778 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Dec. 15 



doing in shipping comb honey, fully as 

 fragile and much heavier. Then we turn 

 around and blame the railroad men, and 

 they in turn advance the rates on us. It 

 has also come to pass that many comb hon- 

 ey buyers quit the business because they 

 would not stand the loss from breakage and 

 leakage. Now, then, will the bee-keepers 

 of this day and age wake up and put their 

 honey in more up-to-date cases? Why should 

 we continue to use the old-fashioned ship- 

 ping-cases with solid no-drip cleats? The 

 supply manufacturers will make whatever 

 comb-honey producers ask for. 



R. F. HOLTERMANN RETIRES FROM OUR ED- 

 ITORIAL staff; our new Ca- 

 nadian EDITOR. 



Little did we think when we prepared 

 the editorial on page 7-16 of our issue for Dec. 

 1st, speaking of Mr. Holtermann and some 

 of his work as a bee-keeper, that he was 

 about to retire from all apicultural writing. 

 Shortly after this, we received a letter from 

 our correspondent, stating that he felt it his 

 duty, during the winter months at least, to 

 take up again the preaching of the gospel; 

 and in order to devote to this his undivided 

 attention he deemed it neces^sary to give up 

 all writing for the various publications with 

 which he has been connected. On this ac- 

 count, he asked to be released; and while we 

 were sorry to lose an old and valued corre- 

 spondent, under the circumstances we did 

 not feel that it would be right to dissuade 

 him from his purpose. 



As we understand it, Mr. Holtermann will 

 still retain his interest in bees, and during 

 the summer months will work them as here- 

 tofore, for it should be understood he is very 

 extensively engaged in the business. We 

 believe it is his intention, during the win- 

 ter, to furnish his services free of charge in 

 neglected fieHs where there is no money to 

 pay for special gospel meetings. We infer 

 that he will use the proceeds of his apiaries 

 in the summer time, not only to support 

 his family, but to defray the expenses of his 

 special work. He will enter a large field, 

 and we wish him Godspeed. We are sure 

 he will carry with him the best wishes of 

 his old friends, and especially of those inter- 

 ested in the spread of the gospel. 



In the mean time we have engaged as our 

 Canadian correspondent, Mr. J. L. Byer, of 

 Mt. Joy, Ontario, who is in close touch with 

 all apicultural doings across the border. 

 We bespeak for Mr. Byer, who will begin 

 his work next February, the same cordial 

 support that was accorded his predecessor. 

 He started with nothing but pluck and de- 

 termination at the bottom round of the api- 

 cultural ladder. He has been climbing up 

 and up until now he is very near the top. 

 To drop the figure, he is now recognized as 

 one of the leading lights in every thing per- 

 taining to bee culture. As a racy para- 

 grapher, one who knows how to pick out the 

 1 teresting and helpful from his large read- 

 1 and experience, he has few equals. 



CREDIT TO WHOM CREDIT IS DUE; THE HAND 



SYSTEM OF SWARM CONTROL. AND THE 



ALEXANDER METHOD OF CURING 



EUROPEAN FOUL BROOD, OLD. 



After we prepared the write-up of the J. 

 E. Hand system of swarm control in this 

 issue, page 797, we received a letter from 

 Samuel Simmins, of Heathfield, Sussex, 

 England, calling our attention to the fact 

 that, away back as far as 1893, in his book, 

 "A Modern Bee-farm," page 242, and later 

 in the same work for 1904, page 216, he de- 

 scribe<l a plan for working two colonies to- 

 gether that involved very much the same, 

 if not identically the same, principle of 

 swarm control as that described in recent 

 issues of Gleanings by Mr. J. E. Hand, 

 and in this issue. The latter's manner of 

 switching the bees from one hive to anoth- 

 er, however, is a little different, and, ap- 

 parently, easier to apply. 



The hive with its system of control, de- 

 scribed in these early citations, is mentioned 

 as a "double conqueror," and has been de- 

 scribed in various editions of Simmins' book. 

 We shall soon publish an article from Mr. 

 Simmins in which he will go into details 

 more at length; but for the present, at least, 

 we thought it only fair to mention the mat- 

 ter at this time. 



In this connection we may say that Mr. 

 Simmins also draws our attention to the 

 fact that he described in the early editions 

 of his book, and in the little publication 

 known as "Bee Chat," the basic principles 

 of the Alexander system of curing foul brood 

 years before Mr. Alexander gave it to the 

 public. We take it that what Mr. Simmins 

 has been describing was the European type 

 of disease, and which was named by Che- 

 shire as Bacillus alvei, and not the Ameri- 

 can type of disease; but, more anon. 



A CORRECTION. 



Mr. Simmins also insists that Langstroth 

 nowhere, in any of his works, spoke of the 

 fasting method of introducing queens, as 

 we stated some time ago in these pages. 

 We have made a careful search all through 

 Langstroth's old books, and are obliged to 

 confess that no such statement appears. 

 Under the circumstances, it is but fair to 

 give Mr. S. the benefit of the doubt, and 

 we therefore stand corrected. 



BEE-KEEPING FOR BEGINNERS AND " BACK- 

 LOTTERS. ' ' 



We would call the attention of those who 

 are just starting or thinking of starting in 

 the bee business to the special series of ar- 

 ticles written by Mr. F. Dundas Todd — the 

 initial number of which appears in this is- 

 sue. Mr. Todd was formerly editor of a 

 magazine called the Photo Beacon, and 

 which at that time, at least, was and is an 

 authority on the subject of taking pictures. 

 Ill '^3alth in his family comi)elled him to 

 sever his connection with the Beacon, and 

 go west. He had already begun bee-keep- 

 ing before he left Chicago. While he, at 



