now, my dear brother, I have given you a pretty good account of the way in which I spend my Sundays. Perhaps I should add, however, that whenever I am induced, during these calls I have men- tioned, to talk about business or week-day duties, my conscience is not as clear and as devoid of offense toward God and the Master as when I have tried to keep in mind the command to keep the day holy. Per- haps we can not do better in closing than to quote the 13th and 14th verses of the 58th chapter of Isaiah: If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honor- able; and Shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasuje, nor speaking thine' own words, then ehalt thou delight thyself "m the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob they father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. SHOULD MURDBEERS HANOI I have just read Mr. Thomas Dewees' letter 0* page 459, July 15. It is a good letter, and breathes a Christian spirit right through. All tht same, I am firmly of the opinion that it is necea- sary to hang the murderer as a deterrent to other evil-disposed persons. I have read a lot about the statistics of the United States, and there is no doubt that the crime of murder is increasing there to an appalling ex- tent. Butler, the man who murdered and buried his victim, Le Weller, within a quarter of a mile of one of my bee-farms on the Blue Mountains, wat brought back from San Francisco, and hanged; and there is no doubt in my mind that it had • salutary effect on others of a like stamp. There are some men who are simply human tigers ; and to imprison these brutes for life, which means here really fifteen years, and then let them loose among the people again, is, I think, criminal. A little time ago a man in Sydney, named Phil- lips, ravished and murdered his nine-year-old daughter while he was under the influence of drink. He was condemned to death ; but the ministry in power here at present will not hang, and they commuted the sentence to imprisonment for life — that is, fifteen years. A little while ago a young man only twenty years of age, a fine-looking fellow, only just mar- ried, murdered a man named Travasius. He traveled thirty miles to commit this murder. He made arrangement with his victim to meet him in his own home at 8 o'clock in the evening, brought a plow-coulter with him, and a razor ; and while they were talking together he suddenly struck hii victim over the head with the coulter and then cut his throat. He was sentenced to death, but the ministry commuted the sentence to life im- prisonment— fifteen years. Now, this young fel- low is a type of the human tiger. He wfts not drunk. He simply wanted money, and he mur- dered a man for $250, and then cleared off for Melbourne and enjoyed himself with his wife. Just a little time after this, a half-caste com- mitted an assault on an elderly woman in Syd- ney; and the very first thing he said ■rt'hen the police caught him was this: "They can't hang me ; they did not hang Phillips." You can see how he reasoned. At one time they used to flog people here for certain crimes. Then the public cried out at the futility of the practice, and flogging was abolished. Some time afterward an epidemic of garroting broke out; and the ordinary punish- ment of imprisonment proving no deterrent, the flogging law was brought into use again. The magistrates sentenced the culprits to six month* in jail and two floggings of fifteen lashes each. Still the garroting continued. So the magistrate sentenced the man to one flogging and then to be turned adrift among his friends. The lockup where the flogging was to take place was sur- rounded by a crowd of his friends and sympathiz- ers, and they could hear him howl as he got his punishment. Then he was pushed out among the crowd, and his friends had a chance of examining his back, and could get a fair idea of what flog- ging meant. Brutal? Yes; but it stopped the gar- roting. Is not garroting brutal? Is not murder brutal? and is it not necessary to deal with these brutes as brutes? Murder is on the increase in New South Wales on account of not hanging, and I believe it is so in the United States also, for the same reason. Major Shallakd. South Woodburn, Australia, Sept. 1. While we are giving place to the above we also submit the following, which was furnished by our stenogTapher, W. P. Root, for our Medina Gazette : JANUARY 1, 1913 33 THE KiaHTFULNESS OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. As I write these words, Sept. 23, preparations are being made in Charlestown, Mass., for the execution, by electricity, of the third man, in the same chair, in the space of just four months. The first was Rev. Mr. Richeson, who ruined » girl in his flock and then induced her to swallow a capsule filled with cyanide of potassium. He was executed May 22, after a full confession, "for Jesus' sake," as he put it. A week ago a Mr. Spencer was executed in the same chair for playfully shooting a lady schoolteacher when trying to rob her of her money. The case under way is that of Mr. Chester Jor- dan, of Springfield, Mass., who murdered his wife and cut her body to pieces as did Mr. Crippen, the Detroit dentist, in London. The case of Mr. Beatty, of Richmond, Va., who shot his wife while she was in his automobile, a year ago, and for which he was executed on the 24th of last November, is still fresh in our minds. This whole business is sad indeed; but some seem to see no sadness in it except the ending. The sadness is in the thought that the three men first mentioned, and probably all five, singularly gifted, mentally and physically, should have been so des- titute of all moral perception as to choose delib- erately a course of action which they knew would haunt them to the grave, even without detection, but which, after all, they knew they could not escape. These men had it in their power to make their names honored for all time as did the late Wm. Booth, of the Salvation Army ; but instead they shook a dead tree to get the apples of pleas- ure, and pulled down on their own heads the fire of Sodom. In each of the five cases the mat- ter was rendered many times worse by the fact that the victim was a helpless woman ; lor, bad as is the murder of a man by anybody, the sand- bagging and shooting of a woman is the limit so far as depravity is concerned. During the late campaign some literature was sent out here, arguing against the execution of such artists in human slaughter as I have men- tioned. I am glad the law will stay as it is. Statis- tics in such cases prove nothing by saying that Michigan has no executions and only a few mur- ders, \\ ..lie Ohio has more. A difference in nation- ality would account for all that. Cleveland has a foreign population of fully 400,000 and Cincin- nati about 250,000, while Toledo, Columbus, Day- ton, Youngstown, and Akron would run the num- ber up to all of Michigan's population, the latter being composed largely of the most progressive people from the eastern part of the country. But even the Michigan law does not prevent murder there. Unless we know how many men have checked a murderous thought when • possible rope has dangled before their eyes we can not decide those questions by statistics; but it is easier to believe that a man will refrain from murder if he knows he will probably be hanged tor it, than to sup- pose he will abstain from it with only a peni- tentiary sentence back of him and a probable early pardon. The rightfulness of inflicting death by law is questioned. That depends on our standard of right. I assume it to be the Mosaic code. Alfred the Great, a thousand years ago, made the 20th, 21st, and 22d chapters of the book of Exodus the basis of common law in England, and it has been so regarded since that time; and that basis is also the standard of law in the United States. As a clear conclusion from that law, or a comment on it, we read in Numbers, "If he smite him with an instrument of iron, that he die, he is a mur- derer; the murderer shall surely be put to death." That law was nowhere deprecated by Jesus Christ, nor does it antagonize his doctrine. He came to preach to men as individuals ; but he left society, organized under law, to bring down its own tre- mendous malediction on those who take human life when in the commission of crime. Of course, some murderers should not be exe- cuted. If it could be proved positively that the present incumbent of our jail slew his wife, his apparent mental condition would seem to call more for confinement than rope ; or when men get into a row over a line fence, or several engage in a wholesale carving rumpus, and one gets laid out, it is impossible to say who is wholly to blame. But when we consider such midnight assassina- tions as that of the Coy family here, and the devilish cruelty of Blinky Morgan and his gang as he held Marshal Prazier up here, in December, 1886, wliile the villains blew up our county treas- ury, and afterward shot the policeman dead, near Ravenna (for which he was hanged), the subject of mercy ceases to be mercy when dealt out to those who never showed any, and despised it when they saw it. As it is, only about one murderer in eighty is put to death in this country, as our criminal courts are so defective in their operation — vastly inferior to those in England. Still, I am greatly opposed to capital punish- ment ; but I am not so much opposed to it as I am to the cause and necessity of it ; and it can be done away with, with neatness and despatch, as soon as we get the consent of the gentlemen sirs the murderers themselves. W. P. Root. As if to add emphasis to the communica- tions above, the papers tell us that Shrank, the would-be assassin of Mr. Roosevelt, followed hiiu from New York to Milwau- kee, through about ten States, in order to do the deed in a Stale where capital pun- ishment is not inflicted. This shows con- clusively how such men reason. "PEOFITS^-" AND '"''DOLLARS." Dear Friend: — To me Gleanings is one of the best journals I ever read, taking it from cover to cover. To my mind I never read its equal. I am 68 years of age ; 52 years of that time I may say I have been a member of the Methodist Church, in good standing, so you see I can take great pleasure in your Home talks. In the issue for Oct. 15 there is considerable attention given to temperance. In it and other issues you combat earnestly the evils of intem- perance, but you seem to me to wrestle with the effect, instead of the cause, of that unnamable evil. I am not going to lecture you, for I am not able, because I believe you are doing your part to keep the light of truth and humanity burning on the altar. 1. What would happen if congress and the legis- latures would pass laws to prevent any profit being made out of the liquor business, tobacco business, or any other evil business ? 2. How many people would engage in those vile businesses, if there were no dollars to be made out of them f Nelson, B. C, Oct. 27. GEOEaB Fleming. My good friend, I thank you for youl kind words; and my opinion of the points you make, 1 and 2, is that you are exactly right. But what are we going to do? How can one consistently vote for Chafin after his unkind and unchristianlike fling at the Anti-saloon League because they have hap- pened to ditfer with him in regard to meth- 34 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE ods? See Special Notices for Nov. 1. I am certainly heart and soul in favor of removing the temptation by cutting off this profit from the business. I have already mentioned that in Cuba, where I spent one winter, intoxicating liquors were sold at almost every country grocery. A man could get enough whisky for a penny to make him drunk, and a child could get a cent's worth of whisky in a tin cup ; but intemj erance there in Cuba was nothing to be compared with what it is here in the United States; and especially was that the case before "we, the people of the United States," carried over to the Cubans our American beer and other liquors. Poultry Department FLORIDA FOR POULTRY. Dear Mr. Root: — Many letters have been received, asking if Florida was good for poultry. These and other inquiries about the counti-y have gone un- answered because the writer was too busy to reply to so many. Perhaps Gleanings will be kind enough to carry an answer that will reach and relieve all these anxious ones. After three years of careful in- vestigation I can say, without reservation, yes. Be- low are some of the advantages. Land is cheap ; housing costs almost nothing ; no long hard winters call for expensive houses and intensive care. Prices are good. If one will use open roofless pens or houses in which to keep his birds they will be healthy and free from vermin. They can be iiatched at all seasons of the year ; but I suggest that one cut out the rainy season. Now is a good time to start the hatching. Yesterday morning as I parsed a neighbor's. I caught sight of a bunch of turkeys, and remarked that I would be around Thanksgiving day. He said they were all gobblers, and would need to be eaten that day or Christmas. But he added that he had hopes of perpetuating the flock, as the old hen was faithfully incubating a batch of eggs. Think of it, you frost-bound people — young pults in No- vember I The weather is favorable. They should do well. A surveyor is away from home so much that he can't raise poultry, no matter how fond he may be of that work. I can get more pleasure watching a brood of chicks ("biddies" the Floridian calls them) than I can by watching a championship game of ball, and I have been a fan over 40 years. I must follow my profession, and that cuts me out of a lot of fun with the biddies. A man must live with his flock every day of the 365 if he would make it pay, and a surveyor can't do that. My work called me to Lee County three weeks of September, and fifteen days of October were spent on another job besides many single days away from Parish. So I cut out the practical side of chicken culture and confine myself to observation. Eyes and ears are open all the time for all facts that bear on this interesting subject, but I claim to be only a "looker on." The chief drawback down here is the cost of feed Long hauls from the North make heavy freight bills. The middleman comes in for a big profit. Of course, feed is high ; yet all the poultrymen of whom I have knowledge buy it rather thai^raise it. Mr. Stevens, at Alva, keeps 600 that roost in his orange-trees and feed on dry mash from old boxes. He spends not one per cent on equipment, but buys all his feed. Mr. Throop, at Enterprise, is in the business big. He has 2000 hens the year round, that clear him at least $2.45 each per annum. He says it is better than a grove. He raises no feed, preferring to give the time to personal care for his flocks. The houses are cheap low sheds with old fertilizer-sacks for sides. They cost scarcely a hundred dollars for the whole outfit. A writer who makes his living at Clearwater out of his White Leghorns, said in a re- cent number of the Florida Grower, that he bought all his feed last year and cleared $1.40 per hen. This man goes in for more expensive housing than the others. He writes that he "would as soon think of sleeping with a leaky roof over his head as over that of his chickens." Fine sentiment, that, but only sentiment. Down here the roofless house is the kindest place in which to keep your pets. There they are healthier, and freer from insect pests than when under roof. There are no kinder people than Mr. and Mi-s. W. A. Halsey, of Terra Ceia Island. They shut their chickens up in roofless coops or nouses the year round because they are healthier and more comfortable there, and lay well. Last summer, when everybody else's hens were on a strike, and no eggs could be bought in the country stores, theirs were shelling out the hen-fruit, keeping them supplied with all they could use, and they never stint themselves. The Halseys were formerly in the poultry business, but now have only enough for their own table. They live off of the returns from 700 grapefruit trees on their ten acres, which nets them $5000 or better per annum. Mr. H. came to Florida 25 years ago from Chicago. His experience was that of a city man. He knew nothing about farming. Having no capi- tal, he worked at day labor as he could find some- thing to do. When he got a chance he started to raise poultry. He saw that those who let their hens roost in the trees with a piece of old stovepipe about the trunk to keep the varmints away had no trouble with vermin and disease, and those who built houses for them had no end of trouble. There- fore he adopted the roofless house. Later he took up with the bottomless coop resting on the ground, which the poultry papers of those days were sug- gesting. It was the Philo system long before Philo hit upon it as the way to make money. In this case i* was adapted to the conditions where it was to be used, which is the secret of success in every busi- ness, in every clime. Adapt yourself to your condi- tion, and stay with it, spells success everywhere. The Halsey plan is a light-weight bottomless coop set on Bermuda-grass sod, and moved every two or three days. There is an orange-box for a double nest in one end of the coop, which last is 8 feet by 8 feet on the ground. Its two ends are shaped like a capital A. It has two cross-pieces that strengthen it and serve as roost. It is enclosed with wire net- ting. Twelve hens spend their whole laying experi- ence in it and enjoy it. As I told above, they lay well, much better than those that run out on the neighbors' land, and they are never in the way in the truck-patch. Fresh water is supplied, and they get a quart of mash in the morning, and a pint and a half of wheat in the afternoon, to each coop. Dur- ing the trucking season they get plenty of lettuce. The rest of the time, grass furnishes their green food. It is not unusual to see the Philo system in use here, just as its author directs for city back- yards and house-tops in the North. There seems to be no effort to adapt the method to conditions. Proper adaptation to location and surroundings is needed in all things. When the farmer comes down from the North he must forget what he knows, and JANUARY 1, 1913 35 learn over again if he would get the best results in the quickest time. Then he needs to bring either enough money or enough time and ability to work BO as to carry him through several failures. As a rule the road to success begins on the failure rout«, and in many cases it is a long way to the proper turn. As many are thinking of Florida I may do them a service by telling two stories — one of them of the friends whose method with poultry has just been set forth, the other of their neighbor and uncle, Mr. Chas. Blood. It cost Mr. H. about twelve years of his early manhood to get a start here. He worked and struggled hard, but made little progress apparently. He was finding himself, and learning the growing of groves. Offered a job of caring for a grove, he went to Terra Ceia, a fertile island just north of the mouth of the Manatee in Tampa Bay. Having en- dured hardness, he was ready for his opportunity, and grasped it when it came. He found a good woman, one of the salt of the earth, and married. Then he made the first payment on ten acres. They built a shanty, and began the struggle for a home. He grubbed palmettos and stumps, grew truck, and cared for the grove of the non-resident. She raised chickens with his help ; but all the time they were working for a grove as the goal of their ambition. They planted the seeds, grew young trees and budded them, and after a while they began to yield. Then they got on to Easy Street, and are now enjoying the fruit of their struggle. They bought the ten acres in 1899, 13 years ago. For about half of that time they have been getting a revenue from their grove, and for about five of them the revenue has been large enough to mean comfort. A quarter of a century, divided into twenty years of hardship and five of prosperity, is not bad, is it ? The most remarkable grove that I have seen in my rather extended travels over central Florida and the west side of south Florida belongs to the Mr. Blood mentioned above. There are thirteen or four- teen acres in his tract, with about 2000 grapefruit- trees on ten of them. House, barn, lawn, packing- house, and a pond occupy about four acres. Mr. Blood is the apostle of intensive grapefruit culture. His trees are set 14% feet apart, 200 to the acre. The old-time grove-grower sets them thirty feet apart, less than fifty to the acre, and for many years cultivates land that his trees do not fill, wait- ing for the time when, tall and stately, they will take all the space. Mr. Blood believes in the present rather than the future, and wants the largest returns this year rather than a decade hence. As many trees to the acre as will take up the entire space in a few years, then all the water and fertilizer those trees will stand is his practice. The results are good. He began on Terra Ceia about seventeen years ago with nothing. His revenue by the time he had been there ten years was at least fifteen thousand dollars per annum. Since then his yearly average, clear of all expenses, has been fully that amount. Who can tell the value of an acre of ground that nets $1500 an- nually ? He and his wife spent the summer visiting north- ern friends and relatives. For several weeks they were with a brother-in-law who owns a big wheat- ranch (two whole sections) in the valley of the Red River of the North. A large force of hands, with traction engines, gang-plows, and other up-to-date machinery make this 1300-acre farm very profitable. It is the ideal of modern farming ; but our Florida friends prefer their thirteen-acre grove. They live easy, in the best climate in the United States, with no rush, and get more comfort and as much money as the big farmer. One acre of their farm is worth a hundred of the bigger one. Comment is unneces- sary. The story speaks for itself. If one wants to know Florida'? possibilities, there they are. Please notice that these successful people learned the business through struggle and failure, and that their success came after years of waiting. Gold grows on trees here, but dne must first learn how to grow the tree. Time, patience, hard work, grit, and many a disappointment are elements of life here as elsewhere ; but the opportunity is great, and condi- tions favorable. Come and see for yourself. Parish, Fla., Nov. 21. F. M. Baldwin. SITTING HENS VS. INCUBATORS. Our readers will remember that I have several times brought this matter up. Let me go over it briefly. Last winter I filled our incubator with eggs by standing them on the small end, and thus got in quite a few more than the incubator was made for, proposing to take out the unfertile eggs after three days. But that night I found a sitting hen, so I took fifteen eggs out of the crowded incubator and gave them to the hen. She managed in some way to have almost every egg fertile; but the in- cubator made only about two-thirds fertile. The experiment was repeated with like re- sults. Finalty our good friend Keyser, well known in poultry circles, announced that he took some eggs from the incubator at testing time, which showed no sign of fer- tility. He gave these to a sitting hen to ''keep her going," but forgot about it, and in three weeks' time she hatched quite a few chicks. In other words, the eggs that would not show any sign of fertility in one of the best up-to-date incubators were, the greater part of them, afterward made fer- tile by the sitting hen. I found the same true with duck eggs. Sitting hens produce ducks from almost every egg, the incubator does it with only a little more than half as many. I submitted this question to in- cubator men and others; and I think tlie general verdict, although sometimes reluc- tantly given, was that a sitting hen is pos- sessed of some "trick of the trade," or what- ever you may call it, that beats, if not all incubators, the greater part of them, in getting the germs in the egg to start. In my investigations I notice that the eggs under a sitting hen have a greasy or oily appearance not found on eggs in the in cubator; and a writer in the Ame7ican Poultry Advocate for June, last year, has quite an article on the matter, from which I clip the two following extracts: He believes that the oil on the eggs which are set under hens plays an important part, and goes on to say that some experiments have been con- ducted with a combination of the use of moisture, hen oil, and carbonic-acid gas ; and that the dif- ficulty was the absolute control of the factors. The few hatches have given great hopes of being able to accomplish something worth while when the con- trol of these factors was learned. The presence of more oil on eggs under hens than in incubators was brought out at the Oregon station. The amount of oil was also found to be 36 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE greater by seven or eight times when eggs had been incubated under her two weeks than at the beginning. By removal of eggs from tlie hens to incubators it has been found that the oil on the shell disappears in large part. In regard to the oil, Prof. Brown believes that it checks evapora- tion, since it has been shown that there is a greater circulation of air under the hen than in the in- cubator, while at the same time evaporation is less ; but the oil may have other important functions that we as yet know nothing of. (Personally, I believe that the hen feeds the chicks in the eggs by the absorption of this same oil through the shell. An experiment proved to me that the hen does secrete something, whether oil or what not, which goes tlirough the shell into the chick or egg during incubation. I took an egg from under a hen, which had been in process of incubation for nearly three weeks, and another from an incubator that had been in incubation for the same length of time. Both eggs were infertile and intact, and I broke them and fried them. I endeavored to eat the egg from under the hen; uut the rank, strong garlic taste compelled me to forego the pleasure. The incubator egg had no disagreeable taste what- soever. This is conclusive proof that the hen does do something for the chicks in the egg which the incubator does not; hence the reason why a hen generally hatches better than the incubator.) TIlis oil mentioned above is, no doubt, the oil secreted by the hen to smear on her feathers to shed water during a rainy time, and it is, no doubt, the same oil that wo get out of a fat hen. Now, suppose we have a bottle of "chicken oil," and oil the eggs once or more when put into the in- cubator. It would stop evaporation, and prevent the egg from drying out, particu- larly when the incubator is not located in a damp cellar. You know how dampness has been highly recommended for the incubator room, even to keeping water on the fljor. Who can tell us more about this matter? Has anybody tried oiling the eggs with chicken oil? I do not think we need to worry about its doing harm. The nicest lot of cliickens, or about the nicest lot I ever grew, were from a lot of the muddiest eggs I ever saw. In fact, they were so plastered with mud I thought they would not amcuni to any thing, as I was too busy to wash them off. The hen hatched every egg with about the strongest cliickens I ever saw. Now, if covering them with mud, or a sticky or clayey mud, such as we have here, did no harm, but, rather, good, then we have reason to believe that a litt'e chicken oil applied every little while would not be a bad thing. Just one more sug- gestion : A sitting hen sometimes if not usaally pulls off all of her feathers where she touches the egg with her body. This naked body looks greasy and feels greasy. In fact, she squeezes the egg-s up against this greasy body of hers with her wing. Have you not seen a sitting hen, when chas-;d off the nest, carry an egg or two under a wing? TURKEYS, CHICKENS, AND BEES. See these two clippings from the Ohio Farmer : I notice in your issue of Nov. 2 an article con- cerning a "prolific turkey hen." Mr. Harris states that his turkey hen laid 115 eggs without stopping. I think I can go him one better. My mother had a turkey hen that began laying April 17, 1907, and laid her last egg Nov. 27, same year, making a total of 166 eggs, without attempting to sit, not even after through laying. She was of the Bronze variety. This is no fake, and if necessary I could furnish affidavit to that effect. M. E. Robinson. Wm. R. Lewis, custodian of the grounds and buildings of the Kansas Agricultural College, has ten hives of bees. The past summer Mr. L. took from one hive 180 pounds of honey. The average product of the ten hives was $15 worth of honey, or $150 for the ten hives. He figures the cost of looking after the bees to have been $10, leaving $140 clear profit. He devotes a few minutes to the apiary dai- ly. He says the secret of beekeeping, if there is any secret, is to do the few things necessary at the prop- er time. Put on a super just when it is needed. Know when a swarm is to come out, and be ready with a hive for it. Know how to detect bee diseases and how to combat them. Work carefully and stead- ily, and don't get excited. First about the turkeys. Even if the above is very unusual, it reminds us that a strain of egg-producing turkeys (like Leghorns and Indian Runner ducks) is pos- sible, yet, so far as I can learn, there isn't a "turkey ranch" in the whole State of Flor- ida, and at the same time wild turkeys are ill the woods, more or less, all over Florida, All the turkeys in the markets for Thanks- giving and Christmas are shipped in from Georgia and further north. In regard to bees somebody has said that, while the feed bill for all kinds of fowls (esijeeially here in Florida) is a big ex- pense, bees "work for nothing and board themselves." This is, to a certain extent, true; but once in a while the beekeeper is not only without honey, but may be com- pelled to buy barrels of sugar to keep his hundreds of colonies from "going dead." The statement from the Kansas Agricultur- al College is interesting because it is not only authentic, but because it indicates what educated care accomplishes. And, by the way, is it not true that some of our experts always get a crop of honey, more or less? Since writing the above I note the fol- lowing, wliich I clip from the Cleveland Plain Dealer of Nov. 26 : 20,000 TURKEYS TO trot; LED BY TEXAS GOVERNOR, THANKSGIVING BIRDS WILL PARADE. CuREO, Tex., Nov. 25. — Twenty thousand Thanks- giving turkeys will "parade" here to-morrow at Cureo's famous turkey-trot celebration which will last three days. Gov. O. B. Colquitt and staff will lead the proces- sion. Thousands of the turkeys were driven over land many miles, and this afternoon the incessant "gobble" was heard all over the city The turkeys will be shipped following the parade. They will go through the streets afoot. Published by The A. I. Root Co., Medina, 0. H. H. Root, Assistant Editor. E. R. Root, Editor. A. L. Boyden, Advertising Manager. A. I. Root, Editor Home Department. J. T. Calvert, Business Manager. Entered at the Postoffice, Medina, O., as Second-class matter. VOL. XLI. JANUARY 15, 1913 NO. 2 Editorial EXTRA-YELLOW VS. LEATHERED-COLORED ITAL- IANS. Elsewhere in this issue, Mr. Penn G. Snyder alkides to the fact that the editor, through these columns, has spoken of Gold- en bees as being- very often cross and short- lived. We do not mean to claim that all extra-yellow bees are bad stingers; but we have obtained stock from all over the Unit- ed States, and the most of it is either cross or dies off before spring. Many of these so-called five-banders have been bred so much for color that they are about like some of the high-class poultry that has been bred so much for feather that they are l^ractieally good for nothing. On the other hand there has been a gxeat demand for the extra-yellow bees. They are beautiful to look at, and are sometimes the equal of any other stock of darker color. If Mr. Snyder has that kind of stock he is to be congratu- lated. Only recently one of the largest honey-producers in the United States, and a queen-breeder as well, told us he had elim- inated all the yellow bees from his yard, adding that he was much disgusted with them on account of their being so cross, and he was going back to the old leather- colored Italians. He and his customers have had some disagreeable experience with liis yellow bees, as we happen to know. Notwithstanding he says he bought stock all over the United States, they seem to be very much the same as regards bad temper and impaired vitality. SHIPPING BEES WITHOUT COMBS, AGAIN ; THE GREAT AMOUNT OF INTEREST IN THE PROPOSITION. Little did we anticipate, when we first advocated shipping bees without combs to save tlie cost of express charges, and to eliminate bee disease, that so much inter- est would be manifest on the part of our subscribers. Correspondence is coming in thick and fast from all directions, asking for more particulars — " What kind of cage would you recommend?" "How do you sup- ply the bees with water?" "What is the best food while in transit?" " Could comb- less bees be shipped by parcels post?" " What effect will parcels post have on ex- press rates on bees?" Some of these questions we have an- swered in part. Other questions will be answered more fully as soon as we can se- cure engraving's to illustrate the form of cage. In the matter of food we use for the present at least the ordinary candy, such as is used in regular queen-cages. But we are coming to the opinion that a thick syr- up may be even better. The problem is, however, to provide a receptacle that will feed the syrup to the bees as fast as they require it, without daubing. We have tried out the atmospheric feeder using one hole. So far the experiments with the use of syrup have been on so limited a scale that they have hardly warranted us in giving a definite opinion. Water is given to the bees in the same kind of a feeder. Thi'ough the top or bottom, rather, is punched a hole about the size of a coarse pin. Both the cans for holding the syrup or the water, or both, should be secured to the top of the cage. In order to prevent the package from being laid on its side, or be- ing turned upside down (thus causing the feeders to leak) the top is provided with a convenient handle; and, of course, there should be displayed a label, reading " This side up." Through the body of the cage there is secured a series of thin slats arranged hori- zontally about % inch apart and the same distance vertically. These slats taking the place of combs serve the purpose of a sup- port for the bees during transit. Dearly bought experience years ago showed that the mere wire-cloth cage without any clus- tering supports to hold the bees while in transit would deliver only a small portion of them to their destination in good order. While many of them went through, the use of the slats in lieu of combs has eliminated two-thirds of the former losses while the use of the water-bottle during hot weather has served to eliminate the remaining loss not taken care of by thie slats. 38 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE It is important that th^ee cages be made light and stout — capable of standing rough usage, and to that end they should be well braced, and only a strong light galvanized wire cloth should be used. The latter should be further protected by a wooden gTatiug to prevent making holes through it. We do not know whether these cages can be sent by parcels post. We advise against it for the present, or until this method of sending bees by exj^ress has been developed a little further. The express companies will doubtless reduce their rates on bees so that the}' will be level with those for parcels post. As the exi^ress companies have al- ways met postal rates before, we assume they will do it again. Turthermore, we do not knoAv whether Uncle Sam will accept pound packages of bees in the mails. We believe, however, that the time will come when bees can be sent by parcel post. The only fear we have at present is that some beginner or ignoramus, not realizing what he is doing, may attempt to ship tln-ee or four pounds by mail in a package so frail that it will let the bees loose in transit, re- sulting in a niling barring bees from the privileges of parcel post. When we have developed a package that will prove to be a perfect success for expressage, then it will be time enough to try for the new post- al privilege. The obvious advantage of sending bees without combs across the country is so great that there will doubtless be a big traffic in the near future. Arrangements are now being perfected whereby bees can be ship- ped from the South to make up for death losses in the North early in the spring. Due announcements will be given in our adver- tising columns, with statement of prices, so that the beekeeper of the North, desiring bees to let loose on empty combs where his bees have died, will know just wliat it will cost to make a new start. THE IMPORTANCE OF WINDBREAKS FOR OUT- DOOR WINTERED BEES. The reader's attention is called to an ex- cellent article by Mr. A. J. Halter, in this issue, page 55, on the subject of wind- breaks. It will bear careful reading be- cause it strikes at one of the basic princi- l^les of successful outdoor wintering. We are coming more and more to believe that, while double walls and packing are important for outdoor-wintered bees, suit- able windbreaks, or something to break the force of a clean sweep of the wind, are equally important. We have known excel- lent wintering in single-walled hives that were well sheltered by buildings and shx-ub- bery. We have known of poor wintering in double-walled hives, subject to exposure to the prevailing winds, especially when the entrances faced those winds. Just notice how the dumb animals in the blast of an on-sweep of wind wiU turn their backs to the wind. The dogs of the polar regions, that will stand more cold, perhaps, than any other living things, have heavy bushy tails; and when not in motion they will stand with their backs to the wind, and the aforesaid bushy tails afforded them a pro- tection that is invaluable. Similarly we have noticed that hives with their backs to the wind will winter better than those fac- ing it; and invariably we find that those in the exposed portions of the apiary will suffer much more than those sheltered by shrubbery, trees, or building's. Last winter gave us some examples of " deadly paral- lels." At our Clark yard were some hives upon a knoll facing a half-mile strip of free country. In the same yard were other hives located in low ground among low- spreading apple-trees and brier bushes. The last named came thi'ough in fairly good order, while the first mentioned were prac- tically all dead by the first of March. We found the same " deadly parallel " at our other yards. At our home yard there was a bunch of colonies just in front of an opening through the evex'gi'eens facing north. These bees nearly all died, or were so weak that they might as well have been dead. Those back of the evergreens, espec- ially in the lower portions of the apiary, wintered in very much better condition. If the reader will turn to the cover page of our Dec. 15th issue, he will see the kind of evergreen for windbreaks which we have found to be most satisfactory. They " do the business." This winter, for the purpose of experi- ment, we left one apiaiy, the waterworks yard, on a high knoll, where it had been all summer, with a windsweep from the north- west, west, and southwest, with practically a mile of almost free country. When we located that apiary, we did not intend to leave it at that location all winter; but late in the fall we thought we would try it out for a few weeks to determine how the bees would stand this exposure of wind. They were all in our latest double-walled packed hives; but in spite of this protec- tion we noticed in the month of December that some of the bees were beginning to dwindle, and that they were using stores faster than the bees of the other yards shel- tered by windbreaks. Our Brunswick yard was located about 9 JANUARY 15, 1913 miles to the north. It was on a sort of side hill, but so situated that it could get a strong windsweep from the south and north- east. These bees were jjacked in winter cases — cases that ordinarily have given us good results. But as in the waterworks apiaiy we found the bees were beginning to dwindle, showing that they too were suf- fering. It became necessary, therefore, to move both yards of bees home and put them in the cellar This was done on sleds in the snow. How this was done will be fully explained later. Xow, then, let us take a look at the bees at the other yards, packed in precisely the same way — double-walled hives, no better nor stronger in the fall than those at the waterworks and Brunswick yards, but well protected by windbreaks of woods and shrubbery. Presto! we found an entirely diiiferent condition. ,One such yard is lo- cated in the midst of woods. Another apia- ry, next to our factor}^, is surrounded by tall evergreens shown on the front cover of our Dec. 15th issue. Another yard, the Har- i-ington, is located in an orchard with low- shrubbery and apple trees on the north; a piece of woods on the west, ajiple trees and slu'ubbery on the south. All the apiaries had an equal and a fair chance. All were well fed up for winter, and all were equally well housed. As already rei^orted, the two yards that Ave left out in the open, subject to windsweeps, were losing bees and stores ; those that were sheltered from the wind were in excellent condition. We have never had any difficulty in win- tering bees outdoors when placed in dou- ble-walled liives properly protected with windbreaks, except in extraordinarily cold weather such as we had a year ago ; and as these very cold winters come only once in about thii'tj^ or forty yeai-s it is hardly worth while to take them into serious ac- count ; and when thej' do come, the bees should all be put indoors in the cellar. Tf the reader of these lines discovers that his bees are exposed he can veiy easily move them, if cold weather has set in in his locality, to a more sheltered location. We recently moved a yard of 90 colonies about 1000 feet to the west on a sled. On the north and west is a big mass of woods. On the east side of it is a grove of basswoods. On the south is a slight knoll and some low slirubbery. The most perfect windbreak tliat we know of is an open spot inside of a piece of woods. A mass of undergrowth consisting of brier bushes, and low-spread- ing trees we would place next, pi'oviding they surround the apiary, or at least are on the sides from which the prevailing 39 winds come. Farm and out buildings make an excellent protection. We have come to attach less importance to a high board fence on tlie north and west than we formerly did. The trouble is, the wind strikes it, glances upwai-d, when it is struck by the on-impelling blast overhead, and then glances downward. At our bass- wood apiary from which we have just re- moved 90 colonies to a more sheltered loca- tion, we found there was one row of hives where the bees would die more than any- where else in the apiaiy. The drifting snow shows how the wind would strike those hives and then rebound, apparently, and skip the other rows, which would win- ter better. The objection might be raised that bees, if put in an inclosure of woods, will wear out their wings in flying through the brush or trees. To a certain extent this is true; but the most of them will ascend almost vertically until tliey reach a height suffi- cient to clear the obstruction. In doing this they clear all domestic animals in the fields near by. thus avoiding trouble with neighbors. When an apiary is located near a line fence next to an open field the bees are apt to fly in such droves that they are liable to attack the farmer and his hoi-ses in plowing, cultivating, or in haying and harvesting. We have, therefore, come to the conclusion that all apiaries should be located, as far as practicable, remote from a line fence, and so inclosed that the bees will have to fly high, where they will not bump up against live stock in great droves. When they descend they will be so scattered that they will prove to be no menace to either man or beast. We shall be glad to hear from some of our subscribers and correspondents, because we believe that a thorough discussion of this matter of windbreaks will show their very gi-eat importance. While they have little or nothing to do with bees wintered in cellai-s, we should remember that proba- bly only about a tenth of the bees in the country are housed indoors during winter. We are also pretty well convinced that this matter of windbreaks is of supreme im- portance to beekeepers located in the south- ern States. If there is a place where one suffers from cold it is in a semi-tropical climate during winter. The atmosphere is chilly and damp — so disagreeably cold that it seems to go clear through one's anatomy. We are convinced that damp chilly weather is about as destructive to bee life in the South as the cold drj- weather in tlie Xorih. In fact, for our own comfort we would pre- fer the latter. 40 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Stray Straws De. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. Charles 8. Sharp, feeding dry cube su- gar, p. 30, is a fine thing in some cases, mith tlie proper moisture; but I'm afraid the beginner can not count on that moisture in all cases without sui^plying it. P. C. Chadwick, I don't know about your locality. May be, as you say, p. 5, it takes a lot of bees to defend large en- trances, but here, in the height of storing, I've some doubt whether any bees lose time merely as guards. At any rate, I believe a larger force is needed for ventilation with a small entrance than for defense with a large entrance. A. I. Root, you say, p. 36, " Is it not true that some of our experts ahvays get a crop of honey more or less?" While an expert might get a crop where a bungler would fail, it might be nearer the mark to say there are localities where there is always a crop. If there is no honey in the flowers there will be no crop, expert or no expert, and there might be a locality always so good that even a bungler could never fail. MORLEY Pettit, referi-ing to a Straw, p. 754, in which I say, " European would have to be pretty bad if you couldn't find two healthy combs in every diseased colony, at least that is the case in this locality," re- plies, "In the locality of Ontario you would have to put the Avord American instead of European in that sentence. When we find European foul brood in one or two colonies of an apiary, we can rest assured that we do not need to go any further, for it is practically certain to be in even'^ colony in the apiary, and in every brood-comb. I suppose the fact that it is found mostly in apiaries of black bees makes it so much worse with us." Thanks for that much more light, Bro. Pettit, even though the darkness be yet somewhat profound. [This is a sur- prising statement concerning European foul brood. We have never had any experience with it, we are glad to say. We should like to inquire Avhether others have had the same experience. — Ed.] " We have not yet seen the cellar where the ventilation was as good as outdoors," p. 790. Strictlj^ speaking, no. Yet if you'll go down cellar with me, Mr. Editor, I think you'll agree that the difference is not recog- nizable. At this present moment, with 37 degrees outdoors and 53 degi'ees in cellar, the door is wide open. When cold enough to close or partly close it so as to keep up to 45 degrees, the difference outside and in makes a rapid change of air so that it is always i^ure. [Those who recommend out- door sleeping-porches for the treatment of tuberculosis claim that there is a big dif- ference between porches and a ventilated room inside of the house. If there is any thing in this, the quality of the air outdoors is very much purer and better than that inside of a building that receives its air through a door. Relatively, however, the difference may not be so great. But there is one tiling sure, doctor, we do not believe you would run the risk of dropping your cellar temperature to, say, the freezing- point, 32 Fahrenheit, within your cellar; and yet it is conceded that outdoor bees will stand the freezing-point very nicely, and come out in fine condition the following spring. They will stand all grades of tem- ])erature, providing it does not go below ten above and continue there too long. — Ed.] Not often are two such interesting arti- cles brought out as in the friendly Lovell- Ryan controversy, pages 654 and 771. As a beekeeper of the rank and file, I should incline to the opinion that bees may be at- tracted by the odor of honey where color can play no possible part, and also that color plaj'S even a more important part than odor when it comes to bees and flow- ei-s. But more interesting to me than this is the Crane-Ryan item. Mr. Ryan says, " It seems rather out of the way to speak of the Man-God as learning any thing from the hills and valleys, flowers, etc.- If I mis- take not, he was invested with all human science, and had naught to learn from his own creatures." Surely reason would point in that direction. Of him it is said, " All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." And is it reasonable to believe that he would learn from the objects of his creation ? Plainly Bro. Crane is following something else than reason. And I must confess sym- pathy with his view. I like to think of the Savior of men as very God in the highest and fullest sense of the w^ord, and jet at the same time, in some mysterious way that I do not pretend to understand, as being a man just as much as I am a man, who had to learn things just as I have had to learn them. Moreover, if Bro. Crane has no rea- son for his comforting belief, he has some- thing higher than human reason ; he has the word of God, which says. " And Jesus in- creased in wisdom." — Luke 2 :52. JANUARY 15, 1913 41 SIFTINGS J. E. Ceane, Middlebury, Vt. In the discussion of cases and carriers. p. 683, Nov. 1, there is this to be said : That honey needs much more careful pack- ing to go safely in cool or cold weather than when the temperature is up to about 70 degrees. * * •* The bulletin recently issued by the De- partment of Agxiculture on the manage- ment of bees for the prevention of swarm- ing and securing surplus comb honey is, I believe, one of the best things we have along this line. Every beekeeper should secure a copy. Mr. Doolittle's advice, p. {)87, Xov. 1, about selling the year's honey crop, is cer- tainly orthodox, and all right for the bee- keeper without much experience; but the season is longer than formerly, and we have calls now for comb honev from Julv till March. The reason why that swarm hung on a limb all the fall without building any com]). p. 743, Xov. 15, is not at all strange. It was, doubtless, because no honey was com- ing in. Bees swarm in some parts of Flor- ida before the flowers yield honey, and I found last spring that it was impossible to get new swarms even to draw out founda- tion unless the bees were fed. orado, without any breakage or leakage. The section was as handsome as the honey it held, and was simply enclosed in a cor- rugated paper carton ; but the section was a sjjecial kind as described on page 732, Xov. 1."), and well adapted to being shipped in tliis way. Mr. Byer's experience with black Italian ])ees in a new yard is of general interest. I used to think that a black colony was hard- ly worth wintering; but of late yeai-s I find I can get almost as much surplus from blacks as from Italians, and I sometimes- wonder whether the blacks have imj^roved or whether the Italians have degenerated. I tliink more difference will be seen between the two kinds in a poor season than in a good one, and this may account for the gi'eat difference experienced by Mr. Byer. The house ai^iary shown on the cover page for Nov. 1 certainly looks well. I have run across two or three in inspecting. There are some points in their favor, such as the lessened danger of sting-s and a chance to work in all kinds of weather. But on the other hand, the inconvenience and loss of light more than balance the advantages, to say nothing of the greater expense and loss of queens. Mr. Doolittle's advice, page 723, is all right for hives with sealed covers; JKit where there are absorbent cushions that will allow the moisture to escape above, it seems to me quite too much ventilation to give. If we ventilated our sitting-room as much in proportion to its size it would make an opening across one end and four feet high, or about 65 square feet. « » » That editorial, page 717. Nov. 15, on the difference between the flavor of comb and extracted honey, is right to the point, and covers very fully the ground of putting uy) extracted lioney. I can only add that every time honey is liquefied it seems to lose more and more of its original flavor, until, if re- peated many times, it becomes only a soggy mass of sweetness. * * * The parcels post seems likely to prove a blessing to beekeepers as well as to the rest of mankind. This reminds me that I recently received by mail a section of comb honey from Paul Hunten, of Sumerset, Col- Major Shallard, p. 701, Xov. 1, gives some facts about bee paralysis that interested me greatly. I had the care of some bees last March where the disease existed, and 1 studied it from day to day. My first im- |)ressions were that the disease is caused by some kind of poison, and I found it hard to think otherwise. But why should but two or three colonies in a yard be diseased? ! have found in two or three instances that a single colony of bees would gatlier honey in quite a different manner from any other in the same yard. These bees would either yo fui'ther or would work on sources that other colonies would reject. Major Shal- lard's statements that some localities were much more subject to the disease than oth- ers would seem to confirm the idea of poi- son. Poison, I learned, was being used in the vicinity of the colonies which I just mentioned. The poison, I also learned, was often mixed with honey when used. Very much more studj' of the subject, however,, will be necessaiy before I can assert posi- tively or with much certainty that I am right. 42 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Beekeeping in California p. C. Chadwick, Redlands, Cal. EEPOET OF 23d annual CONVENTION. The 23d annual convention of the Cali- fonia State Beekeepers' Association was held on Dec. 12, 13, 14, at the Y. M. C. A. building, Los Angeles. It would be impos- sible to give a report of the three dajs' ses- sion in detail. I will, therefore, mention brieflj' some of the most important points. Nearly all of the great honey-producing counties were represented. Many new faces were seen. Men from north and south worked side by side for results. No one man won more esteem than Willis Lynch, of Newman. C. Hauser, of Sacramento, and J. G. Gilstrap, of Ceres, were also strong factors in the convention. All were new to the annual assembl}'. In many respects it was the most success- ful meeting ever held by this organization, the most pleasing features being that har- mony i^revailed, and that advancements were made on foul-brood legislation, so long hoped for. The bill is now ready to present to the State legislature, and has the solid support of the entire beekeeping fra- ternity. It is to be hoped we may be able to convince our representatives at Sacra- mento that they should pass it in the inter- est of this important branch of agriculture, for I think it is without doubt the most complete bill of its kind ever drafted for the protection of the beekeeping industry. Mr. J. D. Bixby's remarks on black brood were eagerly listened to, for there is no ciuestion at the present time that is agitat- ing the minds of the beekeepez's of Califoi'- nia so much as that of eradicating black brood or being able to combat it. Mr. J. E. Plesants, of Orange County, had a veiy interesting paper entitled "Rid- ding a County of Foul Brood." This ven- erable gentleman told how he had in ten years reduced American foul brood from 15 per cent to V2 of one per cent, which is a record well worth being proud of. The paper of Mr. A. F. Wagner, of Im- perial County, entitled " County Ordi- nances and their Value," created much dis- cussion, and showed plainly the opposition to drastic county ordinances, but doubtless helped to crystallize opinions favorable to our proposed State law. Prof. A. B. Ulrey, of the University of Southern California, spoke on " The Prin- ciples of Breeding." Prof. Ralph Benton, of the same insti- tution, spoke on " The Varieties of Bees as Nature Left Them," which was largely geogi'aphical in nature, describing the lo- cation of different races and the surround- ings that limited their natural distribution. Then came two fine papers on queen- rearing, by Mr. Henry Perkins, of Artesia, and Mr. Geo. J. Brown, of Tusten. Both are young men, and have a great future in prospect. At the evening sessiou Dr. C. A. Jenks gave a very interesting demonstrative lec- ture on " First Aid to the Injured." While this was not on a subject in connection with the bee industry, yet it was valuable for its instructions as to what to do in case of emergencies. The most valuable part to the beekeeper was that relative to snake- bites, for there are few apiaries that do not have the rattlesnake as a visitor. Willis Lynch, who has traveled around the world observing the different races of bees, told of bees as he found them in Hawaii, the Philippines, Borneo, India, Egypt, Italy, France, Germany, and Eng- land. His description of the large bee of the Philippines, as well as the smaller, was especially interesting, as well as how the natives of Borneo feast on the unhatched brood, preferring it to the honey. Mr. C. Hauser's remarks on organization were timely and to the point, and deserve a place on the records of our association. Of Mr. J. G. Gilstrap, I can say nothing better than that he came to work, and help- ed accomplish many of the advancements of the convention. Mr. J. B. Neff, who conducted our bee- keepers' institutes so successfully during the past summer, spoke on co-operation. Mr. Neff is in the Walnut Growers' Asso- ciation, and knows the value of co-opera- tion. The association passed a resolution in- viting the National to come to California in 1915. This developed a scramble be- tween San Diego and San Francisco for a place of meeting, which was finally dis- posed of by leaving the decision to the National. Riverside County presented a resolution adopted by that county's club relative to protecting the bee-ranges from brush fires. They have asked their county supervisors to appropriate a fund for fighting such fires, and to prosecute persons who care- lessly start fires. I was especially glad that this action was taken, for I know of nothing that is more detrimental to the bee- keepers of the sage-range country than to have their honey source destroyed. Suitable resolutions were adopted in Continued on page 47. JANUARY 15, 1913 Beekeeping in the South^vest Louis Scholl, New Braunfels, Texas. THE SCHOLL IMPROVED HIVE-NUMBERS. The accompanying illustrations will give a veiy good idea of the hive-numbers of my own design Avhich I have used for a number of years. Though everlasting they are easy to make for an}^ style of hive in use, quickl}^ interchangeable from one iDart of a hive to another, or from hive to hive. No nails, staples, nor any tiling of the kind are necessary to hold them in place; and in this way they overcome the greatest objec- tion to practically all the hive-numbers so far invented. This advantage is especially from one to another in case the hives are interchanged or changed end for end. They are easily made by simply cutting pieces of galvanized iron 2V2 s 3 inches, snipping off the two upper corners, as indicated, and then bending over the ends to hang over the upper edges of the liives. They are easily bent or folded over in any common bench-vise. By means of a small piece of hard wood the exact ^^'idth of the upper edge of the hive in use, clamped in the vise, a gauge for each number-tag is obtained that insures all being folded alike. I {Bt^«Yt.ta,« /"* S-c*%t.) Fig. 1. — Scholl improved hive-numbers, showing how the galvanized iron is folded and adapted to various styles of hives. /23¥567890 Fig. 2. — Numbers for the rubber stamps; simple, plain, and bold, hence easily read. marked when hives are composed of many shallow stories, as with our divisible-brood- ( liamber hives. Then, too, in the old sj^s- lem of numbering it is a nuisance and ex- pense to keep nails, staples, or hooks in proper repair, on each end of every deep liive-body or shallow story. I say on each end of every hive or story, because it be- comes necessaiy to change the numbers Thej' are easily numbered by using a set of only nine numbers, as shown in Fig. 2. It will be observed that only one stamp is necessary for the 6 and 9, as the former can be reversed to 23rint the latter. A simple home-made cotton pad can be supi^lied, cov- ering the cotton batting with a piece of tliin domestic. I used good solid black coach l^aint, and find that it lasts admirably. Of Continued on page 59. 44 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Conversations with Doolittle At Borodino, New York. FEEDING BACK FOR COMB HONEY PRODUCTION. As the price of comb honey is much more per pound than that of extracted, I have been wonder- ing whether I could not extract my honey next sum- mer as I have usually done, and then, instead of selling it, feed it back to the bees and have them put it in sections. What do you think of this ? Feeding back extracted honey for the purpose of ijrodiieing comb honey is some- tloing which has been often tried and fre- quently wi'itten about ; but so many con- ditions enter into the problem that many of our most skillful apiarists have veiy nearly if not quite failed of success. From my own experience, and from what I have been able to learn from others, the charac- ter of the bees that are used is among the first in importance. If my experience proves any tiling it is this: No financial success can be obtained with bees which are prone to store their honey close up to the brood in the brood-nest. Any variety of bees whose disposition is to cling to the brood-chamber, to crowd it with honey, and, when that affords no more room, to cease labor rather than to overcome the disinclination to pass beyond the limits of the brood-nest into a surplus aj^artment above, can not be successfully tised in this plan of feeding back. In fact, such bees are hardly profitable for section honey, even though they may prove the very best to the one whose apiary is run for extracted honey. In selecting bees to be used for feeding back, no point is more important than that those should be chosen which are willing to enter and work in supers or sections quite distantly removed from the brood. The dark or leather-colored Italians, which jirove to be the very best for ex- tracted honey, are very defective in tliis respect, and they also give their cappings a dark greasy appearance by their plaster- ing the scanty amount of wax used right down vtpon the honey. These bees can not be profitably used for section honey, to say nothing about comb honey produced from honey fed back. Carniolans, golden Ital- ians, the German race, or crosses, in which black brood predominates, are superior for your purjiose; though even among these, judicious selections may be made to a great advantage. Then nearly if not of equal value with the character of the bees comes the charac- ter of the queen. The jDoint to be looked after here is that the queen should be of such a make-up that she will have her hive well supplied Avith brood at the end of the honev-flow, when we wish to beein feeding back the honey we have extracted during the flow. It is not so necessary that she continue her prolificness after the feeding has begun, more than enough to keep the colony in good condition for winter; but unless she has a hive pretty well filled with brood in all stages, when the feeding should commence, the colony will not have the nu- merical streng'th desirable, and there will not be enough brood in the combs to fur- nish the required reinforcements, as the work progresses and the old bees perish, in which case the finishing-up of the matter will result in failure, no matter how "rosy" the outlook at the start. Xext in importance comes the time for the white-honey flow in your locality. If the flow continues till late in the season, it is little use to try feeding back at all. If We can commence feeding comparatively early in the season we shall avoid, as far as possible, the disposition of the bees to store lioney in the brood-chamber — a dispo- sition which, with all varieties of bees, in- creases as the season wanes. Then we se- cure the great advantage of having the work done during the hottest weather, at which time bees produce wax and build comb with more economy tlian is iDossible after the nights become longer and colder. If we attempt feeding back before the har- vest of wliite honey closes we shall lose all the bees would store without making a pro- portionate gain. In this locality the oppor- tune time is immediately at the close of the basswood flow, about July 12 to 16, in the interim between this and the j-ield from buclnvheat, which commences about August 15 to 20. Lastly, we have the size of the brood- chamber. This, of necessity, should be small, otherwise room is given for the storage of a large amount of the honey fed, in which case this honey is of less value than was the case before we commenced operations. Then with a large amount of comb an opportu- nity is furnished for the production of an iimnense amount of brood whose value be- yond a certain limit can not be great, and such brood means the consumption of a very large amount of the honey fed. I have had better success with a brood-cham- ber of about the cai:)acity of five Lang-stroth frames than with one either larger or small- er; and by selecting such well filled with brood, the larger part of which is in the egg and larval form, a seeming advantage is gained. Continiied on page 59. JANUARY 15, 1913 45 General Correspondence THE IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING YOUR LO- CATION How the Absence of Pollen in the Breeding Season in the Spring May Ruin a Whole Apiary BY A. B. ilARCHANT For the past fifteen veal's I have been keeping bees for profit. I have kept from 500 to 1000 colonies in tlu-ee yards, running mainly for extracted honey, having ship- ped as mucli as 50 tons in one season. I have always reared my own queens, and the past two seasons I have gone into com- mercial queen-rearing, which has led to the discovery I am now writing about. Last March The A. I. Root Company contracted with me for a carload of tln-ee- frame nuclei and a carload of ten-frame- hive colonies of bees. 1 knew tliis was a big undertaking; but. as the bees were not to be sliipped until I had gathered the sea- son's crop it seemed to me there would be a good profit in it. I accordingly made pi-eparations to ship them; but before I made either sliipment I had young laying- queens ready to take the place of those that were sliipped Avith the order. The hives from which I shipped those bees were left with about a tlu'ee-frame nucleus. I inrnie- diateh" gave each a laying queen and began feeding to start brood-rearing. I then left the bees with my helper, and was gone for over a month, expecting to come back and find them in fine order, when, to my sur- prise, I found about one hundred dead and swarmed out. Upon investigation 1 found that the bees were destroying the eggs as fast as the queens could lay them. 1 saw at once that something would have to be done immediately. I examined all apiaries near me, and found the bees weak, and queens not laying, on account of no pollen coming in. I have always known that my locality is short on pollen after tl;e honey flow is over; but I had no idea it was as bad as this. So I decided the only chance for me Avas to buy bees and strengthen what I had left. So I began to look out for bees. ]\Iany times I have heard the bee- keepei-s 15 miles south of me say they had swarms in Febniary and March, and plenty of brood up till November; so I at once called on some of these men, and examined their apiaries. I found their bees in fine condition. I purchased one yard Avith 65 colonies and borroAved 50 from another bee- keeper, and began to give out the In-ood to my weak ones. I had been in the business for fifteen vears, and for the last ten veai-s I Avell kneAv that pollen Avas my difficulty in getting my bees strong in time for the honey-floAv. I also kneAV that the beekeepers south of me built their bees up earlier than I did ; but on account of my location being- better for honey than those south of me I paid no attention to them. After all th^e years I have found Avhat I have needed in my oAvn locality, and a Avay to get it. I am now moving my bees to these locations, and Avill keep them there until the first of April, Avhen the tupelo bloom is open, then move to my present location and stay till June 1. then moA'e back and stay till next April. In this Avay I can get a crop of tupelo honey, build my bees up for Avinter, and at the same time have an ideal place for queen-rearing and the shipping of bees by the pound, and nuclei of any size. This location I iDurchased Avith the 65 colonies. The oAvner tells me that he has drones flying in February and some- times has SAvarms during the same month. Tliis place is located on an island; and, Avith the exception of one small apiaiy, it is five miles from any other bees; so it is a fine place for queen-rearing and pure mat- ing of bees. Sometimes it pays one to get into trouble. In this case I believe it AA'ill pay me. It goes to shoAv it pays one to study his location and find out where the trouble is, and then try to overcome it. Sumatra, Fla. A NEW CURE FOR BEE PARALYSIS A Disease Resembling Bee Paralysis Relieved by Feeding Syrup Containing a Physic BY AA\ A. BARSTOAV Some may laugh at the strange treatment that I gave my bees Avhen tliey Avere sick, but nevertheless my plan Avas a success. The bees in one of my colonies Avere dying in large numbers, their abdomens being unusually large; and Avhen I picked the'^i up in my hands a slight j^ressure would cause them to excrete a large amount of yellow liquid, AA'hich, Avhen diy, looked like pollen. The bees trembled as though in dis- tress, and it occurred to me that tlie intes- tines might be clogged. My theory is this: "When plenty of honey is coming in, the bees may shoAV no sign of sickness; but later in the summer or fall the bees may get some honey containing pollen that miglit be poisonous, or that has soured, or groAvn moldy to a certain exent ; so that, Avhen they feed on it, it is in tl;e light condition to cause what might be call- ed constipation. At any rate, if there is no relief the bees die in great agonj^ In this condition they crawl out of the hive with their wings stretched out or lying close to the floor, and they roll over and tremble, and at times seem to lose control of them- selves. They have a greasy appearance, and their abdomens seem to be so distended that the different segments hardly meet. They go to the edge of the alighting-board, and fall to the ground in great numbers and die. I am not a doctor nor a medicine man, nor even an expert beekeeper; but I decid- ed to try a remedy that occurred to me. I made a syrup of equal parts of sugar and water, and then mixed with it about a fourth of a teaspoonful of herbine, a medi- cine which we get here at the drugstore. I poured some of this syrup into an empty comb and set it at one side of the hive, and the bees quickly emptied the cells. The next day the hive was fairly covered with brown spots, and one would almost need an umbrella in the apiary, for the medicine took quick action. I suppose almost any kind of strong physic would answer, but the herhine is all that I happened to be able to get. Later on, the bees in this colony were sick again, and I tried feeding syrup alone, but it had no effect. Then I added the med- icine, and it worked as well as before. Two more colonies were diseased, and 1 gave the bees the same treatment and with the same result. My colonies are all right now; but if I have any trouble I intend to shake the bees on empty combs and give them a new sup- ply of medicated syrup to take the place of any bad stores they might have had. San Jose, Cal. [This looks like a case of bee paraly- sis. If so it might not disappear of itself without treatment. Was the medicine re- sponsible for the cure of the trouble men- responsible for the cure of the trouble men- tioned? We should be glad to have others try it and report. — Ed.] THE ADULTERATION OF HONEY, AND WHAT rr MEANS TO THE BEEKEEPER AND DEALER BY HENRY REDDERT Up to a decade ago, before our national Government enacted the pure-food laws now in forc«, widely distributed eatables of all kinds, including honey, were found adul- terated to some degree. It was said at one GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE time that 40 per cent of the honey sold in Ohio alone was mixed with ingi-edients for- eign to its own kind. We know of cases where small dealers, eager to make the most mone}' out of a given quantity, mixed it ^^^th sugar syrup the moment the farmer selling it left their store. But the practice has been abandoned, so far as we know, simply because they fear the sting of pros- ecution. Large dealers, as a rule, were honest. If not, their business lasted but a shoi't time. It was the small consumer who suffered most, the large buyers having skilled in- spectors at their warehouses — a fact known by the sellers. I remember when honey that was purchased from any one excepting the beekeeper was considered impure, even if the dealer giiaranteed it. Even up to the l^resent day this supposition is still found, but mostly among people who know very little about honey. Recently a ladj' said to me, " I buy your honey because you have bees." I told her that I knew dealers in the city who also had pure honey, but she still insisted that the beekeeper's honey was better. Frequently we read an article in the daily newspapers about artificial comb honey, col- ored and mixed strained honey, sugar synip, etc. All have their share of condemnation. One year my son sold the larger part of my crop to druggists in one city. The honey was very light. He had solicited their or- ders by a small sample in a clear white-glass bottle. One refused to take the gallon he had ordered, saying it was colored, because the density of the honey in the tin bucket didn't admit the clear and light color of the sample. Of course, he should have known better. This case shows that even men of science are baffled as to the purity of honey. A beekeeping friend relates this incident : A grocei-y and daily-market owner bought a quantity of his honey for Ins own table, saying, " When I buy j'our honey I know it's pure." My friend replied, "What's the matter with the honey you sell?" He an- swered in broken English, " Dey always put a little in." Why is the consuming public so doubt- ful ? Simply this — even now we have bee- keepers and honey-dealers who believe they have found a recipe to improve the color and taste of their product. Everj' purveyor of honey should bear in mind that the edu- cation of the general public in the elaborate use of honey instead of other syn;ps de- pends largely on the purity of the article. By all means, don't mix. Every now and then the newspapers cite cases where this or that firm or pei"son has been fined for JANUARY 15, 1913 47 violation of the pure-food act. Let us eon- duct our business in such a manner that every consumer will be thoroughly convinc- ed the honey he eats is pure, whether pur- chased from a dealer or beekeeper. In the long run, honesty is always tlie best policy. Cincinnati, 0., Dec. 8. BEEKEEPING IN CALIFORNIA BY P. C. CHADWICK , Continued from page 42. memory of prominent beekeepers and mem- bers of the association whom death has claimed during the past year. Mr. W. H. Allen, of Ventura, asked that the report that Mr. Corey brought the tirst bees to California be corrected, as Mr. Corey never claimed that honor. Mi'. Har- bison shipped the tirst bees to the Slate that we have record of, but said he found others here when lie arrived. Mr. K. M. Henneken, of Monterey, said that the Span- ish fathers had a record of bees having been brought here some time during 1700. The annual election of officers resulted in President Farrer and Secretary' Shaffner being re-elected to their resjiective offices. J. G. Gilstrap, of Ceres, succeeds Ralph Benton on the executive committee. Action was taken looking to the establish- ment of a bee journal for the association. NOTES FROM THE CONVENTION. J. D. Bixby condemned old combs as being detrimental to beekeepers when fight- ing black brood. This position was also taken by W. G. Hoore. * * * Owing to sickness, Geo. L. Emerson was not seen after the first day's session. Mr. Emerson is one of our old war horses, and that he was missed goes witliout saying. » * « Mr. C. Hauser, of Sacramento, had some honey from carpet grass {Lippia nodi flora) at the convention. It is a beautiful white in color, and has about the mildest ilavor of any I have ever tasted. * * * Mr. K. M. Henneken, of Monterey Coun- ty, told of a colony of bees that produced honej' to the value of $38.00 in a single sea- son. This gentleman was inviting beekeep- ers to come to his county with bees to help save the wasting nectar. It really seemed strange to have a man asking beekeepei-s to come with him instead of sending them word that there Avas a foul-brood fence up to keep them from sending bees in from any locality within twenty-five miles of some other place. * * * Spraying black-brood combs with strong brine and allowing the salt to crust thereon until ready to use to protect from moth and kill disease germs was a plan spoken of by Mr. Bixby. Although he lays no claim to having originated the idea, it is said to work successfully. The combs are dipped into the water in order to remove the salt before being used again. * * * A word of praise to the deserving is never amiss, so I say that, when President J. W. Farrer and Secretaiy A. B. Shaffner were unanimously re-elected to their re- spective offices, their efforts of the past year were recognized. Sec. Shaffner during the past j-ear has written more than 600 letters, and has ad- dressed thousands of reports and bulletins, for which he would not even accept the meager .$23.00 which was his by virtue of his office. * « * I'olorado claims to have 27,000 colonies of bees. Los Angeles County, Cal., is said to have 60,000; Imperial County, 12,000, and from the best information at hand I feel safe in saying that there are 250,000 colonies south of the Te hatehapi. No won- der beekeepers complain of being a little crowded in places. I have no figures on the number in the San Joaquin and Sacra- mento valleys or the upper coast country ; but that California has " some bees " is a foregone conclusion, and there are thou- sands of colonies in the State that never figured in the last census. * * * As a matter of information to the Cali- fornia beekeepers I ^vish to say that our exhibit at both the San Diego and San Francisco faii-s in 1915 will be under the supervision of Mr. M. H. Mendleson, of Ventura. The writer will be Mr. Mendle- son's secretary, with H. J. Warr, of Perris, in close touch. I wish I could impress upon the California beekeepers the necessity of beginning now for this exhibit. We have an opportunity before us to astound the world with the grandest exhibit of our products ever seen. We must have money, honey, and nice wax in just as liberal quan- tities as we can afford. We want as many kinds as California produces of as near pure honey of its kind as can be secured. Brother beekeepers, this will doubtless be the last time in the lifetime of at least the older of us to see our indu>trv crowned 48 GLExVNINGS IN BEE CULTURE with an exhibit that will show to the world that we are able to grasp an oi^portunity presented at our door. Every beekeeper in California could set aside at least one case of honey or the proceeds from a case to help with the exhibit. We also must have the finest of comb honey in liberal quantities. Begin your plans now for help- ing to make it a grand success, for it will be a monument not only to our industry but to the State as well. During convention time I busied myself talking with members regarding the flora of various parts of the State, and the qual- ity of honey produced from diffeient flow- ers. I was especially anxious to learn, if possible, whether alfalfa produced different colors of honey in different regions, or whether the difference in color is due to the mixing of darker grades with the alfalfa. I have always doubted the claim of some that it produced different colors in different soils. The opinions of those I questioned were about evenly divided, but several to whom I spoke wei"e emphatic in saying that it is other darker grades mixed in the al- falfa that give it the darker color, so until I have stronger evidence on the question I will remain of the oiDinion that it is no more inclined to do so than is the button sage, the orange, carpet grass, or any other of our forage plants. A NEW PLAN FOR REQUEENING Allowing Oueenless Bees from a Strong Colony to Unite Slowly with a Nucleus Containing the Young Queen BY A. V. SMALL It is often desirable to requeen a good many colonies late in August or early in ■September — first, because the ajDiarist has "more time to give to queen-rearing at that season ; and, second, because the Augiist- reared queens usually jirove vigorous lay- ers the following year. But at such a time as this, when the best of the smartweed is iione, and there is a hint of fall in the air, the bees sometimes refuse to accejit a queen Introduced by the ordinary cage plan; also some colonies are very irritable when tlie late honey-flow tapers off; and to hunt for queens when bees are cross is a disagTeeable The following plan is original with me; ard while I have ised it only one season the results have been vei'y satisfactory: My queers aie mated in nuclei of from two to five full-depth frames. After the young (jueen has begun to lay, and some of the larvse have hatched, I lift out one or more of the frames with brood, adhering bees, and the (|ueen, and place them in a hive- body on the stand of the hive I want to re- queen, putting over it a screen with a spool l)luggecl with queen-cage candy tacked to the under side of the center of the screen, Avliere there is a hole t:he same size as the liole in the spool. ■ On this I put an empty brood-chamber with a feedei' of thin syrup. This I cover with a bee-escape board, and finally I set on the full colony that is to be vequeened. Tliis is done in the evening after the l)ees have stopped flying. The next morning, when the bees of the full colony i^ass down through the bee- escape, they find themselves with a feeder of thin syrup in the empty hive-body, sep- arated from the full colony and old queen by the escape-board above, and from the nucleus below, containing the brood and young laying queen, by the screen Avire with the candy spool. In this queenless, brood- less, combless condition they realize that there is something wrong. They have lost tlieir old home and their old queen. By the lime they have eaten their Avay through the candy spool they are fairly crying for a new queen, and are more than willing to unite with the nucleus. The strong point in this i)lan is that the bees are made to feel the desire for and the need of a queen; also notice that this large force of bees from the old colony is composed of the strangers, and that the little nucleus force is at home in the sense of possession. In a day or two the old colony on top will have only a few bees, and the old queen can be found easily, and removed, after which the combs and what bees are on them may be put in the lower hive, the two empty hive-bodies removed, and the work is done. One colony that was requeened by this plan had been queenless for nearly three weeks. No fertile workers, however, had appeared. I should like very much to try this on a colony that did have laying workers. At a time when there is no honey to gather, and the bees are loafing instead of going to the field, they are slow to pass through the escape. At such times they can usually be induced to pass the bee-escape, in an attempt to go to the field, by placing a small feeder of thin syrup in an empty super above the full colony. From my experience last fall, this plan will work up to the time it is too cold for the bees to pass readily through the bee- escape. North Topeka, Kans. JANUARY 15, 1913 49 '^^.he^J&kS£ '*" fMw'i Fig. 1. — Robert Stites, of Colorado, preparing his winter cases. SOME BEEKEEPERS OF COLORADO BY WESLEY FO.STER Mr. Robert Stites is one of our newer beekeepers in Colorado; but lie is going at the business right, and we expect him to make a success of it, as he already has in the arrangement of a very neat apiary. He lives but one or two miles from ]\Iontrose, and liis apiaiy overlooks the Uncompahgre Valley, gi^^ng• a beautiful view of this rich agricultural and finiit section. We found Mr. Stites at work upon his winter cases, one of which is shown over the first hive in Fig. 1. He lost most of his bees the winter of 1911, and he does not expect to have another like experience if i^reparation will avoid it. The space between the hive and the outer case he will pack with leaves, chaff, etc. This winter he has packed them with dried horse manure. An empty super filled with chaff goes on top, and an outside strip goes around the super to cover up the space at the top of the winter case. The bottom-boards are made several inches larg- er than the hive, so that the winter case will just fit. I do not know whether Mr. Stites plans to bank up around the bottom-board, but I should think that space would be cold for the bees during very cold weather, with only the inch board between them and the outside. Fig. 2 was taken near Mr. Robert E. Foster's apiaiw in Montrose County, Colo- rado. Mr. Foster is standing beside a clump of greasewood. Greasewood is a native of the desert, growing, however, on the lower levels, but rarely found upon the well- drained mesas. It is quite a favorite ^vith the bees, the large yellow clusters of bloom 50 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Fig. -Robert E. Foster standing heside a clump of " greasewood." attracting them in large numbers. The re- semblance to g'oldenrod is cjuite marked. Mr. Foster is apiary inspector for ]\Iont- rose County, and has clone excellent work in reducing the prevalence of foul brood. Over to the south of Fruita, in Mesa County, Colorado, rise the rocky sides of the mesas. Along the foot of the clift's flows the Grand River. Sloping gently to the noi«th and east from the river for several miles is some of the best land on the west- ern slope. Apples and peaches are grown by the hundreds of carloads. Alfalfa, su- gar beets, and general farming oiDerations are followed by many. Much of the land, hoAvever, has become seep land from the application of too much irrigation water or the running of ditches and the application of water to land lying higher up; and over much of tills seep land sweet clover grows, making of this district a valuable honey- producing section. Mr. F. B. Hill lives about three miles east of Fruita, and has the largest and best conducted apiary I have seen in Colorado. Three long sheds, one of wliich is shown in the illustration (cover picture for this is- sue) shade about 120 colonies each. The advantage of these sheds is very apparent if one visits this country in August. The al- kali-covered ground reflects the sunlight with a blistering glare. The intense light deceived me, and I over-exposed two films so that they were worthless, and the film this was taken from was so dense it was difficult to get a good print. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Fig. 4. — Panes of glass used as super-covers or honey-boards. Mr. Hill " flags his (|ueeiis," as his hives. are so' close together in the I'ows. Dilt'erent- colored rags are tacked on the fronts of the hives; and red, green, black, etc., spots are painted upon others. A few of the hives have the entire front ]iain1ed a different color. Mr. Hill operates his apiary for comb honey in 4 x 5 j^lain sections, and he secures a beautiful product. He uses shallow ex- tracting-supers early in the season, taking them off and placing them below the brood- chamber when the comb-houey supers are put on. These exfracting-supei's are left below until fall, when they are removed and put away till spring. They are then put on top full of honey for the bees to use in breeding up. Mr. Hill told me that he sold $1800 worth of honey this year from his apiary. He operates only his home apiary, having no outyards. Several months ago I told about the beautiful Canon City fruit disfnct — its syl- ■\an country homes, pretty country lanes, and delightful climate. Now I Avanf to tell you of one of our beekeepers there. Mr. Babberger is an artist photogTapher, a fruit-culturist, gardener, and beekeeper. He is a shrub and flower lover, and his lit- tle Dutch garden beside his house reminds me of my friend and neighbor Karl Dehn, whose particular passion is dahlias. (I wish you might hear Mr. Dehn pronounce " dahlias " and hear him talk flowers.) Mr. Dehn learned his flower gardening in Ber- lin ; and whether Mr. Babberger gardened in Berlin 1 do not know; hut his little gar- den and apiary are worthy of liis father- land. Mr. Babberger considers his work in the studio far too confining and also too mer- cenary. People want only cheap pictures, and he does not make that kind. His pic- tures are worth his price; and when we had our beekeepers meet Dr. Phillips in his studio, Mr. Babberger had his honey piled in the recei^tion room, and he was charging a price commensurate with what he consid- ered it worth. He was asking $3.50 a case for his comb honey, and was getting it. Some others were selling for $2.50 and $2.75; but Mr. Babberger would not sell for such a i)riee. Probably scores of fruit-growers — neigh- bors of Mr. Babberger — have stopped when driving past his apiary to admire the wliite rows of hives between the apple trees, one of which is shown in Fig. 3. Mr. Babberger harvested 2300 sections of honey from 25 new swarms, and has always counted on ten dollars' worth of honey from each hive. The spraying for the leaf- roller destroyed a good many of his colo- nies last spring, so that his cro}) Avas very small. If we could have lialf a dozen beekeep- ers in each county like Mr. Babberger they would have a wonderful influence in rais- ing the standards of bee culture. Mr. Bab- berger uses the Danzenbaker hive and 4x5 sections. One of his special hobbies is the use of panes of glass for honey-boards. JANUARY 15, 1913 He claims for tliem many advantages, chief of wliicli is the ease of diagnosing the con- dition of the colony without disturbing the cluster. The glass requires cleaning about every two years. Two hives with the glass in place are shown in Fig. 4. Boulder, Colo. BEEKEEPING IN WEST FLORIDA S. S. Alderman a Progressive Beekeeper for Forty Years BY J. J. WILDER This year I had the opportunity of mak- ing a 3600-mile tour or ramble visiting bee- keepers over the Southeast, and it was my great pleasure to meet some of our old landmarks in beekeeping; and among oth- ers were Mr. J. K. Tsbell and S. S. Alder- man, near Wewahitchka, Fla. Both gave me something of their rii^e experience in beekeeping, and Mr. Alderman gave me his l^liotograph and soiiie data regarding his experience. His letter follows : The first bees I owned were bought in 1872. The apiary was located at the " Old Fort " place, 7 miles from the postoffice now known as Wewahitchka, Cal- houn Co., Fla. This embryo apiary of 70 hives was turned over to the care of a young man, J. B. Roberts, who was a natural apiarist, but he knew nothing of the advanced methods of beekeeping. I persuaded him to try new hives, and we worked to- gether for twenty years, during which time we in- creased tlie number of hives to 700 at the "Old Fort " place. At this period I began to scatter the apiaries, placing the bees near the feeding-grounds, until I had six apiaries, numbering in all about 1400 stands. The yearly yield from this number was 84,000 lbs., which was extracted and shipped in barrels to New York and Boston. The principal flora from which the crop is gath- ered is the tupelo gum and the orange bloom. This latter flower is a favorite of the bees, and suggested to me my trade-mark, " Orange Bloom," which I had patented about 1880. The "Orange Bloom" has one great advantage over any other honey, it will keep for ever without granulating. This "Orange Bloom " honey took the first premium at the Atlanta Exposition, and I was awarded a medal. I was born in Marianna, Fla., March 19, 1835. My parents were both born in England. I have been engaged in the honey and orange business for more than 40 years, having been blessed with fine health most of the time. Mr. Alderman was a good beekeeper the year I was born, or 40 years ago, and all the way down the line of years he has been a good and progressive beekeeper — not in and out, but year after year he has con- tinued in his main line of business, that of producing " Orange Bloom " honey. He has produced trainloads of it, and has there- by gathered up around him considerable of this world's goods — at least enough to make him very comfortable in his old age. He spends the summers up in the moun- tains of North Carolina, and the winters at S. S. Alderman, of Wewahitchka, Florida, an up- to-date beekeeper for forty years. his Florida home, which is a beautiful one located on an island on the Chipalo River. His home is surrounded by a beautiful or- ange-gTove on the east and south side, and along by the front flows the beautiful river. A more beautiful or more modern home can not be found in our Southland. A glance at the face of tliis veteran bee- keeper will show that he has been wonder- fully blessed with health. It is strange that he has not been a great writer on bee cul- ture, for he is very intelligent. A better type of beekeeper can not be found in all beedom. Cordele, Ga. WHY ORDERS FOR QUEENS CAN NOT AL- WAYS BE FILLED AT ONCE BY PENN G. SNYDER With reference to Mr. Lewis P. Tan- ton's article, page 581, Sept. 15, 1 have made it one of my business principles to reply as soon as an order is received. I use a printed post card that requires only *he name of the purchaser and date the order 54 GLEANINGS IN HKE CULTURE The effect i>f juKiily iittaclied starters. Notice the coinljs in the two middle sections have fallen, leaving a space for the bees to till in to snit themselves. — Sires & Sires, Wapato, Wash. will be filled. To say the least, however, it is difficult to guarantee to have queens on a given date. There are several distinct reasons why the expected queens may not make their appearance as expected. " There's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip" is a very true state- ment when speaking of bees. Our bee pets ( ? ) , as we all know, sometimes disre- gard all rules, regulations, and standards, and apparently set out to see how mean they can act. One of the many things that sometimes happen is that, after the cells are started beautifully, a coujale of days later they may be cut down. They may be chilled or possi- bly jarred in handling. An unexpected queen-cell in the brood-frames might hatch and destroy them, or a small virgin from an unknown source might get through the protecting zinc which I use to cover all en- trances of cell-building colonies. Then there seems to be nothing easier for the queenless bees in nuclei than to de- stroy the cells or virgins given them, or for the virgins to disappear wliile on their niating-trips. The queen-rearing business is not all " beer an' skettles," as one can readily find out by making an experiment when condi- tions are not favorable — when there has been no honey gathered for a month or so. Under the best of conditions it is easy to obtain plenty of good queens; but when conditions are the reverse, then comes the need of skill, patience, and knowledge. Then the weather plays a very im})ortant part in determining the success of all ef- forts, to say nothing of the honey-flow. Yet all this can not excuse the queen- breeder in not replying at once to all orders as all up-to-date business men do. He can at least )iromise, and then do the best he can to fill the order on the date promised. Personally I can heartily agree with Mr. Tanton in his arraignment of the greater number of the producers of bees and queens. It is more than annoying to send an order, and receive no reply, possibly, for weeks — an experience I have liad re- peatedly in years past. " None but the brave deserve the fair." We bee-men can change the above quotation to " None but the prompt deserve our orders," provided they are tilled with good stock in good con- dition. PURE GOLDEK BEES ARE NOT CROSS. I have a growing complaint to register. The editor invariably, in speaking of "Gold- ens," states that they are often very cross, also that they winter poorly. Now, that may be true of some of the strains com- l^osed of more or less Cypiian blood; yet in the manner in which the term is usecl it gives Goldens as a whole, irrespective of strain, a black eye. I have in my home yard about 80 colonies of Goldens, to say nothing of nuclei, and I do not use a veil on an average of one hour out of ten while working in this yard. I can give names of many beekeepers who have been in this yard, who have seen me, without smoke and without preparation, and, last of all, without stings, open colo- nies containing eighteen or more combs of brood. Just after a rain, or during one, I have fi'equently opened the hive containing the breeding queen, and have received no stings. Two years ago T sold to a gentleman in Porto Rico a two-frame nucleus with a tested queen. When the hive was full of bees, and they were working on the supers, his two young sons were discovered gTab- bing out the honey by the handfuls from the extracting-combs. The cliildren were more or less covered with bees, yet neither of them received as much as one sting. Are such bees cross? Swarthmore Apiaries, Pa. [Undoubtedly there are many colonies of Goldens that are gentle and also hardy; JANUARY 15, 1913 55 but in our long experience of years we have found tliat tlie majority of Goldens are below " par " on these two points. — Ed.] THE COMBINED SUMMER AND WINTER SHED A NUISANCE BY G. C. GREINER The general tone of Mr. List's article with its illustrations, page 766, Dec. 1, sug- gests beekeeping after the old-fashioned let-alone plan. For that kind of manage- ment, liis combination summer and winter sheds, or stands, as Mr. L. calls them, offer some advantages, although 1 should prefer a finer material, such as oats, wheat, or clover chaff for packing instead of straw. Hut for the beekeeper who aims to get from iiis bees " all there is in 'em " by practicing up-to-date methods, such a thing as " sum- mer and winter stand combined " does not exist unless we apply that term to the prop- erly constructed chaff' liives as they are list- ed by our regular bee-supply establish- ments. And even these are not as readily accessible and easily managed as a single- walled liive. The only way that will allow the easy, convenient, and time-saving manipulations of a season's campaign, is to have hives spread over the ground, on separate stands, with about two feet space between. Does Mr. List imagine the time and work it takes to remove the sheds and spread the hives in the spring, and then move them together again in the fall for winter packing is lost labor? If he will follow up the season's innumerable maniijulations that are un- avoidable with modern beekeeping, such as examining in the spring, feeding, equaliz- ing and spreading brood where necessary, artificial increase, and " shook " swarming, dequeening and requeening, adjusting and readjusting of supers, then a little later the extracting work, and, still later, removing the last supers, feeding for winter, and uniting where necessary, and many others that may unexpectedly loom up in the rou- tine of the season, he will see at once that the time saved by having hives conveniently l)laeed will do that little extra work he con- siders " unnecessary " a dozen times. To the experienced beekeeper the disad- vantages of ci'owding bees into close quar- ters, as shown by Mr. L.'s illustrations, are too well known to need any comment. But I would caution beginners and prospective beekeepers never — no, nev.er, if it can be avoided, to plan aiTangements of this kind. It is bad enough to fight the ill-tempered individuals of one colony ; but when six are aroused every time one hive is touched, the overdose becomes (to express it mildly) an annoyance. Indiv-idually I am laractically iimnune to bee-stings, although I do not enjoy them; but to the great majority of the human family they are an undesirable donation. For the good of all concerned, bees included, all unnecessary aggravation should be avoided. In the sheltered position behind the rais- ed roof of his stand Mr. L. may not notice the disturbance he causes to all the inmates of the stand whenever he maniijulates either one of the six; but I can assure him that the least jar, even the opening of his roof, is felt by every bee in the lot; and under certain conditions it would be sufficient cause to put the whole comjDany on the war-path. A slight change in the cons'.ruction of his cases, which would greatly improve their ettlciency as a winter pi'otection, and at the same time preserve both cases and hives, niay be an acceptable suggestion to Mr. List; or if not to him to some one else. The opening below the hinged front all along the bottom should be closed by letting the front — in fact, all sides and ends — pass down below the floor. This would shut out water, and keep the snow from blowing in. As it is, a heavy drifting rain from the right direction would saturate the whole under part of the cases and their contents full of water, which a sudden freeze would transform into ice. Snow also is liable to drift in around the straw, which straw would, under certain changes of tempera- ture, undergo the same transformation, and surround his liives with an icy inclosure. While these conditions may not be absolute- ly destructive, they are in no way conducive to the welfare of the bees. La Salle, N. Y. CLIMATIC CONDITIONS AND SURROUNDING FACTORS TO BE CONSIDERED Windbreaks for Winter Protection; Too Much Shel- ter Allows the Bees to Come Out when the Air is too Cold BY A. J. HALTER I note with interest what Mr. Holter- mann says on p. 776, Dee. 1, with refer- ence to tight board fences for windbreaks. Probably liis location is more adaptable, owing to climatic conditions. I can not argue from his standiJoint, and will only relate my own experience, based on condi- liors in this locality, a distance of 40 miles south of Lake Erie. When I first began wintering bees with 56 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Double-walled hives containing live bees buried in snow. windbreaks 1 bought a lot of binder can- vas, nailing it on posts, taking two strips Mgh, thus affording a height of six or seven feet, and placed the hives to the east of the windbreak. This, with a shield of large apple-trees, seemed a good protection ex- cept in case of a few end colonies wliich were a little weak the following spring. The next season a strip to the south side was added, forming an L, and the bees wintered well, for there was scarcely an air current back of this tight windbreak. Only an eastern or southeasterly wind could reach the entrance of the hives (all hives faced in a southerly direction), and I felt that I had some assurance of successful wintering so far as windbreaks were con- cerned. The next fall windbreaks were again put in proper position as last stated, every thing progi-essing favorably, there being plenty of snow, and the bees were in fine order. About the same time I built a ten- foot tight board fence on the north side of an outyard — there being buildings to the east, and woods and elderberry bushes to the west of the apiai-y. The bees did not have a flight for some time; and during the latter part of Febru- ary there was about a foot of snow. The temperature suddenly rose to about 50 de- gress by this time, with a bright sunshine mingled with a light breeze which was melt- ing the snow very rapidly. That evening a neighbor who had passed the yard a short time before informed me of what had hap- pened. The next morning I went to inves- tigate; and, to my astonishment, I found thousands upon thousands of bees scattered all over the snow outside of the windbreak for a radius of 300 or 400 feet in a westerly and southwesterly di- rection, and one could scarcely step without treading on bees. The ground was still cov- ered with plenty of snow, even around the hives, where great numbers had also fall- en in tlie melting snow and were lost. There were over a hundred colonies in this yard ; and when spring came, several colonies were dead. The rest were very weak. There were, perhaps, ten colonies all told that built up strong enough to store sur^jlus at the beginning of the honey-liow. After having viewed the situation I pro- ceeded to visit the outyard which was pro- tected by a tight board fence on the north side only, and arrived there about noon. The snow had a very thick crust, caused by a heavy freeze directly after the thaw. What a relief to find only a few bees im- bedded in this crust of snow ! I began to study the situation, for the bees had not come out for a flight at the outyard except from several scattering colonies from which a few had emerged. This is how 1 summed up the situation : At the yard Avhere the windbreak was on the west and north, the sun heated up the hives and immediate surroundings, as the air currents were al- most entirely shut off by the windbreaks at the stated time, and it became warm enough for bees to fly out in great num- bers. But when they came in contact with air cui'rents they became chilled, and drop- ped on the snow outside of the windbreak, never to return. At the other yard, the air or breeze came in among the hives and did not warm up enough for the bees to venture out. Since that I have not put up canvas, but just pile up hive stands or boxes about five feet high where light air currents pass through, and have not had any loss by bees flying out. They seem to winter as well as those at the outyard where the ten-foot fence is still retained and where the hives are placed in five or six rows, about twenty in a row facing south. Last vnnter the mortality was mostly in liives in the center rows, being about 35 feet south of the high board fence. What explanation can be given? Possibly the JANUARY 15, 19i:; 57 severe north and northwest winds coming in contact with fences and buildings on the east was forced back and scooped down to the surface of the ground only to rise again in accordance with laws of distribution. Tliis was probably only an incident in ac- cordance with directions and velocity of storm; but would it be wise to reconstnict the situation thus, providing a repetition might come from some other direction? This idea of windbreaks seems about as perplexing to me as the swarming question. When all looks well, something is sure to be wrong. If we knew of coming weather conditions it could be solved accoi'dingly ; but as most of our storms or cold winds come from the west or northwest, we nat- urally UTake provision accordingly; but wlien an eastern storm comes we simply say, " It won't last long." My idea of a windbreak is a location where severe and cold winds are elevated 1o pass over a certain obstacle, which is more natural where hills or valleys are nat- ural landscapes. An apiary located on a side hill with this natural protection would be the ideal; but. unfortunately, only a small number of beekeepers are so located, and these must adopt the artificial to the best of their judginent and surroundings. A light breeze in an apiary located back of a windbreak is, I believe, essential, as it will bring pure air and destroy dampness, and is less apt to lure bees from the hives until conditions are safe for a general flight. My obseiTations along this line lead me to believe that careful study of climatic con- tlitions and surrounding-s are the main fac- tors in consti-ueting windbreaks, and that success can be obtained only under favor- able conditions. Akron, 0., Dec. 10. [See editorial. — Ed.] EXPERIENCES OF A FOUL-BROOD INSPECIOR Superstition and Ignorance BY J. E. CRANE BEES BURIED UNDER A FOOT OF SNOW AND ICE BY F. J. LILLIE The photograph shows how I dug my hiv«s out of the snow March 1, after they bad been buried under a foot of snow, hav- ing a heavy coat of ice for four weeks. I (lought the bees would be all dead; but T lost only one colony out of ten. All seem- ed well supplied Avifh stores. Corry, Pa., April I. Continued from page 21, January 1. The ignorance of the great mass of bee- keejjers is past comprehension. So far as I can judge not more than one in six in some sections ever reads a bee journal of any kind. Most of them know little and seem to care less. One family on whom I called told me that the reason their bees had done so poorly was because they had sold bees and had taken money for them. No argument on my part could convince them to the contrary. It was of no use to tell them that the season had been unfa- yorable. No; they had sold bees and had taken money for them, and thev must suf- fer. Many seem to think that, if they succeed in hiving a swarm, and then place it on a stand in the back yard among the bushes, or over by the hog-pen, or leave it sitting on the ground, their work is done. Somewhere I tipped \\y> a hive from the bottom-board, and began scraping off what appeared to be a scab from the bottom of the combs so as to get into them to examine them, when the proprietor informed me that I was tearing off what remained of the old bottom-board that had stood or rested on the ground until it was rotten, after which the hive, rotten bottom-board and all, was set on a new board and given a stand. One man declared to me that the apide worms (tent caterpillar's) got into liis hives and spoiled combs. "Do you know they were tent caterpillars f I asked. He said he did, for he could see the cocoors they had left ! A friend of mine, an inspector in another State, tells about finding a luve standing on the ground, and weeds gi'ow- ing up through it; also of another where the combs had been cut out and old burlaii stuffed in to fill the empty space. An experienced beekeeper was telling me how one of his neighbors came to him in trouble. His bees had been getting something that made them drunk. He Avent over to see what Avas the matter, and found that the liives were standing about tAvo feet above the ground Avhile the day was cool, and all of the bees that missed the entrance fell to the ground, and, being chilled, were unable to rise again, so they crawled aim- lessly around to be reported by an ignorant beekeeper as drn^k. What a shame! I have said to myself many times, "If bees will live u: cer such conditions, what would they do 58 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE with intelligent care?" No domestic animal would live with such treatment as bees re- ceive. It is a great pleasure, after visiting such beekeepers, to meet intelligent apia- rists who are readers of bee journals. They know who the inspector is, what he has called for, and are ready to give him any assistance in their power. They don't need an inspector, for they have been doing their own insiDection, and can tell to a dot just the condition of their bees, and whether they have any contagious disease or not. I called on one of this class; and after I had looked into a good many liives he said, '' The colonies in that row of hives have Doolittle queens ; in that row, Moore queens ; and in that row Hand queens," and I en- vied him the fun of watching the ditferences in these three strains of Italian bees, for he had enough to give him a pretty good idea of their relative value. The inspector would like to stop to visit a long time with such ; but " beesness is beesness," and he must move on. SOME OBSERVATIONS ON EUROPEAN FOUL BROOD. European foul brood in an apiai*y is always an interesting study. If the disease has not made great headway, I have found from one to thi-ee colonies very bad, and between a dozen and twenty in the earlier stages of the disease. There seems to be some relation between the very bad and those in which the disease has only begam its deadly work. I visited a yard the latter part of the summer whei'e I found the disease well ad- vanced and in all stages. In this yard the whole process of ruin could be observed. The first colonies that came down had reached the last stage, and Avere a mass of woims, filth, and cocoons. Only one out of twenty-four colonies was still healthy, while the rest were in all stages of foul brood. When the first colonies that come down become weakened, robbing sets in and dis- ease is carried to the other hives. As soon as the bees become too weak to protect themselves against moths the one happy home is soon clianged into a mass of ruins, and the beekeeper vainly believes that the moths are at the bottom of his trouble, while they are only the scavengers that have consumed what was left by disease and the robber bees. QUESTIONS ASKED. The questions that are asked an inspector are often amusing. For instance, " How long does it take to learn beekeeping?" To this I reply, " I have been at work learning for more than forty years, and haven't it all learned yet." Or a more fre- quent question is, "Do bees ever sting you ?" " Yes," I tell them, " I suppose I have been stung more than seven or eight times in the past forty years," and likely I may hear their exclamations of surj^rise that I should continue the business and take such risks. THE RIGHT WAY TO MANAGE. It is a great relief to me when I get sucli a letter as I received last summer from a woman in a neighboring town. She said she was afraid that they had foul brood among their bees, so she had sent a sample to Washington. Later she wrote me that it proved to be genuine European foul brood. I was not surprised, a little later, when 1 called, to find Gleanings on the table. Now, how sensible ! She had inspected her bees and had observed sometliing wrong, and had done just the right thing in sending a sample of the brood to the Department of Agriculture at Washington instead of wait- ing until her own yard was ruined and her neighbors' yards exjiosed. If all who keep bees were as prompt, the disease would soon be stamped out. wasteful negligence. In opening hives I have been surprised at the great amount of drone comb I find near the center where brood-rearing begins in early spring, and where worker comb is to the last degree necessary. I often find combs lying around on the ground and going to waste that might be saved and made into wax. I have often thought it Avould be money well spent to send an inspector around among beekeep- ers to instruct them, even if there were no such thing as disease. I wonder if they would take the lessons to heart, and prac- tice what they were taught. Middlebury, Vt. To be continued. THE TREATMENT OF EMPLOYEES ON A BEE- RANCH BY SUBSCRIBER My own experience in California was something after the same style as the ex- perience given on page 350, June 1, so it may interest some of your readers. The majority of ranchers in this State, including the beekeepers, appear oblivious of the fact that their hired help are of the same flesh and blood as themselves, and that, possibly, may account for the treat- ment meted out to them by their employers. I answered an advertisement for help on a bee-ranch, not because I knew any tiling about bees, but simply that I was out of employment and needed the money. I was JANUARY 15, 1913 to receive $30.00 a month, and room and board. The room was the veranda. I was snpplied with a spring cot and blankets. As to board, breakfast consisted of badlj' cooked gTeasy bacon, diy bread with a tong'h crust, fiap jacks cooked in an old frying-pan which was as black as charcoal, ii]side and out (honej' supplied the place of butter and sugar), canned milk liberally watered, and i^runes. The latter were put on the table in the same pan in which they had been cooked. Dinner consisted of fried bacon, boiled beans, and a kind of stew composed of macaroni, tomatoes, potatoes, and bacon grease. Bacon and leftovers from dinner were used for supper. I saw fresh meat about half a dozen times in three months, and then it was usually liver. When the crew worked the apiaries away from home, the lunch consisted of canned beans, a cheap grade of sardines, and dry bread. The cook employed bj' this outfit was an old man past 80, who had been a miner in the early days. What salary he received I never discovered. I only knew that he never by any chance cleaned out his kitchen, tlie floor of wliicli bore the grease of ages. As you may readily imagine, a few daj's of this kind of thing was usually sufficient for most of the help who came. As an in- ducement to some of the help to stay, they were offered a bonus of $5.00 per month if thej' stayed during the entire season. But this failed to hold most of them. A young fellow from Chicago, after put- ting in about four montlis, was cari-j'ing a hive of bees, when he stumbled. The owner happened to see him, and shouted, " If you had dropi^ed that hive I would have knock- ed your d d head off." I asked the young man why he stood for that kind of thing, and he replied, " Oh! he wants me to quit so he won't have to give me the extra $.5.00." Is this the kind of treatment to be expected on bee-ranches? About this time of the year a good manj' men from the East come to California in answer to advertisements for help. Let me give them some advice. First, if you can get any kind of labor by wliich you can get enough to live on. stay where you are. I honestly believe from personal observation that there are more able-bodied men work- ing for their board and a small pittance, in the State of California, than in any three other States in the Union. Second, liired help in most ranches is re- quired for only a few weeks, after which the men must hunt other work. They must cany their own bedding. The board is in- ferior, and so are the sleeping accommoda- tions. There is an old story told of a hired man who, on asking the employer Avhere he was to sleep, received the reply, "' I own 5000 acres around here, and you can sleep any- where you like outside the house." [We are afraid our correspondent is a little hard on the California men as a whole. We have known students who have been treated most roj'ally by their employers in the Golden State.— Ed.] BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTHWEST The Scholl Improved Hive-numbers BY LOUIS SCHOLL Continued from page 43. course, the number can be painted with a brush, but it can not be done as nicely nor as quickly as with the rubber stamps. They are easily applied to either end of any story at any part of the hive by simply hanging over the edge of the upper story or the rabbet of the hive. Fitting snugly, they do not interfere with the ends of tl:e frames nor with any upper stories or su- pers i^iled on, nor with the covers, as those sUp right over them. These numbers can be changed quickly to any other part of the same hive or to any other hive. They are always securely in place, being eith^- locked down by the covers of the hives or the upper stories and supers. Hence they can not be misplaced easily by a strong wind, and are more secure against mischievous depredatore who might be apt to remove them or exchange them on the hives, and thus cause considerable trouble. They are cheap and everlasting, there- fore, and I am giving them to beakeepers who desire a good hive-number as the " Scholl improved number-tags." You are welcome to use them if jon like them. New Braunfels, Texas. CONVERSATIONS WITH DOOLITTLE AT BORODINO, NEW YORK Continued from page 44. In addition to what I have already giv- en you, use partly finished sections, which are generally quite numerous during the middle of July, and if you thin the honey to about the consistency of the nectar as it comes in from the field when it is given t-o the bees you may be quite certain of a profitable outcome. Lacking in any of the points given, any one ti-ying the experiment is likely to conclude that his time and honey can be more profitably used otherwise. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE WHY DO BEES DISLIKE BLACK ? Some Interesting Data; Black Objects Stung by Bees because More Visible BY JOHN H. LOVELL In Gleanings for December 1, 1912, Mr. J. E. Crane says tliat it is the almost uni- versal opinion that bees dislike black. So far as my experience goes (and I have given considerable attention to the matter dar- ing the past few yeai's), this would ajDpear to be undoubtedly the opinion of the major- ity of American beekeepers. Now, why should bees dislike black? They will gath- er honey indefinitely from a piece of black paper or from a black dish. A part of my winter cases are painted black ; but I have never been able to discover that the bees exhibited any antipathy to them on that ac- count. On the other hand, let an animal wholly or partially black approach the hives, and (he evidence is most convincing that it will leceive more stings than if it were entirely white. Of a flock of twelve black chickens running in the bee-j'ard, seven black ones were stung to death while the five light ones escaped (Gleanings, March 1, 1911, J. Ridley). A dog with a black rump is badly slung on this part, while the white portion of his body is comparatively free from at- tack (Gleanings, March 1, 1911, H.- C. Driver). As mentioned by Mr. Crane, a white horse may be driven near the apiary with less danger of its being stung than a black one. Another correspondent has told low a white dog ran among the hives with- out attracting much attention, while at the ?ame time a black dog was furiously as- sailed by the bees. Many beekeepers report a similar ex- I'erience from wearing black clothing. A white coat does not excite the bees so much rs a black one (Gleanings, Marcli 1, 1912). Dr. Miller gets more stings when he wears a dark suit than when he wears a light one (Gleanings, Dec. 1,1906). Mr. Huber H. Root had a black felt hat " literally deco- rated with stings." On changing to a gray hat he did not get a single sting. The black head of a hat-pin is reiieatedly attack- ed by bees. A pair of black stockings sub- stituted for bee-gloves is literally " peji- pered." The editor of Gleanings has re- lated that, while examining one of the api- aries of Mr. E. D. Townsend, he wore a dark suit and received more stings than Mr. Townsend, Avho was dressed in a white one. Elsewhere he has expressed the wisli to ha\"e the fiuestion discussed further. All beekeepers, however, do not agree that it is the black color which excites the anger of the bees. One observer suggests that it is a question of education. Editor Root received more sting-s than Mr. Town- send because he was a stranger. The bees would have treated him more kindly if he had given them a little time to get " edu- cated." However this may be in the case of beekeepers, it does not help us any with the black and white dogs, or the black ami wliite chickens. Here l>oth were equally strangers. Another beekeeper thinks that it is not so much the darkness as the rough- ness or hairiness which annoys the bees. To this Dr. Miller replies that he has seen at least a dozen bees viciously jabbing at the smooth glass head of a black hat-pin, fol- lowing it for half a day. The Irish Bee Journal, according to Dr. Miller, hinted that had he put on a clean shirt he would have had fewer stings; that is, it was the odor and not the color whicli offended the bees. As would be expected, the doctor replied that the shirt was newly put on, and was void of offense in the par- ticular mentioned. Dr. Miller's photograph, indeed, effectually refutes such an imputa- tion. The above-mentioned editor seems rather to scout the accepted opinion, and says that he has worn a black felt hat and didn't get any sting-s. St. Patrick, so it is authoritatively reported, formerly' drove all the snakes in Ireland into the sea. Possibly the good saint, while he was about it, blunt- ed the stings of their bees a little. How- ever it may be in green Erin, bees in Amer- ica certainly sting black objects, if endowed with life, more freely than they do white. Let us consider for a few moments the Ijsychology of colors in an endeavor to as- certain if one color ever irritates more than another. A bright-red garment, as many know from experience, will greatly enrage the turkey-gobbler or a bull. Boys some- times use pieces of red cloth as a lure to catch frogs. Physicians state that children wearing bright-red clothing and people li\ - ing in bright red-rooms are often very nerv- ous and irritable. These symptoms disaj)- pear when another color is substituted. There are persons who can not bear to look at red. The case of an officer is cited who was made giddy by red. There is a word for red in every language, but not always one for blue. Savages use red pigments in painting their bodies more than any other hue. Red is claimed to exert more motor power on the eye than blue. Soldiers are no longer di*essed in scarlet. Persons suffering from melancholia are benefited by looking at red ; but insane pa- tients mav be rendered uncontrollable. A JANUARY 15, 1913 man will become intoxicated more quickly in a room painted red than in one which is blue. Smallpox patients escape pitting if they are placed in rooms with red glass. Under the advocacy of Dr. Finsen, red-light treat- ment has been widely extended. There can not be any doubt that red waves of light tend to excite the nen'ous sj-stem. The ether waves which give rise to the sensation of red are longer than those of any other color. Accordingly we should expect that the color with the shortest waves, as violet, would produce the opposite effect, or be very depressing. This is the fact ; and those who live in dark-blue or violet-colored rooms are apt to be low-spirited. It is said that state prisoners in Russia are sometimes confined in rooms with the walls painted a deep violet, with the result that the mind in time becomes enfeebled and helpless. Red in moderation is a warm stimulating color; but in excess it becomes an irritant. If black were a color we should conclude that the waves of light from it irritated the bees. But black is not a color. An object is black because all the rays of light are absorbed; it is white because they are all reflected. Now. we do not see how black can irritate the bees when it does not, like red, give oft' any rays of light to affect them. The physical cause, waves of ether, is absent. So far, then, as finding out why bees sting a black animal more than they do a white one, we do not seem to be much better off than when we started; but we have narrowed the problem. Are, then, bees angered by black? We think not. Is there no other explanation of their apparent dislike for black? Some time ago, if I mistake not, it was suggested in Gleanings that perhaps the true explanation is that bees see a black object more quickly than they do a white one. This, in my opinion, is correct. Un- doubtedly in the glaring white light of a d*y in midsummer a black object is m.ore rapidly seen than one which is white. In the polar regions all forms of animal life, whether mammals or birds, in the win- ter season become white like the snow. In contrast with the vast expanse of white landscape a black object would be very conspicuous. A black coat is equivalent to a death sentence. A bee hastening out from the darkness of the hive would more readily see a black object than one which, like white, is less visible in the intense light. Like white, a mirror reflects the larger part of the rays of light ; and if one could be corstrueted which would reflect them all it would be invisible. Failure to detect the presence of a mirror has, indeed, been the cause of many mistakes. Again, a black surface in bright sunshine is several degrees warmer than a white surface. This additional heat may also exert some influence in attracting the at- tention of the bees, though this is doubtful. As bees pass so large a portion of their time in the darkness of the hive, it would certainly seem improbable that blackness per se would annoy them. The disposition of the bees and the way in which they are handled are likewise fac- tors wliich must be considered. Nor in em- phasizing the supposed dislike of bees to black must it be forgotten that they very readily sting white objects. The case was mentioned of a beekeeper who used a pair of black stockings instead of gloves, with the result that they were stung very badly. I always wear white gloves, but at times the bees attack them very fiercely and in great numbers. On the whole, then, the supposition that bees see a black object more readily than they do a white one seems to afford a satisfactory explanation of why at times they sting the former more freely than they do the latter. It follows that one of the principles of apiculture is : Let every beekeeper dress in white. Waldoboro, Maine. CARNIOLANS AHEAD OF ITALIANS IN MANY RESPECTS Their Tendency to Swarm Excessively Overcome Easily BY E. F. ATWATER In this locality we have never had black bees unless rarely from a mismated Cjueen sent here by some breeder in the East or South. With this condition, and for many years with nothing but Italian bees, we are prepared to say that the idea so often ad- vanced that Italians will, when left to themselves, degenerate to blacks, or ap- proximate that type, is a myth, pure and simple. The existence of this long-time myth, false as it is, has been dependent on the fact that in most localities the bees, of more or less black blood, in woods or rocks or box-hive apiary, will rear a vast number of drones compared to the few that are usually allowed in an up-to-date apiary. Excellent as are the Italian bees, they are not superior in all respects for all localities. For several years we have been slowly and rather cautiously adding a little Carniolan stock. We know that the Carniolans (not necessarily pure Carniolans), rightly man- GLEANINGS LN BEE CULTURE aged, will average to bring a larger force to any flow than any strain of Italians. Unlike Mr. Holtermann, p. 10, Jan. 1, 1912, we have had excellent success with these bees when using the eight-frame hive; but we add one or two stories to accommo- date them before the How, or else we draw from the Carniolans to build up the Ital- ians. However, we are working more to- ward a large hive, using ten-frame size largely, and have no doubt that in many ways the twelve-frame may be better. BAXATS A FAILURE FOR COMB-HONEY PRO- DUCTION. Three years ago the enthusiasm of a near-by beekeeper for the Banats led the writer to try 130 c|ueens of this stock, as they were very highly recommended by se\eral. They were one of the finest and most uniform lots that I have ever seen, and they arrived in splendid condition aft- er their long journey. They were nearly all successfully introduced. This was one of the most disastrous mistakes in my ex- perience. The much-praised non-swarming comb-honey Banats will build up to great strength in the spring (much like the Car- niolans), swarm as much as any bees, and wlien a good flow . comes they crowd the brood-nests (if comb honey is produced) so that they are scarcely numerous enough to work one super when the second flow ar- rives. They winter well, but their product will run at least one super per colony less than any bees that I have ever owned. Only one Banat colony of all that I have owned has made 100 sections of comb hon- ey, while many Italians, in the same season, far exceed this amount. This inferiority is not so apparent if extracted honey is the liroduct; but naturally the Banats are being weeded out of our apiaries, while the Car- niolans are being used in increasing num- bers. We usually buy and breed some of the best Italians eveiy year, having, one sea- :Son, 30 Italians from a famous breeder that gave us at least one dollar per colony more than the average from the remainder of the yard. Since but few breeders can supply purely mated Carniolan queens, we sometimes buy many of them mated to Italian drones, as that strain is better than a lot of uncertain black and hybrid bees. Then we have an imported breeder to use when we have time to rear some of our own queens. We have occasionally had a few Carnio- lan colonies that would fill two supers be- fore any Italian colony would fill one, and their white cappings and hardiness are val- ued while their prolificness is a decided help in liandling disease. If it is true that the Italians are so superior to the Carnio- lans in handling disease, how is it that the late Capt. J. E. Hetherington, with his thousands of colonies, was, before his death, introducing hundreds of Carniolan queens into both the Virginia and New York api- aries, in the latter yards finding them a great aid in combating disease"? If they are such great swarmers, how is it that Capt. Hetherington could handle them to advantage in liis many yards? If, as claimed for them, they are likely to convert their surplus into brood, how is it that our helpers find our Taylor yard, mostly Italian blood, very light for winter, while in the Highland yard, three miles south, with Carniolan stock, the hives are packed with stores"? If they are such great swarmers, how is it that a row of 20 of them in the home yard, with but little care, made over 100 lbs. per colony, and cast only two swarms, while the entire yard averaged but 63 lbs., there being but little Carniolan blood in the other colonies? The beekeeper who can not adapt his manipulations to the racial characteristics of the Carniolans had better continue with the Italians. But for those who will so adapt their methods, the Carniolan race offers some marked advantages in some localities. Meridian, Ida. Preventing Granulation in Comb Honey In looking over a copy of Gleanings for May 15, 1909, page 305, I notice an article on candied comb honey, by Frank Raiichfuss. In the footnote to the article you speak of experiments you were at that time conducting in trying to liquefy candied comb honey without spoiling the sections in any way. You say the chief difficulty is in keeping a steady tem- perature. This subject has interested me for some time past. If you will give me any information in regard to the experiment I shall be greatly obliged. Forest Park, III., Dec. 16. J. W. Allers. [ We finally abandoned all attempts to keep comb honey liquid by very high heat. We do, however, store our comb honey in a room, the temperature of which rarely goes below eighty degrees Fahrenheit, and we aim not to let it go above ninety. A rapidly changing temperature from cold to hot, and vtce versa, is conducive to granulation. We have actu- ally reduced granulation by keeping the honey around 103 degrees Fahrenheit; but the expense of the undertaking is far greater than the advantages warrant. Besides this, there is very great danger of the honey melting down suddenly so that large quan- tities are lost outright. Some combs will stand a higher temperature without sagging down than others, and some honey requires a higher tempera- ture to be reduced, so that, take it all in all, we have come to the conclusion that the best way is to sell comb honey before it granulates, and not be obliged to resort to expensive experiments after granulation has actually begun. By a little effort granulated comb honey can be sold. There is nothing wrong with it so far as taste is concerned, although if sold indiscriminately to those who do not know what it is, it is likely to cause suspicion of adulteration, the average person think- ing that it has "gone back to sugar." — Ed.] JANUARY 15, 1918 Heads of Grain from Different Fields Making Increase and Honey at the Same Time; Feeding Candied Honey as a Winter Food; Camiolans Excessive Swarmers I have 20 stands of liees (Italians), and want to build up to at least 100 the coming season, at the same time getting what honey I can. I have planned to set aside a few hives to work for increase, divid- ing as soon as I safely can in the spring, and by so doing leave half or more of my bees to harvest un- disturbed what honey they can. From the time the first willows start in April until the last of the sweet clover and goldenrod is killed by the frost in October we have no time when pollen and nectar can not be found if the bees can fly. I have some 175 lbs. of thick honey, candied, that I am holding for stimulative feeding, but have had no experience; in fact, the past is my first season's work with bees. I was fairly successful in building up by separating into two-frame nuclei, and either providing a queen-cell or eggs and larvae. I am using Danzenbaker ten-frame hives, but shall change to the double-walled of the same dimensions. Can you give me any hints that will steer me clear of the pitfalls I am apt, as an amateur, to fall into ? Are you still of the same opinion regarding the Carniolans, as when the 1908 edition of the ABC book was published? I don't enjoy the " glue " left on the frames in the fall, nor do I want to fight swarming all of the time. The last is all that keeps me from trying the Carniolans, and doing away with the Italians. Ironside. Ore., Dec. 15. A. W. Axthoxv. [Your plan of dividing your colonies by running one portion for honey and the other for increase is correct. It is usually a mistake to try to secure in- crease and honey both from the samie set of colonies, although there are some seasons when a heavy flow of honey will enable the apiarist to secure both in- crease and honey. For the best methods of increase we would refer you to the subject of " Increase " in our ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture. The Alexander plan has much to commend it. Your locality is exceptionally favorable, for it is seldom indeed that bees 'will be able to secure some- thing, either pollen or honey, whenever they can fly. Your candied honey can be given to the bees di- rect, providing it is not dry and hard. In fact, feed in that form is an excellent thing to give to bees either in the North or South. In your climate there is danger that your candied honey wiU " run " and daub the bees. We would advise putting it in wooden butter-dishes or on paper pie-plates, so that in case it becomes mushy the receptacle will hold it until the bees can take care of it. In a general way we are not able to give you hints as to how to avoid pitfalls: but if you are a beginner we would suggest that you read " Spring Management," " Robbing," and " Feeding," in our A B C and X Y Z of Bee Culture. Our opinion concerning Carniolans has not chang- ed since the 1908 edition of our ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture was put out: and while the edition of 1913 contains new matter and fuller details as to their undesirable as well as their desirable traits in the line first mentioned, we can not make the emphasis too strong that Carniolans are the most inveterate swarmers of any strains of bees we have ever tried. Last year our sixty or seventy colonies of Carniolans at our waterworks yard gave us more trouble in the matter of swarming, twice over, than our five other yards of Italians combined. Ordinary methods of swarm control will not work with Carni- olans. For the production of comb honey they would be very undesirable, for the simple reason that the ordinary methods of comb-honey production would cause them to swarm excessively; but in the hands of some experts Carniolans are excellent for the production of extracted honey. We would, however, advise the average beekeeper to try a few of them in a yard by themselves before he invests in them largely. We should much prefer the leather-colored Italians for all purposes, to either Carniolans or Caucasians. The latter are about as bad for swarm- ing as the Carniolans. In these days of out-apiaries it is desirable to have a strain of bees that will swarm as little as possible. The ordinary leather- colored Italians will give as little trouble in this re- spect as any. The bee-glue deposited by the Italians is nothing compared with the amount deposited by the Cauca- sians. The Carniolans are only a little better than good Italians in the amount of bee-glue they use. — Ed.] Ideas for Up-to-date Honey-house Wanted I started five years ago with a few stands of bees as a side line to ranching, and they have increased until now they take up practically all my time dur- ing the summer. The expansion of the business makes it necessary to build a new honey-house in which I desire to put all up-to-date equipment for both comb and extract- ed honey. I should like to have, through the medium of Gleanings, plans for building, location of doors and windows, and placing of equipment for conven- ience of work and economy of floor space. I can obtain water power from a nearby irrigation ditch to run saw, extractor, and other machinerj-, and should be pleased to hear from experienced persons as to some manner of installing. Cedaredge, Colo. Gale H. Patterson. [There have been other inquiries of a similar na- ture. We should be glad to hear from those who have had experience. — Ed.] Outdoor Feeding for Supplying Winter Stores This fall I began looking over my colonies early in October, and found a number of colonies that had not over a pound in the hive. I took a burlap sack that was woven tight, and made it about the size of a stove-pipe, and about 30 inches long. Then I made some half-and-half syrup, and when it got cool I poured it into this sack and hung it out in a tree about ten rods from the api- ary. Then I put a dish under to catch the drip. In this way the weak ones could get their share. Swartz Creek, Mich. Charles Burton. [While the bees of weak colonies get some of the syrup when outdoor feeding is practiced, they do not get as much in proportion. For this reason the safest plan is to feed each colony individually, to an extent depending upon the needs of each. — Ed.] How Many Hives Needed to Provide for Increase? Last year I started an apiary in June with 15 three-frame nuclei of pure Italians. The bees built up strong by fall without help, and made about 300 pounds of surplus honey. I wintered them in an ideal bee-cellar, under my residence, with no loss. They came out strong last spring. They increased to 36 good strong colonies, and produced for me 2000 lbs. of surplus comb honey in one-pound sec- tions. Last year was a very poor one for honey in this locality, but the season was very good this year. I put my bees out on summer stands last spring on April 8. I put them in last fall, Dec. 19. This fall I put them in Dec. 8. My hives will weigh from 70 to 90 pounds now. They are all ten-frame dove- tailed hives. 64 GLEANINGS IX BEE CULTURE From the time I set the bees out last spring uutil about Now 1 we had almost a steady flow of some kind. I was not troubled at all by robbers. I had four swarms about Sept. 1. All made good. How many hives should I purchase next year normally ? Lewistown, 111., Dec. 12. Calvin Browx. [The number of new hives you will need depends largely on your management. If you intend to do all you can to keep down increase you would not need many new hives — perhaps ten would be suf- ficient. But if you permit natural swarming, or if you follow artificial methods of making increase, you may need as many as thirty or forty. — Ed. ] Mixing of Bees in a House Apiary Dr. C. C. Miller: — I have built for little chickens a brooder-house 100 ft. long and 16 ft. wide. I wish to use the floor for the little chicks, and a shelf 18 inches above the floor to set the hives on, facing the outside, with an alighting-board running the full length of the building. Some distance above the hives is a door 18 inches wide and the length of the building, to raise up in summer time. Do you think the bees would have any trouble in find- ing their proper entrances, or would give any trouble inside the building i I thought this a good plan for protection of hives in all weather, and chicks on floor space below. T have noticed that some say the building must be painted different colors on the outside. Lafayette, Ind., Dec. 15. Wm. H. Robixsox. [As the entrances are well lighted there should be no trouble about the bees finding them. Yet with entrances so close together, and all alike, there will be some mixing. Different colors painted over en- trances will do some good, but I suspect that bees pay even more attention to form than to color. Some advise different form as well as different color over entrances, as a circle over one, over others a triangle, square, etc. Still better, have trees, or even posts, to help locate entrances. One or mo^re trees within five feet of the building will help much, even if the trees are small. Instead of having the alighting-board continuous, you had better liave a separate one for each hive. There should be no chance for bees to get into the building near en- trances from outside, unless the building be so freely open that no bees would be imprisoned. — C. C. Miller. 1 Small Introducing-cage did Not Work Well I have used a queen-cage with the block on one side, described by A. V. Small, page 762, Dec. 1, but it did not work well for me. The queen would stay in the cage for a week after the candy was eaten, rather than crawl out through a hole % inch in diameter and one inch long. I find that it works better to press the cage into the comb about Vs inch, and place in it five or six bees just hatched from the colony to which I wish to introduce the queen, together with the queen. I tie a wire around the frame to keep it from pulling off. I place tne frame at one side of the liive, and after four or five days remove it without using smoke. If the queen is out I remove the cage, replace the frame, and do not disturb it for ten days or more. "a. L. C. The Carbolic Acid Solution Should Not be too Weak On page 761, Dec. 1, E. D. Townsend says, "We use a one-to-one-thousand solution of corrosive sublimate or carbolic acid." The corrosive-sublimate solution is of the proper strength, and will work all right, but must not be made or used in a metal vessel. A solution of carbolic acid of 1 to 1000 is not strong enough to be of any use for killing spores. When used in place of a 1-to-lOOO solution of cor- rosive sublimate, a carbolic-acid solution should not be less than 1 to 20, and should always be made by pouring boiling water into a vessel in which the proper quantity of acid has first been placed. THE COFFEE A SUGAR. On page 771, regarding "' A " sugars, before the introduction of granulated sugar in this section of the country we had what was called " Standard " or " Straight A " sugar. This has been displaced by granulated sugar. We also had "Coffee A" which was of a light yellow color, and fits the de- scription given by Mr. Miller of the " Coffee A " of to-day, with which I am not familiar. Before the in- troduction of granulated sugar, many merchants would substitute what were known as " Off A's " for "Standard A" sugar; the "Off A's," as the name implies, were a little off in color, and moister Ihan the " Standard." Scrauton, Pa., Dec. 9. " L. F. HlORNS. How to Recognize Honey-dew How can I recognize honey -dew when examining for winter stores? St. Paul, Minn., Dec. 9. J. Peters. [It is rather difficult for a beginner to recognize lioney-dew, especially when there is but little of it in projiortion to the amount of lioney in the comb. In fact, it is often difficult for one who has had experi- ence to be able to say definitely whether there is. hojiey-dew in the combs. A chemical analysis reveals honey-dew, of course, but this is out of the question ordinarily. By Iiolding the comb up to the light, one can often detect honey-dew by the muddy dark color. Pure lioney which is dark in color, unless it is beginning to granulate, is generally clear, though dark; while lioney-dew, if there is very much of it at least, has a dirty smoky color. The taste is different from that of any kind of honey, as it is rank and disagreeable; and if the contents of the comb are nearly all honey-dew, the fiavor is often quite bitter. — Ed.] Cause of Fermentation of Jamaican Honey Late in Season In .lamaica. lionev ferments in the comb as well as ill the extracted form : lut this happens only to honey gathered after the month of May. In June and .July, fruit commences to ripen in great quan- tities, especially the mangoes, and it is the juices of the fruit which the bees gather, and with which they adulterate the honey, that cause the fermentation. BEES GATHER POLLEX WHETHER THEV HAVE A QUEEX OR XOT. The fact that the bees are carrying in pollen is no proof that the colony has a queen. The above re- minds me of a youth of about sixteen summers who visited my apiary, and who professed to know a lot about bees. On seeing a bee enter its hive with a load of pollen, he exclaimed, "Oh! I am sure that colony has a queen." "Why are you so sure ?" I asked him. Then he began to explain that, if there was no queen in the hive, there would be no young larv;e to feed ; hence the bees would not gather pollen. Becoming somewhat interested in the lad I asked him to see whether the colony really had a queen. I now discovered that all the youth knew about bees was the difference between a cross colony and a gentle one. He must have read about pollen in some ancient bee-book. F. A. Hooper. Four Paths. Clarendon, Jamaica, B. W. I. Meeting of New Jersey Beekeepers We were obliged to change the date of the meet- ing to Dec. 20, but we had a large and successful meeting, fifty being present. There was a fair show of honey, considering it was the first attempt at JANUAUY 15, 1913 65 a venture of this kind for this Association. There were four entries of extracted honey, three of comb, and two of old beebooks. Harold Hornor, of Phila- delphia, did the judging. For the best display of old books, the award was given to Mr. J. H. M. Cook, of Essex Fells, N. J., who had one of Quinby's first edition as well as an old one by Miner, and a Beekeepers' Journal. For the best honey in 4:'^A is. 4,V4: plain sections, W. B. McNamee secured the reward; and for the best in 4 X 5 plain sections, E. G. Carr was the win- ner. There were no beeway sections shown. New Egypt, N. J., Dec. 21. E. G. Carr, Sec. Trading a Skunk for a Colony of Bees In December, 1901, I got my first stand of bees. We were cutting wood, and caught a civet cat (small skunk). On the way home we passed the house of a trapper, and he wanted the civet and tried to buy it. As he had no money I asked him how he would trade a colony of bees for it. He asked me a dollar to boot, so I gave it. I tied them on the back of the buggy and took them home. The rest of the folks all laughed at me; but I had always wanted bees, and was going to see what I could do with them. I had an old A B C of Bee Culture that my grandfather gave me. I bought two Danzenbaker hives. I let the bees swarm once, and then transferred them. I used no veil nor smoker, and didn't get stung; but I soon learned better in trying to hive a wild swarm. It was on the corner of a neighbor's house, and was trying to go into a knothole where there were some bees. I got my hive fixed on the ladder, and took a weed to brush them off. I got about 25 stings, but I secured the bees. I have tried about all of the different sizes of hives ; and the best for a beginner in this State is the ten-frame dovetailed. No beginner shoiild use any smaller, and I think all manufacturers should have a notice to that effect in their catalog. I have the Danzenbaker ; and while it is excellent for the purpose of getting the honey in the super, I always liave to feed or put on a super of shallow frames for winter. I always get my biggest colonies and the most honey from the ten-frame hives. I think one of the most serious mistakes that most beginners make is in not haviiig a good strain of bees. I always get from 30 to 50 lbs. more honey from my pure Italian bees than from the common bees. The best queen that I ever had lived three years, and her colony always ran 100 lbs. ahead of the rest. They swarmed once in that time. I have always found it easy to keep down swarming. There are but few people who will make good in the bee business, as most of them do not under- .stand bees, and will wonder why they don't do bet- ter. T gained some valuable information in helping to move an apiary of 40 or 50 colonies, all kinds of liives, and in all conditions. Most of them had not been opened for years. Part of them had combs and hon- ey on the outside. Some were rotted out. It took four of us the greater part of a day and all night to get them nailed up. Blaine, Kan., Dec. 11. W. V. Pittenger. Mating of Queens One thing does not seem clear to me in regard to queen-mating and queens clipped to prevent swarming. You say they mate only on the wing. Well, what is a queen worth with one wing off? They come out and flutter around on the ground alone. In the Jan. 1st issue for 1912 some one wanted to enlighten beginners by asking questions and an- swering them himself. In his description he makes, out that the worker bee is only a stunted female. I didn't suppose the Creator made any stunts. Greenleaf, Idaho, Dec. 19. B. H. Vantress. [ Queens very rarely meet a drone more than once, and this mating takes place within a week or ten days after the queen has hatched from the cell. If a beekeeper should clip a virgin queen, that queen would, of course, become a drone-layer. The idea is to clip the queen after she begins laying worker eggs, and then she will continue to lay fer- tile eggs, even though she never meets a di'one again, for from two to three, four, and sometimes five years more. There are records of clipped queens that have been profitable fos six years. It is true that the worker bees are undeveloped females, really stunted in their growth by coarser food given in the larval stage and the smaller cells. This is proven by the fact that the workers have every female organ, although in rudimentary form. —Ed.] Hive-tool Made of Old Sheep-shears Mr. Crane's trouble with hive-tools, page 763, Dec. 1, makes me think it would be a good thing for the inspector to carry a good hive-tool. I used to use a screw-di-iver, and thought it was all right; but I should like to give a description of an article that will make a better hive-tool than a screw-driver, and it may be found on almost everv farm. Take an old sheepshears. Cut it into two equal parts; bend the flat part of the handle so it will form a ring. Wrap the handle with sheep-twine ; break off the point so it will be about % inch wide. One side of the blade is oval. It should be ground flat so it will not spoil the hive. Then you have a fine tool. Sycamore, Ohio, Jan. 1. C. A. Hale. Bee-Stings Had no Effect The enclosed letter from Geo. Shiber will interest the readers of Gleanings. I have not changed my mind on this subject. There is but one rheumatism, the inflammatory type, and this is a germ disease. Bee-sting poison has no effect on it. Buck Grove, la. A. F. Bonnby. [The following is the letter referred to. — Ed.] My boy, fifteen years old, is just recovering from a bad attack of inflammatory rheumatism. His joints were swollen badly. The truth is, he has been stung to " beat the band " all summer, and he help- ed all the tim* while we were extracting 8000 lbs. of honey. The stings did not stop the rheumatism. Randolph, N. Y. Geo. Shiber. Another Report Favoring Silverhull Buckwheat The hot dry spell caused a short clover-honey flow last summer ; and since the Japanese buckwheat has been grown here the honey from buckwheat has been very light in color. If we go to a field of silver- liuU buckwheat in full bloom in the morning, it will be alive with bees ; but in a field of the Japanese there will be but a few bees at work. The Japanese yields more grain by far, and that is the reason that it is grown so largely. Bartonsville, Pa., Dec. 22. Elwood Bond. Limiting Time for Inspection to a Short Period It has been proposed in Vermont that the time for foul-brood inspection be limited to a very short season, and the bill will be introduced at this ses- sion. As no other State has done this it might be well to have the opinion of some practical beekeep- ers. The member from this section desires advice from Gleanings readers. Swanton, Vt,, T>pr, 17. Mrs. C. A. Sibley. 60 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Our Homes A. I. BOOT What hath God \\Tought? — Numbers 23:23. Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble; thou wilt prepare their heart; thou wilt cause thine ear to hear. — Ps. 10:17. [To the following fragmentary account of a trying experience with a new " talking " machine, an ex- planation is necessary. The dictaphone is a machine somewhat on the order of^a common phonograph, which enables one to dictate letters on a wax cylin- der which, later on, ip another machine, gives a faithful reproduction of the record to an operator who writes it on a typewriter. In order to save A. I. Root's time and strength while he is in Florida, one of these mechanical stenographers was sent to him, the idea being that he could send the cylinders back to Medina to be typewritten. He did not real- ize how fragile the waxen records were, however, and so he did not pack as carefully as he should have done the first six that he sent. The result is that four of them were broken to " smithereens " in transit. Numbers two and three were intact, and " Our Homes" for this issue is the part of the story they tell. Since the first cylinder was broken, as well as numbers four, five, and six, we have no idea what text he selected; but in view of the fact that, in a note accompanying the cylinders, he was very en- thusiastic over what he regarded as one of the new wonders of the age, we have an idea that he would like the ones which head this page. However, if he could have known that two-thirds of his work was to be lost outright because of broken clyinders we fancy that he might have added to it the third verse of the sixth Psalm. There was some adjusting needed; and, as will be seen, the account starts right in the midst of the trouble he was having. — H. H. Root.] As a great part of mj- life was spent in the watch-making and jewelry business I have been in the habit of handling delicate pieces of machinery and small tools. Very few necessaries for this work, however, were to be found in our Florida home; and another thing, not only has my hearing failed more or less, but my eyesight also. Then the fingers of my right hand that has served me so skillfully for years past were also getting more clumsy and umvieldy than they were forty years ago. Notwith- standing, in a little time I succeeded in get- ling the machine apart and in managing the electrical attachment so that T got along fairly well. Very soon the carriage which travels over the cylinder refused to move. In order to remedy this I had to pull the machine apart still further, and I puzzled several days over the problem of finding a screw or something else that would let it come apart. Finally I told Mrs. Root that I could neither eat nor sleep until I found out what the ti'ouble was with the dicto- phone; and in order to get"at this trouble it must be pulled to pieces. I was still ])uzzling over it until bedtime when Mrs. Root came into the room and suggested it was time to kneel down, and asked if I wanted to stop just then. As I was getting to be more or less vexed and impatient because I wasn't making any progress, my first impulse was to say that I hadn't time just then. On further re- flection, however, it occurred to me that it was just the time of all times that I needed to krieel down and ask the dear Savior not only to give me patience but skill and un- derstanding in the work that puzzled me so much. So we knelt together, and I praj'ed over just this one thing and nothing else. (By the way, friends, let me stop right hei'e to remark that, though it is right and proper to pra.j for our nation or country or neighbors or relatives and many other things, when in trouble I have found relief by making just one petition, and nothing else, and ending it up with my little pray- er, " Lord, help.") As we arose from our knees the dear wife, as a matter of coui'se, asked if she could help in any way. I told her that there was a pair of ej'^e- glasses for very close vision that I had used in testing eggs, but they had been lost some time. If I had those glasses I thought 1 might be able to see in the machine by the aid of the electric light, and find how it might be taken apart. In a little while she produced the needed ej^e-glasses from an old desk, and almost the first thing when I arose from mj- knees I discovered, with file aid of these glasses and the strong electric light, a little bit of screw, smaller than a pin-head, awaj' down in the depths of the machinery. T said to myself, "Sure- ly it can not be i:)ossible that this little screw releases the machinery so it ^vill come apart.'* Now, I had no small screwdriver, such as watchmakers use, with which to remove tlie screw, nor had I any tweezers to pick it up when released — or at least I thought at first that I had none. I won- dered if this little screw would happen to be loose enough so that I could turn it out Avith the point of my knife. It was loose, and in a little time I had it out so that I could get it if I had the proper tool. Then I thought of a pair of tweezers that we used for some time a year ago or more for pulling out stick-fleas. (I am glad to tell you that not a stick-tight flea has shown itself this winter so far, either on ourselves or in any of the poultry-yards. They have been vanquished completely by our heroic treatment, which seems the prop- er means to rid ourselves of this insect pest.) With the aid of these tweezers I soon had the little screw safely deposited JANUARY 15, 1913 on the table of my seeretaiy. Aud, sure enough, this perniitted a part of the whole shaft to come off. Then was revealed a larger screw that could be turned out, let- ling the whole thing come to pieces. My prayer was answered. 1 very soon found the trouble with the machine, and the rea- son why it would not move the cylinder. There was a little screw that was not turned up tight enough. Let me pause a little right here. In this day and age of wonderful progress, every one who is at all desirous of being up with the times must have more or less to do with this new and comj^licated machinery; and whether it be the automobile, the mowing- machine, reaper, or even the up-to-date ilictaphone, it behooves us all to know if possible in regard to these wonderful labor- saving implements; and it behooves us also to be able to undertake to remedy minor ditticulties. Now, after many years of ex- perience let me give you a few suggestions before you try to take any complicated machine to pieces, whether it be an automo- bile, mower, or reaper. Be sure that you have all the available tools gathered to- gether that you will need. Then get a clean piece of paper or newspaper, if nothing- else is handy, and lay your tools on this paper; and when you commence taking the machine apart, lay the different parts, as you take them off, down on the paper where they can not be lost, misplaced, nor dropped in the weeds. When you are at work with agricultural implements out in the field this is especially advisable. Some farmers have a fashion of having the handles of their tools painted red so that, if they are laid on the gTound or in the grass, they are more readity discernible because the bright red Cjuickly catches the eye, and I have found this to be an excellent suggestion. But, no matter how much you are hurried, do not under any circumstances get into the fashion of dropping nuts or bolts down in the gi'ass, weeds, dirt, or rubbish that may be around Avhere you happen to be making rejjairs. I have seen quite exj^ensive de- lays caused by this piece of carelessness. Not long ago a skillful mechanic was called upon to repair a reaj^er, and he was obliged to go out by the roadside in the grass and dirt. He did his work in a work- manlike manner, and the owner of the ma- chine started oft' with it; but after he had been gone some time we found in the grass and weeds several important washers which had been laid down and carelessl}^ forgot- ten. It often happens that a good mechanic may do more harm than he does good ; but it is seldom that you find a man or a firm 67 who is willing to pay for such loss by stu- pid, careless, or heedless workmen. Let us now go back to the dictaphone. A washer slipped out of my clumsy and tired fingers, and it went jingling down on the floor under my secretary. It was al- ready after my bedtime, and I was nervous and fidgety. But while I was hunting on hands and knees, Mrs. Root called and wanted to know what progress I was mak- ing. I had to tell her of the loss of the washer. She got up immediately aud came and helped me. We looked all around the secretary, moved the rugs, shook them out, and went as far from the table as we thought the little washer could possibly have rolled, but without success. I was tired and worried, and almost ready to feel vexed and impatient, and finally that little short prayer of mine rang out, " Lord, heli^." In an instant Mrs. Root came up before me with her face shining, and held up the little washer that had made so much trouble. It was put back in place, and the machine was apparently all right. Now all tliat we needed to wait for was the mouth- piece and rubber tube. The next day, it was not until evening that I got time to test the machine once more. Almost with trem- bling hands I put every thing in the proper position and waited anxiously to hear it talk back. But again I was doomed to dis- appointment. There was no word, no sound. I talked louder, but with no avail. Mrs. Root was over at the neighbors, and I knelt down again and asked the dear Savior to instruct me once more and help me out of my trouble. Then I got up and tried it once more, and shouted " Hello !" until I feared I might disturb the neighbors. In response to this my heart was rejoiced by a faint " Hello." Then Satan or somebody else tempted me to think that I was too deaf to use a dictaphone any way. What did it mean? If the dear Savior had help- ed me the night before, was it possible that he should disappoint me in this way when I had gotten so far along? Then I remem- bered the blind man who was healed, and replied to his friends that he saw men walking about as trees. He applied to the Savior again and again. The Master touch- ed his still imperfect eyelids, and then he went his Avay rejoicing, because he could see plainly his friends and neighbors and beautiful trees. I knelt down once more and said, " Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief." I then remembered that other text about the friends — how the Savior gen- tly remonstrated with his followers because they could not understand or comprehend after the repeated miracles they had wit- 68 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE nessed. They were still lacking in faith. Was my faith lacking ? With renewed hope I started to investigate the machine once more. I got Ruber's letter of instructions, and finally came to the conclusion that every thing was all right except that I did not have the speaking-tube, which had not yet come. Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful genera- tion, of him also, shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.— Mark 8:38. Let yo- r light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. — Matt. 5:16. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. — Psalm 126:6. SOMETHING GOOD FROM A LOCOMOTIVE FIREMAN. I am much pleased with your paper, and only wish that I could afford it for a year; but will take advantage of your six-months' offer, and may be by that time I can renew for a year. I do like the way you write under the heading of Our Homes. If Christian men and women would use their in- fluence more in their every-day life, humanity would be greatly helped. Many Christians are like the young man who joined the church and then got a job out west in a lumber-camp. Before leaving home some of the elders in his church told him that he would be thrown among bad and rough men while away, but that, if he would trust in God, he would have no trouble. He went away, and in about a year he came home. His pastor asked him how he got on out west. He said he did not have any trouble at all, as they didn't even find out that he was a Christian. I wonder if our daily associates know that we are Christians ? Let us not be ashamed of Christ under any circumstances. Let us not forget the great liquor curse, the white-slave traffic, etc. I am a locomotive fireman, and live in the city. I have eleven lots, 40x120. On one we have our small five-room home. In the back yard we have peach, apple, pear, and plum trees, all bearing. My wife looks after the flowers and three colonies of bees and also the chickens. The bees are a cross between the black and Italian. This year we got over 300 lbs. of fine honey. I do not know much about bees, but am learning something more each year about them. St. Joseph, Mo., Oct. 25. X. T. Ceagun. May the Lord be praised, dear friend, that we have at least one locomotive fire- man who is not only a Christian but one who is not afraid or ashamed to show his colors; I suppose, therefore, that your boss engineer never uses a bad word toward you, and certainly you never use any bad words in his presence (nor out of it either). I once rode for an hour or two in a ca- boose where scripture texts were tacked up on the walls. I found the freight conduc- tor was a professing Christian, and asked him about swearing on liis train. He said, "Mr. Root, I never swear at my men, and they never swear at anybody nor at any thing — at least not in my presence or hear- ing." That was years ago; and I hope and have reason to believe that railroad men, especially the men to whom I refer, while at work loading and unloading freight, are of a higher type than they were a few years ago. These rough help- ers in railroad traffic have not only severe hard work, especially when the train is behind time, but they have many provoca- tions, and they certainly need the grace of God in their hearts if anybody does. The Y. M. C, A. has been making a special ef- fort, as you may know, to look after these men. They are giving them clean beds, good and nourishing food, and at a less price than they formerly paid at saloon hotels. May God be praised for what the Y. M. C. A. has done. While we are send- ing vast sums of money to support and keep at work foreign missionaries, I have wondered sometimes whether we were do- ing missionary work that needs to be done in our own land, and ofttimes in our own homes. W^hen 1 scrape aequaiiilance with these men covered with coal dust, and soot all over their overalls and jackets they of- ten seem surprised to be recognized as men and brothers even despite their uncouth en- vironment. When we recognize how many of these men are killed year after year, often through no fault of their own, es- pecially while they are straining every nerve to take care of the traveling public and of the farmers' produce, shall we not improve every opportunity to give them a kind word of encouragement? This brother has a little home with a back yard where he has a garden, fruit- trees, and some bees. The good wife has a busy time in looking after and caring for things around their home during her husband's absence for so many hours each day. I believe the Interstate Commerce Commission has interposed, requiring that these men work only so many houi'S a day. Often during an emergency they work over-hours and even during the night time. In our haste to get around quickly and get our jiroduce to market, getting our needed tools and supplies promptly, etc., let us not forget tliis army of workers who make it possible for us to live and have all the comforts of life during this twentieth century. Once more, before closing, may we have grace and courage, each and all, who pro- fess to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, to let our light shine in a reason- able and sensible way, no matter where we are. Of course no one expects you to go out of your way so much as to boast JANUARY 15, 1913 69 that you are a member of the church. The scriptures enjoin us to be diligent in sea- son; and not only that, but even out of season. May God bless the good brother who has bv his letter braced us up where many of us need a bracing. I for one need it myself. And his message comes to me just before I am starting to my southern home. A great many times in traveling I feel too tired or worn out to open up con- versation, say with the tired neighbors around me on every side; but some of the pleasantest acquaintances I have ever been fortunate enough to make have been opened up while taking a long trip somewhere. In after years 1 frequently meet these peo- ple, and it is one of my hapjjy experiences to recount the incidents of travel of yeai's ago. Away oi¥ in California I dropped a letter in the box, having my printed ad- dress on the envelope. The postmaster happened to be near and said, smilingly. "Mr. Root, how does it come that you are sending letters to yourself f" Then he told of having passed a part of the night with me on a trip through the mountains years before. Now, if you will take a little pains to get acquainted with your fellow-travelers there will almost always be a chance to put in a word for the dear Master, and you can do it, too, without being thought cranky or a little off in the upjDer story. Several times I have been enabled 'to get a promise from an acquaintance of only a few hours, that, when he got home, he would hunt up the jjastor of the nearest church, and at least encourage him by being on hand at church or Sunday-school or both ; and what a thrill it gives me when, years after, and I had forgotten all about it, to find from some pastor that my talk was the means of enabling him to gather in the "precious sheaves." Poultry Department MUSTARD FOR POULTRY. We clip below from the Illustrated Poul- try Record (English) : About two years ago six pullets were placed in competition with two other pens of birds numbering lix each, and sisters to them. The first pen were fed on ordinary foods, the second on similar foods with an addition of capsicum, and the third pen also on similar foods, but with an addition of one teaspoon- iul of Colman's mustard. The mustard-fed birds laid during the period of six months commencing in October and ending in March the grand total of 532 eggs against 359 and 399 produced by the plainly dieted and capsicum-fed birds respectively. In this way did Mr. Ralph R. AUen, poultry lecturer to the Herts County Council, prove to the public that mus- tard-fed birds produce a larger supply of eggs. Later he proved that the feeding with mustard in no way debilitates the birds. He produced a short brochure entitled "Mustard for Poultry," followed twelve months later by a booklet giving 101 reasons why mustard should be employed during the winter months to increase production. Mr. Allen has now issued a third brochure entitled "Enquire within upon Poultry and Egg Production," containing many valuable hints on practical poultry-keeping. The book is well thought out and well compiled. From the above it would appear the six pullets were given a teaspoonful of mus- tard daily, for six months, which is a much larger "dose" than we have ever fed. So far I have never seen any unfavorable re- port from the use of mustard. WHERE TO GET MUSTARD BRAN. I notice in Gleanings for Nov. 15, in the Poul- try Department, a suggestion for feeding mustard to poultry. The question is also asked whether some one can not advertise and furnish " poultry mus- tard " at a considerably smaller price than the ground mustard of commerce. I notice in the Poultry Fancier for December, a journal edited by F. W. Delancy, Sellersville, Pa., an advertisement from Juniata Poultry Plant, Lewiston, Pa., in which a mustard bran is offered for sale. I believe mustard is better for poultry than cayenne or red pepper and man}' patent poultry powders. Derry, Pa. Lawrence L. Peck. KEEPING poultry AT ONE-FOURTH CENT PEE HEAD PER DAY. Mr. Arthur Head wishes some details of feed and prices in this case. He would like •." to know how it is done." It would be simple enough to give the bookkeeping details of this feeding, but I am now forty miles away from that yard, and have not been near it for two years, and did not carry away such details with me. The place was worked on shares ; and as the owner was a pretty tight-fisted individual you may be sure he did not make the cost of feed any lower than it actually was. The accounts were checked monthly by two independent parties. It should be noted, however, that dry-mash or hopper feeding of any kind was tabooed. All fowls were hand-fed ; all feed was carefully calculated and measured, and there was absolutely no waste of mash or grain. There was no waste by overfeeding the birds, and there was no waste by food going bad or by the birds scattering mash among the lit- ter, or by suporting rats or other vermin. Any sys- tem that allows birds to gorge themselves at all times will soon run up the costs ; and this is one reason why hand-feeding can walk all round dry- mash feeding. Animal food was economically bought. A local butcher supplied meat without bones at two cents a pound, and another butcher supplied bonet for grinding at sixty cents per hundred pounds. This was rather different from buying meat meal (mostly ground bone) at $3.00 per hundred pounds. As the meat was always fresh, pure, and sweet it was worth 50 per cent more in actual practice than the old horse meats mostly sold, and this in itself is an immense saving, apart from the actual prices paid. Little or no green food was purchased except oats used for sprouting to feed brooder chicks. The real economy lay in feeding the stock just as much as it needed, and absolutely wasting nothing 70 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE in any other -way. Grain was bought from the ordi- nary supply houses at ordinary prices; but it was carefully examined for quality, and bought only from the firm that gave the best value for the mon- ey. Fowls were healthy and in good condition, and in the breeding season Leghorns and Minorcas gave eggs 85 to 90 per cent fertile. No grit was ever purchased, as we had a gravel-pit on the place which met all our needs for young and old stock. There were small economies in other directions which totaled to a tidy sum at the end of the year. In this connection it might be useful to remember that in Britain two cents per week per head is the usual cost allowance for feeding a hen, and grain is generally dearer there than in America, especially corn (maize). But friend Head must be reminded that no method or system of feeding, however good, will of itself keep down cost. The man on the job is the only person who can do that in a poultry-yard. Victory depends not so much on the gun as on the man behind it. He is the key to the situation. Philadelphia, Pa. Prbdebick Martin. SHALL WE KILL OFF ALL HAWKS INDISCRIMINATELY BECAUSE SOME OF THEM "KILL CHICKENS"? Mr. Root: — Inasmuch as you published in your department a column letter devoted to the most un- reasonable criticism of Dr. A. E. Fisher and myself, and then followed it with your own endorsement (page 751, 1909), I wish to present to you the evi- dence, just now published, on which my defense of the hawks is based. I never have defended all spe- cies of hawks indiscriminately, and I was surprised that, with your usu»l spirit of fairness, you should give' your endorsement to such an article, especially when the writer's own language showed that his conviction was based on his prejudice rather than on an investigation of the subject. Dr. Fisher stands high as a scientist, and those who are making such vigorous attacks upon him are, without exception, men who have made no investigation of the subject, and thus expose their own ignorance. The average person does not know one hawk from another, and tliere is prejudice enough against them without a journal with such a wide influence as yours adding to it. I feel that, after giving the weeks of time necessary to carry out this investigation, the evi- dence gathered ought to carry some weight against a fellow who manifestly knows nothing of birds of prey further than that he has seen a hawk kill chickens. Let me say that I have read your department with pleasure for years, and enjoyed it too. Wher- ever I come in contact with beekeepers I hear good words, not only for the magazine as a whole, but for your department especially. I am glad for its influence, and for the fact that you have endeavored to use your influence always for the right. Prank C. Pellett, Inspector. Office of State Bee Inspector, Atlantic, la., Nov. 12. I hereby apologize to friend Pellett. Where a hawk has " acquired the habit " of killing chickens, no doubt it should be killed; but our best authorities are of late coming to the conclusion that we often find ourselves in a worse fix when we hastily carry the war of extermination too far. Witness the history of sweet clover, etc. HOW HOT DOES IT GET IN FLORIDA.' I notice in Gleanings that D. W. Abbott says that on Oct. 15 it was 95 at 5 p. m., and 89 at 7:30. This may give your readers the impression that we are living very close to Hades. Now, Ten Broeck says in the journal that on that day the minimum was 72 and maximum 88. Who is right? I should say Ten Broeck. I don't think the thermometer has been higher than 94 all this summer. Bradentown, Fla., Nov. 11. J. W. Bannehr. Our readers will notice that there is a disagreement in the above of 6 degrees. Our neighbor Ten Broeck is a government weather reporter; has standard government instruments, and is probably very nearly correct ; but as he is himself just now "under the weather" he may not have noted the warmest record of the day in question. Another thing: At one time we had our thermometer hanging in the woodshed; and as it didn't agree with his we gave him no- tice, and he directed us to place our instru- ment on the north wall of our house. This made quite a difference. Friend Abbott is out in woods, or clearing, rather, about two miles from here, and he may not have had a standard instrument. Now, there is just one more thing to add. People who live here, especially if they liave real estate to sell, are very backward, as a rule, in admitting any thing deroga- tory to their locality, such as "redbugs" and other insect pests, for example. Many thanks to my good friend Bannehr for calling our attention to the matter. "stop SENDING YOUR PAPER." Tlie following letter explains itself: Dear Sirs: — Please stop sending your paper. I do not want to be insulted every time I get a copy of it. I am drinking and smoking, and I like it, and do not feel like paying for any thing that is against my pleasure and the liberty of the land. Big Wells, Texas, Sept. 28. E. Ziegast. With the great mass of kind words that come like snowflakes from January till De- cember, once in a while we get something like the above. The good brother who writes it evidently comes from foreign shores. We judge so by liis name and also because he seems to think the crusade for temperance is a restraint on "personal liberty." We are sorry to part company with him; but judging from past experi- ence we think the time may come when he will feel like saying, if he does not say it right out, "Brother Root, I am convinced now that you were right and I was wrong." A DOCTOR WHO HAS NO USE FOB ALCOHOL. I began the practice of medicine ~in 1866; was taught that alcohol is a stimulant, and used it for several years, but always with disappointment, and quit its use entirely for other means from which I could see stimulating effects which I never saw from alcohol. "Wine is a mocker, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." Oxford, Col., Aug. 23. S. W. MoEEiSOir. Published by The A. I. Root Co., Medina, 0. H. H. Root, Assistant Editor. E. R. Root, Editor. A. L. Boyden, Advertising Manager. A. I. Root, Editor Home Department. J. T. Calvert, Business Manager. Entered at the Postoflfice, Medina, O., as Second-class matter. VOL. XLI. FEBRUARY 1, 1913 XO 3 Editorial THE MEETING OF FOUL-BROOD INSPECTORS. The second meeting of the foul-brood in- spectors of the various States was held in Cleveland, Dee. 31, in conjunction with the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the affiil- iated societies, for the purpose of forming a permanent organization. Steps were tak- en to perfect such an organization, the same to be a part of the larger body already mentioned. Full particulars will be given later by the Secretary, Dr. E. F. Phillips. NO ADULTERATION FOUND IN CONNECTICUT. It is a signifieant fact that, according to the report of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (Part 2 of the Annual Report of 1912), no adulteration was found in twenty-six samples of bottled honey ex- amined. The following is the first para- gi'aph of the summary : While in a few cases certain tests indicate the presence of a small amount of glucose, and in two instances the percentage of ash exceeds the stan- dard, we do not feel justified in condemning any sample as adulterated or otherwise illegal. There are wide variations in quality, but all the samplei appear to be genuine honeys of varying origins. A FOUL-BROOD INSPECTOR AND A LECTURER. Mr. Frank C. Pellett, of Atlantic City, la., State Foul-brood Inspector, is also a lecturer of some note. He is emploj'ed by two lecture bureaus. Some of his principal themes are as follows: Little Giants; Econ- omy of Nature in the Plan of Eden ; Our Backdoor Neighbors; Passing of the Red Man; Bees; Religion of the Indians; Lives of the Four-footed ; Short Course in Nature Study. This last consists of a series of lec- tures that are both popular and interesting. Mr. Pellet is a naturalist as well as a bee- beekeeper, and Iowa was fortunate in se- curing a man of that sort for inspector. WHY HONEY HAD A GREATER BUYING VALUE FORTY YEARS AGO. Elsewhere in this issue two of our cor- respondents allude to the fact that honey sold for a much higher price j'ears ago, and that it really was higher in price compared to other articles. Mr. Doolittle suggests that this can hardly be accounted for by over-production, which is probably true, since the demand also has increased enor- mously. But it occurs to us that granulated sugar, maple syrup, glucose (or the so-called corn syrup), canned vegetables, and fruits have all combined to furnish a variety and very often a substitute for honey. More- over, transportation facilities have improv- ed so greatly in forty years that fruits of all kinds are much more widely produced and distributed than in the olden days; so that honej^, the purest and most healthful sweet, has really been reduced in price by the competition of other foods. It is also true that no organization of producers has yet done any- extensive ad- vertising along the line of popularizing the use of honey. A. I, root's FIRST EXPERIENCE IN BRIMSTON- ING A BOX hive; HOW IT NEARLY COST HIM HIS LIFE. In this issue, A. I. Root, in a reminiscent way, tells how he first began keeping bees; and among other things he writes about a box hive that was to be brimstoned in the dead of "wnnter; how his childish eagerness was such that he went out into the cold air when he was already sick with a cold, cama down with pneumonia, and for days hov- ered between life and death. Had he been taken away, some history would never have been written; there never would have been a Home of the Honeybees, no Gleanings in Bee Culture at Medina, and possibly th« beekeeping industry might not have been advanced to its present status. The doctors did not save him; but his mother (as the neighbors said) "would not let him die." novice's gleanings in bee culture. Our cover picture for this issue is a copy of the first engi-aving that ever appeared on the cover of Gleanings ; and, as will be noticed from the inscription underneath, it was " Designed and engraved by No\ac€" (A. I. Root), and with a saw. Some idea of the change that has taken place in forty years is gained from the fact 72 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE that Gleanings was first issued as a quar- terly of only eight pages, 6 x 9y2. It was immediately changed to a monthly of fif- teen pages, the last column of which was re- served for advertisements, there being sev- en in all. Among the names of beekeepers seen^in this first volume of Gleanings we find the following who are known to the beekeepers of to-day : C. C. Miller, G. M. Doolittle, E. Kretchmer, C. P. Dadant. Is it not a significant fact that all four of these writers have made contributions for this special Old Timers' number after a lapse of forty years ? We are proud of the fact that A. I. Root, the founder, while no longer the managing editor, is still, never- theless, editor-in-chief. WINTERING DOUBLE-WALLED HIVES IN THE CELLAR. Most of our bees we winter out of doors. This was the case unfortunately last win- ter; but there was one yard of Caruiolans, the individual colonies of which were not very strong, as they had been made up of nuclei comparatively late in the season. We had more fears of this yard than of any other that we had. When the severely cold weather came on, we feared that they would not winter, and so we brought them home and put them in the cellar — double- walled hives and all. When we set them out in the spring they were the best and strongest apiary we had; and if we had put our other bees into the cellar we should not have been obliged to buy heavily in the spring; for while our losses outdoors rare- ly exceed 5 per cent, last winter they went up to over ten times that. Hereafter, when a severely cold winter comes on, we shall put our bees all in the cellar, and set them out early the following spring, or as soon as severely cold weather lets up. MOVING BEE- YARDS IN THE HEIGHT OF WIN- TER WHEN SNOW IS ON THE GROUND ; SNOW MORE EFFECTIVE THAN SMOKE FOR QUIET- ING BEES IN COLD WEATHER. As mentioned in our last issue, we have been moving some of our apiaries, located in exjaosed regions where the windsweep was too strong for best results in wintering, to our mammoth bee-cellar made of con- crete and brick. It has formerly been consid- ered that it was not wise to move bees in midwinter, as the disturbance would cause them to become active, consume their stores, and clog their intestines, with the result that dysentery would set in before spring. Our experience last winter and this leads us to believe that this is not so. If the weather is cold enough, the bees will not be greatly disturbed. We prefer a tempera- ture anywhere fi'om 10 to 25 degi-ees above zero. There should be at least fair sleigh- ing in order to get the best results. When possible the time for moving should be se- lected right after a light dry snowfall, for reasons that wiU be presently explained. If the roads are uneven, and show bare spots, a common old-fashioned sled with long runners is better than a pair of bobs. Whichever is used should have a large plat- form such as a hayrack, on which the hives may be loaded. The sled is to be pushed clear out into the middle of the apiai-y, and the team detached and blanketed. The hives are then loaded one by one. As many as sixty or seventy colonies can be carried on a sled. As it is low it is easy to load the bees. The entrances should be so arranged that the apiarist who accompanies the driver can easily get at them. The bottom-boards should be most securely fastened if they are of the loose type. Sometimes the sled will sUp sidewise, causing a sliding jolt that may dislodge one or more hives from the bottom unless they are well fastened. If they are piled up two tiers high they should be securely roped to the platform and hay- rack. A little way back we stated that the time set for moving should be right after a light snow. The purpose of this is to provide an easy and effective means for closing the entrances of the hives. A wet or soggy snow is too much of a good thing. If it is frozen hard, and breaks up into lumps, it does not make a good entrance-closer; but if it is light and fluffy, it can be picked by handfuls and thrown over the entrances of the hives just before loading. When all are on, the entrances should be examined again, and more snow used if any bees seem to be getting out. A pail or two of light snow should then be put on the sled, to be used in case of emergencies. In cold weather it is far more effective than smoke, and makes an excellent entrance-closer. The bees within can not cluster over the entrance — indeed, they fight shy of it, re- treating back into the combs. If any colo- ny should become very much excited by reason of a closed entrance, the heat will melt the snow automaticallj' and thus give ventilation. But in the dead of winter there will be Uttle or no trouble of this kind. On an-ival at the bee-cellar the sled is driven as near as possible to the cellarway. The bees are then taken up, hive by hive, and placed in their permanent location in the ceUar. There is no need of removing FEBRUARY 1, 1913 the snow over the entrances; for if the cellar is of the right temperature it will melt in a short time, or about the time the bees quiet down. We find that a light snow is the most effective enti-ance-closer that we have ever used, and the only thing fit to use during cold weather in ivinter. The heat from the fire-cup of the smoker warms up the bees, stirring them up a good deal more than if smoke were not used. When the bees boil out at the entrance a few handfuls of light 3now dropped genth- over them drives tliera back. It is interesting to see them skedad- dle back into the hive; for the snow has a tendency to cool them off. Whenever bees become cold they immediately seek the warmth of the cluster. Last winter we moved an apiary during zero weather from what we then called our Nettleton yard, and placed them in the cel- lar. We never had bees winter nicer than they did, and in the spring they were the best and strongest lot of bees we had, not- withstanding that in the fall they were the weakest lot of bees — so weak that we felt that they must be put indoors. THE humble-bee: its life history^ and HOW TO DOMESTICATE IT ; BY F. W. L. SLA- DEN; ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS AND DRAWINGS BY THE AUTHOR^ AND FIVE COLORED PLATES PHOTOGRAPHED DIRECT FROM NATURE. This is one of the most interesting and beautiful books that have been put out for a decade. The author has obtained his in- formation direct from nature. He explains how he has been able to decoy queen bum- ble-bees to start nesting under his care, and also how he has been able to get the colonies to work under glass in a specially con- structed house Avhere all the details of their behavior can be watched. In many ways the habits of bumble-bees seem to be inter- mediate between those of the solitary bees and of the honey-bee; but there are differ- ences, and for their own particular purpose they have reached a high stage of perfec- tion. The queen bumble-bee is lughly " in- telligent," and cares for her young as de- votedly as a bird or a mammal. As the re- sult of twenty years' intimate acquaintance with the bumble-bees, and with the aid of the decoying devices and special hives, the writer has been able in this work to pi'esent for the first time a great many new fads concerning the bumble-bee's habits. It was tiirough tlie study of the bumble-bee that he was led to discover the true function of the auricle as an instrument for packing the pollen into the eorbicula box in the honey- bee and the bumble-bee. He shows, too, that the bumble-bee collects its wax from I lie abdomen or the bristles of the brush on (he inner side of the metatarsus, or planta, of the hind legs. Casteel has since shown that the honey-bee also uses these bristles for the removal of wax, but only the row at the distal end of the metatarsus. (See The Manipulation of the Wax Scales of the Honey-bee, Circular No. 161, U. S. Dept. of AgTicultnre, Bux'eau of Entomology.) The book discloses a new interest for country rambles, and is being warmly wel- comed by the advocates of nature study. There is exiilained in full and clear detail how the nests of bumble-bees may be found and taken and set up again in the garden, and also how to make a collection of speci- mens and how to distinguish the British specimens. A different set of species oc- curs in America; but the methods by which the American species are separated may be applied to the American species; and to do this would help to stimulate the interest of the student. Some of the species resemble one another very closely; but there are slight differences in the tint and quality (length, density, and shagginess) of their furry coats. These differences are brought out very well in the colored plates which are among the very best reproductions of insects by photography in their natural col- ors that we have ever seen. Each species appears to have distinctive habits. Some live under ground in comparatively large colonies, with 200 or 300 workers, and will defend their nest, if disturbed, with great spirit. Others live on the surface of the ground, in communities not containing more than about 100 workers, which are very faint-hearted ; and when the nest is molested they will feign death, and lie on their backs half hidden in the nest material, ready to seize and sting the fingers if they are touch- ed. But the sting of the bumble-bee is not veiy severe, and it is used only under great provocation. Bumble-bees are invaluable for fertilizing long-tubed flowers, such as red clover, for they alone of all the bees have tongues long enough to I'eaeh the nectar easily. The book contains nearly 300 pages; is beautifully printed in large bold-faced type. We were told by some of the entomologists that recently met in Cleveland that this was undoubtedly the most complete work of any that has ever been written, and Mr. Sladen is regarded as an authority on the subject. We. do know this: He has been gathering data for the last twenty years. Price $3.25, postpaid, at tliis oflBce. 74 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Stray Straws Dr. C- C. Miller, Marengo, 111. You ask, Mr. Editor, p. 4, for a way to mark a queen with a permanent color. In " Die Rassenzueht," Dr. U. Kramer, page 111, recommends a quickly diying lac — red, yellow, white, or blue — not so thin that it will run, and not so thick that it will not adhere. He gives full instruction as to the whole proceeding. In 1872 — '3 I spent some months in Cin- cinnati heli3ing in a subordinate way to get up the first May musical festival under the direction of Theodore Thomas. One day a quiet old gentleman came into my office to chat aboixt bees. In spite of his modest demeanor he knew a lot about them. He was the Rev. L. L. Langstroth. A. I. Root, do ye mind that time when we slept together in a western city at which there was a national bee convention? Next morning, as we walked along the street I was somewhat disconcerted to pull out of my pocket a night-cap. I made no use of night-caps, either the cloth or liquid kind ; but I presently found out it had been put into my pocket inadvertently by the man who had slept with me. Notwithstanding all the improvements that have been made in beekeeping, there's one thing that is no better in quality nor greater in quantity than it was 50 years ago. That's enthusiasm in the business. Young fellow, you think you're having a jolly good time learning all the up-to-date things in beekeeping. Well, we old codgers had just as good a time 50 years ago learn- ing what was up-to-date at that time. Now hold right still while I tell you another thing. I've just as much fun now as I had 50 years ago in seeing what the bees will do to my plans after I've studied them out. So enthusiasm is a constant factor if you're a born beekeeper. Ye editor, p. 2, seems to have a aesire that I should jab J. L. Byer for his views. All right; come on and be jabbed, Bro. Byer. You seem to hold, p. 6, that with solid combs of honey and nowhere else for the bees to cluster, bees will winter all right. That will leave the bees in layers %^ inch thick between the combs; and if they remain with no better chance for clustering " during the weeks and weeks of cold zero weather," my guess is that they'll be dead, dead. Your experiment will prove n'^thing, for, as ye editor suggests, the minute you stopped feeding them they began scooping out a winter nest. Moreover, you don't say how much room they had to cluster under the bottom-bars. Surely more than y^ inch. Editor Root holds that instinct makes the bees empty out a place to cluster. I suspect instinct makes them eat the honey, and that happens to leave the empty space. And I suspect that, if there was a possibil- ity of keeping the combs constantly solid with honey, they would winter just as well without an empty cell in the hive. You say, " They can't warm up these slabs, be- cause they project beyond the cluster where it is cold. Tliese cold projections convey the cold back to the cluster." Say, Mr. Editor, did you ever see a solid comb pro- ject down through the cluster? Come down into my cellar and I'll show you the cluster of bees projecting down below the combs — two inches — but neAer a filled cell below the cluster. I don't know how small a space below the combs will answer for clustering; but I know that bees can cluster all right below bottom-bars, for I know my bees do. Theoretically one of you is just as far from my vieAv of the truth as the other; but for practical purposes the Canuck holds the safer ground. Now, Mr. Editor, haven't I jabbed J. L. enough? [When you ask the question whether we ever saw a solid comb project down through the cluster, you are evidently thinking of indoor wintering. What we have had in mind all the time on the subject of winter nests has been outdoor wintering, and not indoor. As we said over a year ago, this question of the proper formation of a winter nest is not particu- larly important for indoor bees, especially if there be a large clustering-space under the frames such as you use in your cellar. But when bees are wintered outdoors, and the temperature outside (assuming it is a double wall) is 20 or 30 degi-ees higher, it is important, at least for our locality, to have a winter nest. If you could look over our outdoor-^vintered colonies on a day when the temperature is about 10 degrees above zero, you would find tliat the combs in most cases project an inch or more below the cluster, and eight or ten inches beyond the cluster in the direction of the length of the hive. The point we tried to make was that solid combs of sealed stores that stick out beyond the bunch of bees into an atmos- phere that is down to freezing, or below, will convey the cold clear through the clus- ter almost as badly as so many slabs of marble. The V^ or % inch of bees between the combs can not make up for this con- stant loss of beat. — Ed.] FEBRUARY 1, 1913 75 Beekeeping in California p. C. Chadwiok, Redlands, Cal. Nearly half an inch of rain fell on Jan. 9. We are hoping it may be the beginning of the end of onr long dry spell. * » * The condition of bees in general in this State is about an average, judging from reports received up to date. * * * Black brood is still spreading in our Southland. Every beekeeper should know of its approach, and prepare to combat it. * « » The price of bees has materially advanc- ed in recent j^ears. There are now but few for sale at $3.50 or less per colony, as was (he case a few j^ears ago. * * * Some lime ago I predicted a warm wet winter; but there is where I missed my guess and ruined my reputation as a weath- er prophet, as most of our local obsor\'ers do. * * * Several men in Riverside Co., who ex- pected to ship their bees back from Utah, are not able to do so on account of alfalfa- weevil quarantine. Some Avho extracted closely in anticipation of moving now find that they must feed heavily. * » * While visiting T. 0. and L. L. Andrews, at Corona, I saw an automobile ecjuipped with an extracting-house. It was the tirst 1 had ever seen, and it gave me a better idea of the bee business as conducted on a large scale, with an auto as a mode of cjuick conveyance for taking extracting equipment to out-apiaries. * * * Early in September I visited a beekeeper, and during my conversation I mentioned the imminent danger of black brood. Per- fectly astounded, he ripped out an oath, asking what that was. He owns in partner- sliip nearly 600 colonies, but never has time to read a bee paper. He will probably know more of this disease some day. * * * I was interested in J. E. Crane's descrip- tion of the many kinds of hives he found in liis inspection work. My experience Avas much the same while traveling over the country the past season, with the exception of box and frameless hives. We have a law in this State comi)elling the use of movable frames, to enable the inspector to work promptly and rapidly. Beekeepers are, as a rule, veiy poor ad- vertisers. Go into almost any chamber of commerce in southern California, and if you se3 any display of honey at all it is not likely to be of much credit to the in- dustiy. Almost all other products are bet- ter represented than our own — not because a display of honey would not be welcomed by our commercial organizations, but just through neglect of beekeepers. ANOTHER PLAN FOR LAYING- WORKER COLO- NIES. Louis H. Scholl, p. 720, Nov. 15, give your laying-worker colony a frame of un- sealed brood, then put it in the place of a strong colony. In 24 hours you will find cells started, and the laying workers and their brood will disappear. I have yet to hear of this plan having failed. I doubt, however, if it is profitable to try to save a laying-worker colony at that time of the year. BREEDING FROM THE BEST WORKERS. The practical ideas of practical men are worth much consideration, as is shown by results obtained. The jDractical work of A. T. Warr & Son, of whom I have made previous mention, in selecting their best producing colonies for breeding purposes is one such instance. While tliey favored the Italian blood as much as they could, the productive qualities were to be consid- ered first. Owing to the advent of black brood in the community they are now forc- ed to Italianize for their own protection ; but it is safe to say that only the best pro- ducers will be used for breeding after the try-out. APIARIES THAT CAN NOT BE REACHED BY AN AUTO. Louis H. Scholl, page 579, Sept. 15, says : "The automobile is a sign of progi'es- sive beekeeping." Perhaps to a degi-ee this is true; but Mr. Scholl should know that there are some apiaries that can not be reached by auto, the owners of which are progressive enough to keep on good ranges and get the honey first, regardless of the mode of conveyance to be used in going to and from the apiary. To them this is a secondary consideration. A few good sea- sons in succession would make many of us l)rogressive in that way, while bad seasons might for ever bar us from that class. •76 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Notes from Canada J. L. Byer, Mt. Joy, Ont. Mr. Sladen, recently from England, gave 'a warning against importing any bees from the British isles for fear of getting Isle-of- Wight disease over here. Judging by what he and others who know say, this fell scourge has all the other bee ills " beat- en to a frazzle." Certainly Mr. Sladen's warning is timely, and it would be a foolish vthing indeed to take any chances. » * * Already " jabbed " by the editor, and with the prospect of being jabbed again by such a formidable assailant as Dr. Mill- er, is it any wonder that I look for the next issue of Gleanings with trepidation? (page 2, Jan. 1). But see here, Mr. Editor; you say something about steady cold weather about the "middle of January;" at which time enough honey will be consumed to give the colony a winter nest. Here in Ontario we often have that land of weather all through December; so, what will happen when things pan out that way, and the combs yet solid with honey? * * * That article of Wesley Foster's on page 13, Jan. 1, which so entertainingly tells about the beauties of photogi'aphy, I read with more interest than I could have deem- ed iDossible a few months ago. Can you guess the reason ? Well, I have recently in- vested in a camera costing about $20.00, an English machine called the " Butcher's Carbine." I never had my hands on a cam- era before ; but by a strange freak of chance, the first six films used are all good, and I hope to use some of them soon in this journal. I have just returned home from the northern yard, over 100 miles away from home; and while there I took sevei'al pic- tures of the apiary to illustrate wintering outside. I have not tried to develop them yet ; and on reading friend Foster's article I am fearful that I gave too long an expos- ure to the films. It is needless to say I shall find out just as soon as possible. Really I must stop writing along this line, else (be- fore I know) I shall be classed as a "camera fiend" before I have even had a peep into the rudiments of the game. * * * LONGEVITY OF CARNIOLAN QUEENS. On page 743, Nov. 15, the question is asked as to whether Carniolans are jDrone to supersede their queens; and in answer to this I must say no, most decidedly. As a matter of fact, I have often wished that such was the case, as one fault I have with them is that the queens are very long-lived, and will sometimes be left when they are too old to be of good service. As I clip all my queens I know what I am talking about. No doubt claims are made sometimes by people who do not clip, so they can not be positive on matters of this kind. Some time ago I reported having kept a queen until she was seven years old — no doulit about the matter at all, as I have abundant evidence to prove the statement. Well, this particular queen was a pure Carniolan, and her wings were all off close to her back, so that there were additional risks according to some anti-clippers. * * * IS FOUL BROOD MORE VIRULENT AT TIMES? On page 719, Nov. 15, Mr. Crane speaks of foul brood being more virulent in some places than in others, and says that he does not wonder at the variety of opinions ex- pressed on the subject by ditferent writers. What kind of foul brood is meant? If European foul brood I can understand how differences of opinion might arise; but if our old acquaintance American foul brood is meant, I can not agree with him. I have seen it in different counties in Ontario in all stages, and I can think of no malady affecting any living organism that is more uniform in its actions than this disease. As a general principle, it can be stated that larvae die from this disease only when fed infected honey, or what amounts to the same thing, Avhen a larva is hatched in a cell that has the disease scales, and thus be- comes infected. Disease makes progress according to the number of larva3 that hap- pen to get the disease given to them. As an illustration, the following will make the point clear; and as it is a common happen- ing in sections where American foul brood is present, no doubt many have noticed how it works. Let a colony that is foul be robbed out late in the fall when brood-rearing has stopped, and as a result it may be that none of the robbers will cause disease to break out in their colonies, for the simple reason that no brood is present and the honey is used before any larvae are in evi- dence to be fed this diseased honey. On the other hand, let an ajjiary rob out a foul colony in the spring time, especially just at the close of fruit bloom, and every colo- ny taking part in the robbing will be dis- eased— nothing surer. The same principle on a modified scale applies to all stages of the disease, and will ahvays explain why a colony gels bad very quickly in one cas,'>, while another may have had the disease for quite a while before getting in bad order. FEBRUARY 1, 1913 Conversations Avith Doolittle At Borodino, New York. YE OLDEN TIMES. A correspondent writes, " If Doolittle does not have something February' 1st about ' Ye Olden Times ' in beekeeping I shall be greatly disappointed." My memory goos back to the days when father kept bees in box hives, and to log- gnm times. In that age fifteen and twenty pound boxes for comb honey were made of rough half-inch lumber with a hole bored in one side, over wliich was placed a piece of glass broken from a window pane through which I, as a boy, would peer to see whether any honey was being built. Usually I did not even see a bee inside. It had to be a good season to drive the bees into these boxes, for in most cases there was only one auger-hole, an inch or an inch and a half in diameter, through the top-board to the hive. This board was of about the same thickness, and the big empty honey- box was without any starter of comb. Fi'om our standpoint of to-day, this would be a great drawback; but, strange as it may ap- pear, during one season father took as much as 70 pounds of comb honey from ore of these rough hive boxes in which were hived two swarms which came out and clus- tered together. A few years later the lum- ber for these boxes was planed on the in- side, and a piece of white comb stuck fast to the center of the top. Tliis greatly pro- moted the willingness of the bees to enter tl:e honej'-i'eceptaeles. However, few of the farmers did little else than hive swarms in old boxes, portions of hollow logs, half- barrels, or nail-keg's, in those times of 60 to 80 years ago. Then all colonies not needed for winter- ing were killed by setting the hives over fumes of burning sulphur. After the bees were dead, the hives were pried apart, or the old logs split open and the combs of honey cut out. In this way from each hive or log twenty to fifty pounds of honey were obtained, the best and whitest of Avhich was put into bright tin joans to be disposed of, while all of the rest was put into a cloth bag and hung up before the fireplace to drain out as strained honey. After prac- tically all the honey had drained out, the bag was immersed in water, as hot as the hand could bear, and the whole was kneaded and worked over with the pudding-stick till all the sweet had been separated from the comb. This sweetened water was boiled down to honey water. It was then used to sweeten apple sauce or pies. In these dif- ferent ways much pleasure and enjoyment was given to the family of the farmers who kept bees. When I began to keep bees in the latter sixties, Langstroth liives were beginning to supersede the old logs and boxes. These were thought to be the height of perfection, for each had a honey-board on which were placed six boxes six inches square by five inches deep, each having a glass on two sides, the glass being on opposite sides. Before the glass was put on, three pieces of comb were stuck to the top of each box equal distances apart, to be used by the bees as guides for building their combs in a certain direction, as well as for starters. In this way I procured my honey for the first three years. I used these boxes more or less till 1875. They held from six to six and one-half pounds, gross weight, and, strange to say, I was offered 50 cents a pound for my 1869 crop. After these came the four-pound box with its four metal corner jDosts and four glass sides. This box was considered the most fancy honey-receptacle that ever was, as two sides showed the nice white capping of the honey while the other two showed its color and qualitj', where the cells were stuck to the glass. I doubt if there were ever more attractive packages, when filled with honey, than these glass honey-boxes with their shiny metal comer-posts. A few 3'eai-s later came the Harbison three-pound bos, then the two-pound sec- tion, which was soon followed by sections holding one pound — some even going so far as to make those holding as little as a half and a quarter of a pound. Both of these, however, proved to be too small for any profit, so that the one-pound section soon became the standard, and has held that place until the present time. I might speak of many things which would now be considered drawbacks, which came about in the transition between those old times and the present. Then we did the best we could without sections, queen- excluders, bee-escapes, movable frames, comb foundation, extractors, etc. But I wish to speak of something which seems a mystery to me. In all of those years honey brought much more in revnrn to the producer than it does in this, the twentieth century. Father used to trade that cut comb honey, from those briglit tin pans, giving 12 to 18 pounds for a pair of shoes, according to the riuality of the shoes and that of the honey. Then he could get a bushel of wheat for four pounds of this Continued on page 78. 