5EE CULTUBE 



Published by The A. I. Root Company, Medina, Ohio 



E. R. ROOT, Editor A. L. BOYDEN, Advertising Mqr 



H. H. ROOT, AS8T. Ed. J. T. CALVERT, BUSINESS MQR. 



^^^. A. I. ROOT, EDITOR OF Home Department 



Vol. XXXVI. 



MAY 1, 1908. 



No. 9 



byDr. CC.niLLEfl. 



I SUPPOSED that feeding 20 pounds of sugar 

 (made into syrup) was equivalent to adding 

 28 pounds of honey to the winter stores. Ac- 

 cording to Allan Latham, page 509, it is only 

 23 or 24. I accept the amendment. 



G. M. DooLiTTLE, in that nucleus, where 

 the queen with all drone comb laid worker 

 eggs, p 492, I wish you would tell us wheth- 

 er the workers first contracted the mouths 

 of the cells. 1 have seen worker brood in 

 drone-cells a number of times, but never yet 

 unless there was a contraction of the cell- 

 mouths. 



"Prohibition in the South is having a re- 

 markable effect upon the fruit consumption 

 in that section, fruit growing in demand at 

 almost the same ratio that liquor has vanish- 

 ed. An Alabama dealer in fruits claims that 

 his books show double as much business in 

 January and February, 1908, as in the same 

 months'in 1907."— i*/^, Y. Com. Bulletin. Why 

 will not the same rule hold with honey? 



My lengthy Scotch friend on p. 499, you 

 have given us the best lecture I ever read on 

 transferring; but why do you hurt my feel- 

 ing by tying strings around your ankles? 

 Bicycle trousers-guards, costing 3 cents a 

 pair, are ever so much handier, and are they 

 not just as effective? [You are right; but 

 as our lengthy Scotch friend is progressive 

 we know he will accept your correction. He 

 probably did not have any bicycle pants- 

 guards, and simply used a string in lieu of 

 something better. — Ed.] 



1 HAVE traveled about considerably, visit- 

 ing hundreds of beekeepers in their homes, 

 and one of the things that I have noticed is 

 worth pages of theory, and it is this: The 



most prosperous bee-keepers are those who 

 keep) the most bees. — Review, 93. Yes, Bro. 

 Hutchinson; but were they prosperous be- 

 cause they kept the most bees, or did they 

 keep t"he most bees because they were pros- 

 perous? A man prosperous with a few bees 

 is likely to become more prosperous with 

 more bees: but if he is not prosperous with 

 a few bees will he be more prosperous with 

 more bees? 



S. D. Chapman seems not in accord with 

 the theory that bees from choice select too 

 old larva? for queen-rearing, and that the 

 first batch of cells should be destroyed and 

 the second used. For 25 years he has re- 

 queened by taking away queens, allowing 

 the bees to select their own larva% and there 

 has been no deterioration. He also says. 

 Review, 119: "Nature has so ordered that 

 the best queens a colony can produce are 

 those hatched from the first cells started; 

 seemingly, they are better fed, more vigor- 

 ous, and give better results." Sorry Bro. 

 Hutchinson made no comment upon this. 



J. E. Hand doesn't believe in the theory 

 that brood-rearing will go on better with 

 abundance of stores in sight than where the 

 bees have only enough to use from day to 

 day. He says, Am. Bee-keeper, 91: "I have 

 never been able to see that the amount of 

 stores in a hive above the present needs of 

 the colony had any more bearing upon the 

 amount of brood reared than the amount of 

 wheat in my bins has upon the number of 

 eggs my hens lay." Can we have any defi- 

 nite proof either way? [Perhaps not definite 

 proof; but, in the language of the court, 

 there is a great deal of "circumstantial evi- 

 dence" that would seem to favor the con- 

 trary view. — Ed.] 



Samuel Simmins says: "Queen- cells should 

 not be removed if not near hatching — until 

 after a queen has been safely inserted. By 

 removing them in the first instance the bees 

 are again thrown back to the original uncer- 

 tain and restless condition; but all the time 

 they possess queen-cells, especially if capped 

 ones, they are in the natural condition of ex- 

 pecting another, and will almost invariably 



