Olbanwgs m Titt Culture 



Tublished by The A. I. Root Co., Medina, Ohio. 

 H. H. Root, Assistant Editor E. R, Root, Editor A. L. Boyden, Advertising Manager 



A. I. ROOT, Editor Home Department J. T. Calvert, Business Manager 



Entered at the Postoffice, Medina, Ohio, as Second-class Matter 



VOL. XXXVIIl 



JUNE 1, 1910 



NO. 11 



Editorial 



\'ery soon a good many amateurs will 

 have trouble in getting the bees to work in 

 comb-honey supers. Frequently the reason 

 is that there is, or has been, too much room 

 for honev in the brood-combs. 



A GREAT BEE-SUPPLY YEAR. 



Our manufacturing department has been 

 running night and day, and it is just nicely 

 keeping up with orders. Evidently, if the 

 call for supplies means any thing this is go- 

 ing to be a great year for honey. A year 

 ago there was an unjirecedentedly heavy de- 

 mand for bee-keepers' supplies. After the 

 failure of the honey crop of last season it was 

 naturally expected that this would be an off 

 year, and that most of the supply tiealers 

 wotild haNC a light season. They have been 

 hai)pily disappointed. 



XEW IDEAS. 



We are on the constant lookout for bright, 

 glittering ideas, new kinks of the trade; 

 short cuts; some plan or method to sa\ e la- 

 bor and make the business i)rofi table. We 

 are willing to pay for these ideas, and there- 

 fore solicit drawings, ntodels, and i)hoto- 

 graphs; but don't — don't for goodness sake 

 — send us any more schemes for wiring 

 frames or any model or drawing of a new 

 feeder. There is no use in wasting time on 

 them. They are of minor importance, ami 

 we can well afford to ttnn our attention to 

 something that touches more the funila- 

 mentals of the business. 



TO WHAT EXTENT HAVE FRUIT INTERESTS 



BEEN DAMAGED BY REASON OF THE 



RECENT COLD SPELLS? 



A SUBSCRIBER wishes to know to what 

 extent the fruit has been killed throughout 

 the country by reason of the late frosts and 

 freezes. In this locality very little has been 

 hurt; but there are sections in the North 

 and Northwest where the late cold spell has 

 done great damage to the fruit-growing in- 

 terests, especially the apples. While we 

 certainly regret the damage to the fruit- 

 growing interests, yet what is a loss to the 

 fruit-grower is, in an indirect sense, a gain 

 to the bee-keepers. When fruit is scarce 

 there is more demand for honey, ami at 

 better prices. 



THE LATE SPRING CLOVERVERY PROMIS- 

 ING. 



Reports from all over the country show 

 that the very early spring was delayed by 

 cold or rainy weather. Even at this writing, 

 May 25, the trees in our locality are only 

 just fairly leafed out, and some of the earli- 

 er varieties are almost as bare of leaves as 

 they were in the winter. Reports also show 

 that clover has made a wonderful growth. 

 As this is a natural clover year, and condi- 

 tions have been exceedingly favorable, we 

 are expecting clover honey all through the 

 clover regions. 



The deferred warm weather, on the other 

 hand, is going to mean some weak and 

 starved colonies. 



WINTER LOSSES CONFINED TO LIMITED 

 AREAS. 



8oME rcjiorts have been coming in, show- 

 ing that there was very little loss of bees in 

 the northern climates during the winter, 

 and no loss in the extreme Southern States; 

 but there was a heavy mortality among 

 bees wintered in single-walled hives just a 

 little north of the Ohio River and in the vi- 

 cinity of Pittsburg. The very cold winter 

 caught those bees that were not prepared, 

 especially those wintered in single-walled 

 hives. There has been, as a consequence, 

 an unusually heav>- demand for bees and 

 (jueens. Our home yard alone has sold o\er 

 three times as many bees this year as dur- 

 ing the corresponding period of a year ago. 



POISONED BEES. 



As USUAL there have been a few reports 

 from bee-keei)ers v.ho wondered why their 

 apparently healthy bees suddenly began 

 dying in large numbers. Of course, the 

 trouble does not always turn out to be a 

 case of poisoning from fruit-trees that have 

 been sprayed while in bloom, but it does 

 sometimes. We believe, however, that such 

 cases are becoming rarer. It has taken the 

 fruit-growers a long time to learn that they 

 are doing themselves a double injury when 

 they spray the blossoms — not all of them 

 have learned it yet — and meanwhile the 

 bees, tlie fruit-growers' best friends, have 

 liad to tlie by the thousands. 



DO BEES WORK MORE READILY ON FOUN- 

 DATION THAT IS FRESH? 



A Fi:w years ago there was some discus- 

 sion on this question, and the reports rather 

 indicated that the fresh foundation was to 