78 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Beekeeping Among the Rockies Wesley Fostee, Boulder, Col. INTERSTATE SHIPMENT OF DISEASED BEES. Mr. Chadwick asks whether the bees spoken of as having been kept from being shipped into Colorado were known to be diseased. No, we did not know, except that the district where the bees are is known to be diseased. We did not try to stop the shipment by law, for one State can not legislate against another. All that was done was to notify the party of the conditions that prevailed where the shipment was in- tended to be made, stating that we would inspect the bees upon arrival. I do not believe that the county ordinances such as Mr. Chadwick speaks of would hold very many minutes under the rulings of the Inter- State Commerce Commission. A bee- keeper would have to submit to inspection after arrival; but I do not believe that the shipment could be stopped unless the bees were known to be diseased. Our Colorado law is broad enough so that I think an inspector would be upheld in destroying all diseased bees ujjon arrival. This would not be just unless the disease was being introduced into a clean district. In a dis- trict where foul brood already exists, the man who shipped in bees, and a few were found diseased, should be accorded the same treatment that others in the vicinitj^ are given. Colorado at the present time has no Eu- ropean foul brood that we know of, and the beekeepers here would be very much in favor of destroying all colonies in a ship- ment that had this disease; and our law would stand back of the procedure. I do not think that such measures for the pro- tection of bees from diseases are unjust. The good of the whole beekeeping frater- nity is of more consequence than the de- sires of some unenlightened individual. Far more damage has been done by the indis- criminate shipping of diseased bees all over the country than by stringent laws that may seem to work a hardship on any one person. We must encourage in every way the legiti- mate spread of aggressive beekeeping meth- ods ; but the spreading of diseases must be curtailed also. * * * THE EFFECT OF TARIFF REDUCTION ON PRICES. Local business houses are making increas- ed efforts to clear their shelves of all stocks bought under present price conditions. Busi- ness men seem to be optimistic, but expect a readjustment of prices after the Demo- cratic administration has begun its work at tariff reduction ; and when the tariff is men- tioned, the beekeeper immediately thinks of free sugar, and whether honey will be put on the free list. And the next commodity thought of is lumber. I do not know what will be done with honey; but the talk is strongly for free sugar, and perhaps the admission of lumber free of duty. Person- ally I believe that free sugar will aid rather than hurt the beemen. This will depend, of course, on whether sugar is reduced to the consumer by taking off the tariff. If we could get sugar for three cents instead of five or five and a half, much more of it would be fed in the fall to put the bees in prime condition for wintering. Being situ- ated so far inland, and not familiar with the markets where foreign honey would cut a figure, I do not know what the effect would be if honey were put on the free list. Lumber admitted free ought to have a definite effect on the price of bee-supplies; and it might be that the qualitj^ of the lum- ber obtainable would be improved. Taking the whole situation, I think that the beemen will not be averse to the general plans for tariff revision. What we are concerned in is a reduction in the cost of necessities for the home and in our business. One of the greatest promises of the times is that the people as a whole are asking for something definite — stated, not in political terms, such as tariff revision, but in terms of economics — a lower price for sugar, lumber, woolen and cotton goods, and all staples that con- sume the bulk of our incomes. CONVERSATIONS WITH DOOLITTLE AT BORODINO, NEW YORK Continued from page 77. honey, and trade even-handed pound for pound for butter. And in the days of the six-pound box, I sold my whole crop to a dealer for 26 cents a pound, taking hitn four wagonloads, and on my return home loaded these wagons with coal at our near- est station, $3.50 a ton. Now it takes nerar- ly four pounds of honey to purchase wh.ai one pound did when father kept bees; and our nice section honey in one-pound sec- tions, when sold by the wagonload, brnigs only 121/2 cents instead of 26. Now a wag- onload of coal costs $6.80 at the same place where the $3.50 coal was obtained in t!ie days when beekeeping was carried on in a more primitive way. This state of ail'airs can hardly be laid to overproduction, as I verily believe that the per-capita consump- tion in those days was two if not tln-ee times as large as it is to-day. FEBRUARY 1, 1913 79 General Correspondence THE FUN THE PIONEERS HAD IN INVENTING NEW FIXTURES A Bee-smoker Made of a Pan of Coals BY DR. C. C. MILLER How I'd like to go back and begin bee- keeping all over again with the facilities of the present day! Back yonder in 1861 the bill of fare was rather meager — no ex- tractor, no smoker, no sections, no comb foundation, no excluder, and almost no lit- erature. Movable combs had been invented, but I knew nothing about them. The Amer- ican Bee Journal was started that year, but 1 didn't know of it. And yet I don't know. You who start in with all these things don't have the same pleasure I had in learning about each one as a new improvement. And then the lots of new plans and kinks that have been coming up all the time! One thing, however, I'd like to have back again. I'd like to have honey keeping all the while at the same price as butter. It would seem pretty good now to have honey selling at 30 or 40 cents a pound. Another good thing of those bygone days was the delight of studying up some new plan or implement, lying awake at night thinking- it over. Honey may never catch up with butter again in price, but the fun of study- ing up new thing's is just as great now as it was back j-onder. In any given case there is always the zest that is given to it by the uncertainty as to what the bees will do with it when it is submitted to them. Even after being submitted to them there is the uncertainty as to whether they will do exactly the same next time, when condi- tions may be a trifle different. The first surplus honey I produced was just as good to eat as any I produce now — just as white, but not so regiilar. A box with a capacity of five or six pounds, with a i^ane of glass on two opposite sides, was placed along with three others on top of a box hive, with a cover telescoping over it. Such a box, when filled, seemed just as ] leasing a sight as the finest sections do nowadays. By way of something extra I had some boxes with four glass sides and wooden posts at the corners. The bees hiult comb in these boxes at their own sweet will except for the j^ersuasion of a few pieces of comb fastened to the top of the box. If one or all of these starters fell to the bottom, the bees were not greatly dis- concerted. They simply built from the bottom up. This was quite in advance of what some others were doing, whose only way to se- cure surplus Avas to brimstone a colony, and then dig out as well as might be the honey mixed with j^ollen and dead bees. The heaviest and the lightest skeps were " taken up," the heaviest because they had the most honey, and the lightest because tliey would die in winter anyhow. The first sections were somewhat crude. They were in four pieces, and the top piece had in it a saw-kerf to receive the founda- tion. This top piece was partly split apart, and then brought together again after the insertion of the foundation. I didn't make very good work of it, and wanted to learn how to do it better. I wrote to A. I. Root, telling him exactlj' how I put in the foun- dation, making a sketch of it, and asking, him how I should do it. I think I had no intention of having my letter published — only to have the jjroper instruction given in Gleanings, a publication that I think at that time was gotten out by the aid of a windmill. Promptly' came back a round sum in payment for the letter, which was published in full; but not a word was given as to how the work should be better done ! I well remember my first visit to Medina. I reached it by stage, there being no rail- road then. Wouldn't a stage coach have a busy time of it now, carrying out all the stuff shipped away by The A. I. Root Co. ! On that visit I had the honor of showing A. I. Root an inii^roved method of smoldng bees. Yes, you might hardly believe that the man who has sent out so many smokers would learn from me any thing in that line, but he did. I don't remember what plan he was then using. I don't think that, at that time, he smoked them with tobacco as some others did, but the plan I showed him was to have ashes and burning coals in an old tin pan. He was much pleased with the improvement, and I had hardly left the town when he put it in practice, with the result that he jeopardized if he did not burn up a colony by setting fire to the sawdust that surrounded the hive. A little later I tried to improve on this. I had a close-fitting cover on a kettle con- taining burning coals and brands, and at- tached to the cover were two small rubber tubes. I blew into one of them, and with the other directed the smoke upon the bees. It smoked them all right, only it didn't hold fire well unless I " blowed " all the time. ]\Iy ! my ! my ! what changes there have been. What improvements! Will there be any more, I wonder? A few years ago a prominent writer said we were not to ex- pect any more improvements in l^eekeeping. And yet improvements have been appearing right along ever since tlien. But I don't see any chance for fui-ther improvements — do you? Yet how many of us thought be- fore they appeared that there was any need of sections, foundation, etc. 1 I don't know what they'll be; but I'm looking for just as great advance in the next 50 years as there has been in the past 50; and it may be that in 1963 some one will be writing reminiscences of " the many gi'eat advances in beekeeping since 1913." Who knows? Marengo, 111. ■»-•-*■ WINTER FEEDING ; SOFT SUGAR VS. CANDY An Open Letter to the Editor BY ARTHUR C. MILLER » In an editorial (Jan. 1, p. 3) concerning the supplying of extra stores in mid-winter to make up for any possible shortage caused by the mild weather of the fall and early winter, you quote me thus: "Mr. A. C. Miller recently made the statement that coffee A sugar (a moist sugar) can be given to the bees direct;" then you say you "have never tried it," and at once proceed to tell how to use it. Phew ! Wait a minute till I whistle, or I may say something hot like ginger and suggestive of brimstone. In some climates and conditions the bees may get by when provided as you direct ;, but in others, not, nit ! Now I, A. C. Miller, never recommended the A sugar for winter. You do not say specifically that I did; but taken with the rest of the editorial, that is the natural and unavoidable implication. If, perchance, some poor chump thinks a thing must be good because I said it (or Avas supposed to have said it), and goes and does something just near enough to what I did say to be entirehi different, and the resulls are a bee funeral, there will be something unpleasant coming my way. Excuse my dodging. Now, here is what T actually said con- cerning soft sugar for winter use: "Colo- nies have been wintered on it without any thing else, and that was in southern New Hampshire; but I want to know more about its use thus before I advocate it for such purpose." (Dec. 1, 1912, p. 771.) I have a sort of hazy idea that that assembly of words pretty distinctly conveys the in- formation that I do not yet advocate the use of soft sugar for winter. Let me quote again : " The soft A sugar put in a division-board feeder and hung in beside the brood-nest will serve to keep up brood-rearing as well as the most painstak- GLEANIKGS IN BEE CULTURE ing feeding with sj-rup," etc. (Dec. 1, 1912, \). 771). That does not exactly suggest win- ter feeding — at least it doesn't to me. In your suggestion as to how you think the soft sugar may be used for winter, you would have it put in a dish on top of the frames with sticks across the dish to give the bees access to it under the cushion. Just stop and consider what you have sug- gested. Little Mr. Innocent, not wanting a lot of paper pie-dishes, goes and uses a soujo-plate from the i:>antry shelf. The bees find a nice cold stone over their heads, and not the remotest suggestion that there is food on top of it, and they starve. Remem- ber, you are suggesting putting that Dutch ceiling over their bedroom in mid winter. Well, to keep you from feeling too much remorse, I will grant that, between some warm spells, a thick cushion and a lot of bees, the latter do find their way up to the sugar. Bully ! But old Boreas kicks up a muss, and the bottom drops out of the thermometer and stays out for a week. Well, why Avaste words on what happens? It is just as well if you and I do not know what that fellow says about us. Before we go further, I wish to do a little defining so that, if possible, I can not be misundei-stood. There are several sorts of feeding, one for brood stimulation, one for stores given in mild weather, and one for emergencies given when, for any reason, it is not feasi- ble to expose or seriously disturb the colo- ny. Those " any reasons " may have to do with our personal convenience, as lack of time, dislike of cold fingers or wet feet, laziness, or plain everj'-day consideration of dollars and cents, as represented in time and material. At this particular time we are consider- ing the emergencies of colonies starving in cold weather, and we want to prevent that starvation ; and if we are worth our keep we want to do it in the most effective and tlie most economical way. So far as at present known, a slab of candy placed over the frames meets tlie conditions bett'er than any other method. It is an old idea and a good practical one. But the making of the candy is a stum- blingblock to many. Some will not take the trouble to make it right, others seem un- able to do so; and still others, after one attempt, give it up in disgust, and try syrup or let the bees " go hang." There are candies and candies, and some are good and some are only near good. Your hard candy is all right, but many persons will make a failure of it. The candy made after the Fuller formula (Seii!. FEBRUARY 1, 1913 81 1, 1912, p. 545) is easier to get just right. (Pure glucose for the purpose eau be ob- tained from most candy-makers.) This candy has the advantage of staying right until consumed. Common " fondant," as made hx the candy-manufacturers, is excellent ; but un- less it is just right it will not stay right, but will soften when subjected to the con- ditions of the hive and run down between the combs. The property of " rightness " in fondant seems to be dependent on the proportion of tartaric acid to sugar and the time they are boiled together. Some candy- makers can make a firm non-softening fondant every time, wiiile others can not. On orders for one hundred j^ounds or over, most candy-makers will make up candy after any desired formula, and will cut it into blocks or slabs of any desired size, and at a cost not so very much above the cost of the sugar. Not a few beekeep- ers have the professional candy-men make their bee candy for them, considering it better and cheaper than making it at home. Another word about soft sugar and I am done — no, not out of sputter, but just hold- ing up for a future lime. The use of soft sugar for stimulative feeding was, so far as I can learn, first given to the beekeepers by Samuel Sim- mins, of England, and he should be given the ciedit for it. I have done so in pre- vious articles, but did not in those quoted. It has been used in this countiy for many yeai's, but does not seem to have become as widely known as its merits deserve. Now, if your editorial does not put a damper on its use by getting some people in wrong on it — and they will surely speak right out loud — its use may spread. There, I feel better. As I bear no ill feeling-s, I trust that yon will soon be able to sit up and take a little nourislimeut. As an emergency diet, I would suggest candy. Providence, R. I., Jan. 9, 1912. [Regarding the question of soft sugar for winter feed, we plead guilty that Mr. Miller did not recommend it for cold weath- er; but we see no reason in the world why it could not be used at such a time if it could be used in warm weather. While it is true that bees can get water during hot weather when they could not during winter, yet as a rule enough moisture collects in the hive to give the bees all the water they need. If the soft sugar is placed in paper pie-plates, the same being placed right above the cluster, as we recommended it, the moisture from the bees ascending will, in all probability, soften it enough more so tl.at it will be excellent winter food. If we were guilty of misquoting, we are glad of it now, because it has drawn out a valuable article that will be a stimulus to further discussion of a very important mat- ter— what to feed bees during mid winter when no combs of stores are available. In this connection, if Mr. Miller did not rec- ommend feeding soft sugar during mid winter, there are others who did; but just who, we can not now recall. Verj' often, by reading a journal for a year one will gather a composite opinion; and that is precisely what we did when we misquoted our friend Miller. Regarding " fondant " and any sugar using glucose, we have a fear that they will not be all that is desired. We should be more afraid of the use of fondant and candy with glucose in — much more so — than we would of soft cane sugar placed in the paper pie-plates above the bees. Later. — We sent the above footnote to Mr. Miller, and he has made a further reply wliich follows. — Ed.] MORE SUGAR. That paper pie-plate seems to bother the editor. It is like a cork on a fishline, bound to bob up; but just wait until the condensed moisture he is banking on for the sugar gets in its fine work on that pie-plate, and he will have a first-class paper-pulp " flap- jack." Well, never mind; it is quite likely to be forty-leven miles from the would-be user, and he will tiy a wash-boiler or an ash-sifter or some other convenient tiling. Now, I hope tliat I am a brave man, or, what is perhaps as good, am believed to be, for I see danger in what I am about to do. I am going to tell just how the New Hampshire man used the soft sugar when he wintered the two colonies on it. The danger lies in my being given the credit of it and of recommending it, when, as a mat- ter of fact, I am only reporting it. In the first place, the man who did it was Mr. A. A. Byard, of West Chesterfield, N. H. In the second place, he prei^ared his bees in the fall, late in the fall, but still the bees could be handled. And he did it thus: Three empty combs were hung in the middle of each of two chaff-packed hives. On each side of and close up to them were hung division-board feeders solid full of soft sugar. The spaces back of the feeders, were stuffed full of dry leaves. The bees were then shaken into these jirepared hives. Now, I do not know wheth- er he shook them in on top of the frames and feeders or down in front of the en- trance and let them waltz in ; but he got them into those hives and on to and between th'^ combs — leastAVise most of them — for he 82 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE SO plamied space to bees that when the lat- ter had crowded in as tight as if Mrs. Mulli- gan's goat had butted them in, some of them still stuck out at the entrance. See the point? Well, it is this: The tvJiole space was full of bees. That is 7iot the way they are on combs of honey in a brood-chamber under normal conditions. No. Over the combs, feeders, and bees he had a sheet of oilcloth (enameled cloth), slip- pery side down, and on top of that more leaves — lots more, nice dry maple leaves. (Packing is not my long suit, so you can tell that it is some other fellow's circus that I am talking about.) Then he said "go it;" and he went, and the bees stayed ; and in the spring the two colonies were as fine as any he had, and he had some fine ones. Certainly he had to give more combs in the spring; but that is not part of this story. Now, Byard is the man who did it. And I'll wliisper another thing, though he may shake half the life out of me when he finds it out. (Oh, yes! he can, for he is almost seven feet long, and I am not.) It is this: Byard is a wizard — yes, sir, a sure-nuf wiz- ard. I wish you could see him put founda- tion in sections — make you cry with envy. What has that got to do with soft sugar? J was only going to the foundation of the thing. Don't worry, dear editor, don't worry, 1 mean about fondant and bee candj^ with glucose in it. A whole lot of beekeepers in little old New England have used it suc- cessfully for several seasons. It is a hard r in earnest." Dust became blinding; Icaxrs we;e whipped fro^n the trees; telejilione wires were crossed aiK^ crissrrcssed. Fruil-gioweis beaan to look anxious; for the grave danger, frost, is al- ways feared by them. All day and all night it continued; but instead of holding the temperature above danger, as expected, it went steadily down, in the face of the wind. All day Sunday, the 5th, it blew a gale ; the highest point reached in temperature was 40 at noon. Monday morning, Jan. 6, gave us a temperature of 18, with a howling northern gale still in progress. Many fruit-growers threw up their hands in despair. Many had smudged all night while the frost was penetrating the fruit a few feet from their smudge-pots. By mid-afternoon another danger was approaching — the trees! the trees! back to the smudge-pots! save the trees! Tuesday morning, the 7th, great clouds of dense black smoke were hanging in the silent air. Auto load after auto load of smoke-be- grimed men were arriving from the all- night fight with Jack Frost, to save the trees, dressed in gloves and overcoats, with heads wrapped tightly, and the wearers half frozen by the stinging cold. Almost by accident I went into a plumb- ing shop where the plumber had just open- ed up for the day's business; but his tele- phone was ringing, " Water-pipe burst." Busier plumbers were never seen. Water- pipes burst by the score; closet-tanks were frozen ; a fire-hydrant burst ; ice in the gutters — everywhere ice, ice, ice; and all of this in Redlands, Cal., and the same tale may be told in any of our southland cities of the great so-called frostless belt. No man had ever seen such before, and we pray that none may ever see it again. The $50,000,000 citrus crop of southern Cali- fornia is " gone up in smoke." People fail to realize the extent of the disaster. But how about the beemen? T do not know. One thing is quite sure — every pol- len-producing flower has been destroyed. The eucalyjitus bloom is largely if not com- pletely destroyed. All of our southland districts have suffered alike. All must wait for a new source to develop from which the little bee can gather an impetus for re- newed hope sufficient to cause them to con- tinue breeding operations. Orange bloom is doubtful as to the quantity the trees will be able to put out. Many trees are badly injured. As to the sage, we do not know. Ho;"e is eiitertained that, if we should get sufficient rain, it will bloom profusely; but it m.ay be (lie bloom is injured deep in the stem from the excessive freeze. No such freeze has ever been experienced in the recollection of the oldest inhabitants, so we nnst wait patiently our future. Redlands, Cal. FEBRUARY 1, 1913 83 This is not an iceterg, but an oraiige-tree in Redlaiids, Cal.. on which tlie spray from a garden hose was left running during the night of Jan. 6, l&T^. The picture was taken about 10 a.m., .Tan. 7, and gives an idea of the intense cold in southern California on the above date. Photographed by E. T. Everett, of Kedlands — to be copyrighted. Permission to print granted Gle.\nings in Bee Culture. — P. C. Chadwick. 84 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE W. A. Grove's apiary and honey-house, New Haven, Vt. EXPERIENCES OF A FOUL-BROOD INSPECTOR The Value of Vigorous Italians in a Diseased Lo- cality BY J. E. CRANE Continued from page 5S, Jan. 15. One gentleman, whose reputation as an intelligent beekeeper was known to me, in- vited me to visit him, and I anticii^ated a treat. Almost all his bees were Italians, and he told me he had no fear of foul brood. I was rather surprised, because 1 had seen its deadly work in other places. But he stated (hat at one time he bought a lot of bees and transferred them into his hives and put the odds and ends of wax and honey out in the open for his bees to clean up, after which he learned that the colonies he had bought had foul brood. Almost every one of his black colonies was ruined, while his Italian stock remained uninjured. This made him wise, and he has since kept his stock well bred with Italian queens, and he has had little trouble with foul brood. Last winter he went over to a town some miles away and bought eight or ten hives of black bees that were represented as being free from disease. But when spring came, European foul brood developed. " Now look at that one," said he. I looked, and found the bees black and in an advanced stage of foul brood. " Now look at this one," said he. " It was bad in the spring, but I put in an Italian queen." I looked very carefully, but not a trace of disease could I find. This beekeeper had no use for '■ goldens," but wanted dark or leather-col- ored Italians. The fact that he has kept up his stock and had 160 colonies in one yard, while his neighbors that stuck to black bees had nearly all gone out of business, would indicate that there is much in his views and method of combating and curing foul brood. I found another very progressive bee- keeper trying to cure disease by using gold- en Italians ; but I believe that where colo- nies were very bad, he destroyed the old combs. He has been fighting it for years, and feels that, with the assistance of Italian strains of bees, he has succeeded very well. The last time I saw him he thought his bees were entirely free from it, while most of the black bees in hundreds of colonies in his neighborhood are dead as a result of the ravages of foul brood. He told me one thing of great interest. He said that he had never been able to rear a queen in a foul-broody hive that proved to be of any ^"alue in combating the disease, and that to cure a colony the queen must be I'eared in a hive of healthy bees. It sounds reason- able. I met another extensive beekeeper who was preparing to rear queens. He had about 200 colonies in one yard. He had had some trouble with foul brood, but thought he had it all cleaned out ; but just as I was leaving I opened a colony of most beautiful golden Italians, and, much to his surprise, showed him some diseased brood. " There it is again. I supposed that, the yellower the bees were, the better they would resist disease," said he. I gave him FEBRUARY 1, 1913 85 my opinion that the ability of bees to resist disease depended more on their strength and vigor of constitution than the color of their abdominal rings. On the whole it now looks as though the introduction of vigorous strains of Ital- ian bees might, in skillful hands, prove a short cut in curing European foul brood. NEW STYLE OF BEE-ESCAPE. vSpeaking of short cuts reminds me of a new style of bee-escape one beekeeper sliowed me. for which credit should be given to A. W. Darby, of Alburgh. Vt. It was simply a frame of one-inch lumber the size of the brood-chamber, with thin lumber one-fourth or three-eighths of an inch thick nailed to one side with a three-eighths hole bored in one end. into which was inserted a little tube of wire cloth about three inches long, and the diameter of a lead-pencil. It was used as a honey-board without the tube usually; but when wanted as an es- cape-board it Avas placed under the super, and the tube inserted. It then makes the best kind of escape, and costs much less than the Porter. We have tested it, and know it works very satisfactorily. The same answers for a lioney-board. and the originator uses it for feeding and also for ventilating; for, with a hole through the bottom of this board, the bees in hot weather draw the air down through it and out at the entrance. When closed with a cover, or when a quilt is placed in it in early spring, it helps to retain the heat ; and during very hot weath- er it is a shelter from the heat of the sun. The returning bees try to get into the super at the base of tlie wire-cloth tube, but not at the end. We have tested it. and it works perfectly. GREAT DIFFERENCE IN TEMPER OF BEES. I have found a great difference in the temjier of bees in different yards. Some are gentle, and very easily handled, while others are so cross that it is hard to find words to describe them. So far I have not 0ras8 " mown " bj sheep pastured in the yard been able to account for the difference. I have sometimes thought some beekeepers were not altogether averse to seeing the inspector stung a little, as they seemed quite amused at his misfortune. SOME ATTRACTIVE APIARIES. One very intelligent beekeeper had two or three sheep in his bee-yard all summer. They kejit it looking like a lawn, and it seemed to me the best plan I have ever known for keeping down the grass, as the sheep were never in the way. Another bee- keei^er, Mr. W. A. Grover, of New Haven. Yt., had an exceedingly attractive yard and honey-house. His apiary numbers 100 colo- nies; and, besides, he has a large farm; keeps about 15 cows and 600 hens. I in- quired how many doz- en egg's his 600 hens produced. He said he did not know, but he had sold $1300 worth of egg's in a year, and it cost him about one half for feed for them. He hives his early swarms on old combs that he has wintered over ; and after a colo- ny has been queenless for seven or eight days, or long enough so that the brood is GLKANINGS IN BEE CULTURE KEBRUARY 1, 1913 FIRST ANNUAL CONVENTInN Top row. from left to right: G. W. Ve^^en B, A AldriC. J. S. Myers, A^ ";, Clancy .LC. Honahu., M 7 R F«T>v W H Winch -T H. Schweer. Second row from top : J. C. Stockb.Arthui VVriglit, " ■, ^ , ,L,io„| 1 tdptAT'BonnVy.E.C '.Wheeler. Eugene Seeor. S. W. Snyder. Frank C. Pellett, J. L. Strong, M. h. Dadani, all sealed, he puts a new swarm on these combs. Of eoui-se the (|ueen-fclls are de- stroyed. He says they rarely or never swaim; and as brood is eonstantly hatch- infr, the new swarm is maintained at siilii- cient strength to store an abundance of sur- plus if any is to be had. Middleburv, Vt. REPORT OF MEETING OF IOWA BEEKEEP- ERS' ASSOCIATION BY F. C. SCRANTON The Towa Beekeepers' Association held its first annual session at Des Moines, Dec. 12 and 1:5. Both the attendance and the interest shown were very eneouragino-. Bee- keepeir- from all parts of the State attend- ed, and gave their experiences on the pro- duction and sale of honey. It was pleasing lo note the determination of all present to raise the honey standards as high as possi- lile, and to clean up foul brood etf ect ively. Prof. W. J. Kennedy, of the Extension Deiiarlmeiit of the Slate AgTicultural Col- lege at Ames, and Prof. H. E. Sumraevs. State Entomologist, both addressed tH^ meeting, and were heartily in favor of tlic college extending all possible assistance to the beekeepers of the State. Both of these gentlemen ap])roved of the establishment ot an apicultural department at Ames. 1 wi- Kennedy has placed Mr. C. H. True, oi Edgewood, on the extension department n charge of apiculture for this season. 1 ro^- Summers very generously proffered t'^^ j".^' vice of his department in the inspectio^^ work. His men are continually f'"^'^'"]^ the State inspecting plants and trees, a'^^ could very economically handle the bee i spcction at the same time, erne 1 \ BEEKEEPERS- ASSOCIATION. !^^"s.'^K'c■ WMei^'MUrNl^n^ ^?- ^^■/''^"■%'^- P- ?'"°'^' L. M. Carlson, W. S. Pangburn. .T. W. Stine, Fourth ro'w ^^'^t.'.'^fJrn. "^^^ ^W.'s^cTS^ ^ '^. S^e?a"n'lr' '■ "^ ^"■•^''^""^- ^"'"^ ™"- ^™"" A constitution for the asssociation was aclo])ted, and the usual routine work of l>assnig resolutions, appointing committees, I'lc, was carried out. It was decided to ask that the State Ento- nologLs be given an assistant in apicul- le, tliat the State legislature provide s meient appropriation to inspect apiaries -■'K treat diseased colonies thoroughly, that nrp«t!'f''t ^^''\''^^ spreading foul brood our si inn ^'^. u'°"^'^ ^^ amended to prohibit fm ' °*^ ^'^^ f'-"-^ °"tside the State or tificJiI'''^?"'!^-^' *» another without a cer- llio" e,,°p'^'«^^l^ '^Sned by some duly au- I ze,l Govenmienl or State inspector, ne ollowing officers were elected for ensuing year • v!oe';!?"*:"^''^"k C. Pellett, Atlantic, la. CmT'^T^'J- ^^'- «'i"e. Salem, la. Iowa ''■' ^- W- S».Vfler, Center Point, Treasurer. V. H. True, Edgewood, la. Directors : Dr. A. F. Boiiney, Buck Grove, la.; Hamlin B. Miller, Marshalltowii. la.; E. C. Wheeler, Mai-shalltown. la. The next annual convention will be held at Des Moines. A FURTHER NOTE ON THE SUPPOSED DIS- LIKE OF BEES FOR BLACK BY JOHN H. LOVELL It has been stated that a black object mo\iiig about in the apiary is more readily seen by the bees than a white one ; con- versely, in the darkness of night a white object is the more conspicuous. Moth- flowers blooming in the evening are usually white ; blue or red petals would be almost invisible. In this connection it is not with- out interest to note that ghosts are always Sd GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE -F. A. Powers' telescopic covers with cushions nailed to inner covers, showing also the concrete hive-stands. described as white — a black §iliost would be an anomaly. Since white contrasts so strongly with black, it follows of necessity that, in tlie white light of a summer's day, a black object is more conspicuous than a white one. A bright-red object excites anger or an- noyance when inanimate as much as when endowed with life. When the wearer of a bright-red cloak in crossing a pasture is chased by a bull, if the cloak is thrown upon the ground, the angry animal attacks it, giving the wearer a chance to escape. Children may be rendered nervous and irri- table, not only when dressed in bright-red clothing, but also by sitting much of the time in rooms with walls painted a glaring red. But if a black shawl be thrown upon the gi'ound near a hive, or be spread over a bush, the bees pay no attention to it — at least they do not attempt to sting it. But a black animal moving about among the hives excites fear, and receives more stings than it would if white, because it is more con- spicuous. But a beekeeper dressed in im- maculate white, if he disturbs a hive of cross bees, will undoubtedly be attacked. In the case related by Dr. Miller, where a small number of bees followed the black head of a hat-pin half a day, it seems not improbable that the smooth shining black ball exercised an attraction compara- ble to that of an electric bulb for many in- sects at dark. Naturally bees experience an antipathy to any one working in the apiary, and are inclined to follow him from place to place. The shining black head of the hat-pin would attract their attention more than any other point on the person of the apiarist; and they would, therefore, be likely to direct their efforts against it more than to any other spot. Waldoboro, Maine. CONCRETE HIVE-STANDS BY E. F. ATWATER Among the beekeepers of South Idaho and East Oregon there ai'e probably none who are deeper thinkers or moi'e thorough beekeepers than Mr. F. A. Powers, of Parma, Idaho. Large in person, and with that cheerful disposition which makes him laugh when confronted with difficulties, one may well expect him to be a beekeeper of originality and enterprise. Located on the fertile bench land at the east of Parma, with an abundance of alfal- fa near by, with an orchard Avindbreak, his apiary of 250 colonies is very favorably situated. As Mr. Powers is a specialist in the production of fancy comb honey his hives and appliances are built with that end in view. His hive is virtually a standard ten-frame hive in which he uses nine staple- spaced frames and a heavy dummy. Owing to the cool nights prevalent in Idaho, and with a desire to maintain a favorable tem- perature in comb-honey supers, as well as to afford sufficient protection for wintering in the mild climate of the Boise Valley, Mr. Powers uses a telescoping lid pei'haps 4 inches deep, with a cushion over an inner cover. The cover proper consists of a sim- ple rim with tin or galvanized iron over the FEBRUARY 1, 1913 89 top. The cushion much resembles a mat- tress about two inches thick, which holds its shape, and is nailed to the under side of the inner cover. While some beekeepers use a cushion above an inner cover, Mr. Powers is, so far as I know, the first to invert the arrangement, using the inner cover above the cushion. By having the cushion firmly attached to the inner cover it maintains its shape, and there is one less loose piece to handle. This arrangement, as shown in Fig. 1, is used on the hives the year round, with the best results, and certainly no other apiary which the writer has examined in early spring has shown the average strength of Mr. Powers' colonies in April, 1912. Not being satisfied with the usual make- shift hive-stands, Mr. Powers has devised and now uses the concrete stands shown in flgTires 1 and 2. The method of making these stands is simplicity itself. Forms perhaps two inches deep, shaped as shown, and resting directly on the bare ground, are filled Avith concrete, and left to harden for some time. EXPERIMENTS WITH DIFFERENT RACES. Mr. Powers has ex- perimented on quite a large scale to find the best strain of bees for tlie production of comb honey in his locality. Starting with an ex- cellent strain of Ital- ians, the first experi- ment was the introduc- t i 0 n of Carniolan breeding queens, from which the entire yard was requeened. If I am not mistaken, from the resultant Carnio- Italian cross Mr. Pow- ers secured the largest average per colony which he has ever tak- en. About this time the rise of Banat bees oc- curred in our beekeep- ing pei-iodieals. Im- ported queens of this race were secured and tested. It was found that the new bees, while perhaps not so prolific as the Carnio- lans, produced fully as much fancy honey, perhaps even excel- ling the Carniolans in whiteness of capping, in using the minimum of propolis and in gentleness. The yard was then requeened with daughters of tlie Banat breeders, most of them mating with Italian drones. But after trying the Banats and their crosses for some years Mr. Powers has come to think less highly of them than before. Their universal fault, in this locality, is their diminution in strength and working energy during the blossoming of the second cro^D of alfalfa — the very time when we need colo- nies with a maximum of strength. Meridian, Idaho. [Nearly all the reports have indicated that the Banats are less desirable than Ital- ians or Carniolans. It looks as though they, like the Punics, deserve to be forgot- ten.'— Ed.] Fig. 2. — How the concrete hive-stands are made. 90 Gleanings in bee culture -^^v^^-_^. /d^ .sO.. J.y-i.^.. ^t-J:-. . rsro. isj,.. L..;...,/ ^ JosEiMi (jould's (/dm.mox S::.\sk He:-: Hinks. //-/ /n/ilc/i. cJ Cfa'tce- ff f^fn' f/tr ,)fnit fnd air; and by using screens, neither bees nor mill- ers could have access to these combs. These racks, being so far from the floor or any otiier accessbile place for mice, afford an ideal place for keeping all combs not in use. FEBRUARY 15, 1913 H3 General Correspondence SHALL WE ENCOURAGE MORE TO KEEP BEES ? OR SHALL WE RENDER MORE HELP TO THOSE ALREADY IN THE BUSINESS ? BY J. L. BYEE The December issue of the Canadian Bee Journal reprints an article conti'ibuted to the Farmer's Advocate by our well-known friend R. F. Holtermann. The editor of the latter paper asked for a summary of the prospects of beekeeping in Canada, and the article in question deals largely with that phase of the industi'y; and while the views expressed may not be in harmony with the ideas of all others engaged in the business, they are, nevertheless, rery inter- esting, and worthy of our sincere considera- tion. After commenting on the fact that European and American foul brood are a serious menace to successful beekeeping, he saj-s, " Just now, it seems to me, to advise men either in Ontario or Quebec to go into beekeeping is like advising a man to go into hog-production with an outbreak of hog cholera in the vicinity, only far worse." Referring to the claim that these diseases are not checked more effectually than is the case, because of lack of funds from the Province to fight them properlj', he further says: "I shall let the public judge as to the wisdom of such a policy, and whether it is wise to seek to develop, at expense, the industry on the one hand, and allow those already' in it to be Aviped out on the other for lack of funds." The editor of the Canadian Bee Journal, commenting favorably on Mr. Holtermann's article, says, among other things, " Our officials are not to blame. On the contrary, they fully recognize the impossibility of checking the scourge with the scanty means placed at their disjDosal by the Government. If, however, the whole of the funds now being spent for ajDicultural purposes in the province could be used for taking vigorous repressive measures against bee diseases, better results would ensue." Let me digress just here to state that European foul brood is the disease that Mr. Holtermann has mostly in view, and I pre- sume the editor of the Canadian Bee Jour- nal also refers particularly to this brand of foul brood, as it is generally admitted that the old-time variety we have been so familiar with is gradually being cornered, and has lost its terrors for most beekeepers. Returning again to the article in ques- tion, let me say that I have quoted from it, because in reading it one can not help see- ing at once that the author believes it is a fallacy to try to persuade others to go into the business of beekeeping when those al- ready in the business are up against such a serious menace as foul brood. And right here let me add that, during the past season, when traveling, meeting in convention, or in other ways associating with the majority of our producers, I found by actual inquiry that nearly all are of the same opinion as our friend in this matter. Ever since the Provincial apiarist has been appointed, I have been a loyal supporter of liim, and to- day I believe we have a man in the position whom we have reason to be proud of; but at the same time there is no use in denying the fact that the Avork being done in con- nection with apiculture, in so far as practi- cal help to those in the business is concern- ed, is not Avhat most beekeepers were ex- pecting when the government decided to open a department of apiculture at the Agricultural College. No doubt the same opinion is held by many beekeepei-s in the different States that have departments of apiculture; but as I am not so well ac- quainted with the producers so concerned, I can not speak with authority for them. When the editor of the Canadian Bee Jour- nal says that if the whole of the funds now being spent for apiculture were applied to foul-brood suppression, I do not think he means to imply that the department should be abolished, but, rather, that as much as is now being granted for all the work should be given for foul-brood suppression alone. I have already referred to the fact that the majority of the beekeepers believe that less encouragement should be given to those contemplating going into the business, and that more help should be given to those al- ready established. This being a fact, it may be asked why more has not been said about it in a public manner; and for answer I would say that rather short crops, with an unlimited market for the same, has caused honey to reach a high-water mark here in Ontario, so that any real " kicking " is al- most an impossibility at present. But let the present " boom " end, a series of heavy crops follow with attendant lower prices, then surely there would be a "howl" against any systematic propaganda for developing more beekeepers. To those who have read thus far, this will no doubt seem but a bit of carping criti- cism; but I wish to assure one and all that nothing is further from my mind; for, re- gardless of what any of us beekeepers think about the matter, so long ns ^.jr Gover"- 114 ment fosters any industry in agricultural colleges, or in any other way, so long we may expect to see systematic instruction given in that industry; and all who will ai'e at liberty to take advantage of that instruc- tion. At the same time, care should be taken not to. exaggerate the possibilities of the calling as an income-getter, and espe- cially should all be warned of the veiy seri- ous problems confronting the would-be bee- keeper; for when all is said and done, even tlie most enthusiastic beekeeper must admit that our business is one peculiai'ly fraught with dangers, and often unexpected difficul- ties, all out of proportion to any other ru- ral industry. Again, let us remember that, in this mat- ter of giving encouragement to beginners, the Government or its officials are not the cliief sinnei's by any means. Without any desire to try to resolve ourselves into a mutual-admiration society, I would ask the question, " Are not beekeepers as a class the most unselfish lot of mortals that ever existed?" Do you ever feel like "turning down" some eager (perhaps needy) young fellow when he comes asking, in all earnest- ness, something about your business — the business you love? If you are feeling a bit out of sorts when you start to answer these questions, perhaps you may try to squirm out of them by saying, " What other business men are inclined to tell the secrets of their business and ready to lend a help- ing hand to others?" The very fact that you thus hesitate in answering, proves the truth of my first question. After all is said and done, that very trait in the make-up of most beekeepers has been the means of my getting so much enjoyment out of life dur- ing the past few years that we have been making our living from the bees alone. Of course, there are some few, even among beekeepers, who are as "business-like" as lots of people in other professions; and they will refuse to ttll any thing about their methods, and will treat almost with contempt any one wh^ would be so foolish as to ask for help. If you are not one of that class (and I don't believe you are), in all honesty how do you like to iiib shoul- ders with such men when at conventions or other places? And, by the way, very few, like the ones described, ever come to con- ventions or attempt to mingle with the bee- keepers at large. Yes, life consists of more than business; and while self-preservation is, we are told, the first law of nature, yet none of us liveth to himself; and, generally speaking, all we can do for the other fellow will return us good interest — ^if not in dollars, in some- GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE thing worth much more than can be esti- mated by the currency of our land. Mount Joy, Dec. 29. [Deeming it no more than fair to let Mr. Pettit make his own comment on the above, we submitted to liim as well as to Mr. Byer a proof. Mr. Pettit says:] I don't know that there is very much to say, as Mr. Byer has answered himself pret- ty well before he has finished; but it does look to me like setting up straw men for the fun of knocking them down. First, the im- plication is made that I am inviting people to go into beekeeping instead of helping those who are already engaged in the busi- ness. In reply, let me say that I have been repeatedly asked by my chief to prepare a bulletin especially for beginners in beekeep- ing, but so far have not had time to do so. My work has been fully occupied in an edu- cational campaign, principally for those al- ready engaged in beekeeping, and more particularly for the benetit of those who have or expect in the near future to have foul brood to contend with. I can say, with- out fear of contradiction by those wlio know the facts of the case, that 19 out of 20 of those receiving benefit from the ex- penditure of government money for bee- keeping in Ontario were already engaged in keeping bees before this department was es- tablished. The whole trend of educational work is along the line of making them bet- ter able to contend with foul brood. Surely Mr. Byer is joking when he speaks of the advancing prices of honey as a " boom." It is not keeping pace with other food products, and there is no indication of their prices being reduced in the near fu- ture. Mr. Byer makes the statement that during the past season, " when traveling, me-r-ting in convention, or in other ways associating with the majorit}' of our producers." he found by actual inquiry that nearly all are of the same opinion as our friend in this matter. Now, there are 10,000 beekeepers in Ontario, and I imagine I am safe in say- ing that at least half of them are producers of honey; but supposing only one in five were a producer, Mr. Byer was not on gov- ernment work of any kind except to attend two or three demonstrations in one county, and at the Toronto convention in November. How, then, did he come in contact with 2,000 Ontario 'beekeepers, and have the op- portunity of questioning each one as to his opinion of the work done by the Ontario Agricultural College in order to find that the majority of them thought as he does in p FEBUUARY 15, 1913 Il;e ease? As a matter of fact I receive a number of kind letters of appreciatio)i from Ontario honey-producers, Sut very few in- deed of the nature of Mr. Byer's letter. [We hardly think that ]\Ir. Byer meant that he had actually cjuestioned over half of the producers. By " majority " he j^robably had in mind those more prominent in the industry. See editorial. — Ed.] HOW A BREEDER SELECTS A GOOD QUEEN BY H. G. QUIRIN In a recent issue of Gleanings I note that some of the breeders are asked to tell how to judge a queen. In judging a queen, a breeder is often governed by principles dif- cult to express in words. A queen in a cage can not very well be judged, as all one has to go by is her looks ; and one can tell no more about a queen from her looks than how far a toad will hop from its looks. It is true we can tell where the queen is of good size, and is properly proportioned ; also whether she is spry and active, and we /^ Danzenbaker sections; and I think, taking into consideration the miles traveled (about 1800), and that the comb* were handled from wharf to railroad depots, from depots to wagons something like thirty times, and yet arrived back to Victoria without a section, comb, or single cell being damaged, is a wonderful record. The sections were packed 16 in a glass-fronted crate, 3 M: inches wide, about Vs inch play at sides and ends, one layer of sheet cotton batting on bot- tom and top of sections, and lid nailed on. The crate.s were packed four in a used candy-box, two deep and two wide, glass fronts toward each other, with sheet of corrugated paper between. On the bot- tom of the box were two inches of excelsior. Be- tween the two tiers of crates was one inch of excel- s'or, and two inches of the same packing on top of all. Between the sides and ends of the crates and the sides of the box were three inches of excelsior, all packed as solid as hands could pack it. There was much doubt as to results when the final trip home of 800 miles by freight, which took 21 days on account of an accident on rail, was started; but every thing arrived in good condition — no shake in the big box, not a glass or comb broken, nor a cell of honey leaking. The sections were all selected for exhibition purposes. The combs were well filled, and attached right to the edge of the sections. The;e were displayed in glass-covered trays holding 24 sections, presenting one solid slab of snow-white hon- ey 24 X 30 inches, and were the admiration of all who saw them. JJow for the secret of success. The combs were one solid mass, with no empty spaces as with bee- way sections, no shake in crate, excelsior packed firm ; just sufficient spring to receive concussion of rough handling, but resiliency to resume its former position before the shock. TABLE OF DISTANCES COVERED. Comb honey moved from ranch to railroad station at Shanrugan Lake by row boat 1 mile Shanrugan Lake to Victoria by rail 28 Depot to house by team 1 " House to Victoria exhibition by team. ... 3 " Victoria exhibition to Canadian Pacific rail- way wharf by team 3 " Boat to Vancouver 7.5 Vancouver wharf to depot by team 1% " Vancouver to New Westminster by rail. . . 12 From depot to fairgrounds by team IVi " From New Westminster to Lethbridge by rail 790 " From depot to fairground by team 1 " From fairgrounds to depot by team 1 From Lethbridge to Vancouver by rail. . . . 800 " Vancouver to Victoria by boat 75 " Wharf to house, by express 1 Total 1794 miles About 30 handlings took place. About 100 jars of extracted honey were packed in excelsior ; not one broke. It is very different with straw, so frequently used in comb-honey packing. Straw, when once flattened, remains so to a certain extent, and leaves too much FEBRUARY 15, 1913 131 space for the comb honey to shake about. In moving bees from place to place in wagons, I always use hay, as it is much more resilient than straw. E. F. Robinson. Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Nov. 27. Would Albuminized Sugar as Feed and Substitute for Pollen be Practical ? In reading the article, " The Physiological Effect of Feeding Sugar," p. 817, Dec. 15, the thought came to me, "Why not feed albumen?" If pollen, which is so rich in albumen, is so essential to brood- rearing, why not feed albumen in a concentrated form? A substitute for pollen would be hard to find; but the white of an egg is rich in albumen. To the beaten whites of eggs add pulverized sugar until it forms a soft mass about the consistency of dough, and feed as you would hard candy or fondant, or add the h eaten egg to sugar syrup previously cooled 80 as not to cook the egg, and feed in any of the various feeders. Feed this albuminized sugar or syrup in early spring to prevent spring dwindling, and to encourage brood-rearing. Now I am only a novice at beekeeping, chickens being my hobby. The laying hen must be supplied with an abundance of protein and other foods essen- tial to egg production. According to Dr. U. Kramer, pollen (albumen) is essential to brood-rearing, and the bees' welfare in general. I have never tried this albuminized sugar or syrup feed. It is only a thought which came to me while reading Dr. Kramer's article. Do you know of its being tried? Do you think it practical? Kansas City, Mo. MRS. H. Millard. [Bees can usually obtain natural pollen as soon as the weather is safe for extensive brood-rearing ; but under conditions where the natural pollen is too scarce we think the feeding of some such substitute as rye meal out of doors would be much cheaper and more satisfactory than the expensive white of •ggs, even if the latter would supply all the elements needed — a supposition which we doubt. — Ed.] How Much has Location to do with Success in Working Bees for Honey ? Two years ago I sold some of my land in South Carolina, and in casting about for an investment I decided to move to Georgia, within eight miles of Augusta, where I could engage in the trucking busi- ness and also work my bees for honey. I practically had to give up queen-breeding on account of not having help at that time. I found the best roads around and near Augusta that I had ever seen. The land for six miles out is a black loam ; but after passing these six miles we come to high dry sandy soil, with a scrawny growth of oak and long-leaf pine, identical with many lands in Florida. We finally decided to locate on a hill about a mile long, where the atmosphere is dry and pure. When I moved I brought 20 or 25 colonies of my best strain of Italian bees, and some of these were taken off the wagon and placed directly on the ground without even a bottom-board. The bees have not been harmed by ants or other insects. I have never seen ants disturb a colony, notwithstanding many are in this soil. I thought from aU appear- ances the territory around would be good for bees ; but I have been here now two seasons — one a very dry year, and the other wet and i^pasonal.le through- out the year, and a large portion of the time too wet. Although there were many ideal days, both in spring and summer, I have secured but little honey, even extracted, for I do not work for comb honey. The cotton failed to produce honey here this season, and also the asters and goldenrod ; and yet there were times when I thought conditions were ideal. I can not account for this, except by climatic in- fluences. There are swamps and the Savannah River within five or six miles. I w-rite to give my fellow readers this experience, and to show that there must be about as much in location as any thing else; and it may be that some can account for the conditions here by some other theory. I note that the shipping of bees by the pound from the South is recommended in order to build up weak colonies north. This is practical and profitable. Sev- eral years ago, when I commenced shipping bees and mailing queens, we shipped a good many bees by the pound; but for some reason it was discontinued, and the nucleus system took its place. Last year I shipped a few cages of bees to Canada with perfect success, and would have shipped a good many to the party ; but in the mean time they sold out their bees and ordered shipments discontinued. The cages man- ufactured are well adapted to this purpose. While I did not get much honey this year, my bees are in fine condition for the coming spring. Augusta, Ga., Dec. 31. J. D. Fooshk. [Mr. J. D. Fooshe is one of the most experienced queen-breeders in the country. Our older readers will recognize him as the man who was able to raise such fine stock in the days gone by. In the last few J ears he has somewhat dropped out of sight, and the letter above explains why. If there is any man who can make a success of shipping bees in pound lots. Mr. Fooshe would be the man to do it. — Ed.] " Bulk Comb Honey " or " Chunk Honey "? which is the More Distinctive Expression? I note that your Texas correspondent is very anx- ious that the term " chunk honey " be dropped, and "bulk comb honey" be substituted. "Bulk comb honey " is descriptive, but not more so than the less cumbersome term " chunk honey," and is misleading when applied to a mass of chunk honey with a quan- tity of extracted honey to fill up the spaces. His plea that the product originated in Texas would in- dicate a greater antiquity for the honey industry in that State than most of us were aware of. Before we heard much about Texas as bee terri- tory I produced and sold considerable quantities of chunk honey in Iowa; and about 1856, when I was not more than four years of age, I ate chunk honey in Illinois, and I distinctly remember the flavor of sulphur, which proclaimed the process by which it was commonly obtained in those days, viz., by smok- ing the bees to death, "taking up a hive" and cut- ting out the chunks. But the product is evidently older yet, for it must have been chunk honey which Samson took from the carcass of the lion, and that, if I remember correct- ly, was several years before Texas was annexed to the United States. Burdett Hassett. Alamogordo, New Mexico, Nov. 21. [There is considerable truth in what our corres- pondent says, and ordinarily we prefer the shorter term; yet, on the other hand, it is true, we think, that there should be a distinction made between the modern " comb honey in bulk " and the old-fashion- ed " chunk honey " obtained by sulphuring the bees. We ourselves are inclined to agree w-ith Mr. Scholl, therefore, as we feel that bulk comb honey is really the more distinctive and dignified term. — Ed.] Why Not Send Pound Packages of Bees by Parcel Post? Referring to the editorial. Dec. 15. p. 787, regarding pound packages of bees from the South to the North, I wish to say that it is the greatest plan ever pro- mulgated. One of the best things about this business is that the packuacs of bees are young ones, and, consequently, will live longer than the wintered bees, 132 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE and they will be worth as much to the northern man as twice the number of wintered bees. Yes, it is a success. I have sent hundi'eds. I am able to guar- antee safe arrival and satisfaction on packages when a queen is with them. They do not always go through as safely when they have no queen. I have 550 queen-mating boxes, and 500 full colonies to produce bees and honey, and an excellent southern location. I can send out 500 or more packages of bees a month after April 15. Why can't they be sent by parcel post ? Fitzpatrick, Ala., Jan. 3. W. D. AchORD. [ We have looked up the parcel-post ruling, and it seems to us very clear that bees can not be sent in regular pound and half-pound packages. A modi- fication of the ruling may be made for us later. However, ruling or no ruling, we believe it would be unwise for the average beekeeper to undertake to ship bees by parcel post. This new old method needs to be tested a little more before it can be con- sidered safe to undertake it. About thirty-five years ago an ignoramus undertook to send about Vz lb. of bees in a paper lex by mail. They got loose, of course, in the mail-car, and stung the employees. The result was a ruling tliat 1 arred even queen-bees with their attendants from the mails. It was a mat- ter of a year or two, coupled with a good deal of hard work on the part of Prof. A. J. Cook, now of California, and others before the ruling was rescind- ed. See Gleanings, page 106, for March, 1880. It would be folly to repeat this experience, and for that reason we urge the importance of waiting until we have a combless cage perfected. Then we can go to the Postoffice Department and show what we can do, and probably secure a ruling in our favor. — Ed.] Double Wire Cloth for Better Ventilation in Comb- less Bee-package I have made only one trial shipment of a package of bees without comb, sending a pound of bees con- fined to the package 46 hours with only three dead bees at the end of that time. I made the package 4x6x8, of %-inch square stuff with one fence-like piece through the center for the bees to cluster on. After making the frames of the ■% stuff, 4x8, I covered both sides with wire cloth. This gives a space between the wire cloth of % inch for air, if there should be other packages piled on or over the bees. I then nailed on the bottom and two strips % x % to form the ends, which I also covered on both sides with wire cloth. The candy cage is fastened on the floor. Then I cut a piece of heavy felt about 6x6 inches. I waxed the floor well where I placed the felt. This felt I soaked in water, then tacked it to the waxed part of the floor. For the cover I bored four two-inch holes, and covered them with wire cloth except one through which I shook the bees. I covered this with wire cloth. On this cover I fastened a convenient handle for the railroad men to use in lifting the package. I also put a strip of paper on the cover, with the fol- lowing directions: " Live bees. Do not cover tightly. No danger if handled reasonably." Hartville, O., Nov. 5. J. A. Kreiohbaum. [Double wire cloth, the same as is used in ordi- nary queen-cages, is hardly sufficient protection. Single wire cloth, with a wooden grating, is better, in our judgment. Packages that go by express or parcel post should be so protected that the sharp corners of the box or other articles will not punch through and ruin the contents. In the case of a package containing bees, even a small hole would cause no end of trouble, to say nothing of the loss of bees. The wooden gratings that we recommend are narrow slats about %xi4 inch thick. In the case of larger packages, the strips should be % or •Yen heavier. — Ed] How Does the Queen Face when Laying ? I have been waiting patiently to see whether some one of the lynx-eyed American bee-students would not point out a peculiarity in the piece of comb illustrated on page 657, Oct. 15. The cells are built with two sides horizontal. Very unorthodox of the bees! You are scientifically cautious, Mr. Editor, when you remark on page 647 that " it is safe to say that a queen while she is laying an egg usuaMu has her head toward the upper part of the comb;" but I can not agree with you, after all. I have had two or more observatories in constant use for the last three or four summers, and we have often watched the laying of the queens. Whatever attitude she may be in when she inserts her abdomen into the cell, she almost invariably twists round before the actual process of laying is performed, in such a way that her head is toward the lower part of the comb. As a rule, too, she is not looking right down- ward, but has her head turned slightly toward the end of the frame to her right. Perhaps you will allow me to express my keen appreciation of Gleanings, and the way it is con- ducted. I begin almost to be personally acquainted with the editors and some of the contributors, and I just love the kindly way in which they sit upon each other when one has been caught napping. I am glad to see that you have a due appreciation of Mr. Sladen. So far as I can see, he should never have been allowed to go to America. There, now! John Anderson. M. A., B. Sc. Stornoway, Scotland. [ We have examined many pieces of naturally built comb, and have found that, while the two parallel sides are usually vertical, still there are a number of exceptions. We may say, then, that naturally built comb of both types is found, but that the pre- dominating type is that in which the two parallel sides are vertical. Concerning the position of the queen when she is laying, there are so many exceptions to any one rule that perhaps we put the matter a little too strong, even in our general statement t(5 which you refer. Two of our queen-breeders agreed that the queen usually has her head toward the top. How- ever, if we are not correct in this we shall be glad to know it. — Ed.] Exhibits at the Oklahoma State Fair We noticed your error in the display picture on p. 811, Dec. 15; also your correction on editorial page, Jan. 1, with Mr. Van De Mark's letter quoted therein. The only part of Mr. V.'s letter to which we could possibly take exception is his statement that " there were four others nearly as good," and pre- sumes he means to include our own exhibit in the four. The records of the State Fair Association will show that of the nineteen ' classes offered for bees, honey, wax, and allied products, we entered seven- teen, winning a ribbon in every class we entered, getting nine firsts. The other firsts were awarded, five to Mr. Bartholomew, four to Mr. Crouch, and one to Mr. Burrage. After winning as many firsts as any other two exhibitors in as big a honey show as this, we dislike very much to be placed in the " also ran " class. Noble, Okla., Jan. 10. Garee & Garee. Danger of a Lack of Stores Toward Spring Bees are wintering finely. Some beekeepers will be troubled toward spring by a shortage of winter sup- ply of honey in colonies. Clover is very promising up to date. A good stand of white clover is to be seen in every pasture and field in which it is allowed to grow. The season of 1913 promises to be a good one in my locality. Unionville, Mo., Jan. 24. Fred H. Drurv. FEBRUARY 15, 1913 1st Our Homes A, I. ROOT To him that oveixometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. — Rev. 2:7. Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many bas- kets ye took up ? neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? — Matt. 16:9, 10. (A sequel to the Home Papers in the Jan. 15th issue.) In the second and third chapter of Rev- elation there are some glorious and won- derful promises to those who '* overcome." I wish the readers of Gleanings would look them up. I have chosen one of them for my text for this Home i^aper; and as I dictate here the first page of that Home paper (that was lost) 1 do it to illustrate how many times in this busy life it is necessary to exercise great patience and perseverance, and holding on. Huber has explained that it was the intention of the Root Company to send me a dictaphone in order to help me to keep up my Home Papers while I was in Florida during the winter. I was told arrangements were made so the dictaphone would probably be here early in November about as soon as we arrived; but after go- ing to the express office again and again, and not finding any thing of the dicta- phone, I wrote to Huber. He i-eplied, and said he supi3osed it had been sent promptly long ago. This was somewhere about the first of December. The comjDany, however, without giving any explanation of their re- missness, finally wrote that they had finally forwarded the dictaphone to my address. Then I commenced going to the express office again and again, inquiring for some- thing for A. I. Root. Being told continual- ly that there was nothing, I finally, one day, remonstrated. I said, " Look here, friends, a dictaphone has been shipped to me from Cleveland. It is an instrument worth some- thing like $100 or more, and it is in a large box, and it seems to me it must be here somewhere." At this the agent replied, " Oh ! it's a big box that you wanted, is it 1 Well, I remem- ber there is something of this sort here, after all, and it has been here some time." When he hunted it up he found it was directed to The A. I. Root Co. instead of to A. I. Root, and this gave him an excuse for saying, over and over again, there was noth- ing for me. I got the box home as soon as possible; and then, in order to be sure that the instrument was not injured in any way, I unpacked it very carefully myself, looking all the while for some directions for setting it up and handling it. Not a scrap of any thing could be found; neither was there a mouthpiece anywhere in the package to use for dictation. I wrote a remonstrance to Huber, and he said something like this : "As the machine was expensive and complicated, the manufacturers never had furnished printed directions for use, but they always sent a man along to instruct the purchaser how to operate and see that he got along all right." As they had already sold the A. I. Root Company several machines, they prob- ably supposed that every member of the firm ought to know how to use them. And this, in fact, is true. Several times last summer Huber did remind me that if I was going to use a dictaphone down in Florida I had better come into the office and prac- tice on it awhile; but I was so busy in building that bungalow that it was put off and neglected. It is true, however, that I did have one down here a year ago, and under Ernest's tuition I dictated a little matter on it. The fact is, I somehow dread- ed using the machine, feeling a sort of em- barrassment talking to a piece of " machin- ery " instead of talking to my long-time friend and standby, W. P. Root, who has for so many years taken down all of my dictation. My correspondence was already far behind. I had a lot of things that I wanted to say to my readers since coming here to Florida, and it was of the greatest importance that the dictaphone be got in trim. Perhaps I might explain right here that for many years past it has been a very hard matter for me to use my right arm and do much writing. I can drive nails and hoe corn and " fuss with chickens " all right ; but when I come to get a pen or pencil in my right hand and sit down to the desk, there is a sort of writer's paralysis that has troubled me more or less for forty years. There was no way but to " cipher out " how to use the complicated instrument, even if I did feel .much hesitation in undertaking to pull to pieces any thing so complicated and difficult. I was tempted many times to give it up ; but then I recalled how it spoil- ed my enthusiasm and energy to acknowl- edge myself defeated in any praiseworthy undertaking. It really hurts me, and for that matter it hurts anybody, to acknowl- edge himself defeated, and give up in some- thing that really ought to be done. Under the circumstances the dictaphone seemed \o be almost the only outlet that would permit me to keep up my department of the jour- nal, and was almost the only way to con- tinue to lend a helping hand to those who love poultry, high-pressure gardening, and. 134 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE the different branches that I have been so long writing. Perhaps I may confess to you that I prayed over the matter again and again, asking the dear Lord to give me back the skilled and expert use of that right hand for just a little while. I thought of the little couplet : Backward, turn backward, O time, in thy fliglit ; Make me a child again , .lust for to-night. Will our readers now turn to page 68, Gleanings for Jan. 15? * The broken cyl- inder must evidently have cut short a part of that concluding sentence, and Huber ended it for me, for I had the speaking-tube already in my hand but could get only a faint response. I recalled that in our Me- dina home office I frequently heard the girls listening to the dictaphone when it could be heard plainly several feet away from them; and I knelt down as I told you, and asked the dear Lord to show me how to make the machine speak as plainly as it did back in my Medina home. Some of you may feel inclined to smile at my faith that my prayer would be answered. Perhaps I can make it sound a little more reasonable to you with this explanation. After having prayed over things I often seem to be im- pressed to examine more thoroughly in cer- tain directions that I had failed to notice critically before. After getting up, or as soon as I arose, I felt impressed to get Huber's letter of instructions, and go over it a little more carefully and see if I could not find some clue to the trouble there. I saw now almost at once where he told me to pull a certain lever over toward me Avhen I wanted to dictate. Now, as this lever could not come over toward me because there was a steel post or stud in the way that seemed immovable, I concluded that he must have made a mistake, and he meant to push it from me instead of pulling it toward me. At this time, however, I grasped hold of that little steel post once more, and finally found that I could turn it around; and after pulling a little harder I found it slipped back out of the way. Mrs. Root came over just at this time, and I told her we might rejoice, for my troubles were over. She replied, "Are you very sure?" " Yes. I'm sure that my prayer is answer- ed." Once more I started up and called out "Helloa! helloa!" and the response came like an echo so plainly that it could be * There is also a period in the wrong place on p. 67, toward the close of the page. Instead of "He applied to the Savior again and again," it should be, " He applied to the Savior again. And again the Master," etc. heard all over the room. Through the dic- taphone I thanked God for having delivered me out of my troubles, and finally ended by singing an old favorite hymn. I am going to give you one verse right here of that old hymn, dear friends. I wish it were possible for you to hear my voice as well as read the words in print. Perhaps it will be pos- sible in time to come, as our good friend Edison is just now at work on something quite similar. Oh to grace how great a debtor Daily I'm constrained to bfi ! Let thy goodness, like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to thee. The words came back full and clear, and seemed like a benediction. Two or three years ago our people in Medina sent word to me, while down here in Florida, that they wanted me to employ the best artist I could find and get a good picture of myself to be put into Gleanings. I kept putting it oif, but finally they urged so that I went to work to get a disagreeable duty off my mind. First, I went to a good barber and told him I wanted him to take plenty of time and fix me up in the best style he could so that I could have a picture taken to put in print. He was an English- man, and was (therefore?) in the habit of doing good and faithful work. Then I went to the photographer and told him something the same thing. He took, per- haps, half a dozen pictures, and then touch- ed them up with all the skill he possessed, and submitted one of them to me for my approval. Now, I was gi-eatly rejoiced to find out that he had made a real good- looking man of my poor old self. In fact, it was so much better looking than I am really that my friends and relatives all said that it didn't look like me, and on this ac- count it never was given in Gleanings ; but I ahvays felt bad about it. IMay be I can give it to you yet if some of you care enough about the matter. But now in regard to the dictaphone. Mrs. Root declared right away that it was beautifully clear, but that the voice didn't sound like mine at all, and I agreed with her. I told her that I should never know that it was my voice. In fact, I never be- fore was aware that I had a voice of so much volume and strength. Now please, dear fiiends, don't think me presuming or puffed up when I say that, after the kin'd words which have come to me all these years from (he readers of Gleanings in regard to my allotted work in this world, it occurs to me that it might be a pleasure for the readers of Gleanings lo hear my voice. Well, I don't know just how it is going to FEBRUARY 15, 1918 135 be brought about; but I have faith to be- lieve that the time is coming when God will give us the means of talking to friends thousands of miles away, great numbers of them; that he will also give some invention to enable the readers to hear the tones of our voice when they are reading the printed words. Tliis thing has already come to pass to a certain extent, for I suppose you are fully aware that these cj-linders can be ship- ped thousands of miles, especially if they are carefully packed, and enable friends not only to review the words of all those we have read about and loved, but also to hear the very tones of voice of people who have been long years dead and laid in their graves. " Rejoice ! May the Lord be praised for the victories of men." Let us go over briefly the overcoming of ditliculties before I could talk to you as I do now thi-ough this beautiful instrument. First, the order to ship it to my Florida home was overlooked or neglected. Second, after it was shipped the agent here at Bradentown kept telling me '* Nothing for A. I. Root." When it finally came, there was no mouthpiece with which to dictate; and the carriage failed to move. When, after hard work and earnest prayer, I suc- ceeded in overcoming this trouble, the ma- chine wouldn't talk plainly and clearly. Finally, in answer to my prayer, I discover- ed that the little steel post that seemed to be riveted so firmly could be lifted back to let the lever come fonvard. Once more, in my triumph, after I succeeded in making it work to perfection, and had used up the cylinder in thanking and praising God for the victory, those cylinders were smashed by the express company in its transit to Medina. Perhaps I was somewhat at fault in my method of packing; but I had large printed labels pasted all over the package, saying, " Fragile, handle with care." The express agent or handlers, however, seemed to pay no attention to this caution.* Both of the first two packages were smashed and rendered almost useless. After we got it working so finely, Mrs. Root suggested tliat perhaps there was a providence in it after all; for had not all these troubles occurred I would not have been obliged to pull the machine all to pieces and study its construc- tion so fully, so that now 1 was perfect master of every detail of the complicated apparatus. Yes, this is true; and this try- ing experience I have had is probablj- worth much more than all it cost. But now, dear * I notice the U. S. Express Co. furnishes its agents a good-sized label, reading as follows: "Glass: with great care. Put this upon every package of glass." Now, the agent who would deliberately ruin a package thus labeled should be severely dealt with. friends, comes a much greater and grander truth. In praying that I might have the wisdom to surmount the obstacles that lay before me I came into closer touch with my Savior than perhaps I had ever been before. In fact, for several days afterward it seem- ed as if a new companionship was with me, and by my side, no matter what 1 was do- ing. Scrijature texts came to me in gi'eat numbers that«l had never jjarticularly no- ticed before, and seemed to sliine out with a new and wondrous promise. I presume this experience will not only give me more faith, but will, perhaps, make the Bible promises brighter, many of them, for the rest of my life. For instance, I recalled ihe time when the disciijles were worried because they thought the Master was re- proving them for forgetting to bring bread. In one of our texts I have recalled the cir- cumstance. He remonstrated with them for not having remembered how he fed the mul- titudes with the loaves and fishes, and for not remembering that all the resources of this great universe were at his beck and call. The man, woman, or child who has no difficulties or trials to overcome can never arise to his fullest and greatest and grands est development. " To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." POULTRY-KEEPING ON OUR COXVERGENT POULTRY-RANCH IN FLORIDA. When we arrived here the first week in November my first work was to get our fifty pullets from my neighbor Abbott and in- stall them on our place. The pullets re- membered their old home of six months before, without question; for, the very first thing, they sought out their familiar scratch- ing-places and places to roost, watering- 1 laces, etc. As they had scarcely finished moulting, for a few days we got very few eggs, perhaps only three or four to start with. As eggs, however, were forty cents a f'lozen the pullets veiy soon began to pay for their feed. At the present time (first week in January) we are getting from fif- teen to twenty eggs. I might remark right here tliat eighteen ducks have given us about as many eggs as fifty pullets so far; and as the ducks get a large part of their feed from the canal I have spoken of, they are more profitable than chickens so far. With the fifty pullets was a thi-ee-year-old Buttercup rooster. He, too, was iu the midst of a moult. I suppose it is not very good management to expect a three-year- old rooster to give eggs with very high fertility when given as many as fifty pul- 13S GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE lets. Somehow or other, I got into the way of reasoning that the male bird didn't tiy to serve any more than the pullets that were laying. He is very quick to single out a hen that laid an egg and serve her; but does he seixe or undertake to serve the others that don't lay at all — that is, where he has a yard full of pullets'? I have hunt- ed the poultry journals for years in regard to this, but have never been^ble to find a single thing touching the subject. Some of you may remember that I paid one dollar for a secret for getting strong fertility. The seci-et was this : Fix your nests or gate so that, when a hen has laid an egg, she wiU go into the yard where the male bird is confined; and as he, as a matter of course, serves her promptly as soon as she comes into his " harem," you would naturally sup- pose that the eggs would be all fertile. Now, this secret seemed to take the ground that the male bird serves only the laying hens. Well, my first hatch from the incu- bator that holds Mtj eggs was only thirty eggs fertile. Thinking the trouble was be- cause moulting was so near, I tried it again, putting in sixty eggs* for the first five days until testing time. Although the hens were mostly over their moult this time, I got only thirty fertile eggs from sixty. As I can't stand this sort of work I divided my hens into two yards, and have put a brisk young ButtercuiD rooster in the other half, and we expect better fertility accordingly. I want to repeat again that I do not believe artificial heat is needed here in our Florida climate for brooders. Fireless brood- ers properly arranged are certainly all that can be needed for twenty-five or more chicks. I have taken two broods this winter right out of our hot incubator, of course keeping them there about twenty-four hours after they were hatched, and put them di- rectly in the fireless brooderf The second day they would be out running in their ht- tle yard, and scratching the bran and sand with which the ground was covered. The next day they were climbing over the sides of the yard and rambling all over the brooder- house. I have repeatedly proved to my sat- isfaction that artificial heat has a debilitat- ing effect upon the j'oung chicks when they * Perhaps I should explain again how I get sixty eggs in a fifty-egg incuhator. I do it by standing them on the small end for the first three days. With our bright Florida sunshine I can test them quite easily at three days, and Mi-s. Root now agrees that such eggs, as a rule at least, are just as good as any three-day-old eggs for any purpose whatever; but, of course, we never sell them. Since dictating the above I have made two yards of my 50 hens, with a good male in each, and now I get about 50 fertiles out of the 60 eggs. The mother duck with her twelve ducklings flies over the two-foot fence every day, takes a swim in the canal, then comes back, and it a " model mother." even if sh* it an I. R. duck. are able to get along without it. The con- vergent poultrj'-j-ards are proving such a wonderful convenience I wonder how it is that people who keep poultry have been so long without thinking or discovering or get- ting on to this short cut in the management of poultry and poultry-houses. Think of having the poultry-houses scattered over four or five acres where they can just as well be all in one convergent yard! When the little chicks gTow, you can let them out further and further, finally giving them the whole range as far as the fences go. Just now we are building the fences out only as far as the chickens seem to run. As they grow older we build the fences a little further — no cross-fences from one side to the other at all. In this way they can have almost unlimited range, and yet all the feeding and caring for them is done at one central spot. They are all shut up at night in no time at all, compared with the old plan of chasing all around to so many dif- ferent houses. This inner court where we keep our grain and all our utensils is shut up so that it is almost an impossibility for a rat ever to gain access. There are no mice here; but I am sure it would be an easy matter to fence out mice with compar- atively little expense in the far North if this plan is followed. By the aid of a wind- mill we have driiDping water and suitable vessels between every two j^ards, so that the water takes care of itself comparatively. When the watering-dishes need to be wash- ed out it can be done very quickly, as they are all right at hand, and easily pulled out of place. INSURANCE COMPANIES AGAINST THE DEINK HABIT. Insurance companies in Great Britain, America, Sweden, Norway, and Germany are discriminating against those who drink, even in moderation. The insurance companies in Germany have issued leaf- lets and posters showing the detrimental effects of alcohol on the human body. Many insurance com- panies place total abstainers in a separate dirision, insuring their lives on cheaper rates. It is mani- festly unjust to require that total abstainers shall pay higher insurance rates on account of the lossei caused by the drinkers insured by the same com- pany. The discovery of science, that alcohol is a life-destroyer, is arousing many who heretofore have been uninterested in the temperance problem. — Un- ion Signal. Editor American Issue: — Some things you can send through the mail by parcel post are: Eggs, but- ter, meat, medicine, fruit-trees, oils, ink, candy, milk, or queen bees. Some things you can not send : Obscene literature, poison, snakes, explosives, infer- nal machines, pistols, disease germs, or intoxicating liquors of any kind. At last the government has made a wise and proper distinction. They are all of a kind. L. R. H. I wonder if L. R. H. isn't a beekeeper. Sounds like it. — A. I. R. Published by The A. I. Root Co., Medina, 0. H. H. Root, Assistant Editor. E. R. Root, Editor. A. L. Boyden, Advertising Manager. A. I. Root, Editor Home Department. J. T. Calveet, Business Manager. Entered at the PostofiEice, Medina, O., as Second-class matter. VOL. XLI. I^IARCH 1, 1913 NO. 5 Editorial Xo one can say, now, that women do not make good beekeepers. THE NATIONAL CONVENTION FEB. 12, 13. This was held at the Grand Hotel, Cin- cinnati. While the attendance was not large it was representative. At the fii-st session it looked as if there might be an " irrepres- sible coixfliet." The delegates i^resent were not agreed as to the best policy to pursue. But all is well that ends well, for the points of difference were referred to a committee, and the reports of this committee were finally agreed to. A brief report will be given later, together Avith a half-tone view showing the members and delegates present. FEEDING HARD CANDY TO BEES. We have been giving paper pie-plates filled with hard candy to some of our colo- nies that seemed to be running a little short, for the last three months. This candy is made of twenty parts of sugar to one part of honey, the whole moistened with water enough so that it can be boiled. It is then heated to a tempeature of 275 degrees Fahr- enheit, and as soon as it reaches this point it is poured into the pie-plates mentioned. These are turned upside down right over the cluster, and so far they are giving ex- cellent results. They are not affected by moisture, as Mr. A. C. Miller feared would be the case. Indeed, they preserve their shape perfectly, even when empty. As this winter has been somewhat open in most localities, there is danger of starvation. Soft candy may be as good. We have tried it to some extent, but prefer the hard. BEES ESCAPING FROM A BROKEN PACKAGE MADE TROUBLE AMONG POSTAL CLERKS. As we have intimated before, we have feared that some one not acquainted with the difficulties would attempt to send bees by parcel post, and that the cage would be broken and trouble be made at once. This is exactly what has happened. Just as our editorial form for the last issue was going to press, as mentioned briefly on pag'e 106, we received a clipping from the San Fran- cisco Chronicle, of Monday, Feb. 3, telling of a lot of bees that took possession of a postofifice at San Rafael, on Feb. 2. Par- ticulars were not given, except that, when the postal clerk opened the parcel-post pouch, the bees flew out of it, and stung liim on the face and hands. The box in which they had been confined was smashed in transit, giving the bees the run of the mail-iDouch, and, later on, of the postoffice. As stated in our last issue, there seems to be no provision, at present, authorizing the shipment of bees by parcel post; and if the cai'eless experiments along this line do not cease, there is danger that bees may be altogether barred from the mails, thus bringing about a serious state of affairs for queen-breeders and beekeepers as well. IN MEMORIAM OF D. H. COGGSHALL. It seems but a few weeks since we spent a very pleasant half-day with Mr. D. H. Coggshall the last time he was in Medina. We had met him several times before at conventions, but we became much better acquainted with him at this time, and it was with a shock, therefore, that we learn- ed of his very sudden death as mentioned in our Feb. 1.5th issue. It seems that our friend had made all preparations for spend- ing the winter in Florida, as was his cus- tom. His home west of Groton had been closed for the winter, and every thing had been arranged for a long absence. How lit- tle anybody thought at the time that these preparations were then made for the last time, and that the departure was a final one, the return to the home-place to be only after death! The party, consisting of Mr. and ]\Ii's. Coggshall, and their daughter and her hus- band. Mr. H. J. Blanchard, had already left Groton, and had proceeded on their way south as far as SajTe, Pa. While wait- ing for the connecting train for the South at tlie Lehigh Valley station, Mr. Coggshall died very suddenly of heart failure. He had anticipated another pleasant winter at his southern home at Stuart, Fla., where he had spent evei-y winter for eight years. Mr. Coggshall was born Dec. 1, 1847, in 138 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Clroton, in which township he made his home all lus life. He was a brother of W. L. Coggshall ; and although the latter has always been known as one of the most extensive beekeepers in the world, his broth- er was also extensively engaged in the busi- ness, having had at one time 800 colonies. Although a quiet beekeeper, our friend was a progressive one, and we feel that the apicultural world has lost another pio- neer. He was not a frequent contributor to the bee journals, and yet he will be missed — missed most by those who knew him best. THE KELATIVE FOOD VALUE OF HONEY AND SUGAR-SYRUP STORES FOR BEES. Elsewhere in the Canadian Department Mr. Byer makes the assertion that honey is superior to sugar stores, and then puts the proposition up to the editor. During the 70's or 80's, we do not remem- ber exactly when, R. L. Taylor, James Hed- don. Prof. A. J. Cook, and, we believe, W. Z. Hutchinson, all of Michigan, each inde- pently of the other, made some tests as to the relative value of sugar syrup and honey for wintering. The testimony of all the men, if our memory serves us correctly, was to the effect that, pound for pound, sugar syrup was much to be prefered to ordinary honey, and very much better than the ordi- nary dark or off-flavored fall honey. We had supposed that the whole beekeeping world had accepted this as a fact. ForTsrood-rear- ing purposes honey has a slight advantage, because practically all honey contains mi- nute quantities of pollen. In fact. Profes- sor Brown, of the United States Bureau of Chemistry, once said that the source of many honeys is recognizable by the pollen grains when viewed under a microscope. The primary reason for preferring sugar syrup is that it is less stimulating. A far- inaceous diet on the other hand has a tend- ency to make the bees active when they ought to go into their winter sleep, or, as we say, into a semi-state of hibernation, or what amounts practically to suspended ani- mation. In that condition respiration is low and the consumption of stores light. Sugar syrup of course has no jDollen in it. It was shown in the 80's that the bees would eat anywhere from 10 to 50 per cent less of sugar stores than of natural stores during the winter, the percentage of variation de- pending on the quality of the honey. We do not go so far as to say that the presence or absence of pollen contributes to poor or good wintering. But when we come to draw the line between the two foods, the almost universal verdict has been in favor of sugar syrup. On the other hand, it is generally considered that it is not necessary to extract good honey and feed sugar stores unless the difference in price between the two products warrants it. The extracting and feeding have a tendency to stir up a colony. Feed- ing in the fall with sugar or honey, espe- cially if the queen is a young one, has a tendency to induce brood-rearing. Some- times this is desirable, and sometimes not; so when we come to consider the relative food value of sugar and honey there are several factors to take into account. Friend Byer, practically in opposition to all the rest of the fraternity, makes the statement, " I now know that at the very least it takes a pound of sugar to have that value." " That value," as we understand it, is a pound of honey. We do not say he is wrong, but we should like to have him pre- sent his proofs. Our correspondent's opin- ions we value; and when he challenges the editor and perhaps all orthodox beedom he is entitled to consideration. A TRAMP beekeeper SPREADING BEE DISEASE ; AN AGGRAVATING CASE. A MOST exasperating ease has come to our notice of a certain tramp beekeeper, who, it is alleged, is moving bees by the carload from infested districts into local- ities where no disease exists. He seems to have no scruples about squatting an apiary of bees infected with European or Ameri- can foul brood next to a healthy yard be- longing to a permanent resident. When the locality becomes so rotten that even he can not stand it he moves to new teriitoiy, there to repeat his nefarious work. He practices migratory beekeeping on quite an extensive scale; and as he goes from one locality to another, it is said he takes no precaution to eliminate disease from his own bees; is careless about leaving tools and appliances, daubed with honey, after extracting, where all the bees in a locality can get at them, and thus caiTy the infected honey to their own hives. Numerous complaints have come in from beekeepers where he has been op- erating. Evidently nothing can be done, because he violates no law. He squats in localities where there ai'e no foul-brood laws, or else where the laws are so careless- ly drawn that he can not be restrained. It is claimed that he is spreading bee disease right and left: that he even jokes about it, saying that bee disease is his best friend, because he can go into a locality and clean out every beekeeper who may be a natural competitor. How is that for unadulterated meanness? Can you beat it? It is liigh time that States in the West MARCH 1, 1913 that do not have foul-brood laws should secure the necessaiy legislation at once. Unfortunately, California is handicapped by a very ineffective county law. These county laws are not worth much at best. What is needed is a law that gives the State Entomologist or State officers police author- ity over the wliole State to clean out bee disease wherever it may exist, and at the same time put a stop to the kind of work above described. A federal law should be enacted at once; for unless something is done speedily, such tramp beekeepers can spread more disease than all the inspectors in the country can eliminate. " THE MANIPULATION OP THE WAX SCALES OF THE HONEYBEE.-'^ This is the title of a new bulletin from the Bureau of Entomology, Circular No. 161, by Dr. D. B. Casteel, who has been in the Bureau for the past two summers, pur- suing various kinds of work under the di- rection of Dr. E. F. Phillips, in Charge of Apiculture. We have read carefully this bulletin, and regard it as one of the most interesting and valuable that have ever been put out by the Bureau. We say it is inter- esting, and it is intensely so; and valuable, because there are certain facts presented wliich may enable the ordinary beekeeper to determine when he can have comb build- ing, and when, perhaps, he may not. About 35 years ago the writer was inter- ested in this very subject covered by Dr. Casteel; and especially how bees put pollen in their pollen-baskets; but at that time we were not in possession of the apparatus, the time, nor the skill necessai-y to do this work. We watched the operation, or tried to, whereby the bees remove their wax scales; but it was done so rapidly that the whole performance seemed but little short of sleight of hand. Somehow the scales would be removed from the under side of the bee's abdomen, and transferred to its mouth; and likewise pollen would be transferred from the fore feet to the hind legs; but just how, we could not determine. But Dr. Casteel has worked this out by means of a binocular microscope that makes every detail of it, from start to finish, clear and plain. He then goes on to prove up his work from a purely mechanical and structural point of. view. Briefly stated, the process is this: The wax scales are scraped off by one of the large joints, or planta, of one hind leg, the spines of the planta piercing or catch- ing into the scale; then the leg, by a pe- culiar maneuvering, is moved up to where the fore legs may grasp the scale. At this point of proceedings the scale is manipu- lated or masticated in the mandibles, when it is applied to the comb. During the proc- ess just explained, the bee stands on three legs (the two middle legs on either side, and one hind leg not in action), while the other hind leg and the two fore legs, in connec- tion with the mandibles, perform the man- ipulation. The whole thing is shown by some elaborate and careful drawings. We hope to have the privilege of i^resenting some of these later on in these columns. Dr. Casteel shows that the so-called "wax- pinchers " in the hind legs have nothing to do with the manipulation of wax, but are designed for another purpose, and that each individual bee removes its own wax scale. It has been popularly supposed that the bees remove the scales from each other; but the author shows that tliis is not the case. The scales are sometimes found scattered throughout the hive and on the bottom- board. In some instances they show the marks of the spines on the planta of the hind legs. In others they were probably dropped accidentally by the bees in that wonderful sleight-of-hand performance of which we have been speaking. In still other cases the scales show no markings whatever, and the presumption is that they simply fell off the bees when they reached a certain stage of development. Dr. Casteel also confirms the observation of Dreyling, that there are certain ages and certain seasons Avhen the bees will develop these wax scales more than others. From this it would appear that there will be times when bees could not construct combs to any great extent, even though they were liber- ally fed. In a practical way it has been found that sometimes even when the bees are fed they will not build combs; and the probabilities are that they simj^ly can not, because the colony is made up of bees too young, too old, or both. Usually the con- dition of a honey-flow can be suijplied arti- ficially by feeding. This paper or bulletin may be obtained by simply addressing the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washing-ton, D. C. Ask for Circular No. 161, Bureau of Entomology, by D. B. Cas- teel, and enclose 5 cents. We hope our sub- scribers will ask for it, as we should like to have the Secretary of Agriculture, or, more exactly, the Bureau of Entomologj^, know that the beekeepers of the country appi'eci- ate this kind of work. In our next issue we shall refer to anoth- er bulletin equally interesting and valuable by the same author on the subject of how the bee gathers pollen. 140 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Stray Straw^s Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. Dr. E. F. Phillips made a short visit with us lately. Just now he is trying to learn what instruction to give the bees for best wintering in cellars. I practiced cel- laring bees before Dr. Phillips was born; but he gave me points on it that made me open my eyes. David Roberts says, p. 116, " Shelter is not conducive to sw^arming except so far as it favors brood-rearing." Doesn't the kind of shelter have a bearing? The shelter of an apple-tree tends to prevent swarming. The shelter of buildings, bushes, etc., on all sides, preventing a free circulation of air, tends to favor swarming by making the bees too warm. J. E. Crane, I think you have things straight about European foul brood, p. 84, and it might also be added that a change of queens would be helpful, even if the new queen be not an iota different from the old one; but when a new queen is introduced there is nearly always at least a little break in brood-rearing, and that helps the bees about cleaning up. " In 1896 Bradstreet's compilation of the wholesale prices of 106 commodities, in- cluding all the leading commodities of com- merce, was 59,124; in 1900 this figiire had risen to 78,839; in 1905 to 80,987; and m 1912 to 90,362."— Daily. Let us see how the price of honey com- pares with this. Take quotations for comb honey, Sept. 1, in each of the years named, and find the average of the highest figure in each market. In 1896 it was 13.3 cents. If the advance in honey was the same as in the 106 leading commodities named, then for the years 1900, 1905, and 1912, respec- tively, it should be 17.7, 18.2, 20.3. It was 16, 13.9, 17. Take extracted in the same way. In 1896 it was 6.6 cents. In 1900, 1905, and 1912, respectively, it should be 8.8, 9, 10. It was 8, 7.2, 9.4. No doubt other factors have a bearing, which might make the showing better or worse ; but in a general way it w^ould seem that honey has not climbed with other commodities. [This is interesting in more ways than one. It shows that the price of honey declined from 1900 to 1905, and from that time on, es- pecially beginning with about 1908 or '9, prices on food began to soar. This onward and upward tendency advanced the honey market at the same time, but not in propor- tion, as it would appear, to the price of other food stuffs taken as an average.— Ed.] " One-pound section " is a term in com- mon use; yet, strictly speaking, the one- pound section is a sort of myth, for not often is a section found wliich weighs 16 ounces, said section being 4%^ x 1%, wliich is the section mostly in use. For years there was more or less dishonesty about these sections, for grocers too often sold them as full pounds. Now, however, the public is better informed, and there is not so much trouble on that score. Custom, however, varies, and in some jDlaces honey is sold by the section and in other places by the pound. Our honey cmotations are given by the case, also the pound. Is there any likelihood that, in the near future, there will be uniformity in this regard? Will the Cincinnati convention dare tackle the question? There is a gradual increase of quotations by the case. Is that really the better way? and if so, can it be made the uniform way? [Yes, it is true that the one-pound section, strictly speaking, is a misnomer. To get a section of that weight 414 square would make it neeessai-y to have it 2 inches wide for the combs to average one i^ound. This makes a comb too thick to insure quick ripening and quick sealing. A section 4 x 5 x 1%, plain, comes nearer to a pound; but to average a pound it would have to be IV2 inches wide. A rela- tively large thin comb is far better than a small thick one. This is one reason why the 4x5 size is crowding the 4^ square out of some markets. We believe the time will come when it will be the universal section. From every point of view, we believe it is better to quote sections by the case rather than by the pound. Under the Colorado grading-rules this insures a more uniform weight of sections. It compels the producer to aim for a higher standard, both as re- gards weight and filling; and this is right. If the cases are sold by the pound, it has a strong tendency to let in any bulged or fat sections that are unsightly, as well as those that are lean and unsealed. Under the Col- orado rules, the sections must not weigh more than a certain minimum nor more than a certain maximum. If the producer will " separator " or " fence " his supers, and use full sheets of foundation, he is usu- ally able to meet the conditions of the gi-axl- ing rules. We are. therefore, strongly in favor of selling by the case, pro^■iding the individnnl soclions are graded according to the Colorado rules. If they are not so graded, the cases should have minimum weight. — Ed.] MARCH 1, 1913 141 Notes from Canada J. L. Byee, Mt. Joy, Ont. Some of our Ontario chaps have gone to California for the winter; and judging by that i^ieture on page 83, Feb. 1, they seem to have found what they went after. * * * The " short course " recently held at Guelph was pronoiinced a success by all who had tlie good fortune to be present. I'he writer was there for only two days, but that was long enough to convince him that the students were satisfied that they were well rewarded for their time and expenses. ]\Ir. Clark, of Borodino, gave a series of l.Hitui-es on queen-rearing, while a number (if Ontario men assisted in the lectures and discussions. Among them were Messrs. Sib- bald. Armstrong. Nolan, Anguish, Schrenck, Kainerd, Harkness, and a number of othei's well knoAvn to the fraternity. -* * ■* Dr. Miller says on page 790, Dec. 1.5, that a temperature of 32 to 3.5 degrees would be considered ideal wintering, even if there were no flight for four or five months. "While we shall never have the privilege of ]i roving the matter one way or the other, I venture to say that wintering would not be every thing desirable under such condi- tions, as the bees would be more or less uneasy all the time, and consume stores and go to brood-rearing — in the end would not come out as well as though the temper- ature had been much lower than that during most of the time the bees were confined. Rear in mind this is just my opinion, and 1 make no promise to try to prove tlie thing one way or the other. Regarding the matter of sugar syrup versus natural stores, jiage 790, I am sur- prised when the editor says that reports for many years back have shown that a given amount of sugar syrup will go further than the same amount of natural stores. Surely you do not believe that a pound of syrup will go as far as a pound of good honey. While I have to feed lots of sugar syrup some falls, certainly I do not place that proportionate value on the syrup as com- pared with honey. I used to think that a pound of syrup would equal a pound of honey in so far as lasting qualities are concerned; but I now know that at the very least it takes a pound of sugar to have that value. Emphatically, I again say that, if your colony is short weight 15 pounds, in- stead of giving that amount of syrup to make the colony equal to the one heavy enough with honey, use at least that many pounds of sugar instead, and then see in the spring if the syrup-fed colony is ahead of the one wintering on the same weight of honey. [See editorial comment elsewhere. —Ed.] * * * I never knew a season in which there has been such a demand for honey as the pres- ent one. Whether the consumption is in- creasing or the last crop much shorter than we estimated, one thing is certain: Many thousand pounds of honey could have been sold during the past three months if we had had the goods. Only recently a very respon- sible firm asked me to send them at once 14 or 15 thousand pounds, and I was unable to send them that many hundred pounds, let alone thousand. Some think the shortage is too short, even from the producer's stand- l^oint, as it is feared ihat, being unable to get honey at a reasonable price, they will try to get a substitute to take its place. While T do not fear that very much, how I would have liked to fill that order for 15,000 ]iounds ! « * « The vagaries of the weather are hard to explain ; for while the conditions have been unusually cool, not to say cold, in the far West, here in Ontario the months of Decem- ber and January were much milder than usual. Since February we have had some winter weather, but at no time this month has the thermometer gone below zero. Only twice this winter have we had a zero tem- perature; but as we have no snow the con- ditions are not any too good for the clover. However, the months of March and April generally decide the clover question. Only once have I known damage to be done in Februai-y. This mild winter should be good for outdoor wintering; and, barring one single report to the contrary, all who have written me say that the bees are wintering well. A number have told me that their bees in regular house cellars have been un- easy, as it has been difficult to keep the tem- perature low enough. On getting these re- ports I wrote to a friend who lives near my bees, some 200 miles east of here, asking him to go into the caves for the purpose of seeing how the bees were. He reported that they were perfectly quiet, and seemed to be wintering in splendid condition. This would lead one to believe that the repositories al- most if not entirely under gi-ound, roof and all, are to be preferred to regnilar house cellars where the air is more apt to be sub- ject to outside conditions and variations. 142 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Beekeeping Among the Rockies Wesley Poster, Boulder, Col. CONCERNING COUNTY COMMISSIONERS. Bills for bee inspection are presented to the county commissioners before they are allowed to be paid by the treasurer. The average county commissioner knows almost nothing of the character of the work of a bee inspector. If the county oflficers knew the character of the work to be done there would be little questioning as to the value of the inspection, and there would be more questioning as to the actual work accom- plished. The county commissioners should require a detailed account of the apiaries inspected, number of colonies examined, number of colonies diseased, number treat- ed by the bee owner, and the percentage of decrease in the disease from year to year. Bee inspection is a farce unless money enough is available to give thorough inspec- tion of all the bees in infected areas; and it is still more a farce unless the inspector forces the cleaning-up of every diseased colony. * * * PAY TAXES ON YOUR BEES. Patriotism of the simon-pure variety is shown in honest tax schedules with nothing legitimately taxable reserved from entry. The bogi;s kind is found where tobacco smoke is thickest in the political meetings where they " whoop 'er up " for the party that saved the country from destruction. The bogus kind always does the loudest clapping when the picture of Washing-ton or Lincoln is thrown on the screen, or the flag is unfurled. If we appreciate good roads, schools, and progressive public en- terprises, we should consider it a privilege to contribute our share to the public wel- fare. And if the public funds are being misappropriated we should be just as loud in our denunciation and active in righting the wrong as is possible; and for the bee- man to pay his full share of taxes will give him the right to ask and demand full pro- tection from his county. State, or national government in the way of bee inspection. TINKERING WITH FOUL BROOD. Out in Idaho there are still a few bee- keepers who cling to the idea that American foul brood can be cleaned out of diseased combs with formaldehyde. Those who still hold this idea certainly have not tried it thoroughly. Our experience with fumigat- ing oombs was quite extensive and thor- ough; and while the disease did not reap- pear in every comb so treated at once, evesry comb showed the disease as prevalent as ever before the season was over. For the average honey-produeer to attempt the ex- periment is folly. It may be possible in time to find a method of fumigation that will kill the disease; but the beeman will make money by leaving the experimentation to the experiment stations. Follow the known methods, and work your diseased combs into wax. Get the wax worked into foundation, and put full sheets in your brood-frames, and you will lose scarcely any thing but the work. HOW TO GATHER SWEET-CLOVER SEED. A device was illustrated, p. 454, July 15, 1912, called a sweet-clover-seed stripper; so, wanting to gather some seed, I made one which was similar. It would not Avork satisfEictorily, so I placed in the center of the large sheet made out of several old bed- ticks, a large box. Over this box the sweet clover stalks were thrashed in convenient- sized handfuls. The larger part of the seed falls into the box; but what falls outside can be easily gathered from the sheet. The seed then requires sifting thiough a screen of about a fifth-inch mesh to take out the sticks and leaves. The seed will not sift tlu^ough ordinaiy window-screening, as the unhulled seeds do not readily pass tlu-ough. By rubbing hard a considerable amount will hull out, but the leaves are ground into a fine dust by so doing. Sweet-clover seed should be run through a fanning-mill in order to remove this dust. CUTTING THE CLOVER. The seed rattles off the stalks better if it is ripe before thrashing. To prevent the seed rattling oft' while cutting the clover, select a time after a damp period or a rainy spell. The seed will not rattle off so much if cut just before it turns brownish black. The seed will ripen if cut and laid on the ground in piles. A scythe is not to be recommended for various reasons. Much of the seed is lost; and, besides, it is difficult to work even a brush-scythe on the coarse stalks. There is a chance that weed-stalks will get in with the sweet-clover stalks, and this should be avoided. The best method is to cut the stalks by hand with a sickle, piling it up as cut. A lialf-acre of sweet clover furnishes me 350 pounds of fine seed. The work of gather- ing the seed required about five days, every thing counted. MARCH 1, 1913 Beekeeping in California p. C. Chadwiok, Redlands, Cal. . How would this sound — cellar wintering in California? Not as strange as it would have sounded at one time. While Editor Root, Dr. :Miller, and Mr. Byer are spari'ing over the question of how bees winter on solid combs of honey, the most of us are wondering how they ever reached the winter with so much honey any When I read the letters of those old-tim- ers who were subscribers to Gleaxings shortly after I was born I feel quite young; but when I stop to think that I mvself was a subscriber back in the eighties I feel that I am getting old fast enough. FEEDIXG UXNECESSARY IN THE SPRING IF THE COMBS ARE ALREADY WELL SUPPLIED WITH STORES. After stimulating some of my colonies for ihree Aveeks with sugar syrup I opened them in order to see the results of my kind care, and was gratified to find much brood start- ed. Curiosity led me to open some others, and they had as much as or more than the ones I had been feeding. I doubt if there is much gained by feeding a normal colony that has i^lenty of stores, for the purpose of inducing them to rear brood. Pollen is a greater aid in that direction, and more to be desired, than additional stores. A weak colonj^ short of stores would doubtless be encouraged to more liberal use of its meager supply of stores if there were more coming in daily; but where stoi'es are no object one must look to other conditions to induce brood-rearing, and notliing is better than a supply of pollen adequate for each day's PROSECUTION WARRANTED IF DISEASED COLO- NIES ARE SHIPPED WITH FULL KNOWL- EDGE OF THE OWNER. Mr. Wesley Foster, Feb. 1, answers my query as to whether a carload shipment of bees that were prevented from being ship- ped into Colorado were knoAvn to be diseas- ed. For the most part I like Mr. Foster's answer; but on one or two points I wish to make a suggestion. He says, " Our Colora- do law is broad enough so that I think an inspector would be upheld in destroying all diseased bees upon arrival. This would not be just unless the disease was being in- troduced into a clean district." I will agree with Mr. Foster that, in a case of this kind, stringent means should be resorted to; but at the same time I do not believe that a man's propertj' should be destroyed for the benefit of society unless society is willing to comj^ensate for its loss; for to tlii-ow the burden on the indiA-idual when the benefits are enjoyed by the entire community would be manifestly unjust ; and it seems to me poor law also. The same would be true anywhere. I have opposed the destruction of bees, diseased or othenvise, where they were shipped in good faith as being free from disease, but were later found to be diseased. If it is found necessary to de- stro}-, there should be some compensation for the loss unless they were sliipped witb the knowledge that they were diseased. Then I believe they should not only be de- stroyed, bat the shipper should be vigorous- ly i)iosecuied. PROSPECTS FOR HONEY. Conditions in California seem to have changed for the better. We have just had another inch of rain, which helj^s to add new hopes at least. Indications now are that there will be sufficient orange bloom to supply those who are depending on it for their main flow. I have given the sage very close inspection, and find that some of it is damaged bej'ond my greatest fears, while much of it is injured less than I had sup- posed. The situation in this locality is about like this: In the small valleys and bottoms of the canyons the bloom is not only killed, but much of the wood (at least that part of the wood from wliich the bloom comes). On the sides of the canyons there are in- creasing signs of life; but the signs are de- ceiving at this point ; for while there are plenty of green leaves on the t-\vig-tips, the bloom-buds within are dead. As we go on up the canj'on sides the green increases rap- idly, and a point is soon reached where there is no indication that there had ever been a freeze. This condition rules, no mat- ter how small the canyon or what the eleva- tion, and is onlj^ in keeping with the old and well-known fact that the cold air holds its position below the warm, hence the froz- en and dried tops in the little valleys and the bright green higher on the canyon sides. It is really remarkable to see how well de- fined these lines are shown by the green and the lack of it. Forty or fifty feet up the canyon sides, above bushes that are brown and dried from frost, there are bushes that seem never to have been touched. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Conversations vs^ith Doolittle At Borodino, New York. LONGEVITY OF QUEENS. " Am I right in thinking that all improve- ment in bees must eome more largely through the queen than otherwise, inasmuch as one can have no certain control of the drone? and in order to be sure of being on the right track when working for long- lived bees, should not the mother of these bees be long-lived also ? " " Yes, I think so." " But if this is the case, how does it hap- pen that nearly every queen-breeder as well as the majority of our most prominent bee- keepers advocate that no queen be allowed to live more than two years? Many are advocating the supersedure of all queens at the close of the honey-harvest after their first year's work." " This is something Avliich has puzzled me as' well as you ; and I never could see how any great improvement of stock wovild result in any apiary where new queens are reared each year or two to supersede all those rear- ed one or two j'ears before. I have noticed many times that such colonies as kept the hive populous during the summer months with brood to the amount of onlj? five or six Langstroth frames full, and stored the most honey, always had queens which lived, when the apiarist allowed them to do so, to a good old age. But the trouble has been that most beekeepers have had prolific queens so drilled into them that no queen that will not produce brood in excess of tlais is not allowed to pass her second winter. And because of this, the goose wliich laid the golden egg has no chance to prove her superiority above the rest. Queens which live to be four or five years old give to us our starting-point when breeding for the bees which make the greatest amount of honey with the least expenditure in bee force and brood-rearing. Much honey is used by scrub colonies in rearing a multi- tude of larv« from queens whose average usefulness does not exceed a year and a lialf or two years. And these long-lived valuable queens, with hardly an average amount of brood, are the ones sure to be killed by the beekeeper who tells v^s that, if we would have the best results in hives full of brood, all queens must be superseded after their first or second year of laying." " But would you recommend rearing queens for the improvement of stock from a mother which is four or five years old ? " " In regard to rearing queens from such an old queen, I do not claim that a queen is better at that advanced age than she is when younger. Only this: I am not sure, at a younger age, that she possesses the de- sired longevity. Where any queen from a long-lived strain of excellent workers has lived to an age of five years I expect that her posterity, both workers and queens, will be remarkable for longevity as well. " A good guess can be given regarding what young queens will prove to be as to lengih or shortness of life in two ways. First, if during the first half of the first month of May in which a young queen lays it is found that the colony of a young queen is building up while others are dwin- clling (all colonies, of course, having had the same protection and stores during the winter, and being equally strong at the be- ginning of the season), then one would not be far out of the way if he concluded that tiiose building up have queens and bees with a promise of long life, while the others do not have queens fit to become breeders. " Second, after a young queen begins to lay in a full colony, and after the swarming season is over, if a frame is put in such a colony having a starter of worker eoinb foundation in it, then, if the frame is filled with worker comb, I consider this queen worthy of further testing. If drone comb is built I do not expect much from her be- yond the first or second year." " But don't you think that there are other influences which tend toward longevity?" " Surely I do. But, as I hinted before, the queen mother is the starting-point. The worker larvje as well as the queen larvae must be properly fed. Undoubtedly you have noticed that some larvae as soon as hatched are fed much better in some colo- nies than they are in others. I have seen larvae in the colonies of my best queens which were fed so abundantly that one might supjjose that royal jelly was being given them. They actually floated in their creamy food until almost, if not quite, the foui'th day. Other colonies are fed so spar- ingly that it requires microscopic vision to see that there is any food in the cells for the little six to twenty-hour-old larvae to eat. It is needless for me to say that I do not consider these underfed larvae fit to use under any circumstances for queen-rearing. Queens which will live four or five years can not be reared from such larvfe. Where such are nursed as queens (by a change of bees or difi^erent surroundings), their life is so restricted that from six months to a year is sufficient to find the bees themselves superseding them for sometliing better." MARCH 1, 1913 145 General Correspondence HOW A WOMAN MANAGES THE HEAVY WORK IN AN APIARY BY MISS EMMA WILSON [As most of our readers know, the writer of this article is Dr. C. C. Miller's sister-in-law, and his right hand man(?) in the apiary. Because of her lone: experience and training under such a teacher as Dr. Miller, we think that Miss Wilson deserves the title of " Dean of our Beekeeping Sisters. — Ed.] The question is no longer asked, " Can a woman successfully run an apiary alone?" It has been demonstrated too many times that she can and does, for there are many aiiiaries run entirely by women, and suc- cessfully too. But there is no denying that, in the running of an apiary, there is heavy work that must be done. How can a woman manage tliis heavy part of the work? The experienced bee-woman has learned to take advantage of many little kinks that lighten her work, and knows, like the good general that she is, how to plan her work so as to accomplish what has to be done with the least expenditure of streng-th and labor- Especially is this necessary for the rather delicate woman who has no great amount of strength to spare. To lift out a frame of brood, bees, and honey, and look it carefully over is quite easy; but to handle these frames at arms' leng-th, or nearly so, gets to be work before night; and especially is this true before the muscles become accustomed to the work. So, begin by doing only a little at a time, gradually increasing the amount done each day.^ When a colony must be moved, don't try to lift it all at a time. Take an empty hive and lift out part of the frames, putting them into the empty hive; then the rest can be lifted easily. Still, there may be times when it is desirable to move hives without opening them, as when taking in or out of the cellar. In that case it may be best to get a man to do the lifting. But if no man is available, possibly some woman can be found who will help ; and if the hives have cleats on each end, the cleats running clear across the liive so that a rope can be slip- ped over them, you will find that two can carry a hive quite easily by each taking hold of the rope on opposite sides of the hive. An endless rope is used, and it can be quickly thrown over the cleat on each end. The really hard work begins with the harvest, when there are so many supers to be lifted off (often four or five, and some- times more), before you can reach the brood-nest; and when you go through your colonies every eight or ten days it means work to lift these same supers off and put them all, or the larger part of them, back again, after going through the colony. But it makes some difference how the work is done. Instead of putting them on the gi'ound, or leaning them against the hive, have an empty hive-body ready and pile the supers on that as you take them off. It is much easier to lift them from these than from the ground, and they will go back to the hive exactly in their previous order. Sometimes, however, it is desirable for some reason to change the order. Each super is inspected as it is taken from the hive; and any change in the order will be made as the supers are taken from the hive. Then when they are to be put back on the hive no time is lost in a second inspection. An- other good thing about this airangement is the immunity from robbers. When robbers are at all troublesome a robber-cloth can be thrown over the pile of supers, and they are safe, often allowing you to keep on woi'king when otherwise you would be obliged to quit. But if I were obliged to name just one item in saving hard work in the apiary it would unhesitatingly be — keeping queens clipped. I have not had a great deal of experience in climbing after swarms; but the little I have had has led me to believe that there is nothing more exhausting than climbing after swarms on a scorching hot day; and climbing after swarms will make any old day scorcliing hot. It is an exhaust- ing, nerve-racking, temper-trying experi- ence that, to my mind, is totally unneces- sary. Of course, there will be an occasional swarm that may elude you, and issue with a virgin queen; but such swarms are the exception, and only serve to make you su- premely thankful tliat you don't have to climb after every swarm that issues. In- deed, after one such experience, what bliss it is, when the next swarm issues with a clipped queen, to i^i'ck her up, cage her, lay her at the entrance, and nonchalantly walk away to attend to your own affairs and leave that swarm to do the same ! Doesn't that sound alluring to those of you who still have undipped queens, and are climb- ing after those dreadful swarms? Just try queens with clipj^ed wings, and see if you ever want to go back to the undipped ones again. " Would be glad, too, if you could only do the clipping, but you can't." Oh ! yes, yon can — no trick at all after you are used to it. Just practice on a few drones until you get over feeling nervous about it. You ask me, Mr. Editor, for something gleajnIings in bee culture new in the matter of women's bee-dress. Really I have nothing new to offer in that line. The only extras I don for the apiary are a large denim apron with two big pock- ets, gloves with sleeves attached, and a veil. The sleeves sewed to the gloves are white, and are fastened together in the back with a band between the shoulders, securely sew- ed to the top of each sleeve. A similar band fastens them in front, only the band in tliis case is sewed to only one sleeve. The other end of the band is furnished with a button- hole, and a button sewed on the other sleeve completes the fastening. This makes it easy to slip the gloves off and on when you wish to clip a queen. The veil is drawn down taut, and fastened with a safety-pin. Marengo, 111. •-•-•^ A WOMAN IN THE SPHERE OF ASSISTANT BEEKEEPER MRS. LIZZIE SHIELDS I can scarcely, as yet, claim to be a bee- keeper; but my husband has started, and I help him. In 1906 a farmer whose cattle we pastured for the summer offered us in part payment a colony of bees which we accepted. They arrived in November, when, according to advice received, we dug a hole and buried them for the winter. The fol- lowing May we found the hive afloat, and every bee dead — drowned by the melting snow. We steadfastly gazed on the bees that were dead, and bitterly thought of our lost five-dollar bill. In 1907 tb.e man again brought his cattle 10 jiasture, and joined us in our lamenta- lion. He said we should ha\e made a drain to run off the surplus water. He wanted us to try again, and offered us a colony for half price. Again we agreed, and again put the liive in the same place; but this time we had a drain; and, lo! on bringing them out the next spring they were alive and in good condition. They were common black bees in an old box — very primitive indeed. We began to read and stud^' about bees, and finally became enthusiastic. We were unfortunate in 1910, expecting to winter three colonies. On moving them to the cellar, however, we found that two had decamped, root and branch, leaving only beeless hives with honey in them. So in the spring of 1911 we started again with a single colony. I purchased Mrs. Com- stock's admirable book, and we also secured the A B C and X Y Z of Bee Culture. By and by, as a Christmas gift I gave my hus- band " Langstroth on the Honeybee." We purchased an Italian queen, a:id made i. new colony from a nucleus. Ere long we had a fine colony of Italians, and from them got a queen by wliich we Italianized the second colony. Meanwhile the second colony swarmed, and we had a third colony (blacks). We had 85 lbs. of surplus honey from our bees in 1911 — practicality from one colony, all the others being youngsters. These three colonies were wintered in our cellar, and were in fine condition last spring. My husband took a short course in api- culture at the Ontario Agi-icultural College, Guelph, last January; visited the Brant- ford bee-supply factoiy with the other stu- dents, and left a fair-sized order for lii\es, foundation, excluders, etc., with the firm. On his return home he was satui^ated with bee lore. Last June we purchased another Italian queen, and in September a third. Our three colonies have increased to six, all flourish- ing and strong. We are now glad that we took heart and kept on trying. We find great pleasure in more ways than one. The honey is a good addition to our table, and we sell all we do not use. Last summer the bees insisted on swarm- ing, or otherwise demanding attention on three successive wash-days. My apprecia- tion of their demands for attention was much below par. However, the swarms were little trouble to secure, as in each case we had clipped her majesty's wings, and so prevented her from flying off with her ret- inue. She had to content herself with walk- ing on a wliite dress laid in front of the hive, where we quickly espied her, and care- fully placed her in the new hive. In a very short time every bee found out that the so\ereign was holding a levee, and went to jiay i;s respects to her. The only objection I have to bees is the s'irig. They and I have frequently dis- agreed about that, and sometimes I got the best of the argument, though more fre- quently they came off victorious. If they were of a less aggressive and inquisitive turn of mind it would be more pleasant ; but they are " mixed mercies," so we need not grumble. At first I thought I should never handle the little creatures, but one becomes accustomed to bad usage, so now I accept the stings as meekly as possible. The worst sting I ever got was when hunting for a queen. While peering into the hive the tip of my nose Avas suddenly attacked. Now, that is a decidedly vulnerable point, and the tears coursed down my cheeks so heavily that I had to retire, for I could not see. They say that stings cure rheumatism. I do not know whether that is true or not; but this I can aver: For some years I suf- MARCH 1, 1913 fered vei^y much from rheumatism; and since we began keeping bees all nn^ rheu- matic pains have vanished except in one tinger. Did the sting's have any thing to do with this? We I'ead every bee item we see, and I am learning right along. My husband knows far more about bees than I do ; but, of course, a man can not get on without his wife. For instance, one day he rushed into the kitchen, wildly pawing the air, and jierforming a sort of war-dance, veiy much unlike his usual Cjuiet behavior, and all because a little bee stung liim on the nose! He implored me to help him off with his \eil, and an unholy joy filled my heart at the scene, for I remembered how he scoffed when I fled with a sting in my nose. It all depends on whose nose the bees attack; and it's cpite a diffei^ent matter when it's your own. But we do not trouble much about stings after all — just grin and bear them. I am not exactly a beekeeper as yet. I am only a beekeeper's assistant. But there is no leason why I too should not go on and do as well as others. O'Connell, Ontario, Canada, Sept. 30. THE SHAKEN-PLAN SWARM FOR WOMEN BY MRS. GERTRUDE GILL Women are becoming competitors of men in many branches of industry, and success- fully too. Then why not in beekeeping? A woman's work is bound to be more or less monotonous (I am speaking now of house- keeping), made up as it is of little tasks that, for the comfort' of the family, must be repeated every day. That, together with the indoor atmosjohere, often brings more or less nervous strain on the wife and moth- er. To most of us I believe there is a bond of kinship with Mother Nature; and a little while each day in God's beautiful out-of- doors means new life to tired nerves; and what better or more profitable way to bring tliis about than to make a study of bees? The fear of sting's keeps many women away from the apiary; but in most cases this fear can be overcome with an increas- ing knowledge of the natural instincts of these little workers. Eighteen years ago I came with my hus- band to Colorado, that Mecca of sunshine and pure air suggested by many physicians for stubborn cases that refuse to j^ield to pills and powders. In order to be out of doors I began helj^ing him in the apiary; and with his patient teaching and the fas- cination there is in working with the little busy bee my natural timidity was soon over- come ; and with returning health there seem- 147 ed to open to me a new vista in life I had never before thought of. If I were to advise younger women just entering the work I should suggest that, to start right, is perhaps the first essential to success in beekeeping, for I believe the time is past for any one with any old method to succeed in apiculture. There are more dif- ficulties to contend with — hard winters, poor seasons, overstocking, and disease; and one roust make a study of his own situation, g-iving his bees careful attention. I believe in beekeeping for women ; but I don't take to the " dishpan and sheet " theory. I should like to tell how we manage tliis trying part of beekeeping — the swarm- ing season — for I don't take kindly to climbing trees, jumping over ditches, get- ting through wire fences, and the many athletic feats necessary to catch a swarm that may, after all, object to being caught. Xow for this method that, I presume, has grown threadbare to our male readers, but may still be new to the women follvs. First, we will take it for granted that the hive has movable combs, and the condition such that bees would cast a swarm anyhow. Using a little smoke at the entrance, gently remove the cover so as not to disturb the bees more than necessary. Take out the follower; or if there is none, the outside comb; gently loosen the frames with a hive tool, giving plenty of space to lift the combs without crushing the bees. During the swarming season it would be well to begin with the side combs, looking over each one carefully. After locating the queen, set this comb, with the queen and bees on it, at one side, in the shade if the weather is very hot. If you have no helper, lift the hive back from the stand, placing the new hive (which should be prepared beforehand with foun- dation starters, or sheets, if preferred) on the stand where the old one has just been removed. Level it carefully, thus producing straight combs. Then take the comb having the queen, which should contain eggs or larvse. Make room in the new hive by re- moving one frame with starter. Hang this comb with the queen in the center of the new liive, first making sure that all queen- cells have been cut out. Shake the bees from the four center combs of the old colo- ny (not too close, as you will need the young bees to protect the brood left. After putting the frame with foundation at one side of the brood carry the old hive away to the new location. The shaken colony on the old stand will catch the working force. Hang up the dishpan and sheet. You will not need them. The bees have swarmed just as weU as if they did so naturally, and 148 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE you are in a better temper than with the old way of letting the bees have their own way, and the whole apiary has not been disturbed with that feverish unrest that is sometimes the case where swarms are in the air all day. Hyrum, Utah. [The writer of the above would be bet- ter known to our readers, perhaps, if she bad sig-ned herself, "Mrs. M. A. Gill." Her practical suggestions show that she is no longer an amateur. — Ed.] KEEPING BEES FOR PROFIT BY RUTH C. GIFFORD I took up beekeeping because I could make some money, and at the same time be at home. My bees averaged about 100 sec- tions per colony last year. The best colony made 146 sections; and the poorest, my only pure Italian colony, 57. Most of my honey is sold locally — that is, to consumei-s within a radius of two miles, and by the case to country and town stores for ten miles around. The remainder is sold to a dairy-product store in a city near by. The price is 20 cents a section for fancy and No. 1. I have very little of any other kind, for honey is just as easy to take off at the proper time as it is after it is travel-stained. I have no wheelbarrow for carrying hives and supers; but I did have a stout express wagon left over from " kid days." I took the sides off and nailed two half-inch cleats leng-thwise on the edges of the bottom. These parallel strips are always in position : and, being half an inch higher than the bot- tom, they prevent bees from being mashed. Lately, though, when interchanging supers I take them off and set them on their sides across the wagon. In this way, after the supers are set off' the hive they are parallel to each other, and two or three inches apart. Then they can be replaced in any order de- sired, and without extra lifting. If a super is full of foundation on which the bees have just started to work I set it on end on tiie wagon, because the thin combs and foundation would bend under the Aveight of the bees if the super were placed on its side, and the result would be a lot of sections stuck to the division-boards. I use the eight-frame hive. If I want to move one when it is full of honey I take out three or four frames, carry the hive and remainirg combs to the desired place, then get the fiancs which were set out, and re- place tl.em in the hive. If the distance :.< longer I take out part of the frame? set the hi\e on the waaoi^ and set tlieni in it again. When the new location is reached, I again take out part of the frames, set the hive on the stand, and then replace the frames. North East, Ind. AN ARMOR FOR THE TIMID SISTERS BY MRS. E. R. WILSON I am very fond of honey or I never would have been interested in bees. But when we started with one colony, and I experienced the first stings, my ardor cooled somewhat, for those stings really did poison me. After one summer, howevei", I began to contract the bee fever, and have had it ever since. I now work with the bees at all times. The feminine beekeeper should never trust even the most gentle colony, but should al- ways dress so that being stung severely will be an impossibility. The following is a very safe suit for the use of women in the api- ary : Long bicycle boots, reaching to the knee, or buttoned leggings; a pair of long bloomers to fasten below the knee with an inch-wide elastic band, and a band of elas- tic to hold them in place at the waist; a waist to slip on over the head, made long at the bottom, so as to pass under the elas- tic band of the bloomers; and a bee-veil sewed to the neck of the waist, and finished with a narrow elastic at the top in order to snap around the hat-crown. A short light- weight skirt and long elbow bee-gloves com- plete the equipment. A bee must be very smart to do much harm to one in such armor. When one feels safe the interest is double what it is when fear is the main thought. I assist my husband in earing for the bees by using the smoker, and he says that I make an excellent helper. When he is away I take all the care of the apiary. The work is hard at times, but not harder than some parts of housework. There certainly is more pleasure and variety in it, for the bees surely keep one guessing. 1 would ad\is'3 women who are beginners to keep only one colony at first, for "chunk" or extracted honey the first season. Section honey is good, and is more suggestive of a woman's work, but is really liarder to han- dle, and it is moi'e difficult to secure results. The bees swarm worse, and this should be avoided by any beginner. Plent}' of room should always be given. Shallow- supers are best for a woman to handle, and are jjretty enough, when well filled, to please any one. Last, but not least, clip the queen's wings. Men may not need to; but women centainly do, especially if slightlv timid. Tonv, Wis. MARCH 1, 1913 1 :9 Mrs. E. L. Swope demonstrating bees at the Puyalliip Fair, Washington. APICULTURE AS AN OCCUPATION WOMEN FOR BY MRS. E. L. SWOPE The reasons for keeping bees are many and various, and the business appeals to man, woman, youth, and child. Bees have been a part of the conscious life of man from the beginning. Not only have they sweetened his daily bread with beneficent honey, but they have also set him an exam- ple far more uplifting than any other insect or animal creation. - Beekeeping is the one line of work that the busy woman or the woman of leisure can take up as a remunerative occupation. All beginners should be j^rovided with a silk bee-veil and rubber gloves, because bees do not often attack rubber. They should also visit the bees often and keep up the acquaintance, but should not approach the front of the liive. Always approach a hive from the side or back. "When thus pvo- tected by veil and gloves any one can handle bees without being stung. However, most people become immune to the poison after being stung a few times. When bee man- agement has been properly learned bees are as easily handled as birds. Women can care for bees because there is little attention necessary unless one wishes to feed for early brood-rearing, or there is foul brood in the vicinity. When the swarming season is at hand, and one is provided witli a new sectional hive with frames properly fitted with brood- foundation starters, and an Alley queen and drone trap, the bees may be allowed to clus- ter in the trap or they may be left free to cluster elsewhere. If they cluster on a bush, cut the branch and lay it before the hive, preferably on a large sheet of chea]> muslin. Then tap lightly with a stick, and you will soon experience a thi-ill of enthu- siasm. The bees will march into the hive in legular order. Women who keep bees are of great benefit to their homes and communities. The hon- ey supjDlied is the most healthful and pur- est sweet the world knows, and is useful in a variety of ways. It may be used in its natural state on the table, in fruit-canning, 150 GLEANINGS TN BKE OTTLTURE pollenizer, and perfect pollenizalioii ineaiis perfect fruit and grain. Buckley, Wash. HOW A WOMAN FOUND RECREATION WITH BEES, FRUIT, AND FLOWERS BY DR. EDNA P. MATTHEWS. Fig. 1. — Dr. Edna P. Matthew.s' plan of luiuliug cului tonfi'ele foinuUitions. cooking, baking, and candy-making — in fact, in any thing that sugar and water are used in. It has greater sweetening power than most of the manufactured syrups, and, besides, possesses great medicinal value. As a remunerative occupation for women it has been my experience that it is extreme- ly profitable, clean, and healthful. When bees have been properly cared for during the winter and spring, and a proper method employed during the summer, a single swarm can produce from 50 to 200 one- pound sections of surplus honey which can always be sold at good prices. It is a busi- ness that can be carried on with one or two hives or one or two hundred. It can be carried on at home, thus affording a great opportunity for self-improvement. There should be at least one or two hives of bees in every garden, especially in the rural sec- tions of our country, as the bee is the best FlQ. 2. — Latticed grapevines for sliade. A woman is mental- ly and physically qual- itied for bee culture. Twenty-five years of intimate study of wom- en, both in health and in sickness, gives me the foundation for the above arbitrary statement. Her long years of training in household detail, her quick perception, enthusiasm, and versatil- ity, all combine to make her an ideal bee- keeper. Often longing for the real things of life and their doing, it is a blessing to her if she can pick up an avocation that is pleasing, healthful, and reuuinerative, tiuis segregrating herself from idleness and friv- olity.^ " Cottage Garden " is a two-acre fi-uit and flower farm developed out of a forsak- en, barren, suburban knoll composed mostly of subsoil. We took up a proposition of this kind because of a breakdown under a tremendous strain. (Note the willingness of one doctor to take his own medicine!) Our plan, originally, was to put out choice fruits and vegetables for the use of our family, selling the surplus. We wanted a large planting of fine peonies, a large vine- yard of fancy table grapes, and we also wanted bulbs and shrubbery blooming for Memorial day. Our income was standard- ized at $500 a year, and the labor at five hours a day; but we found that these could not be kept uniform, as some crops failed on account of condi- tions beyond our con- trol, and some requir- ed tAventy-four houi"s' labor a day. For in- stance we cut and mar- MARCH 1, 1913 Fig. 3. — Winter cases made of barn-siding, which are used in the summer for chicken-coops. keted 600 dozen peony blossoms and a wag- onload of other blossoms in seventy-two hours before Decoration day. Bees were added to pad up this income by providing an alternate. We found the honey crop fluctuated too. as we have onlj'^ one main pasture in this location, that being white clover. However, when all crops are good our beloved recreation becomes a veiy stren- uous occupation. The apiary consists of from twenty-five to fifty stands. We like about thirty. It is essentially a home apiaiy, and is conducted as such — alwavs in harmonv vnih its sur- PiG. 4. — Interior p/ a .inodel shop, showing method of cleaning fixtures. 152 GLEAl^INGS IN BEE CULTURE roundings. The colonies ai'e located about the i:)lace in groups convenient for opera- tion and for observation in passing to and fro. One long line extends toward the barn and poultry-yard where duty takes us many times each forenoon. Most of the colonies are located on cement walks, built for the purpose, thirty inches wide, with a slope of one inch toward the south, and shaded by lattice work and grapevines. These cement foundations are spider, toad, and mouse proof, and easily cleaned, and tliey add to the durability of the hives. The colonies are usually wintered right on these walks by being moved together in pairs, and packed with cushions of lawn clipi.)ings in tlie supers, which are support- ed away from tlie top-bars by pieces of the angle strijos taken from the corners of hives as they come from the factory. Over the covers of the hive are first placed pads of wool carpet, and then the felt roofing paper. We also use some winter cases as in Fig. 3, made from barn siding. These have drojD fronts and adjustable floors, and are used for chicken-coops in the summer. The shop was built to conform to the other buildincs on the place, and is suitable The basket shown is a regular maa-ket basket with part of a barrel-hoop nailed on for a handle. A short cord with a hook on one end is tied on as shown. I have tised such a basket for years to shake swarms into. The basket is hung to a limb; and when the bees cluster they can be carried anywhere you wish. c— A. P. Lawrknce, Delton, Mich. ' for the work to be done in it. The lattice work in front of the porch is cut out enough to allow loaded supers as well as fixtured ones to be stacked up when thej^ are being moved out and in. The room is lighted by electricity, and is fitted with every device for facilitating the work. The cleaning operations extend to every article connected with the bees. All of this work must be done early in the winter, as the pruning, spraying, carpentering work, cement work, etc., must be done later. We first empty all the hives and supers that have to be cleaned; and after repairing and painting them we stack them along the wall ready for the inside fixtures. We use an original de- vice for cleaning fences and holders. The plan is to tack two sheets of No. 3 sand- paper on the edge of the fence, and then with half a sheet to cover a 2 x 4 x 12-inch block which is held in place on the bench by cleats, as shown in Fig. 4. Every part of the fences and holders, such as sides, uprights, etc., may be brought rapidly over the sandpaper and made as good as new or better. All parts needing repairing aie laid on a pile and attended to later. Our tools for repairing are very simple — a couple of plated table-knives cut off square, a tack-puller made from an old file, a pair of small i^lieis, trays of nails, and a fine saw. As soon as our twelve-foot bench is full of clean fixtures they are packed away in the supers aAvaiting the sections later on. We do all this Avork with the shop unhealed, the temperature being about 32 degrees F. AVhen we get ready to clean the frames, if they are very much soiled we put them in a kettle of Lewis lye, using two pounds to eight gallons of hot water. Aftei- a few iniiHites in the lye we fork them into a tub of water in wliicli four ]iounds of salt has been dissolved. For fastening foundation in sections we use a Lewis foundation-fastener, and throw the completed sections on a table having a fence around the top to hold them. For this work and for all bench work, as well as for work with the bees, a pair of spectacles with a 24-ineh focus are essential for the use of middle-aged persons. CLOTHING FOR THE APIARY. The bee-woman, on approach of spi'ing, will get her clothing ready for work. A short skirt should be worn, clearing the shoe-tops, and wide enougli to give free motion. This should be made of brown den- im. The shirt-waist should have three but- tons at the waist-line on the back to hold the skirt securely. Brown hose, ribbed for neatness, are best. (Bovs' hose are more MARCH 1, 1913 153 iL. ^ ^^ 1 ^^H 1^^^ H^^^^^HlfllBI i^^l H ^^^^^^^^H '^j^Riii^H^V ^^^^B ,—--"" "^ '"' " J^^^l ^1 ^S| .-'^^^^^^^^^H^^^^^^Mjqgl^^^^ H 1 ilrs. S. E. HoAvard, "Wakefield, Mass., showing that full supers are not too heavy for a woman to lift. serviceable. ) Tlie shoes should l)e low- heeled and comfortable. A close-titting' .I'acket made from denim with an easy stand- ing' collar, hooked at the throat, a soft hat, and some bee-veils from black netting, com- ])lete the outfit. .■^OFT CAXDY FOR SPRING FEEDING. Tn the spring, if feeding seems advisable we give fondant made by the same formula used for our cliildren in the early years. This is made of a pound of gi-anidated su- gar, four ounces of water, a pincli of cream of tartar, and a pinch of salt. The mixture is put in a covered pan, and boiled without stirring until it just spirs a thread from the upheld spoon. It is then poured into a bowl on a firm table, and when it crinkles like hot milk it should be beaten vigorously. After it turns white it is poured into a paper pie-plate. After a few trials a per- fectly smooth cream can be produced. The explanation, of the formation of this candy is that the first crystal stamps the mass. The coarse crystals form on the sides of the uncovered pan; and jarring, wdiile cooling, will start coarse crystallization. The cream of tartar converts a small amount of cane sugar into glucose — quite enough to prevent coarse crystals forming. (Com- mercial glucose should never be used, as the makers will not go to the trouble and ex- pense to reneutralize all of the acids used in the conversion of the starch. ) Gradually the colonies are jirepared for supers. The top-bars are scraped clean, bulged combs are cut down to the proper thickness, old queen-cells removed, bottom- bars cleaned — every thing being put in the best possible condition, while at the same time the colonies are getting used to being handled. We place tlu'ee pieces of veneer, two inches wide, across the top-bars, pre- venting the bees from plastering the sec- lion-holders fast to them. We allow- the bees to store the miscellaneous flow^ of the early spring in the brood-chamber. "We have very feAv swarms during a good honey-flow. The ground slopes to the south, and the avenue is planted with catalpa trees; and, having no high trees about, our swarms rarely leave the place. Last year there were eight that swarm.ed in succession on the same grapevine. All finished honey is carefully scraped, and packed in cases. The honey that is produced in shallow extracting-frames is cut out and put in buckets, and sold as bulk comb honey, for wdiich there is quite a demand. Our market is local, most of the sales being made by telephone, although MARCH 1, 1913 155 Transferring not impossible for women to undertake. Brushing the few remaining hees from the combs in the old box-hive. many of the orders stand from year to year, I'unning all the way from ten to fifty sec- tions. We sell direct to the consumer at a good price, rarely taking less than 25 cents a section. Dayton, Ohio. A WOMAN'S WORK BY MRS. S. E. HOWARD [To the writer of this article has been accorded the title of " Bee Expert," as she is an authority on bee management from queen-rearing to honey- production. She is a member of the Massachusetts Society of Beekeepers, and also of the National Bee- keepers' Association, and is an active worker, writ- er, and student. Mrs. Howard's success is due in a large measure to the increasing interest in bees in Massachusetts, and her influence has reached distant parts of the country from magazine articles (Mc- Call's, Country Life, Stiburban Life, Country Gen- tleman) recounting her experiences and methods. Her yards at Hill Crest, Wakefield, Mass., are models of neatness, and received the commendation of the Massachusetts Society of Beekeepers, which society she entertained August 3, 1912. — Ed.] I first became interested in bees through the gift of a colony in an old soap-box, nailed top and bottom, with a one-inch round hole at the bottom as an entrance. This I had removed to my back yard, and watched it (at a distance) for a season, and lioped for a swarm to put into a new Lang- stroth hive with full sheets of foundation which I had provided for the " anticipated," which did not happen that season. During that first summer I watched, talked, and questioned, and read my A B C of Beekeep- ing, and thought I had the theoretical knowledge, but I lacked the courage to do the practical, which was to transfer that colony to' a new hive. Fall came, and no provision made for surplus honey, and none was obtained, but the bees went into winter quarters with abundant stores, and were well protected. The winter months were used for more reading, and planning for the " spring moving " of the bees to their new tenement for which they afterward paid ample rent. Looking forward to the plum and cherry bloom was a pleasant anticipation, as cour- age and determination had increased. The propitious day arrived : fruit-bloom, balmy air, and bees at work, and happy, with all conditions favorable. With my veil adjust- ed, smoker lighted, and hammer, chisel, and hiving-box ready, I proceeded as per direc- tions. With the assistance of my husband (some help is needed by a woman) the en,- 156 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE A typical " bee mistress " of the Cotswold Hills, England. The old picturesque straw skeps are rapidly disappearing, giving place to more practical modern equipment. trance to the old hive was closed with a piece of wire screen, and then jjlaced bot- tom side up, a few feet away from the old stand which was now supplied with a new hive with full sheets of foundation. I then gave the bees a few puffs of smoke and a vigorous drumming on the sides of the old box. After a few minutes' intermission to allow bees to fill up with honey, the bottom of the old hive was removed and the swarm- box placed over it, and bees rushed up into it. Taking it off was a revelation, five hun- dred or more queens apiDearing, which aft- erward proved to be drones not yet ready to fly. The few steps to the old stand took but a moment, and the bees were shaken on to the frames of foundation, and the cover re- placed. Rack again for another " boxful," and also the queen if not in the first lot. I carried lot No. 2 to new hive and shook on to a sheet spread on the grass in front of the entrance, and watched for the " lady," whom, I then realized, I had not yet seen. Soon the orderly marching of the bees in one general direction and into the hive con- vinced me of my success, and the work was complete; I was victor and T felt I could do any thing with bees so liigh was my elation. I have since had many perplexities, and have yet much to learn; indeed, the possi- bilities and wonders increase as 1 progress. Tlie result for that season was (iO lbs. of iioney without a swarm from the hive which we named " Original, No. 1." The next year 1 divided and made nuclei and called them " Original, No. 2 and 3." In my beginning I had descriptive names for colonies, given by circumstances and peculiarities, or the^' took the name of the party I obtained bees from, such as Smith, Wilkins, Daniel's hive, etc. The accidental removal of the tip of a leg in clipping a queen's wing gave me " Clubfoot," which I especially valued, as she was wonderfully prolific, and bees were industrious, and were the shoAv colony of the place. From tliis beginning has been evolved Hill Crest apiarj' with an average of 50 colonies, and also plans for outyards and a C|ueen-mating yard — all this from my back-yard venture. Hill Crest comprises three acres of fine land upon which I have had erected a double bungalow with piazzas MARCH 1, 1913 157 36 by 6. This is considered as a fruit-farm investment and a summer home, and is not charged up to the bees; in fact, I feel that they eai-n their rent by ser^-ices rendered in fertilization of flowers, of small fruit and vegetables, shown by the increased crops. As in farming, an accurate estimate or system of accounting is quite difficult, as present expenditures may not mature for years, as in apple-tree planting. As a fair estimate I place the income from a hive at $15.00; yet I know that my own income is greater if I reckon the income from all sources, such as lecture work and writing and teaching, all of which the bee work fits and enables me to do. My honey is in great local demand, and I am able to obtain five cents advance over the market price — thirty cents for comb and 45 cts. for a pint of extracted, all of which is put up and labeled as of finest quality. My apiarj' is on a road much traveled by automobiles and on a car line, and I have a constantly increasing trade with autoists. The sale often reaches four or five boxes or jars to a party. I have demonstrated that honey can be sold from house to house by a personal can- vass, but have not had to practice it for the last two seasons. Much of the yard manipulation I can ac- complish alone, except for a little help in the rush season, and at such times I am able to get a school boy or a volunteer pupil w^io offers for the experience. Lifting can often be overcome by the use of a light box of ^- inch stock built on Lang'stroth dimensions, this to receive part of the frames of the hive to be lifted, removed, or manipulated. My wheelbarrow is an invaluable aid to and from the yard, and as a stand in the yard to hold hive, tools, etc. Little difficulty is experienced in hiving swarms, and I have been fortunate in keep- ing down swarming to a reasonable degi'ee. My approximate yard investment includ- ing bees, hives, and accessories, is about $800 — this from a $25 start six years ago. I also carry about $200 in new goods for sale to pupils and near-by beekeepers, and to draw from for my own use. I found that work must be anticipated, and the right thing done at the right time; also that bees will exist under the most ad- verse conditions, but ajDpreciate and re- spond to any attention to their betterment. 1 have also learned that one style of hive should be used exclusively, and I have set- tled down to the ten-frame dovetailed with Hoffman staple-spaced frames. I regard beekeeping as the ideal work for woxen, and it has opened up new fields and opportunities to me socially and financially, and also a deeper perception of nature's ways. Wakefield, Mass. BEEKEEPING ON THE COTSWOLD HILLS BY A. H. BOWEN Last season, now happily over, was one of the worst in this district for some years. To the large apiarist the summer was a nightmare, as the weather from the first of June to the end of August was atrocious, and, with the exception of one fine week in July, honey-gathering was almost an im- possibilit3\ The sudden and hea^'y down- pours in June drowned most of the forag- ing bees wliich should have been collecting honey during the few hot days which fol- lowed, so that the colonies which stored sur- plus were few and far between. After a rather severe winter, bees on the whole came thi'ough in good form ; and with the help of a little feeding they built up rapidh', the spring being unusually mild and favorable. Around the " Garden Town," fruit-trees blossomed almost a month earlier than usu- al; and so forward was the season that, at the beginning of Maj', strong colonies were working hard in the supers. No rain fell for practically eight weeks, during which time the mern- hum of the bees was heard from morn till night, taking every advan- tage of Nature's prodigality. As a swarming season, 1912 will be re- membered by many, especiall}' by the straw- skep beekeepei-s, who averaged three to six swarms per hive. The first came out during the last week of April; and from thence until Aug-ust there was a succession of swarms, the last being about the size of a duck's egg. Those fortunate ones who made a prac- tice of selling the swarms at $3.00 each reaped a rich harvest. Runaway swarms have been another fea- ture of this changeable season. In some cases they rushed out without any warn- ing, and flew straight away into some dis- tant tower or oak tree; in others, they clus- tered a few minutes, and then decamped. I myself lost four swarms which flew away ; but one from an adjoining apiary came and took possession of an empty " decoy " hive, several of wliich I keep in each apiary, and built up into a good colony. Foul brood has been unusually rampant this season ; and with hives packed with brood it spread in an alarming manner. However, by shaking all the worst colonies, 158 GLEAJ^INGS IN BEE CULTURE and treating the remainder with a new rem- edy, I have been able to keep this disease in cheek. If there is any thing which tends to propagate foul brood it is, in my opin- ion, a wet and cold summer, when but little honey is being gathered. Under these con- ditions the bees seem to lose both heart and energy, and the disease spreads like wild- fire through the whole apiary unless preven- tive measures are taken. During the latter part of the season rob- bers were exceedingly troublesome, especial- ly when removing supers. The robbing tendency was indeed so bad that most of the work accomplished had to be carried out in the evening, when flying had ceased for the day. The honey was extracted at night by the aid of a powerful lamp, thus avoiding any excitement in the apiary. At the last extracting I found it a good plan to stack up all the supers of wet combs until the bees had been fed up. They were then placed on the strongest hives to be cleaned out. From the best colony I took 50 lbs. of run honey, but the average yield was only about 10 lbs. per hive, while another apia- rist with nearly 200 stocks did not harvest more than half a ton of honey. Owing to the shortage, honey has been in good demand, though the price is not much liigher than last season; and until the public ceases to treat honey as a luxury rather than a necessity the price in a poor year can not be advanced much without in- juring the sale. The wholesale price in 1- Ib. screw-top bottles ranges from $1.92 to $2.16 per dozen, according to quality, and sells retail at 101/2 to 24 cts. per jar. FEEDING SOFT CANDY. My 80 colonies in ten-frame hives in Sep- tember were found so destitute of stores that it took 500 lbs. of sugar boiled to syrup to feed them up. The feeders I use are lever-lid cans with about twenty small holes pierced in the lid. Owing to the chilly weather some refused to take down suffi- cient syrup, and to these were given a large cake of soft and " buttery " candy. This is made by bringing a quart of water to the boil, and adding 12 pounds of refined cane sugar, a teaspoonful of cream of tartar and a little salt. Allow it to simmer for ten minutes, remove it from the fire and stir until it begins to thicken, when it is poured into molds. This candy is beautifully smooth and soft; and as it will keep in this condi- tion for months it is excellent for use in queen-cages. For a serviceable hive-cover I use a flat telescopic roof with a three-inch rim cover- ed with painted galvanized iron. This, I consider, makes the finest covering, and it lasts a lifetime. A COTSWOLD " BEE MISTRESS." In the accompanying photographs a good idea may be obtained of a typical Cotswold bee-mistress, with her quaint cottage and row of skeps standing in a sheltered corner of the garden. The hand of time has fallen heavily upon the poor old bee-skep, and in a few years hence this picturesque home will have entirely disappeared from our old- world villages. Cheltenham, England. A WOMAN WHO HAS BEEN"AIBEEKEEPER NEARLY FORTY YEARS BY MRS. ELLA STACKMAN I am 61 years of age, and for over 39 years I have been engaged more or less in work with the bees or in the workshop, and sometimes with both. I began with four colonies of black bees in the old American hive. I purchased them of a neighbor who was so badly stung by them as to fear to have more experience with them. My hus- band gave reluctant consent to my having them, with the undei-standing that I should have the sole care of them, and that he should never be expected to have any thing to do with them; and I well remember how happy I was when they were ranged on a plank behind the house, and I became the proud possessor of them. With what de- light I raised the cover which was over a pane of glass at the back of the hives, and looked into their little home, and how fer- vently I wished that there were some way that I could learn all about them! A short time aftei"ward I found a stray leaf of Gleanings among some waste pa- per. How eagerly I read and reread it ! I sent for Gleanings and the ABC book, and began to learn something of the habits of bees. My husband, seeing the magazines and books lying about, soon picked them up and became interested, and, like the male sex in general, assumed with my free con- sent and aiDproval the leading part in the business. So I shall say that we both began to think that we needed a better hive, and the combs built in frames. We sent for samjles of hives, and finally adoi)ted tlie Langstroth. We have never regretted our choice, and I still think it the best ever. We chose the Hoffman L. frame and the Miller wide frame for holding eight 4^ X 414 X 1% section boxes. My better lialf became more interested in a herd of fine Jerseys twelve years ago. when we left our village home, and moved to the farm. He then turned over what bees MARCH 1. 1913 we Lad al that time (20 colonies) to my sole care, and since then I have been en- gaged in supplying a few drug firms with bee poison in various forms, and raising honey as a side issue merely, as I have be- come, daring these years, almost immune to the effects of stings. I have never cut out a hive, but have done about every thing that was ever done with or for a bee. I nailed about all the hive frames and boxes; put foundation in boxes and frames; helped look over our apiary of about 100 to 200 colonies, about once in ten days, during the summer season ; assist- ed in queen-rearing, selling, and shipping full colonies, nuclei, and pounds of bees ; uncapped, extracted sometimes Avhen neces- sary, and every thing else that could be done by a woman. "We exliibited for several years at our State fair, and took the first prize one j-ear for tlie largest and best exhibit of comb honej' ever placed in the building — 1400 lbs., all in 1-lb. sections, and good enough to be classed Xo. 1 or " Fancy." I sell at my door what honey I raise, and always enjoj' very much a good talk with a brother or sister beekeeper. My husband complains sometimes that I enthuse people too much when I talk bees to them, which, perhai3s, is true; but my happiest hours have been spent among them. Auburn, Me., Aug. 22. DETERMINATION HALF THE BATTLE IN BEE- KEEPING BY ALICE TRIPP I came to this country from Wales at an early age, with four older brothers and five sisters in the 70's. I had never eaten hon- ey, nor had I ever seen a hive in my native country. In fact, I was in America several years before I saw a hive. But my brothers cut down countless trees that contained large quantities of honey, sometimes enough to fill a tub. While I liked to eat the honey I was always sorrj' that the industrious lit- tle workers had to be killed in order that we might get the honey. I was delighted, when learning about the nse of hives, to find that the surplus honey could be taken off for family use while the bees sroied plenty in the bottom story for their own reods. I resolved that, if I ever had a ho:re of my own. 1 would own some hives full of bees. But, alas! my better half could not b? pursuaded nor coaxed to let me keep bees. All is well that ends well, however. One day when my husband was sick in bed I spied a new and strange-looking lump hanging from the limb of a tree across the road. Uj^on investigation I found it to be a swarm of bees. In a very few minutes I liad fixed a box with cross-bars in the cen- ter. I mixed up some sugar and water, and wet the cross-bars and part of the inside of the box. I set the box on the gi'ound, and spread out a sheet in front of it. I backed the buggy under the limb, and with a hand- saw cut off the limb and soon climbed out of the buggy with my prize. I placed the treasure gently on the sheet, close to the box. In less than two minutes the bees with the queen in the center were making a bee line for that box. That was five j'ears ago. I still have my box of bees. They are so docile that I don't try to make them produce much surplus lioney, but use them for increase. I now own 20 hives with movable frames. Although onl}- nine are occupied, I hope to have all full before 1914. I also have three home-made hives containing bees, making 12 colonies at the begining of 1913. I have had the misfortune to lose one colony near- ly every winter. I once noticed a query as to how a woman manages the heavy lifting. I admit that a ten-frame hive full of honey is all I want to tackle. I first pry^ the upper story very slowly with two screwdrivers (having noth- ing better) ; plant my feet in a good posi- tion, take a firm hold and a good breath and determine that I can lift it, and I always succeed. There is a good deal in thinking 3"0U can and will. I extracted over nine gallons of honey from one colony in 1912. That was mj' best colony. Some came through the winter in poor condition. I don't make the same mis- take twice, for I am in the business to stay. Colo, Iowa. SUITABLE COSTUME FOR HIVING A SWARM OF BEES BY MRS. G. W. PERSONS Last summer I hived a swarm of bees. It was a little after-swarm — about a Cjuart of bees, I think, that came out in July. It hung on the limb of an almond tree all night ; and the next morning, as my hus- band was going to an out-apiaiy he asked me to hive it about ten o'clock. I first got a hive and put tliree frames containing full sheets of foundation and a division-board in it. This I set in a cen- ser ient place. Pv standing on a box and reaching up as high as I could I finally GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE managed to cut off the limb on which the bees were clustered. Tliis I carried very carefully to the prepared liive; and with one or two quick vigorous shakes I got the bees on the ground at the entrance of the hive. Picking up a pebble I drummed on top of the liive, and soon all the bees were moving in a flock toward the entrance. I watched them, drumming the wliile, un- til I saw the queen go in. I was fully re- warded for my trouble when I saw her, for she was a beautiful yellow virgin. Then, placing a raisin-tray against the hive to protect it from the hot sun, I left it. About five days later the queen was laying, then the hive was moved on a stand "with other hives. Before the season ended they had built themselves up into ten frames, and had filled an extracting-super with alfalfa hon- ey. When a woman thinks of bees, the utter unfitness of her clothing for the work is the first thing that occurs to her, and justly too, for low shoes and a flapping skirt seem to invite attack. I know whereof I speak. One experience in such clothes is enough. My bee-suit consists of a gymnasium suit with skirt, leggins, veil, and gloves. If I expect to be out in the apiary for only a short time I find that, instead of leggins, an extra pair of stockings with the feet cut off works well. I bought a pattern and some khaki, and made the suit myself. I made the veil of khaki and wire cloth by taking a piece of the wire cloth 11 by 27 inches, and making a cylinder of it. Over one end and down the back was sewed a piece of khaki. The khaki over the back was for protection from .the sun. At the lower edge of the cylinder was sewed a kliaki skirt about eleven inches deep. The skirt was tucked inside my col- lar, and the bees were very effectually kept out. I wear gloves only when the bees are very cross. I find I can work much faster without them, and what do a few stings amount to, any way? College City, California. A WOMAN WHO KEEPS BEES BECAUSE SHE LIKES THEM BY MRS. C. A. SIBLEY If I had ever seen a honeybee previous to 1900 I did not know what it was. We moved here from Boston that year, and one day some one said that there was a swarm of bees down the road. So we went to see them. Tliere was only one beekeeper in the neighborhood, and we sent him no word, so the swarm hung there and dwindled just because we didn't know any better. But I talked about the " poor little things " until I was compelled to stop by remarks about " a bee in her bonnet," and " a vacuum under the bonnet." There was some hay stacked in our mead- ow ; and the next spring our beekeeper friend happening to meet me, he asked if he could buy the hay. When I mentioned his request to my husband he laughed and said, " As you have found a purchaser, com- l^lete the bargain and you may have what- ever you get." Every one was amused when I exchanged it for a colony of bees. I still think I did not pay enough for those bees, for they have been worth a great deal to me. First, they gave me a new interest at a time when I was very homesick ; also they have paid for our magazine and farm papers, for an incubator and brooder, and last fall they helped pay for the corn-harvester. We use an incredible amount of honey on our own table, and I do not know of any thing which so perfectly expresses friendship or sympa- thy under so many different circumstances as honey does. Our friends appreciate hon- ey more than they do bees. Of course there is some work that re- quires strength; but I manage the heavy lifting very easily. I let the men do it. They set the hives in and out of the cellar; but my daughter and I manage the swarms, which usually cluster on an apple tree. We carry out the kitchen table, then we carry out two chairs, a barrel (kept for the pur- pose), and the brooder-run. We put the table under the tree, the barrel on the table, the brooder-run on the barrel, and the hive on the brooder-run. We use the chairs our- selves, and climb from them to the table. Suppose some day we should put too much weight on the table-leaf and si^ill the edi- fice and its builders, and all because the queen's wings are not clipped. However, it is usually " a fine swarm," and is always put into a Danzenbaker hive. Of course, the hives come in the flat, and my son nails them together; and I am afraid he will have to until manufacturers list a hive body that can be put together with a needle and thread. I can't drive large nails very straight. My chickens run in the apiary, and never trouble the bees. Perhaps that is because the hives are set up a foot or more from the ground. Bushel crates make fine hive-stands in a pinch; but there is al- ways a vigorous protest when the " men folks " see them. The hives are just high enough to work over easily. In June we put on the supers with full sheets of foun- dation. A piece of enamel cloth is placed MARCH 1, 1913 161 between the bees and the cover. One of ns peels otf the cloth, and the other slides on the super. We seldom use smoke for that; but we need it for removing bee-escapes. J asked Mr. Crane how he liked my smoker. He said he thought that kind was worth about ten cents a bushel. My suspicions are confirmed, and I shall have a new smok- er. Last season the honey-flow was poor in Ibis locality. It w^as mainly from basswood. 1 secured a little more than 1000 salable sections from 31 colonies, fall count. There was no surplus from some of them. The local trade takes all my honey, and I could have sold much more. I am " fussy " about scraping, grading, and packing sections. Success in selling depends upon it. Highgate, Vt.^ MISTAKES OF AN AMATEUR BY MRS. S. L. DORSETT As I am a beginner in beekeeping, and made several mistakes during the first year, I send you this article, hoping it will help some one to avoid making these same mis- takes. In the spring of 1911 I purchased (from a i^erson going out of the bee business) an outfit consisting of ten eight-frame hives, and two common box hives. There were three colonies of hybrids in eight-frame hives and one colony of leather-colored Ital- ians in another eight-frame hive. There were Italians in one of the box hives also. In the other box liive the bees were so vi- cious that I ne\er got near enough to them to know what kind they were. The outfit — bees, hives, and all — was delivered on my premises when the snow was about ten inches deep ; and, not having a place pre- pared for them, they were set in a corner of the garden. BEES PLYING BEFORE HIVES VP^ERE PLACED ON SUMilER STANDS. About the 18th of March I had the box hives and the eight-frame hive of Italian bees placed where they were to stand all summer; but the hybrids were not moved until the last week in April. This I now look upon as a mistake, for the bees had been out enough to get their bearings, and kept going back to the place in the garden from which they had been moved, and some- times the air seemed full of flying bees. I finally set a liive with empty frames at the place in the garden where the colonies had been, and at night there would be a n:ce cluster inside of the hive. About ten o'clock at night I would bring this hive and set it over one of the four colonies with a queen- excluder under it, and next day I set anoth- er decoy hive in the garden, and at night brought that and the bees to another of the four colonies. I do not know whether I really helped the bees to find their homes or not ; but at last there were no more bees fiying aimlessly around in the garden. Two of these four colonies east a swarm, and two stored nearly a superful of surplus honey. QUEEN-CELLS NOT CUT OUT. With my outfit there was one eight-frame hive of nice clean empty combs. Wishing to have the Italian bees build up strong I set this hive of empty combs on top of the eight-frame liive containing the colony of Italians in April, and on May 30 they cast a fine large swarm. Now, as I had not learned much about entrance-guards or cut- ting out queen-cells, I left the bees in the two-story hive, and in two weeks they had cast three after-swarms. I could not think it wise to put these back in the parent hive and. kill such splendid young queens ; and as I knew nothing about introducing I put each of these small swarms in a separate hive. Of course, by this time the parent liive had very few bees left, so I confined the queen to the bottom liive with a queen- excluder, and let the top story act as super ; but they gave very few pounds of surplus after filling their hive nicely for winter. This mistake proved even more disastrous than moving too late in spring or allowing the after-swarms. I had three after-swarms of splendid Italian bees with small patches of brood about as large as my hand, and scarcely any honey, so I decided to kill the vicious bees in a box hive and one colony of hybrids that had proved cross during the summer, and use these combs and stores for the after-swarms. CROSS COLONIES AND HYBRIDS DESTROYED BY SULPHUR FUMES. The last of October I had sand banked up around the two colonies; and, putting some coals in the smoker (another mistake, I presume), I then added a tablesiDoonful of sulphur for each hive, and drew away just enough sand to allow the mouth of the smoker to enter the entrance. I puffed the sulphur fumes into the hive for a couple of minutes, and drew the sand in place again, and left them until next day. Then the next day I had the old box cut away and then the combs were cut to fit the Hoffman frames. I filled one eight-frame hive with these. I then swept all the dead be&s from the combs in the other eight-frame hive. Both hives were now ready, and I put one of the after-swarms into each hive and took GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTuRE the other bees and swept part in each hive, paying no attention to the queen, suppos- ing there would, of course, be a fight in the hive containing two queens until one was killed. I now had three frames from each of these after-swarms, with small patches of brood and a trifle of honey. I put these and one empty frame into an eight-frame hive and set it on top of a weak colony that had issued as a second swarm from the box hive o-f Italians. This colony was now put in a shed open to the south. This proved to be no mistake, as the following spring it was a strong colony. The three colonies which had been united were a total loss. The hives were empty of honey in the spring. All the bees were dead in one hive, and there was little more than a handful in the other. I gave them two frames of brood and two frames of honey; but they were soon all dead, and the two frames of brood were lost also. I suppose they died out because I had taken from them their own larvae; and the larva? in the hives I put them in had been killed by the sulphur. I wonder if there are many who have made so many mistakes in one year. West Point" Pleasant, N. J., Feb. 1. A WOMAN WHO CAN DO ANY KIND OF WORK ABOUT THE APIARY BY MRS. C. DISHMAN There are many w'omen, widows and mar- ried, in Texas, who have good locations on their farms and ranches for bees, who would be glad to keep bees if they understood tlie business ; and to such women I would sug- gest that they get some literature on bee- keeping, and a few colonies of bees, and read and practice with a few at first. Many will not have a location for very many colo- nies; but even a few colonies properly tak- en care of will furnish honey for family use (and some to spare now and then) ; and those who have good locations, and money to invest in the business quite ex- tensively might employ an experienced bee- keeper for one or two seasons; and by working with liim, and reading up on bee- keeping, they could soon be making their own spending money, or possibly making much or all of a family's support. Women who are situated so that thej' can keep a good apiary can give profitable employment to their children as they become lai'ge enough to work; and by so doing interest them in Avork at home. At the same time their help would save the expense of liired help. I know the first thing a woman thinks of when she considers working with bees is that di-eadful sting; but a good veil and gloves will i:)rotect her from that annoy- ance. I always carry a smoker when I go to work with bees. I can hive a swann, wire frames, i^ut in foundatidn, assort the combs, and do every thing I have tried to do about the work. I am not sure that I am handy enough with hammer and nails to put frames together as they should be; but my step-daughter can put thera together nicely. Other women can do the same if necessai'y. I can see no reason why women can not keep bees as successfully as men in many places in this west Texas country. If they will just go into it and stick to it they will be apt to find it pleasant and interesting, and in a few years they will have a very profitable business that will not necessarily interfere with housekeeping or poultry-rais- ing, and such work as is usually carried on on ranches in this country. There is no extra expense in wintering bees in this country. We leave them on the same stands, winter and summer. This is very much in favor of women beekeepers on account of less lifting. Del Rio, Tex. How One Woman Extracted Honey Without an Extractor I was ten years old when my father started my interest in bees. There was a swarm, and after it had settled he told me if I could hive it I might have it ; and if I prospered in the bee business I was to call on him for a hive whenever I needed one. Well, I prospered, as we usually do in a work we love. Experience taught me that the bee in many ways is almost akin to man, inasmuch as it wants its own home, and wants to manage it itself. I also learned to work with the bee, and let it have its own way, always when possible and consistent. I did not have the unique appliances that are now within the reach of beekeepers ; and as I read and study about modern conveniences I wonder that, in my rude way, I prospered as well as I did. I never clipped the wings of my queens, nor did I meddle with them in any way ; and I never needed to do it. So as far as I could see she was always at her post and capable. I never lost a swarm that I knew of, for I was a most vigilant observer in my apiary. I had no honey-extractor, but extracted my honey and made my wax at once by setting comb honey in the oven, just hot enough to do the work, taking it out as soon as done, and, when cool, I had both extracted honey and beeswax in one vessel. I took off the wax in a solid cake, and put it into a pan of water, boiled it, and let it cool; then it was ready for use or for sale. The honey I passed through a sieve, and canned it ready for sale or use, fully 12 lbs. of pure honey to the gallon. I have found in my experience that " eternal vig- ilance " pays in the bee bsiness fully as well as in any other, and I can not see why the business will not become a success in the hands of any intelligent man or woman. Ellwood City, Pa. Mrs. J. S. Ramsey. MARCH 1, 1913 163 Heads of Grain from Different Fields KEEP SWEET BY IKMA TRUK SOPER Feelin' sort o' cross and blue ? Troubles can't be beat ? Luck the worst you ever knew ? Time to — jest " keep sweet." Toothache? headache? work ain't done? Can't keep things as neat As you'd like to? 