274 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



lever that would help to raise bee-keeping 

 to a higher plane of success. 



Amalgamation was lost. We have two 

 organizations, kindred in their general plan 

 and make-up, requiring the same machine- 

 ry for their work — the one tied, possibly 

 by vote of its members, though I am not 

 sure of that, but certainly by the views of 

 its manager, to one limited, and, as it seems 

 to me, rather unimportant line of work at 

 the present time; the other, ready to attack 

 any evil that really threatens the life or 

 welfare of our industry. What a chance 

 the old Union is losing now in not march- 

 ing against adulteration here in California, 

 where every thing would favor success ! 

 We have a good law, manager on the ground, 

 and public sentiment all on our side. We 

 could almost certinly have won a grand 

 success, and secured a precedent that would 

 have been as powerful for good as the 

 Arkansas court decision gained previously 

 by the Union. It seems to me that, in case 

 we could not constitutionally grapple with 

 this foe at this opportune time, we should 

 have taken steps at once to secure the right 

 and power to do so. 



I fully believe that we can afford but one 

 organization. This seems so axiomatic to 

 me that I believe the bee-keepers generally 

 will concur. As the new Union seems 

 more broad in its scope, more alive to the 

 needs of bee-keepers, more ready to attack 

 the enemy in whatever form he may take, I 

 believe it wise to merge the old Union into 

 the new. So far as I have heard expression, 

 this seems the growing opinion. 



I wish I could be at Buffalo to join in a 

 calm, dispassionate consideration of the 

 whole subject. Surely, the discussion should 

 come, and the matter of a second submission 

 to vote be carefully weighed. I presume a 

 large number of the members, and a soodly 

 proportion of the officers of the old Union, 

 will be present, and I hope that they will 

 make themselves heard. " 



At the Buffalo convention there were 

 present twenty members of the old Union 

 and they voted to a man in favor of there 

 being only one Union, in short, for amalga- 

 mation, and a committee was appointed to 

 confer with the old Union, should it express 

 a desire to unite with the United States 

 Union. 



TJnlooked-for Objectio s to the Drawn Comb. 

 Mr. Doolittle has been experimenting 

 with the drawn comb and reports as follows 

 to the Progressive Bee-Keeper. 



" Undoutedly the readers of the Pro- 

 gressive Bee-Keeper are wondering how 

 Doolittle was pleased with the drawn comb, 

 which he was so favorably impressed with 

 last sprins, after he has tested it in his 

 apiary. Well, I was disappointed with it. 

 I did not expect it would be perfect in its 

 first stages, for it will be remembered that I 

 said I considered it nearer perfection for 



the purpose for which it was intended) 

 than was comb foundation in its infancy, 

 for the purpose for which it was intended. 

 But there were things about the matter 

 which I did not understand, and those 

 things related almost entirely to the flat- 

 bottomed cells. I had used the Van Deusen 

 flat-bottomed foundation for years, and as 

 the bees made no objections to the flat 

 bases to the cells, I had not calculated that 

 the flat bottoms to these cells in the Weed 

 comb were to play so important a part. 

 Whether in foundation for the brood cham- 

 ber, or that for the sections, the bees al- 

 ways changed the Van Deusen flat-bottom 

 to the style of that they used for their own 

 combs, or very nearly so, doing it so quick- 

 ly that no perceptible time was lost ; but 

 from the past season's experience it would 

 seem that where the cell- walls on flat-bot- 

 tomed bases are from one-eighth to one- 

 fourth inches deep, the bees cannot get at 

 the bottom of the cells to change them 

 over from the flat form to that usually em- 

 ployed for comb. And because they could 

 not do this they were slow in accepting this 

 new drawn comb, actually advancing ordin- 

 ary foundation to a point nearer comple- 

 tion during the same length of time, and 

 also storing more honey in the latter than 

 in the former. For this same reason, as I 

 believe, I was confronted with something in 

 this drawn comb which I had not seen in 

 years, or since I used to insert a plaster 

 paris form in a section, having the imprint 

 of comb foundation on one side, on which I 

 painted melted beeswax, which adhered to 

 the section, in the center, after the plaster 

 of paris was removed. As will be seen, this 

 sheet of wax, I now had in the center of the 

 section, hs.d one side of plain wax, as it 

 left the brush, wliile the other side was very 

 much like foundation. In a poor year, the 

 bees would accept the foundation side of 

 this sheet of wax, build out the cells and fill 

 it with honey, and cap it over as nice as 

 could be. while the smooth side of the wax 

 center remained just as the brush left it. 

 Thus I would have sections of nice white 

 capped honey on one side, and an entirely 

 vacant side on the reverse. And, strange to 

 say, I find some sections very similar in this 

 respect by the use of this Weed drawn comb; 

 only, of course, the bees have not eaten 

 away the cell walls; but simply left them un- 

 touched on one side, while the other is filled 

 with honey and all nicely capped over. I 

 can only account for this on the ground 

 that the bees are loth to accept the flat-bot- 

 tomed cells, and only did so, where, for 

 some reason or other, one side came near to 

 where the cluster of bees were at work 

 busily on the sections opposite. That the 

 trouble is in the flat base, together with 

 high cell wall, seems very evident, from the 

 fact that a close examination shows that the 

 bees, in their efforts to have things as they 

 wish them, have filled in the corners with 

 their own wax, in some cases sufficient to 

 give the bottoms of the cells a somewhat 

 rounded appearance, and in many instances 

 where this has not been done, the whole 

 bottom of the cells are varnished over, 

 apparently with propolis, the same as they 



