342 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



in the bee-business I have copied from 

 others, excepting one thing. I have four 

 wire cages which will sit over a hive, and 

 when I have swarms enough in the air at 

 a time, and more issue, I slip the cages 

 over the hives. If I have a nucleus not 

 strong enough to defend itself, I slip on 

 the cage. If I have a hive the bees are 

 trying to rob I put it over the hive. They 

 can still see the hive but they soon get 

 tired of butting against the wire. 



There are several advantages of having 

 a clean surface in the yard: first, there is 

 no grass for the clipped queens to hide 

 in; second, the ants do not bother, as 

 scraping and keeping the ground clean 

 interfere with their hiding plac.s. 



You will observe a fountain in the 

 center of the picture. I find it a great 

 advantage to have water handy for the 

 bees as well as one's self. Directly be- 

 hind the fountain you will also notice a 

 CannaLilyin full bloom, the blossoms 

 appearing above the top of the fountain. 



Criticism of this apiary is wanted. 



Wiixow Grove, Del. Sept. 24, 1900. 



MOWCAN WE SECURE MORE 

 THOROUGH AND UNIFORM 

 EXPERIMENTS? BY A. C. 

 MILLER. 

 I think all bee-keepers will agree that 

 at present we lack the means for secur- 

 ing thorough and accurate information 

 concerning many of the problems of api- 

 culture. Experiments along any partic- 

 ular line may be conducted by quite a 

 number of persons, and yet for want of 

 uniformity of procedure, of repetition 

 during several successive seasons, and of 

 uniform reports, they lose a great deal of 

 their value. 



As there are no apicultural experiment 

 stations to which we can submit problems 

 for trial, can we not find among the bee- 

 keepers of North America enough en- 

 thusiasts who will, for the love of the 

 science, devote some united effort to the 



securing of accurate statistics ? Not that 

 material and use of colonies shall be giv- 

 en entirely without recompense, as that 

 is rather too much to ask, but can we not 

 devise some system whereby these ex- 

 penses can be met ? I would make these 

 suggestions and ask for comments and 

 criticism, and then perhaps we may hit 

 upon some feasible plan: 



Let the editors of our leading bee- 

 papers name, say, three bee-keepers as 

 a managing committee. To them shall 

 be sent all suggestions for experiments. 

 From those persons who volunteer to con- 

 duct the experiments they shall select 

 such a number as they dtem sufficient, 

 and in making such selection endeavor to 

 get them as widely distributed as possible. 

 From subjects offered for experiment or 

 from ideas of their own, they shall select 

 those deemed most urgent and important, 

 and then apportion them among those 

 persons whom they think best located or 

 adapted to make the trials. They shall 

 specify all the details and conditions un- 

 der which the experiments are to be con- 

 ducted so that all may work in unison. 

 They shall furnish blanks for the reports. 



The expenses would be these: Station- 

 er}', printing, postage, use of colonies 

 (except where experiment yielded honey 

 returns), and in some cases perhaps spec- 

 ial supplies. The value of use of colo- 

 nies might be somewhat difficult to de- 

 termine, but probably could be mutually 

 agreed upon. 



Now how may these expenses be met? 

 Would the publishers of the bee papers 

 unite in defraying them for the sake of 

 having the reports to publish, or would it 

 be better for all bee-keepers who desire 

 them, to subscribe enough to cover all 

 expenses, including a copyright? 



That the reports of experiments thus 

 conducted would be of much value to all 

 bee-keepers, there can hardly be a ques- 

 tion, and pending the establishment by 

 the government of experiment stations, 

 either in connection with the present 

 agricultural colleges, or separately, it 

 seems to me that the foregoiug or some 