'Tain't much fun; But — like bees — " keep sweet." Winter time may be too cold Jest to suit ; but meet Old weatherman with smiles so bold — Like the bees, " keep sweet." May be 'tother way around — Don't like summer's heat; But you'll see much joy you've found If you'll jest " keep sweet." If you'll try it, then you'll find Troubles can be beat; Keep on bein' lovin', kind; Like the bees- — " keep sweet." Gladwin, Mich. Comb Honey Sells Easier than Extracted Honey We have always found that it pays much better to run our apiary for comb honey than for extracted. Comb honey almost sells itself. We never yet have had so much but that we could have easily sold more. One year we had 39,000 lbs. After it was sold, a man wanting a carload wrote us regarding the mat- ter. If our bees are strong in time for the clover har- vest any honey harvest they will work in the sec- tions without any trouble. Thus it is easier for us to make a specialty of comb honey than extracted. Very few persons want extracted honey if they can get comb honey, and they are always willing to pay more for comb honey. At one time we feel that we have a good market for extracted honey worked up, and then there comes a failure of a honey crop. Our old customers forget how they had liked extracted, and so we have to teach them over and over again ; but comb honey sells on sight. I think one reason for this is that it looks 80 well on the table. Bulk comb or cut-out honey pays well. If some colonies are too weak to work in supers they can be induced to store cut-out honey by placing old sections at the side of the brood-nest with a slotted division- board at the side of the brood-combs. CLEANINO SUPERS AXD HOXE Y-BOARDS. For cleaning supers I put on the stove an old w«sh-boiler filled ■with water. As soon as it boils I add about a tenth of a can of lye, then put in a super. The propolis soon softens, and washes off easily. Turning it over and over, I rub it by means of a swab having a long handle until it is clean. I then put the super into a tub of water, and let it soak until I have cleaned another. If the propolis does not rub off easily, but just smears over, it is be- cause there is not enough lye in the water. Keep the water near the boiling-point. HOT-WEATHER SHELTER FOR BEES. I prefer trees as shelter from the sun because they not only afford shade but allow the air to circulate around the hive, and in the winter, when the leaves have fallen, the warm sunshine on the hive gives the bees a chance to warm up somewhat, and to change their brood-nest if need be. Roseville, 111. Mrs. L. C. Axtbll. How Rapidly Should Increase be Made ? Last September I purchased a beginner's outfit. Buckeye hive, etc. I should like to know how many colonies can be made from this colony, and how to go about it. I fed them sugar syrup, and they seem to be in first-class condition. What supers will fit the Buckeye hive? Miss Edith F. Miller. Lake Geneva, Wis., Jan. 14. [Before we could answer your letter fully we should have to know whether you wish to run these bees you have for increase alone or for some honey together with the increase. Ordinarily we think the latter plan is much the better one. An expert can run for increase alone, and increase one colony to fifteen or twenty under favorable circumstances ; but we do not advise a beginner to attempt this. We think it is far better to allow the colony to swarm once, if natural swarming is allowed at all, and then prevent further increase, allowing both the swaxm and the parent colony to produce honey. The next year the number of colonies can be doubled again, and so on. The trouble with making a rapid increase in one year is that there is likely to be trouble dur- ing the following winter, owing to the fact that many of the colonies will not be strong enough to winter profitably. If you intend to increase by artificial methods we would recommend the Alexander plan of making in- crease, as this plan possesses advantages that most other plans do not. Any ten-frame super will fit your Buckeye hive, so that it really depends upon what style of supers you prefer. — Ed. ] Daughters of Old Queens as Breeders In May or .Tune, 1910, I purchased a two-frame nucleus, and I now have three colonies of bees. Last year I lost the queen which I bought, but nev- ertheless my three colonies all have queens which are her daughters. I now want to know whether it will be all right to raise queens from them this year in making increase or would it be better to buy another queen to raise young queens from 1 Slingerlands, N. Y. Miss Alida M. Piee. [If these daughters of the queen that you bought are purely mated, so that their bees are gentle and good workers, there is no reason why you should not breed from them the coming season. If the queens have mated with black drones, their workers will be irritable, of course. We should think one of them, at least, might be suitable to breed from. At any rate, breed from the best of the three. You would not necessarily breed from all the three, any wav. — ^Ed. ] Wintering Bees in Box Hives I want to take up beekeeping. I have two old box hives. One is in a very sadly neglected condition. Some of the comb in it was broken when I received the bees. A good many bees were chilled and axe dead, and I know that what are left will have to be fed. \\Tiat can I do to get them through the winter? I am at a loss to know what to do ^th them as the weather in this climate is so changeable, and I don't want to lose them. The colony is not large. I don't know when the queen is with them. How can I tell? Would it be of any use to know how? Glencoe, Ky., Dec. 31. aiiss A. L. Sceoqin. [We have our doubts as to whether you will be able to winter the colony you mention. After being moved as they were, and the combs broken down, the chances are that the bees will be dead before spring. As they are in box hives it will be practically im- possible for you to tell whether the queen is with 164 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE them, or whether they have enough stores. Under the circumstances your best way would be to remove both hives to a well-ventilated dark cellar where the temperature will not go below forty degrees nor above fifty for any length of time. Then, because you are not sure, it would be best to feed warm su- gar syrup, two parts of sugar to one of water. If you can get the top off the hive, feed this syrup in shallow dishes right next to the combs, and cover the top up in such a way that the bees can get to the syrup but can not get outside. Place the syrup in the hive late in the afternoon, so that by morning the bees will have quieted down somewhat. We rec- ommend this, owing to the fact that the syrup stim- ulates the bees and stirs them up considerably, and in the day time they would be likely to fly out and die on the cellar floor. Candy would be safer. — Ed. ] Minimum Yield of $10.00 Per Colony I have been keeping bees for the past six years with good results. My bees never average me less than $10.00 a colony, even though we are " away down by the sea." We have great bee feed in the far-famed Bay of Fundy marshes that abound in white clover of the finest quality. Mis.s Julia A. Corbett. Amherst Point, Nova Scotia. Extracting Unripened Honey; Proportion of Water in Honey and Nectar; Where to Store Extracted Honey Dear Sirs: — Will honey that is extracted when bees are just beginning to seal it ripen in open tanks? Wliat proportions of honey and water do you take to make it the consistency of nectar ? Do you think it would be all right to store ex- tracted honey after it is in cans, in a dry cement cellar, with plenty of ventilation, and with a cistern in it? Mrs. Alice BtrEROws. Oran, N. Y., Feb. 2 [With proper facilities fof ripening the honey arti- ficially it can undoubtedly be done ; but, at the same time, we do not feel like recommending the practice ordinarily. It is better, of course, if you wait until the bees have begun to seal the honey ; but we think it is still better, all things considered, if the honey is nearly all sealed before it is extracted. For the purpose of feeding back, extracted honey is usually thinned down so that the mixture is about 75 per cent of honey and 25 of water. However, such a mixture is not as thin as nectar by any means. Figures regarding the amount of water in nectar vary so much that it is difficult to arrive at definite conclusions. For instance, in the ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture the percentage of water in foui- different kinds of nectar varies from 59 to 93 per cent. However, since three of the nectars con- tain more than 80 per cent of water it may be safe to consider 85 per cent as a safe average of the amount of water in nectar. The average honey may be said to consist of 80 per cent of solids and 20 per cent of water. Now, then, to find the amount of water that must be added to honey to reduce it to the consistency of nectar is a simple problem. Starting with honey we have a liquid which is approximately 80 per cent solids. We wish to add enough water so that we have a liquid which is only 15 per cent solids, since, as we have explained above, we have selected 85 per cent as being an average amount of water in nectar. Supposing we take ten pounds of honey. Eight pounds of that amount is solids. Now, eight pounds is 80 per cent of ten, and 15 per cent of 53. We must add enough water to our ten pounds of honey, therefore, to bring the weight up to 53. Approximately, therefore, we must add 40 pounds of water — that is, four times the weight of the honey in question. After honey is in cans, and the cans are sealed, it does not make very much difference where it is stored provided the atmosphere is dry so that the tin will not rust badly. Other things being equal, we should say that the warmer the room where honey of any kind is stored the better. — Ed. ] Starting witli Three Colonies and Producing 2209 Pounds of Honey the Fourth Year We secured 2209 lbs. of extracted honey last year from 19 colonies of bees, spring count, in spite of the drouth. We have sold 1900 lbs. at 10 cts., and kept 300 lbs. for our own use. Our bees seem to be wintering in good order on their summer stands, although we lost a good many during the last cold spell, when the mercury went to six degrees below zero on the 8th of January. We have now 32 colonies, and this is our fourth year, with a start of three stands ; that is, we have kept bees for four seasons. Altus, Okla., Jan. 15. James G. Reid. Rye Crop as a Substitute for Pollen I feed my bees rye chop as a substitute for pollen. About the last of February or early in March we have the alder here. It blooms very early, and fur- nishes an abundance of pollen ; but my bees start brood-rearing before the alder blooms, and search everywhere for a bit of chop or meal. It is cool some days; and if I did not feed them chop they would hustle out in search of pollen, become chilled, and die. When the weather begins to get warm, and I notice my bees searching feed-troughs and such places, I have some rye ground fine, and put it in pails or pans, and on warm days set it out in some sunny place. Thousands of bees will soon be work- ing at it in a short time. Feeding rye chop has a direct effect on brood-rearing, as the bees could not do much without pollen or a substitute for it. About the first of March, if the weather is favor- able, I also feed my bees a syrup made of equal parts of granulated sugar and water, to stimulate brood-rearing if the weather is favorable. I think it pays to stimulate brood-rearing in the early spring, so as to have every colony strong in bees, and ready for the honey-flow. Ethelfelts, Va., Nov. 26. D. M. Bryant. SUMMER'S MUSIC BV ANNA M. CRAWFORD Some love the song of the babbling brook. As it ripples along on its way ; Some love the songs of the merry birds That sing through the livelong day. All this is the music of Nature's choir, That tells of a life so free;- But give me the lull of the sighing wind And the drone of the honey-bee. These are the sounds which bring to my heart The joys of a time to come — Of buckwheat cakes on a winter's morn, And sweets that drip from the comb. And they also bring, with their buzz and hum, The days of long ago, When I wandei-ed in childhood's meadow land Tlirough the fields where wild flowers grow. Then future and past blend all in one; And 'tis present joy that gleams As I drowsily, lazily float away To a land of beautiful dreams. And I'm sure all the labor of life I've done Is naught when compared with these. For the greatest lesson of life is learned From the hum of the honey-bees. Denver, Col. MARCH 1, 1913 165 Our Homes A. I. ROOT Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. — Matt. 5:9. Our readers will recall how much I have had to say of late in regard to the need of peace and harmony between Prohibitionists and the Anti-saloon League — see p. 604, Gleanings for Sept. 15, and Homes of Nov. 1. Well, just before I left Ohio, Dan- iel A. Poling, Prohibition candidate for governor of Ohio, gave an address in Me- dina to a very small audience. It rejoiced my heart to find a man representing the party .who had nothing but kind words for the Anti-saloon League, and next morning I had a long friendlj' talk with him. Well, to be brief, the American Advance has just gone into the hands of an " Advance " Pub- lishing Co., and elected our good friend Poling President of said company. The clipping below from the American Advance of Feb. 1 explains itself. Once more may God be praised for answering my prayers, and for having raised up a Moses to lead his children " out of the wilderness." THa HANDCLASP VS. THE HAMMER. Are the battering-ram and the big stick effective vote winners? Should thoy be used indiscriminately in assault upon the enemy and in the recruiting quarters of our civic reform army as well? There is no livelier question before the friends of prohibition at the present hour; and so well is it handled and answered by our clearvisioned young president, Mr. Daniel A. Poling, that we here give in full his views on the subject as detailed at the national conference Friday afternoon, January 17. We most emphatically agree with their spirit, their logic, and their practical timeliness in this hour when we realize as never before how gracious is our op- portunity to increase our forces a hundred fold by earnest, sincere, broad-minded optimistic invitation. Mr. Poling's remarks were specitlcally upon the topic, " The Attitude to I e Assumed by the Prohibi- tion Party toward Non-partisan Organizations." He said: I am a party Prohibitionist. I hold no brief to-day for the non-partisan organizations. But uppermost in my mind and heart is the desire and consuming passion that our cause shall triumph. And let it be distinctly understood that I speak to myself as well as to you. It must also be borne in mind as T pro- ceed, that I am not presenting the philosophy of the Prohibition party; that T am not expounding and defending the principles of our organization. My subject and the limit of time demand that I speak only on " Our Attitude toward Non-partisan Organi- zations." This is the subject assigned me. 1. What has been the attitude of the Prohibition party toward non-partisan organizations ? Too fre- quently it has been that of the Pharisee. We have congratiilated ourselves that we were not as other men. With irony and bitterness we have held our- selves aloof, and our political condemnation has been as was the spiritual condemnation of the Pharisee of old — we have not come down from the ballot-box justified ! W'e have denied to the non-partisan organization its very claim to efficiency. We have scoffed at white maps, declaring that the campaigns they represented amounted to nothing, and have then demonstrated the fallacy of our position by pointing out the de- cline of the non-partisan movement when a dry county has gone back into the wet column. If the non-partisan movements had done nothing more than call out from the ranks of silence Hobson and Hanley and Folk and Blair and Stubbs and Little- field, they would not have lived in vain. Too frequently we have refused to co-operate in local tights where the issue was drawn squarely be- tween the saloon and the home, between corruption and righteousness, between good government and lad, because we have insisted that the law under which the voters were acting was inconsistent and not in harmony with our party principles and the true philosophy of the great reform. We have made indiscriminate and all-inclusive charges where we have not been able to establish our case in court. We have indulged in personalities — iiave, in some cases, elevated them to the plane of issues, and our charges have been couched in such generalities that ten times ten thousand men as sin- cere and brave and honest and unselfish as we can possibly be have had occasion to take personal of- fense. Our opportunity to reach and marshal them in a conquering political host has been destroyed. The national speakers and the national press of the liquor organizations vie with each other in .searching out and quoting the defamatory utterances of the Prohibition party when they direct their ven- om against the Anti-saloon League. As for myself, from this day forth I shall guard my tongue and check my pen that the common foe may find no mis- sile of mine to hurl against the onsweeping hosts of civic righteousness. There is a time for honest dif- ferences ; there is a place for the frank and rugged discussion of conflicting methods in order that the right plan be found. That time is not in the heat of conflict; that place is not on the firing-line. I speak that which I do know when I say that there are countless men and women in the Anti-saloon League and other non-partisan movements whose souls are as clean and unselfish as the souls of the martyrs whose memories are ray political inspiration. I am convinced that in the future we shall make progress only as we eliminate strife from among the temper- ance forces when they are engaging the enemy. We niunt f.itroe our spirit. Amos R. Wells, editor of the Christian Endeavor World, who voted the Prohibition ticket for the first time this year, received more cantankerous criticisms — ten to one — because he had not " always been with us " than letters of welcome and commendation be- cause of his present " good confession." And he remarks, tritely, " Brethren, those letters go far toward explaining the small size of the Prohibition party." The Prohibition party will never succeed by bitter nnd unrestrained criticisms of organizations that (lifer with it as to method, but stand with it for (lie destruction of the liquor tralfic. The Prohibition party will never succeed by " rough tactics," by vit- riolic denunciations, in winning the temperance men of the nation who are not giving it their approval and support. We shall make progress faster and bring nearer more rapidly the victorj's dawning by using our full strength in showing the wisdom and power of our way rather than by " showing up " the real or fancied weaknesses of the other ways. It is possible to insult the intelligence of men by trying to tell them too much. Nine times out of ten, indirect sug- gestion is more effective than direct. And when we are sorely tempted, when we are refused by those who should be our voting friends, let us remember tliat "charity suffereth long and is kind." Ovt ot- 166 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE these very furnaces' of expediency and denial will rome the tempered metal of the final test. WHAT OF THE FUTURE ? Our attitude must be the attitude of a big man with a big task — a task that he is conscious of not having completed. Such a man is glad for sugges- tions, is willing to consider new plans, is ready to exchange outgrown policies for more effective meth- ods. He will sacrifice every thing — his pet schemes, his personal desires, his long-established judgments — every thing save principU, for the consummation of the truth. I have never been more firmly estab- lished in the faith that the liquor institution will not te destroyed until we elect to power a political party committed to its destruction. Upon this rock I stand, but I will not impute spurious motives to the man who is not with me agreed. Win him I will if I can. Our attitude must be the attitude of a sincere or- ganization that has made mistakes — for we have made grave mistakes, and we should not be inclined to throw stones. Our attitude must be the attitude of an organiza- tion conscious that it is responsible for electing, as well as for electrocuting; for winning, as well as for skinning! The intelligent, patriotic voters of the United States of America, the men and women who are thinking temperance to-day, will not be driven or coerced. They must be won. Our attitude must be the attitude of an organiza- tion so conscious of its place and motive that it seeks opportunities to co-operate with all other temperance and no-liquor organizations in programs of common agreement. By so doing, far from losing our iden- tity, we emphasize it. And, men of the Prohibition party, Ohio leads the way. In co-operation with the W. C. T. U., the Christian Endeavorers, the Sun- day-schools, and the Anti-saloon League she has adopted as part of her educational propaganda The Voters' Information Bureau established by the W. C. T. U., and superintended by Mrs. Lillian Burt of that organization. This bureau, I am convinced, will do more to develop intelligent and permanent anti-liquor sentiment among the masses that will eventually crystallize into votes than any other move- ment that has arisen in this generation. Out attitude must be the attitude of an organiza tion too busy to gossip. We do well to remember that the gossiper is always despised. And finally, brethren! The attitude of the Prohi- bition party must be the attitude of an organization conscious that it has a positive, progressive, construc- tive program vital to the life of the republic. And in this spirit, with the faith of the fathers, and building better than they knew, let us give to the temperance and Prohibition hosts the slogan of war — The liquor institution must be destroyed, and there Mhall he no fratricidal strife. High-pressure Gardening THE HIGH COST OF LIVING^ ETC. ; SOMETHING ABOUT GOD'S NEW AND PRECIOUS GIFTS. To-day is January 2, 1913, and so far it has been indeed a happy New Year to me. Let me tell you a few things that have made me happy. On New Year's day a beautiful lot of Buttercup chickens came out of the incubator, and on that same day one of my Indian Runner ducks that would sit brought out a brood of ducklings, hatching every egg. I tell you it is wonderfully nice and enjoyable to have a nice little room for a new brood of chicks and another nice room for a brood of ducklings; and then a nice little yard adjoining each one of them. My first brood of Buttercups are now a little over three weeks old; and when I open the door in the morning to let them go out they go out on the wing. The doorstep is a little bit high, so they have learned, in order to save the trouble of climbing over it, just to spread their gauzy wings and sail out like a Wright flying-machine, for all the world. Now another thing that makes them so handsome is their spotted wings, looking for all the world like a brood of partridges. Besides, we have a very pretty garden of sweet potatoes, common potatoes, early peas, lettuce, mustard for the chickens, etc. The thing that has made me happy and set me to thanking God most of all, just now, is a new vegetable sent out by the Department of Agriculture. I saw it mentioned in some of the rural Florida papers, and so I sent to Washington and asked them if they could furnish me some of the tubers. The night before Christmas, when I went to the postoffice I found in my box a card saying, " Package too large to go in the box. Pre- sent at the office." This was Christmas eve, remember. When I presented my card, a little bag holding perhaps a couple of quarts of something that looked like pota- toes was handed me. I at once decided that it was the new " dasheen," and I also decid- ed that, of all the Christmas presents I have had in seventy years, I do not know that I have ever gotten hold of one that I liked more than this little bag of dasheen. In order to tell you all about it, I am going to quote the printed matter sent me by the Department of Agriculture at Washington : THE dasheen; a new root crop for the south. The dasheen is a vegetable from the tropics, related to the ornamental caladium, or elephant-ear, the Hawaiian taro, and to the semi-wild tanier of our southern States. It is much superior to the tanier in quality, and is as easily cooked as the potato. It is one of the great staple food plants of the tropics. Its tubers are similar to the potato in composition, but are drier, and contain from 35 to 75 per cent more protein. The flavor of the cooked tubers is slightly suggestive of boiled chestnuts. Dasheens are baked, boiled, or otherwise cooked, like potatoes. Dasheens when baked are richer in flavor than baked potatoes. After boiling they may be French fried, mashed, made into croquettes, or used as stuff- ing for chicken, veal, or other meats. Although the tubers of the best varieties are not acrid, there is always some danger of an acrid vari- ety being mixed with them ; and for this reason it is better never to taste the raw tubers. The burning sensation, caused by this acridity when present, may not be felt for a minute or more after tasting. MARCH 1, 1913 "VThere the frostless season is less than five months, (he tuLers for planting; should Ije started in sand. under glass. Harvesting should be done before frost, and the tubers allowed to dry in the shade for sev- eral davs before storing. In storage the tubers must be kept dry, and a free circulation of air allowed among them. They should, therefore, be spread out in rather thin layers. The corms (large central "tubers") are more liable to decay than are the smaller tubers. The leaves of the dasheen make an excellent sub- stitute for spinach or other gi-eens. On account of their acridity, however, they should never he lasted raw. Only the blade of the leaf is used. Of this, re- move the thick portion of the midrib, and then boil for not less than 12 to 15 minutes in water to which haking soda at the rate of one teaspoonful to a quart of water has been added. Drain otT the soda water, wash with clear boiling water, and then boil for 45 minutes in water seasoned with salt. Other season- ing may be added as desired. Dasheen greens are "also cooked by boiling for about 30 minutes with fat moat. Soda is unnecessary with this method. The petioles, or leaf stems, cooked separately from the leaf blades, make a delicious dish. The same meth- ods of cooking may be used, except that, when soda is used, it is better to pour on cold water for the second boiling, and boil for only 15 minutes. THE UASHEEN AS A CROP, AND ITS INTRODUCTICN IXTO THE UNITED STATES. The first experiments made by the Department of Agi-iculture in the culture of the dasheen, taro, and related root crops, were at the Porto Kico and Ha- waii Experiment Stations. A considerable number of varieties from tropical America were collected at the former station, and variety tests were conducted. Following this, in 1905, specimens of the entire col- lection were brought to Washington and grown in the Department greenhouses. Additions were made to the collection from all parts of the tropics and the Orient, until there has been asseml led what is dou! t- less the largest collection in the world of these useful plants. From 1906 to 1909 small co-operative experiments in growing these root crops were made in nearly all the southern States, but without very definite re- sults until the latter year, when a one-sixtli-acre plot in rich bottom land in Berkeley County, South Caro- lina, produced 50 bushels of tubers. The most i:n- portant feature of that year's work was the demon- stration that, of all the varieties tested, certain dasheens, which were originally obtained from the Island of Trinidad, British West Indies, were among the best in point of yield, and greatly superior to all others in quality. These Trinidad dasheens, planted 3 to 4 feet apart, produced an average of 7 pounds to the hill, or at the rate of over 400 bushels per acre. The next season was unfavorable, and satisfactory results were not obtained at the South Carolina plantation; but a preliminary experiment in frejshly broken rich " hammock " land at the new Plant In- troduction Garden of the Department at Brooksville, Pla., showed that conditions there were favorable for dasheen culture, and in the spring of 1911 a half- acre of heavy-yielding varieties was planted. The half-acre at Brooksville yielded 225 bushels of tubers. .Vbout one-third of this was of the Trinidad variety. The soil is a black, very rich sandy loam. Two light applicaticms of fertilizer were made, in tlie middle and latter parts of the season. Harvesting was done early in November, the crop having had a season of about seven months. It is no longer a question whether the dasluen will find favor in the United States. It has been served repeatedly on the tables of some of the most fastidious, and has I een pronounced a valuable addi- tion to the menu. It was successfullly served at the 167 annual banquet of the National Geographic Society in Washington in .Tanuary, 1911, and, after a .spe- ( ial test, was reported upon favorably liy the house lo.naiittee of an influential New York club. The Department believes that all southern home gardens having suitable conditions of soil and mois- ture should contain at least a small area of dasheens, and that a regular market for the surplus over what is needed for home consumption can quickly be cre- ated when a steady supply is available. The little bag which was my Christmas present contained jnst nineteen tubers; and although these little tubers were very pre- cious, at least to me, I decided that we would have to make a test of one of the smaller ones by having it baked for breakfast. So on Christmas morning we had our first feast of the new potato, or whatever you might call it, served for breakfast. The tuber is remarkably hard and solid. I think they are heavier for the bulk than any potato. When I tell you that the first taste convinc- ed me that it was the most delicious baked potato I ever got hold of in my life, that does not half tell it. Mi's. Root quite agi-eed with me, although she isn't gifted in becom- ing over-enthusiastic on new and compara- tively untried things. The remaining eigh- teen tubers were carefully planted, and at this date, Jan. 17, they have all begaui to sprout, but none of them are, as yet, above ground. Some of my friends who have read our new potato-book will see what I had to say about my i*oasted-ehestnut potato of years ago. Well, this dasheen resembles that roasted-ehestnut potato more than any thing else I have ever gotten hold of. It was so dry and mealy that, when mashed with a fork, the inside rolled out as fine as flour, and looked about as white as flour. I am sure it will prove to be one of the most nourislung and most delicious articles of food that our heavenly Father has ever giv- en to his children. I have in years past been enthusiastic about a great many new fruits and vege- tables, as our older readers may recall. Many of them, it is true, have not quite come up to my expectations. Some of them, although they flourish in the locality where they originated, do not seem to do so well when moved to other places. The Gault raspberry, perhaps, is an illustration of one of this type. Some of our older readers may remember how enthusiastic I was in regard to the Kumerle lima beans. On getting a 25-ceut package of these beans and testing them for quality I became so enamored with the new bean that I finally offered their weight in gold for a few of the precious seeds. The Livingston Seed Company of Columbus, Ohio, finally agreed to part with $75.00 worth of these Kumerle beans for their 168 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE weight in gold. They were impressed sim- ilarly to myself. It soon transpired that this bean succeeded in only a few localities, and even then only under extremely favor- able seasons. After trying in vain to grow it in sufficient quantities so as to make each reader of Gleanings a present of a few of these wonderfully luscious beans, I gave it up ; but three or four years afterward, when we had a season that just suited it, I grew quite a considerable crop. Another thing, it didn't always produce beans of such won- derful excellent quality on all sorts of soils. This is something that we have all had to learn in testing new things. I was one of the first to demonstrate Ihat celery could be grown on our Medina Coun- ty soil. Now the crop grown in that region amounts to many thousands of dollars. The Grand Rapids lettuce, that I discov- ered and introduced to the world, and gave it its name, has also been the means of fur- nishing the material for a great industry, for there are now acres and acres of Grand Rapids* lettuce grown under glass in Ohio alone. I do not know how many acres there are in other States devoted to this at the present time. In a letter that I have recently received from the Department of Agi'iculture, they promise to furnish me more tubers if I can make use of them. Now, I tell you confi- dentially what my plan is. As soon as I can get enough of them I want to make a present of a dasheen tuber to every read- er of Gleanings — that is, to every one who sends the subscription price for one year. It seems to be ftiore exactly suitable for Florida soil and Florida conditions than for any other part of the United States. If I can only make it grow as we are now making sweet potatoes grow, I shall be in- deed happy. Before we Avent home last spring we got some sweet-potato vines over at neighbor Rood's, and just cut them up into short pieces and planted them through- out our garden, where other crops had been gathered off. Well, they had little care dur- ing the summer ; but when we came back in November we found such a great crop of sweet potatoes that we had all we could use, and enough to give the neighbors, right and left. May God be praised for the sweet potato, and more for the great dasheen which is just now being disseminated throughout our land. * In an article about " Truck Farming Under Glass," The Country Gentleman says: "The Grand Rapids lettuce has revolutionized the culture of this most important greenhouse crop." The sorgluim or sugar cane that the De- partment of Agriculture introduced some- tliing like forty years ago, produced on rather poor clay soil a quality of cane that made a most delicious syrup. The same sugar cane, when grown on rich bottom land, produced a syrup or sugar that most people would call hardly worth putting on the table. Let us now go back to the dash- een. At our weekly prayer-meeting I mention- ed the dasheen as one of God's new and most precious gifts to men. Our good pas- tor told me that the excitement was so great around Brooksville, Fla., where the Depart- ment of Agriculture has been carrying on test gardens, that it has i-eally been the means of building up the place from what before was an obscure village; and as this new vegetable seems to succeed better so far in Florida than anywhere else, there seems great promise that it shall mean the build- ing up of the whole State of Florida. Just think of it! The most delicious tuber that has ever been given to mankind, yielding at the rate of four or five hundred bushels to the acre ! In speaking of God's gifts, let me repeat a little instance that occurred when I was in California. A real-estate dealer, after asking me a multitude of questions, and finding he could not sell me any real estate, finally said, " Well, stranger, what is your occupation? What do you do for a living, may I be permitted to inquire?" I replied to liim that my occupation just then was hunting up God's gifts. He looked at me a little while, thinking perhaps I was half crazy or something of that sort. But he finally asked, " Well, stranger, if you are hunting God's gifts, I take it for granted you don't find many of them up here in this desert." I replied that I had been delighted from morning to night in finding such an innu- merable number of God's greatest and most precious gits, and I hoped to be able to spend the rest of my days in this wonder- fully exciting and hapi^y occupation of searching God's great wide universe for liis wonderful gifts to men. By the way, can any of my readers tell me whether any seed catalog they have got- ten hold of mentions the dasheen? Have the seedsmen of our land gotten hold of it? If anybody has had any experience along that line, or grown dasheen or something resembling it, I should be very glad indeed to have the full particulars. Published by The A. I. Root Co., Medina, 0. H. H. Root, Assistant Editor. E. R. Root, Editor. A. L. Boyden, Advertising Manager. A. I. Root, Editor Home Department. J. T. Calvert, Business Manager. Entered at the Postoffice, Medina, O., as Second-class matter. VOL. XJLI. MARCH 15, 1913. NO. 6 Editorial IOWA FOL'L-BROOD LAW; ATTENTION, IOWA BEEKEEPERS ! The beekeepers of Iowa are ti-ying to gel appropriations for their foul-brood law. It seems thej' had a law passed, but it car- ried no apiDropriation. Eveiy beekeeper in Iowa is requested either to see or write to Ids Senator or Representative at once, and explain the great need of an appro- priation for the foul-brood law already on the statute-books, but wliich is practically non-operative by reason of no money for carrying on the work of inspection. SENDING BEES WITHOUT CO-\IBS. We must again caution beekeejiers against trying to send bees bj' parcel post. From the amount of correspondence that has been coming in, many people appear to be getting wild about shipping bees with- out combs. They either do not take Glean- ings or fail to read our repeated admoni- tions, and send bees in any kind of box by parcel post. As not all postmasters have read the ])arcel-post regulations, some of them accejit packages of bees in the mails; and if this continues we are liable to have even queen-bees ban-ed. Sending bees in pound packages is a science. We are per- fectly willing to tell beekeepers how to do it if they will write us. A FRUIT-GROWER WHO KNOWS WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT. One of our subscribers, Mr. Elias Fox, of Union Center, Wis., has called our atten- tion to the following clipping from Tlie Fruitman and Gardener, published at Mt. Vernon, Iowa, taken from their January " Special Spraying " issue : Never use poison sprays when the fruit trees are in bloom. Just before and just after is the time for spraying. You injure rather than help your crop by spray- ing during bloom. Those few days are sacred to the work of pollenation. And the bees, your best friends in that work, must have a clear field. It is adding cruelty to folly to kill your friends at the moment they are doing you a good turn. Mr. Fox wishes that all journals devoted to fruit-gTowing in the countrj^ would copy this. We, too, wish that they would, for the item, though short, is right to the point. As it comes from a journal not especially prejudiced in favor of bees, it has all the more weight. BEE INSPECTION IN CONNECTICUT; A LARGER APPROPRIATION NEEDED. According to that part of the report of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station having to do with bees, we note that the two inspectors, A. W. Yates and H. W. Coley, made an effort during 1912 to inspect those portions of the State not previously covered in this work. European foul brood was found in Litchfield, Nor- wich, and New London counties. The appropriation in the States is only $300, so it is impossible to cover all the ground in one year. At the last convention, however, beekeepers voted to ask for an in- creased appropriation, and also for certain changes in the law which will make it possi- ble to inspect without complaint, and to place a quarantine upon diseased apiaries. Another change asked for is that a certifi- cate of good health be required to accom- pany every sliipment of bees, whether brought into the State from without or moved from one point to another within the State. The inspectors barely kept within the appropriation, the total cost of the year's work amounting to $299.80. The average cost of inspection per colony was 21 cts. Fourteen hundred and thirty-one colonies were inspected in 153 apiaries, and 337 colonies were found diseased with Euro- pean foul brood in 73 apiaries. windbreaks and wintering. We ^vish to indorse as heartily as we can the statements made by Mr. Byer, on page 181. of this issue, on the subject of narural windbreaks versus board fences. As we have said before, we believe suitable wind- breaks are almost as important factors in wintering as packed double walls. The best- sheltered location — indeed, one that is ideal, in our opinion — is one that is surrounded by low shrubbery or trees — enough so as to GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE break the force of the wind. When a solid board fence is used, the wind glances up- ward, is caught by the onward current, bounds downward, hitting one or more rows of hives, with the result that such row will suffer a much greater mortality than the others. CARELESSNESS IN GRADING. A SHORT time ago we received a letter from a prominent dealer in New York han- dling honey, butter, cheese, eggs, etc., com- plaining in regard to the way in which most producers grade their honej'. We give herewith a part of the letter refeiTing to this matter: There are very few producers of honey in New York State who grade their honey honestly. It is to he regretted, but it remains a fact just the same ; and we are unable to make any impressison on the graders and producers by any thing that we can write them. Most graders seem to thiuk it is the proper thing to work off a certain percentage in their No. 2 honey in their No. 1 grade, and they do not stop to realize that, by packing their honey in that way, they lose money by doing it. We doubt whether the producers should be called dishonest, for we think it is more often carelessness or ignorance that ac- counts for the improper gxading. It is, of course, a serious matter; for, from the standpoint of dollars and cents, it means a distinct loss to the producer when his gTad- ing is badly done. THE NEW FOUL-BROOD BILL BEFORE THE LEG- ISLATURE OF MICHIGAN. The beekeepers of Michigan are ti-ying to get a foul-brood law that is more effec- tive than they have had in the past. Every beekeeper in Michigan should immediately write to his Senator and Representative asking for his unqualified support to the bee-disease bill (House bill No. 343) that is now pending before the General Assembly. Exi^lain that bee disease is rajiidly spread- ing all over the United States and Canada, and that it is very necessary that the State of Michigan should have a law that will protect her against the inroads of the dis- ease from other States. Prompt and deci- sive action on the part of all the beekeepers of the State should be taken at once. The States bordering have much better laws, and it is high time that Michigan should have as good a law as her sister States. DOUBLING THE STRENGTH OF COLONIES DUR- ING MIDWINTER. We would call attention to an interesting article by G. T. Whitten, in this issue, on the subject of building up colonies indoors by feeding, and pi'oviding a means for flight in a wire-cloth cage. Years ago A. I. Root succeeded in making colonies in a gxeen- house rear brood during cold weather. The bees finally learned to fly out and go back to their hives. While, of course, some were lost, yet brood-rearing continued. Mi*. Wliitten may have made an improvement in that he uses a small wire-cloth cage into which the bees may fly — so small indeed they may then go back into their hives. Although he does not say so, we take it that at such times they void their feces. While we do not believe it would be prac- tical for every one to rear brood under the conditions named in Mr. Whitten's article, yet it might be possible for small beekeep- ers to save a few of their colonies having a mere handful of bees each. The thing is worth trjdng, for the amount of fuel re- quired would not be large. When there is only one colony, the living-room might be used ; but if there are a dozen, a room would have to be prepared with suitable means for ventilation. We shall be glad to get reports from any of our subscribers who have tried out this plan ; and in conclusion we may venture to suggest that not many will be able to suc- ceed as well as Mr. Whitten has done. THE EFFECT OP SUGAR IN EXCESSIVE AMOUNTS ON THE HUMAN SYSTEM. In the January issue of The Technical World Magazine, page 516, is an article by Bailey Millard entitled " Our Great Sugar Debauch." We wish ew^ry one of our read- ers might secure a copy for the purpose of reading this article, for it is an astonishing- revelation of the enormous quantity of su- gar consumed in the United States, and of the bad effect which this excessive use of sugar has on the system. We are preju- diced, of course ; bat in our opinion the writer sliould have offered as a solution the substitution of honey for so much sugar. However, even as it stands, the deleterious effect on the health is evident. The opinions of specialists are quoted, showing that " The bad effects ascribed to sugar as a food are due to its use in larger quantities than three to four ounces a day. . . . The average person eats about three times as much cane sugar as he should." ..." Many a factory girl and depart- ment-store saleswoman makes her entire luncheon from starchy wheat cakes swim- ming in maple, cane, or corn sjrup, and no other dish." The unfortunate girls who work in the candy-factories " are not a healthy-looking lot ; and, though plumj? enough, they are pale of cheek and listless of ej'e. Sugar inebriates all, with bad stomachs and bad livers." MARCH 15, 1913 171 Referring to the candy sold in shops, the writer says that of 250 samples bought for examination by government chemists '' not one was found to be pure, and nearly all had either aniline or coal-tar colors, glu- cose or terra alba in them, while many had all of these valuable(?) food elements. Even if all candy were pure — that is, if it were composed wholly of sugar, mixed or coated with other edible constituents — it would be unsafe for the average child to gorge himself with it." Some sound advice is given along the line of allowing children to gratify their natural craving for sugar by eating such foods as dates, fig's, prunes, etc. ; and we wish that honej^ had been included; for it is a fact that, perhaps, no scientific man W'ill deny that honey, being an invert sugar — that is, gi'ape sugar — does not have the deleterious effect on the health that cane sugar does, whether made of the sugar cane, sugar beet, or mai:)le sap. SACBROOD AN OLD BROOD DISEASE UNDER A NEW NAME. For man}' years back there has been rec- ognized a form of dead brood under the name of pickled brood that is neither Eu- ropean nor American foul brood. It comes and goes at certain seasons, but is never a destructive agent like either one of the old foul-brood diseases. Sometimes it has the api^earance of foul brood so far as color is concerned; but it is never ropy like the American type; and while similar to the European type it seldom gets very much headway in a colony. For some years back. Dr. G. F. White, Expert in Bacteriology in the Bureau of Entomology, under Dr. E. F. Pliillips, has been studying this peculiar disease; and the result of Ins investigations as given in Circular No. 169, Bureau of Entomology, show that it is not a fungous disease, as was supposed by Dr. Wm. 0. Howard, of Texas, but is due to some other cause. It will be remembered that Dr. Howard attributed the cause to a fungiis, to which he gave the name Aspergillus pollini. He then suggested the name " pickled brood," wliich was adopted. It is mildl}' contagious, and the infected larvae turn yellow and then brown. Some- times the color is grsiy- The dead speci- mens may be in unsealed cells, but are generally in the sealed ones. The dead lar- vae, says Dr. White, are " almost always extended lengthwise in the cells, and lying with the dorsal side against the lower wall. .... The form of the larvae dead of this disease changes much less than it does in foul brood. The body wall is not easily broken, as a rule, and on tins account often the entire larva can be removed from the cell intact." ..." When removed they have the appearance of a small closed sac. This suggests the name of sacbrood." The only objection we find to the name is that it may be often confused with black brood, which is still veiy largely used, es- pecially by those in possession of the older literature on bee diseases. In ordinary dis- cussions in convention the word sacbrood can be veiy easily confused with black brood; and our own stenographers have re- peatedly in our letter-writing confused the terms and substituted the wrong one.* However, this is a matter that will correct itself as time goes on. CAUSE OF sacbrood. So far no microbe or fungus has been discovered as the cause of the disease. Whatever it is, it is so very small that it will pass through a Berkfield filter. Sick and dead laiTaB of sacbrood have been ma- cerated and diluted with sterile water. The product was then passed through a Berk- field filter ; but it was found that the filtrate would transmit the disease to a healthy colony. Colonies fed with tliis filtrate would again give the disease to other colonies. It is evident that the disease is contagious. Dr. White concludes " that sacbrood is an infectious disease of the brood of bees caus- ed by an infecting agent that is so small or of such a nature that it will pass through the pores of a Berkfield filter." This led us to the conclusion that the foul-brood inspectors of the countiy might be compelled to quarantine an apiary where sacbrood might be found; but in talking with Dr. E. F. Phillips, of the Bureau, afterward, he said he did not think that tins would be necessary. The disease at its worst is not veiy destructive; and when it does make its appearance it affects so few lam^ce in a colony that it need cause no great alarm on the part of the beekeeper. W^hile he would advise treating or isolating colonies, he did not believe it would be nec- essaiy to quarantine an apiary where it was found. We are informed that tins circular wil.'. be followed by a bulletin in which the dis- ease will be treated more fully. Copies of this circular can be obtained by applying to the Superintendent of Documents. Goa'- ernment Piinting-office, Washington, D. C, and inclosing five cents per copy. Ask for Circular 169, Bureau of Entomology. * Indeed, our oldest stenographer got the names ■wrong in taliing down this very editorial. The ear scarcely catches the difference. 172 GLEANINGS IN BEK CULTURE Stray Straws Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. I LIKE that March 1 number. Seems more homelike with so many women-folk around. The man with an out-apiary has the special advantage that he can take a colony from one apiary to the other and break it up into several nuclei without any precau- tionary measures to make the nuclei stay where they are put. [Right you are. — Ed.] Womenfolk do all the work in the hive, while the male members are dead-beats. That would make it seem the appropriate thing that beekeepers should be women; whereas they're nearly all men. Is this another of the cases in which women have been denied their rights all these years? A CITY daily advises boiling three pounds of sugar syrup with one of honey, and says a great many people like it better than hon- ey " because of the absence of honeycomb, which is dissolved." Now, there's a hint for the United States government, which is having a lot of trouble trying to dissolve certain trusts. Just boil the trusts in three parts sugar and one part honey, and they will be " dissolved." " Under the Colorado rules, the sections m.ust not weigh more than a certain mini- mum nor more than a certain maximum," p. 140. I suspect you mean less than a cer- tain minimum, but where do you get any thing about a maximum? [Yes, certainly, we accept your correction. Where do we get maximum? From the Colorado rules. Later. Just looked it up. There is no maxi- mum. The joke is on us. — Ed.] The women of several of the large cities took in hand the egg-market, with the re- sult that eggs were bought at 24 cents a dozen by people too poor to pay the pre- vious high prices. Now Chicago women have hammered down the price of apples from 6 cents to 2^/2 cents a pound. When they get around to it, it would be a glorious thing if they would hammer down the price of honey so that ill-nourished little kids who never taste honey might get an occa- sional meal of it. " that would lower the price to the beekeeper?" Not a bit of it. Tt Avould, if any thing, work the other way by increasing the consumption. The farm- ers didn't get any less for their eggs and apples because the women butted in. Even if it should bring the beekeeper less, the honeyless kids outnumber the beekeepers. I'm glad to see that Byer-Root scrap started about feeding honey or sugar syrup, pp. 138 and 141. I hope it will be fought out to a finish, and that, when the finish comes, we'll know more than we do now. But when you're talking about syrup, are you both talking about syrup of the same strength? and do you mean one part sugar to one part water, or 21/2 parts sugar to one part water? That's right — make that Kanuck show the proof for Avhat he " knows." It's none of my funeral, but I'm here to remark in a cautious way that I suspect that a pound of good honey is worth more for bee food than a pound of the best sugar in the world. [Do you mean for brood-rearing or wintering? You do not say. If for the former, we would agxee witli you; but if for the latter, we shouW have considerable doubt. In talking about the relative values of food for bees, we must not fail to specify the conditions. — Ed.] Elias Fox^ you think the pain is just as great when the sting is promptly removed as when the sting is left in the wound, p. 116. You're right that a sting between the shoulders is something fierce; but might it not be still worse if not removed? When the sting is left, does not the poison-sac remain with it, and does not the poison continue to be pumped in for some time? You ask if any one was ever stung by a queen. I never was; but just once in my life I saw a queen sting a worker. [Our experience is that a sting is much more se- vere if left in the wound than if removed immediately. In the case of a novice or a person w'ho is not accustomed to the effect of the bee-sting poison, the swelling and local fever are, we should say, ten or twen- ty times more severe. A few years ago, we received what proved to be nearly a " knock-out blow." A bee stung us on the eyelid, under our glasses. The eyes were so suffused with tears that it was impossi- ble to get the sting out. Although there was no swelling, we never received a sting- that was more painful. We have been stung many and many a time on the eye- lids, -without very much discomfort where the sting was I'emoved immediately. As Dr. Miller says, when the whole contents of the poison-sac are allowed to get into the wound, the effect is in proportion to the amount of poison that gets into that wound. The yellowjaeket or hornet, if we are correct, does not leave its sting in the wound, and this sting is a mere prick; but the sting from the bee is, in most cases, left in its victim, and so the sting keeps on doing its work, even though the bee itself is smashed. — Ed.] MARCH 15, 1913 173 SIFXINGS J. E. Crane, Middlebury, Vt. We are still greatly interested in the cheap shipping of bees without combs, and expect great things are yet to come out of it. * * * One of the best things I have ever seen on the subject of feeding back extracted honey in order to secure comb honey is fur- nished by friend Doolittle on page 44, Jan. 1"). It is all there, and all right. * * * Those Germans do some original thinking or they would not be supplying their sol- diers with tubes of honey while on the march. If it is good for German soldiers it is good for most peojile engaged in hard or laborious pursuits. « » -» I read with pleasure of Mr. Chadwick's efforts, at the California State convention of beekeepers, to learn whether alfalfa pro- duces honey of different colors, p. 48. I formerly thought there could be no differ- ence; but after having white-sage honey offered us of a decidedly amber color, and with scarcely a trace of sage flower, and alfalfa that was dark in color and of doubt- ful flavor, I concluded that " locality " must play a part in the production of honey, of which I had no conception. ^ ^ ^ Mr. A. B. Marchant, Jan. 15, p. 45, gives some facts of immense importance to the beekeeping fraternity about the value of pollen in building up weak colonies. "We of the Xorth, where pollen is so abundant, have been accustomed to think of honey as a most imi^ortant item in stimulating bees to rear brood. But it seems- that the bring- ing in of pollen is quite as im23ortant. In the North we used to feed v\e meal or buck- v.heat, sometimes in early spring, and we know bees will take it with great eagerness. I wonder if any one has ever tried it in localities where pollen is scarce, and yet the supi^ly of honey is abundant. * * * Friend Doolittle, will you please sit up and take notice, for I have somewhat to say to you? In Gleanings for Dec. 1, p. 759, you appear to be laboring under so many misapprehensions and misunderstandings that your statements would appear to be \ery misleading. In a former number of Gleanings you took up the subject of find- i::g black queens during a time when rob- bers are bad. In Gleanings for Dec. 1 you say, " After reading this, Mr. Crane wrote, page 615, Oct. 15, 1911, ' Hello, friend Doo- little ! I want to know if you can do that for an hour, when no honej' is coming in, without music about your ears in the key of seven sharps.' Yet we have here been find- ing them this season for many days, sorting out the old or defective ones with great rapidity. We use a ciueen-sieve, and are not troubled by robbing." You say that the first thing to attract your attention in read- ing this was that " friend Crane would have the readers of Gleanings think that he uses only black and hybrid queens." Beg your pardon, not at all. I would have the read- ers of Gleanings think that, when I have mismated queens or black queens, as we sometimes do after buying in a new yard, we would sort them out as we have time or opportunity, and replace with pure young queens. Again you say, " The next thing to take my attention was that the editor of one of the departments in Gleanings should put off hunting out ' his old and defective ' cjueens until a time of scarcity of nectar had arrived in the fall." Will you please put on your spectacles, my good friend, and read just what I did say? You will see that I said, " We have been finding them this season for many days." Nothing was said about the fall. The season of scarcity dui'- ing 1911 was pretty much all summer. But, again, you say, " But to allow the beginner to believe that a time of scarcity is the best time to supersede old poor failing queens is something hardly admissible in the columns of a paper like Gleanings.''^ If you wrll adjust your glasses once more and read what I said, you will, I think, see that I said absolutely nothing about the best time to supersede old or worthless queens. I refer- red, as you did, to a time when bees are in- clined to rob. In the fourth paragrai^h of your depart- ment you try to prove that black queens can be looked up in a season of scarcity of nec- tar without danger of stings or robbing if they have been properly handled and man- aged^ by saying that you often work from 10 a. m. to 2 P. M. without robbers or stings at such times, and yet you have already told us that you have no black bees. In writing as I did I simply desired to call attention to a very simple and effective device that I had found very useful in find- ing queens when colonies Avere strong and nectar scarce. In the spring, while colonies are not very strong, it may not be of as much service. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Beekeeping in California p. C. Chadwick, Redlands, Cal. A rosy hue has begun to make its ap- pearance on the iDrospects of the season, for just now we are enjoying an old-fash- ioned Vet spell that makes the heart of the California beekeej^er glad. Four and one- half inches for the past 24 hours (Feb. 24) is the report from Los Angeles, though at this place we got but half an inch. The sage seems to be damaged in the interior foothill region much worse than nearer the coast; in fact, Mr. M. H. Mendleson, of Ventura, tells me it is not injured in that vicinity. The prospect for orange bloom is fine at this time, as the buds are starting in almost the usual quantity. * * * I am in receipt of a section of comb hon- ey by parcel post from Paul Hunter, of Somerset, Col. The tin section, with its neat covers, makes a handsome and durable hold- er tliat stood the trip through the mails, ar- riving in perfect condition. I am of the opinion, however, that the package is too expensive for common use, and will not dis- place the wooden ones very fast. Mr. Hunter has demonstrated to my entire sat- isfaction that these packages will stand the knocks received in the mails, yet the postage on the one section was 16 cts., which would make the delivery by parcel post prohibi- tive, at least beyond the first zone. « * * A meeting of the executive committee of the C. S. B. A. was called at Los Angeles on the 12th of February. Final action was taken on the matter of publishing an asso- ciation journal. It is to be about the size of the Beekeepers' Review^ to be issued monthly, and its name will be The Western lloneyhee. Mr. Geo. L. Emerson, of Los Angeles, is the editor. The committee on marketing, which is composed of the presi- dents of affiliated clubs, elected Mr. T. 0. Andrews, of Corona, chairman, and Mr, C. Hauser, of Sacramento, secretary. The matter of establishing retail markets was left for future action. The purchasing of cans and cases was under consideration, but no definite action was taken, though plans Mere given out that indicate the association will be able to get cans at a good reduction, and cases in the flat by the carload at a \ery low figure, making the combined cost a substantial reduction over last year's 1 rices. * * » Mr. Editor, I read " Subscriber's " article on p. 59, Jan. 15, and was beginning to get rather warm until I saw your comment at the end. That soothed me somewhat, but I want to come to the defense of our bee- keepers with a few more remarks. " Sub- scriber " seems to be sore at the entire bee- keeping fraternity of this State, and all be- cause of the treatment from one man. He received $30.00 per month with no experi- ence, which is farm wages, and the green hand is dear at that price in the bee busi- ness. The average bee-ranch is not within reach of butcher-shops, and he is lucky to get fresh meat at all. He was very lucky in not having to do his own cooking and to clean up his own dirt. The average native would rather sleep out of doors than in, and blankets are considered all that is necessary. I liave slept that way many a night, and have enjoyed it. The California beekeeper, on the average, is no worse than any other class of men anywhere else. I want to harp a little more on the mat- ter of our exhibit at the Panama Pacific Exposition. As I am secretaiy of the ex- hibit committee, much of the work of get- ting the means together, with which we ex- pect to make the finest exhibit of the kind the world has even seen, will fall on me. I want to say at the beginning that this is not to be in any sense an association affair, but an exhibit of the beekeepers of the State of California. The State Association has taken the matter up to push it through, as it is necessary to have an organization to work through, and to whom those handling the funds are responsible. The i")lans the exhibit committee have under consideration are of immense proportions and will require much honey, wax, and money. We must have liberal support to be able to complete the plans we have under consideration. Every beekeeper in the State will confer a favor on the exhibit committee if he will notify me at the earliest possible time just what quantity of honey they are willing to donate, let it be any number of cases; or if it is preferable for some to give cash we want to know the amount we can figure on for the work. There are expenses to be met almost immediately in order to get the de- tails worked on time and the work started. Every beekeeper can also donate some wax, and of this we shall need all we can get. If you are a member of an affiliated club, give your jDledge to the secretary of your club. Others who will help, please write direct to me. Get busy, boys. We must m.ake a success of this. MARCH 15, 1913 Conversations with Doolittle At Borodino, New York. MAKING THE BEST OF A SHORT HONEY-FLOW. " In our locality the honey season is very short, and I wish to know of some plan by which I can get into the supers the most of the honey which comes in during the week or ten days of the honey-flow, without wast- ing any of it in brood-reai'ing." " It will be necessary for you to have plenty of stores for feed during the spring months, so that brood-rearing can go on rapidly, that the combs may be well filled with brood, and the hive well filled with bees when your short flow commences." " An old beekeeper advised me to make a syrup to feed the bees by mixing sugar and water in equal proportions for feed, so that the combs might be filled Avith this syrup at the beginning of the harvest, except that part filled with brood. In this way, he said, when nectar comes in from the fields it would have to go into the sections, as there would be no other place for it to be stored." " Did he think that would be better than to have an abundance of honey stores in the combs? " " He seemed to think so, for he said it was advisable to feed all the colonies, as those that already had enough food would be stimulated by the feeding, and, as a con- sequence, would commence raising a lot more brood than they otherwise would. This would mean a host of young bees at the right time ; which in turn would mean a big crop of honey from my short bloom. He said that many of the beekeepers of the United States who lived in localities like mine could just as well be getting quite a surplus, and no little money from it, as to be going along on the old plans of securing little or no surplus with nothing but bees for winter. And, often, such a locality would have a downpour of honey, in which ease the hives, if filled with capped sugar stores, and just fairly boiling over with bees, would have no room for the big flow except in the supers where it is wanted." " Well, that sounds well. But did he say any thing about the cost and labor necessary for such a procedure ? " " That was a point I brought up ; but he met it with the fact that farmers think nothing of feeding their stock, except to get returns. He claimed that the one who would say he could not afford to feed his cows well because of the cost of the hay and grain that he would feed them would be consider- ed a fool indeed." " Suppose, however, that you can secure the same result by carrying over combs of honey from the previous year, what is the object in buying sugar and feeders, and going through with all of this multitudi- nous labor of feeding every day for six or eight weeks?" "I hinted at this; but he said that the one who depended upon the bees having enough stores to carry them through to the honey harvest properly, generally found that their enough proved so little that the bees would scrimp and economize, so that their stores might be made to last. In this way, he arg-ued, brood-rearing would be cut down ; and when the season opened, the hives Avould have few bees, but little brood, and plenty of empty comb in which to store the first honey which came in from the fields." " Well, I have to confess that your man, whoever he was, was a good talker; and if it were not true that there are some obsta- cles in the way of carrying out this plan he would have an argument that it would be hard for any of us to get around. One is the fact that only as you have the most prolific queens Avill the brood-rearing be kept up at the maximum where every-day feeding is resorted to for weeks in suffi- cient quantities to stimulate brood-rearing. With nine colonies out of ten, the bees would begin to crowd down the queen by storing too much of the feed, in which case there would be few bees in the hive and very little brood. The sealed honey above and about the brood would be so great that the average strain of bees would not cross over this vast amount of honey to store in the sections even the little which the bees would gather ; and the result would be that, instead of a big crop of honey, that coming in from the fields would be still further used to crowd out the brood. When winter arrived, the ckister of bees would be too small to survive, especially if the colony were wintered out of doors. " Then, too, if everything worked as you were told, and lots of bees were obtained to take advantage of the sections as soon as the flow of nectar commenced, these combs of sugar syrup would soon largely give place to combs filled with brood, as both queen and bees are more largely stimulated with nectar coming from the fields than they are with sugar syrup coming from a feeder. In this way queens which are good enough to keep up the maximum amount of brood under feeding sugar syrup would make a gain as soon as the nectar began to come in from the fields, and the sugar syrup Continued on page 176. 176 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Beekeeping in the Southwest Louis Scholl,, New Braunfels, Texas. '^ BULK COMB honey"' OR "CHUNK HONEY ;'^ WHICH AND WHY? Our reason for insisting on the name of " bulk comb honey " for the product as put 0:1 the market, here in Texas principally, is to distinguish it from section comb honey on the one hand and old-fashioned " chunk h.oney " on the other. It can no more be I'ut in the place that chunk honey used to occupy than extracted can be put in the place of the old-fashioned " strained hon- ey." rt is hoped that these various names will soon be understood by the beekeepers of the world. It is of no use to criticise "bulk comb honey" nor the use of the name itself. The two have become so well established, and this kind of honey is produced in Texas lo such an extent, that it will be impossible to blot it out. The demand for this kind of 1 oney, for "bulk comb honey," and not " chunk " honey, is so great and so firmly established that this alone will maintain a place in our Texas beekeei")ing, to be filled by those who will produce it if othere will not. There should not be any objection to the Texans claiming " bulk comb honey " as originating in Texas and being a Texas product. It is too well known that we Tex- ans were the first to resort to the up-to- date method of producing and putting on the market this kind of honey known as hidk comb honey; and the mere fact that almost the entire Texas crop is in this form, and especially since the Lone Star State produces no little crop is justification enough to permit it to claim credit for being the home of bulk comb honey. It is simply different from " chunk honey " of long ago. * * * WORK FOR MARCH. It is a splendid idea to have every thing in and about the apiaries, and also in the workshop and honey-house, nice and clean, or " in apple-pie order." This makes a much better api)earance in the first place, and helps to make the season's work much more pleasant and agreeable. With the yard cleaned of rubbish, and the trees trim- med to a proper height, the usual obstruc- tions are out of the way, and save a good deal of vexation. A whole lot more work can be done. Especially is this true if every thing is in its place, in the workshop as well as in the other places where the bee- keeper has to do his work. Of great importance is the matter of " spring cleaning " the interior of every hive of bees. Scraping off the burr-combs, l^ropolis, and fixing up and repairing hives, supers, frames, bottoms, and covers, as well as any broken or misshaped combs, should be done early in the spring. This makes all future manipulation very much easier and more rapid. It seems, also, that the bees of colonies treated in this manner will do better. Since the combs are manipulated as they are being scraped, as we take each one out of the hive, it stirs up the activity of the bees — especially so if much sealed honey is bruised. It is necessary, of course, that all this work in the hives be done when we have warm weather. It is also necessary to re- place the combs as they Avere taken from the hives, or i:)ut them back in such order that the brood-nest will not be disturbed too much. During the " si:)ring cleaning " we have the best opportunity to remove all unnec- essary drone combs and any other combs that are not in first-class condition. It is far better to melt these into wax, and ex- change for full sheets of foundation in every frame replaced. It is good practice to " patch np " worker combs after the drone comb is cast out of them, by replacing this with worker comb from other frames. The time required to look after the combs each spring paj^s well, and should not be overlooked. It is veiy unprofitable to rear drones in any numbers, and just as much so if we allow crooked or ill-shaped combs in our hives. Every square inch of worker comb put in place of the other will mean just that mucli more pi'ofit to the beekeeper. All the needed supjilies should have been l^repared during the winter ; and if not al- ready done, foundation should be placed in the first rounds of the supers early enough so that this may not interfere with other work coming on a little later. I do not advocate putting foundation in all supers very far ahead of the time when they will be actually used, since the foundation be- comes quite hard, and will not be accepted by the bees quite so readily. I have found that tliey prefer the fresher foundation. Continued from page 175. would be removed to give place to this brood, going into the sections with the nec- tar from the fields. As a result we should be liable to come in contact with the pure- food law which we beekeepers have been praising since it was enacted." MARCH 15, 1913 177 General Correspondence RIPENING HONEY ARTIFICIALLY The Great Majoiity of Authorities Advise Against . the Practice BY OREL L. HERSHISER This subject has come in for a good deal of discussion ever since the introduction of the honey-extractor, the hilest contribution being that of Mr. I. Hopkins, page 801, Dec. 15, 1912. Advocates of extracting un- ripe honey practice this for the twofold reason of greater quantity with less labor. The time otherwise spent in uncapping is saved, and the honey is thrown out more quickly and thoroughly because of its thin and watery condition. But the honey thus produced did not and does not meet with favor from the American customer. Some \ears ago prices of extracted honey became depressed to a point of little or no profit to the producer of the better grades, and there is no doubt that the production of so much unripe honey had more to do with that con- dition than all else. The -writer knows something about it, as he lost a good 2000- pounds-a-year customer by supplying a thousand pounds of fine-looking and ap- parently ripe basswood honey purchased from another beekeeper, but which, evi- dently, had been extracted before it was all capped, as it fermented and outgrew the capacity of the pails. What appeared to be the source of profit to the uncapped- honey producers — greater quantity — prov- ed to be the cause of loss, for there could be no profit in cjuantity when it was more than neutralized by diminution in price. That unripe honey has had and will ever have a depressing effect on the market; and that unprincipled dealers have used and will ever use it as a club to hammer down the price of high-grade honey ripened on the hive can not be successfully denied. For what distributor of honey that has been ripened on the hive, whether apiarist or dealer, has not been adversely affected by unfair competition with unripe honey? If the principle of " greatest profit for the labor " had been strictly adhered to, in- stead of " greatest quantity for labor," I believe we should all now be getting better prices and profits from our apicultural in- vestments. Mr. Hopkins observes, " We all know Low strongly the ripenirg of honey any- wliere but Avithin the hive has been opposed at different times," and it is within the fac.s to add that that opposition is growing stronger and sharper from year to yeai\ Mr. Hopkins cites several prominent au- thorities in support of his contention in favor of ripening honey outside the hive. Of these, our beloved Quinby died in 1875, and the hone,y-extractor was not invented until 1868, and probably did not come into even limited use for a year or two later. With that profound reverence that every American beekeeper who is familiar with the fountain heads of his occupation feels for Moses Quinby it does not seem that he could have so attained to that ripeness of experience on this point as to make him a leading authority. It is idle to speculate as to what might have been his ultimate opin- ion on this point had he lived to mature ex- perience ; but it is proper to say that some of the early advocates of the ripening out- side the hive later changed their minds. Mr. L. C. Root has not been extensively engaged in apiculture for about 25 years, but he retains his interest in the subject and in beekeepers. He was present at the convention of the National Beekeepers' As- sociation, Albany, 1910, and entered heart- ily into the discussion of many subjects. A very able paj^er from Mr. W. P. South- worth, of Salix Falls, Iowa, on the subject of " Ripening Honey on the Hives," was read at tlie convention. Mr. Southworth is the manager of an association of beekeep- ers called "The Western Honey-producers," an association whose annual output reaches 200,000 pounds. He pointed out that ripen- ing honey on the hive is tlie best method of producing honey that would " taste like more;" that it is not enough that honey be entirely sealed in the comb to be ripe and ready for market, but that it should age on the hive; that the extracting process causes the honey to take in the ferment germs that attack the particles that are not thoroughly inverted or changed from nectar to honey; that he had read the articles written by E. W. Alexander and others on extracting, often during the season, and their methods of artificial ripening, and that he had con- sidered what constituted honey, and would refer to the bulletin published by the Agi'i- cultui-al Department at Washington, D. C, entitled " The Chemical Analysis and Com- position of Honey ;" that he admired E. W. Alexander, and had studied his writings, and found his methods suitable, with one exception, and that was liis method of ex- tracting the nectar from the combs before it was sealed or even well evaporated; that in his location (loAva), and with the equip- trent that the average and even extensive beekeeper has, he believes the plan is worse GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE than a failure; it is a damage to the honey market; that no honey-producer should at- tempt it unless he wants to enter quite extensively into the manufacture of honey vinegar, and doubts if the nectar would make as good vinegar as ripe honey would ; that the all-important question to the con- sumer is, the flavor of the honey he is eat- ing ; and if we want him to eat more honey we must give him the thick delicious honey with the bouquet of the flowers in it; and we can not get this from nectar, nor can man ripen the nectar so that it will be equal to the honey that the bees have finished. Mr. Southworth's views were sustained in the discussion that followed the reading of the paper, and neither Mr. L. C. Root nor any other member spoke in favor of ripen- ing honey outside the hive. At the Harrisburg convention of the National Beekeepers' Association, 1907, there was a question by H. Ballon, " Can you get more honey per colony by frequent extracting of the combs during a honey- flow than by tiering up supers with full combs?" Answered by E. W. Alexander : " Yes, 1 think we can get nearly twice the amount; but you will require some large tanks for ripening it thoroughly before it is barreled. We make it a point to extract just when the bees commence to cap it. We seldom have any surplus except buckwheat and goldenrod, and occasionally some basswood. AVe find it a great improvement on the honey from these flowers to keep it in the tanks about two weeks so it will lose a part of the strong odor and unpleasant flavor it has when first extracted. It gives much better satisfaction, and sells far more readily, than if it were barreled up as soon as ex- tracted. I know that any honey that has a strong disagi'eeable odor and taste is much improved by being exposed to the air a short time." In the further discussion of this question the writer expressed admiration for nearly all of Mr. Alexander's doctrines; but as to this one of teaching the advisability of ex- tracting honey before it is capped he en- tered a protest. He pointed out that it might be all right for Mr. Alexander, but that he was answering a question that goes to the beekeeping world; that if we teach beekeepers that honey can be extracted and ripened afterward we shall have about nine- lenths of them not ripening it afterward. The gain in quantity would not be sufficient to compensate for the loss in quality. The va-iter stated that he himself was interested in producing honey that was as good as the bees covild make it. The president, Mr. Aspinwall, seemed to have a little preference in favor of ripening outside the hive, especially for so skillful a beekeeper as Mr. Alexander, expressing the belief that the gain in quantity was greater than the loss, but said it was right to "warn jjeople against promiscuously doing that sort of thing." Upon inquiry by the Pres- ident, if there were any artificial processes given in the A B C and X Y Z of Bee Cul- ture, Mr. E, R. Root answered, " These are all out." It may be remarked here that this answer is very significant as showing that it is considered unwise to teach or in any way encourage the ripening of honey out- side the hive. Mr. Selser, a very extensive producer and distributor of honey, and a widely known expert analyst and judge of honeys, having performed extensive and numerous services for the United States government, in that line, said, " I should like to have it go out from tlais convention before the United States that we do wi'ong in evaporating honey in tanks instead of letting the bees do it in the ordinary and natural way." Mr. Holtermann, one of Canada's larger IDroducers and best authorities, expressed admiration for many of Mr. Alexander's wi-itings, but thought him entirely wrong ujoon this question of taking out honey in the condition in which he speaks of; that he can't do it, and manage the way he says he does ; for a man who has a stock of bees with the large worker force he speaks of, and has one extracting-super on the hive, can't extract before the honey is capped, and have that honey all in the condition where it is just ready to seal. In a good buckwheat flow we all know that a stock like that can, in one week's time, fill a twelve-frame super. Mr. Holtermann con- sidered Mr. Alexander's mistake in using only one extracting-super. If he would use two or three he would not be able to say that he could get nearly twice the amount of honey by extracting before it is capped. Finally it was moved by the writer " that il is the sense of this convention that the throwing of unripe honey upon the market, or taking off honey before it is capped — in other words, curing it artificially — is a detriment to the beekeepers of this coun- try." This motion was duly seconded and carried. Of course, it is understood that, at the sudden termination of a honey-flow, there will necessarily be considerable un- capped honey in the suj^ers where an abun- dance of room is given, and that this will ripen in the natural course, even though not capped; but somehow it seems to lack a little in attaining to that perfect flavor to MARCH 15, 1913 be found in honey entirely finished and sealed by the bees. Also quoting- from the paper by Dr. E. F. Phillips, on " The Care of Extracted Honey," read at the Harrisburg convention, " It is the policy of most beekeepers to al- low this ripening to take place in the hive by waiting until the honey is almost all or entirely capped, and this is undoubtedly the preferable method. It is a matter of common observation that honey which re- mains in the hive for a long time has a better " body," and has more of the charac- teristic honey aroma. By ripening in the hive, honey gets its characteristic flavor to a greater extent than is possible in evapo- ration outside the hive. The thoi'ough rip- ening of honey can not be too strongly rec- ommended. Honey attracts moisture, and there is always a tendency for a very thin layer to form on top of the honey in which the water content is very high. In such a film the amount of sugar is low ; the acetic- aoid-forming bacteria can grow rapidly, and the honey becomes sour. In thoroughly ripened honey it is very probable that a film of thinner honey is always present; but in such a ease the sugar content is so high that the bacteria can not grow " (ital- ics all mine). Thus it is shown that, for very weighty i-easons, many of the foremost beekeepers and distributors of honey in the United States and Canada are unalterably opposed to any method of ripening honey outside the hive; and that, when there was an op- poi'tunity to advocate or defend such meth- od, as at the conventions before mention- ed, Mr. Alexander was the only open advo- cate, and he received no support except the slightly favorable remarks by the president, Mr. Aspinwall. Mr. Hopkins has shown, from the report of Dr. Phillips upon samples of his honey submitted, that it was of superior quality in reference to water content and inversion ; but it is noticeable that the doctor is silent on the points of flavor and aroma, which rre all-important in making up the value of honey. Take away the element of flavor from honey, and there would be no occupa- tion of apiculture. And if honey ripened outside the hive is so skillfully treated as to make it come well within the legal chemical standard as to water content and inversion, and has a good flavor, be assured that, if the same honey had been rijoened within the hive by the bees in the natural way, it would have had the best flavor. With his process, requiring special at- tention to ventilation and the use of arti- ficial heat, the use of the thermometer and 179 hydrometer, the repeated testings of honey at the top and bottom of the tank, and the mixing, Mr. Hopkins is undoubtedly able to get the best there is out of ripening honey outside the hive ; but " how many Hopkins are there?" The process of securing ripe honey in the natural way is extremely simple. Just leave it on the hive, with the bees, until after the close of the flow, or until per- fectly capped; then remove, uncap, extract, strain into tank, allow time for foi'eigTi particles to collect on the surface of the honey, and then draw off the sparkling liquid into suitable containers. If all honey were allowed to riiDen in the hives by the bees, unripe and ruined honey on our markets would be a curiosity ; but as long as man assumes tliis undertaking, wherein, for him, perfection is impossible, there will be many fold more failures than doubtful or partial successes , and the high- est attainments in the science of apiculture will not be reached. The beekeeper is wise if he goes not out of his way in resorting to extra care and equipment, to secure hon- ey that necessarilj^ falls short of perfection, and more often proves to be a failure when the best is so easily obtained. It is no reflection on man to say that the bee knows the most about making honey; for the Creator has endowed her with a superior and inimitable piocess of ripening- it and preserving its flavor, and has with- held this art from man. But in his wisdom he has given us dominion over the bee, and thus it is ours to have perfectly ripened and flavored honey if we will. Kenmore, N. Y., Jan. 6. [Our correspondent has done well in gath- ering- together the bibliogi'aphy against rip- ening honey artificiall}'. As a matter of fact, we could gather enough more state- ments, made at different times against the practice, that would fill up one or more journals. The trend of opinion on the part of experts, both producers and honey-buy- ers, is emphatically against it. In saying this we do not mean to imply that uncapped honey is necessarily unripe. The usual rule is to extract when two-thirds of the cells are caj^ped over. The remaining third of the cells, uncapped, contain honey that is nearly if not quite ripe, and only awaiting the action of the bees to seal it up. In this connection we may state further that Mr. E. W. Alexander was one of the most valued correspondents we ever had. Perhaps no one writer we ever had has been quoted more than he; and yet, after he had put out the doctrine of extracting before the combs Avere sealed and ripening in open GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE tanks, we are frank to say we were con- tlenined bj' beekeepers and buyers eveiy- where for letting the doctrine appear in our columns icithout a protest; and Mi'. Alex- ander himself once told us that because of this he had more mad bees (beekeepers) buzzing about his head than he had ever had before. After saying all this, we believe it is, nevertheless, a fact that in most of the ^extracting of a whole j'ard, some combs will 4)9 only half sealed and some only a third, ■j-et all are put through the extractor. A few combs out of the whole lot will do no 1' articular harm, even if not ripe. In favor of Mr. Hopkins, we may say he is one of the best beekeepers in the south- er)! hemisphere. As a man and as a pro- ducer he stands high. But his own country- men, judging from the letters we have re- ceived, are opposed to the doctrine of ex- tracting before the combs are sealed, al- though they may admit that he is probably expert enough to do the work. But we are firm in the belief that any artificially rip- ened honej^, while it may be thoroughly in- verted from the standpoint of the chemist, will lack some of the beautiful richness and flavor that is so much pi'ized in honey that has been allowed to ripen on the hives. — Ed.] «~»^» OUEENLESS COLONIES GATHER POLLEN BE- FORE BECOMING OUEENLESS BY R. 0. MARTIN On page 797, Dec. 15, Mx. Holtermann says, " The evidence of a queenless-colony condition last fall will be pollen-clogged combs, indicating that the bees gathered pollen, and did not have larvae to feed the pollen to, and it had, therefore, accumulat- ed in the combs. I find no exception to this. Does this, then, not prove conclusively that (|ueenless colonies do gather pollen"? The evidence of no larvae to feed is good ; but I do not take much stock in this as an argument to prove that queenless colonies gather pollen. My queenless colonies have not only the pollen, but plenty of honey too, for that matter. Does that prove that queen- less bees gather honey and pollen? Cer- tainly not, because tlie lees had gathered all or nearly all of this pollen and honey before they lost their queen. Did you ever examine a colony that had just lost a queen, and did you not find the combs full of Honey and pollen? I am speaking of a colony that has lost a virgin queen on her mating-trip, when nearly every cell of brood had hatched. If the young queen had made her flight safely, wouldn't the bees have hustled to get that honey and pollen out of her wa}^? Did j-ou ever see a queen come out of the hive to mate, and watch for her return, she being lost "? Have you, then, noted the colo- ny's actions as the bees run out and in, up and down, and almost all over the hive? Have you watched them the next day, and the next, etc. ? They are always looking for their queen. They come out on the alight- ing-board, hesitate a while, fly away in a half-hearted way, and this at a time of the year when the bees are not robbing. Occa- sionally you will see one with a small amount of pollen; but look at the hive that has a young queen just beginning to lay. See how they run out on the board, and away they go. Do you see any difference in the two colonies? It is easy to distinguish be- tween them, for the bees of one are all hus- tle and the others seem very lazy. The bees with the queen bring great loads of pollen; but the queenless bees scarcely ever have a load — not enough to clog the combs in a year at that rate. When the robbers are active it is harder to tell the queenless colony. There is a dif- ference even then, however, for the robbers will hang around the queenless colony more than they will around a colony with a queen. That is the way bees act in this locality. Naylor, Mo., Jan. 5. Making Increase Before or After the Main Honey- Flow Beiu? a subscriber to Gleaxixgs I come to you for advice. I had considerable experience with bees in Illinois some 25 years aso : but all conditions here are so entirely different I feel like a beginner. Spring will begin here about Feb. 1 : and by the last, bees will be actively at work much of the time. From the middle of March to late in April we get most of our natural swarms with a few any time till late fall — usually a short honey-flow in April from fruit, mostly peaches ; then they just about get their living till .July 5, when there will be a fair harvest with a steady yield for three months or more. Now, under these conditions please tell me what is the best meth- od to manage so as to secure all the increase possi- ble, and still have all, both old and new, in first- class order for fall harvest. Winton, Cal., Jan. 23. L. T. Ayres. [The conditions here described are ideal for mak- ing increase and securing a honey crop, and we believe you can make such increase before the main crop comes on. As to the method of increase, the one we would recommend to you is given in the ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture, under the head of " Increase," or what is known as the Alexander plan. We have had very many favorable reports regarding this, and we believe that you wiU secure better results with less loss of brood than with any other one that you can adopt. For further information you are referred to the subject of " Nuclei," found in its alphabetical order in the same work. — Ed.] MARCH 15, 1913 t NATURAL SHELTER VS. ARTIFICIAL WIND- S' BREAKS BY J. L. BYER ' On page 775, Dec. 1, 1912, Mr. Holter- mann lias an article entitled " Fences for Winter Protection;" and as this is a subject on which I disagree with my friend, natu- rally the said article was read with more than usual interest. Right here let me say that, while we generally agree on all mat- ters apicullural, yet when such a condition is not possible we can always " agree to disagree " with one another, and that is all there is to it. On this subject of winter protection my exi3erience has been so very much in favor of natural windbreaks, such as hedges, trees, etc., as compared with a bare board fence, that I actually wonder at the claims made for the latter. While the fence may more ef- fectually stop the wind, yet with me the best results have always been obtained from a shelter that breaks the force of the wind and yet al- lows it to i^ass gently through the yard. Having just purchas- ed a camera, and be- ing eager for a lit- tle practice, I have taken pictures of four of my yards wintering outdoors, and I will briefly ex- plain how the shelter in each yard seems to have worked out in actual practice over a term of seven or eight years. Fig. 1 shows part of the Markham api- nvy, which is shelter- ed on the north, west. and east by apple trees, small fruit, shrubs, etc., with buildings on t h e north. The house is about 80 feet north of the yard. Here we have always had first-class wintering with tile exception of one season when a lot of honey-dew was in the hives. In ad- dition to wintering Mammv and the bee 181 well, the bees in this yard always " spring " well too ; and the colonies are always boil- ing over with bees early in fruit bloom. Fig. 2 shows a small corner of the Cashel apiary. This yard is sheltered on the north by a lot of high evergreens ; on the east and west sides by an apple orchard, while the south is protected by buildings. Like the yard already described, the bees here inva- riably winter in perfect condition, and, with the exception of the year when honey-dew w-as so plentiful, a colony is rarely missing in the spring. This apiary has 105 colo- nies, and has had 80 or over for the past six years, with always the same kind of wintering. Fig. 3 shows a corner of the home yard where, as will be noted, is the board-fence protection advocated by friend Holtermann. Colonies in this yard never winter as well -Photoyrapli froin M. C. Lony, Kan-m-s City, ilo. 182 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE ally/ Fig. 2. — Corner of J. L. Byer's " Cashel " apiary as in the two just described. The early spring is the time when the fence works havoc, as often on sunny days mth a cold wind the bees will fly north and drop by the thousand on the ground (there is often snow there when it is all gone in the yard) ; and as the sun does not reach them there, they perish in great numbers. This yard is about the only one that I have an}^ spring dwindling in ; and the i^eculiar location is, in my mind, partly responsible for this con- dition. I have thought of removing the fence altogether ; but as I use quilts, a wind- break is a great convenience, as all will testify who have tried to work with the bees in the oj^en, when quilts were over the hives, and a liigh wind blowing. Fig. 4 shows the Lovering apiary, 100 miles north of my home; but as this yard was established last summer I can not say how the location will prove in the matter of protection. However, in my opinion the protection afforded is just about perfect. All summer, altiiough the covers were looso on top of the hives, not a single one blew off. North of the yar the rocks gi-adually rise to quite an eleva-/ tion, while on all otheij sides the forest pro ' tects the yard. Tl yard is right out ii the forest — in fact, in a nice bit of clearing, making an ideal loca- tion, while the trees are not near enough to give too much shade at any time of the year. The only fault we found last summer was that the place was inclined to be too warm, as the hives are on rock, and so much shelter keeps out the breeze too much. In the winter time in this location the thermome- ter sometimes plays around 40 below zero, so this same shelter is an advantage. Last fall a venturesome deer strayed among the bees; and, although he came there before the hunting season, from all accounts, I understand he was carried out a corpse, and he wasn't stung to death by bees either. With good boating and fisliing near the place, every thing considered, this place is ideal for a summer outing, even if black flies and mosquitoes are quite plenti- ful in the early part of the season. I might add that two other yards here in York Co., that are wintering outside, have not been visited since I got the picture- macliine; but as the protection is similar to that of the other ajjiaries, no good would be accomplished by showing them, any way. The 250 colonies wintering in the eaves out east, 200 miles from home, are safe from the " camera fiend " for a few months yet ; but it is likely they will receive a visit from him some time next May. Mount Joy, Ontario, Canada. MAKING INCREASE DURING THE WINTER Feeding Syrup and Artificial Pollen to Bees that Have a Flying Cage in a Warm Room BY GEORGE T. WHITTEN" Fig. 1. — Part of J. L. Byer's " Markham " apiary. For the past four winters I have been experimenting with bees in a warm room for winter increase, and I find I can easily make two swarms from one colony, makinp' lliree in the spring. Tliis seems to be t!ie limit, as I have only two windows available for the purpose; but I am perfectly satis- MARCH 15, 1913 183 Fig. 3. — Coiner of J. L. Bj-er"s home apiary. fied that it can be done, to the limit of the number of frames of bees on hand Sept. 1, and of windoAvs available, if there is a room where the heat can be controlled as desired. This work can be begun at any time dur- ing the winter by moving a colony inside and furnishing the neeessarj^ temperature of about 70 degrees per flying cage. The bees must be fed sugar syrup, rye flour, and water every day. Thus treated the queen will begin lapng in about three weeks, and keep it up as long as fed. Pollen, or a substitute, such as rye flour, is as necessary to keep the queen laying as syrup and wa- ter. Feed should be given evei'y day, and two or three times a day is better. If the feeding is stopped for a few days the queen will stop laying, and it takes four to six days to get her started again. My experi- ence has been that a queen will do just as RPlftRY FlO. 4, — J. L. Byer's " Levering " apiary in winter quarters. GLE.VNINGS IN BEE CULT good work the following suimnei' after being worked in winter in this way as though she had been wintered in the ordi- nary way. I can see no differenc-e. I feed sugar syrup wholly in winter — no honey — two parts sugar to one of water. I put the sugar in a jar and put the water in warm, not hot, and stir a little, then let it stand for a while to dissolve. By stirring it two or three times there is but little tliat settles in the bottom hard; then by running it through a cheese-cloth strainer this is tak- en out, leaving the syrup clear to feed. I have never had any of this crystallize in the jiive. Delegates in Attendance at the National Beekcepf" The most satisfactory place for feeding syrup that I have tried is over the cluster. On all hives I have a frame made of pm^' 1/2 by % inch, just large enougli to cover the hive top, and with ^vire netting ou one side. These are on the hives all the year- In winter they are over the top of the lii|f' under the super to hold the packing- 1'" gives the beos a space over the frames c 0 up under the packing. In summer they a^^ on top of the super or supers. The c« ^^ of the hive may be removed at ^".^'j^.^'';^ jjjj look into the super without disturbing ^ bees. They do not come up and ^other^^ place two or tliree tliicknesses 01 c" ■See report on paire 190. S;;';;.'^^,|^"^. and spread the syrup ""der the xv\T' ^ ® °^^^ ^^'^ '^^me up '•^'^""g he rh! f^'"^ §''^ ''^« food without *"!'«'■ on Ton "' ''^'^ '''''^'- With the f --"bbingV „ ?'f •■ ^)^""^ ^^ "o danger ''''*' of the i .,1 ^^ "1 *'"^ ^^.V' aiKl the T'"^ best v'T''V^'« food warm. n"""'^'« it o, 1,^° f^^d i-ye flour is to '""A' 'hat the be" ' "^V^P^'^^d it on some- :i- "P- T ev r '? ''^"S' °" ^^'"le tl^ey h?''' Plae o ° ;:°V"^^' '^ ^^^dily from ^>:«an,ha,;g.°';j'^^ floor, but will, when "'« "nder side t f ^"^^^ "^ ^^^ feeder, "■ ^ lay a cheese-cloth on top of the cage, or hang it over the slantins;' end next to the window. They come up and liang on the under side with one foot, and load ou all they can. The food should be placed where the light is strongest, for that is where they gather thickest." I built a hive specially for obsei-vatiou work, that has been in use for three years. This gives perfect satisfaction. It is built on the half-circle plan, with glass on all sides. The frames are so arranged that they can be turned so tliat both sides of each frame may be examined at any time. Four turn to the left and four to the right. A rim is provided at the bottom, and handles 186 CLEANINGS m BEE CULTUKfi Geo. T. Whitten's observation hive in a greenhouse. The combs swing from side to side, so that all their surfaces may be inspected. ]noject out (liiougii, b,v which the frames and the iDrincipal one, is in keeping an even are turned as desired. temperature, or nearly, so they can extend The flyini;' cage used is two feet square, the brood-nest to any size without danger covered Avith wire, witli an entrance in the of the brood and eggs being chilled, which back for the hive, and one at the front to is the principal cause of spring dwindling, allow the bees to go outside in Avarm Aveath- There are many eggs laid that do not hatch, er. for the reason that there are not enough The great advantage of a warm room, bees to cover them Avhen the temperature drops after a Avarm spell. I haA'e had this occur in the house Avhen, for any rea- son, the temperature dropped too Ioav, as by opening the win- dow to cool the room, to drive the bees into the hive from the cage ; or Avhen I wish to change the plants or clean it out. That day, Dec. 21, I found young half - groAvn bees out in the cage. This cage is close to a radiator, so there are bees flying at all times during the day Another hive, located out of doors, with the cage attached. and in the evening MARCH 15, 1913 187 Bankston's nursery cage. Each compartment has room for a small piece of comb filled with honey. as long- as there is a light in the same room. To-day, Dec. 24, while the snow is fall- ing fast outside, the bees are flying and hiunming' in their cage as though it were June instead of Christmas. Hartford, Ct. A NEW NURSERY CAGE BY C. B. BANKSTON About 22 years ago thei'e came into use what was known as the Alley nursen- cage. This cage was simply a little square block of wood with one larg'e hole in the middle, and two half-inch holes in one end. One of the small holes was for a sponge to con- tain honey for the young or old queen to eat. The other was for the insertion of the queen-cell. Twenty of the cages just fit inside of a Langstroth brood-frame. We used this cage for many years. It beat the old lamp uui-sery, but it had many faults. The sponge would get dry, so that tlie queens would starve. A great many would hatch with crippled wings or were otherwise deformed. I tried different makes of cages, and final- ly set to work and invented one myself. I have used it nearly ten years, and have no idea of replacing it with any thing 1 have ever seen along this line. In the Oct. 15th issue, page 663, is an illustration of a nursery which, apparently, is the old Alley cage re-invented. The accompanying engTaving shows my new cage, wliich I call the " New Century " be- cause I think it is new. The queens emerge in it perfectly, and they live and develop in it as well as they will among the bees, because they have access to honey, warmth, and all the conditions necessaiy for their well being. I fill the little combs full of honey, trim the queen-cells, touch the wax plug to the hot smoker, and stick the cell to the plug. I can have 60 queens hatch in one brood-frame. Buffalo, Texas. SEPARATING HONEY FROM CAPPINGS BY CENTRIFUGAL FORCE BY R. F. HOLTERMAXN The discussions which take place at con- ventions are by no moans the only source of information for the beekeepers who attend them. Conversations, sometimes in part in Capping-basket to fit the comb-pocket in an extractor for use in separating the honey from cappings by centrifugal force. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Colonies in tenement hives. confidence, have for me been a fruit t'al source of instruction. There is, however, yet another source of information, and that is to visit some of the beekeei^ers in their homes after the convention is over. Such kindnesses to me have been frequent, and in no small degree have they been extended to me in Xew York State. In December last I went to New York under the New York State Board of Agri- culture, and upon comi^leting my engage- ment I accepted several invitations from beekeepers to visit them at their homes and Hives set too close together for easy inspection ai.>iaries. My tlrst visit was with D. R. Hardy, Burr's Mills, N. Y. It was a stormy night when Geo. B. Howe, pi'esident of the New York State Association, and I landed at Watertown ; but we were met by Mr. Hardy and taken to his home in the coun- try, and made welcome. After supper a brief visit was paid to the bee-cellar and honey-house. Mr. Hardy is an unusually painstaking beekeeper. He is not afraid to follow original ideas, and he has evidently met with a more than average amount of success. He has been developing a strain of bees about one quarter Carniolan and three quarters Italian. Turning to me, he said, "I can remember your suggestion years ago at a State convention, that such a bee was, in your estimation, a superior o n e." Mr. Hardy has been acting upon the correctness of this idea, and lie appears to be well sat- isfied with the result. For extracting, Mr. Hardy uses a power extractor and a three- horse-power gasoline- engine. Turning to tlie capping-can he said. "I want to show you MAUCH 15, 1913 my method of taking the honey from the oappings." A large wooden paddle was shown as the instrnment by means of which he broke up the sheets of cappings. When these had been broken into small particles by stirring, he next put them into a pocket consisting of a box the size of a Lang-stroth frame. The top, bottom, and sides were formed by a wooden wide frame, and fine tinned wire cloth was nailed to each side. In the top piece (as it stands in the extract- or) an opening was cut in the wood, through which, by means of a specially made funnel, the laroken-up cappings were crowded, after which the device was placed in the extractor, just as a Langstroth frame would be inserted, and the honey was ex- tracted just as honey is extracted from the comb. I saw the wax after the extracting, and found it very free from honey, and I felt that this plan filled a ''long-felt want" in my extracting equipment. I told Mr. Hardy that I would make this outfit in the way of a basket with one entire side made to slide on and off. To this Mr. Hardy ac- quiesced, remarking that the box into which the capping? were placed could be made of heavy tin. I have six such baskets now ready for use. We shall have to call this apiarian implement the Hardy capping- extractor. Brantford, Canada. [This new method of draining cappings by centrifugal force is one that gives prom- ise of much merit. We shall try it ourselves the coming season. Mr. Hardy's apiary is shown in the cover engTaving for this issue. — Ed.I EXPERIENCES OF A FOUL-BROOD INSPECTOR The Greatest Trouble that of Opening Hives BY J. E. CRANE I fancj' that a good set of burglar's tools would be a verj' good outfit for an inspector ill opening even movable-comb hives; for in nothing have I been more disappointed I ban in opening such hives. I believe that, as yards run, it is as easy to get into box hives as into those containing combs that are supposed to be movable. I thought at fiist it was because I found so many with Hoffman frames, and I still think the Lang- stroth more readily movable, when propei'ly constructed; but the greatest difficulty has been because of crooked combs. Many bee- keepers appear to be afraid of their bees, then hive them and run. At night they set the new swarm in its place as quickly as possible, and get away without stopping to see whether every thing is all right. 80 I find hives with Langstroth frames properly spaced at one end, while at the other they have all slid together with no uncertain re- sult. HIVES STAND TOO CLOSE TOGETHER. Some of my vexations have been caused by the position of hives which were set in long rows, perhaps not more than four inches aj^art, and which it was necessary to lift from their stands before I could open them. The three in the illustration will show what I mean ; but three are easy com- pared to twenty. Often it is easier to open hives and to examine them than to lift off the stone, boards, and slate with which they are covered. I often think, as I make my rounds, how much the majority of beekeep- ers are losing by not knowing better how to keep bees. NOT NECESSARY TO DISINFECT HIVE-BODIES. When I began work, and found foul brood in almost every yard, it seemed like trying to fight an enemy that used noiseless guns and smokeless powder ; but after more experience it seems to be controlled by well- defined laws; and those who are willing to follow a few easily learned rules can rid their yards of it. I am watching with a good deal of interest in order to determine whether it is necessary to burn out brood- ehambei-s or to disinfect them otherwise. I have suggested to some experienced bee- keepers tO' try it, without burning or dis- infecting, and so far it has seemed to work Avell. The fact that many beekeepers have overcome the disease by leaving colonies queenless for a time would seem to indicate that it is not always necessary to burn out hives for the purpose of destroying all germs of disease. If it proves successful it will greatly less- en the work of changing combs, especially where large chaff hives are used. CLEANING THE TOOLS. How shall we disinfect the tools we work with? Some inspectors advise boiling in hot water for half an hour — a safe provi- sion against carrying infection to the next yard, no doubt, but far from practical, both because of the difficulty in getting hot water and the loss of time. Then an inspector's fingers often become soiled with foul-broody honey. Must they be cooked with the hive- tools for half an hour? I have compro- mised; and instead of boiling with water I thrust my hive-tool, when through with one yard, or before commencing on another, into the ground, in and out, until it is bright and clean, and I have no fear of its carry- ing disease. I also wash my hands in water if I can get it. 190 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE DEAD LARVAE ON THE GROUND SPREAD THE DISEASE. There is one way by which I think it is possible that disease may be spread of which I have not spoken. Where many liives are diseased, thousands of the dead larvse are hauled out of the entrances and left near by on the ground. These, decay- ing, may (after a little) become dust to be blown on or into flowers, into the en- trances of hives, or earned by the bees where they will get into the food of young larvEe. I have in some instances advised a change of location with entirely satisfactory results. I have found two or three beekeep- ers who feed their bees a weak brine, think- ing it very beneficial. CEMENT HIVE. One man I met had constructed a hive of cement. Unfortunately he had made a slight mistake in the size, so he could not use his fi-ames in it, and so had never tried it. It looked substantial, and might prove a success in some parts of the country. HONEY FROM CORN. Another beekeeper told me how his bees gathered considerable honey from corn, and, later in the season, wrote me that again they had stored some ten or tAvelve pounds to the hive, thus helping him to solve his winter problem, for his bees, like most bees in our State, had not stored enough to winter on. THE PLEASANT PART OF THE WORK. While there are many unpleasant fea- tures in connection with inspection work, (liere are many pleasant experiences to be thankful for. It is pleasant to study the honey resources of one's State, and to see the advantages and disadvantages of differ- ent sections. One has also an opportunity to make some choice acquaintances, and to visit old friends without much loss of time or expense. One such I must mention. Forty-three years ago I learned of a man about seventy miles away who wanted to sell out his entire stock of bees, as he had met with some loss and was qviite disgaisted. After some correspondence I went to his place and bought most of his stock. He was a very intelligent beekeeper for those times, and I much enjoyed the time I was with him, as he told me so much that was then new. Afterward we corresponded for a time, and I lost ti'ack of him, and I tliought he had of me. While looking up foul brood in his neighborhood I thought I would go over to see him and inspect his bees, for I knew he would have some, for who ever, after once falling in love Avith bees, would go without them? I found him and his good wife more than pleased to see me, and he could not do enough for me. I found that he had a good stock of Italian bees ; and if they defend their homes against foul brood as vigorously as they did against the interference of the inspector it will be a long time before disease will do them any harm. After a most delightful visit he took me in his carriage over to see a neighboring beekeeiDer, and then to the trolley line. Middlebury, Vt. — The End. BRIEF REPORT OF THE NATIONAL CONVEN- TION AT CINCINNATI BY E. R. ROOT The attendance at this meeting was not large — indeed it was, perhaps, the smallest of any of its kind that we have ever attend- ed. At no time were there over fifty pres- ent. In another way it was a large conven- tion, because it was a representative meet- ing. There were delegates, each represent- ing an affiliated society, from Vermont, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, In- diana, Virginia, Tennessee, Iowa, Oregon, Colorado, Idaho, and Texas; or, all togeth- er, a membership of several hundred. Some of the associations sent more than one del- egate. In this connection it should be ex- plained that this convention differed from all others in that it was a delegate meeting. Besides delegates, there were members of the Association who, while the}^ had the privilege of the floor, had no vote in busi- ness matters. Then, as is usually the case, there was some local attendance, but not nearl}^ as much as we ordinarily see at con- ventions located at Cincinnati. For that mattei', there would have been a much larg- er local attendance, we understand, if the meeting had been held earlier, say along in September or October. The Bureau of Entomology, Washington, D. C, was represented by Dr. E. F. Phil- lips, in Charge of Apiculture, and by Geo. F. Demuth. Dr. Burton N. Gates, Dean of the Apicultural School at Amherst, Mass., was also present. Indeed, he was elected presiding officer in the absence of Mr. Geo. W.- York, the regular President. Mr. R. F. Holtermann and Mr. Foster, of Canada, represented Canada, but not as delegates. This convention was unlike any of its predecessors in that its primary object was the transaction of business, and a lot of it was done. The principal subject of dis- cussion at the first session was whether the National Association should have an official organ. Something over a year ago the Board of Directors voted to buy the Bee- keepers' Reviejv of Secretary Tyrrell. The MARCH 15, 1913 191 question arose whether the Directors had the authority to adopt and publish an or- gan, and expend a thousand dollars for the good will of a paper. Some took the gTound that the Directors had exceeded their au- thority. Others held that the National or- ganization could not afford at this time to pay out a thousand dollars. These matters wei"e thrashed over in convention, and at one time the discussion became somewhat warm. The matter was finally referred to a committee, with instructions to report at a later session. The committee were out for a considerable leng-th of time, but final- ly turned in their report, questioning the policy of the Directors, but finding that the latter had not exceeded their authority. At the same time, they made certain recommen- dations, some of which related to the edi- torial policies of the Review, while others had to do with the question of the purchase of bee supplies for the members of the Association, as well as to the selling of their product — in short, carrying out the general principle of co-operation. There was considerable discussion as to the price that should be charged for mem- bership. It finally ended with the recom- mendation, which was adopted, that the fee of $1.50 should be retained as before. Fifty cents is to be used for branch or afiiliated societies, and $1.00 for The Bee- keepers' Bevieiv. Sec. Tyrrell explained that this money could not be used to cover both the Revieiv and membership dues, as that would be contrary to the postal regu- lations. This leaves, as we understand it, no funds for the National Association ex- cept the profits that may accrue from the publication of the official organ. A mem- ber may elect not to take the Review, and apply his dollar to the National. There was considerable discussion as to whether the whole membership fee should not have been increased so that a part could be devoted to the branch, a part to the Re- view, and a part to the National itself, a; art from the Review; but Sec. Tyrrell did not believe it was wise at this time to charge the extra price. The committee, therefore, made its report accordingly . Other routine matters of business were transacted, such as revising the constitution, passing resolutions of thanks for courtesies extended, etc. While the committee were out preparing their reports, there was a general discussion of several subjects. One of these topics was THE DECLINE IN THE PRODUCTION OF COMB HONEY AND THE INCREASE IN THAT OF EXTRACTED. While poor grading and poor packing were given as a cause for a part of this, several contended that the present market prices were more favorable to extracted. Two or three claimed that there was actual- ly more money in the production of ex- tracted at eight cents than comb honey at sixteen. The discussion finally centered on the subject of the granulation of Western comb honey; for it was contended that this granulation evil was disgusting the dealer so that he was refusing to buy. Mr. Muth, one of the largest honey-buj-ers, in a half- facetious and half-serious waj^ said he felt as though he were being swindled when he bought Western comb honey. He complain- ed that he had a large quantity on hand that has granulated, and that was fit to sell only to Dagoes, and he thought it was time that some of these Western producers should produce extracted rather than comb honey. Mr. W^eber, another dealer, said he had had a similar experience. Dr. E. F. Phillips, of the Bureau of Entomology, was glad that this matter had come up, for r.ow the Western men present would have a chance to know that there was a general comijlaint about Western alfalfa honey granulating while in the hands of Eastern dealers. Like Mr. Muth, he believed that some of them, at least, ought to produce extracted rather than comb honey. Mr. Wesley Foster, of the Colorado Honey-producers' Association, contended that not all Western alfalfa honey would granulate. There are certain districts in Colorado where a mixture of alfalfa and other sources would granulate much more readily than the pure alfalfa. He said he hoped the Eastern buyers would under- stand there is a large amount of Colorado alfalfa honey, and a good deal of it, too, that does not granulate. ]Mr. Anderson, of the Idaho Beekeepers' Association, indignantly denied that Idaho honey granulates. Their honey, he said, was made up largely of sweet clover and alfalfa; that the combination would remain liquid as long as any comb honey in the world if properly taken care of. With all deference to Mr. Muth their honey Avas " fit for the gods " and not for the Dagoes only. In support of Mr. Anderson's claim, we may say in this connection that the comb honey of Idaho, so far as our experience goes, does not gxanulafe readily. GRADING COMB HONEY. The question of grading-rules was given considerable attention. Mr. Muth, of Cin- cinnati, offered a set of rules which provide practically for only a fancy and a No. 1. No other honey, he said, ought to be ship- ped to market. Attention was called to the GLEAXINGS IK BEE CULTURE fact that these rules, if adopted, would bar out a large proportion of all the comb honej- iroduced; that there ought to be some means by which these lower grades could be described and sold. Mr. G. F. Demuth, of the Bureau of En- tomology, Washington, D. C, otfered an- other set of gTading-rules that differed rad- ically from those presented by Mr. Muth. They were based on three definite points — namely, weight, finish, and color. The old Colorado grading-rules were based on a ininimum weight of the case itself. The new Colorado rules, on the otlier hand, are based on a maximum and minimum weight of the section. He believed that this latter was the correct principle. His rules pro- vided for three different weights, several grades of finish, including a fancy, a No. 1, a No. 2, and several shades of color. He recommended a scheme of colored cards that would enable the purchaser and pro- ducer to describe accurately the shade by a certain designation of color. The objec- tion to the new Colorado grading-rules, said Mr. Demuth, is that they are not adapted to our Eastern honey. He would have the rules flexible enough so that they would take in Eastern as well as Western honey. He explained the system something as fol- lows : In the matter of finish he would have extra fancy, fancy. No. 1, and No. 2. In the matter of weight he would have heavy, medium, and light. The finish would be designated by extra fancy, fancy, and No. 1 and No. 2. As for color, he would go by the color-card system. The three grades of weight, the four grades of finish, and the several grades of color, would make a vari- ety of gradings. Here, for example, would be a section that he would grade as fancy, medium, white; or, for short, he would make it F. M. W., wliich would be marked in plain letters on one end of the case. Another case, for instance, would be marked No. 1 light amber, or be designated No. 1 L. A. Another case might be designated as No. 2, dark, heavy, or No. 2, D. H., and so on. At the close of his general explanation Mr. Muth wanted to know if Mr. Demuth would hire a Philadelphia lawyer to make these discriminations. Both he and Mr. Weber expressed themselves decidedly as believing that such a system would be too complicated to be practicable — that with even the simple grades that have been in use, the a\erage producer did not begin to grade in accordance with those simple rules. He hoped the complicated system advocated by Mr. Demuth would not be adopted. The latter explained tliat. allliough he was fi'om Philadelphia, his system was not as com- plicated as might appear at first sight. He wished to make it plain that the grading he i^roiJosed would take in anj^ kind of comb honey — good, bad, or indifferent; that it would enable the producer to describe ac- curately what he had to sell, even though it were an off grade, and the buyer, on the other hand, to know just what he buys. He argued that one of the difficulties that arise between the producer and the buyer is the lack of some scheme to describe accurately the product under consideration. Both Mr. Weber and Mr. Muth expressed themselves as believing that such a scheme would be too awfully complicated to be of any use whatever. The rules were, however, adopt- ed by the Association substantial!}'' as they were presented, except that the term " Standard " or " Choice " was substituted for the term " No. 2." At the last session, after all the business had been transacted, and while the commit- tee were out preparing a report, there was Cjuite an extended discussion, covering the general subject of foul brood, over which Dr. Phillips presided. There being several foul-brood inspectors i3resent, a rei:)ort was rendered bj^ each. The first was by Mr. Wesley Foster, of Fort Collins, Col., fol- lowed by Dr. B. N. Gates, of Massachusetts ; Mr. Erbaugh, of Indiana; Dr. Ward, of Tennessee; Mr. Demuth, of Washington, D, C. and Mr. Cavanagh, of Indiana. The latter, while he is not a foul-brood inspec- tor, has had a wide experience with Euro- pean foul brood. The discussion on this disease was inter- esting and valuable, because it showed the great importance of having vigorous Ital- ian stock. But it seemed to be difficult to effect a complete cure with the ordinary black bees, in the ease of European foul brood. The reports of all the men indicated that they were getting foul brood well under control. Not the least important thing in this inspection work was the information that the inspectors are able to impart, not only to those who have foul brood, but to those who have not. An election of officers for the ensuing- year resulted as follows: President, Dr. B. N. Gates, of Massachu- setts; Vice-president, Prof. H. A. Surface, of Pennsylvania; Secretary, E. B. Tyi-rell. of Michigan. The following were elected as Board of Directors : E. D. Townsend, of Michigan; Wilmon Newell, of Texas; Wesley Foster, of Colo- rado; F. B. Cavanagh, of Indiana; J. M. Buchanan, of Tennessee. MARCH 15, 1913 Heads of Grain from Different Fields The Folly of Using Small Rusty Tin Packages for Extracted Honey for the Retail Trade Some large honey-producers are beginning; to put up extJ-acted honey in small tin cans or pails, when extTacting in the late summer and fall, for the retail or family trade during the winter. Of course, this procedure is a more convenient and less expensive method than to put the honey into five-gallon cans, when extracting, and then latw on perhaps remelt it and put it into smaller cans and pails fo-r the retail or family trade. But I happen to know a man who purchased, from two different extensive honey-producers, some of those self-same cans and pails, several mouths after they were filled, and some of them were the vorst and toughest-looking honey cans and pails I ever saw. All looked as if they had been used before for some purpose, either for canned tomatoes or corn ! In one instance they were all labeled with the pioducer's honey-labels ; but the cans had become so rusted that the labels were loosening. In the other lot, while the cans or pails had not been labeled, they were rusted in spots, and were a "bum-looking" lot." Now, no retailer of honey, nor any one working up a family trade in honey, cares to deliver it in what looks like second-hand cans. It is enough to discourage sales, as no nice clean housekeeper would want to buy honey the second time (nor the first time, for that matter) if it is put up in rusty con- tainers of any kind, even though the rust is only on the outside. If honey-producers are going to make a ijractice of putting their extracted honey in small tin pack- ages at the time of extracting, then they should use only new bright cans or pails, and, after filling, store them in a practically dust-proof and very dry place, so that they will be kept clean, and also not rust. This is a very important matter indeed; for, some of these days, the honey sold in such second- hand-looking cans and pails is going to be refused — shipped back to where it came from, or held sub- ject to the order of the shipper. And that would be simply what the shipper who will send out honey in such cans or pails deserves. No person who is en- deavoring to work up a family trade in honey wants to deliver it in any thing but bright new tins, if he uses tin packages at all. I think this is a matter worthy the attention of every producer who practices putting up his honey in the tin retail packages at extracting time. Sandpoint, Idaho. George W. York. [ Some of our old readers will recognize the Avriter of the foregoing as the former editor and proprietor of the Am-erican Bee Journal for so many years. He also did a large business in retailing and whole- saling honey in Chicago. He therefore speaks with a knowledge born of experience. He is entirely right in what he savs. — Ed. I European Foul Brood and the Importance of Keep- ing a Strain of Italians that are Largely Immune to the Disease You are lucky to have kept bees so long without having European foul brood. My experience with the disease is like that of Morley Pettit. It spreads to every hive in the yard, and to every comb that contains brood. Not only a few cells are affected, but less than half the young bees in a comb ever get out of the cells alive. Dr. Miller's bees must have had the disease in a mild form, and then he had a hard fight and a long one; and he will be fortunate if the disease does not break out again next summer. What I am most interested in now is to find a way to get rid of the disease. I understand that when we brush the bees off the combs and put them in a clean empty hive and give them a new start they will start off free from disease; but some way they don't stay free. I understand, too, that when I take the queen away and keep the colony queenless till the youiLg bees are all out of the combs, and the cells cleaned and polished ready for the queen, then put the queen hack or give them another queen, the combs will soon begin to fill up with nice pearly- white brood; and I am not sure that the dequeening method is not as good as putting the bees into an empty hive ; but about the next time I open the hive the white brood has turned yellow, and the disease is there again. We are told to treat the bees when there is a good honey-flow on. White clover was abundant last year, but the flow did not come, and I worked at a dis- advantage. Oakland. 111. Wm. Cox. [In some ways European foul brood is easy to cure and in other ways it is not. It seems to spread much more rapidly than the American type of dis- ease, and, what is somewhat discouraging, the ordi- nary shaking process does not always eliminate the trouble. We have had a very large number of re- ports of how, after one shaking, the disease had re- turned again. We are coming more and more to have faith in the Alexander treatment ; and that is, removing the queen and keeping the colony queen- less and putting in pure Italian blood. There are some strains of Italians that aie probably more im- mune to the disease than others. Mr. S. D. House, of Camillus, N. Y., has repeatedly told us that he has no fears of European foul brood, because he used a strain of Italians that would keep the disease off, and he has European foul- brood among the black bees all around him, and yet his apiaries of Italians seem to be immune to any trouble of that sort. You do not say any thing about using Italian stock. While it is proper enough to remove the queen we think it is better to go even further, and put in good vigorous Italian blood. If possible, get a strain that will resist European foul brood — a strain that has been tried out and found to be equal to the occasion. We try to keep a strain of Italians that are immune to European foul brood. In all of our years of experience we have never had a trace of the disease. — Ed.] Overcrowding Bee-Ranges, and is there a Remedy ? I wish to ask about the law in regard to other apiarists crowding in on to one's bee-range. My neighbors and I started in this locality three years ago with our little bunches of bees. I have 25 colo nies ; the other neighbors of mine would bring the number up to about 75 stands — all our range will accommodate. Well, a few days ago another apiarist brought in 50 colonies of bees, and located them about 800 yards from my apiary, and is to bring in about 200 more colonies (so I am informed). What can I and my neighbor do about it? Phoenix, Ariz., Jan. 20. L. M. Brown. [You bring up the question that has often been discussed through the columns of our various bee journals, namely, the one of overstocking. There seems to be almost no remedy but a sort of unwritten law that prevails in some localities, not to put more than a certain number of bees to the square mile. Where the different neighbors and different beekeep- ers can get together and agree, they will divide up the territory in such a way that it will not result in overstocking; but very often outsiders come in and S(;vat an apiary or two so close to bees already in the hKality that the annual yield per colony is cut in two. There is no law in any State, with which we 194 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE are familiar, that regulates the number of bees that may be kept within a certain territory, and it is doubtful if any law would Le constitutional if it were passed. The only thing we can suggest for you to do would be for you and your neighbors to go and visit these parties and explain to them that the locality is already overstocked ; show them that, when so many bees are put in a place like this, it usually cuts down the yield; that it would be unprofitable for them as well as for you. The cost of moving bees from one locality to another is so great that the average beeman, if he looks to his own interests, will fnd some place where it is not already overstocked. The same problem that confronts the beekeeper around Phoenix and Tempo, Arizona, confronts the leekeepers in various parts of the West where alfalfa is grown very largely. We know of many localities in the West that formerly yielded anywhere from 100 to 200 pounds per colony ; and now those same localities will not furnish more than 25 to 50 pounds per colony, simply because so many beekeepers have located in the territory that the yield is cut down. This policy results in a freeze-out game. After a few years the less successful will go out of business, or, rather, they will quit keeping bees or sell to their neighbors who are more successful, with the result that, in time, there will not be many more bees than enough to take care of the territory propei-ly. No, there is absolutely nothing you can do except to use diplomacy of the finest sort, and moral suasion. There is one thing that you can do : If these peo- ple who come in to your locality are bringing in diseased bees, they can be stopped. Go to your foul- Irood inspector and have the bees inspected. If they have disease they will have to be removed or treated immediately. Most States have a law now by which it is unlawful to ship diseased bees into the State. Where you can learn that such shipments are con- templated you can have the inspector on his watch and have the bees stopped and examined before they come inside. Come to think, however, Arizona has no foul-brood law, so that you really have no re- course of any sort except moral suasion. — Ed.] Requeening to Prevent Swarming; Does a Capping- melter Make a Room too Warm to Extract in ? Can you advise me of any beekeepers who dequeen their colonies to control swarming ? I have heard that some beekeepers remove all queens at the ap- proach of the swarming season, holding them in a ■ nucleus for a time, and returning them in about 10 days. I have seen the description of the new capping- melter. Does it throw very much heat when in use ? We have always been afraid that we couldn't stand the heat which would come from it. Could a gaso- line stove with an elevated tank be used instead of the coal-oil stove? Please advise as to how much f.oor space the capping-melter occupies. Wooler, Ont., Jan. 23. Warrington Scott. [The practice of dequeening a colony to prevent it swarming is not so common a*? it was a few years a^o. It works in a few cases with ordinary Italians; but in a yard of Carniolans that we tried out last summer it absolutely failed to do the work. The Carniolans swarmed out with their virgins, and made us no end of trouble; and if they had no virgins they would unite with some swarm in the air. One objection to dequeening to prevent swarming is that it takes the life and energy out of a colony. One with a queen will be much more active than one without, as a rule. We do not know of any one now who is practicing that method of swarm prevention. Regarding the capping-melter, the board in the table is 4 feet long, 2 feet wide, and stands 29 inches high; and the pan is 18 inches wide and 3 inches longer than the table, so that it projects at one end to hold the knife, so that the uncapping-knife can be dipped in hot water. You ask whether this machine with the stove will heat up the extracting-room. A good deal will de- pend upon the size of the room. If it is of sufficient size to work to advantage, and there is plenty of ventilation, you will not notice this extra heat; but if the room is small, and only a single-thickness wall, and exposed to the sun's direct rays, on a hot day you will find the capping-melter rather warm to work over. If you are in a position to get an electric fan it will cool the room and keep it very comfort- able while you are working. If there is no electricity, it is very easy to rig up a little fan in connection with the extractor. A gasoline-fetove with an elevated tank can be used, provided the pipe is extended a foot or so, horizontally, so as to be out of the way of the melter. — Ed.] Good Bee Locations in Oklahoma and Kansas If you were to choose a location where you could branch out in the bee business and make the pro- duction of honey your only business, where would that location be? G. M. Whitford. Arlington, Neb., Jan. 20. [The question propounded above is a rather hard one to answer. There are many very fine locations in the United States that are not already occupied ; but there are many other good locations that are already overstocked with bees and beekeepers. Some splendid locations have been utterly ruined because with too. many beekeepers in the locality it injures the business so that there is no profit in it. There are many good locations in semi-arid regions of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska. In these States it is advisable to locate in a valley along some stream, and we would not go into the bee business very heavily anywhere unless the alfalfa or some one of the clovers can be grown quite extensively in the lo- cality. There are many places in Oklahoma and Kansas, for example, that have almost no bees, and yet where alfalfa is grown. In such locations there are some splendid opportunities for the keeping of bees. The business perhaps is more profitable in the irrigated regions where alfalfa is produced; but one difficulty in such locations is that the field in most cases is already overstocked with bees and beekeep- ers. We find, however, that there are many locations in semi-arid i-egions where there are practically no bees kept. W^hile the alfalfa does not yield as well, perhaps, in what is called the dry-farming districts, yet it yields enough to make the business very prof- itable, providing enough colonies are kept. We do not care to indicate any particular locality, but would suggest that you make a tour through north- ern Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. There are many splendid locations in your own State; but be careful to find some place along the rivers and creeks, es- pecially in the valleys. High land is not as good a place to grow alfalfa in a semi-arid State as in the valleys. — Ed.] Little Mortality Around Cincinnati Bees are wintering perfectly here on their sum- mer stands — very light mortality ; less than a handful to each hive. Bees had five flights during December, and nine so" far in January, as follows: Jan. 1, 2, 6, 18, 19, 20, 23, 25, 26. Has any one ever seen similar conditions ? Colonies will surely come through the winter exceptionally strong, and they were pack- ed with stores late in the fall, so there is hardly any likelihood of starvation. White clover is very abun- dant ; and unless all signs fail, we will have a fine honey year in 1913. In this locality, bees will start gathering pollen about March 1. I have 11 colonies in good condition in my back-yard suburban apiary. Cincinnati, Jan. 27. Albin Platz. MARCH 15, 1913 195 Our Homes A. I. ROOT For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting God. — Matt. 5:8. God hath said. Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye to7ich it, lest ye die. — Gen. 3:3. For the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate me. — E.x. 20:5. I want to talk this morning particularly to the young men and young women who are in the habit of reading these Home talks. My talk will also be to the middle- aged ; and, before I close, I shall have something to say to the elderly ones, the ones whose hairs are beginning to get gray. I suppose most boys and girls, especially as they reach maturity, begin to think of this matter of getting married. It is some- times true that the girls especially talk so much about getting married that they don't have room or time for any thing else. This is not just the right and jDroper thing to do ; but it is true that both boys and girls should consider that God gave each one of us a human life to live with tlie thought in view that we should be " fiiiitful, and mul- tiply, and replenish the earth;" and, in fact, I have touched upon this matter sev- eral times in these Home papers, of the damage that can be done to humanity by the offspring that, in the course of years, come from a single pair of men and women who are viciously inclined. On the other hand, we have many instances of how the world has been greatly blessed by a long line of people who feared God and loved liumanity, and who have handed down their lifework to children and gTandchiklren until the world will scarcely ever know how much benetit has been conferred on humanity by the fact that they not only lived a good life but reared up boys and girls to follow after them along in the same line. Now let us take it for granted that most boys and gills expect to get married some time; that they expect, God permitting, to have a fam- ily of children. Now, my young friends, what sort of children do you expect to rear up and bless (or curse) humanity'? I need not tell you how much time is being de- vuted now, especially in our agricultural papers, to this matter of selecting and rearing improved stock and planting good seed, Avhich is along in the same line. Take the poultry industry, for example. How much time and money are being expended in getting a good strain of fowls whose eggs can be sold for not only a dollar apiece, but ten dollars apiece, and some- times even more than that? In order to get a good parentage to start, no stone is left unturned. On page 605 of Gleanings for September 15 we had a vivid illustration of how mucli pains the government of the United States is taking to stamp out in- jurious insects and things of that sort; and our attention is now called to the fact of how little is being done to improve the race of boys and girls and men and women. Sometimes in talking with hardened crim- inals in our jails I have asked the question, '' Would you want to see a boy of yours doing exactly as you have done?" The answer invariably comes, " God forbid." Even a hardened criminal has some scruples about seeing a child of his follow in the footsteps of crime. Now, my young friend, let us get back once more and ask the ques- tion, " What kind of boys and girls do you l^ropose to give the world?" The Bible says, and our agricultural and poultry pa- pers say, that like produces like. If you give way to vicious and impure thoughts, your boys and girls will be likely to do the same. The Bible tells us that this work must go on until the third and fourth gen- eration. By the way, I have at different times heard critics find fault most severely with this passage in the Bible. It is re- peated four times in the Old Testament, if not more. They ask what justice there is in punishing innocent children for what the parents did before they were born? My good friends, let me call your attention to the fact that God does not do this punish- ing. The father and mother do it them- selves, and with the plain statements of the Scriptures before them; they do it with their eyes open; they do it deliberately and willingly. I once knew of a man who was an illegitimate child and part negro. He inlierited his father's intellectual abilities and became quite a scholar. When he was grown up he said something like this : " My father deliberately cursed every single day of my life by giving way to a low, beastly imiDulse and passion. He did that almost in a single moment of time that has blasted every hour and almost every minute of my whole life." Listen to this: A good mother, a good and wise mother, whom I know full well, once went along with her boy while a party were visiting the county infirmary. After they got home this bright boy, who had already begun to inquire into " cause and effect," asked his mother the question how it came that tliere were such a lot of people who were imbeciles and idiots. How does it come about we have such fearful GLEAXIXGS IX BEE CULTURE exhibitions of wrecked humanity? and why are there so many of them in almost every county? This wise mother might have told him just what was one of the gTeatest agencies in bringing this about. But I do not know but she was wiser still when she pointed him to one of the texts that I have chosen at the head of this paper. Come to think of it, I do not know after all that she called his attention to the text. I do not know what words she used, but it was some- thing to this effect, and the boy has never forgotten it, even though now he is a grown man. The mother told him at least a large l^art of the idiocj' and imbecility came from breaking a holy command that God has not only written in his word, but has implanted in the heart of every child of humanity, more or less. Let me digress a little right here. From the time w'e come into this world until we step out, dangers beset us on every side. The babe is onlj' a few months old when it reaches out its hands to the hot stove or to the candle, and is told, " Burny ! barn ! Mustn't touch it," and so on through life it has to learn. Sometimes when it is all by itself it thinks it Avill try the experi- n:ent and see what tlie consecjuences will I.e, and, sure enough, the little tender finger is burned, and it gets a lesson in the w-ay of punishment. Eve told the tempter that God said they should not only refrain from eating of the tree of knowledge, but that they should not even " touch it." My dear friends, there are things in the make-up of all of us where danger lurks near, whenever we even so much as touch the forbidden thing. Not only has God's holy word forbidden our touching it, but our consciences that he has implanted with- in us to tell us when we are getting over on to the danger ground. None of us know exactly, but it has always seemed to me quite probable that God projiosed, in his own time — that is, when Adam and Eve ar- rived at the proper stage of human life — to make known to them all about the fruit of that tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; but, as I have said, we don't know exactly about this. We do know, however, that God has planned, Avhen we are fully matured, to give us knowledge that would be hurtful and dangerous to childhood and early manhood and womanhood. If you want to live to a good old age, and if you want to enjoy to the fullest extent every year of your life, let me urge of you to cultivate not only pure actions and words but pure thoughts. " Blessed are the jDure in heart, for they shall see God." This one beautiful text covers the whole of it ; and you know when you are pure in heart (when you permit other than pure thoughts to enter your mind) better than anybody can possiblj^ tell you. Sometimes jDarents excuse their sons by saying the young man is sowing his wild oats, and that in due time he wdll get over it and come down steadj' and honest. Perhaps the \vov& honest is not just the one I should use here; but 1 think, after all, I will let it remain. Sup- pose he does get his crop of wild oats sow'u, and settles downi honest and steady, and marries a good girl. Do not those wild oats, sown long ago, bear any crop? My dear friend, the crop is the one I have men- tioned in the infirmaries, poorhouses, and insane-asylums in this land. Do you w'ant to contribute to such a crop? Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also i"eap. God has wisely planned to arrange so that the best years of every man and woman shall be used for the production of off- spring. If you want to make a good con- tribution to humanity, it is not wise or well to commence too early in life. Wait until you are fully matured. In the same way it is not wise nor good sense, in ever so many ways, to delay the matter too long; in fact, God has placed a limit to mother- hood, and I have sometimes thought he ought also to have placed a limit on all. I do know that old men frequently, after having given up the cares of life, perhaps moved into town and settled down to take tilings easy, still allow thoughts to take place in their minds that should be put away and forgotten for ever. I have known friends of vay acquaintance who have gone to the insane-asylum, I think just because they gave up work and persisted in indulg- ing in things that ought to have been put awa}^ long ago. If 3'ou want to live to be a hundred years old, if you want to have the full use of the powers of both mind and body, do not, I beseech you, ruin your- self, both body and soul, by letting selfisli and ignoble feeling-s have any place in your thoughts or actions or life. I feel quite confident that there are people Avhose ej-es rest on these pages who have had glimpses of the insanity and imbecility that eom'^ right along the very line on which I am talking. Perhaps they heeded the warning that God sent, for I feel sure it is God himself who does send such w^arnings to turn us back into the straight and narrow path. The very first pages of the Bible tell us that man was created in God's own im- age, and we are told in the back part of that same holy book that we are designed to be temples of the Holy Ghost. How can the Holy Ghost have any place or any perma- MARCH 15, 1913 jient abode in a body that is filled with liing's that are abhorrent to every honest ind enlightened conscience? I am afraid hat manj^ physicians, or at least a large lart of them, are not plain-speaking and lonest enough to tell people who come to hem just where the trouble is. Sometimes am sorry to say that these same physi- cians, especially if they are not God-fear- ing men, are making such a poor record ihemselves along the line that 1 have been speaking of that thej^ have not honesty and consistency enough to tell the patient who comes to them where the real trouble lies. We are just now being informed through all classes of periodicals that the saloons of our land are the hotbeds of every sort of iniquit,y along in the line I have been dis- cussing. Their business extends from the " white-slave traffic " to the work of spread- ing indecent pictures and literature in such a way that they may fall into the hands of our children. In closing let me submit a letter from a good brother who has had much to do in inducing me to take up this line of talk at this present time. Dear Brother Root: — In the first place I wish to give you (The A. I. Root Co.) a little bit of en- couragement. I never knew any company engaged in a secular business that took as much stock in spiritual things as your company does. Sometimes I have wondered if the different members of the company were a unit in the good work. Again, I have caught myself asking the question, " How long will they keep it up?" But be that as it may, I hope that in this thing you may " abound more and more," for indeed it is a praiseworthy thing. I sim- ply can not find words to express my appreciation of the spiritual part of your journal, and Our Homes beats any thing I ever saw outside of a religious paper, and if any one were not in sympathy with the religious part of your work the other is so good that he will take your publication any way- — or at least it seems to me it would be that way in many cases. I think from one end to the other Glp:an- INGS has the cleanest set of writers I ever read. T am not saying this to puff you up, for indeed once in a while I see expressions that / think should not be there. There is one thing, however, where you have not sounded the warning as much as its importance demands. When I think of my boyhood days and remember how^ many of my playmates and others that I knew are in their graves, and still others who have been in the insane-hospital, and that there are but few strong ones among all the living, and re- member, also, their vices, my heart is nlled with an inexpressible something. I well remember young men that were so weakened by the solitary vice (or by visiting places of ill fame) that they had no re- serve vitality. I remember that when some of these would occasionally get drunk, good people would point to them and say, " See what drink will do." But the real cause was never, or at most very rarely, spoken of. As I have followed some of my playmates to the grave, and have listened to the insane chattering of others, and knew the real cause, my innermost soul has cried out for some one to warn the coming generations. This is all true, notwithstanding the neighborhood in which I was brought up was e.\- ceptionally moral. I can not tell all the particulars of how it came about, but let me say this : A bad boy visiting or sojourning in a neighborhood can and will do an incalculable amount of damage; and one family of youngsters spending the night with the young people of another home while the parents are away (or without the proper oversight if they are at home) is a most opportune time for the de stroyer to get in his work. And now, Bro. Root, if the enemy got in such deadly work in this way, in that day, in a com- munity above par in morals, restraint, and careful- ness, what must be the awful harvest in the near future where the young " just grow up " as they do in so many places to-day ? I often shake hands with some mere boy with signs of debauchery plainly written on his face; and how my soul longs to pour out itself in a helpful way to him! But if you have ever tried it you know how hard it is to say the right thing in the right \^'ay. I am writing these things hurriedly, and you may have to read between the lines to get all I should like to have you get, aud, again, you may not have seen the dreadful realities of these things as I have, and think I am overdrawing them; but "I know whereof I speak." I have been in a position where I saw cause and effect — saw the cause 30 years ago — some more, some less, and have watched the effect as some went to the grave, some to insane-hospitals, and some to a more or less wrecked manhood. I have observed, too, that so many children start in life handicapped, suffering for the sins of their par- ents, without vitality enough to carry them very far out into the sea of life. But may be I had better change the subject; for if I get started I may not stop soon. But just one word more: A little over a year ago while talking to a mother in the south part of the State in regard to the "white-slave trade" and kindred things, she said, " I aim to raise my girls right," and she meant It too ; but I thought to myself, " Whom will they mate with? " Isn't it awful to raise girls up right and then have them mate with some depraved or "disease-ridden" man? It seems to me just now as if you may have something to say on these things in your Home talks. A COTMPASS WITHOUT MAGlsrETISM. The following, from a nephew of A. I. Root, explains itself: Dear Uncle : — As I am rather near you at present I will drop you a line. I am in good health, and also very busy, as this is a brand-new ship and needs lots of work. I am a gyro-compass man now, on board this ship. It is a very interesting Instrument. I wish you could see it. It is a compass which has no magnetic effect at all. It is run by electricity — a motor which runs 8600 revolutions a minute, and runs in a vacuum. If I can get a folder on it I will send it to you. It was invented by a man by the name of Sperry, 216 William St., New York. Homer H. Root. U. S. S. Arkansas, Key West, Fla., Dec. 21. We clip the following from the Cleveland Plain Dealer: APPROVES QVEO COMPA.SS; NAVAL EXPERTS CALL IT BETTER THAN MAGNETIC. Washington, Jan. 24. — Battleship tests with the new gyroscopic, or " battle," compass, reports to the navy department to-day announced, have demonstrat- ed that it not only is a vast improvement over the magnetic compass but that it will pay for its cost and installation within two years in the amount of coal saved. This saving would be accomplished be-. 198 GLEA2JINGS IN BEE CULTURE cause a steadier course can be maintained by the use of the new compass, and therefore changes in speed to regain headway would be greatly reduced. " The gyro compass is not yet wholly satisfactory, mechanicallj'," the report confesses; "but when the remaining defects have been corrected, and it is capable of standing up to its work for long periods, its installation on all capital ships will result in great- er coal economy and in more satisfactory handling of ships." "This last-named advantage," the report concludes, " would be especially gained when warships are steaming in squadron or were engaged in formations or evolutions." Poultry Department INDIAN RUNNER DUCKS; WHY THEY DON'T LAY^ AND WHY THE DUCKLINGS DIE. Mr. Root : — Will you please tell me why my In- dian Runner ducks are not laying? They have not laid in almost three months. Can they be picked! My little ducks all die. What do you feed themt Parish, Fla., Dec. 26. Mrs. H. L. Gillett. My good friend, I don't know that I am exactly comiDetent to answer your inquiry. All the Indian Runner ducks I have ever kept have always laid more or less. I have had no experience in picking ducks; but I understand through the poultry jour- nals that where you want to get eggs you must not take off the feathers. The ducks can not very well furnish a crop of feathers and a crop of eggs at one and the same time. I feel sure your trouble about the ducks not laying is in the feed. Ducks must have either soft food or else grain soaked in water. I have explained several times that I feed all my corn and other grain in a tub half filled with water. This accomplishes two things. It gives the ducks the moistened food as they need it, and wa- ter with their food, and at the same time it prevents rats or other vermin from helping themselves to the gxain. Our laying ducks are fed mostly on corn and a little wheat with the corn; but as they seem to prefer the corn, that is the principal part of their diet. Now, I would vaiy this diet were it not for the fact that they go out in the canal every day from eight o'clock in the morning until about four in the afternoon ; and in the canal they get a great variety of animal food and vegetable food along the banks. We have always fed our ducklings and little chickens bread and milk for the first tlu-ee or four days, or say a week, and this milk has furnished the needed animal food. A very important thing for little ducks, and I think little chickens also, is to give them green vegetable food; and as they seem to prefer lettuce to any thing else, I would try to have some lettuce leaves ready for them when they are two or three days old. The bread and milk, of course, gives them a certain amount of animal food; but when we take a hatch off the in- cubator there are more or less infertile eggs, and eggs at the close of the hatch that are only partly developed. These are all boiled, and I give the little brood say an egg a day, cutting it up fine at first to teach them to eat it. I should have said that the lettuce is also cut up in little bits until they get an appetite for it. After both ducks and cliickens have learned to eat lettuce you will find that they will leave any other food when the lettuce is offered them. Some have objected that bread and milk is a rather expensive diet, especially where there are very many chickens. Now, here is something I want to tell you all. I have had it in mind for some time. One of our bakers here in Bradentown has considerable stale bread; and especially is this true Monday morning. With the agree- ment that I take it off his hands, he lets me have it at the very low price of a cent a loaf. On one occasion, when he had had bad luck with his yeast or his " rising," there were over a hundred loaves that I got for a cent apiece. Now, the poultry jour- nals advise that the bread and milk be made by first toasting the bread or dicing it in an oven until it is hard and brittle. When you are ready to feed them, pour a little boiling water on it, which quickly softens up the bread. Then mix it up with milk. This baking is especially important when the bread is veiy old, because the strong heat kills all sorts of germs that might have been deleterious to the chicks. After the chicks or ducklings are a week or ten days old we mix in gradually a little bran and middlings, and finally their mash is bran and middlings alone, perhaps adding some In- dian meal. On one occasion, when I was obliged to be absent, I left some little ducks in Mrs. Root's care; and as she had not paid very much attention to my duck ex- periments she gave them chick food as you do chicks; and before I got around home several of them had died. Now, this fact should be kept in mind — that ducks can not digest their food unless they have water with it. You will notice they first take a bite of food and then a drink of water, and so on alternately. When they are given dry grain some distance away, I have seen them run hurriedly a good many rods to get a drink of water, and then come back again after their grain. Running water, if pos- sible, should be provided close by where they get their food. They can then help MARCH 15. 1913 199 themselves to their oft-needed drink. The duckling-s can be fed wheat, provided it is soaked so as to be soft, after they are two weeks old. You have probablj^ noticed that both ducklings and chickens when they be- come accustomed to one kind of food get it into their heads that they can't get along with any thing else, and there will be quite a little teasing if they don't have their ac- customed diet. In regard to animal food for ducks, in one of Cyi^her's catalogs he gives illustra- tions of two flocks of ducks. One had plen- ty of animal food from the start, and the other had nothing but vegetable food. Both flocks of ducks were hatched from the same eggs, the same in number; but at the end of several months the number of vegeta- rians had been greatly reduced, and they did not compare at all favorably with those that had the meat diet. From this it seems evident that ducks especially must have a considerable amount of animal food in their ration. If they do not they will suffer. Another thing, we want to be sure that they have plenty of fresh air. I think many chickens and ducks are killed by artificial heat when such heat is not needed. With what experience I have had with ducks I should saj' that they are the easiest fowls in the world to raise. From all the duck- lings I have brought to successful maturity down here in Florida, I can remember only one that died unless it was by accident. Give them an enclosure when they ai'e little, where no rat or wild animal of any sort can possibly get to them, then let them have their liberty, and run and enjoy life and be happy. Just before dictating this I went out and had a look at my twelve ducklings hatched out by an Indian Runner mother, and it is wonderfully interesting to me to study a sitting duck and her habits and ways of managing, as well as studying a sitting hen. POULTRY-NETTING BASKETS FOR FEEDING CHICKENS GREEN STUFF, ETC. Since what I have said in regard to this I have made another big discovery. Listen and see if you do not agree with me. After what I said about rolling up a piece of poultry-netting, something seemed to keep sajdng to me that I had seen a basket some- where that was just the thing, that we had already in use. Finally, one day in going through one of our store rooms I saw some poultry-netting hens' nests hanging up on a nail. These were bought from Sears, Roe- buck & Co., at a cost of only 4 cents each, and they had never been used because they are almost too conspicuous to please the " biddies " unless they are screened by a box or something of that sort, to make them more retiring. As I never got around to do this they remained there unused. In a tmnkling I had twisted some wires around the upper edge to hang them on the poul- try-netting fence, and they made just the prettiest baskets for holding lettuce and green stuff that can be imagined. In your garden you frequently have lettuce, I'ad- ishes, turnips, and mustard sown too thick- ly. Well, when you pull out the surplus plants and thi-ow them on the ground the chickens will just drag them around without being able to pull off the leaves so they can eat them. With tliis wire-cloth basket the tiling worked to perfection. Put any old outside leaves from cabbage, lettuce, tur- nip tops, etc., from the kitchen, and all such stuff, into these baskets, and it will be eaten up perfectly with scarcely a remnant. With oiir convergent iDOultry-yards we simply hang the baskets on the outside of the fence clear around the circle; then, in order to feed the cliickens green stuff', we do not have to open the gates at all. Just go around with 3^our basket of lettuce, or other gTeen stuff, and drop a handful over into the hens'-nest basket, and it is done in a twin- kling. For little chicks, of course, you have to hang them lower; and it is one of the prettiest sights I ever saw in the poultiy- yard to see an incubator flock of chickens busy at work at a great head of lettuce sus- pended just over their heads in one of these baskets. Wliile on the subject of these wire-cloth baskets I want to say that a poultry-netting bottom for any hens' nest is certainly a very fine thing. While visiting our Ohio Experi- ment Station I noted that their trajD nests were all made with poultry-netting bottoms. This let all accumulation of broken sti'aw, cliaff, etc., drop down through out of the way. And, by the way, about the best ma- terial for hens' nests that I know of is soft hay. Our Bermuda-grass hay that grows down here in such profusion is just the thing. As often as the hens break it up and let the fine part drop through, some more fresh \\s.y can be supplied. In this way the nests are always nice and clean and sani- tary. I want to say something more about let- tuce. About three miles south of us is a young market-gardener who has several acres of perhaps the most beautiful lettuce that I ever saw. Well, a few days ago he told me that if I would come down with my auto and get it I might have all the lettuce I wanted. That is, by selecting heads that were not fit for shipment I could probably 200 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE get all my fowls could consume. Accord- ingly I went down, and almost immediately after feeding plenty of lettuce in these wire- cloth baskets we had a great increase in eggs. One reason for this is, perhaps, that my chickens hadn't been getting enough green stuff, or such gTeen stuff as they par- ticularly preferred; and I find, by experi- ment, that there is nothing in the whole round of vegetation that pleases chickens like the nice head lettuce grown here in Floi-ida. They will not only leave the gi-ain but they will leave the meat scraps from the butcher's in order to get this lettuce, and just the sight of the great nice heads of lettuce seems to set them to singing. In fact, as soon as they see me approach with a big bundle of lettuce they all run for me as they do for nothing else. I believe it would abundantly pay every poultry-keep- er (at least on any considerable scale) to grow lettuce especially for his fowls. Mus- tard may answer just as well, or better, on account of its pungency; but I haven't been able as yet to ascertain this fully. But the wire-netting baskets I have been speak- ing of are certainly the finest things in the world to feed mustard leaves, or leaves of any thing else, for that matter. The lettuce mostly grown here for sliipping to the northern market is what is called the " Big Boston." This makes heads like heads of cabbage; and even the smallest chickens, when only a few days old, will learn the trick of eating out every particle of these large heads, especially if they are placed for them so they can get at them like the poultry-netting hens' nest I have been de- scribing. I presume you can buy these hens' nests at almost any hardware store, but perhaps not quite as cheaply as the ]3rice I have mentioned. The little Indian Runner ducks seem just as greedy (if not a little more so) for the lettuce as do the chickens ; and I am sure it conduces very largely to their health and growth. Aside from the egg-laying and the increased health by the use of plenty of lettuce, it is worth a good deal to have something that will make your wild untamed fowls tame and good-natured — even the crazy Leghorns that attempted to run clear off the premises without any adequate provocation. When they come to learn to eat lettuce they will get around you and become tame in short order — that is, after they once get a taste of the lettuce they seem to value so much. hens' nests; importance of shade. By the way, there is one serious objection to the hens' nest that I pictured last sum- mer when I was describing and planning the convergent poultry-yard. The nest, as I have it, is all right during cloudy days; but when the Florida sun comes down very hot on those sloping roofs it gets so warm inside that the hens go somewhere else to lay their eggs : and their old nests that were previously jjrovided for them under the roofs where they roost at night seem to be much preferred during the hot days, espe- cially in hot weather. There are two rea- sons why I don't like a hen's nest on the ground. First, the hens seem to like to climb up to some place to lay their eggs, perhaps to get away from " varmints," and also have some privacy; and, secondly, it is hard work for an old man to go around to very many nests and stoop over every time. When the nest is raised up a conven- ient distance from the floor this is done away with. The nests should be of easy access to both the hens and the owner. The nests should also be dark ; for I am satisfied a dark nest is a gi'eat preventive of the habit of eating eggs. Besides, a hen on the nests greatly prefers to be where she is not easily seen by any one who happens to pass by. I would have the opening whereby she gains access turned back the other way from where the attendant is likely to pass. some more " straws " that " SHOW THE WAY THE WIND IS BLOWING." The following clippings from the Balti- more Sun show progress surely. Behind the bars is the proper place for a drunken chauffer. Long live Gov. Sulzer. BAN ON DRUNKEN CHAUFFEURS; (JOVERNOE SULZER SIGNS BILL PROVIDING FOR THEIR PUNISHMENT. Albany, N. Y., Jan. 16. — " I don't think we ought to countenance drunken chauffeurs. Sober ones have hard work in dodging pedestrians." Thus spoke Governor Sulzer to-night as he signed his iirst law as Chief Executive of the State. The new law provides one year's imprisonment or a fine of $500, or both, as punishment for an intoxicated chauffeur operating a car. ^ A FREIGHT-CAR CONDUCTOR QUOTED AS SAYING THAT TWO-THIRDS OF ALL RAILROAD M'RECKS DUE TO NEGLIGENCE ARE CAUSED BV DRINK. To THE EDITOR OF THE SuN — Sit: In his admir- able letter on railroad accidents published in to-day's Sun, Mr. Torsch fails to mention the most frequent cause, to wit, drinkr A freight-car conductor said to me yesterday that two-thirds of all wrecks resulting from mistakes or negligence were really caused by drink. He said he had seen many wrecks; and, with the exception of those caused by broken rails and wheels, they were nearly all caused by drink. By drink he did not mean drunkenness, which is a rare vice nowadays among railroad men, but that lethargic state of mind which results from so-called moderate drinking, and which is produced in some men by one di'ink of liquor. He said there is little drinking among railroad men while on duty, but there is nothing to prevent them from coming to their work after taking one or more drinks. Baltimore, Dec. 18. One Who Knows. (Slfamtt00 t« TJ^u (Sinltmt Published by The A. I. Root Co., Medina, 0. H H Root Assistant Editor. E. R. Root, Editor. A. L. Boyden, Advertising Manager. A.' I. Root, Editor Home Department. J- T. Calvert, Business Manager. Entered at the Postofifice, Medina, O., as Second-class matter. VOL. XLI. APRIL 1, 1913 NO. 7 Editorial At the Cincinnati National convention, Secretary Tyrrell either mislaid or lost his memorandum-book in which he had taken a number of subscriptions to the Beekeep- ers' Review. He desires that all who gave him such subscription write to him, giving their names and addresses. Address E. B. Tyrrell, 214 Hammond Building., Detroit, Mich. Sometimes beekeepers in California and other western States are inclined to poke fun at the " one-horse " beekeepers of the East. A great many of these Westerners will have to take off their hats to one bee- keeper of the East, or more correctly of the Southeast, Mr. J. J. Wilder, of Cordele, Ga. He has over two thousand colonies in thir- ty-nine different apiaries, and in 1912 pro- duced one hundred and twenty-five thousand 13ounds of honey. WASHING CLOTHES IN HONEY. While visiting in Oklahoma we learned how one of the early pioneers in that State was in the habit of washing her clothes in honey. We suppose the honey was of in- ferior quality; but the washwoman explain- ed that the honey would remove soiled parts and dirt equal to or better than soap. We presume, of course, that after the clothes have been soaked and washed in honey they were then rinsed in water. death of OLIVER POSTER. This occurred March 12, as the result of a complication of stomach troubles and pneumonia, at his late home in Boulder, Col. Mr. Foster was an uncle of Mr. Wesley Fostei", our Colorado correspondent. Years ago he was more of a contributor to this journal than he has been of late years; but he had a genius for inventing things; and the old volumes of Gleanings as well as the A B C of Bee Culture will show that he was a pioneer in the use of some ideas that are now common. We hope to have a fuller sketch of him later, written by his nephew, Mr. Wesley Foster. A FOUL-BROOD BILL PENDING IN MINNESOTA. A BILL creating the office of State Api- culturist, providing for instruction in bee- keeping, and for the suppression of con- tagious diseases among bees, and appropri- ating money therefor to the amount of $8000, has been introduced into the Minne- sota legislature as House file No. 882, by Representative Frank Hopkins, of Renville Co., and Senate file No. 701 by Senator Murray, of Renville Co. Eveiy beekeeper should wi'ite to his Senator and Represent- ative at once, urging them to give the bill their support. OUR COVER PICTURE. Our cover picture for this issue is appro- priate in that it gives a glimpse of the out- fit used by one of our California correspon- dents, Mr. M. H. Mendleson, for taking care of extracted honey. Notice that the honey runs by gravity from the extracting- house into the large tank, from wliich it is ^ drawn later into the 60-pound square cans regiilarly used. A supply of these is shown stacked up in the foreground. Wherever the extracting-house may be located on a hill-side, so that advantage may be taken of the natural fall for the gravity system, the plan has much to commend it, for it is sim- plicity itself. The roadway should lead to the lowest point for convenience in hauling away the hone3^ A NEW BEE PAPER IN CALIFORNIA. The Western Honeybee is to be the name of a new bee journal published in Califor- nia by the California State Beekeepers' Association. Mr. Geo. L. Emerson, of 3497 Eagle St., Los Angeles, Cal., will be mana- ger and probably editor. The California Beekeepers' Association was never in a more flourishing condition than it is now. There are six hundred members, and the membership continues to grow. For some time there has been felt a need for a special bee paper to present the interests of the California beekeepers, and the time now seems ripe for launching the new paper. It 202 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE will appear about April 1. Gleanings welcomes it into the field, and sincerely be- lieves that it will do a large amount of good on the western coast. HELEN KELLER, THE BLIND DEAF-MUTE. This wonderful girl recently delivered an address before a thousand people. The wonder of wonders is that, with apparently no means of communicating with the outer world, she is now able to talk, write, sing, play the piano — in fact, do every thing that we all do except see and hear. Play the piano ! how is it possible that one can pro- duce strains on an instrument that she can not hear? But Gleanings has more than a common interest in Helen Keller. She wrote a short article for it (p. 844, 1891), when she was about eleven years old. If we are right. Gleanings was one of the first to publish her letters, and since that time her fame has gone around the world. Her picture appears on page 463, 1891, with much information concerning her. LOWER freight RATES FOR HONEY IN NEW SOUTH WALES. Freight rates on honey in New South Wales have been lowered, as the honey now goes as Class A, the rate of which is lower than Class B. There is no distinction made between honey in comb, in glass, or in tin, as shown by the following clipping from the Agricultural Gazette for September 2 : The Chief Commissioner for Railways has ap- proved of the charges for the conveyance of honey by rail being reduced from " B " to " A " class rate and conditions, and the necessary by-law has been forwarded for the approval of the Executive Coun- cil. This means that for the future the rates per ton will be as follows, two tons being the minimum : Miles 50. . Rate per ton .... $1 . 60 Miles 100 . . Rate per ton ... . 2.88 Miles 150 . . Rate per ton ... . 3.90 Miles 200 . . Rate per ton ... . 4.84 Miles 300 . . Rate per ton ... . 6.34 Miles 400 . . Rate per ton ... . 7.34 Miles 500 . . Rate per ton ... . 8 . 34 Miles 600 . . Rate per ton ... . 9 . 34 it would seem as though there would be a difference between the rate on comb hon- ey and on extracted, though no mention is made of it in the above. Will some one from Australia please explain ? solid vs. screen doors for honey and extracting-houses. A CORRESPONDENT in this issue recom- mends the use of a solid door in place of a screen door to the extracting-house. He is entirely correct. Others have called at- tention to the importance of the same thing. A solid door that is used for constant in- gress and egress should, of course, be kept closed. Ventilation should be secured by screens at the windows. The robbers that will cluster on the window screens will have no way of getting in; but robbers on the screen door, every time it is opened, will pounce into the building. There are some extracted-honey producers who contend there should be no bee-escapes on the win- dow screens — that the robbers trapped with- in the building should be held in until the work is done, and then released when they can do no harm to any one at the close of the day. If they are professional robbers, they make it a practice to let them starve to death, because, if released, they will con- tinue to make themselves a nuisance. INDOOR wintering AT MEDINA; BROOD-REAR- ING IN CELLARS. We went into winter quarters last fall with something like 600 colonies. About half of them were wintered outdoors, and the other half in cellars. So far the loss all told does not exceed one per cent. In Gleanings for February 1, page 73, we reported how we moved on a sled some ten miles one of our outyards during the dead of winter, when the temperature was only 15 degrees above zero, to one of the cellars. Prior to that time we had moved in two other yards and placed them in the same cellar. All the moved lots of bees seem to have wintered equally well so far as we can discover; but we have taken out only half of them, especially those that be- gan brood-rearing in December and Janu- ary. The remarkable thing is that many of the colonies are stronger this spring than they were last fall. Ordinarily there is not much brood-rearing in the cellar; but the late moving possibly stimulated the bees to breeding earlier than usual. Well, we were a little fearful that so much brood- rearing would prove disastrous toward spring; but, so far as we can see at this time, no bad results have followed. There was one weak nucleus of Italians last December. A fine Carniolan queen was sent in, and she was introduced to this nucleus of Italians. They began breeding almost immediately; and this spring, when we took them out, there was the original lot of Italians and a fair-sized colony of Car- niolans of all ages. About four-fifths of them were of the black race, and a nicer lot of bees we never saw. Another tiling that developed was that those colonies that were bred so earlj' began to use up their stores. They were given ]3ie-plates of candy, as already explained, and the breeding continued. More anon. APRIL 1, 1913 THAT SCHEME FOR BRANDING QUEENS. In this issue Mr. H. Bartlett-Miller tells of a scheme for branding queens — that is to say, painting them- with a brush so that they may be instantly recognized on the frames among other bees. The scheme looks like a good one, and it will be especially valuable where black bees or dark hybrids are used. Where bees are put "on the run," the queen is pretty sure to join in the gen- eral " skedaddle," making it almost impos- sible to find her. A little dab of color on her back and wings would help out very materially. With ordinary medium-strength colonies of Italians, Caucasians, or Car- niolans it seems to us that it would hardly be necessary to go to the trouble of brand- ing the queen. In the case of bees of quiet behavior it is not difficult to find the queen- mother. The ordinary practiced eye will catch her almost as soon as she comes in sight. According to our corresi^ondent it takes considerable time and skill to do this brand- ing. The time consumed in doing this work in the first place apparently would about equal the extra time that might be required to find the queen without the col- ored markings; so we should say it is about an even stand off, with the advantage in favor of no branding. While Mr. Bartlett- Miller reports the marking with color seems to have no bad effect, yet we should be very much afraid that, in the case of valuable queens, the bees later on might ball them. And is it not true that the color would wear off in the case of a good layer? OUR SYMPOSIUM ON EXTRACTING. We take pleasure in presenting in this number our symposium on the subject of extracting, in both a large and a small way ; in fact, covering the whole field from the standpoint of the latest developments. It will be noticed that each of our correspon- dents works in a slightly different way from the others. There are some who pre- fer small hand machines, and others who recommend and use the large power outfits, either centrally located or pcytable. Mr. R. F. Holtermann has the largest extractor in the world. Of course we haA'e not for- gotten the 24-frame non-reversible machine made for Mr. Osborn, of Cuba, some twelve or fifteen years ago. But apparently this was too much of a good thing. The ma- chine used by Mr. Holtermann is as large as is practicable to make a machine. The advantage of a large machine over a small one is that the combs can be kept re- 2&3 volving for a longer period of time. The longer the frames can be kept on a whirl, the dryer they will become. Small ma- cliines, unless the combs are kept in them for the same length of time, would make the process of taking a given amount of extracted honey too slow. Combs that are verj' wet contain too much honey to go back into the hives. Some large producers be- lieve that the residue of honey sticking to tlie combs just extracted is not all put back in the combs, but that much of it is simply wasted by the bees eating more than they require, just as their owners sometimes do on Christmas and holidays. There was a time when many large pro- ducers seemed to jirefer one large central power extracting station, and carrying the combs to and from the outyards. Apparent- ly they are beginning to find that it is more economical to carry the extracting outfit than the combs. There are still others who have a small maclrine and a complete outfit at each outyard. But Mr. R. F. Holtermann appears to be one of the large producers wlio carries a big power outfit with him from yard to yard, and he has made a suc- cess of it. While a 12-frame machine is more difficult to move, yet with the right kind of planning it can be used at all the outyards together with the requisite equip- ments. Mr. Holtermann's article deserves careful reading, as he is woi"king out a new proposition — that is, whether a large 12- frame power-driven outfit is more efficient carried from j^ard to yard than two eight- frame machines driven by one engine. This is a big cpestion. Human labor is the most expensive factor that the beekeeper has to deal with. The larger the capacity of the outfit relatively, the less the cost of remov- ing the honey from the combs, providing, of course, a plan has been carefully work- ed out, so that there will be no false mo- tions and no waste of time on the part of several men waiting on one man. The se- cret of managing help is to plan the work so that all the men will be busy — so that each one on arrival at the yard will know just what his duty is, and a good boss will see that every man makes every minute count. There are several other equally good articles in this number that will bear care- ful reading; for we believe that we never published any issue of Gleanings that has had more real trade secrets in it than are given in this symposium. The big men have been big enough to tell their fellow-com- petitors their own tricks of the trade. Of course none of them will ever lose by it, and each will be the gainer. 204 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Stray Stra^vs De. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. That tramp beekeeper spreading bee- disease, p. 138, suggests the thought that it would be some help in such a case if there were some way by which a man would have to buy the right to territory before he could dump sick bees upon it. R. F. HoLTERMANN, p. 123, you enumer- ate the advantages of the % top-bar over one % thick. That's all right for extract- ing; but the beginner should be told that these advantages are overbalanced by the wliiter sections obtained over % top-bars. [Many others have testified to the thing mentioned by Dr. Miller; namely, that sec- tions are wliiter and cleaner over a yg-ii^ch top-bar than with a % or %. Beginners who start out-apiaries with their automobiles will never know the thrills we older ones had with our horses. But they were thrills of fright and fear. The worst scrapes I ever had with bees were in connection witli horses, and I always drew a long breath when well started away from an out-apiary. I never had any very bad accident, but some narrow escapes, and there was always that dread which helps to turn one's hair white. L. C. BoussEAU sends design for self- spacing. Sole leather ^4 indi thick, sliced nearly through in i/4-inch squares, to be cut entirely apart after center holes are punched. Ought to be good if bees don't gnaw them. [Dr. Miller forwarded to us specimens of the sole-leather spacers. Even if such leather were sliced so as to be ^4 inch thick it might swell out or dry up. If the latter, it might shrink down to one eighth. This would render it useless. — Ed.] J. L. Byer, p. 141, I feel a bit shaky about insisting that 32 to 35 would be an ideal temperature in a four or five months' winter confinement of bees. I'd give some- thing to know what it is. Please say what temperature you would prefer without any change for a five-months' pull. But I've some question whether 32 to 35 would start brood-rearing as soon as a much lower tem- perature. You know brood-reai-ing starts earlier outdoors than it does in cellar; and isn't that because it is so much colder out- doors? E. D. TowNSEND says of foul brood, Review, 45, " Once in a locality, always in that locality. One can free a hive of the disease, very probably a yard, but not a locality of any considerable area." I guess that's about right, Bro. Townsend, at least regarding the European brand. [This state- ment of Mr. Townsend is generally true, but not always so. We have apiaries Avhere foul brood formerly existed, but they have been free from the disease for many years. But if foul brood once gets into a set of combs it will keep cropping out from year to year in the apiary where they are used ; and then the only thing to do is to melt all the combs and start anew on fresh founda- tion. That is precisely what we had to do in the yards that originally had foul brood. We have never had European foul brood in our yards, and therefore can not speak from experience. — Ed.] Apropos of J. M. Munro's letter about bees changing color, p. 129, J. Kruse," Cen- tralhlatt, 343, gives a circumstantial ac- count of several cases of changing to dark- er color, and vice versa, caused by change of location and pasturage. Buckwheat and heather darken the color. This change oc- curred during the life of the same queen, and there was also a change in the charac- ter of the bees! [We arise to inquire if this is true. Does the color of tlie honey affect the color of the bees? We are frank to say that it does look reasonable. We admit that the kind of honey sometimes af- fects the temper of the bees, or rather, we should say, the manner in which the honey is secreted from the nectaries of the flowers. A plant like buclavheat that secretes honey only during the early hours, and then stops, will make bees crosser than the white clover tliat secretes honey all day. — Ed.] . Dr. Zander says that at 68 degrees Fahr. a man requires 3 1-3 times as much air as a lot of frogs weighing as much as the man, and a bunch of bees of the same weight re- quires 74 times as much air as the man ! Commenting on this, Franz Riehter figures that at 68 degrees a colony weighing 13 pounds requires hourly the enormous quan- tity of half a cubic meter of air, or 17.6 cubic feet ! — Bienenvater, 61. I thought I had a pretty liigh conception of the impor- tance of air for bees, but I'll have to run it up another peg. [You seem to thing a cubic half meter of air is a large quantity. To us it seems rather small. A good deal will depend, however, on whether the bees are in a semi-quiescent condition in the cel- lar or outdoors. In the former place they would not require, at a mere guess, more than a fourth the air that they would when they are active in summer. We are quite prepared to believe that a man would require three times as much air as a lot of frogs weighing the same. — En.] APRIL 1, 1913 205 Notes from Canada J. L. Byee, Mt It is to be hoped that the ruling relative to sliipping beeswax in boxes instead of bags will never be in force in this country, as it would be a lot of bother for nothing. I have shipped many hundreds of pounds of wax in bags, and never once had the first complaint. But I always double the sacks, and take no chances. Being able to buy large sacks at about 3 cts. each, the package is vei-y cheap, and always handy to use. It seems a pity that the carelessness of a few ^vill often make trouble for a great many other people as well as themselves. HOW BEES ARE "WINTERING. We are getting all our " winter " at the tail end of the season here in Ontario. We had a mild January; but February and March, to date (7th), has been steadily cold with high winds. There has been no snow here in York Co. to speak of; but north 100 miles at the Lovering yard it is mountain-high. Hives have been exposed all winter to the cold; and often have we wished for snow to shelter them somewhat. Reports received during the past two weeks are not as good as early in February, and present prospects point to heavy losses out- doors wherever bees were not fed well last fall. Natural stores do not seem to be of good cjuality, and much granulation is re- ported. « * * In reviewing Mr. Sladen's splendid work on the bumblebee, p. 73, the editor says that " the sting of the bumblebee is not very severe." I don't know about that. It all depends on the size of the bee doing the stinging and the size of the fellow getting stung. My earliest recollection of bumble- bees is of having been told by a chap older than myself that " queen bumblebees can not sting." Shortly after getting tliis bit of knowledge in my cranium, I sauntered out into a patch of sunflowers where numerous members of the bumblebee family were dis- porting themselves ; and after a careful look a '* queen " was found on one of the blos- soms. I was only five years old at the time ; and whether that has any thing to do with my recollection of the affair or not in so far as the size of the bee is concerned I am not prepared to say. Any way, my memory says that this particular "queen" was about an inch long; and when I confidingly grasp- ed her in my hand the sting I received felt much longer than an inch, and the small drop of blood that oozed from the puncture Joy, Ont. gave me such a scare that the pain, coupled with the sight of blood, made me exceeding- ly emotional for the time being. Since then I have learned that, while the queen can sting, the drones — at least those of some species — can not do so. Especially is this so of the chaps tliat are often found under trees on hot days; and in schoolday times we used to call them " shade bees," and catch the poor fellows with impunity. » * * ]Mr. Pettit's footnote to my article on page 113, Feb. 15, requires some slight ex- planation. In the first place, I cheerfully admit that I am to blame for not being more careful in writing copy for the bee journals, as I never rewrite any thing. That explains why I am made to say, " during the past season," when I certainly meant to say, "during the past few seasons." Aside from that I have no apologies to make, as I have simply stated facts as given to me. What my own opinion is, that is another matter; but Mr. Pettit knows, or should know, my attitude, as actions speak louder than words. I have nothing but the best wishes toward all educational movements, let it be in beekeeping or any thing else; but I do not tliink it is wise to publish in the daily press reports of big honey yields and profits, when often gross returns are given instead of net receipts. As to doing " government work," there are other methods of getting information aside from being on the civil service; and as to the term " producers," all will under- stand that I had in view the people who mainly depend upon beekeeping for a liv- ing. By the term " boom " I rather had in mind the great activity in the bee business, the attendant high prices of bees, etc., in- stead of the high price of honey as Mr. Pettit seems to think was the case. And yet I am not at all dissatisfied with the ad- vance made in honey during the past few years ; for although honey has not increased as much as some food products, yet no one will dispute that the raise has been substan- tial. Only seven years ago, if I remember correctly, I sold my first large amount of honey at 7%, cts. delivered, and was very glad to get that price. This year I sold very readily honey no better, at fully a half more than that figure. Honey is not too high in price — many honesth^ think it is not high enough; but, all the same, I am very thankful that prices are as good as they are — things might be worse. 206 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Beekeeping in California p. C. Chadwick, Redlands, Cal. Thousands of colonies have been shipped to the alfalfa fields of Nevada, Utah, and Idaho during- the past two years, and others are still going. A good old-fashioned honey crop in California would have a strong in- fluence in checking sliipments. * *- * The good rains of which I spoke in the last issue stopped abruptly, and we are again anxious for weeping skies, for our season for rains is growing shorter day by day, with yet far too small a rainfall to hold the honey-plants thi'ough the blooming pe- riod. The sage that escaped the frost is do- ing finely, and has an exceptionally healthy color and growth. The oranges will be blooming in a short time in profusion; so if we get plenty of rain to aid the sage, who knows but we may yet die rich? * * * The California State Beekeepers' Asso- ciation will, in the future, be known as the Consolidated Honey-producers of Califor- nia. When our foul-brood law was intro- duced in the State legislature, one of the features of the bill was that it placed the appointment of the inspectors largely in the hands of the association. The law-mak- ers, upon investigation, found that there was no legal organization on record known as the California State Beekeepers' Associa- tion. The situation was gi'asped quickly by the officers of the association, and a meet- ing called to organize under the laws of the State to give a legal standing as well as a legal name. There had previously been an organization known as the California State Beekeepers' Association which was official- ly dead, but the name could not be used again in an official way, so the name stated above was chosen. *- » * I recently had the pleasure of entertain- ing Mr. C. C. Matthews, of Idaho, and Mr. M. H. Mendleson, of Ventura. Mr. Mat- thews is in California buying bees to ship to Idaho. He is a beekeeper with much ex- perience, and will doubtless succeed. Mr. Mendleson needs no' introduction from me; but I must say I have rai'ely enjoyed a visit from any one more than this one. With so many years of experience among the bees, and such a large producer, he is a landmark in California beedom. I also had the plea- sure of signing a petition for a son of Mr. M. Seager, who is out for the office of County Inspector, and has the solid backing of our county association. The elder Mr. Seager is a beekeeper of long experience, having been in the bee business in Califor- nia for the past 37 years, and a good friend of the writer. e- * * Utah is now wrestling with a foul-brood law that makes inspection at the State line necessary on all shipments of bees entering the State. We in California are now try- ing to get a law to overcome the evils of county ordinances of an uncertain nature, and make it possible for the clean and care- ful beekeeper to transport his bees from one part of the State to another, and make it impossible for an inspector such as we have had in San Bernardino County to hold the office for ten years over the protest of the beekeepers. I believe with Editor Root (p. 139, March 1) that a federal law should be enacted at once; not only, as he says, to stop the unprincipled tramp beekeeper from spreading disease, but to have a condition of cei'tainty in law that Avill give clean bees a clean bill of health for shipment from one State to another, avoiding the necessity of State quarantine laws that seek to correct an evil and make a worse one. * * * Iowa State convention recommended the amendment of their present foul-brood laAV to prevent the shipment of bees into that State. I thought California had all of the insane notions there were on this subject; but here comes Iowa with a notion as bad as any we can produce. It. is to be hoped our legislators will not allow the beekeepers to persuade them to repeal the inter-state commerce law without giving the national Congress at least due notice of their inten- tions. I doubt very much if the ruling of our California Agricultural Commission would prevent the shipment of bees from Utah to this State, if a test case wei'e made in the United States Courts, unless it could be shown that the bees or fixtures actually contained evidence that the alfalfa weevil was being transported to this State. I do not believe any court would hold that the mere fact that there was danger of the weevil being brought in would be sufficient to stoi3 a shipment of bees, or any thing else for that matter. There are few ships, of the many that land at our harbors daily, from which there is not danger of disease being contracted ; yet the ships come and go, being subject to quarantine regulations, to be sure, but not i^rohibited from landing if no contagion develops within a reason- able time. APRIL 1, 1913 Beekeeping Among the Rockies Wesley Foster, Boulder, Col. SWEET AND SOUR SOIL. Acid soil is sour, and will not grow clo- vers well. Acid soil will turn litmus paper from blue to red. If you have an acid mouth your breath will do the same to the blue litmus paper. If j'ou have an acid mouth you will soon be going to the dentist unless you sweeten your mouth out with a toothbrush and tooth-powder. A clean tooth never decays. Lime sweetens the soil and allows the clovers to grow. And what could be more natural than for a sweet soil to grow plants that will produce abundant nectar? Emerson said there are many sweets in the soil if we but knew how to come at theiru He did not tell us, but we now know how to come at them by liming the soil and planting the clovers. The bees will collect the sweets for us. A land flow- ing with milk and honey will be found where limestone sticks out of the hillsides. The clovers grow, the cattle fatten, milk is abundant, the locusts tluive on the clover, and the wild bees collect the wild nectar for the diet of any John the Baptist who cares for a diet of locusts and wild honey. GLASS SUPER COVERS. On page 52, Jan. 15, you spoke of Mr. Babberger using panes of glass for honey-boards. Will you be so kind as to give me a little information on the subject? I also use the Danzenbaker hive. Does he use panes of glass 16 x 20 the same size as the hive? and does he use single or double strength glass? Is it not likely to get broken in prying it up, being stuck with propolis ? Does he let it stay on there all the year ? Does he use a super cover of wood in connection with it ? North Carolina. S. D. M. Mr. Babberger uses glass 16 x 20, or very close to that. They are the size of the outside of the hive. He uses single-strenglh glass, and says he has but little trouble with breakage. I believe he told me that he broke, on the average, two glasses each season. Mr. Babberger says that bees should not be molested when the propolis sticks. I should judge from his remarks that he does not open liis liives except in warm weather. He tells me that he can give his bees a vei-y fair examination without removing the glass. The glass is used as a honey-board over the supers in summer, and nothing but the cover is used with it. WEIGHT OF HONEY IN 4 X 5 SECTIONS. You speak of Mr. Hill and Mr. Babberger using 4x5 plain sections. How do these men get the 4x5x1% sections to come under your "fancy" and No. 1 grades ? As I understand it, these grades must weigh 131/^ oz. I am using the 4x5x1% sections. and can't get the very best of them to go over 13 oz. Do these men use 4x5x1% or the 4 x 5 x 1 V^ ? I am thinking of changing to the 1%. What will the 4x5x1^^ weigh when well filled? I want a plain section that will weigh a pound when well filled. Will the 4x5x1 1/2 do this ? Missouri. T. H. B. Neither Mr. Hill nor Mr. Babberger grades honey according to the Colorado rules. The Colorado rules are made for the 4^ X 4^/4 X lyg-iiieh section. But I do not understand why you can not get heavier honey than an average of 11 V2 to 12 oz. in 4 X 5 X 1% sections. This is the size used by Mr. Babberger, and I think Mr. Hill's are the same, although I am not certain. Leaving the bees a bee-space on each side of the beeway section, and allowing for the bee-space provided by the fence separator used in the Danzenbaker super, I find that the 4 X 5 X 1% section has 27.5 cubic inches of available sjjace for the building of comb, while the 4l^ x 4^/4 x lyg-inch section has only 27.09 — a diiference in favor of the tall section of about two-fifths of a cubic inch. I am satisfied that Mr. Hill has many sec- tions weighing from 13 to 15 ounces. Sev- eral years ago I produced quite a little honey in 41/4x41/4x11/2 plain sections, using fences, and had little trouble in getting them to weigh 13 to 14 ounces, though I could not get the bees to put a jDound in them. Do you put in full startei-s, filling the box full with a top and bottom starter? Per- haps you had an unfavorable flow this last season ; or you may put on too many su- pers, and make the bees slight their work. I have had no experience with the 4x5x1 V2 section ; but I know some Colorado beekeep- ers who have used 4 x 5 x 1%, and they get comb honey averaging a pound, and some sections will weigh more than that. I doubt whether you can get the average comb built in a 4 x 5 x 11/2 to weigh a pound. Why do you not use a standard section? By removing the super-follower, using sep- arators between each row of sections, hav- ing a top starter of two to three inches, and a bottom starter of % inch, you can get combs to weigh one pound each. But that space left when the follower is removed must be equalized as nearly as possible be- tween all the rows of sections. The way one Colorado beekeeper (Walter Martin) does is to shake the super from side to side lightly, thus leaving the spacing about right. When the bees have begun work, any un- even spacing may be adjusted, and then the bees will soon glue it so that it will stay. 208 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Conversations w^ith Doolittle At Borodino, New York. BEES AS ESCORTS FOR QUEENS IN MAILING. I expect to rear queens for sale this coming sea- son. Please tell us how many bees to put in with any queen as escorts. What should be their age? In mailing queens it is important to use the right number of bees of the proper age. During the summer months, and where the queens are to go no further than the do- mains of the United States or Canada, this ordinary small mailing-cage answers very well, and the proper number of bees to use is from eight to twelve, according to the temperature wliich is likely to be met while they are in the mail. For very hot weather, and with the destination to be in the middle and southern States, I have found that eight bees do best during the last half of June and the months of July and Aug-ust, while for the northern part of the United States and Canada I generally use ten for July and August, and twelve for the other parts of the mailing season. Some years ago I went through a series of experiments to ascertain these things, some of which covered a period of nearly four months. I prepared and provisioned the cages in different ways, and used dif- ferent numbers of bees, using queens which I wished to supersede, not on account of their age, but on account of their being mismated. Being thus prepared, the same as were others which were mailed, these were put in a dark jDlace in my shop, some in the lower stoi'y, others in the upper story, where it was very warm the most of the time; and three or four times during each week these cages were either thrown about the room or left in an old sack made of leather, and the sack tossed about, some- thing after the manner in which I had seen the mails thrown off fast-running trains. Without specifying further as to details, in this way I arrived at what I considered the diiferent ways best suited for a success- ful termination ; and although I have tried nearly all of the devices brought before the public since then, few, if any, have proved better than what I settled on then. But for either spring or fall I do not be- believe that the best results can be obtained by using these small cages. For these rea- sons, and for all places outside of the Unit- ed States and Canada, a larger cage should be used, one having at least twice the ca- pacity. With this larger capacity I use from twelve to twenty bees in accord with the expected temperature and the distance to be traveled. Then for all places outside of North America, a still larger and differ- ently constnicted cage should be used, one which will allow the bees to collect in a comparatively closed apartment when pass- ing through a low temperature; but that where extreme heat is encountered, will al- low them to have access to a larger and well-ventilated compartment. With cages constructed after tliis fashion, and with from twenty to thirty bees, I succeeded in getting three out of five queens alive and in good shape clear to Western Australia, this requiring a period of thirty-nine days. As to the age of the bees which are to accompany queens while in transit, the younger the bees are which have had a cleansing flight the better. Young bees which have never flown to void the pollen excrement which accumulates in their in- testines through their larval and pupa state, are liable to soil themselves, the queen, the food, and the cages, where more than two or three days' time must be consumed dur- ing any journey through the mails. And old worn-out bees are little if any better. Just how to tell which are the old and which are the young bees is a matter that often puzzles very many. I studied many a long week, month, and even years, in this matter, and I conducted different experi- ments along this line, till finally, in watch- ing the bees carefully, after only just enough smoke had been used to quiet them properly, I found that, as a rule, bees which were from six to ten days old, the same being slim in appearance, were the ones which would stick their heads in the cells of honey surrounding the brood, and begin to fill with tliis honey. And such are the bees which I have used for nearly thirty years, with good success. And, what is in our favor, is that, when in this position, these bees are the most easily picked from the combs, as the wings stand out inviting us to take hold of them, and thereby carry them to the cage in the manner best suited for their entering the cage, and with an al- most positive insurance against being stung. Some queen-breeders say that we should never put in a bee that has stung us, as it will soon die, and is quite likely to get stuck fast in the entrance to the food-chamber. I used to think so myself; but finding that it was not the easiest job to get a bee out again which had left its sting in my finger when closing the entrance to the cage, I wrote to a party in Texas, to which such a cage was going, to inform me on arrival if there were any dead bees in the cage. In due time he replied that every bee was alive, and " smart as a cricket." APRIL 1, 1913 209 General Correspondence LABOR-SAVING PLANS IN LARGE OUT-APIA- RIES Different Problems in Different Localities BY R. M. SPENCER Locality has much to do with the methods of handling bees, either on a large or small scale. Where I am located the winter prob- lem is nothing compared with that of cold climates. Here a nucleus of three frames of brood and bees will winter in good shape provided they have plenty of honey for stores. In the East the main problem in spring is to get the bees to build up in time for the flow; while here the main problem is not to let them build up too fast and swarm before the flow starts. In tliis locality bees begin to breed about Jan. 15, and have a light honey-flow until about May 15, when the main flow starts. It is easy to see then that the breeding sea- son is very long. This compels us to use a large hive. Ten frames is what I use, and tier them up three stories high, allowing the queen to breed in all three bodies if she desires. This long breeding season makes a race of bees such as Italians more suitable than any swarming races like Carniolans. Our work here generally begins about Jan. 1, when we go to all the yards, close the entrances down to about two inches, and take up all dead colonies to prevent the combs becoming moth-eaten. About Feb. 20 we go over all hives, remove supers and surplus honey, stacking the same up in the yard. During March we build up the weak- er colonies by taking brood from the strong- er ones. WORKING so RAPIDLY THAT ROBBERS CAN NOT KEEP UP. We use a method of preventing robbing during this early spring work by going over the hives so fast that robbers can not get a chance. Each man has his duty to do. Say a crew of five men were going through a yard of 250 colonies in a day. The first man's duty is to take off the lids. No. 2 smokes the bees. No. 3 glances into the hive, calls out the number of frames of brood ; or, if a frame is wanted, he calls for it. No. 4 brings the frame and puts it in a vacant space and returns the empty comb to a box of combs which is always kept covered. No. 5 then replaces the cover and sees that it is secure from robbers. By this method we go over the hives so fast that robbers do not stand a show. We sometimes see them trying to get under the lids, five hives or more behind where we are working. If they become bad we paint the cracks with fresh white paint, and they will not try to get in, as the bees will not alight on fresh paint. We also jump over to the other side of a yard after getting over one row, and this also throws them off their track. We always aim to keep not too many bees in a yard, but yards close together. We figure that, if we have 2000 colonies in four yards of 500 each, in case of disease we have to fight it in 500 colonies, while if we have eight yards of 250 each we have only 250 to look after. Again, in poor years 500 will not make a living, but 250 will. On the other hand, large yards cost less to operate, and produce large crops in good years. We try to locate all our yards in well-sheltered places away from winds. There is no question in my mind but thai in many cases queens have been condermied for poor qualities when the main cause was drifting of bees. In a large yard of several hundred colonies, those in the center of the yard will always be in poor condition while the outside colonies will be strong. I have often noticed this in my yards where the flow in spring began on oranges to the west. The west side of these yards would be very strong, while later on, when the flow from other sources began in the east, the colonies on the east side would build up quickly, while those on the west would become weak- er. The way to prevent this is to keep the hives in groups, or by some well-marked location. About all tlie locations in Cali- fornia are now occupied except some that are back in the mountains where roads must be built in order to reach them. Many localities are ah'eady becoming overcrowd- ed. One of the main problems here is to se- cure labor to handle the bees. It is hard to get help who will go back into these canyons and live and handle the bees. All our hives are three-story, and all the honey is sealed and thoroughly ripened be- fore extracting. We use the usual methods of extracting, running the honey into tanks in order to clarify it. GALVANIZED TUBS FOR UNCAPPING-CANS. We find the best uncapping-boxes for our use to be tubs with a one-inch opening at one side on the bottom. These are set over a trough, and the honey is allowed to drip into the trough and run into tanks. The advantage of these tubs is that we can use one to-day and let it drip clean until to-mon^ow, when we screw in the plug and haul the whole thing home, and melt the GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE cappings there. All we need is a large sup- ply of tubs to handle the cappings as fast as filled. Nordhoff, Cal. SPRAYING FRUIT-TREES IN BLOOM Advice in " Better Fruit " in Regard to it BY J. A. GREEN One of the most subtle attacks on bee- keeping interests that has ever come to my notice is contained in articles in Better Fruit, a magazine published at Hood River, Oregon. Better Fruit is a high-class maga- zine, well printed, superbly illustrated, and occupies a very high place among publica- tions devoted to the fruit industry. In the January number are several articles by W. H. Volck, Horticultural Commissioner of Santa Cruz County, California, who is list- ed as one of the associate editors. In one of these, after reciting the damage done in his district by various leaf and fruit eating insects which begin their work very early, he says, " These foliage and flower-devour- ing insects are all controllable with arseni- cals provided the spraying is properly done in due time. Owing to the veiy early at- tacks of tussock caterpillars, canker-worms, and leaf-folders, the first spraying should not be delayed until the blossoms have all fallen, but applied while the trees are in bloom. The period from full bloom to the time when two-thirds of the blossoms have fallen appears to be the most practical tim- ing. Spraying- with good ai-senicals will cause no injury to the blossoms." Later, in the same article he says, " Apply the first spraying when the trees are in bloom, full bloom to the time when two-thirds of the blossoms have fallen." In another article, speaking of a special brand of areenate of lead, he says, '' It may also be used on apples and pears in the Coast districts if applied vei-y early (while the trees are in bloom), or if combined." Again, " Acid arsenate of lead may be used ... if applied before the trees have gone out of bloom; but any later sprayings will be dangerous." Once more, " The first ap- plication for canker-worms, codling moth, etc., had best be applied before all the blos- soms have fallen;" and, finally, "In the Coast districts the earliest application (be- fore all the blossoms have fallen) may be made." The persistent reiteration of the same idea shows a deliberate purpose to induce as many as possible to follow his teaching, though he cleverly avoids giving any reason for it, further than that the leaf and bud eating worms that he mentions begin their attacks very early, before the blossoms are open. The position of the man, and his evident familiarity with all the minutiae of spraying, will tend to lead many to follow liis advice without analyzing it or suspect- ing any ulterior motive. Now the facts are that, for the purpose of poisoning the tussock caterpillar, can- ker-worm, or any other of the leaf or bud eating insects that begin their work early in the season, there could be no possible advantage in having the tree in bloom when the spraying is done. A spray applied four or five days eax'lier, before the blossoms open, would be even more effective in con- trolling them, if time is any object. But unless these pests were unusually bad, there could be no gi-eat harm in waiting four or five days later, until the petals of the blos- soms have di'opped, which is the proper time to si^ray for the codling moth. For the control of the codling moth, a more effective job of spraying can be done after the petals have dropped and the stamen- bars have withered and separated, so that the calyx cup can be more easily filled with poison. Also this spray will be equally effective in controlling the later attacks of all leaf, bud, or fruit eating insects. The statement that spraying will cause no injury to the blossoms does not agi'ee with the experience of many practical or- chardists. nor with the teachings of nearly all the authorities. Most spraying is done nowadays with power-sprayers; and to do effective work a pressure of 200 lbs. should be maintained. I have seen even leaves and apples torn from the trees by such a spray, and it is only reasonable to suppose that, when it is driven upon the delicate organs of the blossoms, it will more or less damage them and prevent the proper per- formance of their functions, aside from the corrosive action of the spray or the hin- drance to pollenization by the thorough wetting. I have written to the publishei-s of Better Fruit, and hope that something may be done to counteract the influence of these articles. I shall write to several others of the associate editors, with whom I am acquainted, to enlist their influence if pos- sible agianst this revival of an eiTor that had nearly died out among fruit-gTowei-s, or at least the better-informed ones. Bee- keepers should post themselves on the prin- ciples that govern spraying, so that they may be better prepared to overcome the evils that the ignorance or prejudices of fruit-gi'owers may bring upon them. Grand Junction, Colo. APRIL 1, 1913 [We sincerely hope that our correspon- dent's efforts may succeed, for it is to be regretted that a horticultural magazine should come out with such a statement right in the face of conclusive evidence to the contrary that is being sent out by so many of our experiment stations. Here is an- other communication along the same line. — Ed.] SPRAYING TREES IN BLOOM BY H. F. WILSON Assistant Entomologist, Oregon Agricultural College, Corvallis, Oregon. Mr. W. H. Volek, Horticultural Commis- sioner, Santa Cruz County, Watsonville, California, in the January number of Bet- ter Fruit, under the heading of " Caterpil- lars, Codling Moth, Aphids," pages 16 and 17, makes the following statements: (Quot- ed above. — Ed.) Note that he states that the time men- tioned appears to be the best. This rec- ommendation, which is undoubtedly given on reliable data and experiments, is a very dangerous one for both the beekeeper and the horticulturist. Certainly such a prac- tice can not help causing the destruction of insects wliich feed upon the nectar of the blossoms, and, climbing about over them in search of it, aid in cross-pollina- tion. In localities where it is followed, the honeybees will be destroj^ed; and one of our local beekeepers suiJered such loss from the spraying of a single orchard that he was compelled to move to an entirely dif- ferent locality. It is a common recommendation of this station to suggest bees for the orchard and farm, both for the value received from the cross-fertilization of fruits and the surplus honey secured. In view of this recommendation I will state that in Oregon we have the tussock moth, canker-worm, and several caterpillai-s which cause more or less damage to the fruit; but in only one instance have they caused enough damage to make it necessary to consider methods of control other than those now in use. In localities where it becomes necessary to combat these early-feeding caterpillars, the spray should be applied before the blos- som-buds open. At that time the young caterpillars will be feeding, and should be more easily destroyed than a week or ten days later. There may be some opposition to this extra application on account of the cost; but surely the value of the cross-fertilized fruit over the self-fertilized will be more than the cost of spraying. Just how much we can depend upon the wind and air cuiTents for distributing pol- len is hard to say; but several investigators have carried on experiments which tend to show that not as much pollen is distributed in this waj- as one would expect. In conclusion I would suggest that the fruit-growers of eveiy State be careful about spraying" when the trees are in bloom; and such a practice should be re- sorted to only as the last and final means of insuring a crop of perfect apples. A COLLAPSIBLE EXTRACTING - HOUSE AT EACH YARD Hauling Combs Home to Extract Keeps the Bees Confined to One Story too Long BY LEON C. WHEELER Personally I should not Like the plan of working outyards and cax'rying the combs, etc., back and forth every trip. I find that^ if not absolutely necessary, a honey-house at each yard is at least extremely handy,. and when one can have good portable houses at a cost of $25.00 to $40.00 each I believe that they are an economy. It is al- most impossible to estimate accurately the amount of combs one will need at an out- yard; but he can \evy easily have a supply of them in the honey-house at the yard, and can draw on them at will. A light spring wagon will take the ex- tractor, capping-melter, gravity separator, etc., to the yard, and a few cream-cans make excellent receptacles for carrying back the honey. If one has a permanent stand ar- ranged at each honey-house it is a short job to set up the extractor and begin opera- tions. Many of these combs must be put right back on the hive, and a lot of time is saved by not having to take them home and then back again another day. Then, too, the combs are on the hive quicker, and, con- sequently, the bees are not left so long in the cramped quarters of the single hive- body. Large full combs of honey are not the easiest thing in the world to haul over rough country roads without breaking them; and as the most of this work comes at the close of the clover flow, and before the beginning of the buckwheat flow, bees are inclined to rob ; and each hive, as one loads it, has to be carefully covered; and still, in spite of all one's care, 1 e finds before he gets through loading that there is a swarm of eager excited bees around the load. These bees may not do any harm to the man who is fortunate enough to own an auto ; but we poor fellows who are compelled to drive S12 a horse don't enjoy hitching up in a swarm of bees. I'd much rather have that honey all ex- tracted and put up in good tight tin cans; for then when I get through I can thi'ow it on the wagon, hitch up without any bees to molest me, and hike for home as fast as the jhorse cares to go — no trouble about break- ing combs. Then, too, when I am working among the bees before extracting time I often find it to my advantage to take out certain combs "of honey from a hive, and it is very handy to have an extracting-house in which to store these. In loading the extractor on the wagon I set it flat on the bottom of the wagon, and fasten it there with two or three screws, and the pockets are tied to keep them from rattling ; and when it is fixed this way there is no trouble about driving as fast as you want to. My extracting-house is built in six pieces — two sides, two ends, one floor, and one roof piece. These are bolted to- gether at the yard, and strips nailed on over the corners to cover un the cracks which might otherwise let in some bees where the building is joined together. There is just one window which faces the yard; and this is fitted with escapes. There are two doors, one entering the yard and the other facing out, which admits of driving a team on the opposite side of the house from the bees to load. These doors are both fit- ted with foot latches — a verj' handy device which allows one to open the door with the foot instead of having to set down the hive, or whatever he is carrying, in order to open it. I should consider it a useless expense to fit out each yard with extractors, etc., as they can be easily carried along. Barryton, Mich. THE JEFFERSON AND ST. LAWRENCE COUNTY CONVENTION BY R. F. HOLTERMANN The two-days' convention held at Ogdens- hurg, N. Y., Feb. 20 and 21 did not lack in 'enthusiasm, and there were a goodly num- ber of extensive beekeepers present. I shall make no attempt to report the convention •generally, but simply record a few points -which impressed me. F. C. Hutchins, Massena Springs, upon the subject of " The Management of Out- apiaries," said that his home apiary con- ■sists of 300 colonies, which he looks after himself, getting the help of two or three boys in extracting time. His experience is that if bees winter well they will spring GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE well. He wants good queens, not more than two years old. On account of European foul brood he gives Italians the preference, although so far he has found no disease among his bees. Mr. Hutchins advocated equalizing colo- nies by changing hives, putting strong colo- nies in the place of weak ones, and weak in the place of strong when honey is com- ing in and the bees are flying. He has also built up weak colonies by placing them over strong ones with a wire cloth between the two colonies. He has had some swarms when producing extracted honey, but not many. Swarming is kept down by means of shade, large entrances, and plenty of room. Where there are 200 or 300 colonies in an apiary he recommends that some one be placed in charge all the time. They can liive any swarms that issue, and enough work can be found to keep the attendant out of mischief. Mr. Hutchins also recom- mends a complete extracting and other nec- essary outfit for each apiary. He feels sure a good honey crop can be secured in an apiary with several hundred colonies if the bees are strong at the beginning of the honey-flow. The question of breaking down queen- cells to prevent "swarming came up. I stat- ed that, when breaking down queen-cells that are the result of the swarming im- pulse, I make a point of removing all the royal jelly, reasoning that, if any of it is left, there will be a gi-eater chance of the bees starting some more cells with the in- tention of swarming later. I do not shake a colony simply because it builds cells for swarming, for often the swarming impulse does not continue when the cells are broken down. Sometimes, however, it does con- tinue, and I find instances where it would have been wiser to shake the bees instead of thwarting them week after week. However, on the whole I have gained more than T have lost by delaying or not adopting the " shake system." Mr. T. Davis, Ogdensburg, gave a method which he had adopted, of destroying capped cells — a method which Geo. B. Howe, Black River, had also practiced for many years. This method consists in tearing the capped cells open at the side and destroying the embryo queen. If the cells are destroyed in this way the bees think their own queen destroyed them, and they destroy any cells the beekeeper might miss in the hive. Bees do not destroy the remaining cells unless the cells found are destroyed as described. Mr. Howe stated he had been following this plan for fourteen years with entire success. Brantford, Canada. To be continued. APRIL 1, 1913 Woodward's auto truck loaded with 105 supers and combs, ready for a trip to one of the outyards. AUrO TRUCK FOR MIGRATORY BEEKEEPING D. L. WOODWARD Last season was my first experience with an auto, and I have enjoj'ed it very much, although I have found it quite expensive on account of using pneumatic tires and a hig'h-i3owered car. My machine is a foreign Fiat, 45 horse power and 130-inch wheel base. Most owners of automobiles claim big' mileage for their cars; but all I have ever been able to get out of my car is six miles to the gallon of gasoline. I bought it second-hand, buying just the chassis. After buying it I had a detachable touring body built for it. Then I built a delivery body, also detachable, and a truck platform with stakes, as shown in the picture. The platform is 70 inches wide, 96 long, and is built of oak and ash, a vei'y strong construction, but heavier than necessary. Let me say right here to prospective buy- ers of auto trucks that I do not consider any touring car suitable for a truck. In the first place, it is geared too high; and in the second place the gears are not heavj^ enough to bear the strain that a truck must stand. [ have had the misfortune to strip my differ- ential gears twice during the season, so I know whei'eof I speak. I do not believe there is any pleasure-car built with heavier transmission and gears than the Fiat. I would not advise any one to try to get along without horses in addition to the auto, as there are times when the horses come in very handy, especially in the spring and fall. For six weeks last spring I was tied up on account of the muddy condition of the roads. If one lives on a State road, that disagreeable feature is done away with. I believe that an auto truck is a great con- venience and a great saver of time; but if one can not afford to keep a pair of horses also, I would choose the horses for the heavy work, and keep a light car which would be inexpensive to maintain, for light work, such as marketing honey and run- ning to the outyards. The ordinary beekeeper would have very little use for a truck unless he practiced mi- gratory beekeeping as I do. I run two outyards — one five and the other ten miles from my home yard. I take all my honey home to extract, and carry the bees home to winter them. Then about July 20 I move them all on the Helderberg Moun- tains for buckwheat honey, a distance of ten miles. Last spring my bees were short 214 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Vi Fig. 1. — One of R. F. Holtermann's apiaries of twelve-frame hives. of stores, and so I moved about half of them six miles from home into a fruit belt for fnxit bloom. After fruit bloom I moved them to another location where I could get a large quantity of wild-raspberry honey. In this way they all got enough honey with- out feeding to carry them through and to keep up brood-rearing. By means of the auto the moving is done quickly and easily, as I have a full equip- ment for doing all this kind of work. We usually close up ninety colonies the night before; and the next day, after I haul a load, my man stays at the yard to open the hives, and is generally waiting for me when I return with the next load. I find that it takes me just 45 minutes to cover the twelve miles, including loading and unloading, car- i"ying thirty colonies to the load, fifteen to each floor. I have a skeleton floor that I use in moving bees. It is 18 inches above the platform, and is held up by the stakes. On the rear stakes is a cross-board with notches cut in for the floor boards to fit in. I also find the auto a great convenience in selling honey at retail, as I live twelve miles from Albany, the nearest market. I have sold in three hours, from my auto on the public market, as much as 103 five- IDOund pails of honey besides that which was put up in pint jars and in five, six, and twelve ounce bottles. It is certainly a jjretty sight to see the auto loaded with seven or eight hundred pounds of honey in bottles, and in my spe- cial red and gold lithogTaphed pails; and I generally have a good-sized crowd of ad- mirers. I get 12 cents a pound in five- pounds pails; 10 cents for the five and six ounce bottles; 25 cents for the pint jars, and 20 cents for the twelve-ounce bottles. At those prices there is money in bees. Beekeeping is my sole occupation; and from 300 colonies I make a good living and save some besides. Delmar, N. Y. THE TWELVE-FRAME POWER EXTRACTOR BY R. F. HOLTERMANN Some of my friends claim that I am too coi^servative. On the other hand, there are those who state that I risk too much; and the reason they give for this statement is that they can point to certain fixtures or im- plements about the bee-houses which I am not using. These accusations prove to my APRIL 1, 1913 J15 satisfaction that I am pursuing a fairly moderate course between the two extremes. Be that as it may, it was quite a wrench for me Avhen I decided to leave the hand-turned extractor and venture on what was to me the uncertain sea of a power-extractor out- fit. When I state that, Avith a six-frame re- versible extractor turned by hand, we have been able to extract 8500 lbs. of honey in a day, some will, perhaps, better understand my hesitation. However, after weighing the evidence available, and meditating up- on the pros and cons, actual and perhaps imaginary, the plunge was finally made, and the securing of an outfit decided on. The next thing was to decide upon the size of the macliine. An eight-frame ex- tractor was the largest available ; and as Ave had already used a six-frame by hand, this did not seem like difference enough. The manufacturers could give me no help — in fact, their advice rather tended to the pur- chase of two six-frame machines rather than one twelve-frame. An arrangement was made for a twelve-frame machine, and I ordered a jDump attached. I believe I was the first one to order an extractor with a honey-pump attached (now, do not all speak up at once, saying that I was the last). As to the engine, a few dollars looked to me pretty serious — a few pounds of added weight, a clog on the whole season's opera- tions; so a 1%-horse-power engine was de- cided on. Tins machine extracted a good crop of honey for the season of 1912; but I decided that there was a slight delay in speeding up the large reel with a capacity of twelve Langsti'oth frames ; and two of these delays with every set of combs made considerable lost time in a day ; consequent- ly a 31/2-horse-poAver engine has been bought to rejDlace the first purchased. The extractor which I ordered was com- pleted and ready for inspection about July 1, 1911. A visit of inspection was made, and every thing appeared all right. Blocks of wood were placed in the comb-baskets as a substitute for comb. Delay in transit resulted, in that the last day of extracting I received notice that the extractor had ar- rived at my nearest custom-house station. It was, therefore, too late to test the ma- chine during the season of 1911. During the winter of 1911 I had 18 gal- vanized iron tanks built for storing honey. They had tight covers, Avere 6 feet liigh and 3 in diameter. Each tank has a capacity of 3000 to 3300 lbs. The best and safest hon- ey-gate I could find Avas put on them, and a strong stand about 14 inches high Avas built in each apiary, upon which to set the and tanks, loaded on a wagon. 