THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



81 



bottom, and they are wintering perfectly. 

 He then goes on to explain how thorough 

 and complete is his system of ventilation. 

 In closing he says: "1 wintered bees 

 with perfect success in this cellar for 25 

 years with no other attention than simply 

 carrying them in and out. but in 

 those days the walls were of stone 

 and brick, and the floor of earth. Since 

 it has been tightly cemented on the sides 

 and bottom, an entirely different system 

 of management is necessary, in that we 

 must see that the bees have a great 

 abundance of fresh air from the outside — 

 i' this IS done the bees will come through 

 all right." 



The above tells in substance what has 

 come to me from several sources. 



An Apicultural Dream Coming True. 



Migratory bee keeping, moving from 

 South to North to gather succeeding 

 harvests afforded by the advancing 

 seasons, has, for many years, been one 

 bright, apicultural dream. Steaming up 

 the Mississsippi with an apiary on board, 

 running nights and tying up daytimes, 

 proved a dismal failure. Shipping bees 

 North by rail has been looked upon as 

 too risky. Success could not be hoped 

 for in less than car load lots. Transpor- 

 tation has been the one stumbling block 

 to success. However, methods of pack- 

 ing and care in transportation have been 

 greatly improved, while faster lines of 

 through freight have been established, 

 and these factors have at last enabled 

 Mr. H. C. Ahlers to score a notable 

 success in a genuine migratory scheme 

 on a scale large enough to make $4,000 in 

 a single season. How the reading of his 

 article made my blood tingle! How I 

 would love to go South; buy a car load 

 of bees; reap a harvest; load and ship to 

 the North; reap another harvest, then 

 hie away to the South again for winter: 

 or as Mr. Ahlers proposes doing, remove 

 queens at the proper time, and extract 

 all honey at the end of the flow; buying 

 bees again the next spring in the South. 

 I see a great future in store for this kind 



of migratory bee keeper in the hands of 

 men who have the nerve and enterprise 

 necessary for success. 



A Beginners' Department not Wanted 

 in tine Review. 



No subject has ever been touched upon 

 in the Review that so roused its readers, 

 as the proposal to start a department for 

 beginners. The letters and postals came 

 in by the handfuls. About one in ten 

 favored the establishing of such a de- 

 partment, but the other nine were most 

 emphatic in their protests against such a 

 change. 'Keep the Revie v as it is:" 

 '"let's have one bee journal that doesn't 

 waste space on beginners:" "let tne be- 

 ginner learn his A B C's out of a text 

 book the same as 1 did;" these are fair 

 samples or the replies. One man said he 

 had stojped taking one journal because 

 of the ceaseless repetition of the same 

 questions and answers. Certainly. What 

 else could you expect? Each beginner 

 will ask the same questions; and this will 

 go on month after month, and year after 

 year— over, and over, and over again will 

 the same questions be asked and 

 answered. I have always felt, and still 

 believe, and it seems that an over- 

 whelming majority of my readers agree 

 with me, that the discussion of elemen- 

 tary questions in a bee journal is a waste 

 of space. 



Please don't confuse a beginners' de- 

 partment with the answering of queries. 

 All questions of general interest will be 

 welcjmed and answeied to the best of 

 my ability. For instance. 1 last month 

 answered a string of questions from Mr. 

 Laing; and next month 1 expect to answer 

 another list from Mr. Swanson. 



The Advantages of Specialty. 



1 can remember with what enthusiasm 

 1 read, years ago, Mr. Terry's account of 

 his wonderful success in making a 

 specialty of potato growing. He cer- 

 tainly considered some very fine points. 

 For instance, he had his fields laid out 

 very long and narrow, and had the rows 



