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Entered at the Post-Offlce at Chicago as Second-Class Mail-Matter. 

 Published n'eekly at «il.OO a Year by Oeorge W- York & Co., 3»4 l>earborm St. 



aEORQB W. YORK, Editor 



CHICAGO, ILL, MAY 19, 1904. 



Vol, XLIV— No. 20, 





Editorial Comments 



] 



Supposed " Manufactured " Comb Honey. 



Some time ago we received by express a one-pound sectldn of 

 comb honey from J. L. Pitting, of Crawford Co., Ohio. Accompany- 

 iog the package was Mr. Pitting's personal card, and a marked clip- 

 ping from some newspaper which had very kindly published the 

 standing offer of $1000 for a pound of manufactured comb honey. 



Evidently, Mr. Pitting thought he had found a sample of the 

 manufactured article, and all he had to do was to forward it to us, 

 when we would send him 11000 by return mail. 



Of course, Mr. Pitting was deceived, for the sample section of 

 honey we received from him bore the rubber-stamp of one of our old 

 subscribers in Reno, Nev. It is about the finest sample of alfalfa 

 comb honey we ever saw. Its very beauty, and whiteness of comb 

 and wood, must have caused Mr. Pitting to believe it was manufac- 

 tured. He was not accustomed to seeing such fine specimens of gen- 

 uine bee-work. We are not surprised that be was fooled. And yet, 

 if he had seen together several sections of the same lot of honey, he 

 would have noticed that no two of them were exactly alike, while, if 

 machine-made, all would have been alike. 



We at once wrote Mr. Pitting the facts in the case, but have 

 heard nothing further from him. However, he has our thanks for 

 his sweet gift. We are fond of nice alfalfa honey. 



Shall Hive-Covers be Ventilated? 



Covers made with thin boards above and thin boards below, with 

 an air-space between, seem to l>e viewed with increasing favor, but 

 there is a difference of opinion as to whether the space should be a 

 dead-air spa^e or ventilated. If a chief purpose of the cover be to 

 keep the hive cool in hot weather, then it is better that the cover 

 should be ventilated by having openings at the sides for the entrance 

 and exit of air, for this will be cooler than to have the air confined. 

 If it be important to keep the air warm in cold or cool weather, then 

 the air should be confined, for a well-ventilated cover in winter will 

 be little warmer than one made with a single surface of thin boards. 

 So in very hot climates there would be advantage in the ventilation. 

 In more northern localities the air should be confined. Still better, 

 the cover may be made so as to have the openings closed in winter 

 and open in summer. ^_^^____^_^__ 



Cleaning Bees from Extraetinjr-Combs. 



W. D. Soper gives in Gleanings in Bee-Culture a kink worth -y- 

 ing. He says : 



I go to the hive, takeout two combs, set them down, then 1 ni ive 

 over the next one so I can get at each side with a Coggshall brush I 

 smoke a little, and rub the sides of the comb with the brush. 1 lie 

 bees will tumble off and disappear in the lower part of the hive. '1' ;ke 

 out this comb, do the next the same, until ill are cleaned oft' ■' id 

 taken out. Take out as fast as cleaned off. Then put the two couilis 

 first taken out back in, and brush. The coaabs in a 10-frame hive a 

 be cleaned in two minutes, and not a bee outside of the hive to ur wl 

 around— no queen lost, or robbers to bother. 



Sliould Presence of Foul Brood be Concealed ? 



One answer to the question might be found in some of the foul 

 brood laws, the one in Canada, for example, which makes any one 

 subject to a fine who does not report to the proper officer if he knows 

 of a case of foul brood in his own apiary or anywhere ehe. 



But that refers only to making it known to the proper officer, so 

 that the case shall be sure to be looked after, which is a very different 

 thing from telling it to everybody. It is very desirable that no case 

 should be concealed from the foul-brood inspector, but would it be 

 the right thing for the inspector to tell every one in the neighborhood — 

 or out of it, for that matter — that .John Smith has foul brood in his 

 apiary 1 Suppose John Smith sells bees or queens, what chance has he 

 for making sales if it be generally known that his bees have foul brood? 



That might disturb the business of John Smith, especially if he 

 were dishonest enough to send out a consignment of foul brood with 

 each sale made, but would it not be a good thing for others? and 

 should not the rule be the greatest good to the greatest number? 



When a contagious disease exists in John Smith's house, the city 

 authorities promptly put upon that house a placard so that every one 

 who passes by may know that scarlet fever or some other dangerous 

 disease is there. They do not wait to inquire whether John Smith's 

 business will be injured by it; they are not doing it to help John 

 Smith ; the general good is saved by it. The fullest publicity is 

 sought. Should it not be tie same with foul brood? Should inspec- 

 tors or any one else conceal knowledge of casesof foul brood wherever 

 found? 



A Queen Lays 4000 Eggs in 24 Hours. 



W. O. Victor, gives in (ileanings in Bee-Culture, the picture of a 

 frame of brood which contained by close calculation 8200 cells of 

 sealed brood, and this brood was all hatched within about two days 

 from the time the first hatched. Mr. Victor thus feels sure that Mr. 

 Doolittle's estimate of 4000 eggs in '24 hours was in this case reached. 



A Bee-Paper a Necessity. 



The necessity for a bee-book — a book that gives instruction in 

 bee-keeping — has been many times urged in these columns. No doubt 

 it will be urged many times in the future, for new members are con- 

 stantly joining the American Bee Journal family, and it would be 

 hard to give a more valuable piece of advice to a bee-keeper without a 

 bee-book than to urge that he make some sacrifice if necessary to get 

 one. No bee-keeper can afford to <lu without a bee-book and a bee- 

 paper, but if he can not get both at once, let him get the book first. 

 The necessity for the paper as well as the book has been less urged, 

 but it is well put by James Lockett, in the Australasian Bee-Keeper, as 

 follows : 



But every bee-keeper, let him be the beginner, advanced or the 

 finished bee-keeper — he should have the bee-journal in preference to a 

 bee-book with two or three hundred pntres, that has been written 10 or 

 15 years ago. The bee-keeper, who makes a start with a bee-book 

 only, gives it all his attention for ;i -tart because it is new to him; 

 after a time he thinks he knows euuiu'li about bees, and his book gets 

 a rest — it is getting stale to him, lui'l he goeson(in his own mind 

 apractical bee-keeper), knowing ul'i a one-third of what he should 

 know. The man that takes the ' 

 fresh to look at — let him be the ha^' 

 he is always ready and waiting at ti 

 journal and read it through, to ' 

 Here is where the beginner puts iii : 



journal has always something 

 iiTor the practical bee-keeper, 

 ■ud of the month to get his bee- 



what information he can get. 

 uB good work, he will see where 