216 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Pig. 3. — Two of Mr. Holtermann's helpers removing honey. One holds the frame, and the other uses a brush in each hand. tank. My object in having these large tanks was to do away with previous loss of time in changing the filling from one small tank to another or from one barrel to an- other— to strain the coarsest foreign sub- stances, such as wax, out of the honey, and do the rest of the straining by gravitation, skimming the honey when the separation had taken place. For filling, also, a large tank, where one can fill into smaller pack- ages for a 3000-lb. run, is a gain in time. The pressure is better, and thus the honey may be forced out more rapidly at the open gate. With a barrel, for instance, oAving to the pressure from the honey above, the first half of the barrels fills more readily than the second. No strainer that can be utilized can be found that will strain honey at the rate of 1000 to 1500 lbs. per hour, and be fine enough to remove the finer specks of wax, etc. One may not see these specks when the honey is liquid; but when the honey is granulated nice and white, they show at once like dust on the surface, and are very objectionable to the uninitiated, such as the average consumer of honey. The twelve-frame extractor worked well. There is no trouble in extracting with it 11.000 to 15,000 lbs. of honey in a day. Fig. 1 shows one of our apiaries, July, 1912, which produced sufficient honey to fill three of these large tanks and six or seven hundred additional i^ounds. The hives shoAvn are the twelve-frame Langstroth. We tier- ed up supers until the close of the wliite- honey flow, when all was extracted, but not a comb was taken from the brood-chambers. There were brood-chambers so filled with brood (yes, I must confess my lack of fore- sight) that several colonies actually starved to death for want of food during my ab- sence of several weeks after the honey-flow. (T have no queens to sell. Many beekeep- ers have as good queens as I have if they would only overcome their prejudices and give their queens a chance in the twelve- fi'ame brood-chamber.) MOVING. A question might be asked as to the prac- ticability of moving this extracting-outfit from one apiary to another. In this matter I was most agreeably surprised. Fig. 2 shows the outfit on a wagon. We took the twelve-frame extractor, turned it on its side, and rolled it tlu'ough the honej^-house door, turning it again to its normal position and pushing it up a plank upon the wagon. The engine shown in the same engraving is the small one; but the larger one can be loaded more readily than the extractor. The other implement on the wagon is the uncapiDing-tank standing by the driver of the horses. My outfit cost more than I expected ; but I am well satisfied with it. It is a great convenience and labor-saver. Speaking to the young men who spent the season with me learning beekeeping, I said, " If I had been asked at the outset to buy a 3y2-horse-power engine with which to extract, I would not now have a power outfit ; but by taking two steps the cost was broken to me by degi'ees, and I yielded." We found a difficulty in connection with pumping the honey — the belt slipped. A remedy has been found, however, and I have no hesitation in recommending a power out- fit for extracting; but I have no use for the plan of hauling home combs of honey to be extracted. The honey can be extracted in the time which it would take to haul the combs to a central station and back again. Also, where there is any danger of foul brood it is much more liable to be spread by changing or canying combs from apiaiy to apiary. Of coui*se, if there is no extract- ing place it is a different matter. If I wanted to keep myself busy without ade- APRIL 1, 1913 217 IIunej-hou!=e and Bee-(.ellar oT 'SI. C. Silslee, Hubkiuville, N. Y. quate returus, the latter system niiglit com- mend itself to me. Brantford, Canada. A CONVENIENT EXTRACTING - HOUSE AND BEE-CELLAR BY MYRON C. SILSBEE I am sending you a picture of my bee- cellar and honey-house which was built in the summer and fall of 1911. The building is 24x40 feet north and south, having a cellar of the same dimensions. A partition runs through and shuts oti' the cellar from the tank-room. The cellar is 24 x 30, and the tank-room 24x12. I have a room above, 24 X 30 feet, which I use for an extracting and storeroom. I also crate and clean my comb honey for market here. The room is ceiled overhead with matched lumber. I have a power extracting outfit, and pipe through the floor. The pipe is three inches in diameter. It conveys the honey to the tanks in the tank-room below, which hold about 4500 pounds each. There is a door in the north end of the bee-house, 7 ft. liigh by 31/2 wide, through which I carry the honey in from the hive. The door in the southeast corner of the tank-room is 4 ft. wide, through which I carry my bees into the cellar and then through a door 31/2 ft. wide through the partition into the bee-cellar. Then I have a room in the south end of bee house, 24 x 10, where I have a stove and workbench where I extract wax and nail up hives and supplies. There is a double floor of hard pine with building paper between. I have four trapdoors in the floor, 14 x 21 inches, for veu^ilating the cellar. The cellar has a cement floor, and is seal- ed overhead with matched lumber. The walls under the building are laid up in Portland cement mixed 5 to 1. The walls are 3 feet thick at the bottom and 18 inches at the top. I cover the cellar floor with two or three inches of planer shavings. The bees are set on plank 6 inches from the floor with bottom-boards removed to allow all dead bees to drop out during the winter. I generally put the bees in the cellar from the 10th to the loth of November, and set them out about April 1. The outside of my bee-house is sheeted with one-inch planed hemlock, shiplap, covered with building paper, then sided over. The chimney on the bee-house is built of cement. Then I have a building at the northwest corner of the bee-house, which does not show in the picture. It is 12 x 15 feet. I have a gasohne-engine, saws, and dovetail cutter, where I saw my hives and supplies; but I would not advise any one to make his own hives and supplies. I intend to lay up the brace-walls on the east side of my bee-house, and grade up GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Fig. 1. — Set up ready to extract with porcelain-lined kettle and washtub in foreground. to the sidir-g. 1 have 160 colonies in the yard at present. The picture was taken about Sept. 10, at the close of the buck- wheat flow, after some of the supers had been taken off. The third and fifth colonies in the second row, beginning at the right, produced about 150 lbs. of clover and basswood honey each. The fifth colony in the fourth row, begin- ning at the right, Avith two supers on, is a ten-frame hive which produced 100 lbs. of clover and basswood comb honey in beeway sections. I had a number of colonies in tlie apiary that bore equally well. Most of the colonies that ran for extracted honey aver- aged about 25 lbs. per Aveek during the clover and basswood flow. Cohoeton, N. Y. A LIGHT PORTABLE EXTRACTING OUTFIT BY H. D. MURRY Some beekeepers hesitate to start out- yards because of the expense of maintaining a separate extracting outfit at each yard, or because of the trouble of hauling the ordi- nary outfit from one yard to another. To such it may be interesting to know of a light outfit tliat I use. The whole thing does not weigh more than 150 pounds, yet it is effective and convenient. Tlie extractor is a Cowan reversible, Xo. 18, with comb-baskets large enough to take two frames each of the shalloAv frames we use in the production of bulk comb honey. These frames are 5% inches deej?. We use them also for extracting; and. although the extractor has only two comb-baskets, we put in four combs at a time, making it equal to an ordinary four-frame extractor. The uncai^ping-can consists of two galvanized iron tubs of such size that one will just slijj doAvn about an inch in the top of the other. We cut out the bottom of the upper tub, leaving an inch or so all around, and put in a bottom of galvanized Avire, abnuf four meshes to the inch. A strip of board three inches Avide which runs through the liandles of the upper tub completes the un- capping-can. Our uncapping-knife is a Bingham of the "vintage" of 1897. It has a much thinner blade than those turned out noAv, and does much better Avork. We do not use any Avater, either hot or cold, as we do not need it Avith this knife. For the purpose of catching the honey from the extractor, Ave use a galvanized iron can 12 inches in diameter and 121/4 inches deep. We tie a cheese-cloth over the can and set it under the gate of the extractor. When full it holds a little over five gallons. There is a molasses-gate near the bottom of the can. APRIL 1, 1913 Our uncapping-cau will hold all the cap- pings for one day, the honey running through the wire bottom to the tub below, which must be emptied from time to time. At the close of a day's work we emptj- the lower can ; and by morning, in this hot cli- mate, the honey is practically all out of the cappings. We have found that any honey that might drain out aftei'Avard is too dark to suit us. We then melt up the cappings in a porcelain-lined kettle and squeeze out the wax with two boards fastened together at the end. The wax is caught in another galvanized tub, and the slumgum may be saved in a sack to be run through a wax- press later. There is very little wax left where nothing bi;t cappings is melted up. These tubs, with the kettle and honey-can, all nest together, so that they take up only the room in a wagon that one tub would occupy. We are engaged mostly in the production of bulk comb honej^; but we have to have extracted honey to pack the comb, and we find this outfit entirely adequate to our needs. The entire cost is only ^bout twenty dollars; and, being so light, we can put it on a wagon with empty cans enough to hold all the honey our crew will pack in a day. It can be set up in a few minutes after we reach a yard, and we are read}- to go to work. If anybod}' wants an outfit that Avill cost $150, and take a pair of good mules to pull. 219 he has my permission; but 1 have not yet felt the need of such an outfit, and I prefer to use that money in keeping more bees. Mat his, Texas. [Mr. Murry does not saj^ how much hon- ey he can extract in a day with his outfit; but since he produces only enough extract- ed honey to use in j^ackiug his bulk-comb we have no doubt but that the outfit has capacity enough. — Ed.] A PORTABLE EXTRACTING-HOUSE LARGE ENOUGH FOR A POWER OUTFIT BY v. V. DEXTER I am using an extracting-wagon which is very satisfactory. It is rather low, but at the same time it pulls easily over the aver- age road. The floor is 7 by 14 feet. The top is about 6 feet high, and made of can- vas over a frame of 1 x 2, Avitli 2x2 cor- ners, and braced with ware. The whole does not weigh more than the ordinai-y wagon and haj'-rack. I use this wagon not only for extracting, but also for a shop, bunk- house, and dining-car, or whatever I need it for at the yards. As I have no building at any of them it is fine to have a cool bee- tight house to take with me on my trips. I work alone, and care for 450 colonies. This wagon is exceptionally good in mov- ing bees. I never close the liives. I simply Fig. 2.- — Packed ready to move, with a cake of wax from the tub leaning against the nest of tubs. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Dexter's extracting-wagon, which is large enough for gasoline-engine, eapping-melter, etc. drive up to the yards, take off the horses, load up, shut the door, hitch up again, and drive otf . Not a bee can get out ; and if a few do leave the hives and fly to the win- dows, it is easy to give them to the weakest colony when they are unloaded in the new yard; but I am not bothered that way un- less it is necessary to stop some time while on the road. HEATING HONEY AS SOON AS EXTRACTED TO RETARD GRANULATION. In extracting I use a Gilson engine, four- frame extractor, steam-knife, eapping-melt- er, honey-heater, and storage-tank under the floor. The honey is pumped from the extractor to the heater where it is heated enough to avoid granulation, also to remove all specks. From there it runs to the tank under the floor, the tank being large enough to hold one-half to a day's extracting; and as the honey is warm, it is only a few min- utes' work to run 1200 or 1500 pounds into cans ready for market. Heating the hon- ey when it is first extracted does not in- jure the flavor, as it is apt to do if left til] after gTanulation. I have had alfalfa hon- ey remain clear a year because it was heat- ed when first extracted. It is practically imi)ossible to get all the specks out of our thick honey unless it is heated. My old plan, and the plan of many west- ern beekeepers, is to strain through win- dow-screening at the time of extracting, and, later, heat and strain through cheese- cloth. By the method I now use, the honey takes care of itself till the end of the day, when it can be canned ready for market. In the picture the tank under the floor does not show, as it was removed after the extracting was done. The door in (he front end has been taken out also. It is of cloth, and can be ensilv taken off. Practice has proven to me that the front end is the best place for the door. With a slide it is possible for one man to put from twelve to sixteen full-depth supers into the wagon without getting in himself to arrange them. In removing empty supers it is also easy to remove almost as many witliout the trouble of climbing in. North Yakima, Wash. PAINTING QUEENS SO THAT THEY MAY AL- WAYS BE QUICKLY FOUND A Quick-drying Non-injurious Paint that May be Applied with a Wire BY H. BARTLETT-MILLER Nothing " straight from the beeyard " having appeared in any of the journals to guide the would-be queen-marker in the somewhat fearsome job of making our black and leather-colored majesties easier to find by means of paint, I determined this spring (o find out for myself, and brand every queen in my home yard of 186 colo- nies. My knowledge that this was possible was gained from a notice in tlie Review, that clear spirit varnish is used to mix the color with. At best this advice was veiy vague. Some spirit varnishes would kill a fairly strong dog, let alone our delicate queens. Knowing most of the stunts in making spirit varnishes, I decided to use a simple tincture of benzoin, this being mere- ly i^ure gum benzoin dissolved in alcohoL It can be compounded by any chemist, and a quarter's worth will last a thousand-colo- ny man eight or ten years unless he paints the workers. This solution of benzoin has a strong but very pleasant scent; and if odor had much to do with our queens, the scent of the benzoin would have led to all mine being promptly balled, whereas not one met suck a fate. Its peculiarity for our use is that the paint is dry and washable in a few min- utes. In fact, 30 seconds suffices to dry quite a thick application on the queen. Having obtained a clear liquid tincture, use any dry color you fancy, taking care to avoid red lead or even white lead, as either may kill either the queen or the bees which might try to lick this decoration from the queen's back. I took dry-powder lemon chrome, of which any painter will sell, for a few cents, a sufficient quantity to last a lifetime. It costs about 14 cents per pound. Take a very small domestic-essence bottle and a piece of wire (say one strand of barb wire) cut off enough to reach to the bottom of the bottle, and to stick up a quarter of APRIL 1, 1913 -Home apiary of Daniel Danielson, Brush. Colo. Through the center of this apiary runs a track for the hand-car shown, which is used for carrying supplies in and out of the yard. an inch through the cork, through which it must be pierced. Bend the wii'e over to prevent the cork from coming off. Now flatten with a hammer the other end of the wire to make a spatula with which to apply the paint. Fill the bottle about half full of tincture, and drop into it any coloring matter handy. Half a saltspoonful of liquid bluing does very well. If 3-ou have to use a dry piece it acts just as well. This washing-blue alone I find is too dark. Queens marked with it are very little easier to find than if unmark- ed ; so, mix a little whiting, chalk, dry white clay, or any thing that will lighten the blue, and remember that it dries considerably lighter than it appears in the bottle. Mix yellow and washing-blue for green, as pow- der greens all contain either copper or ar- senic, and we wish to run no risks with poisons, either with our families or bees. The coloring matters are not dissolved in the tincture of gxim benzoin, but only mix- ed in it, and the benzoin only acts as a fastening medium after the spirit has evap- orated. Xow for the last time, let us hope, go through the time-honored and time-wasting task of finding madame by adopting the sifting-through-the-excluder method, which is the best idea, except branding, that I have hit upon. Be careful, after the last frame is shaken, not to smoke riotously the bees with a view to hastening the departure of the bees to the lower regions. This was an error I fell into. Too much smoke so demoralizes the bees that they boil over the top of the empty body into which they have been shaken, and her majesty goes with them, and you "dunno where she are," and she has to be let alone while you make an- other trial elsewhere. Just smoke gently the top edge of the body, and keep on going all around it, and in short order the bees will keep turned head downward, and very quickly get through the excluder. Having pounced upon the cause of all the roar and hubbub, grasp her with finger and thumb by the thorax as though you meant to clip her. I always clip mine, if needing it, at the same time as branding, and with the bottle-neck curled tight in the little finger o'f the same hand draw the cork with the other hand and apply a fairly liberal dose of the liquid paint on top of her thorax, and a little on the end half of the wing left undipped. One would think that any bee, black or yellow, carrying a dab of bright yellow paint on her thorax nearly an eighth of an inch square would be seen at once on the most crowded frame; but let madame jam herself between the comb and bottom-bar, and she may hide there all day before you see her; but the colored wing seems to show up directly. Any way, after branding my first twenty on the thorax only, a week's heavy weather followed; and going over them to test the new adventure, and to count the supersed- ings, I found none of the latter, and all too GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Fig. -Dauielson's International auto-wagon, loaded ready for a trip to an outyard. few of the branded queens — that is to say, without more searching than I had thought would be needed. So I " put some more on," and this time on the end of the wing- as explained above, and, presto ! " she could not be hid." It was a bit of fun to watch the frantic efforts of first the queen and then the bees trying to make mother look less " dudish." The queen's antics remind- ed me of a rooster paying court to a hen, dropping one wing and sweeping the ground ^ .>i 51 k. 1 J teiiS m »■/- 2" J ■■-35 iw 1 *!!" ~ w \ ■ / ^" \ 1 I L. J >^ i - ■ • V ii 1^' K»-.'- .-.* , — Fig. 3. — The same truck shown in Fig. 2 transformed into a pleasurc-i-ai- with it. She tried and tried for fully a quarter of an hour between the sweeping business and fanning to try to unburden herself of this unusual encumbrance. How- ever, three weeks after, they had all grown used to " having 'em all on." Now, the greatest surprise I received during the whole business was the attitude of the workers toward the queen running fairly fast over the comb, carrying what I declare none of them ever saw the like of before. The scent, too, was strange to them. According to all we are told, the workers ought to have promptly taught that queen proper man- ners, and to have made her realize that to royal- ty such "hyper scentsi- tiveness " was entirely out of place. Instead of that, all who could kept up with her and at- tempted to lick off the fast-hardening brand. I do not like to sug- gest to the editor that it was the alcohol they were after; but in the first few cases, lick it off they certainly did, and with very evident rel- ish. So I learned either APRIL 1, 1913 aUEE^LL RIGHT ^^^^^ ^^^^5- 4- 5_ QUEENLESS. Want to supercede. 8 Young LAYING Queen, REARED THIS 9 SEASON. Plenty OF HONEY and SOME TO SPARE. , , 10 11 NO STORES) NEED HONEY. Something wrong WANT TO SWARM. to hold the queen until, bj' the dullness of the paint, I knew it had dried, or else 1 let her wander around for half a minute on a bai'e comb. This half-minute seems a much longer time when you have three or four days' branding to do in front of you ; but unless the alcohol has quite evaporated you will find your queen, when next you go to her hive, with only the remnants of a brand — far too little to be of iDraetical use to the large apiarist. A word of caution to the nervous : Brand the Cjueens when holding the abdomen — not the head — toward your right hand. I brand- ed one head toward me, and daubed the end of one of the antennae. I found queen- cells four days after, and no queen. I had noticed this bungling on my part, and had marked tie hive for future investigation. 223 Another caution is when marking the wing. Be careful not to daub the abdomen. If the squai'e end of the flattened wire is just touched on the wing ever so lightly in the center of its length, the wire marker can be lowered till the wing moves toward the marker. When draw- ing it away it brands the wing. Try a few drones first. Do not be content with the thorax mark alone. If you can see a queen with that mark only, j-ou could, in the case of yellow queens, find her with no mark at all. My queens were marked at the spring- overhaul, when n o drones had yet hatch- ed. All are very dark, being granddaughters of a queen imported thirteen thousand miles from Italy, and a few queens are black. Old queens were mark- ed with the lemoi\ chromo. This season's queens are being marked witli the washing-blue made lighter bj- addition of whiting used for fire- places. Young queens just laying are an ex- ception to the calm behavior noted on the part of the older queens. The clipping and branding so excite the little '' newly weds " that in two cases, while some bees were going for the " wliisky '' on the thorax, oth- ers were balling the Cjueen, and I had to use a deal of smoke; and while all were roaring, I shook the queen with a frame of bees at the entrance, and let them all run in togeth- er. But the five or six that acted in this way were laying serenely the next morning. All together I found and branded queens from the whole apiary of 186 colonies in four daj's, doing a few other items of man- ipulation as needed, such as filling supers lacking a few combs, and arranging brood in supers when necessary. I judge that one man ought, by the sifting method, to find and brand five queens per hour. But if l/£RY LIGHT IN BEE5. 12 "i FA LED HONE^. READY rOTAKE OFF GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE you do not happen on her majesty when glancing ovei' the combs as you lift them out to shake, don't waste time looking any more for her; but shake away. Make very sure, too, that your excluder is nailed se- curely to the bottom edge of the hive-body you use. Don't trust a framed excluder loose. You will bump the body over the edge, and your queen will be gone like a flash. Out of my lot I lost only the one whose antennae I painted over eleven weeks ago. No branded queen but that one has been superseded, so that the wing-branding can be no detriment. Kihikihi, Waikato, N. Z. [We see great possibilities in "branding" queens. A queen easily found at almost any time ought to be much more valuable than one not marked. Without having tried it ourselves, we should think that red would be the most conspicuous color that could be used, with green, perhaps, a close second. — Ed.] THE EQUIPMENT OF A SMALL HONEY-HOUSE BY JOSEPH GRAY THE INTERNATIONAL AUTO WAGON FOR OUT-APIARIES BY DANIEL DANIELSON A request was made in Gleanings some time ago for ideas from beekeepers who make a practice of running for extracted honey with outyards, and who carry the honey home in the combs before doing the extracting. That is just what I am doing. I got an International auto wagon, as the pictures show. I have four outyards lo- cated from three to twelve miles from home. I carry all my extra hives and supplies on the auto to the outyards, and the honey home in the combs, and the empty combs back. Fig. 1 shows my home yard with a hand- car on the track, myself sitting on it. Fig. 2 shows the truck loaded with hives ready to start for the outyards. Fig. 3 shows the same velucle ready for a pleasure-ride. I have done away with all hive numbers and all book-keeping and records, as they are time wasted. I use bricks, as the draw- ing shows, and I find tliat they answer the purpose veiy well. Something is needed to hold the covers on any way, and two bricks will do it in the strongest wind. When I come to the yard, there the record of all the hives is right before me. The bricks show the condition the colony was in when looked at last. I can not see nor find any thing more handy. I have used this method for ten or twelve years. Brush, Colo. In the ideal small honey-house there should be a platform in the southwest cor- ner of the building 18 inches or any other height desired. Mount the extractor on it with the gate over the tank below, and just east of it, locate the uncapping-can. The tank is placed below the platform, and a pit is dug in order to facilitate the drawing of honey from the tank. The tank has a division at the east end, with a one- inch honeyway beneath it. By this gravity process all the scum is left at the west end of the tank, and the clean clear honey is drawn off at the northeast side of the tank. Quarter-inch screen wire over the tank, in at least two sections, gives ready access to the tank, and renders it mouse-proof. Cheese-cloth on this screen forms the honey- strainer and renders the tank bee-pi'oof. The honey is brought in through either door, and one may choose between lifting the supers or bending the back and lifting the combs. No honey is handled heavier than a comb until it is placed in the GO-lb. cans. If a 3-ft. tank is not sufficient ca- A double-walled honey-extractor. The space between the two cans is for water, and it takes the place of the water-tank of a gasoline-engine. The water gets hot enough to warm the honey so that it strains easily. APRIL 1, 1913 pacity, a 6-ft. tank extending under the platform can be installed. An excellent storage place is found beneath the east end of the platform for honey-eases, etc. The screen windows are on the east and west. The screens should come 3 or 4 inches above the opening, and % to % from the side wall. In the morning the bees, both inside and out, are attracted to the east win- dow ; and the scent coming direct from the screen does not attract the bees to the exit 4 inches higher up. In the afternoon the bees are attracted to the west window, and so your extractor, etc., are always free from bees ; whereas if the screen is placed direct- ly over the extractor more or less bees will be constanth' falling in. I particularly wish to call attention to the door. Xever make a screen-door. Let it be solid, so that as few bees as possible will be attracted to its locality. The same idea is followed in the door as in the screen. The door west, being in the shade during the morning, will attract fewer bees. The door east, being in the shade during the afternoon, will attract fewer bees. Bakersfield, Cal. THE INTERNATIONAL AUTO WAGON AND PORTABLE EXTRACTING OUTFIT BY J. E. FARE If the owner is the driver, and a careful driver, and if he uses one of the Interna- tional Harvester auto wagons with a high wheel and solid tires, I find there is a sav- ing over the feed of a horse. The horse will cost about 75 cts. per day for feed if you feed him properly. Furthermore, your time is lost, principally on the roads. To do the same work, gasoline costs less than the horse-feed, and nearh^ all the time on the road is saved. My west yard is equipped with two build- ings. One is a store-house for combs, and the other an extracting-room. I eciuipped this building with as good an equipment as money can buy. I use an eight-frame auto- matic extractor driven by a two-and-one- half-horse-power Sandow engine. A rotary pump conveys the honey through pipes to 1000-lb. storage tanks, six of wliich I have in the one yard. I thought of hauling combs here to ex- tract, and I tried the plan to my sorrow. Just think of making a trip to an out-api- ai-j', taking off perhaps 1200 lbs. of honey, drawing the combs to the central yard after you are exhausted lifting them on the wag- on or truck ! You do the same heavy lift- ing at the other yard, and then return the empty combs after you have washed out your wagon or car, which must be done to prevent robbing. Furthermore, I use thick- top unspaeed frames, and I was disgusted at the appearance of those beautiful combs, all bruised and jammed out of shape. If one used shallow self-spaced frames, per- haps they would stand the hauling, but I can not afford to lose the time. We have a portable and collapsible hon- ey-house, 6 X 6 X 14, which can be moved on a low wagon just as it is. It may be folded down on the bottom. The ends are made of square frames of 2 x 4 stuff, sealed with pine flooring. The lower half of the sides is covered with paroid roofing, and the up- l^er half with wire screen ; and I use white oilcloth for curtains, also for the top half. This space is enough to allow the equip- ment which I have before spoken of, only I use two 1000-lbs. tanks and remove the honey into the cans each morning. This al- lows the honey to settle over night. As fast as I fill these crates of pails they are loaded on to the truck and left right there until the day's work is done; then for our evening job they are hauled to a barn for storage. Low Banks, Out., Dee. 3. A COMPLETE EXTRACTING-OUTFIT The Use of Capping-melters, Strainers, Pump, etc., at Out-apiaries BY E. L. SECHRIST F. R. Beuhne, on p. 489, Aug. 15, 1911, has, I think, stated the case fairly for and against the capping-melter. During this season I have used three capping-melters, one being the Severin, described in Glean- ings^ page 722, Dec. 1, 1911. The others were the combined melter and Mclntyre un- capping-box described on pages 406 and 410, July 1, 1912. Comparing the two, the Severin is small and easily moved. The other is bulky, and adapted only to a per- manent location. The Severin requires a two-burner stove, as all the honey contained in the cappings must also be heated while melting the cappings. The combined melter, on account of di'aining off much of the hon- ey before melting, requires only a one- burner stove, and much less honey is dark- ened by heating. Again, it is much easier to uncap into a large box than into a small melter like the Severin. The combined melter also takes care of all the drip from. uncapped combs waiting to be extracted, so that there is no dripping of honey any- 226 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE c<= 2 In. Pipe fo Tank^ /zln. Pipe from Pump - J--X , Coarse Strainer tn ||||t||t|ii|a|Mt|teitg|)|||i||^ 1 ii..s:J M Ptttit Water Jacketed K Heating Tank with Oil i ■ I Screened Window V/, Covered dtorage Tank Can filler. 6olb Can <2«^;Ai^;:>7/;:';/>. y/^^y/////^//;^//// where but in the one box (all the sticky mess in the one box), and no handling of any tiling but the honey as it drains off, and the cakes of clean wax as they come from the wax-separator. I have been much pleased with the Sever- in wax-separator. The honey is separated from the wax at once, and the wax is pro- duced in clean uniform cakes free from slumgum or honey, and ready for the mar- ket. It means something not to have to re- melt and mold from three to five hundred pounds of wax yearly. The engravings show the arrangement of my extracting-house. From the power ex- tractor the honey is pumped to an elevated water- jacketed lieater-tank. I was unable to operate the pump satisfactorily on our thick cold honey until it was connected with tlie extractor-shaft by chain and sprockets, and then it had to work. As the honey comes from the jDump it jjasses through a coarse-mesh screen in the top of the heater- tank, wliich catches any large bits of comb, etc. Being heated in this tank to about 100 degrees it will readily pass through a fine cheese-cloth strainer. I prefer the Pettit improved square strainer, which has eight square feet of straining surface, nearly all of it vertical. It is illustrated in the 'Re- view for Jan., 1910. It is far ahead of the round Pettit strainer or any other I have tried. I use it with an additional, very XENTHfi^NCEi Empty Supers Extracting £nd. Storage for filled and Empty Supers. Uncapping End of box 'Drain from \r-t. Uncapping Storage f2]Boiler for Steam Knift ' Floor PlaN of Honey House. 'MMWmmi^//MMm//w/w/w/w/w//w^^//^y/yy////yir (Screened Windoiv l-2» r Canning Section. APRIL 1, 1913 loosely fitting basket of window screen in- side the cheese-cloth. This catches all the scum, bits of wax, etc., wliich otherwise would soon clog up the cheese-cloth. I have used one strainer continuously, not chang- ing the cloth during a day's run of about 2000 lbs. The strained honey runs into a covered storage-tank, and, as time permits, is drawn off into the can-filler tlu-ough a two-inch gate. This large gate permits a rapid flow into the filler which is merely a square can marked at height to hold sixty pounds, and with a bottom sloping toward the outlet. This outlet drops a quarter of an inch into the mouth of the five-gallon can, and is screened with a yg-inch-mesh netting to prevent flying bees from dropping into the can when it is being filled. Simply let the honey flow (through a wide open gate) into the filler up to the mark; pull the plug which closes the hole in the bottom of the filler, and go about your business of nailing up cases, or whatever it may be, and, when you are ready, drop in the plug, replace the full can Avith an empty one, and run the filler full again. With this plan there is no lifting of the extracted honey until it is in the can ready to put into the case. This arrangement for extracting has been a labor-saver for me, as I have, working alone, taken off the hives and extracted in one day 2500 lbs. of tliick sealed honey, running nearly all of it into sixty-pound cans. I bought a second-hand Sears light deliv- ery truck this season ; and, although it has given me considerable trouble, I believe there is no other business into which an auto fits so well as beekeeping. It is only fair to say that the truck runs much better now than when I bought it. At one yard I hauled filled supers half a mile to be ex- tracted, and returned the empty combs to the yard. This was very satisfactory; and if roads were good I should like to try hauling every thing to a central plant, which could be thoroughly equipped. Our roads are so bad that it seems advisable to have a fairly complete outfit at each yard. OPERATION. Filled sujDers are brought into the house through the solid door (no screen, and piled wherever desired in galvanized iron trays a little larger than the super, and one inch deep, which catch all the drip. The operator stands at X, within easy reach of a pile of full supers at A, extract- or at D, and super for empty combs stand- ing in tray at E. A second uncapper may stand at the opposite side of the box, near G F. is a gallon can containing water for washing sticky hands, etc. It is hung on a nail on the side of the uncapping-box. G is the boiler for the steam uneapping-knife. Cappings fall on the screen at B, and, after draining as long as may be convenient, are l^ushed toward the left, off the screen, on to the heated surface of the melter at C, from which the melted mass flows into the wax-separator I. A pail at K receives the honey flowing from the wax-sei^arator. If extracting light honey this should be kept separate; otherwise it is poured directly in- to the strainer. The honey draining from cappings, un- beated, passes through a trough into the pail at H, and is two-thirds or more of all the honey contained in the cajapings, de- pending on the time it is allowed to drain before melting. From extractor D, pump L raises the honey through a two-inch pipe for the hori- zontal run, to lessen friction, into the heat- er-tank M. A pail at T may be used to handle the honey if the pump is not work- ing. A coarse-mesh screen catches bits of comb, etc., that go through the extractor. This heater-tank has a double water-bottom with a series of channels through which the honey runs, and is heated on its way to the gate. N is a square Pettit strainer through which the honey runs into the covered tank P, then into the filler tank R, and into the sixty-pound cans. With this plan, all combs are kept in the end of the house nearest the entrance, while all canning of honey and storing of empty and filled cases is in the opposite end near the exit, from which the filled cases are loaded on the wagon. The bees brought into the house fly to the long screen windows and escape through bee-escapes, or into trap boxes until the work is finished. Fair Oaks, Cal. OUT APIARIES AND EQUIPMENT Packing-house for Extracted and Bulk-comb-honey Production BY J. J. WILDER The size of out-apiaries makes all the difference in the equipment. It matters not whether they are operated for comb, bulk comb, or extracted honey. If the honey flora is abundant, large api- aries can be established; and it would be more convenient and economical to have adequate equipment at each ajDiary. But if the honey flora is limited, and only small apiaries can be kept, it is better to have one good equipment at the home yard. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE £xTRACT/No Room i//ew qf£qt//pnient /n Honey //ouse PACKING /xOOM If, however, a great number of small a^ji- aries are in operation, there should be suit- able equipment at the most central apia- ries, and the surrounding ones worked from those centers. If the apiaries are very small, consisting of only 30 or 40 colonies, it is not economy to have even a small building at each yard. If, on the other hand, the apiaries con- sist of 50 to 60 colonies or more, it is more economical to use a small cheaply construct- ed building at each yard in which to keep supplies which are ready for use, and wliich can be hauled from the main yard, and housed during the more idle time, and be there in readiness for the rush. All sup- plies not in actual use can be put in build- ings of this kind, and protected from the weather. I am speaking from experience and for the South. As to what the equipment should consist of, it depends partly on the kind of honey produced. But let me first say that at the home apiary and the central outer apiaries there should be at least a cheaply construct- ed workshop large enough to work in and to hold the stock of supplies, both in the flat and after they are in readiness for the surrounding apiaries. Tliis building should be separate from the honey-house, but near it. CONSTRUCTION OF HONEY-HOUSES. Now about the construction of honey- houses economically and for service. A honey-house should consist of not less than two rooms or two separate apartments. Two rooms may be built large enough to suit the room requirements of almost any bee business. The floor of the rooms should be within a few inches of the surface of the earth. and the floor in the packing-room, at least, should be made of cement, and the sills of the building should rest on a solid brick or cement foundation unless good lasting wood material can be obtained. The material used for siding should be matched or well strip- ped about the joints ; and it is needless to state that the building must be bee-proof throughout — even the wall or partition be- tween the two rooms. Tliere should be a solid door not less than 3 ft. wide between the two rooms, and one of the same dimensions on the front side of each room, opening from the outside, with sliding screen doors on the inside. Each room should have not less than two large glass windows, one opposite each door on the side, and one in each end of the room. The entire opening should be cov- ered with screen wire. A wide smooth shelf or bench constructed across the side of the room opposite the doors will be necessary. In the packing- room this bench is convenient for packing honey, and in the other room it is used in cleaning sujDers. We call this our super- room. In honey-houses constructed for ex- tracted honey we call this the extracting- room. The floor of this room is elevated about 4 ft. above that of the packing-room, and steps lead up to it fi'om the door in the partition. We plan for a slight elevation in front of the outside door of this room, in order that honey may be unloaded on a level with the floor. We usually build this room up on pillars of the proper height, and leave it open underneath or remove some of the earth from beneath, and make a storage-room of it. The honey-tanks are inside the packing- APRIL 1, 1913 229 room; and on the other side of the wall up in the extracting room is mounted the hon- ey-extractor, and from it the honey runs through pipes in the wall into the tanks below, from which it is bottled, canned, or barreled. The uncapping-tank also rests against this wall, and the honey passes from it to the tanks in the same manner. A similar house is constructed and equip- ped for bulk-comb-honey production. The honey-tanks stand up on two strong pieces of timber with sufficient upright pieces of the same material to support the tanks, which are well braced, leaving it all open under and around the tanks. If we are fixing up the packing-room for packing bulk honey we erect a platforai near the end of the frame, on which the tanks rest, next to the steps. The supers of honey are brought from the extracting- room, where the honey has been graded. SLIDING SHELF AND TROUGH. Next in importance is the trough, which is zinc-lined, or made water-proof, with a honey-gate at the rear end. The bottom is so put in as to be about two inches on the decline to it. This trough is movable, and rests on timbers so it can be moved up or down a few inches to suit the lieight of the vessels to be fiUed. It rests about tliree or four inches back under the honey-gates of the tanks. The cans to be filled can be passed just under them on sliding shelf No. 3. About two inches from the top of this trough, on either side, is nailed a sti'ip ly^ X 3 in., and sliding shelves No. 1, 2, 3, and 4 rest on this strip. These shelves are foi'med on rims made of one-inch lumber about 3 in. wide, which just fit down be- tween the strips on the trough, leaving in'^ SLIDING SHELF M AND T R O U G H w about 1/4 in. of play; and on either side of these rims, even with the top, is nailed a strip 13-16x11/2 (??e diagi-am). This forms the slide, and on top of this is nailed the shelf, which makes it just a little above the top edge of the trough, and they can be lifted out or moved along in it as may be most convenient. The honey that may ac- cumulate on these shelves can be scraped off or it will run off into the trough. Now, regarding the use of these shelves on wliich all our bulk comb honey and most of our extracted honey is packed, shelf No. 1 is covered or made of slats on wliich the supers of chunk honey are placed, one at a time, at the right of the packer, who stands in front of shelf No. 2. Tliis shelf has a heavy zinc covering over it, on which frames of honey one at a time are placed from No. 1, and the honey is removed by passing a sharp knife around close to the frame. The frame is then removed and placed on the frame-rack over the tanks, to di'ain for a while. The honey is then cut in strips the size that will best fill the utensils through their moutlis endwise. Thus wider strips may be placed in a larger-mouthed vessel, and smaller for small ones. The strips of honey are lifted from the shelf by passing the blade of the knife under them one at a time, and placing them in the vessel until neatly filled. The can which is being filled is held with the left hand, and then is set on shelf No. 3. This is the duty or task of packer No. 1. Shelf No. 3 is covered with fine screen twice double, which passes all the way around the frame. It is drawn very tightly and is nailed securely. Then the strips on either side, upon which it slides, are nailed on. Packer No. 2 passes the vessels thus fill- ed, one at a time, on this shelf under the honey-gate, where they are filled with ex- tracted honey, after wliich they are set on shelf No. 4, which is covered solid with a board. Here the honey is sealed and label- ed. Any honey that may be on the outside of the cans is cleaned off, and they are put «n crates ready to be nailed up. This is the duty of packer No. 2, and these two pack- ers put up nearly 2000 lbs. per day. Shelf No. 2 has a slightly oval surface, so the honey oozing from the cut comb will run off; and when it does not, it is quickly removed by passing the blade of the knife over it. Shelf No. 3 has a smooth surface. All the honey that may drip from the cans, which is usually a considerable amount from both the honey-gate and the work of pack- er No. 1, will pass doAvn through it into the trough. All the best extracted honey is run into tank No. 1, and is packed with the fancy comb honey in glass vessels. The darker grades of extracted honey are run into tank No. 2, and are packed with the off gi-ades of comb honey in tin vessels. Also the hon- ey from the uncapping-tank nins into this tank. When we are filling cans at tank No. 2 we an-ange the sliding shelves about it in 230 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE the same manner as we do at shelf No. 1. I use the common galvanized 3-inch wa- ter-conductor pipes to run honey into the tanks. The conductor running from one to the other is about two inches above the tanks, and the one running from the ex- tractor runs into it. This conductor is sep- arated by the one from the extractor where it passes through the wall ; and if we want to run the light honey from the extractor into tank No. 1 we raise* the end of the conductor over tank No. 2, and it turns the honey into it. This is done by the man at the extractor by means of two cords, one attached at each end of the conductor. These cords pass up tkrough the wall at the most convenient place for the man at the extractor, who can change the cun-ent of honey by loosening the cord for one end and tightening the one for the other. Cordele, Ga. GETTING BEES OUT OF SUPERS WITHOUT A BEE-ESCAPE BY C. A. BUNCH Last season I used a simple device in tak- ing off one and a half tons of honey for clearing supers of bees quickly, which does not demoralize the bees in the hives, but leaves them in fine condition to defend themselves. The drawing makes the plan clear. I used a (en-frame full-depth super, and on the under side, %-inch apart, I nailed two square sticks in the center. Then I cut two thick pieces of wrapping paper, 8 inches long, which I tacked to the upper side of the suiter; then I brought the lower edge down and tacked it to the parallel square sticks, thus making a V-shaped arrange- ment with a narrow slot at the bottom. I set this prepared super on an eight- frame super, and cleated both ends, which made it ready for use. When I am ready to take off honey I set the whole tiling near the hive, remove a super and set it on the cleaner (placing a robber-cloth over the hive if necessai-y. As I use loose hanging frames without spacing devices 1 loosen all of them with a screwdriver and slide them over to- ward the opposite side of the hive. Then with a head of broom corn I begin brushing the bees down without taking any frames out of the hive, pulling them over toward me as I get them clean of bees. When the bees strike the incline below they slide down and out of the slot into the eight-frame super before they can take wing, and most of them will be clustered below. There are cleats across the end of the super to fur- nish a grip for the hands, and I empty the bees out by lifting the super and giving it a sudden jar on the gi'ound in front of the hive after all of the supers have been clear- ed of bees. Of course I use some smoke at the time when I begin brusliing. As soon as the nearest side of the first comb is free from bees I pull it over toward me, then brush the bees from the opposite side; then go to the next one, etc. Lakeville, Ind. HONEY-TANKS BELOW THE EXTRACTOR Moving the Extractor from One to the Other BY J. D. EVANS My bee-house is 16 x 25 feet, and 7 feet high at the eaves. There is a stone wall under all. There are two floor levels, and at the south end 4 feet 6 inches lower than at the north end. A stone wall separates a hold-up of earth at the north end. Across the lower half is a plank bench on which six tanks holding 500 pounds each can be placed. Tliis platform is two feet high, and leaves room for scales and a 60-lb. can into which the honey is run from the tanks. The extractors stand on the high level; and the honey, as fast as it is extracted, runs into the tanks, which are covered with cheese-cloth. This is all the straining re- quired, as the honey is left in the tanks until they are required for the next extract- ing. I tliink a strainer in an extractor must be an abomination. When one tank is filled the extractor is moved to another place, and so on until all are filled. My house has five windows — two in the west, two in the east, and one in the south gable. Two doors opposite each other are used. The yard is on the west of the bee- house, and the floor is level with the gi-ound on that side. On the east side the land is about three feet lower than the doors, which makes it handy in loading the honey or tak- ing in supplies. APRIL 1, 1913 I have a chimney on the north end, and a stove for melting wax or making feed. I have a floor 7 feet above the north floor, and one Qi/^ feet above the south floor. These floors do not quite meet in the mid- dle; and as one is 2^/2 feet higher than the w Uncapping box X i ExtractorJS) _ / . o 'of'TANKS O O O + '1^ IN Elevation, floor lev£lsW other, with an ordinary step-ladder costing 75 cents there is no trouble in getting up- staii-s; and I can stand on the floor of the extracting part and hand up any thing I wish to the south upper floor; and when up I can pass it over to the north floor. This house is bee-proof and mouse-proof, and the combs are stored in winter in the lower level, nine stories high. The upper floor south is cut back over the step so as to leave head room. The diagi-ams will illustrate this. Islington, Ont., Feb. 1. THE AUTO TRUCK FOR MIGRATORY BEE- KEEPING BY W. W. VICKERY There have been some inducements for migratoiy beekeeping in our river-bottom cornfields, where, by selection at favorable fall seasons, we command pasturage almost solid with vines and other honey-plants on 3000 to 4000 acres, all cornfields, every acre of wliich is honey-bearing. The auto truck has been a quick and con- venient way of moving bees to and from these fields, and it often saves two hours on a six-mile and return trip. Hives should be bound with twine and securely screened, and, if moved at night, promptly after loading, are not apt to smother if properly ventilated. I would ad- vise extra care in tying the load on firmly in addition to the wrapping of hives. The vibration and danger of bumps in the road would make stapling unsafe. There has been a much greater test on our Reo truck in delivering groceries every day V 231 than the occasional trips demanding service in the capacity of hauling bees. Bees hauled in daylight would be safer if covered over with tarpaulin, or cui-tained down all around. A lighted smoker at hand will save time where a leak occurs. WINTERING REPORT. I have just inspected 88 colonies of bees, and find some loss, owing to warm January (39 de- gi'ees average), folloAv- ed by the severely cold weather the first half of February. Fifteen colo- nies were lost ; twenty had to receive combs from heavy ones, of which there are still over 40 in first-class con- dition. Some colonies lost had considerable brood and honey. Does water carried in for feeding cause extra exposure? or when brood is started and the cold weather pre- vents any more trips to the source of water supply, does loss result ? We have water in a ditch ten feet from the hives. Tempera- ture 65 degi-ees, no pollen; bees robbing and hunting honey where bees are dead. Evansville, Ind, [We do not know that we quite under- stand you when you ask, " Does water car- ried in for feeding cause extra exposure? We suppose that what you mean by this is, " Does the water carried in cause more brood-rearing, and does that extra brood- l-earing require the bees to expand their cluster to a larger size ? " Yes, in such a case a cold spell coming on would do dam- age to the cluster and to the brood. We do not think water is absolutely necessary for brood-rearing, because we have had a large amount of brood hatched in our cellars. Last winter some colonies began brood- rearing in December and January; and when we took them out on the 12th of March they were much stronger than when we put them in. The bees were bright and healthy. Certainly the bees in the cellar could get no water except what might have condensed under the hive-lids. At one of our cellars there was some condensation, for water stood in drops from some of the hive lids; but in the other cellar, where the tem- perature was higher, there was no conden- sation, but brood-rearing went on just the same from December to March 1. — Ed.] 232 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Heads of Grain from Different Fields Making Labels Stick on Tin; Beeiiive Scales for Re- cording tlie Honey-flow; Entrance-controllers; Bees vs. Cane Sugar for Bees 1. I have trouble in making the labels stick on the honey-pails. They always come oflf as soon as dry. Is there any preparation made that will make them stay ? 2. Are the ten-frame hives made wider now so that we can use a division-board? With the ten- frame hives I now have it is almost impossible, es- pecially in the fall, to get out the first frame. 3. I notice in my Swiss journal a scale made on purpose for beekeepers, and also entrance control- lers. These platform scales would surely be much handier than the scales we have. The entrance-con- trollers made out of steel screwed on the hives and left on the year round would be much better than wooden blocks. 4. How much do you consider a colony of bees worth in a well-painted ten-frame hive in the early spring, having ^nred worker combs? 5. The past season I had a very unusual case with a young queen. While putting back the last frame I noticed the queen hanging on to a frame apparently dead. I picked her up, held her in my hands for about five minutes, when she commenced to show a little life; then in about five minutes more she commenced to take short breaths. Then I put her on top of a frame. The bees started to feed her, and in about ten minutes more she seemed to be all right. It certainly looked as if she had actually fainted. I am absolutely certain I did not hurt her while manipulating the frames. What do you think could have been the reason of her acting so strange? The bees were somewhat cross, and I had to smoke them considerably. Could it be that the young queen was so frightened by the smoke that she seemed just like dead ? In my twenty years of beekeeping I have never seen any thing like it. 6. Recently I read in a farm paper that sugar syrup made from beet sugar, and fed to the bees, will kill them during the winter. Is there any truth in the above statement? 7. Do you consider the metal-spaced Hoffman frame superior to the regular Hoffman frame? 8. What reasons does Dr. Miller give for not painting his hives? G. A. Barbisch. La Crescent, Minn., Jan. 21. [1. It is very difficult to make labels stick upon tin unless the labels go clear around the tin pack- age itself. You can purchase a dextrine that an- swers a very good purpose, 3 oz. for 5 cts. ; Vz lb., 10 cts. Some have recommended using a little honey in connection with the dextrine. 2. The ten-frame hives are now made wider so as to take in the division-board the same as the old eight-frame hive used to do, and does yet, for that matter. We do not regard it as practicable to have contractible entrance-closers, as we believe that all such devices of that kind are a useless expense. An ordinary block with an opening on one side is very much cheaper than and quite as effective as con- trivances that cost many times more. 3. Most of the spring-scale concerns in this coun- try furnish good scales for platform work and for weighing hives of bees while the bees are gathering honey. You can secure such scales from your deal- er in bee supplies. 4. The price of a colony of bees in a ten-frame hive will vary according to the season. In the early part of the year, in the spring, they are worth a great deal more than they are later on after the honey-flow is over. You can buy common bees, hy- ) rids or common blacks, of the farmers, in box hives, for a very small sum of money. The bees must be transferred and put into modern hives. After that they should be Italianized in order to bring them up to the standard of the bees sold by supply-dealers. Taking it all in all, cheap black bees are not very cheap in the end. Such colonfes as you describe, if of good strength, should be worth about $5.00. If nice Italians, $10.00 to $12.00. 5. Prom your general description here it is evident that the queen had what is called the " cramps." Very often a queen, if she has been handled or injured, or struck by a frame in remov- ing it from the hive, will appear as if she were dead, and it will be some minutes before she recov- ers. The bees will hover around her, feed her some, and in the course of a few minutes she will be as lively as ever. We do not know just what is the difficulty; but we have always called it the cramps. 6. Our experience is that beet sugar is practically as good as cane sugar for feeding bees. We never make any distinction. We buy this sugar just as it is on the market, and we suppose a good percentage of it is beet sugar. No chemist is able to detect any difference, and we doubt if there is any. 7. Yes, we consider the metal-spaced Hoffman frames as very much superior to the ordinary wood- en Hoffman frames. They are easier to handle, and are stronger. 8. Dr. Miller's main reason for not painting his hives is on the ground of economy. He said the hives will last as long as he can ever use them with- out the paint, and he doesn't see any reason why he should go to the extra expense of painting; but most beekeepers do not agree with him in this. — Ed.I A One-inch Hole Punched in the Upper Part of the Foundation to Give a Passageway to all the Combs When I put brood foundation in wired frames I punch a hole one inch in diameter under the top wire. This gives the bees access to all the combs. Otherwise they would be compelled to go over the top-bar, under the frames, or around the sides of the frames, for their stores. It also gives the queen the same opportunity in brood-rearing. I have lost many colonies in years past when there was an abundance of honey in their hives, and J. find the above plan is all right. Conesus, N. Y., Jan. 8. D. W. Trescott. [Holes left this way in the combs would be filled up with drone-cells and honey after a good honey- flow. Years ago it was the practice on the part of a few beekeepers to insert a tin tube about % inch in diameter in the center and near the top of the combs. The tube would not be as likely to be filled with comb as a similar hole without the tube. It was thought at one time to be a good practice to cut holes in brood combs at the approach of win- ter ; but it has been abandoned by almost all bee- keepers, so far as we know, and in its stead has come the Hill device, or a space over the top of the brood combs, enabling the bees to pass back and forth over the top instead of through the combs. For the Langstroth frame, space on top is preferable to unsightly holes that do little or no good to the combs. — Ed.] Can the t)oolittle System of Producing Comb Hon- ey be Used in a Locality where there is no Late Flow? I received a copy of " A Year's Work in an Out- apiary," by Doolittle. The plan looks good to me, as I am a farmer beekeeper with about 20 colonies and the minimum time to give them; but I do not have the extra frames of combs he uses at fruit APRIL 1, 1913 bloom. Could I use full sheets of foundation? and what would be my chances for success by using it? Sometimes fruit bloom does not yield much nectar with us. Would it help matters to feed thin syrup, as per the Alexander plan ? or do you consider the "millions of honey at our house" sufficient? Any other suggestions you will give would be thankfully received. Auburn, Ind. W. J. Carnahan. [The Doolittle system of producing comb honey is more practicable in a locality where there is a late honey-flow. If you do not have such a flow you could not very well use it to advantage. It would not be practical to feed as you suggest, because a good deal of the honey in these combs that are held over from the previous season would go up into the sections ; and, of course, ordinary syrup could not be used in that way without getting the producer in trouble with the State and national pure-food in- spectors. You can, however, carry out the general principle by feeding the colonies up very strong the year previous, so that they have plenty of stores; but the plan of putting an extra set of combs filled with syrup over the top of the colony to make them " rich in stores " will not work, provided it is sugar syrup for the reason already mentioned. — Ed.] Feeding Soft A Sugar on Plates Made of Wire Cloth Why so much discussion about feeding soft A sugar to bees in the cellar? If the colony is small the paper pie-plate can be used without fear that the condensed moisture will do any great harm. I take the covers off my hives when I put them in the cellar, and place a burlap sack over the hive. Now, I believe I can feed the bees by placing the sugar in plates made of window-screen (wire), and plac- ing the dish over the tops of the frames and covering all with one or two sacks according to the strength of the colony. The bees can cluster under the sugar, and take it up without exposing themselves in any way. Interlaken, N. Y., Feb. 17. John T. Geeene. [We believe it to be perfectly feasible to feed soft A sugar on wire-cloth trays or plates ; but we wish to make the suggestion that the black wire cloth be used rather than that painted with green paint, as the latter would be poisonous. Where it is not prac- tical to use the wire cloth the paper pie-plates can be used. The sugar should be placed in the plates, and then there should be a couple of cross-cleats placed over the top of the plates, so that, when the packing material is placed down over, the bees will be able to get at the food. Mr. A. C. Miller expressed the fear in our col- umns recently that a paper pie-plate would become soaked with moisture and be utterly useless. We do not find this to be the case. Notwithstanding that, in some of our colonies, there is considerable damp- ness, the plates hold their shape perfectly. — Ed.] Feeding Soft Sugar in Paper Pie-plates to Bees I went over my bees yesterday, and faund two swarms low in stores. I took a paper pie-plate and cut slits in the bottom and set this on top of the frames. I cut slits in the bottom to allow the bees free access to the same. I then filled this pie-plate with soft A sugar, and pressed another pie-plate down over it, bottom side up of course. Over this I put a newspaper and then the chaflf-bag. I treated two colonies in this way. I believe this sugar pack- ed in this way will stay in shape as well as candy will. Certainly it will after absorbing moisture from the bees. If this moisture soaks up the plate so as to make it soft and pulpy, it will be all the better 233 for the bees. The plate will then have served its purpose, and will be easily gnawed away by the bees. When this sugar is gone I will repeat the operation with new plates. Two plates put together this way will hold one pound of sugar. If you would like to know how this scheme works out I shall take pleasure in giving you an accurate ac- count of it. Stillwater, N. Y., Feb. 9. Rob't W. Scott. [We believe the plan of using paper pie-plates as outlined here by our correspondent to be a good one, although if there is a slit or slits in the bottom of the plate it might be better to use something like ordinary queen-cage candy, made by mixing pow- dered sugar and honey into a stiff dough. We shall be glad to have our correspondent tell us of the success of this method of feeding this coming spring. — Ed.] Feeding Soft Moist Sugar Direct; who First Used it? Referring to Gleanings, Feb. 1, p. 81, Mr. A. C. Miller says he thinks that the credit of feeding sugar to colonies of bees should be given to Samuel Simmins. I may say that I was visiting an uncle at Withersfield, Suffolk, England, in 1852 or '3, and he had bees in straw skeps. I remember seeing him feed them sugar (then called brown or moist sugar). He fed them in a tube made of the common alder wood with the pith removed and the top split out so it was in the shape of an inverted horseshoe, and inserted it in the entrance at the back of the hives. I do not know, but would suppose that feed- ing moist sugar to bees was a common practice in England 60 years back, as at that time I was 10 years old; and if all is well I shall be 70 next April; but I remember this circumstance. St. Louis, Mo., Feb. 10. Chas. W. Collett. [The feeding of brown sugar or moist sugar to bees is a very old idea ; but whether any one, how- ever, has ever fed a coffee A sugar before that rec- ommended by Mr. Simmins we do not know. — Ed.] Wiring, and Alfalfa in Ontario; Timber for Hives 1. Is it practicable to do the wiring when nailing frames together in winter, and put in the foundation as needed? 2. Is alfalfa considered of any value as a honey- yielder in Old Ontario ? It is no good in New On- tario. 3. What is the objection to spruce and poplar lumber for hives ? Slate River, Ont., Can., Jan. 22. J. M. Muneo. [1. It is the usual custom to nail or put together frames during the winter time, wire them, and put in the foundation at the same time. We see no rea- son why you should put in the foundation only as fast as you need it. If you have it in stock it should all be put in at one time. During the busy rush of the season you can not afford to take the time to put foundation on the wires. 2. In most of the territory east of the Mississippi River, alfalfa does not yield honey to any consider- able extent. We are not able to give you any opinion concerning its relative honey value in Old and New Ontario. 3. Spruce is a very good lumber, but rather nar- row, and rather too tough and hard for the purpose of making hives. Poplar is too much inclined to warp and twist. There is no timber in the world that is altogether the equal of ordinary white pine, such as is found in Michigan and Canada. The redwood of California makes a very excellent substi- tute, however ; hut it has the objection that it splits very readily, and is not suitable for making the in- side fixttires ; but it will stand the weather much better than pine. — Ed.] 234 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Poisonous Spray During the Blooming Season In- jurious to Trees as well as to Bees I was invited to make an address at the Stat« horticultural meeting of Missouri, held in 1906 at Moberly ; and while at that meeting I had the en- dorsement of some of the very best horticulturists present, that to spray with poisonous ingredients during blooming time would destroy the prospect for fruit on trees so sprayed. Mr. J. C. Evans, who had been the president of the society for more than 20 years, and a man of very large orchard interest and experience in spraying, stated that he had tried it most thoroughly during the blooming period, and he was entirely satisfied that it would kill the prospects for fruit. One man having extensive orchard interests had sent in a paper to be read at that meeting, and in it stated that he did not know any reason why he should not spraj- during blooming time, as he con- sidered his orchard interests worth more than all the bees around him, but also stated in his paper that he had sprayed during blooming time; but for some reason to him unknown his trees had set but very little fruit. Mexico, Mo., Mar. 22. J. W. RouSE. Fruit-men Borrow Bees to Place in their Orchards During the Blooming Season I am located right in the middle of the peach region : and at first, when the tree-spraying began, I had some trouble, and had to distribute some of your free literature about spraying to show the fruit- men their folly. It may be interesting to yoii to learn that now the fruit-growers so value the bees in connection with the fruit-bloom that they borrow my bees, and carry them to their orchards, and bring them back when the bloom is over. The spraying of peach trees is done just before the blossoms begin to swell to any size — about two or three weeks before opening; but in case they fail to get it done at the right time they prefer to put it off rather than to do it when the trees are in bloom. Port Clinton, Mar. 28. Julius Johannsen. Bees Brought Pear Blight If you see the fool-killer, send him out here. The ranchers sprayed their trees with a strong solution of arsenate of lead for codling moth, and it burned the tender twigs where they used high pressure on the blooms before the petals had dropped off, and the ■wise fruit inspector told them it was " pear blight " packed there by the bees during bloom. His argu- ment was convincing, for there was the dead bloom; also the dead limb. Walla Walla, Wash. C. A. McCartv. How to Color Queens Red As to your question in Gleanings, Jan. 1, 1913, under Stray Straws, regarding the marking of a queen red so that the coloring won't come off within six years, I can" tell how it is done in my native country, Switzerland. I don't know, however, from what the coloring matter is made. It can be bought out there by nearly every queen-breeder or supply dealer. It is a fast-drying varnish. Before using it, stir it well. It should not be too thick nor too thin. Otherwise it will not stay on, and will spread. Put the queen under one of those marking-nets made of mosquito-netting, or from an old veil, to keep her quiet. Put a little of the coloring matter on a small sharp wooden stick, and rub it lightly on the back of the queen's breast where it will dry quickly. Then remove the netting. Highland, 111., Jan. 6. Xaviee Widmer. Heating Honey Before it Granulates There is an article in the Review for January, by Virgil Sires, North Yakima, Wash., on his process of heating honey as it leaves the extractor, and wherein he claims that honey heated then will keep liquid longer than when allowed to candy first. Now, this is vital to our business. I should like to see the matter discussed in Gleanings. Who else so believes and does it ? Who knows it is true ? Who has a process to heat honey just right to keep clear, and 7iot materially impair the flavor? Utica, 111., Jan. 31. A. Mottaz. [Occasionally, when granulated honey is liquefied, certain parts of the honey are not reduced entirely to the liquid form, owing to the distribution of heat having been faulty. This possibly accounts for the belief that honey which has been heated before it granulates remains liquid longer than if it is heated after granulation, for it is a well-known fact that, if the honey is not entirely liquefied — that is, if there is any portion of it still somewhat cloudy, owing to minute crystals, that honey will granulate again in a very short time ; whereas if all traces of crystalli- zation were removed, further granulation would be postponed a much longer time. We do not know that this accounts for the belief expressed bj- Mr. Sires, but offer it merely as a suggestion, m this connection see the statement bv V. V. Dexter, p. 219. — Ed.1 One who Does Not Like Autos I am glad you issued your automobile number on April 1, 1912. It was the biggest April-fool num- ber I ever saw, and I have taken Gleanings for years. I believe you believe in temperance. So do I. I believe you do all you can to fight the liquor traf- fic. So do I. But I want to tell you that the autos and motor-cycles are a worse curse to the rural pop- ulation than the liquor-traffic. Some people tell us the auto has come to stay. I tell them that the Devil has come to stay too, and that the day is coming when the Devil and the autos and a good many people who own them and run them will all be in one place, and they will be there to stay. St. Anns, Ont., Feb. 4. Herbert Freas. [You have a perfect right to your opinion in re- gard to automobiles; but there are hundreds of bee- keepers in this country alone who own them, and who would hardly know how to get along without them now. The day has passed when automobiles, at least those which are moderate in price, and which are used for business as well as pleasure, are considered only as expensive luxuries. In regard to the April-fool number of last year that you refer to, we received one other letter from a beekeeper who did not like that number. Since its appearance, however, we have received so many letters of appreciation from others of our readers that we have kept no record of them. We can not expect to please all of our readers all of the time. We know that for a time last year there was scarcely a day that did not bring one or more letters of ap- preciation for that automobile number, and requests for another one this year. — Ed.] A Side-hill Facing East for Bees I have had no experience, but think my present location suitable. It is on a side-hill facing east — rocky ground, and somewhat wooded. Will you advise me as to the suitableness of the location ? Mt. Hope, N. Y. Wm. Edwards. [The location, apparently, would be a good one. We prefer to have the bees screened from the pre- vailing winds ; and it is also a good idea to have the apiary or the hives located in some low shrubbery, both for the purpose of shade and to protect the bees against heavy blasts of wind. This is very impor- tant in the matter of wintering. — Ed.] APRIL 1, 1913 235 Our Homes A. I. BOOT (A seqvel to the Home papers of Feb. 1.) Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. — Mark 16:15. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. — Matthew 6:33. 0 thou of little faith! wherefore didst thou doubt? — iL\TTHEW 14:31. 1 have been reminded that in my Home paper of February 1 I omitted, or touched on very lightly, one g:i-eat reason why the circulation of Gleanings was increased so rapidly at the start. By request I will briefly go over the points I omitted. Just a few days after I came out publiclj^ for Chi'ist Jesus, our good pastor, the Rev. A. T. Reed, came into my store one day and said something like this : " Mr. Root, there is to be a missionary meeting next Sunday evening, and I want you to take charge and talk to the people." I replied to my good friend (for then I was ready to do almost any thing in the world for him) that I was sorry to say I had very little acquaintance with missionary woi'k; furthermore, that I had veiy little sympathy for or interest in it. He, however, said he would lend me a book about the Sandwich Islands, and I could read the book between then and Sun- day, and then he was sure I could give them a talk on it. I again protested gently, say- ing that the subject of missionary work had always been exceedingly dry and uninter- esting to me; and if there was any thing m l^articular that made me feel sleepj^ it was a talk about the Sandwich Islands. He laughed, and (I think) replied that perhaps I would see thing's now in a light different from what I had formerly. I have forgot- ten now the title of the book, but it was a history of the work of the Rev. Mr. Gulick, one of the early missionaries to the Sand- wich Islands. As I was a very busy man at that period of my life, not only through the day time but often well along into the night I was wondering how I should get time to read that book before Sunday night came. However, I carried the book home and laughingly told Mrs. Root that I had promised to read it during the week. I looked over in the back part to see how many pages there were, divided up, and said something like this : '' Sue. I shall have to read so many pages Monday night, so many Tuesday night, and so on until I get up to Saturday night." Accordingly on Monday night I arranged my work so as to get home a little earlier, and went for the book to read the allotted portion laid out. When it came bedtime Mrs. Root suggested that it was time to go to bed; but I replied that I rather liked the book, after all, and did not want to go just yet. Pretty soon, said she, " Why, you have gone away past the part you had marked out to read Mon- day night. Hadn't you better come to bed?" I think it was well on toward midnight before I was contented to let the book drop ; and I had not only read it through long be- fore Sunday night came, but read parts of it again and again. It was not only a rev- elation to me, but a wonderful revelation, as to what missionaries had done in the way of opening up business in foreign lands and the islands of the sea, aside from the work of converting savages and cannibals and teaching the gospel. As it was pretty well known in our com- munity at the time that I had been hereto- fore more or less in sympathy with skepti- cism and infidelity, quite a turnout to my talk that evening was the consequence. I not only occupied an hour talking about the Sandwich Islands and missionary work all over the world, but I hadn't got half through with my stoi'y when the hour was up. The result was, the prophecy of my good mother came at least partly true at this time of my life. I not only hunted up every thing I could get hold of in regard to the foreign mission work throughout the world, but I talked with friends who had relatives in foreign lands, and finally got so full of the idea of " spreading the gos- pel" that I announced in the next^issue of our then verj- young (and small) bee jour- nal that, if the friends who had relatives or acquaintances in missionai'y work in foreign lands would send me their names and addresses I would send them our little monthly. Gleanings in Bee Culture, free of charge for as long as they cared to read it. Now, here came one of my first "happy surprises." I was so little posted in regard to foreign missions that I did not suppose there were more than a dozen or two all over the face of the earth, including the islands of the sea; but when applications came from far and near, and letters of sympathy with the work I had undertaken, I was greatly surprised. One of our faith- ful clerks remarked to me about this time (the one who opened the mail), " Mr. Root, I fear j^ou have been a little reckless. There are not only many more missionaries in the world than you supposed, but the postage on most of the journals will be twenty-four cents a year, and on some of them forty- eight cents a year. Hadn't you better re- call vour offer in the next issue?" GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE My reply was something like this: " My good friend, don't worry about the number of Gleanings that are going at our expense to foreign missions. The great Father above will furnish the stamps, I am sure." In a little time we had kind letters from almost every part of the world, and these good friends told me about the bees and bee culture in their locality. I distinctly remember one missionary who said some- thing like this : " Mr. Root, your little bee journal has been a Godsend to me and the natives here. I had been for some time past praying and studying over the matter of how I should find something to enlist their interest and attention so I could get better in touch with them. By the direc- tions contained in your little journal I suc- ceeded in making a movable- frame hive; had captured some bees, and finally an- nounced to the natives that I would take a hive all to pieces and show them the work of the bees, and point out the queen, etc. " Now, this little object lesson proved to be more entertaining and instnictive than any thing else I had ever been able to get hold of, brought from civilization. May God speed you in your good work." From that time to this we have had more or less pleasant relations with missionaries and the missionary work in foreign lands. The great Father above has furnished the "postage stamps;" and not only that, he has opened up trade and commerce in hives and hive fixtures all over the world in a way that could not have been done other- wise. In fact, orders came right along from foreign countries in languages that we know so little about that we have an interpreter in New York, besides a prettj^ fair inter- IDreter here in our own office, to read and translate orders from foreign lands in dif- ferent languages spoken thi-oughout the world. Another of the texts that I have given above has been abundantly verified : " Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his right- eousness, and all these things shall be add- ed unto you." Now let me pause a minute to ask you what the consequences would have been had I, as so many of us often do, refusv^d to accede to the request of my good pastor. Somebody asks you to teach a class in Sun- day-school or to take charge of a Bible class, or to lead a prayer meeting or some- thing of that soii;. You (or we) forgetting the abundant Bible promises, make the ex- cuse that we are not posted, or we are not adapted for that class of work, or perhaps that we are not " built that way," so neg- lect the opportunity. How much should I have lost if I had assured dear brother Reed that I was totally incompetent (which was true) to lead a missionary meeting, instead of taking the book, as he requested, and looking into it with eyes that were no long- er blind to the words that God has sent us. The injunction to go into all the world and preach the gospel seems to me to belong not only to ministers but to everj- creature who has found " the Lamb of God who taketb away the sin of the world." The responsi- bility rests upon our shoulders to redeem the world, not only from cannibalism and other sins, but to redeem our own nation from the dangers that are coming to beset more and more its people. Not only is our journal now going regu- larly to every sjDot on the earth where mis- sionai-y work is going on, but it is taken regiilarly by gi-eat numbers of people who do not speak our language at all, and many of them can not read it at all.* They look at the pictures and hunt up somebody who is conversant with our language, and capa- ble of giving them some kind of interpreta- tion, and in this way keep in touch with your humble servant and what he has to say in these Home papers. May God bless this little story, and help many another brother and sister to heed that closing little text, "0 ye of little faith! wherefore didst thou doubt? " * One of the pleasantest acquaintances of my life was a young man in Cuba who linew as little of English as I knew of Spanish; yet we had the A B C book and also took Gleanings. We went ofif on a trip, and were alone together the greater part of the day except the ABC, which he carried along. How we did laugh and "chatter" I The Holy Spirit, which filled both our hearts (for he was a young convert), bridged over the lack of a language common to both of us. THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE TRIUMPHANT OVER THE PRESIDENT'S VETO. We clip the following from the front page of that godly paper. The Union Sig- nal: GREATEST NATIONAL PROHIBITION VICTORY EVER WON. The veto of President Taft of the Kenyon-Webb bill has been overridden by both houses of Congress. On February 28, the Senate, by a vote of 63 to 21, repassed the measure, and, on March 1, the House of Representatives, by a vote of 244 to 95, took sim- ilar action. When the news came of the victory I said, " May God be praised for having heard and answered our prayers;" but the following from that same front page of The Union Signal expresses my feelings so much better I give it also: I thank God I have lived to see the day when the representative^ of the American people will answer APKTT. 1, 1913 237 on the roll -call with their votes, the entreaties and Saiploring prayers of millions of country-serving, jCrod-fearing, home-loving men and -women. This day, (O men, we who hold high station can dedicate one vote to liberty, country, God, and home, and re- ir".edicate the Constitution to the people, and with- raw it for ever as a bulwark for that conglomera- tion of cormorants whod ebauch manhood, slaughter W'omanhood, butcher childhood, and crucify baby- hood on *he cross of alcohol. — Representative Rod- denberry, of Georgia. God grant this may be only the beginning of " overriding " the voice of one man who happens to fill a great office; and may it prove a lesson and a check on these same " gi'eat men " who presume to ignore the demands of righteousness. High-pressure Gardening Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall be also reap. — Gal. 6:7. Dear friends, I believe that Mrs. Root has never given any thing, at least direct, to the columns of Gleanings; but I am going to give something that I got very straight from her just a short time ago. You may be a little surprised to know that her first talk is going to be on " high-pres- sure gardening." It came about in this way : A few days ago she went over to visit our near neighbors, Mr. Keller's people. Mr. Keller had just harvested a very fine crop of celerj', and in going up to their home she passed very near the celery-field that had lately been cleared off. She no- ticed on the way quite a number of large fine stalks of a dark-green kind of celei-y that seemed to have been skipped and left standing in the field. When she got into the house, one of the first tilings was to in- quire why these great beautiful roots of celery were left when the rest was all taken away. Mrs. Keller informed her that they KQie a sort of sport that didn't bleach oui like the rest ; and, as a rule, thej' Avere not worth taking care of, and so were allowed to stand in the field and go to waste. She said, furthermore, there had been consider- able trouble in getting seed that would pro- duce new French Golden Self-blanching celerj- without any sport or admixture of this dark green and comparatively worth- less sort. In fact, one man, I think he was a newcomer, or, at least, new to the celery business, procured some seed that he sup- posed was all right, and planted several acres; but when it came haiwest time so much of it was of this green variety that the crop was practically worthless — not worth harvesting, in fact. The poor fellow put up with his disapiDointment the best he could, cleared off his celerj-, and planted tomatoes. This, of course, was a year ago. When his tomatoes came to bear they were little bits of thing's, not larger than wal- nuts, and, in fact, he secured nothing, or ■practically nothing, worth harvesting in his whole field of tomatoes of several acres As he had procured his celery seed and to- mato seed of one and the same firm he ap- plied to them for redress from his expen- sive loss. They, however, disclaimed all responsibility, and referred him to the clause in their catalog as follows : While we exercise great care to have all seeds, bulbs, and plants pure and reliable, we do not give any warranty, express or implied. If the purchaser does not accept the goods on these terms and condi- tions, they must be returned at once, and the money that has been paid for the same will be returned. We can not afford knowingly to sell seeds doubtful as to vitality or purity. We test our seeds before sending out, and should they prove defective in germination or purity when properly planted and cultivated we will refill the order free or refund the price paid. When she told me about it, I said, " Oh ! that man wasn't posted." He ought not to have undertaken it — at least, he ought not to have undertaken to grow celery by the acre without having more practical experi- ence. He should have purchased his celei^ seed the year before he wanted to use it, and then planted a small area, and, if the seed grew satisfactorily, use the same seed to grow his plants the next year, and the same with tomato seeds. He shouldn't have thought of setting tomato-plants by the acre until the seed had been thoroughly tested the year previous, and until he knetc it was exactly what he wanlcd. I gave her this ad\rce thinking that I was able to supply a great amount of wisdom, and that, if they had only applied to me, how much could have been saved. After dictating the foregoing I conclud- ed that I had better go over and see my good neighbor Rood, who has several acres of beautiful celen- almost ready for mar- ket, and his celerj^ seems to be comparative- ly free from these worthless sports of green stalks. Now, just listen. Practically speaking, it is true that "what- soever a man soweth, that also he may reap;" but Mr. Rood, I am very glad to say, was able to give me a piece of infor- mation that makes it possible to grow a crop very much better than the seed which was sown. So it isn't always true that " whatsoever a man soweth he shall surely reap." Now, while giving you this great secret in regard to growing celery, and per- haps many other crops, T ^m going to illus- 238 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE trate another point that I have long had in mind ; and that is, that people coming down here from the North, and thinking that they can help out in the garden or fields, and earn fair wages — say wages comparing favorably with our expert colored men — such people are usually greatly mistaken in their estimate of their own powers. Now, here is the important feature. First, get the very best seed you can buy. Mr. Rood has been buying seed from several great seedsmen of the North for years ; and, as a rule, when he pays the price for their very best seed — say $15 or $20 a pound for the kind of celery seed that is sown here in Florida — he is pretty sure of a fair grade of seed. I asked him if he had any objec- tions to my giving the names of the seeds- men who furnished him his seed. He re- plied something like this : " Mr. Root, the man or seedsman who furnished me the best celery seed a year ago may not be able to furnish some equally good this year, and vice versa; but I will tell you what we do. When the little plants in the seed-bed have got big enough to distinguish clearly between the true and the green or worthless plants, we have expert colored men go through the seed-beds and weed out all of these objectionable plants. In that way, even if our seed is comparatively bad we can get almost a perfect stand of the genu- ine French Golden Self-blanching celery. Now, here comes in the point I am speak- ing of. A year ago a Avhite man came down from the North and applied for work in the gardens. He supi:)0sed, of course, that he could do any thing that the colored men did about as well as and perhaps a little better than what they did. So Mr. Rood set him to work, after explaining carefully what was to be done in weeding out the ob- jectionable celery-plants. The man worked. I believe, one day or a part of a day, and perhaps was disappointed in regard to the amount of pay he received. Mr. Rood said he would have saved fully $10.00 if he had let the experienced colored men stick to their job instead of giving this man a chance to work in the garden even a part of a day. Therefore, take great care, not only in regard to the seed you sow, but in regard to the plants you set out in the field after they are grown in the seed-bed. Most of the celery seed used in this re- gion is imported from France. I asked Mr. Rood if it wasn't possible for us to grow as good seed here in America as they get imported. He said that so far it didn't seem possible to get as good seed grown here, although California has given us some celery seed that compares well with the best French imported. Since then I notice our new seed catalog's advertise California seed, and declare it is as free as any of the French from the worthless green sports. Since dictating the above I have inter- A-iewed my neighbor, Mr. Keller. Let me explain a little. Mr. Keller had not been as successful a celery-gTower as my neigh- bor Rood and some others. During the past summer, however, he spent quite a little time and money in getting proper tiles and thoroughlj' underdraining his piece of about two acres ; and the result is, he has had very much better success than he has ever had heretofore. Even our Florida sand needs thorough underdraining to get the best re- sults, especially after such an extremely wet season as we had in 1912. Well, he sold his celery for $2.40 a box. As nearly as we could figure it, he got about $1200 for the celery on a single acre; but I suggested that he had to pay freight out of this, and he said, " Not at all." A New York man came and looked at his celery, and made him an offer and j^aid him spot cash right there on the gi'ound at $2.40 a box. When I asked about the fertilizer, he said that the fertilizer cost him perhaps a little over $100 an acre. But what does this amount to when the crop is sold right on the ground for $1200? My neighbor Rood is just now harvesting the finest crop of celery he ever grew. He. also, most thoroughly underdrained his land before he commenced growing celery; and the quality of his celery is considerably ahead of that of neighbor Keller, and he probabl}' gets better prices than those men- tioned. He said that he applied about three tons per acre of a fertilizer that cost about $40.00 a ton; but I think some of his land would give a yield of very close to $2000 per acre. Let me digress right here to answer a great number of inquiries as to how much a man can make to come down here and grow celery, grapefruit, etc. Now, I can't answer such questions. And I might safe- ly say the man who asks it will rarely be able to make any great result. It takes a practiced expert to grow celeiy ; and I think likely it takes a practical expert to grow grapefruit also; and these men who have learned the knack usually make a good thing of it year after year; but it doesn't follow at all that a green hand, or some- body who has failed in almost every thing else, can come down here and " get rich " growing stuff in Floiida. Let me give you an illustration. Another neighbor, who is fairly success- ful with tiTJck gardening, last year did so APRIL 1, 1913 239 poorly in growing- celery that he started this year to give it up, and he has been working out by the day at painting, his regular trade. As a consequence of the terrible freeze in California this year, cel- ery, oranges, grapefruit, and many other things are " way up " in price. If tliis neighbor of mine, who became discouraged, and gave it up, had kept right on growing celery he would be out of debt now, and perhaps had money in the bank. You can see from this that the successful gardener must take the seasons, conditions, etc., as they come. Sometimes he hits it just right, and again he doesn't; and the proper way for him is to keep right on at his chosen occupation, and he wnll eventually succeed. Just a word more in regard to this choice celery seed. I see this seed quoted in the catalogs all the way from 15 to 25 dollars per pound; and very likely the best is the cheajDest. What does the cost of the seed amount to when the crop sells for some- thing like between one and two thousand dollars per acre? SOMETHING ABOUT APPLES. My first package by parcel post was three enormous and delicious apples, sent by Stark Bros. Xurseries and Orchard Co., Louisiana, Mo., by the request of our good friend S. W. Morrison. I asked Stark Brothers to send you specimens of Stark's Delicious. I have eaten them for four years and pronounce it the best winter apple in the world; good from Feb. 1 to April 1. Oxford, Col., Jan. 20. Dr. S. W. Morrison. Thei'e were three apples in the package sent by Mr. M., of immense size, and they are certainly " delicious " — at least the one I sampled was. If there was any fault with it, perhajDS it was rather too much on the sweet order for my taste. Stark Bros, tell us that the tree is a very thrifty grower, and bears at an unusually early age. The apples came to me just a little after New Year's day; and in oi"der to test their keep- ing I am holding two of them yet. Although we have had the warmest spell, perhaps, during the month of January here in Flori- da for years past, the two remaining apples are keeping, up to this date. Mar. 3, in per- fect order, while other good apples in the same box all decay. It seems to me if all that is said in regard to this most beautiful and luscious apple is true it certainly is an ac- quisition indeed. We may well call it one of God's new and greatest gifts to the children of men. The apple is so large that one of them makes a large " supper " indeed for myself. The trees are offered at the very reasonable price of only 40 cts. each by the single tree. When they are ordered by the tens or hundreds the price is quite reason- able indeed. We are hoping that parcel post may do gi-eat things in the way of furnishing an apple-loving people with an abundance of apples at a reasonable price, making a short cut from the producer, where apples are often allowed to go to waste because there is no paying market for them, ^to the consumer, and especially the children. The Rural New-Yorker has been for years talking about more apples and better apples for the health of our people, and I believe they have started what has been called the "Apple Consumers' League." May God be praised for our beautiful lus- cious and health-giving apples that now ought to be in great plenty all over the face of the earth. Especially let us try to make it possible for the growing children to have all the apples they care for, without stint and without extravagant price. Here is something additional in regard to the Delicious apple, clipped from the Rural Xew-Yurker: Next to the King David stood a tree of the Deli- cious, of the same age, and it bore just two speci- mens. This is no great disparagement, however, for I know the Delicious to be a heavy bearer, and the tree is beautiful in its vigorous growth, with clean bark and strong shapely top. A friend who has sev- eral trees tells me that they are regular bearers, and that he has customers who make him special oflfers of $6.00 per barrel for their private family use. So far as I can learn the Delicious will take its place as a permanent addition to our standard lists, though the assertion that its quality is unexcelled by any other apple requires modifying. I have seen people of cultured taste who, when not told the variety they were testing give it second place to Stayman Wine- sap. Both kinds were fine specimens from Pacific- slope orchards. DASHEEN AT BROOKSVILLE, FLA. ; FROM BROOKS- VILLE BOARD OF TRADE. Mr. A. I. Root: — Your favor of February 1 to Mrs. R. J. Crather, of this place, has been referred to the undersigned for answer, and in reply thereto I will say that we take great pleasure in giving you some data concerning what we regard as the most remarkable root vegetable in this country. About eight years ago the Department of Agri- culture, Washington, D. C, began experiments in propagating the dasheen. They had discovered it in Japan, where it was considered more popular than either the Irish or sweet potato. The Japanese had imported it from Trinidad Island, north of South America ; and, although they had never propagated it to any great extent, yet the best families of Japan were cultivating it in patches not more than fifteen feet square. When the experts of the Department of Agricul- ture discovered that the dasheen contains about ten per cent more starch, and from fifty to severity per cent more protein than the potato, they concluded that it was worth trying. Some of the tubers were brought to Washington and propagated under hot- house methods, where the results were favorable, and the tuber was then given a trial in various States, including Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and others, and northern Florida, but without satisfactory results, as they could not make a good tuber. 240 GLEANINGS IN BEE CUTiTURE The department was about to abandon the propa- gation of dasheens when Dr. Hood, of Orange City, Fla., suggested that the dasheen be given a trial in the Brooksville hammock-land district. That was three years ago. They began here on the govern- ment farm with twenty-four varieties secured from Japan, Trinidad Island, Porto Rico, and Cuba. The results were more than satisfactory. The second year, by advertising in many foreign countries they increased the number of varieties to fifty-eight, and this year they had one hundred and seventy-four. Out of all these the department found five or .six va- rieties which they considered of especial value as human food. This year they had seven acres planted in dash- eens, that had been tested for two years, and the yield was over 3500 bushels. The Department dis- tributed the edible sizes to various hotels in the North and East, and the seed sizes all over the southern States, so as to give everybody a chance to try them ; but we do not expect favorable results from any locality outside of southern Florida, and that, too, on heavy hammock land. In northern Florida and States north, the seasons are too short, as it requires about eight months for the dasheen to mature. The tests made here in both hammock and pine land show that the hammock land yields from 500 to 800 bushels per acre, while on pine land the tuber can not be raised on a commercial basis at all. The Department, therefore, has made arrange- ments to have quite a large acreage planted here this year so as to be able to take care of the de- mands for next winter. As to the qualities of dasheens, they are most re- markable. After being planted they do not come through the ground for about thtee weeks; but if banked up with sand when they come up, they can be blanched the same as celery, and will grow from twelve to fourteen inches high in as many days. Remove the saud and cut the tender tips, and they may be used instead of asparagus tips or mush- rooms. This product has been tested at the New Willard hotel, Washington, the chef of which de- clares that they are superior to either asparagus tips or mushrooms. It will make eight growths of this kind every season — one growth every twelve days. After the last cutting for this purpose, and the tips get to be from three to four feet tall, the stalks can be used instead of rhubarb or pie plant for pie-filler, and are better than rhubarb in the absence of any acridity or acidity. Certain varieties may be grown for greens which may be made from the leaves minus the ribs. Now as to the tubers. They may be served in any style that potatoes, either Irish or sweet, may. At the base of the plant is a large tuber called a corm. This corm is too large to be served as an edible on the table, but may be sliced, evaporated, and ground up into flour. Of this flour can be made any thing that can be made of wheat or rye flour, such as bread, doughnuts, cakes, or pie crust; in fact, you can make the crust out of the flour, and make the filling of the pie out of the stalk or the rhubarb. Dr. Hood, of Orange City, states that, served as pancakes, they are superior in every respect. He has found that persons sufi"ering with indigestion can eat three or four dasheen pancakes, whereas half of one of the other kind of pancakes would cause pain. The dasheen is very popular in Brooksville and vicinity. A year ago we opened the Varnada hotel with a dasheen banquet. There were one hundred guests present, and every one of them testified that the dasheen was superior to any thing ever eaten in that line. Since then we have had served by Mr. Gomme, superintendent of the government farm here, an entire meal made of dasheens and its vari- ous by-products. Being rich in starch and protein the dasheen may be used for stock feed. In fact, both hogs and cattle will eat the tuber before they will eat any other kind of root vegetable, and they grow fat more rapidly on dasheens than on any other kind of veg- etable. If they should never make any thing of the dasheen for human food it would be worth the cost of propagation for cattle and hog feed alone. The prospects are that we shall have from 35 to 50 acres planted in dasheens this year in Brooks- ville section ; and as the government has released four varieties which they have tested, there will be several parties here with a sufficient amount of dasheens to supply any probable demand the coming yeai-. You will note that we have indicated a use for every part of the dasheen, stalk and tuber, except- ing the ribs of the leaves, which must be removed when they are used for greens ; but the department at Washington has discovered that there may be distilled from the leaves a very rare fluid, something like that distilled from the century plant, which is known as " punkha." From tests being made now, the best chefs of the best hotels in the large cities, and also by sereral scientific men, we are encouraged to believe that the dasheen has a great future; and it has already" replaced the Irish and sweet potato in many homes in this district. Trusting this information may be of benefit to you, and soliciting your further correspondence in case you desire any further information along this line, we remain Yours very truly, Brooksville Board op Trade, per C. H. Preas, Sec. Brooksville, Fla., Feb. 11. My dasheens are now coming up, and some of them are putting out the second leaves. They very much resemble, so far, a calla lily, and are now (March 1) grow- ing very rapidly. MORE ABOUT DASHEEN. Experiments have been conducted with the dash- een, both in Washington and Brooksville, which demonstrate that it is a most wonderful vegetable, capable of furnishing the raw material for a great variety of dishes. As the new growths come through the ground the stalks may be blanched like celery, and cooked and served as mushrooms and aspara- gus tips. Later the leaves of certain varieties, minus the ribs, may be served as greens, and the stalks as sauce and pie filling, which are said to be superior to rhubarb for those purposes. Thus the entire stalk and leaf, excepting the ribs, yield food for man ; and even the ribs of the plant are not value- less, for from their juices may be distilled a most precious liquor known in local parlance as aroid punch, but to the men of science as something akin to the liquor obtained from the century plant. Brooksville people have been favored with several packages of Mr. Spawn's evaporated products and his flour, especially the dasheen flour, the raw ma- terial of which is produced in Brooksville, and they will welcome the announcement that this place is scheduled to become the home of a plant similar to the one at Kissimmee. As the experts of the Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, are conducting experiments wliich will determine the relative value of the dash- een as a food product, and since the crop here, comprising eleven acres, is still under their super- vision, those who have never participated at a dasheen banquet will be compelled to accept amateur statistics and data on this subject until experts choose to publish the scientific facts. — Tampa Trib- une. APRIL 1, 1913 241 Poultry Department FORTY-EIGHT CHICKS FROM FIFTY EGGS IN A FIFTY-EGG INCUBATOR. Some of the friends in times past have called me a Jbungler with poultry. I think it was the friend, however, whose scheme or " system " had been exposed. Well, I have been a bungler, and I don't know hvd I am a bungler somewhat yet; but this morning, this 11th day of February, 1913, I have taken forty-eight good strong chicks from fifty fertile eg'gs. Now, I might make it a little better than that, I think, when 1 explain that, in testing the eggs, there was one of the fifty that I threw out as doubt- ful. Let me tell you how I mark eggs that are doubtful. I just put a cross on the large end. If, after further testing, how- ever, I found these crossed eggs are fertile after all, I put a circle around the cross, and that means the cross reads " naught '" or " nothing." You may wonder how I get fifty fertile eggs in a fifty-egg incubator. J do it this way : For the first three days I stand them on the small end. In this way I can get sixty or sixty-one eggs in the average fifty-egg incubator. Of course, during the first three days these eggs can't be rolled around very much, as they stand on the small end. I think I have explained before that in this way I manage to have fifty fertile egg's, as a rule, to fill a fifty- egg incubator. Now, this report doesn't amount to very much unless I can do it again, and can show some of the rest of you how to manage to get equally good hatches. I am not sure that 1 can do this; but I can tell you briefly how I manage. It comes up like this — to whom or where does the credit belong? Is it to the man who furnished the incubator, or is it because of the favorable season, or because I have taken pains to have my eggs well and strongly fertilized! or has your humble servant some credit in the matter? I have explained before how I gave two males to my forty-eight laying hens. I told yon when I started down to Florida that I was going to use an electric incubator; but when 1 got here I found out they hadn't gov around to giving us a current for the whole twenty-four hours, so the electric incubatoi" couldn't be used until somewhere near the first of February. As I didn't want to lods so much time I sent for one of the $7.00 fifty-egg incubators made by the Buckeye Incubator Co., of Springfield, Ohio. I have taken out three hatches this winter wit!', this machine before the one that has jusi now given such excellent results. I followed exactly the directions that came with the machine, with the exception of letting the chickens all remain in the machine until the 22d day. I removed them just after dinner from the machine on the 21st day. They commenced coming out on the 20th, so that a greater part of them were nearly or quite twenty-four hours old when I took them out of the incubator. My reason for removing them a little sooner is this. Every time I take off a hatch I find a great quan- tity of fuzzy down, that has rubbed off from the chickens, down among the eggshells in the incubator. Sometimes there will be a good double handful of tliis down (especi- ally where there is a large hatch) down in the botoom of the incubator. Now, I figure this must be somewhat of a loss, because chickens, especially when taken from the hot incubator, and jjlaced right out almost in tlie open air, as I do liere in Florida, need every bit of their feathery down to protect them from the breeze and the weather. As they seemed quite restless, and evidently in want of more air, I decided to take them out, as I told you, on the after- noon of the 21st day. Well, after taking out forty-four I discoverd there were four more that were hardly ready to come out. One of tliem was just out of the shell, and three more were only partly out. One of the shells was just pipped. I dipped these partly hatched eggs in water about as hot as I could bear it with my hand, and then put them back in the incubator on a wet cloth wrung out. This was to supply what moisture or dampness was lost when the in- cubator door was opened. Now, I haven't very much faith in helping chickens out of their shells, although in one of my hatches I helped two out that seemed so feeble and in such bad shape that I had no hopes that they would ever live, or amount to any thing if they did live. However, I did the best I could with them, washing off the glue that had dried on to them with hot water, then putting them back in the incubator, and awaiting developments until next morn- ing. The next morning they had improved so greatly that I kept them a little longer, and finally put them out with the rest of the hatch, intending to keep watch and put them back in the incubator if necessary. To my great surjjrise, however, after twen- ty-four hours had jjassed I had great diffi- culty in finding the two chickens that I helped out of the shells, and since then I have never been able to tell one from an- other. They are all just alike. This was a thirty-six chick hatch, and they are all alive and well now, just three weeks since thej' came out of the shell. Now, as two of the chickens seemed to be 242 making very sIoav progress in breaking out of the shell in this last hatch, I struck on a plan that I believe will be found to be one of the best, if not the best, for chickens that do not succeed in getting out at the time the others do. I simply crush the shells with my fingers in such a way as to crack the outer shell pretty thoroughly. In the course of a few hours I had the pleas- ure of seeing those chickens out of the shell and on their feet. Some one may suggest that getting chickens hatched and bringing them to maturity is a different thing. Bui I want to tell you that I haven't lost a chick that I know of this winter, except sis that were carried off by hawks before I found out exactly where my chickens were going. The hawk has been fenced out by covering my two small yards for the smallest chick- ens with three-inch poultry netting, as T have explained. Since then not a chicken has been lost. Every chick that is hatched goes right along without a break. COUNTING CHICKENS " AFTER " THEY ARE HATCHED. A good deal has been said about counting your chickens before they are hatched ; but, so far as I know, not very much about counting them after they are hatched. Some of our readers, and perhaps not a few of them, have had some tiding experience in trying to count them after they are hatched, and having the count hold out. When I started our convergent poultry-yard I thought I was going to have a " dead open and shut " on keeping my chicks, especiallj in keeping tliem free of loss from rats, skunks, coons, etc. I have told you some- thing about the poor fertility of our egg-s when I first moved them over to our home. There were two troubles about the fertility. First, most of the hens are just out of the moult, and the rooster himself was going around destitute of tail feathei-s. Secondly, he had toward fifty hens in his care. One of these hatches at this time gave only six- teen chickens in a fifty-egg incubator. Now, there would not have been even sixteen had I not helped two of them out of the shells. These two were such dilapidated-looking specimens that I had very little hope they would live. I put them back in the incuba- tor (mostly because I hated to kill the poor little things), and kept them there twentj-- four hours. Then when I put them in the tireless brooder, and they moped around about twenty-four hours more, I felt sure they were going to die. However, gTeatly to my surprise, on the third day they began to pick up, and in less than a week I could not tell which were the ones 7 hatched from GLEANINGS IN BEE CUT^TURE the others. With these new poultry-yards so well protected with inch-mesh netting I felt sure no rats nor skunks could in any manner interfere with my chickens; and this little brood got on very well until they were about two weeks old, when one day I was obliged to admit that there were only fifteen instead of sixteen. Next day there were only fourteen, and so on, until a chick- en a day was going somewhere. They counted all right at night, and they count- ed all right next morning; but when night came there would be a chicken missing. Wesley suggested it was a hawk; but I hadn't seen any hawks around, and I was very much puzzled and worried about it. Finally, Wesley caught a hawk right in the act, and made him let the chicken drop. The poor fellow, however, was so badly scared he died a few hours afterward. I fin all}' declared I was going to do some- thing to have a " dead open and shut " on a hawk as well as a dead open and shut on the I'ats and skunks. The question was, how to do it. Neighbor Abbott said he got rid of the hawks bj' shooting them with a gun. Now, this was a lot of trouble, and I don't like to use guns any way; and, be- sides that, you must keep on shooting day after day, and j-ear after j-ear. You never can tell when you have got all of the hawks. Two or three years ago, when the hawks started I invested in some three-inch-mesh poultry-neting, declaring that I was going to have covered yards for my small chick- ens, at least until they were old enough to keep out of the way of the hawks. Now, I don't like penning up chickens in small yards. Let me explain a little. From the next hatch from my fifty-egg incubator, after the one I have mentioned, I secured thirty-six live chicks from fifty egg's. Well, these got along all right until they were about ten days old. Then there was one little bunty chicken that went around, or stood around, with its wings hanging down. You probably have seen them under like circumstances. I tried giv- ing such chicks extra care, bread and milk, etc. ; but so far it has been mostly a failure. Now, these thirtj^-six had been kept inside the brood-house until they were ten days old, because I feared the hawks that had been making such havoc with my other flock. Finally we got to work and covered two little yards overhead with three-inch netting. I think these little yards are about 40 feet square. In this yard that was cov- ered overhead to keep out the hawks I opened the door and let my thirty-six chicks loose. This one with its wing-s drooping didn't seem inclined to go outdoors. Feel- APRIL 1, 1913 ing pretty sure he would die anj' way, I took and tossed him out. Well, pretty soon the rest of the thirty- six had unearthed a lot of crickets that were under the dried-up hay and rubbish, chasing each other about the yard to see whom the crickets belonged to. This wak- ened up my droopy chick, and he got in the run with the rest. By night he was greatly improved. The next day he picked up still more. Xow, instead of " going dead," it is a hard matter for me to tell which is the sick one from the rest. This chick, in my opinion, was dying because he didn't have sufficient sunlight and sufficient outdoor exercise, nor, perhaps, the variety of food that chickens need at this age, although we had been giving him chick food, a mash, beef scrap, charcoal, grit, and everj^ thing recommended, at least every thing that is rationally recommended. Now, my opinion is from much careful observation that thou- sands of chicks are dying continually by too much artificial heat and too little out- door sunshine and exercise.* My chickens, when ten days old, will chase each other about the yard at a temperature below 50, and it doesn't seem to hurt them a particle. This covered yard I have mentioned is open on the south side up as high as your head. Of course, there is an inch-mesh fence along the ground, which goes down into the gi'ound to keep out the rats. Above this there are two or three feet where a hawk could easily fly in if he felt so inclined. Well, I left this opening on purpose, hoping some hawk would fly in and couldn't get out, and then I would have him captured and help save some of the neighbors' chickens as well as my own. Some of you may suggest that it is quite an expense to cover a yard, even if it is only forty feet square. To which I reply it is something of an expense to spend time and money for feed in raising chickens until they are half grown, and letting a hawk carry them off; and not only an expense, but think of the discouraged feeling that comes to one after having taken so much pains and care to nurse chickens through bad weather and then have them carried off in this way. It dampens my spirits and spoils mj enthusiasm for the whole chicken business; but when I can succeed in getting things so arranged that every chicken that comes out of the incubator gets to be a big * I am fully persuaded there are thousands of people just like this chick. They are dying, and don't know it, for lack of outdoor air and sunshine, and something to do. Let them wake up, get out and search all outdoors for " God's gifts," then " get busy " distributing these gifts to poor hardworking and poorly paid humanity, and they will promptly get well like the droopy chick. live useful fowl, then I feel some animation and enthusiasm to go ahead. As yet I have no netting over my yard for young ducks. The hawks seem to have taken no notice of the ducks so far. I have seen in an adver- tisement of Indian Runner ducks that hawks never molest them. I wonder if this can be true. Speaking about Indian Run- ner ducks, I have just this morning brought in seventeen egg"s from eighteen laying ducks. You may have had as good results as this from eighteen chickens, but I cer- tainly never have before. Of coui-se, I haven't had seventeen eggs every day; but tliey have been running from twelve to fif- teen and sixteen for quite a little time. So far the Indian Runner ducks are better layers than any chickens I ever had any thing to do with. In regard to the eggs for table use, after having tested them repeat- edly I gi-eatly prefer a boiled duck egg to a boiled hen's egg. They certainly are richer in quality, and there is ever so much more in one of these big duck eggs. Let me repeat again, if you want lots of duck egg's, and good-sized ones, you must give them an abundance of feed. Our ducks now have soaked corn right before them, not only all night but all day long. After having taken a swim and a run down the canal, perhaps half a mile or more, they come back toward noon, or perhaps a little after noon, and go for their tub of corn (which is up close to the convergent poul- try-yard) as if they really enjoyed the fun. After having had about a dozen dips into this tub of corn, and a drink of water to go with it, they go on a lively run for the canal again. Now, you may say it is quite an expense, especially with the price corn brings down here in Florida, to keep corn before the ducks, letting them take it at their own pleasure; but. as I said in regard to the celery business, what does the cost of a little corn amount to compared with the quantity of eggs I have mentioned, es- pecially when the eggs also bring 30 cents a dozen, and that is what we are getting for them? Four duck eggs will bring ten cents, and I think ten cents will pay for all the corn that the whole flock of twenty- two (that is, including four drakes) con- sume in twenty-four hours. Of coui'se, I am fortunate in having this canal that they can run to so constantly. By the way, when I let them out in the morning, after their eggs are laid, I notice that they make a hurried run for the pud- dles that are left during the night on ac- count of the rising and falling of the tide. Fortunately, the tide, when it is up high, comes clear up on to the canal adjoining my 244 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE premises. Then when it goes down again there are nnmerous puddles left in the hol- low cavities of the coral rocks. These pud- dles contain little fish and other salt-water animal life. Just the other morning a duck lan out on the bank with something too large for her to handle. After having tried in vain to break it in two in order to swal- low it I discovered that she had quite a good-sized flat fish, something like what they call in the North a sunfish. Fi'om this 1 infer that they get a good many little fishes by going up and down the stream every morning. Now, wherever it is possi- ble to have access to a running stream, especially where the ducks will not annoy or interfere with the neighbors in any way, it certainly is a very desirable place to gTow Indian Runner ducks. Where you have such a stream on your own farm or your own premises you are doubly foi'tunate. I think we may safely include the Indian Runner ducks with another of Grod's most precious gifts to his children. It certainly furnishes a very healthful form of animal food, and, so far as I can see, at a very reasonable price indeed. I have never heard any com- plaint from my ducks' eggs as articles of food. It seems to me that the quality is very much better for having the abundance of corn that they do every day. They are really " corn-fed " duck eggs. Our grocers, however, mix the duck eggs right in with the hens' eggs, saying that they have no complaint, and they don't discover any dif- ference. Some of their customers, to my knowledge, pick out the duck eggs on ac- count of their greater size. You certainly get more eggs for your money Avhen duck eggs can be purchased at the same price than where you buy hens' eggs. I want to say something more about let- tuce. Young ducks, if they have access to plenty of head lettuce, will take it very largely in preference to grain, and it is a great saving. Ours are making a most as- tonishing growth, and a great part of their feed is lettuce from the fields around among our neighbors. Not a duckling has been lost so far, and, so far as my experience goes, I should say that they are easier to raise than chickens. Just a word about the hawk. When I saw in the poultry journals that a couple of guineas in the poultry would be a great preventive against depredation by hawks, T sent clear up to Pennsylvania for a cou- ple of Peajl guineas. They are just here, and I greatly enjoy watching the queer antics of these strange birds. The guineas are the greatest flyers of any thing I have seen in the line of domestic fowls. They will rise almost straight up as high as the tree-tops, and do it apparently with the greatest ease. The male bird, the very first morning, gave presuming roosters and hens all to understand in a very few moments that he was " lord of the domain ;" but when it was once settled bj^ unanimous consent, he was pleasant and friendly. " FENCING OFF " THE HAWKS. It is now Feb. 5, and it seems my plan of leaving a part of the south side of the cov- ered yard partly open did not work, for we found another dead chicken, with a wound under its wing about the size of a half-dol- lar. Wesley thinks that, after the hawk killed the fowl it was unable to carry it off because it was so big. This is the third one we have found lacerated under the wing in about the same way. Two were in the yard, and one when Wesley made him drop the chicken in the field. We have now enclosed these two yards on all sides as well as over- head, and we hope it will end the depreda- tion from hawks. Covered yards — that is, if they are of any size — are rather expen- sive, it is true; but these yards are neces- sary only for cliicks, say under four or six weeks of age; and, once made, they should last a good many years. CHUFAS IN NEW YORK STATE, ETC. Dear Friend Root: — I have noted quite a number of items in Gleanings relative to chufas, or earth ahnonds. I grew many of them in years past while in the poultry business, and know the yield from them is immense. I never measured or estimated the amount grown on my plots, but am positive the yield was very far above 100 bushels per acre. I have counted 600 tine large chufas on a single hill, besides many small ones. I grew the finest chufas on black muck soil. Even when planted close, they made big bulging hills filled with fine nuts. When ripe I would lift the hills with a fork, the roots and nuts staying together in a compact mass. If I wish- ed to save any for seed and other uses I would pul- verize the hills, and sift out the dirt and wash the nuts and dry them, which was an easy matter. Most of the chufas I grew for my poultry, and always believed them marvelous egg-producers. For winter use I would store the hills in a dry place, and every day throw out a lot of the clumps for the hens to work over. It just did one's heart good to see the biddies scratch and dig the hills to pieces, and ravenously devour every nut. It did my heart even more good to see how they would shell out the eggs. Here was exercise and rich hearty food in abundance — the two things most essential for winter laying hens. The cost of harvesting the nuts in this manner for the hens was negligible, and they went very far in the saving of expensive food. It certain- ly is a wonder that these valuable nuts are not ex- tensively grown by poultry-keepers. I should be pleased to hear from others on the subject. Hyde Park, N. Y., Dec. 14. a m / A. T. Cook. Please send me a copy of Mr. Terry's health book. Don't let me miss a single copy of Gleanings. Each copy is a welcome and appreciated volume of love and" instruction. T^.„„Ta/^xT Tabor, Iowa. H. W. Parkison. Published by The A. I. Root Co., Medina, 0. H H ROOT, Assistant Editor. E. R. ROOT, Editor. A. L. Boyden, Advertising Manager. A.' I. Root, Editor Home Department. J- T. Calvert, Business Manager. Entered at the Postoffice, Medina, O., as Second-class matter. VOL. XLI. APRIL 15, 1913 NO. 8 Editorial OUR COVER PICTURE. The view seen on our cover for this issue shows a part of the apiary of August de Malachowski, whose illustrated article ap- pears on another page. In the foreground is shown the old model of the hive " Elita," as it appeared in 1909. The brick tenement hives are also shown, each of which con- tains four colonies. " A BATTLE WITH BEES." An article under the above heading ap- pears in the December issue of the Wide World Magazine. The story was told orig- inally by Mr. Philip J. Baldensperger, an apiarist in the Holy Land, and reported by Frederick Lees. The article is intensely interesting, and any of our readers who have an opportunity to get a copy of this magazine will make no mistake in reading it. The article is illustrated by some beautiful engravings of colonies of bees loaded on camels, of Mr. Baldensperger's apiary, etc. WHY A LIGHT MOTOR TRUCK FOR OUTYARDS. We recently purchased a small motor truck capable of carrying 1000 lbs. to be used in connection with our system of out- a2:)iaries. The reasons we use a compara- tively small machine are, low first cost, low upkeep, quick trips, and often. A large truck carrying two or tlu-ee thousand pounds would be heavy and unwieldy. It would cut deep into meadows and fields where the apiaries are located. A light truck will carry as much aggi'egate weight in a day or a week, because it will go oftener. This is important, because the men should keep in close touch with the yards. Our general plan is to have a crew of two or thi-ee men take care of all the yards. If time is mon- ey it is important that these men be trans- ported to their work as quickly as possible. During the height of the season a motor cycle in addition to the truck will carry a man from one yard to another to look after swarms, cells, or other work of that nature, in a very short time. We are just now distributing our 600 colonies around in fruit-orchards. The fruit-men are asldng us to put bees on their ranches ; and, of course, it is to our interest to put them there. Our plans are now to have seven or eight yards — possibly more; and the advantage of a small truck capable of carrying 25 colonies at a time is that it can move the bees at any time to pastures new. In one particular case we expect to move 100 colonies to a fruit-ranch of be- tween sixty and seventy acres of fruit-trees ten luiles distant. There is little or no clo- ver in that locality. When the season of fruit-bloom is over it is our intention to move to where much alsike is grown. Four trips will move the whole yard of 100 colo- nies in less time than it takes to move with a two-horse team, because the distance will be great. Our experience is that a team, driver, and ajjiarist, will take about a whole day and sometimes into the night to go after a yard of forty colonies eight miles away, and bring them back home and put them in the cellar. That same bunch of forty colonies could easily be moved with a motor truck capable of carrying a thousand pounds on two trips in less than half the time; and, what is more, it is sting-proof. We have studied this question from a good many different angles; and the more we study it, the more we believe a light truck ,will be much better than a heavy one that will tear up the soil in getting to and from the yard. A CAUTION ABOUT SENDING HONEY OR PACK- AGES OF BEES BY PARCEL POST. The Rocky Mountain Bee Co., in this issue, asks for information on how to send honey by parcel post. The matter is of such importance that we thought best to give our reply here. While it is i^erfectly practicable to send eggs, comb honey, and other fragile articles for a short distance, say for rural delivery, we doubt whether it is ad^dsable to try to send such articles any 246 distance by trolley or steam roads. Our ex- perience so far has shown that comb honey sent by parcel post has broken down in almost every case, even when well packed. The entire package or packages on arrival are one dauby mess, and the probabilities are that every thing in the mail-sack in which these packages came must have been daubed more or less. Similarly, nearly every parcel-post package that has been sent us containing liquids of any large quantity has been broken or leaking; and it seems to us it will be only a vei-y short time before Uncle Sam will stop the ship- ment of liquids, syrup, and honey, especial- ly oomb honey, unless more precaution is used. We presume we have had as much ex- perience in shipping small samples of comb honey by express as any people in the United States. Our plan has been to wrap up two or thi-ee sections in paper, then in excelsior in a market basket, being careful that tliere was plenty of cushion or packing material between the fragile articles them- selves and the baskets. As a general rule, commodities can go in a basket by express when they can not be shipped any other way; but parcel-post rulings do not allow a handle to a basket; but a basket may be used if the handle is folded down or cut off. One difficulty about the parcel-post busi- ness is the fact that' all packages go inside of a mail-sack. A big heavy package up to the 11-lb. limit bumping against a light one is almost sure to be disastrous to the latter, especially if it contains any fragile article such as comb honey or eggs. In view of our experience, both with ex- press shipments and parcel post, we would strongly advise against shipping comb hon- ey by i^arcel post. It is conceivable that a single section might be sent as a sample; but it should be wrapped very thorouglily in paper, then in excelsior, and last of all inclosed in a strong wooden box that is ca- pable of resisting a severe bump from an eleven-pound package in the same sack. But even then the section of honey should be wrapped in heavy manila or paraffine paper to catch the leakage if any. We would at the present time discourage sending even extracted honey by parcel post, especially for long distances. It would be very unwise to put up a single package of, we will say, eight pounds of extracted hon- ey in a box weighing only three pounds. About the largest amount that can be ship- ped would be in a five-pound tin. This should be wrapped thoroughly in excelsior in such a way that the excelsior will not GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE become displaced and leave a vulnerable spot for a severe bump. After wrapping it in excelsior it should be crowded into a basket with the handles folded down or cut oft, and the top covered with a thin board and thoroughly tied with strong cord. But we do not believe there is one person in a thousand who knows how or can wrap up comb honey so it will go through to its des- tination by parcel post. Even Dr. Miller can't do it. See his Straw in this issue. It is to be hoped that Uncle Sam will see the importance of keeping out of the mail- sacks bulky and heavy packages that just come inside of the eleven-pound limit, for it is certain that heavy packages should be left outside of the sack. Even though a higher rate were charged to cover the extra handling, it would not then be possible to shij) bees in pound packages by parcel post. While there is no difficulty in sending a queen and a dozen or more of her attend- ants by mail, it is an entirely different proposition to send one pound of bees, or approximatelj' 4500 individuals, in a closed mail-sack. " It can't be done." If that same Uncle will permit bees and other live stock like chickens to travel in wire cages or crates outside of the mail-sacks the same as express our problem would be solved. THE NEW EDITION OP OUR ABC AND X Y Z OF BEE CULTURE. The last form of this work for 1913 is just coming from the press. We have been at work on it for the last year and a half, and now we have it ready for the public. The new edition contains 750 pages, or 150 more than the former one. On account of rewriting so many of the old articles, and the incorporation of many new ones, mak- ing the book so much larger than formerly, we are now obliged to charge $2.00 instead of $1.50 ; but we believe that the reader will acknowledge tliat it is cheap, even at that price. Approximately it contains nearly 600,000 words. Any volume of this size on a technical subject like beekeeping would ordinarily command a price of $5.00; but now, as in the past, we much prefer to make a small profit per volume on a large sale rather than a large profit on a small sale. The new edition has been most thorough- ly revised by E. R. Root, ably assisted by Dr. C. C. Miller, of Marengo, 111., the vet- eran comb-lioney producer; by Arthur C. Miller, of Providence, R. I., banker and beeman ; by John H. Lovell, of Waldoboro, Me., naturalist, botanist, and entomologist; and by Prof. Eugene G. Baldwin, the one APRIL 15, 1913 who wrote that interesting series of articles on Florida beekeeping a year ago. Up to now the old editions have Deen printed on standing type; but the extensive additions and revisions made it necessary to discard the old type which was becoming worn, and adopt a new scheme for getting out this work. To do this we purchased a $4000 linotype type-setting machine, which also handles all the composition in Glean- ings and our subsidiary publications. The fact that the new edition was to be entirely reset, from beginning to end, made it possible to make the revsion much more thoroughly than had ever been undertaken before. In many eases, instead of patch- ing new matter on to the old it seemed more practicable to rewrite the articles entire. A notable example of this will be found in the case of foul brood. The former edition contained six pages, while the new has six- teen. In the same way, other old subjects were rewritten, while with many other sub- jects it sufficed to make mere changes and additions here and there. There will also be found an entirely new set of articles that never appeared in any edition of the work. A notable feature of this last edition is the bee botany, which was entirely over- hauled, and in many cases entirely rewrit- ten, by John H. Lovell and Prof. E. G. Baldwin, mentioned above. The subject of Pollen and the Pollination of Flowers was almost entirely rewritten by Mr. Lovell. We doubt if there is another man in the country who can handle these subjects more ably than he. Dr. C. C. Miller to a great extent rewrote " Honeycomb." He also made important suggestions (which were adopted) on the subject of comb-honey production ; and well he might, for he is now regarded as one of our best if not the best authority on the production of honey in sections. Mr. Arthur C. Miller, who for so many years made a close study of the inter- nal economy of the hive, made numerous suggestions, many of which were adopted and incorporated in the text. In other cases, where he might or might not have differed with the author and reviser, his notes were put in the form of footnotes at the bottom of the page, and signed " A. C. M." In a similar way will be found an occasional footnote signed C. C. M. (Dr. Miller). The unsigned footnotes are by the author. At; first thought, as one glances over the new volume and observes that two-thirds or three-fourths of the matter was written by E. R. Root, he will wonder where A. I. Root comes in, and whether it is a case of " Hamlet with Hamlet left out." We are happy to say this is not the case. Some of tlie best things that A. I. Root ever wrote on bees (and he wrote a good many) still appear in this volume, and always will. It is not so much because his writings have been stricken out of this edition, but be- cause the immense amount of new stuff made necessary by the growth of the industry has made A. I. R.'s material seem small in comparison. His familiar style will be recog- nized, for example, in Absconding Swarms; After-swarms; Anger of Bees; Artificial Heat; Artificial Pasturage; Bee-hunting; Bee-moth; Italian Bees; Queens; Robbing; Stings. What he has written under these heads will always remain as classic in bee culture. No man had more enthusiasm in the study of bees than A. I. Root, and that enthusiasm is so conspicuous that his writ- ings can usually be picked out of the other matter, even though they have been skill- fully interwoven with matter written by others. Another feature of the 1913 edition is special articles by special writers. That is to say, we have sought the best writers we could find on any particular subject. Note, for example, the articles wi-itten by Prof. A. H. Bryan, of the Bureau of Chemistiy, Wasliington, D. C. ; by Dr. E. F. Phillips; Dr. Snodgrass; Dr. James A. Nelson; Dr. D. B. Castell— all of the Bureau of Ento- mology, and all experts in their line. For several years back we have been look- ing for a botanist who is also a beekeeper, a naturalist, and an entomologist — a man who has done an ihamense amount of field work — one who has secured his information first hand. We finally found such a person in John H. Lovell, whose work seems to be accepted by some of the best scientists in the country. He has prepared most of the bee botany in this edition; and from a sci- entific standpoint we believe it will be up to standard. Taking every thing into consideration, we feel proud of our new ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture. It is new from cover to cover. It is the work of experts in their respective lines. It is the largest and most comprehensive bee-book in any langaiage in the world ; and yet it is sold at the popular price of only $2.00. It will be clubbed with Gleanings in Bee Culture at $2.50. Old subscribers desiring to secure the new edi- tion of the A B C and X Y Z of Bee Cul- ture can, by the payment of $2.50, advance their subscription one year and yet secure a cop3' of this magnificent work. It is so much of an improvement, so much of an enlargement over any of the previous edi- tions, that one who owns an old copy can well afford to secure the new volume. 248 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Stray Straws Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. The man who winters bees in a cellar will cast a longing look toward outdoor wintering as soon as he begins to establish out-apiaries. As an experiment I sent by parcel post to CMcago 10 sections of honey, none of them perfectly finished, in a safety ship- ping case. Postage was 46 cts. ; express- age Avould have been 30 cts. Only four sec- tions were unbroken, and the honey was reported "on the run." [See editorial. — Ed.] Out-apiaries afford an extra chance for improvement of stock. The best colonies can be massed in the home apiary, or one of the out-apiaries, and queens can be rear- ed there with a better chance to meet the best drones. Then when the young queens are laying they can be distributed to the other apiaries. P. C. Chadwick, p. 174, complains that the cost of parcel post for honey is prohibi- tive beyond the first zone. Perhaps hardly so bad as that; for in zone 2, with nine times as large a territory, it's only 4 cents a pound; but it's not what we should have. From here to Chicago, 66 miles, 7 pounds costs 30 cents by parcel post ; by express 25 cents. Eleven pounds costs 46 cents by par- cel post; 30 cents by express. Uncle Sam can work for as little as the express com- pany, and ought to. A GOOD many, at least in Europe, take seriously the idea that larger bees can be produced hj using foundation with larger cells. No less than 2500 Rietsehe founda- tion-presses have been sent out with 736 cells to the square decimeter instead of the usal 854. That is, the cells were made with about one-sixth greater area than usual. [Does a large cell make the bees any larg- er? We doubt it. If, however, the cells are smaller than the normal size, the bees will be smaller, just as a Cliinese woman's foot is made smaller by being put in a small shoe. As Cheshire has pointed out, there would be no advantage in having a larger bee, as such an insect would be out of harmony with the flowers for wliich they seem to be specially adapted by the great Creator.— Ed.] Representative Lewis, one of the most interested members of the congressional committee on parcel post, favors this rate: Three cents a pound for the first pound, and half a cent for each additional pound up to 100 pounds for the first hundred miles, then half a cent additional per pound for each additional hundred miles. By the Lewis rate a package of 12 sections, weigh- ing, say, 14 lbs., would cost 10 cts. within 100 miles, and 17 cts. within 200 miles. Exactly this may not come; but something like it is likely to come before beekeepers are ready for it; for I don't know of any proper package ready for posting honey — do you? [There is a gi'eat future for par- cel post ; but before honey or bees can be sliipped in that way some pro^asion will have to be made whereby they can be sent like ordinary express matter in separate packages by themselves instead of in a closed sack. Bees in pound lots would smother in a sack. In a jumble of pack- ages in a sack, large and small, comb honey would stand a poor show. — Ed.] It is well known that cold favors granu- lation of honey, but it is not so well known that fi-equent change of temperature may be a still stronger factor. In III. Monats- blaetter is given an instance,^. 21. Buck- wheat honey in cans was set out where the sun shone upon it by day and it cooled off at night. In three or four days it began to candy, while in the steady temperature of a room honey out of the same lot remained liquid for weeks. [You say it is " not so well known that frequent changes of tem- perature may be a still stronger factor " in causing honey to granulate than cold. Those who have read late editions of our ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture — yes, for five yeai's back — must have seen where we have said that " the primal cause of gi'anulation is the alternation of warm and cold weath- er." See subject of " Candied Honey." Then toward the latter end of the subject see this : " Contini;ed zero weather is not so favorable as weather somewhere near the freezing-point, now moderating up to the thaAving-point, then freezing and then thaw- ing. When the weather remains continu- ously cold, set the honey out in pails or boxes in a room where the tem^Derature goes a little below freezing, leaving it for a day or two, then move it into a warm room." At various times in these columns we have stated that changes of temperature will cause granulation much sooner than mere steady cold. As a rule you can leave liquid honey in a temperature 10 degrees below zero for weeks, and it will remain as clear as crystal. But a freezing and a warm temperature in alternation, day after day, for about a week, will begin to show re- sults in that same honey. We therefore entirely agree with Monatshlaetter. — Ed.] APRIL 15, 1913 SIFTINGS J. E. Cranb, Middlebury, Vt. The so-called " pickled brood " has at last a definite descriptive name — " sac brood." It has also been discovered that it is to some extent infectious, as I have feared it might be. The United States Department of AgTiculture has just sent out Circular 169 of Bureau of Entomology, fully de- scribing the disease. This is the disease I spoke of on page 21, Jan. 1. * » « Dr. ^Miller quotes from Deutsche Bienen- zucht, page 4, Jan. 1, regarding the neces- sity of a brood-chamber so bees can cluster in a sphere. A spherical cluster of bees in winter is not necessary where the brood- chamber is well packed. I often winter bees on four combs, and small nuclei on three combs, with success. It is always well to reduce the size of the brood-chamber to the size of the colony. * « * The editorial in regard to the color and temper of Italian bees is golden. I was much interested in a remark made to me by Mr. Frank Alexander, of Delanson, N. Y., last spring. He said he didn't like cross bees. I have had some exiDeriences the past year in inspection work that I don't care to have repeated. I have found some that I wouldn't keep if you would give me a whole yard for nothing, set in the richest pastures flowing with honey. * * * On page 8, Jan. 1, Mr. Doolittle discuss- es the prolificness of queens vs. longevity of bees; and he appears to have the argiiment on his side. It was a favorite theory with Napoleon that Providence favors the larg- est armies, and we beekeepers have been working on that principle verj^ largely. The condition of a colony will often influence the amount of work done. A new swarm will sometimes accomplish twice what it did before swarming. I could not help wondering, after reading Mr. Doolittle's statements, whether there is any thing to hinder our having both a prolific queen and long-lived workers combined in the same colony. If we add to these gentleness and honey-gathering instincts, we shall have al- most ideal bees. * « * From a Straw on page 40 it would seem that Dr. Miller and Mr. Morley Pettit do not think alike on the subject of European foul brood. Well, never mind. I have no doubt they would if they lived in the same locality and kept the same race of bees. A great deal has been laid to locality in bee- keeping, and I have come to the conclusion that locality plays quite as much a part in European foul brood as in any thing else. In some sections it spreads with great ra- pidity, but slowly in others. For several years it has existed within two miles of one of our jards, but as yet I have not found a trace of it in our yard. It appears far less contagious in some sections than oth- ei-s. I remember one yard I inspected where it had been for two or more seasons with- out spreading beyond these two or tlii-ee colonies. In low damp or hot localities it seems much worse than on high land or in a colder and di\yer climate. I have noticed a decided difl'erence in different yards in the same locality. Some strains of bees appear to be almost immune, while others succumb to it very quickly. I believe at the present time it is of much more importance to breed a race of bees that will contend successfully with this disease than to breed for the largest number of yellow rings on their abdomens. * « * Of immense importance is the editorial, page 38, Jan. 15, on the value of windbreaks for winter protection for outdoor-wintered bees. I have called the attention of the readers of Gleanings to this subject sever- al times, and should have said more, but did not want to be considered a crank on the subject ; but when I see eveiy colony dead in that part of a yard most exposed to the prevailing winds I know that this exposure had much to do with the winteiing of bees. For many years in locating a yard of bees on a new site I have consid- ered protection from the wind quite as im- portant as a good range or pasturage for the bees. We winter almost entirely out of doors ; but like other good things, this mat- ter of protection may be overdone. Mr. Halter wisely calls attention to this on page 56, Jan. 15. I have known a yard almost completely ruined by too much protection. A friend of mine built a high tight fence on the northwest and south sides of a small yard while his house was on the east side; and when the bright sunny March days came the bees flew, most of them never to return to their hives. The protection should be such that, as soon as the temperature of the yard becomes much warmer than the outside air, the air of the j-ard will rise, and the cool air from outside will quickly take its place, thus keeping the temperature of the vard near that outside. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Beekeeping in California p. C. Chadwick, Redlands, Cal. The women's number of Gleanings was a nice one, and I should like to make some comments on their ideas; but I have been a married man 17 years, so I pass. * * * Mr. J. W. George, at the State conven- tion, asked why the cotton of Imperial Val- ley does not yield honey. It occurred to me afterward that it must be due to the nectar being very thin and the climate veiy hot and dx'y, causing a condition much the same as in the orange districts when extremely hot weather causes the rapid evaporation of the thin nectar from the orange bloom. * * * J. E. Crane, p. 57, Jan. 15, says : " The ignorance of the great mass of beekeepers is past comprehension. So far as I can learn, not more than one in six, in some sections, ever read a bee journal of any kind." This reminds me of a friend who in- vited me to dinner with liim while at the recent State convention. On our way to the cafeteria he frankly (I like these frank open-hearted folks) opened Iris heart to tell me he had criticised me at a certain meeting for making a statement much like the above, saying he thought I was a little severe in the matter. Now Mr. Crane reports the same from his travels, and even a little worse. Bro. Crane, if any one has his doubts about the matter, let him take a simi- lar trip and be comdnced. » * • Western migratory beekeepers should study the question of sliipping bees without combs. The problem of having their bees quarantined, as some of our western bee- keepei^ have had theirs, might be overcome by having two sets of hives and combs, and sliipping the bees from one locality to an- other in full-swarm packages without combs. At a reasonable express rate it might be cheaper and fully as i^ro fit able to have a full swarm to begin on an alfalfa flow as to have a hive containing mostly brood to begin the work; for if I have been correctly in- formed it is a difficult matter to get the old bees through when transporting them with the hives and combs. The greatest difficulty would be when shipping back for the or- ange-flow, which would have to be done in the fall immediately after the alfalfa season was over, and to get enough natural stimu- lant to start a force of young bees for early spring breeding. The stores for winter could be reserved at the end of the orange-flow. I believe it would be worth a thorough trial at any rate. I have read with interest the discussion as to whether we should encourage more to keep bees or render more help to those al- ready in the business. My idea on the ques- tion would be to offer first aid to those in the business, and not encourage those not in to go in, for there is going to be a con- tinuous line of young enthusiasts enter from year to year, and they are the ones who need encouragement. Enthusiasm is half the battle, and is necessary to success in this line of business. One poor season will cure a bad case of bee fever where there is no enthusiasm to complicate the case; but where there is tliis complication, you may as well count the case incurable, and give every aid possible to the patient. I believe the teaching of apiculture in agricultural or even in high schools would be a most excel- lent line of knowledge for the general in- formation of a public that has little or no knowledge on the subject compared to other lines of knowledge. If we could overcome such expressions as " rob the bees," "strain- ed honey," and " bee gums," it would give a little higher conception of the business. I feel, however, that we are outgrowing those expressions to some extent. A correspondent recently wrote me, say- ing the brood-chambers of his hives were honey-bound, and asked what I would do to relieve the situation. Circumstances en- ter very largely into the case any way you may figure it. If, in my judgment, they had sufficient bees to cover an extra comb I would slip one in the center of their brood- nest, expecting the queen to lay it full of eggs at once if the breeding season were at hand. Then I would watch developments. If the eggs were laid as expected, and hon- ey coming in but very slowly, I should ex- pect that to relieve the situation ; and if, after the larvae in the new comb had reach- ed the stage where they were demanding the most stores, there should come two or three days of bad weather I would clap my hands and say, " Good ! eat it up," for that would give them additional relief. But if honey were coming in freely, and there were only a limited time until the main flow was at hand, I would extract some of the combs to relieve the situation and give the bees a chance to start brood-rearing as rapidly as possible. If there were very much brood started, and bad weather expected, I would be very careful to leave them plenty of stores to carry them safely. APRIL 15, 1913 Beekeeping in the Southwest Louis Scholl, New Braunfels, Texas. WORKING BEES BY MOTOR-BOAT. Not all beekeepers are so fortunately situated that they are enabled to carry out certain advanced ideas on a large scale. One of the chief ones of these is the man- agement of big strings of out-yards by means of the automobile. This is prevent- ed by two main reasons, as a rule — the lack of suitable locations on one hand and the want of better roads on the other, or both. Fortunate is the one who can locate any number of apiaries in easy access from good automobile roads. That is one of the greatest essentials in real up-to-date ex- tensive out-apiary management to-day. Of course this has no reference to the smaller number of apiaries owned by many bee- keepers who are successful with that num- ber. Grant Anderson, of San Benito, Texas, well known as a queen-breeder, has made use of two automobiles for a number of years. He uses a light high-wheeled buggj^, motor-driven, as a roadster in which to run to the various apiaries and other places when no hauling is to be done. For haul- ing trips he uses one of the light high- wheeled delivery wagons. These have giv- en liim excellent service and satisfaction, especially for pulling through muddy and sandy roads. In this respect the high-wheel- ed macliines seem to have an advantage. Recently we have been informed that Mr. Anderson has now all, or nearly all, his apiaries located on the banks of a river, and runs from one to another in a motor- boat. This would indicate still another step toward " hastening " beekeeping work in the management of large and numerous out-apiaries. It is to be hoped that the readers of Gleanings may be favored with an article and photos, showing this man's doings per motor vehicles and motor boats, for we have written Mr. Anderson to give us information. « * * A COLD SNAP. While we have had quite a cold winter in Texas this year, there was not much se- verely cold weather. The cold weather was much more evenly distributed than during most of our average winters, and only oc- casionally did it get so cold that standing water was frozen over, and then only to a thickness of less than an inch. During the last two months there was much warm weather during the middle part of the days; but as a rule the nights were quite cold. The latter did not alfect our early bloomers, however ; and, in fact, there were all evidences that spring was here in the fore part of March. This has reference to the central part of the Lone Star State, the northern part having had still colder temperatures. Against this, however, soutli- west Texas was enjoying real spring weath- er; and reports from the more southern portions of this territory were to the effect that bees were storing honey rapidly enough to keep them too busy to swarm. It will be remembered that a honey-flow at swarm- ing time stojDs all, or jDractically all, swarm- ing in our part of the South; hence these reports show that quite a honey yield must be on to prevent the early swarming that may safely be expected at this time, with a moderate jdeld of nectar and pollen. However, after all tliis beautiful weather and brighest prospects for a sj^ring crop, the temperature dropped suddenly to 28 degi'ees on March 15; and the result was disastrous. Especially did it atfeet the fruit bloom, which was in full bloAV. As a con- sequence, the fruit crop will necessarily be short again this year. While the bees were materially affected by the destruction of this source just at a time of heavy brood- rearing, 3'et the beekeeper may safely figure on a somewhat better market for his prod- ucts than when fruit is very plentiful. Al- though some beekeejDers do not seem to think that this has any effect on the honey market, our own experience has shown time and again that there is a sudden slackening in the demand for honey as soon as much fruit reaches the markets. We do not know how much the bees were affected. There was considerable young brood; and, owing to the warm days pre- vious to the cold snap, the bees were scat- tered out of cluster so that, as a conse- quence, brood was not protected properly against the suddenness of the cold wave. In addition to this there followed several days of cold weather, preventing the bees taking proper care of all the brood. There- fore we found some colonies carrying out some dead brood on the following warm days. All in all, however, the damage does not seem to be great, especially to those beekeepers who are paying close attention to the great amount of stores now needed by the heavy brood-rearing colonies. 252 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Conversations Avith Doolittle At Borodino, New York. WEALTH-PRODUCERS. " Mr. Doolittle, I came over to have a little chat with you about the middleman as a wealth-producer. We are hearing much at the present time about the high cost of living. Does not every one of the dealers add to the cost of living without producing any wealth? This question was brought up to my mind when I was thinking of buying my bee supplies for the coming honey har- vest. I find that, as a rule, I can get these goods no cheaper of the dealer than of the manufacturer; but the dealer must have quite a large slice out of the pockets of some one in order that he can be allowed to live in idleness. Why I say idleness is because a prominent political economist told me the other day that a trader or dealer adds noth- ing to the real wealth of society." " Suppose we ask the question. What is production? and who are the jDroducers of wealth? Take, for instance, the section material we need for use when we are en- gaged in the production of section honey. The man who takes a plank of wood and cuts section material from it is not the only producer who has brought human energy to bear upon it. The man who cut the tree up in the north woods of Michigan or Can- ada helped to produce that section. The man who drew the log to the mill, and the sawyer at the mill who sawed the log into plank, and the transportation company who transported it to the manufacturer of sec- tions; the party who took the finished sec- tions and put them down Avhere they were to be used, and the man who received them and held them in his storehouse until the beekeeper was ready to exchange the fruits of liis labors for them, all had a hand in the production of those sections. " Let us go a little further : Every one who put forth any energy in getting the section to the place of consumption was a producer of sections so far as that section and the individual consumer were con- cerned ; for to leave any of them out would deprive the consumer of his sections at the proper time and place. You live in central New York, and the section was made at Medina, Ohio, we will say. That section would be of no use to you until it found its way to central New York. And it seems almost ridiculous for me to say to a man of your intelligence that this section could come through the regular channels of trade cheaper for you than in any other way. It is true that you might stop work and walk out to Medina and bring the section back in your pocket; but I will not insult you by saying that such a method would prove more expensive than to have it carried by a ' soulless railroad corporation ' at the di- rection of the so-called * useless middleman.' No : the dealer is not an idler by any means. " Let us look at the finished product of our section honey for a moment. Where did such production begin, and where did it end? Are the bees the producers, or is the man who manipulates the bees the chief and only factor in the production of honey in sections? When is this production com- pleted? and when does the act of produc- tion cease and that of consumption begin? Is it not plain that production ceases when the honey is in the iiands of the consumer, and not before? If this is so, then every man or woman who had any part in getting the honey in the hands of the consumer is a real producer. " Then there is a point as regards the dealer in honey, which is almost always overlooked. The dealer, as a rule, helps create a desire for our finished product, and, therefore, has much to do with the production of section honey. Whatever sat- isfies human desire can properly be called wealth; and if there were none desiring our honey it would, to say the least, be a use- less production which we should be in. There must be a desire for our finished section honey before it can be called wealth ; therefore the dealer or ' drummer ' who cre- ates a desire for our product must of ne- cessity be called a producer. " It is apparent from this that the dealer is valuable in more ways than one. He not only helps to sell our product by creating a want for it, but he brings goods to the jDoint of consumption at less cost than they could be brought by the consumer, and at a saving of time. He keeps on hand ready for the consumer such goods as he may want, and at the time he wants them. Tliis relieves the consumer of all anxiety and responsibility, and he has the use of the money up to the very time when he is ready for the article he needs. The nearer the article is to him when he is ready for it, the longer he can wait before he gets it. The dealer has to assume all the risk; and any man who knows any thing about the honey business knows that this is no small item. There is a possibility that we may have too many dealers — that some of these dealers are over-reaching and unwise. But it is sometimes well to ask ourselves these ques- tions, else we become uncharitable." APRIL 15. 1913 General Correspondence SUGAR SYRUP VS. HONEY Mr. Byer Makes his Position Clear, and at the Same Time Shows that he is in Harmony with the Rest of the Beekeeping World BY J. L. BYER Gleanings for March 1 is just at hand; and as I read the editorial comment re- garding that note of mine concerning the value of syrup as compared to good honey as to lasting qualities, I rubbed my eyes and hastily turned to ''Notes from Canada" to see what foolish things I had been writ- ing to put me " practically in opposition to all the rest of the fraternity." N"ow, while I would rather enjoy being in such a unique position as that, if sure that I was right and all the other fellows wrong, in this case I have not the slightest idea that such is the case, as I personally know that a large number of extensive beekeepers who have to feed lots of sugar every fall are right in line with me on this question. In the first place, I want to say that, all things considered, I do not think there is any thing quite so good for bees — certainly nothing better — than first-class honey sealed in the combs. Secondly, I believe that for our cold climate there is nothing in general practice that we can depend upon for safe wintering so good as thick syrup made from the best quality of sugar; and I am and have been right along an advocate of heavy feeding for winter if we wish to be sure of wintering successfully in our cold climate. Why this apparent contradiction"? Simply because, under modern methods of extract- ed-honey production, we can not have any great quantity of first-class honey in the brood-nests after the supers are off. In- deed, in most cases there will be little hon- ey of any kind; and what there is will be of late gathering, which is usually inferior to clover or basswood honey for wintering purposes. The saving of combs of clover honey for winter is not practical, and is not economical when colonies are kept by the hundred; as, for the winter months alone, good well-ripened syrup is equal to or better than the best honey. For spring I prefer the honey by all means, especially if the weather is too bad to allow free gath- ering of pollen. Kow, while I am right with the editor as regards the advisability of feeding sugar syrup for winter stores, the point of differ- ence is the comparative values of a pound of syrup in a feeder versus a pound of good honey already sealed in the combs. I say that it takes a pound of sugar in a feeder to equal a pound of sealed honey, while he contends that a pound of syrup has this value. The word " syrup " is very indefi- nite unless density of the same is mentioned ; and whatever he may have had in view, I am referring to a syrup made of two parts of sugar to one of water, that being the proportion I always use for fall feeding. While I have no figures to back up my contention in this matter, a lot of actual ex- perience, often with a lean poeketbook to make me very careful in the matter, has convinced me thoroughly that it takes a pound of sugar when made into synxp, and fed, to equal a pound of sealed honey; and I now always figure on that basis when preparing for winter. If any one wishes to try the experiment in a simple way he can try the following, as I did more than once when at different times I had bees giv- en to me in the fall, the owners not wishing to feed up colonies practically destitute of stores. Tliis was when I was getting bees wherever I could, and at a time when they were more easy to get than is now the ease. Strong colonies of bees were shaken on empty combs, and brought home to be fed up for winter. In some eases, when I had combs of honey on hand, they would be given these; but generally I had to feed them sugar syrup for wintering. At that time I believed that two-to-one syrup was equal, pound for pound, with sealed honey; but I soon got my eyes opened on the ques- tion. I would feed these destitute bees the 30 lbs. of syrup made by the two-to-one plan; and every time I would have to look after those colonies in the early spring to prevent starvation, while the colonies wi^h 30 pounds of sealed honey would have enough to cany them through. After a few experiences of this kind I began to investi- gate; and while I believe that a pound of syrup sealed in the comb will equal at least a pound of honey, that is an altogether different proposition from saying that a pound of syrup in a feeder equals a poimd of sealed honey, as we all know that 30 pounds of syrup will not weigh nearly that much three weeks after it has been given to a colony. This shrinkage is very heavy — just why, I can not say definitely; but I suspect that quite a bit is lost in wax secre- tion, as whenever bees are fed they seem to secrete wax scales, whether comb-building is necessary or not. So as a matter of fact a colony fed a given amount of syrup is not as heavy to start out with as is the colony with sealed honey in the hive equal in GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE weight to the one we endeavor to bring up to standard by feeding syrup. Any one testing this must be sure that they have the amount of honey to start with, as very often about 20 pounds of honey and 10 pounds of pollen pass for 30 pounds of honey. As I said at the start, I personally know that many of our heaviest producers now agi-ee with me on this question; and, in- deed, it is not so many years ago that I contended that tliick syrup in a feeder equaled sealed honey pound for pound. Mr. John Newton, of Thamesford, Out., was ar- g-uing with Mr. Sibbald and myself at a convention on this matter, and we both dis- puted his claim vigorously when he claimed that a pound of sugar was necessary to equal a pound of sealed syrup; but much against my will I have been forced to agTee with him ; for in so far as the puree is con- cerned, I certainly wish that such were not the case. But even on the basis of a pound of sugar to equal a i^ound of sealed honey, we still get mighty good value for the change. Just now, if I had good honey to sell I could easily get 12 cts. a pound for it, and I can buy the best granulated sugar wholesale at 41/2 cents a pound. In conclusion, then, I certainly advise and practice feeding syrup for our cold winters, both as a matter of security and economy; but I am perfectly satisfied that for " our locality " it takes a pound of su- gar mixed with half a pound of water to equal a pound of good sealed honey. Mount Joy, Ont., Canada. [When Mr. Byer in his department on page 141, March 1, put out a challenge to the editor in this langaiage, " Surely you do not believe that a pound of syrup will go as f ai- as a pound of good honey ? " and thfen further on in the same item says, " While I have to feed lots of sugar syrup some falls, certainly I do not place that proi^ortionate value on the syrup as com- pared with honey," we naturally concluded he was making the comparison under like conditions. That is to say, we thought he was contending that a pound of sealed hon- ey in the combs was much superior to a pound of sugar syrup sealed in the comb; but in the article above he now makes it very plain that Avhat he meant was that a pound of syrup before it is fed would not equal a pound of honey sealed in the combs. This being his position we nearly agree with him. We do not know, however, that we are quite prepared to believe that it takes a full pound of sugar, when made into a two- to-one syrup in a feeder, to equal a pound of honey sealed in the combs. A good deal would depend on what time of the year this syrup is fed. If it were very late in the fall, when it is cold, and were given in one large feederful, say 25 lbs., our opinion is that the loss would not be as great as he estimates. If, however, he fed this two-to- one syrup early in the fall, then we are quite prepared to believe that it would take fully a pound of sugar in the feeder to equal a iDound of honey sealed in the combs. All in all, we doubt if there is any difference of opinion between us, now that we under- stand each other. In all events, we are glad to i3lace in this connection a short item from Mr. R. F. Holtermann, who supports the position taken by Mr, Byer. — Ed.] Regarding the value of honey and sugar syrup, I consider that, from experience with honey and syrup side by side, as a winter store the sugar syrup is the safer winter food for bees. If, however, we feed and want a colony to gain, saj'^, 20 lbs. of stores,' I estimate the quantity by the number of pounds of sugar in the syrup rather than the weight of the syrup. For instance, if I want a gain of 20 lbs. I take 20 lbs, of sugar, and make it into a syrup, and feed it to gain the desired weight. The percent- age of waste is greater when a less amount is fed, and in my estimation (and I act on this in practice) I never think it worth while to feed less than 10 lbs. of syrup with the object of securing a gain in weight worth while. Rapid feeding is also desir- able to keep colonies from starting brood- rearing, and to prevent unnecessary waste in storing and ripening the syrup. Brantford, Ont. R. F. Holtermann. HONEYBEES AND POLLINATION The Wind of Little Value in Pollinating Fruit-trees BY GEORGE H. WEST The conclusions of all eminent horticul- turists agree on the necessity of the honey- bee in orchards for effective eross-poUina- tion, large fruit crops, and perfect fruit. The result of exhaustive experiments and observations, covering over twenty years, shows that most of our tree fruits ai'e self- sterile — that is, they either produce no fruit from the pollen of their own blossoms (or that from the bloom of the same variety), or but a small amount of fruit, and this largely under-sized or defective. Self-pol- lination would be such as the wind might give, while cross-pollination would be bloom fertilized by the pollen from other varieties of the same species, and by insect visitation. Waugh, of Massachusetts, demonstrated APRIL 15, 1913 255 that plum pollen is not transmitted through the air in sufficient quantities to ensure self- IDollination. Profs. Lewis and Vincent (Oregon State Agricultural College, Bulle- tin No. 104), experimented with plums, and reached the same conclusions. Their experi- ments on the action of the wind in apple pollination with varieties known to grow abundant j5ollen at the height of their bloom, and with a strong wind blowing, shoAved no effective deposit of pollen twen- ty feet from the trees and nine feet from the ground, nor thirty feet away, and at a height of six feet. The writer's belief, from observation of some forty years in Colorado, where we liave much wind, is that the winds are a positive damage to effective apple pollina- tion. We have often observed apple trees that had little or no fruit on the north and west sides (from av hence our prevailing winds). The deduction was that the pollen and petals were blown away. But we not- ed, also, later, that bees rarely visit blos- soms when the pollen is gone, hence no proper fertilization and little fruit. For verification we cite the experiments of Lewis and Vincent, where all the petals and sta- mens were removed from the 1500 blossoms on a seven-year apple tree, leaving it ex- posed to both the wind and insect visita- tion. This tree was 20 feet from another that bloomed profusely. Out of the 1500 blossoms emasculated, only five set fruit. During the whole period (days) that the pistils of these blossoms were receptive, only eight bees visited the tree. More than twice that number were seen in one half-hour on the tree twenty feet away. Certainly the forest trees and bushes, and most of our field crops, seem to secure proper pollination by the winds; but all authorities now agree that our tree fruits secure it effectively only by insect visits. If the theory is true, that all bloom which, in the economy of nature, supply nectar, re- quire insect visits for effective fertilization and reproduction, tlien the bees wliich gath- er honey so largely from alfalfa clover are a necessary factor in growing alfalfa seed. Prof. M. B. Waite, United States Depart- ment of Agi-iculture, Bulletin No. 5, " The Pollination of Pear Flowers," made experi- ments to determine the value of insect vis- itors in pear pollination. Of 36 varieties of pears tested on 142 trees, only nine proved self-fertile above five per cent. The experi- ments showed a great increase, both in the yield and size of the fruit, from cross-fer- tilization. Waite says, " It hfis been proved that cold weather, during the flowering pe- riod, renders some plants incapable of self- fecundation, although they still retain the ability to be cross-fecundated." Obser\ a- lions by growers in Indiana and Utah con- firm the truth, also, that cross-poUinized apples have more vitality to resist freezing weather and insect and fungous injury. Waite says, "Apples ai'e more inclined to be sterile to their own pollen than the pears. * * * * 111 the majority of eases no fruit resulted from self-polliration." The experiments of Prof. S. W. Fletcher, Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station ; of Prof. A. J. Cook, Horticultural Commis- sioner of California; of Profs. Lewis and Vincent, and others, all reach the same con- clusions. They give little value to pollina- tion by wind, and all give due credit to' the busy bee. Fletcher's experiments show- ed that Bartlett peai-s, on 3081 tests fer- tilized with their own pollen, produced only six small pears, or one fruit to 513 blos- soms; while with pollen from other vari- eties it grew one fruit from seven to ten blossoms, and these pears were over fifty per cent larger in size. Also, the Kieffer pear, on 1268 blossoms fertilized with its own pollen, greiv but five fruits, or one to 263; while on cross-pollination, with other varieties, it yielded one fruit from three to seven blossoms. In the Lewis and Vincent tests, self-pol- linated Spitzenberg apples proved inferior in size, and ill-shaped, compared with the cross apples, and were practically devoid of plump seeds. On the yellow Newtown apple tests the results were the same, except that the average Aveight of the seeds from the cross-fertilized apples was forty-six times greater than from the self-fertilized fruit. Imperfect pollination can not produce per- fect fruit. It is often " lop-sided." Oregon circular bulletin No. 20 says, " Careful experiments have shown that very little if any pollen of our tree fruits, other than nut-trees, is transported by the wind. Probably 99 per cent or more of the trans- fer of pollen is done by insects. Prime among these may be mentioned the honey- bee." The Bureau of Entomology, Wasliing-fon, says the annual value of honey produced in the United States is $20,000,000; but that the service the bees render in fertiliz- ing the blossoms of fruit trees is worth many times twenty million dollars a year. The bloom period of tree fruits is very short. The winds waste the pollen ; the rain Avashes it from the blossoms, and drouth in- jures it. The pollination period is often greatly shortened by rains or cloudy days^ when the bees do little work. For their "256 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE greatest effective work, the hives of bees should be in the orchards, and perhaps near tliose varieties that are the hea\-3^ pollen- bearers. Some honeybees work at night in Colorado and Idaho. Growers there think -one average hive of thrifty bees for each two acres of mature orchard necessary for •effective pollination. The hairy covering of the body and leg's of the honeybees, and their brushes and combs for gathering and carrying the pollen, make their visits more etlficient than those of other insects. From some flowers the bees take only nectar; fi-om others, only pollen; and some bees at times gather nectar alone, and others pollen alone; for bees make their pollen-collecting trips during the morning hours (Cast eel). The harmony of nature and the divine law is shown in these facts, that the tree- fruits bloom early, each in its own time and order, so that each gets its own pollen, and at a season when the honeybees are usually most of the flying insects present. They are numerous, active, and are insatiable and untiring gatherers of both nectar and pollen from the fiTiit blossoms. Then the rapidity and great increase in numbers of the bees is another favoi'ing factor. Chas. A. Green (Rochester, N. Y.), the well-known horticulturist, suggests that a single honeybee may \dsit 100,000 blossoms in gathering an ounce of honey; while D. C. Polhemus, a Colorado apiarist, says that a bee visits about 125,000 blossoms in mak- ing a pound of honey. If either estimate be true, and there are some 100,000 bees to every tlu'ifty hive, surely effective cross- pollination could be secured with a liive to each two acres. The use of bees in greenhouses, for fer- tilizing the bloom of vegetables gi-own for early markets, has been long a recognized necessity. The demand for bees for cross- fertilizing orchards is insistent. It should be a universal practice. Colorado Springs, Col. HOW TO PUT IN BOTTOM STARTERS BY EMMA WILSON Dr. C. C. Miller: — Several times I have tried to put bottom starters into sections, but could never make a success of it. With full-size foundation I have no difficulty. My Daisy foundation-fastener is of the old style, with a high rounded top coming above the section. To facilitate the removal I cut a deep groove into which I can insert a finger 1 p- hind the foundation, and with the end of the finger support this, while I take the section away. However, with the bottom start«rs it is different. The block (against which the foundation rests) al- ways gets very warm, and covered with a waxy film to v.liich the ho'.; an starter adheres, so that, when I remove the section, the starter either sticks to the block or drops over backward, and, in the latter case, if I try to raise it up it comes loose from the section. Wm. Muth-Rasmussen. Independence, Cal., Jan. 20. Dr. Miller has placed this in my hands for I'eply, saying that it is much more in my line than his. Putting in bottom starters is so easy for me that it is almost done mechanically. Still, I can imagine conditions that would make it difficult. We use the same style of Daisy foundation-fastener that you do, and I can not see why you need to cut any groove or need any support from behind in putting in the large top starter. Now as to that troublesome bottom start- er. I wonder if the chief difficulty is not that you cut the starter too naiTow. Even so good an authoritj^ as A B C and X Y Z of Bee Culture gives the depth ^ or % inch. We find % inch the best depth. If the starter is too narrow it is much harder to fasten in, and the bees will be apt to gnaw it down. It seems to me a 14-inch starter would be veiy difficult to handle, and even an experienced workman would make very poor work with any thing so small. The bottom starter is always fast- ened in first. If foundation must be put in during very- warm weather, use the early morning hours for the work, and keep the foundation as cool as possible. Do not allow the wood of the section to become heated. If this hap- pens, take a fresh section, and allow the heated one to cool. The quicker the work is done, the better; so, if possible, do not get nervous over it, as it will help a whole lot if you yourself can keep cool too. I will now ti-y to tell, as well as I can, just how it is done at Marengo. Take a section upside down with the right hand. Place it on the machine; then with the thumb of the left hand at the bottom of the section at the left end, and fingers of the same hand at the top, push the section and machine back so that the section will be under the plate, and at the same time pick up the bottom starter from the lap with the right hand. Put the starter in place against the block with the edge resting on the plate, keeping the tip of each fore fin- ger ]n-essing lightly on the top edge of each end of the starter. Then veiy quickly pull back so that the starter will slip off the hot plate, and hold in position not more than a second. If the work has been done quick- ly so that the wood of the section has not been heated, tlie foundation will cool in that lime so as to hold firmly when the setion is reversed to put in the top starter. Marengo, 111. APRIL 15, 1913 Fig. 1. — Old style of pound package for shipping bees witliout combs. SHIPPING BEES IN POUND PACKAGES WITH- OUT COMBS New and Old style Cages ; Construction of Cages, and How to Prepare Bees for Shipment BY E. R. IJCOT There is no one subject, perhaps, that has been introduced during the last six or eight months that has called forth more corres- pondence than the one now before us; viz., liow to sliip bees without combs for the pur- pose of saving express charges, and elim- inating the possibilities of transmitting dis- ease. For years we have sent bees in pound and half-pound packages; but it has been only witliin the past two years that we have attained any degree of success. Some fif- teen or twenty years ago. when we shipped bees in this manner we lost fully fifty per cent during transit — so much so that we finally gave the business up in disgust. But two years ago it seemed to be more important than ever that we should devise some scheme by which we could send bees without combs, on account of the general prevalence of bee disease; for combs are I he chief means for the transmission of in- fection from yard to yard and from one kxality to another. Indeed, we may say t!iat, were it not for the moving of hives of bees from one place to another, foul brood would be confined to a comparativelv narrow area. But it has been pretty defi- nitely proven that bees shaken or brushed from combs may be placed in any clean hive or package without danger of carrying dis- ease. In fact, the basic principle for the treatment of foul brood is the separation of the combs and honey from the bees having foul brood. The pound package calls for neither combs nor honey; and, what is more, a given portion of bees can be shipped witliout them at about one-fourth the ex- pense for express charges that would be re- cjuired were combs sent. But it may be argued here that the combs may contain brood, and that tliis brood will hatch into bees. On the other hand, we may say that all " unsealed " brood will be removed or starved. Unless bees have water given to them en route at frequent intervals they will not take care of their unsealed larvae. But the shipment of brood in any form in- volves the danger of carrying disease; and the time may come when legislation will entirely bar out the traffic in bees with combs. In the mean time it behooves all shippers of bees on combs to take extra caution to see that their yards are clean, and, so far as possible, encourage the pur- chase of bees in combless packages, or what has been popularly termed " pound pack- ages." We said a little way back that, during tlie last year, we have been quite successful in shipping bees in pound packages, when GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTQRE Fi(j. 2. — Oiio-pound cage dissected, sliowing internal construction of new style. our earlier experiineuls were any thing but satisfactory. The cause of our former fail- ures we now know was due to two condi- tions— lack of water in hot weather and the absence of suitable supports in place of combs for the cluster. Years ago shipment of bees in pound packages during hot weather was nearly always attended with loss, requiring at least fifty per cent of replacement. During the past summer we discovered that we could eliminate this loss almost entirely by giving the bees a bottle of water. In some cases Fig. 3. -New style one-pound cage for shipping without combs. there was a failure be- cause the bottle did not feed the water fast enough. The most suit- able container for the water seems to be an or- dinary self-sealing tin can. The top of the can (or what will be the bot- tom), after filling with water, is perforated by a hole a little larger than one made by a good-sized pin. This bottle, after the case is filled with bees, is secured to a wooden cap that closes the hole in the top of the cage. See Fig. 1. The middle cage shows a tin can with a perfora- tion in the bottom. Across the top is soldered a sheet of tin. This acts as a sup- port for the bottle after it is inverted and set down in the hole in the cage. A wooden cap covers the Iiole. The style of tin bottle shown in Fig. 1 is not used now — that is to say, we now employ a regular self-sealing can instead, the bottom of which is secured to a wooden cap that closes up the hole in the cage. The other requirement we found neces- sary was some means of sujiport for the bees while in transit. Years ago we dump- ed the bees into a wire-cloth box, when they would shortly form into a cluster like a little swarm, thus hanging on to each other for the whole trip. While bees can hang in the form of a swarm for a short time, ex- perience has shown that it is more natural for them to hang on to something, and why notf Just notice how a swarm will show an inclination for a large bushy limb witli little limbs projecting in all directions. With that idea in view we instructed one of our men to make uj? some cages with a series of wooden slats passing centrally through the cage. In Fig. 1 these slats are shown only indistinctly; but in the more modern cages (see Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) the slatwork consists of a series of fences — slats about % inch wide, and spaced about half an inch apart. A series of these fences are slipped down into grooves in the ends of tlie cages. See Fig. 2. Two of the central fences are cut out to make room for the water-bottle, as will be seen. In this connection it is proper to remark that the cages shown in Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5, G APRIL 15, 1913 are much better aixl stronger than the old style shown in Fig 1; and, moreover, when the water-bottle is mounted in place, the strap handle will always keep the cage right side up and the water-bottle right side down so that it will always feed water. In the old-style cage the bottle would be on its side, and when half empty would not feed water, as will be seen by the mid- dle cages in Fig. 1. The new-stylo cages with solid top, bottom, and ends braced with the transverse fences and the cross-cleats over the wire cloth on the two sides, make a very strong cage — one that might stand the rough handling of i^ar- eel post, providing bees could be shipped that way. The water-bot- tle in the cage of the half-pound and the five-pound size is station- ed in the center of the cage. See Figs. 'A and 6. In the one and two pound sizes it is placed at one side. See Figs. 2. 4, 5. In Figs. 4, 5, 6 will be noticed little cake- lins placed on top of the cage at one or both ends. These are filled with ordinary queen-cage candy made by mixing powdered sugar and honey that has been thoroughly sterilized, and then kneaded into a stiff dough. These cake-tins are filled level full of the candy, inverted, and nailed over a longitudinal slit in the top. See Fig. 2. The larger-sized cages require, of course, more candy and larger containers, and all of them require water in hot weather. HOW TO PUT BEES INTO THE CAGES. There has been a raft of inquiries as to hoiv we get the bees into these pound cages. This is a very simple matter. Just suppose we are go- ing to put up a two- pound package of bees. We take a package of suitable size, put it on a pair of scales having an adjustable dial to take off the tare. Then we set the pointer back to zero. We now open a hive wliich the records show is capable of fill- ing this order, and yet leave sufficient bees to take care of the brood. We next find the frame the cjueen is on, and Fig. 4. — Two-pound size, new style, without combs. ;i set it down beside the hive. We now take a position as shown in Fig. 7, with a spe- cially constructed funnel having a large ob- long top and a small contracted opening at the bottom just large enough to insert in one of the round holes in the top of the cage. The frame is inserted in the funnel as shoAvn, and given one quick shake, dis- lodging four-fifths of the bees. As the in- side of the funnel is smooth, the bees slide right down easily into the cage. Another frame is shaken in like manner; and when the pointer on the scales registers two liounds, exclusive of the tare taken off, the Fig. 5. — Three-pound size, new style, without combs. 260 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Fig. 6. — Five-pound size. funnel is remov'ed. If bees are gathering honey freely we add 25 per cent to their weight so as to give full measure. After the bees are all shaken into the cage, the last operation is to pick the queen off the comb that has been set aside, and gently drop her among her subjects in the cage. But it very often happens in the early part of the season that it is better to till an order from four or five different hives. To take two, three, or even only one pound of bees from a colony in the spring is a se- vere drain on them. Sometimes we fill a package from three or four different hives. That, of course, means we will have in the cage as many different lots of bees. How about the queen? In nine cases out of ten any queen from any hive may be dropped into such a heterogeneous mass of bees, and be accepted without any further trouble; but because of that one failure out of ten we now make it a rule to use a virgin-introducing cage with a plug of can- dy in it, and into this we put the queen. The introducing-cage is secured to the wooden cap that covers the filling hole. In four or five hours the bees will be ready to accept their queen — that is to say, they cat out the candy and release her. So far we have been able to ship bees durr ing the hottest weather in summer, provid- ing we use water-bottles properly arranged so that they will feed water during the en- lire trip. We have already published re- ports of how we have shipped bees success- fully to Oregon, Florida, Maine, and many other points, with the loss of scarcely a bee.* But it is exceedingly important that the candy be made just right. A candy that is too soft will run down and daub the bees. A candy that is too hard the bees can not eat. It must be just right. We make up a batch of candy about a month before we expect to use it. We let it stand in a warm room; and if it begins to spread in the pan or on the molding-board, after standing two weeks in warm weather, more powdered sugar is kneaded in. If, after a week or ten days, it seems to be soft and moist so that it can be indented by a pres- sure of the finger, and yet will hold its position without " running " on the mold- ing-board, it is then fit to use. A word about the sugar. Be sure to get powdered sugar without starch in it. We anticipate that the pound packages of bees we illustrate, or those embodying tliese principles, will be a nice business for * We shipped one three-pound package of bees to Guelph, Canada, last winter, when the temperature was nearly down to zero. About one-third were dead on arrival. The expressman probably felt Sor- ry for them, and set them against a steam-radiator. We don't believe the cold killed the one-third that were dead. APRIL 15, 1913 Fig. 7. — Method of putting bees in the cages. beekeei^ers all over the country. It will make an interchange of bees possible from one locality to another without danger of transmitting disease, and at the same time reduce the cost of express charges down to a mere trifle. It will also make it possible for the extensive beekeeper to ship a thou- sand colonies in a carload from the South to the North as against only 250 colonies on combs in hives. But do not let any one be foolish enough to try to ship a carload of bees in pound packages until the thing has been tried out more thoroughly in small ex- press shipments. We expect to send fifteen or twenty colonies to Des Moines in three and five pound packages, as shown in Fig. 6. The express on these will be about one- fourth what it would be on full colonies. The bees will be shaken on frames of foun- dation toward night. The entrances will be closed with perforated zinc. Now right here is a danger. Where possible, bees in pound packages should be let loose on a frame of unsealed brood. Where one al- ready has bees in the yard, he can secure his brood from other colonies; but in the ease of a beginner who has absolutely no bees, he will have to let them loose on foun- dation, and watch them carefully next day, as they may swarm out. Of course, bees that are let loose on foundation should be fed a thin syrup. Another question here has been often asked — " How are you going to get the bees out of the cage on the frames'?" Smoke the bees a trifle, and pry off the cleats on the side; remove the wire cloth, and lay the cage flatwise down on the frames. Put on an extra super, then the cover. In tAvo hours the bees will come down on to the combs. If the bees have a frame of honey, or, bet- ter, one of unsealed brood, they will go down immediately. If only bare founda- tion, they will show a tendency to cling to their cage several hours, when they will gradually work downward. Now one more caution. Do not try to ship bees by parcel post. It is forbidden by the regulations, and under present condi- tions it will not be possible to get the bees through alive in the ordinary parcel-post mail-bags. So do not try it under any con- ditions. These special cages may be obtained of the dealers. But better not try to make up your ow-n cages, as your first experiment may be a light fragile affair that will not stand ordinary usage in the express car. We have so far omitted to say that, along with every package, is a live-bee tag with instructions to the express man to keep the bees out of the sun, away from steam-pipes, and from exposure to unnecessaiy cold. BEEKEEPING IN SOUTH RUSSIA BY AUGUST DE MALACHOWSKI I am sending you some photos* of my hives in Russia, and a drawing of one of my " Elita " hives, as well as my Eureka feed-trough. I shall not dwell long on the description of my hives, because the draw- ing shows the same sufficiently. There only remains for me to say that the hives are constructed of spruce, one inch thick. These hives have been giving me complete satis- faction for some years ; and even tliis year, which was very bad for honey-making, and during which the bees did not make cells in the Dadant-Blatt hives, my Elita were full of honey, and I obtained more than 55 lbs. of honey. My frames are also another peculiarity. The interior size of the brood-frame is 8I/2 inches wide by 17 high; and for the super. * One of the photographs sent is used as our cover picture for this issue. — Ed. JG2 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 8^/4 X 8^/2 inches. I arrange so as (o put into the large frame two smaller ones that fit into the super. Once my frame is di- \ ided in two, I can at any moment remove the contents of the frames or transport to the super a part of the honey, put the brood-combs below, etc. I make these inte- rior frames in the sectional style, of boards about 14 inch thick. I have many of these frames ready with wax foundation, and I use them even with ray Elita hives, or with my brick hives when needed. This is extremely practical in api- culture, because, having these frames in the super filled with honey, after making a springlime visit and noting that the bees are short of honey, nothing is easier than lo give them one of these surjilus combs of honey. The engravings show that I have some brick hives. There are four colonies in each house. Each colony has a wooden hive covered on two sides with moss or fine straw, and entirely covered by some boards in order that the mice maj- not enter. These hives are very jDractical, because the bees winter in them very well on account of the even temperature. All my hives without exception, even the Jadant-Blalt, are furnished witli my Eu- reka feed-troughs, wliich have given me en- tire satisfaction, and are so practical that one can feed the colonies at any time with- out opening the hives. I fill a bottle, ecjuip- Latest moik-1 >>i Malachow skis. luve. " Elita." with " Eureka " feeder. ped with a small aluminum tube, with syrup or diluted honey. If it is cold weatlier I heat it a little; and when I turn the bottle upside down in the ti'ough I can then see in a few moments that the bees are quickly eating the honey by the bubbles of air which come up. This is very practical, especially in the spring time, in order to stimulate brood-rearing. I can feed an apiary with TOO hives in half an hour at the most. I make my feeders in the house; and, moreover, if the hive is thick or has double walls I only lengthen the tube. As there are only two small openings to allow the syrup to pass through, the bees can not enter into the tube. This is the feeder that I reconmerd, es- pecially to my co-workeis in apiculture in America; and by using the same you will find that you will be very well satisfied. Odessa, Russia. BEES AND THE PARCEL POST BY R. W. COBB Tlie old type of hive equipped with box feeder. In Gleaxixgs for January 15 and Feb- ruary 15 the possibilities of shipping bees by parcel post in one-pound packages or cages is commented upon by the editor. It is a very interesting subject to me, as my oecuiDation for the past ten years has been GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE One of the first models of Malachowski's liive, " Elita." that of a railway postal clerk. I have given this much thought ever since The A. I. Root Co. shipped the two carloads of bees from Florida last spring. Excellent time for freight service was made; but had there been a method for shipping by parcel post the expense would have been cut tremen- dously, and the time on the road materially lessened. I have always been in favor of the i^arcel-post system, and am more so since its inception; but having seen so much of the practical side of shipping packages of all descriptions by mail, it must be ad- mitted that we beekeepers, with our pres- ent ec|uipment, are far from being prepar- ed to reap any advantages in this line from parcel post. Before any attempt is made to shi]) a nucleus or even a half-pound or a one- pound package of bees by mail, provision should be made for a receptacle to combine four qualities. First, strength; second, ventilation ; third, protection to the bees ; fourth, protection to those who handle it. Tins means we can not use an ordinaiy wire cage, such as the express companies are now accepting. Neither can we use a package such as Mr. J. A. Kreighbaum describes, p. 132, Feb. 15. Wliile he has partly solved the ventilation problem by proriding the air-space between the two walls, he has neglected to protect both ends and both sides. I infer from his de- scription that a board was placed over the top, and a piece of heavy felt on the bot- tom; but no i^rotection is afforded either end or either side against the possibility of a hole being made through the two walls of wire cloth. There is his weak point. While ninety-nine cages like that will travel safely by mail, the one hundredth one will meet with an accident and cause untold trouble. Btit few people realize the great number of times a piece of mail is handled from the time of mailing until reaching destination, and the strain necessarily imposed upon it. In the case of bees, each handling means an additional jar and a consequent ruffling of their tempei-s, and the liability of the postal employee being stung. The postal laws and reg-ulations require all mail to be dispatched from postoffices to trains and vice versa in mail-sacks which are closed tightly to guard against any loss of mail. Hence the instant a parcel is dropped into a mail-sack its identity is lost until the sack is reopened. During tliis time the package of bees will be in various positions in the same sack. For instance, at o!^e time it may be right side up ; again, it may be on its side, and still later it may jVPKIL 15. 