THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



215 



metal over each entrance, or the bees 

 will swarm out. They may swarm out 

 just the sam.e with the entrance guard, 

 but the guard will prevent the queen 

 from following the bees. 



Make Your Writing Easy to Read. 



The man who receives perhaps one 

 letter a week, little realizes the strain 

 that is put upon the eyes of the editor 

 who sits at his desk from morning till 

 night, day after day, the whole year 

 through; often trying to decipher what 

 seem to be hopeless hieroglyphics. 



The kind of writing materials used has 

 a decided bearing upon the legibility of 

 the writing. What thin, "onion skin" 

 paper was ever invented for, I don't 

 know. It is hard to believe, but once in 

 a while, somebody will write on both 

 sides of such paper as this. I had such 

 a letter today, and the paper was ruled, 

 so that each line of writing was brought 

 exactly opposite one on the back of the 

 sheet. To make matters worse, the 

 hand-writing was of a flowing style, the 

 extended letters extended scarcely at all, 

 in fact, some words were simply wavy 

 lines. More than once was I tempted to 

 chuck the whole thing in the waste 

 basket. 



Then there is the lead pencil. I feel 

 towards that very much as I do towards 

 the flim.sy, transparent paper. So many 

 will use a soft pencil on soft paper, then 

 the continued rubbing together of the 

 sheets of paper, under pressure, in the 

 mail bags, leaves a lot of "smooches" in 

 place of many of the words. 



There are a few persons who write a 

 large, sprawling hand, and put their 

 writing upon paper that is not ruled very 

 wide, and the result is that the extended 

 letters cut into the words above and 

 below. I have seen such writing that, 

 when held off at a little distance, the 

 page actually resembled a mass of 

 circles and curliques. Such penmanship 

 ought to be placed only upon alternate 

 lines. 



A bottle of good black ink can be 

 bought for only five cents; half a dozen 

 steel pens cost a similar sum; and a good 

 quality of reasonably thick, white paper 

 is not expensive; why then inflict such 

 miserable scrawls upon your friends? 

 So far as actual writing is concerned, 

 almost anybody can write a legible hand 

 if he will take pains enough in forming 

 the letters. Make each letter so distinct 

 that it could be instantly recognized eyen 

 if it stood alone. 



Samples of Wax Wanted. 



The Bureau of Entomology is making a 

 collection of samples of beeswax from all 

 parts of the United States for the pur- 

 pose of determining the comparative 

 value of waxes produced by bees when 

 gathering nectar from the various honey 

 plants. It is well known that waxes 

 from various parts of the country and 

 from various honey sources vary greatly 

 in color and in other ways, and it is 

 hoped that such a study will offer some 

 explanation of these facts. 



For the purpose of carrying out this 

 work, the co-operation of bee keepers in 

 various localities is desired. To secure 

 as reliable a sample of wax as possible, 

 a colony of bees must be shaken from 

 the combs to a hive or box without foun- 

 dation and be allowed to build combs. 

 After the box or hive body has been well 

 filled with wax, the queen should be re- 

 moved and the hive be put above the 

 colony to allow the brood to emerge. At 

 the end of 24 days the combs can be cut 

 out, the honey removed by extracting or 

 squeezing, and the wax, after washing, 

 is to be sent to the Bureau of Entomology. 

 It is not at all necessary that the combs 

 be melted up. While it is usually im- 

 possible to find a honey flow strictly 

 from one source, as far as possible all 

 wax building should be during a single 

 honey flow. 



Any persons who are willing to co- 

 operate in this work will confer a favor 

 by writing me, stating during what honey 



