AUGUST 1, 1915 



Dr. C. C. Miller 



STRAY 



ITMAW: 



Marengo, 



a 



Mv liKKS were on tlie verge of 

 starving' in Juiio; clovor ])lenty 

 nl)loo:n. but too cold for lliglit, and 

 1 tVd tiHicIi as described on p. r)22, 

 only 1 used sugar syrup and i)our- 

 cd it on top of the sections. 



H. 1*. KiKUY writes that for bee- 

 Imnting purposes he uses vinegar instead of 

 water to dilute honey because it attracts 

 i)ees inoi-e strongly. He also says that vine- 

 gar added to sugar syrup greatly in- 

 creases its atti'activeness, wliich may sonie- 

 liines be quite an item. 



B. F. AvER[LL speaks of bees gnawing 

 basswood splints, p. 538. If given when 

 bees aie storing, and the bees build comb 

 over them, I have never known them to be 

 giuiwed afterward. If they are given when 

 I here is no storing or building, the bees are 

 likely to gnaw them, and, what is very much 

 worse, the foundation is badly gnawed. 



^lom; AND MORK I am learning that I 

 nuistn't set down my experience as the ex- 

 perience of every one. The Byer-Chadwick 

 discussion brings up another point of dif- 

 fereiu'e. AVhcn friend Chadwiek's bees go 

 queenless in spring he expects laying work- 

 ers. I've had many a case of laying work- 

 ers, but I don't remember a single case in 

 spring. By the way, friend Chadwick, you 

 say, p. 525, " as a last resort, a worker is 

 chose!) to perform the functions of a queen." 

 Did you ever know a case of a laying work- 

 er and not a whole lot of 'era? 



J. L. BvER says, p. 440, he has heard 

 queens quahk in a box in the postoffice. 

 First time I ever heard of a queen quahking 

 outside a cell. But 1 know no reason why 

 she shouldn't. Some have said qualiking is 

 the same as piping, only muffled because in 

 a cell. But the length of time of the notes 

 is entirely different. [If you were in an 

 office where four or five dozen queens were 

 lying on a desk preparatory to being sent 

 out in the mails you would hear a good deal 

 of piping. We have heard them answer 

 back and forth time and time again. — Ed.] 



A. I. Root, last year you sent me dash- 

 eens so late liiey made little growth. I 

 wintered them in the cellar in the same box 

 with Cnladium esculentum, or elephant's 

 car. T planted all this spring, and they didn't 

 come up till July 1, and 1 can't tell by their 

 looks whether to admire their beauty or to 

 eat 'em. P'act is, except for size I don't 

 see Hut dasheens are just as pretty as cal- 

 adiums. From the name, "esculentum," 

 one would expect the caladium to be edible. 



]>ut I've tasted it law, and it biles like an 

 Indian turnip. Cooking might correct it. 



C. H. Cargo, I've studied no little over 

 your letter, p. 518, and wondered whether 

 you mean just Avhat you say. You want 

 ''a healthy sentiment created that refuses 

 (o allow any party to try to monopolize our 

 voters, but insists on every i)arty," etc. To 

 my certain knowledge there's been a healthy 

 (?) sentiment of that kind for 40 years; 

 our forces have been scattered, and the devil 

 l:as chuckled over it. If we wait until every 

 parly has a prohibition plank in its plat- 

 form, we'll wait some time. Don't you be- 

 lieve if we had all got together in sonte one 

 party we might have finished up the saloon 

 before this? [The principle is all right; but 

 the trouble is, there has been a condition 

 and not a theory, and that condition has 

 been that the great majority of the voters 

 would not desei't their old party. Whether 

 tliey will in the future remains to be seen. 

 In the meantime, regardless of parties, the 

 temperance question from an economic 

 standpoint is moving forward by leajjs and 

 bounds. Insurance companies, manufac- 

 turers, bankers, railroad companies, busi- 

 ness men, city ]n'operty, counti*y towns and 

 country districts, are finding out from a 

 financial point of view that they cannot af- 

 ford to tolerate the saloon. Indications at 

 present go to show that financial considera- 

 tions plus moral and religious reasons will 

 oust the saloon in the near future. " Safety 

 fii'st," and the cost of damage suits as the 

 result of unsteady brains or brains crazed 

 by liquor, are having a tremendous effect on 

 the big corporations of the country. Moder- 

 ate drinkers are not wanted, and regular 

 drunks are nuisances. The labor unions are 

 beginning to join against the common en- 

 emy. Banks that formerly bought brewery 

 stocks as a good investment are discovering 

 that they are the pooi'est kind of security; 

 while many of them, have stood with the 

 wet crowd because of their iioldings, they 

 are now dumping those holdings because 

 they are not Avorth the paper they are 

 printed on. Great breweries are going into 

 the hands of receivers. Saloons are vol- 

 untarily going out of business because they 

 don't pay. Revenue receii)ts fell oft' more 

 than seven million dollars in the Peoria dis- 

 trict the past year because of the movement 

 toward the elimination of whiskey from the 

 life of America. Peoria is the greatest dis- 

 tillery- city in the country. The mighty wave 

 of public sentiment is getting in its work. 

 State after slate has been going dry. — Ed.] 



