Aug. 4, 1904. 



THJb AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



533 



position. In the engraving the top is shown thrown back. 

 The bar at the back of the tent holds the bottom open by a 

 sliding strip of strong • wood which slides on screw nails. 

 The bottom side-bars are used as handles for carrying the 

 tent from hive to hive, The covering is of strong cotton, 

 except a piece of wire-netting IS inches wide across each 

 side, which is used to make it lighter and airier when work- 

 ing inside. The front has two widths of cotton, and when 

 not pinned back they fall down and lap over each other, 

 thus closing the doorway. When the tent is closed it is S'j 

 feet by 4 feet by 6 inches. 



Now as to the uses to which the tent is put. First of 

 all, it is used in the early spring for going through hives, 

 clipping queens, etc., so as to prevent robbing. Then I find 

 it very handy in the swarming season, to keep swarms from 

 mixipg up. If one or more swarms are out, and another 

 starts to issue, I place the tent over the hive and let the 

 swarm go to the top of the tent. If the queen is clipped I 

 step inside and cage her. After the other swarms are set- 

 tled I throw open the top and let the bees that are on the 

 outside return home. 



During the last extracting the tent is used, if no honey 

 is coming in from the fields, so as to save time and excite- 

 ment in the yeard. Whenever the bees are " looking for 

 trouble," if the tent is used they can't find it. 



John Newton. 



[In queen-rearing, where nuclei must be opened day 

 after day regardless of annoyance from robbers, a tent is a 

 great convenience. I first made one about 6 feet square, 

 and the same in height. It had a door at one corner, and 

 was covered all over with mosquito-netting. But it was too 

 large and unwieldy, and offered too great temptations to 

 sportive winds. I had to have a guy rope at each corner, 

 with a stake to drive in the ground, and thus anchor it 

 when I was not using it, or I never knew where to find it 

 when I needed it again. One day there was such a strong 

 gale, in advance of a thunder-storm, that it picked up Mr. 

 Tent, guy ropes, stakes and all, and smashed it all in a heap 

 against the side of the barn. Then I got one of The A. I. 

 Root & Co.'s tents that fold up umbrella fashion, and used 

 that for several years when it was needed. By the way, I 

 often used it in the way Mr. Newton mentions, viz., as a 

 swarm-catcher. If a swarm was on one of the apple-tree 

 boughs, or in the air, and another began coming out, I 

 clapped the tent over the hive where the swarm was coming 

 out, and it answered every purpose of a swarm-catcher. It 

 showed only too clearly how perfectly a man could be mas- 

 ter of the situation if he had enough swarm-catchers scat- 

 tered about the yard. 



You will notice a cute little dog making himself at 

 home in the doorway of the tent. Well, there is a story 

 that goes with that dog. " Bobbs," as the dog was called, 

 had quite a choice collection of tricks at his command, and 

 was a close companion and playfellow of Mr. Newton's 4- 

 year-old boy, who couldn't bear to hear a word said against 

 "Bobbs." In talking with the boy, I asked him his age. 

 " Four years old," he replied. "But the dog isn't so old as 

 that, is he ?" I said. He shot me a quick glance that 

 seemed to say, "Now, you're running on Bobbs;" he 

 thought a moment, then reluctantly admitted, " No, he 

 isn't, but he used lo be older .'" — Editor Rhvibw.] 



The MidSUmmeP Fair at Lake Geneva, Wis., an- 

 nounced on page 484, was held July 22 and 23, and was a 

 big success. There were several thousand people in at- 

 tendance, and the expected proceeds were about $5000. It 

 was held by, and for the benefit of, the Lake Geneva Fresh- 

 Air Association, an organization in the interest of the poor 

 children of the city. The exhibits in the various depart- 

 ments were most excellent, there being departments of live 

 stock, poultry, dairy, apiary, farm products, dogs, art and 

 fancy work, etc. The Editor of the American Bee Journal 

 was present the second day of the Fair, and acted as judge 

 of the apiary department, with the following results : 



Best case of comb honey — 1st premium, Miss Emilv 

 Hatch ; 2d, Miss Emily S. Rumsey ; 3d, H. C. Buell. 



Best extracted honey in jars — 1st, Wm. M. Whitney ; 

 2d, S. C. Ford. 



Best 1-frame nucleus hive with bees — 1st, Emily S. 

 Rumsey ; 2d, Wm. M. Whitney. 



Best general exhibit— 1st, Wm. M. Whitney ; 2d, S. C. 

 Ford. 



Messrs. Whitney and Ford had a very good display lil 



bee-supplies besides honey, etc. Mr. Whitney also had 

 bee-literature, a straw hive, etc. He had almost a constant 

 stream of visitors to whom he kept telling the story of bee- 

 keeping until his vocal organs were almost impaired. 

 Among his bee-books was not only a copy of the very first 

 edition of " Langstroth on the Hive and the Honey-Bee, " but 

 it was the author's own copy, in which every other leaf was 

 a blank one, and on many of which the great Father Lang- 

 stroth had with his own hand written notations and com- 

 ments for a future edition of his book. Mr. Whitney very 

 kindly loaned us this treasure, and later on we hope to find 

 time to review it in these columns. 



The Lake Geneva Fresh-Air Association is to be con- 

 gratulated upon the success of its first Fair. Much credit 

 is due Miss Emily S. Rumsey for her untiring efforts and 

 self-sacrificing devotion to the work. 





Contributed Articles 





Symbiosus— Bees and Legumes. 



BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 



IT was a common belief, a few years ago, that a college 

 man, or one who had had the full benefit of a college 

 course, was not so well fitted for business as one who 

 came to the work " unfettered " by such training. He was 

 often referred to as an "educated fool." There was such a 

 unanimity in this opinion that, without doubt, it had some 

 basis , in fact. "The book farmer" was pointed at in 

 those days with the finger of scorn, or at least with derision. 

 This is no longer true. All kinds of business to-day reach 

 for the college graduate. Education as now built up in our 

 colleges is nowhere thought to disqualify a man for any 

 kind of work, mental or physical. Indeed, some of our 

 great corporations make this a sine qua non in selecting the 

 men that are to be employed, and some are even arranging 

 to have men taught in college, with a good general course, 

 before specialization commences preparatory to engagement 

 by them. 



What has influenced to bring about this great change ? 

 Without doubt it has come through the introduction of 

 science teaching. Science, as now taught, deals with 

 things, and as the student learns to handle and observe 

 the things of the laboratory, even from the most minute 

 micro-organism to the very mountain that he scales, he is 

 made quick to take hold of all of life's problems, and in so 

 doing to grasp the lever of life by the long end. The young 

 man to-day, if at all bright, can get a good college educa- 

 tion, and if wise he will get it, and he will have a good, 

 large amount of the best scientific culture mixed all through 

 the course. 



I am led to this long introduction by the result of an 

 examination of a splendid class in botany a few days since. 

 I asked for a good illustration of the law of Symbiosus, or 

 of the law that organisms often dwell or act together, for 

 the mutual good of both. Two of the answers I am sure 

 will interest our readers : 



" Bees in collecting honey afford a good example of this 

 law. They secure from the flowers the nectar which is cane- 

 sugar, and which is digested by them, or changed into re- 

 ducing sugar, partly in their stomachs and partly in the 

 honey-comb cells, through the action of a ferment which 

 they add to it as it is gathered. This makes a necessary 

 and most admirable food, when mixed with the proteid 

 food-elements of the bee-bread, and supports the larva- or 

 brood and the mature bees. Nor do the flowers receive a 



