488 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1. 



right, for I have just been trying it. It was 

 devised by a practical man; and in the way of 

 a bee-brush it beats any thing I ever saw. — Ed.] 



Say, Ernest, are yon crazy too ? On page 

 452 you say, "You may advocate an Interna- 

 tional Bee-keepers' Union, but you can't make 

 bee-keepers on this side of the line accept it." 

 This in the face of the fact that the Union has 

 been international from ihe start, and never 

 any thing else. Too bad to have you lose your 

 mind. And I thought such a lot of you. [See 

 answer to another straw on this subject.— Ed.] 



I'm not fool, enough to mix in that Skylark- 

 Gates fight, page 453; but if I were in Gates' 

 place I'd tell Skylark that deep combs are not 

 the main advantage of box hives, but that box 

 hives are warmer for winter, because not cooled 

 off with a circulating current of air around the 

 frames. And I'd tell him that, by hiving big 

 swarms in little hives with no old comb, I can 

 get whiter sections than he dare get over old 

 black combs. 



Tin rabbets are good, but one thing about 

 them is bad. Bees don't like to put bee-glue 

 on tin as well as on wood, so a line of bee-glue 

 projects all around above the tin against which 

 the end of the top-bar goes; and when you go 

 to lift out a frame this line of bee-glue stops 

 the end of the top-bar, then you pull and it 

 comes up with a jerk, and that makes the bees 

 mad, and sometimes you're fool enough to get 

 mad too. Perhaps the remedy may be in hav- 

 ing the tin come up flush with the surface of 

 the wood.— [The remedy is warmer weather; 

 then there will be no snap or jerk. — Ed.] 



I'm biased sometimes, Ernest, but not the 

 way you thought on page 466. I'm not biased 

 in favor of cellar wintering, but stick to it just 

 because I daren't leave it. I can't get rid of 

 the notion that a colony wintered in the free 

 air is tougher than one shut up in a cellar. I'd 

 hate to stay in a cellar five months myself; and 

 if I live to be an old man I hope to learn some 

 way by which I can winter out— I mean the 

 bees, not myself. I just envy you fellows who 

 can winter out. [You can't get " rid of the no- 

 tion," for there is something substantial to 

 hold it. I have a notion to insure the safe win- 

 tering of ten of your colonies right out in your 

 bee-yard— the same put in our chaff hives, and 

 packed as we do it here. If you don't find those 

 bees a little more "frisky" than your indoor 

 bees when brought out in the spring I shall be 

 surprised. By the way, you had better, while 

 you are about it, get George E. Hilton to insure 

 another ten in his hives, in that same yard of 

 yours.-^ED.] 



I don't know, Mr. Editor, whether you real- 

 ize it; but on page 452 you are striking out a 

 new path, for I think you are the first man to 

 suggest changing the Union so as to make it 

 what is needed. Certainly I think no one has 



before hinted at changing it from international 

 to national. They've just howled against 

 touching it for fear of making international 

 what has always been international. Now, if 

 you can make the Union all that's needed I'm 

 with you. I'll go a step farther than you, and 

 say, let the North American sleep the sleep of 

 the— well, let it sleep. [While we may not 

 agree whether the Union is at present national 

 or not we are a unit in believing that the new 

 organization should be so. So far, so good. 

 Whether I am striking out on a new path mat- 

 ters not so far as I am concerned; but it ap- 

 pears to me that the course suggested is the 

 simplest, and at the same time the most feasi- 

 ble. I should like an expression from our read- 

 ers, particularly of members of the Union.— Ed.] 



LOW^ PRICES ON HONEY AND OTHER PRODUCTS; 



A REPLY TO MR. DOOLITTLE'S ARTICLE 



IN THE "PROGRESSIVE." 



G. M. Doolittle, in Progressive, has "opened 

 fire all along the line " on Skylark. Ostensibly 

 it is directed at "Observer;" but its real objec- 

 tive point is the utter annihilation of Skylark. 

 Listen to friend Doolittle a moment: 



On page 108 of the Prnarcssive Bcc-kreper for April 

 1, under " Rose Hill Notes," I find Observer indors- 

 ing what Skylark said in March 15th Gleanings, 

 where said Skylark styles the larger part of our 

 apiarists as lunatics because they are of a commu- 

 nicative turn of mind, and impart knowledge re- 

 garding the ways of successful apiculture to others. 

 I do not suppose that friend Leahy knew the full 

 import of wh;it Observer was saying when he allow- 

 ed that note to go in, for I can not believe that he 

 desires all who read the articles written by myself 

 and others to be maltreated; as an indorsement of 

 Skylark is to indorse such a sentence as this: " Dis- 

 courage by every means in your power every would- 

 be bee-keeper, even if you have to floor him with a 

 skilkt."„ ^ _a 



Since I threw my flag to the breeze with that 

 last quotation inscribed on its ample folds, 

 many bee-keepers have come out and boldly 

 advocated the same doctrine, although they 

 did not advise such general destruction of skil- 

 lets. Whether it was from a scarcity of the 

 article in their locality, or a fear that some 

 fellow would get a corner on them, I can not 

 tell; but they are virtually with me all the 

 same; and bee-keepers will, in large numbers 

 (notwithstanding their insanity in the Skylark 

 sense), become convinced that I am right. I 

 can not see how I " maltreated " friend Doolittle 

 or any other teacher of apiculture. If he feels 

 hurt because I specifically confined him to 

 skillets I am sorry for it, and I withdraw the 

 limits at once. Skillets, gridirons, rolling-pins, 

 or flat-irons— in fact, any thing he can get his 

 hand on quick, that is harder than an amateur's 

 head, will do. This will relieve friend Doo- 



