363 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1. 



You have often heard of the Harbison hive, but 

 few have any accurate idea of its origin, size, 

 and general appearance. 



REi't)HTS, so far as we have gathered them 

 from all over the country, seem to show that 

 bees have wintered fairly well, though not so 

 well as last winter. In some quarters the losses 

 were hardly worth mentioning. It seems to be 

 a singular fact — one for which we can assign 

 no reason — that there has been the greatest 

 mortality in the region of Northern Ohio. We 

 might assign as the cause, our proximity to 

 Lake Erie; but why are there no very great 

 losses in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New 

 York, that border in a similar way on the great 

 lakes? 



We have just received .a new edition of the 

 work, " Bee-keeping for Profit."' by Dr. G. L. 

 Tinker, of New Philadelphia, O. This little 

 treatise gives in detail Dr. Tinker's new system 

 of management; the size and shape of his hive, 

 and general information regarding the uses of 

 ]jerforated zinc, of which the doctor makes a 

 specialty. As nearly as we can judge from a 

 hasty glancing over its pages, nearly all the old 

 matter has been retained, with here and there 

 some additions in regard to perforated zinc. A 

 chapter from " Be^s and Honey," on the subject 

 of "Pasturage a Necessity," has been added to 

 the book. It is published by G. W. York & Co., 

 Chicago, III., of whom it may be obtained. 



It will be remembered that we stated edito- 

 rially in onr last issue, that if R. L. Taylor and 

 the other fellows did not keep still we should be 

 "on their side of the fence." Mr. Taylor, in- 

 stead of keeping still, has gone and sent in a 

 well-considered article on thfe hiver and its cost 

 —see page .34.3. We do not remember whether 

 we were oil the fence or not; at any rate, we 

 now feel as if we were pretty nearly pushed 

 over on Mr. Taylor's side, and yet— and yet— 

 we can not (luite give up the idea that we should 

 like to be on th(! other side. The Pratt hiver 

 worked economically for us last year; and the 

 queens were reared after the swarms were cast. 

 If the new swarm in its new quarters be remov- 

 ed in four or five days, the parent colony will 

 probably rear a queen. 



Since we shut down on the sugar-honey 

 question in our columns, we have been asked 

 by adherents on both sides to renew the discus- 

 sion, more particularly as some of the other 

 journals were keeping it alive in their columns. 

 We do not wish to indicate any policy for an- 

 other paper, but we hardly think it wise for its 

 to open the discussion for the present, if the 

 production of sugar honey is unwise, as we 

 firmly believe it is, the best way to kill it is to 

 say nothing about it. To vigorously oppose it 

 is, in a certain sense, to keep it alive. The 

 thing that we have to regret is, that it should 

 have been discussed as much as it has in our 

 columns, particularly as more extensive experi- 

 ments should have been made and a better 

 knowledge of the product secured; for even 

 Prof. Cook, in a card just received, says. ''lam 

 not sure that sugar honey is what I think it is; 

 that, of course, is to he settled." How much 

 better to have "settled it" before saying any 

 thing about it, and so incurring great risk as to 

 the consequences! 



CVCLONKS. 



By a letter just received from M. H. Hunt, of 

 Bell Branch. Mich., a manufacturer of and 

 dealer in supplies, we learn that he came very 

 near losing all his buildings by a cyclone that 

 passed by his place on the 13th of last month. 

 A neighbor who lives near him on the east lost 



all of his buildings and his orchard, amounting 

 In all to sonK^thinglikeSWOO, with no insurance. 

 Among his losses was an apiary. Not a scrap 

 of the hives could be found, nor even a bee. 

 The track of the cyclone was thirty rods wide, 

 and we are glad to know that friend Hunt was 

 not "in it." On the Sth of April, 1890, a de- 

 structive cyclone passed within two milesof our 

 buildings. Houses, barns, orchards, and fences 

 were almost annihilatc^d. Since that time we 

 have carried cyclone insurance. It is terribly 

 hard on a man who has been working the best 

 part of his life in ac(iuiring a property, to have 

 it <(ll literally swept away in a moment, with no 

 insurance to look to. 



MAKING YOUR IDEAS "GETATABLE." 



Sometimes our correspondents are a little 

 careless in making themselves understood; and 

 this is true of those who write regularly as well 

 as of those who contribute only "semi-occasion- 

 ally." In order to get the meaning we have 

 been obliged to read the pai'agraphsover a num- 

 ber of times, to see what the writer was " driv- 

 ing at;'" and even after having dug out the idea, 

 we hesitate to supply a word here and there, to 

 make it plainer, for fear we may make him say 

 just what he did not v/ant to say. Those who 

 are guilty of this sort of carelessness are just 

 the very ones who could do better. We look at 

 it this way: If we have to re-read paragraphs, 

 our subscribers, instead of digging out the mean- 

 ing, will just skip them, and hence just that 

 much valuable space is wasted. A diagram or 

 a rude sketch will help wonderfully many times; 

 and we hope our friends will feel free to add 

 such features to their descriptions, and where 

 practicable we will have them engraved. It 

 should also be borne in mind, that you can un- 

 derstand perfectly what you are trying to tell 

 about. After you have finished your descrip- 

 tion, submit it to some friend; and if he catches 

 the idea readily, it is presumable that others 

 will. We do not mean to make this a sort of 

 scold; but ideas should be so worded that the 

 reader will have little or no difficulty in catch- 

 ing the full meaning at once. 



But you say an editor is supposed to re-write, 

 re-word, and re-arrange, so that every thing 

 will be plain; but, dear, dear! if the poor editor 

 does not know what you are trying to tell, how 

 is he going to do it? He will probably consign 

 what is an otherwise valuable article to the 

 everlasting waste-basket, and turn his atten- 

 tion to something that gives ideas more easily 

 "getatable." 



root's exhibit at the world's fair. 

 We suppose most of our readers expect to vis- 

 it the World's Fair at Chicago. We take it for 

 granted that they will, of course, hunt up the 

 exhibit from the Home of the Honey-bees. It 

 is not so extensive as we had originally planned 

 or hoped. We were, in the first place, limited 

 to about 4x8 feet, but we complained that it 

 was no use making an exhibit in such a space 

 as that. It was then enlarged to 8x14 feet; 

 and even then we felt that we were being 

 cramped, as we desired to send a carload of 

 goods of our own manufacture. But the sec- 

 retary of the Department of Agriculture in- 

 formed US that, by reason of the great number 

 of applicants for space, he would linvc to limit 

 us to tliat space or nothing. We prepared an 

 exhibit, and have recently sent it to Dr. Miller, 

 who is to set it up in a few days after a photo- 

 graph we supplied him, and incase the whole 

 thing in a showcase, or, rather, a sort of glass 

 house. The exhibit comprises nearly every ar- 

 ticle we manufacture, and all distinctly relat- 

 ing to apiculture. A conspicuous feature of the 



