520 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15 



An excellent little treatise on queen- 

 rearing- has just been published in France 

 by Giraud-Pabou and Son, g-ivin.fr an up- 

 to-date resume of methods used in this coun- 

 try and elsewhere. The experiment given, 

 p. 522, Gleanings, 1900, is quoted quite 

 fully to show that bees sometimes choose 

 larvte 4 or 5 days old for queen-rearing-. 

 But attention is not called to the fact that 

 the bees chose the youngest larvce they 

 had, and that under ordinarj^ circumstances 

 there would have been plenty of larv^ young 

 enough when the last cells were started. 

 For when the brood was given to No. 18 the 

 youngest Qg^ was three days old, and un- 

 tler ordinary circumstances there would be 

 eggs three days younger. 



The added toughness in foundation 

 made by the new process is an excellent 

 thing in the brood-chamber; but in the case 

 of super foundation there may be a danger 

 of its being carried too far. — D. D. M. in 

 British Bee Journal. I wonder how much 

 there is in that. [While the new process 

 makes wax tougher it also makes it possi- 

 ble to use less wax in ordinary sheets of 

 foundation, both brood and super. The re- 

 sult of this was that all sheets are made 

 lighter. The ordinary foundation for sec- 

 tions is, as a rule, much lighter than that 

 which was made years ago by the old plan. 

 If the new wax is tougher, there is less of 

 it, so there is and can be no more (if as 

 much) midrib as before. — Ed.] 



Are you sure you are not mistaken, Mr. 

 Editor, in saying, p. 285, that there were 

 no beet sugars on the market when A. I. 

 Root made his experiments? He began bee- 

 keeping in 1865, and at that time was not 

 1% of the total sugar supply beet sugar? and 

 didn't we have our full proportion in this 

 country'? We didn't know we were using 

 beet sugar, though. [At that time, 1865, 

 the beet sugars that were then made were 

 confined almost entireljs if I mistake not, 

 to Europe. Beet sugars did not come into 

 use in this country until the beet was grown 

 here, if I am correct. The growing of this, 

 as you probably know, is a comparatively 

 new industrj' in the United States; so I feel 

 quite positive that the sugars that A. I. 

 Root used along in the 70's w-ere all cane. 

 —Ed.] 



Quite a traffic in some parts of Ger- 

 many is the sale of "naked " colonies, as 

 they are called — bees drummed out without 

 any combs. Thej' are generall}' shipped 

 from the middle of September to the first of 

 October. [How far do they ship them, and 

 how? Years ago, you remember, we used 

 to do a business something of this nature, 

 sending what we then called " bees by the 

 pound." A large cage was prepared, fill- 

 ed with Good candy. The bees were shak- 

 en oft" the combs into a large funnel, which 

 delivered them into this cage. They were 

 weighed up; and if the scales showed, after 

 deducting tare, a full pound, a wire-cloth 

 cover was put on and the package of bees 

 was sent by express. But we had to give 



it up because so many of the bees died en 

 route. We now ship in the form of nuclei 

 on combs, and the results are very much 

 more satisfactory. — Ed.] 



Bro. a. I. Root, I'm afraid if we stop 

 all papers that either directly or indirectly 

 advertise the liquor business, as you advise, 

 p. 298, most of us would do without papers. 

 Rather than patronize a paper with a Sun- 

 day edition, I take the only daily I know of 

 in Chicago without a Sunday edition, even 

 though it brings the news to me nearly a 

 day later; but the Daily News is not sinless 

 in the way of advertisements. If you will 

 get a number to band together, I'm ready 

 to join you in doing without the news till a 

 paper with clean ads. is started. [Don't 

 you mean, doctor, we would have to go with- 

 out daily papers? Surely there are week- 

 lies without number that do not and never 

 will accept any thing in the shape of a liq- 

 uor advertisement. Who else among our 

 readers will join the "band" with Dr. 

 Miller and myself as above? We learn 

 from the American Issue that it was stated 

 at a recent editorial convention at Manhat- 

 tan, Kansas, that only 61 out of the 783 news- 

 papers and periodicals in the State will 

 publish a whisky advertisement. — A. I. R.] 



My answer to that question, page 298, is 

 that cigarette John is not worth as much as 

 another boy just like him in all respects 

 but the cigarette. One reason is that John 

 has in him a deteriorating element not 

 found in the other boy. I don't believe a 

 boy can be quite as truthful and reliable 

 with cigarettes as without. The cigarette 

 seems to deaden his sensibilitj' to the harm 

 of being unfaithful or untruthful. [Doctor, 

 your remarks bring to mind an incident of 

 just a few days ago. The Lakeshore Rail- 

 ro£id has for ticket agent at a small station 

 a .voung man who smokes cigarettes while 

 he sells tickets. This young man got my 

 money, but the ticket he made out would 

 never have been accepted by the conductor 

 had not a passenger aided his befuddled 

 brain in the matter; and then the agent had 

 to go with me to the conductor on the train 

 and explain why my ticket was in two 

 pieces. If the Lakeshore Railroad has not 

 yet decided that cigarette smokers are not 

 fit to sell tickets, I oft'er it the above evi- 

 dence. — A. I. R.J 



As Mr. Secor seems to be gradually re- 

 tiring from the post of poet-laureate for the 

 bee-keepers, his mantle seems to be falling 

 on Mr. Harry Lathrop, now of Calamine, 

 Wis. See another column. 



We have received several copies of the 

 Bulletin of Agriculture, published by the 



