1896 



(JLh:AiNlM(;« IN KEE CULTURE. 



145 



The gardens contain lettuce, radishes, onions, 

 and turnips, and should have beets and cab 

 bages. Gardeners say that it was too dry in 

 the fall to raise the plants. A. I. R. would 

 have naanaged to raise them. Strawberries and 

 peen-to peaches are l)looining. The peentos 

 are silly. They may get frozen for their pre- 

 cocity. Mi:s L. Hakkiso.v. 



St. Andrews Bay, Fla.. .Ihu. 2:2. 



The result of the election of officers of the 

 Bee-keepers' Union shnws that all the old offi- 

 cers were re-elected. The names stand as fol- 

 lows: General Manager. Thomas G. Newman; 

 Pres., Hon. R. L. Taylor; Vice - presidents. 

 Prof. A. J. Cook, G. M. Dooliitle. Dr. C. C. Mil- 

 ler, Hon. Eugene Secor, A. 1. Root. The ques- 

 tion of amalgamation wiih tlie North American 

 will be submitted later. 



Several of our subscribers have called our 

 attention to an article in a recent number of 

 (rreen's Fruit-yrower. where an editorial foot- 

 note seemed to not only pronounce ilie bei s a 

 ^i'^^erious hindrance to fruit-growing, but al>o 

 recommended fruit-growers to hang up bottles 

 of sweetened water lo destroy tlie bees. In 

 view of this we are plea.^ed to see the following 

 "^ from the editor: 



Df«r Si'/:— Thanks for your letter, wliieli we will 

 publish. The article you refer to was act wcitteii 

 by our editor, who is a friend of bees 

 Rochester, N. Y., Jan. 16. Gkeen Nukseky Co. 



In writing upon the question of building up 

 colonies in the spring. Dr. Miller offers, in the 

 Aiaericayi Bee Journal, this very sensible ad- 

 vice, and I give it right here because so many 

 make the mistake every season of trying to 

 strengthen up weak colonies in-tead of turning 

 what little strength they do have toward the 

 strong: 



Wluiteveryou do, daii't try to build up weak colo- 

 nies b. g-iving ihem brood and bees I'rom stronger 

 colonies; for, although tlie weaker colon.x' will gain 

 l:)y it, that gain will be more than counierbalanced 

 by the loss of the stronger colony. Rathei- take 

 from the verj- weak, and give to those that are of 

 medium strength. Indeed, it is not a bad plan to 

 break up entirely the very weak ones, and unite 

 them with the stronger; then later in the season 

 you can more than make up your number with what 

 the strongest can spare. 



In our last issue, page 111, I referred to the 

 practice of some commis>ion houses, of quoting 

 higher prices than the market justifies, in or- 

 der to get consignments. If any of our people — 

 that is, those who make quotations in our Hon- 

 ey Column — make a practice of this, I hope our 

 readers will give us the names at once. If they 

 persist in the practice, we will simply drop 



them. If bee journals and bee-keepers unite 

 in this I think we can put an end to what has 

 been working a great injustice for years back. 

 When a bee-keeper sees quotations at so much, 

 he ought to have reasonable assurance that he 

 will be al)le to obtain about that tigure. Of 

 course, r appreniaie the fact that a good and 

 honorable commis^ion house may be deceived, 

 and not able to realiz.i what they think they 

 can get. Well, then they should make their 

 prices conservative; and then if they can do 

 better than they promise, they can rest assured 

 that next time they will be patronized again. 



MORE SUCCESSFUL M.VILING OF QUEENS TO 

 AUSTRALIA. 



We are getting excellent reports of shipments 

 of queens to Australia. In our issue for Oct. 1.5, 

 p 774, we illustrated A. E Mannm's cage for 

 export? purposes. This, you will remember, 

 contained the usual candy-holes, and in the 

 center an oblong space in which a small amount 

 of sealed honey was placed. The object of the 

 sealed honey was to act as a sort of relay if the 

 candy should fail to be a suitable feed. Well, 

 we used these cages exclusively on the last 

 shipment; and if success in mailing means any 

 thing, the addition of a honey hole is a decided 

 hit. Oh. nol it is not a new idea, because hon- 

 ey was used before the Good candy. As I have 

 told you a number of limes before, we often 

 have to go back to old thing> in order to im- 

 prove on some of the later good things. 



HOKN-BLOWING. 



Perhai's publishers who also manufacture 

 supplies are justly accused at times of blowing 

 their own horns. If we have done it in our 

 case we have allowed some of our competitors, 

 not exactly to blow their own horn, but to tell 

 of their own progress in the manufacturing 

 business. Yes, we even let men who have par- 

 ticular hives and fads praise their own goods 

 at the expense of our own. Witness, for exam- 

 ple, the article by Mr. Danzenbaker, in our 

 Trade Notes for Jan. 15. In next issue (see 

 Trade Notes) I shall take particular pleasure 

 in referring favorably to a style of hive that we 

 do not manufacture, and possibly never shall. 

 When Gleanings gets to the plane when it 

 allows nothing but one kind of hive or section 

 to be boomed, and that the hive and section of 

 its publishers, I shall feel that its day of useful- 

 ness is gone; and so long as I have hold of the 

 editorial reins of beedom, I desi'e to have every 

 guod idea given a reasonable space. 



MY ME.VT AND YOUR '"STUFF." 



We are giving our readers a large range of 

 reading-matter; and while some of it may be 

 regarded as "stuff " by some, it is impossible 

 that all of our large constituency should place 

 an equal estimate upon every thing that we 

 publish. We put on full headlines, and, like 



