Published Meekly at «I.OO a Vear by Oeorge Jl¥. Vork /ic Co., 3S t l>earbornl8t. 



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



QBORQE W. YORK, Editor. 



CHICAGO, ILL, DEC, 8, 1904. 



VoL XLIV— No. 49. 



Annual Report of the National Association. 



The annual report of the General Manager of the 

 National Bee-Keepers' Association is to hand, and contains 

 the following : Brief accounts of the different cases that 

 have demanded attention during the past year ; revised 

 constitution of the Association ; a financial statement from 

 the General Manager; a list of members with numbers of 

 colonies and crops ; and the report of the St. Louis conven- 

 tion. There are perhaps more blanks than last year in the 

 columns giving number of colonies and pounds of honey of 

 members, and a hasty glance shows smaller crops this year 

 than last on the part of those that do report. Quite pos- 

 sibly the poorer year accounts for the smaller number re- 

 porting. 



A Centrifugal Wax-Extractor. 



With the idea of improving on the German steam wax- 

 press, the proprietors of Gleanings in Bee-Culture got up a 

 centrifugal affair to throw out the wax while in the heated 

 steam. It was to do much quicker work than the slow 

 method of pressing. Actual trial, however, showed that 

 the wax was not as fully gotten out as by the press, and all 

 that has come of it is the record of failure. 



What good then to take up room to mention it at all ? It 

 might be worth a good deal to you to know of the failure, if 

 you should conceive the idea of trying it yourself. More- 

 over, there is no certainty that by some little change of 

 modus operandi the thing may not yet be made a success. 

 If more failures were recorded, fewer failures would be 

 made. 



<' English as She is Spoke." 



Our much-esteemed fellow-editor, E. R. Root, seems 

 possessed of the idea, at least at times, that taking a word 

 out of its usual form or meaning gives strength, if not 

 elegance, to his diction. "Shook" is stronger than 

 " shaken ", and, by the same rule, a reserved seat at a lec- 

 ture or concert would be more secure to the purchaser if 

 marked " took " than if marked "taken ". 



One of his latest is " pawed ". The contents of a wax- 

 press, after being subjected to a certain amount of pressure, 

 are to be relieved from the pressure, and the scalding mass 

 "pawed over". Whether his "paws " have ever been in- 

 jured by such a procedure he does not say. Lest the repeti- 



tion of the word should become too monotonous, he intro- 

 duces a change in the last number of Gleanings, and 

 " claws " the hot stuff. No, you don't need hands furnished 

 with claws — "a stick claws the contents over". Some 

 might think that the material under consideration would be 

 loosened up just as much if stirred with a stick as if clawed, 

 but our editorial friend is such a royal good fellow that full 

 permission is hereby granted him to say " paws " or 

 " claws ", or even " chaws ". 



Italian Bees and Foul Brood. 



There has been considerable evidence, coming from 

 Australia, Europe, and Great Britain, that Italian bees do 

 not succumb to foul brood so readily as blacks. 



Age of Bees for Wintering. 



Arthur C. Miller writes as follows on this subject in the 

 Bee-Keepers' Review : 



" In the average northern locality all colonies with 

 good queens will rear young at a time suitable to furnish 

 bees of the right age for good wintering. Often, however, 

 through man's intervention, such breeding is prevented or 

 interfered with, and when fall arrives man steps in and 

 combines his colonies until they ' are strong enough for 

 winter', quite forgetting the age-factor, which factor, by 

 the way, can not be accurately determined unless it is posi- 

 tively known when brood emerged. Even if man knows the 

 age of the bees in the colonies he is to unite, it is quite 

 beyond his abilities to make such union in the same pro- 

 portion of ages as those existing in a normal colony." 



In the last sentence a point is touched upon that may 

 deserve consideration. Much has been said as to having 

 bees of proper age for successful wintering, and there is a 

 pretty general agreement that young bees are desirable. A 

 colony of bees upon going into winter quarters generally 

 contains at least a few bees that will die of old age in early 

 spring. If a colony were composed entirely of such bees, it 

 would not live to see the following harvest. Neither would 

 its span of life be increased if a number of such colonies 

 were doubled up so as to make a bushel of bees. 



Is it not just possible, however, that in the economy of 

 Nature such bees have their use in wintering ? May it not 

 be that the strength of the younger bees is in some way 

 conserved by the presence of old bees in the forepart of win 



