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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



friend called my attention to it. Dr. A. B. 

 Mason has been one of the most active in the 

 support of the old Union, and latterly of the 

 Association, of any member or officer we have 

 ever had It was he who drafted the consti- 

 tution of the present organization, which, un- 

 der its excellent provisions, is doing such 

 good work. He served as president for two 

 terms, and as secretary continuously for sev- 

 eral years. 



One can readily see that it was an oversight, 

 as the notice at the head of this column was 

 published in the very next issue following 

 this unfortunate oversight, and again in the 

 March 1st number. 



SOMETHING TO I<EARN IN INDOOR WINTER- 

 ING. 



The bees under the machine-shop, of which 

 I spoke in our last issue, are still doing very 

 nicely. The more I think of it, the more I 

 believe there is much to learn on this subject 

 of indoor wintering. The fact that Ira Barber 

 says he succeeds under conditions that seem 

 to be utterly at variance with the experience 

 of others, should merit sufficient attention to 

 see if harmony can not finally be made out of 

 all the conflict of opinion. If I remember 

 correctly Mr. Barber maintains that even a 

 high temperature is not detrimental, but that 

 a fresh infusion of air direct from outdoors 

 causes the bees uneasiness, hence they get out 

 of the hives, and consequently losses occur on 

 the cellar bottom. Our bees get no air except 

 from the outer or main cellar, and the num- 

 ber of dead bees on the flbor of the bee-cellar 

 is surprisingly small. 



JUDGING OF the CIRCULATION OF A PERI- 

 ODICAL; ADVERTISING IN GLEANINGS. 



One can often judge of the circulation of a 

 periodical by the class and amount of adver- 

 tising seen in its pages. The subscription- 

 list of Gleanings has been having a steady 

 and healthy growth, and a very good proof of 

 this is afforded by the large amount of clean 

 advertising that will be found in our columns. 

 The advertisers of the country are in the hab- 

 it of keeping returns of every periodical they 

 advertise in ; and if such medium does not 

 bring in a large list of applications, or enough 

 to bring down the cost of each name to 10 or 

 25 cts., that medium is dropped from the 

 list, and only those used which are able to 

 show value received for the money invested. 

 The large amount of advertising we now have 

 shows that our advertisers have tried our col- 

 umns, and find that it pays to keep in them. 

 We have some who have been with us, not 

 only many months but years. 



PURE-FOOD COMMISSIONERS, AND HOW THEY 

 CAN HELP BEE KEEPERS. 

 The following letter, addressed to H. G. 

 Acklin, President of the Minnesota State Bee- 

 keepers' Association, will be read with special 

 interest by all the bee-keepers of that State, 

 and we are glad 1o place it before our readers : 



Mr. H. G. Acklin : — If the bee interests of Minneso- 

 ta will advise this office of all violations of the law 



relative to honey that come under their obseiva'ion 

 it will enible us to be of gre-tter service to this indus- 

 try than we can possibly otherwise. 



Any information of this kind received could only 

 be used by us in ferreting out and making up a case 

 of our own. 



It is, and will be, the purpose of this Department to 



protect as far as possible all products that are pure. 



With the CO operation of our friends we hope to gu trd 



our pure foods from competition of spurious articUs, 



Very trulj' vours, 



W. W. P. MCCONNELL, 



Dairy and Food Commissioner. 

 St. Paul, Minn., Feb. 21. 



Would there were more dairy and food com- 

 missioners who felt the same interest in the 

 purity of the product of the hive. We have 

 another good one in Illinois, and one in Ohio; 

 but we need more. Most of these public ser- 

 vants would be glad to carry out the requests 

 of bee-keepers; and I would suggest that our 

 subscribers of the several States write to their 

 commissioners, asking for assistance in the 

 matter of prosecuting the adulterators of hon- 

 ey. A letter addressed to the Food Commis- 

 sioner at your State capital will probably find 

 your man. 



THE LOGIC OF THE TIMES — TALL SECTIONS 

 V. SQUARE ONES. 



As will be seen in Pickings in this issue, it 

 appears that the tall and thin sections are re- 

 ceiving considerable attention from our Brit- 

 ish cousins. So far as I have been able to dis- 

 cover, their experience with regard to tall thin 

 boxes is very strongly in line with the state- 

 ments of those in this country who have givtn 

 these special goods careful and extended trial. 

 Our own orders from Great Britain, instead of 

 being now so much for the \% square, full 2 

 inches thick, are beginning to show a tenden^ 

 cy toward the tall thin boxes, either four-bee- 

 way or plain. And, by the way, our British 

 cousins were a long way ahead of us in dis- 

 covering that sections with four openings were 

 considerably better than those with simple 

 openings at top and bottom. As they recog- 

 nize the value of direct communication side- 

 wise as well as up and down, so they were 

 quick to perceive the advantages of the plain 

 section and fence system. The time was, and 

 that not ten years ago, to say the least, when 

 square boxes, with one or two exceptions, 

 were used almost exclusively throughout the 

 United States, and now many bte-keepers 

 right and left are beginning to see that there 

 is money in the tall and thin boxes. I know 

 of one particular case where a bee-keeper op- 

 posed the introduction of these new things, 

 and particularly the tall section ; but I learn- 

 ed recently that the hard logic of a cent or 

 two difference in his own market, in favor of 

 the tall box as against his own square section, 

 convinced him that he could not afford to use 

 the old-style one, and compelled him to use 

 the very things which he had decried and de- 

 spised. He is not saying any thing — he is 

 keeping still and "sawing wood ; " that is to 

 say, he is buying tall sections, re-equipping 

 his supers, and proposes to be on a level with 

 his neighbors who have been getting a higher 

 price than he. 



Of course there are markets where no dis- 

 crimination is made in price in the two kinds 



