rHK BEE-KEErERS REVIEW, 



101 



*hroagh to Mr. Doolittle's regular depart- 

 naeut of seasouableaDAwerA. Then a page 

 or two more of small frHt,'ineut9 takes us to 

 Rambler's roiuauce. I dou't make much 

 prt)grees at getting reconciled to romance 

 in bee papers. Perhaps I'm peculiar. Is 

 fiction bait to entice in those who would not 

 be readers otherwise ? or is it sugar coating, 

 to relieve the disagreeable taste of apicul- 

 tural science ? or does tlie story itself convey 

 bee lore through the dull noddle which 

 would otherwise prove iui previous ? Neither 

 of the three theories seem entirely satisfac- 

 tory. Simply on its merits as a story, Ram- 

 bler's tale is not a bad one. Many passages 

 have very high merit. But he's keeping 

 Alfaretta too long and too prominently in 

 disagreeable roles. Doubtless he'll make 

 her shine as the noonday at last — but not 

 long enough to settle the previous account 

 — any more than a delightful last evening 

 atones for ten years of a scolding wife. 

 Say. Rambler, I don't mean to be mean — 

 got a remnant of la-grippe or something 

 hanging about me. Rut to business — the 

 story reaches to the editorial notes which 

 are a specially strong and excellent feature 

 of Gleanings and which are three or four 

 pages in extent. Then follow of course A. I. 

 Root's special departments of travels, and 

 religious teachings, and gardening — very 

 different from anything to be found in any 

 other bee- paper — very oflFensive to a few 

 critics with a theory in their heads; but 

 very Fatisfactory to. yours truly, and to 

 i>H out of every hundred readers. 



Gleanings of Jan. IHS? — a trifle over ten 

 years ago has about the same number of 

 pages of reading matter as now. The spread 

 of advertisements is much smaller than now. 

 ( Among them Chapman tells us how he 

 spent thdusunds of dollars tobriug his honey 

 plant before us, and asks us to buy seed at a 

 dollar an ounce. ) As first page man W. Z. 

 Hutchinson was holding forth — standing in 

 Dr. Miller's shoes; or rather breaking in the 

 shoes which Dr. Miller now wears. Editor- 

 ial notes were fewor than now. Ernest 

 edited s department instead of the whole 

 paper. And the footnote, the characteristic 

 footnote of Gleanings, was in its prime 

 almoet. 



The General Round-Up 



Eight weeks before the harvest ( rather 

 than six ) is the time to commence stimula- 



ting, if at all; thinks A. F. Brown, American 

 Bee Journal Gt). It takes a number of days 

 for the stimulus supplied to make much 

 difference in the rate of brooding. 



Mr. Harrison the Canadian bacteriologist 

 fed flies with food well mixed with the germs 

 of foul brood, and it killed them. I wonder 

 if any relief to the fly-tormented public is 

 bound up in that curious fact. Another 

 bacillus has greatly relieved the plague of 

 field mice with which certain regions of the 

 world were suffering; why not the bee bacil- 

 lus clean out the embryo flies from their 

 breeding places in the stables ? Mr. Harri- 

 son fed similarly infected food to grown up 

 bees for a month and they seemed to suffer 

 no harm. A. B. J. 70. 



Doolittle says he could double comb hon- 

 ey weights in producing extracted honey 

 when extracting was done every third 

 day; t)ut of honey all capped before ex- 

 tracting not more than 25 per cent. more. 

 A. B. J. That's about it no doubt. Save in 

 case of an unusual rush of honey, all increase 

 beyond a very modest one is at the direct 

 expense of quality. This is a chestnut, to 

 be sure, but the younger generation should 

 be fed on such chestnuts until they are safe 

 from forgetting. 



Aspinwall feeds a syrup so thick as to be 

 nearly candy when cold — 14 lbs. sugar to a 

 quart of water. To be fed warm. A. B. J. 

 S."). I'm not recommending this just at pre- 

 sent; but I feel interested to see that such 

 syrup can be practically fed. 



Dr. Miller makes wax candles ( as melted 

 wax droppers for soldering purposes ) by 

 wrapping waste scraps of foundation around 

 a string. A. B. J. 103. Bright idea — only as 

 he suggests they may not look as beautiful 

 as parlor candles should be. 



Mr. Evoy thinks foul brood infection gets 

 into hont-y mainly by the honey being stored 

 in cells in which foul matter has dried down. 

 But such cells of honey are often emptied 

 by bees and the honey moved. In this way 

 honey at the top or sides of the hive may 

 become very badly infected. A. B. J. 11.5. 



M. H. Hunt, A. li. J. 117, says dirty old 

 frames of comb with pollen in can be soak- 

 ed with advantage. Upon thorough drying 

 most of the old pollen can then be rattled 

 out. The comb also is improved and will 

 not darken the honey so badly if used for 

 extracting. Worth remembering. 



An editorial note A. B. J. 120 calls atten- 

 tion to the fact that some cases of so called 



