552 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Aug-. 29, 1901. 



The Afterthought. % \ 



The "Old Reliable" seen through New and UnrelrableQIasses. 

 By E. E. HASTY, Sta. B Rural, Toledo, O. 



PETS IN THE HOUSEHOLD. 



In "The Home Circle," page iST, Prof. Cook talks entranc- 

 ingly of pets. I wish for our profit to add somewhat thereto. 

 It's a scandal on the human judgment that we do not choose 

 our pets (at least in most cases) instead of so uniformly letting 

 thera choose us. At our house the children, with great excite- 

 ment and glee, drove home from the fields an enormous puppy 

 some one had cast ofl'. Nearly starved to death, poor fellow. 

 Attlicted with a sort of St. Vitus dance, making it impossible 

 to hold himself still. No beauty that any one should desire 

 him. Backbone seems to think dragging on the ground the 

 progression for the midships of a dog. He looks a cross of 

 St. Bernard and Dachshund, And now (to share my private 

 troubles with you, brethren) I am disgusted to find that this 

 repulsive, diseased and useless giant is likely to become a per- 

 manent member of the household. Professor, can't you train 

 folks a little, in regard to this admirable longing of humanity 

 for pets, so they won't choose such pets in such a kind of 

 way ? 



SWARMS SELECTING THEIR HOMES. 



As to how bees select their home in a tree, all theories 

 seem open to strong objection ; but the stubborn fact remains 

 that they do select them somehow. ,lohn Kennedy, page 459, 

 contributes a novel fact ; but I am not sure it gives us much 

 additional light. I mean the case where half a swarm went 

 straight to a hollow tree 60 rods away, and the other half 

 followed five hours later. Apparently those bees, many of 

 them, knew the place beforehand. They seem to have had 

 two young queens, although that is not sure. Testimony 

 about bees being seen frequenting a hollow, and coming to 

 occupy it later, seems to be sufficiently abundant to show that 

 they sometimes do so. The above shows no more— in fact 

 does not show at all — the first part of the process. My 

 impression (not a very strong one) has been that swarms usu- 

 ally keep moving from place to place until they finally blun- 

 der into a place that will answer. Some would consider that 

 the most improbable of the three leading theories. Some hol- 

 lows are ancient, and have at a previous date been occupied 

 by bees. I suggest that masses of propolis are likely to per- 

 sist in such hollows even after the moth has cleaned out the 

 comb. Going to such a place for propolis may have familiar- 

 ized now and then a swarm with the hollow it went to. A 

 hollow, of which the upper end will do for a home, sometimes 

 in spring has water at the bottom. Bees are said to frequent 

 such hollows for water. Like some folks they prefer their 

 water "with a little suthin in it." Shortly before swarming, 

 carrying water is a heavy and constant job employing a great 

 many bees. Anon their favorite supply dries up. Then it 

 would be very natural for them to prospect all the hollows in 

 the attempt to find more, and so get a wide familiarity with 

 hollow trees which would soon come in good play for another 

 purpose. 



Taking away queens to make after-swarms go home is 

 practiced to some extent. It is not very satisfactory. You do 

 not know whether there is one queen or more. The supply 

 of young queens at home holds out too long. The hunting 

 often takes too much time when time is precious. And unless 

 you put them back yourself (which you can't do in the fre- 

 quent cases where you don't know where they came from) 

 they wait too long before they go, and are liable to be alighted 

 on by the next swarm that comes out. In a quite small 

 apiary, however, these objections would be much mitigated, 



BEESWAX SPLINTS FOB FOUNDATION. 



If I understand C. Davenport, page 461, it's a new kind 

 of splints made out of beeswax, and made right on the spot 

 where wanted. Seems to promise being just as good as 

 wooden splints, and easier to put on. 



TILE AND STONE BOTTOM-BOARDS. 



Tile bottom-boards costing only 10 cents, and that in 

 Cuba ! Perhaps a great invention. But will they fit tightly? 

 Termites may drive me to something of the kind ; and I have 

 even been thinking of sawed stone flagging. W. W. Somer- 

 ford, page 461. 



RUSTLEK BEES AND AVERAGE BEES. 



Anent the two pen pictures of the rustler bees and the 

 average bees, on page 462, I hardly know whether to applaud, 

 or scold. Guess I'll scold. It seems to mo that where colo- 

 nies are not queenless, not excessively weak, and nothing 

 special the matter with them, the working of the bees does 

 not differ very greatly — or if it does the keeper needs a 

 thrashing. Mr. SchaetHe, hadn't the heads of those average 

 queens ought to come off — hadn't the heads of their grand- 

 mothers ought to have come off long ago ? 



^ The Home Circle. ^ \ 



*K It 



Conducted bij Prof. fl. J. Gook, Claremont, Calif. 



WASTE-PAPER BOXES. 



Our good friend, that prince of California bee-keepers, J. 

 F. Mclntyre, has left his canyon home, which has harbored 

 him and his for near a score of years, and has gone to the city, 

 which in the future is to be honored by having him as a citi- 

 zen. What could lure him from the restful quiet of that 

 grand canyon, where he has always had Nature at her best, 

 and at first hand ? Then, too, his bees, which he loved so 

 well, and has cared for so fondly and so wisely, must be left 

 behind. He and the rippling .Sespe must part company. This, 

 at times, was a rapid, roaring, resistless torrent, which then 

 swept grandly by his very door. This grand and no less beau- 

 tiful environment must have become very dear to all the 

 Mclntyres — must have crept in with its refining, elevating 

 influence to make more rugged the honesty, more prompt the 

 sympathy, more pure and high the aspirations towards better 



things. How could they leave such environs ? Why did they 

 hie away, even though it was to move to a beautiful city by 

 the sea ? It was not to change grandeur for grandeur, the 

 close mountains for the equally close ocean, whose surf Is 

 ever beating the shore, and whose breakers are ever chasing 

 each other landward, as if tired of their own restless plung- 

 ing. It was a good purpose — that the dear children might 

 have better school privileges. 



Oh ! but this love of children is a most blessed thing ; 

 though it call for heaviest sacrifice, its call is not in vain, but 

 gladly heard and heeded. Mr. Mclntyre, as in all his rela- 

 tions, shows here his good sense and wisdom. Education — 

 the best — is the most precious treasure he can bestow on those 

 lovely girls. To sacrifice, that such treasures maybe granted, 

 is the greatest gain. Those fortunate daughters will ever 

 remember it gratefully — the justly proud parents will ever 

 rejoice that they could do this good thing. 



Well, I. too, have tasted our friend's kindness. He drove 

 me during the cool evening eastward to meet several of the 

 ranchers in the rich, beautiful " Mound District." And the 

 next morning he accompanied me to look in upon the incom- 

 parable begonias of Mrs. Theodosia Shepherd, who by her 

 wonderful skill in breeding plants and developing new vari- 

 eties, has gained a world-wide reputation. How much pleas- 