1913 /iiVL Body FOR. seve/v FRAMES J-fORIZOMTAL SECTIOA/ OF TN£ j/F/RT/CAL Section I I Rear View OF Hive. ^ FEEDER IZ-^/8- be ujDside down. With the express com- panies it would not be out of sight at any time, but in the same position all the time. The aboAe-mentioned conditions will hold, no matter how many caution or fragile no- tices the packages may be endorsed with. I can now bring out my point by a single illustration, somewhat lengthy, but showing practically the exact number of times a package would be handled in transit. We will assume that The A. I. Root Co. at Medina, Ohio, mailed a package of bees to go b}' parcel post to Mr. Doolittle, at Borodino, N. Y. The postmaster at Me- dina places the bees in a sack with other second, third, and fourth class matter, and dispatches it by wagon to a railroad depot at Medina. It is then taken from the wag- on at the depot and placed on a truck, and wheeled across the station platform and put on the train, where the postal clerk opens it and makes proper separation of the mail. The bees are then placed in a sack which is labeled " Xew York," along with all other mail for that State. At Cleveland the sack is taken oi¥ this train and placed on a truck with many others, and wheeled across the station plat- form to a wagon awaiting the arrival of this train. It is then placed in the wagon and transferred across the city to the depot of the L. S. & M. S. railroad. Here the con- tents of the wagon are sorted, and each in- aividual sack placed on a truck with ouier sacks for the same State, and then wheeled to the car of the train into which they are loaded. As the sacks are taken into the car by the men, they are placed in a pile until each individual sack can be sorted. That is, all the sacks labeled " N. Y. State " are placed in one pile, and those labeled "Mass- achusetts " in another pile, and so on. In the New York pile there may be anjrvphere from ten to forty sacks full of mail. The sack containing the bees may be on the top, in the middle, or perhaps at the bottom of the pile. The next procedure is, distribut- ing these sacks — that is, dispatching each individual piece of mail to its proper des- tination. This time the sack containing the bees is carried from the pile in which it was placed when taken aboard the train, and contents dumped on a table, so as to be readily accessible to the postal clerk, who places the bees in a sack labeled " Syracuse & Rochester R. P. 0." (railway postofRee). Before arrival at Syracuse the sack is tak- en out of the rack in which it was suspend- ed, and placed in a pile of mail to be put off at that point. It is then loaded on to another truck and wheeled across the depot platform to the " Syracuse and Rochester " GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE train, where it is taken into the car and goes through the same process of being piled in with several other sacks which are to be distributed on this train. Here the bees are placed in a sack of mail for Borodino, and eventually put off at that place and carted to the postoffice, where the sack is opened, and bees delivered to Mr. Doo- little. During this time the bees have been on their journey less than fifteen hours, and have been handled a great many times ; yet only three persons knew the contents of the mail-sacks. Mr. Kreighbaum's recep- tacle practically requires that every person handling a sack of mail know its contents — a condition which is impossible. I think fi-om the foregoing that any one can understand why the receptacle should be firm, strong, and well built. The strain which has been imposed upon it has been enormous. Should it be unfortunate enough to have had an extra-heavy weight placed upon it, causing some portion to spring, or a hole have been made, allowing the bees their freedom, a gi-eat many stings would be received by those handling it. Should any of the government employees be stung, a ruling would soon emanate from the Postotfice Department at Washingion, bar- ring bees from the mails entirely. This would place us in the same predicament we were in about thirty years ago. It is not hard to imagine how serious an injui-y to apiculture this would be. I have reread the article in Gleanings of March, 1880, page 106, and must say that the conditions are just the same to-day regarding the es- sential qualities of a mailing-cage. We must bear in mind that it is now al- lowable to ship such things as iron and steel castings, not exceeding ten pounds in weight, by parcel post. For my own part I would not care to meet an infuriated bunch of bees which had just made the acquaintance of an iron casting, killing and maiming a portion of them. Consider, then, the pre- dicament of the postal employee who has never seen nor heard of a veil or smoker. I well remember the day when, still a small boy, I was returning home on the train with my father and mother after a day spent at The A. I. Root Co., in Medina. Father had purchased a pound package of bees wliich we Avere carrying home, and, boylike, attracted by the bees crawling on the screen, I undertook to feel of them, which resulted in my receiving a painful sting. My cries furnished entertainment for the occupants of the entire car. As the postal laws and regulations now stand, I do not think a package of bees of any size other than these in which we have sent queens is mailable. Section 496, par- agraph 7, of the Postal Laws and Regula- tions, plainly states that " Queen-bees and their attendant bees " are admissible to the mails. A pound or a half-pound package would not enter into the spirit of this law. I might add that queen-bees and their at- tendant bees and the Australian ladybird are the only live " stock " admissible to the mails. I can hear some people saying, "Oh! we have received such and such a live thing by mail." That is true, and the explana- tion is eas3'. The postmaster at the office of mailing was ignorant of the Postal Laws and Regulations or it would have been with- drawn from the mail and returned to the sender. By all means, before we jeopardize the privilege we now have of mailing queens, let us perfect a suitable receptacle for ship- ping bees, and then have it approved by the postal officials at Washington. Lakewood, Ohio. [The present regulations with regard to packages by parcel post are such that it would be impossible to ship bees in that manner, and get them tfirough alive, even though the postal regaalations did permit it. If they are ever to be sent by j^arcel post it would never do to put them in a mail-sack as we do the queen-bees and their attend- ants. They Avould smother to death. A large number of bees, say half a pound, a pound, two pounds, three pounds, or even five pounds, would need to have a large amount of air; and during hot weather they would smother to death in a very feAv minutes in an ordinary closed mail-sack. If the time ever comes when we can send pounds of bees by mail there will have to be some regulation that will permit packages of bees to be left outside of the mail-sacks. Whether Uncle Sam will ever make such discrimination in favor of bees is doubtful. If the time ever comes when it is permissi- ble to send live poultry by parcel post, then we might be able to seciu'e a ruling that would permit live bees in quantities of half a pound, pound, two pounds, or three pounds, to go in that manner. — Ed.] Treatment of Laying Worker Colony P. C. Chadwick, referring to page 75, Feb. 1, \vill there not be bloodshed in the laying-worker colony, now containing the frame of brood, on the return of the flying bees of the strong colony, on whose stand the former colony is now placed ? I presume you also mean that the queen of the colony which is now placed on the stand of the laying-worker colony has to be caged for a time to prevent molestation from the bees of the latter. John Elias James. Pontardulais, Orange, South Africa. APRIL 15, 1913 267 IS ALFALFA POLLINATED BY BEES? Some Interesting Points in the Discussion The following article appeared originally in the Dakota Farmer, on page 61, by A. O. Stevens, of the North Dakota Agricultural College. One of our subscribers, Mr. Jess Dalton, questions the correct- ness of Mr. Stevens' statements, and desires to make a reply. In order that the reader may better under- stand it, we are publishing this article entire. — Ed. BEES AND THE ALFALFA SEED CROP. In the December 15th issue of The Dakota Farm- er appeared an article referring to the value of the honeybee as a pollinator of the alfalfa flowers. The article in question is quoted for the most part from The Country Gentleman, and begins thus: " Very few data are at haud relative to the value of insects in the production of a seed crop." This is quite true ; but it is also true that most of the dis- cussions on the subject appear to have been written without a knowledge of the data which are available. Nearly half a century ago it was made known by men of no less authority than Mueller and Henslow that the bee visits the alfalfa flowers without effect- ing pollination. Far be it from the wr-iter to discourage the bee industry, especially in connection with such a valu- able honey-plant ; but the subject has been treated so frequently without due regard to the facts that it seems desirable to present a brief survey of the sit- uation. In order to understand the conditions it will be necessary to call attention to the flower structure. The stamens and pistil of each flower are enclosed by the two inner petals (which are united along the lower edge, and are known as the "keel"). The pollen-bearing portions are thus entirely concealed, and are not e.xposed to visiting insects. When, how- ever, a pressure is applied inward and downward upon the keel petals, a certain tension is released, which causes the stamens to snap upward with con- siderable force. This may be readily observed by using a toothpick or other pointed object. If this pressure is applied by a bee, the pistil (which is enclosed by the united filaments of the stamens) is thrust against the insect's body, and pollen is rub- bed upon the insect by the stamens. As the pistil projects slightly beyond the stamens, it is likely to receive first the pollen left by a flower previously visited. The bee, however, rarely inserts its tongue at this vPart of the flower, but thrusts it between the two outer petals, leaving the stamens undisturbed. The bees are easily observed, and any one may satisfy himself on this point. In one trial by the writer at Manhattan, Kansas, in 1909, the visits made to 584 flowers were observed in about an hour. Of these, only nine were tripped by the bees. Concerning the effectiveness of other insects, prac- tically no data of value are available so far as is known to the writer. The insects usually mentioned are butterflies, bumblebees, and " wild bees." The butterflies are common visitors, but seem to be of very little if any value. Bumblebees, according to a few observations made the past summer, often reach the nectar in the same way as the honeybees, although they seem to trip the flower more frequently. The wild bees are practically unknown except to those who have given them special study. Every locality with an average number of native plants has one or two hundred different species of these bees, so that the expression, " where insect life is scarce," is hardly applicable to many cases. By no means all of these are adapted to such a flower as that of alfalfa. In the limited observations which the writer has been able to make, the only bees which tripped the flowers regularly were the leaf- cutters (Megachile) . These and their near relatives may be distinguished by the fact that the females collect pollen on the under side of the abdomen. The species chiefly' observed is nearly as large as the honeybee, and with a tongue of nearly equal length. Another common one is about one-half larger than the honeybee, and with a longer tongue. On the whole these bees seem better adapted than nearly all ftie others to this plant. The species are very nu- merous, and are found over nearly all the world. Now that the probability of insect pollination has been reviewed, the necessity of it needs a little at- tention. To quote again the previous article: "At the Kansas Experiment Station, alfalfa plants cover- ed with a w^ire netting * * made no seed, whereas those plants that were adjacent but uncovered were filled with seed-pods." This reference seems to be to bulletin No. 155 where some such statement is made, , but without details or data. Another bulletin of the same station (No. 151) presents unmistakable evi- dence to the contrary. A careful study of the data presented seems to indicate that, while insects may be important, there are some unknown factors, phys- iological or otherwise, of greater consequence. All of the plants covered with wire cages, and left un- disturbed, produced seed, but at greatly varying rates ; those having but little, also being light pro- ducers in the open field. If a calculation be made from the plant producing the most, a ton of green plants would yield 8 Vs pounds of seed. On the same basis for five plants which were divided, half of each plant being covered and hand-pollinated, the other half permitted to be insect-pollinated, the average would be 10.4 pounds for the hand-pollin- ated, and 11.8 pounds for the insect-pollinated. Again, from twenty-six plants, hand-pollinated, the average would be 5.8 pounds, and the highest 68 pounds, per ton of fresh plants. There was also a great variation in the per cent of flowers producing seed, and this did not correspond to the amount of seed per weight of plant. Burkill, who investigated the subject quite care- fully in England, did not secure seed from untrip- ped flowers unless he pinched or rubbed the tip of the pistil. He seems to have inferred that the strik- ing of the pistil aginst the insect's body was an es- sential point. It is well known that injuries to plants often induce fruitfulness, and perhaps the dragging of an alfalfa-field may act in this way in addition to tripping the flowers. This was submitted to Mr. J. H. Loveil, of Waldoboro, Maine, whom we regard as the best authority ou the pollination of plants by insects, perhaps, in the United States. He has done a vast amount of field work in investigating the subject of pollination. He is an entomologist, a bot- anist, and at the same time a beekeeper. We have submitted this to him for his ex- amination, asking that he give us his views for publication. At the same time, we sug- gested that, when a plant has nectar, color, and odor, it has these properties for a pur- pose— to invite the visitation of insects — bees in particular. ]\Lr. Lovell's reply is interesting and valuable, and we think it shows conclusively that bees, so far from being of little or no value in pollinating the blossoms of alfalfa, are a vei-y impor- tant factor in increasing the seed crop. We will now let Mr. Lovell speak for himself: Dear Mr. Boot : — Your favor of the 13th instant is at hand, with enclosures as stated. 268 I am sending a brief account of about all that is known in regard to the pollina- tion of alfalfa up to the present time. Last summer I cultivated a bed of this valuable fodder plant in my garden for the purpose of studying the relation of the flowers to insects; but, unfortunately, the season was very wet, the leaves rusted badly, and feAv flowers were produced. It is well established by numerous obser- vations that honeybees do not usually pol- linate the flowers of alfalfa, but obtain the nectar through a hole in the side of the flower. That is, there is an imperfection in the structure of the flowers which the keen observation of the honeybee quickly discovers. It can extract the nectar more easily through this crevice than in the nor- mal way. So far as beekeepers are con- cerned this is an advantage, since a bee re- quires less time to gather its load of nectar. The flowers are often pollinated by bum- blebees, though they, too, sometip::es pilfer the nectar; by butterflies and by leaf-cut- ting and mason bees. The two last-named genera, which are provided with a pollen- brush on the under side of the abdomen, are better adapted for this purpose than the honeybee. There are many species of the leaf-cutting bees {Megaclnle), and in cer- tain localities they are so abundant as to defoliate trees. So far more than 24 specaes of wild bees have been obsen-ed on the flowers, besides many butterflies, flies, and beetles. Just how many are efficient pol- linators is not known. Many are not. In South America the flowers of alfalfa are often visited by small birds resembling hummingbirds, called honey-suckers. A single normal visit is sufficient to effect pollination, and all further visits are use- less. The flowers are known as explosive flowers. The anthers and stigma are held in the keel under tension. When a bee presses down the wings and keel it pulls, says Burkill, two triggers and fires oif the flowei' — that is, the anthers and stigma fly forcibly upward and out of the keel, and the pollen is thrown against the body of the bee — a kind of catapult. The stigma is a little in advance of the anthers, and strikes the pollen-brush of the insect first. Both of these organs then move upward against the standard, where they are out of the way and do not again come in con- tact with insects. The flower should now cease secreting nectar, since nothing is gained by the at- traction of further visits from insects; but here we meet with another imperfection, for the secretion continues. Insects, there- fore, continue to visit the exploded flowers, GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE when it would be of much gi'eater advan- tage to the plant species for them to visit exclusively flowers not yet pollinated. Tlie flowers can not be pollinated by the wind ; and, according to Urban and Burkill, they do not possess the power of self-fertili- zation, even when the stigma is surrounded by pollen. According to the latter observer, the stigma does not become receptive in the absence of insects until it has been rubbed or scratched by a brush or a needle. The reason for this is, I believe, largely mechan- ical rather than physiological. The stigma is covered with papillae, which may some- times prevent the pollen grains coming suf- ficiently near to receive the stimulus neces- sary to excite germination. But when they are rubbed between the papillge by the pol- len-brush on the bee, germination promptly follows. A slight change in the conditions, wliich probably often occurs, as greater sensitiveness on the part of the stigma, or greater pressure, would induce self-pollina- tion. Henslow records that plants he pro- tected yielded more seed than those left un- protected. In cold wet weather the flowers wither without exploding. Where the vines are cut before they bloom, as is the increas- ing 2Jractice in the West, it is, of course, of no consequence whether the flowers are pol- inated or not. When alfalfa is cultivated for its seed, there is, so far as I know, no complaint that the flowers are sterile. ]\Ir. Stevens says that he saw 584 visits made by " bees " (not by one bee) in about an hour, and that in nine instances the flowers were exploded or " tripped." It is probable that many of these flowers were already exploded. This observation is of considerable interest in showing that the honeybee is of real importance in the pol- lination of alfalfa; and it is to be regretted that he did not give the matter more atten- tion, for Mueller never once saw honeybees visit the flowers legitimately. A man could hardly watch closely for an hour more than five square feet; and if in this area there were nine cases of pollination, then at the same rate there would be about 8000 on an acre of alfalfa, or in ten hours 80,000 flow- ers pollinated. It is to be remembered that only one visit is required, and that subse- quent visits are valueless. Of course, si;ch an estimate based on a single observation is to be taken with great latitude ; but it in- dicates that the honeybee is of more signi- ficance in the pollination of this species than has been commonly supposed. Even if the flowers of alfalfa can not fertilize themselves in Europe it does not follow that this is true in western North America. There are well-known instances APRIL 15, 1913 of flowers which, in one climate are infer- tile, becoming fertile in another. It has, moreover, been asserted that in Germany the flowers have the power of self-fertiliza- tion. In experiments made at the Kansas Experiment Station, according to Mr. Ste- vens, plants covered with wire cages pro- duced seed, though at greatly varying rates. But this difference seems to have been due to the character of the plants. There seems, then, good reason to believe that in Amer- ica, at least in the western States, the flow- ers can produce seed, even in the absence of insects. Mr. Stevens' article is in the main correct so far as it goes, but he seems not to be familiar with the mechanism of/pollination, nor, as he admits, with the wild bees. The suggestion that there are some unknown factors which are more important than in- sects or self-pollination, if he refers to any thing more than weather or climate, is purely imaginary, and is an unnecessaiy supposition. The fact that the bees made so many visits in an hour would indicate that the flowers contained little or no nec- tar. It would require only a few seconds for a bee to thrust its tongue into the side of a flower, remove it, and pass to another flower. It would be an easy matter to count ten visits per minute, which would give 600 for an hour. You are entirely correct in supposing that the possession of nectar, color, and odor are invitations given by flowers to in- sects; but the conditions may be modified when the flower is not cultivated in its nat- ural habitat by the characteristics of the insects, etc. John H. Lovell. Waldoboro, Maine. NATURAL WINDBREAKS THE BEST; BUT THEY CAN NOT ALWAYS BE SECURED BY R. F. HOLTERMANN On page 181, March 15, it appears to me that Mr. Byer assumes that I said some- thing which I have no intention of claiming. I have not compared the value of fences and natural shelter. There is no compari- son, in my estimation. Natural shelter is desirable — verj^ much so — and I aim to have it wherever I can ; but, after all, the cases where sufficient natural shelter can be se- cured are rare. A gi'eat many people have to keep bees in certain positions from neces- sity, not wish, if they keep them at all ; and the majority of these are not sufficiently sheltered. There are few locations wherein bees are now kept, and where we have a solid winter, to which I would not add a fence as before described. A great many may not agi'ee with me about this matter; but' I have tested it sufficiently for my own satisfaction. Our bees have wintered well; but sonie, I find, have starved owing to the open win- ter and resultant activity. To date, the least loss in an apiary is none (is that an Irish bull?), and the greatest, ten; the lat- ter mostly stan^ed. This latter was in the most exposed location, so far as natural protection is concerned, but it has a fence about it. Would the loss have been less if the fence had been down! I want both natural and fence protection. QUEEXLESS COLONIES GATHERING POLLEN, AND STORING IT IN CELLS FORMERLY OCCUPIED BY BROOD. R. 0. Martin, p. 180, Mar. 15, takes little stock in my argument as to queenless colo- nies gathering pollen because of the amount of pollen I find in the comb. Let me say again that my own eyesight, seeing the bees bring in pollen, is sufficient ; but, more, the pollen stored in the combs is sufficient also. When I find pollen not in the cells about the comb, which is the natural position of brood, but all through the comb, not indi- vidual cells, but many, I am forced to the conclusion that the bees gathered it after the brood hatched from the comb. More, the distinction in this respect is so clear that I have pointed it out time and again (having the combs side by side) to young men learning the business. It is more than likely that, when I get among the bees, I shall find such combs; and if I do I will try to have a photograph taken of them, and send them to Gleanings. If the bees can gather pollen after they are queenless and the brood hatched, then they place pollen in sufficient quantities where brood would otherwise be, it clearly indicates that this pollen was gathered after the colony was queenless; and the appear- ance of these combs is a direct contrast to colonies in the same apiary not queenless. In a locality scarce of pollen, these indica- tions may not be so marked; but that has nothing to do with the question as to whether queenless colonies gather or do not gather pollen. Brantford, Canada. A Correction In your editorial, p. 105, Feb. 15, you say, "while timothy hay, the kind referred to." By referring to my communication you will notice the kind of hay used by me was not mentioned, but clover hay, not timothy, was always used, as it is more springy or resilient — at least this is my experience. Victoria, B. C. E. E. Robinson. 270 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Heads of Grain from Different Fields The Robber-cloth Perfected No doubt all users of the present robber-cloth have realized its lack of effectiveness in fully covering the open hive top at all stages of operations. I am pleased to present herewith for the benefit of other beekeepers, my original idea of a perfected robber- cloth as an aid to advanced bee culture. By joining two cloths by means of a light stiff frame so proportioned as to leave a space of about 2% inches between the cloths, several new advan- tages are gained, and the duplex arrangement be- comes positively effective in guarding the open hive top while convenient access to the frames is actually facilitated. Fi. r/Q.j. and turned over, using either side as the axis. This movement draws the edge of one cloth over the other, thereby overlapping and closing the gap E. The re- verse movement of the frame A again opens the gap almost instantly. The edge of each cloth opposite the frame A is weighted somewhat by a hard-wood stick, an iron rod, or in any suitable way, so as to hold the cloth fiat against the wnd when the frame is turned. This frame A is best made from %-inch dowels and two pieces of galvanized sheet iron. Three %-in. holes are punched in each end of the iron pieces, through which to drive the clinching nails. The dowels are slit with a saw (a fine circular saw does it best), but do not cut the pieces en- tirely apart until later. The reason will be evident when the job is further under way. Use flat-head thin wire nails just long enough to prick through. Place the selvage of the cloth next to the gap E, and hem all exposed raw edges. Proportion the cloths so that each will be an effectual cover by itself, large enough so that careful adjustment will not be necessary. An eight-frame cloth could not be used on a ten- frame hive. This perfected robber-cloth is particularly useful in treat- ing foul brood ; but care must be taken afterward to sterilize it thoroughly before using again around healthy colonies. Two perfected robber-cloths are needed in practice, one for the hive being operated, and .in- other for the hive to or fro n which frames are being taken. The perfection of this duplex arrangement is best appreciat- ed under practical use. x\ny one is at liberty to make and use this new robber cloth, and it is my hope that it will be tried extensively, and that my expectations for it may nrove well founded. C. D. Cheney. Lyndhurst, N. J. ■Dz fl C'z F/g. Z. The drawings show the device so clearly that no description is really needed. In practical use the frame A is placed above the particular frame to be lifted, with each cloth lying flat away from the frame A. When it is desired to close the gap E, the frame A is grasped at either end by the finger and thumb. Spaces with Packing Material vs. Dead-air Spaces It is generally conceded by carpenters that a dead-air space is warmer than a solid wall. I have no reason to doubt that it is; but I want the proof. I think it is proved that, with brick, stone, and concrete blocks, a dead-air space is warmer in winter than a solid wall ; but that is real dead air. I mean that there is no air that can get through the ce- * ment blocks from the outside as I am sure it does through wood. A thermos bottle has the air pumpt 1 out, and con- tains only a vacuum, if I understand correctly. Tlie •■-ame bottle with dead air would not be as good by a half — that is, to exclude either heat or cold for a long time. The thickness must be considered. A brick, stone, or cement wall with a dead-air space would be all the way from six inches to two feet APRIL 15, 1913 271 thick; but we can hardly compare the above-men- tioned material with wood, straw, cork, and chaff. What I want to get at is a double-walled hive not too large, yet large enough to give the best of pro- tection. Now, how to find out how much difference there is between one, two, three, four, five, or ten inches of air space or packing material — the differ- ence between thick and thin outside walls, and also the difference between different kinds of packing material of different thickness. Edward Hassixger, Jr. Greenville, Wis., Feb. 17. [Some twenty or more years ago some quite e.x- haustive experiments were made. It was then shown very conclusively that a deadair space, so called, was not nearly as good as a space packed with pack- ing material such as chaff, planer-shavings, forest leaves, or any material that will break up the circu- lation of air. The trouble with the so-called dead- air space is that the air is iiot dead. It comes in contact with the outside wall, which is cold, circu- lates over to the inner wall, which is warm, making a constant circulation carrying the cold air from the outside to the inner wall, thus making a continuous circulation. Now, the purpose of the packing mate- rial is to break up this circulation, so that the air can not circxilate. There will then be a cold layer of packing material next to the outside wall, and a warm layer next to the inside wall. This matter has been tested, very carefully by the builders of engines, who place packing material like asbestos between the outer and inner walls of the cylinders. The matter has been tested so thoroughly and carefully by sci- entific men that we do not believe there is any ques- tion that a given space containing packing-material is a great deal letter than the so-called dead-air space. But a dead-air space in building-blocks is a good deal better than solid blocks, for the simple reason that a stone block will carry the cold clear through into the inner wall, where with the dead-air space the cold is not carried quite so quickly. A dead-air space is better than nothing; but if a building-block had packing material placed in those spaces it would make the building much warmer. We don't know whether a solid block of wood would be colder than a hollow wooden block with dead air. In the case of a thermos bottle, there is, as you say, no air between the walls, and, of course, there can be no circulation to cool the inner wall. — Ed. J Cayuga County Convention The annual meeting of the Cayuga Co. Beekeep- ers' Society, March 12, was well attended. Several speakers from abroad were present, and added in- terest to the occasion. Mr. Irving Kenyon, of Camillus, N. Y., Secretary of the New York State Beekeepers' Association, gave a brief review of the fall meeting of that association, bringing out the points of interest. He also gave an address on the production of extracted honey, ex- plaining in detail his own elaborate method, in the course of which he exhibited a device of his own in- vention for fastening foundation in the sections for comb honey ; also an electric contrivance for im- bedding wire into the foundation, and a very in- genious and rapid method of fastening the wire into the shallow frames. He uses the steam-heated un- capping-knife, and likes it very much. Mr. Kenyon has been so successful in producing extracted honey and in marketing it at a fancy price, that it was a surprise when he incidentally remark- ed that he was going back to the production of comb honey. The address of Charles Stewart, of .Johnstown, N. Y., " What can beekeepers do to help the inspec- tor?" was very practical and pointed. He said we quarantine apiaries as doctors do their patients; but the inspector is at a disadvantage, as his pa- tients can fly, while the doctor's can not. For this reason it is hardly fair to expect the inspector to stamp out contagious diseases in a year or so when doctors fail to do so. He called attention to the fact that the foul-brood diseases are more virulent at the start, and gradually become milder and less to be feared, as in the case of smallpox, etc., with human beings. He considered the Italian bees most immune, or best able to resist the disease, and advised Ital- ianizing, even before the disease gets a start. One tan help the inspector by ^VTiting to him on the least suspicion of any trouble in the yard, and not wait- ing for the inspector to look him up. Mr. Stewart advised getting rid of old combs by melting into wax, and using full sheets of founda- tion. It is a paying investment, as the bees gnaw away a good part of the old combs, and the wax is thus lost. The address of S. D. House, on hives and fixtures, was an eloquent plea for the use of the sectional hive with a short shallow frame. When one or two sections are added, the hive presents the form of a cube, which is the condition nearest to nature. If his arguments failed to convince his hearers that his hive was the best for all purposes and places, he did impress all jvith the fact that his success as a comb- honey producer is indisputable evidence that his liive is the best for his own locality under his skill- ful manipulation. The convention adjourned at five o'clock, the same ofKcers holding over. Ithaca, N. Y. E. D. Dresser. Kansas State Convention The tenth annual meeting of the Kansas State Beekeepers' Association was held in the Commercial Club rooms, and was largely attended on February 4. The address of welcome and transaction of reports of la.=t year's meeting took up the greater part of the time. On February 5 there was a large attendance at both meetings. Talks were given by Prof. George Dean and Prof. S. J. Hunter, both of which were highly appreciated by those present. Dr. G. Bohrer, of Lyons, Kansas, O. S. Mullin, of Holton, and Arthur Small, of Topeka, read a number of articles of interest to beekeepers. The following officers were re-elected: President, P. K. Hobble, of Dodge City; Mrs. J. D. Smith, of Troy, Vice-president; O. A. Keene, of Topeka, Sec- tetary and Treasurer. The meeting adjourned with a unanimous vote of thanks to the Commercial Club, after which a half- hour was spent in visiting, then to the banquet- hall, where hot biscuits and honey were served. O. A. Keene, Sec. Why Some Larvae Are Not Sealed I have been watching my bees and their brood for a numVer of years for foul brood; and by doing so I find during the breeding season lots of young lar- vse that the bees fail to seal; and when I look again they are gone, but others still there again. They are left until they are perfect-looking bees, only a little small. Now, what do you call it? or why do they fail to seal them or take care of them? Is it on account of stores or cold chilly weather that they get chilled for them, and die before they can attend to them? I never could catch on to it right; but it should be prevented in the spring. Richfield, Pa. W. S. Neumoxd. [During certain seasons of the year, and some- times in certain particular colonies, we find what we call " bareheaded " brood — that is to say, the bees fail to cap over or seal up the young larvae. This may remain for a considerable time. It indi cates no bad condition ; in fact, so little of it occurs 2TO GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE that we pay very little attention to it. But what vou describe is evidently of a different character. It would indicate that it was starved or chilled brood. Sometimes there is a scarcity of pollen, and the young nurse bees are not able to feed the young larvEe properly. The result is that some of them die. It is removed, and then the queen lays again in these same cells. A sudden cold spell coming on may cause the brood at the outer edges of the cluster of bees to become chilled and die. This will be subsequently removed by the bees ; and, sortly after, other young larva? may be found in their places. The condition described does not indicate any dis- ease; for if there were any thing of that character you would find it spreading to other hives ; and not only other hives, but all through the colony where the first cells were found. It might be possible, however, that it is a case of saebrood, as recently described in Gleanings. — Ed.] Cube Sugar for Winter Stores This is my fourth winter's experience with bee- keeping far enough south to winter bees in the open, in single-walled hives, in Missouri, North Carolina, and now in Alabama. Until this winter, I just laid the cubes of sugar on top of the brood frames in a pyramid with a burlap sack over it, with burlap e.xtending out over all four sides of the hive. I then put on a super which surrounded the sugar pyramid, then I filled in the vacant spaces in the super with dry leaves, and put on the cover. The last two winters in Alabama my plan has been more simple. I removed two combs from the side of the hive, and filled the vacancy with cube sugar, as we had some' warm weather late in Jan- uary. I examined all the colonies thus fed and found the bees piled all over the sugar, eating away at it as busy as hogs in a pit of corn. Both you and Mr. Miller agree, p. 816, Dec. 15, that there is moisture in the hive. What about the bees having saliva to moisten their dry food? And how do they feed on hard candy? and I think even rock candy has been recommended for winter feed. The cube sugar will not melt nor run down on the bees if used above. And the bees will use it for brood-rearing in the spring. And, oh how nice and clean it is to feed, and how simple the problem I My experience covers territory only where it is warm enough to permit the bees to take a flight every few days. It is ?. boon for the South. Later. — My weak colonies that were fed loaf su- gar came through the winter safely. They not only wintered on it all right, but reared brood. Of course, when the bees could work outside I began feeding syrup. Letohatchie. Ala. W. N. Randolph. [While it is true that bees have a saliva, it should not be forgotten that, if they are to be confined for a period of three months on dry comb and dry cubes of sugar, without any means of getting water, there will not be very much saliva, for saliva is mainly water. But a colony in an ordinary winter repository will give off enough moisture so that the bees will have enough to make their " mouths water " when they approach a cube of dry sugar — Ed.] Early Spring Honey Saved for Winter Stores In my locality we have a considerable early flow from fruit-bloom, dandelion, and willow, so that most colonies will nearly fill a shallow extracting- super from it. This early dark honey is a positive detriment when it becomes mixed with the clover, as generally happens. I have considered the plan of taking off this shallow super of earily honey just before the clover flow, and reserving it for wint«r stores. The super could be set bodily on the hive and left so for winter. Most of our wintering hero- is done on buckwheat honey, and I should like to know whether this fruit-bloom, dandelion, and wil- low honey, if well ripened and sealed, and finished off with buckwheat, would be safe for wintering. Buckwheat gives good results here for winter stores. Stouffville, Ont., Feb. 15. F. L. Pollock. [We feel quite sure that the dark honey which you mention will be safe for winter stores. Wheth- er it will be as satisfactory as stores made of sugar syrup is another question ; but we rather doubt it. — Ed.] A Package Wanted for Sending Honey by Parcel Post We have watched Gleanings to see if any plan had been devised for sending honey by parcel post; but up to date, we have seen none mentioned. It would seem to us a package holding from one to 10 lbs. of honey, extracted or chunk, with a covering making it safe in the mail, could be produced prof- itably. We are told that honey is thus carried by post in Germany, and possibly ideas could be gotten from there. In case of chunk honey the difficulty would be to secure an opening large enough to admit the honey, and that could be quickly and safely closed. The package ought also to be inexpensive; for while & few people will pay fancy prices they are the ones who use but little honey. The real consumers who take the bulk of the product are those who buy it as a food and not as a treat. So the price must be kept so as to be but little above what people are in the habit of paying for honey delivered. Of course, comb honey, as such, can hardly be sent in this way — at least unless the Postoffice Department handles it more carefully than the express companies do, which could hardly be expected. The Rockv Mountain Bee Co. Forsyth, Mont., Jan. 26. [ See answer to this question in the editorial de- partment, this issue — Ed.] Growing Alfalfa at High Altitudes Is it possible that bees do not work on alfalfa in high altitudes? I failed to see one bee visiting it at this point. This town of Portales is in a wide valley, and the altitude is nearly 4000 feet. If any readers of Gleanings have had experience in this I should like to hear from them. I fear this is a poor place for beekeepinii. Portales, N. Mex., March 2. J. W^ HOUTZ. [We know that alfafa grows readily in altitudes of five and six thousand feet high. We are not posi- tive of its being grown in altitudes of seven and eight thousand, although perhaps some of our sub- scribers might be able to give us information on this point. But alfalfa grows very luxuriantly around Denver, and Denver is supposed to be about a mile above the level of the sea, so we see no reason why it could not be grown at an elevation of 4000 feet. Of course, alfalfa requires water ; and at that eleva- tion it might require irrigation to do well. — Ed. ] Cottonseed Meal as a Substitute for Pollen Mrs. H. Millard, Feb. 15, page 131, recommends feeding albuminized sugar when pollen is scarce, in an experimental way. Let me suggest to her to try first feeding cottonseed meal. I have never read of any one trying the use of cottonseed meal as a sub- stitute for pollen ; but the editor suggests the use of rye meal as being more practical. It appears to me that, if rye meal were rich enough, cottonseed meal (which is much richer) would be better. By baiting your pan of cottonseed meal to attract the bees' at- tention, they will find it sooner. Rocky, Okla. Kos HuKST. APRIL 15, 1913 273 Our Homes A. I. ROOT A BRIEF MENTION OF SOME OF THE GOOD MEN AND WOMEN WHO EXTENDED TO ME A HELPING HAND IN MY CHILDHOOD. The article following was given in our local paper, the Medina Gazette, in answer to a request from the editor that I give Iiim soraething in regard to my childhood. Before starting off for Florida I told our good people here that, in ease a Home paper should not be on hand, as has hap- pened several times during the winter, they should use this in place of it. When I was nine or ten years old I climlied iip to the top shelf of our bookcase and got hold of an old doctor book. I think the title was "Domestic Medicine" or something like that. The reason why I tackled the "doctor book" was because I had read and reread almost every thing available in that frugal home in Mogadore, Summit County, O. There was a family of seven children — three older and three younger than myself. I had read all the schoolbooks, for the younger and older ones, all the newspapers I could get hold of, the family almanac, and a good part of the dictionary. Well, the fore part of this old doctor book did not interest me particularly ; but along toward the last part of it was an article on "electricity." It was ahnost mv first glimpse of this strange force that has in- terested me more or less from that time to the present. This old book, among other things, fold me how easily this wondrous power could be in- voked by means of a roll of brimstone or a stick of sealingwax. At that early day (about 1850) what few letters were written were mostly sealed with wax. Later, wafers were used. By rubbing sealingwax or brimstone with a piece of warm woolen cloth, especially in frosty weather, I made my first acquaintance with electricity and electrical attraction and repulsion. After I had read over and over all the doctor book had to tell me I questioned my father and mother, and everybody else, about electricity until I fear I was a nuisance. Finally an aunt of mine, who was attending "high school," informed me that her "philosophy book" told a good deal about it. It was then that I made my first ac- quaintance with "Parker's Natural Philosophy;" and over and over I scanned the pages that gave information in regard to this subtle element in nature. A little later on, in order to supplement the funds of our humble home we commenced to keep boarders. One of them was a schoolteacher, and another was a miller. Of course those two good men had to be "pumped di-y," on electricity. Mr. Fairbanks, the school teacher, said I ought to study chemistry. "What is chemistry?" I asked. Well, this particular friend, whom I shall always remember, replied something like this : "Why, my young friend, chemistry not only tells about electricity but discusses the nature of the elements of which this world is composed. I have an old chemistry somewhere that I will look up, and you may have it if you care for it." The book was entitled "Conversations oh Chem- istry," or something like it. I not only devoured this book from cover to cover but a neighbor's lad of about my own age took it up with me. He lived about a quarter of a mile away, and we two each had a "laboratory" off in a shed or r^me base- ment, and the experiments we performed with our rude home-made apparatus were surprising. This neighbor's ^oy was named Corwin Purdy; and when Corwin had made some "great discovery" he would run as fast as his legs would carry him after me, and we two would go back again in breathless haste. I had been trying to make a voltaic pile of copper, zinc, and moistened cloth, using the old-fashioned copper cents. But my vol- taic pile- did not "materialize" very much. But Corwin found an old copper teakettle, ripped it open, and hammered the sheets out flat. Then he cut them up into pieces about two inches square or more, and made his pile of copper, zinc, and cloth. These squares of woolen cloth were soaked in slightly acidulated water; and when he suc- ceeded in getting a real electric shock he ran for me so much out of breath that he could scarcely talk. Our craze for chemistry soon brought us in con- tact with the village doctors, and they loaned us a helping hand. I remember distinctly Dr. Ferguson and Dr. Parleyman. The Rev. Mr. Hughes, the minister, also encouraged us, and placed his whole extensive library at our disposal. The village miller took the Scientific American; and when the boy of only nine years of age wanted to "borrow" his back numbers he demurred a little. Finally he said, "Why, my young friend, if you are really going to be a reading man, I have a whole year's back numbers of the Scientific American bound up after a fashion, and I will loan them to you." I have been in close touch more or less with the Scientific American now for more than 60 years ; and I can tell you it has been worth to me a great deal by way of posting me in regard to true science and better methods of sifting the wheat from the chaff. But chemistry and electricity were not my only craze. I seem to have been a natural explorer. I watched the hens and chickens as well as nature's display whenever there was a thunderstorm. Let ^ me digress a little right here. My love for books, and my extensive reading, enabled me to read, write, and spell, without giving very much thought or care to either unless it was the writing. In those old days we learned spelling in a long class, the best speller going up to the head. Well, while the other pupils were poring over their spell- ing-books I had no spelling-book at all. I did not need any. It seemed to be a natural gift for me to be able to spell. I not only loved books but I loved the queer crooked spelling that fixed itself in my mind without any effort. Of course, we all know about the cranks on spelling, and sometimes they can "spell" without being able to do much else. Well, on the last day of the school I was at the head as a matter of course. The trustees or directors were on hand on examination day ; and after hearing me spell, one of those dignitaries made a remark something like this, pointing his finger at me : "There's a boy who studies his spelling-book." At this sally there was a queer smile, not only on th| faces of the pupils in the class but on the teacher's face also; and I do not know but there was almost a titter among all the children. It was because they all knew that I had no spelling-b ■'k and had never looked into one during the tei Well, notwithstanding the above, I was awardi ' the prize — a "two-shilling piece." Ntowdays u would be called a "quarter." After school was out I told my good mother I wanted to invest my prize money in something that would grow, and finally we decided on a couple of laying hens. In those days they were only a "shilling apiece," Now, my goold grandiaother, who lived two mJH^s »nd » half south nf Mogadore, 274 in a big brick house, had some yellow hens which she greatly prized. Two of them had a habit of getting into the cellar kitchen and laying their eggs in the old brick oven. Of course they had to lay them outside when baking day came around. Well, I walked two miles and a half down to grand- father's, and found nobody but him at home. He sat in his chair in this old "cellar kitchen." Now, grandfather Hart and I were good friends be- cause he was at work on a perpetual-motion ma- chine, and I was greatly taken up with "seeing the wheels go round." I was so full of my particular enterprise that I walked up to grandpa and showed my spelling prize. I think there was a hole through it, and a red or blue ribbon was tied to the coin. I told him I wanted to swap my prize money for two laying hens. The two hens were standing in that brick-floored kitchen at the very time we were talking. He approved of my speculation, and told me if I wanted hens that would be sure to lay I had better take those two cream-colored "bid- dies." They were so tame I had no difficulty in getting one under each arm, and then off I started on my trip of two and a half miles. But by the time I displayed my two treasures to my good mother I was pretty tired and dusty, for the hens became heavier and heavier as I hurried along, barefooted and barelegged.* Did the hens lay after being transferred to a new home? To be sure, they did. All the hens I have ever kept always laid. "When I got down to my Florida home a year ago my flock of 50 or 60 laid only about half a dozen eggs a day; but they commenced laying, one after another (as sooL as I got around), right along, until I had upward of 40 eggs from 60 hens. It was because I loved them and made friends of them. Well, just here I am ready to introduce another friend who lent me a helping hand. He was the village schoolmaster; and let me say right here that, after my two hens got to laying nicely, a neighboring woman said she had a Black Poland hen with a brood of chicks, and they were making such a mess with her garden and flowerbed that she would sell me "the whole shooting-match" for another "two shillings." By this time I had sold eggs enough to be able to purchase the hen and brood; and, oh what a delight and joy was that mother-hen with her brood of white top-knotted Polands! From that day to this the sight of a real top-knot Poland makes my heart bound. Well, the schoolmaster suggested I should "keep books" to see whether my poultry paid expenses instead of "eating their heads off," and hence he suggested that the latest up-to-date manner of keep- * My ! but did not grandma make a fuss when she found her two favorite biddies were gone? She said Amos must bring those two hens right straight back ; but when she came to Mogadore and found what a nice house and yard I had for them she changed her mind, especially when she considered it was her favorite grandchild who had appropriated the two cream-colored hens. Even at that early age I had caught on to the secret of making the hens lay in winter; and one time in January when there were no eggs in the market, a rich man by the name of Moore sent word that he would give me 25 cents for a dozen eggs. I think the regular market price was 8 or 10 cents in those days. Well, I hurried off, fu' of animation and delight, with my eggs. But I .id not cover them up properly, even though it V s zero weather ; and when I reached his home t o or three of the eggs had frozen and cracked open. I thought, of course, I would not get my 25 cents, and began to cry — perhaps partly on ac- count of the cold; but he said, "Do not cry, bub, here is your money. The eggs will be exactly as good for us, for we will keep them frozen until we want to use them." Then I wiped away the tears and rushed back home to give the hens credit, in my double-entry book-keeping. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE ing accounts was double entry. By the way, this good friend also taught me penmanship, and dur- ing the winter, when eggs got up to a big price, my double-entry book-keeping was all over on one side of the ledger. It was all profit and no loss. I might mention, as a sort of side issue, that I had an older sister who was not only bright but fairly good-looking. In fact, she taught school when she was only 15 years old, and a country school at that. Well, one day the schoolmaster, in talking to me about my chemical experiments, said he thought he would come over after school and see my "apparatus." I remember I was a good deal disappointed. I told my mother that I did not believe the schoolmaster cared very much about chemistry after all. He did not seem to notice any thing very much except that older sister I liave been speaking of. After a while they were married, and, of course, all the family were ex- pected to be present at the ceremony in the even- ing. But that night there was to be an "elec- tricity show" at the Methodist church. I had al- ready become acquainted with the professor; and the idea of my missing the show simply on account of so trifling an event (?) as the marriage of my sister was preposterous. I had always been a very obedient child; but I then and there decided "things had reached their limit." There was really a prospect of a thunderstorm right there, besides the one over at the church, unless I could be let loose at "early candle-lighting;" and so the mar- riage was performed before the candles were lighted instead of after. Now, all the above looks as though I was a model boy, does it not ? and I know of one little woman who may make a fuss if I do all this brag- ging of what a precocious youngster I was, instead of telling a little something on the other side ; so, before closing let me show you that I was not much different from other "kids" of 10 years, after all. The good miller who loaned me those old copies of the Scientific American gave me the sweepings of the mill to feed my chickens to pay for sweep- ing up the mill. Well, there was sometimes a little wheat scattered on the floor ; and notwith- standing all his kindness to me I was not always very conscientious about letting some good grain get mixed in with the mill dust. Once more, the good preacher who gave me ac- cess to his library had a couple of hives of bees, and these hives had "glass drawers" on top. Some wicked boys went in after dark and pulled out one of those drawers ; and as I passed by they told me what they had done, and asked me to "have some honey." Even if I was not a "thief" I was at least a"partaker," to a small extent. I am glad to tell you that my conscience troubled me about it, but not enough so as to cause me to go to the good man and confess. Once more, the good doctor who was such a good friend of mine had a fine tree of Red As- trakhan apples near the fence. With some other boys I went there after dark and helped to pilfer his apples when he had only that one tree. It is true at this very time I was attending Sunday- school regularly, and learning "verses;" but some- how they did not seem to take hold of me at that age in a way that one of older years might sup- pose they ought to have done. A. I. Root. NATIONAL " RACE SUICIDE." And God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it. — Gen. 2 :28. What is the use of being patriotic, what is the use of being progTessive, what is the use of lighting for one's country and na- tion, if there are to be no children to take APRIL 15, 1913 our places when we ai'e dead and gone? The above was suggested by the following brief note from my long-time friend W. P. Root : Mr. Root: — I enclose a clipping that is too im- portant to lose. The closing up of it is especially interesting. We are often told that in France, where light wines are used, intemperance is practically un- known ; and yet here we see it threatens to exter- minate the nation. Experience teaches a dear school, etc. It is worth reprinting. I found it in the Leader last night, Nov. 24. Below is the clipping. Read it and pon- der. Is there any moral to it for our own United States of America? FRANCE HELD MENACED BY DECREASE IN BIRTHS. RECORD SHOWS 742,114 BABIES IN 1911 100,- 000 LESS THAN IN 1901, AND EXCEEDED BY DEATHS; LEGISLATION SOUGHT TO BALK DEPOPULATION. Paris, November 23.^The birth rate of France was lower by more than 100,000 in 1911 than in 1901. Louis Klotz, minister of finance, announcing this fact to the commission on depopulation at its fii'st session to-day, said : 275 " Military inferiority, economic inferiority, and the diminution of the power of France in the world, will sooner or later be the inevitable consequences of the sterility of our nation." The number of births last year, according to M. Klotz, was only 742,114 in the whole of France, against 857,274 a decade ago. In 1907 and 1911, he said, the deaths actually exceeded the births. This was, he continued, a sad state of things, and a great danger to the country, placing France in a situation of inferiority in comparison with the other great nations. The lower birth rate, while a per- plexing phenomenon among all civilized peoples, was, the minister said, a greater problem in France than 'elsewhere. The births exceeded the deaths in 1910 in Ger- many by 879,113; in Austria-Hungary by 573,520; in Great Britain by 413,779; and in Italy by 461,- 771; but in France by only 71,418. In the course of further remarks, M. Klotz re- viewed the ineffective government and private meas- ures taken in the past to help parents of large fam- ilies to limit the hours of work of women about to become mothers, and to reduce infant mortality. It was necessary, he said, to study these and other factors, including the evil effects of alcohol. The relation of drunkenness to infant mortality would, he declared, in future be studied in every part of France. High-pressure Gardening DASHEEN UP TO DATE. At this date, March 24, some of my dash- eens, planted about January 1, are nearly two feet high, with leaves a foot long and eight inches wide ; and I find the plants are much the largest at the lower end of the row where the ground is a dark mucky sand, and c|uite moist, although the plants are almost over a tile drain. I am sure our reader's will be interested in the two follow- ing lettere, espeeially the first, from the De- partment of Agriculture. U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE Bureau of Plant Industry. Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction. "Washington, D. C, March 19, 1913. Mr. A. I. Root :— Your letter of March 1 was re- ceived some days ago, and we are glad to note that you are so well pleased with the dasheen. I thank you very much for the proof sheets of Gleanings, in which your article concerning the dasheen ap- peared. I was personally much interested in the part of the article that preceded the one on the dasheen. In accordance with your desire we have arranged to send you from our station at Brooksville, Florida, "seven pounds of dasheens under our number 15395. A sheet of cultural directions is herewith enclosed. Very truly yours, R. A. Young, Scientific Assistant. Mr. A. I. Root: — In re.sponse to your recent com- munication regarding dasheens I will say that our company has a quantity of dasheens for planting this season ; but we have not figured on selling very many, as they are in demand here. Last fall we built a warehouse for them, and have been keeping them stored, and they are now in good shape. It would require about five bushels to plant one-fourth acre. We could spare you five bushels at $2.00 per bushel, f. o. b. Brooksville, for seed. Less quantities, $2.50 per bushel. Brooksville Development Co. Brooksville, Pla., March 19. I was agreeably surprised to find the l^riee already as low as $2.00 per bushel. As Irish potatoes are almost if not quite that at retail here now, it is no wonder that many families at Brooksville are using dasheen in place of potatoes. Our good friend Irving Keck, who has just paid us a visit, ■ says Dr. Kellogg, of Battle Creek Sanitarium, has just bouglit a carload at Brooksville, for their invalids and guests. Now, with all this great excitement going on, how is it possible no great seedsmen as yet advertise dasheen? U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Bureau of Plant Industry. Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction. CULTURE OF THE DASHEEN. The dasheen requires rich sandy soil, very moist, but well drained. The plants will not be gi'eatly injured by occasional flooding of the land for a short period. Such lands as the so-called hammock lands of Flor- ida are especially adapted for the cultivation of this crop. Any low-lying, sandy lands fairly well drained, but still too wet for general field crops, can be used to advantage. On these low lands it would be ad- visable to plant on ridges. For best results a liberal amount of well-rotted stable manure should be mixed with the soil. Where the soil is very sandy, it is well to add a fertilizer rich in potash. Planting should be done as early in the spring as conditions of soil and climate will per- mit. This may be as early as the first of February in south Florida, and as late as the middle of March or the first of April in the Carolinas. For field culture the tubers are planted, singly 276 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE and entire, from two to three inches deep in hills at a distance of three feet, in rows four feet apart. This will permit horse cultivation. During the summer, in cultivation the soil should be gradually drawn to the plants and the plants kept free from weeds. They usually require little cultivation after becoming large enough to shade the ground. Well- ijrown plants will reach a height of 4% to 6 feet or more in midsummer. The crop matures in about seven months, although the tubers can be utilized for home use in six months or less from planting. Harvesting of the main crop may be deferred a month or two if desired ; but if it is to be done at one time, in order to have warm dry weather for the dasheens to dry properly on the ground it should not be delayed till danger of frost. Maturity of the crop is usually indicated by a par- tial dying-back of the plants some time in October. It will sometimes prove advantageous, in practically frost-free localities, or where the roots can be pro- tected, to leave them in the ground until wanted for use or until spring. A ten-inch plow has proved satisfactory for turn- ing up the plants when the area grown is large enough to justify its use. The plants are then grasped by the tops, and the clumps thoroughly shaken to dislodge as much of the soil as possible. They can then be broken apart by means of the tops, and, in di-y weather, the tubers, with tops still at- tached, be left on the ground to dry for 4 to 6 days. The tubers should not in any case be exposed to frost. Dasheens should be stored in a dry ijlace of mod- erate temperature where the air can circulate freely among them, or they may be placed in dry sand or earth. Wesley and I are now as busy as bees getting that quarter-acre ready for the tu- bers; and to make room we had to dig the wonderful Red Triumph potatoes I told you about. They didn't go all to vines, as Mrs. Root feared — not much. We ate and gave the neighbors quite a few, and have just sold three bushels of great beauties at .$1.50 per bushel. Poultry manure did it mostly, assisted by a damp soil that holds moisture, even right over the tile drain; and, thanks to a kind Providence, no frost but plenty of rain. MY POTATO STORY. A year ago, or perhaps a little more, you remember that I had a good deal to say about growing potatoes in the back yard. 1 said you could not only keep chickens in the back yard so as to help out quite con- siderably, but you could also grow potatoes; but, of course, I didn't mean that you could grow jjotatoes and chickens in the same yard. When I got home to Medina last spring I undertook to " practice " what I had been "preaching;" but although my .ground was well underdrained, the exceed- ing wetness of last summer hindered large- ly. Another thing, I couldn't get any early potatoes to plant. After exhausting at- tempts in our neighborhod I sent to one of the leading seedsmen in Cleveland and told him to get me some extra-early potatoes — Early Ohio or Bliss Triumph — if possible. The only answer they gave was to get me a bushel of Early Rose, and these had to be shipped by express from away up in Mich- igan. Just think of it, will you? — sending to Michigan for potatoes, and paying $2.00 a bushel and express charges, and then be- ing unable to get any thing better than Early Rose ! Although the Early Rose was not much of a success we decided to bring some of them along with us when we came down to our Florida home, about the first of November. While potatoes were then 40 cents a bushel in Ohio they were 40 cents a peck here in Florida. The potatoes here in Florida offered for sale in the groceries were not only 40 cents a peck, but they were of a very poor qual- ity at that. In fact, Mrs. Root had some- times to pare off and throw away almost one-half of the peck of potatoes for table use that cost us 40 cents. Now, with this condition of affairs I de- clared I would plant some potatoes just as soon as I could get a piece of ground ready in the garden ; but then the same question came up again, " Where can I get seed that will grow ? " Potatoes brought down from the North, and planted here in Florida in November or December, of course, would not grow at all. As we had this same con- dition of affairs a year ago I decided that 1 would come out aliead this year any way. Before I left here last April we dug two or three bushels of nice Triumph potatoes and packed them in dry sand in our incu- bator cellar, having been told they would keep nicely this way, and be sprouted all ready to plant when I got back in the fall. It would have turned out all right had not the rats discovered the potatoes; and when Ave got back here there was only a great pile of worthless skins. The rats had eaten them all. I ought to have had sense enough to surround my potatoes buried in dry sand with inch-mesh poultry netting; but we shall onlj' have to live and learn a little. It was along in December before 1 was en- abled to get any potatoes suitable for plant- ing at once in Florida. I scanned the pa- pers and catalogs; but along toward the middle of December my good friend down at the dock, Mr. S. C. Corwin, advertised Triumph potatoes ready to plant. I went down at once and got about a bushel. The price, of course, was pretty well up — $2.00 a bushel. They had just begun to show sjirouts, and were just right to plant. I was so much in a hurry to get my potatoes (o growing that I planted half a dozen hills after dark. Now, before I proceed to tell you what At>RlL 15, 1913 277 happened to those half-dozen hills, I want you to listen carefully to the following: Some two or three years ago I became so well aware of the need of underdrainage here in Florida that I spent about $25.00 in hard-burned tile (I think brought from away up in Georgia) to underdrain a part of my garden. Well, when I got here in November I found a tremendous gi'owth of gi'ass and weeds all over this garden spot where I had laid the tiles. I said to Wes- ley, "Wesley, I don't suppose it is possible for you to spade under all this trash." He replied, " Oh ! yes, sir. I can spade it all under nice and clean if you want to have it go in." I said, " Go ahead." Well, I planted these half-dozen hills of potatoes right where he turned under all that gi-ass. It had been spaded perhaps three or four weeks, and we had plenty of rain, so it was well under the work of decay. You remember what I said about planting whole potatoes to get some extra earl}'. Well, in order to practice what I have been preaching I selected half a dozen great big nice BUss Triumph potatoes, with sprouts just showing as I told you, and planted them right over the underdrain, and right in the midst of this nice decaying gi-ass and trash. In a few days they were up, and, oh how they did grow ! I called in my friends and neighbors, and the visitors that came from the far Xorth, and showed them my potato-patch. The vines were not only fine and luxuriant, but the leaves were so much larger than anybody ever saw po- tato leaves before, that people hardlj' knew they were potatoes. As I told you before, no sort of potato-bug or flea-beetle marred the beautiful nice green foliage. My neigh- bor Rood, who does every thing on " high- pressure " principle, said that he had never seen any better potatoes than mine. After they had been planted about five weeks, another neighbor (and also another bee- keeper) came and took a look at them, and he said, " Why, ]\Ii\ Root, there are pota- toes down under those vines already." I told him I g-uessed not — that it wasn't quite time for potatoes; and, besides, no blossoms had showed themselves yet. But he stooped over and pulled back the dirt, and showed me potatoes as big as hens' eggs. When they had been planted six weeks we had potatoes as big as anybody would care for for table use. I haven't dug any whole hills yet, but I tell you there is going to be a tremendous yield. Mrs. Root kept caution- ing me all the time that thej- were going to be all vhies and no potatoes; but I tell you the ground is popping up on all sides, and there is no mistake about the potatoes as well as the vines. I want to emphasize again the importance of turning under de- caying hay, leaves, or trash of that kind. This gives the potatoes a chance to develop in their natural beautiful shape without being crowded and squeezed by hard un- yielding soil. Well, after planting the few potatoes we proceeded to fix the gxound and put in more every few days. At first I began to fear that the immense gi'owth and yield were owing to the fact that we had picked on a particular spot where there seemed to be partial — I might almost say natural — irri- gation. But since then I have been trying those same Bliss Triumph potatoes at dif- ferent points all over our five acres, and by the alligator cave I have some that begin to look now almost as promising as those up here near the house. You may inquire in regard to the fertilizer. WeU, we put on only a vei-y little fertilizer; but the spot where these immense potatoes are gi'owing was where the poultry had been in the habit of scratcliing and digging and dusting for perhaps several summers past. This has probably much to do with it. Of course, other people are noiv putting new potatoes on the market, heaped up before the win- dows in our gi'oceries; but the price, in- stead of being 40 cents a peck, is now 50 cents a peck, because they are new potatoes, the first put on the market. Now a word to those who are writing me almost daily to know whether they can come down to Florida and make a living growing celery, grapefruit, oranges, etc. I think is is veiy unlikely that one brought up in the North can come down here and make it pay growing southern crops — at least not until he has had practice here and learned by experience ; but I do think there are thousands of people who could come down here to Florida and make a good liv- ing growing potatoes if they will only take the pains to do things right, and take ad- vantage of modern methods and discoveries. Let me go over them briefl3^ You will first have to purchase tiles and get your ground thoroughly underdrained. The cement tiles that are used largely in many places don't seem to answer here. There is something in our Florida soil that rots or disintegrates them. I have lost quite a little money, and mj' neighbor Rood a good deal more, in investing in cement tiles. Secondly, you must have humus to gi-ow potatoes here in this Florida sand. Thousands of people are burning up the trash in order to clear off their gi'ound ; but according to the Florida Experiment 278 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Station it would be worth nine times as much if turned under and rotted the way I described in gi'owing my potatoes. Again, you must have good seed, and you must give it good care. If you can grow pota- toes successfully in your back yard or gar- den up north I think you ought to be able to grow them successfully here in Florida. I suppose 3'Ou are well aware that hundreds of carloads of potatoes and other things are shipped daily from Florida up into the North. Just a little more about good seed. When friend Corwin put his notice in the paper about " seed potatoes ready to plant " he also stated that this seed had been grown expressly for him for this par- ticular season of the year. In order to have potatoes ready to plant, say in November, December, and even in January, they must be gi'own someAvhere at a season of the year so they will begin to sprout and be ready to grow about the time when they are to be planted. There are certain seedsmen in the South who make it a part of their business to be able to supply potatoes ready to plant in the months I have mentioned. You must have the right kind of seed. If you don't you will fail. So far as I know there is nothing better in sight at the present time than the Red Triumph that I have spoken of. It is a most handsome potato ; and when they are thoroughly ripe it is about equal in quality to any early potato we have. The Early Ohio might do as well down here, although I have never been able to try it. Let me mention right here that some years ago I happened to be present at a farmers' institute in a rural district, and a discussion was going around in regard to growing potatoes; and the farmers there in Ohio thought if they could be sure of 40 cents a bushel they were having a pretty good thing in potato-growing. As I had published a book on potatoes (or, at least, my good friend Terry and myself had put out the book), somebody inquired for A. I. Root. As I rose to speak I told the good people that I- was afraid I wasn't enough of a farmer to be able to grow potatoes. and make it pay at 40 cents a bushel. ''But," added I, " if you will give me 40 cents a peck I think I could get along right smart." This statement awakened quite a little up- roar. Dear friends, almost every one of you whose eyes rest on these pages, no matter where you live, can get 40 cents a peck for your potatoes if you set about it right now to get ready. Spread your seed potatoes out in the sun, at least a few of them, as many as you may want, in some place where they won't freeze, and induce them to put out short stubby sprouts as quickly as pos- sible. Then I think it would pay you to have a few cold-frame sash. Along the last of this month j'ou can put the potatoes out pretty close together under glass; and along in March, in many localities, you can get them out under good rich ground prepared as I have outlined in this potato story, and have them ready to grow whenever the weather will permit. Should there come a frost it is an easy matter to give at least a few potatoes a little protection. The grain-sacks that are a drug here in Florida answer every purpose nicely. Rij) up the seams and spread the bags over the pota- toes just coming through the ground, and they will ward off considerable frost. When your potatoes are ready for market they will be quite a little ahead of those shipped from away down here in Florida, or Ber- muda, or other lands. About the nicest way to cook new pota- toes, especially those that are only partially matured, is to boil them with gi-een peas. That is just what we are having for dinner almost every day just now. Don't under- take to dig the ivlwle. hill of potatoes when they get so as to be fit for table use. Push 3^our hand down throi;gh the liill in that rotted straw and hay that I mentioned, and pull out the potatoes as you happen to need them, and let the vines grow light on. F'otatoes planted very early are very un- likely to be troubled with potato-bugs or flea-beetles, or any thing of that kind. Teach the children the trick of gTOAving stuff' under glass and they will soon not onljf be a great help, but it will be an ex- cellent part of their education. As I write this the "corn-growing" boys are being discussed, especially in regard to their trip to Washington, as provided by the different States; and Florida is just now discussing (he matter of offering lier boys not only a premium but a trip to Washi^igton also, for growing fields of corn that beat any thing (heir "daddies" ever saw or heard of. Now, let us all offer an inducement to get the boys to growing potatoes; and why not let the girls share in this industrial education as well? This has been taken up by agri- cultural papers, and it will be very strange if we don't find some girls who are just as smart as the boys, even in growing corn, potatoes, and other thing's. COLORADO APPLES, ETC., BY PARCEL POST; SOJIETHING FROM OUR OLD FRIEND, J. A. GREEN Mr. A. I. Root: — I regret that our personal ac- quaintance has not been as intimate of late years as it was when I lived in Illinois and gave all my time to beekeeping, so that we occasionally met at APRIL 15, 1913 conventions. However, I have read with interest all your ^^Titings, and have not forgotten the old times. i am now engaged to a considerable extent in the fruit Ijusiness, so I have been interested in your "apple talks" within the last several months. I have been packing and shipping apples for several days, and it occurred to me that you might like to see some samples of the apples we grow in Colorado, so I packed and shipped you to-day by parcel post a few apples. You will find the papers in which they are wrapped stamped with the name of the variety. First there is the Arkansas Black. We do not call this a very good eating apple; but its high color makes it sell very well — highest of all our apples this year, and it is also a very good keeper. I have kept them over a year in good condion in our cellar. Then there is the "White Winter Pearmain. This, when at its best, is my favorite eating apple, though these are somewhat past their prime. Then comes the Winesap, which is one of our principal varieties. A collection of Colorado apples would be incomplete without the .Jonathan, so I send some of these, also the Grimes Golden, though I had nothing left but culls in either of these varieties. Of course we raise a great number of varieties here, though there are only a few that are planted any more. Jonathan, Winesap, and Gano are about all that are planted any more, and I do not think many Ganos will be planted hereafter. I should be glad if you could let me know how the apples stand their long trip. I have been won- dering if the parcel post would help us to solve the problem of getting our apples to the consumer, and getting rid of the excessive profits charged by the middlemen. James A. Green. Grand Junction, Colo., March 10. The apples came to hand in excellent condition; but the postage was 72 cts. on 15 apples — not a veiy good showing for parcel post from Colorado to Florida. The wooden box (to make them safe) weighed 2 lbs., and the 15 apples 5 lbs. The Arkan- sas Black is a most beautiful apple, very hard and crisp, but not quite equal in flavor to the justly celebrated Winesap. The De- licious apple I have mentioned in a former article kept perfectly until March. Poultry Department THE hen's nest AND NEST EGG. On page 426 for Gleanings for July 1, 1912, I gave you sketches of a hen's nest as I would have it for our convergent poul- try-yard. Well, I have just completed a series of six nests after this plan, and I want to tell you something of how they work. Before I had built my nests, the hens had been lajdng in a pine box in their roosting-house covered with burlap, by means of some barrel-hoops nailed to the sides of the box, and curved over the top. This particular nest suited them so well that six or a dozen hens were laying in it every day. After I put in my new nests with the dark allej- for them to go through, with some nests nicely fixed with dried grass and nest eggs, the hens, when they were read}' to laj%- climbed up the little ladder and looked the nests over and spent quite a little time in- vestigating, but they did not lay any eggs. Finalh' I noticed in one of the poultry jour- nals that the hens had a great preference for laj-ing where there is a nest full of eggs alread}', as their natural desire seemed to be to accumulate a nest full before wanting to sit. So I put several nest eggs in the new nest; but they went in, investigated, and spent some time cackling, but did not lay any eggs. Finally one day I took three warm eggs, just laid, from their old nest in the poultry-house, and put them into the new house along with the china nest egg. Tliis seemed to have the desired effect, for they went to work and laid three or four eggs during the day in that same nest. Now, you wiU notice I used the expres- sion " china nest egg;" but, if I am correct, when you go to almost any of the stores now and ask them if they have eliina nest egg's they reply, " Oh, yes ! " and give you some eggs made of wljte glass. They seem to be getting tliinner and smaller, until I should exceedingly wonder if any sensible lien would tliink of calling that a nest egg. They are also made so light that the hens knock them off the nest ; and down hei"e in Florida the skunks and opossums, when they come around at night to see if any clioice eggs have been left in the nest, have the habit of biting them and crushing them to pieces. In fact, one moonlight night I caught a skunk snapping an egg around the poultry-yard and trying to bite it. When it would bounce and fly off he would try again. He seemed very much disgusted to find an egg so smooth and slippeiw that he could not crush it and get the richness in- side. I have in vain asked keepers of poul- tiw supplies for some better substitute. Of course Ave have such eggs advertised, and I bought quite a number of them; but they do not seem to be much better than the glass egg. They are heaAder, and stay in the nest better; but when skunks or other vermin get hold of them they are easily crashed. I have an impression that some of the hens, discovering they are made of chalk or lime, or something of that sort, have been peck- ing them to pieces themselves in order to get material to make eggs, especially if they do not happen to be well supplied with lime or oyster-shells. I do not like the wooden eggs (such as The A. I. Root Company used to sell years ago), because they are so hard to keep 280 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE clean. The paint or varnish, or whatever is used, very soon gets soiled, and the eggs get to be unsightly, and, vei-y likely, unsani- tary. There used to be years ago a genuine porcelain egg that was just about as heavy as a hen's egg, and was proof against all these troubles that I have mentioned. Can anybody tell me where I can get an egg that is porcelain — really porcelain in something besides name? Now, my new hens' nests, which I have taken so much pains with, have proved all right except in one respect. When there is a very hot day, for instance, the hot sun shining right direct almost at right angles on this lid that is to be raised up, makes it, I suppose, almost unbearable inside, because on such days I notice the hens going back to their old nests, and all piled into one nest, or else they stand and wait for their comrades to get through and give them their turn. Of course, I might have trees to shade my hens' nests; but it would be a little difficult to have shade-trees so the sun would not strike right squarely against some of the nests at a certain time of the day. And I am convinced that, a good many times, the hens desert their nests and go over to the bushes to lay just be- cause the nests are too hot in the middle of the day in this southern clime. It is cer- tainly one very great drawback to have the hens go off in the bushes, under the palmet- tos, or among this luxuriant foliage here in our semi-tropical land, and steal their nests. Eggs from stolen nests are not fresh, and seldom fit for market. Our government has been passing some strenuous laws in regard to taking eggs to market that were not healthful or suitable for the market. All such eggs can be used at home; but when too many of the hens get to going out among the bushes it gets to be a serious matter. Some poultrymen, I know, take the gi'ound that there is no need of ne^t eggs of any sort; but they certainly have a vei-y gi-eat influence in getting the hens to lay where you want them to instead of in some out-of-the-way place where the eggs may never be found at all. Where hens are confined, and do not have unlimited range, it isn't so very important to have nest eggs. But I want my hens to enjoy themselves and be happj', and I want them also to lay where I " elect." Since the above was written neighbor Ab- bot suggests that my "convergent nest-box" . needs more ventilation. In my efforts to give the biddies privacy I forgot fresh air. On cloudy days, or in cool weather, the nests are all right ; but during sunny days I am leaving the lids propped up a couple of inches. ROOFLESS rOULTKY-HOUSES IN FLORIDA, ETC. Mr. Root: — In the Poultry Department of Glean- ings for Jan. 1, F. M. Baldwin strongly advocates roofless coops for poultry in Florida. I would advise new-comers intending to keep chickens not to follow such advice too blindly. Use common sense. Ma-. B. claims that poultry are not bothered with vermin in roofless coops. May be not, but there are other ways of getting rid of vermin than drvinching the fowls with rain water two or three times a week. When we had dirt floors in our coops, chiggers were a terrible pest. We put in board floors, and have not seen a chigger in years. A roofless coop would be a standing invitation to all the varmints in the neighborhood to come and help themselves. All the coons, possums, foxes, and wildcats in that vicinity would camp around that coop till the last hen was gone. Wire poultry fencing does not always keep them out. p. H. Chesebro. Boca Raton, Fla., Jan. 21. My good friend, either you have not been long with us or you have read Glean- ings carelessly. The term " roofless " does not mean there is nothing overhead to keep out " varmints." On the contrary, I think most of the roosting-places are covered with poultry-netting. The first two years we were in our present Florida home our poultiy roosted in the trees, and had no houses at all; and my yield of eggs was as good as with houses. The reason why 1 changed was the difficulty of getting the fowls, when wanted, and some trouble on moonlight nights from owls. We have had no insects of any kind in our roosting- places since we commenced sweeping up the drippings eveiy morning. CONVERGENT rOULTRY-RUNS ACROSS THE WATER, AND SOME OTHER THINGS. Dear Sir: — I wrote you, Sept. 9, about the con- vergent poultry-runs, and you published it on Nov. 15, since when I have not seen any thing further on the matter ; so I thought you would like to hear the opinion held over on this side. The chief drawback seems to be in the great length of the run when compared with the width, as the fowls are not inclined to keep the grass down at any distance from the house; and to overcome this Mr. Wright gives a plan of eight houses, sheds, and runs. Personally I prefer the colony system, which Mr. Wright credits to Mr. Stoddard. I am afraid you misled the point in the leaflet taken from the Mark Lane Express about lime. Al- though it was printed in 1910 it was an article on farming in the 16th century in England, and went to show that the old timers knew that lime was good for clovers. Lime and salt are the two oldest arti- ficial manures in existence, and are largely used in this country as well as seaweed. I was much pleased to see in the Jan. 15th issue J. E. Crane's remarks about the good old blacks. All the other " Gleaners " seem to think them of little value ; but I can assure you that I have had Italians direct from Ital- and that they can't gather honey as do the blacks, and they are not half as good at wintering. W. A. Teake. Ballashellan, Ballnbeg, Isle of Man, Published by The A. I. Root Co., Medina, 0. H. H. Root, Assistant Editor. E. B. Root, Editor. A. L. Boyden, Advertising Manager. A. I. Root, Editor Home Department. J. T. Calvert, Business Manager. Entered at the Postoffice, Medina, O., as Second-class matter. VOL. XLI. MAY 1, 1913 NO. 9 Editorial THE COMB-HONEY CANARD, AGAIN. A SYNDICATED article that is appearing in a large portion of the daily press of the country, written by Miss Ida M. Tarbell, on the subject of glucose, and telling how it has been used as an adulterant, makes this statement : " They even manufacture honeycomb and fill it with corn syrup." We wish every one of our subscribers would send in their immediate protest to all papers publishing this, asking such pa- pers to send such protest to Miss Tarbell. We believe she is a candid writer, and de- sires to tell the truth; but in this case she has made a big blunder. She has implied, also, that the strained honey on the market to-day is nothing but corn syrup, in spite of the fact that the national government, as well as most of our States, has stopped the sale of glucose as honey. Make it plain that there is no such thing as manufactured comb honey, and little or no adulterated liquid honey. Of course we are voicing our own protest direct. ANOTHER TREATISE ON BEE CULTURE, FROM THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST OF INDIANA. There lies on our desk a copy of the Fifth Annual Report of the State Entomol- ogist of Indiana. That State has been for- tunate in having two entomologists, Mr. Benjamin W. Douglas and now Mr. C. H. Baldwin, both of whom have prepared com- prehensive reports on the injurious and useful insects of their State. At the close of the last report appears a brief treatise on bees by D. W. Erbaugh and B. F. Kin- dig, State foul-brood inspectors. There also appears from the same office a circular of information for beekeepers on the brood diseases of bees, by the Hon. Mason -J. Niblaek. IVlr. N. is an ardent beekeeper — one who has done, perhaps, more than any other man to advance the cause of apicul- ture in his State. The excellent foul-brood law that has been in force for several years was largely due to his untiring efforts and influence in both Houses of the General Assembly. Indiana beekeepers will no doubt be able to obtain a copy of either by apply- ing to the State Entomologist, C. H. Bald- win, Indianapolis. OUR COVER PICTURE. The picture on our cover for this issue is one sent us by Mrs. S. E. Howard, of Wakefield, Mass., whose article adorned the pages of our Women's Number, the March 1st issue. j\±rs. Howard is an expert, who, having made a success with beekeeping, has been furnishing a number of the popular magazines with illustrated articles showing how and why she succeeds. These articles are refreshing in that they are written by one who is familiar with nearly every phase of beekeeping. A very large propor- tion of the literature in the popular press in regard to bees is unorthodox in some respects. By this we mean that it is likely to contain some reference or some state- ment which causes an experienced beekeeper to smile. Mrs. Howard's articles do not contain extravagant claims of enormous profits, nor are they such as to cause any inexperienced person not fitted for beekeep- ing to plunge wildly into the business with- out giving a thought to any thing aside from the spending of a lot of time and money. The view shoAvs the hiving of a swarm. The cluster of bees has just been shaken on to the sheet before the entrance of the new liive, and the bees have begain march- ing in. This is a sight that never fails to excite admiration or wonder on the part of the onlooker, as the bees when they once start go trooping in, for all the world like a flock of sheep. the western honeybee. Vol. I. No. 1 of the new bee-journal has come to hand. It announces on the front page that it " is not a competitor nor a money-maker," but is designed to " fill a long-felt want." It is published by the California State Beekeepers' Association, from news furnished by the beemen. At present it is edited by G. L. Emerson, a beekeeper owning and taking care of from 282 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 1200 to 1600 colonies. There is a distinctly Western and a professional flavor in the new publication, and the first issue gives evidence that it will indeed fill a " long-felt want." The articles are by a number of prominent beekeepers — men well known through the bee-journals ; and, besides, there are contributors who count their colonies by the thousand. We are glad that its promotors feel that it is not a " competitor." This is a broad, broad world, and a big, big country. Cali- fornia is a great deal larger than some countries, and the second largest State in the Union. We see no reason why the bee- keepers of that State should not be able to maintain a journal that will be a credit to them as well as a help. It will build up the industry, and so far from being a compet- itor it will be an aid to all bee journals. It will be of immense worth in securing a foul-l)rood law that will mean something in California. There is much more it can and will do for not only the Association but for the general advancement of bee- keeping within the State and out of it. Gleanings is glad to welcome it. THE BEHAVIOR OF THE HONEYBEE IN POLLEN COLLECTING. In our issue for March 1, page 139, we gave a brief review of a bulletin from the Bureau of Entomology, No. 161, by Dr. D. B. Casteel, on the subject of the manip- ulation of the wax scales of the honeybee. This time we have the pleasure of referring to another bulletin by the same author, en- titled " The Behavior of the Honeybee in Pollen Collecting." Tliis, like the other, is extremely interesting, because it opens up a field hitherto unexplored by any one ex- cept F. L. Sladen, now Assistant Entomol- ogist at Ottawa, Canada. Much has been wiitten on the value of the honeybee in pollinating fruit-blossoms, clovers, and buckwheat; but the intricate process by which the bee prepares this pollen and de- posits it in its pollen-basket, if we are correct, has not been accurately described until Sladen and Casteel gave it to the pub- lic. The matter of how the bee takes its pol- len from the blossom and stores it in its pollen-baskets, from a scientific point of view, at least is exceedingly intei-esting; and it has its practical side because it helps to prove that bees perform an almost in- dispensable service in pollinating blossoms. If any one has ever doubted this proposi- tion he could doubt no longer after seeing how elaborate and perfect are the appli- ances, the working tools, so to speak, in pos- session of our conmaon honeybees as well as bumblebees, for gathering and storing pol- len. That is to say, if the bee is perfectly equipiDed for doing this work it certainly must do it. Very few people have had the time and patience to follow the intricate process of the bees in pollen-gathering from start to finish. In our younger days we tried to discover just how the bees did it ; but the l^erf ormance was so rapid that nothing short of an instantaneous photograph could have caught it. In this connection it should be stated that Dr. Casteel had, of course, all the modern appliances that the government could furnish to aid him in this investiga- tion, and he used them. He called in the services of an expert chemist from the Bureau of Chemistry to determine the na- ture of the liquid that holds the pollen to- gether; he consulted all the works that bore in the least on the subject; but apparently Ml'. Sladen was the only man who came anywhere near telling exactly how pollen is put into the -pollen-baskets. The bee's working- tools consist of spines and hairs on its legs; of a long hairy tongue, of mandibles, and fuzz, or hair, on the body, and of pollen-baskets which, so far from being a basket — well, it does not look like any thing except a bee's hind leg. The average person, if he will examine it carefully with a microscoiJe, will conclude that the i^ollen-basket is the most unlikely place in which to store a lump of bee-bread ; but it stores it in great big chunks just the same. The manner in which the bee gathers pollen varies according to the flowers on which it is working. Sometimes the dust is collected on the hairs of the body as well as on all the legs, antennae, and head. At otiier times, only the fore legs, where the flowers are very small, in connection with the tongue, seem to be concerned in the process. On the fore legs is a very inter- esting device called the antennge-cleaner, which is used for removing pollen from the antennae. On the middle legs there is a peculiar kind of spur that is used for kick- ing pollen out of the baskets on arrival at the combs. On the hind legs are pollen- combs, pollen-baskets, a sort of pincers or squeezers, consisting of a pecten, and auri- cle. These devices all come into play at the proper instant, as we shall see. In some cases the bees fairly wallow in the pollen dust of the large flowers. On tak- ing wing they proceed to clean themselves llu'ough the agency of the special tools pro- vided by the legs, consisting of hairs, pol- len-combs, antennae, claws, all of which. MAY 1, 1913 while the bee is flj-ing. may be engaged in the process of direetljr and indirectly trans- ferring the pollen from some part of the bee's anatomy to the pollen-basket. " Bnsy as a Bee," for the bee is busy not only while in the flower, but while it is on the wing. It can not afford to waste valuable time merely in flying, so it keeps its legs busy in making pollen gathered on its body and legs) into a bee-bread, or, more exact- ly, a pollen paste consisting of honey and pollen gi-ains, making little patties of dough. The process of following the transfer- ence of pollen from the mouth parts to the middle legs, and even to the pollen combs of the hind legs, is not so difficult. Most of the authors who have attempted to de- scribe it have been fairly accurate; but au- thorities have differed widely as to how the pollen was transferred from the pollen combs on the hind legs to the pollen-bas- kets; and no one seems to have discovered the correct method until Sladen and Cas- teel, each independently of the other, dug it out. Those who have studied the anatomy of the bee will remember that, on the hind jDair of legs, there seems to be between the joints a big pair of pincers or jaws. These pin- cers or jaws are opened when the legs are flexed, and closed when they are straighten- ed out. Some have supposed that the func- tion of these was for the purpose of mas- ticating or working wax; others, that they were used for hanging hold of each other while hanging in the swarm. There have been all kinds of guesses, but they have been wild. Sladen and Casteel have proved beyond a question that they are used for the purpose of pressing the mass of loose pollen and honey, and at the same time forcing it up under pressure into the pollen- basket on the outside of the leg. The pol- len combs of the hind legs receive the pol- len from the middle legs, and from the un- der side of the bodj^ of the bee. The pecten spurs or the upper part of the pincers catch or gather the pollen from the pollen combs on the opposite hind leg. The jaws close, squeezing the mass so that it is forced under pressure to the opposite side of the leg up into the pollen-basket, just about as you would squeeze putty out from be- tween the ends of the fingers. These little masses of pollen, or mouthfuls, so to speak, are gi'adually forced upward, pushing the general mass higher up in the basket. The process is somewhat similar to the method of putting fuel in one of our house fur- naces. The coal is pushed up from the bot- tom under the fire-pot, shovelful by shovel- ful, so to speak, until the fire-pot is filled full. In the same way the bee fills its pollen-basket from beneath; and this filling continues until the lump of pollen is pressed out in all directions, crowding against the hairs or sj^ines of the pollen-basket, and sometimes away past them; and as the mass is wet with honey it sticks to whatever it comes in contact. The old popular be- lief was that the middle legs, in some way unexplained, put the pollen in the pollen- basket from the outside. While these mid- dle leg's do reach back over the pollen mass in the baskets, the purpose of the move- ment is evidently to determine whether the lump is holding its position. The whole process as described by Sladen and Casteel is exceedingly interesting; and it is of more value because each worked out the problem without the knowledge of what the other was doing. It is a mai^el that either should have discovered the process; but when it is once explained it seems so clear that there is no room for doubt. There has been some speculation as to what is used by the bees in moistening the l^ollen. Some have thought that it was sa- liva; but the majority have held that it was honey. Dr. Casteel has proved that hone,y is the agent, for chemical analysis shows that, beyond a doubt. Honey that is obtained from the mouth parts is trans- ferred to the fore legs, and sometimes to the middle legs, and by the latter to the hind legs, or pollen-combs, that catch and receive the dry pollen. This is subsequently worked over and transferred to the pair of ])incers already mentioned, before its en- trance into the pollen-baskets as just ex- plained. This interesting bulletin can be secured from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing-office, calling for cir- cular 121, and inclosing five cents. Do not send stamps, as the Government does not accept them. It would be well to get in your order early, as the edition of Dr. Cas- ( eel's former bulletin. No. 161, on " The Manipulation of the Wax Scales of the Honeybee," was entirely exhausted in a short time. We are pleased to note this, because we want the authorities at Wash- ington to know that there is a big demand for any thing on the subject of bees, and the more of this kind of stuff they can give us, the better. For convenience in sending for these bulletins the Department will send twenty coupons for a dollar, each of which is good for five cents. Buyers of public documents will find the use of these coupons the most convenient and the safest way of remitting the amount of their purchases. 284 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Stray Straws De. C. C. Millee, Marengo, 111. Destroying the capped cells to prevent swarming is advocated, p. 212. But would not that require vei'y close watching? for are we not told that a colony swarms when the first cell is capped? Mr. Editor^ you say, p. 246, that parcel- post packages of honey can't go outside of the mail-sacks. May be they can't, but they do. At least the case of honey I sent to Chicago went that way. Matter of " local- ity," eh? Time was, and not a hundred years ago, when a beekeeiner's success was measured by the number of swarms that issued. Now there is a niche in the hall of fame aAvait- ing the man who will give us a profitable way to j)revent swarming in all cases. How nice it would be if you could just divide a colony into two, three, or more parts without having most of the bees go back to the old stand ! Well, you can do that very thing if you take a colony from the home apiary to an out-apiary. Then you can bring another colony from the out- apiary and divide it up in the home apiary. Of course, if you have no out-apiary you can shut up the bees for about three days, or you can close the entrance with green leaves or gi-ass and let the bees dig their way out. [You are right. — Ed.] J. L. Byer, your head's level in that talk about syrup vs. honey, p. 253; and I ven- ture to say that in five years j'ou'll go still further and say that, even for wintering, syrup does not equal Al honey. [What do you mean here, doctor? Do you mean that an Al honey is suiDcrior, irrespective of quantity, to sugar syrup? Perhaps you are right, but we would suppose that you will have not only Mr. Byer but the whole fi-a- ternity against you. However, we all agTee with Mr. Byer that a pound of sugar syrup in the feeder will not last as long as a pound of honey sealed in combs. — Ed.] For half a century there is no one thing in beekeeping I have fought more bitterly and persistently than the swarming nui- sance. I don't believe any plan is knoAvn that will entirely prevent all swai'ming if colonies are kept strong. But you can come so near to it that it will hardly pay to watch for the few swarms that will run away. You can work for extracted honey, and give abundance— not plentj^, but abundance — of room for the queen, and also for the sur- plus, gi\dng much ventilation at each story. Or, especially if working for sections, you can exchange the old queen for a young one at the beginning of the swarming sea- son. G. W. Demaree, a Kentucky beekeeper, some years ago gave a plan for prevention of swarming that is simple, and has proved successful in the hands of manj^ who work for extracted honey. When swarming-time comes, put the queen in the lower story with one frame containing a little brood, and fill up the hive with combs or founda- tion. Over this put an excluder, and over the excluder a second stoi'y with the rest of the brood. Ten days later kill cells in up- per story. These upper combs will now become extraeting-combs. [The secret of this lies in giving the queen egg-laying room. The principle is correct. — Ed.] When running for extracted honey it hel^DS against swarming to have the stories "stuttered;" the second story shoved for- ward to make ventilation at the back, the third story shoved backward to make venti- lation at front, and so on alternately. Even for comb honej^ I like ventilation at back between hive and first super. [This plan is all right when working with ordinary Ital- ians or common hybrids — that is, a cross between Italians and black bees. We tried it out very thoroughly last summer with an apiary of Carniolans. While it checked their swarming it did not stop it. In fact, we do not believe there is any device or method known that will stop Carniolans from swarming if they once get started. This one Carniolan apiaiy gave us more trouble from swarming than all the rest of our apiaries together. — Ed.] I ARISE, reluctantly, to say to beginners who think of increasing by the Alexander plan as given in ABC and X Y Z that I don't believe there's one locality in a hun- dred where the plan will pan out as there represented. In my locality it would make the increase all right, but it would make a bad dent in my honey crop instead of near- ly doubling it. If your bees have a reliable buckwheat harvest of thousands of acres, and you want at least part of your crop ex- tracted, then go ahead. [You are probably correct for your locality; but you will re- member that Mr. Alexander places strong emphasis on stimulative feeding. And you Avill remember that his main honey crop did not come on till about the first of August or later; so, therefore, what might work with him might be a failure with you, where your honey-flow comes on about the first or middle of June, and closes about July 1. — Ed.] MAY 1, 1913 285 Beekeeping in California p. C. Chadwick, Redlands, Cal. I read this headline in the issue for April 1 : " Painting queens so that they may be quickly found." A little more training of the eye will help to a great extent. I doubt whether the painting idea makes very much headway. * * * Mr. R. M. Spencer says, April 1, p. 209, '' We use a method of preventing robbing during this early sirring work by going- over the hives so fast that robbers can not get a chance." I guess that is " going some." all right. * * * California showed up well in the April 1st issue. Besides the cover picture, we were represented by several good articles. Those honey-tanks shown on the cover are about as large as are ever used, and not very often do we see more than one at an apiary, even in this land of floods and drouths in the honey-flows. * * * Did you ever stop to consider the amount of excitement a swarm of bees will cause? I once saw an entire family, with most of the tin portion of the kitchen utensils going across the fields and meadows in a merry chase after a swarm, but thej' were not suc- cessful in stopping it. A hive once sat in the back yard of a neighbor year after year, and the bees were hardly noticed until the}' swarmed out; then great excitement was started at once, and all hands were called to hive them quick. A CORRECTION. I am in receipt of a letter from Mr. F. C. Pellett, State Bee Inspector of Iowa, in which he calls my attention to the fact that I have misstated the report of the Iowa State Beekeepers' Association, on which I made comment in the April 1st issue. Mr. Pellett says, " The joke is on you ; put on your glasses, and i-ead the report of the Iowa convention again." Well, I read the report, and I humbly beg the pardon of the Iowa beekeepers; but in justice to my- self I think Mr. Pellett should have recom- mended an optician, inasmuch as I have not as yet begun the use of glasses. It is just possible I may be in need of them. Any way, I must admit that I did not observe as closely as I should have done the clause relating to being accompanied by a certifi- cate of health signed by some duly author- ized Government or State inspector. PROSPECTS FOR HONEY. We axe nearing the end of the second week of April with little if any better pros- pects for a honey crop than at the same date last season. So far we have had a very light season's rainfall, and at this date it seems probable that our rains are over for the season. We may expect some showers during the next four weeks; but any gi'eat amount of rain is only possible. The button sage in this locality, no matter how much it may rain, is practically out of consideration for the season. It is badly frozen, as I have before stated. Much of it will not put out a bloom shoot, and some not even a green leaf. The orange-trees are just beginning to bloom, with bees on an average in better condition than last season, so we may reasonably expect some honey from that source; but from the wild flora there is little in prospect. It seems probable that the season will be finished with a total of less than last year's crop, and the price ranging around 8 cts. Good rains Avould, no doubt, be of some aid, but it seems out of reason to expect any great amount of honey after the past six weeks of practically dry weather. * » » FIRST ISSUE OF THE VS^ESTERN HONEYBEE. The first issue of The Western Honeybee is out. I believe it is of sufficient merit to recommend itself to the western beekeeper. Like all work undertaken by the associa- tion, it must be supported first and most loyally by association members, who, with their best efforts, can help gain the support of the western beekeepers as Avell as many in the East, for there are many in the East who will be subscribers for the sake of knowledge. The moi'e bright journals we have, the greater will be our opportunity to profit by the ideas we get one from the other. It is my wish that The Western Honeybee may take its place in the front rank of bee journals of the countiy, and I shall lend an effort in making it a success, though I expect to continue my work in these columns as long as I can feel that I am aiding the beekeepers of my State or elsewhere, or until the editors fell me that my services can be dispensed with. I have been editing this department for nearly two years; and while I do not feel that I should grab in with both hands and take more than my share of credit, I do have a feeling that I have done something to in- terest the California beekeeper and keep alive an interest in our State affairs. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Beekeeping Among the Rockies Wesley Foster, Boulder, Col. Mr. Chadwick says, p. 47, Jan. 15, that Colorado claims 27,000 colonies of bees. I wonder where he got that information. The 1910 census gives Colorado 70,000, and that is verj' probably below the figure, as bees in towns were not counted. I do not care to guess, but I am of the opinion that, if ever}' hive containing bees were counted, the number would be over 100,000. Mesa County has over 14,000 colonies, according to Ml'- Harkleroad, the inspector; and of this number over 11,000 were inspected during 1912. California is, without doubt, a much heav- ier honey-producer than Colorado. We are willing to grant that ; but we have some of the best beekeepers to be found any- where, and the homes of our beemen are a credit to the State. I have a collection of photos that attest it, and some of these days I am going to show them. The homes of a nation are its stronghold. The past fall, Mrs. Foster took nearly a thousand-mile trip with me, and she visited in the homes of beekeepers for about a month. She formerly harbored the idea that beemen were mostly eccentric, a little off in the up- per story, so to speak. When she reached home she had changed her mind, and ex- pressed herself to the effect that beemen know how to share the conveniences of mod- ern life with their wives, and how to enjoy life. They struck her as being a live, alert class with a business requiring training and mental alertness. So there you have the opinion of a college girl, newspaper woman, etc., who happens now to be Mrs. Foster. * * * ALFALFA NOT BEING CUT AS EARLY AS FORMERLY. While on the Colorado Agiicultural Col- lege demonstration train I had several very enjoyable visits with Mr. P. K. Blinn, al- falfa specialist for the Colorado Experi- ment Station at Rocky Ford. There is no man in the United States who knows more about alfalfa than Mr. Blinn. He has ex- l^erimental plots of man_y varieties of alfal- fa, testing seed production. The nectar production in relation to seed production is one of interest to him, and some tests ai'e contemplated to find out, if possible, wheth- er the heavy seeding alfalfa is also heavy in nectar production. The Grimm alfalfa is in the lead at present, as regards tonnage and hardiness. It is much more profuse in its blooming than any other varieties — all colors of bloom from white, pink, blue, and purple shades. If, as is likely, it is as heavy a honey-producer as it is a blooming crop it will be a winner for the beeman. And here is another point — it begins blooming before its gets its growth. The farmers will not cut it until after it has bloomed for some time. The seed is from fifty cents to a dollar a jjound as yet ; but the price will come down when it is produced in greater quantities. Mr. Blinn also brings this good news to the beemen — that there is a change of opinion regarding the cutting of alfalfa before it blooms. Alfalfa is not being cut as early as it was five years ago. * » * SEASON^ PROSPECTS. Early in March, breeding was going on freely in normal colonies, only the weakest ones being without brood. But March went out like a lion, and considerable brood was chilled. Many colonies will need feeding in northern Colorado before the honey-flow begins. Better lay in a supply of sugar. It is cheaper now, March 26, than it has been for a long time — $5.00 per hundred, and less for beet sugar. A snowfall of 191/^ inches fell March 25th, nearly half the whole winter's fall. There is an abundance of snow in the mountains, and the bees are in fine order. The only thing we fear is the late frost that blights the alfalfa and destroys the nectar secretion of the first growth, and lessens the secretion of the second and third bloom. The beekeeper in the exclusive alfalfa districts has troubles altogether different from those of the man in the fruit areas. The alfalfa-district man is annoyed by spring winds that retard early breeding. There is also a very marked lack of early pollen. These conditions obtain in the Ar- kansas Valley in Eastern Colorado, and the Platte Valley in Northern Colorado. Some beemen move their bees near the river in the valley for the winter and spring, mov- ing back to the alfalfa fields about the time for the bloom on the alfalfa to open. In the fruit districts bees build up with remarkable rapidity, and swarm and swarm just as they do where they wish for a non- swarming strain of bees. It is easy to keep up one's numbers in the fruit district if you are not wiped out by spraying. Which "location will you take? The beemen feel that they are between the devil and the deep sea. Some say that they believe they will move back east and live with Avife's folks — take up cellar or clamp wintering, and put up with cold winters, and floods in the spring. MAY 1, 1913 287 Conversations with Doolittle At Borodino, New York. ARE DROXES A NECESSITY IN NATURAL SWARMING? I am told that drones are necessary when the bees make their plans for natural swarming, for no swarm will ever issue unless there are mature drouea or drones in the brood, on the principle that the par- ent colony would become extinct from the leaving of the mother-queen with no provision made for the mating of the young queens later. This would be especially true with all isolated colonies ; and it is calculated that the bees of each colony consider th.'irs in such a light, no matter how many other colonies any apiarist may mass together. Now, if this is a fact, would it not be an easy matter to do av ay entirely with natural swarming by excluding all drone comb from all the colonies in any apiary? The exclusion of drones from colonies for tlie i^revention of swarming is not a new idea. It does seem reasonable at first that no colony would swarm unless there were a reasonable prospect for the perpetuation of the old colony from the 'young queens, always left behind in the brood form, be- coming fertile later. But so far as I know it has never been announced that success- ful non-swarming has ever been obtained by excluding brood comb. Several have announced, during the past quarter of a century, that drones, being a necessity to tlie permanence of the colony, a logical de- duction would be that their entire absence would delay the preparations for swarming that are usual to all parent colonies. It has been assumed that the rearing of drones is the first preparation which leads to the building of queen-cells, which, when sealed, constitute the completed preparations. While on this subject it might not be a;iiiss to notice some other vital princiiDles which induce swarming, and which Avill afford us a more intelligent understanding of it. As long ago as 1852 Mr. Moses Quinby named three causes which induce swarming, and to-day they are recognized as the prime factors. As I look back over the 5'ears which have passed since then I can not refrain from referring to the won- derful accuracy of most of Mr. Quinby's investigations. Even the limelight of this tAventieth centuiy has cast a shadow on very little if any of the investigations which he gave to the world, and tlie larger part of such were carried on when a box hive was the known palace of a colony of bees. His three causes or factors are these : " A crowded hive, a large brood, and a good flow of nectar." These are usually sufficient to induce swarming. Another factor bearing on these is that of temperature, which will hasten or retard the preparation just in px-oportion to the heat or cold. What is known as the swarm- ing fever or swarming impulse is a strong factor when the other conditions are com- bined. These conditions being absent, no amount of drones would cause swarming; and with their presence I have known colo- nies to swarm without a single drone or even any prospect of any. This no-drone theory is not new, as I liinted at in the start. At the time it was agitated, fifteen or twenty years ago, in order to test tliis matter as well as another still more strongly advocated as a fact, that no colony would swarm with any queen of the current season's rearing, I made sever- al colonies as follows : A nucleus was form- ed by taking the queen away from a weak colony of bees, and confining the bees of this weak colony on two frames of brood and two of honej', the brood being between the two of honey. This nucleus was' given a ripe queen-cell. This gave a laying queen in from ten to twelve days, at which time there would be bees enough to care for a hive full of combs, as tlie larger part of the brood would have emerged if combs of nearly all sealed brood had been given at the time the old queen was taken away. When the young queen had practically filled with eggs the combs from which the brood had emerged, six combs of all worker cells, fill- ed as nearly as was possible with sealed brood, were given to such a nucleus. Three days later a super of sections filled with thin foundation was given, when the no- drone and current-year-queen talk said such made colonies would not swarm that year. In about ten days these hives became filled (o overflowing with bees from the sealed brood given, and the bees were making a stai't in the sections, as there was a fairly good yield of nectar from the fields. Some days later, when I was becoming enthused with tliis way of making colonies, which would be non-swarmers for at least one season, out came a swarm of monstrous size, the queen coming out with the last half of the bees in regular prime-swarm fashion. A careful looking-over of the combs which the hive contained gave no evidence of drones in any form whatever ; but there were queen-cells with eggs and young larvae in them. This was a damper on my enthusiasm, and the whole theory was finally spoiled by every one of the colo- nies I had made in this Avay swaradng that year, with a single exception. Those who still thought that there was Continued on page 288. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Notes from Canada J. L. Byee, Mt. Joy, Ont. Wherever bees here in Ontario had enough good stores last fall, they wintered in fine condition. Many beekeepers report heavy consumiDtion of stores, and attribute it to a mild January. Clover is looking well at this date (April 4) ; and as there is an abundance of it this season, naturally we are hoping for a good crop of honey. * * * Talk about jDluck, I think that picture on page 155, March 1, where a transferring operation is in progress, shows that virtue personified. How many women would want to be working like that with those thousands of bees crawling all over the ground, and over herself, as seems to be the case. Trans- ferring will always be necessary, I suppose, to a certain extent; but at best it is a mussy job when done by the old-time methods. The times are rare when one can not trans- fer by simply putting the new hive on top of the box or other receptacle, allowing the queen to go above and occupy the good combs or foundation. As soon as she is above, slip a queen-excluder between the two bodies, and then in 21 days shake off the bees of the lower hive, doing as you M'ish with the combs, now empty of brood. * * * The spraying question is a live issue in Ontario again, especially in localities where fruit is gTown extensively. Last week I was in the counties of Northumberland and Durham on a short Institute trip, and at different places I heard of owners of spray- ing outfils who said that they were going to spray right along, and, if necessary, pay any fines imposed. They said that the out- fit is worth at least $15.00 a day to them; and as the fine is very small, they can af- ford to pay it if necessai-y and keep right on at work. To make matters worse, some good fruit-men are not as sure as formerly that the spraying in full bloom injures the blossoms; and with a big acreage to cover they say that, if it were not for the bees, they would spray right in full bloom. It is a difficult question to solve; but there is no question that the best-informed men in the fruit industry are opposed to this spraying in full bloom, even if it were not detrimental to the blossoms, as they realize that tlie bees are necessary in order to in- sure best results in the way of fertilization. Something will have to be done in the near future, for this spring the chances are that there will be considerable friction in some localities; and if the law we have is to be enforced, certainly amendments must be made that will make the fine more than nominal. * * * QUEENS MATE QUITE CLOSE TO THEIR OWN HIVES. Mr. John McKinnon, writing in the Ca- nadian Bee Journal, says that his Italian bees did some robbing from hives four miles distant, this last season, and also that some black queens six miles away were mated to Italian drones from liis apiary. While I would not contradict these statements, yet it would need some pretty positive proofs to convince me that be is correct. Tor years, much buckwheat was grown within four miles of our home apiary; and while bees in the buckwheat section stored more than enough for winter each season, not once was a drop of buckwheat honey noticed in our yard. In said yard th§re were Italians, Carniolans, and blacks, so no " race " claims can enter into the matter as an explanation. As to distant mating, I can not speak so positively; yet all my observations along that line certainly go to show that the great majority of queens are mated quite close to the hives from which they issue. Especially is this so in so far as black bees are con- cerned ; and usually with an equal number of black and Italian drones flying, the black chaps will come out ahead in the race, as any one who has bred Italian queens in a mixed apiary will testify to from sad experience. Conversations with Doolittle — continued from p. 287. something in the no-drone theory, still clung to the belief that swarming can be prevented that way, and so I tried many plans looking toward the prevention of a single drone being reared in any hive in their apiaries, they considering the preven- tion of the rearing of drones the greatest obstacle in the way, for it is the natural instinct of a strong colony of bees to rear a few drones when the colony becomes prosperous enough in early spring. It was found out that frames of all worker comb, or those of foundation having that size of cell, were not proof against drones, as some anxious colonies Avould get in a few cells in the corners of the frames, between the frames and some part of the liive; or, if thwarted in all these ways, they would even cut down a little [)atc]i of worker comb and build drone comb ; or the queen would lay drone eggs in worker cells. MAY 1, 1913 289 General Correspondence THE SWARMING PROBLEM IN THE NORTH Making Increase ; Making up Winter Losses BY E. D. TOWNSEND The prevention of swarming when work- ing bees for either comb or extracted honey is a matter wliich should be given attention earlier in the season than many suppose. It is a case where the old adage, " An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," applies forcibly; for if one can get his bees strong, and still keep them free from the swarming fever until the opening of the clover or rasi^berry flow in June, with ra- tional handling during the honey-flow, but little swarming should result. A MILD SYMPTOM OF THE SWARMIXG FEVER. One indication of the swarming fever is the early rearing of drones in spring. This symptom is not of a very severe type, as it will be noted that swarms with but a mod- erate number of bees rear drones the same as the more powerful colonies during the spring months. At this time the swarming fever is so mild that subsequent events or conditions will determine whether the colo- ny will swarm or not during the season. A CRITICAL PERIOD IN SWARM PREVENTION. In the North the period of three or four weeks jjrevious to the opening of the clover or raspberrj' flow of honey is a critical pe- riod— the time of our main surplus-honey flow. We have practiced for years the pro- tecting of our bees either out of doors, in packed or chaff liives, or papering those wintered in the cellar, until after the dan- ger of freezing nights was over, which in this location is from May 20 to 2.5. We have a system of uniting our very- weak colonies with our very best ones, set- ting one above the other, without excluder. To digress still further I will say that, at this uniting, stores are ecjualized — i. e., a weak colony containing considerable honey is carried and set either under or over (as my judgment suggests) a colonj- containing a normal quantity of bees, but short of stores, or vice versa. There are still some colonies not very populous that are worth saving. It will paj^ to protect these in some way during the cold i^eriod of spring. How to carry the populous colonies of bees through the period of three or four weeks previous to the opening of the main honey-flow without their acquiring the swarming fever is the proposition in swarm control during the season. Swarming-fever prevention at this period is secured by giv- ing the more populous colonies an abun- dance of comb room so that they will never feel the least bit cramped for room. This is the key to swarm prevention previous to the opening of the honey-flow. More and more each year we are practicing giving a set of emptj' combs to each good colony some little time previous to the opening of our main flow of honey in June. We start out by giving sets of brood- combs where swarms have died out, or gome where weak swarms were united the pre- vious fall. As we never extract from these brood-combs, they usually contain consid- erable honey and bee-bread, which is valu- able at this time. EACH COLONY CARED FOR ACCORDING TO ITS INDIVIDUAL NEEDS. If a colony is found in May with a good stock of bees, but which for some reason or other is short of stores to carry the bees over to the opening of the main honey-flow, we place, in tliis extra set of combs we are giving them, honey to supply their wants. Those stories of brood-combs wliich we give early are placed under the colony, while those given later in the season are placed above a queen-excluder (on top), for they are our regular extracting-combs. While we strive to have our covers fit reasonably tight, thus preventing any con- siderable direct draft through the colony, the summer entrance should be used. In most cases this large entrance, coupled with a full ten-frame set of combs underneath, will i^revent the swarming fever. A colo- ny of bees free from the swarming fever is worth two colonies that are " sulking " at the opening of the surplus flow in June on account of the swarming fever. The handling of the surplus recej^tacle during the honey-flow is w^orked on the plan of giving plenty of room during the first three-fifths of the season, or allowing the remaining two-fifths of the honey-flow for finishing. HOW WE MAKE UP OUR WINTER LOSSES ; ALSO HOW WE MAKE OUR INCREASE OF COLONIES. After managing our bees to the best of our ability, without going to the trouble of shifting combs about from colony to colony, some few colonies will swarm unless we utilize them for increase. As our bees are mostly in outyards, where a part of them are left without a keeper each day during the season, on account of there being more yards than help, if the bees were allowed to cast many swarms a considerable loss would occur. 190 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE As I have already mentioned, the extra strong colonies early in the season were given an extra stoiy under, containing a weak colony. Others were given sets of brood-combs containing more or less honey according to their needs, while still others were given sets of extraeting-eombs above an excluder. In ease of the colonies con- taining two sets of brood-combs, or any divisions, for that matter, where sets of combs are available, we proceed as follows in increasing our number of colonies: The upper story is usually the one containing the main portion of the bi'ood and honey; but it often happens that the queen has begun to utilize the lower story by the opening of the clover flow of honey. In case young brood is found in the lower story, all we have to do is to see that the queen is in the lower portion, put on an excluder, then a set of extracting combs, and, on top of all, the set of old brood and hone}^ In eight days the brood will be all capped over in the upper (queenless) apart- ment, and in two more days ripe queen-cells will be found. About one colony in ten will not build cells in their queenless brood above ; but ample cells and to spare will be found in the other nine colonies to make up any deficiency in the tenth colony. At the time of making the divisions, if cells are found, as in preparation for swarming, no notice is made of them unless there will likely be a virgin hatched before our next trip to the yard to finish up the increase ten days later. In this case a queen-excluder is placed under the body containing the cells, so as to be sure that the young queen will be in the very set wanted, or, in other words, not be allowed to roam over two sets of combs, making it necessaiT to hunt her up on the tenth day. On the tenth day the set of brood, now all sealed, containing either cells or a \-irgin, as the case may be, is given a bottom-board and cover, and is then placed upon a new stand and allowed to build up for winter. If it is desired to make more increase than tills one division, tlie newly made colo- nies can be divided in the middle, giving each half an equal portion of brood and honey, and seeing that each half gets a comb of brood containing one of the best queen-cells. Where the brood is divided in the middle, making two colonies out of the one set of brood, as set forth above, empty combs, or combs containing honey, should be used to make up the number necessary to fill out the hives, as foundation will not work so well in this place. With such small colonies, especially where there is no fall flow of honey, feeding will probably have to be resorted to for winter stores. The above is our plan for making up winter loss where combs are available. For increase, or any occasion where no combs are at hand, full sheets of wired foundation ai-e used. The queen is found, and the card of brood, queen and all, is set in a hive body, and the remaining space filled in with frames containing foundation. The old hive is now set to one side, and the body containing the queen is set in its place on the old bottom-board. An ex- cluder is now placed on top, then a set of extraeting-eombs, and the original hive placed on top of all for ten daj's, when it is given a permanent stand of its own, the same &s when drawn combs were used. Tliis system of making up winter loss and increase is particularly adapted to out- yard work, as two visits is all that is neces- sary to do all of the work. Xarthstar, IMichigan. THE SWARMING PROBLEM IN THE SOUTH The Most Economical Way to Make Increase BY J. J. WILDER In this article I shall give some of my plans briefly ; but allow me to say that no great crop of honey can be hai'^'ested here without close Avatch over the bees, and more or less manipulation of supers and frames. The extra amount required to control in- crease, however, is not so great. No beekeeper should undertake these two gi'eat steps in our industry until he is fa- miliar with the sources of honey within reach of his bees. He is then far better qualified to take up the work. SWARM PREVENTION. During a slow glimmering honey-flow, such as we have in the South during the summer or fall of the year, bees will not acquire the swarming fever if they are kept supplied with plenty of storing room. But during the spring months they seem to be naturally inclined to swarm, and will do so on the least provocation. '/ There is another fact noticeable about Iswarming. If, during the swarming season, (there should happen to be one or more days I of bad weather when the bees are confined I to their hives, they seem to spend this time I of leisure in preparing to swarm, and no / doubt the greatest impulse for swarming ^tarts under such conditions. ' In my loca- tion I may expect swarming" to begin the first week in April. [My first round in ex- \ amining bees is made in February, and the J second one during the first and second week^ MAY 1, 1913 291 in March. On this round, all very strong colonies are elevated from their bottom- boards by means of two yg-ii^ch strips cut 20 inches long, one placed under each side. This gives good ventilation from end to end, and allows the bees a good clustering- place about the bottom of the frames, which will protect the brood during cool nights, and allow plenty of ventilation during sul- try nights, at which time they will most • likely acquire the swarming impulse. My brood-chamber consists of one eight- j frame hive-body and a shallow extracting-! super on top containing ready-built combs i which are left on over winter, and which contain more or less honey; and if the queen is occupying this super of combs, another super is set on top, which gives the queen additional room. This super can be taken from some Aveaker colony, or there are usually some extra ones left on in the fall at each ajDiary for this purpose. The third and fourth weeks in March another tour of inspection is made, and more strong colonies are treated in the same manner, and the weaker ones left for atten- tion on the next round. The first ones thus treated are given a storing super; for by this time the eve of the honey-flow is at hand. My third round is made during the first and second weeks in April, and at this time all colonies are treated like the first strong- ones. By this time a little nectar is coming in. and the strongest ones are examined in order lo see whether they have started queen-cells. This examination is made by tipping up the supers next to the hive-body enough to see well over the combs and also down through the combs below; and if any queen-cells are started they are torn out ; but if not, the super is let back in position. If any work has been done in the storing super, another one is put on. The fourth round is made the tliird week in April, and all colonies are examined for queen-cells as was done on the previous visit. By this time the honey-flow is in progress; and wherever a colony has started work in the storing supers, another super is added. Instead of placing it on top it is put under the other storing supers next to the brood-nest. The fifth trip is made the fourth week in Ai^ril, when all colonies are again looked over for queen-cells, as on previous visits, and storing room is added as may be nec- essaiy, allowing no honey to be finished next to the brood. By this time the bees are working in several supers, and there is little if any finished honey. Another round is made a week later, or /the first week in May, and all apiaries are I worked as on the previous visit. The honey- flow is now at its best, and there is some j finished honey which can be removed, and the packers started to work. About two ' weeks hence the honey-flow will decrease. The second week in May another trip is made, and a few of the colonies in each apiai-y which have made the greatest effort to swarm are looked over; and if no sign of swarming appears we do not give the apia- ries a general working, but add more stor- ing room where it is needed. Then no more manijiulation is necessary, for the bees have lost all desire to swarm, and will finish fill- ing the supers. ~"~~-^ INCREASE. I malve as much increase at the home apiaries as possible, for it is more conveni- ent there, but a lot more of general increase is made at the out-apiaries. This increase is usually made at the time of our second or third round, and it requires but little extra time when every thing is in readiness. In early spring, when we find a colony building queen-cells it is divided into two equal parts, and the queenless half is left on the old stand (if we happen to find the queen; and if not, both divisions are given combs containing queen-cells). Then the open space in the hive-bodies and supers is fitted in with ready-built combs, or frames containing full sheets of foundation. On our next rounds the divisions are examined, and the weaker ones are replenished with frames of sealed brood from colonies that can best spare it, and are given storing room as they need it. Tliis cures such colo- nies of the swarming fever for the season; and as the divisions were made early, these colonies will store considerable surplus hon- ey before the end of the spring honey-flow. Then more general increase is made neax the close of the summer or fall honey-flow ; but at this time there is no natural inclina- tion to swarm, and nine or ten days after the divisions are made (which is done as in spring) we make a special round and see that all queenless divisions have at least one good queen-cell. At the close of the season, when we put the bees up for win- ter, if any colony is queenless we unite it with a Aveaker colony. Only the strongest colonies are divided, and those that are heaviest in stores, so that no feeding will be necesary. Thus our general increase is made from our very best stock. The in- crease at the home yards is made in like manner by dividing up the strongest colo- nies from time to time throughout the sea- son; but here we give the queenless divi- GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE sions ripe queen-cells from our very best stocks; and when there is no honey-flow on we resort to outdoor feeding, and thus our off grades of honey are utilized. All queens ^are given all the room they can occupy by inserting empty combs in their nest ; and .as soon as one well occupies six or eight • combs the colony is again equally divided, .and so on throughout the season. Such in- crease may be distributed around to out- iapiaries at any time during the year. Cordele. Ga. THE SWARMING PROBLEM IN THE EAST Some of the Common Methods of Control Dis- cussed ; Natural Supersedure During Swarming BY J. E. CRANE Perhaps to no one subject connected with beekeeping has more thought been given than to the control of swarming. With the production of extracted honey this is com- pai^atively easy. By raising one or two combs of brood into a super of empty combs above the brood-nest, filling their place with good empty brood-combs early in the sea- son, and keeping the colony well supplied \iith. room, there is usually little trouble with swarming. It is quite othei-wise with the production of comb honey, for the brood must all be kept below, and the brood-chamber crowd- ed, in order to force the bees into the su- pers. Destroying or decapitating a large amount of worker brood has been recom- mended as a sure preventive of swarming; but the practice is too expensive and dis- gusting to be thought of. If one opens a large number of colonies week after week he may be surprised to see how many of these will have eggs in queen- cells, and" sometimes young larvae for three or four weeks, and yet never swarm, so evenly are the forces of the hive balanced in favor of swarming or opposed to it. We may take a hint from this, and use all those measures that tend to discourage swarming, such as giving an abundance of ventilation, shade, room for the queen to lay in the brood-chamber, super room for storing sur- plus, with bait sections, as well as the prop- ter manipulation of the supers to stimulate to the utmost the storing instinct. I have also found that it is a decided help to de- stroy drone brood where there is much of it in the hive, or it will sometimes be found where there are many old combs. But after all is done that one can do to discourage swarming, if the season is good, honey abundant, and the hives filled with brood, there will probably be many colonies that will prepare to swarm. As fast as such colonies are found, prompt measures must be taken. If the colony is strong with a vigorous queen I would shake at once on clean worker combs. If these contain some honey it is just as well ; and if half full of sealed brood I am inclined to think it is even better; but I do not often find the latter. When the bees enter the hive, or before, return to them the supers from the hive they have occupied. The absence of any unsealed brood will most likely cause them at once to give up any desire to swarm; and the half-filled supers will stimulate their storing instincts, and you will have them under control for the season unless the flow of honey is of long duration. If you find a colony that is not strong making prejjaration to swarm, do not shake, as it will be of little value if you do, unless you take pains to nurse it and build it up; and even then it may prove to be an un- profitable venture. If the queen from such a colony is old or not prolific, the best thing to do is to catch her and destroy her at once. It is not al- ways easy to find a queen during the swarm- ing season ; but if you have a queen sieve it is not usually a long job. Then destroy all sealed queen-cells, and in eight days again destroy all sealed cells, and in an- other se^"en or eight days give a virgin queen. It is well to take from the brood- chamber any combs not occupied with brood, if possible, and to fill up with combs of mature brood. In this way work may be begun in the supers within a short time. If I find a colony i^reparing to swarm with a queen of good age, and yet a colony which for some reason may not have a large number of bees, I often take the queen away, with perhaps tv^^ice as many bees as necessary to care for the brood, and place them in a new hive with an empty comb on one side and a comb of honey on the other side of this brood-comb. I set the hive aside, and throw a little gTass or a few weeds oyer the entrance, and it will take care of itself. Most of the old bees will go back; but enough will remain to make a good beginning for a new colony. The swarming season is the natural time for the supersedure of old queens, or such as have become exhausted by excessive pro- lificness. Queen-cells are started, and, when of proper age, the colony swarms; and the queen, unable to fly, drops to the ground and is lost. The colony returns to the hive. JL\Y 1, 1913 293 Playing with 'em." From Amos Harker, Cambridge, Iowa. awaits the hatching of a young queen, and. when she is old enough, swarms again Avith her. A young queen also takes the place of the old one in the i^arent hive. Now% if we shake a colony preparing to swarm with an old or poor queen on empty combs, or even start a nucleus with such a Cjueen. we shall be almost sure to meet with disappointment, for she will most likely fill a small patch of comb with egg's, and disappear: and queen- tells are started on these in order that the colony may secure a queen to replace the one which the bees recognize as no longer of value. But what should be done with all the combs of brood which have been taken from those colonies which were shaken on empty combs? Well, that is a part of my story. Early in the season there are usually some colonies that are not strong enough to be- gin work in supers. Indeed, not more than five or six combs of brood will be found in ihem, and in some it may be even less. AVhen one has plenty of surplus combs of brood he can take out the empty combs or combs of honey from these colonies and re- place with combs of brood: and these back- ward colonies, instead of spending the w-hole season in building up and getiing ready for business, Avill soon be able to enter tlie su- pers and yield surplus. The combs removed from these Aveak colo- nics can be utilized by giving to colonies preparing to swarm which are fit subjects to shake. Brood can also be given to anj' n.uclei you may have made, thus building th.em up into good colonies. But how about increasing your stock if you do all you can to i^revent swarming? In almost eveiy yard there are some colo- nies that are very forAvard — more so. even, than desirable in order to secure the best results in surplus. I know of no better Avay than to take from such early in the season a comb of hatching brood and bees — yes, more than bees enough to care for it, for some of them are likely to return to the parent hive. Then confine the bees for a day or tAvo in a neAv hive, or throAv Aveeds over the entrance. Give them at the same time a comb of honey and a brood-comb, and a day later give them a queen-cell nearly ready to hatch. If all goes well, in a feAv days there will be a good nucleus Avith a young laying queen: and if brood- combs are supplied as fast as their strength Avill admit you Avill soon have a colony ca- pable of storing considerable surplus in case the season proA-es to be favorable. If you have no maturing queen-cells, take the first colonies that prepare to SAvarm, and diA-ide them into three or four strong nuclei, giving all except the one that has the queen a queen-cell already built on the combs; and, as soon as the young queens are laying, build up as fast as you can. Such colonies gave us a good surplus dur- ing the season of 1912. These methods not UUEANINGS IN BEE CUETUKE Hiving a swarm in a soap-box. From F. E. Bornemann, Bay City, Oregon. only favor increase, but at the same time help to keep clown natural swarming. The rules given above are for those who handle their bees often, and depend on theii' manipulation to control swarming. Of course, queens' wings must be clipped; and while it gives one perhaps about as much Avoi'k as to dejDend on natural swarming, it saves a lot of time. I forgot to say that if, at any time at the close of the day, you have on hand a surplus of brood-combs, they can be put on top of some weak colo- ny or placed in some colony (hat may be loafing, making them care for the brood. For those who have but one yard of bees, and do not care to handle them more than is absolutely necessary, and for those who prefer to let their bees swarm naturally, I know of no better way than to hive early swarms into hives filled with dry combs, and, after eight or ten days, run the new swarms into those that swarmed first. In this way second swarms are largely pre- vented, all are kept strong, and the largest amount of surplus secured. While this does not AvhoUy control swarming it does con- trol increase in a very satisfactory way. If you lack empty combs, place over strong colonies as many supers full of frames filled with comb foundation as you are likely to need. The bees will draw out the foundation into comb more economically than in any other way. New swarms or shaken swarms do not, as a rule, take kind- ly to foundation so far as my experience goes, and often desert a hive filled with it when they Avill accept half-drawn combs with the greatest pleasure. Middlebury, Vt. CHOOSING A LOCATION FOR AN APIARY The Importance of a Near-by Source of Nectar and Pollen in the Spring BY J. L. BYER At tliis season of the year many, no doubt, will be considering the matter of starting apiaries; and while the experienc- ed beekeeper needs no advice along this line, a few hints to beginners may not be out of place. Naturally, when thinking of starting an apiary of any size, the first thing that will be considered is the prospects of having enough honey-producing flora to produce a crop of surplus honey ; for, no matter how many colonies of bees one may have, and no matter how strong they may be in numbers, if there is no forage for the bees at the time surplus should be gathered, all the previous labor of the beekeeper and of the bees will amount to naught. How- ever, situations of that nature are scarce; and, as a rule, if one has bouncing big colo- nies at the opening of the clover flow he may safely count on getting at least a par- tial crop, one year with another. Granted, then, that there is enough clover, MAY 1, 1913 basswood, or other staple sources of nectar to give promise of a yield of honey, the next thing to be considered is the spring- feed proposition. Indeed, after a number of years' experience I am a bit doubtful if this question should be designated by "next" or by " first," as every year 1 am more than ever convinced that a good spring location is about as essential as any thing in so far as the getting of a crop of honey is con- cerned. One thing is certain to me, at least; and that is, that I would take an ordinary clover location coupled with a first-class spring locality in preference to one having a superabundance of clover, but with prac- tically no spring feed. It is very essential to have this spring feed right near the api- ary if possible, as in the trying changeable weather of the spring season many bees are lost at a critical time when all are needed, if they have to fly long distances to the alders, pussy willows, etc., in search for early pol- len and honey. If I had the choice of two locations, in one of which there was abun- dance of spring feed within half a mile of the apiary, while the clover and other sum- mer pasture was two or three times that far oif, and the other one with abundance of clover right near the yard, but the spring feed scarce and a long distance away, I cer- tainly should prefer the first one described, every time. I have had, in the past, loca- tions of both these kinds, and always the ones with spring feed near by have given best results. Having decided on the section wliere von want to have an apiary, the next thing is to find a suitable spot to place the bees. Shel- ter is very desirable; but unless it is one of the natural kind I would just as soon have none at all. In fact, while I like yards sheltered, for more than one reason, yet right near us I know of apiaries that have wintered outside, right in the open, year after year, and the loss has been but little heavier than in more sheltered apiaries. Apiaries sheltered too much, and not in the right way, are like a two-edged sword — ai)t to cut two ways. Bees may be en- ticed outside by the sunshine, only to be chilled to death by cold winds; Avhereas the same hives out in the open would have the cold air circulating around them so that the bees would not leave at all in such treacherous weather. In the past I have been having most of my yard in orchards, and in many ways these are about as de- sirable locations as one can find. Objec- tions are that snow usually drifts badly among the trees ; and in many orchards the bees are too close to dwellings, cultivated fields, etc., and at some seasons they are apt to make trouble for those who own the property the bees are on. Of course I am now speaking from the standpoint of out- ai^iaries. I never like to have the bees give any trouble if it can be avoided; and so when starting a new yard or moving one of these I now have, I am trying to have the bees placed in an out-of-the-way position wliere they will be no bother to any one, and wliere I shall not be placing any de- A new location for one of J. L. Byer's outapiaries. Tlie yard is sheltered on three sides by a cedar swamp, and the buildings break the force of the wind at the one open side. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Lone Tree apiary of Bell E. Berryman, Central City, Nebraska. This apiary of 190 colonies was built up from 55 weak colonies in tTie spring of 1912, and yielded 9000 lbs. of honey. pendence on any or.e at the place looking* after them. While it is essential to have some one pay occasional visits to the yard to see that all is well in so far as general conditions are concerned, such as hive-covers being all on, etc., I have found it best not to depend on anybody watching for swarms, etc., as 1 then know what I have to do, and experi- ence has proven to me that this is the best policy. Water for the bees in the spring months is a very im.portant matter — in fact, one of the necessary things to see to if you wish to avoid heavy losses of bees, as will surely result if they have to travel a mile or more for their water; for assuredly they must have water, and lots of it, if brood-rearing is to go on at the rate it has to in order that the colonies be strong enough for the main honey-flow in June. Many arrange- ments have been suggested, and actually used, for providing water right in the yard ; but if the bees can get it near the apiary in a nicely sheltered position they seem to prefer it to getting it from a barrel or other arrangement fixed up for them. While one can fix up a place for the bees to get water right in the home apiary, it is a different proposition in an out-apiary, and — ^well, to be perfectly frank I shall have to confess that I have to let the bees get their water the best they can, as it would be a lot of work to drive around to a number of yards, filling up barrels, etc. At the same time. 1 am free to admit that this work would pay, if the bees had no access to water Cjuite near their hives. At each of my yards at present, water is quite near, so I am saved the trouble of supply- ing it artificially. This spring I have to move one of my apiaries; and as the location I have selected seems to be about ideal I have taken a picture for the purpose of illustrating what I have been trying to describe as the desirable features of a good location. As will be noticed, the honey-houses have al- ready been moved, and are standing upon, temporary foundations till the snow gees in the spring, when the buildings will be lowered and leveled, and placed on cedar blocks. The bees ^^^ll not be moved till after they have had their first flight. They are wintei'ing outdoors half a mile from where they are soon to be moved. Two emp- ty hives, one on top of the other, are shown in the open space, and this spot will be about the center of the apiary when bees are placed. The cedar swamp shown will be on the north, northeast, west, and south- west, while the onlj^ open space will be at the southeast. On this side the buildings are placed end to end, not so much for pro- tection as to save fencing, as I shall have to fence the plot to keep stock from roam- ing among the hives and upsetting them. This piece of ground (about half an acre) is level, and high and dry, and while the shelter is a little too good(?) to suit me, still, it is a different matter from a board fence, as bees will not be tempted to fly over a wide space of trees as easily as they can go over a high board fence, to drop at MAY 1, 19 Hi 297 of all there is in the vicinity is within half a mile of the spot. Abundance of alsike near by, with about enough buctc- wheat grown to supply winter stores each season, about completes the description of this location. Mount Joy, Ont., Canada. 9000 POUNDS OF COMB HONEY FROM 55 COL- NIES, SPRING COUNT BY BELL E. BERRYMAN I am sending you a photo of one corner of my apiary of 190 colonies. In the win- ter of 1912 I lost 4o colonies out of 100. My 55 colonies left were all weak and short of stores in March. I fed them liberally, and increased them in June to 190 colonies by dividing, and harvested 9000 lbs. of sec- tion honey. The largest yield from any one colony was 240 lbs. of section honey. I lost none last winter, as the winter was very mild compared with the one before last. Central City, Neb. CHASING A RUNAWAY SWARM 2>^ MILES BY G. FRANK PEASE Pig. -Hiving' tlie swarm after it was carried home in a cloth. once, never to return. While, as I have said, the ground is high and dry, yet right near where the bees will stand the gi'ound slopes abruptly toward the swamp, and there the soil is springy, with the water oozing out all summer. Here the bees can get water in a sheltered location, and never have to fly 50 feet from the yard. The nearest cultivated field is about 20 rods away on the east side ; and as this is the only side of the apiary that has cultivated land near, naturally we are hoping that all danger from that source will be reduced to a m.ini- mum. As to spring feed, it starts right at the south end of the j,,^,^ ^ _^ ^ ,.,„,^,„^,, , apiai-y; and the bulk for 21/2 miles Bees swarmed here last summer as never before in my experience, even when the flow of nectar was slow. The pictures shown are of a runaway swarm from one of my hives. I chased the bees 2^2 miles, and brought back the swarm on the limb on which the bees had settled. The limb was thrown over my shoulder, with a cloth warm that Frank Pease, of Marshall, Michigan, chased . Photo was taken from the top of a building. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE ->i^ iiififf . {-': ■'>*' \ .i^ '^^:. m Pia. 3. — ^Enough bees to pay for the 2^4 -mile run. wrapped around the bees. The swarm, Fig. 1. extended for three feet along the limb. A tinner made the smoker on top of the box, from heavy copper. The bellows was from a Clark cold-blast smoker. In Fig. 2 is one of my glass and tin com- bination covers. I pulled a string to take the picture. BEES POISONED BY A BLACK SPIDER. I was at one of my hives this morning, and saw a black spider killing bees. He ran toward the entrance, and two bees pounced on him. He held them off the length of his legs, and they died inside of a minute without liis even biting them; then he dragged them back to a pile of dead ones which he had killed — forty or fifty of them, and seemed to be sucking the honey from under their throats. Others flew to- ward him and merely touched him a little, and they seemed to be stupefied. He must have ejected poison toward 'them, such as I have smelled when a sjDider has been near my nose. The bees would cease to struggle in a very short time, and could not get their sting near the spider as I expected them to do. Marshall, Mich., June 13. bees steadily from the time I got them, which was the 3d or 4th of May, 1911; and as the colony became very strong I decided to divide it. I divided them according to the Alexander method, and this was the lower hive. When they swarmed, which was three or four days after I had separated them, they had drawn out only five of the frames from the foundation. They had plenty of room, and the weather was not unusually hot. I had given them a select queen; and, not ha\ang another hive at the time, I cut out the queen-cells they had built ; and the queen being clipped, and not being able to get away, the swarm re- turned of its own accord. Notice that 1 had raised the super as shown in the pic- ture, as I thought it might afford ventila- tion if the bees thought it was too hot in the hive. New York. FORMING NUCLEI TO PREVENT SWARMING BY R. M. SPENCER ALEXANDER PLAN FOR MAKING INCREASE CARRIED OUT TOO LATE BY M. J. KAUFMAN About a month before the time this pic- ture was taken I started with an eight- frame colony and a select queen. I fed the When the swarming season begins in March we go over all the hives once every eight days, cutting out all cells, making nuclei, or, where colonies have good stock and cells, we often make straight division. When we are able to get the young queens we take frames of bees containing about three times as many bees as we want, and shake them in front of the small nuclei on the ground, allowing them to run in and to cluster on the several frames of brood pre- MAY 1, 1913 viouslj^ given the nuclei. About a third of these bees are young nurse bees, and will stay with the brood. This method avoids any trouble of closing up or opening later. Every eight days we again shake a frame of bees in front of each one of these nuclei, thus helping the nuclei and holding the full colonies in check from swarming. BEES SLUGGISH BEFORE THEY SWARM. One of our great troubles in this locality is spring sujiersedure of queens; and in many eases this causes swarming when it would not happen otherwise, the breeding season being so long that many of the queens fail in the spring of the second year. Often by simply opening hives and taking out frames of bees one can tell by the ac- tion of the bees whether there are cells in the hives. The bees are always filled with honey, and act sluggish when making prep- Svarm returning to the hive because the queen was clipped. 300 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE tain that this prevents swarming to a great extent. Nordhoff, Cal. HIVING A SWARM CLUS- TERED ON A RAIL FENCE BY J. L. BYER Fig. 1. — A swarm that chose a very convenient clustering-place. arations for swaruaing. When bees are active on the combs there is little danger of swarming. By nsing this method of judg- ing when colonies are preparing to swarm I have often gone over 500 or more colonies in a day, and very seldom make a mistake as to whether a colony will swarm within a week. GOOD VENTILATION AN AID IN PREVENTION" OF SWARMING. Another great preventive of swarming, as all beekeepers know, is ventilation. All our hive bottoms are loose, and have full- width entrances on both ends. As soon as warm weather comes, both of these en- trances are opened full width. I am cer- FiG. 2. — Shakinig the cluster into a hive. Before a swarm leaves the place where it has clustered after swarming, it is thought that, as a rule, scouts are sent out, and a place is found before leaving. This may be the rule, but, like all other rules, there are excejitions to the rule, aid a bit of experi- ei'.ce wiih a sv,ar;n a short time ago proved (his quite coixluirively. On Friday, May 28th, my brother-in-law plioned me from the Casliel yard that a large swarm had come out, and that he had caged the clipped queen and had let the bees go back to the hive. I felt pretty sure that the bees were superseding the queen, and knew that there was danger of their coming out any time with a young queen, departing for parts unknown. However, I could not get ove.r before the following Monday, so I let them take chances. When the family were at church Sunday I suspect the colony swarmed again and clustered in the top of an apple tree in the apiary. Any way, Monday forenoon the swarm was noticed leaving the tree and starting off north. My brother-in-law follow- ed them, and they went so slowly that he just had to w^alk to keep up with them, notwitlostanding the fact that the day was calm with no wind to hinder their flight. They went less than a quarter of a mile and alighted on the top of a rail fence. Fig. 1 shows the swarm nice- ly clustered on the lailfence. Fig. 2 shows how the rail was lifted J\IAY 1, 1913 Fig. 3. — Safely liived. (J. Ij. Byer sitting on the fence.) from the fence and the swarm gently jarred into the hive. The picture in Fig. 3 was taken after the bees had been shaken intn the hive; and if ever a crowd of bees were glad for a home they surely were, as they settled down I'ight at once with that home cry so well known to the beekeeper. My nephew, Leslie Williamson, happens to have a camera, and that explains how Ave got the pictures. By the way, I rather smiled when the picture was shown me, as I am perched on the fence in Fig. 3. It is rare that I Avear a veil except in extract- ing time, and there was no need of one at all under the circumstances, as the bees were not at all cross. I had put it on when first going over to where the swarm Avas, and had forgotten all about it till after the camera had snapped. Mount Jov, Ont., Canada. SWITCHING THE HALVES OF A DOUBLE BROOD-NEST TO CONTROL SWARMING r.Y J. A. Yi:OMAN.S In the June 15th issue for 1912 I had an article, p. 366, concerning some experi- ments I liave been making with the view of reducing sAvarming and at the same time in- creasing tlie production of surplus hone}'. I Avas much pleased to hear from beekeep- ers from all sections, shoAving their interest in these experiments. One m.an in particu- lar reported as having Avorked alor'g tiie same lines with results and conclusions the same, so far as he had progressed. The summer of 1912 was a poor one for honey production in eastern Washington. Warm summer weath- er Avas a scarce article. A few Avarm days Avould be folloAved by a spell of cold or rainy Aveather that dreAV on the surplus gathered by the bees during the Avarmer pe- riod. Some of my bee- keeping friends re- ported practically no crop, and at least one said that he feared that not enough Avas on hand for Avinter stores. My crop Avas 65 pounds per colony, spring count, Avhich I considered satisfactory under the conditions. During the season I tried some experiments Avhich I am confident cut doAvn my yield someAvhat. For instance, I was anxious to see hoAv early I could raise the "hatching story " of the brood-chamber and get the bees to start Avork in the supers (supers placed beloAv it and above the laying story). I therefore tried this arrangement very early, before the hive Avas at all crowded, and before there Avas any real need of it. In fact, the result shoAved there were not enough bees in the divided colony to gener- ate sufficient heat if Aveather turned cold. The bees started Avork at once in supers (in Avhich I had placed some bait sections) ; but in a few days the Aveather turned cold and rainy, and honey-gathering was stop- ped completely for scA-eral days. The .leld bees having all gone doAvn from the hatch- ing story, leaving only young bees in it, there were not enough left to cover all the brood, and some of it Avas chilled and killed. In spite of this setback the colony built un vei-y rapidly. I should not have eommencecl switching so early. I feared the above would happen, but wished to try it any way. If the hive had been full of bees the result Avould haA'e been different. I did not wait until the colony Avas strong enough. The results of the past year convince me that the principles involved in this system are right. I expect and hope the beekeep- ing fraternity Avill improve on the detail?. For the benefit of those Avho may not have the June 15th number, 1912, I will repeat in a feAv Avords the principles of the system, and Avill then try to answer the questions that have come to me from all sides. I have had letters from California, Oregon, i;i,K\XlX(iS FN BEE CULTURE Wisconsin, Alabama, Pennsylvania, and one from Switzerland. First, the only special equipment needed is a wire screen with a Porter bee-escape. This should be bound with strips of wood of sufficient thickness to give bee space above and below. A friend of mine. Dr. R. E. Shanks, of Spokane, has made an escape which is a great improvement on the crude ones I used in my experiment. Through his courtesy I enclose photos of these escapes. Dr. Shanks has been follow- ing this system for two years, and, although a beginner in beekeeping, he has had no swarming. The wire screen should be the full size of the hive used, so that the heat of the lower part of the colony will rise into the hatching story, and so that the hive odor will remain tl?e same. Fig. 1 is a front view of the screen used. The Porter escape is cut off just in front of the round hole in the back end of the top of it. It is then imbedded in a strip of board crossing the front of the screen. A passageway is then cut through tlie frame out to the" open air in front, and a plug made which should be used after the first 24 hours after a switch of stories is made. When the plug is out, a piece of super section sliould be slipped in, closing the opening to the lower story. The light which enters through this opening will attract and empty the hatching story of alt field bees in a few hours. If the opening is not closed in a few hours, many of them wili commence to use it as an entrance. After 24 hours the slat should be taken out and the plug inserted, so that all bees entering the escape will go into the lower story and not be able to return. Photo No. 2 is the top view of the escape- screen and No. 3 is a bottom view. From these views I think any beekeeper will catch the principles involved. Fig. 1. — Front view of Yeoman's screen escape- bO'ard. The plug used is shown standing up on the screen. Several have asked me if the plan would work with the ten-frame hive. I use the ten- frame Danzenbaker, and feel sure the sys- tem will work with any size of hive. I now winter my bees out of doors in double brood-nests. Yesterday (February 16) the temperature rose to 51 degrees, and the Fig. 2. — Top of screen — next to bottom of hatching story. bees had their first flight since fall. If I did not winter in double brood-nests I would i3ut on a second brood-chamber as soon as the bees commence to build up strong in the siDring. A SYNOPSIS OF THE FLAX. As soon as surplus honey commences to come in, or if there is any sign of swarm- ing (or if a new beginner is not familiar with these indications, when both stories are well filled with bees) raise the upper story and put a super of sections below tlie upper, or " hatching story." At the same time (or 24 hours later, which I find is much easier because the field bees have gone below and can not get back, thus reducing' the number of bees in the upper story, and making it much easier to find the queen) remove the queen to the lower brood-nest, v."liieli we call the " laying brood-nest." Ten days later, switch brood-nests after cutting out any queen-cells which may be started in the "hatching story." This makes Avhat has been the hatching brood-nest for the past ten days the laying brood-nest for the next ten days. The bees hatched during .the past ten days, and the honey and pollen used during this time have emptied thou- sands of cells ready for the queen to lay in, and this she promptly does as soon as it becomes the bottom story and slie is placed in it. This switching keeps the queen laying MAY 1, 1913 303 continuously, removes her and the field bees from all brood and eggs every ten days (vir- tually the same as swarming), and prevents brood-nests from becoming clogged with honey. The supers remain constantly in the same relative position to the hive en- trance, and the field bees are not interrupt- ed in their daily habit of storing the sur- plus. Repeat this operation every ten days through the swarming season, which will vaiy according to locality, or introduce (24 hours after switching) a young queen to the top or hatching story. As this story contains young bees only, it is an ideal condition for introducing a new queen. Then kill the old queen the next time j'ou switch, and leave the hatching story on lo hatch out entirely. I think that most beekeepers agree that a young queen rarely swarms during her firet season, so you will by this means, as soon as a young queen is introduced, end the danger of swarming in nearly all cases. A Pennsylvania friend asks about using a hive filled with foundation and placing it below an old hive in order to get two brood- stories to start the i^lan. I should prefer to divide the old brood-nest as nearly equally as possible, and fill out both stories with frames of full sheets of foundation. I like to have both "hatching " and "lay- ing " stories have about an equal amount of brood in them. Also, by dividing the old brood-nest equally there will be enough old combs containing pollen and honey to sup- ply the nurse bees in the hatching story for the ten days they are shut oif from all out- side supply. A sujiply of honey and pollen sufficient for this period of time must al- ways be on hand in hatching story. Spokane, Wasli. COMB HONEY FROM A SHORT FLOW Worker Comb from Starters BY A. V. SMALL Fig. 3. — Lower side, next to supers. Last summer the swarming impulse was above normal ; and as our flow is usually of short duration, comb honey could be se- cured only by a plan that Avould satisfy the swarming desire, and at the same time force the June flow into the supers. The plan which gave me the best results was to shake the bees into a contracted chamber of starters. This was done in the early part of the flow. The colony was left on its old stand, and I merely took away the brood, contracted the brood-chamber to the space of six combs, and gave the bees a set of starters. In the colonies treated there was considerable comb in the supers; and in order to establish the brood-nest I placed a frame partly filled with young brood in the center of the contracted brood- chamber, filling out with five frames of starters. This was the first hive tried. There was a good flow on the day the work was done, and the bees worked right along as though no change had been made. The queen began laying in the empty cells in the frame of brood I had placed in the center. The bees began to work on the starters, and every thing went well except that I had established the brood-nest, but had not provided the storehouse for pollen. The brood comb that was used had been taken from near the center of the hive, and was almost free from pollen. In the aver- age brood-chamber the two outside combs contain nearly all the pollen in the hive. If the queen is good they are about half filled with brood and the rest is honey. These two outside combs were gone, and the first day's pollen went with the honey up into the sections. ^ The next colony that built cells I shook, contracted the brood-nest to six frames, leav- ing them their two outside combs and filling in the center with four frames of starters. In this case the pollen storehouse was un- 304 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE disturbecl. A bee coming- in with pollen could go to the outside comb where it had been in the habit of going, and unload as usual. There was not a single cell of pollen in sections over brood-chambers where the outside combs were left in. The surplus honey went up into the sec- tions, as the two outside combs were nearly filled to start with, and the four frames of starters in the center were occupied by the queen almost as fast as they were drawn out. This gave us four good worker combs from starters, for it seems to be a fact that the bees will build Avorker combs as long as the queen keeps filling them with eggs. This is the reason it is necessary to contract the brood-chamber. If the bees had been given eight or ten frames of starters they would have drawn them out faster than the queen could occupy them, and a large amount of drone comb would have resulted. Then, too, as soon as the bees got ahead of the queen a good deal of honey would have been stored in the brood-chamber. This is the reason one must use starters when following this plan, instead of full sheets, if he is to get the best results. The full sheets are drawn out too fast. In a week or ten days from the time of shaking, these combs will be drawn out and filled with brood. At this time, if one should give four more starters he might get work- er comb; but this can not be depended on, and it is more desirable to fill out the brood-chamber with full sheets or with four of the frames that were taken away at the time of shaking. These frames will be prac- tically all sealed now, and a few frames of hatching brood are desirable at this time in order to keep up the strength of the colony. "Worker combs can also be built in weak colonies, but they are very apt to be round- bottomed, with the lower corners incom- plete. The following year this corner space is usually filled in with drone comb, maldng an undesirable frame. Where starters are used with shaken swarms, as described above, the combs are full and square at the corners, having all the appearance of foundation-built combs. As a word of caution, put on supers with bait sections as soon as the colony is strong- enough to warm them up; and be sure there is some work being done in the supers at the time of shaking. The brood from the first colonies shaken can be placed above queen-excluders over the colonies one e\- pects to shake next. Within ten days, about half of this brood will have hatched, and the other half will be sealed. If one wants increase he has merely to set this hive bodv of sealed brood and bees on a new stand, and in a feiv hours give them a ripe queen- cell or a C[ueen. This is one of the most satisfactory methods of increase I have ever tried. The colonies over which this brood was placed are noAv read}- for shaking. Colonies strengthened in this way just at the beginning of the flow usually give me the best results in comb honey. While 1 have spoken of leaving this brood over the colonies ten days, a week is long enough, and gives three more days of flow for the sections. The brood from the colonies last shaken can be placed over colonies too weak to work in sections; and if increase is not desired the combs can be left over these colonies to receive what surplus they may make. North Topeka, Ivans. THREE SWARMS IN ONE HIVE BY A. G. LUCIER It may be interesting to know how the bees got on the top of the hive as shown in the illustration. Hives No. 1, 2, 3, in a row, were preparing to swarm at the same time. One morning No. 3 cast a big swaim. The bees were hived in the usual manner as practiced with clipiDed cjueens. The very Three swarms that united with the bees in one hive, making a colony too large for the hive. :SLkY 1, 1913 305 An August swarm that built comb in the open. next day they came out again ; and, iinding that their queen could not accompany them, instead of going back to their own home they went into hive No. 2, and in a few minutes came out again with the bees in that hive, and relocated the process as be- fore stated, but went into hive No. 1 with the bees from No. 2. iThe weather being rather warm, the cover of the hive was lift- ed to ventilate. There were so many bees when the three swarms united that they fairly boiled over, as shown in the photo- grai^h. Powell, Wvo. AN AUGUST SWARM BY A. B. GILES, M. D. I am sending you a photo of a swarm which came out of a hive on the 27th of last August. They clustered in an apple tree, built comb, and liad some brood. This picture was taken Oct. 13 by one of my neighbors, Mr. R. J. Clemmitt. I took 48 sections of white honey from .the hive from which they came. It is remarkable that they swarmed so late in the season that it was a first swarm, and that they stayed so long in the oj^en. Forest Park, Md. SWARM CONTROL-INCREASE AND DE- CREASE BY RALEIGH THOMPSON If a beekeeper desires moderate increase and a crop of honey he should first let his bees swarm, and then set the new colony on the old stand with the old colony by the side of it. In four days he should remove the old colony to a new location, put on a queen-trap, and wait for the second swarm, which will issue in from nine to fourteen days from the time the first swarm came out. He should then catch the virgin in the trap, .which Avill prevent the swarm from leaving, for a young queen is very gay. The trap should not be rem.oved until the bees begin to return. Then the old hive should be removed, and another one put in its place. Put the trap on this hive and let the queen loose through the hole in the trap for that purpose. Provide for the bees a frame of eggs and larvae. Take the old colony to a new location, and the next day divide it into as many colonies as can be supplied with queen or good cells. Grive them a frame of eggs and larvfe. It makes them feel more at home. One should lemove all supers from the first colony at the time it is hived. This is the best plan for the novice, and I think for older bee- keepers as well, for there are very few queens that will beat swarming queens. THE SHAKEX-SWARM PLAN. Now for swarm control. I use the shak- en-swarm plan given in the ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture when I do not allow natural swarming, only I go a few steps further. T set the old hive by the side of the new coloin-, and in six days I put on an entrance-guard and shake the bees into the new eolonj' again, leaving only enough to take care of the brood and queen. One must be careful if it is a natural swarm or he will find one or more queens on the giiards. Now save the best cell or queen, and de- stroy all the rest if they are not needed elsewhere. Set the old hive on the other side of the new one, leaving an entrance at the further corner. In four days more move it to the other side, leaving the en- trance at the further corner again. If it is a shaken swarm, one must raise queens for the hives, for a queen made by a shaken GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE One of J. M. Buchanan's outyards standing on the site of an old Yankee fort near Franklin, Tenn. swarm is of no use. Now, if one does not wa'.it any increase, leave this old liive by the new one; and, after the flow is over, work the old queen-hive into the new queen-hive. If I wait a little too late I use the paper plan of uniting, killing the old queen first. The best plan is to i-emove all the brood from the old queen to the new one every fifteen days as long as there is brood to move, for tlie old queen and bees are worth- less, as they are all old, and the hive with the young queen is sure to winter, for the bees are all young, and there are plenty of them. The old hive and combs may be used the next year. These plans are applicable to a home yard rather than to an outyard, unless the out-apiary happens to be witliin a few miles of home. If one has more bees than he wants to winter, he should double up, following the paper plan. If he has a choice of queens he should kill the undesirable one. If he has no choice, he should pay no attention to the queens. The bees will take care of that part of it. In southern Indiana I win- ter them in two ten-frame stories, and they are boiling over with bees when the flow comes — about May 20. Put all of the brood and bees into one liive, and put on one super of sections with full sheets of foundation, and another on top of this with drawn combs or one super. Just as soon as the bees begin to draw out the founda;:.:, raise it up and put another under it. If the brood-chamber is not full of brood, use only one super; but in ordei- to secure the best results it should be full. Put an excluder on some of the weak colo- nies, and stack the emjoty combs on them about three to the hive, for use later on, for part of these colonies will swarm within ten or twelve days. One should put the sealed brood in the center of the hive — that is, if he has a hive full. If not, he should put empty combs in the center. If sealed brood is placed in the center, as soon as the brood hatches the queen will fill the cells with eggs and put more honey in the super. If one does not put eggs and unsealed brood on the outside. MAY 1, 1913 when the sealed brood hatches they will fill the combs with honey, and there will be less honey in the supers, and more swarm- ing, for the bees will always fill the outside combs with honey if they get a chance; and the longer there is brood in them the better. Underwood, Ind. OUT-APIARY ON THE SITE OF AN OLD FORT BY J. M. BUCHANAN I am sending a photogTajjh of one of my outyards, wliich, in its location, is somewhat unique. On the summit of a hill, over- looking the town of Franklin, where, fifty 3'ears ago, was fought one of the bloodiest battles of the war, stands an old fort, once guarded by Yankee bullets, but now garri- soned with Dago stingers. The apiary occupies the site of this old fort, which at present consists of a level spot partly surrounded by a bank of earth in the form of a horse-shoe, with the open end toward the south, thus providing an excellent windbreak for the hives. Part of this embankment can be seen in the picture. I have a nice honey-house and storeroom here, built so that it can be taken a^^art and moved. The apiary is easily reached with the automobile, which, by the way, we find indisiDensable in out-apiary work. This yard contains at present fifty hives, run for extracted honey. It is surrounded by extensive blue-grass pastures, which are white with clover bloom during May and June. There are several groves of locust near by, and this forms one of our chief sources of honey. The locust honey is wa- ter-white, and of fine flavor, and slow to granulate. It blooms about the last of April; and if the weather is fair it yields quite heavily. During this flow last spring a colony on the scales made a net gain of 100 pounds in ten days. Franklin, Tenn., Dec. 19. IN MEMORIAM OF PAUL MICKWITZ BY R. MICKWITZ [The unfortunate subject of this sketch was at Medina in the winter of 1907-'08, learning what he tould of American methods, and he later spent some time as a student with R. F. Holtermann. He was above the average in intelligence, as shown by his article on page 1257, Oct. 15, 1908, written, if we are not mistaken, when he had had only about a year's study of English. It was his intention to fa- miliarize himself thoroughly with our methods, and tlien take the new ways back to his own country. His death marks the end of what would surely liave been a most brilliant career. It is the old, old story of an ambitious man so worried and hindered by a diseased body that the clear vision of life and its possibilities was dimmed and distorted. Our sympathy is extended to his family and friends in Finland. — Ed.] Dear Mr. Root: — I find it my sad duty to inform you that my brother Paul has voluntarily taken leave of life. He be- longed to that class of men to whom life is especially a burden. High ideals and large plans, in connection with a sensibility which shrank from opposition, yielded to liis in- ner conflicts. His was a retiring nature that prompted him to bear difficulties alone. He had resolved to devote himself to bee- keeping in this country, and to further it with all his powers. His time was short; still he had, thanks to an ardent enthusiasm manifested to all who had deal with liim, many friends and assistants in modern bee- keeping, a knowledge of which he acquired in America. Of the great future for bee- keeping in Finland he was, up to the very last, fully convinced. His bodily power was broken by a series of complicated in- ner troubles, and he leaped from the deck of a ship in the open sea on the night of November 2. The late Paul Mickwitz, former student from Fin- land, of American methods in beekeeping. GLEANINGS IN BEE OULTUKE He was much encouraged to see in Glean- ings for Oct. 15, 1908, his contribution, with comments, in regard to moving' bees on a boat with Mr. Holtermann. I can assure you that 3'our journal has but few readers as much interested in it as was my brother. He read especially, in connection with his agricultural studies, much about apiculture. In one of the note-books which he left he had laid a plan for a yearly re- view of the most striking paragraphs, tak- en from the most jDrominent writers of all lands, and which he designed to publish in several languages, in order to further a union of the beekeepers of all lands. But he was not permitted to carry out this pro- ject. His fifty stands of Carniolan bees in Langstrolh hives have been taken over bj- mj'self ; and I will do my best to carry on the work he began. I enclose a picture of Paul, so that you can use it in your journal if you so de5;ire. Alberga, Finland, Dec. 14. THE JUNGE-PIERCE HIVE-VENTILATOR AND NONSWARMER BY EDMUND W. PEIRCE "Wanted — a solution of the swarming problem — a problem that hitherto has baf- fled solution except by time-consuming- manipulation or the use of complicated, cumbersome, expensive device's. Even these expedients, in the hands of an^ 'save pro- fessional apiarists, have been productive of very indifferent results. In- deed it may safely be affirmed that neither manipulation nor ma- chinery can of itself ever prove entirely ef- fective. The most that can be hoped for, when the complexity of this problem is considered, is the perfection of a simple and inexpensive appliance that with min- imum manipulation will, in a majority of cases, prevent swarming; and, when it does not actual- ly prevent, will at least measurably control or retard it. This I believe has been accom- 1 )lished. A few years ago there appeared in Gleanings a description by Mr. Walter S. Ponder of a non-swarmer invented bj' Mr. H. Junge, of Cumberland, Indiana, which had been used by him with considerable success, and on which he had obtained a patent. It consisted essentially of a deep super or shallow hive-body fitted with slats or fences suitably spaced, and with remov- able cleats for ventilation, designed to be placed on the liive between the bottom- board and the brood-chamber. It is common knowledge among bee-men that room and ventilation are two most im- IDortant factors in the prevention of swarm- ing. How to afford these essentials without the incidental disadvantages of surplus comb-building, propolization, or drafts through the hive, has been the subject of much thought and experiment. Mr. Junge and I, each working independentlj- and without the knowledge of the other, arrived at practicalh' the same solution of the prob- lem. A comparison of conclusions and modification and adjustment of ideas has resulted in what is known as the Junge- Peirce hive-ventilator and non-swarmer. The illustrations will make clear the prin- cipal details of its construction. A deep super is fitted with a series of fences so spaced as to insure maximum ventilation to the exclusion of comb-building. From each side of the sujDcr a section is cut out, and the opening fitted with a door hinged at the top, and opening to various widths de- termined by turnbuckles at its ends. This opening is covered with screen wire tacked on the inside. The meshes, three to the inch, ai'e large enough lo afford free venti- lation, and easy egress and ingi-ess to the bees, yet small enough to exclude robbers, spiders, and moths. A removable cleat in the end of the super affords additional ven- tilation when desired. MAY 1, 1913 The non-swarmer is left on the liive all the year round, and colonies so equipped seem to winter better than those without the appliance. It is understood, of course, that in cold weather the contracted entrance is used, and the ventilators closed down tight. During the w^orking season, or when the weather is very warm, the larger en- trance is given and the ventilators opened wide. The ventilation is under perfect con- trol, and can be adjusted to conform to varying weather conditions. It is very es- sential that abundant super room be given to prevent the crowded condition so condu- cive to swarming. The principles embodied in this invention will be readily understood. The construc- tion is such that there is free circulation of air under the frames, but absolutely no draft through the brood-nest. Surplus heat is carried off Avithout danger of chilling the brood, and the bees are saved the greater part of the labor of fanning. Thus Avork- ers that otherwise Avould be so emploj'ed are rendered available for service in the fields or Avitliin the hive, to the obAdous profit of the beekeeper. In order to enter or leave the hive, the bees must traverse at least a part of the non-swarmer. They are thus given the impression that they have abundant room, though in fact they are cheated out of it, so far as storage is con- cerned, the internal arrangement being such that the space is not available for comb- building. Furthermore, a convenient clus- tering place is at¥orded the nurse-bees, and this, by relieving the internal congestion. tends to prevent the development of the swarming impulse. As has been indicated, it is not claimed that this invention will at all times and under all conditions prevent swarming. It has been j^retty clear- ly demonstrated, how- -,__ ever, that, with intelli- gent use, it will pre- vent swarming in a great majority of cases; and when it does not actually pre- vent, it will so retard it that days and jDossi- bly weeks of honey- storing will intervene. Moreover, swarms, when they do issue un- der these conditions^ are ajDt to be unusual- ly large and valuable. While making no extraordinary claims for their simple device, the inventors feel that therein are involved principles that are vi- tal factors in a satis- factory solution of this hitherto unsolved problem. Zanesville, Ohio. USING A STRAIN OF BEES ADAPTED TO ONE'S Sv EM OF MANAGEMENT BY E. S. MILES The amount of prevention desired must depend largely on one's location and the time of the main crop, as well as on one's knowledge and ability to make increase by other methods. Where the main crop comes earh^ and the flow is short, and one must get the most possible surplus from it, it has been my experience that the colonies that do not swarm at all, and that have no desire to, either as a result of manipulation or be- cause of breeding, are the most profitable ones. My main crop is basswood, which lasts from three days to two weeks, sometimes helped out a little with clover, catnip, and buckbrush. It does not come so early but that with a favorable spring a colony might swarm; and with proper feeding, both the swarm and the parent colon 3' be in condition for the flow. But our Iowa springs are so vari- able and uncertain that I find it safer to count on getting onlv enough from the best 310 colonies to bring up the weakling's so that, if I can reach the flow with all the colonies of that winter in good condition, I feel sat- isfied. Then, as mentioned before, I expect more honej' if they do not swarm during our short flow. I feel sure there are several practices the beekeeper can follow that tend to increase the number of colonies, and that may pre- vent swarming. I will try to give them in the order of their importance as they ap- pear to me: 1. Breed all queens from colonies that have shown the least inclination to swarm, using queenless and broodless bees to build the cells, or at least to start them. 2. See that no colony is crowded for room up to the middle of the flow at least. 3. See that each colony is blocked from the bottom-board from % to one inch in front, just before weather hot enough to crowd them out begins. 4. See that every colony is protected from the direct rays of the sun from about 10 A. M. till about 4 P. M. 5. See that every colony has comb built in readiness for the first surplus that comes. It will not be necessary to dwell much on any of these points except the first. The question of the strain of bees, as re- lated to one's system of management has not, in my opinion, yet had the considera- tion its importance deserves. It is well known, and acknowledged by a gi'eat many practical honey-producers that almost all manipulation has to be varied to suit the characteristics of different colonies. Now, if we want a certain plan of manipulation to apply to all colonies we must have less variation in our colonies; and in order to handle the most colonies possible with a given amount of labor we must apply one manipulation or plan of treatment to all-— manipulation here being considered only in its relation to swarming. If there were no variation in bees in regard to swarming, a manipulation that would give us the desired result with one colony would with all. It might be said that a manipulation such as '' shook swarming " or any process that cripples a colony or keeps it weak enough to prevent swarming proves that that man- ipulation answers the purpose. But for the locality I have in mind it is not the purpose to have a part of a colony. We want a full colony, all the bees one queen will produce, and we want them to stay in one hive clear thi'ough the flow It may now be asked how large a colony we may expect to have in this way, con- sidering the nature of the bees. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE It has been my observation that a colony is most likely to swarm about the time, or very soon after, the bees have reached their maximum breeding capacity, every thing else being favorable. If this is right, a colony or strain that reached the maximi;m breeding early in the season would be that much sooner jaast the swarming period ; and if this earlier part of the season were less favorable for swarming, owing to certain weather conditions, then there would be less tendency to swarm on the part of tliis kind of strain. Then, again, many think that an over- supi^h' of young bees in proportion to the brood and honey to be cared for is likely to be a prolific source of swarming. If a strain reaches its maximum breeding early, say about the time of fruit bloom, then the dearth after fruit bloom discourages swarm- ing, and so cuts down breeding that, wh^^n the main flow begins, there are plenty of old bees or fielders, yet no surplus of young, nor can there be for a month. Such a colony is just right for gathering and stor- ing the most surplus, and is not in a condi- tion to swarm. Is it not evident that, if one bi'eeds a strain best suited to his "local- ity," other " manipulations " will be more etfective, and the variation in all colonies be less marked? Of course, one should al- ways take note of the variations of the sea- sons. If, at fruit bloom, conditions should be \ev\ favorable, increase might have to be made in order to prevent swarming. But the gain would come from the labor saved at the time of the main crop, and this sav- ing could be applied in " keeping moi'e bees " as Avell as in more surplus per hive. Dunlap, Iowa. DOOLITTLE METHOD OF SWARM CONTROL NOT A SUCCESS IN IDAHO BY E. F. ATWATER As soon as the essential features of the Doolittle method of swarm control in the production of comb honey had been pub- lished the writer gave the method a test in several yards, and that test has been re- peated each season, although on a smaller number of colonies. We have no hesita- tion in saying that, if the method would give the results in this locality that it gives Mr. Doolittle in his own location, then it would be, in many ways, the ideal plan for out-yards and comb-honey production. But we find that far too many of the colonies shaken on the combs which had been above the excluder will swarm again in less than tliree weeks, resulting in poor super work, MAY 1, 1913 311 and adding to the labor of swarm control. Only rarely does a colony treated by the Doolittle method prove superior to the average; and never, so far as the Avriter can remember, has such a colony pi'oved the best in any yard. We even procured a breeding queen from Mr. Doolittle and requeened a number of colonies with her daughters, especially to test liis method of swarm control; but even then the Doolittle system, with bees from Doolittle queens, has not been successful. The only favor- able report that the writer has heard is from Mr. H. M. Weidner, of Payette, Idaho. We regret that the method has not fulfilled its promise, for we had hoped much from it. We find that any system (natural or forced) of hiving swarms on combs does not give best results for the production of comb lioney — owing, apparently, to the fact that the swarm is not satisfied. When we hive on foundation more energy is display- ed, and a far smaller number of colonies will again attempt to swarm. We have tested some modifications of the Doolittle method — for instance, tubing the bees from the old brood-combs, as they hatch, into the new colony, desirable for a week at least to reinforce the colony with more bees. Another difficulty is that in most parts of the arid West there is a marked reluc- tance on the part of the bees to carry up, into the combs above the excluder, any ex- cess of honey in the brood-nest, until too late to give the queen sufficient room to lay. Even the Carniolans, least of all inclined to crowd the brood-nest, show this tendency to a marked degree if the excluder is used ; while without the excluder there is no dis- position to crowd out the queen in May or early June, before time for shaking. The Doolittle method does not give brood-room sufficient to prevent all colonies from get- ting the desire to swarm before the honey- flow unless an extra stoiy of combs be giv- en to the best colonies in May, so that the queen has access to the combs in more than one hive-body. We have tried giving the queen the lib- erty of two hives of comb instead of con- fining her to one. Then when the proper time arrives we sort out the combs with little or no brood, and shake on them, which is more work, but which gives stronger swarms on the average, and with less dan- ger of swarming before the flow. As be- fore, hoAvever, too many seem not to realize that they have been swarmed, and must try it again. There is no question that, in nine cases out of ten, where we have used the Doolittle method, we could have secured more profitable results if the bees had been shaken on foundation, and the combs above the excluder had been extracted. We there- fore have no furtlier use for the Doolittle method unless with a few colonies as an illustration to our students, and we await with interest the publication of a method which does not involve much uncertainty and the expenditure of a very large amount of labor. Many of the former advocates of shaken swarming are now doing little or no shak- ing except of diseased colonies. They mere- ly destroy cells, etc. ; then if a colony per- sists in swarming they kill the queen, cut out cells, and, about nine days later, give them or leave them one cell. To tell the truth, there is as yet no method publicly known for controlling swarming in out- yards run for comb honey that is really satisfactory and adapted to a large busi- ness. We have a plan which we use very large- ly, whicli gives good results; but it is quite laborious when several yards must be han- dled. Upon the opening of the flow, wliich is the signal for most of the swarming here, we shake into a new hive, with full sheets of wired foundation in the frames, three- fourths of the bees from two colonies. This plan gives powerful colonies, good for some fine work, and secures comb honey if there is a flow. But for the past few seasons, with large yards of 200 upward, too many such swarms will come out again once or twice, before settling down to work; and if a comb of brood is given when shaking, the bees will start unnumbered queen-cells upon it, and refuse to stay until the brood is removed, as described by L. Stachelhaus- en several years ago. It is possible that this disinclination to stay hived may be due to the use of full sheets of foundation, as this has been spoken of by several writers; but the condition was not so apparent when our yards were smaller. If the dividing of the cluster by the full sheets of foundation be the reason for the discontent, we can obviate it by giving an empty body below the swarm for two or three days. We will test the matter thoroughly this coming sea- son. If increase is desired we may give a queen or a cell to the shaken colony (one of the old brood-nest), or pile several such bodies of comb above the excluder on some weak colony, and use for increase when the brood is sealed, or leave them to be filled with honey for extracting. The writer has several times had hundreds of such hives of sealed brood piled above excluders, await- ing the arrival of queens from the South, GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE only to lose the opportunity to get a large increase by the failure of the queens to arrive until too lale. Here, if we can get a layer into a hive of brood or on a few frames of brood, in early June, we have a colony as good as the best for our second flow. If, on the other hand, we must wait and allov" them to mate a queen, then they will be so much weaker when the second flow comes than they would have been if they had had a layer at the proper time, that they will oft- en store little or no surplus from that flow. Where are the queen-breeders who will give a bond to send cjueens at the time they have agi'eed to do sof Meridian, Idaho. MAKING INCREASE BY SHAKING BEES FROM STRONG COLONIES INTO SWARM BOXES BY I. B. ELLIS Assuming, first, that there are at least two bee-3^ards two or more miles apart, and that you want to double your number of colonies, you should first go to a tinner and have a funnel made about eighteen inches across the top, with a two-inch hole at the bottom. Next make about twenty swarm- boxes. I make mine by taking new red- wood shakes and cutting them in two in the middle for the sides ; and for the ends I use blocks % thick by 6 inches square, nailing- all together. Cutting out nearly all of one side, I tack on a screen, and bore a two- inch hole in one end of the swarm-box to hold the funnel. You are new ready to go to your apiaries and make the increase. It is necessary to build up the yards early in the spring by artificial feeding until the yield of honey begins from the early flowers. At yard No. 1, first go to a strong colony and find the queen; then set aside the comb containing her. Have the helper hold the funnel in the swarm-box while you shake two combs with adhering bees down into the funnel. Give them a quick shake, and the bees will go rattling down into the swarm-box. Shut the hive and go to the next strong colony, and take out two combs of bees as before, 1)eing careful not to get the queen. Shake the bees into the funnel as before. When visiting the next colony take out only one frame of bees (it does not need to be quite as strong), and shake them into the funnel. I like to take out five frames of bees and confine them in a swarm-box, as it makes a nice little colony. Now take out the fun- rel and slip the slide. Proceed in the same wav until the twenty swarm-boxes are filled. If 3^ou are quick and have good luck in finding queens, and work fast, you should have the twenty boxes of bees in five or six hours, or about 3 p. m. Now take a laying queen and drop her right down in among the bees, one for evei'y swarm-box. Give the queen-cage a little shake, and out she goes. It is better to buy your queens if you can get them; but if not, the queens already raised which you have on hand may be used. Going to yard No. 2 we arrive by 4 p. m., taking the boxes of bees. Put them in the shade, and then arrange twenty hives. Set them wliere you want them to remain, and go to the supers of the old colonies, and take out four frames of honey and comb, selecting combs about half full of honey, and one sheet of foundation, putting the sheet of foundation next to the outside comb. When the hives are all set, and ready for the swarms, slip the slides of the swarm-boxes, and shake the bees in front of the hives (one box for each hive). It is just about sundown by the time you are busy shaking the bees out of the boxes in front of the hives and seeing that the bees go in. The next morning go through the same process at yard No. 2 that you did at No. 1, taking the funnel and swarming-boxes and shaking the bees in till the twenty boxes are full. Drop in twenty laying queens, and return to yard No. 1, and fix the hives in the positions in which they are to remain. Take four sheets of honey, partly full, from the super of the old colo- ny, and one sheet of foundation for each hive, putting the sheet of foundation next to the outside comb. Now it is getting late, and we run the twenty swarms into our twenty hives the same as we did the evening before. We keep this up until we get all the supers of honey used up, or as much increase as we want. The old colonies will stand a draw of a couple of sheets of bees again in seven or eight days, and possibly more. It all de- pends on the condition of the weather, and how fast the brood is hatching. One has to judge by the looks of things. Draw from the old colonies for the purpose of swarm i^revention till the honey flow is on in earnest, and supply foundation for both the old colonies and the new swarms. The third week the swarms are storing more honey than the old colonies that we drew from. Last year I started with 88 colonies in the sage district of California, having also 200 supers of combs from which the bees died the year before. I in- MAY 1, 1913 313 creased to 210 colonies, and took 20,750 pounds of extracted honey. St. David, Ariz. PROPER PACKING AND GRADING BY LOUIS SCROLL There is at present no other matter of so much importance to the Texas beekeeper, and tlie entire South, for that matter. There exist, at the present time, no definite rules that govern the packing and weight of the various packages of the honey of the South, as regards what might be termed a standard by which to go absolutelj^, both as to the manner in which the various sizes of cans and pails used shall be filled, and as to the weight of honey they should hold. There seems to be quite a diversity of opinion among even our leading beekeep- ers; and as long as this continues we may expect trouble from time to time with the buyers of our products. While some claim we ought to let the weight include container \vilh the contents in the selling weight, others furnish a full net-weight package. The latter seems far the better way, and one that can be easily arranged, and at the same time will be more in confonnity with the present regulations of the pure-food laws. But if some of us are doing this, all should do likewise; for it makes quite a difference with a large crop whether we are compelled to furnish full net weight of honey as against those who include the con- tainers as i3art of the weight. Another most important item, and one that needs a lot of " clubbing," is that of packing dark off-gTade honey in with fine white comb honey. Often such stuff is so far " off " that it is unfit to eat, and hence the practice should not be permitted to go on. The matter of the proper amount of comb honey in proi^ortion to extracted honey in packing " bulk comb honey " needs some adjustment before our next packing season rolls around. While some beekeepers, to be honest, put a large amount of comb honey in the cans, and less extracted, others vary these amounts to a great extent, and just as honestly. The trouble is, we have no real standard to go by, and such should be pro- vided. We have a great deal of trouble also when it comes to the prices of honey. There are quite a number of beekeepers who believe in keeping the price up in proportion to the supply and demand, and in relation to other commodity prices, so far as practica- ble. But this often — yea, very often indeed — works against them in the prompt dispos- al of their products. This is because there is such a difference in the price at which \arious beekeepers sell their honey that the lower prices prevent others selling their lionej^ A better organization of the beekeepers, or even a simple " getting together " and discussing these various questions, would bring about an improvement over the pres- ent-day situation. New Braunfels, Texas. A FURTHER NOTE OF WARNING AGAINST SPRAYING WHILE IN BLOOM BY PROF. N. E. SHAW, State Entomologist of Ohio. The time of year is now at hand when the spraying campaign is started against the many pests affecting our fruit-trees. A word of caution should be given for the benefit of those who disregard the advice of authorities and spray their trees while in full bloom. There is nothing to gain bj' the application of spray at this time, but, on the other hand, positive injury is sure to result to the vital parts of the flow- er, and likewise to bees and other insects which are so necessary to the proper devel- opment of the fruit. For a time the coiTectness of reports from correspondents (that many orchard- ists sprayed their trees while they were in full bloom) was doubted. During the past year reports of this kind were investigated by insi^ectors, and it was found that the practice was being followed to a consider- able extent. A few of the offenders, strange to say, are some of our largest fruit-gi'ow- ers whose sjjraying equipment is not suffi- cient for their orchard acreage; and in or- der to spray all of their trees before the closing of the blossom end of the apple, they commence operations while the trees are in full bloom. Another class of offenders is composed of those who do commercial spraying for small orchardists. Their object, of course, is to extend their work over as long a period as possible, and many of them spray right through the blooming period, regardless of the condition of the blossoms. Their em- l)loyers are usually ignorant of the harm done by the practice, and make no stipula- tion as to the time during which the work must be performed. This Department will make every effort possible to discourage this harmful prac- tice, and asks the co-operation of beekeep- ers in reporting all instances of this kind that come under their obsen^ation. Ohio Department of Agi*iculture. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Heads of Grain from Different Fields A Bottom-board that Does Away with Sulking Bees I can not remember now whether it was Dr. Miller or Mr. Doolittle who advocated putting blocks under the hive in summer to give bottom ventilation. I am quite sure that it is Dr. Miller who uses the bottom-board with the deep space un- der the frames, with the idea of giving more ven- tilation than can be secured by means of the ordi- nary bottom-board. That two such successful bee- keepers find it necessary to have more ventilation is pretty sure evidence that there is something lacking in the standard make of bottom-boards. In my own experience as a beekeeper I have found that, when using the regular make of bottom-boards, it is almost impossible to crowd the bees sufficiently to get results in comb honey without their sulking and hanging out on the front of the hive. Abundant bottom ven- tilation has always been in accordance with my idea, but 1 do not like the plan of the blocks very well for more reasons than one. The chief reason was that, when the hive was set on these blocks, it gave the bees an entrance from every side of the hive, and I can't say that I enjoy opening a hive when the bees in about every third hive are going to pile out and sting a row all around my ankles. 