Published Monthly at $1.00 a Year, by George W. York & Company, First National Bank Building 



C. H. DADANT. Kditor. 



DR. C. C. MILLKR. Associate Kditor. 



HAMILTON, ILL., JULY, 1912 



VoL LII-No. 7 



Amount of Honey Consumed by 

 a Colony 



The reader will find in this number 

 a very interesting article upon this 

 question from the pen of Adrian Getaz. 

 Mr. Getaz shows, as usual, profound 

 study on his subject. 



On the cost of wax, however, one of 

 his authorities is hardly to be relied 

 upon. Sylviac is the writer who, after 

 making an experiment on the honey 

 extractor, denounced this implement 

 as impracticable. No further com- 

 ment is necessary. 



Regarding the weight of cappings, 

 the Editor has repeatedly found that it 

 amounts to from 1 to IJz percent of 

 the total weight of the honey extracted. 



The cost of wax to the bees is not 

 only the actual consumption of honey, 

 but also the loss in crop to those bees 

 while they are confined to the hive, 

 building the comb. If we figure it in 

 any other way, we delude ourselves. 

 Of course, for the purpose of ascertaing 

 how much honey is actually consumed, 

 Mr. Getaz' argument is good. But 

 the ixiKl cost in honey can be no bet- 

 ter determined than the cost in corn 

 for the fat produced in cattle. It evi- 

 dentlv varies with circumstances. 



To All Who Have No Foul Brood 



Every now and then a letter comes 

 from some one in a panic because 

 there is some unusual appearance in 

 his hives, and he is afraid foul brood 

 is present. It may be that there is 

 nothing serious whatever, and he might 

 have saved himself the panic if he had 

 only taken the trouble to read up a lit- 

 tle on the symptoms of bee-diseases. 

 But he had always felt that he was not 

 interested in foul brood, and in his 

 reading skipped anything on that sub- 

 ject. 



In most cases, however, it is likely 

 that fears are justified. Foul brood is 

 so thoroughly scattered all over the 

 land that no matter how secure you 



may now feel it is only a question of 

 time when it will silently make its ap- 

 pearance in your apiary. It will make 

 no great hurrah upon its arrival, but it 

 will be there. So the more you know 

 about it in advance the better you will 

 be able to meet it. It may be many 

 dollars in your pocket if you can stamp 

 it out while yet it is in only one or two 

 hives rather than to wait until it is 

 scattered through your whole apiary. 



If you suspect disease in your brood, 

 do not send samples to this office or 

 to Dr. Miller. Send them to Dr. E. F. 

 Phillips, Agricultural Department, 

 Washington, D. C. Dr. Phillips is very 

 much in earnest in doing what may be 

 done toward overcoming the evils of 

 foul brood, and will be glad to help 

 you. If you write to him in advance, 

 he wall send you a tin box just right to 

 contain a piece of brood-comb 3x4 

 inches. Not only that, but he will send 

 you a frank so that postage for send- 

 ing will cost you nothing. And he 

 will make no charge whatever. Could 

 you ask anything better? Keep a 

 sharp lookout, and act promptly on the 

 first appearance of anything wrong. 



Mailing System of the World 



The "Outlook" for March 23 con- 

 tains an article entitled, " On the Trail 

 of the Red Letter," describing the 

 manner of transporting mail from the 

 largest business centers to the most 

 remote country post-offices. The meth- 

 ods of postal transportation are won- 

 derful, and postal agents all over the 

 world are amazingly accurate. Not 

 only are all sorts of articles, from an 

 umbrella to a queen-bee, sent safely 

 from one part of the world to another, 

 but the most abbreviated addresses are 

 sufficient, if clearly written, \ letter 

 bearing the three words: Dadant, 

 Hamilton, America, and mailed in 

 Japan, reached its destination at Ham- 

 ilton, 111., in spite of the fact that there 

 are 2'J Hamilton post-offices in the 



United States alone. The post-marks 

 showed that this missive was first sent 

 to Hamilton, Ont., which is the largest 

 Hamilton in America. From there it 

 was forwarded, on trial, to Hamilton, 

 Ohio. The postal authorities at the 

 latter place being supplied with our 

 address, the letter came on to Illinois 

 without further detour. 



But the postal service of America 

 will not equal that of other countries 

 until we get a parcel-post equal to 

 theirs. Thus far, the Express Compa- 

 nies, by lobbying and misrepresenta- 

 tions, have succeeded in foiling the de- 

 sires of the great majority, and have 

 induced the retail merchants to believe 

 that the establishment of a parcel-post 

 would be the death of the local retail 

 trade. The experience of other coun- 

 tries proves this to be entirely false. 

 Is it not a positive shame that a half 

 pound of merchandise samples may be 

 sent from your post-oftice to the end 

 of the world, to Japan or Formosa, or 

 to the Fiji Islands for 4 cents, while it 

 costs just twice as much to mail it to 

 your next post-office ? V'ery few peo- 

 ple are aware of this. It is to be ex- 

 plained only by the desire of enriching 

 the Express Companies at the expense 

 of the people. It is a success. How- 

 much longer will you stand it. you 

 American voters ? 



The Difkel Theory and Parthe- 

 no(;euesis 



The first volume of the .\merican 

 Bee Journal was published in liiifjl. It 

 has been claimed that no single vol- 

 ume of any bee-paper was ever of more 

 value than that, because it contained a 

 full discussion of the Dzierzon theory. 

 Throughout 10 months of the year ran 

 the translation of a series of articles 

 written by the Baron of Berlepsch, lay- 

 ing down 13 propositions which are 

 now accepted by the readers of this 

 paper. But when they were first pub- 

 lished in the German Bienenzeitung, in 

 the middle of the liUh century, some of 

 the views advanced by Dzierzon were 

 bitterly opposed. 



Chief among the views considered 

 more or less novel at that time were 

 the following; In order to be able to 

 lay bol/i male and female eggs the 

 queen must be fecundated by the drone ; 

 the fecundation of the queen is always 



