240 



THE BEE-KEEPEna' uEVIEW 



to stretch that grade over half your crop. 

 Better not try to define fancy, but just say, 

 such honey as is manifestly superior to No. 

 1. with the understanding that it is for those 

 luxurious rich people who like to pay two 

 prices for what they put on their own tables 

 and always do so when they can. 



That racket of mine about editors and 

 their tricks seems to have hurt. Let me set 

 myself right at once. Apiculture has model 

 editors, and model editors of an excellent 

 grade too. I talked about a new model edi- 

 tor, as a desirable and unattained thing. 

 That important word "new " got left out in 

 one of the comments the paragraph gave 

 rise to. Friend York put me in the Mutual 

 Admiration ranks because I put W. Z. 

 nearer the new model than the rest. See 

 here, friend York, I gave Hutchinson a little 

 taffy because I was just about to heave a 

 brick at him. This is a well known trick of 

 the critics, for critics as well as editors have 

 their tricks. You quoted the taffy and ig- 

 nored the brick, thereby showing that my 

 list of editorial tricks was not as long as it 

 might easily be. 



In (xieanings, .'")85, Illinois and Medina 

 disagree about sheep as lawn mowers. It is 

 agreed that they mow well, but disagreed 

 whether they push hives over or not. Can 

 hardly be "locality" that makes the odds. 

 I take the more laborious way and hoe in- 

 stead of mow around my hives; but I think 

 I can see far enough into the millstone to 

 mediate in the matter. If your hives are 

 spaced six feet (as Gleanings used to recom- 

 mend) and you only put in a few sheep, 

 they'll do no harm. But if you put in a 

 whole flock, or if many of your hives stand 

 two feet or less from each other, or from 

 solid objects, then look out. Sheep are in- 

 clined to make moving wedges of them- 

 selves, both singly and collectively. 



Ernest has just found out that fallen 

 twigs under the basswood trees are nice to 

 snap up and put in the smoker. Gleanings, 

 (50:5. I found that out long ago, but alas, 

 lost my honors by not publishing it. ( )ur 

 chestnut trees also shed decayed limbs which 

 answer the purpose. Fallen twigs, how- 

 ever, are not handy to store under cover, 

 and otherwise they are half the time too 

 damp to use. Still, I think most of us 

 should do better than use Mr. Root's planer 

 shavings or Mr. Bingham's recut stovewood. 

 The latter is voted to make too liot a fire — 

 too hot for the fingers and too hot for the 



durability of the smoker. Both yield too 

 much tar. Best way is to keep in your 

 supply box plenty of two kinds of rotten 

 wood at once. Soft woods and some of the 

 hard woods decay to a sort of soft fibre. 

 This is nice but not very durable, especially 

 on a windy day. Oak and various other 

 hard woods decay by turning brown and 

 breaking up into hard, cubical blocks. This 

 is a durable fuel; but to begin with, and 

 often times to mix in, some of the other 

 kind right at hand is very convenient. 



AMERICAN Bee keeper 



The American Bee Keeper has changed 

 but little since I wrote it up a year ago. It 

 has an assistant editor now. Also the edi- 

 torial notes look as though some time and 

 thought had been spent on them — all of 

 which is in the right direction. Sorry to 

 hear that the publishers have a blooming 

 list of dead beats and swindlers, some of 

 whom pose as prominent bee men and queen 

 breeders. The list lays so heavy on their 

 stomachs that they threaten to publish it 

 without waiting for the other journals to 

 fall in. Sad to have our esprit de corps so 

 broken in upon. We like to believe that 

 bee keepers are better than other folks. 

 Almost resolved to pay up my subscription 

 to the A. B. K. to help obviate the dire ex- 

 pose. 



"Truthful James." A. B. K., 197, thinks 

 that the average missionary, even if he has 

 read Gleanings for a year or two, is hardly 

 the person to trust with so big and so im- 

 portant an inquiry as whether it is possible 

 to subject Apis Dorsata to civilized hand- 

 ling. Plausible idea. But, -Tamie, we might 

 let him try till some more competent person 

 heaves in sight. Or is there danger that he 

 will get the question closed, as an alleged 

 impossibility, before the competent person 

 does heave in sight? 



A. B. .7. for .June has a long and very in- 

 teresting article on the honey trade and the 

 ▼arieties of honey, taken from the N. Y. Sun 

 — a reporter's gleanings among the honey 

 houses of the metropolis. As might be ex- 

 pected of reporters' work, it is marred by a 

 few glaring mistakes and played out state- 

 ments, but is well worth the reading. 



On page 1()1 Bessie L. Putnam ably re- 

 views one of those queer old bee books 

 written to edify former generations. It is 

 dedicated to Queen Anne, but not printed till 



