1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



149 



Mr. L. was very anxious that I should stop 

 with him; but having- made other plans I 

 arranged to call on him the next day with 

 Mr. W. L. Chambers, the boy bee-keeper 

 who owns 500 colonies. The following- day 

 found Mr. Chambers and myself at the 

 Lossing- home. Learning that every mem- 

 ber of the family was a bee-keeper from 

 the ground up, I craved the privilege of a 

 photo of the whole crowd. The young- la- 

 dies protested considerably, as they were 

 "not ready;" but after some coaxing I 

 finally secured what I think is a good photo 

 of the whole famil}^ see Fig. 4. 



Mr. and Mrs. Lossing sit in front. Verna 

 on the right and Maude on the left are the 

 two older girls. Either one of them, as 

 their father expressed it to me, was the 

 equal of, or better than, any man in the 

 yard; for a girl, whatever she does, will be 

 neat about her work, and this is a matter 

 of prime importance when handling soft 

 combs, honey, and propolis. Yes, these 

 girls could take off combs or sling honey; 



FIG. 3. — H. F. DOLSON AT HOME. 



and the little miss in the middle, whose 

 name I have forgotten, is also a bee-keeper; 

 and when the extracting days come the 

 whole family turn out and help the father. 

 Mr. Lossing and the girls, as I understand 

 it, have charg-e of 700 colonies, 400 of which 

 Mr. L. himself owns. 



A good deal has been said in j-ears gone 

 by as to whether the gentler sex are strong 

 enough to take care of bees. I well remem- 

 ber the question was once asked of Mrs. 

 L. Harrison, at the International Bee-keep- 

 ers' Congress in New Orleans, some years 

 ago, whether a lady could keep bees. Mrs. 

 H. very promptly replied that she did not 

 know; but that she did know that a woman 

 could. Mr. Lossing's helpers appeared to 

 be women of the Harrison kind; and not 



only women, but I should judge they were 

 ladies fit to grace any society or any home 

 in the East. Many and many a woman 

 has found strength, health, and pleasure, 

 in keeping- bees; and I am glad to introduce 

 to our readers the good-looking girls, old 

 and young, belonging to Mr. Lossing's 

 household. 



WI.SCONSIN V. ARIZONA FOR BEE-KEEPING. 



"Mr. Lossing," said I, "how does Ari- 

 zona compare with Wisconsin for bee-keep- 

 ing?" 



"Why," said he, "money could not hire 

 nie to go back. A beautiful climate the 

 year round, no chilling snows, no cold 

 weather, but warm balmy air, and honey 

 galore." 



f., With that he took me out into his back 

 yard and showed me some trees only ii j-ear 

 or two old, that were 3'oung thrifty grow- 

 ing .specimens, capable of giving a good 

 amount of shade, and not a little fruit. 

 These, he said with some degree of pride, 

 were samples of what a Wisconsin man 

 can do in Arizona with only a year or so 

 of experience. 



In our next issue I will introduce to you 

 some of the members of the Bee-keepers' 

 Association of Maricopa Co. Among them 

 will be J. P. Ivy, a bee-keeper who oper- 

 ates some 700 colonies, and Mike Wall, the 

 owner of 800 more. " Mike " is a character 

 — of the right sort. I mean — always happy 

 and full of fun. More anon. 



CELLAR WINTERING. 

 A Model Bee=Cellar and its Construction. 



BY R. F. HOLTERMANN, 



Formerly Editor of the Canadian Bee Journal. 



A great many articles have been written 

 upon the subject of wintering bees; not a 

 few discussions have taken place at con- 

 ventions and among individuals upon the 

 same subject; and yet I venture to sa3^ that, 

 taking all of those who have kept and still 

 keep bees, the average man knows all too 

 little upon this important subject; and the 

 very best known in our bee-keeping ranks 

 would get better returns did they know 

 more about proper conditions for wintering 

 bees, or had better facilities for practicing 

 what they do know. 



DIVERGENCE IN OPINION. 



Before beginning, or, perhaps it might be 

 more correctly stated, in opening the sub- 

 ject on hand, let us ask ourselves why it is 

 that there is so great a diverg-ence in the 

 opinions and practices of bee-keepers; why 

 do the practices vary so much? why so 

 much confusion? Is it not because condi- 

 tions and results are not weighed as care- 

 fully as they should be? 



Take cellar wintering. One says, "Use 

 a sub-earth ventilator;" another one saj's, 

 "Use a ventilator;" the third says, "No 

 ventilation is required." Again, one saj's, 

 " Have a temperature of 60 ; " another, 52 ; 



