1SS2 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



247 



THEORY AND EXPERIEKCE. 



Theory is a good thing in its place, and a very 

 necessary thing; for upon it depend all discoveries 

 and inventions that are not the result of pure acci- 

 dent; in other words, it is impossible to seek out a 

 hidden truth without having some theory to direct 

 the experiments or investigation. The endeavors 

 to prove or disprove a theoiy may result in the dis- 

 covery of new truths, either directly, as an acci- 

 dental discovery, cr indirectly, by leading to the 

 formation of new theories, and their subsequent 

 demonstration. So, theory is a good thing in its 

 proper place, and those who cry, " We want no theo- 

 ry, but only experience," only go to the opposite ex- 

 treme of those who are too willing to accept theory 

 for fact. Let us all draw the line between the two 

 so plainly that no one will be led into error by con- 

 founding them; so, let us have the experience of all 

 on matters pertaining to bee culture, and enough 

 theory to keep the ball of investigation rolling. 



ODD-SIZED HIVES AND FRAMES. 



I have just been reading friend Root's editorial on 

 this subject, found on page 205, April Gleanings, 

 and I think his remarks are very sensible. Custom- 

 ers do not seem to undei stand the difference be- 

 tween standard goods kept in stock, and goods 

 made to order. Many do not seem to realize that it 

 costs more to cut out odd-sized fiames or hives, or 

 that it takes any longer to till such an order. The 

 following is from a letter received a few days since, 

 from a customer who wanted six odd-sized hives 

 made. "As it will not take as much lumber to make 

 these hives as the Langstroth or the Simplicity, I 

 suppose the price will be less." This only shows 

 what some expect. Such customers consider a 

 dealer's prices *' steep " when he charges only enough 

 to make himself whole. There can be no more 

 sound advice given to beginners, than to use only 

 standard goods that are kept in stock by nearly all 

 dealers. Orders for such goods can be filled prompt- 

 ly, and without any annoying mistakes. I believe, 

 if we would all give up s ome of our pet theories in 

 regard to frames and hives, and adopt the standard 

 Langstroth frame, bee culture in the United States 

 would make a steady and rapid advancement. Then 

 would the danger of drawing erroneom conclusions 

 from the reports of bee-keepers be avoided, and the 

 results of wintering be compared to the advantage 

 and profit of us all. E. A. Tuomas. 



Coleraine, Mass., April 18, 1882. 



CHAFF HIVES VS. CELLAR. 



Seeing various reports from others in regard to 

 mode of winti ring their bees, I will give my plan. 

 I went into winter with 03 colonies, 37 in chatf hives; 

 the rest were put into the cellar. To-day I have 51, 

 the most very strong. 1 lost one that was in the 

 chaff; the other 10 were in the cellar. Doesn't this 

 speak well for the chaff? Those in the cellar had 

 the dysentery badly. Now, right here let me ask 

 you one question. Why not let us chaff-hive men 

 have a chaff-hive department, so we won't have to 

 search Gleanings all through to find these chaff- 

 hive men? O. R. MUNSON. 



Meredith, Del. Co., N. Y., April 12, 1883. 



Why, friend M., when Geo. Grimm comes 

 over to chaff hives, and we get the chaff hive 

 made just as it should be, thickness of chaff, 

 ventilation, food, and all that, we all expect 

 to come over to chaff hives. 



A SUGGESTION AND REPORT FROM FRIEND C. C. 

 MILLER. 



It would be such a pleasure and advantage to know 

 the number of colonies each contributor keeps, that 

 I wish you would throw the weight of j^our influence 

 in favor of having each one sign, immediately after 

 his name, the number of colonies kept by him on 

 the 1st of May last, preceding the time of his writing. 

 At the last meeting of the N. W. Bee-keepers' con- 

 vention at Chicago, it was voted, I think unani- 

 mously, that this was desirable, but no one seems to 

 set the ball in motion, although, possibly, every one 

 wishes it. Like every one else, I have wintered my 

 bees well, not having lost one out of 177, except one 

 that was put into the cellar queenless, with a very 

 few bees, so that they would have died out, even 

 had there been no winter. The last colonies were 

 taken out April 4, having been confined without a 

 flight just 5 months lacking f no day. So I have 176 

 colonies in rice condition; but as it is not yet May 1, 

 I must sign myself — C. C. Miller, 67. 



Marengo, III., April 15, 1883. 



With all my heart, friend Miller; and al- 

 though I have about 194 good ones now, I 

 must sign myself A. I. Root — as near as I 

 can remember, about 10 very poor ones. 



A RAILROAD APIARY. 



We read with great interest your valuable paper, 

 and all the many instructive articles it contains. 

 There is so much said on all subjects, that it seems 

 there is verj' little we can say; still, we feel like 

 those who speak in meeting, that it is our privilege 

 and duty. We began the season with 250 swarms in 

 all. We have one apiary of 100 colonies, situated 

 within ten rods of our railroad station, and laid out 

 in tracks, and switches, etc. These 100 we shall run 

 for extracting, and we have a box car that contains 

 extractor, etc. We shall be in readiness this year for 

 the flow of locust honey, which is of no little conse- 

 quence with us. Our other 150 colonies are equally 

 divided, and situated, one apiary 3 miles east, the 

 other 6 miles east, surrounded by basswood forests, 

 slashings of brier patches, and white-clover pas- 

 tures, and think we can reasonably look for a fair 

 yield of honey. These we shall run for one-pound 

 sections. We have a mill (water-power) fully rigged 

 for manufacturing bee-hives, sections, etc., but we 

 are able to do but little this year besides our own 

 work, and our would-be customers we refer to A. I. 

 Root. 



A NEW SUBSTITUTE FOR POLLEN —COTTON-SEED 

 MEAL. 



We have made a discovery which may be new; 

 that is, in furnishing bees material for pollen, they 

 leave oat meal, rye meal, and every thing else, for 

 cotton-seed meal (which is being introduced here by 

 Mr. Waldo as cattle-food), and they act as though 

 they were perfectly happy with it, rolling and tum- 

 bling over each other in their eagerness. It may be 

 the sweetness of the cotton-seed meal that makes it 

 so attractive to the T.ttle beauties. Please give us 

 your opinion. Will write more lat,< r. 



H. A. Williams & Co. 



Berkshire, N. Y., April 12, 1882. 



That is right, friend W.; we should feel it 

 a duty to say something, and I, on my part, 

 am going to make a greater effort to give 

 you all an opportunity of being heard. If I 

 am correct, cotton-seed meal has once be- 

 fore been mentioned ; but if It is really a 



