1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



American queens is that they have had bred 

 into them light color, and along with it 

 some other undesirable traits. The queens 

 from Italy direct have a certain fixed type — 

 a fixity that has come about through centu- 

 ries of enviionment in the one locality — the 

 Mediterranean on one side and the Alps on 

 the other. I do not wish to say any thing 

 against American home-bred queens; but I 

 do believe that we should use as a basis, or 

 groundwork, for our improved Italian stock, 

 queens direct from Ital}'. — Ed.] 



You ASK ME, Mr. Editor, if I don't think 

 "it sounds better to say the sun sets than 

 sits," p. 972. Most assuredly. • I am not in 

 the habit of objecting to grammatical ex- 

 pressions, and " the sun sets " is grammat- 

 ical, supported bj^ the dictionary. I was 

 talking about ^//grammatical expressions. 

 Do you know of any grammar or dictionary 

 that will support shook as an adjective or a 

 participle? Do you know of any reputable 

 writer, outside of the case to which I ob- 

 jected, who has ever so used it? Honor 

 bright, yourself. [I am well aware the 

 present usage and the dictionaries now au- 

 thorize the transitive verb sci when apply- 

 ing to the sun going below the horizon; but 

 it is ungrammatical, just the same, or at 

 least was in the early usage of the lan- 

 guage, for 5"ou know you can not, grammat- 

 ically speaking, set down in a chair, but 

 you may sit. The point I tried to make 

 was, that if you were going to reform what 

 is strictly ungrammatical you ought to make 

 war on those words and phrases that have 

 crept into our language that are not gram- 

 matical, strictly speaking, but which are 

 now accepted as good usage. — Ed.] 



C. P. Dadant gives this bright reply to 

 those who say section honey is manufactur- 

 ed by machinery : "If it were machine- 

 made it would be all alike. There might 

 be a dozen difl:erent patterns, but all inade 

 by the same pattern would be exactly alike. 

 Now compare an}^ number of sections; look 

 at the position of the different pop-holes and 

 other irregularities, and j'ou will find that, 

 like the leaves on a tree, although there is 

 a general resemblance no two will ever be 

 found exactly alike. Until you can find at 

 least two sections exactl}"^ alike, please give 

 the bees credit for their handiwork." 

 [This is a good point. It is an unanswer- 

 able argument showing that comb honey is 

 not manvifactured, as has been so persist- 

 ently stated in the newspapers. If dies 

 could be made at all for molding the faces 

 of the comb, they would be so very expen- 

 sive that probablj' not more than one or two 

 die-faces could be afforded ; and yet, as 

 Dadant saj-s, no two sections will ever be 

 found exactlj' alike. Some may be similar, 

 but just enough difterent to show that it is 

 bee work and not man work. I suggest 

 that those of our friends who are engaged 

 in refuting these lies that are now being 

 circulated broadcast use this argument of 

 Mr. Dadant's, as well as the other argu- 

 ment of a $1000 reward for a single sample 



of manufactured comb honey that can not 

 be detected from the genuine. These two 

 would afford good proof. — Ed.] 



Rathp:r discouraging is the outlook for 

 improvement according to what is said p. 

 974. It is true that some improvements 

 have required generations, as mentioned. 

 But there's another side. Soiii' of the im- 

 provements have been compassed in a j'ear. 

 Within 12 miles of here lives a man who 

 lately gave S1750 for a single carnation 

 plant. It is hardly likely that a lifetime 

 was spent on that plant. Agrippina is a 

 rose of low growth. One (\a.y Rev. James 

 Sprunt found a branch of an agrippina 

 shooting awaj' above the rest. That's about 

 all the time it took him to produce a new 

 climbing rose, the James Sprunt. One day 

 a white rose was found growing on a branch 

 of the pink rose Catharine Mermet, and 

 from this sport, as it is called, was at qnce 

 established the beautiful white rose the 

 Bride. Many other new varieties have 

 come from sports. [You are right. The 

 case of an insect and that of an animal, so 

 far as the element of time is concerned, is 

 not alike. Of queen-bees we may be able 

 to get several generations in a season; of 

 cattle, for example, not more than one in a 

 year. Then it is true that a "sport" some- 

 times will reach away in beyond the charac- 

 teristics of the parent stock. — Ed.] 



E. E. Hasty, in his delightful depart- 

 ment in the Aincrican Bcc Journal, "'The 

 Afterthought," seems much pleased with 

 Mr. A. D. D. Wood's "infallible" plan of 

 queen introduction, as follows: Remove the 

 old queen, take out of the cage all the at- 

 tendant workers, "and lift a frame from 

 the hive and put into the cage from 15 to 20 

 voung bees from one hour to one day old, 

 being doubly sure there are no old bees put 

 into the cage. Remove the cork or card- 

 board, and in 24 to 48 hours the queen will 

 be liberated and laying." It will also 

 work with any colony that has been queen- 

 less not more than four days. [I believe 

 there is a good deal in this. That man 

 Hasty always did have an eye for the 

 practical. It has been often said, with a 

 good deal of truth, that the attendant bees 

 with a queen are the ones that cause 

 trouble in introduction. Some little time 

 ago it was recommended to remove all such 

 and then introduce. But Mr. Wood has 

 gone one step further by putting young 

 bees, that have the same scent as the col- 

 ony, in with the queen. It certainly looks 

 as if it were all right. Unfortunately the 

 plan would not be one, however, that couVi 

 be used by beginners. They would not 

 know how to get the bees out of the cage, 

 and still keep the queen in; and much less 

 would they be able, with their inexperienc- 

 ed fingers, to pick up bees and cage them, 

 even if they could alwa5's tell young bees. 

 So I suppose the directions that ordinarily 

 go out with mailing-cages had better be 

 left as they are. But the experienced bee- 

 keeper, when he has a valuable queen to 



