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Vol. XXX 



MAR. 15, 1902. 



No. 6. 



In grading honey, D. W. Working says, 

 in Anier. Bee Journal, that the first essen- 

 tial is honesty of purpose. Right! in other 

 words, Bro. Working-, to have a conscience 

 in working order. 



I envy a. I. Root his enjoyment in start- 

 ing cuttings. I've been there. February 

 and March are, I believe, the best months 

 for it. Say, A. I., have you tried starting 

 begonias from a leaf or a piece of a leaf? 

 It's fun. 



I don't know whether to congratulate 

 C. P. Dadant or the Revue Internafiotiale, 

 the very able French bee journal, upon the 

 fact that the former is now a regular col- 

 laborator of the latter. I thinli I'll con- 

 gratulate both. 



It is not wise in some cases to kill a 

 queen, even when she is old. Mr. H. Tro- 

 kay reports a queen whose workers in four 

 poor years gave successively 174, 165, 209, 

 and 77 lbs. But none of her progeny equal- 

 ed her. — D Abeille. 



Referring to a Straw on p. 91, L. E. 

 Kerr wishes it to be understood that, when 

 he said "There are more bees kept to-day 

 in the old-fashioned box hive than any oth- 

 er one style," he meant more than any one 

 style oi frame hives. 



G. M. Doolittle says, in the Am. Bee 

 Journal, that he has had in one colony bees 

 by the thousand live from Sept. 1 to July 1, 

 an important factor in their longevity being 

 their quiet wintering. [That is orthodox 

 according to our experience. — Ed.] 



I RESENT the insinuation, Mr. Editor, 

 that I go around with hands slippery with 

 honey (see last Straw, p. 179), and I much 

 prefer washing them with soil, which I 

 often do. But that sharp edge makes it 

 easier to hold a smoker, even if your hands 

 have just been washed with soft water and 

 Castile soap. 



F. L. Thompson did a first-class job in 

 making a summary of the recent discus- 

 sions on breeding, for the Colorado conven- 

 tion. It occupies three pages of the Anier. 

 Bee Journal, and is interesting reading, 

 even if you have read the discussions in all 

 the other bee journals. 



Just for once, Mr. Editor, I'm going 

 to leave to you the last word in the Lang- 

 stroth-Dzierzon matter ; but if your wife 

 doesn't want to be a widow, I advise her to 

 keep you out of Germany. [That may be ; 

 but residents of the United States are in 

 good favor with Germany just now.- — Ed.] 



The Bienen- Vater quotes the figures for 

 cleansing wax with acid, given on p. 947. 

 Dear Bienen -l^atcr, that was a mistake. 

 Editor Alfonsus, kindly correct as fol- 

 lows: Um dunkles Bienen wachs rein zu 

 machen, meistentheils ein Zusatz von 1 Per- 

 cent Schwefelsaure geniigt, und zwar ein 

 Theil Saure und 100 Theile Wasser. Be- 

 sonders schmutziges Wachs erfordert aber 

 bis zu 2 Percent Zusatz. 



Dandelions are a different thing in 

 Medina from what they are "in this local- 

 ity," according to what is said of them, p. 

 185. I count much on both the honey and 

 pollen. One j^ear I shook 2 lbs. of thin 

 dandelion honey out of the frames of one 

 colony. [I do not remember to have ever 

 seen so much honey which I was sure was 

 from dandelions in any one comb. I sus- 

 pect the trouble is, we have so many bees 

 in one locality that there is not enough dan- 

 delion honey to go around to make much of 

 a showing. — -Ed.] 



That record of only 4 qts. of dead bees 

 on cellar floor Feb. 23 is very remarkable, 

 page 184. About the same date, and with 

 nearly the same number of colonies, I had 

 swept up six times as many dead bees, and 

 I thought I was doing unusually well. 

 Say, Ernest, can't you put machine-shops 

 on your price list? I want to buy one to 

 winter bees under. [I have all along be- 

 lieved that we were securing remarkable 

 results ; but in order to get these results 

 the doors are open every night, no matter 

 how warm it is outside, and closed before 



