212 



'IHE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



figures multiply like yeast, in which every 

 bubble adds itself on to the right as an 0. 

 Average surplus per hive 17 pounds, with a 

 total of 4,000,01)0 pounds for England and 

 Wales is the way Mr. Cowan puts it. Quite 

 a bit behind Germany's 48,000,000. ( Wonder 

 if the latter figures are any related to ours.) 

 Ireland is figured for only a quarter of a 

 million pounds, and Scotland conjectured to 

 be somewhat more than Ireland. Inspec- 

 tion of the items stiows that no allowance is 

 made for the honey of bee-keepers that be- 

 long to no association and make no i-eports : 

 so there is an imaginable error in the way of 

 deficiency. If Britain needs to add nothing 

 to her assocation statistics it is another good 

 sized prod for our association folks. Glean- 

 ings, 408. 



Wood base foundation with the veneer 48 

 sheets to the inch, eh ? Well may be she 

 will wave. Schmidt & Thiele, New Loudon, 

 Wisconsin. 



At the home of the Miller feeder the un- 

 improved kind beats the improved, and 

 nobody knows why. Gleanings, 442. But 

 our lady comrade, Miss Wilson, discompo- 

 ses me by letting facts get out of school 

 about the prevalence of leakage. They also 

 had a queer case in which robbers were al- 

 lowed to enter the door and empty a feeder, 

 and combs also, and yet did not break up 

 the colony. —Thought 'twould be a shame to 

 kill such simpletons ; and certainly they 

 were not worth carrying off as prisoners. 

 From a little I have noticed I think bees 

 usually spare such absolute non-combatants. 



The railway magnates received the bee 

 folks kindly and gave them one important 

 reduction — on extracted honey well bar- 

 relled or canned — but most of the petitions 

 were denied. Gleanings, 441 -ii. 



C. C. Miller found a clipped queen on his 

 assistant's hat. Said queen may have been 

 taken off with the cover, but how did she get 

 the rest of the way ? Gleanings, 47.'). 



More row about worthless statistics. If I 

 am patient, and don't get mad pegging away 

 at the almost universal habit of putting in 

 figures without looking at them, the editors 

 must be patient with me if I lay on pretty 

 hard. What are figures and tables for any- 

 how ? And to tiuote a popular saw, what's 

 the use of our knowing so much when so 

 much we know ain't so — not within a whole 

 group of figures ? Really, Messrs. Editors, 

 you must remember that there is a vast 

 amount of mathematical trash in circula- 



tion — and that a material part of our read- 

 ing is rendered nearly worthless by a little 

 inattention. More than this, when yon give 

 us statistics tell us where they came from, 

 that we may have some means of judging 

 what importance to attach to them. This 

 time it is the Canadian Bee Journal that is 

 the offender, on page .')07. I went in feeling 

 like saying something quite commendatory 

 of such concise information about bee-keep- 

 ing in foreign countries, until I read^that 

 Russia had only 110,000 hives, less than half 

 as many as Holland ; then my faith gave 

 way. AVhen I came to the table and glanced 

 at the areas of these countries I perceived 

 that the heading "Comicalities" would fit 

 on the thing pretty well. Holland is bigger 

 than Germany, and, as it is well known to 

 be much more densely peopled, when you 

 next hear that the '"Dutch" have taken 

 Holland don't you believe it. France is 

 bigger than the combined area of the other 

 eight nations of Europe reported. (Must 

 have been a Frenchman that fixed up this 

 mathematical bolus for us. ) Russia which 

 is well known to comprise more than half of 

 Europe, appears as only a fraction larger 

 than Denmark ! She is credited with one 

 hive per square mile which would really give 

 her over two million hives, or nearly twenty 

 times as many as she is credited with. Af- 

 ter considerable proving and disproving of 

 figures I reached the conclusion that the col- 

 umn of hives per square mile is of some in- 

 terest and value except as to Russia, and 

 perhaps Canada. Forgot to tell us how 

 many hives Canada has ; but recovering the 

 fact from the square miles and the colonies 

 per square mile we find there are only l.'{,800 

 — enough to stock 27<i apiaries with .W hives 

 each. 



Friend Muth quaintly tells us in the Can- 

 adian, page rAl, what a sudden case of bee 

 paralysis he had. Things were all quiet at 

 the time, except that a few dying bees were 

 being carried out, but the fact was there had 

 just been an intruding swarm massacred. 



Those who have wax to cleanse on a large 

 scale may well read what E. B. Weed says on 

 page r>'22 of the Canadian— only perhaps 

 some will want to omit the snli)huric acid. 

 Big barrel with six inches of water in it and 

 a pipe of live steam to i)lunge in. Then 

 heap in the cakes (not too full) and turn on 

 steam by degrees. Don't stop when it is all 

 melted, but watch close and steam ahead 

 till the bubbles begin to grow to a quarter 



