270 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



comb and showed it to Mr. France. 

 He said it liad some of tlie symptoms 

 of blacli brood, and advised caution 

 in regard to it. 



r<ui«Xa«<«in 



Four-Piece Sections may yet be- 

 come a necessity, owing to the scarc- 

 ity of basswood. Gleanings, in com- 

 menting upon this, laments the enor- 

 mous amount of labor that the hand- 

 ling, or use, of tlie four-piece involves. 

 The putting together of the four-piece 

 section does take more time, but it is 

 of a kind of work that can be done 

 by cheap help, besides, with proper 

 tools or appliances, the difference in 

 time is not so great as might be imag- 

 ined. There is a tool in which it is 

 only necessary to pick up the four 

 pieces, set them in, and give it a slam, 

 and the section is together. Bro. Root 

 might be surprised to learn how many 

 bee-keepers there are in the country 

 who really prefer tlie four-piece sec- 

 tion—I am on of them. 



wraJ'k^ti* iL>n^ 



Squaws, dressed In gorgeous colors, 

 their faces hideously painted, pap- 

 pooses strapped to their backs, offered 

 bead work and painted pottery at 

 many places where our train stopped 

 while en route to Los Angeles. The 

 hideousness, to me, of some of the old 

 squaws is something that must be 

 seen to be understood. Their straight, 

 black, coarse hair hangs in a tangled 

 mass all around their shoulders, a 

 strip being cut out iu front, just above 

 the eyes, to allow them to see. Then 

 their faces are so wrinkled, and their 

 eyes so sunken, and when the mouth 

 opens and shows three or four black- 

 ened and broken tusks, the picture, to 

 me, is one bordering upon the horri- 

 ble. To me, the face of a cow or a 

 horse is much more beautiful and 

 wholesome. 



Oh, the dreariness of the great 

 plains, and the great American Desert. 

 Miles, and miles, and miles of sand, 

 rocks and cacti; hours and days of 

 traveling with only the intense heat of 

 the sun overhead. In the Great Amer- 

 ican Desert, the mercury often reaches 

 118 degrees in the shade. Fortunately, 

 we passed through it iu the night, 

 but. by putting the hand out of the 

 window, the heat could be felt com- 

 ing up from the hot earth, something 

 as it would feel in holding the hand 

 over a hot cook stove. My bed fel- 

 loAv, Mr. France, admitted the next 

 morning, that it was the most uncom- 

 fortable night he had ever passed. I 

 never before realized what a journey 

 overland, to California, must have 

 meant in olden times. No wonder the 

 trail was strewn with the bones of 

 men and animals. 



«^irit i^^'^rf^** 



KNOW AI,L CONDITIONS BEFORE 

 DECIDING. 



Charity is needed by both the sci- 

 entist and the ordinary v,'orker. In 

 a recent letter Mr. R. F. Holtermann 

 says that "Many mistakes are made 

 in bee-keeping, and in other branches 

 of agriculture, because all of the con- 

 ditions are not studied before coming 

 to a conclusion. The scientist is es- 

 pecially open to such error. We are 

 all liable to make mistakes, and, in- 

 stead of despising the scientist, as 

 many do, we ought to lend a helping 

 hand. I have some knowledge of the 

 rudiments of chemistry, and find them 

 a valuable aid in arriving at correct 

 conclusions. We were recently told, 

 by Arthur C. Miller, that exhausted 

 atmosphere contains carbonic acid 

 gas, which is heavier than the ordinary 

 atmosphere. This is true enough, yet 

 there are other laws. If not. the 

 smoke from a chimney would come 