1^ This bottom-board is made just like the ordinary reversible bottom-board, e.xcept that, instead of the deep entrance being only % or one inch deep, mine is two inches deep. Then an opening is made on each side and at the back, one inch deep, extending each way to within three inches of the corner. This opening is covered with wire cloth, which compels the bees to go to the regrular entrance, and keeps them away from my feet and legs. At the same time they have a free ventilation from all sides; and after using this bottom two years (last year on fifty colo- nies) I have yet to see a single colony hanging out over one of them. This certainly must have a de- cided influence on the swarming problem. These bottoms are ideal for moving bees, for all you have to do is nail up the entrance tight, and the wire-cloth-covered holes will give abundant ventila- tion. Then, again, when -wantering in the cellar the bottoms can be left on, and still there will be almost as free a ventilation as if there were no bottom at all. When the weather is too cool for the wide en- trance the reverse side is just the same as the shal- low entrance on the regular bottom-boards. The drawings will illustrate the construction. Barryton, Mich. Leon C. Wheeler. A Modification of the Alexander Method of In- crease Will you be kind enough to state objections to the following modified plan of Alexander for increase and prevention of swarming? Select a strong colo- ny with a quantity of brood in all stages of devel- opment, before the clover flow starts, or, preferably, about one month before the clover flow. Look through the colony carefully, and remove every queen-cell. Have a new hive ready with frames of foundation, but with one place left for a frame of brood. Place the new hive on a stand near the first, and then remove a nice frame of brood from the old liive and place it in the center of the new hive. Find the queen, and introduce her into the new hive (if possible, select the frame on which the queen is found). Now remove the old hive to a new stand some distance away, and place the new hive on the old stand. A queen may now be introduced into the old hive ; or would it be better to leave one queen-cell if one is present? Would the delay of 16 days, caused by raising a queen, be a serious handi- cap to the colony for handling the honeyflow ? Decatur, Ga. H. B. Aebuckle. [As many of our readers have, perhaps, forgotten the original Alexander plan, we are giving it her^. — Ed.] When your colonies are nearly full enough to swarm naturally, and you wish to divide them so as to make two from one, go to the colony you wish to divide; lift it from its stand and put in its place a hive containing frames of comb or foundation, the same as you would put the swarm in, providing it had just swarmed. Now remove the center comb from this new hive, and put in its place a frame of brood from the old hive, and be sure to find the queen and put her on this frame of brood in the new hive ; also look it over very carefully to see that it contains no eggs nor larvfe in any queen-cells. If it does, destroy them. Now put a queen-excluding honey-board on top of this new hive that contains the queen and frame of brood with their empty combs, then set the full queenless colony over the ex- cluder ; next put in the empty comb or frame of foundation taken from the new hive, and close the upper hive except the entrance they have through the excluder into the hive below. Leave them in this way about five days, then look over the combs care- fully, and destroy any larvee you may find in the queen-cells unless they are of a good strain of bees that you care to breed from, for they frequently start the rearing of queens above the excluder very soon after their queen was placed below the ex- cluder. If so, you had better separate them at once ; but if they have not started any queen-cells above, then leave them together ten or eleven days, during which time the queen will get a fine lot of brood started in the lower hive, and every egg and particle of larva that was in the old hive on top will have matured, so it will be capped over and saved; then separate them, putting the old hive on a new stand. It will then be full of young bees mostly, and capped brood, and in about twenty-four hours they will ac- cept a ripe cell, a virgin, or laying queen, as they will then realize that they are hopelessly queenless. I would advise you to give them a laying queen, as I never like to keep my full colonies for even a day longer without a laying queen than I can help. In this way you secure two strong colonies from one, without losing a particle of brood or checking the laying of this queen; and with me it almost wholly prevents swarming. This is the way we have made our increase for several years, and we like it much better than any other method we ever tried. In doing so we keep all our colonies strong during the whole summer, and it is the strong colonies that count in giving us our surplus. The mere fact of having a large number of colo- nies does not amount to much unless they are strong in bees and are well cared for at all times. This is a fact that many have sadly overlooked; and when the season comes to a close, giving them a small surplus, they, feel disappointed and lay the fault on many things that have had but little to do with their failure. [Your modification of the Alexander method of increase is not as good as the original Alexander plan, for this reason: You remove the old hive to the new stand at the time you make the division of the colonv, while Mr. Alexander puts the old hive MAY 1, 1913 315 over the new one with perforated zinc between. The object of this is to save the young: brood that is un- sealed. In five days, as Mr. Alexander directs, all the brood will have been sealed up, and quite a number of young bees will have hatched out. At that time the upper story with its young bees with nothing but sealed brood can be put on another stand much more safely than it can be done at the very beginning when there is unsealed brood and less of young bees. — Ed.] Feeding During a Time of Making Increase Dr. C. C. Miller: — Please let me know whether the method of applying the Alexander feeder at the time of making increase, as per your article in Gleanings, May 1, 1912, p. 266, and feeding a pint of syrup every night for 14 nights, so that the increase will rush things for the basswood flow and buckwheat would apply to conditions similar to those given on p. 279, May 1, 1912. Do you approve of the use of the Alexander feed in cases of this kind, as the cost of syrup will be only about 30 cts. per colony? Will it pay to spend this much in the above cases 1 Canastota, N. Y. Wm. P. Fritz. If I should feed in the way you suggest, I don't believe it would make enough difference to pay for the trouble, if, indeed, it would make any differ- ence at all ; for at the time the increase would be made the bees would be gathering enough and more than enough to supply the brood, and extra feeding would not increase the laying of the queen. There are, however, a few localities where it might pay well. There may be particular seasons in almost any locality where feeding would pay big. In the first half of June I expect my bees to be doing a land- office business if the crop is to amount to any thing that year ; and it would be foolish for me to feed at that time. But one year there was a dearth in June, and before I realized the situation the bees were carrying out the white skins of larvse from which they had sucked the juices. I could well have afforded a dollar a pound for sugar to feed at that time. Now, suppose a locality where the weather is favorable during the time you would want in- crease, but there was nothing from which stores could be gathered, while a heavy flow might occur later on. In that case it would pay well to feed, so as not to have any break in brood-rearing. The gist of the whole matter is this: If bees are already having all the brood they can cover, feed- ing will not increase it. If they are already gather- ing abundance of stores for brood-rearing, feeding will not hasten the building-up; but if bees are not gathering enough to keep up brood-rearing, then feeding may pay well. Marengo, 111. C. C. Miller. Spring Uniting In May of last year my bees were near the point of starvation ; and as I did not see any prospect ahead for honey I united a part of my 55 colonies so that there were only 38. I intended to keep on uniting until I had only 25, as I did not want to have to feed so many ; but about May 15 the colo- nies seemed to be so strong that I thought I would wait a few days and then unite more of them if I desired. About the 20th they began bringing in some honey, and they kept at work. Up to that time I had had three or four swarms. That is all I had that season. I stacked up supers, thi'ee or four to each colony, and when the season was over I found I had sold $121 worth of comb honey neav liome, and I had besides 22 hive-bodies full, ani ;iiany unfinished sections. I will describe my way of uniting. If A And B are to be united, A being the stronger of Ihe two, I lift A from its stand; set B in place of it; then remove the cover from B, blow in a little smoko, and finally I smoke a little at the entrance of A. Then I loosen the bottom-board of A and set it on top of B. I do this when the bees are flying freely. If there is any choice in the queens, I kill the un- desirable one ; but if not, I let them alone. Some- times the two remain together ; but I have never known more than two instances when the queens lived together all winter. Late in the fall the bees will usually be in the upper hive ; and if the colony is not too strong I separate the two hives and give the best set of combs to the colony. Fremont, Mo. Mrs. Almeda Ellis. Transferring without Drumming Bees I notice in Gleanings for March 1, pages 154 and 155, ilustrations of transferring which seem to me to be altogether out of date; for, in the first place, di-umming out bees is quite an unnecessary waste of time. The quickest and easiest way of transferring is to turn the hive upside down, fasten a box in a slanting position over the bottom, of course having used your smoker first. Then with a hammer and hatchet split off the side that h-as few- est combs attached. Smoke back the bees; cut out the first comb ; put the dry comb into one hive, and comb with honey into another ; smoke the bees off the second comb, and repeat, cutting out any comb containing brood, and so on. By the time the last comb is out the bees will be in the top box, and the queen either found in cutting out combs or remain- ing in the old gum. Having transferred hundreds of gums in this way, I have found it to be the quickest and easiest way. Before I fasten on the small box I note par- ticularly how the combs are fastened to the gum, and choose the side having the fewer fastened to it; for the side to be opened, there would not, in nine eases out of ten, be a quarter of the flying and loose bees as there are shown in the illustration. Turned upside down, the combs are often found at- tached to the sides of the hives. I don't say any thing about the crossway sticks, as they are very easily gotten rid of. Allenville, Ala., March 10. H. P. Hart. [An expert can transfer from a box hive quicker by the method described by our cor*espondent than by the process of first drumming the bees out of the hive. The average beginner, or, rather, the per- son who tries transferring from a box hive the first time, wiU succeed better — that is, he will have less fear of stings if he drums the bees out first. Years ago, when the writer was learning his A B C's he feund it more practicable to transfer as described by Mr. Hart; but at that time we had bought some 25 or 30 box hives, and we transferred them all in two days. — Ed.] Giving Room Beneath Instead of on Top "When the bees need room in the spring, having been wintered in two 5% -inch bodies, would it not be a good plan to put the third one under the other two and allow the top one to become an extracting- super, when it could be thoroughly cleaned, as well as the frames, of all propolis, and repaired if neces- sary? In this way one half of the hive would be cleaned every year. The bees, I believe, would be inclined to store the honey above, and allow the brood-nest to be extended downward ; and, further- more, the loss of heat would not be so gi'eat with the empty body below as it would be if placed above the brood. H. C. Dunn. East McKeesport, Pa., March 19. [The proposed plan of putting the third shallow brood-chamber under the other two is an excellent idea, especially at the beginning of the season. It is 316 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE better to give room at certain seasons of the year in this way than to put it at the top. The only ob- jection to it is that there will be considerable brood reared in the top story ; and, later on in the season, you would have to reverse the process by putting the empties on top and the perforated zinc between the brood-nest proper, whether there would be one brood section or two, and the extr acting-super above. — Ed.I Apigrams from the Southeast ; Stop ! Read ! Re- member! Give all colonies and every comb a thorough ex- amination this spring. Notice (and make a note of) the condition of every brood-nest, and make a second examination with equal attention, in two or three weeks, so that every queen whose work is inferior may be replaced, for a poor queen means a profitless colony. Remove all combs that contain more than a dozen or so drone-cells, and melt up for wax ; for many unnecessary di-ones are a heavy tax on the profits. Remove all combs that have dry mold in the wax. If you don't, the bees will, and they will put drone comb in its place. If you remove it first, you profit in two ways — you save it for wax and you save their labor, which labor consumes honey and bee life. Pei'manent enthusiasm is maintained mainly by profits, and profits are secured mainly by hard work and head work suitably mixed ; so if you wish to retain the joy of enthusiasm in your beekeeping, get busy on the mixture. Get two kinds of wax-extractors in your apiary, if you have not already done so — a sun wax-extractor for scraps, and a wax-press of some good kind; for in warm regions it pays much better to melt all de- fective comb than to patch it, for wax is " quick money." When you walk through your apiary, have seeing eyes and hearing ears; for by entrance appearances may the inward condition of your colonies be knovsm, and much hard labor be saved thereby. It is not the bees that buzz the loudest that make the most honey. Good seasons come both singly and in flocks; ditto with poor ones ; so if you get a succession of good crops don't felicitate yourself on your clever- ness. The lean flock may be even now at your door, to tax your prudence and endurance to the limit. Rejoice in the bountiful years, and let the bees teach you to lay by for the poor years, when you shall need to step softly over the graves of "blasted hopes." Mt. Dora, Fla. G. J. V. The Capriciousness of Swarms Hiving sv,-arms was a difficult matter for us last summer. The bees seemed undecided as to '.vhat they wanted to do, and would come out, settle, and then either move to another place or do some other queer stunt. Only one swarm, the first, was reason- able in its actions. It settled on a thornbush. I bent the bush down, gave it a blow, and the bees crawled into their new hive as calmly as the animals WRlked into Noah's ark. The next swarm settled on the fop of a tall young maple. I climbed up a ladder and cut off the limb while the hired men caught it on a forked pole and let it down in front of the new hive. The bees went in. But after that our troubles began. A fine big swarm came off when I was away from home. It settled all right, and then the hired men sat down to dinner, intending to hive it after dinner. But meanwhile it soared away through the sky, and was lost to sight, though to memory dear. The next time a swarm came off I was at home ; but I might as well have been away. It alighted on a low walnut; but while I was putting the hive in position, there was a rumble of thunder. The bee& became frightened, and fled back to their hive. Then if I had only had a queen-trap I could at least have saved the bees. They issued the next day with their queen, and took refuge in the tall timber, and were lost. I keep bees for the purpose of pollinating my or- chards, and to them, in part, I owe my immense crop of 8000 bushels of red juicy apples which I gathered last year. New Wilmington, Pa. J. C. M. Johnston. Dropping a Swarm from a Tree into a Hive I had a swarm cluster in the top of a large oItu- tree. As I could not reach the limb I climbed the tree, and, with a cutter on the end of a long ]'ole, cut off the branch and let it fall to the ground, lees and all, having placed the hive at about the place where I thought the bees would fall. The iimb struck the ground within three feet of the hive, and the bees aU ran in. Long Neck Sta., L. I. E.Griswold. [This plan you mention would, undoubtedly, be a good expedient in the emergency you mention ; but ordinarily, if it is possible to reach the limb it is a little safer to let it down with a light rope after it "s cut off. If you missed your calculation as to where the limb would strike the ground so that you did not get the hive near enough ; or if the limb struck any thing else on the way to the ground the bees would probably get away from you. — Ed.] An Easy Way to Fill Combs Last spring I had to feed my bees, and desired to do so by giving them sugar-water in combs. I filled my fountain-syringe bag, and the thin stream directed at the cells caused hardly any drip. The air was driven from the cells, and had plenty of room to escape. It was far beyond the dipper meth- od or the immersion way. Iowa. .J. Gaus. [The plan described is perfectly feasible. While we have not tried it, we know that one can secure filled combs in the manner described, with, a good deal less spatter and daub. — Ed.] Cells Filled with Pollen in Aspinwall Hive I have tried two Aspinwall hives this season ; but ■with my management they were not especially suc- cessful. There was no swarming, but I had some bulged sections, a few thin ones, and nearly a third of the sections next to the brood-chamber contained one or more cells of pollen. The queens also went above, and a number of sections contained brood. In our regular hives, pollen is never found, an4 brood is rare in comb-honey supers. These hives may work better under other conditions and manage- ment. I shall continue the trial, and hope for bet- ter results. Fair Oaks, Cal. E. L. Sechrist. 416 Pounds from a 24- Year-old Colony Our last exploit was to get 416 lbs. of honey from the only colony of bees we had, and then have the colony live 24 years in the same hive. The hive actually rotted away from the bees. Galva, m., March 13. Lloyd Z. Jones. $17 Worth of Comb Honey from One Colony With reference to keeping down increase and run- ning for comb honey, I would say that I have one coleny that produced $17.20 worth of section honey, and cast one swarm. Sunbury, Pa. John D.wis. MAY 1, 1913 317 Our Homes A. I. ROOT Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin ; and yet I say unto you that even Solo- mon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought saying, What shall we eat? or. What shall we drink? or. Where- withal shall we be clothed ? For after all these things do the G-entiles seek ; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. — • Matthew 6:26-32. Mrs. Root and I have now been here in our Florida home close on to six months. Neither of ns has had a sick day, and I my- self have scarcely had a pain or ache. Neither of us has had any thing worth mentioning in the way of a cold, and noth- ing at all like grip that has again been so prevalent throughout the cold North. Other winters we have had more or less of cold and gi'ip, and similar troubles along that line. Now, then, can I give any of joi\ any suggestions in the way of getting well and keeping well — especially in the winter time or in cold damp weather? T. B. Terry has lately been having a good deal to say in regard to ha^nng open aii'j^ rooms, and get- ting oneself hardened or acclimated to cool weather without being excessively bundled up. ]\'Irs. Root has also been for j-ears past urging that I should get lid of my fur cap and the unusual amount of clothing that I felt that I must wear in order to avoid " taking cold." She has over and over again urged that, if I would take proper care and precautions, I could get tough so that I could stand a little expos- ure without having neuralgia, rheumatic pains and aches, and things of that sort. Well, early in November I began getting rid of my fur cap, endeavoring to keep warm by vigorous exercise in the open air with- out so much clothing. In place of wearing an overcoat when it was cold, by Ernest's advice I got me a woolen sweater that could be easily thrown off or put on as cir- cumstances or the weather seemed to de- mand ; and right here I want to say that that woolen sweater has been one of the greatest helps and comforts of any thing I ever got hold of. Well, now, let us go back a little. The first time I took off my coat and went to work in my shirtsleeves, even dawn here in Florida, the consequence was a stiff neck. Most of vou know what that is with- out my explaining. I began to say that I couldn't stand it — that I was too old, and that my circulation was too poor; but Mrs. Root urged that, if I would keep trying, pretty soon I would get toughened to it so I could get along without a coat or without a sweater. Well, the next day I tried tak- ing off Tony coat again ; but, as before, the consequence was a stiff neck, but I was obliged to admit that it wasn't quite as bad as the day before. The third day there was very little of it : and after that the stiff neck disappeared entirely. I went on with my experiments along that line, and not only discarded my coat, but after a time my vest, then put on lighter union under- wear than I had been in the habit of using, and finally I went out and worked hour after hour with my coat and vest off and my sleeves rolled up, my underwear turned back, and not only my neck but my chest exposed to the sun and air and the weather. T also laid off my woolen stockings, and put on gradually some of the thinnest cot- ton ; and of late, during February and March, I have been going barefooted through the middle of the day; and, to tell the truth, while I dictate this to the dicta- phone I am sitting down here barefooted, bareheaded, with my collar turned back just as I have been describing. The fact that I could get along and be comfortable and happy with so little clothing has really given me a new lease of life. I enjoy my work and my meals, and I enjoy reading my books and papers after I have been out working in the gTound or out with the ducks and the cliickens. I firmly believe that we as a people have been wearing more heavy clothing, both men and women, than God intended we should. Aye, further, I am satisfied that many of us might live many years longer, and in more comfort, if we could only con^^nce ourselves that it is possible to wear less clothing, and clothing that permits the air to circulate all over our bodies. I believe history tells us that in one of the islands in the seas they dis- covered a race of people that went entire- ly naked: but when these people were civ- ilized and Christianized, and taught to wear clothing like other people, the race grad- ually lost in vitality, and threatened to be- come extinct unless they could be allowed to lete. On one occasion our boys went out to a distant yard prepared to stay over night and sleep in the truck (which is covered), get up early, close the entrances, and drive back. But the bees fortunately went to bed early. We closed them up and came back that night. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE To show you the possibilities of the truck, our yard-man who operates it and works with the bees at the same lime went off on a trip yesterday to a place 60 miles distant. He left here at 6 :30, loaded up, got his din- ner, and was back here by 4 o'clock. The truck is used daily to carry the boys to the outyards; but when they go they always carry something with them. One crew of three men are now running seven yards. These will be operated for the raising of bees for nuclei and pound packages, for the production of honey, and the rearing of some queens. SCHOOL FOR BEEKEEPERS IN MASSACHUSETTS. Perhaps the most complete — certainly the best equipped — school for instruction in apiculture is the one located at Amherst, Mass., at the Agricultural College. Wlule there are regular students taking a course in apiculture under Dr. Burton N. Gates, the AgTicultural College announces a spe- cial two-weeks' school for beekeepers to be- gin May 28, followed by a convention on June 11 and 12, at which time a number of prominent beekeepers from all over the United States will be present to give ad- dresses. The following is the announcement that has been sent out: The faculty and the courses which they will give are as follows : Practical Phases of Beekeeping, Dr. Burton N. Gates; Crops for Honeybees, .Prof. S. B. Haskell; The Relation of Bees to the Pollination of Plants, Dr. George E. Stone; Structure of Bees, Mr. I. W. Davis; Bees and Beekeepers' Supplies, Dr. James B. Paige. Students will have the use of the regular apicul- tural equipment of the collegei consisting of about two acres with fifty colonies of bees and a modern building constructed especially for the teaching of practical apiculture. Practically every device used in American apiculture will be shown, it being the aim of the department to procure new inventions as fast as they appear, for the purpose of study and com- parison. A library of over 700 volumes and papers of apicultural literature will also be available to students. It has been found necessary to limit the registra- tion to fifteen, and applications will be accepted in the order received. A registration fee of $2.00 will be charged, and will constitute the laboratory ex- penses. For bulletins or other information address Prof. \V. D. Hurd, Amherst, Mass. Besides the lectures there will be field-day work, showing how to take honey out of the hives, how to extract — in fact, do a hundred and one things connected with the general work of handling bees. The College lias erected a modern bee-building for wax- rendering, extracting — in fact, for doing any kind of work connected with a modern beeyard. It is equipped with the latast machiner3% including a power extracting- outfit, with a honey-pump. The field day will be an exceptional op- MAY 15, 1913 327 portunity for many of the veterans, and certainly for all beginners, to learn the very latest that there is doing' in the way of tak- ing- honey from the bees. Particulars can be secured from Dr. Burton N. Gates, Am- herst, Mass. When we say that, in our opinion, there is no other school of apicul- ture that will compare with this one, per- haps we should except the one located at Cnielph. Canada, under the direction of Mr. Morley Pettit. Both are doing splendid work; but the school at Amherst has never been better equipped than now. In a recent letter received from Dr. Gates he wntes: This course, the spring work for the layman, is one of six courses in beekeeping scheduled in the institution. They are: Two courses for the regular college students, the four-year men ; a ten-weeks' winter course for the winter students; the spring course for the layman ; a two-weeks' summer school : besides the corrrespondence course. This outline, I believe, exceeds apicultural instruction given else- where. Moreover, you know that our equipment is by far the most complete, especially our collections. THE. HANDBOOK OF APICULTURE. Dr. Enoch Zander, of Erlangen, Ger- many, has written a book with the above title.* It is in three parts, each part to be had separately. No. 1 is devoted to foul brood and its treatment. It is a practical condensation of all that is now known on that subject, and fully illustrated Avith pic- tures enlarged by micro-photography, whereby germs invisible to the eye are en- larged to half an inch in length ; but it must not be inferred from this that the photos are better than anj' drawings. Dr. Zander is one of the men most able to speak on the subject of foul brood, and he has covered the ground in this book of 31 pages and 16 illustrations. In speaking of the rapid multiplication of the germs which cause foul brood, he says one bacteri- um will throw otf a shoot or bud every twenty minutes, so that in 24 hours it will have 'multiplied to 16,-500,000, and in 48 hours to 281,500 millions of millions. Dr. Zander divides brood disease into sour brood, the germ of which, as the doctor claims, is Streptococcus apis, bas- ing this claim on Maasen; foul brood, due to Bacillus alvei; brood pest, due to Ba- cillus larvae, or Brondenhurgiensis. The peculiarities are described minutely. But Dr. Zander does recognize Bacillus larvae, discovered by Dr. White, as the cause of American foul brood, or what he calls " brood pest." At the time his book was published, or written, rather, he, of course, did not and could not know of Dr. Wliite's further discovery of the cause of the other brood disease, or what we call European foul brood — Bacillus pluton. As we understand it, Dr. White has prov- ed that Bacillus alvei is non-pathogenic — that is, not disease-forming; and although for many years it has been supjjosed to be the cause of foul brood, the evidence is pretty clear now that it has nothing to do with either of t hese diseases, although pres- ent with Bacillus pluton, and sometimes found with Bacillus larvae. Immediately following the work refer- red to above comes another from the busy pen of Dr. Zander, entitled " The Struc- ture of the Bee." As its name indicates, it is devoted entirely to a description of the various organs of the bee; and if any thing has been omitted we do not know what it is. • This work contains 182 pages, including 149 illustrations. After this we have twen- ty full-page plates, showing in all 75 en- larged views of bee anatomy, photogi'aph- ed in almost every instance from the or- gan itself. * Zander, E., Erlangen, 1911. Handbuch der Bic- nenskunde, in Einzeldarstellung. Eugen Ulmer, puli., Stuttgart. In three parts, of about 30 pages each. THE CALIFORNIA HONEY CROP A FAILURE. The following telegi-am, received just as we were lockiivg u]i this last form, will ex- plain itself : Season is practically closed, with no honey in sight; orange almost a complete failure; sage not yielding; will be the lightest crop since 1904, and may be for twenty years. Same report from all sage and orange districts, no crop. Further particulars to follow for .Tune 15th issue. Redlands, Cal., May 12. P. C. Chadwick. We may add that we have asked our cor- respondent, Mr. Chadwick, to send us tele- graphic reports just as we go to press, so tliat we may give our readers the very latest I'egarding the honey-crop conditions on the western coast. The foregoing is the first of a series of night telegrams. The prospects for a white-clover honey- tlow in tlie eastern States were never better (lian now. It is beginning to get a little dry. but a rain would set every thing boom- ing. Fruit bloom generally has been good. MR. TYRRELL RESIGNS THE EDITORIAL MAN- AGEMENT OF THE REVIEW. Just as we go to press news has come that Mr. Tyrrell, Secretary of the National Beekeepers' Association, has resigned his position as editorial manager of the Bee- keepers' Beview, the Association organ. Mr. E. D. Townsend, one of the directoi"s, takes his place, and the publication Avill be con- tinued hereafter fi'om Nortlistar, Mich. Overwork has compelled Mr. TyiTell to take this action, and he will now devote his energies to the work of the National. 328 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Stray StraAvs De. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. Those brick records, p. 233, are ahead of book records in one way — you can see at a glance the whole apiary without turning leaves. But you must be in the apiary to see the bricks, and you can see the book miles away from the apiary, and plan ac- cordingly. Besides, you often want to con- sult the records weeks or years afterward. G. M. DooLTTLE, there's much in what you saj', p. 252. The beekeeper cusses the commission man ; but when the beekeeper gets in a light corner it's might convenient to have the commission man help him out. AUee samee, if some of the middle business can be cut out, it will be just so much to be divided between the producer and consumer. A GREAT honor has come to me. I've been notified that I'm eligible to become a mem- ber of the Burbank Society, which admits only choice specimens of humanity like my- self. And it costs only $150. Could one of you kindly loan me $150 ? Later. — I've just learned that a man as common as A. I. Root is alloAved to be a member. Also that, instead of $150, it costs $151 — a dollar more than I can afford. I think I'll not " jine." You think, Mr. Editor, p. 284, that with immense buckwheat crops one might get more honey by dividing before the early harvest. Exactly what I tried to exj^ress. But when you hint that stimulative feeding might make early division all right for me, we part company. I've some question wheth- er stimulative feeding would make my bees build up sooner; at any rate, you've got to "show me" before I believe that any amount' of stimulative feeding will allow me to di- vide before clover-bloom without cutting down vQ.y honey crop. [We did not mean that stimulation would make early division all right for yon. We really do not see how it could unless you can postpone your hon- ey-flow a month or six weeks.— Ed.] Ye editor, p. 284, threatens me with hav- ing the whole fraternity down on me if I insist that " Al honej' is superior, irrespec- tive of quantity, to sugar syrup " for win- tering bees. I don't like to be squashed that way, but I guess I'll have to stand it, for that's exactly what I believe. [That is right, doctor — stand by 3"0ur guns; but we hope you will not be shot to pieces. Joking aside, possibly you are right ; but we believe we are entirely within the truth when we say that it is and has been within the line of ortho- doxy to recommend sugar syrup in place of honey as a winter food; that when either is sealed in the combs the syrup is not only cheaper but better. Now, if we are going to be shot to pieces by this bit of orthodoxy, blaze away. Gleanings will furnish the battlefield.— Ed.] My reason for not painting hives is econ- omy, according to p. 232. That's a minor reason ; and if it were the only one my hives would all be painted. My first reason was that Doolittle approved it. My main reason is the same as his — it's better for the bees. As one little item tending in that direction, I may say that one winter I had moldy combs in only one hive, and that was the only painted hive. [It is hard for us to believe that the paint on that one hive made all the difference between mold and no mold. •We suspect that if you would ti*y the same experiment on a larger scale you would not be able to detect any difference. Are you sure there is real economy in not using paint? Is it not a fact that an unpainted hive will gap at the joints more quieklj'^ than one that has been painted, and that an unpainted cover will twist and check so that it will not fit? Is it economy to let robbers get through these cracks? If it is economy to let our hives go unpainted, would it not be economy to let our houses go the same way ? Say, doctor, here is such a good chance to " jab " you and Mr. Doo- little that we could not resist. — -Ed.] Comb-honey quotations have an unusual aspect. As is usual, the price toward spring dropped perhaps two cents. The unusual thing is that now, before any thought of new honey coming in, the price has gone up again wliere it was. I wonder just why this year should differ from other j'ears, when it stayed dropped, no matter how scarce. [The markets have been more thor- oughly cleaned up of good comb honey than ever before. There is a plenty of odds and ends and No. 2 and candied comb honey, but there is a gTeat scarcity of No. 1 and fancy. Furthermore, intelligent and persis- tent advertising is now being carried on more extensively than ever to push the sale of both comb and extracted honej^ If j-ou will take a trip going through some of the large cities of the United States you will see that both comb and extracted honey are being put up more attractively than ever before. The packages, both of glass and tin, have the same professional appearance as other food products in glass and tin. Heretofore that has not been true. The day of cheap labels on cheap amateur-look- ing packages has gone by. — Ed.] MAY 15, 1913 329 SIFTINGS J. E. Ckaxe, Middlebury, Yt. Mr. H. G. Quirin, p. 115, Feb. 15, is quite right in his statements that the pro- lifieness of a queen does not depend on her size. I, too, have sometimes had a very small queen prove one of the most prolific in the yard. * # » Mr. J. L. Byer inquires, page 76, Feb. 1, if foul brood is more virulent at times than others. I will say that this refers to European foul brood only. American foul brood in all localities seems to move on in the same slow sure way to the end. * * » Xotice of the death of D. H. Coggshall, Feb. 15, recalls to mind the pleasant day that I spent with him in his Florida home a year ago. I almost envied him his delight- ful home, surrounded with fruit trees and every thing to make life desirable. But he has been called away, and we are reminded again that this beautiful world with all its charms is not our permanent home. That picture, page 83, Feb. 1, of an or- ange tree bearing a crop of icicles instead of oranges is indeed a queer sight. In much of California as in Florida and other parts of the extreme South, frost is the weather condition most dreaded, while in the Xorth a winter free from snow or ice is equally to be feared, as it will be almost sure to work mischief to the clover and fruit crops later. * * * The editor says, page 73, Feb. 1, that the only thing fit to use during winter for clos- ing entrances of hives when moving them is a light snow. May be in Ohio ; but in Vermont we have moved a good many yards of bees in winter on sleds and found cotton wool to work perfectly. It is not always we have the light fluffy snow to use, and we always use cloth over frames some- what porous. * * * Mr. Chadwick says, page 75, Feb. 1, that in California thej^ have a law compelling the use of movable frames. So far so good ; but does such a law make the owners use them in a sensible way? Of what advan- tage is a movable-frame hive when the frames are two inches wide, or combs built crosswise of the frames, or a honey-board and bottom-board both nailed securely to the brood-chamber 1 ^ ^ ^ On page 115, Feb. 15, Mr. David Roberts gives some facts in regard to the value of shelter in wintering bees. One thing he seems to have overlooked; and that is, to give plenty of ventilation above the pack- ing. If this is given, there will be little trouble from excessive moisture in the pack- ing above the bees, no matter how carefully sheltered or protected. But do not shelter so much as to induce the bees to fly in weather so tliat they will get chilled and never return. * * * Dr. Miller seems to think, page 74, Feb. 1, that there is no more enthusiasm among the young beekeepers of to-day than among the beekeepers of fifty years ago. I gTiess he is right; but I have been wondering if We have as many young beekeepers to be enthusiastic as forty or fifty years ago. In the pictures of the conventions we see in bee journals, most of those represented ap- pear to be old or elderly men — very few young men. I sometimes wonder if the old men attend the conventions and leave the boys at home to look after the " chores." * * * Mr. Chadwick, page 110, Feb. 15, speaks of the Adciousness of bees in California; and I have noticed here in Florida they seem in most of the yards I have visited much Grosser than in the North. I wonder if this is generally true ; or is it because the bees I have seen handled were handled out of season or in the colder part of thej'ear? Bees in Florida appear to be more sensi- tive to weather conditions than in the North. Bees in the North seem willing to work when the temperature is cooler than they will work here; and, again, they will stop during the hottest part of the day here, ap- parently on account of the heat, when they would not think of stopping in the North. * * * I am under obligation to Mr. Wesley Foster, page 128, Feb. 15, for correcting me in regard to the rapid granulation of alfal- fa comb honey. As I have seen the state- ment in print many times, and so far have never before heard it contradicted, I sup- posed it was a fact. I also passed through Colorado some years ago ; and while stop- ping at a hotel over night I called for some honey at the breakfast table ; and after con- siderable urging I secured a little granulat- ed comb honey. This was early in Novem- ber, and tended to confirm my views of the gi'anulation of alfalfa honey. So, then, it is sweet clover, alfalfa, cleome, and wild flowers mixed that makes the trouble. Glad to know it. 330 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Beekeeping in the SouthAvest Louis Scholl, New Braunfels, Texas. As the season advances and the trees and the grasses and weeds begin to turn gi-een, and we keep time to the hum of the bees, we find many a beautiful picture before us that is worth taking. In this day of easy picture-taking, much pleasure can be de- rived from snapping the numerous things that have helped us to make certain work much more easy. Who will take pictures of interesting things this season, and send proofs to us for publication, together with a few notes to accompany them? OLD COMBS AND BULK COMB HONEY. The following question was sent by a western subscriber for our reply : I have 200 shallow extracting-supers filled with drawn comb made from full sheets of medium brood foundation, having been worked above excluders. These are all wired. What I want to know is wheth- er they will make good bulk comb honey by putting them on the hives this spring and letting the bees tiU and cap them. So far as the wires are concerned I think I can pull them out when the combs are finished. But I am not aware whether or not these old combs will be tender enough to make a merchant- able grade of comb. They have been used only two seasons, and are clean and in good condition. I note also in Gleanings, Nov. 15, your remarks as to sizes of containers of bulk comb honey. As to the 12 and 6 pounds cans, will you kindly advise me where to buy them, and whether or not you get the cases for these with the cans, or do you buy the cases elsewhere ? The factories from which I have quotations quote the cans alone, and make no refer- ence to cases. Extracting combs several seasons old should not -be used under any circumstances for bulk comb honey, even if they are nice and clean, and especially not if they are built from medium brood foundation. For bulk comb honey nothing should be used that is not strictly newly built comb honey, and in all respects as nice and tender as your section comb honey that you are now pro- ducing. Notliing inferior to this should be put up as bulk comb honey. It is strange that the idea prevails in the minds of some beekeepers that almost any thing can be used for bulk comb honey ; but it should be understood that bulk comb honey as produc- ed in Texas, where this product as it is put up here originated, is nothing but what strictly section comb honey would be, pro- duced in shallow frames, cut out and packed in nice clean cans, etc., of regtxlar or stand- ard size packages. In our methods of manipulating the colo- nies for best results in comb-honey produc- tion we make use of shallow extracting- supers on all our colonies for producing bulk comb honey. These are left on the liives during the winter, and provide extra breeding room in the early spring in addi- tion to the brood-chamber below. This in- sures extraordinarily rousing colonies of bees for the honej^-flows later. As the first flow comes on, these extracting-supei's are al- ready partly full of honey from the scat- tered sources during the spring, and all the honey that was not used during the early breeding season. As the flow begins, these are raised ; and the new supei-s, filled with full sheets of tliin surplus foundation in the frames, are slipped in between them and tlie brood-chambers. The bees go to work at once, and seem to try to fill the empty space with a vim that can not otherwise be obtained. After tliis the usual method of tiering u^d supers is practiced as needed during the honey-flows, exactly the same as in section-honey production. You will find, therefore, that the 200 supers with combs are a valuable investment, readj- to be put on the hives in the spring to catch the early scattering honey. The extracted honey will be needed, and more than you will be able to produce in these supers. These same supers will come in handy at the end of the honey-flows, to catch the scattering honey as the flows close. By having the honey extracted from these supers they are ready to go in the hives as soon as it is too late to give any more supers with foundation. Much honey is gained by this practice, both in the early spring and after the honey-flows, and the colonies are in bet- ter condition to give larger yields than when the old methods are practiced. Besides, we need much extracted honey, and we produce some of it at a time when it would not be profitable to produce bulk comb honey. The 200 shallow supers with combs ai^e worth a great deal more, therefore, if used as sug- gested, than if they could have been used for bulk comb honej- ; and if shallow supers are used in this way on all colonies (especially if our number of colonies is large), the extra profit obtained amounts to an enormous item. We have not bought any of our honey- cans without the cases, more because it has been more convenient to buy them with the cases ; and then because we have not had the time nor the facilities to make our own cases. We understand that some beekeep- ers buy the cans in bulk, and gain by mak- ing their own cases. Here in Texas there are a number of dealers in honey-cans from whom we get our supply usually. Many car lots of these honey-cans are used in this State each year. Arrangements can be made direct with some of the can companies, especially if a carload of cans can be used at one place. MAY 15, 1913 331 Beekeeping in California p. C. Chadwick, Redlands, Cal. TREATING PARALYTIC COLONY BY CHANGING HIVES AND COMBS. Two cases of paralysis developed in my home yard of 16 colonies. They were the worst I ever saw. I waited day after day, hoping to see the bees improve, for as a rule this trouble is overcome by the bees themselves after a time. No improvement came, however, and they continued to leave the hive until early in the morning when there would be dozens and sometimes hun- dreds crawling and quivering on the ground. In one colony the force of bees dwindled until they were barely able to cover their seven frames of brood. I secured a clean new hive in which I placed one clean emjDty comb and some full sheets of foundation. The entire colony was shaken into this hive, and the brood was given to another colony, the result being that I have since seen no sign of the disease, and the bees of that colony are drawing their foundation rapid- ly. Just what was responsible for the cure I am not able to say, for I had little idea that a cure could be completed so quickly; yet here is the colony before me without any sign of the disease, while the other one still has the trouble badly, with no sign of im- provement. I intend to let them alone for a time in order to see whether they continue to dwindle. The cute may be due to chang- ing to a clean hive, or it is possible that being driven to comb-building and the use of much fresh nectar may be the cause of their recoveiy. * * * CHANGE IN INSPECTORS. " Bob " Heron, the much-complained-of inspector of San Bernardino Co., has at last been removed by the County Board of Supervisors, and thus the curtain falls on the last scene of a ten-years' fight for his removal. And, strange as it may seem, the man who led the ^vinning charge with the hope of getting the place has fallen in the battle. Mr. M. Segers, Jr., who circulated a petition for the place, and had the back- ing of the County Association as well as most of the beekeepers of the county, fell, as nearly as I am able to learn, a victim to his own thoroughness. He made the state- ment before the supei"\asors that he would take no man's word for the condition of his bees. When questioned about his fa- ther's he said the same. The young man was right; but that was too thorough for our supervisors, for it would cost some money. But how about the inspectors for scale? Do they go to the orange-rancher and ask liim if he has any scale f No ! " Not on your life! " They just walk in and inspect. If they find scale, the orchard is fumigated without question, and that is the only sane way to go at it. Mr. M. J. Meeker is our new inspector, and we doff our hats to his authority. I will do so with the best of grace, though I fought him in favor of Mr. Charles Trout last fall, for I believed Mr. Trout was the best man in the county at the time for the place; but Charley was too young and ambitious to take the place, and is now making his way creditably through 'medical school. * * * A DISCOURAGING OUTLOOK IN CALIFORNIA. Conditions in this part of California seem to me to be about as perplexing, disappoint- ing, and discouraging as anv time during the past ten years. The sage was frozen and badly damaged, the wild alfalfa was also nearly all killed (and this is a source that, while not at all appreciated when coloring our lighter grades of honey, in ordinary seasons it would be a great help in a season like tliis). We had hopes of a fair amount from the sage in case of late rains, but they did not come. We still had the orange. Though it too was badly damaged, the buds began to appear and to show signs of a good bloom; but they dropped rapidly be- fore they opened, and nearly one-half of them never opened. It now develojDS that those that are blooming do not contain the usual quantity of nectar, and are passing out of bloom rapidly. My scale colony showed a gain of 10 pounds to-day, April 26; but under old- time conditions they should have reached the 15-pound mark. Conditions are not so bad in some localities. Much of the orange toward the coast is in fine shape, due to the trees not being so badly frozen that they lost their foliage. On such trees the bloom is about normal, and should produce the usual quantity of nectar. More rain has fallen in the counties of Los Angeles, Ventu- ra, and Santa Barbara as well as further up the coast than in the inland district, and some sage honey may be secured in those counties. But our chances inland are about as poor as one could imagine. One poor season is not so bad ; but when they come in pairs and even three in succession, it makes us wonder if the bee business is really worth while. But old conditions will return to those who hang on, and then we shall be glad we persevered until a better day dawn- ed. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Conversations with Doolittle At Borodino, New York. IMPROVING THE BEES. " Mr. Doolittle, the ideas you advanced in regard to longevity of bees, and selecting stock along that line, are well Avorth study- ing and putting into practice. But are there not other lines of improvement which should be worked out as well as this one? Be kind enough to tell about some of the other things which go toward making better bees, and how you were led to your present standard of excellence." " Without question, the prime idea of all who keep bees is the profit they will give. ] tliink I should be quite safe in saying that, if they cease to yield a profit to their owner for several years in succession they would cease to have owners. That there is a vast dii¥erence in the profits from the different colonies in the same apiary was something I found out fully forty years ago when I had nothing but the old black bees to work with. One colony, or a majority of the colonies in the same apiary, would often give satisfactory returns at the end of the honey season, while others just as favorably situated, and in equally good condition in the spring, so far as I could see, gave little or no profit. This trouble was laid at the door of the German or black bees when the high praise of the Italians was first being sung in the sixties and early seventies. But a careful trial of the Italians showed that, while they were a more i3rofitable bee than the blacks, yet they were no less subject to this variableness in yield at the end of the season. " A similar difference in stock is also noted by our dairymen. Certain cows in their herd can not be bought at any price, while others are an absolute bill of expense to their owners unless their carcasses can be turned into beef. Hence an effort is con- stantly made to propagate the good qual- ities and eliminate the bad. Now, this is just what every apiarist should do with the bee. And it is something which the major- ity of beekeepers have sadly neglected, al- thougli much more thought and effort have been put forth along this line in the last few years. " We should start with the best race of bees. The Italian I take as the best domes- ticated honeybee yet brought to public no- tice, which I think is the verdict of the world's best apiaries of the present time. They are quite largely proof against the wax-moth and its larva, and very success- fully hold out against the ravages of Euro- pean foul brood. They rarely desert their hives in early spring, no matter how moldy or foul their hives may have become through a disastrous winter. In one case, some 35 years ago, when colonies of black bees were deserting their hives by the score, not an Italian colony did this. I had a colony of these which numbered just 82 bees and the queen, by actual count, on May 15, and yet they held their hive with filthy combs, and protected their stores from robbers, build- ing up so as to give quite a surplus of comb honey from buckwheat, while fairly strong colonies of black bees deserted combs and hives which were comparatively sweet and clean, or suffered their stores to be carried off by robbers. " However, the main point of excellence in the Italian bees lies in the fact that, when- ever a small amount of honey is obtainable, they are up and at it, often making a gain in stores while other races of bees require feeding to keep them alive. And as the profit side of beekeeping must come largely by way of the stores gained, after experi- menting for years with all other races of bees, and proving that, for this locality, none others were equal to the Italians, I have decided that they are the best bees to use in carrying out any improvement. " And now we come to ' the different lines of improvement ' you ask about. In my late article I put longevity at the head, and above prolificness of Queen, wliich was con- sidered during the past to be the highest point to be worked for. Having the lon- gevity i^art established, then efforts toward an extra prolificness of such queens will be in order. Then I Avould prune out every colony showing traces of black or other in- ferior blood. Next I would kill all queens which produce A'icious bees. I consider the keeping of vicious bees only on a par with keeping a vicious cow or horse. Any of them are a danger, and a constant nuisance. " Another class of colonies to be disposed of is that which fails to winter well or to give satisfactory results along the lines we are working, though in appearance and tem- per the bees may be faultless. These should have their queens replaced by others wliich we have reason to believe will be more to our advantage. In a large apiary it is often hard to account for the failure of some colo- nies in coming up to the standard we have set. But with such cases it is always safe to abolish the queen, providing one instead which was bred from the mother of the colo- ny which has given the best results in all points under consideration." MAY 15, 1913 333 General Correspondence SWARMING CONTROLLED BY REVERSING THE ORDER OF THE BROOD-FRAMES AND REMOVING THE QUEEN BY H. D. MURRY When I began running out-apiaries in 1906 I had a plan for controlling swarming that had only one fault — it failed to control. It had been a good plan in another locality, but it failed to work here. I saw that I had to do one of two things — find a plan that would succeed here or quit running out- yards. Just at this time Mr. G. M. Doolittle was telling through Gleanings how he built up an outyard and divided it just at the begin- ning of the surplus crop, and got a crop of honey from both divisions, prevented swarming, and made 100 per cent increase. I was favorably impressed with the plan, but it bore some resemblance to the plan that 1 had been following, and I knew that it woiild not work here, if followed just as Mr. Doolittle practiced it. The same year, Mr. J. L. Staehelhausen, of Cibolo, Texas, told, in the American Bee Journal, what causes swarming. According (o Mr. Staehelhausen it is a congestion of the brood-nest and a surplus of nurse-bees. He explained that, by splitting the brood- nest in the middle, and turning it wrong side out, the congestion could be broken. Every apiarist knows that the bees build their brood-nest in a spherical form. The combs in the middle of the nest contain the most brood, Avhile those in the outer part contain the least. To perform the operation we reverse the order, })lacing those with the least brood in the center, and those with the most brood on the outside of the brood-nest, just as if we Avere to split an apple open and turn the convex sides together. In do- ing this we do not place any combs without brood in them between combs containing brood. The bees go to work at once to re- establish the spherical form of the brood- nest, and in doing so they fill out the center comb and extend the brood into the adja- cent combs outside the brood-nest. By this plan, reversing brood every ten days or so. we can delay swarming till we get the brood-chamber full of brood. Then, unless we do something to prevent, there will begin to be a surplus of nurse-bees — that is, there will be more chyle accumulating in the stomachs of the nurse-bees than the brood can consume. Mr. Staehelhausen maintain- ed that these nurse-bees with their overload- ed stomachs grow restless and bring on what is known as the swarming fever. To prevent this, as soon as the brood-chamber is full of brood, excepting the two outside frames, lie advised that we remove two frames of sealed brood, putting in their place empty combs or full sheets of foun- dation. Well, all that seemed plausible to me, but it was not complete, according to my ideas. So I turned to Dr. Miller's " Forty Years Among the Bees." I found that, in order to prevent swarming, he caged the queen for seven days. The idea occurred to me, " Why not remove the queen and start a nucleus with her and let her be laying dur- ing that seven days? " So from these three plans I evolved the one following, which has been a complete success so far as I am concerned : As soon in the spring as the bees begin to build up I go over them; and where they have brood in four frames or -more, I re- verse the order of the brood-frames, as ex- plained above. I do this every ten days until the brood-chamber is full of brood, ex- cepting the two outside frames, which should be full of honey and pollen. Then I remove the queen with two frames of sealed brood, and start a nucleus with her. Twenty-four hours later I give the parent hive a ripe queen-cell. In ten days or so there is a vigorous young queen laying in the hive, and all inclination to swarm is over for that honey-flow. When I remove the queen I replace the two frames, taken with lier, with empty combs or full sheets of foundation, jjlacing them near the center of the hive with two frames of brood between them. The nu- cleus may be built up later by adding brood taken from other hives that have become full of brood ; but a queen removed early in the season will usually build up strong enough to winter without any assistance ex- cept the addition of empty combs or full sheets of foundation. This plan of remov- ing brood will just as eftectually retard swarming as the famous (?) Jones plan of shaving the heads off the brood. The prin- ciple in both i:)lans is the prevention of a surplus of nurse-bees. Any thing that breaks the continuity of egg-laying in the hive for several days will retard swarming. At each operation, reversing brood or removing the queen, I destroy all queen- cells in the hive. I hardly ever remove the queen and start a nucleus unless the colony gives indication of wanting to swarm by starting queen-cells. Some will want to know where I get the queen-cells to requeen. If I am visiting the GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE yard every ten days, I can remove the queen from a strong colony, such as I want to breed from, and there will be cells there on my return ten days later, or the eleventh day when I want to requeen. However, I prefer to introduce the cell at once, upon the removal of the queen, by placing it in a cell-protector and placing that on one of the combs in the usual way. This saves an extra trij) to this yard. Another way to get the cells is to have a queen-rearing yard, and carry the cells to the yard for all the increase one wishes to make. By following this plan there is no let-up of work in the supers as there is by the shaking plan or any other plan that I ever tried, but work goes i-ight along as if noth- ing had happened. In testing this plan in 1907 I tried it in two yards, with the result that there was no swarming in those yards. 1 made 100 per cent increase, and got more honey per colony than in any other yards. We thus have the matter of increase in our own hands. If we wish no increase, we may kill the queen and requeen as described above, or we may cage the queen as per Dr. Miller's plan. Mathis, Texas. MODIFICATION OF THE BALDRIDGE PLAN FOR CURING FOUL BROOD Running the Bees from the Diseased Colony into a Healthy Colony BY CHAS. M. MUSGROVE The foul-brood situation in this part of Berkshire Co. is discouraging. Since the inspection in 1911, nothing has been done except by individual beekeepers; and in many cases where disease was found in 1911 nothing has been done in the line of treat- ment. The consequence is, we are surround- ed with diseased colonies to such an extent that I, for one, made up my mind that I would go out of the bee business unless some way could be found Avhereby I could control matters in my own yard independently of the surroundings. In the fall of 1911 Dr. Stockwell, of Stockbri^dge, Mass., at our beekeepers' meet- ing read a paper in which he argued from a medical standpoint that it is possible, by constant selection, to develop a race of bees that will be practically immune to the dis- ease. With every method of treating foul brood, so far given to the public, there is constant danger of spreading the disease through opening the hive and shaking out, honey as well as bees. With the Baldridge plan the shaking is eliminated; but even then in opening the hive and catching the queen there is danger that healthy bees will get some of the honey. Perhaps with experts there is no danger ; but we are not all ex- perts. In any case, if we wait according to directions until the beginning of the honey- flow, and then treat by either plan, otir haiTest is over before the bees have time to build up strong enough to take advantage of it. In my experiment I have used the Bald- ridge plan as part of the treatment, and Dr. Miller's plan for requeening comes in also. Early in May, 1912, when I found colo- nies with European foul brood I immediate- ly closed the hives as they were before, and placed by the side of each an empty hive. This, I think, is an important step in the treatment. Instead of doing any thing more with the diseased colonies, which we will ntimber 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, I proceeded to treat a colony which did not have the disease. In 1911 I had one colony located between two diseased colonies which did not contract the disease, and which produced more comb honey than any other which I had. I went to this colony, which we will call No. 6, and commenced feeding for the purpose of forc- ing a swarm. The result was, that on May 18, which is very early for this location, I had a large swarm. This was hived in the usual way. Parent colony No. 6 was re- moved, and the new swarm put in its place. So far there is nothing new. I then went to colony No. 1, removed the empty hive before mentioned, and put No. 1 in its place. Then I put No. 6 (which had just cast a swarm) where the diseased colo- ny had been. The result, of course, was that most of the flying bees from No. 1 went into No. 6. Then in the evening I placed over the entrance of No. 1 a hollow tube extend- ing to about the center of the entrance of No. 6, and ending with a Porter bee-escape, so that, as bees from colony No. 1 came out thej' were forced to enter No. 6. No. 6, being reinforced with the bees from No. 1, became so strong that, as soon as the young queen could fly, they cast a larger swarm than the prime swarm headed by a j'oung queen. This swarm gave me more honey than any other I had. Colony 6 swarmed the second time ; was removed, and the new swarm put in its place without re- moving the bee-escape tube from No. 1. The remaining bees and hatching brood re- inforced this new colon}', and, for a time, two queens were working for the benefit of this colony. Colony No. 6 was then taken to No. 2, and the same process repeated. In this way I treated five diseased colonies from hive No. 6 — getting, in place of five diseased MAY 15, 1913 colonies, five strong ones ready for the har- vest. From four of these I had more sur- phis than from any other four colonies 1 had; and up to the time for final packing for the winter I had no trace of foul brood. After all the bees had left these five hives I waited for a rainy day, removed the liives, and melted the combs.* This was the last of July. I think there was not one pound of houej' in all the hives. It had all been converted into bees. There are many advantages in this meth- od of treatment ; and, so far as my experi- ence goes, no disadvantages. 1. No loss of brood or honey. 2. No chance to spread the disease. 3. Ease of operating (a box hive can be treated as easily as any). 4. Improving the stock, and working to- ward immunity. Automatic requeening. 6. Strong colonies ready for harvest. Of course, more than one healthy colony could be used in this treatment ; but I want- ed to give it as severe a test as possible. It would seem as if bees from diseased colo- nies carry the disease with them when they leave the hive. In other words, if the Bald- ridge plan is not safe, then the hive through which five colonies had passed would show some sign of the disease before fall. It did not. Pittsfield, Mass., Jan. 7. REMOVING THE QUEEN AND TWO COMBS OF BROOD TO PREVENT SWARMING BY A. C. GILBERT Last year spring dwindling did not trou- ble our bees. They had a large amount of brood, but as they were mostly in air- spaced hives (chatf removed) none chilled during several weeks of cold weather. They built up into powerful colonies early, while other beekeepers around told of their bees dwindling. Our bees were protected on the north by buildings, and on the west by a high fence. Had that something to do with it ? As early in the season as the weather permits, all colonies are looked over in order to ascertain the strength and amount of stores. If any are found light in bees, some of the combs are removed, and the division-board moved up in accordance with the size of the colony. All needed stores are supplied, after wliich empty combs and combs of honey are added from time to time. As swarming time comes, a number of the first swarms are hived on empty combs or foundation. If it is very early, and in- crease is desired, the swarm can be hived in a new hive on the old stand and the old colony removed to a new location at once, or seven days later. This is a very common way, but all right at a certain time in the season. The right time in this locality is when the new colony will store well, as in the early part of the clover season. The old colony willl be just right with a new queen laying for the last of the clover and bass- wood. If no increase is desired we sometimes remove, for fourteen days, two combs of brood and some bees with the queen. If no cells Avere started at the time of remov- ing the queen, removing the two combs once is all that will be required before re- turning the queen and brood. If two combs and a queen are set back of the division- board with a small piece of zinc on it the queen and brood can be returned with per- fect safety to tlie queen on the fourteenth day. MAKING STRONG COLONIES THAT SHOW SIGNS OF SWARMING DRAW OUT FOUNDATION FOR BAITS TO BE USED BY WEAKER ) COLONIES. When very populous colonies show signs-- of swarming, shaken swarming can be prac- ticed, which might save some confusion by preventing too many swarms coming out together. I have often read how colonies not very populous store comb honey in the bait sec- tions only, and leave the foundation un- touched. I struck on a way to get founda- tion drawn for such colonies. During a time when the bees are gathering nectar rap- idly, place a super of sections with founda- tion on top of the super or supers already on a very populous colony. In from 24 to 36 hours the foundation will be drawn out beautifully and white — far enough so that a moderate-sized colony will begin to store at once. I think there is a gain of one or more supers from such colonies some sea- sons. During the time the bees are drawing the foundation there seems to be no let-up in storing honey. Honeoye Palls, N. Y, PROTECTING BEES FROM INJURY WHEN SHAKING THEM FROM COMBS BY M. G. DERVISHIAN When shaking bees from combs with a sudden jerk on the entrance-board or on the gi-ound. the bees are injured more or less, and become angry. To avoid this, and in order to save the queen from any injury, I make use of a soft quilt half an inch thick and about two feet square. I spread this before the entrance, and over it a soft nap- 336 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE kin extending very close to the entrance. The reason why I make use of the napkin is that often the light nectar is thrown out ^y the sudden jerk and falls on the napkin. The quilt is then saved from being soiled, ^s it can not be washed as easily as the napkin ; and when the very young bees re- main in heaps on the napkin I tilt it and -shake then toward the entrance. In this way I help them to go into their hive very "easily, so it takes only a few minutes to 'inake all of the bees enter the hive. I shake Uhe bees in the same manner as explained and illustrated on pages 19-21 in " A Year's Work in an Out-apiary," by Mr. G. M. Doo- little. PROTECTING BEES FROM BEING CRUSHED BE- TWEEN THE WALL OF THE HIVE AND THE SIDE-BARS OP FRAMES. The shape of my frames resembles that of the Hoffman, but they are only eight inches deep. For end spacing I make use of a small headless wire nail on the under side of the top-bar in place of the end-spac- ing staple used on the Hoffman frame. To prevent the bees from being crushed or hurt between the side-bars and the wall of the hive I drive a small wire nail at the outside of the lower extremities of the side- bars of the frames. This nail furnishes a bee-space when lifting upward the first one or two frames from the hive. Of course, when one or two frames are removed the others are taken out by moving laterally. In tlus way no bees get hurt or killed, and so my pets do not hate me. ATTRACTING NATURAL SWARMS BY THE SMELL OF ORANGE LEAVES. When I see that the bees are swarming 1 cut from an orange or a lemon tree a small branch with a few leaves. I bruise some of these leaves so as gi'eatly to diffuse the smell. The bees are very fond of this refreshing odor, and they go and cluster on the branch. Sometimes when the bees are not flying high in the air I put the lemon or orange leaves in an open hive in which I intend to keep them; and when I move the hive near, the swarm descends and takes possession. Nicosia, Island of Cyprus. DECIMAL SYSTEM OF HIVE NUMBERING BY THOS. BOLTON In your July and Aug-ust issues of last year, different writers point out the mistake ■of numbering hives, and say that the stand or position is what should be numbered. This is a correct conclusion, and step No. 1 in advance. But they still seem to adhere to some affixing of numbers to the stand; and this has so many drawbacks, and in- vohes so much extra walking about to view the numbers, as well as a " fixing " of some kind to each position, that if we can devise a means to do away with these evils we shall have taken step No. 2 toward an ideal sys- tem and a big step, too, for the ofttimes hurried apiary workfer. There is a simple plan whereby we may accomplish this, and upon which I have worked my home and out apiaries for the past 20 years or more. It begins with the arranging of the apiary in rows of ten stands, preferably at regular intervals, or it may be of ten groups of stands. We then IDlace at the beginning of each row, after the first, a numbered board about 9x7 inches, painted white, with figiares in black, and as large as convenient. These head- numbers, as we call them, are nailed to stakes about 42 or 48 inches high, and it is sufficient, we find, to place one at the head of every alternate row instead of one to each row. The first board will be (as stated) at the head or beginning of the second row, and fourth and sixth rows, and so on. As there are ten stands in the first (and every) row, it will be seen that the first stand in row 2 will be 11 ; in row 3 it will be 21 ; in row 4 it will be 31, and so on, each ten in advance of the preceding row. In actual practice we omit the unit 1, and so the head numbers above read 1, 2, 3, the operator mentally adding the requisite figure as he makes his record or gives his instructions to an assistant, indicating any particular colo- ny. Tliis required figure will be known by a simple glance along the row. Let us sui^pose he is at the sixth stand in any row. A glance, as he straightens himself preparatory to moving on, shows that the head number is 1; consequently the hive is 16; or if the head number were 5, say, or 12, or 20, you simply place 6 beside it, and your hive is known, without any loss of time, as 56, 126, or 206, as the case may be. There is, therefore, no need of numbering every stand — no need to walk about to sight a figure possibly on the end of a hive that is furthest from you; and the veriest novice can be sent with certainty to any luve. Then, again, if one is at, say, stand 75, on either side are stands in neigh- boring rows that perforce are 65 or 85 — no count needed. Compare the plan of alpha- betical letters or other schemes with this decimal system of hive-numbering, and they are as a farm wagon to a motor car. Lambenk, Victoria, Australia. [This is very similar to the plan suggest- ed bv Arthur C. Miller, p. 665, Oct. 15, 1912!— Ed.] MAY 15, 1913 337 Apiary of John "Wallace, Grand .1 unction. ( wiiere the tr iiees were poisoned by spray falling on clover under SPRAY FALLING ON CLOVER KILLED BEES BY WESLEY FOSTER Early last fall I was called to the vicinity of Grand Junction to investigate the cause of so many colonies d^dng during the height of the season. I reached Grand Valley about the first of September. Mr. John Wallace, a fruit-grower and beekeeper, met me at the hotel and took me out to his place, a mile and a half east of Grand Junction. We passed the now abandoned Indian school, surrounding wliich is some of the typical seepage land of the western slope country. Alkali shows in many places, and the orchards have either died out or are dying. Mr. Wallace had lost upward of one hun- dred colonies of bees, so that was the prin- cipal topic of conversation. The only thing that was very apparent was that the trouble was caused by sjiraying. But spraying has been done for years, and little trouble such as befell the bees had been experienced be- fore. A few points regarding the methods of spraying may not be amiss. Most of the fruit-gi'owers are alert and up-to-date, and do not spray during full blooming time, al- though there are some blossoms that get the spray before the petals fall, as all trees do not bloom evenly. But from five to ^ev- en later sprays are applied ; and the spray falling upon the clover, alfalfa, or other blossoms beneath, would doubtless poison the bees. ''Cover" cropping has been prac- ticed more and more each jear — alsike, red clover, alfalfa, and sweet clover being grown. The amount of cover crops in com- parison to the fruit acreage is small, and this has led some to think that the spray could not cause the trouble. Arsenate of lead is the spra_y material that has been used largely; but because of its expense a considerable number of fruit- growers have been trjdng arsenide of zinc. I understand the arsenide of zinc has not given the results secured from using arsen- ate of lead. The trouble from poisoning- bees began about the same time as the use of arsenide of zinc, so that this seemed the cause in some minds. The spray which fell on the clover jDoi- soned some cattle and horses that were pas- tured in the orchards. Some died and others recovered. Mr. Wallace had a cow that sickened and dried up, but she finally recovered. A flock of sheep pastured on the alfalfa in the orchard shown above were not affected by the poi- son on the leaves at all. The sheep are shown back of the row of hives. These colonies were purchased to help make up the losses caused by the spraying. Mr. AYallace told me earW in March this year that he had only about 35 colonies left, so his losses have been considerably above one hundred colonies. 138 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE I'ariial vi The losses were confined to the fruit dis- tricts. As soon as I got two miles away from any orchards no more losses were found among' the apiaries, and good crojrs and jilenty of increase was the rule. Boulder, Col. AN AMERICAN APIARY IN CUBA BY P. MERCONCHINI I take pleasure in sending a partial view of my little beeyard, located about 300 yards from the last house in this city, and near to the Cuba Railroad water-tank. I am now running 50 colonies, as 1 have no time to attend to more. The bees are all Italians, of an American strain. In this vicinity there are about 2500 colo- nies. My assistants are my two boys — Rod- rigo, 11 years old, and Luis Maria, eight. They are good assistants but better honey- eaters. Manzanillo, Cuba. THE LATEST FORM OF THE FERGUSON CAPPING MACHINE UN- A Light Model that Can be Pushed Down Over the Top-bar while the Frame is Still in the Super 1!V L. R. FERGUSON Since tlie appearance of the article, July. 1909, describing my uncapper, T have been devoting most of my si>ai'e time to develop- ing a machine especially adapted to use wit!i the Hoffman frame. As the character ol the end-bars is such that the frames can nol be pushed through tlie machine endwise, as in the former machine, it occurred to mo that there would be a decided advantage in making the machine light enough to be easily liandled and pushed down over the frames as tiiey hang in the super, and then leaving them in the super to drij), thus elim- inating one handling. To obtain the best results, the capping tank should be set low down and provided with slides or rails so arranged that the su- pers as taken from the hives can be put on at one end, and easily slid along toward the extractor at the other end after the combs are uncapped. In this way the liandling or moving of the combs is all done by th? superful instead of singly, thus saving a great deal of time. When the supers are set on the slides the frame next to the op- erator should be removed to give room for the machine to enter the supers. These re- moved frames should be put in another su- per; and, when the right number have ac- cumulated, put on the slides with the others. In the act of uncapping, the operator grasps the handles of the machine and en- ters the points of the end plates, one end at a time, just inside the end-bars of the frame as shown in Fig. 1; then he pushes the ma- chine straight down over the frame, remov- ing I lie cappings from !)otii sides of llie MAY 15, 1913 (-omb. the cappings dropping into tlie tank below. If it is desired to leave the coinb in ilie siq^er the machine is then withdrawn, and the operation repeated on the otliei' combs in their respective turn; but if it is desired 1(1 remove the comb, the operator grasps the handles at the center, which causes a couple of dogs, or catches, to engage the top-bar of I he frame, and the comb is Avithdrawn with I he machine as shown in Fig. 2, and may be deposited in any desired place; but in either case it is not necessary for the operator lo touch with his hands a single frame until they are lifted to put in the extractor. Nearly every one to whom I mention this feature of leaving' the combs in the super after uncapi^ing doubts there being any ad- vantage in it ; but let us see. After the machine is pushed down over the comb it is nearly as cjuick and easy to withdraw^ the comb as to leave it ; but after it is Avitli- drawn it takes fully as much time to swing the comb over to any kind of rack, deposit and release the comb, and bring the ma- chine back to position as it would take to uncap another comb; or, in other words, two combs can be uncapped and left in the super in the time required to uncai) one and deposit it in some other place, or the simple expedient of leaving them in the super will double the capacity of the machine. Considering the g-reat variation in styles of frames, and in the degree of care or carelessness bestowed on the building or se- curing of combs, I believe I am safe in say- ing that there Avill never be built a practical machine which will work equally well with all makes or styles of frames, so it follows that the machine which will Avork well with the class of frames in most general use will be the most practical machine, and that is just what I believe 1 have produced But. as with all other im- provements, it will be necessary for the bee- keeper to meet it part Avay by making such changes in his manage- ment aud equipment as Avill favor the suc- cessful use of the ma- chine, and this means a little extra care to secure reasonably straight combs, and Avide enough spacing to insure as much as a i/S-inch bulge on each p. Mercomhin hiiii's two li' beekeepers ys -wlio wil some dn\. lie extensive side of the top-bar. This Avill insure a gain or saving of two frames in ten, or 20 per cent in frame efjuipment, and anyAvhere from 50 to 75 per cent in the cost of uncap- ping; and this saving surely makes it Avorth while to take some extra pains in securing the right kind of combs. Mr." J. J. Wilder, of Cordele, Ga., Avho has used tAvo of my experimental machines, writes me in part as folloAvs regarding his impressions of the last one : Your 1912 moclel tinoapper came to hand in due time, aud we set it to work at onee, and have done a lot of uncapping with it. I uncapped lots of old tough combs containing tliick sticky honey, and we are pleased with it, with only one exception. AA'e can't get close enough to the top-bar with it. It leaves from two to five rows of cells near the topl'ar on straight smooth combs built out just even with the top-bar : but it runs over them nicely when they are bulged a little. * * * This is the only suggestion I have to offer, for it certainly uncaps the honey in shallow and deep frames except a few rows of cells at the top, and this is so easily overcome that a sugicestion is not and his extracting force rtady foi Avorli. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Fig. 1. — Latest form of tlie Ferguson nncappine machine. Entering the points of the knives at one end of the frame. necessary. * * * \Ve must have one of our own next season. It works well and fast, and leaves the combs in ideal shape. * * * i d;^ ^ot sharpen the knives while here. I thought several times I would; but upon examination I found them as keen as they were when they arrived. * * * We pxit up in all, while your machine was here, 24,000 lbs., and the uncapper was run over every comb that it would uncap, even a portion of the combs, so you can tell about the amount of service it garve us. The above amount refers to "bulk comb," so the amount uncapped would be the amount necessary to put up that quantity of "bulk comb.'' Another beekeeper who had the machine wrote me in part as follows, and his criti- cisms are those most frequently raised : There are many thin combs with irregular sur- faces that the machine will not get at. Another thing, one could not use the machine on combs con- taining any sealed brood. If I understand the above, it means ex- tracting combs thinner than those of sealed brood ; and I am free to admit that satisfac- tory results could not be obtained under such conditions. The facts of the case are that neither of these men had made any special effort to secure thick combs for use with the machine; and Mr. Wilder espe- cially, I understand, uses eight frames in an eight-frame super, securing a slight in- crease in thickness by leaving out the divi- sion-board, so it is easily seen that the re- sults are not such as would be obtained where the proper preparation had been made. The one element of uncertainty is wheth- er or not beekeepers can and will produce combs that bulge Vs inch or more beyond fhe top-bar for about two inches down. The form of the knives will not admit of their cutting in abruptly under the top-bar; but they must pass straight down for about II/2 or 2 inches, or until their heels have passed the top-bar, and then they are automati- cally forced in toward each other until they are just far enough apart to pass the bot- tom-bar so they will take care of any ordi- nary irregularities in the central and lower parts of the combs where they are most apt to occur. This style of knife has now been used long enough to prove beyond doubt that it is successful and practical. I will admit that bulged comb can not be secured without some special care ; but I do know that I can produce such combs, and uncap them easily, at the rate of ten frames per minute ; and a sj^eed of twelve to fifteen frames per minute would not be hard to attain, I am sure, after one becomes some- what expert in handling the machine. I find that eight frames in a ten-frame super are about right for good results; and after the combs have once been built out and uncapped, each later filling and cap- ping is bound to build them out enough to insure a good clean job of uncapping. Harvey, 111. BEEKEEPING IN THE SEMI-ARID REGIONS OF OKLAHOMA, KANSAS, AND NEBRASKA How Sweet Clover is Being Developed BY E. R. ROOT Business and other reasons called me into Oklahoma and Kansas along the latter part of January; and in our Feb. 15th issue I promised to write up the beekeeping condi- tions in those States, saying I thought there were exceptional opportunities for the de- velopment of new bee territory alongside of those immense acreages of alfalfa in the valleys. In accordance with the promise then made, I present a few obseiwations, with particular reference to Oklahoma, where I spent most of my time, in the vicin- ity of Stillwater. Here resides Mr. F. W. Van de Mark, Secretary of the Oklahoma Beekeei^ers' Association, and Prof. San- MAY 15, 1913 341 Fig. 2. — Withdrawing the uncapped frame from the super. born. Entomologist at the Oklahoma Agi'i- cultural College. I do not know of any State in the Union that offers greater promises in an industrial way than Oklahoma. Its cities and towns are growing by leajDS and bounds. Im- mense beds of asphalt and coal have been discovered there. Gas and oil wells are be- ing put down in many places throughout the State. Agriculture is developing at a rapid rate, and beekeeping is one of the industries that has a future. The trains are loaded with home-seekers and butchers and bakers and candlestick-makers, suckers and fakirs rushing to the land of gold and sunshine. I said "suckers." I do not knoAV any other term that adequately expresses the large class of people who buy land out in that western countiy, some of which is worthless, and buy with their eyes shut. Let me say as I have said concerning Florida and every other new State that is being rapidly developed. There are fa- kirs and suckers by the hundreds; but having said this, there are some excellent opportunities for men of brain and caution to invest in land that will bring some splen- did returns. But there are other lands that will take a lifetime before they will bring the price that has been paid for them. Not until the population of Oklahoma becomes congested and elbows touch will this land not so good be developed. In this connec- tion let me say that there is a great deal of ditference in the productiveness of land in Oklahoma and Kansas. Some of it will yield immense crops, and some of it poor crops. Pictures showing some fabulous yields, accompanied with photos or half- tone engravings, are sent out broadcast over the country. They catch the eye of the get- rich-quick fellows, who, of course, swallow the bait, hook, bob, and sinker. They leave a good job in the East, sell out, and move their families. There are hundreds of such families Avho have been robbed of their hard-earned money. It makes one's heart bleed to see them stranded on poor or worthless land, and no money to go else- where. The land shark got it all. And while Gleanings is willing to show that there are splendid opportunities in some of this west- ern country, it also enjoins caution. Do not take the statement of the man who has the land for sale. Spend a little time in the country, and gather all the information you can. There are thousands of honest men who will tell you the truth if you will take pains to look for it. This is not only true of Florida and Oklalioma, but other States in the Union. Now, then, how about beekeeping in Ok- lahoma, and I might also class with it Kan- sas, for the climate and soil of the two States are much the same? Alfalfa is Deing grown in both States as it never was be- fore. The Kansas farmer once supposed that the only thing he could raise was corn ; GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE One of .T. .1. Wilder's apiaries, made up of Caucasian and also Italian colo nies, run for the purpose of proving which are superior. but he is now discovering that alfalfa will grow along the creeks and rivers — that is to say, in the valleys where it will yield im- mense crops, of sometimes three or four cuttings in a season. What is more, this semi-arid country does not have to depend on irrigation, which sometimes fails further west. Its own creeks and rivers water the valleys on both sides, and the dwellers in these valleys are becoming prosperous, and largely on account of alfalfa which enables them to produce meat. Witli the present J. J. Wilder, the late Mr. Herlong, and Mr. English upward bound in pric- es of beef, alfalfa is being grown as it nev- er was before. On cai'eful inquiry I found there are com- paratively few bee- keepers in Oklahoma and Kansas in these valleys. . While alfalfa does not yield nectar in Kansas and Okla- lioma as it does in the irrigated regions fur- ther Avest, yet one can get fair returns in honey because t h e country is not yet overstocked. Right here let me say that here is a chance for the bee- keeper to " go west." I advise him to secure a home-seeker's ticket Avith the privilege of stopping off, taking in the territory of both Oklahoma and Kansas. Let him stop a few days at a number of hotels. Let him inquire carefully Avhere alfalfa is grown. Go over the Avhole territory, and then after returning home let him fix on some location, and make a start in bees where no one else is located. Another promising thing in both States is that farmers are beginning to find that sweet clover will groAV on the uplands, and furnisli a fine hay and pasturage for sheey), hogs, and cattle. In fact, sweet clover will grow on these uplands wliere i( was supposed that nothing but prai- rie grass Avould thrive. But SAveet-clover pas- ture I am told Avill support a much larger number of hogs and shee]i than even alfal- fa, because it can be cropped doAvn closer Avithout killing. There is bound to be im- mense development in this legume, in these semi-arid regions, in the next ten or fifteen years ; and the early l^ird if he looks before he leaps Avill be the one that gets the worm. Tn Oklahoma we find that cotton can be MAY 15, 1913 313 ,^^.i^^^' Tj. K. Thopii's ayiinry in aiiple-hlossom time. jifowii ill a laiye porliuu of tlie State; anl cotton is an important honey-plant. It works in very nicely with alfalfa ; and Avhile the honey is not the best, it is very much better in color and flavor than has been commonly supposed. Professor Sanborn, before mentioned, has discovered that cot- ton yields not only honey but honey-dew. But I will not say more about this, because he has made some discoveries that he will make public later on. Permit me to say that Professor Sanborn, Entomologist of the State, is one of the most progressive men in his profession. He is a beekeeper by birth ancl training, and an entomologist. He is doing every thing he can to foster the general bee business Avithin the State. He has a small State apiary for demonstration purposes, and apiculture is one of the courses taught at the institution. THE INDIAN QUESTION. Once or twice at the hotels I ventured to talk about the Indian question in Oklahoma. Finally one man across the table, observing that I was a tenderfoot, said to me, "Young man " (I am nearly 51), " the less you say about the Indian cpestion, the better for you." Then dropping his voice down to a whisper that I could just catcli, added, " It is a redhot question, stranger — much hotter than the negro question in the South. Be- lieve me, no matter which side you take, you will get into hot water." I put out several " feelers," and found that he was right. I may say, liowever, at this distance, that the Indians own valuable lands in the western part of Oklahoma — lands that have immense deposits of asphalt and coal. Some of the Indians are im- mensely wealthy. They have no conception of the value of a dollar. The white man is Heecing them right and left with all kinds of devices. Uncle Sam's agents are trying to protect them, and it Avas hinted that some of them might be open to bribes. Certain it is, the Indians are losing their lands, and the Avhite men are getting possession. From the standpoint of industrial development this is, no doubt, a good thing; but from the standpoint of equity and right it is wrong — that is, providing the Avhite man cheats his copper-skinned brother out of his just rights. Why is the Indian question a '' hot one? " Because it is mixed up in politics, both State and national. Honest men have dif- ferent opinions, and some men not so hon- est are biased by selfish schemes. There Avill doubtless be considerable in- quiry concerning Oklahoma and Kansas, and so I take pleasure in referring to tAvo men Avho are not interested in the sale of land Avho may be able to give some infor- mation ; but perhaps they Avill not thank me for giving them this kind of publicity. HoAveA'er, I Avill take the risk: F. W. Van de Mai'k, of Stilhvater, Oklahoma, and Carl F. Buck, of Augusta, Kansas. Sliortly after the Feb. 15th issue of ((LEANINGS was out, I received a cou])le of Scholl's handy apiary wagon. M.VY 15, 1913 letters from subscribers in Kansas, who, fearing I would make too rosy a description of the semi-arid West, wrote, suggesting caution; but I am happy to state that the article above was written before the letters came, and so I think no one will accuse me of booming new territory if he reads all I have written, especially what I have said above. There are good and bad lands, and there are sharks and honest men. The wise man will use his own judgment as he thinks best. Here are the letters : In Gleanings for Feb. 15, page 106, you refer to alfalfa yielding honey in Kansas. This is true of a good many localities in the State, but not all. In the country immediately surrounding Topeka it is only occasionally that bees will work on alfalfa bloom. At our State beekeepers' convention this year the honey reports ran anywhere from ten to one hundred pounds per colony. Most of the heavy yields came from localities where alfalfa is grown for seed. It seems to be a fact that, where seed- growing is profitable, conditions are such that the plant secretes considerable nectar. A man who has a favorable alfalfa location in one of our western river bottoms said that, in his locality, alfalfa could be depended upon to yield nearly all season if it was on land where water could be reached at a depth of ten feet or less, while alfalfa on higher ground could be depended upon to yield only after a refreshing rain. Alfalfa is particularly susceptible to atmospheric conditions; and any one not familiar with the pe- culiarities of this plant would be apt to go astray. North Topeka, Kan., Feb. 24. A. V. Small. The following is a private note to the editor, not for publication, but as it states the " other side "' I give it here without the name and address. I believe it wise to go very slow about advertising Kansas as being great for bees. There is no class so easily stampeded as beekeepers, on account of being able to move what they have. The sight of alfalfa does not imply bee locations by any means. I have alfalfa on my farm. My neighbor has fields 18 years old; but I never saw a bee on it, nor have I even seen a pound of alfalfa honey produced in the eastern part of Kansas, and I have lived here 35 years. Where alfalfa is grown for hay it is not much of a success for bees. Where irrigated, which is very little in Kansas, and where grown for seed, there is not much of any flora to build up with ; and then in these last-mentioned districts, the winds! Sunflowers and cottonwood along the streams, and wheat and corn districts are nothing to start a stampede on. Kansas is a great State agricultur- ally, but a mighty poor place for people of moderate means to make a start, as our farms are large and the land valuable. I am of the opinion that a matter of location is one to approach with care. I am of the opinion, also, that any thing of extensive transi- tory or non-resident beekeeping would be a flat fail- ure in Kansas or Oklahoma ; besides, such beekeep- ing would be conducive to disease. Subscriber. I know of places in your State where alfalfa does yield honey. — E. R. Root. WINTER CASES MADE OF OLD BOXES BY L. E. THOEX I am sending a photograph showing part of my apiary on the 28th of April, 1910. Most of the hives, as shown, still had the winter cases on. Those cases were not very sightly, as they were made of all kinds of lumber. There was a space of two or three inches between the hive and the case on all sides except the front, and also a few inches on top, to be filled with packing, a tight cover completing the case. The bees win- tei*ed as well with these boxes around the hives as they do in the more expensive out- side cases that I am using at present, which are built of inch lumber, with a telescope gable top of the same material, the latter covered with galvanized iron acting as a roof. Spearfish, S. D. MORE ABOUT CAUCASIAN BEES BY J. J. WILDER Owing to the great variation in conditions which season and location bring about in the beekeeping industry it is possible to advocate too strongly some particular fea- ture, such as stock, methods, or conve- niences. It may be that I have advocated Caucasian bees too strongly; yet, on the other hand, possibly not enough has been said about them in our bee publications. Many have tried them, and very few have condemned them. In the majority of cases where they have been thoroughly tested they have been found superior to any other race of bees. In some instances they have even revolutionized beekeeping, so they must have a high commercial value, and must be here to stay. Each season for a number of years, ex- cept this spring, I have been rearing and selling queens of this race of bees. This season I could have sold more than 1000 queens, and most of these to the same old customers; but since I have decided to go into very extensive beekeeping I will not offer any more queens for sale, but will use all I can possibly raise in mj" own apiaries. Since they have met with the approval of so many, are fast coming to their own, and have so completely changed beekeeping for the better in my own experience, I can not withhold my pen. I have tested these bees very extensivelj^, and from time to time I have made knoAvn what I have found about them, good or bad. I want to emphasize again two of their superior qualities — %dz., that for honey- gathering and of rearing large quantities of bees throughout the season. 1 will do this through the testimony of another beekeeper whose experience exactly coincides with mine. Mr. J. J. Wilder .- — How are your Caucasian bees holding up? Are they still leading the Italians in real business ? Mine have, and in this location of no honey they average me 50 lbs. surplus while my neighbor's eight colonies of Italians stored no sur- plus at all, and, besides, dwindled to only four colo- nies. Another beekeeper near by had 108 colonies of Italians, and they decreased to 47, and he had to resort to feeding nearly all summer. It is plain that the Caucasians gathered honey from some source while these two lots of Italians were perishing. Then, too, they kept their brood-nest chock full of brood all through the season, and I doubled the number of colonies and got an extra set of combs built in the supers. It would have done you good to see the great stream of bees going and coming from each hive while the honey-flow lasted. I imported some queens this season direct from the Caucasus, and the workers are uniform in color, and not a trace of yellow about them, nor are they dark in color, but a dull gray, and are as striped as zebras. They are hustlers too. I am going to make a specialty of Caucasians, for I believe that they are the comiiig race of bees. My friends in the North say that they winter well and do not dwindle in the spring as do the Italians or their crosses; and, be- sides, they are gentler, and will stand more abuse and neglect. I have always found them good, even under the most adverse conditions. Chaelbs W. Quinn. Houston Heights, Texas, Nov. 11. One of the illustrations is a snapshot of our tirst Caucasian yard along with some other races and strains of bees which we had under test side by side. The result of the test Avas that the Caucasians had more to their credit for our purpose. The other view shows the corner of the same apiary and three beekeepers who had just finished examining all of the colonies in the yard for the purpose of ascertaining Avhieh strain of bees was giving the best re- sults. The Caucasians scored the highest number of merits. The man standing on the right is Mr. English; and the man in the middle is the late Mr. Herlong, both extensive beekeepers of Florida who "also adopted the Caucasian bees and found them superior. The writer is standing at the left. Cordele, Ga. A MOST HANDY APIARY WAGON BY LOUIS SCHOLL After having used a handy wagon that is well suited for almost all purposes in an apiary, it is hard to understand how a bee- keeper can really get along with any other kind of wagon with which to do his haul- ing. Planning to haul bees or hives, su- pers, or cans, on a farm wagon or with only a small spring wagon, caused many a hes- GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE itation before the hauling was finally done. With our big handy wagon, all there is to do is to liitch up to it and then load and do the hauling, no matter where and when. The group of pictures shows a full plat- form spring wagon with a capacity of from 2000 to 3000 pounds at a load. The bed is entirely flat, like that of a large float, 14 feet long and 48 inches wide. It is provid- ed with removable stakes which can be put on in a few minutes. The wagon runs so easily that there is hardly any jan-ing of the load, and it is not necessary to do any tying to keep the load from falling off. This makes the wagon especially well adapted for hauling bees, and also for hauling large loads of supers with the foundation already in the frames. The bed is long enough to ac- commodate two rows of ten-frame hives, making 20 in a tier. A double-deck load of forty colonies can be hauled with ease with a team of two animals, and the entire load hauled on a trot on good roads. This en- ables one to make quick moves of an entire apiary in short order and without the usual disagreeable troubles about packing and jogging with unsuited wagons. All that is necessary in the case of moving bees is to set the hives on, placing them back to back, with the entrances out, preferably, so that these can be watched and be easily accessi- ble in case of leaks. It is very easy to un- load from such a wagon also. For hauling our bulk comb honey from the yards, this wagon has proven very valu- able. In the pictures the wagon is shown right beside the apiary fence in two places, with the wagon-bed entirely empty in one case and a wagon-cover on another. The supers are loaded right over the fence on to the wagon from the apiary as soon as these are taken off the hives and freed of bees. By loading them three tiers high, 60 supers are loaded on, making a load of about 2400 pounds. The whole is covered over with the wagon cover or sheet as soon as the honey is loaded on, and tied at each end as shown in the two lower pictures. In the two upper pictures the unloading is shown right from the wagon into the honey-house. In one the large screen-door is wide open; but in the other only a small opening is left (because of robbers), through which the honey is passed to a man inside. In another picture the wagon is shown with the stakes in place for hauling covers and bottoms and other bulky things without having to tie any thing with long ropes. By going from one yard to another, any thing that is needed at any particular one can be taken out as needed, without useless untying of ropes, etc. It will be noticed in all the above pictures MAY 15, 1913 347 that the horses are not attached to the wag- on, except in one instance. In this one the driver has just arrived at an apiarj' and is unhitching to take the team aside to a safe hitching-place. Always do this, since there is no telling when the bees might sting the team and cause considerable trouble and disaster. Especially should this be Avatched in time when bees are robbing badly. To get the load away from the apiary when bees are robbing, and it is not safe to liitch direct to the wagon, a long stout rope is used to which the horses are hitched. This has a large hook at the other end, which is hooked to the end of the wagon- tongue, and the load is pulled to a safe dis- tance from the apiary, where the team is then hitched to the wagon. New Braunfels, Texas. SHIPPING FRAGILE ARTICLES Some Advice from One who has had Experience BY JAY W, GEE Inasmuch as the writer's first knowledge of Gleanings, and a subsequent interest in the bee industry, was a direct result of a broken case of bee supplies it may not be amiss to repay the debt to the fraternity by giving my experience in the transportation business, covering about ten years. Some years ago I was agent for a railway at a ]>oint where a heavy transfer business was done, from five to twenty cars being handled daily. There was a white foreman who checked the freight, and had the general supervision of the platform; but all the trucking and actual handling of the ship- ments was done b,v a gang of negroes, all of whom were illiterate. It was not possi- ble for me to be on the platform every day; but I would make an inspection as often as possible. One day while looking over the situation I found quite a pile of curiously sawed little sticks lying by themselves around a post, with no case near, no mark on any of them, and no possible way to con- nect the sticks or make any thing out of them. I called one of the boys, " Tom, what's this you have here? " " Fo' God, Cap, I dunno. Yistiddy when us wuz unloadin' the St. Looie cah, Pete, he dun drap a box frum the flatfom an hit bust wide open, an all them sticks come out. Us wuz goin' to put 'em back, but the bos? lowed 'twont no use, fur some feller had jess put em in dat air box fur trash to get rid of, an Pete say dey sho Avould make good kindlin', an' dun bunn bout haff ob 'em dis mawnin'." There was a little magazine lying near which I put in my pocket for future refer- ence; for I am like the ancient Athenians in one respect at least — always .on the alert to learn some new thing. The little sticks found their way to the stove; and a few months later, after I had perused the little magazine — Gleanings — and some other bee literature, the mystery of the little sticks was solved. The railway company had un- intentionally used a nice lot of frames and other fixtures for stove kindling, and in due course paid the claim, I suppose. The ship- ment went beyond me for final delivery, so I can not say as to that. If there is a moral to this particular incident, I suppose it is that the various railways of the country should have all their employees take a course in bee culture, and so reduce the amount of their annual claim budget by avoiding a recurrence of such mistakes in the future. Now, you old-time beekeepers need not be amazed at such gross ignorance outside of your ranks. The biggest part of the losses that the railroads and the public sus- tain is caused by the ignorance of one party of the methods and working tools and jDarts of the other. This is not any disparage- ment to anjr one, either, for in one short life it is impossible to master all the details of every calling, trade, or j^rofessior The i^urpose of this article is not to urge the use of any system in behalf of such system by reason of any interest of mine in it ; but it is purely a matter of informa- ,tion that may be of help to some of the many readers of Gleanings. Before I began working for the railroad I spent two years in a postotfice of the third class on the main line of one of the trans- continental railroads in Oklahoma. The biggest part of our mail was put off from the through trains. There was a grade just beyond our little town; and in order that the heavy trains might cross it without stall- ing they had to go at full speed by the station. When the sacks were kicked from the mail-car they would sometimes fly thirty or more feet away, and it was not safe to be in their path. It was a sickening sight, sometimes, to go through these sacks and to see the condition the contents were in. I remember one Christmas morning in partic- ular, when the sacks were dumped on our work-table, there was not a single package intact, the whole being an indiscriminate mass of doll limbs, scalps, dresses, tin sol- diers, wrecked cars, and the like. Whether the practice yet obtains, I am unable to say. Of late I have received several fragile pack- ages by mail from long distances without damage ; but the outer packing had not been GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE crushed. I have noticed several reports in the papers since the parcel post has been in operation, wliere eggs have been sent through the post and have been broken. The cause is not hard to find. The post- office officials have not yet made sufficient arrangements for the handling of this busi- ness ; and until the Department is fully pre- pared to take care of all kinds of business it would be better for the public to use a safer method than the open mail for fragile matter. To label a package " With Care," or " This Side Up," is absolutely useless, as few ever see it, and fewer pay any atten- tion to it when they do see it. A swift glance at the address, and flop it goes into the sack it belongs in, whether a foot away or ten. Registered matter receives better treatment, being handled personally from one clerk to another. In a few years, when the express business is owned by the gov- ernment or supplanted by parcel post, all parcels will be handled with the care that they deserve, and that they now get from the private express companies. Handling fragile matter by freight, whether by carload or less, is still more un- satisfactory. Of late years the railroads have been burning their candle at both ends — through no intent of their own, be it said, but because it has been forced upon them by federal and State laws. Rates have been reduced, and no prospect of any advance, while every item of railway operation has steadily advanced in cost, especially mate- rial and labor; consequently every manager, every superintendent, and every boss of every kind, to hold his job has to exert eternal caution to keep expenses down. The usual devices are to cut labor, hours, ma- terials, and improvements. Where si^ecial knowledge is not required, the very cheap- est labor is used. In the South that means negroes; in the Southwest, Mexicans; in the East, Italians or other foreigners. Now. what is the result when your case of honey is marked "Glass"? The inscription is never read; and if it should by accident be read it receives absolutely no attention. A ear holds just so much. In time of a car- famine every available piece of freight is put in, and seldom with regard to any con- sideration except to fill space. Of late some of the systems have been making an effort to remedy the careless loading of freight in an effort to cut down the enormous amounts being paid for claims, but the progress is slow. But suppose that tlie case is properly loaded, or that there is a carload shipment. Dynamite used to be handled indiscrimi- nately with other freight, and the loss of life was so great that the federal government had to step in and regulate it, with the re- sult that last year there was not a single death from this cause in the whole United States, so a federal insjDector recently told me. Every case of dynamite or other ex- plosive now has a big red label on it. It is braced in the car so that it can not move, even if the car is wrecked and turns over. Nothing that can easily catch fire or explode is allowed in the same car. Furthermore, the car is inspected, large tags are put on every side, and the car placed in the safest part of the train. Now, if all this can be done for dynamite, why can not something similar be done for honey? It is worth taking up in the next national convention. Supi^ose that a cer- tain color, whether painted on or pasted it makes little difference, be used on the tops of all honey-packages, a regular system of bracing be agreed upon, and, in the case of carloads, placards be put on the outside of the car to let switching crews know the fragile nature of the lading. Too much should not be asked of the roads, as a raise in rates would follow ; and whatever is agreed upon should be with the understand- ing that the shipper be required to furnish every thing, and perform all the extra labor incident thereto. I add this because it will be useless to ask any railway management at this time for any thing that will add any expense to their burdens, which are already too heavy. To he continued. Drones from Drone-layers ; Are They any Good ? I have some fine Golden queens that I raised from a breeding queen last fall, and they did not mate. Now they are laying drone eggs. Will those drones reared in drone comb Ije all right to breed queens to ? Kendallville, Ind., March 31. O. P. Eldridge. [Drones from drone-laying queens are not gener- ally regarded as the equal of drones reared from ordinary normal queens. A good many doubt whether they have any potency at all; but it is generally be- lieved that they are better than no drones. If a vir- gin queen were fertilized by one of these drones the probabilities are tliat the result of that mating would not last as long as though she had been mated with a drone from a normal queen. Drones from queens that have formerly laid work- er eggs, and yet later lay only drone eggs, are good. We have used them extensively, and have reason to believe they are all right. However, we are frank to say to you that no scientific experiments have thus far been conducted to prove whether drones from drone-laying queens are the equal of those from the ordinary average queen. Possibly the Bureau of Entomology, Wash- ington, D. C, may find its way clear to give this matter investigation. Microscopic examination of the seminal .sacs of the drones from drone-laying queens and drones from the ordinary normal queen would doubtles.? show whether the former had as many spermatozoa as would be found in the other drone. Ed.I lAY 15, 1913 349 Heads of Grain from Different Fields Extracting Close and Feeding; the Price of Bee- yard Labor With our plan of producing extracted honey, the bees and brood are kept together thi-oughout the sea- son. At the last manipulation the queen with a small patch of brood is put into the lower story with an excluder over it ; and all the surplus chambers, filled with the brood and empty combs, are put on over the excluder. With this plan the brood-chamber never becomes clogged vrtih honey ; and the question is, What is the best method to employ in getting winter stores to a colony ? Whenever we believe the last honey gathered from basswood to be ripe, we begin the work of extracting. When the supers are taken off, the brood-chambers have all the way from a very little to about twenty pounds of honey in them. In this locality the flows following the bass- wood run barely supply the daily consumption of a colony. Our object in writing is to learn if our method of carrying a colony over into the next season, to a time when the bees can gather what they consume every day, is as practical and efficient as any that could be employed, so far as feeding is concerned. By exchanging combs with the bees we aim to sup- ply our lightest colonies with at least ten pounds of honey at the time of extracting, and two full combs of honey are set aside for next spring's feeding. Early in September we begin the work of feeding up for winter, with a feed made up of the following proportions : boiling water, 1 part ; cane sugar, 2 parts ; 1-3 as much honey as water. We are well equipped with large feeders that hold more than any colony will ever need for winter stores. The wagon, used for transporting the feeding outfit, is arranged to carry 100 feeders, the necessary sugar, honey, and a water-heater of 160-gallon capacity. The ca- pacity of the heater allows the heating of sufficient water to make feed enough for an apiary, and still leave room for a rack which can be set at varying heights from the bottom of the boiler, and on which the five-gallon cans containing the honey for feeding can be set and heated. By means of a large gate, boiling wat«r is drawn from the heater into a large mixing-tank, and the honey and sugar added. The feed from the mixing-tank is also drawn, by means of a large gate, into large graduated pails having large snouts to facilitate pouring the feed. The water is put on to heat, and is ready for use by the time the feeders are on the hives ; and, with two men working with a vim, a large number of colonies can be fed up in short time. Colonies run for extracted honey are always in more or less need of winter stores ; and to supply this want by giving them combs of honey in the fall seems impractical to us, therefore we adopted the plan outlined above. Then, too, we can buy sugar of excellent quality for feeding purposes at $1.50 below retail prices. We use powdered cane sugar that is swept up on the floors of the sugar-mills. This sugar is free from dirt, but contains about one per cent of starch. We are great believers in an abundance of stores ; and your candid opinion, on our method of supplying winter and spring stores, will be cheerfully received. We could have given you a great deal of detail, but did not think it necessary. This will be the first season when we shall have to employ outside help ; and as we are not posted on the wages beekeepers have to pay, we should like to ask you in regard to this also. What wages could an intelligent, trust- worthy man who works steadily with the speed of an average person, and who can do very satisfactory work of all kinds in the workshop, and carry out any kind of orders in the beeyard, but who has not had sufficient training to take the initiative, be paid per month, including good home, board, and wash- ing, in a locality where farm hands receive 130.00 and dairymen from $35.00 to $40.00 per month? Again, how much more per month can a beekeeper demand than a farm hand, other things being equal? E. L. HOFMANN. .Janesville, Minn., March 25, 1913. [The plan outlined seems to be correct so far as we can see. There are only two ways by which you can supply a colony with stores after extracting. One is to equalize stores by changing combs, and the other is to feed. But in your particular case it would be more practicable to extract close and then feed. Your method of feeding seems to be all right ; but did you ever try the plan of making up the feed at home, and pouring it into 60-lb. square cans ? A wagon is necessary to carry your melting-apparatus, sugar, and honey. You can carry all the syrup you need in square cans unless the yard is very large. By so doing you will need to carry only one- third more of the actual bulk in water. It sometimes transpires that it is inconvenient to get water at an outyard. If there is a dearth of honey it is im- practicable to make the feed at the outyard, any way. However, we employ both methods, making the syrup at the yard ; but more often we find it con- venient to carry the syrup, and then it can be given to the colonies while hot. The question of beeyard labor depends somewhat in outside labor, as you suggest. A competent man in the yard, one capable of going ahead alone, who knows how to put colonies in condition for a har- vest as well as extracting and taking off comb honey, will command about double the price of ordinary labor. In some cases you may have to pay three times as much. A thoroughly competent man who can manage a series of yards so as to make money for his employer is hard to find, for the reason that, if he can earn money for the other fellow, he will prefer to be his own boss, and make the profit for himself. — Ed.] Uniting by the Alexander Plan Not Always a Suc- cess ; Mating Queens from an Upper Story Generally a Failure Is the Alexander plan of placing weak colonies over strong ones in the spring for the purpose of building up, a recognized success? Is anybody get- ting virgin queens mated in the second story over a queen-excluder ? With me, both schemes are failures. Last summer I got lots of queens hatched in the upper story (over queen-excluders), but not one fertilized. In less than a week they disappeared. This spring I put weak colonies over strong ones — i. e., Alexander's plan. Four days later I found queens of weak colonies all right, with a big force of bees. Two weeks later I found no eggs, no un- sealed brood, no queen, except in one instance, where the queen of a weak colony was doing fine work ; but the queen below the excluder had been killed. Dixon, Cal., March 17. J. T. Bowen. [The Alexander plan of uniting is not a success in the hands of every one. Some have succeeded very nicely with it, while others have met with fail- ure. In some instances, at least, this failure is due to the fact that the directions given by Mr. Alexan- der have not been strictly followed. For example, he specifies that the two lots of bees — the weak and the strong colonies — should be put together, one on top of the other, very gently, so as not to disturb them. If too much smoke is used, or if the bees are disturbed, the queen in the upper hive \vill be de- stroyed. It is also very important to have a little brood in the upper story. If the nucleus is so weak 350 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE that it has only a few bees and the queen wi^h no brood, the plan can not be made to work unless another frame of brood and bees is added to it. For full particulars on this plan of uniting see " Unit- ing," in our ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture. The plan of having virgin queens mated from the upper story of a strong colony generally results in failure. It sometimes works, however, during a light honey-flow. Even Mr. Doolittle himself does not advocate it now except under certain conditions. In any case the average beginner will succeed very much better by having his virgins placed in sepa- rate hives by themselves. — Ed.] How to Know Honey-dew Some are inquiring how to know honey-dew. If honey-dew is heated, there will be a scum about two inches thick. Skim this off and continue heating, and it 'will keep on throwing up froth indefinitely. If boiled, I fancy it will all go to froth. If bees can have a flight once a month they will winter on honey-dew. When one-third of my bees died with it in the cellar, a few years ago, I un- capped the combs in the spring and gave them to the bees, and they built up finely on the "bug-juice." It is dangei'ous only when bees can not have a flight. If any beekeepers find that their hives contain hon- ey-dew, and they are in the cellar I would advise them to carry the bees out the first day they can fly, and again in not more than one month's time. Islington, Ont. J. D. Evans. [We might suggest that there is some honey that will throw up froth after boiling, as well as honey- dew. We do not, therefore, believe that the rule suggested by our correspondent is infallible. The best test is the one of taste and color. While there are some honey-dews of fair quality, the most of them are very inferior, not to say nauseating, hav- ing a dark color, or purplish black. Nearly all hon- ey-dew honeys have a sort of flavor that is common to all, although there is a honey-dew from Hawaii that does not taste like the American article; it re- minds one more of New Orleans molasses. Chemi- cally, however, it has the same qualities as the American product. It may be true that bees can be wintered on hon- ey-dew if they can have a flight once a month ; but sometimes a winter -nnll come when they can not have a flight for three months. For that reason we strongly ^dvise extracting all honey-dew and feeding sugar syrup in the fall, for all localities north, we will say, of the Ohio River. — Ed.] Best Time of Season to Requeen I notice reports from different sections, of bees using up stores in early breeding. Not so, however. in this locality. We look for a bumper crop of honey this year. The prospects are the brighest for it that I have ever seen. There is more white clover than there has been for a decade. I have a few two-year-old queens that I should like to replace with young ones. What would be the best time to do this — at the beginning of the harvest or near the end of it? Mr. DeMuth, in his article on comb honey, rec- ommends the dequeening of colonies that are pre- paring to swarm, and letting them rear a queen or giving them a laying queen in ten days or two weeks. Will the bees work with as much vigor dur- ing this period of queenlessness as they would other- wise ? Weston, W. Va., March 3. Addison Gould. f Mr. DeMuth is about right in his suggestion concerning requeening. The best time to raise queens is during the swarming season, when large swarm- ing-cells can be secured from colonies that are doing good work in the supers; for we would not use even swarming-cells unless from a colony of good work- ers. Removing a queen, however, in the height of the honey-flow, has a tendency to check slightly the activity oi a colony ; but if the colony can have a vigorous virgin coming on, it will work almost as well as if it had a laying queen. But there will be danger that it will swarm out when the virgin takes her wedding-flight. As a general thing, however, where one has to buy queens he will find the best time to requeen is along in July and August, when queens can be secured at a low price, and when the interchange of queens will cause no inter- ruption to the colonies. Then we always like to have young queens in the hive in the fall. Such queens will lay in the fall when old ones will stop laying entirely. A lot of young bees in September and Octo- ber is an important factor in good wintering. — Ed.] A Super-rest I am sending a drawing of a simple article which I find very convenient. I call it a super-rest. The upper drawing shows a sawhorse arrangement which is easily made by any one. The lower drawing shows a box which is about as simple to make, and will hold smoker, tools, etc. The upper one shows a super in place. The two ends of the holder should be about 16 in. apart. I find this a great help when examin- ing hives, as I can place this near the hive, usually in front, and set the super or supers on it. It saves crushing bees, and your super will not fall over as they will do when set on end. Mystic, Ct. Elmee E. Waite. Honey Crop Practically a Failure in Australia The honey season in Australia can be written down as a failure so far. While there have been isolated instances of good yields, the record generally is none at all, and bees dying or doing very little. There is a great shortage of pollen; and unless this alters very materially during the next six weeks the mortality of bees during the coming winter will be very great. The whole failure has been due to drouth ; and now the rain has come, and the weath- er prophets say we shall get wet weather for another six weeks, or until the end of March. If this proves true, the outlook is not bright, because the season will be at an end by then in all places except the northeastern portion, where ^ flow from ti-tree can be expected. MAY 15, 1913 351 Some beekeepers have lost all their bees, and some a portion through what is generallj' known as the disappearing disease. It is a sort of dwindling dis- ease where the hive is left often with three or four frames of brood and plenty of honey, but no bees. I have never examined any of these hives to see if they had a supply of pollen. If not, that would ac- count for the whole trouble. I will follow this mat- ter up if I get the opportunity, and see if it is pol- len shortage. Major Shallard. South Woodburn, N. S. Wales, Feb. 10. How to Inspect Hives for Foul Brood when Rob- bers are Bad Please state how to inspect an apiary of several hundred colonies of bees all in a rush by inspector, preparatory to moving to another State before the honey-flow. This you said not long ago is easily done without starting robbing. I have never found any way yet. A tent helps but little. New Plymouth, Idaho, April 4. J. O. Baird. [If you are at all troubled with robbers, or if you desire to do your inspection work at a time of year when they are hovering about the hive, you will find it very slow work, and somewhat dangerous too, because a single robber can carry the infection to its own hive. Under such conditions we do not know of any thing better that you can do than to wait until a day when it rains just lightly enough to prevent robbers from flying, and at the same time allow you to open the hives and inspect every inch of the brood in the combs. A light rain does not interfere with the work, except that the bees are a little crosser. You will have to use a little more smoke ; but when there is a light rain on, you can work much better than you would naturally suppose. If you can't wait for it to rain we would suggest that you work after dark. Get a small acetylene bicycle- lamp. Start it to going, and then have an attendant hold this lamp so it will shoot its rays right on your frames of brood that you are examining. You will find that you can work at night much better than you would naturally suppose. No robbers will bother you at this time, and you can examine every inch of brood. Of course, we should very much prefer day- light, because there is nothing equal to that kind of light for inspecting suspected brood. Looking over a whole apiary to inspect foul brood is a very slow operation, for the reason that every bit of comb in the hive must be thoroughly examined if there is any brood in it to see whether the brood has any dis- eased cells. Even suspicious cells must be examined carefully to see whether any diseased matter is below the capping. This kind of inspection work takes a great deal of time. We remember once spending nearly an hour look- ing over a hive where we thought there must be foul brood because we could smell it. We could find nothing of the disease, and finally we saw one sus- picious cell that was capped over. With a pin we raised the capping, and, sure enough, under it we found a typical case of dead larva from foul brood. — Ed.I Mold in Double-walled Hives and None in Single- walled I have been raising bees for several years, and, I am glad to say, at a profit. Last year I began using some double-walled hives, and upon opening one lately I was surprised to find the lower half of six of the ten frames moldy, and forsaken by bees. The upper half was filled with honey capped over. The bees were crowded to one side of the hive on four frames which were partly filled with honey and new brood, which showed the queen was all right. The hive had plenty of bees in it for this time of the year; in fact, it was the strongest colony I had ex- amined this spring. On the bottom-board there were about a handful of dead bees lying in a certain moisture that was too thick to be called a puddle. Now, was this moisture caused by sweat? and did it cause the comb to mold? What I want to find out is whether the moldy combs are fit to be left in the hives, or should they be destroyed and hives furnished with new frames ? I found upon further investigation that all the double-walled hives I had bees in had one or two moldy frames, while several of the single-walled ten-frame hives I have looked into are free of any mold. Baltimore, Md., April 3. Mark R. Delahav. [This mold will do no harm — in fact, we are apt to find it on the combs of strong colonies just after a spell of long winter confinement. The probabilities are that the colonies in your double-walled hives were stronger than those in the single-walled. If that were the case it would be easy to account for the presence of mold in the former and not on the latter. In our climate a colony in a single-walled hive will dwindle down and become comparatively weak, while in a double-walled the colony will hold its strength and sometimes be stronger in the spring than in the fall. However, it is a fact that most colonies wintered outdoors are not quite so strong in the spring as they were the previous fall. Now, then, if your colonies in the single-walled hives were weaker than in the double-walled hives, it would be very easy to account for the presence of moid in the former rather than in the latter. Yes, the moisture is caused by the breath of the bees. Where there is a large powerful colony in a hive it will send out considerable dampness. This strikes the cold air at the entrance, and condenses and runs dowm the bottom-board. In a single-walled hive a colony will not be as strong, as a rule, and not strong enough to send out much moisture; and the consequence is, there will be none found in the hive. — Ed.] Honey for Making Labels Stick on Tin On page 232 you recommend dextrine for pasting labels on tin cans. By your recommendation I pur- chased some, but found it worthless to stick on tin. I use a flour paste mixed with equal parts of honey and water, which sticks a label on tin so it is impos- sible to remove it without soaking. Use a light hon- ey, as dark honey will stain through the labels after a time. Grosvenordale, Ct., April 5. Ernest Ryant. [There is a great difference in dextrine. Some will give good results and some will not. Perhaps, however, a common paste made as you describe, with honey in it, will be the equal of any thing. A good many have spoken of the value of honey as an in- gredient in any kind of paste or mucilage for stick- ing labels on tin. — Ed.] Antics of Pollen-laden Bees In the spring of the year when the bees are gath- ering their first pollen, the pollen-laden bees will come to the entrance of a hive containing a colony with a queen, and enter the hive hurriedly, as if they had been sent for. Some of the pollen-laden bees will go to the entrance of another hive, and will almost enter. Then they will come back out again, and then take wing, doing this repeatedly — sometimes entering the hive, but always coming back out again after a time, as if they were searching for something. That colony is queenless, without a doubt. BEES SWARM IF THEY THINK THEY ARE CROWDED. Bees will positively never swarm if they think they are not crowded for room. The facts in the case have nothing to do with it. They might have an abundance of empty combs in the supers, and get it into their heads that they were crowded for room in the brood-chamber, and swarm. Jonesboro, Ind., March 12. C. A. Neal. 352 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Capturing Swarms from Limbs of Trees Last Thursday, June 22, I was spraying my ap- ple-trees. Early in the afternoon I became aware that a swarm of bees was near. I heard them some time before I saw them. As soon as they came in sight I threw my old straw hat among them three or four times, and then began to throw dirt. After following the swarm as far as the river, the bees seemed to stop for a moment in the air, as if un- certain, then swung to the right and clustered on the limb of a sycamore standing on an island in the river. While they were settling I went after a twenty- foot ladder and a saw and smoker. The ladder was long enough to reach the first limb of the tree, but I found that the limb above it was just beyond my reach. By walking out on the first limb, however, I found that I could swing over to a small tree, and, by climbing that, I could reach the second limb of the sycamore. I then went up without any trou- ble. I discovered that the tree was hollow, and that the main crotch was open. The bees had settled there, and I could touch them by reaching down my hand the length of my arm. I first tried to smoke them out, but they did not respond to this method of treatment; so I called to one of the neighbors, whose house was near, asking her to telephone to my wife, directing her to bring me a brace and bit. By making use of these new means of warfare I bored a %-inch hole below them, and they began to move. I then placed a small box in the crotch of the tree; but the bees sought refuge in flight, and clustered on a good-sized elm, away out on a large limb, ten feet beyond reach. I tied some twine around the limb and sawed it off. The bees then clustered in two places — one section in the top of a small group of maples, the other on still another large limb of the elm. I sawed the large limb off; and when it struck the ground the bees joined their companions in the top of the maple-tree. This was within reach of my ladder, so I found it an easy matter to cut off a few small limbs and hive the bees. The next day one of our neighbors telephoned that there was a swarm of bees in their dooryard, which I could have. In the evening another neigh- bor reported that a swarm of bees had alighted on their cornfield fence, and that if I wanted them I could get them and pay whatever I thought they were worth. I found them on a rail. They seemed to be at work, as they were flying to and fro. After I have hived them I found a very little comb on the Union City, Mich. John L. Swan. [Much of the nuisance of climbing trees and chas- ing swarms a mile or so crosslots can be avoided by clipping the queen's wings. However, it sometimes happens that a swarm will go out with a virgin from a cell that has escaped notice, and then there is nothing to do but to go after them, whether they may be up a tree or across the fields. If any one can in- vent a process for getting a swarm out of an inac- cessible place on a high limb, he ought to be awarded a gold medal. It is sometimes nearly worth one's life to climb a tree, to say nothing of getting the swarm and bringing it down after securing it ; and some swarms, after they are captured, are very ugly. When the limb is in the right position, one can slip a bag up under and around the swarm, tie the bag around the limb, and then let the limb down. But more often the swarm is located out on the end of a branch where it is impossible for any human being to go. To saw the limb off has a strong tendency to dislodge the bees; and if the limb is a large one it can not be handled, even after it is cut off. All of this emphasizes the importance of clipping, or using drone-traps ; but clipping is much to be preferred. — Ed.I Bees Wintered Outside Have Opportunity for Early Flights when They Can Get Pollen In Gleanings for April 1 some one asks why it is that bees commence brood-rearing so much earlier when wintered outdoors than when wintered in the cellar ; and also asks if it is not because of difference in temperature. Allow me to suggest that it is not due so much to difference in temperature as because of other conditions. Bees wintered outside, if thej' have opportunity for flight, are more vigorous than when wintered in the cellar, and will be likely to commence brood-rearing sooner. And, again, with a very late winter flight or a very early spring flight, they may secure more or less pollen, which is an inciting cause of brood-rearing. If bees are taken from the cellar in February, and given a good cleansing flight, and then returned to the cellar again, I think that brood-rearing would be started as soon as though they were wintered out- doors. Evanston, 111., April 3. Wm. M. Whitney. [It does not always happen that outdoor bees will have more brood in early spring than those that are wintered indoors. Last winter our inside bees rear- ed brood earlier, and had more of it when set out, than the bees outdoors. Why it was so will be dis- cussed at a later time. — Ed.] Bees Working on Shorts as a Substitute for Pollen I have been much interested in watching the bees gathering shorts, for, or in lieu of pollen, my bees have been foraging in the stables all over town the last few days after the ground feed. Several persons have told me that there were so many in the stable that they thought there was a swarm. To-day I plac- ed some shorts in a.pan in my beeyard, and some of the bees soon found it. They seemed to be afraid to alight on the feed — at least so I thought, but I found they would fly down into it and gather all they could in their mandibles and on their feet, using their feet to push the shorts into their mandibles and on their tongues, which latter were extended all the time. They would then rise up an inch or two, and with their feet brush off their mandibles and tongues, and pack the material on the pollen-baskets on their hind legs, repeating the operation till they had a load. They were not still an instant, wings and legs working rapidly all the time. I have often wondered how they could pack the di'y meal on their legs ; but they seem to moisten it with their tongues, and then pack it on, using all their legs in doing so. I have never before had oc- casion to furnish my bees with artificial pollen ; but we are having summer weather just now, and there are few flowers in bloom, so the bees are ravenous for some substitute for pollen. Nederland, Texas, Jan. 23. J. H. Weeks. Origin of Custom of Beating Tin Pans when a Swarm Issues With reference to a recent statement in Glean- ings about the practice of making a noise with pans, etc., when swarms are on the wing, and the origin of the custom, allow me to say that this is a relic of an old English law which says that any beekeeper, by giving notice to the public in this manner, has a legal right to follow a swarm wherever it may go so long as he can keep the swarm in sight. If, how- ever, the beekeeper loses sight of his bees after giv- ing this warning, they become the property of the person on whose land they alight. J. C. Booth, Second-class expert of the British Beekeepers' Ass'r "ensselaer, N. Y. MAY 15, 1913 353 Our Homes A. I. ROOT Be ye clothed with humility. — I Peter 5 :5. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. — Matt. 5:5. Charity is not easily provoked . . beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, en- dureth all things. — I CoR. 13 :7. When I first began reading the Bible with an enlightened conscience years ago my good wife was often shocked and almost alarmed because I not only smiled but sometimes laughed outright. The good woman had been brought up to look at the Bible and every thing pertaining to it as something so sacred and solemn that one should not only look sober, but grave and serious when consulting its pages. Some of you may remember that years ago one scarcely smiled in prayer-meeting; and to laugh outright there, would have been con- sidered a grave breach of etiquette. Things have changed. Well, I think it was when I was reading the " beatitudes " that I laughed, especially when I came to the ■J4th verse of the fifth chapter of Matthew, where we read, '' Love ye your enemies ; bless them that curse j'ou, and do good to them that hate you," etc. The tiling seemed so un- natural, and I do not know but it seemed to me then so utterly unreasonable, that T laughed outright at the new presentation of this wonderful truth. I soon put it in prac- tice, or tried to do so, and the older readers will remember the \actories that I achieved by following out the teachings of that chap- ter. One would think after these j^ears of experience along this line that I, A. I. Root, the author of these Home papers, would not be likely to be ensnared, especially in the 73rd year of his life, after having taught the doctrine of returning good for e\al for close on to forty years. I am going to tell a story of my conflict with the enemy in two different ways; and I shall try hard to make both of them truth- ful. It occurs to me right here that I want to ask grace and wisdom from on high while I tell my little story. May I be clothed just now with that garb of humility mentioned in our first test, even if that garb was allowed to drop off and be trampled in the dust for a little time. I think I have mentioned before in these pages that some of the boys in Bradentown had a fasliion of hanging on behind my automobile. At first I did not mind it much ; but when too many of them hung on, it hindered progress and I ordered them off. Mrs. Eoot asked me if I was not a little harsher in my demand than the occasion required. I replied that it was an outrage, and that notliing but severe talk would make the boys behave. Later on, when I had a flat tire they loaded down the ma- chine so the engine could scarcely pull it. At this I ordered the boys off the vehicle, and told them to get clear away, and in terms not very gentle. A good many times I put on speed and ran away from the boys; but after dark they would slip up unnoticed; and before I thought about the cause, I imagined there was something wT'ong about the machinery. Finally one night on my way to prayer-meeting, when I was obliged to slow up on account of some piles of mateiial for repairing the road, they stopped the machine entirely. They not only got hold of the springs be- hind, but they grabbed hold of the wheels, stopping the machine so I had to crank it to get under way again ; and as soon as my attention was taken up by running they stopped me again. I threatened to have them arrested, but they replied by shouts of merriment. I got to meeting late. My conscience be- gan troubling me; but I defended myself by sajdng that the good of the community demanded that the boys be arrested for laying hands on my j^roperty and interfer- ing with my free passage of the street. I consulted neighbor Rood, who is a fairly expert attorney (or has been), as well as market-gardener, and he is also superin- tendent of the Presb}i:erian Sunday-school. Friend Rood declared it was an outrage. He said the only thing to do was to get the boys' names. I told him that none of them would give me the names of the ring-lead- ers. He said if it were himself he would get out and " chase tliem down." Said I, "Mr. Rood, have I the legal right to lay liands on any of these boys, even under such circumstances? " " ]Mr. Root, I would chase them up, and lay hands on them without any regard to the law." I think he added something more; but my conscience began to utter a vigorous protest. I tliink that the little alarm-bell I have told you about in times past began to ring out pretty vigorously, to the effect that A. I. Root, who writes these Home papers, would be sadly out of place chasing schoolboys, even if they did run out of the schoolyard to annoy him in passing along the street with his automobile. I went home and prayed about it, and asked the dear Savior in plain words if T should cha.se the boys, Almost before the 354 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE words were uttered the answer came, strong and distinct, " No." "Dear Lord, shall I complain to the slieriff about the boj'S ? '' The answer came clear and plain as be- fore, " No." Once more, "Shall I scold them or threat- en them with arrest?" Again came the decided " No." At this point I asked Bi'o. Rood another question : " ]\Ir. Rood, do you know or have you lieard of the boys interrupting or annoying anybody else who di'ives an automobile on our streets? 1 suppose there are a hundred of them or more in and around Braden- town. His repW was, " Mr. Root, I have never heard of their interfering or inter- ruiiting anybody else." I told him that this pointed out the fact that I was at least partly at fault if not entirely so; and I went home to consider the matter. Shortly after, I ran on to the following in the Sunday School Times. Read it, and see if you can catch on to Avhere it hits your case. TRANSLATING COMMONPLACE TRUTH. When any truth seems commonplace to us it has lost its power for us. How can that power be re- stored or discovered? Coleridge gives the secret when he says: "To restore a commonplace truth to its first unconunon luster, you need only traniilate it into action." " Blessed are the meek " is one of the familiar promises that often has little appeal; but how it bristles with surprises and with power when it is turned into action! Every i)romise of the word may be found to contain the life-giving Spirit of God when it is translated into the uncommon language of life. Let me now tell my little story again, relating some facts I have neglected in the above. Years ago, when T got my first automo bile, or " Oldsmobile," rather, it had a oack seat ; but the passengers on the back seal were obliged to ride backward. To get on this back seat there was a step not vei-y far ujD from the ground. To get on to this step there were iron rods to grasp hold of on each side. Now, this back step was ex- ceedingly handy for carrying parcels, mer- chandise, etc., and we liked to use it for that iDurpose. This back step was remov- able; but when we tried leaving it on all the time we soon discovered that it was a great temjotation to mischievous boys. Even wlien going at considerable speed a boy could gi-asp hold of the iron rod and swing on to the seat. This sort of sport was attractive, because one could thus get aboard very much as a conductor dextrously swings on to the steps of a fast-moving train. Tlie boys soon becatne very expert; and while here in Medina we left the ste]3 at home be- cause the boys would load us down. I had the machine shipped down to Florida. But I soon found that the boys in Florida were not particularly different from the boys in Medina. At first I wanted to be pleasant and good-natured to the boys, and permit- ted them to ride; but when it began to be too much of a burden for the old machine, 1 asked them to get off. Some of the boys heeded ray request. Others did not seem disposed to move; and if they did get off, as soon as my back was turned they got on again. In this waj', and with an old machine, I editcated the schoolboys to l)e ungentleman- ly. When I got a new Sears automobile they recognized me, even if they did not the machine, and began climbing on behind. I finally scolded, and then threatened. 1 forgot my religion. My cloak of humility that I usuall}^ wore was neglected, and fell ■ from my shoulders. Satan saw a chance, and he followed it up. There is an old adage to the effect that it takes two to make a c^uarrel. Xi first I defended myself by saying I was entirely right — the fault wai? all with the boys. - Moses has been called, 1 believe, the meekest of men. Just once in his life he became angered, and forgot him- self and his dignity before the people. He said to the grumbling children of Israel. " Ye rebels, must we now fetch you water out of this rock? " I, like poor brother ( ?) Moses, forgot the text I have been quoting to you for lo these forty years, and was quarreling with the boys. I think there is an old saying that goes something like this : " It not only takes two to make a bargain, but it takes two to make a quar- rel." The boys were unquestionably rude and in the wrong; but I too had been rude and in the wrong or else there would not have been anj^ quarrel. Let me digress a little. Years ago, as our readers will remember, I was an enthusiastic truck-gardener — at least in an experimental wa3\ One year my hobby was nice Hubbard squashes; and knowing from former experience of the fight I would have with the bugs 1 provided some square boxes, one for each hill. These were made by nailing four shingles together so as to make a square box. The thin end of one was tacked into the thick end of an- other; and these square boxes were covered with cheese-cloth, and kept in readiness one particular si")ring; but, lo and behold! the bugs did not trouble us that season — at least not one had been seen until a warm spell about the last of May. ' But one Sat- urday night, just about sundown, after my help had all gone home, a great swarin of bug-s camped down on my precious hand- some squash-plants. I rushed to the house. MAY 15, 1913 355 and on my way I mentioned to Mrs. Root what bad liappened. She said something- like this: " Oh dear me! Is it not too bad that they should come Saturday night, and after your help has all gone"?" But when 1 looked up and rei^lied, with a smiling face, that " to tell the truth, / was glad to see them/' she looked at me with something of the same astonisluuent she did when she heard me laughing, when I was I'eading the Bible. "' Why, dear husband, you do not mean that you are glad to see those swarms of bugs come here late Saturday night, do youf" " Yes, my dear wife, I mean exactly what I say. I am glad to see them." I was anxious for an opportunity to test my proposed remedy, and it proved to be all 1 had hoped. Perhaps I might tell you right here that, about the time 1 was having my tussle with the boj's, our good pastor of the Presby- terian church asked me to lead the prayer- meeting on the following Thursday night. The subject he gave me was '' Christian humility." Perhaps I startled some of the good friends on that prayer-meeting night by telling tliem the above story and adding that 1 was at that veiy time praying for giace to say to the next crowd of boys Avho came near, just as I said to the bugs, " Bo3's, / am glad to see you." And I ask- ed the friends to pray for me that I might have grace to say from the bottom of my heart, to say it truthfully, "Boys, I am glad to see you." I began to think, just as the time was nearing to go back to my Medina home, that no boys were going to come near. I realized that I had undertaken a big job. Just take a look at it. Suppose a gang of hooting and yelling schoolboys looldng for fun somewhere should say. " Let's hold up that old gray-haired gent who wears a fur cap, and hear him scold. He does not know our names, and he can not harm us much any way." Years ago, after kneeling with my poor friend Fred, whom I have told you about, on the cold stone floor of the Medina jail, and after poor Fred had prayed for him- self, he took a look at that text I have been talking about — " Love ye your enemies ; do good to them that hate you." etc. He said something like this: "Mr. Boot, that may be all right. Perhaps it will work out as you say; but I tell you it goes awfully ' agin the grain.' " And Fred was right. It does go " awfully agin the grain " even to trg to love our enemies; and T felt it when I approached the conflict. I told Mrs. Root I hoped the boys would test mv Christianity at least once more; and I told the honest truth. I did not want the boys to do wrong and be uncivil to the traveling public; but I did feel anxious to have an oijportunity to show that I was a changed man — changed at least in some re- spects, as poor Jacob was changed after wrestling with the angel. The test came. The boys, three or four of them, with mischief in their looks, ran down and held on to the projecting springs at the back of my automobile, wiiile two more of them grasped the wheels; but when I slowed up and looked at them pleasantly they were astonished. They had planned for harsh and severe words; but they had not plan- ned for the soft answer that " turneth away wrath." When they saw I was pleasant, and had not a word of reproof for them, they looked at each other in perplexity. What could it all mean? They retreated a little, thinking that may be I had some firearms or something else. When they stood oft' a little distance at the side of the road I did not tell them in so many words that I was glad to see them. I feared they might think that it was only sarcasm; and the Holy Spirit instructed me that sarcasm has no place in the heart of one who is " clothed with humilitj'," as in our text. I simply scraped u^d grace enough to say, " Boys, one of my tires is in bad shape, as you will notice. I expect to go north soon, and am trying to get along with it as it is until I go away. I do not believe you would willingly hinder me under the cir- cumstances, would you?" At this unexpected turn of affairs a little chap looked toward an older one who seem- ed to act as leader. He simph^ said, "Don't meddle with it, boys, any more." Then they turned and went away. Years ago I said, in considering this subject, that returning good for evil is a great unexplored region, and that the world had not yet even dream- ed of what could be accomplished by heap- ing coals of fire on the heads of our ene- mies. I have taken a good deal of space to give full particulars oi the above transac- tion, because it carries a tremendous moral. You see how easily I could have fanned the flame of hate. Inadvertenth' I had started the boys in this way of having sj^ort at the expense of somebody else. I confess, my friends, it is a pretty hard pill to swallow^ to treat such conduct as fun, and avoid stirring up strife. The boys had the ad- vantage, because they could come up behind when I could not see them. They could have their fun under the cover of darkness. Having them arrested and put in jail might have aroused their bad feelings so they would have retaliated by cutting my tires or otb.erwise damaging my automobile. This has happened more than once. Ji^dg'e lind- sey, who has done so much for the boys in Denver, Col., by looking at things from their standpoint, has taught us some won- derful lessons; and these lessons are taught all over our land by great and good me'- who are stepi^ing down a little, and stand- ing beside the mischievous and fun-loving juveniles. Just now our State of Ohio is discussing a proposition from the brewers to punish the boys found in saloons, if they are under age, instead of punishing the saloonkeeper. The latter entraps the boys, coaxes them into his place, and then these poor misguid- ed boj'S would be fined and imprisoned for breaking the law while the saloon-keeper goes scot free. May God be praised that the evidence, as I now write, points to a failure of this scheme of the brewers. Now, my good friends, to come right down to practical work, how many times have you fanned into flame a quarrel between your- GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE self and your neighbors instead of quench- ing the riame and seeing it die out along the line I have indicated? In making this little personal matter public, perhaps I shall expose myself to more trials. If so, may God give me grace to keep pleasant, and put up with whatever little persecution may follow. As a goodly number of our journals go to Bradentown and vicinity it would not be strange if some of those same boys would get hold of it and decide to give me a harder trial than I have had yet; and may the dear Savior give me grace and wisdom to remember that these very boys are the ones for whom he suffer- ed on the cross that they might live. Just one thing more: I was going to say that I am one of the meekest and humblest of his followers, but I do not merit that distinc- tion yet; perhaps I may, however, before I die. May the dear Savior give me grace to say as he said, " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Poultry Department DUCKS AND CHICKENS IN FLORIDA — SOME- THING ON THE OTHER SIDE. Mrs. Root is continually telling me that there is danger of my leading people into error by giving only the ros}- side of most things; and she says I have not mentioned some of the difficulties with ducks and chickens in Florida, especially for those who, like ourselves, spend only the winter here. Just now, for instance, in the middle of April, when I am planning to go back to Ohio, I find it difficult to find somebody who " wants the job " of caring for my poultry until I get back here next Novem- ber. One year I let a neighbor have the grown-up fowls for the eggs, and he thought he did fairly well. I paid him only for the trouble of taking the fowls home and bring- ing them back. The next summer, however, when there were a lot of " youngsters " also, it was a different problem. The year after, another friend kept my grown-up fowls during the summer. He said he could not tell whether the eggs paid for the feed or not; but as he was a particular friend he made no bill for the trouble or feed. Just now, however, nobody seems to want them. As I have sold off my old hens, there are only about 125 chickens, young and old. A dozen of them are about four months old. In Florida they rarely begin laying before six months of age. Well, under the circum- stances I offered to furnish all lite feed and give the neighbor the cockerels for taking care of them. There will probably be fifty or sixty roosters that will bring, say, half a dollar each when they are large enough; so he will get from $25 to $30 for just see- ing that they have feed in their galvanized tubs, and that the windmill keeps the water '• dripping " all the time. He also has the eggs laid by 25 ducks for the work of shut- ting them up nights and letting them out mornings. From the above you will probably notice that I had better sell my chickens in the spring when I go back north, and buy some more when I get back in the fall. But here is the point : I have a special strain of a cross between Buttercups and "White Leg- horns that I like better than any thing else. This cross not only seems to give more eggs than either before crossing, but so far there has been a smaller percentage of males than pullets. And right in here comes another difficulty with the Indian Runner ducks, especially in Manatee Co., Fla. Up in the North, growing green ducks for the market is a great industrj^, and people pay big ]5rices for these green ducks ten weeks old. Not so down in Florida, for here there is a prejudice against ducks, young or old. The women folks all say it is a lot of work to get them readj' for the table; and the peo- ple at the meatmarket saj" the same thing. In fact, nobody will give as much for a fat young duck down here as for a chicken. We do not care particularly about selling the ducks, yotmg or old ; but the drakes in every flock must be disposed of in some MAY 15, 1913 357 way, or they will " eat their heads off." I sold a few year-old drakes, that 1 did not need, for only 8 cts. per lb. because nobody would give more. They weighed about 5 lljs. each. Now I have told you the worst side of the poultry business — first, getting the chick- ens not old enough to lay kept through the summer, and keeping the old ones through the moulting season; second, in the duck business, getting rid of the surplus drakes. The duck-books tell us that people can be educated so as to appreciate and pay for green ducks; and they also tell us about experts who will jaick a duck and get it ready for the table in tliree or four min- utes, while Mrs. Root declai'es it takes a good part of the whole forenoon; and she has consulted other women who feel a good deal as she does about it. And she thinks a nice fat chicken is ahead of a duck after it is ready. CHUFAS FOR CHICKENS. In answer to Mr. A. T. Cook's letter, April 1, I wish to say a word about the chufas. My father's family used to object to planting chufas close to the house, for we always thought that meant "no eggs." But one spring my father planted a little over an acre of chufas near the house in some rich cow-pens, and just as the nuts began to mature the chicks took to them, and, to our surprise, we got more eggs than we had ever got before, in the fall and winter. Cody, Fla., April 14. Henky F. Stafford. Friend S., I am very glad to get the above, for the reason that one of our neigh- bors in Florida thought his hens stopped laying just because they had access to a plot of ground where he had been growing chufas; and if I am correct there has been a sort of notion, as you say, that chufas are not good for eggs, and we have now two instances showing quite conclusively to the contrary. I am glad ; for if true it cuts out the expense of harvesting the crop. If I am correct, the chufas may remain in the ground, especially in localities where there is no freezing, for a considerable length of time without injury. We are giving them a further trial. HAWKS AND CHICKENS ; HOW A TEXAS WOMAN DOES. Mr. A. I. Root: — Many a time I have been tempt- ed to write to you after reading your Home talks in Gleanings. These Home talks always interested me, and after reading about your trouble with hawks I want to tell you my way of scaring them away. Last fall and winter I hatched with an incubator over 200 chickens. Some of them disappeared dur- ing day time. For some time I could not believe that a hawk caught them, as I never saw any close around the house. After I had lost between 25 or 30 my son noticed a hawk catch a chick and fly off with it. The day after, I saw the same performance myself. The hawk must have been pretty high up in the air. for I was in the yard, where no tree or shrubbery was in my way. All of a sudden he came straight down, about 35 or 40 yards from where I stood, grabbed the chicken, and off he went with it, almost like a streak of lightning. After that we watched for him and shot at him several times, but failed to get liim. Then I fixed up several scarecrows as follows : I took a pole about six feet long ; got some of the boys' old clotlies, slipped a stick through the sleeves for arms, nailed this on the pole, then slipped the trousers over the pole (just one leg, and let the other hang loose). Then I made a head of rags, and fast- ened an old hat or cap on it; then fastened a bright tin lid from lard-buckets, with a cord on the end of each arm. Tlie wind will keep these lids in constant motion, which seems to frighten the hawks. I set up these scarecrows against a fence or bush, and some- times drive a slab in the ground and nail it to that. I have six of these guards around my premises in different directions as far as the little chickens go. These guards are no beauties, and people laugh at them in passing; but I don't care, for they cer- tainly frighten the hawks away. I have not lost a chicken since I put them up. There is no expense about it, and no more worry. A man told me a few days ago that, if you put up a pole about 12 or 15 feet high, nail a stick about 5 feet long across the top, and fasten tin lids on the stick, it would answer the same purpose. May be so. I have not tried it. I keep only the Silverlaced Wyandotte chickens. They are fine layers all the year. I wish I could see your hen-houses and other fixtures. I am the only one of the family who likes to work with chickens, and consequently I am not fixed up for poultry- raising as I should like to be. Mrs. Grant Anderson. San Benito, Texas, April 23. The above reminds me that my neighbor Abbott has a similar device, but he uses cheap looking-glasses or pieces of broken mirrors instead of tin. I must confess that 1 ratiier dislike to see scarecrows very near the home ; but I think I would put up with a good deal as Mrs. A. does, rather than lose chickens at the rate she did; and I believe it is generally true that when a hawk, vi- cious cat, or other animal gets into the fashion of having a chicken dinner every day it will usually follow it ni) unless some- thing is done. HAWKS AND chickens; COTTON STRING INSTEAD OF NETTING. In your issue of April 1 Mr. A. I. Root tells of his experience with little chicks and those hated marauders, the hawks, and how he covered his runs with netting wire to protect the young poultry. We have found a very simple mode of protection which works like a charm in keeping away the hawks that live around Wachusett Mountain here in central Massachusetts, and pass it on to you with the hope that others will try it and find it successful. The ruse is this : We string crowline — white bundle twine will do if one lias enough — across the open spaces where the hawks have been in the habit of swooping down, fastening the line on buildings, trees, posts, etc., high enough above the ground to be out of the way of pedestrians, cattle, and teams. We have never known a hawk to venture beneath or between these lines. Apparently they are plainly seen by him as he soars about on the wing, and he suspects a trap has been set for him. I hope other poultry-raisers in other localities will try this way of keeping these marauders away, and find a happy success. It is a far less unsightly procedure than hanging hetero- geneous collections of cast-away articles before the eyes of passers-by — a way of attempting protection that often fails to save -the precious chicks. Massachusetts Reader. 358 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Health Notes ROBBING SICK PEOPLE. In this age of life we have, thank God, a great variety of reformed people. We have repentant and reformed grafters, re- formed saloon-keepers, reformed drunkards, and reformed gamblers; but a good friend of Gleanings just now sands a clipping from the Weeldij Kansas City Star, giving' at length the confessions of a " quack doc- tor." This doctor gives the method in detail by which men of his class bleed their vic- tims. The patient is first required to take a bath before the examination ; and while one quack examines (or pretends to exam- ine) the nude patient, another cjuack ex- amines his pocketbook, and looks over all the papers he can find in his pockets to learn, as far as possible, how much the victim will stand bleeding — that is, financial bleeding. The plan is to get (to adopt a railway phrase) "all the traffic will bear," no mat- ter whether there is real or imaginary trou- ble. To tell the real truth, the quack doctor would not know and really does not care. The patient is always assured that it was a lucky thing that he came to a competent physician — that unless something was done, and that at once, he had only a few months or weeks to live. Of course, this quack institution has a variety of instruments, electrical, chemical, etc., so as to make a big show; and, to be brief about it, instead of studying up ways and means to help the patient, they go through a great variety of performances to squeeze out the last copper the patient lias. Now, I have been through this very thing during the past fifty years; and, to be frank, my opinion now is, on looking back, that about all ! needed (most of the time) was to get out in the air and sunshine and to get into a good perspiration by doing some useful work before I sat down to my desk, to attend to correspondence, etc. This " confession," and I feel sure it is a true one, almost makes the chills run down one's back to think that any human being should be so depraved as to resort to any such despicable mears to get a poor man's mon- ey— money that he has worked hard for — without giving him any sort of equivalent. The highwayman knocks a man down and rifles his pockets; but he generally selects somebody wlio is measurably able to take care of himself; but these thieves hunt up people in the last stages of consumptiou, or some other incurable disease, assuring them that, in a few months or weeks, by their special treatment" and wonderful(?) discoveries they will make him as " sound as a colt." A part of the paraphernalia consists of putting the patient on a stool with glass legs, and giving him electricity; examining his blood under a microscope, and then telling him his case is hopeless, and that, if he had only come three months sooner, they might have helped him. But they finally make a further examination, and tell him that, if they get right to loork, there may he a chance to save his life. If 1 am correct, however, our good Uncle Sam- uel is getting after these chaps, and I hope he will make it hot for them, and do it speedily. I am rejoiced to see that the World's National W. C. T. U. has sent out a four- page leaflet in regard to medical frauds. I copy below the first two of the 24 men- tioned and described: What is Sanatogen ? According to tlie manufacturers of it, 95 per cent of it is casein, the curd of milk, and five per cent sodium glycerophosphates. The Journal of the Am. Medical Association, Feb. 19, 1910, says that one dollar's worth of Sanatogen is equal in food energy to six cents' worth of milk or one cent's worth of flour. There is nothing harmful in Sanatogen, but there is great waste in buying milk-curd at such a prii e. What is the Oxypathor or Oxygenator ? This little device, for which $35 is asked, is said to pump ox.\gen in vast quantities through the pores of the skin. All physiologies teach that the power of the skin to take in oxygen is extremely limited. Oxyucn enters the lungs through the nose and throat. This is amply proved by the quick death winch results when the intake of oxygen is shut off by pressure on the windpipe. The Oxygenator, the name of which was later changed to Oxypathor, was exa nined by Vermont State Board of Health, which riation back of it to carry it into effect. Tills defect has been remedied, and now tlie beekeepers of that State have $1-500. The ndministration of this law lias been placed in the hands of former State Foul-brood Inspector Frank C. Pellet. Another bill has been passed forbidding the shipment of diseased bees into Iowa. Mr. F. C. Pellet is not only a beekeeper, but is on one of the lecture-bureau courses for a variety of subjects. Of course this means that he will be able to give public addresses on bees. For years California has had a foul-brood law; but, like all county laws, this, to a great extent, has been ineffective. It soon became evident that a State-wide law was needed. For a number of years back the beekeepers 'of the Grolden State have tried to secure such a law, but without success. One has now been enacted that is probably equal to any law in any State. It appoints a commission consisting of the State Com- missioner of Horticulture, with the presi- dent and secretary of the State Beekeepers' Association. It is the duty of these gentle- men to appoint a State apiarian, who, in connection with the commissioners already mentioned, are to make examination of in- spectors in order that no one be appointed who is not well qualified for this important work. It will be remembered that the State Comm.issioner of Horticulture is none other tlian our old friend Prof. A. J. Cook, for- merly of the Michigan Agriciiltural College, and later Entomologist at Pomona College. Claremont, Cal. He has ever sought to ad- vance the cause of beekeeping. He was largely instrumental, if we are correct, in securing Micliigan's first foul-brood law. He conducted a number of interesting ex- periments at the Michigan Agricultural Col- lege, showing the invaluable service per- formed by the bees in pollinating fruit- blossoms. He was among the first to call attention to the value of honey as a food, showing that it is an invert sugar and easily assimilated. He continued his interest in bees when he went to California. He is a big broad man, and we should imagine that conditions respecting bee diseases will be materially improved. For several years back the beekeeping industry in Nevada has been growing at a rapid rate ; but, unfortunately, there has been no effective foul-brood law to prevent the spread of disease. Bees have been brought into Nevada and California by the carload. In many cases it has been found that these carload shipments have contained bee diseases; but the beekeepers of those States were powerless. Nevada has finally come into line, but, unfortunately, with nothing better than a county law. This. however, is much better than nothing; but it is to be hoped that the beekeepers of that State will see to it that a State-wide measure is enacted, as it would be difficult to prevent the importation of diseased bees from diseased apiaries unless some police authority be vested in some State official. Mr. J. Benjamin Hall, with the co-oper- ation of the beekeepers of Idaho, has just succeeded in getting a foul-brood law en- acted, known as House Bill No. 29.5. A good appropriation was also secured so that good work may be expected. See Mr. Wesley Foster's comment in his department on another page. Last, but not least, Texas has finaUy passed the amended foul-brood law, and tlo same will become effective July 1. Its ad- ministration, as before, will be in the hands of the State Entomologist, Prof. Wilmon Newell, at College Station. Prof. Newell is one of the best entomologists in the United States; and, what is more, an enthusiastic beekeeper himself. The biggest State in the Union, and, possibly and probably, the big- gest bee State, ought to have a good man for the administration of this law, and it surely has got him. The special features of the new law will be given later. All together, foul-brood legislation is ad- vancing at a rapid rate in the fTnited States, and we now have 33 States having foul- brood laws. In most of the States the spread of diseases has been checked. In many others there is a decided decrease in brood diseases. 364 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Stray Straws De. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. A BEGINNER might understand from a footnote, p. 140, that a certain size of sec- tion may be found that will average a pound. I don't think the editor means that, for there is no such size. If you find a super filled with sections of such size that they average just a pound, you may find another lot "filled at the same time by anoth- er colony with diiferent average. With the same colony you may find the average dif- ferent in "different yeai-s, or in different times of the same year. [You are correct regarding different colonies. — ^Ed.] I^M glad A. I. Root is taking up the cloth- ing question. But why not tell us where those Florida shoes can be had, and at what price? But I'm more interested in women's fashions. If I understand correctly, freak fashions are gotten up in Paris — fashions that self-respecting French women will not wear — and foisted upon American women as the proper caper. Thank the good Lord, a rebellion has begun. A. I., have you no- ticed lately the fashions in The Ladies' Home Journal? It will do your heart good to look them over — genuine American fash- ions, and to me they look beautiful beside the outlandish things that bring high prices merely because imported. 0. L. Hershiser has made out a strong cas? as'ainst extracting unripe honey, p. 177. He's right. But he may not feel so much like condemning Mr. Hopkins' views if he takes into consideration the difference in conditions in this country and in New Zealand. Here, nectar is counted good if it contains no more than 75 per cent water. In New Zealand, nectar, when first gather- ed, is generally thick enough to j^ass for honey Under the United States pure-food laws. Mr. Hopkins saj-s, American Bee Journal 92, ""When first gathered, nectar rarely contains more than 25 per cent of moisture, and usually much less." If the two men were to change places, they might change views. Matter of " locality " again, you see. B. 0. Martin, p. 180, I think you are right in saying that bees which become queenless accumulate pollen before becoming queenless. (f it is a case of a virgin lost on her bridal trip. I think Mr. Holtermann is right in saying that when bees lose a lay- ing queen they accumulate pollen after the loss of the qiieen. In both cases there is precisely the same thing, as Mr. Holtermann says: "The bees gathered pollen, and did not have lar\-3e to feed the pollen to, and it had, therefore, accumulated in the combs." For, so far as brood was concerned, the colony with a virgin was the same as a queenless colony. You ask, " Did you ever examine a colony that had just lost a queen "? and did you not find the combs full of lion- ey and pollen?" and then you limit the question to the exceptional case of a virgin lost on her wedding-trip. Ask that same question without any limitation and the answer will be, " No, not if the queen had been doing good work at laying right along." Try the tiling in this way: Go to a colo- ny witli a good laying queen and no accu- mulation of pollen, and kill the queen. Look two or three days later, and see if tliere's any accumulation of pollen. Not a bit ; for there has been as much brood to feed as if the ciueen had continued laying. But go two or three weeks later, and see if you don't find the extra pollen. You seem to think, Mr. Editor, that half a cubic meter of air is rather small for a 13-pound colony to use in an hour, p. 204. Let's see. At that rate, in a room 10 by 10 and 8 feet high two such colonies would smother inside of 24 hours. Seems to me that's using some air. You're just right, that in a nearly dormant condition they'd use much less. My guess would be not a twentieth as mi;ch. [We did not mean to imply that the limit of a cubic meter of air per colony in an ordinary bee-cellar would kill the bees, for, as a matter of fact, a dozen men all smoking can exist in a small room, overheated, with i^ractically no ven- tilation, for several hours. But it is hard on the men, just the same. If we were to put a colony in a glass bottle, assuming that it could be done, having an internal capacit}' of a cubic meter, and seal it, we believe such colony would be dead in a very short time, even if the temperature sur- rounding the bottle were kept down to 45 degrees. The fact is. in an ordinary cellar there would be constant ingress and egress of air. There is usually space around the windows and doors that let in considerable air, especially if the temperature outside is 25 or 30 degi'ees lower. The oxygen in or- dinal' air would have to be almost com- pletely exhausted before suffocation would ensue. Perhaps it would pay us next win- ter to make a metal box a meter long, wide, and deep, and see how long a colony would last in it. We would expect them to boil out of the entrance of the hive and die in- side of half an hour. — Ed,] JUNE 1, 1913 Beekeeping Among the Rockies Wesley Foster, Boulder, Col COMPENSATION FOR COLONIES DESTROYED. Mr. Chadwiek makes a good point when he says that colonies of diseased bees should not be destroyed unless the owner is eom- jiensated, and I believe that there are eases where this compensation should be made. However, thei'e are many extensive bee- keepers whose bees continually have foul brood who think it is a good thing to have a little around to kill oft" the other fellows' bees. These men ship bees to some extent too. If I have a hundred colonies of bees, and half are affected with foul brood with- out my knowledge, how long will it be be- fore 1 have no more bees? About a year, I should say, unless there happen to be good honey-fiows. Suppose I move these bees to another State, and they are inspected and destroyed. Should I be paid for what I shall soon lose any way? Or should I be made to suffer the loss and build up on a firm basis of knowledge of foul brood ? The best plan would be some quarantine method by which I could save my bees and learn to cure foul brood at the same time. Beekeep- ing extension carried to its proper conclu- sion will make bee inspection practically unnecessary'. * « * THE NEW IDAHO LAW. Idaho beekeepers have a new apiai-y bill before the legislature that has some good features, and some that are not so good. It deals with shipments of infected bees from other States in this way. The inspector is to be notified before unloading and not after. A fine of $250 to $500 i^s provided for failure to notify the inspector of the arrival of an infected shipment within five days. A fine of $100 to $200 is provided as punishment for selling or offering for sale diseased bees or exposing diseased ma- terial in the apiary. The examination of bees before unload- ing is a good point ; but a quarantine yard should be provided for in these cases, so that the colonies could be treated and cured without having to be shipped out of the State. The fines provided are too high to be of any use. Five to one hundred dollars would be better. One hundred to two hun- dred dollars as fine for exposing diseased material in an apiary is impractical, for such fines will never be im^^osed, and they will not have a tendency to better conditions in cleaning out foul brood in a district. More work and educational effort along the line of foul-brood instruction will bring better results. The aim of foul-brood legis- lation should be to clean out the disease, or at least to control it — not to fine some one for neglect. Many of us are neglectful. » * * THE COLORADO AGRICULTURAL DEMONSTRA- TION TRAIN. The honey-cooking recipes are the most popular part of the bee-culture exhibit on the Colorado Agricultural College demon- stration train. Mrs. Frank Rauchfuss pre- pared the goods, and they are so appetizing and toothsome that every lady passing the exhibit wanted to stop and copy the recipes printed on the jars containing the samples. We soon realized that this would clog the traffic through the car, so 3000 copies were ran off on the multigTaph and given out. HONEY EECIPES BV MRS. A. RAUCHFUSS. HONEY BROWN BREAD. One cup corn meal, 1 cup rye meal, 1 cup sour milk, 1/^ cup honey, 1 te^spoonful salt, 1 teaspoonful soda. Steam 4 hours, then dry in oven 15 minutes. AURORA HONEY COOKIES. One cup honey, 1 pint sour cream, 1 even tea- spoonful soda dissolved in a tablespoonful of boiling water. Mix honey, cream, and soda together thor- oughly; add a cup of chopped nuts (any kind de- sired), 1 teaspoonful of ground ginger, and a heap ing tablespoonful of ground cinnamon. Add flour enough to make a dough stiff enough to handle easily on the board; roll out part into buttered tins, and lake in a moderately hot oven until nicely browned. HONEY GINGER SNAPS. One cup butter, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup honey, 1 cup water, 1 heaping tablespoonful of ground cinnamon, 1 scant teaspoonful of baking soda. Sift the soda into 1% pints of flour; cream the cup of butter with the sugar ; add other ingredients, and more flour to make a dough that can be rolled out. Cut into de- sired shape, and bake in a moderate oven. SEAFOAM CANDY. Two-thirds cup of honey, 3 cups granulated sugar, V2 cup boiling water, whites of two eggs, 1 teaspoon- ful vanilla, 1 cup of nut meats. Boil the honey, sugar, and water till, if tested in cold water, it is brittle. Pour this in a thin stream over the whites of two well-beaten eggs, beating the whole all the time till like a thick cream, then stir in briskly the nut meats and vanilla, and pour out into a buttered dish. After it has hardened, cut into squares. With one week still unfinished, over forty thousand .people have seen the exhibits on the train. Ten lectures on beekeeping have been given, and much interest has been manifested, as is shown by the questions asked. The questions most frequently heard are about the control of foul brood and swarming. Amateurs surely have trouble in the prevention of excessive swai-ming. Many report that yellowjackets kill their colonies; but so far it seems that this occurs only where excessive swarming has been the rule throughout the summer, and none but weak colonies short of honey and with the hive but partly full of comb to go into winter quarters. It is no wonder that colo- nies are soon cleaned out by the yellow- jackets. 366 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Notes from Canada J. L. Byer, Mt. Joy, Ont. This year, again a number of " apiary demonstrations " are being held in different counties of Ontario. Tliis style of giving instruction in apiculture seems to be rapid- ly superseding the old-style meetings; for to the average student one ounce of " show me " is worth a pound of instruction of certain manipulations of the bees. « * * I do not agi'ee with friend Townsend at all when he says in regard to American foul brood, " Once in a locality always in a lo- cality," as I am sure we have many places here in Ontario that were once badly dis- eased that are now clear. As to European foul brood, while we have not had the ac- tual experience in our own section yet, I suspect he would be more nearly right if he applied that saying to ihis disease. My intentions are to leave home on May 14 and move 250 colonies of bees, with about 500 supers and other supplies, three miles to the railway, and then 200 miles by train. In addition to this I have to make by mail all arrangements for moving, as I am now 200 miles from the bees. Now, don't all speak at once and say that you envy me the job, else I shall suspect some are hardly truthful in what they are saying. * « * In giving the Demaree plan of keeping down swarming by hoisting all brood-combs but one above the queen-excluder, please sound a note of warning to beginners that, unless they are very careful, they will have a lot of dark honey in those brood-combs, and the honey will be all off grade when they are ready to extract. The seasons are rare in this " locality " when all the dark honey will be out of all the brood-combs when the clover season starts; and for that reason the plan of hoisting all brood-combs above is impractical here, much as we might desire to practice the plan, for it assuredly will knock out swarming if properly done, and give a maximum in the way of a honey yield. « * « Also make the "warning" very pronounc- ed when advocating the Alexander plan of making increase, and say that it is advisable to use this plan only in localities having their main ilow late in the season; for I agree with Dr. Miller most emphatically in saying that, for clover locations, the plan is no good unless one wishes to cut the crop in half. This year our bees are very strong, many having to be supered in willow bloom. even if the bees are in ten-frame Jumbo hives; and yet under such conditions I would not think of breaking up the colonies unless I were willing to sacrifice i3art of the crop of clover honey. «• » * Reports continue to come in, that the spraying law is being violated this year a great deal, and many beekeepers are fear- ful that much damage will be done to their bees. As pointed out in a recent issue, the fine is very low, and many operators openlj say they can afford to pay the fine rather than stop spraying operations when each day's work means about $15.00. Then, again, many beekeepers hesitate to apply the law to neighbors, even if the fine is low, as hard feelings always follow a lawsuit. Something will have to be done in the near future, especially in the commercial fruit-gi'owing districts, as the situation is becoming veiy acute indeed. * * * When sending that protest to Miss Tarbell regarding that giueose-honey-comb canard (page 281, May 1), please send another protest to the chaps who are advocating making queen-cage candy with glucose. Yes, I admit that I recently expressed the hope that honey could be left out altogether in making Good candy for mailing queens, for the queen-breeders' sake; yet I now see that the remedy would be worse than the disease. First thing you know, you will see a big advertisement in the Ladies' Home Journal or some other big influential magazine, tell- ing us that even beekeepers recognize that glucose is better than honey, and are using it to feed their queens. In a case of this kind, it is better to avoid the very appear- ance of evil and be on the safe side. * * * The latter half of April was very cold and windy, with heavy freezing by night and thawing by day. Result, fully half of the alsike is killed outright here in York Co. We should be thankful that there was a heavy acreage, as we still have lots left for a crop of honey if clover should be in nectar-yielding humor. Flat fields suffered most, because there has been an unusual amount of moisture in the ground. Clover- killing was only local. Most localities re- port that clover is in good condition. The season for fruit bloom is one of the earliest on record, for winter jumped abruptly into the arms of summer about April 25. Good reports of the bees are coming from all over Ontario, so, needless to say, Ontario bee- keepers are hoping for the best this year. JLXE 1, 1913 367 Conversations w^ith Doolittle At Borodino, New York. IS NATURAL SWARMING PROFITABLE OR NOT? There is not a shadow of doubt in the mind of the apiarist who makes a specialty of beekeeping but that he would be much better off if bees never desired to swarm; but with the beginner or the farmer bee- keeper there is an element in natural swarm- ing that appeals to him, and to all there is a certain awe and fascination on seeing a natural swarm of bees on the wing. I have heard expressions of wonder and admira- tion come from the lips of all sorts of men and women when seeing a s\Yarm of bees in the air. One of the great things about a natural swarm of bees, and one which can hardly yet be denied, is this : The bees of a natural swarm receive an impetus to work by finding themselves in their newly pitched tent destitute of brood and provisions, not brought about in any other way. Then if the sections are put over such a swarm as soon as the bees are nicel}' established in the hive (to an extent where the queen has begun to deposit egg's in the newly built comb or drawn foundation), section honey can be obtained which is rarely if ever equaled by any of the processes of artificial increase yet invented by any apiarist or by any plan of non-swarming. That there are some weighty obj actions to natural swarming if it could be successfully repressed is not to be denied ; but these may be spoken of under two heads — namely, the time and labor rec^uired for watching and hi\'ing swarms, and the danger of loss from swarms absconding.. It may be held by some that an undesirable increase would be the greater objection ; but with the practi- cal man this should be easily obviated, even to a point of value. If all swarms are to be hived in empty hives, as was the case with those keeping bees fifty or one hun- dred years ago, then I will concede tlie point ; but with the one who has twentieth- century light it is only a question of the disposal of the brood in the hive from which the swarms issue, and that is generally very valuable, especially in early swarming. Some seem to think that this brood, when emerged into perfected bees or before, should be re- turned to the identical colony that produced it; but with the practical apiarist it may usually be used with decidedh' greater ad- vantage in other ways. There are few if any apiaries at the open- ing of the nectar flow but that have some colonies that are not up to the strength re- quired for the best work in the supei-s. If these hives of rapidly emerging brood be distributed anong such deficient colonies as fast as they can be obtained from the lea^ - ing of prime swarms, shaking out of each all of the bees left behind so that they may go into the new hive with the prime swarm, both the swarm and the deficient colonies will be greatly benefited. Thus in a week or two, if swarming continues, all may be gotten in excellent condition, and results obtained beyond the fondest expectations. Then, too, there are frequently colonies out of condition on account of being pos- sessed with wornout or old queens. Destroy these queens as fast as hives of brood can be obtained, and place one such hive on each colony now queenless. In a few days it will rejuvenate in streng-th, and will have an extra-good queen coming from the queen- cells left after the issue of the prime swarm. The danger of loss from prime swarms absconding can almost certainly be prevent- ed by having the wings of the queen pre- viously clipped, which is most conveniently done in May when the fruit-trees are in bloom. Then, as soon as the swarming bees miss their queen, they may be made to hive themselves by 'iaving the new hive on the old stand at the time they begin to return. Some claim that, should a swarm come out having a virgin queen at the time such prime swarm is clustered or in the air, said virgin queen would make absconding possible, she having her wings to fly awaj' with the whole mass. But after forty years' experience in this matter, with scores if not hundreds of such eases, I wish to go on record as saying that, so far as I know, the bees of a prince swarm will never be satisfied with a virgin queen to lead them away from their old mother or the hive of brood which is left be- hind. Such uniting results in the balling of the virgin, when the whole mass, except the few in the ball, are practically queenless. The objection made against swarming on account of the time required for attending to it is not gri'eat where the apiary can be located within easy vision of that part of the house where the kitchen work is done, as most prime swarms issue between the hours of nine o'clock and one, when the house- keeper can notify the apiarist if he himself is not at work in the apiary. For the high- est success in the production of section honey, strong swarms are desirable ; and hiving swarms on the old stand and gi\'ing them all the bees which the parent colony contained not only conduces to their strength, but prevents that greatest nui- sance, the call of " bees swarming." 368 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Beekeeping in California p. C. Chadwick, Redlands, Cal. A beekeeper expressed the foreboding that it would be very difficult for the pro- fessional apiarist to protect himself from the ravages of black brood with so many uncared-for colonies to contend with. I take a different view of the situation, for it is my opinion that, after a locality is in- fected with the diseases, there will be a few of the truly watchful and painstaking with the field iDractically to themselves. * * * The foul-brood law proposed by the State Association was passed with only one or two unimportant changes. It carries an appro- priation of $10,000, which amount is not to be used for general inspection work, but each county must still pay its own inspector, though the appointment and dismissal are almost entirely at the will of the beekeepers. I believe that we now have the best foul- brood law in the United States. Inspectors will hereafter be appointed on merit, and not to pay political debts. Inspectors will not be able to draw 16 to 20 dollars per month during the winter months for office time, but will have to " jDroduce the goods " or get out. If the State Association has accomplished nothing more, this alone is worth all the beekeepers have paid into the treasury. A copy of this law will appear in these columns later. MIDDLEMEN CONTROLLING PRICES IN SPITE OF THE LAW OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND. Dr. Miller, p. 172, speaks of the women of several large cities taking a hand in the egg market and reducing the price to a point where they could be purchased by the poor, also the apple market in Chicago, and thinks the farmer received no less for the produce on the market at the time. The doctor is, no doubt, right so far as the produce involved was concerned ; but when it came to restocking the market for the next raid, the dealer would take into con- sideration this very feature of the situa- tion, and pay prices accordingly. When such means are used to reduce the price on produce in storage, purchased at a low figure, it may work all right ; but when it comes to a market controlled wholly by the supply and the demand, the result would be that the farmer would get the worst of the deal. About the only way this situation can be met is to make it easier and cheaper for the farmer to get his produce to the consumer — not to the 'dealer, but to the con- sumer's kitchen, and that seems to me to be the only way it can be done; for if it pass- es through the hands of one or two middle- men there is too much temptation to com- bine and fix prices, as I am told has been the case in Los Angeles for a number of years. There the supply has very little to do with the market. The price is agreed upon b}' the retailers; and if the supply is larger than the trade demands at the price fixed they are dumped to clean up the over- supply, and the gi'ower is paid a price that will enable the dealer to carry on this kind of wasteful business. Many a poor child might enjoy the pleasure of a dish of ber- ries if the price followed the supply instead of the berries being destroyed to maintain an arbitrary price that does not help the producer. This matter will be given attention by our legislators some day, and I should not be surprised if the national government would be the first to take the matter up after they find it can not be done by tariff laws, which are to a great extent local in nature. Transportation rates reduced to a reasonable figure would be of more benefit to the American people than all of the free-trade or tariff laws that can be devised, if middlemen's profits were reduced in a like manner or eliminated almost altogeth- er. The middlemen have to live, to be sure, but not in this particular line of work; for the time is coming in this land of ours when more men must be producers and fewer live on the work of those who do produce. This applies to the bee business as well as any other agricultural pursuit. SUDDEN DROP IN TEMPERATURE KILLING FIELD BEES. There is one condition that I believe I have never mentioned in these columns, that affects the early spring honey crop perhaps more than any other; and that is, the mor- tality rate of field bees. California seems to have a cause that is peculiar to this cli- mate. The loss of which I am speaking is due to a sudden change in the air from warm to cold wliile the bees are in the field, which causes them to become so numb that they are unable to reach the hive. In con- nection with tliis I may say that our fine climate is due more to the sunshine than to any other one thing; and without the sun- shine we have just as cool and cliilly days as are found in New Jersey or any other eastern State during the spring months. Indeed, variation in temperature between JUNE 1, 1913 daj' and night would cause an Easterner some uneasiness for fear of frost, for a change in temperature between day and night is often from tliirty to forty degi'ees. It is not at all uncommon for the tempera- ture to fall at this time of the year from ninety degrees at midday to forty by four o'clock of the following morning. It can readily be seen from this that bees must AAait until after sunrise on many days be- fore the air is sufficiently warm to permit them to venture into the field. But the con- dition just spoken of does not necessarily cause loss of bees. Fog is one feature that causes heavy loss. By this I do not mean the low dense fogs, but the high fog clouds that drift over the sky the greater part of many days, wluch become denser in the early afternoon. Then, again, the intermittent cloudy days following a storm fluri-j- bring conditions that are equal to any bee-trap that was ever invented. The sun comes out for i^erhaps twenty or tliirty minutes, which gives the bees reason to pour into the field by the thousands, when suddenly a cloud floats over, obscuring the sun, and perhaps it remains there for an indefinite time, caus- ing the bees to chill in the field to such an extent that they are unable to take wing and return to the hive. The sun sometimes shines enough to warm them and enable them to return ; but the number of times that they are unable to go back is sufficient to deplete the field force so that it is very roticeable in the numerical strength of the liive. These conditions prevail more or less every spring; and until the weather becomes more settled, there is a constant drain on the forces that are so much needed at this time of the year. * » * A DISAPPOIXTIXG SEASON. This will, perhaps, be my last report on crop conditions in this part of the State for this season, for there will be no crop. Tliis is the most complete failure for many years, and I doubt if it has a parallel in the histo- rj of the industry here, though of this I am not sui'e; but that it is the nearest to a complete failure for ten years I am quite sure. Why ? Every tiling has been against us from first to last, and conditions are not yet what might be called normal. Of all the reasons for a failure, the lack of rain is the chief cause, with the freeze and an un- usually cold spring to contend with, though I consider the freeze to be the least of our troubles. Conditions seemed bad from the beginning; but the bees got a fairly early start at breeding, and this gave a ray of hope for a time. However, the loss of bees from some cause was so great that even those with a good -supply of brood failed to make the progress that we had hoped for. For example, on March 1st, in marking my colonies I came to one with two frames of brood which was marked 2. Two weeks later it was the same ; but by the end of the third week they had spread to four frames, and there they have remained since that date. They have spread eggs wider several times, but they have been taken up because of being chilled or by choice of the bees under the influence of continued cold. Another cause in the orange districts was the early blooming, in spite of the cool weather before the bees were ready to gather the nectar, the heaviest flow being almost to a day one month earlier than last season. My scale colony showed the heaviest day this year on April 25 : last season it was on May 23. The quantity of nectar and the short blooming period were also a dis- appointment. So the season of 1913 must pass into history as a failure so far as a honey crop is concerned in southern Cali- fornia, with the fact remaining that we must not expect a crop from wild flora when our rainfall has been much less than ten inches, with a goodly portion of that falling late in the rainy season. I will give the weights of my scale colonv for a period of two weeks, a part of which time was the warmest during the month of April, and will show the weather variations by the amount gathered each day. Previous to the time I began taking weights we had several days of fair weather. (By fair weather I simply mean days when it was sufficiently warm for the bees to fly very freely during the greater part of the day. We have had many days that were clear; but a cold wind and a low temperature made short days and difficult fl^ang the pe- culiarities of this season.) Before placing this colony on the scales the bees had stored some honey in the extracting-super, which also contained a quantity of brood in addi- tion to that in the well-filled brood-chamber. (The hive was overflowing with bees.) The queen was put below an excluder, and a super of extracting-combs was placed be- tween the two. The following are the daily gains: April 16, Y^ lb.; 17, 2 lbs.; 18, 1/2; 19, 51/2; 20, 21/2; 21, 634; 22. 61/4; 23, 834; 24, 91/2; 25, 10; 26, 73/4; 27, 8; 28. 61/2; 29, 71/2 ; 30, 21/2 ; May 3, 31/2- The varia- tions to this point are due almost entirely to weather conditions. The above figures are gross amounts, no allowance being made for evaporation during the night, which varied largely according to the quantity gathered, and was from 1/2 to 3 pounds. