272 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVlMi*. 



they may be readily studied or taken any 

 December, he thinks. ( Better get'em from 

 some small island where they don't migrate, 

 because they can't. ) But unless the above 

 facts can be re-read in some other way it 

 looks as though Apis Dorsata was a dead 

 cock in the pit. 

 RiOHABDS, Ohio. Sept. 23, 1897. 



them. When I went through York State I 

 noticed that they used two-wheeled trucks 

 where we in the central and western portion 

 of the country use four-wheeled ones. On 

 the latter, crates holding ten or twelve cases 

 would be handled just as they should be — in 

 a horizontal position. On two-wheeled 

 trucks, these crates would be trundled and 

 bumped over the plank platforms at an 

 angle of 45 degrees, as explained. 



EXTRMOXED. 



Shipping Comb Honey. 

 I have shipped comb honey both in and 

 out of large crates for holding the small 

 cases. In only one instance have I shipped 

 without the crates and found it satisfactory, 

 and that was when I sent 4,000 pounds to 

 New York City. In this instance the cases 

 were piled upon straw in one end of a car, 

 and straw put between them and the sides 

 and end of the car. Boards were put up 

 behind the cases to keep them in place. 

 This matter of how comb honey shall be 

 prepared for shipment came up for discus- 

 sion at the Buffalo convention, and Glean- 

 ings very fairly reports it as follows;— 



" A good deal of discussion took place at 

 the Buffalo meeting regarding the best 

 methods for shipping comb honey by freight. 

 Several took the ground that it was bad 

 policy to put cases of comb honey in a 

 large protecting-crate; that the honey was 

 more liable to be broken in such crates 

 than when piled loosely in a car on straw. 

 Others insisted just as strenuously that they 

 never had success in shipping honey till 

 they used these protecting-crates. Among 

 those who advocated putting the cases in a 

 car without the crate were Capt. J. E. 

 Hetherington, Dr. C. C. Miller, and quite a 

 number of others. These latter, i. e., those 

 who advocated the non-use of the crates, 

 very often ship in large lots and in carloads; 

 when the cases are piled up solidly in a car 

 (combs parallel to the rails) there is not 

 very much liability of the honey being 

 broken. On the other hand, when honey is 

 shipped in small lots, say in five or ten 

 cases, it seems to go better in a crate, es- 

 pecially if it is transferred. But Mr. S. A. 

 Niver, of Groton, N. Y., made the point 

 that those heavy crates holding, say, ten or 

 twelve cases, are pretty sure to be handled 

 in York State on two-wheeled trucks. The 

 crates were put on them the long way; and 

 as they are trundled from one car to an- 

 other the combs are jolted when held at 

 an angle of 45 degrees, and the wrong way at 

 that, and this causes the breaking out when 

 they used crates. It was hard for me to 

 reconcile that statement in view of the fact 

 that we had always had better success by 

 using the crates than when we did not use 



Breeding for Longer Tongnes. 



Prof. Oook has a long and interesting 

 article in Gleanings upon the advisability 

 and probality of increasing the length of 

 bees' tongues by care and selection in 

 breeding. He says but little regarding the 

 desirability of the change, taking that for 

 granted. If man, or something, overcomes 

 the insect enemies of the red clover, a 

 lengthening of the tongues of the bees 

 would undoubtedly be an advantage, but so 

 little red clover is now raised in this locality 

 that a lengthening of tongues would be of 

 little or no advantage here; it is possible 

 however, that there are localities where 

 red clover is unmolested, or where there are 

 other plants in which a length of tongues 

 would be an advantage. Here is the method 

 that the Professor would adopt to obtain 

 the desired results: 



" A good tongue-gauge, accurate know- 

 ledge of the habits of bees, and good judge- 

 ment to use this knowledge, and unflagg- 

 ing persistence — even in the face of seem- 

 ing failure — are the implements that shall 

 win in this struggle. The inclined-plane 

 tongue-gauge used by me some years ago, 

 and which won a medal at the Paris exhibi- 

 tion, is cheap and effective. Simply placed 

 in the hives it will tell what colonies have 

 longer tongues than others, and so what 

 colonies should be used in breeding. Mr. J, 

 H. Martin and others have also invented 

 efficient and practical gauges by which the 

 length of the tongues could be accurately 

 measured. When colonies are found that 

 the workers have tongues longer, even 

 though but slightly so, than the average, 

 the queens of such colonies should be used 

 exclusively in breeding. If by use of any 

 of the methods recommended for controll- 

 ing mating as to male or drone bees, as by 

 pruning drone comb, using drone traps, 

 securing eariy drones from desired colonies, 

 or by working in isolated districts, both 

 drone and q jeen can be selected; then the 

 end sought would be brought nearer. In 

 case the apiary were large, so that a large 

 number of queens would be needed, then 

 more speedy results might be expected. 

 The tongue-gauge would surely tell which 

 of the new colonies had retained or increas- 

 ed the desirable feature, and so which to 

 use in subsequent mating or breeding. 



