THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



\iriilly have a fertile queen of their 

 own. 



By the way, the making of forced 

 swarms with queens that are failing, 

 as montionod above, is one of the 

 most frequent causes of failure. With 

 such queens they will sometimes 

 swarm out at once, uniting with an- 

 other swarm, or scattering to other 

 liives, acting about like a queenless 

 swarm. At other times nothing may 

 be seen amiss but excessive drone- 

 comb building and lack of vigorous 

 work, followed usually by superse- 

 dure of the queen. 



While there is no method of making 

 a forced swarm that will cause it to 

 work with quite the vigor of a natur- 

 al one. still to those who have out- 

 yards it becomes necessary to assume 

 control of swarming." 



CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES. 



Shall the National Association have Dft^inite- 



ness in its Constitution, or Depend Upon 



the Common Sense of its Directors. 



In Gleanings for March l."th, in Dr. 

 culler's Stray Straws, we find the fol- 

 lowing: 



"Editor Hutchinson thinks there 

 <night to be some changes made in the 

 N. B. K. A. constitution, and says: 

 'In fact, one great soui'ce, if not the 

 s(mrce. of most of our late troubles 

 has been from a lack of definiteness 

 ill our constitution." Perhaps. I'n- 

 doubtedly there ought to be some 

 change, but the question is whether 

 it is Iiest to try to make it so definite 

 as to meet every possible emergency 

 that may arise, or to rip out some of 

 its present definiteness and depend a 

 little upon common sense. [I have 

 lor some time back held that we have 

 t('0 much constitution. It is impossi- 

 ble to prescribe a set of limitations in 



r.dvance that will cover all conditions 

 and lircnmstances that may arise in 

 the future. I would be in favor of 

 having less constitution, with broader 

 powers delegated to a Board of Direc- 

 tors, of men selected for their iitness 

 and wisdom, and w'ho shall not be 

 elected year after year, simply because 

 the membership does not know who 

 t-Ise to vote for. I would further fa- 

 \<)r having a nominating committee 

 composed of three men who are famil- 

 iar with the capabilities of the best 

 men in the Association. Tliat commit- 

 tee should propose a set of names, and 

 let the membership select from that 

 set. A Board of Directors composed 

 of wise men having broad powers 

 delegated to them could proceed along 

 the lines of common sense and expe- 

 diency rather than nave to run up 

 against an unconstitutional limitation. 

 But the time to talk about this mat- 

 ter is not now, but some three or four 

 months before the next election. I 

 will endeavor to open the question if 

 nobody else does at that time. In the 

 meantime, let us make the best of cir- 

 cumstances, and get down to busi- 

 ness.— Ed.]" 



It has been a long time since I have 

 had an opportunity to have an argu- 

 ment with such fair opponents as these 

 two brothers, and 1 intend to make 

 the most of it. Even though I shall 

 disagree with them, I shall do it just 

 as good naturedly as I should agree. 



The experience of centuries. I might 

 say, has demonstrated that all organ- 

 ized bodies of men must have some 

 sort of a constitution, or set of by- 

 laws, by Avhich to govern their con- 

 duct. AVithont this such organizations 

 would be little more than mobs. Even 

 in so thoroughly- organized and offi- 

 cered an institution as the army, there 

 are needed "Articles of War," "Man- 

 ual of Arms," etc. It is not possilile, 

 nor desirable, to have a rule for every 



