JUNE 15, 1915 



479 



voi'ed sections. Tn Oregon tlioro lias been 

 too mncli rain. 



In Canada there were considerable winter 

 losses, and the prospects earlier in the sea- 

 son were not at all flattering:. It is our 

 opinion, however, that there should be at 

 least a light crop of clover in southern 

 Ontario. We base this prediction on tlie 

 weather maps. 



If the weather warms up in the clover 

 districts, there will be a big yield of white- 

 clover honey in many places. It would seem 

 that this cool weather cannot continue indef- 

 initely. In our section of the country we 

 never saw more white clover in spots than 

 we have seen this year. The basswoods are 

 all looking well, with plenty of buds. In- 

 deed, we never saw our basswood grove have 

 more buds in June than now. A well-known 

 Michigan correspondent says there is a large 

 basswood crop in prospect there, with clover 

 also promising well. 



Taking everything into consideration it 

 would seem that the north-central parts of 

 I the United States, including the alfalfa dis- 

 tricts, will yield the larger part of the 

 honey this year. At this writing (the 12th) 

 it looks as if there would be a good crop 

 of honey, both comb and extracted, from 

 white clover, alsike, and a normal yield 

 from alfalfa in the West. 



Last year there was a large crop of 



• southern honey, and almost no market for 



[ it on account of the war. The shortness of 



I the southern crop this year should improve 



the market; and as there is always a good 



demand for the best table honey from 



clover and alfalfa, prices ought to be firm, 



even if the yield should be large. 



J. E. Hand on the Long Idea Hive 

 and the Swarming Problem. Ex- 

 ploiting New Hives before they 

 nave been thoroughly Tested 



Ix this issue Mr. Hand replies to our 

 article on page 143 of the current volume 

 on the subject of the Long Idea hive as 

 used by 0. 0. Poppleton, of Florida. Our 

 • orrespondent denies that he is a user or a 

 -upporter of the Long Idea ])rinciple as 

 used by the Florida man. In this we stand 

 'orrected. While he does not deny tliat the 

 iiiiivertible principle that he recommended 

 III page 006 of last year is old, he goes on 

 to show that it is good nevertheless, which 

 fact we are quite ready to concede. 



Mr. Hand is one of the oldest beekeepers 

 in the country. He has studied this and 

 other problems connected with the industry 



very carefully, especially the one of swarm- 

 ing and of wintering. There are many 

 things in his article that are true, and per- 

 haps several others on which the veterans 

 will take issue. 



* Mr. Hand's argument would be stronger 

 if he had not made some radical changes in 

 h ves during the last six or eight years. He 

 first cut loose from the regular standard 

 Langstroth hive and adopted the shallow 

 divisible-brood-ehamber principle similar to 

 that advocated by Mr. James Heddon in 

 1885. This he continued to use with slight 

 modification until five or six years ago. 

 Then he went back to the regular Lang- 

 stroth hive and frame, using the same, or, 

 rather, a pair of them, on a double bottom- 

 board with a mechanism to force the bees 

 from one hive to the other to control swarm- 

 ing. After using the Langstroth ten-frame 

 hive for two or three years he abandoned it 

 for the 16-frame hive; and now he has 

 abandoned the 16-frame hive and uses only 

 the 14-frame hive. One who has followed 

 all these changes will wonder if he will not 

 yet come down to the 12-frame hive, and 

 finally back to the 10-frame Langstroth. 



]VIr. Hand's argument would be stronger 

 if he had used his big hive for more than 

 one or two years. If one year's use of the 

 16-frame has convinced him that it is too 

 large it is not impossible that next year he 

 will decide that the 14-frame is too big. 

 While these changes would seem to weaken 

 his argument, we must confess that there is 

 a thread of consistency throughout all of 

 these various changes. First, last, and all 

 the time he has been trying to control 

 swarming, and has succeeded to a greater 

 or less extent. As we understand it, he is 

 still an advocate of his switch lever bottom, 

 which he will use in connection with his 14- 

 frame hive. We hope, therefore, the reader 

 will go over his argument very carefully, 

 because Mr. Hand shows that he under- 

 stands the swarming problem ; and however 

 we may or may not like his present depart- 

 ure in hive construction, we must not for- 

 get that he is still clinging to much the 

 same principles in swarm control that he 

 has been working on for years. 



In regard to the wintering problem, Mr. 

 Hand says that winter packing is practi- 

 cally worthless seven months in the year, 

 and worse than useless at other times, be- 

 cause the sun cannot penetrate the double 

 packed walls. On this proposition we can 

 not quite agree. In our queen-rearing oper- 

 ations we can get earlier and more contin- 

 uous breeding all through the summer in 

 double-walled packed hives than in single- 

 walled. Often there are times when we 



