1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



133 



Thanks, friend W. 1 am somewhat sur- 

 prised that alfalfa has been so long pro- 

 duced on vast tracts of land, without our 

 having heard more in regard to it as a hon- 

 ey-plant. It is true, something has been 

 said occasionally for perhaps ten or fifteen 

 years ; but when I made my visit to Cali- 

 fornia a year ago I did not see nor hear of 

 any great yields of honey from alfalfa ; 

 neither had it been found on the markets, 

 so far as I could learn. Any plant raised 

 by farmers, that produces honey by the car- 

 load, aside from the purpose for wliich it is 

 cultivated, is well worthy of our attention. 

 I should be very glad indeed for further re- 

 ports, especially where it produces htmey by 

 the ton. 



APICULTUEAIi NOMENCLATURE. 

 B. m'knight argues in favor of the already 



ACCEPTED TERMS, AS DETERMINED BY 

 COMMON CONSENT. 



Adverting to your issue of January 15, and to 

 Dr. Miller's letter therein, anent apicultural no- 

 menclature, I am led to reflect upon the imperfec- 

 tion of all sublunary things with which man has to 

 do— bee-keepers' terms not excepted. Some one 

 has said, that " proper words in proper places is the 

 true definition of style." According- to Dr. Miller, 

 there is little style in bee-literature, for he hints at 

 a misuse of words throughout. There can be no 

 doubt that the doctor is a judge, and a good one 

 too. Most assuredly, a gentleman who can write 

 fifteen long letters on out-apiaries, without repeat- 

 ing himself, is no mean authority on the proper 

 use of terms. One would think such a one would 

 be free from the use of inappropriate terms; but, 

 if I mistake not, ho himself has given us some 

 terms that will hardly bear criticism. Is he not 

 the inventor of that inappropriate phrase, T super, 

 or T-tin support? Is there any super in use that 

 bears the slightest resemblance to the letter T? If 

 so, I have not seen it; and a man's imagination 

 must be vivid indeed that can see a resemblance 

 between the tongued and flanged strips of tin 

 used to support sections on a section crate to the 

 aforesaid letter of the alphabet. The doctor is ex- 

 ercised about the correctness of many of the terms 

 we employ. His suspicions hover around such 

 ■words as super, crate, case, clamp, hive, apiary, 

 ■etc. I have always thought that "common con- 

 sent " has much to do in establishing the meaning 

 of words; and by common consent a definite mean- 

 ing has been given to each of the terms quoted. 

 The doctor singles out a few of the terms that 

 make him feel most uncomfortable in their use, 

 such as crate, case, apiary. He tells us Webster 

 ■defines crate to be " a wickerwork structure used 

 for packing crockery in; " but Webster is dead, and 

 the crockery-crate is no longer exclusively made of 

 wickerwork. Many of them are now made of 

 strips of wood instead; still, they are called crates. 

 So are many other things made of slats or strips of 

 wood. We have section crates, egg-crates, berry 

 and fruit crates, none of which are made of wicker- 

 work— properly so called, but we understand and 

 know what the terms mean. What incloses sec- 

 tions while on the hive is not a box, for it is open 

 above and below. By common consent it is called 

 a crate. Let us be content with the term, for it 

 would be difficult to find a more appropriate one. 



It is no misnomer to call the wooden or partially 

 wooden bo.\ in which comb honey is sent to market 

 a case, for the term case means, by common con- 

 sent, an outer protective structure, and has a wide 

 application, both as to shape and the material of 

 which it is made. We have not only a section-case, 

 but we have gun-case, book-case, spectacle-case, 

 clock-case, watch-case— yes, " through the crystal 

 case the figured hours are seen," somebody tells us. 

 Even the outer wall of a building was called a case 

 before Webster was born; for Addison tells us, 

 "The case of the holy house is nobly designed." 

 Let us be content, then, with case. 



I should be glad, it' space permitted, to go 

 through the list and try to help the doctor out of 

 his dilemma, and establish him in the belief that " it 

 is better to bear the ills we have, than flee to those 

 we know not of." 



I suppose your definition of an ap ary as " a 

 place where bees are kept "will help to reconcile 

 the doctor to a continuation of its use. I might as- 

 sist you in this by citing the terms aviary, hennery, 

 piggery, queenery, and grapery, as being appro- 

 priate in their respective uses. He may retort, 

 however, by saying, "If apiary means a place 

 where bees are kept, then a cellar may be an apia- 

 ry; so may a house, a barn, a clamp, or a shed, for 

 bees are kept in all these places;" but common 

 consent comes to our aid again, and restricts the 

 meaning to the inclosure in which they are kept 

 during their active life. The others are called 

 their " winter quarters." R. McKntght. 



Owen Sound, Ont., Can., Jan. 21. 



AUTOMATIC SWARMING. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE EXPRESSES HIMSELF IN A HOPE- 

 FUL WAY IN REGARD TO IT. 



The following questions have been sent in to me, 

 with the request that I answer them through the 

 columns of Gleanings. 1. "It is well known, 

 that, when a hive is full of bees, so that they begin 

 to think of 'lying out,' they will crowd into any 

 empty space which may be about the hive, much 

 sooner than they will go on the outside of the hive. 

 Taking advantage of this fact, suppose that, as 

 soon as the sections are filled with bees, they be- 

 ing well at work, and before the swarming fever 

 comes upon them, we bore a two or three inch hole 

 in one side of the hive, and on the inside of the 

 same put a piece of queen-excluding metal. Next, 

 we will bore a corresponding hole of the same size 

 in an empty hive, cover the same with the queen- 

 excluding metal, and set this empty hive right up 

 against the other, having the bees in it, so that the 

 holes match, and then put a queen-cell in this emp- 

 ty hive. Now the point I wish to know is, will there 

 not, in time, be a new swarm of bees in that empty 

 hive?" 



Well, now, this is a new thought, to me at least, 

 and one in which I think there may a benefit arise 

 to the bee-fraternity. That it will work just as it is 

 given in the above question, I have my doubts; tor 

 I believe, from what I know of having queens fer- 

 tilized in the same hive having a layingqueen, that, 

 when the young queen comes to take her first 

 flight (if the bees ever cluster about the ct 11 so it 

 hatches, and preserve hei' till this time), she would, 

 upon returning, go into the main hive and destroy 

 the reigning queen, which would be a loss rather 