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE General Correspondence A NEW METHOD OF INTRODUCING The Various Methods Considered ; the Odor The- ory— is it a Fallacy? BY ARTHUR C. MILLER Legion is the number of plans for intro- ducing queens, and he is a rash man who claims to have found a new one; and yet perhaps the unexpected may have happened here. The " direct method " was the first one used; and, if memoi^ serves, Keaumur was the man who used it. It was years after he had passed away that the caging plans arose. Who began them may perhaps never be known, for, like Topsy, they seem to have •' just growed." But growing and spread- ing and vai-j-ing as they have, they have by no means brought satisfactory results; on the contrary, so great is the loss by all cage methods that the beekeepers are few who are not looking- for a better way. All of the cage plans are based on the theory that the odor of the queen governs her reception — that is, if she is confined in a cage placed in the colony to receive her until she has acquired the hypothetical odor of that colo- ny she will be safe when released. But, as ail experienced beekeepers know, too many times the facts do not prove the theory. Or)0n NOT THE GOVERNING FACTOR IN INTRO- DUCTION OF QUEENS. Colonies do have individually character- istic odors, some of which are such that the human nose of fair acuteness and training can detect them. If the human nose can distinguish between certain colonies, then surely the bees, with their wonderfully acute sense of smell, must be able to disting-uish between their own and a strange hive. But because the individual bee can recognize the home by odor, it by no means follows that the colony can recognize the individual worker by her odor. On the contrary, when the bees of an apiai-y get to work on any particular kind of flowers, whether clover, basswood, buckwheat, or other flowers, the bees mix freely. To illustrate : In an apiary of thirty odd colonies there were three dis- tinct and easily recognized strains of Ital- ians and one of blacks. The season until mid-July was poor, the bees getting but little more than a living. An examination of the colonies then showed vei'y few bees in them that were not raised there. There followed a heavy flow from Clethra, and within a week eveiy colony had a very con- siderable part of its population made up of all the different strains. Had the bees' sense of smell gone wrong? Or is the odor factor of less impoi'tance than we have given it? DIRECT METHOD OF INTRODUCTION. For many j-ears the writer has used some form of direct introduction with queens, and only occasionally has used a cage. In the beginning the " fasting plan " was care- fully followed; then, little by little, it was modified and changed, until ultimately all sorts of ways were used for running in the queens. The system which he now uses most of the time, and which never fails, is as follows : A colony to receive a queen has the entrance reduced to about a square inch with whatever is convenient, as grass, weeds, rags, or wood, and then about three puifs of thick white smoke — because such smoke is safe — is blown in and the entrance closed. It should be explained that there is a %- inch space below the frames, so that the smoke blown in at the entrance readily spreads and penetrates to all parts of the hive. In from fifteen to twenty seconds that colony will be roaring. The small space at the entrance is now opened; the queen is run in, followed by a gentle puff of smoke, and the sjDace again closed and left closed for about ten minutes, when it is reopened and the bees are allowed to ventilate and to quiet down. The full entrance is not given for an hour or more, or even until the next daj'. The queen may be picked from a comb and put in at the entrance with one's fin- gers, or run in from a cage just taken from the mails, her attendants running along too. The result is the same. The alien queen and workers are quite as much at home as the 'real owners of the hive. It makes no difference how long the colony has been queenless, whether just dequeened, or so long that lajdng workers have infested it. Right here two conditions should be cited, or beekeepers not familiar with bee behavior may sometimes experience trouble. Colo- nies with sealed queen-cells or with virgin cjueens will sometimes supersede the new queen, particularly if that queen has been kept from laying for some days prior to her introduction. A queen taken fresh from the combs where she is laying freely will gen- erally cause the destruction of the cells or the virgin. Different strains of bees and different colonies of the same strain behave differently toward a plurality of queens, or queen and cells. For example : A good populous colony late in September had been dequeened, and had built half a dozen or more qiieen-cells, most of which were allow- ed Jpy the bees to hatch. October 14, ten JUNE 1, 1913 days after the cells hatched, a virgin queen was removed, and a fertile queen, which had been caged for 48 hours, was run in. The next day the fertile queen was moving quietly over the combs as was also another virgin. The bees had tolerated for ten days a plurality of virgin queens, and later a fertile and a virgin queen. Of course, this is somewhat unusual, and may partly be due to the lateness of the season, breeding having stopped in most colonies. To colonies long queenless — particularly if suspected of having a virgin queen — it has been found advantageous to give a comb with eggs and young larvas just be- fore running in the queen. Queen-cells may be looked for and destroyed or not; but so far as the writer has experimented it is not necessary to destroy them, the bees attend- ing to that. If, however, the colony is pop- ulous, and the honey is coming freel3% a swarm may result if the cells are not de- stroyed by the beekeeper. More exhaustive observation is needed in this line, however, before it is wise to make positive state- ments. But with a virgin present, the giv- ing of eggs and larvae will almost invariably cause his disappearance. And it is impos- sible to ensure the safe introduction of a virgin to a colony having eggs and larva?. The loss of virgins m introducing is due either to the cause above cited or to their running out. To prevent the latter trouble it is found best to run in the virgins near nightfall, when all the bees are in, and then plug the entrance with a leaf or leaves. By morning the leaves will have wilted so the bees can get out, and matters will proceed normally. It is the writer's preference, in introduc- ing laying queens, to dequeen the receiving- colony immediately before running in the new queen. The theoi*y of the cause of the success of the " direct method " here described is this: Bees in distress, whether workers, drones, or queens, know no enemy or alien, and each one is turning to some other for " help " or food, and every bee which comes within the influence of the uproar of a distressed colo- ny seems to be seized with the same emo- tion. The bees with the queen in the cage, as soon as they are placed at the entrance, evince every sign of the same disturbance as shown by the bees of the colony, and it takes but a gentle puff to send them in. The closing of the entrance after the queen is in is to ensure the distressed con- dition throughout the entire colony, and keeping it closed for the ten or fifteen min- utes is to prevent too speedy relief. Then, too, if the full entrance were opened, the 371 bees might pour out in a mass, and cause bother; whereas by opening only an inch, few rush out before systematic ventilating is taken up. The inexperienced and the thoughtless need to be cautioned as to two things, name- ly, closing in a full colony without giving the bees room to spread into and get off from the brood, and closing in a full colony sitting in the sun in the middle of a swelter- ing day. The skilled bee-master can do both of these things; but he does not do either of them if it can be avoided. And when he does do them, he stays right on the job, keeping eyes and ears open. The in- experienced should also be warned against running virgins into full colonies and clos- ing them for over night. It is poor policy to give a virgin to a full colony at any time. It is much better practice to mate the young queen from a one or two frame nucleus. It will be well, perhaps, to mention an- other item in the behavior of introduced queens. It is not unusual to find that a queen which has been given to a colony for some time queenless — say until all larvae are sealed, or nearly ready to seal — fails to lay, even after she has been in the colony for a week or more. This is particularly so when the queen has been for a long time caged. To start her to laying give the colony a comb with eggs and larvae of various ages,, and with or without the adhering bees. In from 24 to 48 hours the queen will begin work. The writer has run in hundreds of queens by various " direct methods," and has found the system here described the best. He be- lieves it, as a whole, to be original with him. Its trial by all beekeepei-s is urged, for it seems to be an easy solution of a much- vexed problem. It may be contended by the champions of the odor theory that the shut-in smoke im- parts a new and uniform odor to the bees of the colony and to the new queen, and that the success is due to that. Tliis is plau- sible; but the same success can be obtained by agitating the colony by closing the en- trance, pounding on the hive with the closed fist until the bees are roaring, and then run in the queen. It is as uniformly successful as the use of smoke, but not quite so quick, and a bit hard on the fist. Providence, R. I. [Our correspondent has for several years believed that the odor theory for introduc- ing has been ovenvorked. He is possibly right. It is a fact that can not be denied,, that there are several conditions that must be right before successful introduction can be accomplished. We have held that a like 372 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE odor is one of the conditions; but it is not the only one. The caging- method of intro- ducing is the one commonly recommended by the commercial queen-breeders to their ■customers. It is simple, convenient, and in most cases it gives good results. In our -own apiary it rarely fails. Why do we •believe in the odor theory? We may cite ■a, few instances that will help to explain our position : The ordinary queen that has traveled from a hundred to a thousand miles in the mails acquires a variety of odors that are foreign to the inside of the liive. It is well known that a queen from the mails is hard- er to introduce than one out of the same yard, especially if the latter is introduced wliile in the height of her egg-laying from a vigorous colony. The odor of a fresh- laying queen is an important factor in suc- cessful introduction. The bees know that she has been recently at her job. Indeed, she has so much of the general colony odor that they may not know that a change of queens has taken place. In this connection we recognize that there may or may not be a specific colony odor; but we believe there is. We will refer to this later. Now, then, the object of caging a queen just from the mails, before letting her loose, is to let her get rid of the variety of odors foreign to a hive, and at the same time let her acquire a general colony odor. The ob- ject of caging is not alone for the purpose of getting the odor right, but for the pur- pose of letting the queen get out of her con- finement quietly and without disturbance. When the queen and the bees eat out the candy, she works herself into the presence of her subjects so gradually and so easily that there is no disturbance, and she begins her duty shortly as if nothing had ever happened. The object of caging then is for a twofold purpose — like odor, and entrance into the colony without disturbance. We haye recommended the caging in pref- erence to the various methods of direct in- troduction because we believe that the aver- age beginner will succeed better with them. The method described by our correspondent may be better, but requires an exact proce- dure, some details of which the average novice and some veterans might inadver- tently omit. A little way back we spoke of the impor- tance of a like odor in a colony. We have for years practiced what we call dual and sometimes plural introduction — that is to say, there may be two or more virgin queens caged at the same time in a nucleus. Virgin No. 1, caged first, will be released. If ac- cepted she will soon be laying, when she \^dll be removed and No. 2 is released. She has been in the hive or nucleus for several days; has the same odor as the queen just removed. No. 2 begins to lay, when she is finally succeeded by No. 3, and so on the process of caging and removing proceeds. While one queen is getting ready to lay, the other is acquiring the nucleus or colony odor. Now as to the question whether a colony has an individual odor. We do not know how the inmates of the hive would recog- nize that the outside bees were robbers un- less there were an individual odor to each colony. Again, in uniting, two strains of bees will often fight, sometimes utterly an- nihilating each other. A little tobacco smoke or even common smoke obscures the distinct colony odor so that all smell alike of tobacco or common smoke. Mr. Miller possibly holds the view that the disturbance arising from the use of the smoke brings on a condition of demoralization that obliterates the fight- ing qualities. We admit that on this point he may be right. Neither do we say that he may be wrong in regard to the odor theory in the general subject of introducing. Right in this connection we believe that the plan here outlined by our correspondent for direct introduction by the use of smoke is a good one; but it is our opinion that two elements — odor of smoke and disturb- ance— make up a combination that insures the success of the plan, although we admit that either one alone would be sufficient in most cases. There are several interesting facts that Mr. Miller brings out in his valuable article to all of which we give assent, except that we attach more imj^ortance to the odor the- ory than he does, and at the same time we believe that the caging, plan for the novice is the safer one to follow. The average be- ginner might make the mistake of closing up a colony over-populous on a veiy warm day, and that would make trouble. It is a little difficult to tell him when he may and may not do tliis. But almost anybody can follow the directions to lay the cage on the top of the brood-nest, and let the bees do the I'est. In this connection we believe the push-in- the-comb-eage plan of introducing would be better than the eat-out-candy plan; but we have hesitated to give it to our customers for fear that they might not get the cage properly adjusted on the comb. This is a good question for discussion, and we should be glad to hear from othei-s, — Ed.1 JUNE 1, 1913 IN MEMORIAM OF OLIVER FOSTER BY WESLEY FOSTER Oliver Foster was born in Grant County, Wis., March 21, 1857, and died March 12, 1913, at Boulder, Colo. When eleven years of age he moved with his father's family to Mr. Vernon, Iowa, where he grew up and went into beekeeping and queen-rearing while still a young man. His first swarm was hived from a stump near his home when he was fourteen. The year 1879 was the date of his first queen-rearing opera- lions and of the handling' of supplies in (juantities. About the year 1881 he invented a comb- foundation press, and he sold a good many of I hem. Mr. Doolittle wrote him not long ago that he was still using the outfit, and lliat it was doing good work. The follow- ing description of the machine is from his circular printed at the time : Fig. 1. — The object of my invention is to furnisli a very cheap machine to mold foundation directly from melted wax. The mold, AA, consists of two Ijlaster-Paris plates in strong iron-braced frames, hinged together. The melted wax is sprinkled over the right plate by drawing the fountain across and back (the fountain is now made very light). The wax pours from the row of holes as the fountain is drawn back with the handle raised. This is done with the right hand. The mold is closed with the left hand; and the surplus wax, if any, passes into the water in the tank. The fountain is left in the wax while the mold is opened and the foundation re- moved. As the plates lie in water they are constantly cooling and moistening; hence no soap or other lu- bricator is needed to prevent sticking. The operation is very easy and simple. I use the best patterns, and make perfect casts every time. One set of casts will make about 200 lbs. of foundation. Some say more. The foundation can be made thick or thin on the same mold, from 5 to 20 square feet to the pound. The very light is made by pressing small thin sheets, say 4x6 inches. A lever is used which I " throw in." The foundation is not quite so perfect in form as some ; but the bees use it just as well. Full in- structions sent with machines. The mold weighs about 20 lbs. ; whole outfit, 50 lbs. Mr. Foster also invented and patented a honey case and clamp made to be used with the fotir-beeway section. It was de- signed to give the bees the freest possible communication from top to bottom and throughout the super. Page 450 of "Lang- stroth on the Honeybee " cjuotes several paragraphs from his booklet which I am inserting here. It will show that he studied the problem of comb-honey production care- fully and was original in his findings. There should be free communication between the sections in every direction. They should have deep slots on all eight edges so that the bees can pass freely over the combs from end to end of the case, as well as from side to side, and from top to bottom. You may not appreciate the importance of this until you have tried them. Wlien we take into considera- li.in that the object on the part of the bees in stor- ing' up lujney in summer is to have it accessible for 373 winter consumption, and that in winter the bees collect in a round ball, as nearly as possible, in a semi-torpid state with but little if any motion except that gradual moving of bees from the center to the surface and from the surface to the center of this ball, we may imagine how unwelcome it is to them to be obliged to divide their stores between four separate apartments, each of which is four inches square and twelve inches long, with no communica- tion between these apartments. About 1885 he Avas carefully studying comb-honey production, and the result of his investigations were printed in a little book, " How to Raise Comb Honey," a copy of which I have never seen. If any of the readers of Gleanings have a coi^y I should like to know of it. In 1894 he moved two cars of bees — 180 to 190 colonies — and equipment to Las Ani- mas, Colo., from Mt. Vernon, Iowa. He The late Oliver Foster, pioneer beekeeper, inventor, and manufacturer. reached Las Animas in May and harvested about 70,000 pounds of extracted honey that season — the largest average per colony he ever had. This crop was also the whitest honey he ever produced, and did not granu- late in the sixty-pound cans for a year — remaining clear and liquid. This is some- thing of a point for alfalfa honey. The following spring Mr. Foster moved the rest of his bees from Ml'. Vernon, Iowa, to Las Animas. His bee-supjaly and c|ueen- rearing work was given up for extracted- honey production, and he also dropped most of his experimental work. In 1903 he sold out at Las Animas and moved to California for his health, but re- 374 GLEANIKGS IN BEE CULTURE turned to Colorado in 1905, locating' in Boul- der, where he and his family have lived since that time. During his residence in Boulder lie did more exjjeri- inenting, and some of his ideas were of much benefit to himself and to other beekeepers \v!io adopted them. Through out his whole life he had to save his strength, nev- er being very robust, and for this reason a great deal of work had to be done by hired help. He has b'^en espe- cially successful in leasing bees to men who have worked un- der and with iiim. At the time of his death he owned and was interested in about fifteen hundred colo nies of bees in three dift'erent States, five systems of out-apia- ries, and fifteen loca- tions. His net income from leased bees has been between 12 and 13 per cent for a term of about ten years. He has belonged to the Methodist Church since a boy, and has filled every position in the Sunday-s c h o o 1, from teacher to super- intendent. At the time of his death he was a member of the ollicial board of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Boulder. Eouh'er, Colo. ANNUAL FIELD DAY OF THE CANTERBURY BEEKEEPERS' ASSOCIATION N. Gidley, c stored 22 7 f New Zealand, and one of his test colonies which had pounds up to the time the picture was taken. BY K. G. WARD The Canterbury Beekeepers' Association lield its annual held day at the apiary of Vice-president R. N. Gidley.* The party went by drag about 27 miles from Christ- church. The weather was very warm, but ideal for the purpose. After being welcom- ed by the liost, luncli was partaken of and * A picture of this apiary appears on our cover for this issue. — Eu. an adjournment made to the apiary, where the gu\ernment inspector, Mr. L. Bowman, gave demonstrations in modern methods ot handling bees, and answered a number of questions on bee subjects. Mr. Gidley open- ed some of his best hives, and explained his methods of securing a large crop of honey. During- the day the president gave a short address explaining the objects of the Asso- ciation. He also spoke of the interest tak- en in bee culture by the government. The necessity for co-operation in tlie disposal of the crop was touched upon by both Mr. Bowman and the president. Mr. A. Ireland, a 233st president of the association, also gave an address on similar lines, and on his motion a resolution was passed affirming the principle of co-operation, and leaving JUNE 1, 1913 375 Field meeting of the Canterbury Beekeepers' Association at the apiary of R. N. Gidley, Lakeside, N. Z. the matter of the formation of a company on these lines in the hands of the executive of the Canterbury Association. A vote of thanks to the host was carried with musical honors, and the party left for home after spending an enjoyable day. Christchurch, N. Z. SHIPPING FRAGILE ARTICLES Some Advice from One who has had Experience BY JAY W. GEE Continued from last issve. The matter of glass in the case has been frequently mentioned in Gleanikgs. I do not believe that the use of glass makes any difference one way or the other, except to weaken the case. The average day laborer on a transfer platform has little time and no inclination to be peering through either a two-inch or three-inch hole in any of the boxes he handles to see the contents. If he be a negTo there are two things he always knows from outside appearances — shoes and whisky ; and if you don't look out. Sambo is going to have some of both. If one is compelled to ship by freight, the honey should be thoroughly and tightly packed in corrugated paper or something similar to take up shock and vibration in a very strong case; and you can not make them too strong. If you buve a carload, have your agent lend you his instruction- book governing the loading of dynamite, and brace the honey exactly the same as you would for that explosive. In switch- ing, cars get some terrible licks uninten- tionally. I have seen them hit so hard that you could see them bow up in the middle apparently six inches. Gleanings is against shipping by ex- press, I know; but as the express business will soon be in the hands of the govern- ment, perhaps Brother Root will relent. 1 am just stating my experience. At one place where I was employed for several years I handled the express on commission, having a large transfer to take care of also. After I had been there about two years 1 had meantime been experimenting with a few hives of bees, and had taken off about one hundred sections of snow-white honey. There was no local sale. In fact, I gave my neighbors all they wanted. The best price that the nearest town offered was ten cents. I had a relative in the Texas Pan- handle in a good town, who offered to take all that T would send him, and pay twenty cents. How to get forty or fifty pounds to him was the question. One thing the public as a rule does not know about the express — all employees are under bond, and held strictly accountable for the safe kee]iing of the property in their care. Every claim that the express pays js traced down to the enir 376 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUUE R. N. Gidley, New Zealaud, demonstrating his method of securing a large crop of honey. l)loyee at fault, and he is compelled to pay it. There are very few claims that are not saddled off on some one. Hence you may be sure that the express man gives attention to every thing in his care. In my two years' experience I had noticed that packages received attention in inverse ratio to the care with which they were packed. For instance, if I ran across a very strong and Avell-made box I would pitch it from one end of the car to the other; but if the parcel happened to be a frail hat-box, with the merest stiip of crat- ing around it, or a sjilint basket lined with cotton, and marked " Eggs," I handled it with the greatest care, and so did all the rest, and so they do yet. You can't turn a splint basket over; you can't pile any thing on top of it; and you have to handle it care- fully at all times. That gave me my cue. The saloon man across the street gave me several corrugated-paper cartons of the size that be used to ship half-gallon jugs in. Seven sections of honey, firmly tied to- gether with the top sides up, and just a few thicknesses of paper around, made a com- pact package that exactly fitted in the car- ton. I then sealed the carton, put some straw in a common five-cent splint basket, and put the carton in it, this also making a snug fit. Then I tied the carton in firmly so that there was no possible chance for it to woi'k loose. Finally I wrote in my ordinary Jiand, on one edge of the carton, " Honey ! handle with the same care as " — and then in large printed letters that took up the rest of the space of the carton — " Eggs." The object of this was not to deceive, but to be sure that every one handling would see at a glance the fragile nature of the contents. Of course the shipment was billed " 1 bsk honey;" and as the entire package weighed just a little over nine pounds, and comb honey, owner's risk of breakage or leakage, takes a special rate with a minimum charge of thirty-five cents, this sample cost me just that amount. I could have sent it much further for the same money. As it was, it had to go to New Orleans for the first trans- fer, then across Louisiana and Texas. After this long trip it reached its destination in perfect condition. My next shipment consisted of four car- tons placed in a box into which they fitted, with hay in the bottom and around the sides. The top was open except that wire was zigzagged across to keep the carton in, and half a barrel-hoop was used for a han- dle, also as a guard to keep the box from getting tilted over on one side or getting turned upside down. This and subsequent shipments made in the same manner also went through without a single comb crack- ed or bleeding. My recollection is that the four cartons complete weighed forty pounds, and the special rate was $2.10 per hundred, or 84 cts. for each shipment. Articles that take a special rate by express take pound JUNE 1, 1913 377 rates — that is, you multiply the pounds by the rate per hundred; and in shii^ping any thing by express one should always find out wliether the article to be shipped is entitle*] to that rate. When the parcel jjost is prepared to give the matter entrusted to it the same care that the express companies do (and that time will not be any longer than it takes the Depart- ment to work all the details out) I believe that the method I liave hei'e outlined will l)e the best for small shipments of comb honey. One can then have any number of customers in all parts of the country, and can send five, ten, or more pounds of honey with perfect safety at a saving to both pro- ducer and consumer. By then, too. Brother Root will be making or supplying baskets and cartons to the trade, so that it will not be necessary to call upon the saloon busi- ness for help. Several times while in the express busi- ness I accepted shipments of comb honey in strong boxes and in the ordinary glass-front shipping cases. One such, going only ten miles, was so injured that the contents had to be sold as bulk comb; and another going one hundred miles had leaked so that it could hardly be handled. I never knew of any that entirely escaped. The following are the essential points in handling comb honey : First, the comb should at all times be top side up, just as it comes from the hive ; second, the con- tainer should be such that all vibration is taken up; and, lastly, the package should be of a kind that all parties who handle it would know at a glance that it required the greatest care. In ease the shipment is to be made by freight, the package should be strong and well braced; if by express, in as light and fragile but as well packed a con- tainer as possible; if by mail — wait a while and let us have a little experience first. Ultimately, however, I believe we can ship by mail the same as we do by express now. STEAM FROM A TEA-KETTLE FOR THE UN- CAPPING-KNIFE BY J. L. BYER For the past few seasons we have used the steam-heated uncapping-knife, and like it very much, particularly if the honey is very thick and the weather none too warm. The picture shows my son in i^osition for operating. But with snow on the ground and a heavy cap on the operator, it does not look very " seasonable." However, it shows very plainly the outfit we have worked with which has given good satisfaction. The kettle shown is only a small one, holding A boiler for the steam-knife, made from a tea-kettle. about a quart of water. The spout was re- moved, and one from a common machinist's oil-can was soldered on instead. It was placed in a more upright position as will be seen ; and as it tapers toward the end, the rubber tube fits on closely. To keep steam from leaking around the lid of the kettle, two or three thicknesses of cheese- cloth were put over the opening and the cover then pressed in. Small as this kettle is, once filling with water will last half a day. A single-burner oil-stove is used, and this has given sufficient heat, with the ex- ception of a couple of very cool days last 350 lbs. of wax from the cappings from .'^5,000 lbs. of honey — one pound of capping wax to 100 of honey extracted. 378 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Sawing: " bee " in Ontario fall, when extracting buckwheat hone}-. But as a two-burner stove of this pattern costs less than a dollar, one can easily use the larger size if desired. The cappings are allowed to drop into the regular style of uncapping-can, and after draining well are left to be attended to in winter season, when we are not so busy. They are then either washed and the sweet water used to make vinegar, or else the capping-s are run through the capping-melter ; and the honey is then sold with the buckwheat crop the following season. The picture shows 350 lbs. of wax that we have just run through the Hatch-Gemmi] pi'ess, being the product from the cappings from 35,000 lbs. of honey. Although the cappings were pretty well drained last summer, when running them through the melter this winter we got about 600 lbs. of honey. Really it was a surprise to us as to where it all came from. It has a cooked taste; but that from the clover is not a bad honey after all. It will be used for honey vinegar in the spring, while the darker grade will go, as we have already stated, with the buckwheat honey next season. Some may wonder why we run the cap- pings through the press, and I might say that there are always some bits of comb, etc., that make it necessary to strain the wax any way, and, all things considered, we think we can make better time and a better job by putting it through the press and fin- ishing at one operation. The sawing " bee " shown in the picture is not directly related to Apis mellifica, of course, and yet indirectly the operations de- picted have had a great influence on bee- keeping. As we drive through the country, the denuded landscape makes us painfully alive to the fact that soon there will be no more of these sawing-bees, as basswoods, maples, and other trees are fast disappear- ing. Not so long ago it was the custom for nearly all the farmers to have a year's sup- ply of fuel cut at these gatherings, and often in the evening a social time would be spent by the happy young folk. Now the farmers who burn wood in our section are the exception, as coal and kerosene have replaced the wood. More than that, the coal now bids fair to be soon superseded, as ever_>"where you hear the farmers and others speaking glibly of " hydro-electric " as the coming source of fuel, light, and power in the near future. Surely we are living in a changing age; and the beekeeper, no less than the farmer and artisan, has to adapt himself to the changed conditions and gov- ern his operations accordingly. No, the young women do not cut the wood here in Ontario, as the picture might lead one to believe, but who Avill look into the smiling, liealthy faces and dispute the fact that they would be able to do so, if circumstances should ever put them to the test ? Mount Joy, Ontario. [Rendering well-drained cappings in a melter generally results in scorching the honey somewhat, owing to the fact that the JUNE 1, 1913 379 amount of honey in proportion to tlie wax is small. We are surprised to note that, out of the total weight of 950 pounds of drain- ed cappings, nearly two-thirds of the weight was honey. — Ed.] SOME CAUTION IN THE TREATMENT OF DIS- EASE BY J. M. BUCHANAN I must take issue with E. D. Townsend, pages 760, 813, Dec. 1, 15, as to the use of combs which have contained American foul brood. While it may be possible that all the diseased matter may be cut out, still it is impossible to know when this is done ; and it seems to me that it is running a great and unnecessary risk to use such combs. The germs of the disease are carried in the honey to all parts of tlie hive; and who can say, without a careful microscopic examina- tion of every cell, where these germs may bef It is not alone in the cells that have contained diseased brood, but in many cases it may be above the excluder, remote from the brood-nest. While brothei' Townsend may be able to control the disease in this manner — that is, by cutting' out the diseased portion and using the rest of the comb — still the rank and tile of careless beekeepers will undoubt- edly make a mess of it, if such practice is sanctioned by the bee journals. Like J. E. Crane, in my work as inspector I have found all kinds and conditions of beekeep- ers, and by far the majority are too igno- rant or too careless to ti'eat the disease suc- Piece of comb built in six days after a queen was introduced.- From E. G. Ward. cessfuUy bj' any of the modified methods. The best and safest way, I have found, is to recommend shaking into an empty hive and carefully burning or burying all of the frames, combs, brood, and honey from the old hive. The hive may be saved if prop- erly scorched out. USING COMBS FROM A SUPER OVER A DISEASED COLONY. Last year the editor stated that the combs from a super over a diseased colony might be used with safety. To give the matter a test I took three combs from over a diseased colony. They were fresh combs and above an excluder, and I gave them to a clean colony late in the fall. As soon as brood was started in these combs in the spring, the disease appeared, showing that such combs are not always safe. don't fool with AMERICAN FOOL BROOD. While a careful manipulator may experi- ment with European foul brood in many ways with impunity, it does not pay to " fool " with American foul brood in an apiary where there are healthy colonies. There is much danger of robber bees spread- ing the disease; also danger of the opera- tor carrying the infected honey on his hands or clothes to other colonies. I have found carbolic cloths a very valu- able aid in the inspection and treatment of diseased hives, as they are the best preven- tive of robbing that I know of. Old burlap bags are cut up and sprinkled with crude carbolic acid, and spread over the hive or over the combs that are removed. By the way, these same cloths when dry make the most satisfactory smoker fuel. It seems too bad to destroy nice fresh combs that, we fondly hope, might be clean ; but it is safest in the long run, where one is not prepared to render them entirely out of the reach of bees; and few beekeepers are thus prepared. I have burned hundreds of nice straight all-work- er combs, and buried the ashes; and, while it hui'ts my feelings to do so, still it is " good riddance to bad rub- bish." DO NOT USE MAILING- CAGES FOR INTRO- DUCING. Another care less practice that should be avoided is the in- GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE How clover is getting a spread in tlie wild lands of the Northwest. troduclioii of queens in mailing-cages, when it is imjjossible to say that the candy in the cage is not infected. I suiDpose nearly all queen-breeders are reasonably careful in using clean honey to make candy ; but there is always a risk to run; and it is easy to be on the safe side by using a clean cage, if one must use this antiquated method of in- troduction, being careful to burn the mail- ing-cage, together with the escort of bees. By using the direct method of introduction the danger of infection is avoided, and at the same time the safe accej^tance of the new queen is insured. This method has been given several times in Gleanings, and is in use by hundreds of up-to-date beekeepers, so it is useless to describe it here. In the treatment of brood disease the safest way is none too safe; and just as we should avoid the appearance of evil, we should take no chances with American foul brood, knowing that the vast majority of beekeepers are none too able to cope with the disease at the best. Franklin. Tenn. Sheep clearing brush lauds for clover crop. JUNE 1, 1913 FORMER FOREST LANDS BEING CONVERTED INTO CLOVER-FIELDS BY J. L. GRAFF Sheep and clover are working a dual part in the vast tracts of cut-over and burn-over lands in Minnesota and other northwestern territory in which the last of the lumber is fast disappearing. The promise of increas- ed fields of clover bloom has much in store for the beekeepers of that region. Sheep are being brought from Montana and other far-western ranges to feed on wild land for the purpose of clearing out the brush preparatory to the sowing of clo- ver. It is claimed that twenty ewes will clean up five acres in as many months, and leave the ground so clean that, when the frost is coming out of the ground the fol- lowing spring, seed will catch without any other soil preparation, and a good stand of clover will be secured in this way. At least two crops are cut in one season. By fenc- ing small tracts and changing the sheep from one tract to another, the patches are well cleaned and the sheep take on a suffi- cient quantity of mutton to sell for much more than they cost when they were turned into the fields. One of the illustrations shows the char- acter of the land being cleaned up. No attempt is made to take out the stumps; the seed is sown between them. In the low- er right-hand corner is shown for contrast a small section cut from a photogTai^h of one great field of clover in bloom. From this corner picture one may imagine what kind of improvement could be seen if the clover were to sj^read over the whole tract. In one county alone in Minnesota, efforts are now being made to clean up two million acres. Chicago, 111. ENTRANCE AT TOP OF HIVE AN AID IN SV^ARM PREVENTION BY I. W. BECKWITH I have read several items in the bee jour- nals, in which the writers complain that bees are adverse to going up through the queen-excluders with their loads of honey, and so deposit too great an amount in the brood-chamber, thereby crowding the queen and causing swarming. Some beekeepers call the excluders " honey-excluders," and thereby denounce their use. I thought that, as the bees object to car- rying their honey up through the excluders, perhaps they would object to carrying it down through them, and so I might take advantage of that propensity by reversing 381 the process. So when I set my bees out in the spring I closed the fly holes at the bot- tom of the hives and. moved the lids back so as to allow entrance at the top. It is best to do this, on setting them out, before they have become accustomed to going in at the bottom. If they become accustomed to using the bottom exit it will be necessary to close it tight so as entirely to exclude the light; and eyen then the bees inside will crowd that part of the liive, and those out- side will try to go in there for a month after the change has been made. As soon as a super is needed, take the escape out of the escape-board and tack a piece of queen-excluder over the hole; put it on the hive, and a super having an entrance at the front end. I prefer to have this piece of queen-excluder near the front end of the board so that the bees may find it more readily. It may be well to put the escape-board in place at first, leaving off the zinc until the super is needed. The result of my experiment was not only that the honey was stored above (only enough carried below to feed the young, the queen having unlimited room). The bees raised so much brood that they were soon very strong in numbers; and before the season was over they occupied two ex- tracting supers and then one half of the bees clustered on the outside of the hives, there not being room inside, and not one of the 22 colonies so treated offered to swarm. I wanted to divide some of them, and so put brood above for them to raise queens a la Doolittle; but they would start no queens ; and when I gave them cells nearly ready to hatch they either tore them down. or the few that they allowed to hatch soon disappeared, so I conclude that I have un- wittingly solved the swarming problem. Tliis was three years ago last summer. I then quit the bee business and left Wyo- ming for this State. I used extracting-supers, having some old brood-coinbs containing pollen. I am not sure but the bees may have stored some pol- len above; but if so it was only near the entrance to the brood-chamber. In order to give my bees more ventilation than this arrangement would allow I tacked wire cloth over the lower entrance. Rodeo, N. M. [A number of beekeepers at one time or another have used upper entrances — most of them, however, using them in connection with a lower entrance also. The objection to having but one entrance, and that at the top, is that in localities where the nights are cool there is danger of having the bees desert the supers, and also that the brood GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE may become easily chilled. Then at certain times of the year it seems to be almost im- perative that bees have an entrance at the bottom of the hive to facilitate carrying out dead bees, debris, etc. The experiment described by our corres- pondent is an interesting one, however, and in warm climates would probably be worth trying. There is no question but that, in very hot weather, an upper entrance in ad- dition to a lower one facilitates the storing of honey and saves time and bee energy. There is also somewhat less danger of swarming on account of the added amount of ventilation afforded. — Ed.] DOES THE ADDING OF EGGS AND LARV.« TO A COLONY WITH A VIRGIN SOMETIMES CAUSE HER DISAPPEARANCE ? BY JOHN H. JOHNSON Dr. Miller, p. 718, Nov. 15, asks that some one settle this question. The doctor had evidently thought the question settled long ago. And now comes one, Arthur C. Miller, unsettling it, and making the doctor trouble. At Medina, Ohio, it seems the boys thought so too, as both Mr. E. R. Root and Mr. Mell Pritchard have endorsed the giv- ing of eggs and larvae. By the doctor's confession, that policy did poorly enough at Marengo. When it comes to prescribing it for the whole country (I mean no dis- courtesy), the doctor might better say, "I don't know." If by giving eggs and young larvae I lost 8 out of 17 virgins I too, like Dr. Miller, would want the question resettled. I am thoroughly persuaded that the season and the locality have much to do with the dis- appearance of virgin queens. The treatment that may do fairly well at Marengo and Medina may not do at all at Bangor, Pa., nor at Pi'ovidence, R. I. I kept bees for about 43 years, and raised my own queens and some to sell, for about 35 years. Beekeepers then, in this section, reared queens in nuclei and practiced arti- ficial swarming to some extent. We strength- ened both kinds, even while they had vir- gins, by giving eggs and larvae. The loss of young queens was heavy, especially some seasons. I obsen-ed that the colonies that swarm naturally rarely lose their virgins. About that time I also read that the giving of eggs and larvae endangers the life of the virgin queen. That led me to decide that nature's way of having the stands eggless and lar- vaeiess at the time of the young queen's mating is the proper way. I now closely watched to see what treatment the bees gave the virgins upon their return from success- fully meeting the drone. I saw that the eg'giess and larvEeless stands very rarely balled their young queens. But in times of dearth of honey, those stands having egg's and larvae were veritable fiends at balling their newlj' mated queens. I found a few that the bees had smothered by the next morning. The dead queens were dry and glossy. Some of these balled queens were released by the bees, and became laying queens, with now and then a leg disabled or wings ragged. Most of those balled had that black glossy appearance as though they were varnished. I should like to hear from other beekeepers regarding their observa- tions. The past season I permitted 14 colonies to swarm naturally. There was a loss of one virgin among the 14. I reared in nu- clei, I think, 26 queens with a loss of two virgins among the lot, I should like to request that Dr. Miller tiy the eggless and larvaeless method an- other season, with nuclei that have virgin queens, as compared with the egg-and-lar- vae method. Bangor, Pa. HIVING A CLUSTER OF BEES FROM A RAIL FENCE BY MRS. FRANK M'GLADE After reading Mr. J. L. Byer's article, page 301, May 1, about liiving a swarm of bees on a rail fence, I thought another ex- perience along that line might be interest- ing to the readers of Gleanings. Early one morning in June a swarm of bees came out and settled on a barbed-wire fence near the beeyard. Soon after, anoth- er came and settled near the first. While I was busy hiving them, a tliird issued and settled above the two hives with which I was working. The first swarm went in all right ; but when the third had settled so near the other hives, the second was not managed so easily. I finally succeeded in hiving them, however, and went to the house. On going out in the evening to remove them to a different location I found both hives empty with the exception of a few stray bees. Any beekeeper can imagine just how I felt. We looked everywhere for them, but in vain. Two days later, however, just after din- ner, my little son started down across the back lot in search of wild strawberries. As he was crawling through a hole in the old rail fence, he almost touched with his head a cluster of bees on the rails among the briers and tall weeds. He called to me to come quickly, saying that he had found the- JUNE 1, 1913 bees. There must have been a bushel of them. I determined then and there to have them yet at any cost, even if I could find no one to help me. I realized that it would be useless to try to shake them off, so I pushed my way as close to them as I could and set a box near them. I stretched a sheet over the box down under the bees and started the smoker. I worked with those bees for three hours, but they seemed de- termined to cling to the old rail fence. I kept on using smoke, driving them towai'd the hives, which were full of old comb, as the former occupants had starved. When one hive was so full that there was not room for any more bees I moved it and put another in its place. I again smoked them toward the hive. When a woman will, she will; and after three hours of work the bees were safely in the hives. I found that they had already started a comb on the fence. I kept close watch over them until evening, when I moved them to their fu- ture stands. I wore my veil, but my hands and arms were bare, and yet I had not re- ceived a single sting. The next day I re- moved a frame and placed a frame of brood in each hive. I found later that one colony had a queen which soon began laying. That colony produced over sixty pounds of hon- ey, fall flow. The other soon raised a fine large queen, and they are the strongest colo- nies I have this spring. I had quite an interesting chase of hide and seek with them at one time. After going through a hive three times I found the queen, so large that I wondered how I ever missed her. Another time a bumblebee flew into the hive. How the bees did pounce upon it! They finally drove it out. While I find the care of bees rather tire- some work, yet it is both interesting and profitable. It is a kind of work, too, which any woman can do if she will. Hebron, Ohio. SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE MANNER IN WHICH BEES USE THEIR STINGS Is it Natural for Bees to Lose Their Stings After Using Tliem? BY WILLIAM BARNES In December 1st issue, page 778, I no- ticed observations in regard to bees sting- ing each other. My own experience has been somewhat different, for I have noticed on two different occasions sting's left in workers after being stung. One was during a case of robbing, and the other where a small swarm had entered another hive of bees. There were dozens of bees with the stings left in their thorax and sides. I saw one bee with as many as three stings lodged in it. Time after time have I watched t lie effects of a fight since, but have failed to find stings left in the dead bees. The other day (after reading the articles) a very small queenless swarm came and set- tled on a hive-cover; and as I had a very weak queenless colony I thought I avouIcI run the swarm into that hive so as to make them strong enough to be worth a queen if •they would unite; but they didn't. They declared war, and fought it out to the bit- ter end. I watched the results, and examin- ed the dead bees aftenvard, but failed to find even one bee with a sting sticking to it. I myself have never seen either a queen or drone with a sting lodged in it, but have often seen bees bluffing at stinging drones, but never really saw them do it. I agree with the editor that it is not nec- cessary for bees to lose their stings when using them against each other. I would also go further and say that I don't think it is in accordance with nature for bees to lose their stings when stinging any thing, as the loss of the sting is more often brought about by some disturbing agency other than the natural instincts of the bees. I should like to have some of you old hardened bee- keepers take the time and trouble (yes, you will have some trouble to keep from smash- ing your little pets), when working among four bees, to give them a good test in re- gard to stinging. If you see a bee (or feel it) alight on you and sting, don't move, but just grip what you have hold of and watch, wait, and suffer. You will see some funny antics (on the part of the bee) in her desire to free herself, which she will accomplish about eight times out of ten if you don't molest it in any way, something after the way in which they free themselves after stinging each other, only it will take much longer on account of having much tougher material to work on. Of course I am speaking of bees in their normal state, not those that have been stirred up to the pitch when they are just longing to throw away their lives on account of an unnatural state of things being brought about, such as dropping a frame of bees, overturning their homes, or stirring them up with your foot, etc. In regard to bees stinging animals, the latter, on being stung, will invariably start to play up, thereby angering the bees into doing their best (or worst) by leaving their stings behind, and then trying to do the trick over again. One remarkable thing in letting a bee extricate itself from your arm or whatever 384 part it has got hold of, is that the pain is most severe at first, and keeps on diminish- ing until it has freed itself, when a slight rub will let you breathe normal again, and you will hardly know that you have been stung. Strand, N. S. Wales, Australia. rO BEES LOSE THEIR STINGS WHEN STINGING OTHER BEES? My experience leads me to say they do not as a rule. I have watched them close- ly, and apparently they insert only the ex- treme tips of the sting. Now and again one appears to get the sting too far in; and when they find themselves caught they ap- pear to be panic-stricken, and make frantic efforts to withdraw the sting, with the result that they tear it out of their own bodies. If a bee stings a man, and is let alone, it Avill sometimes turn round and round; and apparently, by making the hole large enough, will be able in a short time to with- draw the sting; but I never saw them do this when attached to another bee. Ma.ior Shallard. South Woodburn, N. S. Wales, Australia. BEES do not always LOSE THEIR STINGS. I have just read what Mr. Waugh says, p. 778, Dec. 1. When I kept pure black bees in box hives they always had a lot of drones. Many times I have seen the ground covered with dead drones, and they did not have any stings in them. Since I have been keeping the yellow bees I never see any dead drones. One day last summer I was extract- ing honey when a large bumblebee got inside of the screen cloth over the window. There were also a lot of bees there. When the bumblebee would get close to one it would try to catch it, but it would always get away. I thought I would have a little fun, so I put the bumblebee in a bunch of bees. They soon covered it. They had a tussle for a few seconds. It soon got loose from all but one, which held on for some time. In a few seconds after the last bee released it it was dead, and not a sting in it. I wonder how many of the Gleanings readers can say that thei'e have been bees at their homes since 1838. The year that my mother was born in (1838), grandfather bought a colony in a box hive. He would always choose a few of the best colonies to keep, and kill the rest with sulphur. He followed this plan till his death in 1879. Mother kept up his plan till I began to care for the bees about 1885. I soon after adopt- ed the plan of robbing them, as it was call- ed. I kept this up until I began to use the frame hive in 1900, and it was the same gleanings IN dee CULTURE stock too. Mother never knew what it was to be on a place without bees, as they were brought here the year she was born. She lived in the house that she was born in till her death this year. Since I have been using the frame hive I have changed from blacks to Italians. I have read what the several writers have said about the light and dark colored bees. My experience is that the goldens are not worth much more than house flies; and the Holy Lands are worse than the goldens. Havana, Ala. J. S. Patton. On page 116, Feb. 15, Mr. Elias Fox says, " I have seen a good many queens and thousands of workers killed by being stung. I have yet to see the first bee with a sting lodged in it." Further on he states that he never was able to make a queen sting him, and asks if any one was ever stung by a queen. Now, both those thing's occurred at the same hive and on the same day in my presence, proving that, out of an infinite number of possibilities, great improbabili- ties and coincidences may occur. I had been from home two days attend- ing outyards, leaving an eleven-year-old daughter in chai'ge to cage the clipped queen and let her go again as soon as swarm returned. She reported, among others, that " 39 " had swarmed both days. This morn- ing I was at home and at work when " 39 '' came out again. As we had been having wet weather for some days prior to the last two, I hardly expected to find the queen out again, for, in addition to their reluctance to come out when they find they can not fly, there was the possibility of her being killed by a virgin; but, contrary to my expecta- tions, she was again found climbing the weeds and attempting to fly. I duly caged her and placed her on the alightiiig-board. After the return of the swarm I went over to liberate the queen, and noticed that there were no bees on the cage as usual — in fact, only about four or five bees were visible at the entrance. I removed the plug and laid the cage a few inches from these bees. Im- mediately after she left the cage one sprang at her and buried its sting in her thorax, and she was dead in 15 or 20 seconds — long before the contractions of the sting had ceased. Looking through the hive I found several ripe cells, none empty, though the mandi- bles of one young queen were plainly visible cutting its way out. The bees were dark hybrids, and very cross, so I decided to re- qiieen from a nucleus, cutting the cells out. My little girl let the young queen run into her hand, as she had often done before. In JUNE 1, 1913 385 answer to her request to let this young queen live I exiilained mj^ reasons for not wishing to perpetuate this strain, Avhen she suddenly opened her hp.nd and threw the queen in the grass, saying it had stung her, and pointed to the place where the sting had entered. I sympathized with her, tell- ing her that she had had a unique experi- ence, as queens were not in the habit of stinging any tlung but a rival. She remark- ed that it did not hurt as much as a worker did. B. B. Brewster. Greenridge Marr, Canada. In reading the Feb. 15th Gleanings to- night, page 116, I saw that Elias Fox wants to know if any one was ever stung by a queen bee. I have been. It was at the be- ginning of my apicultural experience. I had two (virgins) I think, in my left hand. There was war at once. Of course one went for the other. The other avoided the thrust somehow, and I received the sting just be- low the second joint on the second finger. It hurt severely. The queen that stung the other flew away; but I kept the other one, and I think she mated. John H. Rising. Lestershire, N. Y., March 23, ANOTHER stung BY A QUEEN. Not wishing any more increase Avhen a swarm issued, I hunted out the queen and intended to kill her. I caught one and pinched her head, and she stung me on the finger. This is the first and only time I was ever stung by a queen. She was a full- sized normal queen that had come forth with the swarm. Kokomo, Ind. Eli Robertson. GREASEWOOD OR CHICO BY J. A. GREEN Wesley Foster is evidently not well in- formed as to our desert flora, else I have been laboring under a misapprehension for many years. The plant which he illustrates and describes as greasewood on page 50 of Gleanings for Jan. 15 is not what is called greasewood here, but chico or " rabbit brush." Greasewood is one of the most common plants of the arid plains of the West, being second, I believe, only to sage brush. Here it is the principal one of the woody shrubs of the desert, giving place a few miles further west to sage brush. It is a straggling, scraggly bush, growing some- times five or six feet high, though usually not over three. The wood is very hard; and, though it has no real thorns, the tips of the twigs are so sharp that the effect is about the same as though it were thorny. The leaves are narrow and very fleshy. When young, stock browse freely on the green tips; and, though it has not a very high reputation as pasturage, it is, accord- ing to analysis, almost as nutritious as al- falfa. The blossoms, which come in early summer, are very inconspicuous, small, and yellowish-brown. The bees work on them very freely for a few days, getting consid- erable pollen and some honey, which, I be- lieve, is very dark in color, though of good flavor. Chico blooms late in the fall, resembling- goldenrod in this respect as well as in ap- pearance. The bees get quite a little honey from it, deep yellow in color, rather thin and poor in quality. It granulates veiy quickly, even in the comb; and the section of alfalfa or sweet-clover honey that is fin- ished up on chico is not very much improv- ed thereby, as the chico honey around the lower edges granulates long before the rest of the honey. The worst feature about it, though, for the comb-honey producer, is the intense yellow color of the pollen, which stains the surface of the combs over which the bees travel, besides giving them its smell, and to some extent its flavor. As this smell and flavor are very much like that of the common garden marigold, it does not im- prove the quality of the section honey which remains on the hive through its flow. On this account, manj^ beekeepers remove the supers from the hive as soon as the chico begins to bloom. After the plant is through blooming, the appearance is vciy much the same, except that the yellow of the blossoms is changed to white. This white tufted ap- pearance, somewhat like a rabbit's tail, probably accounts for its other common name of " rabbit brush." Another slight error in this article, not of much importance to a beekeeper, per- haps, though it might be to a homeseeker, is the impression which it gives that peaches are raised by the hundreds of carloads near Fruita. .Peaches are not commercially grown to any extent near Fruita, though apples are one of the main crops. The peach dis- trict begins fifteen or twenty miles east of Fruita; and it is here that hundreds of tors of the finest peaches grown in the world rotted on the ground last autumn, because, although we have one of the best organized fruit-shipping associations in the world, our system of distribution is so poor that it would not pay to ship these peaches, though thousands of people could not get any peaches to eat because the price was too high. Some time, let us hope, the produc- er and the consumer may be brought near- er together, to the advantage of both. Grand Junction, Colo. 386 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Heads of Grain from Different Fields The Starvation Cure for Foul Brood; the Impor- tance of Treating Promptly I have a copy of your A B C of Bee Culture for 1905, and I wish to ask you about an article on pa?e 170, second column, about half way down. You say, " When the bees begin to fall from the comb as if from starvation, they were fed." Does this mean that they were closed up in the hive after giv- ing them sheets of foundation for foul-brood treat- ment ? Would you advise treating for that now, or wait until after the honey-fiow ? and about what date then would you advise? I also intend to Italianize. Would j ou advise me to do this after the honey-flow too? I have five hives of hybrids. Ashland, Ky., April 21. John M. O'Dw er. [Referring to the method of curing foul brood as given in the edition of the A B C of Bee Culture which you have, we would say that our idea was to put the bees in a wire-cloth cage or in a hive having a screen top so that the bees can get plenty of air while they are kept away from the combs, and dur- ing the period where they are being starved, until they just begin to drop down. If they were shut up in an ordinary hive tight, without any special ven tilation other than that given at the entrance, they might suffocate; but nowadays we have a little more modern method of cure by which we do not have to starve the Lees at all. We let them loose on frames of foundation. We are sending you under separate cover a copy" of our booklet, " Diseases of Bees," and would refer you to the special treatment given for foul brood. Always in bee diseases of any sort, especially American or European, we would advise immediate treatment. To defer the matter until after the honey- flow would only subject your other colonies to the danger of infection; and it is better to treat when the bees are not inclined to rob than at any othei time. If the fruit-bloom is all over with you it might be advisable for you to shake your bees on to frames of foundation, as given in our booklet, along about sundown, or possibly a little later — just late enough so that robber bees would not cause any trouble. The combs themselves then should be thoroughly burned and the ashes buried. The matter of Italianizing the bees can, perhaps, be deferred to advantage until after the honey-flow. We should be very glad to have you come and see us at any time. Our apiaries are open to inspection, and beginners are always welcome, or any one else. When you come, make yourself known and we will see that a man takes you over the plant and gives you opportunity to see actual work among the bees. If you can stay long enough we will give you a chance to go out to the outyards where the men are at work. — Ed.] Another Plan for Running for Increase and Ex- tracted Honey Both I have fifteen hives of bees which I wish to in- crease to thirty. Twenty I intend to run for ex- tracted honey, and ten for comb. Will the following plan work ? When the colonies get quite strong I will give each a second brood-chamber filled with comb, or full sheets of foundation. Every few days I will reverse the brood-chambers, top for bottom. When the honey-flow comes on I will take one brood chamber filled with the heaviest frames of brood, the queen, and some young bees, and set them on a new stand, leaving the hive on the old stand to raise a new queen. I will then give each a super, I will make the change in the middle of the day when most bees are flying. I have 200 lbs. of sugar on hand. I will feed until I add the second brood- cliamber, which will be when the fruit-trees start to 1 loom, or pjrhaps before. Would it be advisable to raise some .\ouug queens and have them all ready to introduce to the hives I leave on the old stands? Troy, N. Y , April 14. W. H. Roberts. [Giving a colony an extra brood-chamber filled with empty combs or frames of foundation is correct enough in principle; but there will be no particular advantage in reversing the position of the brood chambers unless you use perforated zinc and put the queen below the zinc with the empty combs or frames of foundation. Without the queen-excluder or perforated z'nc, the queen in all probability would stay with her brood-combs whether she was in the bottom story or in the top story. She would grad ually, however, work into the other story that had the empty combs or frames of foundation, no mattei' whether it were below or whether it were on top. A much better plan than reversing the brood-combs, and which would accomplish the object which you are seeking, would be to scatter the brood — that is, after settled warm weather has come on. At the time of giving the extra hive-lody on top, remove some of tlie brood-combs from the lower hive and put them in the upper hive. Pill the spaces in both hives with frames of foundation or combs, placing the empties in alternation with the frames of brood. But be < areful not to overdo this. It would be very much better, at the start, to bring up one or two frames of brood in the upper story along with the empty combs and frames of foundation. Place the two frames of brood together. At the beginning of things it is wise not to scatter the brood too much: but when the swarming season begins and the bees feel inclined to swarm and hang out, then we advise alternating a frame of brood with an empty frame of comb or frame of foundation. As a general thing this will entirely check swarming for the time being. Your scheme of taking away the brood-chamber containing the heaviest frames of brood is correct enough, with this exception: It would be better to use only frames of sealed brood. If you effect this removal at the time when the bees are flying the heaviest, and leave plenty of young bees with the hive removed, there will not be much danger of chill ing the brood, providing the weather is warm enough at the time. Taking every thing into consid- eration we think you will find the Alexander method of making increase, recently given in Gleanings, will suit you better. See page 314 of Gleanings for May 1. Yes, you could raise young queens and have them all ready to introduce at the time of making the division; but before you raise any queens you better read the article on " Queen-rearing " in our A B C and X Y Z of Bee Culture, or in our booklet, " Mod- ern Queen-rearing." — Ed.] No Pollen-producing Plants in Bloom, a Result of the Frost In returning to my apiary from the north last week I found every thing at a standstill; but little brood-rearing was going on, and the bees were weak- er in numbers than ever before in my experience at this time of the year. I soon saw, from inspection, that they were entirely destitute of pollen, and not a speck was coming in. The bees were heavy from well-filled combs of honey which was fed to them last fall. I never had such an experience before, as pollen is always abundant here, even when honey is absent. I never had to feed flour before in my experience of more than thirty years. The bees went at the rye flour like hogs to swill. They were more ravenous over it than when robbing. My one hun- dred colonies took in four quarts each day, for a week, and stored but little of it, and the weather.too, was very cold for this season of the year. I now see that the pollen flowers are absent, and JUNE 1, 1913 387 the pollen trees and shrubs are killed from the late heavy frosts v hii h visited us in all parts of Califor- nia. The willows and cottonwoods will, no doubt, bloom later, as only the limbs are dead. Other shrubs seem to be completely killed. Lonoak, Cal. C. K. Ercanbrack. Equipment for Production of Comb Honey Dr. C. C. Miller .- — After nine years' experience with extracted honey I think I'd like to go back to the production of comb honey. Now, if you were to start over with a new outfit, what super and style of section would \ ou use ? How would you arrange the inside, of the super? What kind of furniture? Would you have two extracting lombs, one on each outside? I had thought I'd like section-holders with top-bars, then I would put the sections into the sec- tion-holders and put the foundation in afterward (full sheets). I have done so on a small scale, and in this way no foundation is ever broken loose. Does Fifty Years among the Bees give the whys and wherefores ? Mr. Townsend speaks as though he likes the T supers with two extracting combs, one on each out side. He too figures the cost of production and tries to cut it down. Battle Creek, Mich., April 27. Wm. C. Brown. [Dr. Miller, to whom the above questions were addressed, replies:] I would use the T super, and it would likely be with a ten-frame hive. Besides the T-tins, the only furniture would be plain wooden separators and little sticks to crowd between the tops of the sections to keep sections square and prevent bee-glue. These sticks are about 1/4 -inch by 3-32. I think I would at least do some experimenting with an extracting- comb at each side of the super. The sections would be 4Vi X414 xl% beeway, tilled with full sheets of foundation, top and bottom siarters. You will find twenty pages or so devoted to the subject in " Fifty Years among the Bees." Marengo, 111. C. C. Miller. Bee Paralysis or Poison ? We are experiencing a trouble here with our bees that we have never had before in this section that I know of, which is this: The bees are dying right along. It seems to be the old bees that are affected, and one would think it was caused by spraying were it not for the fact that there has been no spraying at all in this section. The brood is in fine shape, and the young bees seem to come out all right ; yet the colonies do not build up ; in fact, many of them are going back rapidly, yet practically all colonics are affected, and all yards that I know of are affected about alike, and I know the conditions over quite a bit of territory. We have never had any disease here at all, to my knowledge, before the present trouble. Some think it paralysis; but I do not think it is. I have ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture, and have made a study of bees more or less for the last twelve years, and must say that I am puzzled : but I am in- clined to think that it is caused by gathering honey- dew from the excessive amount that we have had here all the spring on pine-trees. It has been in such quantities that one could rub his hand on the grass under the trees and get them coated with the sub- stance. We have had much cool weather and espe- cially nights, many days being so cool that the bees would hardly get any flight at all ; and if I can see any difference I think we have more dead bees after the coolest weather. The ground in front of the hives is covered with dead bees ; and in some in- stances where there is grass it is even killed by the dead bees. The combs are full (in all colonies that are at all strong) of this honey-dew, and the queens are laying finely. It is now 9 A. M., and I have stopped writing long enough to run out and examine the fronts of the hives, and find fewer dead and dy- ing bees than on last Tuesday morning when it had been cooler than now. For the last day or so, say three days, is has been fairly warm, almost hot. Many of the bees are carried out alive, but sick, and hop around on the ground, sometimes living over night in this sick condition. They look swollen and slick, while the majority are dead when carried out. Rock Mount, Va., May 2. B. L. Fisher. [Notwithstanding what you say to the contrary, we should be very strongly inclined to believe that what is killing your bees is paralysis. Your prelim- inary description rather points in that direction, and the last sentence of the next to the last paragraph seems to leave no doubt of it in our minds. No form of honey-dew, nor any honey, in fact, that we have ever known any thing about, will cause the kind of malady you describe. Your bees might possibly have b?en poisoned ; but we hardly think that is prob- able in view of the last sentence referred to in the next to the last paragraph, especially where you say " they look swollen and slick." This is a very unmis- takable symptom of bee-paralysis, and, taken in con- nection w'ith all the rest you say, makes it very clear to us that there is nothing else the matter with your bees. If you will follow the directions given by Mr. O. O. Poppleton, who has had as large an experience with it as any one, as given under " Bee Paralysis," in the ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture, you wiU be doing about all that you can do for them, because we do not know of any easy and simple cure. One thing we would suggest, we would isolate all the sick colonies and locate them in a yard by themselves. We would change the queen in all the colonies, and then practice the treatment recommended by Mr. Poppleton. — Ed.] Why do Swarms Cluster Before Leaving ? On p. 502, Aug. 1.5, 1912, you give my theory as to the possible reason " why swarms cluster." I wish you would again put it before your readers, asking those who might desire to test it to report results. We have by the " wing-clipping method " a decid- ed aid in handling primary swarms; but it is the after-swarms that not only can and do make us climb, but that sometimes beat us completely; and it wouldn't hurt a bit if one more slat could be added to the knowledge our older veterans have given us on handling this problem. One day after the issuing of a swarm from a hive wherein all eggs had been hatched and all brood beyond the possibility of making into queens, I de- stroyed all the queen-cells and allowed the swarm witli a queen to hang as long as the bees would. After remaining clustered for an hour and a quarter they quickly broke; and before I got to the second fence they were ahead of me, though I was doing my best to keep up. At a distance of about 50 rods they had abruptly held up, and I was under them again; but instead of being enmassed as they had been, they were scattered ; and while I stood out in front of their line of advance for a time, on getting back to the apiary I found the swarm nicely hived at the stand from which it had come. Sterling, 111., May 6. A. B. Anthony. Bees that Would Not go Out of the Pound Pack- ages In a shipment of some half-pound lots of bees I received from Alabama there was one cage that had been placed over the brood-frames in a super with one end removed so they could escape to the brood- frames. All had escaped from cages in 24 hours; but in this one they would move back and forth to brood-frames for several days. So, upon examination I had discovered they had started to build comb in the little cage in which they came. I also may add 388 that the queens came introduced, and that this one had started to lay eges in cells of this comb. The question is, Where did they get the comb? for they could not get out of the hive in all this time, but had brood-frames with comb and honey in the hive. I have never heard nor known that bees could work over old wax, so should be pleased to have this point made clear. Downer's Grove, 111., May 6. J. Mey. [Bees can build comb while in confinement, for, in fact, they make their wa.x out of honey. As they were supposed to be supplied with it in your case they could easily build comb; but it is a very unusu- al procedure. It is not at all surprising that the bees refused to go down on the brood-combs, because, if there was a little bit of comb in the cage that con- tained a few eggs, the queen and the bees, you will find, would stay where that piece was. They would gradually, however, work down in the hive, because the capacity of the cage would become too limited in a short time. — Ed.] Cottonseed Meal Eagerly Taken by Bees On age 272, April 15, Mr. Kos Hurst suggests that Mrs. H. Millard, Feb. 15, page 131, use cotton- seed meal as a substitute for pollen instead of albu- minized sugar or rye meal. Mr. Hurst says that he has never read where cottonseed meal was fed to bees as a substitute for pollen. Bees will carry in cottonseed meal if they can get it early in the spring before there are any flowers or enough flowers to produce the amount of pollen necessary. I have seen tees working so thick in hoppers that contained dry mash for chickens that the chickens refused to eat except early in the morning and late in the after- noon when the bees were not flying. The mash con- tained a good deal of cottonseed meal, and the bees worked until they had gotten nearly all of the meal out of the mash. The best way to feed the bees the cottonseed meal is to mix it with wheat bran, half and half. Some of the bees are sure to be di-owned if the meal is fed to them just as it is. After the meal and bran are mixed, pour it into a flat box and mound it up. The mash should be stirred and mounded up every day, as the bees work it down level when they get out the meal. If the weather is favorable, the bees will soon carry in enough to fill the brood-chamber. A little honey smeared around the sides of the vessel that contains tlie mash will soon attract the bees. Brood- rearing seems to be carried on as easily with cotton- seed meal as with pollen gathered from flowers. I am sure that cottonseed meal can be used to great advantage in localities where pollen is scarce in the early spring. Here at Beeville cottonseed meal costs $1.50 per 100-pound sacks. A hundred pounds of meal added to bran as needed should supply at least 200 colonies of bees with pollen for at least one month. Beeville, Texas, May 12. C. E. Engle. What to do with Sections Containing Pollen when Grading How many cells of pollen can pass in fancy sec- tions? How many in No. 1? I use excluders, and yet I have lots of sections with pollen. I use the Danzenbaker system of comb-honey production. Here- tofore I have sold such honey to farmers at 8 cents for fancy, but it does not pay. New Boston, Mo. F. H. Thiele. [We submitted this to Mr. F. Rauchfuss, manager of the Colorado Honey-producers' Association, and he replies : ] The question of pollen in sections has never been taken into consideration when framing our rules, because in all of the experience that we have had during the last fifteen years there have been probably GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE one dozen sections found with a few cells of pollen in. For this reason it is a negligible quantity, and not to be considered; but if it were in a location where it happens often, as it seems to in Mr. Thiele's location, we would consider such as not fit to go into any thing but the No. 2 grade, no matter how well they may be finished and filled. The Colorado Honey-producers' Association, Denver, Colo., May 12. P. Rauchfuss. Sheep Not Necessary to Make White Clover Yield I agree with Dr. C. C. Miller that it is not neces- sary for sheep to pasture in white clover in order that it may be more productive. In fact, cattle are better, as they do not eat the crown out of the plant as sheep will do. Poor farming has hurt the land in this locality so far as producing white clover is con- cerned. The short rotation, advocated by the experi- ment station at Wooster, for bringing back fertility to our soil, is detrimental to white clover unless farmers sow it ; and that is what they should have Ijeen doing for years. A chemical analysis of white clover shows that it is richer in protein than almost any legume which is grown for forage. Bloomingdale, Ohio. W. B. Ralston. A Correction In describing my arrangement to get bees out of the extracting-supers, p. 230, April 1, you used a cut which I think does not make it plain. I make the box 18 or 20 inches high. This box could be tight on the sides and ends, except that the side furthest from the operator should have an opening the full length of the box, and about three inches wide in order to give air or ventilation to the bees after they slide down the chute below. Lakeville, Ind. C. A. Bunch. Removing the Queen Can as much comb honey be secured from colonies where the queen is removed as by the shaken-swarm plan ? Honeoye Falls, N. Y., Feb. 24. Gilbert Bros. [Caging the queen to prevent swarming, when running for the production of comb honey, seems to fake the life out of a colony. The bees attempt to rear queen-cells; and if a single cell is missed, a swarm will come out very soon after the virgin hatches. The methods of shaking swarms, we should say, would be much more satisfactory than dequeen- ing; and it would be our opinion that more honey could be secured. — Ed.] The Number of Bees to the Pound Will you inform me of the number of bees in a quart or a pound? If a pound, what is the space they occupy ? Canton, Mass., April 21. E. C. Brittox. [There are about 3200 bees in a quart and about 4500 bees on the average in a pound. This number, however, will vary according as to whether the bees are filled with nectar or not. A bee can carry half its own weight in honey and possibly a little more at times. If, therefore, the bees are filled with honey a proper reduction should be made from the figures already given. — Ed.] Death of Melvin Isbell I should like to have a brief notice in Gleanings of the death of my husband, Melvin Isbell, which occurred May 3. He was a veteran beekeeper, keep- ing bees since a man of 20. He also took Glean- ings, since its first beginning, and had nearly every one in good condition. He was 63. I think he kept the most bees of any one in Chenango County. Norwich, N. Y. Mrs. Melvin Isbell. JL'XE J, ll'lJ 8«d Our Homes A. I. ROOT A soft answer turneth away wrath; but grievous words stir up anger. — Prov. 15:1. But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. — Matt. 5:39. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. — Matt. 10: 34. It is now springtime, and everybody is making garden more or less. I do not know but I might say likewise that almost every- body is keeping chickens " more or less." Well, the chickens are all right and the gar- dening is all right. Both are commendable. But they do not work well together. If the mother hen is penned up and the little chicks are allowed to run through the gar- den, they will, at least for a time, do good and not harm; but if you do not look out, the first you know, even small chicks will get into the seed-beds and not only dig them up but make things look sadly untidy. I have sometimes thought that plants be- come discouraged and give up, just as hu- man beings do. After a chicken has snip- ped off the foliage and scratched the dirt off from some of the tiny rootlets, the plant will of a sudden lose its vigor and energy. Well, what I have in mind tins morning, while we are getting a gentle May shower, is the matter of having one neighbor have a choice garden and the adjoining neighbor some chickens, and trouble comes. Not all of (he chicken folks and garden folks are professing Christians; and some of them that are seem to forget their religion when tlie chickens get across the boundary line and dig up the plants. I believe it is get- ting to be more and more the fashion to dis- pense with fences; and I always rejoice to see this. We of the United States, espe- cially the Christian people, have no money to waste on needless fences any more than the gTeat powers of the earth have millions to waste on needless " men-of-war." May God hasten the day when men shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning-hooks. Of course the chicken man (or chicken woman) must have fences. But the neat tidy fences made of poultry-netting are not at all offensive nor out of harmony with beautiful surround- ings. In towns where neighbors ai'e close bv on all sides, I would recommend fowls that do not fly over fences, or having coarse cheap netting overhead also. Let us remember what my old friend Aunt Mar- garet said when her chickens had a habit of getting into our front yard. She said in substance, if not in exact words, " If chick- ens make my neighbors to offend, I will keep no chickens while the world standeth," And she offered then and there to sell me all the chickens if I wanted them. As I did not want them, she disposed of them soon after. In looking back at the transaction ] feel sorry I did not show my Christianity by offering her a poultry-netting fence, and telling her to keep her chickens, for she was a poor woman and they were conducive to her health in getting outdoors as well as earning a scanty liveliliood. Oh dear me! I am afraid I have many times in the past forgotten my religion and forgotten that cloak of humility that we who are followers of the Lamb should wear day and night. I keep thinking of my talk about the boys and the automobile in last issue. I once thanked a good Methodist brother for his excellent sermon, and told him it had done n^.e a lot of good already. He surprised me by replying something like this: " Mr. Root, that sermon has done me good too; and I firmly believe that it always does every one good who preaches in his own way the gospel of Christ Jesus." There is a little more I did not tell about that automobile transaction. After the boys had blocked my way in going to the pray- er-meeting, on my return home I went to the postoffice to get my evening mail. Well, those boys I have spoken of have a fashion of hanging around the postoffice. I wonder if that is true of your postoffice, say in the evening, between eight and nine o'clock. AVhile 1 was in getting the mail out of the drawer I heard an automobile making an awful racket as if it were going to tear itself to pieces. I rushed out; and both levers of my machine were turned up to the highest speed, and flie engine was going like a young tornado. As quickly as possi- ble I threw the levers back. Two men stood close by, talking as indifferently as if that were the way automobiles always do. I asked if they could tell me who started my machine in that way. One of them said a boy ran up and pulled the levers, and then ran back in the darkness. Then the men went on talking. I had been sorely vexed an hour before, and now my patience and Christian spirit were most severely tried. I was not only vexed with the boys who took such a liberty, but with the two men who seemed so indifferent. In fact, I was a good deal stirred up, and I do not know but I almost felt " ugly " toward everybody. I thought the two men might have stopped the boy who pushed the levers back when they saw how the engine was *' racing." 390 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Now, it looks from the above as if I were complaining about Bradentown or Bra- clentown. men and boys, especially the two I have mentioned; but 1 am not. The fault was all my own. I had stupidly, if not de- liberately, brought all that kind of trouble on myself. I had forgotten my Bible, my religion, and the beautiful texts at the -head of this talk. Now, friends, before getting up and remonstrating, listen to me a little. If those boys had been in the habit of med- dling with everybody's property, and an- noying other people as they annoyed me, it would have been a different matter indeed. Public safety and well-being would have demanded, without question, that they should be taken in hand by the authorities of the town. There is a vast ditference be- tween a quarrel — that is, between two per- sons— and one between criminals and right- eous laws. Let me illustrate. At that pray- er-meeting I have mentioned, neighbor Rood spoke of a couple of farmers who had a quarrel, Avent to law, and kept it up, year after year, over a line fence. They wasted several times what the strip of land in con- test was worth. Finally one of them sold out. A Christian man "took his place. As soon as the neighbors told him about the jangle that had made hard feelings and stirred up the neighborhood for years past, he went over to see his new neighbor. After the quarrelsome man had stated the case the new neighbor said, " Look here, neigh.- bor A. I am a man of peace. Friendly relations with all my neighbors, especially those whose lots adjoin my own, are worth more to me than the little strip of land. I am willing you should put the fence entire- ly over on my side ten feef if that will be satisfactoi-y." What do you suppose happened"? Why, that same person who had been for years so tenacious for ei^ery inch of ground justly his due — the maii who had lain mvakc nights in thinking it over — replied some- thing as follows : " Why, my good friend, if that is the sort of man you are. I do not propose to be outdone in liberality, or. as you call it, the Christian spirit. Put it ten feet over on my line, and I will not say a word." I do not need to add that a pleasant ad- justment of that long-time quarrel and law- suit was soon brought about. You see this thing is contagious; and, thank the Lord, a good spirit is contagious as well as a bad one. Here in our town of Medina a man bought a house, and in moving it on to his lot the limbs of some shade-trees were in the way. But the owner of the trees forbade him mutilating so much as a single twig. The house stood still in the middle of the street, and both parties consulted attorneys. The one who owned the trees neglected his work, and stood out in the street to prevent dam- age to liis property. His wife and children joined in, and the neighbors took sides, etc. As one of the parties was in my employ I felt sure I could induce him to be reason- able. What do you think? 1 could not budge him an inch. He said if it took every copi^er he was worth he was going to have his rights. He had always been a quiet, peaceable man before. I never heard of his having trouble with anybodj\ I can not remember now just how it was settled. If I am correct, I think the pastors of two churches helped bring about a pleasant ad- justment. And, by the way, it occurs to me right here that, when you get into a place like that, your pastor will be better (and cheaper) counsel than a lawyer unless, in- deed, you engage a Clmstian lawyer; and may the Lord be praised that in these latter days there are getting to be quite a number of such lawj'ers. I hope they are getting 2)ay for giving Christian counsel as well as the other kind. Now, friends, what about our last text? How could the dear Savior who gave us the beatitudes counsel the use of the sword? Why, I struck upon the point exactly when I asked neighbor Rood if the boys were meddling with machines belonging to others besides myself. If the trouble that comes up is between you and your neighbor, never mind the loss of a few cents or a little strip of land. Do almost any thing for peace, and head off ugly feelings. But if some- body is making counterfeit money, trans- gressing the law, and injuring the commu- nity at large, by all means have him arrest- ed. If he is conducting a saloon, and en- ticing the boys (and oftentimes the gii'ls), his work is even worse than that of the counterfeiter, for he is not only robbing hu- manity but damaging both soul and body. Enforce the law to its utmost limit. Let there be no compromise until he gives up the business. Sometimes Satan tempts us to think that letting a man go on with his meanness is encouraging him to keep on do- ing so; but the petty quarrels and misun- derstandings seldom come under this head. There are many people (perhaps I am one of them — yes, I am sure I am, for I have illustrated it) who are liberal and kind, but praiseworthy in perhaps every respect, but who, when they once get stirred up, get into Satan's toils and show the worst kind of disi^osition. Thej' can not bear " having the fur rubbed uji the wrong way," as it is sometimes expressed. The Bible is ringing with injunctions to bewai'e of the evil one JUNE 1. 1913 who goes about seeking- to stir up mischief and strife; and yet we forget — yes, e\en the best of us at times — and let the wrong spirit gain a footing. Instead of answer- ing back when sorely tempted, let us remem- ber who it was that said, " Pray for them that despitefull}- use j'ou, and unto Mm that smiteth thee on one cheek, turn to him the other also." We are not only to keep quiet and steady- under the fire of untrue and un- just words, but we are to be cool and steady, even if it should come to blows; for the same dear Savior says, '' Your reward shall be great, and ye shall be called the children of the Highest." Again, will it answer to put these precepts into practice in business? Let us remember that beautiful beatitude that says, " Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." After the meek have inherited the earth, what is there going to be left for the gTeedy, the unscrupulous, and the cjuarrelsome ? And, finally, if you think a Clii'istian spirit will be a losing- business in the end, read the promise away back in the Old Testament : " Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight." Health Notes THE AMERICAN HOOKWORM, ETC. A good friend of Gleanings calls my attention to the fact that, since I have been spending so much of my time in Florida, it might be well to say something about the hookworm in the South. The JRural Xeic- Yorker for Dec. 14, 1912, g:ives a very full description of this pest of humanitj', and I wish it were possible to give it entire in Gleanings. When I first commenced spend- ing my winters in Florida, seven or eight year ago, Mrs. Root and I were both shock- ed to find that out in the rural districts at some of the homes there wei'e no outbuild- ing-s of anj' sort. At one place, where there was quite a family of young people, includ- ing 3'oung ladies, I was told the " men folks" were expected to go out among the bushes on the north side of the road, while the south side was understood to belong- exclusively to the women folks. I am glad to tell you, however, that Florida has been coming forward by leaps and bounds in sanitary matters and sanitary precautions. The hotels and dwellings — at least to a great extent — have as convenient and up-to- date outbuildings or closets as we have here in the North. Well, now, to get back to our subject. The hookworm, if permitted to live, will annoy and oftentimes even destroy innocent boys and girls because of this xevy back- woods (and I might almost say heathen) fashion of having no outbuildings. Just think of a country schoolhouse Avith boys and girls going everywhere without any such sanitary conveniences as I have been speaking- of! Permit me to say right here, if the disease £»r parasite exists in the part of Florida where we are located, I have not heard of it. Manatee Co. has never had a saloon; and, God helping us, it never will have. But what have saloons to do with the hookworm? Just this: Where there is pov- erty, suffering, and want, the women and children will have to go without the com- forts of life. The eggs of these terrible " animals " are laid inside the body, and pass out with the excrement. If they get into the damp warm soil they will get on to the bare feet of the ureliin and get through the skin just as the redbugs and sticktight fleas do. Once inside, thej^ make their way quickly to the intestines, where they are veritable bloodsuckers. Where the children plaj- in the dirt, these eggs or mi- nute worms get into the mouth through the food or drink. The children are stunted in growth and dwarfed in intellect from a lack of blood — blood-sucked by a hookworm in the raw intestines. Thanks to science and medicine, however, they are easily banished. Thymol in the hands of a competent phy- sician puts an end to them; and a dose of Epsom salts cleanses the patient from the dead worms and eggs. Now, am I not right in saying that, Avhen we banish the saloons, we shall do away with the hookworm large- ly? and when all the public places, and even every little home, is taught up-to-date sanitation, the hookrvvorm will disappear. Just one thing- more: The Rural Xew- Yorker tells us that the hookworm is a near relative to the gape-worm in chickens, the colic-worm of horses, and the kidney-worm of hog-s, and the dangerous trichina, which, several years ago, was so common in pork, especially ham. starving AMERICA. The above is the title of a brand-new book put out during this year by A. W. McCann, who has been in close touch with Prof. H. W. Wiley in regard to his crusade against impure food and food jjreserved by means of injurious chemicals. I presume our good friend T. B. Terry will smile when he sees the book I am going to send him; 392 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE for although the author starts out from an entirely different direction he ends up very close to where Terry has been working and pleading. He says in the preface that, while many books and much thought have been given in regard to the vegetable and animal kingdoms for food, but little has been said or touched on in regard to the need of our physical bodies from the mineral kingdom. The book from beginning to end (it contains 270 pages) is a vigorous protest against white bread, white flour, rice with the most valuable element about it left out, and the rejection in other ways of the very things that God intended we should use for food. Aside fi'om his strong indorsement of whole wheat (every bit of the wheat) he says we need also to eat the skin of our baked potatoes; and in order to get the minerals that our bodies are often starving for, we should try to have witli every meal a large proportion of "uncooked " food. Of course he urges a diet largely of fruit. While he does not enjoin or recommend a vegetarian diet exclusively, he says a little meat for the growing child once a week will be suificient, and perhaps twice a week for adults. Let me make a couple of extracts : Every time we boil a potato and throw away the water in which it is boiled we throw away potas- sium. The despised Italian fruit-vender at the street corner is a noble American institution. By his dis- play of greens and fruits he constantly tempts min- eral-starved bodies to eat these raw and life-giving carriers of mineral salts. No one knows what a blessing the Italian has brought into the hurried, unthinking, ignorant land through his fruit-stand. By the way, I have often assured Mrs. Root that, when we soak the potatoes over night, and throw away the Avater, we are wasting the best part of them. I have all my life preferred potatoes baked whole; and the most delicious part of a baked potato, when properly baked, is, for me, the skin. In the same way, I want my sweet potatoes baked without peeling, and also my dasheens. Before another year has passed I think a large lot of us will be made happy with dasheens. Where I have good nice apples, I have for years been eating them core and all. The seeds seem to me to supply sometliing that nature calls for. The book enumerates the minerals that make up the composition of the whole hu- man body. But the author assures us we can not get these at the drugstores. They must come from the use of the fruits and vegetables that God prepared for us and intended us to use. The book is going to be a heavy blow at a large class of our manufacturers of food products. They not only throw away the valuable part of these products, but substitute benzoate of soda and a lot of other injurious drugs as pre- servatives. The manufacturers of these prepared foods, and especially the injurious prepared foods, are making so much money in the business that they were able to throw out Dr. Wiley, even when he was proving himself to be a world-wide benefactor to (he whole human race. The book is now published by The Geo. H. Doran Co., 38 West 32d St., New York. At the present writing we are not able to give the jDrice; but I wish that every man, woman, and child could read it. Below is what my good friend W. P. Root had prepared for a review before I liad got hold of it. AN EPOCH-MAKING BOOK. One of the most important contributions to the subject of healtli is a book called '' Starving America," written by Alfred W. MeCann, Member Vigilance Committee of the Associated Advertising Clubs of Amer- ica. It tells why fifteen million children are physically defective; why 250,000 chil- dren die annually in this country; why we l^ay one-fifth as much for drugs as for foods; why 130,000 surgeons and doctors work day and night, etc. The book has 29 chapters, among which may be mentioned "what minerals do;" "white-bread starva- tion ;" " candy, ice-cream, and other foods;" " procession of little white caskets;" " meat- eating insufficient." It is out of the question to give here even a summary of the writer's startling expos- ures of the deleterious articles sold to chil- dren; and the wonder is that more of them do not die instead of stopping at 250,000 a year. The author makes a fearful ar- raignment of many common articles of food, some of which are not tabooed by even the pure-food law of 1906. He says that Easter eggs are made of stearic acid, carpenter's glue, glucose, coal-tar dye, anri soajistone. Licorice pellets are made of lampblack, carpenter's glue, and glucose. Baked beans are coated with shellac. Easter rabbits and raarshmallows are made of carpenter's glue, glucose, coal-tar dyes, and ethereal flavors, Easter chicks are made of carpenter's glue, glucose, coal-tar dyes, and ethereal flavorings. Candy marbles are made of coal-tar dyes, glucose, ethereal flavoring, and soapstone. As an adulterant, glucose seems to be in universal use; and, in fact, one would infer that groceries and drugs are all sold from the same shelf. In regard to food, the book is about JUNE 1, 1913 393 equally divided between " thou shalt not eat thereof" and "thou mayest freely eat;" and in regard to the eorieetness of the writ- er's conclusions there can be no doubt. Beekeepers will be pleased to note in this book the high eslirnale the author seems to attach lo the use of honey. On page 181 he sa^, s : " Honey, sap-maple syrup, and old-fash- ioned molasses, with unrefined cane sugar, contain the tissue salts of the cane, tree, and flower, the iron and calcium that nature put there. Such forms of sweets are natu- ral and good. Candy prepared from them is good candy for the child." On page 184 he recommends for break- fast, among other tlungs, " whole-wheat bread, sweet buttei', and honey." On page 186 lie prescribes the same for dinner. On page 221 h.oney is given as a prominent ingredient in making ice-cream. If the recommendations of Mr. McCann were to be adopted by all the people of this nation it would result in a complete revolu- tion in our mode of life, and a still greater one in our mode of gastronomic suicide. See also the following from the publish- ers : The interest aroused by Mr. McCann's exposure of adulterated foods and their disastrous effect on the civilized races promises to find expression in reforiu legislation in the very near future. Mr. McCann has been personally interviewed by Governor Sulzer, of New York State. Miss Kate Barnard, of the Charity Commission of the State Board of Oklahoma, has already prepared a scheme of child nutrition which is shortly to become a part of the State scheme of education. There is every sign that the notice attracted by this book is only now at its beginning. Those who are nearest in touch with Mr. McCann and his propaganda prophesy that his book will work a revolution in child culture, and that his principles will have to be incorporated in future courses of medical training. New York, Feb. 17. George H. Dor.\n Co. Later. — Here is what Terry writes after receiving tlie book : Dear Mr. Rout : — The book, Starving America, ar- rived safely, and I thank you very much for it. It is really quite wonderful how nearly his teachings agree with what I have been writing for past ten J ears. He gives the inside of adulterations, food pre- servatives, etc., to an extent that makes one shudder — and all done to make more money for a few by robbing the many oi money, health, and even life. Thank God that there are a few things which I can eat safely, such as baked potatoes, home-ground wheat, apples, oranges, lemons, bananas, berries, and nuts. We have been buying seedless raisins, and I believe they are all right. But last time I was in the city I saw " bleached " ones offered for sale, and people buying them because they looked so nice and white. But no sulphur-treated goods for me. Many of the statements in the book are startling, such as that all New Orleans molasses contains sul- phurous acid. What a great work there is yet for such as you and I, who really want to be helpful to the people! Most kindly yours, Hudson, O., May 8. T. B. Terr\ . POISONING THE BABIES, NOT ONLY AFTER THEY AI;E LOIiN, BUT BEFORE THEY ARE BOr^N. We may rejoice that the whole wide world is waking up in regard to the matter of looking after the health and comfort of our children, esijecially the babies; and one can well contemplate with amazement and astonishment tlie indifference with which our nation and other nations treat the mat- ter of permitting cigarettes to be manufac- tured and sold. Read the following from a good friend away off in New Zealand: Dear Friend A. I. Boot: — The attached clipping from the Dunedin Evening Star will be of especial interest to you when I inform you that Sir Robert Stout is New Zealand's Lord Chief Justice — a strong advocate of " no license," and a Prohibitionist — one who, before he occupied his present position, filled many important political positions, Mosgiel, Otago, N. Z. Wm. Chas. Brown. " What number of cigarettes do you think were sold in New Zealand last year?" asked Sir Robert Stout at the Brotherhood recently (says the Taran- aki Daily News). Answering his own question, he gave the quantity at 794 millions. Estimating the population of the Dominion at a million, and not including all the women and children and the men who do not smoke, one could, he added, get an idea of the prevalence of the habit among smokers. " Look," he remarked, '-' at the enormous waste, in- dependent of health, and yet it is totally unneces- sary. It is affecting the power of our young people Why, in America, in many of the best companies, if they find their men smoking cigarettes they tell them they are not required. They do not look upon it on sentimental grounds, but because of efficiency. Cig- arette-smoking tends to make our boys inefficient, and it is the efficient race that is to survive." Con- tinuing, Sir Robert said that, happily, the cigarette habit was not yet prevalent among womenfolk of the Dominion. Instancing the bad effect it would have on them, he pointed out that in certain parts of Belgium and France the death rate of infants was enormous. It was due to the fact that their mothers smoke cigarettes while nursing their babies. The doctors had proved the cause of the mortality by finding the narcotic in the blood of those who had died. Concluding, the speaker pointed a warning finger to the fact that, if the habit were not checked, the race would become inefficient. New Zealand could talk about its climate and what not; but it would be unable to fight the battle of nations if the habit were allowed to hold sway. " THE HIGH COST OF LIVING," ETC. I have read T. B. Terry's book on how to keep well and live long. It is certainly very interesting, very practical, and, if heeded by all, would solve the question of high-priced living. If we all lived as Terry claims he does, every thing in the eating line would be a drug on the market, with the possi- ble exception of fruit. Terry does not eat in a whole day as much as almost any boy ten years old will eat at one meal. Most kids want three meals a day too. We are a nation of 80 million people, and if we should cut out 160 million meals of one pound each, it would mean the bankruptcy of our nation. The high cost of living is all a bugbear any way. It is nearly one-third less now than it was in 1870. We have no ground for "kicking" if we spend our mcney fuoli.slil., . If a man can not make a good 394 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE living, and lay by a nice little snug sum for old age or a rainy day at this very time he lacks all the true principles of frugality. It is only the penny wise and pound foolish in our herd that suffer at this time. Their habits seem to be quite popular. They " kick " because milk is selling for eight cents per quart, which is below cost, but never " kick " at the price of poor whisky at ten cents per drink for a dozen or more friends at one time. I never could see why our saloons have more generous friends than our good milkmen or grocers who sell close and live frugally for a life time, and then do not die rich. It's the saloonkeep- ers who die rich. Most inconsistent is man, any way; so, what are we going to do about it? Brewster, Wash., Dec. 14. V. W. Clough. The following from T. B. Terry, in the Practical Farmer, I heartily endorse, espe- cially that part about the average city " specialist." Our readers may recall that I wasted quite a few dollars on " treat- ments." HOW WOMEN CAN SAVE MANY DOLLARS. Women pay out much money for doctors and drugs. We want to help our readers to save this to buy more of the comforts of life with. A dollar saved is as good as one earned. One of our readers, a woman of 48, has had several spells of ill health. She went to a "well-known specialist" in a city for advice. He told her that she was suffering from auto-intoxication. In plain English this means that she is self -poisoned; that there is an excessive amount of poisons in her system, coming from wrong habits of life. He gave this sister medicine, and wanted her to remain with him for four months at considerable expense for " treatment." She at once wrote to us to get our advice about this. He told her not to eat any " fruits, sweet potatoes, corn, and lots of other good things that I am fond of. He said they brought on my troubles. My tongue is coated, bowels sluggish, and bad taste in mouth in the morning. Do you advise me to stop taking this man's medicine?" Well, what the doctor said about your condition is probably correct. But his plan of "treatment" would transfer considerable money from your pocket to his, and do you no good that you can not get at home. Yes, I advise you to throw the medicine out where even the chickens can not get it. By simply changing your wrong habits of life, nature will cure you at no expense, practically, and you can stay cured. Your tongue will then be clean, breath sweet, and you can get up in the morn- ing feeling splendidly. The first thing to do is to eat, drink, and exercise so as to cause bowels to move loosely two or three times a day. It will take some time, but keep right at it until you do. Pardon me ; but the straight truth is that the bad taste in mouth and coated tongue come largely from filth in the blood reabsorbed from constipated bowels. Nature sends this filth into one's mouth, where it can be tasted to give plain notice that the main sewer of the body is clogged and needs immediate attention. Having this matter right, be careful to furnish your body with proper air, water, sleep, and food. Then, in a word, you will probably gain by eating less, especially of protein-furnishing foods, and chewing more. High-pressure Gardeningr SEED POTATOES; HOW TO GET THEM, READY TO PLANT, BY OCT. 1, DOWN IN FLORIDA. I have already mentioned the difficulty of finding seed potatoes ready lo plant when we first reach our Florida home, say along the last of October. So far there does not seem to be an^^ of the seedsmen or anybody else down in Florida who is prepared to furnish such potatoes, nol withstanding the best time to grow potatoes in Florida — that is, in order to have new ones about the tirst of the year — is in October and November. A good friend of mine whose former home was in this (Medina) county tells me how lie manages it. If I am correct, he usually makes a pretty good thing of it in growing- new potatoes when nobody else has them. He sends us the following in regard to his manner of doing it. Mr. Root: — I see in Gleanings for April 15 that you have had trouble in raising early potatoes in Florida. For several years I have liad potatoes raised for me in Medina, and shipped the first of Septem- ber, so I would get them about Sept. 15, take them out under a tree or other shady place, spread them out not over two deep, cover them with grass or old sacks, throw a few bucketfuls of water on them, look at them every day or two to see that they do not get dry. They will sprout. I plant them about Oct. 1, and have new potatoes for Christmas. Potatoes should be planted in Ohio so as to have them get ripe in August ; and when dug they should be spread out in a cool place to dry, then put in barrels and shipped. West Palm Beach, Fla., April 28. J. N. Parker. SWEET-CLOVER GROWING IN FLORIDA NOT A Dim- CULT MATTER AFTER ALL. Mr. A. I. Root: — I am now a subscriber to Gleanings, and have been, off and on, for a num- ber of years. I am interested in all its contents, especially your department ; and, contrary to the usual custom, as soon as received I begin its read- ing at the back to see what A. I. Root has to say. I am always interested in the different topics you discuss — particularly sweet clover. This has inter- ested me from the beginning. In the fall of 1910 I came to Florida, and located at Taft, Orange Co., seven miles south of Orlando. The same fall I sent to your firm for a pound of white-sweet-clover seed and the " Clover Book." Both seed and book came to hand promptly. The seed was not opened until last December (one year later), when my good wife planted two 30-foot rows of it. The seed was drilled very much thicker than necessary, using for fertil- izer Canada hard-wood ashes and " cowchips." It came up very thick, and made a growth of 2^ to 3 feet in height. Had less seed been used it would have grown taller. It matured the seed ; and where it grew the ground is now thickly set in young clo- ver. Last week (December 26) we di'illed us a 100- foot row of the Root seed, and it is already coming up nicely. We have had this seed on hand 2 V2 years. It speaks well for its vitality. It may be of interest to you to state that we live in the flattest kind of " flat woods " — raw scrub palmetto, and on this kind of land this clover grew. I sent quite a bundle of the clover to Mr. M. K. Van Duzor, who was then editor of the Messenger at Orlando, Pla. ; also a little write-up on sweet clover. I am prompted to ti'espass upon your time with tliis statement, owing to your recent reference to sweet clover in a late issue of Gleanings, saying it had failed to grow at your Bradentown home ; and also a statement recently by another writer, JUNE 1, 1913 395 that sweet clover would not mature seed the first year of growth. With the compliments of the season to yourself and sweet clover, may you both " live long and prosper." Taft, Fla., Dec. 13. I. A. Woelby. My friend, we are exceedingljf obliged to .you; but I can hardly understand how it is that on soil so near by, and so similar, we liave had so many failures. When I first came here T made a little piece of ground very rich, and planted the alfalfa and sweet clover side by side. The alfalfa came up and grew quite rank; but the sweet clover, although it did come up grew only a few inches high and never amounted to any thing. Since that, I and my neighbors around here have tried sweet clover year after year, and we have not been able to get a stand even after the seed germinates. A neighbor of mine tried liming the soil very heavily, but with no better results. The writer of the above letter enclosed the following newspaper clipping in regard to sweet clover in Kansas: The discovery has lately been made that a plant which grows in and around Kansas City with the rankness of a weed can be turned into vast wealth. The plant is sweet clover, which, heretofore, hag been classified -with scores of volunteer plants as fit for no good purpose. On vacant lots, in parkings, in back yards, this plant grows luxuriously in Kan- sas City, and perhaps is the most familiar of volun- teer vegetation. Lately stockmen have discovered that it is " pra&tically as good as alfalfa " as a food for stock ; that it is drouth proof, and resists ex- treme cold; and ranchmen and farmers in western Kansas are beginning to plant it and reap great profits from it. They are paying $10 a bushel for the seed in western Kansas now. Recently E. G. Finnup, of Garden City. Kan., thrashed nine hundred bushels of the seed, and ie getting from $8 to |10 a blushel for it. Mr. Finnup recently said that sweet clover is just as good as alfalfa for live stock; that it makes an earlier pasture and a later pasture than alfalfa, and does not bloat the cattle. It stands the dry weather and the colder weather better than alfalfa ; and where there is ground that is worn out it is the best and cheapest known fertilizer to renew the soil. The best results, Mr. Finnup said, came from fall sowing. The Kansas State Agricultural College grew four or five acres of sweet clover this year on the poor- est land on the college farm, and it yielded three tons to the acre. This was as large a yield as that made by alfalfa grown on better soil. The agricul- tural college endorses the statement that sweet clover is more indigenous to Kansas soil than alfalfa, and that it is one of the best of fertilizers. The college is encouraging its growth in western Kansas. It is said that the principal objection to sweet clover as a food for stock is that it has a bitter taste ; but when cattle cultivate a taste for it they begin to relish it. In planting, the preparation of the ground is similar to that for alfalfa. About forty pounds to the acre is the amount usually sown. The plant is an annual, or, in part, a biennial - — -it may start one year and seed the second, when it dies. In waste places it seeds itself, and the plant is renewed from year to year. Many agricultural journals are discussing the newly discovered sweet clover, and take the position that a new contribution has been made to agricul- ture. Some of these journals say that experiments have shown that there are objections to sweet clover as a hog pasture. The roots of the plant appear to be especially palatable to hogs, and their tendency is to " root up " the sweet clover. Ringing helps con- siderably in obviating this trouble. Many of the experts are encouraged to believe that very soon this plant, which heretofore has been scorned as a weed, may develop into a source of great farm wealth in Kansas and States where for- age crops are of big value. — Kansas City Star. THAT LUTHER BURBANkC?) "SOCIETY." We clii5 the following from the Rural N ew-Y orker : The Luther Burbank Society is still working on that devoted band of " 100 life members." Nearly every day we hear from people who have been solic- ited. The thing that nearly lands these friends is the thought that they are fo be associated through life with such people as Helen Gould and others of the rich and great. There is a list of notables who have already enlisted for life under the Burbank banner. One of our people saw the name of John Wana- maker in this list, so he wrote for further informa- tion. This is what he received in reply: I regret to say tliat I do not know any thing- about the I.n- ther Burbank Society in ciuestion, except what is printed, and that I was elected an Ilonnrary Life Member, which did not reiiuire any dues to be paid, and therefore I have not jiaid any. Very truly. John Wanamaker. It is a good chance that all the other life members e.\cept Mr. Luther Burbank would tell much the same story. Our only comment is that it seems a shame that public men will permit their reputations to be cut up and used as '" sucker bait." These in- vitations are going to a class of people who really think they can help their business materially by as- sociating as "life members" with these great men I IS IT TRUE THAT A " CLUCKING HEN " IS JUST RIGHT FOR THE TABLE ? Tlie San Francisco Examiner has an arti- cle to this effect. The writer says a cluck- ing hen is always fat — in fact, that she weighs a pound more than at any other time, because she puts on flesh to prepare for the long siege of sitting. It has also been suggested that she will not lay any more egg's for perhaps two or three weeks. Now, I somewhat question whether the above is true;' and I wish our poultry friends would give their opinion in regard to the matter. My experience seems to have been that a clucking hen is generally a pretty good layer. If she is broken up promptly she will soon be laying ag-ain, and so on. I have two Rhode Island Reds in my Flor- ida home that commenced to lay when the chicks were about three weeks old. One of them never sat at all. I gave her a lot of chicks from the incubator the very morning she began to cluck. She took excellent care of her chicks, and before they Avere quite three weeks old she would excuse ( ?) herself and go off and lay in a stolen nest. Si^n did this for quite a spell, still taking excel- 396 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE lent care of the chicks. This article I have mentioned says, " There is really no secret why a clucking hen is better food than any other sort;" but I must confess that I do not like the idea of killing a laying hen un- less you have proved by trap nest or in some other way that she is a poor layer. If she wants to sit after she has laid, say, fifteen or twenty eggs, we consider it is i::olhing particularly against her. Temperance WHO SHOULD BE LYNCHED — THE BOY OR THE SALOON-KEEPER ? Of course, I do not believe in lynching anybody; but if the craze for lynching is to keep on in spite of us, suppose the lynch- ers should take a notion, into their crazy heads to lynch the saloon-keeper. I sup- pose one reason why they do not do it is because it is the saloon-keepers who furnisli the whisky that fires the crowd with a crazy zeal to make them believe they are defend- ing virtue. Read the following, which is clipped from Collier's Weekly ; and in sub- mitting it I want to say, may the Lord be praised that Colliers have turned their heavy artillery saloonward. THE MAN WHO MADE MONEY. In Salem, 111., on March 15, the most horrible crime known to humanity was committed by an eighteen-year-old boy, Sullens, against the little four- teen-year-old daughter of a well-known judge. In court Sullens was asked: "Where did you go after you left the girl? " He testified: " I went over to the coal-mine. I wanted to get sobered up. I had drank about a pint of whisky and eight bottles of beer the night before. I got the liquor at Lakin's. I was in a car when the deputy sheriff found me." He was raved fi-om lynching only by the appeal of a minister who diverted the attention of the crowd to the blind tigers and bootleggers which flourisli in the town. Mr. A. Thrasher, superintendent of schools, joined the ministers and other citizens in the protests against what they described as the real cause of the crime. "That Sullens boy was in school five years ago, and was as fine a boy as there was in town," said Mr. Thrasher. " Booze is responsible for his present stale." Who are the bi-ewers and whisky-makers who stimulated this crime and made money out of it by suppl.\ing liquor to a dealer in a prohibition town? They are probably highly respectable citizens of Peoria, where no social odium attends the making of money by the stimulation of vice. SELLING LIQUOR IN DRY TERRITORY. May the Lord be pi-aised that there is " somethin' doin'." I have a colored man in my employ in Florida who has a fashion of saying, " Nothin' doin' " when our plans do not materialize — say, when the wind does not blow and the chickens happen to be out of water, etc. Well, the brewers and liquor- dealers have been enabled by their wiles and millions to thwart our plans for prohibition, so that again and again comes the sad re- poi-t, " nothin' doin' " in the temperance crusade. Let me now give you a little ex- tract from the Wheeling Advance of Maj-^ 2: Wheeling liquor firms have been exceedingly active in endeavoring to annul the Rose county-option law in Ohio counties. Some have tried it and escaped the law; but at least one firm must send its check to Guernsey County, Ohio, for $400 and costs if they desire to get one of their agents out of jail in order that he may continue to ply his illicit profession for Iheir advantage. ■John Prak is the man who became an unwilling guest of Sheriff Berry, at Cambridge. Frak was cauglit at what is known as the Wolhonding mine, neai- Buffalo, and from all appearances was doing a considerable business. Sheriff Berry was accompan- ied by Deputy Sheriff Heskett, and they lost no time in tossing -John into durance vile. John was later taken before Justice L. S. Reasoner ; and when pros- ecuting attorney of Guernsey County, B. F. Enos, presented an affidavit charging soliciting and collect- ing money for intoxicating liquor in dry territory Prak broke down. His plea of guilty brought him the maximum fine under the law. This same periodical tells us of the tre- mendous Avork that is being done by Billy Sunday, Dr. Lyon, W. J. Bryan, and other great and good men enrolled in " the army of the Lord." We are also tSld of a car- load of beer shipped from Cincinnati to J'ansas that fell into federal hands. By the way, that same Wheeling Advance seeins to be a " live wire " in the temper- ance work. Its motto is, " Make prohibi- tion prohibit, for the people's good." " WE ARE MARCHING ON/' SURE. We clip the following from the Ameri- can Advance: Every day new omens of progress beckon us on. They are freighted with meaning for our cause, and they deserve our attention. On Jan. 20th, this year, the Chicago American, the great Hearst daily, said editorially : " There will never be another whisky advertise- ment in these columns. This paper has never advo- cated any thing that it believed to be detrimental to the public welfare because that it carried with it pecuniary reward. The most insidious form of in- influence in newspapers is through their advertising columns. . . It was forced to take this position to escape from the incongruity of opposing the whisky traffic in its editorial columns, while increasing the sales by means of its advertising columns." I see by the January 15th Gleanings a person wanted your journal stopped because you had too much to say about tobacco and liquor, as he got a great deal of pleasure out of both. Well, we want you to send us your paper just because we can read the paper and not see any thing about the tobacco and liquor business except something against it. Gilroy, Cal., Jan. 22. P. H. Evans. Published by The A. I. Root Co., Medina, 0. H. H. Root, Assistant Editor. E. R. ROOT, Editor. A. L. Boyden, Advertising Manager. A. I. Root, Editor Home Department. J. T. Calveet, Business Manager. Entered at the Postoffice, Medina, O., as Second-class matter. VOL. XLI. JUNE 15, 1913 NO. 12 Editorial The reader will be interested in the " good-natured scrap " between the editor and Dr. Miller that takes place in his reg- ,ular department, Stray Straws, on the sub- ject of painted versus unpainted hives. A NEW BOOK ON APICULTURE FROM AUS- TRALIA. " Australian Bee Lore and Bee Cul- ture," by Albert Gale, late Bee Expert and Lecturer on Apiculture for the New South Wales Government, has come to our desk. It contains about 300 pages the size of this, taking up the whole subject of bee culture from beginning to end as it applies to New South Wales. It gives particular attention to the influence of bees on crops and the color of flowers and their influence on bee life. The book is not wholly new, but, rather, a collection of the author's publish- ed articles, or those that appeared from time to time in the New South Wales Agri- cultural Gazette. Mr. Gale is one of our occasional contributors, and needs no in- troduction to our readers. A correction; dual introduction. One of our queen-breeders, Mr. Mell Pritchard, at our basswood apiary, calls attention to a misleading statement of ours at the bottom of the first column on page 372 — at least he misread it, and we suppose others did. He understands that we cage all the queens at the same operation, and explains that Ave could not do this without having the last queen mated too old to be good for any tiling. What we meant to say was that we might have two or more queens in the hive at the same time, but caged on different days. The reader will see that the langxiage on page 372 has a double mean- ing. Mr. Pritchard calls further attention to the fact that we do not have more than two queens in. the hive at a time, and then adds: We do practice precaging about two or three days before the queens are expected to be laying, with good results, but we never cage two or more virgins at the same time. honey-crop conditions ; clover prospects. The outlook for alsike and white clover in the central Northern States was never better — that is to say, there is a gxeat pro- fusion of plants and of bloom. If other conditions shall be right we shall have a fine flow. Reports from the clover districts in the East are not quite so good. Experi- ence has taught us that there may be times when we have plenty of bloom but no nee- tar. But reports in from the clover regions south of us show that the flow has been excellent. One man, one of the largest producers in the country, states that it has been the greatest clover flow he has known for many years. During the last 48 hours we have had a cold spell — cold enough to make us fear a frost. To-day, June 9, the weather is so cold that an overcoat seems comfortable; yet, remarkable to relate, our bees are stor- ing honey. Further reports from California show al- most a complete failure of the sage crop, although experience has taught us that when we have such failures there may be some sage honey, and the big buyers will be sure to find it. It would be premature at this time to predict a big yield of clover honey; but if we have the right weather conditions we shall have one of the finest yields we have had for ruany years. Our subscribei-s in the mean time are re- quested to send in brief postal card reports of honey-crop conditions and prospects. Do not write more than one or two sen- tences, as otherwise we can not tabulate them. These reports are important as they have a strong bearing on prices. glucose in " NEW ORLEANS MOLASSES." Glucose continues to be a favorite form of adulterant for syrup, as shown by " No- tice of Judgment," No. 1835, from the Sec- retary's office of the United States Depart- ment of Agriculture. (In all such literature we notice that the product is called by iis real name, that is, glucose, instead of the nicer-sounding assumed name, corn syrup.) 398 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Four and a half barrels of molasses wera seized and condemned because of being labeled in large type " Dixie New Orleans Molasses," and in small type, " Containing Sulphur Dioxide — Compound molasses and corn syrup." In the investigation it was proven that the product was not New Or- leans molasses, nor was it entitled to be so called, but was a mixture containing a cer- tain quantity of glucose. Misbranding was alleged because the product was an imita- tion of, and offered for sale under, the dis- tinctive name of another article of food. We have always supposed New Orleans molasses to be a product so cheap that no one could afford to adulterate it; but it seems from the above that glucose, unfortu- nately allowed to be called corn syrup, is such a cheap material that it may be profit- ably used as an adulterant in New Orleans molasses. REPORT OF ILLINOIS STATE BEE CONVENTION. The Twelfth Annual Report of the lUi- nois State Beekeepers' Association, contain- ing complete stenographic record of the en- tire proceeding's, is before us. It contains 170 pages of closely printed matter of dis- cussions in what appears to have been a good convention. This is followed by a brief report of the National convention. This is the only report of any convention. National or otherAvise, so far as we know, that is cloth-bound. We are advised that a copy will be sent to any beekeeper, whether from Illinois or any other State, who pays an annual fee of $1.50, either to the Secre- tary of the Illinois State Beekeepers' Asso- ciation, to E. B. Tyrrell, 214 Hammond Building, Detroit, or to the" Secretai-j^, James A. Stone, of the Illinois State Beekeepers' Association, Springfield, 111. The volume also contains the Second An- nual Report of the State Inspectors, by A. L. Kildow, Putnam, 111. This is a complete treatise on foul brood with a report of the number of apiaries visited, and a list of the counties where disease was found. the ban on beet sugar forever removed. In times past (and almost up to times present) a good deal of space in the bee journals has been taken up in argument for and against the use of beet sugar for feed- ing bees. We ourselves have been somewhat undecided at times, although so far as our own tests are concerned we liave never been able to detect any bad effects whatsoever, provided the refined sugar is used. Last spring one of our subscribers, Mr. E. L. Hoffman, of Janesville, Minn., know- ing the difference of opinion in regard to beet sugar, wrote to the University Farm at St. Paul, of the University of Minnesota. The reply which he received is so interest- ing and convincing that we are glad to place it before our readers at this time. the university of MINNESOTA. Department of Ageicultuee, universtiy faem, st. paul. Division of Agricultural Chemistry and Soils. Mr. E. L. Hofmann : — I am in receipt of your letter with regard to beet and cane sugars. I would say that, chemically, there is absolutely no difference between these two products at the present time. A number of years ago, when the beet-sugar industry was fairly new in this country, the product of the beet-sugar refineries contained a considerable amount of a substance known as betain, which apparently induced fermentation and aroused considerable prejudice aginst the use of this sugar. Under the present conditions none of this can be detected, and I am surprised that you found any difference Ln the two for your purpose, as both the cane and the beet sugar of the better grades are practically 99% per cent pure. We could readily determine for you the purity of the sample of sugar sweepings, but we could not determine whether it was derived from beet or cane. The station makes no charge for any of its analytical work. R. M. West, Acting Chief. St. Paul, Minn., March 29. This statement, coming as it does from the Division of Agricultural Chemistiy in one of our gi-eat universities, certainly can not be biased, and it seems to us that the question as to the value of beet sugar for bees should be settled now once for all. UER bien und seine zucht (the bee and ITS culture). Those who can avail themselves of Ger- man literature, and are interested in bees, will be interested in the book named above. It was written by F. Gerstung, pastor in Ossmanstedt, Germany. Mr. Gerstung is one of the most prominent beemen in Eu- rope, and one who has been often quoted by Dr. Miller in Stray Straws in these pages. It is easy to say that the book has 474 pages besides a copious index, and that it contains a wealth of fine illustrations; but a thorough review of it would be almost equal to the task of writing another book as large as this. The work in question is not only German in language but in its teachings. So far as we can observe, it is confined exclusively to German methods, with the exception of con- siderable space to rearing queens artificial- ly. In this the author gives full credit to W. H. Laws, of Beeville, Texas, and to the publishers of this journal. Aside from this, however, it contains no reference to Ameri- can inventions except to give the size of the Quinby and Langstroth frames. Still, to describe apiculture outside of Germany would have been foreign to the main object of the writer besides making an already large book too voluminous. JUNE 15, 1913 399 I In looking through this book the Ameri- can beekeeper will be struck by the great number of beautiful bee-houses, pavilons, sheds, summer-houses, etc., used in Ger- many, where space is so limited and lumber still more so. The American beekeeper would consider the cost of these all out of propor- tion to their value as bee-protectors; but as the German attaches considerable value to ornament for its own sake, perhaps the use of such buildings is warranted by the beau- tiful appearance they present. Much space is given in this volume to the depredations of the wax-moth. The many illustrations show plainly what a terrible scourge the moth is there, while in this coun- try it has ceased to cut any figure where the Italian bee has been introduced. The Ger- mans still use, as a general thing, the old black or German brown bee. The process of egg-laying, both drone and worker, is one of the most striking features of this book, and is splendidly illustrated by half-tones photographed from the combs direct. On the subject of foul brood thirteen pages are devoted, describing it minutely, but not illustrating it. Its method of treat- ment is very complete. We feel sure that this, the fourth enlarg- ed and amended edition of this already cel- ebrated work, will be of permanent value to the readers for whom it was mainly de- signed, and it will also be a literary monu- ment to the skill and industry of the dis- tinguished author. ANOTHER CASE WHERE BEES HAVE BEEN" KILLED BY SPRAYING WHILE FRUIT-TREES WERE IN BLOOM. We have had a good many reports show- ing how bees have been killed by hundreds and thousands by the ignorant folly of some fruit-growers who spray trees while in full bloom. The following letter received from the New Hampshire Agricultural Experi- ment Station, written by the assistant horti- culturist, Mr. W. H. Wolff, is pretty con- vincing proof. As Mr. Wolff is a scientific man, the presumption is that he would not be mistaken. The beekeepers of this State are experiencing con- siderable trouble from trees being sprayed while they are in bloom. From several towns I learn of this having been done this year and last, and the few colonies we have here at the College under my care have had their strength considerably reduced owing to a commercial sprayer having sprayed 500 trees within half a mile of us while the trees were in full bloom. The first knowledge I had of this trouble was on the morning of May 17, when, on looking at my bees, I noticed the ground in front of the hive was covered wth many hundreds, dead and dying. This condition of affairs has been going on for the past three days, until now when it has appreciably de- creased the working force of each hive. I should like to know what suggestions the National Beekeep- ers' Association has to offer when bees are being killed oflf in this way. Also whether it is possible to frame a law which would protect them against the work of careless and ignorant people. I have collected about a pint of bees from the college hives and those of a neighbor, and have dried these out. It may be that you may like to have these to analyze for traces of arsenic so as to get more exact data on killing bees by spraying the trees while in bloom. Durham, N. H., May 22. W. H. Wolff. Almost in the same mail another letter came along the same lines. It reads : I see you want reports on spraying fruit-trees in bloom. They are spraying trees around here that are in bloom. Parties take contracts, and they sprav through blooming time, paying no attention to the beekeeper's interests. Two years ago I had 40 stands of bees ruined by spraying in bloom. Two years ago there were 100 stands of bees in my community. Now there are by actual count only 25 stands. They spray with arsenate of lead and Paris green, yet they say it does not kill the bees. Even neighbors spray this year in bloom. Why not? The law says they may do so. McGuffey, Ohio, May 11. H. McBride. In this connection it is proper to quote the whole of what Mr. Frank Rauchfuss says in the last issue of the American Bee Journal, page 151. Here is what he says: Prof. Gillette says : " When the codling moth be- gins to appear about the time of full bloom, they do not begin to Uy eggs until the majority of the apples in the orchard are one-half of an inch in diameter; when they are % of an inch they are laid freely. As soon as the little apples lose their fuzzy coverings the moths lay their eggs very largely upon the cheek of the apple, but never in the blossom. Later they find their hiding place in the blossom end of the apple. After the blossoms have fallen and the apples have attained a little size, is the time to spray, and not before." Prof. Gillette, who wrote the above, has raised these moths in great numbers at the Government Experimental Station, and is considered the best authority on this subject in the West. In Bulletin No. 89, from the State of New York Experiment Station, we find the following state- ment: "The trees should not be sprayed while in bloom, for the spray may injure the delicate part of the flower." The Missouri State Bulletin No. 36 says: " Never spray a fruit tree while in bloom. You not only injure the delicate stigma and prevent polleni- zation, but you are in danger of killing bees." Bees aid largely in poUenizing all fruit trees, and with other insect life are of great service to the fruit growers at this time of the year. Green's Fruit Grower says: "It is a positive in- jury to spray for the codling moth when the trees are in bloom." The Vermont Station prints the fol lowing advice: "Spraying when trees are in bloom is entirely useless ; it is a waste of time and spray- ing material." The United States Agricultural De- partment at Washington sends out the following: " Pomologists may well join hands demanding and securing a law making it a grave misdemeanor to spray trees while they are in full bloom." Canada has a strict law against spraying while fruit trees are in bloom. Several of our States have passed similar laws. Spray only when blossoms have fallen. Those trees that have blossoms on them at the time of the first spraying should not be sprayed until the time of the second spraying some 12 or 14 days later. 400 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Stray Straws De. 0. C. MiiiLEE, Marengo, 111. Dr. a. F. Bonney, American Bee Jour- nal, 61, bring's valuable information as to lime from J. M. Francis, a practical chem- ist who is also an enthusiastic beekeeper. Ordinary lime contains 10 to 25 per cent of impurities, and 100 pounds of it will absorb about 24 pints of water and 62^2 pounds of carbonic acid. But after it is slaked, and in powder, it will not absorb another drop of moisture, although it will continue for some time to take up carbonic acid. So lime in bee-cellars has its time-limit. A. I. Root, you object to paying 25 or 50 cts. or $1.00 apiece for day-old chickens, but tliink it good sense and real science to pay $5.00 or more for a rooster of the right stock. But what if a day-old chick turns out to be a $5.00 rooster? I think you ad- vise— and the advice is good — to buy sever- al dollar queens in the expectation that one or more of them will turn out to be as good as a tested queen. WTiy not the same rule with chickens? If the day-old chick is of the same stock as the $5.00 rooster — well, why not? I SAID, p. 248, that it was not so well known that frequent changes of tempera- ture favor granulation, and you reply, Mr. Editor, that that's just what ABC and X Y Z teaches. Yes; but are there not a lot of readers of Gleanings who have no ABC? And that gives me an opportunity to say to all such that they're making a big mistake. If you can't have both, by all means stop Gleanings for a year or two and get the book. [This matter of frequent changes of temperature favoring the gran- ulation of honey has been spoken of several times in Gleanings. For example, turn to page 135, Gleanings for 1910. Some five or six years ago it was mentioned much more frequently than of late years.— Ed.] I have just read the report of Illinois Association, which contains a report of the last National meeting. In the Seci-etary's report, which previously appeared in the Review, exception is taken to the action of Mr. France in refusing to allow the League fund to be used for any thing but advertis- ing. It seems to me Secretary Tyrrell can hardly be familiar with the full history of the fund. When it was offered to the Na- tional, strenuous effort was made to have it given without any string to it, and it was just as strenuously insisted by the League that the National use it solely for advertis- ing or not get it at all. The National re- ceived the fund on that basis, and it would be a breach of good faith now to divert the fund to any other purpose. Nor is such action at all justified by the consent of all but one of those who contributed more than $25.00 each. If all should consent except a single one who had contributed 50 cents, that one would have a right to protest that it would be wrong to divert the money to any other use. Mr. France would have less ground to stand ui^on if it were impossible to carry out the original intention. But at that same meeting at Cincinnati, it was practically re- solved that the National should do the very thing that the League fund was intended to pay for. Mr. France is the only living member of the committee appointed to spend the money. If two such men as he and Secretary Tyrrell were appointed a committee, with free hand to use that fund as originally intended, it seems it might do more good than used in any other way. Why not ? [ Excellent suggestion ! It seems as if this might be the solution of an unpleas- ant problem. Gleanings respectfully re- fers it to the parties interested. If Mr. Tyrrell and Mr. France can agree on a 13ropaganda of advertising, we see no reason why the fund could not be used. Judicious advertising in the magazines, and perhaps the newspapers, showing the real value of honey as a food, would benefit the industi-y at large. — Ed.] That's right, Mr. Editor ; " jab " when you get the chance, p. 328. You ask if I'm sure it's economy not to paint hives. No; the list of things I'm not sure about is about as big as the list of things I don't know. You want to know whether unpainted hives don't gap at the joints sooner than painted ones. I don't know. I haven't kept any till they gapped. I've kept them only since the first dovetailed hives were made, and they don't gap yet. How soon do your painted hives gap? You ask about covers twisting and checking. Now look here. Did you ever know me to advocate unpainted wood- en covers? But with a very few exceptions my covers are covered with something better than paint. Some of them are covered with tin that's painted — at least it was painted — but the majority are covered with zinc, which doesn't need paint. You have never made better covers. You ask if it's economy to leave houses unpainted. I don't know. Depends on the cost of new siding when the old Avears out, and the cost of keeping the houses painted during the same time. Now that we've discussed economy, perhaps, JLNE 15, 1913 enough, it might not be out of place to say that it might trouble you to i^rove that I ever said it was economy to leave off paint. It was you that gave economy as my reason — not the first time I've been libeled. But if you go to hunting up proof I'll help you enough to refer you to " Fifty Years among the Bees," p. 80, where I say, " I suppose thej^ would last longer if jDainted, but hard- ly enough to pay for the paint." My real reasons still remain : Doolittle and the health of the bees. I've just been down through the apiary, and I didn't find a single hive with gapping corners, nor even with the least inclination toward it. I mention this, not because of its bearing on the above controversy, but because, years ago, so much was said against dovetailed hives because the corners would not stand. If mine are still perfect after all these years without paint, it hardly seems a valid objection. [We accept your cor- rection in regard to the covers. You remind us that you have always advocated the painting of these when made of wood. We admit that the dovetailed hives will not gap at the corners, even if unpainted; but a large number of people use hives not lock- cornered nor dovetailed — some factory -made and many home-made. Shall these people be encouraged to use paint? and is it not true, doctor, that, before you began using dovetailed hives, your old unpainted hives that were not dovetailed, gapped at the cor- ners? If so, was it because of a lack of paint? But aside from the economic side of the preservation of the hives, is it not true that an unpainted hive assumes a gi'ay- black hue — a color that becomes almost pure black ? Such hives out in the sun will often drive the bees out of them, and stop honey- gathering altogether. Some years ago, as you may recall, we tested out on a hot sunny day the external temperature of the wood of old unpainted hives, some paint- ed Venetian red, and some painted with two coats of white lead. The day selected for the test was very warm — between 95 and 100 in the shade. We placed the bare hand on the white painted hives, and found the surface was merely warm, while the sur- faces of the dark hives were almost hot enough to blister the hand. Colonies of the same strength were contentedly working in the hives painted white, but were clustered out badly in front of the dark ones. We can not now recall the difference in temper- ature, but it was considerable. It may be argued that an unpainted hive should be kept in the shade; but does not experience prove that shade is detrimental to the early spring development of a colo- 4C1 ny? While we have not definite figures to show, is it not also true that, other things being equal, a colony in a painted hive out in the open will work more hours in the 24 than one in an unpainted hive? If the latter were kept in the shade, the variation might not be great; but would that colony in the shade be as far along as one out in the open where the sun could get it ? If we remember correctly, Mr. E. W. Alexander and other prominent beekeepers have made the statement that a shaded colony will not fly out as early in the morning nor be as strong at the beginning of the honey-flow as the one out in the open. This is a fruitful subject for discussion. It is not a question whether Dr. Miller, the editor, or anybody else is right; but it is a question for the beekeeper to solve, whether there is economy in the use of paint, in the greater durability and the condition of the colony for honey-gathering at the beginning of the honey-flow. Dr. Miller and the edi- tor are both willing to be " jabbed," provid- ing the truth can be brought out. That Dr. Miller might have the "last say " or last " jab " we sulimitted the fore- going to him, and hero is his reply. — Ed.] I've read over what you say more than once, Mr. Editor, have studied it carefully to find a weak spot where I could give you a jab, and find you so strongly entrenched that I feel a good bit like surrendering un- conditionally. Yet I have something of a fasthold in the winter welfare of the bees. As my cellar is now warmed, I think it would make little difference — perhaps none — but before tlie furnace was in it I think damp and mold could be so much worse in the painted hives in winter as to make up for the advantages of paint in summer. I may also offer that in my dovetailed hives that have failed through age the first fail- ure is nearly always at the edges, inside rather than outside, where no paint is ap- plied in i3ainted hives. In my possible downfall I may take a grim satisfaction in reminding you that you failed to give one argument on your side. You saj' bees don't begin work so early in the morning if their hives are in the shade; but you failed tg say that bees in the shade stop work earlier in the evening. I had marked proof of that when in former years bees were brought out of the cellar and the bees of the out-apiaries were massed tem- porarily northeast of the shop. In the even- ing there was a plain line of demarcation, each colony ceasing its flight just as soon as it came into shadow. If you had any gi-ati- tude about you, you'd give me a nickel for furnishing this missing argument. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE SIFTINGS J. E. Crane, Middlebury, Vt. Wesley Fostex-'s advice about tinkering with American foul brood is thoroughly sound, and every young or inexperienced beekeeper would do well to heed his advice. See page 142, March 1. That method of ridding cappings of hon- ey by centrifugal motion, by Mr, D. R. Hardy, and described by Mr. Holtermann, page 188, March 15, would seem to open the way to rid the cappings of most of the honey that sticks to them. It will be re- membered that this is the way sugar is treated in refineries to rid it of all super- fluous molasses or syrup. * * * A good deal has been written of late about bee-veils. I have many times won- dered if we could not have a special kind of wire cloth for this special purpose, with meshes say Vg inch instead of 1-12 or 1-14 as at present. This would reduce the ob- struction to vision from a third to nearly a half, and give a freer circulation of air. [We already have such a wire cloth. The wires are Yg inch apart. — Ed.] P. C. Chadwick makes a good point on p. 140, March 1, where he concludes that pol- len is of more importance in stimulating bees to breed in spring-time than the feeding of thin liquid sweet where they have enough honey stored in the hive. Last March, on the east coast of Florida bees built up read- ily, although they gathered very little or no nectar, and were growing lighter all the time; but they found an abundance of pol- len. " Pollen is a gi'eater aid in that direc- tion than additional stores," he says, and he is right. * ^ * It seems to me that the March 1st issue was, on many accounts, one of the most in- teresting numbers I have seen in a long time; and any one who shall say hereafter that women can not be successful beekeep- ers may be counted as not up to modern ways of business. I doubt if an equal num- ber of articles written by* men twenty or twenty-five years ago were more scientific or up to the best methods now known than these written by women from their own ex- perience. One can not wonder, when he sees how well women have come to under- stand and to 23i"actice the art of beekeeping, whether tlie men are not going to turn this work over to them, as they have to so great an extent the rearing of poulti-y. However that may be, I feel that this number marks a new era in beekeeping, or at least one not realized before. THE OLD QUESTION OF GRADING COMB HONEY. In the report of the National Beekeep- ers' Association at Cincinnati I notice that the question of grading was a live one. Ev- idently this question has never been settled right or it would not be bobbing up continu- ally. Now it seems to me that it would be well to mention here a few facts or what appears to be such. The first I would speak of is that, the closer the lines of grading are draAvn, the moi'e beekeepers are turning their attention to extracting their honey, where grading is not so diilicult. Mr. Muth would have only two grades — fancy and No. 1. But hoAv much profit will it be to the beekeeper who produces comb honey when he finds he can not sell more than half his crop because it will not come up to these grades? We are not surprised to learn that there is a scarcity of comb honey on the markets. It is easy to see that it would be more convenient for the honey merchant, like Mr. Muth, to have but two grades of honey. It would be even better for the bee- keeper to have only one; but, taking the country as a whole, the bees do not all put up honey that way. I think we might make tAventy grades quite distinct and easily rec- ognized. These would all merge from one into another so as to be almost impercepti- ble in some cases, but yet each as a class would be quite distinct from the others. Now the question is. How can this gi-eat variety be classified so as to suit best the trade and consumers'? Shall the beekeeper sort out a little of the best, and call it " fancy," and a larger amount and call it No. 1, and melt up the rest? or shall he sort it out so the cases he j^uts up can have some one, two, or three words that will accurately describe it, each case being of a kind? I believe it is the business (I almost said duty) of the merchant to find a market for the off grades of honey as well as the '■' fancy " and No. 1. When the oil-refiner- ies found they had an immense amount of gasoline, of so little value that they let it run to waste, they set men to inventing stoves that would consume it, and then en- gines that would use it for power, until to- day the demand is such as to bring gTeat profits to refineries. Now, I believe there could be an opening made, or a demand at a fair price for all our grades of honey that are fit to i^ut up, and yet that will not gi-ade No. 1 or " fancy," JUNE 15, 1913 403 Beekeeping in the Southw^est Louis ScHOLL, New Braunfels, Texas. A NUMBER OF QUESTIONS ANSWERED. Instead of reproducing each inquiry and answering each question separately, which would take more space and yet not give any more information, I am incorporating all the answers into a short article. These in- quiries, from four different persons, are all on the subject of bulk-comb-honey produc- tion, some of the questions being identical, while others are entirely different. Many inquiries are made for a booklet on our method of management, the hives we use, and on the matter of using the divisible- brood-chamber hives, and the production of bulk comb honey. To this we shall have to reply that we have no literature on any of tliese subjects other than what the bee jour- nals have so kindly given during a period of fifteen years or more, although we have been requested several times to have such booklets ]3ublished for the benefit of those who are seeking information. Our time has been so much taken up that we have not even given the matter serious thought, and consequently do not know whether it would be advisable for us to do so. THE HIVE WE PREFER. The most frequently asked question is in regard to our preference of the hive to use in connection with our methods of manage- ment, esi^ecially for bulk-comb-honey pro- duction. It is already well knoAvn that our long years of experience with different hives has given us an opportunity to test the di- visible-brood-chamber hives to a finish; and since we have had the best results with them we prefer them. They are comjoosed of shallow supers known as the Ideal shallow extracting-supers, of the ten-frame size, with shallow Hoffm.an frames, 5% inches deep, as listed in the supply-dealers' cata- logs. Our frame has a heavier top-bar, however, I/2 inch thick. It is narrower also than the regularly made top-bar, or % iiicli wide. There is no comb-guide or groove for the foundation, as this is fastened with melted beeswax. BURR-COMBS The foundation is used in full sheets, of the thin-super grade, and without wires al- ways. This gi'ade of foundation is just right, and heavy enough so that brood foun- dation is not necessary in these shallow frames. The same supers or shalloio stories, as they ought to be called, are used the same way throughout for brood-chamber and su- pers— a great advantage on account of the interehangeability. There is no trouble about too many burr-combs between the several stories, or the frames of one story and those of another, in our manipulation of this kind of hive. It seems that beekeep- ers often allow their colonies to become too crowded, and hence experience this trouble. Colonies always allowed room as needed will have little occasion to build between the bottoms and tops of frames of one story and another. Proper manipulation of the several stories, and interchanging with an- other from below to above, and vice versa, which is necessary to accomplish the best results, never allows the stories to remain so long in the same position as to encourage serious burr-comb buildings. Our narrow, thick top-bar is no more, if as much, sub- ject to cause burr-comb building than the thinner and wider top-bars regularly fur- nished. The latter are more subject to sag- ging, however, and often there are more burr-combs, as a consequence. THE VALUE OF SHALLOW EXTRACTING-SUPERS. With several hundred shallow extracting- supers on hand, the beekeeper has a valu- able investment, and is better prepared for bulk-comb-honey production than if he did not have them. By no means would I cut out these valuable combs and melt them into wax, having to fill the frames Avith full sheets of foundation for bulk comb honey. These supers should be placed on the reg- ular brood-chambers early in the spring. First, to allow more breeding room for the colony, meaning a stronger colony for the honey-flow later; and, second, it furnishes a place for the bees to store the first scat- tering honey that comes in before the main honey-flow begins. We use these supers, one over each brood-chamber jjroper during the entire winter. In fact, this super is, with us, part of the brood-chamber until the honey-flow begins. Just before the honey- flow comes on, this super or upper story is raised up, and the new supers with frames filled full of foundation are slipped in be- tween it and the brood-chamber. Tiering up as with section honey is then continued, and this is one of the best ways to induce bees to begin work, and work with great energy in the supers immediately upon giv- ing them. The extracted honey out of the upper or first super with the shallow ex- tracting-combs, is used for putting up the bulk comb honey, hence is that much profit. The same super is again used after the main honey-flow to catch that honey, which would not be enough to warrant putting on another comb-honey super, and likewise goes for extracted honey, as a great deal of it is needed to put up a good crop of the comb honey. 404 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Beekeeping in California p. C. Chadwick, Redlands, Cal. PROBABLY SAC BROOD INSTEAD OF BLACK BROOD. I submit the following extract from a letter just received from Mr. J. D. Bixby : Your Mr. Meeker, County Inspector, is laboring under some misapprehension as to black brood. Sev- eral parties have been down, and others have written me, and I have also seen fresh samples from four hives in two apiaries, which he had pronounced black brood, which are distinctly not, but are un- questionably a bad form of pickled brood or sac brood as the Department calls it. The same also prevails in parts of Riverside Co., and about Lords- burg and Pomona. I had a man here from Pomona yesterday with samples which seem to be worst where the honey-fiow has been light. It is some relief to hear that there is even a possibility of our not being so close to the disease as has been reported. Mr. Bixby is a man of wide experience with this dis- ease, and it is very likely that he is correct, as Mr. Meeker has not had to combat the disease, and has not lived where it has pre- vailed. * * * WHAT TO DO FROM NOW ON. The problem from now on that will ab- sorb the mind of the California beekeeper will be how to manage the bees with the least possible, expense, and keep them in the best possible condition. Some will have the foul-brood question to give them addi- tional concern. Near the coast some will doubtless turn toward the bean-fields for relief, while in the foot-hill region there are those who can go higher in the moun- tains for relief, the main object being to keep the bees in good condition in anticipa- tion of a honey-flow next season. Nine years ago my uncle and I hauled five loads of bees into the Julian Mountains (a dis- tance of ninety miles) to summer them. They were not returned until the following April, but came back in fine condition, and averaged 240 pounds per colony for the season. There are many places nearer that I believe would be just as good. But we can not all go. In fact, the great major- ity of us must stay where we are and work out our own salvation. In the natural course of events eight months must pass before we can expect relief, four of which will be during the hot summer. Then we may have a repeti- tion of the season of 1905, with an open wet Avinter allowing the weak colonies to build up rapidly, to our great delight. Honey will doubtless be sold at a good ]n'ice, and there will be great temptation to take every thing found above the brood- chamber. In fact, it is now bring-ing 10 cts. a pound for white. The feeding-back of sugar is the plan of those Avho take all in sight. This I believe to he false econo- my, for it will not be possible to secure the same results from a pound of sugar that one would get from a pound of sealed hon- ey. Then, again, sugar may not be as cheap later as at the present time, for it is sure to advance during the fruit-canning season, and may not return to its present level. Even if it should, it is not the equal of honey for breeding purposes. Many have already extracted all old hon- ey from their supers to prevent it from blending the new crop into a darker grade. Tliis must be fed back or sugar used in its stead. I have been so doubtful of the season from the beginning that I removed the old honey, but did not extract it, and have now returned it to the hives, jDlacing two supers over the strongest colonies with an excluder below. It will be left there until the weak- er colonies need it, then it will be given to them in the comb. I prefer to carry the combs over by storing them on the strong- est colonies, for the reason that they are bet- ter able to protect it from moth and robber bees where it contains honey. I never make a practice of suli^huring combs for the purpose of keeping moths out if there are bees sufficient in the yard to protect them through the summer mouths. They may be removed late in the fall and stored until needed in the spring, and thus avoid the disagreeable odor of sulphur. Usually breeding will not entirely cease if there are plenty of stores on the liive, and in consequence it is not best to let a colony get too low in stores, but to take combs from the stronger ones and give to the weaker ones before they begin to be poverty-stricken, and thus encourage nor- mal breeding. The season may not be as bad as I anticipate ; but it can not be very good for breeding purposes after the hot weather sets in, for what little green veg- etation there is in the foot-hills will soon be parched and dry from the hot summer sun, and the chances are that in many sec- tions of the foot-hill region we shall find our colonies very much run down by au- tumn, for many are none too strong now. Have courage. This is not the first peri- od of the kind California has seen, and will not be the last; but there will be good periods between, and some day we shall realize more for our honey crop than we could sell the bees for at the present time, with interest at 6 per cent added. It is no time to get the selling fever; but in my opinion it is the very best time to buy. JUNE 15, 1913 Conversations Avith At Borodino, New York. t05 Doolittle WAX SECRETION AND COJ£B-BUILDING. " When may we expect that the bees will secrete wax and begin building comb 1 " " Among some of my early recollections is tliis from L. L. Langstroth's work on bees : ' It is an interesting fact wliich hith- erto seems to have escaped notice, that hon- ey-gathering and comb-building go on sim- ultaneously; so that, when one stops, the other stops also. As soon as the honey harvest begins to fail, so that consumption is in advance of production, the bees cease building new comb, even though large por- tions of the hive are unfilled. When hon- ey no longer abounds in the fields, it is wisely ordered that they should not con- sume, in comb-building, the treasures for winter use.' In addition to this I would say that, under the same circumstances, the higher the temperature up to 90 or 95 de- grees in the shade, the better results. This is in harmony with all general affairs as they naturally take place. Warm weather being necessary for the secretion of nectar, it is but natural that the bees should go out in search of it, and with the gathering of more honey than is needed for the economy of brood-rearing, wax secretion invariably takes place when more room is needed. " What is the estimate in pounds of hon- ey necessary to make one pound of wax? " " This has been variously estimated at from six to twenty pounds. I tliink it was Huber who first gave the estimate of twentj? pounds; but, if I am right, his statement was made after confining the bees and feed- ing them honey. This, of course, put the colony out of a normal condition, under which circumstances more honey would naturally be consumed owing to the bees becoming agitated through their struggle for freedom. Others, who estimate as low as six i:)ounds, think that pollen helps in the secretion of wax, and a lugh tempera- ture is considered an important factor, on the principle that it seems to take much less food for hogs to put on fat in warm weath- er than in cold. Others think that, in ad- dition to temperature, the freedom from vigorous work in the fields has very much to do with the matter. With a partially enforced idleness bees will secrete wax and build comb very fast. There is hardly an apiarist in the world who has not noticed with what alacrity comb-building is carried on by the newly hived swarm previous to extended brood-rearing. With a high tem- perature and almost perfect immunity from other duties, wax secretion is carried on most economically." "With a hive partially or fully filled with comb, when does wax secretion begin f " Generally, not until all available cells are filled to an extent consistent with the evaporation of moisture contained in the nectar brought in from the fields by the field bees. Up to this time all repair work about the hive and comb requiring wax is made at the expense of other portions of the comb already built, as is invariably in- dicated by the color. The beekeeper who has not noticed this is an exception and not the rule. Put an empty frame having only a starter down at the side of the out- side comb of the brood next to the brood- nest, and see how it will be filled with comb of all shades and colors. Then look at queen-cups and queen-cells as they are being built. These always correspond in shade with the comb upon which they are constructed. " It is rightly claimed that there are tim.es wlien wax secretion is imperative. Years ago Prof. Cook found that, during the height of a profuse nectar flow, wax scales could be found upon the field bees which were visiting the flowers. With plenty of empty cells comb extension is unnecessary, either for breeding purposes or the storage of honey. But with a good nectar flow, and all available cells filled, the field bees transfer their loads to the comb-builders and nurse bees, which, being unable to disgorge themselves, are compel- led to secrete wax the same as a new swarm does when without comb. Under both con- ditions comb extension is desired. With the swarm tliis desire can be satisfied, but not with the othei'. Close observers have no- ticed that, toward the close of a day when the nectar secretion has been exceptionally good, so that the nurse and comb-building bees are gorged almost to bursting, the old field bees have been compelled to keep their loads, and will cluster out on the hive with plenty of nectar still inviting them to a sumptuous feast. At such times, after 24 hours the old fielders can be found bear- ing wax scales, even though these scales are generally confined to the comb-building bees under most circumstances. Hence it is easy to see that, with such an exception- ally good flow of nectar, there must come a waste of wax with a hive and supers filled with fully occupied combs ; and under such circumstances, where foundation is given, the sheets are not disturbed at all. Then it is that the bees build combs by adding their wax to the foundation, thus giving a heavy base or midrib to section honey." GLEAJJINGS IN BEE CULTURE General Correspondence A NEW OLD TREATMENT FOR AMERICAN OR EUROPEAN FOUL BROOD Trapping the Bees Away from the Old Combs by Means of a Bee-escape BY W. W. CASE [Last winter we attended a convention of the Pennsj'lvania State Beekeepers' Association that met at Harrisburg. Among others, we had the pleasure of meeting Mr. W. W. Case, whom we had long known by correspondence. In a paper he read in that convention Mr. Case gave this method of treat- ment ; and as he and his friends have had such ex- cellent success with it, we asked him to prepare a special article with drawings for Gleanings, describ- ing the method, and here it is. — Ed.] After more than twenty years of contact with and study of both American and Eu- ropean foul brood, I have evolved, and am at last ready to give to all beedom, a safe and sane treatment that renders the terrors of foul brood one of the least problems in successful apiculture — far less than that of always successfully wintering — a treatment that will not interfere with the work of api- 2. Any infected honey stored in the combs during treatment will always cause a recur- rence of diseased conditions. 3. Normally, bees always leave the hive with emptj' honey-sacs. 4. Bees on being disturbed in the hive always give more or less honey to their fellows, wliich, after the disturbance is over, is placed by the field workers in their han- diest cells before they again go to the fields. 5. At the commencement of treatment there must be no comb in which honey may be stored. From the above five principles I have been able to evolve the following treatment, which is just as safe in the hands of the amateur as of the expert, and without the loss of colony, brood, honey crop, danger from robbing, or spreading the infection in any way. It applies equally well to both forms of disease. Infected colonies in early spring may. if not too far advanced in a diseased condi- W. W. Case's method of allowing the bees to pass naturally and quietly away from foul-broody combs through a tube bee-escape. ary inspectors in the least, but will prove a boon in solving their problems. In fact, it already has the itncjaalified indorsement of inspectors in Pennsylvania and New Jer- sey; and while I have bred by selection a strain of Italians absolutelj^ immune to European foul brood, the treatment for in- fected colonies is the same for both kinds, and is based on the five following princi- ples worked out and successfully proven in my own apiary, while surrounded, even to- day, by the most rabid infection of both kinds of disease. FIVE PRINCIPLES. 1. The adult bee does not carry infection while digesting infected honey. lion, cast normal swarms, especially if con- fined to the hive-body, in which case the parent hive should be set to one side a few inches, and the swarm hived on full sheets of foundation on the old stand, after which remove all cjueen-cells from the hive which cast the swarm, return the combs, and close the hive bee-tight. Next bore a one-inch hole in the end of the hive, over which nail a one-inch tin-pipe bee-escape about six inches long, and tapering to a point just large enough for a single bee (including drones) to pass out at a time, and place the hive in jiosition shown in the cut with the small end of the tube about two inches in front of and above the entrance. It is- JUNE 15, 1913 407. imperative that the infected colony hived on foundation (or starters) on the old stand be not disturbed under four (and, better slill, five) full daj's; for when the bees start to the fields after hiving, the wax-workers Aviil take all the infected honey brought from the old hive, and, if left absolutely alone, will digest it all in forming wax; but if disturbed before four dajs so as to exchange honej', they will, before again go- ing to the fields, place the honey, now prob- ablj' infected, in the first cell the bees have drawn, instead of giving it to the Avax- workers, when it will be fed to the first brood that hatches, thus at once reinfecting the colony. Should it become imperative, from any cause, to break the wax cluster before the fifth da}', all comb built must be removed, and fresh foundation given. In the course of about four weeks all the brood in the hive with the pipe escape will have hatched and passed out, and united with the Iiarent colony, and as all have left the hive with empty honej'-sacs there is absolutelj' no danger of their canning the infection. It is, perhaps, needless to say that the piped hive must in no wise be disturbed until the last bee has hatched and passed out, when it can be removed to a place of safety, and the wax rendered at leisure. Colonies that do not swarm can be shaken on foundation in a clean hive on the old stand, the hive sealed bee-tight, and piped out as before. In shaking, it is best to leave enough bees to care for the unsealed brood, as thej^ will pass out and unite with tlie treated colony in a short time anj' way. Colonies in box hives, whether diseased or healthy, can be drummed out and trans- ferred with the pipe, with no danger of lobbing, infection, loss of brood, nor drone brood to dispose of. Neither does it neces- sitate smashed-up hives and the general muss accompanj-ing transferring, and the wax rendered by a good press will far more than iDay for the foundation used. I have still to learn of a single failure in the cure of foul brood by the above method absolutely carried out, either in my own apiary or in those of others who have used the method. Frenchtown, X. J. [This plan is not new, neither is it old. The basic principle was given bv Mr. M. M. Baldridge, of Illinois, in 1894; but Mr. Case's modification of it is new. The old original Baldridge treatment was much the same as that given by our correspondent above, with this ditference : Mr. Baldridge put a new clean hive on the old stand. In this hive he placed a frame of brood and bees from a healthy colony, and the queen from the diseased colony. The queen is of course caged for 24 hours. The rest of the space was filled with frames of foundation. The old hive was set to one side, pointing in the same direction, and as close to it as possible. In front of it was attached a bee- escape consisting of a tapering perforated tin tube, all other means of egi'ess being closed. The perforations of course were too small to admit bees. The flying bees and hatching bees, as fast as they would come out of the parent colony, would go into the new hive on the old stand. The old hive was relieved of its bees and brood, leaving nothing but combs and honey to be melted up. It will be obsei-Aed that the Case modifi- cation is much the same, except that his tin tube has no perforations. It is six inches long, and just large enough to let one bee or drone through. Mr. Case ex- plained to the writer that perforations have a tendency to attract robbers; that the solid tin tube, with its opening so far from the parent hive, does not draw robbers. The Case method has the further advan- tage that it delivers the bees, young and old, to a point immediately in the center and in front of the entrance of the hive on the old stand; and as fast as young bees hatch out from what brood may be healthy, they reinforce the swarm. By this treat- ment no healthy brood is lost; and as the average of diseased colonies will contain only a small percentage of infected bi'ood, there will be but very little loss through the treatment. The only caution we wish to offer is that the parent hive be properly shaded if the treatment is applied in hot weather. We have had reports from those who have tried the Baldridge treatment, showing how combs were melted down because of the contracted entrance through the bee-escape. The solid tin tube would be worse in this respect than the perforated tube. It will be simply impossible for bees to ventilate a hive ex- posed to the hot sun with a solid tin-tube bee-escape attached as in the drawing. If hives are in suitable shade, or if the weath- er is not excessively warm, the treatment will woi'k as described by our correspond- ent. This treatment, or a modification of it, has the endorsement of the Bureau of En- tomology— see Bulletin 442, by Dr. Phillips, subhead " Treatment with Bee-escapes." From the fact that we have heard excel- lent reports from the modified Baldridge treatment, we have no hesitation in recom- mending it to our subscribers, providing the weather is not hot nor the hive exposed to the sun. — Ed.] 108 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE THE VARIOUS PHASES OF THE SWARMING PROBLEM CONSIDERED Caring for the Brood from a Shaken Swarm; Re- moving the Queen and Destroying the Cells BY DR. C. C. MILLER (A short time ago in one of our letters to Dr. Miller we expressed the wish that he would tell us more fully than he had explained in the various •Straws what he knew about the prevention of swarm- ing for the production of comb honey — that is to isay, we desired him to give us in an article his latest revised ideas on the subject. Probably no man in the United States who is a producer of comb hon- ey has given this more earnest and thorough atten- tion than the sage of Marengo. The article will speak for itself. — Ed.] I am requested by the editor to tell what is the best way to prevent swarming. I don't know, because there may be some plan that I know nothing about that is away ahead of any thing I know. But as I have been fighting bitterly against swarming dur- ing my whole beekeeping life, it may be that I can say something that may be useful to those of less experience. Swarming can be prevented — at least for a time; but I question whether there is any profitable plan of treatment that will allow us to say : " There is a colony which has been so treated that it is absolutely certain not to have any thought of swarming dur- ing the present season." Even when a colo- ny throws off a natural swarm, although the rule is that (leaving out of account after- swarms) neither swarm nor mothei"-colony will swarm again till another year, yet there are exceptions to the rule. But those exceptions are so rare in most places that if they should all be allowed to abscond the loes would not be great. It is probably safe to say that a colony can be so managed that il will be just as safe from swarming as a colony that has already swarmed naturally. One plan of such management is the well- known one of shake swarming. This is i-eal- ly anticipated swarming, as the plan is merely to take away all brood, leaving the bees in the condition of a natural swarm. As the bees sometimes desert when left en- tirely without brood, one frame of brood may be left for three or four days, or until the queen gets fairly started in one or more of the other frames. It has the advantage over natural swarming, besides other ad- vantages, that all the bees may be left with the swarm. It has, however, the disadvan- tage that taking away the brood weakens the colony by just so many future workers. It may be urged that bees do not go afield till 16 days old, and so it will be from 16 to 37 days before the bees fi-om this brood will become fielders — too late to count much on the harvest. But the harvest may last beyond that. Besides, the department of labor in which a worker engages is not al- together a matter of age, but depends to some extent on the needs of the colony. Each young bee that emei'ges to-day may liberate one of its older sisters for field- work, whether that older sister be more or less than 16 days old. But with shake-swarming there is a way of recouping half the loss caused by taking away brood. When the first lot of colonies are shaken, say half or less than half of the apiaiy, pile up the beeless brood three, four, or more stories high, over colonies that need not be very strong. Then eight days later, when the brood in these piles is sealed, shake a second lot, and, instead of giving them emi^ty combs, give them the sealed brood from the piles, shaking off all the bees in front of tlie hive which was under the pile. So far as I have tried it, these frames of sealed brood work just the same as emjity combs. It is often said that a queen of the current season's rearing will not swarm until she has wintered over. That depends. If a colony is fully in the swai'ming humor, hav- ing cells well started, and the old queen is exchanged for a j^oung one, the colony will just as promptly swarm with the young one, even though she may not have been laying a week. But if by any means the colony becomes queenless, and rears its own queen, or if a ripe cell be given when it is made queenless, the resulting young queen will not swarm that season. In general, if a colony be kept ten days without a laying queen, and a young queen be then given, either a laying queen or a virgin, there will be no swarming. But it must be remem- bered that rare exceptions with these young queens will occur. They are probably more likely to occur with Italians than with blacks. The later in the season the young queen is reared, the less likelihood of an ex- ception. A way, then, to prevent swarming is to remove all queens (at the beginning of the clover hai'vest in clover regions) and ten daj'S later destroy all queen-cells but one. Or, better still, destroy all cells, and give a 3'oung laying queen. For those who are desirous of improving their bees, this plan of never allowing queens more than a year old has a serious objec- tion. It gives no adequate ojiportunity to test the value of a queen as a breeder, for the credit of a crop must be divided between the two queens that have furnished the workers. A compromise plan must then be followed, and the one generally followed by the writer may here be given. As soon as there is any suspicion that the Cjnlwu?d oil pige /,1S JUNE 15, 1913 THE BOSTON IVY AS A HONEY-PLANT BY A. S. KINNEY While talking' with a neighbor one day mention was made of some honey which he had purchased from a Mr. X in an adjoin- ing town. " This honey," he said, " had such a strong odor of the horse-stable thai they could not eat it." Knowing the loca- tion of Mr. X's apiaiy as 1 did, and the careful kind of man he was, I knew at once that the odor was not that from the horse- stable, but probably from a certain kind of nectar which the bees had collected. Hav- ing never seen in the bee journals any men- tion of the plant which I presumed was tiio cause of the olfensive odor of Mr. X's hon- ey, as he lives near where there is much of it I have thought perhaps the I'eaders of Gleanings would be interested in the fol- lowing observations which I have made up- on the Boston ivy {Ampelopsis veiichii) of the tiorists. This vine was introduced into this coun- try a number of years ago from Japan, and at once gained great popularity because of its hardiness and rapid growth. It is espe- cially adapted to use upon stone and brick buildings, and wherever one finds such buildings in the Northern States they will usually be more or less covered with Ampe- lopsis veiichii. Where an apiary is located near a city or village where there are mills, often there are acres of the plant wiilun range of the bees. This may be a most desirable state of affairs, as it is in this especial section where my apiary is located, while in other sections, where there is a mid- summer flow of nectar, it might prove a very serious objection. From my own observa- tions, however, it ap- pears to me that the chances are more in favor of the ampelop- sis being a help than a hindrance where it forms a part of the bee pasturage. Tn my own case, now that I know how to take care of the nectar when it comes in, I find tliat the ampelopsis fills in a considerable lime when the bees v.ould be idle, probably hanging on the front of the hives, or, worse, trying to steal from their neighbors. The ampelopsis usually, in this region, be- gins to bloom between the loth and 20th of duly, at which time the clover-flow is about Dver, also locust and basswood. These plants often continue in blossom four to six weeks, those upon the north side of buildings com- ing into blossom more than a week later than those on the south side. The bees are very fond of the nectar from these flowers, simply going crazy over it. Although they often collect more than they need for im- mediate use, and store it as surplus, it is very diificult for me to get any considerable (|uantity pure, as it is more or less mixed with other kinds of nectar, especially white clover, my bees having access to several acres of lawn upon which there is consider- able Avliite clover all summer. The bees work upon the white elovei- in the morning, as there seems to be no flow of nectar from the ampelopsis until about noon. After this flow begins one will seldom see a bee working on any thing else. This flow usu- ally continues until nearly night, and dur- ing this time one would think by the sound that there was a swarm in the vines. In The fiiiuiliar Boston ivy, AniiieluiJ.sia Vfitcliii. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE W. C. Waller, of Wiggins, Miss., with a prime March 25. The bees conveniently clustered on a limb liad been thrown over a fence. fact, I have been notified twice by persons hearing the noise tliat my bees were swarm- ing. So far as I liave been able to observe, I do not find the honey from this plant ob- jectionable to eat. One soon becomes ac- customed to the odor, and there seems to be no bad taste. I have never noted any in- jurious effect from its use, either as food or as winter stores for the bees, and have not been able to determine whether the nectar itself has the objectionable odor or whether it is absorbed from the pollen. I have often observed, however, that other honey stored in the same place with the ampelopsis honey will soon become scented. When capped honey is left on the hive while this nectar is' coming in, it seems almost as strongly scented as the ampeloiDsis honey itself. The method I have practiced for several years seems to work very well with me ; but probably under other conditions this plan would have to be modified. As soon as the first ampelopsis blossoms appear I remove all supers. If a colony is very full of bees I put on a second story, and into this I put any combs that are not ripe enough to ex- tract, and fill out with empty combs. If there is a considerable flow of nectar coming in at this time, as soon as the brood-nest begins to get crowded in those hives that have no supers, I put on a second story, and move the full combs above, and put empty combs below ; but as a rule there is not much more nectar coming in than the bees need for food ex- cept in strong colonies. When the ampelopsis flow is over 1 remove all of this honey I can from the strong colo- nies, and store it above such colonies as are not strong enough to give any surplus from aster and goldenrod, and give to the strong colonies the partly fill- ed sections that I had taken off earlier in the season. When it comes time to take off the supers I distribute the combs of ampelopsis honey among the hives as they ai'e needed, feeding sugar syrup to those colonies that are still short of stores. This method works well in a small apiary. I do not know whether it will do as well in a large one. South Hadley, Mass. swarm that issued from a fig tree that THE HOMES OF BEEKEEPERS BY WESLEY FOSTER The home is the center of our national life. If we have not wholesome and happy homes it matters not how successful our business is — we are not getting the best out of life. We hear continually of the hard- ships of life on the farm and the barrenness of most of country living. The majority of specialist beekeepers live near or in towns, so they come in what we may call a semi- rural class. From my observation I believe that most beekeepers' families have fewer hardships and more pleasui-es than the ma- jority of farmers' families. Rural condi- tions are improving, and well they may. The point is that beekeeping contributes to a wholesome, full home life. The remunera- tion for capital invested and time required is better than most callings coming within the agricultural class. I want to show you a few of the beekeepers' homes that have led me to retake these observations. These are representative of western conditions. The upper left-hand view is the home of Hon. O. C. Skinner, Montrose, Colorado. Mr. Skinner owns about 200 colonies of Some homes of Qglorado Ibeemen, The middle view on the right shows K. •' iron-cJs4 " mQUig-pr oof bee-house, 412 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE KPt a start. bees, and manag'es a part of them himself. In a later article we will sliow a picture of one of his apiaries, located on a shed roof. The upper riglit-hand view shows the home of F. W. Brainard, Canon City; and the next one, the middle view on the left, the home of Geo. F. Lester, at Delta. The mid- dle view on the right, while not the home of a beekeeper, is nevertheless the home of one of them for a part of the working hours, being the mouse-proof bee-house built by R. W. Ensley for one of his out-apiaries in Delta County. It is covered with sheet iron painted black. The two lower pictures show the homes of A. F. Foster, Boulder, and A. F. Stauffer, Delta. In connection with the latter, it is interesting to note that the bees paid for it in one year. Boulder, Colorado. THE WILLOW AS A POLLEN AND HONEY PLANT BY J. L. BYER Am.ong the different honey sources of Ontario and other sections in the same lati- tude, probably none are more important than the willows, so familiar to nearly every one. True, they are not to he compared to the bassAvood, clover, and othei- sources of sur- plus honey, yet indirectly they play a very important part in beekeeping, as they are very necessary for the early pollen and honey they yield at a time when brood- rearing needs just such a stimulus. I be- lieve it is estimated that there are about 30 varieties of willows native to Ontario; but personally I know only a very few by their right names, and generally the ones we are familiar with are called by local names whenever we refer to them. Mr. Doolittle, if I am correct, claims that the pussy wil- lows yield no nectar; but 1 am convinced that in this locality they do yield some as well as an abundance of early pollen. In this connection it is well to recall the fact that Mr. Doolittle claims that the basswood yields no pollen in his section, while here, more than once, I have seen the bees getting large quantities of greenish-colored pollen fi'om this tree, all of which goes to show that eitlier localities differ or that observations liave been luade at a time wlien atmospheric conditions Avere not favorable for the secre- tion of honey in the case of the pussy wil- low, or for pollen in the basswood. The large varieties of the willows, such as are commonly seen around mill-dams and creeks, are great yielders of nectar, and I have often seen the bright drops glistening in the early morning of a warm day in late April or early May, according to whether we have an early or late spring. With good weather for a few days, the strong colonies will literally flood the brood-nests with nee- tar, and brood-rearing receives a tremen- dous impetus such as no artificial feeding will bring about. Once I knew of a large quantity of surplus taken from an apiary near us, but that was an exceptional season, and the bees Avere abnormally strong. It is not likely to happen again in tAventy years. The AvilloAVS in general are very easy to propagate, a small limb stuck in the ground JUNE 15, 1913 413 in early spring' nearly always growing', especially if the soil is of a moist nature. Along- tlie banks of streams it delights to grow; and it is wonderful to see the buffet- ing it will stand from ice, floods, etc. Once getting a foothold it grows rapidly, and de- fies almost an}- thing that would easily kill any other tree. Within a few yards of our home a sti'eam runs through a strip of bot- tom land about a quarter of a mile wide, and for a number of years these " flats " near us were pastured closely. Every thing had been cleared off in the shape of timber, and naturally the cattle kept all Avillows that miglit get a start after the spring floods trimmed oft' at sight. During the past four or five years this land has been devoted to growing hay. and the willows that have started along the sides of the stream are forging ahead, and are in many cases out of all danger of the cattle. The farmers do not object to them, as they act as a soil- binder and prevent the banks washing away each spring. Great floods rush through this flat land every spring, and floes of ice strip off much of the bark of tlie young trees, but still they grow. Fig. 1 shows some of the willows referred to, and will give an idea of the harsh usage liiey have to endure each spring in their struggle for existence. The " flats '' had been covered with a raging torrent the day before the picture was taken, and the following night a sharp frost came and the stream lowered, leaving an ice jam about a quarter of a mile long. The willows can be seen at the left of the picture, with the ice piled around them. In the distance, and to the left, can be seen our house, while to tike light, still fui'ther away, will be noticed the church that our family attends. The other picture shows the stream just a few yai'ds west of the house, and a neigh- bor's bridge for crossing to the road. The large willows shown there were planted to lielp hold the abutments of the bridge from washing away in the spring freshets ; and it is not so very many years since we stuck in mere branches, and now they are great trees that serve the purpose originally in- tended when they were first planted, and are, besides, a source of delight each year to the beekeeper and his family who live so near them. If any one has waste land it certainly pays to plant the larger varieties of willows for bee forage, as they grow so very quickly and yield nectar every year provided the weather is suitable for the bees to visit the trees at the blooming period. One man I know, who is not a beekeeper, jilanfs willows along a narrow stream that runs through his property, to avoid the land washing away, and in addition to filling that purpose admirably he systematically uses this ground for producing fuel for his use in summer months, cutting down the trees as they assume large proportions, but all the time putting in fresh slips to keej) up the supplv. Mt. Joy, (int.. Can. Fig. '2. — 'Willows planted foi" the purpose of preventing bridge abutments from being washed away. 414 aLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE SOUTHERN BEEKEEPING PROBLEMS UNLIKE THOSE OF THE NORTH AND WEST BY L. W. CROVATT When the ordinary every-day beekeeper of southeast Greorgia reads in the bee jour- nals of the perplexing problems encounter- ed by brethren in other parts of this g'reat country centering about the wintering prop- osition he should feel thankful that this is not one of the troubles which confront him. Ordinarily speaking, the terrific rigors of the snows and freezing temperatures may be said not to exist in " this neck of the woods." True, we have at times weather which is unusually cold ; but there is never in the region of the coast, in " the flat lands," such low temperatures that strong colonies would freeze, even witli full-depth entrances, such as are used in summer. Hence the bees are wintered on the summer stands. In other words the original place where the colony is put is regarded as a definite fixture for all time, providing, of course, that no move otherwise be deemed neces- sary. Hence the average apiarist is enabled to sit calmly by the fire in the winter and reflect upon the troubles experienced in the West and North, where the task of taking the bees to the cellar and again moving them to their stands when the " mystic touch of nature " will have caused the balmy air to be again suited to the needs of the busy workers. Down in Georgia, on the banks of the Savannah River, some three hundred miles from Atlanta, the capital, the average bee- keeper can also smile at the thought of the problem of "building up" for the spring flow. Further upstate thei'e are splendid spring flows, principally from the titi and gallberry, which afford a water-white honey of splendid color and body and of excellent quality. But down here in Chatham Coun- ty the spring flow may be said to be a neg- ligible quality, for there is little to be had of the superfine blend of amber honey from tlie myriads of wild flowers. It is unnecessary, therefore, to worry par- ticularly about the " building-uio " process. True, it is recognized that strong colonies are desirable under any and all conditions; and we, for this reason, keep an eye open for developments, giving " the helping hand of man " to nature if necessary. As a usual thing, however, mother Nature is fully equal to the occasion in this locality. " Why, far-southern Georgia must be the ideal spot," I hear some one say in fancy. But pause, brother; for, while we have ideal climatic conditions, we get practically no spring flow in this section of Chatham County, and are, therefore, absolutely de- pendent upon fall flowers, principally gold- enrod and swamp myrtle for our surplus, and fall weather is, to say the least, rather uncertain. This spring I have on the hives at this time (my home apiary of fifty colonies) about eighteen hundred or two thousand pounds of a very dark inferior honey se- cured from a source unknown as yet, which will probably not net three cents a pound ; but this is the exception to the rule as before noted. I get $2.00 per gallon for fall honey. Queens in strong colonies as a rule begin depositing eggs about the middle of Janu- ary. This depends largely u^jon the honey left over from wintering, as it is unusual to disturb the brood-nest. By early March, peach, pear, and plum trees begin to bloom, and this gives a great stimulus to brood- A. corner in one of Louis H. Scholl's apiaries of divisible brood-chamber hives. See Beekeeping in the Southwest, JUNE 15, 1913 415 By April the colonies begin to swarm if let alone ; but prevention of natural swarm- ing is g'reatly desired. I have adopted the method of seeking the queen and removing her on one frame of brood, taking out the brood-nest and placing on the bottom-board the super or full-deptli extracting story (which is always empty in early spring). The brood-nest witli the other seven frames is placed above the honey-board. If no in- crease is wanted I go back in eight or ten days and destroy the queen-cells ; but when increase is needed I merely leave an opening under one end of the cover. In time I have a fine Italian c^ueen at work, which was raised by the bees. She sees to it that there be no rivalry, by destroying all other cells. By August our colonies are of rousing proportions with thousands of workers tear- ing in and out of the entrances as if " jdos- sessed," seeking nectar and pollen. Toward the middle of August the golden- rod begins to bloom. In September the swamp myrtle is showing its pretty minute wliite blossoms on all sides, and in October the extractor is brought into play and the sui'plus made ready for the market. This lioney granulates in from three to five montlis. In handling surplus honey I have always made it a practice to deal clirectly with the consumer. I guarantee every drop of the lioney sold, and frequently have customers who take from two to three gallons at a time and call for more latei'. Of recent years little comb honey has been produced in my apiary because of the swarming pro- pensities thereby developed ; but another year I shall be compelled to return in a measure to such production because of in- sistent demand for fancy comb products. Savannah, Ga. FEEDING BACK EXTRACTED HONEY FOR FINISHING SECTIONS The Requirements for Success, such as the Ques- tion of Bees and Queen, Weather, Feeders, etc. BY E. S. MILES Now and then there is a beekeeper who reports success in feeding back; but per- haps the majority do not find that the plan works well at first. I myself was among the latter class; but having studied the theory of it thoroughly I was able to see some of the causes of failure, and after several trials was able to eliminate most of them, so that now I consider the finishing of some of the section honey by feeding back a part of the regiilar program each summer. As there is a scarcity of section honey now, as compared with the supply of ex- One of Scholl's shallow-story divisible-broodcliam- ber hives. A veritable stack of bulk conib honey. — See Beekeepiiuj in the Soutliwe-st. Iracted, it would seem that every thing tend- ing toward helping the producer of comb lioney would be in order. As to whether it pays to feed back, I can not say positively. I think it has paid me, yet it might not pay another. It would depend upon how he is managing his bees, number of stands, how much his help costs, and what his time is worth in other work. As to feeding for the purpose of getting sections finished, the following points in the order named as to importance must be con- sidered. 1. Character of bees and condition of colony to be used. 2. Kind of weather to be expected for the purj^ose. 3. Arrangement of sections in supers ; supers on hives; kind and arrangement of feeders. 4. Preparation of feed and method of feeding. The right kind of bees is absolutely neces- sary as a foundation to success. As nearly as I can tell, a colony that does first-class work in sections in a honey flow will usually though not alwaj'S be all right for this. I always try those that have been the best GLEANINGS IN BEE CL'LTURE The liot-vveatlier costume in Uganda, Africa.— See A. I. Root's department and quickest at finishiui;' tlieir sections; and if they prove good for feeding back 1 use llie same colony each year until the queen begins to fail. 1 do not say black bees are the best, nor hybrids, although more suitable colonies may be found in a given number of these; neither do J say a good prolific queen will insure tliat colony being a good one for this purpose. My experience is that any colony that does good work in sections has a (jueen that keeps at least a reasonably good- sized brood. But on the other hand I have known some very prolific queens whose bees did not seal and finish their combs as quick- ly as others. So in working the colonies for section honey during the flow I watch for quick sealers. It has been my experience too (but this may not be the same in all places) that tlie colonies fed are quite apt to swarm. As tliis should be avoided, I make it a point to select among the quick sealers those that have stood the greatest pressure without swarming. Luckily these two traits often seem to go together — those that are slow to swarm usually being good storers and seal- ers. It is hardly necessary to add that, every thing else being right, the stronger these colonies are, the better. One does not want to use any more colonies than will finish the numl)er of sections he expects to have, as each colony uses considerable hon- ey before doing the best work in the sec- tions; and the more sections one colony fin- ishes, the greater the chance for profit. This depends lai'gely on the weather and length of time one has to continue the work, and his success in clioosing the right kind of colonies for the work. My experience for western Iowa is that the white-honey flow from clover and basswood usually stops about the middle of July, and heartsease begins to yield a little from the 10th to the loth of August, so that I can count on about three weeks between flows in which to feed. I am doubtful whether it pays to feed during a flow. Mr. Alexander, whose opinion we all respect, said it did; but the one time I tried it, those colonies did not do as much in the supers as the ones not fed, and 75 per cent swarmed within a week or ten days after the feeding was started. One swallow, however, does not make a sum- mer, we are told; so this experience might not always be repeated everywhere. In the two or three weeks' time between clover and heartsease I have usually gotten from 15 to 25 supers finished per colony. The right kind of weather is also necessary. But, for- tunately, here in Iowa Ave usually have good weather for feeding at just the time needed. It is hardly necessary to say that it requires good hot weather with warm nights. The arrangement of supers and feeders is of importance, as the better these are, the more chance for success. I was never able to make much headway at feeding back until I began using the Alexander feeder. Tliere may be others as good for this purpose, or even better; but I know the Alexander feed- er is all right. I have some made of 2 x G stuff, and long enough for ten-frame hives, which I use on eight-frame hives, and 1 ])refer two feeders on each hive. This gives capacity for a large feed, so that, if one does not feel able to take tlie time to feed any during the day, a feed each evening is equal to a good fair flow. When placing JUNE 15, 1913 417 the feeder, set your colony to one side, lay •down one or two solid pieces of plank three or four feet long; put on the feeders and bottom-board where the hive stood; then replace the hive of bees, first driving them from the bottom of frames by smoking them so as not to mash any bees when setting on the end cleat of the bottom-board and parti- tions in feeders. The hive should also be blocked up ~/s inch at the front end for ven- tilation. If this blocking up leaves a crack between the first feeder and the hive, push -a couple of small strips under it so that all ■will be tight around the feeders. One must be careful to see that robbing •does not get started; for while these strong ower he must terribly overload it or the engine is not in the proper condition if lie uses a gallon of gasoline for six miles. Usually with a car of 40 or 45 H. P., double the milage he obtains from a gallon of gas- oline is not considered any thing unusual. Although the care and condition of the en- gine goes a long way toward obtaining the proper milage, there are numerous causes which would tend toward excessive con- sumption of fuel. First, if the carburetor is not properly adjusted it will cause the engine to burn gasoline without gettinig good results, and would cause an excessive deposit of carbon in the cylinder. Leaky piston rings or valves cause loss of compression, likewise a loss of gasoline vapor. The remedy is to use new piston rings or grinding in the valves. If the spark is not kept well advanced while running, the consumption of fuel will be greater than when operating under an advanced spark. On some cars the throttle can be opened so the ear goes about 15 miles per hour on retarded spark, and by ad- vancing the spark the speed can be doubled without any increase in fuel consumption. As a general rule, converted touring ears are not very successful when oi^erated as trucks, because the owner usually thinks that a touring car having from 30 to 60 H. P. can carry a load on its chassis equal to a truck of the same power. Overloading is death to pneumatic tires — in fact, any tire, even a solid one, will not give satisfac- tory service when overloaded, and the same applies to the car as well as the tires. From all appearances Mr. Woodward has an extremely heavy body on his car, which, when loaded, will account for some of his cost of operating and upkeej). A commercial body placed on a car should not be any heavier than the touring body it re- placed, and better if not as heavy, if it can be built substantially enough without ex- cessive weight. It is not considered good practice to have the bod}^ overhang at the rear more than one-third of the total length of body, as it puts too great a weight on the rear wheels, resulting in excessive tire wear, which every one owning an automobile knows is expen- sive. I think that, if a person secures a sturdy car of some good reliable make, and has convertible bodies, one for pleasure and another for commercial work, with a rea- sonable amount of care they can be oj^erated more economical^ than a team of horses, considering the amount of work done and the larger territory it enables one to cover. There is undoubtedly a great future for the light truck in the beekeepers' line of work in nearly all parts of the country. I have had considerable experience in the manufacture and repair of cars. South Haven, Mich. SPRING MANAGEMENT Caution Regarding Early Manipulation BY CHAS. H. CARGO When I began beekeeping it was with a clear board — no designs of the art, good, bad, nor indifferent, clouded my views. I had no knowledge of either the box hive, Langstroth hive, Danzenbaker hive, nor any other Jiive. Viewing my assets in. this light I discovered that this negative fact was of real value, as I was not called upon to part GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE with preconceived notions, and could listen to the pro and eon of argument. The best results in a practical way are obtained from methods which have been put into practice bj' the individual beekeep- er himself, and with which he has gained experience, spelled with a rather large ex too. The first thought in returning springtime is, " How are the bees ? " Well, we must «ee. No, don't. In taking this first walk among the bees we will imagine a large sign ever hanging in front of us on which we see the words, " Bee Careful." The first visit maj' well be confined to changing bot- toms for clean ones, and leveling up all the hives to a true level sidewise, and an exam- ination of a few hives throughout the apiary only. An axiom comes in to explain this, and it is handy all the year — " Never dis- turb bees without brood." Bees without brood sometimes leave their hive ; and in one case bees in an upper brood-chamber left their hive while it was set aside a few mo- ments, and attempted to return to their regular entrance below, and were killed (some reason to be a wee bit careful). I believe the bees need to be stirred up to their work, but it is to be done gently. One season I found a hive being robbed. The robbers were trapped, and I thought it Avas just the thing; but, alas! I found later I had ruined another colony as well as the ore robbed. Be sure you know the whole trick before going too far. In a day or two we go to the yard again, and with more confidence if fair weather has intervened. Hives are now opened and brood-nests hastily examined and contract- ed wherever necessary, and the hives closed. The condition in which the bees are found is left penciled on the side of the hive. The season's work now swings out in full view before us, and the notes left on the hive become our chart to study and ponder over. Wliat method shall be pursued, and what harvest is to be sought? Market conditions and flora both are to be considered. Early ■queens are to be raised or bought, and the extent of increase fixed. Swarming is to be provided against by proper management, and bees must be walched closely to prevent heavy injury from orchard spraying. The National Bee- keepers' Association should test out a case of intentional poisoning under our present laws against some blossom-sprayer, so as to cefine clearly the right to put out poison on blossoms, whether bees are known to be kept within a reasonable distance or not. No new law is needed to cover such cases, but a precedent ought to be established. I .uuubt if it is necessary even to prove that any bees were killed. Proof of the spray- ing and its poison on the blossoms is usually sufficient. That is, prove that honej'bees visit apple-blossoms, and that such blossoms were intentionally poisoned. How would a very small entrance do for the week of apple-spraying, to save brood? Beginners should not treat their bees as so many treat their horses — turning them into a field but never looking over the fence to see if any grass is there. Examine your flora. Know it. Fill in the gaps as best you can. Even a very small flow is then of in- creased value. Raise any thing, or see that some one else raises it near you. Alsike clover, sweet clover, buckwheat, are stand- ard. A small patch of sweet clover is of great worth to a whole apiary for a fall flow. Bladen, Ohio. ANOTHER UNSATISFACTORY EXPERIENCE AS A HELPER IN AN APIARY BY B. H. VAN TRESS On p. 58, Jan. 15, the editor thinks " Sub- scriber " was a little hard on the California beekeepers. I know that there are many perfect gentlemen among the beemen of Cal- ifornia; but I also know that there are others just the reverse. I had an experi- ence very much like the one described, and, in addition, I had a sick spell of two weeks caused by eating food not fit for human consumption. My employer then refused to pay me full wages for the little time I was able to work; and as I was among strangers I was obliged to take what he offered or nothing. My advice to those looking for work of this kind is to make diligent inquii-y first ; and if the one looking for help does not answer fully it is better not to make the experiment at all. In the future I shall stipulate $5.00 more, and traveling expenses one way, if the bargain is not lived up to strictly. Greenleaf, Idaho. [Undoubtedly there are unscrupulous beekeepers who will take advantage in every way of a helper; but there are plenty of good men who are anxious to get good help, and are willing to pay reasonably for it. It is a great education to a young man de- siring to learn the bee business to work a season with different producers. As a matter of business we advise having a full contract drawn up in writing, which should be signed by both parties. A lot of trouble? Yes, to be sure; but such a pre- caution might save ten times more trouble later on. JUNE 15, 1913 The following from J. G. Gilstrap shows the class of helpers that many ranchers have to depend upon in an emergency, and this condition, of course, influences the wage paid for help in general. — Ed.] AN ANSWER TO "SUBSCRIBER," PAGE 58 BY J. G. GILSTRAP We are glad that Gleanings conducts an " experience " meeting. "Subscriber" gives his experience in California. I have had nearly thirty-seven years " experience " in California, and about twenty-five of that has been devoted to apiculture. There is nothing strange nor startling about Sub- scriber's experience when one knows the conditions here. The climate here, warmer than exists in most of the States, induces thousands of the hobo class to come. They are usually found counting ties along the railroads or else in squads or bunches of half a dozen or a dozen at the hobo camps along the railroads cooking their mulligan stew in an old can. Not infrequently these pestiferous fellows have in their stew a chicken from the much-hated rancher's hen- house, together with potatoes and other edi- bles gathered at random from the fields, and that, with a chance loaf of bread begged from the good lady of the near-by farm, gives a feast for the " squad." These hoboes may justly be classed into two lots — professionals and blanket men. The professionals have reduced the system to such a science that they rarely " sleep out." As a rule they are the smooth fellows who try to keep up a better appearance, and get a bed furnished if they can, in some bunk house about the large farms where many men are employed. They do not earr^' a bed except in the winter season, and sometimes not then. These profession- als are divided into two classes — those who work part of the time, and those who never work. Well, the blanket men are usually a better set to have around than the professionals, but the same danger exists in contact with either. I speak from sad experience. My friends, too, have often had the experience of having been stocked up with vermin (we always just call them lice or graybacks), from the hoboes. It has come to pass that here in California not one of them will be hired by any self-respecting apiarist or farmer except for a short time when an ex- treme emergency demands help. The class of apiarists that Subscriber tells about working for, however, has a hard time generally in keeping or securing decent help, so they have to take what comes, and too often it is dear help then even though the pay be only $30 a month. I hope to see the day when the State law will regulate the premises of the beeman as thoroughly as does the present State dairy law the prem- ises of the dairyman. Make them clean up, if they have not enough pride and self-re- spect to clean up themselves. I have kept bees in several counties in this State, and have worked for a number of apiarists; and a cleaner, more refined lot of men I never met as a class than the California apiarists. Most of them are Christian men. Many apiarists pay $1.50 l^er day and board when they hire help. Ceres, Cal. THE TREATMENT OF EMPLOYEES ON A BEE- RANCH. I notice a communication, " The Other Side." Jan. 15, page 58, under the above caption. Will you please allow me to refute, at least in part, a portion of the statements made, and to give some facts on the other side? My brother and I run 800 colonies for The J. W. George Bee Co., and receive as wages $65 a month each through the sea- son (eight to ten months). We have access to a grocery store, and have every thing we wish to live on — good camps and rigs are furnished us to go to our outyards. Mr. George takes us to Sunday-school, and Mrs. George comes out and cleans up for us sometimes, and cooks us a nice dinner. I do not think good and woi'thy labor ever goes begging in California. Imperial, Cal. Thomas Y. Atchley. A Paper-hanger's Tools for the Apiary; Fountain Pen Filler for a Foundation Fastener Being a paper-hanger by trade I have been using some of my paper-hanging tools to good advantage in my apiary. Among them is the clipped-point wall-scraper, three inches wide, which I use in scrap- ing hives, bottom-boards, for prying, etc., the point being clipped in such a way as to reach in corners better than the regular scraper or putty-knife. I also use my 16-inch smoothing-brush in brush- ing the bees off the combs, which takes them off at one sweep. Another little tool I am using to advantage is a fountain-pen filler, or eye-dropper, as a wax tube. I have a can about two or three inches deep, the top being narrow enough to prevent the tube, when standing upright in the wa.\, from falling over. This can, about two-thirds full of wax, is placed over a lamp which can be kept at the proper temperature for flowing freely by regulating the blaze. By using a small tube of this kind I can do very neat work in fastening foundation. I have read that some beekeepers are having trou- ble with the spur wire-imbedder weakening the foundation so that it breaks at the wire under the weight of the bees. I have overcome this trouble with my little wax tube, with which I can run so small a stream of wax down the crease over the wire, strengthening the foundation verj' materially. Bedford, Iowa, May 17. Tom Parker. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Heads of Grain from Different Fields What are the Difficulties in Shipping Bees without Combs ? Dr. C. C. Miller .- — I want to buy a lot of queens with 1 to 3 lbs. of bees without combs of brood or frames, and put them in ten-frame hives with full sheets of foundation. Kindly advise me what I am to guard against in order to prevent its being a fail- ure, for, buying bees on combs, I am liable to get foul brood. The A. I. Root Co. have shipped bees by the pound this past summer to test it, and have been successful. I will not have any drawn combs or brood — only foundation in full sheets in Hoffman frames. Canastota, N. Y., Jan. 6. Wm. P. Fritz. [Dr. Miller replies:] I had three separate shipments of this kind, and had difficulty in only one respect ; so I know of only one thing to put you on your guard against. Other- wise a cage of bees shipped in this way may be treat- ed exactly as a swarm. My one trouble was to get them out of the cage. The first lot that came was a beautiful sight to me, they looked so nice and com fortable. They had a pleasant look, too — a smiling look, you might say as if saying to me, " Just see what a nice place we have here, snug as a bug in a rug; nothing better could be desired." "Yes," I re- plied, "that's a nice cage, but I can give you some- thing better. I'm an old beekeeper, and I know all about bees. I'll soon have you out of that." I put into an empty hive a brood-comb containing some honey, set the cage in the hive beside it with the opening of the cage directly facing the comb, covered up the hive and went away, leaving the bees to come out and cluster on the comb at their leisure. When I went back later in the day to take out the empty cage, there was no empty cage there. It was just as full of bees as ever. I began to think that may be I didn't know all about bees after all. I'll tell you later how I managed to get them out; but first I want to tell you about the rir.-c way, as learned from Medina, to wliich place I applied for light as to the right way. It seems that they too had suffered under tlie delusion that I knew all about bees for they had sent no instructions as to getting out those bees. Promptly came back the response, " Shake them out, just as you would shake out any swarm! " Sure enough! how simple! Why hadn't I thought of that? So I was ready when the next lot came. I opened the hole in the cage, and gave it a gentle shake. T didn't want to be too rough with those bees. But the shake w&s. too gentle. The bees stayed right where they were. Then I shook harder, and a few bees were thrown out. To all further shaking the bees replied, " We're quite comfortable where we are, thank you," and stayed right where they were. Then I set the cage on the top-bars, the opening of the cage at the bottom, and covered over the rest of the hive with little boards. I then blew a stream of smoke horizontally at the top of the cage, kept the smoke going steadily, and lowered it as the bees went down until the cage was empty. You intend to put your bees upon foundation; but I think you will do well to borrow a frame of brood for the bees to go down upon, and then you can take away the brood as soon as the bees are out of the cage. Marengo, 111. C. C. Miller. [Bees will shake out of a small cage because the filling-hole is relatively large to the size of the cage; but in the larger sizes this is not always practicable. A better way is to take off the wire cloth on one side, shake, and then lay that side of the cage over the set of combs or frames on which they are to be hived. If there is a frame of unsealed brood and honey it \v\\\ be better. A frame of eggs and young brood will " draw " as nothing else will. In a few hours all the bees ought to be out of the cage, and on the brood. — Ed.] Golden Bees Hardy, Gentle, and Good Honey- Gatherers After reading Mr. Snyder's article, Jan. 15, page 53, I felt like throwing my hat into the air, it did me so much good. I have noticed that our editor for some time has given the Goldens the " black eye."- I have felt like speaking out for Goldens, but have been afraid to, for we little fellows can't make noise enough for any one to hear us, especially when " one of the largest honey-producers, and a queen-breeder as well," has the floor. A few years ago I bought some red-clover queens, and then the season following a Golden queen. I kept them in the same yard and watched them care- fully. I found the Goldens as hardy, gentler, and better licuey-gatherers than the three-banders. I re- member well two three-banded queens and their bees. One queen and her bees were light in color for three- banders, and her bees were more gentle than the darker ones. The darker bees swarmed out one day ; and when I undertook to hive them they would sting. So I killed all my three-banded queens and used the Gold- en queen for a breeder. The Goldens worked red clover just as well as the three-banders. After this I saw the queen-breeder that I bought my Golden queen from, and he told me that he had quit breed- ing the three-banders because he liked the Goldens much better, and that they were better honey-gath- erers, and more gentle. By the way, I have two Swarthmore pedigreed Golden queens, and I intend to test them out ; but I am afraid they will not have bees gentle enough for my little children to " grab out honey by hand- fuls." But one thing is sure, if they prove to be as cross as the three-banders I just told you about. I will pinch their heads. Of the three leading types of beef cattle, two are bred for color as well as beef. The Aberdeen-Angus are black, the Herefords must have white faces, the Durham or shorthorns may be " off " in color. But what of these cattle at the international stock show, Chicago ? The types that carried off most of the rib- bons were bred for color as well as beef. Why not honey and color in bees as well as beef and color in cattle? Nay lor, Mo., Jan. 29. R. O. Marlin. [Gleanings certainly does not wish to give any strain of bees the " black eye " if such is not war- ranted. We merely maintain, as we have explained before, that, while many individual colonies of Gold- ens are hardy and gentle, the majority of them are below the average of the leather-colored Italians in these two points. Note the opinion expressed by G. .V. Barbisch which follows; also that reported by E. G. Ward on another page. — Ed.] Golden Bees Do Not Stand Cold Winters I have been experimenting with golden Italians for the last five or six years, sending for queens from queen-breeders all over the country ; but I am sorry to write that I have been disappointed with them in every instance. They can not stand the severe cold and backward springs we have up here in the North. If they do not die altogether they dwindle so that they are no good whatever in storing surplus. They are very l:ackward in breeding up early in spring, and are much slower than the leath- er-colored Italians. They swarm about as much as any bees I ever had, and they are just as cross and irritable as any Italians I ever had' in my yard. These Goldens may be all right in the South; but JUNE 15, 1913 one thing is certain — they can not stand the cold and rigid weather of the North. They are beautiful bees to look at, but that's about all there is in their favor. In nearly twenty years of beekeeping experience, and after trying nearly every strain of bees advertised I have found the pure" leather-colored Italians ahead of all the rest — at least they are the best bees for this locality. The past season, when so many bees died, the Goldens were the first to succumb; and while many of my Italians pulled through, not one of the Golden colo- nies did. In the future I shall have none other than the leather-colored. La Crescent, Minn., Jan. 21. G. A. Barbisch. Hoffman Frames with Square End-bars; Some Rel- ics of the Past I like the Hoffman frames in every way except that mean V shoulder. It slips over the shoulder of the opposite square one. Why not make all the shank shoulders square? The Langstroth hive is hard to beat, and the Ital- ian bee has come to stay; but what about the hive that was going to do away with swarming? I think it was called the " reversible " hive. It was claimed to stimulate brood-rearing by turning it upside down; and if at any time you suspected a swarm was about to issue, all you had to do to forestall the swarm was to give it another turn upside down. I wish I had such a hive. I have beep looking for it ever since. Have queens mated in confinement been a suc- cess ? What was the outcome of the lamp nursery? Slate River, Ont., Dec. 10. J. M. Munro. [There has been some objection to the V edge of the end-bars of the Hoffman frame. The purpose of this was to cut the propolis, as the frames are crowded together. Some beekeepers wish the end- bar square on both sides, and we have made Hoff- man frames in this way, although bj- far the greater majority prefer the V edge, for the reason stated. There is no question but that in localities where propolis is very bad the square edge end-bars are much harder to keep accurately spaced than the V edge. Reversible hives and reversible frames have come and gone, and probably more will come and go in the future. There are some advantages to be gained by reversing the frames or reversing the whole \ brood-chamber ; but in the end the extra expense of the equipment and of the labor required probably offset these advantages. So far as we know, there are no experiments be- ing conducted at the present time along the line of getting queens mated in confinement. The experi- ments that seem the nearest to success were those in which mammoth tents of wire cloth were used, but there were so many failures that the few suc- cesses did not pay for the expense of the undertak- ing. The lamp queen nursery or incubator is likewise a thing of the past. There were po.'sibilities, but it was found that bees can attend to work of this kind better than man aided by artificial heat, etc. — Ed.] Carniolans Not Immune to Disease, but Fully as Resistant to it as Italians Nov. 15, page 744, H. Perkins, of Artesia, Gal., mentions the claim made by Eugene Baker, of Los Angeles, that Carniolans are more resistant to Eu- ropean foul brood than Italians, and asks that others having tried them give their experience. I have been battling with European foul brood for two years, my apiary being located about half a mile from Mr. Baker's. When I first discovered the disease I purchased a few leather-colored Italian nueens, and with cells from these I requeened my 423 apiary. By winter they were, to all appearances, free from disease. As most of my colonies were weak, and the following spring was cold and un- favorable, the disease broke out anew. Many colo- nies showed but an occasional bad cell; but I de- cided to treat all that showed any disease. Nearly all the queens were full-blooded Italian, but mated to black or dark hybrid drones. As Mr. Baker seemed to be having better success with Carniolans I procured some eggs and larvae from his bees, and raised cells with which I re- queened nearly all of my apiary. They cleaned up nicely, as they had done the previous season, but in like manner the disease reappeared later on. These queens were also mismated, no doubt, though it is difficult to tell from the appearance of the bees. As there are hundreds of colonies in other apiaries, and in houses and rocks near by, it is a difficult undertaking to cure disease permanently or to get queens of any race purely mated. On this account I ordered two dozen Carniolan queens from the same breeder from whom Mr. Baker gets his. These were placed in strong and apparently healthy nuclei. Two were lost in introducing; and in the remaining twenty-two disease appeared in six before fall. I also ordered two more Italian queens at the same time, and later two Caucasians. One of the Italian colonies became slightly diseased late in the summer, but the Caucasians have shown no disease so far. In tlie fall of 1911 I had 100 colonies. While the most of these contained mismated Italian queens there were several purely mated, and also one colony of Banats. The queen was sent me for trial by the late Walter M. Parrish, of Lawrence, Kansas. That Banat colony is the only one of the hundred which has never shown a trace of disease up to the pres- ent time. I expect to try the Banats out further the coming season. Of the large number of diseased colonies which I have had during the past two years, in manv cases it became necessary to unite several into one before treating by the Alexander method. Most of those which became infected during the past summer and fall were taken in hand upon the first appearance of disease, and were ciired by cag- ing the queen for two or three weeks, or by placing the brood above an excluder. The latter plan, which I believe was first mentioned by Percy Orton, of Northampton, N. Y., I consider the best of any I have tried for mild cases, provided the colony is strong and already has a" desirable queen. This plan will prove a success, however, only during a honey-flow, as at times when no nectar is coming in tlie bees will allow the dead larvw to remain m the cells week after week, making no attempt to remove them. As to the disease-resisting powers of the two races, my experience would indicate that the Italians are superior to the native blacks, and that Carniolans are equal to and possibly somewhat superior to the Italians. They are, however, by no means immune. Carniolans biiild up for our late flow better than the Italians, and for that reason I intend to con- tinue keeping them, unless, after further trial, one of the other dark races should prove superior. Monrovia, Cal., Jan. 1. Levi J. Ray. My Experience in Early Brood-rearing I remember being located in a high cold part of northern Vermont where it was necessary to build up colonies quickly in order to keep up with the sea- son. I used the old-style ten-frame Langstroth hive. The first day after taking the bees from the cellar I used to examine every colony; and as I did this I had an extra hive in which I had fitted a tight movable partition. I took out the comb with the most honey in it, putting this comb at the side of this extra hive. If this hive was to face the east I put this comb on the south side. Next I selected a good brood-comb with some honey in it, and scrap- ed the cappings of this honey with a common table 424 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE fork, this making small holes in the cappings. I placed the two comljs with brood in them next to a good brood comb with more or less honey in it. I used to scrape all combs with the fork, as this caused the bees to remove the honey which would stimulate them in brood-rearing. I spaced these five combs as near together as I could and leave a bee-space between them. I moved up the partition as close as I could and leave a bee-space. I then used a stick just fitting the entrance, and long enough to reach half way across the hive. After providing a narrow honey-board I shook the remaining combs in front of this five-frame hive, taking these combs and the old hive to the honey-house for safe keeping. I took a large basket to the barn and filled it with chafif from the barn floor. I filled the empty side of this hive with chaff. I next took some old four-inch boards and made a frame or rim the exact size of the cap. I put this frame in place of the cap, and filled this extension level full of chaff, covering the honey-board three or four inches deep with chaff. I then placed the cap over all, and contracted the entrance to about one inch. I did this with all strong colonies, using fewer combs for the weaker ones. The hive being thus warm, the bees went to the field in large numbers, and were able to push breeding to the utmost. I let them alone for about ten days. I then took the big basket, and w'ith my hands removed most of the chaff, so I could move the partition. I always found the comb next to the partition filled with eggs and larvae, also the center combs well filled with brood. I took another comb from the store hive and scraped the cappings with the fork and placed this comb next to tlie partition, and covered all again with the chaff. I made all additions of comb to this warm side of the hive. I had to make these additions every few days. When I got the hive near- ly full of combs I removed all the chaff and the par- tition, filling the hive with comb. I had to work fast to keep ahead of the bees, as they would get the swarming fever. There was work in this, but it paid. I recollect having a lot of nuclei ; and when a swarm came off I hived it with a nucleus ; and after removing the cells from the old stock I returned the old queen. In about three weeks she would lead out another swarm. I have thus had three prime swarms from a single old colony, and a surplus be- sides. Lyndon, Vt., Feb. 26. H. E. Harrington. Prospective Co-operative Beekeepers' Association in New Zealand The chief drawback to our industry here is want of organization ; but there is hope that this will be rectified shortly. A movement is on foot to establish a co-operative association in Canterbury, and if enough support is forthcoming a company will be formed in time for next season's crop. A Dominion association may be formed eventually, something on the lines of the National Association in America. A committee was appointed at last conference held in Wellington last August, and the members have been collecting information. This committee will submit a scheme at the next conference, and there is every prospect that a workable scheme will be evolved. Promises of support have been received from many of the leading beekeepers who intend to be present when the next conference is held. Prizes this season are low, probably on account of the crop being so much above the average. It is hoped that an export trade will be established; and if this is done, t..e local market wnll be relieved. A comprehensive scheme of advertising is contemplated in connection with the above, as honey is not as extensively used as it deserves to be. Christchurch, N. Z. E. G. Ward. The Help of Bee Experts Wanted I wish to suggest a possible opening in the way of what ought to be a good business. I keep bees because I must. My business demands it, yet it is impossible for me to give them necessary care or to- look after treatment should brood diseases get among them. All through the country are farmer beekeep- ers who do not know hovr to work their bees. If a man were to come to me two or three times a season, certified as competent and trustworthy bj' a recognized authority, say the secretary of the Na- tional Association, or the State Inspector, I would gladly pay him three dollars for a day's work, or the work necessary, on my few stands. Perhaps I could better afford to pay five dollars than to let him pass on. So could others, though perhaps they would not. It is possible that a bee expert could not develop a business at itinerant work; but I wish there were one whose territory would include my place. It would, of course, be absolutely essential that such a one be thoroughly grounded in the scientific know- ledge of brood diseases, and competent to use the best methods, and exercise all the precautions neces- sary in treating and handling diseased colonies. Carthage, Mo., Jan. 20. Benjamin 0. Auten. [Possibly some such plan could be worked out; but it occurs to us that in most parts of the country the traveling expense would be almost prohibitive. — Ed.] Wire Cloth in Connection with the Alexander Plan for Making Increase I w'ish to add one improvement on the Alexander plan of prevention of swarming as given on page 314, May 1. When the change is made with the cxueen in the new hive, and the excluder on, put a wire screen on the excluder, and then set on the hive body containing brood. Then shake most of the bees in front of the new hive. What are left will care for the brood, and the heat will pass from the colony below, and will be saved. This makes the colonj- shaken the same 'as a natural swarm — no brood to care for, and it forces twice as many bees into the field. In eight days remove the screen and cut out all queen-cells. The upper colony or hive body contain- ing brood should be given a small entrance in front when the cage is first made. I have tried the plan a number of times without the screen, but in almost every case too many bees would go above with the brood. This discourages the queen so that in a few cases she stops laying. The plan is not a success without the screen unless with an extra populous colony or with very warm weather. Simi, Cal., May 19. Geo. W. Rich. A Lining for the Firebox of a Smoker I have made a " discovery," or learned something, whichever way your old friends care to put it. Cut a piece of galvanized iron or good heavy tin as long as the circumference inside, and as wide as the depth of the fire-box on your smoker. Bend it into a hollow cylinder, and slip it into the fire-box. I have used a smoker thus for nearly a year, which had burned through before I put it in. If put in when the smoker is new it will certainly double the smoker's usefulness. San .Juan, Porto Rico, .May 1. F. E. Haktwell. Alfalfa Does Weil at High Altitude On page 272, April 15, is an inquiry from J. W. Hontz, of Portales, N. M., regarding alfalfa at high altitudes. I am in the far-famed San Luis Valley, which is 50 miles wide by 100 miles long. The alti- tude is 7500 feet. Alfalfa does well, and the bees also do as well as I have ever seen anywhere. Wm. J. Baker, M. D. Monte Vista, Cal., May 21. JUNE 15, 1913 425 Our Homes A. I. BOOT And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed: to you it shall be for meat. — Gen. 1:29. In all they vrays acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. — Prov. 3:6. Behold the birds of heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns ; and yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not of much more value than they? — Matt. 6:26. My good friends, I have made another " great discovery." While it is not exactly new, I am sure it is absolutely true. The greatest part of my discoveries are, as a rule, not exactly new; but thej' are new to me, and wonderfully precious, for I feel that they come straight from the hand of the great loving Father. Years ago, when my good friend Terry said so much about sim- ple eating, uncooked food, etc., I took a trip over to his place expressly to partake of one meal just as he recommends and prac- tices. Some of 3"ou will remember I told 3'ou about it in these pages. My digestion was a little ont of order on that day, and I did not know whether his " menu " would agree with me or not. Terry and his wife, who were living by themselves, have only two meals a day. I think the first one is about eight o'clock, and the other about two in the afternoon. When I ari'ived there at the usual dinner time, and was told that the hj^gienic spread was for myself alone, I begged that it should be simply uncooked food just as Terry writes about, and noth- ing else. Well, just now I remember onW three things on the table — rolled wheat, un- cooked ; evaporated peaches, uncooked, soak- ed in cold water; and butter. Friend Terry fignred up the cost; and although I had a good square satisfying meal, the cost was only 6 cents. The wheat cost perhaps one cent, or a little more; the butter, one cent; but the peaches were so delicious, and I en- joyed them so much, that I ate about four cents' worth, and I do not know that I ever had a more satisfying meal, and, somewhat to my surprise, my digestion after it was perfect, with no disagreeable taste in my mouth afterward, at all. I do not remember what I had to drink; but I rather think it was some of Terry's beautiful cool filtered rain water; or it might have been roasted- wlieat coffee ; but I rather think it was just water. Xow, the reason I go into these details is as follows: Most of you know that my last meal for the day, say about five o'clock, con- sists only of apples — good ripe ones. In Florida I take a fair-sized grapefruit with my apples. I have tried mulberries, and, in fact, almost all kinds of berries and fruit as a substitute for apples, but none of them seem to answer as well. After I got back from Florida I happened to go into the grocery where we get our supplies, and there I saw a case just opened of beautiful evaporated California peaches. The peaches were, of course, dried with the skins on. They were unusually large, and looked so tempting that I took a pound of them. One of my happy surprises was that they were only ten cents. As they were fancy stock I thought the price would be a good deal more. Well, remembering my experience at friend Terry's years ago, I told Mrs. Root to soak them in water and not stew them at all. At the end of 24 hours I cut one of the great luscious halves in two, and put the quarter of a peach in my mouth. I at once uttered an exclamation of surprise. I believe it was not only the most delicious peach, but the most delicious food of any sort I ever tasted. You may remember I said something in the same strain about that baked dasheen. Now, I do not know wheth- er those peaches were something extra, or whether I had somewhat neglected to give uncooked peaches the attention they desen^e. I remember that, after my experience at Terry's, we bought some ordinary peaches and soaked them, but I did not think very much of them. These peaches were not only uncooked, but no sugar was added. They were plentj^ sweet; but it was the sweetness that God, through the influence of the Cali- fornia sunsliine, put into them. I asked Mrs. Root if she had tasted them. She said she had not, but she drank some of the water they were soaked in. By the way, T think she put about one pound of peaches to a quart of water. At her suggestion I poured some of the water (or " juice ") into a teacup, and took a drink. Well, if the taste of the peach was a happy surprise, the peach juice, or, if you choose to call it so, peach eider, was a greater surprise. It certainly was the most delicious fruit drink, or drink of any kind. I ever tasted.* It did * By the way, once or twice every summer, and several times in the winter, at my Florida home, I have taken a glass of soda at the soda-fountains just to see what they have that entices so many men, women, and children to spend their nickels in this way; and I have several times thought that perhaps the " high cost of living " was brought about largely by the nickels deposited at the soda-fountains. Who pays for this expensive apparatus to be seen in most of our drugstores that dispense ice cream and soda? It is the nickels: and if you watch the crowds as they take their various sodas, you will find a lot of children, and perhaps grown-up people, who look as if they did not have any nickels to spare. I may say the same in regard to coca-cola and Hires' root beer. Now, if the present generation demands some such 4rin^s, usually called '■ fruit juices," frjT 426 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE not seem possible that a pound of peaches should diffuse its natural juices through that whole quart of water so as to make it so de- licious and nourishing.* That book, " Starving America," has a lot to say about uncooked food, or the food eaten just as God and the bright sunshine and the summer showers made it. With these dried peaches, of course we get every bit of the skin or peeling, fuzzy down and all. After eating these soaked peaches with my apples for a couple of weeks past I feel there is a special element in the peach skins and juice that nature demands. It furnishes those mineral salts about which the author of that book has so much to say. Our first text tells us how God planned in the beginning to give our bodies the nourishment they need. You will notice the special mention of the fruit of the tree, and that " to you it shall be for meat." Not only did God intend fruit should be not only a large part of our daily food, but he meant that we should take it and eat it just as he gave it — peeling's and all, the way the ani- mals eat it. In other words, the expensive and wasteful fashion of throwing away one of the most important parts of our daily food is a great blunder. The water the peaches are soaked in contains a large part of the nourishing property of the peach. In the same way, the water in which your potatoes are soaked over night is rich and nourishing, containing mineral salts besides the starch, etc. The water the potatoes are boiled in is still more valuable. I know the women folks and the cook make objections ; but by studying God's law^s, and following instance, remember that book, " Starving America, tells us the greater part of the ice-cream sodas have no fruit juice at all — only an imitation made mostly from the products or residue of our oil-refineries. Well, now, if such drinks are really needed, why not have fruit juice from the evaporated peaches instead of having them rot by the hundreds of tons? If you think I am mistaken, soak some evaporated peaches for 24 hours in pure cold water, and see if the di-ink is not ahead of any thing at the foun- tains. And this pure fruit-juice is straight from the hand of the loving Father. * These peaches I am talking about were evidently very ripe when first spread out to be evaporated. Some of them, and I should say most of them, were probably soft and mushy ; and I remember years ago in childhood of drying peaches out in the sun that were so soft that we just squeezed the stones out. On page 385 of our last issue, J. A. Green tells us of htmdreds of tons of the finest peaches grown in the world rotted on the ground last August in Col- orado. Now, if I am correct, evaporated peaches, where the work is properly done, can be kept safely year after year; and by soaking them in water according to Terry's plan you can have them every day in the year, almost as good, if not quite, as thev were when picked from the trees. May God be praised for the beautiful peaches that are now pro- duced, and for the improved methods of preserving them by evaporating so as to lose little or none of the deliciousness or healthfulness ; and may God hasten the time when shorter cuts and less expensive cuts may be made from producer to consumer. ^^ How about " parcel post " for disposing of those " hun- dreds of tons " (in the shape of evaporated peaches) that were left to rot? out the plans he has laid down, I should not be surprised if Terry and I would be alive, and well and happy, long after a lot of you who think you must follow fashion in eating (as well as in dress) are dead and gone. In fact, Terry and I can even now, when we are in our 70's, look around and see hundreds who were born some time after we wei'e, that have died — ^" worn out," so the world says. Let us now touch a little on the second of our texts — " In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." God wdll direct us all as to what we shall eat and how we shall live, just as well as in spiritual matters, if we " acknowledge him " and confess that his wisdom is greater than ours, and learn to take the food he has pro- vided as he gave it, straight " from the producer to the consumer." We shall not only live long, but we shall be well and happy. Of course, we can not eat every thing uncooked — that is, we can not very well at the present time; but as Terry and the author of that other book say emphatically, we shoiild endeavor to have a large part of our every-day food uncooked. Let God's sunshine do the cooking. You may remem- ber there is quite a nice book out now al- ready entitled " Sun-cooked Food." In the matter of drink, God sends the needed water in most localities straight down from the clouds — you might say straight down from heaven, and say it truthfully; but as it is inconvenient to get it straight from the clouds, especially when it does not rain, the duty devolves on us of keeping rain water. Now, in order to be sure that the water I drink is pure and wholesome, I drink only boiled rain water, I do not care very mucli about having it cold or very cold — so it is pure and clean, free from all veg- etable matter, especially during hot weather. I have repeatedly drank water right from the cistern, say for a couple of weeks, and watched its effects. Then I would take the same water and have it boiled, and (of course) cooled off. I have not used hot water of late unless I eat something I ought not to eat, or overeat. Then a good big drink of hot water until it starts a good perspiration seems to be beneficial. I usu- ally drink half a cupful of milk at my meals. Milk, like fruit, is the food God provided and intended for us, especially the little ones. Great pains is now being taken, I think, almost all over the world, to have the milk as well as eggs fresh and pure. WTiy, it is just " fun to live " when you are fol- lowdng God's plans, and when you let him direct and advise. Sometimes it sounds extravagant to hear JUNE 15, 1913 427 Terry keep insisting that correct living will cure you, no matter what the trouble is; but the longer I live, the naore I am con- vinced he is right. Of course, we are all liable to aeeiSents; and in such a ease or at such a time we need the advice and skill of our expert physicians and surgeons. May God be praised for what has been accom- plished, and is now being accomplished more and more every day in the line of in- telligent surgery. I suppose it will not be out of place to suggest in this talk that, aside from uncook- ed food and pure water to drink, we need to keep our bodies clean. Every inch of my body is washed with pure soft water, and well rubbed till dry, every day of my life, and I enjoy it, and would not think of taking up my tasks without it. One thing more : Almost every day of my life I work at something until the perspira- tion starts thi'ough almost every pore of my skin, and until I feel tired enough to sit down at my desk. Last, but not least, I take a short nap before my noonday meals so that I rarely ever sit down at any mea) exhausted or tired out. Of course, when I get up in the morning, and have my break- fast between five and six, I am in good trim because of my restful sleep; and this reminds me that when one gets his digestion in proper trim, as God intended it should be by the use of wholesome food, and not too much of it, there is almost no trouble about sleeping. When I have a large lot of books and papers that I feel as if I m-usi glance over, at least hastily, I take another nap in the evening before going to my task, and then go to bed about ten o'clock ; then I go to sleep instantly, and do not remember any thing or know any thing until toward five o'clock next morning. Now for my concluding text. The dear Savior reminds us that God cares for the fowls of the air. Although they do not reap nor gather into barns, yet our heavenly Father feeds them. He tells them by in- stinct where and how to get proper and wholesome food. Then he asks the question, " Are not we, the crowning act of his crea- tion, of more consequence than the birds of the air? " If he makes provision for them, has he not, in his infinite wisdom and loving kindness, also made provision for us? Did he intend we should be sick and ailing as so many are? Should we be ailing if we used the common sense he has implanted in us all, in studying out what his plans are? As warm weather comes on, and I begin to protest against the fashionable way of clothing, I meet with remonstrance; and I am told that we must, at least to a reason- able extent, look like other people. Peter said, you will remember, in olden time, that we should obey God rather than man; and when fashion conflicts with health, I for one propose, at least to a certain extent, being out of fashion. The fowls of the air live out of doors; and I am sure God intended we should be out of doors at least a great part of our time. When any thing takes us indoors and keeps us at least a good many hours of the day under the influence of arlificial heat, and without a great abun- dance of outdooor air, we have no right to expect to gain the blessings of health. Peo- ple are committing suicide; in fact, the suicide mania is increasing if any thing; and I feel sure a lot commit suicide because they are disregarding God's laws. There is not so much complaint, just now, about people being out of work. Every- body— good, bad, and indifferent, has a chance to work if he wants to; and I am sure it was God's plan that we should be busy, using our muscles and brains during all our working hours. I picked up a health journal a few hours ago, and read of a man who rushed into a doctor's office, and told the doctor he would give him fifty dollars, a Imndred dollars, or even one thousand dol- lars, if he would make him well. At the same time this man's breath was reeking with the fumes of whisky and tobacco, and his face gave abundant evidence of excesses of every sort. When the doctor assured him there was no permanent help or hope unless he would leave off all of his bad habits, he got into a rage, and declared that if this particular doctor could not give him something he would hunt up a doctor who would. There is no help for such people along the line of God's plans. " Whatso- ever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." THE JAPANESE PROBLEM. Quite likely I am too poorly posted to pass an opinion on the matter in question ; but notwithstanding I wish to have a little say in regard to the matter. We are send- ing missionaries at great expense all over the world wherever there is sinful and suf- fering humanity; and although the gxeat business world for a considerable time did not seem to recognize the importance of missionary enterprises, I am glad to say that within a few years or so things have changed. The skeptics and agnostics, and the. business part of humanity (that has been so greedy for gold) just now are rec- ognizing what the missionaries are doing to develop and civilize the uttermost parts of the earth. For a long time heathen na- tions held aloof, and could not be induced even to take notice of what the missionary 428 had to present. A little later, however, the current changed and began to go the other way; and these very heathen, both saints and sinners, began flocking to our shores in such numbers that there is talk about put- ting a stop to it; and while our United States is composed so largely of all tribes and colors of humanity it becomes a little difficult for those of us who are "born Yankees " to dictate for the rest of our people. Well, now, contrast the difference not only in expense but in the facility with which we can convert our next-door neigh- bors, compared with, for instance, the in- habitants of the islands of the sea on the other side of the globe. Ought we not rather to rejoice at the opportunity it af- fords us to spread the gospel among people of all nations who are sprinkled like salt throughout our whole domain in " the land of the free and the home of the brave? " Ten years ago or more Mrs. Root and I paid a visit to some friends in San Fran- cisco. They had a Japanese cook; and the lady of the house said he took entire charge of the dinner; and every one of us could testify that it was gotten up in fine style. The cooking was superb in every particular ; and this young " Jap," as spry as a cat, did the whole of the work. So far as I can gather from the papers, the people of Cali- fornia object to the Japanese because they not only work cheaper, but are better skill- ed in housework and ever so many other things. California does not want them, be- cause they stand in the way of — well, I should say of "bigger wages and shorter hours." I have been wondering what our good women folks who are obliged to em- ploy hired help have to say in regard to the matter. Lots of industries are being aban- doned (and this includes even the "chicken business ") because faithful and skilled help costs so much. I would by all means put a stop to Japanese men coming over here for a little while, leaving their families in Jap- an. If I am correct, Arizona cuts off the Japanese unless they bring their wives and children, and become naturalized. There seems to be some good sense in such a course. It rejoices my heart to see that the American Issue for May 17 indorses my sentiment, at least to a great degree. Read the follow- ing: CALIFORNIA AND THE JAPS. In California 334 Japanese farmers are provoking the soil into growing things for the common good. These Japs beat the world in intensive farming. They are sober, tremendously industrious, and have the science of raising much crop from a wee bit of land reduced to a science. They bathe ever day, and eat fresh vegetables, nuts, and fruit instead of beefsteak at 28 cts. a pound. . The American farmers are beaten at their own game, and call upon the legislature to help them out GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE by eliminating the Japs from the farming industry. It is suggested that these 334 Jap farmers em- bark in the saloon business. Let them embark in the business of skinning the poor of their wages, the business of getting people drunk, apd sending them home to beat their wives and pound their children. Let these Jap farmers embark in the business of filling the stomachs of the city poor with forty-rod lightning instead of cabbages and potatoes. Let them embark in the business of debauching California citizenship, in the business of breaking up California homes, sending California boys to prison, and the girls to hell. The California legislature won't kick on this, pro- vided the Japs deliver over a portion of the profits in the form of license money. If the little Japs will engage in the business of raising Hades instead of potatoes, all of these inter- national complications will have been abated. Now, dear friends, shall we not extend a hand of welcome to any sort of humanity, wliite, black, or yellow, if they come over here and become one of us, obey our laws, and bring their wives and children? MISSIONARY WORK IN BARBADOS. We have been fondly congratulating our- selves that cannibalism was about wiped off the face of the earth, and that the gospel of Jesus Christ had so thoroughly pene- trated every remote spot that in the near future starvation, and cruelty of every sort, would soon be done away with as they are here in America, at least as a general rule. Below is a letter, however, from Barbadoes that should stir up not only America but the whole wide world. I am glad our good friend Hutchinson has taken the pains to inform us of such terrible things; and I hope this printed letter may be the means of awakening all mankind to what is still going on in some remote parts of the globe. Dear Mr. Root:- — At the close of another year I have to return your firm my hearty thanks for their kindness in sending me Gleanings for the previous 12 months. An equal debt of thanks is due to you, as senior partner, and with a preponderating vote in the counsels of the firm. It is a great pleasure to be able to render such thanks, as Gleanings has always a special welcome in my house; and your steady fight for righteousness is always of great interest. During the year we have been interested in this island in the Putumago atrocities, as many of our people were at work in that region. What attracted public gaze to it, was, a man settled here, married, opened a hotel, which he gave somewhere, north or south, the doubtful compliment of naming after it. But Peru telegraphed here to arrest this proprietor of " The America," and the allegations made at his trial were something awful. Beating individual In- dians to death was only pleasurably compared with other horrors. On one occasion he tied up 20 In- dians, and flogged them. Then from morning to evening they were kept tied up under his house. In the evening he brought them out again, flogged more flesh off their bones, then laid them out on the ground, poured kerosene oil over them, covered them with wood, and set them on fire. That fiend in human form actually got off through the indifference of the Peruvian government 1 W. G. Hutchinson. St. Joseph Rectory, Barbados, Dec. 23. JUNE 15, 1913 429 Poultry Department SITTING HENS^ AND HOW TO MAN AGE THEM. There is an article by our good friend Stoddard in the American Poultry Journal that is worth ten dollars to me. I have read it over three times, and I am going to read it again. The article certainly ought to be worth the subscription price of the journal to any one interested in jDoultry. If you do not subscribe right out for a year, send for the June number at least, and read Stod- dard's two articles in that issue. I know friend Stoddard is getting to be an old man like myself ; and I have criticised him some- what in times past on account of the com- plicated machinery he recommends. But notwithstanding all this, I believe our old friend has studied chickens more than any other writer who is living and making " things hustle " in chicken matters at the present day. The article that I have read with so much interest is on the value of poultry inventions, and is particularly about sitting hens. See the following extract : I would a hundred times rather invent something that will aid in producing food for generations to come tlian create the advanced types of monstrosities in fowls and pigeons that have appeared in England for a century past all put together, were it possible for one person to do this. A while ago I published in this magazine a de- scription of what I named the " duplicate system " of yards for management of sitting hens, which method pleased me so much that I felt like jumping over a two-story house. I thought it was not capable of improvement. It has worked like a charm with me and saved endless labor and vexation of spirit; and had my sitters been of a better breed, with more uniformity of disposition, it would have work- ed still better. To find the very best breed for sit- ting purposes, in the sub-tropics, is a consummation devoutly to be wished. Climate is evidently not just right for heavy breeds. I kept calling on poultrymen for years and years to invent good methods of taking care of hens en- gaged in sitting, but my appeals were largely in vain. In all, volumes of diatribes against mother hens have been written, though they are among objects most worthy of admiration found in the entire realm of animal life below the human race. " As a hen gath- ereth her chickens under her wings " suggests a pic- ture than which there can be no finer in nature in the eyes of her true votaries. The latest depreciation of the use of sitting birds I have seen is in the April issue of the Poultry Advocate, from a writer who gives a very valuable article, and is in part as follows : " As the nests were attended to, the hens fed and watered, there were broken eggs discovered. This called for fresh nest-filling, washing of the eggs that remained whole, and sometimes the getting of a fresh sitter. One of the hard things in hatching with hens is the bowel trouble that comes from feeding injured corn to them. . . More hens soil their nests, more chicks die of bowel trouble, from musty corn, than all other causes. If in any doubt as to the corn — and you can not get other — bake it in the kitchen oven till the color of it is slightly darkened. Then cool and keep in dry box till needed." The baking advice is excellent; but this writer has missed the most general cause of bowel trouble. It occurs from lack of exercise in twenty cases to one of musty corn. Sitters closely confined are af- flicted as described time and time again, while their flock mates not engaged in sitting, but of the same age and breed, and fed on the same corn exactly, are exempt. Study the actions of a sitter off her nest of her own will, with plenty of room to run and get up full speed, and fly to the fence top, or upon some other elevated object, and down again, and bustle around generally, and hunt up her flock for a short visit, and race back near her nest, then scamper away again. Once I thought these antics were merely manifestations of delight at respite from the irksome restrain of sitting, but now I know better. They are fraught with deep meaning like many other habits of animals. Probably hens which steal their nests do not have bowel trouble and foul their nests in one case in a thousand. I will warrant not a reader of this magazine ever knew of such a case. TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS. Our writer's other vexations are familiar to read- ers. Hens do not return to their proper nests, for instance. The hen which steals her nest makes no such mistake. Her brain k loaded to the limit with thoughts about her nest, and her previous nest. She spent lots of time considering the matter in the first place, and compared various localities before she laid an egg. All her actions proceed like clockwork if she is not " taken off by hand " and " put back," and stirred up and confused generally. The more she is handled and made anxious about her nest, the worse she behaves. Even if she is quite a tame speci- men, and not nervous on ordinary occasions, she is excited when the sitting fever is on. The love for her eggs is almost as strong as love for actual chicks, and all the fine program of nature is disarranged by a " brain storm." What if some way could be contrived by which sitters could be let severely alone after eggs were assigned, all the time till hatching begins, just as if they had stolen their nests ! Eureka I All fussing not only menaces success and vexes the poultryman, but takes up so much time as to mean good-by to profits. Contrive some way of letting sitters alone, and they will regularly air and turn their eggs and carry out the whole of nature's exquisite program just as the one which steals her nest does. You perhaps gather from the above that both writers refer to an arrangement for confining the sitting hen to a little yard or yards. Let me digress enough to say that it is virtually the same thing we frequently see advertised — the " natural-hen incubator, for only $3.00." I have shown it up again and again in years past ; but still the adver- tisements are seen in a great part of our poultry journals. Briefly, the man has no incubator to sell at $3.00 or any other price, and he never had one. All he has to sell is a single sheet of paper — price $1.00 ; and if you do not buy immediately he will come down to 50 cents and then to 25, for his wonderful sheet of paper. He just tells how to give each sitting hen a little door- yard where she can eat and drink and take a little exercise. Now, friend Stoddard's plan as described in the June number of the American Poultry Journal is to make these yards a good deal longer. They may be three feet wide or less, and as long as 430 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE your ground will admit — the longer the bet- ter. Friend Stoddard recommends letting sitting hens severely alone. Instead of an- noying them and getting them out of temper by human intervention, he lets the great God who made them do all the managing, or, in other words, he lets them follow out their own wonderful instinct. Let me di- gress a little right here : Along about the first of April, in our Florida home, Wesley announced that a Leghorn hen had just come out of the brush with a fine brood of chickens. We went down, picked up the hen, gathered up her fifteen chicks, and put them in a coop. She behaved so nicely that I began to think she was a jewel of a mother. By some mishap, however, one of the chicks got out of the box just as we thought every thing was all right for the night; and when I tried to catch the chick her motherly instincts all at once were aroused. She got out of the box, and I had one of the biggest fights I ever had with a sitting hen. We finally got her put back, and I kept her several days shut in a coop. Finally I decided to let her go out for exercise. Her first performance was to dig the mulch away from the fruit- trees in our dooryard, sending the di-ied Bermuda grass " sky high " in her search for crickets for her brood of fifteen. When we " shooed " her out if the dooryard she got over into the cornfield; and when the chicks were a week old, she and they had been pretty much all over the premises. The fences of the convergent poultry-yard were no obstacles to her at all. In fact, her daily plan of getting over one particularly high fence was to fly up to a limb on a pine tree, twenty feet or more from the ground. She would fly right straight up and alight on that limb, and, after resting a while, sail down or " glide " as the flying-machine men do. The chicks were very soon following her everywhere. They did not need any feeding nor any thing else, apparently, for God's earth was fruitful enough and broad enough to give them all things needed. By the way, is there not here a lesson for poor humanity f If the fathers and mothers of our land had the grip and faith in their own muscles, and the ability to see what God has spread out before us, I do not think there would be much complaint about " the high cost of living." Well, when we came away Mrs. Root de- clared that this particular hen would have to be sold with the rest of the two-year-old layers. The chicks were then about three weeks old; but they had become so inde- pendent that they did not seem to mind the loss of their mother at all. They were the last to get home at night so I could shut them up, and about the first to get out in the morning. Now, Providence permitting, I am going to raise a strain of chickens from these fifteen, even if they do defy fences and every other obstruction. I take it the little family is still unbroken. See the following letter. Mr. A. I. Boot: — Wesley came last Saturday, the lOtli, dug the Irish potatoes, and sold the best of them and put the rest into the barrel in the cellar, and covered them with dry sand and put wire screen over to keep rats out. He dressed out the dasheens, and sprayed the chicken-house with kerosene to kill the mites. My dasheen looks very well, but rain would do them good. The fifteen little chicks seem to be doing well. They come over to see us every day and gather whatever bugs they can find. There is nothing they can harm, and we like to have them catch the bugs. Bradentown, Fla., May 19. C. L. Harrison. FRIEND STODDARD^S LATEST INVENTION. You will notice in the above extract he has been studying on some plan of letting a sitting hen remain right on the nest where she first wanted to sit. She is not only to have a nest all to herself, but she is to have liberty to go otf and fly on top of the fences or even on top of the barn if she chooses, and come back when she is ready. Come to think of it, however, she can not fly up on top of the barn, for tlais long narrow yard is to be covered overhead with poultry- netting or a few boards to give shade, say over the nest-box. Now for his plan for accomplishing all this or letting the poultry themselves accomplish it: The hens that lay the eggs to be used for hatching are in one yard. Adjoining this yard are the poultry- nests, each one having a runway, as I have explained. Of course we use nests enough (each with its little yard) so as to have one for each of the sitting hens, more or less. Each nest has a little door. If you close all ' but one, and there are no other available nests in the yard, or connected with it, your flock of probably 12 or 25 will all lay in that nest. If the nest is a good-sized one, shaded and ventilated, and at the same time darkened and secluded, a dozen hens may lay their eggs in it during the day. There is one nest in my yard that the hens all seem to prefer, and several times I have found eleven eggs in that nest. By the way, down in Florida hens frequently begin to lay between six and seven o'clock in the morning, and quite often there are more or less eggs laid as late as four o'clock or even later. It seems to be a natural in- stinct on the part of the hens to lay where there is a nestful. You may recall the fact that I could not get the hens to lay in my newly planned nest until I put three or four eggs, just laid, in that nest. After that, they would lay there right along. Well, after the whole 12 or 25 have got a JUNE 15, 1913 431 fashion of laying in this one nest, especial- ly if you have chosen a breed of sitters, pretty soon you will find there will be a hen that tries to sit on the eggs all night, and will fight if you try to put her off. Do not get her off. Do not annoy nor trouble her. Shut up that little door and open the one further along. As the pens are exactly alike, your flock of layers will never know the difference; and as soon as another hen wants to sit, shut her in and open the other doors, and so on till you have as many sit- ting hens as j'ou want. If you have some choice eggs, put them in, saj', after dark, disturbing her as little as possible. The nests, you will notice, are near the door where the fowls go in to lay. At the op- posite end of these narrow yards you have some corn, dripping water, shells and grit, and the dust baths — ^that is, if the ground is not already suitable for a dust bath. If you want a diagi'am of the whole arrange- ment, send for that June number of the American Poultry Journal, 542 South Dear- born St., Chicago. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. — Gal. 6:7. FORTY CAELOADS OF POULTRY IK NEW YORK CITY WAITING ON THE STRIKE. The particulars of the above I find in the Cincinnati Packer for May 24. The only reason why I give it place in our Poultry Department is that the New York buyers claim that these carloads of poultry were made very hungry, and then all at once giv- en all the corn and sand they would eat. The buyer registers three specific com- plaints: First, that poultry is starved on its way from the West, then is overfed with sand and corn just before arriving in Jersey City, the extra weight of sand in the crops increasing the weight fully 15 per .cent, which is a total loss to the buyer, and they (the buyers) have finally made a kick against that way of " doing business." Now, I do not know how true this is ; but it seems to me almost incredible that it is possible to feed chickens sand until it represents fif- teen per cent of their weight. Of course, this would mean live weight. But it is true that every man who is even a party to that kind of business should " reap " what is justly due him. If such is really the case, the}' had better get our good friend Billy Sunday to hold some meetings among the chicken men, and preach on the text that " honesty is the best policy." In fact, it is the only policy that will succeed in business year after year, and win heaven in the end. " Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not? " Some time ago I read of a lot of poultry in California that seemed to be so unusu- ally heavy that the buyer opened several, and found a lot of bullets had been pushed down their throats — probably after the fowls had been killed. Some of us have been congratulating ourselves that the peo- ple who work out in the open air, or, say, the " honest old farmer " and those who raise chickens and keep bees, are moi'e hon- est than the city dwellers — middlemen, for instance. By the way, I wonder if it is true that beekeepers, any of them, are trying to work in " sand and leaden bullets " until their crops of honey are " podded out." God forbid. High-pressure Gardening SWEET CORN— A CHOICE STRAIN; HOW TO TREAT THE SEED TO KEEP OFF GRUBS, CROWS, ETC. Some years ago a reader of Gleanings sent us some sweet corn that we folks at Rootville decided was ahead of any thing else we had ever gotten hold of. Well, we finally lost the seed, but the friend who sent it was kind enough to send us some more that got here just at planting time. Here is what he says about it : The corn I sent you is the Gilmore. Some years ago I sent you some of it, and you said it was the best corn you ever saw. It is a cross between a sweet oorn and the Tuscarora as host. Not a thing will touch grain or plant. Since 1847 I have prepar- ed corn thus : For one peck of seed, immerse for a minute or less in hot or boiling water ; drain, and immediately add two tablespoonfuls of pine tar. Stir briskly until every grain is coated with tar. Then add lime to dry and prevent sticking together. Please publish this ; for if farmers practice it, and have good seed they will always have a good crop. It will add millions to the country. Frank, Pa. MoSES Gilmoee. THE WAY THEY TEACH '' HIGH-PRESSURE " GARDENING ON THE GROUNDS OF MENGO HIGH SCHOOL, UGANDA, AFRICA. SEE PAGE 416. Shortly after my talk about simplicity in dress, in our issue for May 1, I noticed a picture in the Planet Jr. catalog, and the proprietors of these celebrated hand cultiva- tors have kindly loaned me the cut. I think I mentioned once that, while in Florida dur- ing July and August, I used to go out in the garden and sometimes work quite a spell in my night dress. As the poultry are all shut up tight during the night in order to let them out at the " peep of dawn " I was not only obliged to be up quite a spell 432 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE before the rest of the neighborhood, but I rather enjoyed it; and I remember thinking what a pity it was that folks could not go about all day in night dresses — that is, when the temperature is up to 80 or 85 ; and it also occurred to me that many of us would accomplish very much more if we were un- hampered by fashion and clothing we do not need. We do not know at present just how much better off we should be. I can not tell exactly, by looking at the picture; but my impression is that some of the pu- pils ( ? ) are well along in years. My good friends who run hand cultivators out in the fields, would it not be a luxury to be permitted to dress like that chap holding tli8 cultivator on the right hand of the pic- ture? Temperance ANOTHER STRAW WHICH SHOWS WHICH WAY THE WIND IS blowing; SALOONS BAN- ISHED FROM THE PANAMA CANAL ZONE. We clip the following from the Union Signal: A SALOONLESS ZONE; NO SALOON LICENSES TO BE ISSUED IN THE CANAL ZONE AFTER JULY 1, 1913. BY ABBIE B. HILLERMAN, National W. C. T. TJ. Representative in Canal Zone. At a meeting of the Isthmian Canal Commission- ers held April 24, 1913, the following resolution was adopted: "Resolved, That no license for the sale of intoxicating liquors in the Canal Zone be granted by the Commission for any period beginning on or after July 1, 1913." During the present fiscal year there were five Canal Zone settlements where saloons were permitted ; namely, New Gatune, Gorgona, Matachin, Empire, and Culebra. Thirty-eight licenses were granted in these places last year. The proximity of Empire to Camp Otis made it advisable to stop granting licenses there, and the same reason applies to Culebra, according to the Canal Record, another argument against the canteen in the army. The highest number of licenses issued at any time was sixty-three in 1908 and 1909. At the present time there are thirty-five. A license fee of $100 per month was required; and for the period of six years during the operation of this system the sum of $326,200 has been received from this source by the government, represented by the Isthmian Canal Com- missioners. This only shows the financial side. The toll of blighted manhood and ruined characters which has been collected by the rum traffic is appalling. Three great American breweries are there. We are thankful that there will be one exception at least to the statement that " The American saloon follows the American flag." With the eyes of the world centered upon this strip of land which is so soon to be the great ocean highway of nations, this action is most opportune. We believe that the thou- sands of pages of temperance literature sent to this section by the National W. C. T. U., together with the influence of temperance sentiment at home, has had some part in this victory. It is certainly in harmony with the views and actions of the President of the United States and his cabinet. May the Lord be praised for the above. And it is my impression that the W. C. T. U. has had much to do Avith bringing about this happy result ; and thank the Lord, also, for a President whose life and character are in harmony with the above. The crowning engineering achievement of the world can not afford to be handicapped just at its completion by the presence of the saloon business and the liquor-traffic. THE MILLENNIUM COMING THROUGH OUR GREAT RAILWAYS. May be the above heading is pretty strong; but our great railway companies are at least having something to do with it. See page 234 of our issue for May 1. Then read the following letter. Mr. A. I. Root: — In the May 1st issue of Glean- ings you quote a letter issued by a railroad claim agent to their employees, and ask some one to send you the name of the road. I am glad to say this letter was sent out by Mr. C. W. Egan, claim agent for the B. & O. R. R., Baltimore, Md. The B. & O., besides being the first road in this country, was the first to issue an order forbidding their employees drinking intoxicating liquors or frequenting places where they are sold, either while on or off duty. I am glad to see most of the railroads are requiring the same from their employees now. I have been employed by this company for about fifteen years as telegraph operator, and am located at present near the historic town of Harper's Ferry, W. Va. I enjoy your Home talks very much, and hope you may live to keep up the good work for many more years. Keller, w". V., May 29. W. F. Andes. Hurrah for the B. & 0. Railway Co.! " Long may they wave " ! CIGARETTES AND CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. We clip the following from the South Dakota Farmer: * Agents of the New York Factory Inspection Com- mission have made the discovery that many thou- sands of hiigh-grade cigarettes are made in tenement houses among which contagious diseases are found. The woman of the house employs odd moments be- tween housework and caring for sick children in rolling these " coffin nails," licking them with her tongue to hold the paper together. This disclosure may not suggest any thing to the. youth and their elders who smoke cigarettes, but it ought to. And once more let me ask why the Health Commission of the United States, while waging war on pernicious and habit-form- ing drugs, does not turn its attention (and guns) toward cigarettes and the whole cig- arette business. Is there not reason for it aside from what is referred to in the above clipping. Making idiots of our boys is per- haps even worse than sending them to their coffins through contagion. O5bantn0S tn iin (Slnltnxt Published by The A. T. Root Co., Medina, 0. H. H. Root, Assistant Editor. E. R. Root, Editor. A. L. Bovden, Advertising Manager. A. I. Root, Editor Home Department. J. T. Calvert, Business Manager. Entered at the PostofiEice, Medina, 0., as Second-class matter. VOL. XLI. JULY 1, 1913 NO. 13 Editorial In a note just received from our Cali- fornia correspondent, Mr. P. C. Chadwick, we learn that the Governor failed to ap- prove the new foul-brood law, so the long fight that the California beekeepers have been going through must be fought over again in all probability. Further partic- ulars will be given in our Jul}' loth issue. OUR COVER PICTURE. Appropriate to the general subject of this special number is our cover picture showing a lot of fancy and No. 1 sections. At first sight one would be inclined to call some of these No. 2's, judging from the photograph; but it must be remembered that a picture always shows comb hone}' worse than it really is. HONEY-CROP conditions ; CLOVER ABUNDANT AND indications POINT TO A RECORD- BREAKING YIELD FROM IT. Reports in general would indicate that this has been the greatest year for clover honey we have had for many years; but the frosty weather along in May and early June nipped the clovers in spots. Drouth has likewise checked the flow in localities in Illinois and New York. The reports of an excellent flow are iDarticularly numerous from Ohio, and very good from Indiana, Michigan, and Pennsylvania ; and in West Virginia and Tennessee the reports are from good to bad. In some localities the drouth that threatened to stop the flow of nectar altogether has been relieved by heavy- rains. Good reports come from Southwest Texas, from Missouri, particularly in the Ozark region. Reports are fair from Iowa, and in the New England States the yield has been fair to excellent. In New York it was feared the flow would be a failure from drouth ; but later reports indicate that the drouth has been broken, and that there is some prosiDeet of honej' yet. Reports as yet are meager from Minnesota and Wis- consin. Similarly we have heard but little from the alfalfa irrigated regions. There is nothing to indicate, however, that the season will be below normal. Reports from California indicate that the season has been poor all over that State, with one exception, and that is from Santa Barbara Co. Just now it appears as if this were going to be a great clover year. It is too early yet to make a positive statement; but con- ditions now seem to indicate that there will be a record yield from clover. HONEY PRODUCTION AT THE MEDINA APIARIES These are busy days at our Medina yard. There has been a remarkable bloom of clo- ver, and it is still on this 25th day of June. Indeed, we do not remember a time when clover seemed to have yielded by the tub- fuls as it does this season, unless it was the year when A. I. Root secured his enormous yield of extracted honey in the early 70's. It was at that time that he was proposing to build a big cistern of 100 barrels capac- ity for the storage of his extracted honey. He borrowed all wash-boilers and tubs in that section of the town, and had them all full. Perhaps this dream of his early days was a little wild ; but it will be remembered he was only a novice then, and he continued to be Novice for several j^ears, writing un- der that nom de plume for the old Ameri- can Bee Journal. So heavy has been the honey-flow that Mr. Pritchard has complained that the bees would actually clean out his grafting-cups and fill them with honey. Some one face- tiously remarked that if a few tin cups could be passed around in some of the su- pers the bees would fill them with honey. Great scheme ! Swarming has been going on at a furious rate. Our auto truck with our gang of four men has been kept busy going back and forth putting on supers, the men shinning up trees after swarms. Even the editorial force has been called into the field. On more than one occasion the editor could have been seen up in a tree chasing after a swarm. 434 GLEAKINGS IN BEE CULTURE At one of our yards Mr. Pritehard and oiuself found that cell-builders seemed bent on making us a lot of trouble. You know that cell-builders have to be kept up to a high state of prosperity. The colonies have to be extraordinarily strong; and when honey is coming in at a furious rate, and bees building cells, is it any wonder thai they swarm? At the present time it is very dry in our locality, but not dry enough to prevent a copious flow of honey; but unless we can get a good soaking rain, our crop will be cut square in two. We hope to have some photos a little later that will show the operations here at Medina of the automobile truck in action. Say! that motor truck is proving to be all that we wished for it. It practically puts all of our eight yards together where our men can take care of them, and yet at the same time it allows us the advantage of immense fields for honey production. In .h's connection some of our yards have had a soaking rain, while the others, near our home yard, remained high and dry. That, again, shows the wisdom of scattering our yards. More anon. DEATH OF ANOTHER PIONEER BEEKEEPER; A STRENUOUS ADVOCATE OF HAVING ALL THE CELLS SEALED BEFORE EX- TRACTING. Our old friend Dan AVhite, of New Lon- don, Ohio, died June 2. He was known to the beel^eeping world as perhaps one of the most strenuous advocates of bee-ripened extracted l:oney. He wrote a number of ar- ticles denouncing the policy of extracting before all the cells are sealed. Especially did he condemn the plan of extracting be- fore the honey is ripe and finishing the ripening in open vats. He built up a fine local trade for his ex- tracted honey. It was so good, he said, that he had no trouble in disposing of all he (ould produce, as his old customers would continue to call for it year after year, knowing it had quality. Our friend had a unique personality. He had a strong rugged appearance and an honest face. His plan of selling was to go around to a town and give aAvay samples of his extracted honey, saying he was not selling any thing that day. Then he would hand out a blank postal card with his name and address on it, and say to them, " If you want any of this good honey, put your name and address on this card, and when I come with my delivery wagon I will bring what you want." The next day he would get a string of postal cards that would call for a wagonload of honey. He never had to drum up that trade any more, because the quality of the goods was his traveling sales- man. This method of selling, which has proved to be so effective on the part of others, will • be advocated by the ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture as long as we have control of it; and Mr. White's short and convincing letter in connection therewith will continue also. THE CONVENTION AT AMHERST, MASS. There was held at Amherst, Mass., on the 11th and 12th of June, immediately fol- lowing the close of the apicultural school- work under Dr. Gates, a convention which in point of valuable, helpful discussion, was the equal of any meeting. National or State, we have ever attended. There were students from other States as well as Massachusetts. There were also beekeepers of prominence as well as scientific men from the college who took part on the program. Dr. Gates show- ed that he is a master in getting up a pro- gram, and if he has any thing to do with preparing the official program for the next convention of the National, the members of that organization may rest assured that the convention will be well worth attending. It will be almost impossible, in the limit- ed space at our disposal, to give any thing like an adequate and complete report of the Amherst meeting; and all Ave will attempt to do will be to refer briefly to some points brought out by only a few of the speakers. We should, perhaps, state in advance that the discussions that took place in one of the college class-rooms were followed up by actual demonstrations at the college api- ary and in the college bee and extracting house. The students were, therefore, able not only to take in the theoretical but the practical side of the industry at one and the same meeting. And this reminds us that more of our conventions should have more practical work — in other words, there should be facilities provided whereby the various speakers can illustrate their ad- dresses by the things themselves. There is nothing like showing the actual operation : and we are of the opinion that those who attended the Amherst meeting came away wit h a very clear conception of the methods and things described. BEES ALMOST THE ONLY AGENCY FOR POLLIN- ATING FRUIT-TREES. We arrived a little late for the first ses- sion, but in time to hear the address of Prof. F. A. Waugh, of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, on the pollination of JULY 1. 1913 435 fruits. In this connection it may be well to mention that Prof. Waugh is a national au- thorit}' on fruit-gTowing. He is the author of a practical work on the American apple- orchard,* and also a producer of fruit him- self. The readers of the A B C and X Y Z of Bee Culture will remember a quotation from him on the subject of spraying fruit- trees, and his caution against appl3ing such sprays when the trees are in bloom. We asked Prof. Waugh to give us his complete address at some future time; but at this time we may state that he gave some con- clusive evidence showing that the honeybee was the principal and almost the only agent in the pollination of fruit-trees. He re- ferred to the claim to the etfect that there are other agencies thain bees for doing this work, principally among which is the wind. He had taken pieces of glass, coated them with vaseline, and secured them on the windward side of fruit-trees in full bloom, at a distance that would be about equal to another tree that is supposed to receive wind pollination. He found that these glass plates, smeared as the}- were with grease, received almost no pollen dust, even when the wind blew through the trees in full bloom in the direction of the plates. He further stated that there are practically no insects except bees that are flying when fruit-trees are in bloom, and that nearly all the cross-pollination that is eifected at all is through the agency of the bees. There are some varieties, he said, that are self pollinating; but even these varieties hiive more and better fruit when bees are pres- ent. Prof. Waugh's address was all the moi'e convincing and conclusive from the ' fact that he said he was a not a beekeeper, nevei' had been one, and never expected to be. His statement is especiallj- valuable when we remember he is regarded as one of the greatest authorities on fruit culture in the United States. ONTARIO A GREAT PROVINCE FOR BEES. On the evening of June 11, Mr. Morley Pettit, general instructor in apicultural work at the Ontario Agricultural College, gave an exceptionally interesting stereopti- con address on the subject of Ontario bee culture. His views were unusually instruc- tive. At the close of his address it was apparent that Ontario, Canada, would rank with any State in the Union, if it did not surpass it, in the number of its extensive honey-producers and in the amount of hon- ey annually produced. The conditions in Ontario seem to be exceptionally favorable — so much so that it is extremelv doubtful * Published by the Orange Judd Co., of New York, at $1.00. whether any State in the Union, not even excepting Texas, Colorado, Nevada, or Cal- ifornia, can equal it. " And yet," said ]\Ir. Pettit, " not all the available bee territory in the Province is taken up." He refen-ed to some spots in the northern part where the seasons are necessarily short, but where the crops are good. The average Yankee could not help wishing, perhaps, that On- tario were a part of the United States. FONDANT OR THE NEW BEE CANDY FOR QUEEN-CAGES. On the morning of the second day Mr. 0. F. Fuller, of Blackstone, Mass., gave an address on the subject entitled " Experi- ments with Bee Foods." Mr. Fuller has for several years past been experimenting with a soft candy that he has made use of as a substitute for the candy now made with honey in our queen-cages. Under present government regulations all honey used in candy must be thoroughly boiled to kill any possible disease germs that may be present. Mr. Fuller has been working on the proposition that it is better to have a cand}' that uses no honey. He presented a letter from the Postoflfice Department showing that such a candy will be accepted and welcomed. The candy Mr. Fuller has been experi- menting with is technically known by can- dy-makers as " fondant." A formula that he has been using with considerable success is, granulated sugar 12 lbs.; glucose, such as the makers of cand}^ use (not the com- mercial article known as karo or corn syr- up), 1^2 lbs., water II/4 quarts, and from one-fourth to one-third of a teaspoonful of cream of tartar. The cream tartar, water, and glucose are put together; and as soon as they begin to boil, the sugar is added. The mixture is then stirred until it reaches the boiling-point, when it is discontinued. As soon as it reaches a temperature of 238 or 240 by a sugar-boiling thermometer made on purpose for the candy-maker, it is then removed from the stove to cool. While the ordinary stirring is discontinued at the boiling-point, ]Mr. Fuller stirs the mixture just enough and no more after that point is reached to keep the temperatirre about as uniform as possible. But a general Stirling should be avoided. When the candy cools to 120 or 125, it is stirred or beaten until it begins to " cream." As soon as it looks Like paste or starch it is ready to turn into the feeders. These are nothing more nor less than little • wooden trays with glass slides at the bottom. These are filled with soft eand}', and when cold are laid glass side up directly over the cluster of bees as a winter food. He has fed a number of colonies with this food, and found that 436 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE they wintered perfectly. He has also used it with a great deal of success in queen- cages, and has found that it keeps soft and moist. However, he emphasizes the impor- tance of keeping the candy in a closed ves- sel, and then taking out a supply as occa- sion requires. When the candy is placed over a cluster of bees it will necessarily keep moist on account of the natural mois- ture from the cluster. Dr. Gates brought out the point that the cooking temperature will be somewhat dependent on the day. The greater the degree of humidity, the higher will be the temperature. In a dry atmosphere 236 F. will be high enough, and 238 F. on a moist day. There was a candy- maker present whose name I failed to get, who insisted that cream tartar is not neces- sary. On this point Mr. Fuller could not say positively, but the candy-maker said that if the candy was too moist it could be stift'ened up with a little powdered sugar. In the following discussion Mr. Fuller stated that 1 lb. of grape sugar equals 11/2 lbs. of liquid glucose. In other words, 12 lbs. of granulated sugar to one of gi-ape sugar would make a fondant. Mr. Fuller referred to the criticism that has been raised over the use of glucose; but he argued that the amount of glucose used is very small in comparison with the amount of granulated sugar. He made the point clear, however, that he did not use glucose because of its cheapness, but be- cause it was the best thing he had ever tried for making a soft candy that would remain soft for months. FIELD-DAY EXTRACTING. In the afternoon of the second day there were demonstrations in extracting with a hand-power and a large power extractor and honey-pump, uncapping with a steam- heated knife, and melting the cappings in a capping-melter. To witness these opera- tions the members of the convention passed into the convention in single iile and out as each demonstration was made. SHIPPING BEES IN COMBLESS PACKAGES. There had been shipped to Dr. Gates sample packages of bees without combs. The bees were on exhibition, and, later on, places in the hives, some on unsealed brood and some on frames of foundation. Dr. Gates is in sympathy with any plan for shipping bees over the country that will eliminate bee disease by the omission of comb. He gave an address on that subject at one of the sessions, which we did not hear. A NEW OBSERVATORY HIVE, Mr. Geo. T. Whitten, of the Hartford School of Horticulture, exhibited an obser- vatory hive that will admit of the examina- tion of any single comb without opening the hive. This looks like an impossibility; but seeing is believing. This will be a gxeat hi\e to use at schools and colleges and by timid people who would like to watch the bees work without opening the hive. We hope to have an illustration of this in an early issue of Gleanings. THE OLD " LONG IDEA " HIVE REVIVED. Mr. A. W. Yates, one of the State deputy inspectors, of Hartford, Conn., exhibited a double-walled hive with a capacity, all in one story, of something like 25 frames. It involves the principles of the old Long Idea hive of forty years ago that was so much exploited at the time, but which was finally abandoned. Mr. 0. 0. Poppleton, of Stu- art, Florida, however, continues to use it. As Mr. Poppleton is regarded as one of the best beekeepers in the United States, the " Long Idea " did not wholly die. Mr. Yates argued that his hive, built on that principle, required very little care. In fact, it can be managed on the let-alone princi- ple more nearly than any other hive with which he is acquainted. He thinks that enormous crops of honey could be secured, and at the same time keep down swarming by tlie system of manipulation of a queen- excluder. We have asked him to illustrate and describe this method in Gleanings at some future time. SOIL FOR growing CLOVERS. One of the addresses that was listened to was one by Prof. W. P. Brooks on the sub- ject of increasing clovers and honey-plants. Prof. Brooks is one of the acknowledged authorities on soils. He explained that clovers will grow anywhere if they get the soil food right. But many soils are de- ficient in lime; and when lime is supplied, clovers will grow profusely. A notable feature of the Amherst meet- ing was a large exhibit room where supplies from many of the manufacturers were on display. There were also to be seen old hives of ancient pattern, curios, and vari- ous articles of ingenious and odd invention. This room was well occupied in the between sessions. There was something doing, there- fore, at this meeting almost from morning till night. We respectfully suggest that President Gates arrange for a field meet of the Na- tional Beekeepers' Association at some con- venient date at Amherst. It has a most complete equipment, and if Dr. Gates should be authorized to get up a field meet at the college it would go down in apicultural history as one of the great conventions in the history of the Association. JULY 1, 1913 437 Stray Straws Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. Mk. Edit(3R, that's a fine write-up of foul- brood legislation, p. 362. Now take up spraying', and handle it the same wa^^ some of these days. Are there any scales constructed for the apiary, or w'ill any platform-scales stand the weather? [There are no scales special- ly constructed for the apiary; but practical- ly all the standard instruments all of metal would stand exposure to the weather. As a general proposition scales on the gxavity or steelyard piinciple ai-e not as suitable for outside exposure as a platform spring scale with an enclosed dial. — Ed.] G. M. DOOLITTLE, you've painted the swarming business xevy fairl}-. p. 367, but one thing needs to be added. It looks very pretty on paper to have a swarm with, a clipped queen obliged to return and hive itself; only in a large ajiiarj', when swarms isssue simultaneously or in close succession, there are entirely too many cases where the swarm, instead of returning to its own hive, heeds the call of a returning or lately re- turned swarm at some other hive. D. L. Woodward seems to think, p. 213, that the out-apiarist who has an auto should have horses as well. I wonder how many agi-ee with him. [We do not believe it is necessary to own a team. That would be too expensive. But an automobile truck can do a great part of the work. The few times that a team would be required would be more eeonomicallj^ handled by a livery. Something, of course, would depend on the roads. — Ed.] M. R. PiNCOT says, L'ApicuUeur, 160. that brood-comb is never less than 24 milli- meters (.945 inch) in thickness. The com- mon thing here is to say it is %, or .875 inch. That's a difference of more than 1-16 inch. Mr. Editor, please tell us the exact measurement at Medina. [Some years ago we made some quite extensive measurements in our apiary, and the average of all meas- urements was as near % of an inch for worker comb as it was possible to make it. —Ed.] Wesley Foster seems a little shy as to admitting that it is the proper thing to compensate a beekeeper for his loss from foul brood, p. 365. I don't wonder. Cer- tainly it would never do to allow^ full com- pensation so long as there are men who burn down their houses to get the insurance. Indeed, there may well be question whether there should be any compensation at all, unless a man is hit so hard that he becomes a public charge. If smallpox breaks out in my home I don't get any compensation: and why should I any more if disease breaks out in my apiary? Otto Dengg, Deutsche Bzcht., 23, gives some interesting figures regarding the de- velopment of a vigorous colony. At inter- vals of ten days, at 10 a. m. he counted the number of bees returning from the field during the space of ten minutes, also how many of them carried pollen. April 1, in ten minutes he counted 318 returning bees; and of these, 94 carried loads of pollen. The other counts were these : April 10, there were 476 bees, 142 with pollen. April 20, there were 584 bees, 268 with pollen. May 1, there were 782 bees, 281 with pollen. May 10, there were 1045 bees, 367 with pollen. May 20, there were 1462 bees, 418 wath pollen. June 1, there were 2364 bees, 624 with pollen. June 5 (twelve days after first drones flew) a swarm of 8 lbs. 6 oz. issued. The per cent of bees carrying pollen at the different dates was respectively as follows: 29.6, 29.8, 45.9, 35.9, 35.1, 28.6, 26.4. More and more beekeepers are getting to tliink bees should not be left with a space of half an inch, or even an inch, between bottom-bars and hive-floor. I first adopted a bottom-board two inches deep because I wanted the deep space in winter. But in summer bees would build down in so deep a space, so I put in a shallow box upside down to fill up the space in summer. Then I improved on that bj- using in summer an open rack. Now comes the Junge-Peirce team, p. 308, with a deeper space and with open sides, which ought to be an improve- ment, as giving still more air. Leon C. Wheeler comes next, p. 314, wdth exactly my bottom-board, only he has ventilation at sides and back, and has no bottom-rack. The question is. Do the bees never build down in that tAvo-inch space? Leon, if they don't, your bottom-board is a big thing, j. P. Blunk has a deep bottom-board, open at back as well as front ; and, if I mistake not, bees never build down in it. In whatever shape it is given, the deep space under bottom-bars is an important factor in help- ing to prevent the desire to swarm. [We arise here to inquire whether j'our first sen- tence states the facts. We would have said, basing the opinion on the correspondence that has passed thi'ough our hands, that more and more beekeepers are beginning to accept the deep space under the frames as better than a shallow space. — Ed.] 438 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE N^otes from Canada J. L. Byer, Mt. Joy, Ont. Just now (June 5) we are having a dearth of honey, and a very severe drouth which is checking the clover badly. As blossoms are just beginning to show, naturally we are earnestly hoping for a soaking rain, with- out which we can not expect to get a crop of honey. Later. — The rain came. * * * Dr. Miller, I want some more light on that first Straw of yours on page 140, March 1. You say that Dr. Phillips "is ti-ying to learn what instruction to give the hces for best wintering in cellars." Please tell him for me that some beekeepers who have cellars too warm, or defective in some other way, would like to know how to " in- struct " the bees to keep quiet when they get too noisy. * * * In June Notes I said, " The season for fruit bloom is one of the earliest on record ;" but now with May just ended I must revise that and say that it was one of the latest as well. Why this paradox? Simply be- cause, just after writing that note in early May, the weather turned cool and stayed cool all through the month. Apple-blossoms were open for three weeks, while last year they lasted but three days. Little nectar was gathered through all this period, how- ever, owing to the chilly Aveather; but when- ever it warmed up a bit, honey came in rapidly. * « * Commenting on the fact that we got 600 pounds of honey when melting those cap- pings that yielded 350 pounds oi wax, page 379, June "l, the editor expresses surprise that there was so much honey to that quan- tity of "drained cappings." Perhaps it would be better to qualify the statement where I say the cappings " were pretty well drained " when the evidence points other- wise. At the east yard they had but one uncapping-box, and it was emptied each morning into the barrel after draining all night. When emptying those barrels I noticed that in the bottoms the cappings were pretty rich in honey, so that explains the more than usual amount obtained. But making all due allowance for that, I was still surprised at the amount obtained. _ As to using that honey, just now it is coming in handy in feeding some colonies that are rather short, between fruit bloom and clover. It is heated to the boiling-point with about one-third as much water as hon- ey, and makes an ideal food. Page 216, April 1, shows two of Mr. Holtermann's helpers taking combs from the hive, one holding the comb and the other SAveeping off the bees. If helping in the yard myself, I should prefer to hold the comb myself; for after the bees have been pretty well cleaned off with a vigorous shake that can be acquired only by practice, about two quick strokes of the brush will take off what few bees remain on the comb. I am quite sure that I can do this quicker and easier than with the help of an assist- ant ; hut I don't object to the other fellow carrying or wheeling the honey into the extract in g-house. To us who are accustomed to seeing " Southern extracted " honey quoted in the honey markets at a very low price, the tend- ency is to make us believe that all honey from the South is of inferior quality. Mr. E. L. Horton, of South Carolina, has very kindly sent me five pounds of comb honey gathered from the locust; and I wish to say it is as fine a honey as I ever sampled, both in color and flavor. It certainly has that " morish " taste ; and while I was not prej- udiced against Southern honey, really I never expected such a fine article as the sample sent me. In this section we once in a while get a little honey from the locust, but nothing in the way of surplus; but what little comes in the hive is decidedly dark, and strong in flavor. Does " locality " ex- plain the difference, or is there a difference in the kind of locusts'? Just as I finish writing the above, I note that friend Bu- chanan, of Tennessee, says that the locust is one of his best sources of honey, and that the honey is Avater-white, and of fine flavor — assuredly a splendid description of the honey sent me by Mr. Horton. * * * Major Shallard says, Dec. 15, p. 797, that a good strain of Italians will not lay above the brood-nest. If he means that, in an ordinary eight or ten frame Lang- stroth without an excluder being used, a queen of a " good strain," as he calls it, will not go above in an extracting-super, then most assuredly I want none of that good strain in my yards. In the past I have had some that would act just that way, judging by their record at laying eggs; and such a queen would be decapitated just as soon as her peculiarity was noticed. No, sir; in this country, at least, where rapid building-up in the spring is not only desir- able but simply imperative, we must have JULY 1, 1913 queens so prolific that they would at once skip above for more room if the apiarist did not in some way give them more room than an eight-frame Langstroth hive affords. It is needless to say, I think that all extraet- ed-honey producers should use excluders; but that does not forbid giving a prolific cjueen more room than the brood-nest al- lows, as it is a very simple matter to hoist brood above, or give an extra stoiy for brood-rearing till the main flow opens. The joke is on the editor. After publicly inviting Dr. Miller to " jab " me because of my slighting the editor's pet theory, the so- called " winter nest," the said doctor ends his " jabbing " with the words, " for practi- cal purposes the Canuck holds the safer ground." The editor having received pun- ishment already, I will just ask Dr. Miller one question, and drop the subject for the time at least. He says, page 74, Feb. 1, " Your experiment will prove nothing, for, as ye editor suggests, the minute you stop- ped feeding them they began scooping out a winter nest." Now, then, doctor, please re- member that it was on Xov. 7 that the said colony had all combs solid, and that five weeks from that date we had weather about down to zero. How much of a " nest " could they "scoop" out of those solid combs in five weeks'? You know as well as or better than I do that verj^ few stores are consumed early in the winter when no brood is in the hive; but please say whether you tliink enough empty comb will be in evidence in five weeks to accommodate even one cjuarter of the bees. Talk about overstocking the country with bees — really this matter of ad- vising full combs in the fall would be the greatest factor toward that end that could be imagined if all beekeepers in the North who winter outdoors would follov/ the plan. But you needn't won-y; they will not do so, as it is too much trouble, and often too big a pull on the purse — at least those are the reasons that prevent tliis scribbler from putting all colonies in that condition even- fall. Dr. ]\Iiller asks me to state what tem- perature I would prefer for a straight " five-months pull " in outdoor wintering. I don't know, but rather suspect that the changing temperature we have is about right, as with proper preparation bees gen- erally winter well under these conditions. Xo, I do not believe that brood-rearing starts earlier outdoors because it is colder than in the cellar. Generally speaking, the best cellar for wintering bees is one in which the bees will be very quiet all the time, and, as a rule, little brood will be in the hive when the bees are taken out in the spring. There are exceptions to tliis rule, of course, but that does not nullify the rule. The steadier the cold weather out- doors, the less brood-rearing there will be ; so, to my mind, the cause of brood-rearing, either outdoors or in the cellar, is " activ- ity." When the temperature is 32 or 35 in the shade, it will register higher in front of the hives where the sun is shining, and that condition causes activity and conse- quent brood-rearing. Moderately cold steady winter weather gives best results in out- door wintering, especially if too big a win- ter-nest (ha! ha!) is not allowed, so that the danger of the colony running out of stores above the cluster is avoided. If the colony is none too well provided with stores, then a warm sjDell now and then is impera- tive if the bees winter at all. Often such a colony will become stranded on empty comb during a prolonged cold snap, and will starve, lea\'ing honey at the back of the frames. VENTILATION FOR BEES OUTDOORS AND IN- DOORS. On page 722, Nov. 1.5, 1912, Mr. Doolit- tle lays gxeat stress on having entrances of hives in which bees are wintering out- doors so arranged that the bees will have an abundance of pure air circulating around the cluster. While in a measure I can en- dorse what he says, certainly it is a puzzle to me that, in another article of his regard- ing cellar wintering, he virtually claims that fresh air is not needed at all in this case. Results may prove his contentions to his own satisfaction; yet I confess that it appears to me that lie would have a hard time to prove these different views from a scientific standpoint. Bees will nearly al- ways winter out of doors with the cluster immediately over or back of the entrance, no matter where the latter is, provided it has been in tliat shape early enough in the fall. Whether the bees cluster in such a. position to protect the entrance, or for ven- tilation, I am not sure; but I have proved by experiment that a good colony will win- ter, even if the entrance is shifted to the opposite side after wintering has started. As regards cellar wintering, the majority of those who thus winter are advocates of plenty of ventilation ; and I suspect that many cellars get considerable air even when it is not actually provided for in a system- atic way. thus makiiig the beekeeper think that bees inside need no fresh air at all. 440 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Beekeeping Among the Rockies Wesley Foster, Boulder, Col. Ij-rigatioii water is reported scarce in the Arkansas Valley ; but sweet clover is abun- dant, and the bees wintered well, although grasshoppers are coming in fast. So far, grasshoppers are not much in evidence in Northern Colorado. A number of our Ar- kansas Valley beekeepers are replenishing their depleted colonies by shipping in from the South and Southeast. THE HONEY MARKET. The comb-hoiney market is practically bare. Prices range from $3.25 to $3.75 for clear white stock. While honey that is more or less granulated brings less, extract- ed honey in sixty-pound eases is worth about $4.50 per can. There is a consider- able supply of honey on hand, but in com- parison with the total production it is rel- atively small. m * * BEHAVIOR OF BEES AROUND A RCfeBER TENT. Right after fruit and dandelion bloom closed it was difficult to work with bees. We had to use a tent 4 by 7 feet, without a top, and with mosquito-netting walls about 6 feet high. It is of just the right size to set over two hives so that two men can work in it together. It is amusing to see the robbers go around that tent looking for a place toi get in. They will fly around two or three times in a regular swarm about two feet from the ground, and then rise in a body to the top of the tent, and some (not many) come over. They soon learn to at- tack the colonies after you have taken the tent away, so it is well to contract the en- trances of the hives that you have looked at. After you have worked for several hours in a tent, the robbers will even attack the colo- nies ahead of where you are working; but by using caution we have not had any rob- bed out. * * * HONEY-CROP CONDITIONS. Alfalfa began blooming in Oregon and Idaho the latter part of May. It is con- siderably earlier there on account of the low altitude. Throughout the inter-moun- tain West where the altitude is 4000 feet or more, alfalfa does not bloom before June, but from the first to the twentieth. A wet or a dry season affects this consid- erably. The wetter the season, the more luxuriant growth it makes, and the later it blooms. The price of hay is considerably lower at the present time than it has been for one or two years, and we are hoping this will have its effect on the farmers not being in such a huiTy to make the first cut- ting. However, I saw a mower being taken past our place the other day, so cutting the alfalfa is in the mind of some of the farm- ers any way. We are earnestly hoping for the time when nothing but the Grimm alfal- fa will be sown. It blooms much more pro- fusely than any other variety, and the great feature about it is that it begins blooming two weeks before it attains full growth. June. came in as a dry month. We had plenty of moisture early; but alfalfa that has not been irrigated begins to show the effects of drouth, and the sweet clover that does not have a supply of moisture at its roots is suffering. Bees are reported in rather poor condi- tion in the western slope. In Northern Colorado, especially around Denver, there has been less early swarming than last sea- son ; and, as compared with last year, there is much less honey in the hives June 1. In my own immediate vicinity I believe the colonies are stronger than at this time last year. White clover and what wild bloom grows on the mesas and dry land are noAv furnishing about enough nectar for the bees to live on. However, I am giving each new swarm a comb of honey to make sure that they will not starve. CONCERNING HIVE-RECORDS AND EFFICIENCY. A beekeeper was telling me one day about his elaborate hive-record system. He had all his colonies marked so that he could tell upon coming into his apiary which were queenless, short of honey, weak, which had young queens, etc. It looked good, and was quite satisfactory, but there is another point to tliis. System gets in the way of efficien- cy if you get too much of it. Some of our largest beemen don't want a record system to last from one week's visit to the next. They want a clean slate every week. In other words, when a queenless colony is found, instead of marking it queenless, set it on top of another hive and be done with it. When a hive is weak, do the same or exchange places with a stronger one or give some hatching brood from another. Carry out this " do it now " principle and you will be surprised how little record system you will need in honey-producing apiaries. There is a difference, you know, between keeping bees and producing honey. If you are a honey-producer you do not have much time for record svstems. JULY 1, 1913 Beekeeping in California p. C. Chadwiok, Redlands, Cal. telegram: (JUNE 17). Crop conditions unchanged; worst ever. BEES IN EIGHT-FRAME HIVES ENTER THE SUPERS QUICKLY. Mr. J, L. Byer, in American Bee Journal for February, in commenting on my recent note in Gleanings relative to the size of entrances, upsets the theory of an eight- frame hive for comb honey, and at the same time upholds the idea that the larger the hive the sooner the bees build up in the spring. He says, " By force of circum- stances I have almost all sizes in common use, from the eight-frame Langstroth to the ten and twelve frame Jumbo; and every spring, without exception, the bees in the eight-frame hives are the last to be ready for the supers." I believe this is the first time I have ever known a writer to advance so strong a plea for a large hive; and if it were not so absolutely at variance with my own experience I would surely give it more credence. Mr. Byer, no doubt, has some reason for making such an assertion, and under some conditions he may be correct; but as a rule I am sure the eight-frame hive will have bees in the supers before a ten or a twelve frame. I have the three sizes — not many of the eight-frame, about twenty of the twelve, and those in the twelve sizes are usually the last to enter the supers; but when they do get started, there is plen- ty of business, and plenty of bees to carry it on. Many of our best beekeepers and heaviest producers cut their hives to one story during the winter and spring breed- ing season to reduce the space that is to be heated by the bees to make breeding possi- ble. Now, if it were not considered neces- sary to reduce the space during the breed- ing season the extra work would hardly be undertaken. PROFITS in beekeeping. Mr. Wesley Foster asks in the May 15th issue where I got my information crediting Colorado with 27,000 colonies of bees. If I am not mistaken I got it from some print- ed matter sent out by our State Associa- tion ; and if it is not correct it was undoubt- edly supposed to be, and was perhaps the best at hand at the tim.e. I am glad Mr. Foster has made this correction. If the 1910 census should prove to be no more reliable in Colorado than in this State there might easily be twice the number given by Mr. Foster. He also says, '' But we have some of the best beekeepers to be found anywhere, and the homes of our beemen are a credit to the State;" to which I arise to remark, " The same here." But do these homes represent apiculture or agriculture? I surmise the latter more than the former, for the Colorado honey sections follow the irrigated sections closely if I am correctly informed. That is true in certain portions of this State; but the greater portion of our honey comes from the part of the State that is considered at the present time to be valueless for agTiculture. Perhaps 75 per cent of the beekeepers outside of the Im- perial, San Joaquin, and Sacramento val- leys, live in the cities, and many have very fine homes and all modern conveniences, while their apiaries are back in the foot- hills sometimes miles from a habitation. But did they make these homes as a result in beekeeping? In some cases they did, and in some they did not. There are those who have started in tlie business in a very small way who have worked up, have secured good homes, and have made a good living while others have invested heavily in the business at the start and have made a fail- ure of it. One of the best -known producers told me recently that he wished he had in- vested in land yeai*s ago instead of bees, as then he would to-day be a very rich man. This is no doubt true ; but it must be taken into consideration that he was figur- ing on the increase of land values and not altogether on what the land produced. Bees are a good investment when proper- ly cared for. The banker loans his money for 6 to 7 per cent on realty, and considers it a good investment. He can invest, say. $2000 in the bee business, rent the bees out for half, and- about one year out of every five he will get at least 30 per cent on his investment. Two years he will get 10 per cent, or an average of ten per cent for five years, allowing failures for two years of the five. Business and profassional men care little for the business outside of re- turns on their investment, yet we find many of them owners of apiaries, which bespeaks volumes for the industry. I believe I have given conservative figures on the average. I invested in bees in this State nine years ago. Two years, 1904 and 1913, I stand to lose five per cent on my investment. No other year have I made less than 20 per cent, and one year I made 125. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Conversations with Doolittle At Borodino, New York. HIVES AND DUMMIES FOK COMB HONEY. " I have a few colonies, mostly in boxes of all sorts and sizes, and I wish to decide on some liive for future use." " It is easier to decide on a hive for prac- tical use in the production of comb honey to-day than it was forty odd years ago when I started in beekeeping. At that time very many of the hives most pushed on the beginner were much too complicated. They had slides, drawers, arrangements for catch- ing moths, etc. Then many of the hives which were practical as to brood-nest and surplus were so large as to be cumbersome. The bulk and weight of any hive to be of practical value should be as small as may be. A hive that can not be handled easily by one man when it contains a colony of bees with fi''om twenty-five to forty pounds of stores is, as a rule, to be shunned. " The hive must not be expensive. Forty to fifty cents should purchase enough good lumber for body, cover, and bottom-board. There are few practical hives in use that do not embody the Langstroth principle as to frame construction. A simple box made to hold ten Langstroth frames with a super to match, suitable for holding the size of sections decided upon, is, to my mind, as good a hive as one costing three dollai*s. " As to painting such a hive, I leave that matter to the desire of the individual. I do not paint. Looks count nothing toward a good yield of section honey. Dampness in early spring, in the interior of any hive, counts heavily against the maximum amount of bees for the early nectar flow from Avhite clover; and a painted hive subjects its interior to a dampness that does not exist in an unpainted one. As to the du- 'rability, if a well-covered shade-board is used, as is necessary on any liive for the best results in section honey, the unpainted hive will last a lifetime. " Besides the ten frames for the hive, it is well to make two or three dummies for each. Take a log to the sawmill and have inch-thick boards cut from -it of the same width as the depth of your frame. Cut these boards the same length as the frame, and nail a top-bar to each. Li this way one of these dummies can take the place of any frame at any time and in any place you may wish to use it. When the ilow of nec- tar from Avhite clover begins, and any queen does not keep the ten-frame comb-space occupied Avith brood, pollen, and honey, take out the unoccupied frames and insert a dummy in place of each frame taken out. This will throw the force of bees, and the surplus nectar obtained, into the sections rig] J on the start, and practically insure a good yield of section honey; while if the bees commenced to store this first nectar in the brood-chamber, little or notliing might be the result at the end of the season. " Then there is another time these dum- mies can be used to gWd advantage in any locality like central New York, no matter how good the queen may be. Where the June and early July honey from white clo- ver and basswood is nearly twice as valu- able, pound for pound, as that gathered in the fall, and where there is a period of thirty-five to fifty days of entire dearth between bassw^ood and fall flowers, this matter is of first imjDortance. From past exi^erience and observations I put the amount of honey needed to produce one pound of brood as two pounds; and as after several weighings I find that a well- filled L. frame contains two pounds of brood, therefore it is evident that such a frame of brood (7osts four pounds of honey. Five such frames of brood are all that is needed to keep any colony in good strength for fall and winter; therefore, all over this is an actual waste of our liighest-priced honey where the eggs are laid after the bees coming therefrom emerge too late to work in the hai-A'est froim the white clover and basswood. As the harvest from basswood closes here about July 20, and as no eggs can give bees of value in any harvest soon- er than thirty days from the depositing of the egg, it is easily seen that all eggs laid later than June 20, beyond those necessary for the successful existence of the colony, can be of no value to us. Hence, where the bees of their own accord do not restrict brood-rearing down to about five full frames, it is economy in white comb honey to use these dummies to compel them to do so. With black and hybrid bees these dum- mies can be made to pay from $150 to $200 each year where used in an apiary of one hundred colonies ; but with a good strain of Italian bees (a strain which reduces brbod-rearing as the flow of nectar increas- es) the use of these dummies for the pur- pose of repressing this out-of -season pro- ductiveness is not so apparent. " As I have written in the past, the hive and strain of bees capable of putting the maximum number of bees on the stage of action in time to take advantage of the nectar floAvs, and as few at all other times as are needed to carry on the colony to a successful issue the next spring, are the ones to adopt." JULY 1, 1911 443 General Correspondence THE GOODS AND THE GAME Why Some Producers Can Not Get a Reasonable Profit ; a Better Package Needed BY W, S. SHAFER On page G20, Oct. 1, 1912, is an article by R. A. Nusbaum which is very good and right to the point, except that he did not go far enongii. His four points of sales- manslup are well taken. I speak after having had nearly twenty years of experi- ence as a salesman in nearly every phase of the game; but 1 am a "Greener" in the handling of honey. However, I think I have made good when it comes to selling it. 1 speak of comb honey in particular. The great big point, it seems to me, that Mr. Nusbaum omitted, is the goods. In the first place, a salesman must believe in Jiis (juods if he expects to make a success in selling. A half-hearted salesman is worse than none. Now, let us start with our honey as it is in the super, and follow it through the necessary preparation that is required to make it presentable for market (the manner in which we handle our hon- ey). After it is taken from the super it is carefully graded, following as nearly as we can the incture grading-rules as given in the Beview. Then each section is thorough- ly cleaned, making the section wood as near its original color as we can. Then each is j)laced in an individual container, and four sectioiis are packed in a folding box, and the box closed, making it dust and insect tight. It also makes a very handy and at- tractive package. After doing this we have goods that we can believe in — goods that we know are right and the best on the market, and we are fully justified in asking a price tliat is from five to eight cents per section above the store price for honey, and we get it ; and for the last two years we have been unable to meet tlie demand for our comb honey. We will use Mr. Nusbaum's own ammu- nition and try to shoot it harder. If the reader will notice, " gTapenuts," " Meadow Gold butter," etc., are not handled in bulk nor placed in an open box so that flies and dust, which means germs, can accumulate; but, on tlie contrary, are put up in handy- sized packages which are attractive, and each package is sealed so that nothing can get to it. It is sanitary and clean — just what the modern housekeeper is looking- for. Now, why should the producer of comb honey be behind in the method of put- ting up his goods for market? I spent a dav in a'oina' from one broker to anothei' examining honey that was shipped to Oma- ha. In not a single case did I find honey that had been what we call cleaned. I also looked at honey in twenty different gro- ceries, and in two places they had honey on display in a showcase, but their surplus was in shipping cases that had been opened and wer3 under the counter. In the other places the honey was in the shipping cases on the counter, open to every thing. Now compare the average honey to the modern food articles in the average grocery. Our own e:;perience has been that, if we lake good care in the preparation of our goods for market, we can get from five to eight cents more per section for it. To test out my plan I purchased Iavo cas?s of honey from a broker, and prepared it as we do ours, and had no trouble in getting our reg- ular price of twenty-five cents per section. It cost me fifteen cents per section. Some will argue that we can not whole- sale it and get the same proportionate price so as to make the extra labor and expense pay us. We will answer that by giving some of our sales last fall. One large con- cern heard that we had a new way of put- ling up comb honey and wanted to see it. After seeing it he wanted to buy the entire crop; but as we had worked up a retail business that look about all, we could let him have but 500 pounds, for which he paid us 821/2 C'ts. per box of four sections, wliich equals $4.95 per case — a pretty fair whole- sale price. He sold it at $1.00 per box of four sections. We also believe in advei-tising. We have prepared a little folder telling about honey, which we distribute from house to house, also taking orders at tlie same time. That is, we did that last year. This year the orders have been coming in so fast that we shall not be able to fill them if they keep up. We also did some advertising through the press, and sent some personal letteis, a copy of one of which is given herewith. Dear Madam : — This is the season of the year when we are gathering Nature's harvest; and among her many gifts we find that pure honey Is one of her triumphs. Its delicate aroma, its smooth, velvety taste and flavor all its own make it a dish that is fit to grace the table of the most fastidious. The appearance of a box of our pure comb honey immediately appeals to your sense of cleanliness. It is packed strictly in accordance with our ideas, is absolutely clean in every respect, and is backed by our reputation for cleanliness. It is absolutely pure ; has never been exposed to flies, dust, nor any unsanitary conditions. It is taken from the hive, placed in a container, then four of these containers are packed in a box and sealed, making it absolutely impervious to dust, flies, or any contamination. " To touch a man's heart, tickle his palate." Try it with a supper of hot liiscuit and lioney. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE In these ways we have been able to work up a sale for our honey that does not leave us one section of marketable honey at the end of the season. Some will, perhaps, argue that it is im- possible to prepare their product properly because of lack of time. It does take time, but it pays big dividends. We have about 150 colonies this year. As an illustration of what good goods well put up for market and salesmanship will do we will saj^ that three hours' work with a sample package of honey gave as a result : Net sales, 164 lbs. No sale less than four pounds or $1.00, from that up to $8.00 for 32 lbs. "We believe that the producer is as much at fault as the salesman. You can not get the top price for your honey if you give it the bottom preparation for market; but if you have goods prepared in modern style, coui^led with modern salesmanship, there is absolutely no reason Avhy the average hon- ey-producer can not get from two to ten cents per pound increase for both his comb and extracted honey. Bellevue, Neb. PRODUCING WHAT THE PUBLIC DEMANDS BY WALTER M. ADEMA As some writers have said, it is hard to tell of one's failures, and easy to tell of success. I will try to tell of both. My bee- keeping experience started in 1906 when 1 got my first two colonies of my brother, who sold his bees — 17 colonies in all — to go into other business for himself. My first lesson, which was dearly paid for, was in not giving a stray swarm venti- lation. I liived the bees on a hot close day the latter part of May. I left them in the shade of a tree in the forenoon so that they would mark their new location after the hive was opened. But to my sorrow the bees and combs were all one mass on the bottom-board when I opened the entrance. The heat of the bees had melted down combs and all. At first I used the double-walled eight- frame chaff hive, of wliich I had about a dozen, which I had bought at a bargain. In the spring of 1909 I started out with a new equipment, consisting of the Lang- stroth hive, tln-ee stories liigh, as I wished to run for extracted honey. One of the rea- sons for going into extracted honey was that I was unable to sell any comb honey locally. That is one thing upon which I wish "to put emphasis — if one is producing for a local trade he must first find out what the locality demands. I find that a 10-lb. friction-top pail is best suited to my needs, as ten pounds is as much as most families will buy at one time. At fii-st I charged $1.00 a pail. I soon felt that I ought to realize more for my honey, but I was afraid to change as I thought I would lose some of my customers. Last year, however, I charged $1.25 a pail, and, strange to say, my sales increased, and I had to buy a large quantity with which to fill my ordei-s. I always make it a practice to insert an advertisement in our local newspaper each year after extracting, and find that it pays well. Just now I have a customer living a hundred miles away whom I got through our local paper. He had ordered over thir- ty pails so far this season. He is a factory man, and it seems no trouble at all for him to go among his fellow-workmen and get a club order for 60 pails. That is just the trade we want to encourage. It takes time and money to get customers like this, but once in your possession they are the best you have. As to the financial part of beekeeping, I find that it paj-s better than any other faim crop. I was fighting foul brood last season, and again this season. It's discouraging, it is true; but what calling in life has not its problems'? I winter my bees in a box large enough to take in ten colonies back to back. I pack them with straw, and cover the Avhole with tar paper. I find that they come out stronger in the spring than in double-walled hives. I have added poultry along with the bees, and hope some time to devote all my time to bees and chickens. Berlin, Mich., Dee. 11. A STEAM-BOILER FOR ARTIFICIAL RIPENING OF HONEY BY T. BOLTON' Gleanings for Dec. 15, 1912, p. 801, contains an interesting and instructive com- munication from Mr. Hopkins, of New Zea- land, on the artificial ripening of honey — atmospheric ripening we can call it. For about twenty years I have been practicing artificial ripening. I have not depended upon atmospheric conditions, but upon a small steam-boiler and appliances de^^sed by myself. By means of these I accomplish not only the ripening when such may be needed, and by that I mean the evaporation of any excess of water, and increasing the honey's specific gravity; but my main ob- ject is to clarifj' or refine the honey to make it amenable to rapid tanking, and to do JULY 1, 1913 445 away with the old unscientific mess and bother of strainers and cloths. The honey runs directly into the ap^Dli- ance from my extractor, which is driven by a small steam-engine. A %-inch pipe takes steam into the jacket of the ripener, and on its way through it the honey is heated, re- fined automatically, separated from the scum that rises freely in the process. It is then pumped by the same power into the tanks. The next morning it is fit to draw off into 60-lb. cans, and will then keep un- candied after this process for two years or more; whereas if put into tanks in the ordinary way, cold and strained, it hai to be drawn off within a few weeks or it will have to be dug and chopi3ed out (certain varieties). Tlus once happened to me when I left a square tank of 5000 to 6000 lbs. of honey in midsummer newly filled. I went away for a few weeks, and came back to find that only the outer part of the honey was avail- able by waj' of the tap, and the center was a huge pyramid, a mass of caud^^ For a week or more two boys had to get into the manhole of that tank, dig out the honey into dishes, and pass them to me to melt. I don't know how many chisels, trowels, and wooden paddles, improvised for the occasion, were bent or broken in the job. I might say that half of tl;e tank was pro- truding outside into the sun's heat — my idea of the ripening process then being thus to cause a circulation in the tank through one side being hotter than the other. After a few years I adopted steam heat in different experimental ways, till I have now a satisfactory appliance which saves both labor and time. One reason why honey thus treated is not so readj' to granulate is because such a large amount of presumably pollen grains and wax particles are removed, and cease to act in the bulk as centers or nuclei around which granulation gathers. In one part of the apparatus the skim- ming is coarse and largely wax: in another finer, and largely pollen. The form.er is removed to the uncapper to be melted, the latter I am carefully presen-ing in 60-lb. cans for the next term of pollen drouth that comes along, and so seriously cripples our bees. I hope it will settle the trouble of feeding an artificial pollen, which liitherto we have sought for in vain. There is always one drawback to any method of artificial ripening of honey de- pending on exposure to atmosphere for its effect. The exposure surface is large nec- essarily, and it is as large for the absorp- tion of moisture as for heat and evapora- tion of it. Weather changes make it possi- ble to lose one day what was gained the previous. This makes it a slower process still. But not only so, but the surface in its relation to the bulk or contents is large too. for the collection of dust; and over here we have dust storms that have gi-eat wall and roof penetrating power. Finally, the heat applied on the surface keeps the top layer warm, consequently lighter, and it stays .on top. The colder layers that we want to rise in succession to be in turn warmed and dried are kept below. In short, circulation and air exposure are checked. But apply the warmth underneath, and what a difference in time taken and in the result ! Hamilton. Victoria, Australia. HONEY NOT GETTING A FAIR SHOW IN THE STORES BY L. RIEBEL In my travels and in gi\'ing demonstra- tions with bees at fairs and at exhibitions of different kinds, it always annoys me to hear people call all kinds of liquid horey " strained honey." Many times, when there is a good display of extracted honey, peoi le will call it '' strained honey," when there is much difference between the two. Whe.i- ever I have a chance I make it a point to call at some of the largest groceries in the city where I happen to be and look up the honey proposition, I frequently have an experience like this : In talking to one of the head clerks or the proprietor I inquire whether they have any honey, and learn that they have section honey and strained honey. I state that I should like to look at it, and almost inva- riably find some extracted honey gotten up in good shape. I then explain the differ- ence between strained and extracted honey; but if a customer comes in and asks for honey while I am still there, the clerk or proprietor to whom I have been talking says that they have strained honeJ^ I think that the merchant himself is largely to blame for not infoiining Mmself on the different kinds of honey just as he would on other goods. CARELESSNESS IN DISPLAYING HONEY. The independent and careless ways of merchants in putting comb and extracted honey before their customers is to be de- plored. In a large store in a town of 30,000 I once saw eight single-tier cases of comb honey — fairly nice-looking honey — in 4^ X 4^ X 1% sections, piled up, four cases on top of each other, and the lower case, on the floor, with the glass broken. Some one had shoved the toe of his shoe througk 446 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE the case. You could see the prints on the section of this same case. Another ease showed marks left by the broom as it had swept along the floor. At one side there was a basket of potatoes ; on the other side, half a barrel of pickeled tripe. Both up- per-tier cases were open, and about half full of sections, some of which were lying- flat, some edgewise, some crosswise, more like potatoes in a basket than honey. Many Oil the sectioTiS sliowed thumb and finger -marks, and were badly stained. This, mind ycyn, was what was considered to be a "swell" grocery — in fact, the best store of the kind that I visited that season. Then, again, I have stepped into a gro- cery where the farmers were bringing in comb honey in supers. The merchant would lake it and set it on the counter just as they left it. It was evident that no separators or starters had been used, and sometimes the honey was in old sections, which weie then second-hand. The honey bulged in all kinds of shapes, and such a mess as the clerks and merchants would make in getting it out ! I place the blame on the merchant for accepting honey in that sliape. Is it any wonder that honey has to lake a back s^at, and does not move off in the local mar- ket as do other goods? There is one thing I can not understand : Why merchants who have made grocery- keeping a business, and take pride in keep- ing other goods neat and attractive, should give honey such a black eye. They would not dare to treat butter or other commod- ities that way or they would soon lose their butter trade. It is surprising to know how little people in general know about the bee and the way in whicii honey is made. What a field there is to labor in ! I am doing what I can to educate people as I have opportunity, and most of them seem to appreciate it. I think this matter should be bi-oright before the merchants in some way, either tlu-ough the columns of the newspaper or through little pamphlets which will interest them until they will take. at least the same interest in honey that they do in other lines of goods. Chariton, Iowa. ADVERTISING UNTIL THE CUSTOMERS COME TO THE HOUSE BY GEO. SHIBER On p. 632, Oct. 1, 1912, I find a very readable article by Mr. C. W. Powell on organization by beekeepers for the purpose of better disposing of honey. I have no doubt that organization is a good thing; but I am sorry to see him bolster up his argument by saying, " A rocking-chair for which 3^ou pay the dealer $5.00 costs him $1..50;" and "carpets selling at retail for ■ fifty per cent profit." That would be too far " up in the air," for the Eastern States at least. Now let us consider for a moment the question of the best way of disposing of a crop of honey. Mine is all extracted. There are two or three thing's that are very nec- essai-y for selling direct to the consumer. I am not going to say any tiring about put- ting it up in 60-lb. cans and bringing to a honey-buyer. That's easy, but it doesn't bring as much cash. The first imi:>ortant thing is to have your l^roduct fancy, all sealed. Second, put it up in packages of about ten or twelve pounds, and some sixty- pound cans. Draw it off in these packages, just as fast as you throw it from the combs. Have the honey-tank emptied every night. The sooner you can seal uj) honey air-tight after the combs are taken from the bees, the better. This is one thing I feel that I I'tioiv about beekeei^ing. The next thing, let people know you have it for sale. The cheapest way I have found is a reading notice in the town paper like this, run very week until the crop is sold : Honey. — I could till this paper with letters and words of praise I have received in regard to its quality. I have it in gallon tin cans and five-gallon tin cans. Shiber's Apiary. Canvassing? I never canvassed a minute in my life — people come after it. Perhaps you may think a little may be sold tliis way, but not a crop that goes up into the tons. Well, year before last was a very poor one, and nearly 4000 lbs. was sold before Thanksgiving. Last year, with a crop of 8000 lbs., it was nearly half sold by Oct. 1. We sell gallon cans at $1.45; two-quart glass jars at 85 cts. ; one-quart glass jars at 45 cts. At those prices it is a cheap food. Why, last year one man bought four one-gallon cans, and after New Year's day he was asking for another can, but it was gone. MERE PUBLICITY OF NO AVAIL. I want to say that the reason why it is hard to sell honey from one's home direct to the consumer is because very few people know he has it for sale. Oh, yes ! I know the local a^^iarist has the reputation of being a beeman, and Avhenever he gets into a crowd or goes into a store the hangers-on usually try to start some bee-yarn about a bee-tree that " Abe Baldwin cut once," and how the speaker " didn't get stung once," etc.; or to have the reputation of "going 0-:t to hive a swarm of bees without any Cnntiriiii'd on faye 463. JUNE 15, 1913 ADVERTISING HONEY WITHOUT EXPENSE BY JAY SMITH Beekeepers as a rule do not realize what an advantage they have in the way of se- curing free advertisement — not only free, but, if properly managed, one can get pay for advertising his own business. We bee- keepers study the mysteries of the bees, and discuss them among ourselves through the medium of the bee journals until to us they are commonplace. The rank and file of the lioney-C'onsumers never get to know of the marvelous things of interest concerning' the bee and its works. It is '' up to us " to A similar picture of Jay Smith has appeared in hundreds of magazines all over the countrv. give them, through the newspapers and magazines, live, interesting sketches of the bee and honey industry. They like any thing unique, original, and interesting to the public. Of course a person must not give the articles the appearance of adver- tising or it will " queer the game." It is not necessary to say that you have honey or bees to sell. If you have bees they will know that you have honey. I have fre- quently noticed the surprise of people when I tell them that I produced a ton of lioney. The word " ton " seems much bigger when applied to honey than does 2000 pounds. So does " half a ton " or a '' quarter ton." It probably seems big to them because they were familiar with it only in spoonful lots when colds were prevalent. Tlien, again, the p;;blie can not get away from the belief that the principal business of the be3 is to sling — that the sting is something awful, and that, if you go near a hive of bees, you are taking your life in your hands. Some of the common stunts that are pulled off among the beekeepers would amaze the public. One of the most successful things I ever did in the way of advertising was by the use of the accompanying cut. If I could call for a show of hands as to how many readeis of Gleanings have seen this pic- ture thousands of them would respond. I made this photo last summer more for the fun of the thing than for any thing else. I made several negatives, and sold one of them to Underwood & Underwood. They must have made a good thing out of it, for it is still running in papers and magazines all over the world. Scai'cely a day goes by but some one brings to me a paper in which he has discovered my picture. One saw it in Harper's Weekly; another in the Chicago American; another in the St. Louis Demo- crat, and another in a supplement to a Sun- day paper. I have heard of it from Los Angeles, Ual. From Texas a paper came from a relative with the bee picture in. The president of our univeisity attended the inauguration of President Wilson, and while there he mailed me a New York paper with my bee whiskers in. (Underwood & Underwood give it the dignified name of "Bee Beard.") From far-away Idaho comes word from our friend Geo. W. York that he saw it in a paper. I mention this to show how- the public is interested in any thing unique in the bee line. I do not know how mucli good tlris has done me in the way of selling honey; but I do know that I have sold more than twice as much honey this year as in any previous year. Vinceinies, Ind. SELLING HONEY BY THE CARLOAD IN ARI- ZONA A Brief Mention of Some of the Men who do it BY WM. LOSSING One of my customers, Mr. Peter H. Ben- son, of Palo Verde, has sold me two ear- loads each year for the last two years. He is a farmer making the bees a side issue (a rather good-sized issue). His equipment consists of 500 colonies divided into three apiaries. At each apiary there is installed a six-frame automatic power extractor and a 1%-power engine which is conveyed from one yard to another. He also has a pump, GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Loading the largest car of honey ever shipped out of Arizona. Fairground siding, Phoenix, Oct. 4. 1912. steam honey-knives, Hatch wax-press, and settling-tank having about 200 gallons capacity. The buildings consist of up-to- date honey-houses, finest of sheds, and a galvanized warehouse 20 x 30. The liives deserve special mention. The Hoffman frames have long molded top-bars, and are wired and fitted with full sheets of foundation. The hives are of the ten-frame size, and are made of redwood. There are 500 wire queen-excluders and 100 bee-es- capes. At each yard is a Daisy wheelbar- row, and some smokers and veils. The bees are the result of much care and judgment, which is plainly shown by the uniform markings of the Italian bees. Mr. Benson is practically a new man in apicultui'e, and a fair sample of many in- stances near Phoenix where new beemen have sprung up, as it were, and budded, bloomed, and bore fruit in one night. The illustration shows the largest car of honey ever shipped out of Arizona. It was loaded at the fairground siding, Phoenix, Oct. 4, 1912, and was one of 16 cars ship- ped by the undersigned, an independent shipper. This amount is about half of the honey produced in the vicinity of Phoenix, including Buckeye and Palo Verde, Ariz. The car is the product of beginners, one of which, whose check amounted to over $1200, is J. J. Myers, of Phoenix, who never sold a pound of honey before, last year being his first. In the picture four of his teams are shown, and Mr. Myers himself is sitting in the foremost wagon, as dignified to all appearance as a full-fledged apiarist. John H. Bennett, another new shipper, is managing about 500 colonies. His check was not quite as large, he having retailed a great deal of his honej' in the city. His outfit seems to be about as near up-to-date as any of them. He has a migratory hon- ey-house equipped with a four-frame auto- matic extractor, gasoline-engine, and other implements necessary for carrying on his successful operations. Much is j^i'edicted of John. Among the other new beemen of the past few years I wish to mention a few of the i:>rincipal ones. Albert J. Ross, of Buck- eye, is cutting a wide swath in the line of apiculture. Two years ago he bought 600 colonies on time. That fall he paid from his honey money about half of his indebted- ness. Last fall he sold enough honey (near- ly two carloads) to put him out of debt and place him in good running order for the next year, such as buying a small tract of land, building a new house, and taking unto himself a helpmate. The writer be- speaks great success for Albert. One James H. Tracy, Buckeye, who has been in the bee business for several years, JULY 1, 1913 449 lias demonstrated beyond a doubt the prof- its that can be made in the bee business in Arizona. The last three years all his honey put together would total about nine car- loads. These carloads of honey range in cash from .$1600 to .$3000 per car, regTi- lated somewhat by the amount and price in the car. Mr. Tracy has a nice little home, out of debt, 700 or 800 colonies of bees, a good horse and buggy, and money in the bank. The one improvement that I would suggest would be a nice wife; then Jim would surely be on the road to happiness and prosperity. If this article does not find its way to the waste-basket I shall be pleased to finish the report, as we have many beginners Avho are worthy of mentioning, a few of whom I will simply name for the present : Wm. Doner, Walter Dickerson, Levi J. Holtz- worth, Mrs. L. D. Smith, Mrs. May G. Lovett. Phoenix, Ariz. HONEY-SELLING VIEWED FROM A STORE- KEEPER'S STANDPOINT Wrapping Each Section in Transparent Paper Tied with a Silk Thread, and Selling for a Fancy Price BY C. B. PALMER Shall we improve the style and appear- ance of the section of honey, and keep pace with all other packages of merchandise now handled in the grocery or general merchan- dise store, and receive a better price for our improved package? Or shall we continue to place our sections on the counter in the same old w-aj' we have done for years, and then wonder why our honey brings no bet- ter price than it did last year or the year before, or, in fact, than it did fifteen years ago? and also why there is not an increas- ing demand? I doubt if there is a food in our stoi'e. the style of i^ackage of which has not been improved on in the past few years. We must cater to the demand. Back in the seventies, when as a boy I was drawing wood into old Kalamazoo, father would sometimes say, " Take a grain- sack along and go to the bakery and bring a dollar's worth of little round butter-crack- ers, always so fresh and crisp." Go to your store now and ask for a dol- lar's worth of crackers. You will be lucky if you get five packages, and on one end of each package will be marked in very small tyi^e, " This package contains twenty- nine ounces of crackers." But see the ele- gant, bright, pretty package. Some one has seen fit to cater to the demand of the trade, and you can scarcely find a family to-day that does not keep crackers constantly in the house. A glance over the shelves in my store tells me that the old method of handling honey must go. The method is so crude and so antiquated that the food commission had to compel us by law to carry our honey in glass show-eases or other suitable covering. Sections of honey are much easier to enclose than many other packages of foods, espe- cially dried fruits or foods that contain oils, or any food that the moth miller can reach. I can count more than fifty different packages of goods put up in the most at- tractive forms possible. These were all handled in bulk only a few years ago. But should I order a ease of honey it would come in the same old mussj^ leaking condi- tion. No wonder that merchants do not try to create a demand for this class of goods. It is up to the producer to increase the demand. One of the most attractive packages I have is a three-pound rice. I have this same rice in bulk in a dish on the counter, mark- ed five cents a pound, but no one wants it. It does not attract the buyer's attention. It is the old-style method of showing goods, and customers are looking for something new. Consecjuently they take the three- pound package at twenty-five cents, and are pleased. The producer of the beautiful gilt package has increased the selling value of the i^ackage, and at the same time in- creased his own profits as well as mine. The large producer of honey has no trouble in finding a market, as he has made a study of the demand and knows how to supi^ly it. It is the man with only a few pounds or a few hundred pounds who be- comes discouraged and soon drops out for lack of a market for his few pounds of sur- plus. When I found myself in this position I began to look around for a market. I found every store supplied with honey, from honey one day olcl (the merchant had lost a stand from disease, and he was press- ing the honey out of old filthy combs into glass fruit-jars), to honey so old that ''whis- kers " were growing on the sides of the case. Some of the honey looked like some of my own, especially that with the "whiskers;" but all, good or bad, was in 4^/4 x 4^/4 sec- tions. I decided that, in order to sell my honey and make a demand for it, I must first change the shape of the package so that the customer would not be looking at the same old mussy, grimy, dusty section, and I decided to overhaul all my supers and produce nothing but 4 x .5 sections. Then I would see how nice I could put them up 450 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE for the trade. All the time my thoughts were to cater to the trade, leaving the price to take care of itself, if I created the de- mand. As a result, for the past few sea- sons our honey has been sold up a year in advance, and for three years we have not had honey to retail from our own stoi'e. SHIPPING SMALL AMOUNTS OF COMB HONEY, FROM A FEW SECTIONS TO A FEW THOUSANDS. I use a common candy-pail, which is charged up to the customer. He can al- ways sell the empty pail or return it foi" credit. The pails can be procured in any size. I use one 11 inches deep and 12% inches across the top, inside measurement. It holds thirteen 4x5 sections in the bottom layer and fifteen in the top, twenty-eight in all To pack the pails, twist some clean white pajDer into ropes and crowd between the inside of the pail and the sections. Care must be taken not to crowd the face of any section. However, no one but a careless packer can do this, as the wood comes near- est to the pail at all points. Crumple more paper and fill the top of the iiail and placs Wooden candy-pail for shipping comlj lioney. A ship- ping case that is proof against honey breakage. the cover on. There are two small wires that bend over the cover. Put a common nail in the loop, twist the wires together, and the pail is sealed better than any nails could do it. The pails are all painted white. and marked on the top "Comb honey. With Care." Braided cornhusks would be even better than paper, and would add to the appearance. The sections should be honest, even weight and color. No section should weigh less than 131/2 ounces. (The first two seasons 1 shipped nothing under 141/2 ounces.) They must be perfect, and No. 1 in forma- tion and capping. Then cjuote by the sec- tion and seek in a city for a customer who can use all you produce. Employ all your spare time improving the appearance of the section so it will sell, and orders will be repeated. I would not care for a cus- tomer wlio did not repeat. You are the pro- ducer. You make the package attractive, and the price will take care of itself. If a customer does not repeat, it is your fault and not his. He has to have the honey to sell, and you must create the demand for i/our honey. I have been in my store for thirty years, and I know the kind of goods that sell. When a lady sees a new-style package of food, and is shown that the package is fly and dirt proof, she is always interested and expects me to talk ujj the goods. She is attracted as much by the package as by the contents. Nearly always I make the sale, and the next day I have calls from her neighbors for the same article. Each section should be wrapped in trans- parent paper, and tied with a strand of bright-colored silk. I think the coming sea- son will see all my sections tied with a ribbon similar to " baby " ribbon. Our honey crops are sold a year in advance. For three winters we have not had honey to retail at home, and to-day we have none for our own use. We have been shij^ping in these pails for about seven seasons, and have yet to get the first report of contents received in bad order. We have taken particular pains to ask exjjress agents at destinations to exam- ine shijmients, and all have reported best of condition. No pail has ever been return- ed to us with a stain or mark of a broken section. In fact, one can safely guarantee that honey packed in this way will arrive in a satisfactory condition. The secret is in the shape of the package, since one can not be set flat down, but always sti-ikes the edge and has a rolling motion. We have customers in several towns and cities who sell from a few hundred to a thousand sections to whom we have had to return their extra orders unfilled. Fre- c|uently strangers come into the store and make the remark. "Oh! this is where the honey comes from, tied with a silk thi-ead." So we see that the smallest detail, the silk JUL'i 1, 1913 Kirkpa trick's honey- wagon. thread, is noticed, and serves as a trade- mark. An old customer called, and said she had come for a pail of our honey, and asked us to ship it to Lincoln for her. I told her that this would be impossible, as a dealer there had bought all our crop ; and as we were shipping- about 600 lbs. that week she could get the honey of them. She did not think that was exactly fair in us, but we wrote our customer to see her at once and sell to her. Be sure to protect your customer, and be very careful not to compete -with him. I could have made fifty cents more on the pail by selling to that lady, but I might have lost my customer. "We positively re- fuse to sell at retail to any one who lives in a town where our honey is on the market, ab hough we have many chances to do so. Pradsliaw, Neb. SELLING HONEY DIRECT TO THE CONSUMER BY GEORGE H. KIRKPATRICIv Beekeepers who have the time and talent may disposa of a quantity of honey ^t retail price. By a thorough house-to-house can- vass in the neighborhood or county I have sold many ton? of extracted lionev to farm- ers, lumbermen, and wood-choppers. In selling honey in the homes we must abide bj' the golden rule and always do unto oth- ers as we would Ihey should do unto us. When approachirg a new customer ask him for a few moments of his time, and then in a few words give an outline of the prop- osition. At the same time remove the top from a pail of honey, and ask the prospec- tive customer or his children to sample the honey. With book and pencil in hand ask the gentleman for his name and address; and whil? writing it inquire how many pails of hon.ey he wishes. He will be quite sure to take a pail ; but if he should not it will do no harm to have his name and address. Offer for sale only the best honey, and ask a fair i^rice for it, which should be 5 cts. per lb. above the wholesale price. The honey should be put up in ten-pound fric- tion-top pails, and neatly labeled. Make tlie same price to all cusi oners, and request the retail grocers to whom you furnish hon- ey to sell to th?ir cns'.omers at your retail price. One of the most important parts of the equipment is a special vehicle, neatly paint- eel and lettered. 8nch a lig will bring many a crs'omer wlio woi^ld otherwise be missed. The illustration shows my vehicle. It is painted white, and lettered in black. It has 452 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE a earryiug capacity of 500 lbs., or 50 ten- pound pails. Fifty-one ten-pound pails are also shown ready to load in. The same body can be put on a sleigh for use in win- ter. I also have another wagon having a carrying capacity of 75 ten-pound pails. Both rigs proved comfortable to ride in, and a great help in selling honey. Rapid City, Mich. WHY THE DARK COMB HONEY SOLD SLOWLY BY N. P., JOHNSTON Without being able to give the dates when they were published, the writer recalls several short articles emanating from the editor, somewhat in the nature of remon- strances against the tendency of apiarists to produce and to offer for sale an excessive quantity of extracted honey at the expense of the quantity of comb honey produced. I would make a few remarks on that position of the editor, subject to such reply or criti- cism as may seem proper. I wish to state in the first place that, al- though this will be the eighth season of my experience as a beekeeper, I still feel my- self a novice at the business, as I see so much about it which I must learn before I can consider myself or would be considered by others as an expert. During all this time I have confined my operations to the pro- duction of comb honey. Although I have had an extractor during the past two years, I used it to a very limited extent last year. My advance in a knowledge of the busi- ness has been slow, and my production con- sequently small. For several years after starting I was able to dispose of my honey without much trouble; but last year my in- crease had attained a total of twenty-four colonies, two of which produced nothing; and thi-ee others, being utilized in carrying out Doolittle's method for swarm preven- tion, left me nineteen only as honey-produc- ers, from which I obtained about 2000 well- filled sections, a large proportion of which was, as it appeared to me, as pretty honey as could be made in this region, though I have never seen (what I read so much of in Gleanings) any of the handsome honey made in the North, so I can make no com- parison between it and the product of the bees in the South, samples of which I sent at Christmas, in twelve-section shipping cases, to friends in North Carolina, Vir- ginia, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania, all of whom, whether to flatter me or not I can not tell, pronounced it " delicious." This, after making some small sales on the home market, left me with sometliing over 1700 sections unsold, which I shipped on con- signment to a large produce house in one of the largest cities in the country. I was advised that it all arrived in good order, no complaint being made on any score (though 1 especially invited criticism for my own information), except to say that, owing to color, it was not so acceptable to the trade as was the white honey from California; but knowing that every thing offered in the market, in other lines than honey, is not al- ways, and all the time, " first class, A No. 1," I supposed that a market would be found for this shipment, though not expect- ing such prices for it as could be obtained for the more popular kinds. But in this I have been much disappoint- ed, being advised within the last few days tliat still one-fourth of the shipment re- mains unsold. This unsold portion is doubt- less the darkest, which you say the people up your way will not buy, notwithstanding the positive claims of your Texas corres- pondent of last year for its superiority. We can not control the operations of the bees in this resjject, and must take what they give us. In contrast with this I shipped a small quantity of the same honey, which had been extracted, to a dealer in another direction, and received returns for it within a few days after its arrival at destination ; and the problem which confronts me is how I shall shape my operations for the coming season. I have a full outfit for comb-honey production, and also an extractor. I now have 31 strong colonies. So far as I am concerned, beekeeping is only a side line as a means of occupation during a protracted period of idleness in my regular business. I secure more entertainment and occupation in handling the apiary for comb honey than for extracted ; and I like that branch of the business best ; but if I can not sell the pi'od- uct, how can I make the business even self- sustaining, to say notliing of its being profitable? Greenville, Miss., March 25. [We may be wrong; but we should say that a local market should be built up to take care of the darker grades of comb hon- ey. " Snowy-white " sections usually sell the quickest, and on this account dark comb honey should not have to compete with the white. There are many localities where the darker honey is better known (and better liked), and as a rule it is best to seek such a market rather than one where the demand is largely for the white. — Ed.] JULY 1, 1913 453 HOW ARRANGEMENTS ARE BEING MADE FOR THE HANDLING OF HONEY BY E. G. WARD The pictures shown herewith illustrate a new departure in the history of the disposal of honey produced in New Zealand. It has been well known among beekeepers that the production has been steadily increasing- for a number of years, and that each year sees an increase of those engaged in the industry. The season of 1912-'13 has been an exceptionalh' g^ood one in most parts of the dominion, and in Canterbury in partic- ular. These conditions have all tended to bring' matters to a her^u; and the result is that the National Federated Beekeepers' Association of New Zealand has now com- pleted arrangements for the first shipment of first-class Jioney under government grad- ing rules. The shipment corsists of 11 tons, all sent by two producers only, and a sim- ilar cjuantity will be dispatched next month, and subsequent shipments as producers get better aecjuainted with the scheme. The first shipment will leave early in Maj' ; and as the quality is so high there is no doubt of E. G. Ward. Christclmrch, N. Z., Secretary of the National Federated Beekeepers' Association. good prices being obtained. The fact of having the government grading mark will be a guarantee of quality; and as it goes under the supervision of the Federation, beekeepers need have no fear but that their interests are fullv safeguarded. Honev exhibit by the Canterbury Beekeepers' Association at the chrysanthemum show, Christchurch, N. Z., April 7, 8. JULY 1, 1913 Inquiries are coming in daily to the sec- retary, and the success of the scheme seems to be assured. It is necessary that any one sending through this channel should en- deavor by every means in his power to pro- duce nothing but the best honey, and han- dle it in the cleanest manner. No unripe honey will be sent ; and it must be in granu- lated form. The cases should be new and clean, bound with iron, and branded on one end with the initials only of the producer. Tins must be new and clean, and contain 56 lbs. net each, and packed two in a case. A sample must be sent first to the seci'etary for approval, and on approval the place to consign to will be mailed. It will then be graded by a government expert, and stamp- ed, and then shipped as soon as convenient. Arrangements can be made for a cash ad- vance when ready to ship, and centers other than Christchurch will be established when sutticient inducement offers. Christchurch, N. Z. SELLING HONEY TO RETAIL GROCERS BY H. W. DOERR Case of Honey graded and sealed with the N. F. B. Ass'n certificate attached. Taking for granted that one has the bees, hives, and the necessary equipment, the next important thing is the honey itself. After I have the honey, the next step to take is to find out its kind and quality. In fact, I watch this point from the time the bees begin to store a surplus until the hon- ey-tlow ceases. I also keep tab on the hon- ey-crop reports as given in the bee jour- nals, and study tlie market quotations of the newspapers with the view of deter- mining what honey of the same quality as mine would cost if shipped in from some other locality, and also what my honey would net me by shipping it to some other mai-ket. Having fixed these two points clearly in my mind I proceed to fix my price by striking a mean between the import and export prices. That is, I make my price somewhat higher than the export price, and somewhat lower than the import price, be- cause exi)erience has taught me that it is safe, and good business policy, to do so. Right here let me say that it is of the ut- most importance to have the price set on your honey before you offer it for sale. Otherwise the dealer will be slow in buying, and he will pay you just as small a price as he dares to give. After the question of price is settled, and I have decided to put my honey on the market, the next thing that I do is to give some attention to my own personal appear- ance. This does not mean that I put on the best clothes in my possession, nor any dis- l)]ay of style; but I do shave, and lay aside my daily working clothes for others which are neat and clean. Then I make a tour, interviewing the different grocers of my home town. When I step into a store where the owner is not known to me I inquire for the proi)rietor. Having found him, I usu- ally ask him if he handles any honey. His answer generally is that he has none on hand at the present time. Then I ask what would be the cliance of selling him a case of honey to be delivered in a week or so, naming my price, and stipulating that I will take a part of the pay in trade. This usually closes the deal for a case or more. If I have had a good look around the store, and find no honey in sight before I meet the proprietor, then I sometimes ask him point blank if he has any honey to sell, to which he usually says he has not. The % of course, I ask what would be the chance of selling him some honey, so tliat he will have some to sell. If he is a free talker I GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE Christchurch offices of the shipping firm of Mongomery & Co., who handle the honey for the N. F. B. Association of New Zealand. let him ask me about the kind, quality, con- dition, and price, which I promptly tell him; but if he is somewhat reticent I do the most of the talking, exijlaining the kind, quality, condition, price, and terms of sale. In this way I seldom fail to land an order for future delivery. I always sell on future delivery, for sev- eral reasons. First, if I have the honej' with me for immediate delivery I never can make as good a sale as I can on future de- livery. Second, if I have the honey with me for immediate delivery, and I fail to make a sale, I take too much of a risk get- ting it damaged by having to haul it home again. I remember going into a store one time where the proprietor was not known to me, and every one connected with the store was busy. I had been in the store a few min- utes when a friend and acquaintance came in and began to jolly me by wanting to know wliat I was doing in that part of town. I told that my business that day was selling honej'. " Oh! you keep bees, do you? " he said. I told him I did. Then he began to ask questions about bees and honey. I answer- ed his questions, and explained my way of producing honey. Before I got through, five or six others had come in and had join- ed in the conversation. Finally the propri- etor became curious to know what it was all about ; so he came up and listened until he found who the bee and honey man was. Then he asked me if I had any honey to sell. Certainly I had. Would I bring liim a case next time T came to town? Yes, I would. Thus I got his order Avithout tell- ing him the object of my visit. When I go into a store where I am ac- quainted with the pro- prietor, and it is at the opening of the sea- son, and I have sold him lioney before, I simply ask him, "How is the honey busi- ness?" He usually asks about the kind, qual- ity, and price, which I tell him, and I usu- ally get his order. I never try to j^ersuade a dealer to take a case of honey against his will or judgment. My honey is all stor- ed in one-jjound sec- tion boxes, and I market in glass-front sin- gle-tier shipping cases. These cases I leave with the dealer until he has all the honey sold out, when I take them back and refill them. In preparing my honey for market I scrape the gum or propolis off as well as possible, and grade it carefully according to weight, color, and quality. I also make it a iDoint to deliver at the appointed time. My 1912 crop of honey was sold prac- tically without any solicitations. In fact, a large part of the orders came voluntarily by telephone. And this reminds me how I have taken orders bj' telephone in the past. If I decide to sell honey by telephone I call up a dealer who knows what I have ; and when I get liim on the line I say to him, '' This is Doerr, the honey-man. How about bringing you a case of honey to-day ? " If he is out of honey, or his stock is low, he will say, " Bring me in a case." If he is not quite ready for it he will say so, and name a time for delivery of the honey. I fird it a great advantage in making a sale of honey to take out part of the pay in trade, as already stated. I can make sales based on that sort of terms when oth- erwise I could not sell at all. If a man asks me to take out all my pay in trade I decline to sell, saying that he does not handle every- thing I need, and must have cash to get them at other places. This statement al- most always wins him, and I get his order according to my own terms. I also make it a point to advise a dealer how best to take care of the honey and how JULY 1, 1913 457 Bringing in a shipment of 11 tons from the railroad siding, to be graded. The cases are opened ready for grading, and the government grader (in center), Mr. L. Bowman, ready for work. to display to the best advantage for the purpose of bringing it to the notice of a prospective purchaser. Most dealers like to talk bees to some extent; but their conversation is of an in- terrogative nature. Some want to know what the king bee does, and what position he holds in the society of beedom. I tell them that the head of a colony or swarm of bees is not a male but a female, and is known as the queen, and that in reality there is no such thing as a king bee. More- over, the queen ordinarily is the mother of every bee in the hive of a well-regulated bee family, and is the only bee in the hive capable of living more than a year, and that the well-being and prosperity of a colony of bees depends upon the proliflc- ness and health of the queen. On the other band, there are some who want to know if those big fat fellows which one sees hanging about the entrance of a hive on warm summer days are king bees, and then I explain about the drones. Some- times I run across a fellow who has the artificial-comb-honey bogie in his head, and he will go to considerable length trying to show that tliere is such a thing as artificial comb honey. I call his attention to the fact that The A. I. Root Co. has been offer- ing one thousand dollars for a pound of artificial comb honey that can not be de- tected from natural comb honey, and that this offer has been standing over twenty years, and so far has had no takers; but if he has the goods, or can get them, the money is worth the effort. So far no one has offered to produce the required pound of artificial comb honey. I also find it advantageous to study the different temperaments of the various deal- ers. For instance, if I meet a man who is lively and full of fun I jolly him or tell him a funny story. On the other hand, if I meet a slow-going steady man, I don't rush him, but give him all the time he wants, and make only such remarks as are neces- sary for the intelligent transaction of busi- ness. Thus I keep up the interest in my stock in trade, and the sales continue to increase, until to-day the demand is gi'eater than the supply. Beardstown, 111., Feb. 24. GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE SELLING HONEY FROM HOUSE TO HOUSE BY A. L. BEAL To my miiul the most delightful thing about the whole bee business is to sit and watch the bees work when there is a good honey-tiow. For tired nerves and a fagged- out brain there is notliing better. It is an inspiration to any one. A few days of watching the bees Avill put even a person of poor health in a good condition for " mar- keting honey," which is the next most de- lightful thing in bee work, and almost as healthful as watching the bees. I have never found more than one discouraging- feature in marketing the honey; and that is, it is so soon sold, and so many people are yet wanting honey. The oddest thing about it is, the more you sell, the more people will be wanting it when you have sold out. I believe tliat I know exactly how the ordinary beekeeper can market his honey, and at a fair price. I have had several years of experience in selling produce di- rect to the consumer, and I never represent what I have to sell as having cjualities which it does not have. I always try to avoid exorbitant prices, and to be strictly con- scientious in every thing, and so when I commenced selling honey two years ago I had no trouble at all. Get some Mason glass fruit-cans, pint and quart size. Fill them nearly full of comb honey, and pour in liquid honey until the pint weighs IVi lbs., and the quart 2V2 lbs. Be sure to have the cans full. A little practice will enable you to know just the proportions of comb and liquid honey to put in so the can may be full and of the proper weight. Then take a few more cans of each size, and fill them with liquid honey. They should contain by weight, pints, 11/2 lb. ; quarts, 3 lbs. If you have a few pound sections that weigh 12 or 14 oz., get some of those too. Load all these in your rig and start for town. Any town will do, but the bigger the better. " Stop at the first house, and take as large a can of the bulk comb honey as you have on the wagon. Holding up your can, say, " Good morning. Mrs. A. Are you a lover of good honey — honey that /s "honey — real old-fashioned bee honey f" Keep holding up the can, and change its position and keep talking. Rut do not talk all day. Let her ask tlie price. Then you can tell her it is 20 cts. per lb., and 2^/2 lbs. in a can. Be sure to say it that way. If you have ever been an agent you l^ave learned the great power in certain combina- tions of words. Never use the term " h.alf a dollar." Well, it may be that Mrs. A is not fond of honey — doesn't know how good it is, and doesn't wish to buy. Then leave as politely as you can. Do not urge her to buy. Before your next visit to town she may have heard how good it is, and be watching for you. ]\Irs. B is quite fond of honey, but has only 25 cts. about the house. Sell her a small can. Get your can back or an empty one in its place. Mrs. C doesn't like comb at all, but would be " awfully glad " to get some " strained " honey. Sell her two cans — quarts, of course — and take the pint on to Mrs. D, Avho is short on change. Mrs. E always gets it in " these little boxes." Sell her a light weight for 20 cts. ; and so on down the line to X Y Z if your honey holds out. Tell them all you will be back, and don't forget to go back, for most of them will eat all the honey long before the appointed dav. Westfield, Ind. ADVERTISING PAYS A Producer who has Spent Several Thousand Dol- lars in the Past Four Years in Advertising BY R. M. SPENCER "What would it mean to all the beekeepers of the United States if the price of their honey should be raised 1 ct. per lb."? It would mean thousands of dollars, and, in many cases, put the bee business on a more profitable basis. Many will say the supply and demand regulate the price. This no doubt is true; but it does not mean that we can not increase the demand. This can be done by producing a first-class article and creating a demand by advertising. To obtain these higher ijrices, all apiarists should endeavor to produce a better and riper grade of honey that has the (juality behind it to bring the repeated orders from their customers. All honey of the best quality and grades should be advertised under a trademark, thei'eljy giving it a name for the customer to remember and order by. As long as the quality is held up, the business would about double each year. I h.ave spent several thousand dollars in advertising honey in the last four years, and know by experience that the orders will double each year from the same territory. Mrs. Jones orders a case of twelve 10-lb. cans of my best honey. She sells one can of it to Mrs. Brown and various other women ; and if the goods are all right these n. iyb.bois are sure to want some of it. JULY 1, 1913 THE CASHEEXS IX A. I. ROOT'S FLORIDA HOME ABOUT APRIL 1. The above picture was taken by one of our beekeepers who happened along at our place — Mr. H. T. Gibson, Wilmore, Ky. The dasheens shown in the picture were those sent me by the Department at Washing- ton. They were planted about Jan. 1, but did not show above ground much until about Feb. 1. Tlie tubers are somewhat slow about starting, and the plant itself does not make very rapid growth until settled warm weather, for it is a tropical plant. I hope to be able to give another picture, more up to date, in the near future. — A. I. Root. In building up a mail-order business for honey, great care should be taken to please the customer. All prices should be plain, freight prepaid if possible, and instructions inclosed to all buyers to pay all overcharges of freight, if any, and that you will refund the same, which should be clone at once on receipt of freight bills. If the above rules are not carried out, in many cases the cus- tomer Avill refuse goods because of small extra freight charges demanded by the rail- road company. All honey should be put up in a very attractive package, wdiich means half the sale, as customers are always willing to pay a little more for goods put ui) under an at- tractive label. Many beemen in this vicinity claim that the advertising of honey is not a poor man's proposition. This is where they are in error. If the honey has the quality behind it, it can be advertised in a small way at first, and in a very short time create a good demand. Look at some of the leading brands of food products that are to-day advertised, and millions of dollars' worth sold each year at fancy prices. Why ? Sim- ply because the manufacturer has produced a first-class article and created a demand for his goods. He has made the customer want his goods and come to him for them. There is no question in selling honej^ but that, if every beeman or even one-fourth of the leading producers would get together and spend ten cents per hive every year in advertising and creating a demand for the honey, sales would increase as well as the price, and it would be a very profitable investment for all. In co-operation there is streng-th, and there has never been an advertising cam.paign of education of as good an article as honey that has failed where properly managed. Most beekeepers figure on a wrong basis for money spent for advertising. If a bee- keeper produces, say, ten tons of honey a year on an average, which he sells for $140 per ton, suppose he spends $100 per year in advertising the honey and sells it at $150 per ton net to him, he will figure that he has got his advertising money back, but has done the Avork for nothing, wlueh will be true for the first year, while the second year he will continue to get orders; and by spending $50 he wall sell more honey than he did in the first vear. Thus the business GLEAKINGS IN BEE CULTURE will grow every year; and by the fifth year he can sell five times the honey on the same amount of money for advertising. The main idea in selling goods to any customer is to make it as easy as jDossible to buj\ Experience has shown me that "c. 0. d." and order bill of lading shipments with sight draft attached, pays. This allows a customer to go to the depot and examine the honey where he can see that the goods are all right and up to the sample sent him. J find that the refusals of such shipments amount to less than one per cent of all orders shipped. My exi^erienoe has been that the best size packages are 2-lb., 10-lb., and 60-lb. cans. The 2-lb. cans can be used by a retailer in stores, etc. ; the 10-lb. can by agents who sell the hone3^ from house to house, while the 60-lb. cans are suitable for families who consume quite a lot of honey each year. I think it is a gTeat advantage to have as few grades as possible. If all grades were mix- ed together, thus making a white honey, it does away Avith sending samples of differ- ent grades, and customers always know what each shipment Avill be. I send out samples at 10 cts. each by the thousands each year, and large sample packages weighing one pound at 20 cts. each to customers desiring to sell the honey by sample. I also have printed rules as to how I grade mj^ honej^, as follows: A wa- tei'-white honey; objects can be seen for 50 feet through a one-inch bottle, such as man. etc. Printing can be read through the same bottles for white grade, etc. There is a big future for the sale of first-class honey, which can easily be developed if properly handled, and I hope to see the day when it is sold in this wav. Nordhoff, Cal.' COMPETING WITH HONEY DELIVERED FOR SIX CENTS A POUND BY LEON C. WHEELER The article on page 691, Nov. 1, 1912, by Frank C. Pellett, reminds me of my strug- gles to develop a honey market. 1 had a proposition to deal with, however, which was altogether different, for my competitor was selling extracted honey at 5 and 6 cts. a i^ound, and was delivering it at the door. T too wished to produce extracted honey; but I had no desire to sell it at any such price as that. Comb honey was no better, as it brought from 10 to 12 cts. a pound in the local markets. The first year I had liard sledding to sell any honey at all at the price I was asking, which was 8 cts. a pound for extracted. My competitor was selling at six, the same as before, and had already established a trade. His method of extracting, however, was against him, for he extracted his honey just as fast as it was carried in, which made it rather insipid, and there was danger of its spoiling entirely. Nobody thought any thing of that, however, as that was the kind of honey they were used to. Well, I took a lot of pains to get my honey well ripened, and to keep the dark honey separate from ■ the light, and started out that fall to try to sell it. The price was too high, and I made very few sales, and those Avere mostly to people who wanted a lilile ;o last them until they could see the other fellow and buy their supply for the winter. I suppose I was criticised considerably^ as being pig- gish in trying to get so much for my honey. I didn't have a very large amount of hon- ey that 3'ear to sell, and some Avay I man- aged to sell it all; but the next year there was quite a lot more to dispose of, and I felt some fears as to the outcome. At that time I kneAv nothing of trying to sell in the city. My competitor, in the meantime, had boosted the price to 7 cents. He had learn- ed a thing or two. I took his bluff, and raised mine to 9 cents. This time I was agreeably surprised to find that I could sell in a good many more places than before. Nearly all of those who had bought of me the year before were ready to order their year's supply of me that season. There was lots of kicking on the price; but in the end they would buy my honey. They would come at me about like this: "I like your honeA^ much better than Mr. N.'s, but it seems to me j-our price is awful high. Why is it you can't sell just as cheap as he can ? " Ma' ansAver Avould be something like this : " The reason you like my honey so much better than Mr. N.'s is because I leave it on the hiAe to ripen, and because I take pains to put up onh^ a good article. This makes it more expensive to produce, and I have to charge more for it. If it isn't worth the tAvo extra cents I don't want you to buy it.'' I found a fcAv Avho preferred to take the cheaper honey at the smaller figure; but the good honey Avon out in most cases, until to-daA' I am selling in four out of eA-ery five places. My prices uoav are made according to the grade, Avith the average at ten cents for extracted. There are too many small beekeepers and too small a toAvn here to make any A'ery great sales of honey locally, although by peddling and bringing it before the people there is a chance yet to increase the trade considerably. As time Avent on I took to foUoAving the JULY 1, 1913 fairs, and found it so profitable that I have kept it up ever since. At the State fairs and all large ones it is no trouble at all to sell comb honey at 20 cents per section, and extracted honej' in 1-pound jars at 25 cents per jar. One gets in touch with all the fancy dealers too, and a great many who buy for their own consumption, until now it is not a question of "Where can I sell my honey with profit f ' ' but " Where can I get the honey to fill all the orders? " This puts me just that much nearer the consumer. In fact, most of my honey is sold direct to the consumer, and the rest of it to fancy deal- ers who retail it. I have several customers who have already spoken for honey to be put up purposely for them next vear to the amount of 500 to 1500 or 2000 lbs. each, at a figure that nets me 121^ cts. per lb. for extracted. This makes a good bargain for them, as they are securing a choice article at a reasonable figure, and at the same time I am getting more for my honey than if I were to sell in the ordinary way. Barryton, Mich. SELLING COMB HONEY BY WEIGHT BY E. A. BURNETT Mr. Hoot:— On p. 140, March 1, in Stray Straws, selling comb honey by weight or by the package is taken up both by Dr. Miller and yourself. While I may not be able to dispel the haze, I will endeavor to put cer- tain facts before yourself and those con- cerned. In Illinois the law as interpreted by the legal department of the city of Chicago (with whose representative I talked yester- day) is that any thing that implies weight must be sold by weight ; but a package sealed, such as the Uneeda biscuit, can be sold as such without reference to weight; but if the purchaser asks for a pound of crackers and is given a package that weighs but six ounces, the vender is liable to a fine of from $25 to $200, or thereabout. Last summer on this market several com- mission men were aiTested for selling bas- kets of fruit, say of peaches, that were called pecks, half-bushels, and bushels, but which when weighed and the i-eceptacles measured were found to be scant. Fines were imposed upon the sellers for the reason that the purchaser had asked the price of a bushel of peaches and were sold a basket said to contain a bushel. While we have not learned of any arrests for selling a case of honey containing 24 sections representing them to be pound sec- tions, but in reality weighing less than 24 lbs., yet we infer that the offense would be similar when the buyer asks for a ease of honey containing 24 pound sections. There are very few dealers who will buy a case of honey unless guaranteed that a certain net weight is contained therein. Dr. Miller asks if there is any likelihood in the near future that there will be uni- formity. Replying, I would say that uni- formity is desired by all of us, if for noth- ing else than the eliminating of labor and confounding of terms. Yet there are few of us who can read accurately what is going to occur in the future. We think we see certain results; but as they are about to be realized, a new phase of the difficulty arises, and once more the certainty becomes an uncertainty. The writer, in reviewing the history of more than thirty years in vending honey, is of the opinion that the mind of man is quite uncertain. To illustrate is quite un- necessary, as persons of middle age will have learned that in their experience. We speak of a wood frame that is made so that it can contain 16 ounces of comb honey more or less. When the seasons are favorable, and intelligent manipulation is given to the frame, the weight of each ap- proximates 16 ounces, usually spoken of as one-pound sections, but that the section may contain only half of this amount is also true. In Colorado or the Rocky Mountain re- gion it seems that the producer can come more nearly to a given weight in sections than in any other part of the country; and I have been told that the reasons are that the bees gather about so much nectar each day during the working period, the bee- keepers use separators and other means for guidance of the bees in storing, and the apiaries are large enough to enable the apiarist to select sections of about an even weight and jDack them in a case so that a number of cases will not vary more than a pound each, many of them being the same weight, so that the seller can say that his lot of honey averages 21 lbs. net to the case, or that there is a lot that averages 18 lbs. net. Now, as a matter of fact, isn't this selling honey by weight when a given amount is guaranteed"? What has been said applies chiefly to the producer and wholesaler. Re- tailers differ in their method of selling hon- ey. Some will buy five or ten cases of hon- ey containing 24 sections each; will pile it up on the counter or in a showcase, and sell by the section. If the honey has been grad- ed as would be necessary under the Colo- rado rules, the difference in weight would not be more than from one to two ounces; but if it was under the eastern grading GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE rules they might vary from one to ten ounces, and in tliat case the retailer sells at so much a section until the heavy weights are sold out, say at 25 cts. per section, then he I'educes the price to 20 cts. per section, and finally to 15 cts., to close out the light weights. Therefore it is the opinion of the writer that the true method is to buy and sell by weight ; and to transact business legally in this State he has no alternative. It is true that he may sell 100 cases of honey containing 24 sections each at $4.00 per case if he guarantees that none of the cases will weigh less than 20 lbs. net, nor exceed 21 lbs.; but after all, weight is the basis of the transaction. Chicago, 111. [The pure- food law was modified at the last session of Congress, the modification liaving to do with marking the weights on food packages. See the article by J. E. Crane which follows. — Ed.] THE NEW LAW REQUIRING NET WEIGHT TO BE MARKED ON FOOD PACKAGES I5Y J. E. CRANE It may not be generally known that an amendment to the pure-food law was pass- ed at the last session of Congress, and sign- ed by President Taft on March 3. This amendment makes it obligatory on those putting- up food for interstate commerce to see that the quantity of food packages be plainly marked on the outside of each pack- age in terms of net weight, measure, or numerical count. This amendment does not become a law until eighteen months from March 3. This will be comparatively easy in the case of extracted honey; but who shall say just what the net weight of a section of comb honey isf Will it include the comb as well as honey? Most likely. But how about the rim of wood around the comb, or the carton or glass that is used to keep the dust and flies from soiling the comb? The committee appointed by the secre- taries of the Department of Commerce, the Treasury Department, and the Department of Agriculture, to draw up regulations for the enforcement of the new net-weight law announces that it is now ready to receive in writing recommendations and sugges- tions. Middlebury, Vt. [In a press notice sent out by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, the new nation- al net-weight law is cjuoted. We give here- Avith, in full, the paragraph in cjuestion : A food product will be deemed to be misbranded: " If in package form, the quantity of the contents, be not plainly and conspicuously marked on the out- side of the package in terms of weight, measure, or numerical count ; provided, however, that reasonable variations shall be permitted, and tolerances and also exemptions as to small packages shall be estab- lished by rules and regulations made in accordance with the provisions of section three of this act." From the above it appears that there should be no great difficulty in obtaining a. ruling that will applv to comb honey. — Ed.] «^«'^> BEEKEEPING IN NEW ZEALAND BY E. G. WARD Mr. R. N. Gidley* started beekeeping- five years ago with a few colonies, and had fair success. The last two seasons have been excei^tionally bad in most parts of New Zealand, 1911 and 1912 being about the worst in 20 yeais. Mr. Gidley went in for increase more than for honey during this bad season, and, in addition to getting no surplus, had to feed V2 ton of sugar to carry the bees through the winter. This was done at his home at Fendalton, near Christchurch, and in the spring 1912 he moved his bees to Lakeside, about 27 miles away, taking them in a spring cart, principally during the night. Several trips were required for this, and he got them all there about the end of October. This was too late for the wil- lows, which are plentiful round about there. The season up till the middle of November was very poor, and it was necessary to feed, as we had a lot of cold wet weather. From this on all through till now (March 9), the weather has been ideal. The spring count was 75 hives — increase 25. The crop for the season totals 9856 lbs. extracted honey, and 100 sections. The 25 increase will go into winter quarters on six or seven frames. In addition to the honey stored, 1500 half-frames have been drawn out, and 600 full frames, so it will be seen that, if the same number of combs had been on hand, the surplus would have been much greater. The colony in the tall hive shown in the engraving on page 374, June 1, gave 417 lbs. by the end of the season. The bees were shaken on full sheets of foundation on Nov. 8, and a full super of drawn comb was add- ed, as there were eggs in the queen-cells. This settled the swarming, and during the season they have pulled out five half-su- iters and one full super of foundation. After the first extracting, the combs were put back; and the total yield has been 417 lbs., and no further attempts at swarming. The four best colonies gave as follows : * Various views of Mr. Gidley' s apiary appeared in our June 1st issue. — Ed. JULY 1, 1913 417 lbs.; 275 lbs.; 257 lbs.; 235 lbs.; total for 4 colonies, 1184 lbs. All these are leather-colored Italians. Mr. Gidley finds the leather-colored ahead of the golden every time. Christchurch, N. Z. ADVERTISING UNTIL THE CUSTOMERS COME TO THE HOUSE BY GEORGE SHIBER Continued from page 446. veil or gloves on;" or "Why, I have seen Shiber pick u}) bees by the handful and not get a sting'," etc. But what of that? I don't care a cent about the wonder expressed hy people to t! ink I can handle bees. But I do want Ihem to know I have first-class honey for sale. And when the public knows it, the honey-producer will have a little co-opera- tion of one member, and will be profiting by it until the larger co-operation comes along'. But don't think I am throwing rocks at the co-operative plan. Another thing we used to do, and that was to retail it from the tank — that is, sell one, two, or as many pounds as a customer wanted. It did not pay. Another reason, honey does not keep its fine flavor long, as there is a large space for air at the top of the honej^; and it hurts the flavor, even tliough you have a tight cover on. Randolph, N. Y., Oct. 5. LONGEVITY MEANS A SHORTER PERIOD, REL- ATIVELY, OF NON-PRODUCTIVENESS BY LEWIS P. TANTON In a recent issue you invite opinion upon Mr. Doolittle's suggestion as to the impor- tance of bees being long-lived. I submit that there is no Cjuality in the bee of to-day more desirable to select and cultivate than hardihood coupled with length of life. From the egg to maturity, 21 days, the bee is a consumer. Fourteen days further it works witliin the hive, still consuming — a total of 35 days a non-producer. Deducting for bad weather, intermissions in the honey- flow, and a decimation of numbers by birds and accident, it is safe to estimate that the average working days of the bee (in the honey-flow season) will not exceed 30. "Within that period this little worker must produce food to supply its successor during the 35 days of its incubation and develop- ment, food for its own maintenance, pro- vide sufficient stores to last at least six months in winter, and to contribute Avhat every beekeeper is looking for — a generous surplus. From these facts I argue that every hour we can add to the working pe- riod of a bee's existence is a positive and untaxed profit. To illustrate this: I imported a beautiful j-ellow queen and introduced her to a three-frame nucleus. As a producer of handsome and busy yel- low workers slie eclipsed any thing I ever witnessed. The frames filled from top to bot- tom and to the oaiter edge with healthy brood. I allowed her to increase until three body supers were full of brood and bees. I christened her my " thousand-dollar queen," and the only difficulty ahead was how to get soi many bees into a compass small enough to winter. At the close of the season I reduced my aj^preciation of her value down to fifty cents, and she was worth that ai^praisement only for the lesson she taught. There was scarcely any honey in the hive. All had been consumed in brood- rearing, and there were not enough bees to fill one super fairly. I fed them; but in spring all were dead. The bees were good workers, quiet and healthy, yet short-lived, and, as a result, their whole period of field activity was insufficient to produce the sur- plus of stores, and what I would call the surplus life necessary to maintain the healthy existence of the colony. This view of the question revives inquiry as to( which is the best race of bees. The Italian, because of its adaptability to the largest area, the uniformity of its character for docility, and its reputation for industry, coequal with that of any other race, has won for itself the largest number of admir- ers. The great Creator in liis infinite wis- dom had the same just measure of the world's requirements in shaping the bee as in the other countless forms of life, and each of their varied forms and characters was destined for a work which the oth.ei was not adapted for. Place my beautiful yellow prolific queen in an ecjuable southern temj^erature with an abundance of nectar near at hand, and con- fine her brood-chamber to one or at the most twio supers, and her value would not have met such a sweeping and spontaneous dis- count. In rugged mountainous localities where the bee is up against hardship and every variety of weather and climate, the Italian does not boast of so many friends. In the northern portions of Maine, in all the colder sections of Canada and the North- ern States, the black bee or its crosses ai'e the most in favor. Even in places of mod- erate temperature the three-handed and the leather-colored are recognized as the most profitable and reliable. Now, why is it that the German bees succeed in certain localities so much better 464 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE than the vaunted Italians? They do not work as early in the morning nor as late in the evening; the}' carry on an average less brood in the hive, and yet in the end they produce as much surplus honey as other races would do under like conditions. I have not tested for myself, but I strongly suspect that the secret lies in the longer life and in the more extended working period of the black bee, and because less of the work- er's labor is expended in the raising of brood and young bees, to die out again al- most before they have gathered honey enough to pay for their keep. There seem to be features in the charac- ter of bees suggestive of their nativity. Why do the black bees hasten under cover quickly at the approach of darkness, or when clouds loom upf and why do they scamper nervously away and drop like mo- lasses from the combs when being handled? Is not this indicative of a boisterous place of origin and a desire to get in out of the cold or to escape impending storms? The Italian, on the other hand, is quiet and tractable, spreading itself evenly over the comb, and continuing its work almost re- gardless of disturbance. Is not this an ex- hibition of its inherent confidence in the blue skies and the balmy atmosphere of its native Italy? Concluding, I am impressed with the be- lief that breeding for longevity and hardi- ness should call for the best skill of our apicultural specialists. I would further suggest that dogmatic conclusions as tO' the value of any particular race of bees for universal use be set aside, and a study of the adaptability of the different races to special localities be taken up. These fea- tures being satisfactorily understood, our bee journals, advisers, and supply-houses, instead of dumping their own favorite and probably successful race upon us would enrich us with bees suitable to our locality and our needs. Charlottetown, P. E. I., Feb. 1. OPEN AIR FEEDING BY MAJOR SHALLARD I have been much interested in your plan of feeding, given in the A B C and X Y Z, by hanging kerosene-tins with perforated bottoms up in the air. But you state in the same place, " If the syrup were fed in open cans, thousands of bees would be drowned." This is not so. I once had an apiary of 250 colonies where the crop had gone off right in the middle of the season. The hives were short of stores, and the queens were ceasing to lay. I knew this would not do. As it was an out-apiary I had no time to go to feed each colony individually, so I put out three of the largest galvanized iron wash- ing-tubs, put the end of a kerosene-case in each for a float, spread a large sheet of hes- sian (coarse sacking) over the whole lot, leaving enough sag to allow it to go right to the bottom of the tub when it was empty. 1 filled the tubs to the top with honey and water, half and half. I ne\er saw more than a dozen or two dead bees in any of the tubs at any time. The hessian would float on the board, and the capillary attraction would wet it right up to the edge of the tub, even if the latter was half empty; consequently the bees had a large surface to alight on, and they did not get drowned. For that matter there was no place to get drowned, as there was no pool of honey anywhere, except the damp hessian. There was no robbing, al- though the tubs were put right among the hives. Before I had quite finished giving them the amount I had arranged for, the honey-flow started and the tubs were de- serted. It paid me well; and while I had a good population in each hive, and got a good crop, my neighbors' bees built up only strong enough to go into winter quarters, and got no surplus at all. You will probably say they would have robbed if the flow had not come on. T do not think so. I think they would if the tubs were removed; but if left there they would simplj' visit them until they were thoroughly satisfied there was no more hon- ey there, and then they would settle down. If a Comb of honey is left out and the bees begin robbing it properly, remove that comb and you will cause robbing; but leave it there and let the bees empty it, and when they are satisfied that the honey is all gone, they will abandon it and will settle down quickly. If a half-story of honey is left out and forgotten while taking off the honey tO' ex- tract, and I find the bees starting to rob it, I get it away quickly; but I put another half-story, with a little honey on it, in its place. Let them satisfy themselves that there is no more, and they will go away; but take it away, and they go looking for it and start robbing the other hives. Smith Woodburn, N. S. W., Australia. Rope Attracts Swarms I had a queen among eleven whose eggs would not hatch this spring. I also notice that bees in swarming will be attracted by a rope wrapped on a limb or bush if placed in a conspicuous place. Elizabeth, Pa., May 5. W. T. Fuehrer. JULY 1, 1913 Heads of Grain from Different Fields Grading Extracted Honey by Means of a Standard System of Colors The matter of grading honey correctly is a ques- tion of paramount importance to every one handling either comb or extracted honey. Mr. G. F. DeMuth, of the Bureau of Entomology, is quoted in your report of the National Association at Cincinnati as suggesting a scheme of colored cards to be used as a standard of comparison by which to describe any grade of comb honey as to color. This matter of a standard color-guide has been in my mind for some time ; and since the subject has been broached pub- licly I am prompted to give my idea in the form of a suggestion relating to extracted honey only. When extracted honey is viewed by transmitted light (that is, by the light through the honey), the color is lighter when the body of honey is small, and darker in proportion to the increase in the body. This, in the first place, suggested to my mind the advantage of always viewing the specimen through glass containers having the same diameter or dis- tance through, so that, whether the specimen be light or dark, its actual color is shown to a certain- ty, and sample after sample can be compared to a nicety. When this idea had been well considered I could not but marvel that the business of judging the color of honey has been done in the haphazard way it has ever since extracted honey has been a marketable product. The general use of a standard prescribed container for observing honey to be judged, say a test-tube % inch in diameter, would put the ques- tion upon a fairly reliable universal basis. Assum- ing that this were done, there yet remains the hu- man factor to be considered, for the specimen nat- urally looks to the seller much lighter than it does to the dealer. The possibility of a dispute or at least dissatisfaction can be avoided by the use of an ac- cepted standard color-guide, to be viewed alongside the honey contained in standard-sized test-tube. It seems to me that it would be appropriate for the National Association to select and make official and standard such a scale of colors made in glass (which is most unchangeable), the original to be kept by the secretary as the standard. The Associa- tion could supply certified duplicates to all who might desire to purchase. Every producer of ex- tracted, and every dealer, should be provided with such a means of grading the product properly be- yond question. Such a color scale might be made a permanent part of the standard-sized test-tube, there- by simplifying all operations. The matter of grading extracted honey would be thus made an exact science. Any person not color- blind could grade honey. The seller could know exactly his grade before shipping, thereby avoiding any hocus pocus by the consignee. The demand for extracted honey is increasing, and the importance of standardizing the method of grading increases correspondingly ; so that it would seem that this is a matter deserving attention and action. New Jersey. C. D. C. Comb and Extracted Selling for the Same Price I started about ten years ago with two stocks of bees, because I had a piece of land of about two acres on which I grew small fruits such as straw- berries, raspberries, and black currants. I also had a small orchard of plum trees. I had a shop in the main street of the town, so I thought if I was clev- er enough to get any honey I should be able to sell it retail over the counter and get full price for it. I have gradually increased my apiary from two to 33 colonies of bees because I found I could make it pay, and also sell all the honey I could get. When I started I made up my mind to master the practical side of beekeeping; so I joined the county associa- tion of beekeepers, bought the British Beeekeepers' Guide-book, the A B C and X Y Z of Bee Culture, and read up all I could about bees. Each year I have bought more books and have taken bee jour- nals regularly, so as to glean all I can about the theory and practice of beekeeping. I can sell at retail all the honey I can get, and most years have to buy some more in order to supply orders. It is put up in V2 and 1 lb. screw-capped bottles, and is sold at 24 cents per lb. I also sell the sections at the same price. The seconds, or those off grade, are all eaten at home. I make a profit on an average of about five dollars per hive each year, and some years more. This year was the worst for several seasons, the average yield of honey being 15 lbs. per colony. Last year my average yield was 40 lbs., the highest individual hive giving 72 lbs. My district is the noted fruit-growing district of Evesham, in Worcestershire, and stretches for several miles on either side of the town. The farms are gradually giving way to fruit culture and vegetable- growing, so you see my honey is a mixture of fruit, honey clover, raspberry, peas, beans, etc. The fruit blossom comes early, and the bees build up quickly, and some years fill a super on each hive from fruit blossoms. I do not get any light honey around here. It is generally medium-colored, of a good consis- tency, and rich, thick, and of good flavor. I have gone in for showing, and have taken two silver and three bronze medals, and about 35 money prizes, mostly at local or county shows. The exhib- iting is a great help in selling my honey; and if I have a big lot I advertise in the local papers, and give a guarantee with every pound of honey. WM. J. WOOLLEY, Jr. Evesham. England, Dec. 2, 1912. Sending Honey by Parcel Post On p. 94, Feb. 1, I note that different packages are used in Europe for sending honey by parcel post. I have been sending honey thus for about three weeks, and have mailed about one can a day. One 11-lb. can was sent to the third zone; some were also sent into Massachusetts. All report that it goes through well, and that the honey is fine. Of course I am sending out nothing but the best of honey. I am using a can made in Franklinville, N. Y. It has a 2*/^ -inch screw top, and is tight when screwed down. I make a light wooden crate. The ends are V4, thick, and the size of the can ends. I then nail two strips on a side about M inch frojn the corner. When it is all nailed I tie a strong string around each end just back of the end; and as I nail the strip a little from the corner, the end corner sticks out so that the string can't slip off. I have some strips of tin 3-16 wide, and long enough to go around after it is all nailed, which I intend to try. What we want is a reduced rate. It is quite sur- prising to see how short a distance a 50-mile zone is when you want to send a package. It is neces- sary to take the precaution to have every tiling tight and in good shape. I have been wondering how far one of these packages would go safely. Dexter, Me., Feb. 6. A. R. Bodge. Alfalfa Honey Usually Granulates Quickly May 15, p. 329, Mr. J. E. Crane stands corrected about alfalfa honey granulating. We know from many years' experience with it that alfalfa honey granulates the quickest of any kind we have ever had any thing to do with. Our experience started in Wisconsin; after which we spent thirteen years in Michigan, two in California, five in Nebraska, and for seventeen years have been in Colorado. Sedgwick, Col., May 22. Gail Crowfoot. GLEANINGS EN BEE CULTURE Eggs and Young Larvae Do Cause the Disappear- ance of the Virgin ; a Supporter of A. C. Miller The above has reference to p. 796, Dec. 1, by Arthur C. Miller. I reckon I owe him something for (hat article. I have been losing more young queens for years than I liked. I never could understand why, and we had been told so often to give young brood, and not warned not to give eggs, that it had become a fact in my mind that it was the proper thing to do. I have had many people apply to me to know why their young queens disappeared, and I could not tell them. No doubt it was the eggs. What the writer says about Henry Alley waiting three days before giving a cell is like an illuminating lamp to me. When I first started beekeeping — in fact, before I owned a hive — I read and digested " Manual of Beekeeping" by John Hunter. In this book he says, " After removing a queen, do not give a cell for 72 hours." He said he did not know why, but 72 ap peared to be the magic number of hours to wait. For years I acted on this advice, and gave no cells for three days. These were ripe cells reared on the Alley 75lan, and they would hatch within a few hours of inser- tion. After pursuing this method successfully, and not losing more than Mr. Miller says is the correct percentage, the cell-protector was invented. I adopt- ed it to save those three days, and I lost anywhere from 25 to 50 per cent of my queens. Even then I did not see what the trouble was. There might not be any thing in Mr. Arthur C. Miller's contention; but it looks feasible enough to me, and I am going back to the three-days' wait, keeping all eggs out of a hive containing a virgin, M.\.JOR Sh.\llard. South W^oodburn, N. S. W., Australia. _A Satisfactory Experience as a Helper in the Em- pire State The account of the treatment of employees on a California ranch as given by " Subscrilier," page 58, .Jan. 15, contrasts strongly with the treatment of employees in the Empire State — at least such has been my- experience. It was my privilege to spend most of the season of 1912 with a professional bee keeper of Tompkins Co. I began my duties about April 1, and was well received and splendidly treat ed from the first. I received $25.00 a month, with room and board, and ordinary washing included. I was given a very comfortable room, and the board was fine ; in fact, had I been a member of the fam- ily I could not have been more generously used. The work at the yards, of which we ran ten, was strenuous, and I was made to feel that I was ex- pected to earn my money ; but that, of course, was no more than I anticipated. Only once during the summer was I sharply re- proved. That was when I set an upper story con- taining a queen in deep grass. As I had been re- peatedly warned against doing this, I did not blame my employer for speaking quickly. Of course there were several mistakes which were corrected by my employer, but he usually spoke quietly, and very rarely allowed his temper to manifest itself. I left my place in September, feeling that I had spent a profitable as well as pleasant season. As I anticipate entering the bee business, the experience gained will lea great help to me. Spencer, N. Y., Feb. 6. " Subsceiber." A Correction My article, page 335, May 15, is different from what I wrote. ^Vhe^e it reads, "If no cells were • started at the time of removing the queen, removing the two combs once," etc., it should read: "Remov- ing the cells on-e is all that will be required before returning the queen and brood." Ho:ieD- c FaliF. K. Y., J/ne 7. -'.. C. G:l3ERT. Photographs of Swarms, etc., an Aid in Selling Honey For the benefit of those who have any trouble in disposing of their honey I should like to suggest a little scheme that helped to a very great extent in securing orders in about nine out of ten stores in which I solicited. By means of a camera, and with the help of the bees, here is my plan : During the summer I take a few pictures of bees while clustered on the tree after swarming, or of diflferent manipulations which will prove very inter- esting, and hold the buyers' interest. These help considerably, and will keep you busy answering some of the extremely laughable inquiries that peo- ple will sometimes ask in regard to bees. When I first started in I took care to let the grocer see me whenever I was stung, thus proving that I was a beekeeper. Chicago, Nov. 2. Timothy P. O'Donnell. Drones instead of Queens Please tell us what you would do if you had a neighbor, much( ?) learned in bee culture, who would ask permission to get a queen from your yard whenever he had a swarm at home, and after re- ceiving your consent would invariably march off in triumph with a drone? Understand me, he is too practical to read Gleanings. Will you please make it more convincing that the "moth" does not de- stroy bees in a normal condition? I find it impossible to make my beekeeping friends believe that the moth is not the most deadly enemy of the bee industry. Guilford, Kan., May 9. Herschel Short. [Ignorance is certainly bliss in case of your neighbor, who thinks he has a queen when he has a di-one. However, after one trial we should think he would find out his mistake. It is true that there are still beekeepers who are wasting their time fussing with moth-traps, moth- hives, etc., for the purpose of keeping moths away from bees, but all such are becoming fewer and fewer, as it becomes better and better known that strong vigorous colonies, especially of Italians, do not need any help in protecting the hives from the ravages of the bee-moth. — Ed.] Paste for Sticking Labels on Tin April 1, p. 232, Mr. G. A. Barbisch, of La Cres- cent, Minn., wants to know whether there is a prep- aration which will make labels stick to tin. I am pleased to say that there is, no matter how small the label. If it is of any use to the readers of Gleanings they are welcome to use it. It is as follows : Make a flour paste, being sure that it is thorough- ly cooked. To a pint of paste stir in a qiiarter of a teaspoonful of powdered alum. Avoid too much alum, as it will cause the tin to rust and the stain to come through the label. Label the tins before filling with honey. I have used this paste for ten years, and never yet had a label come off. Owen Sound, Out. Chris. Grimoldby. Strengthening Honey-cases . For a number of years I have used shipping cases with a cross-piece % inch thick through the center. I find that it reinforces the case, certainly half. I b.ave no trouble with honey breaking from the sec- tions. Others can do as well if they will use judg- ment in packing, being particular not to have hard lumps of straw or excelsior under the middle of those weak and frail cases that are used. Think of leemen asking that that frail box take care of our l;o:iey on the railroad. D^es it look as if we knew ho-