Gleanings In Bee Culture 



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



H. H. Root. Assistant Editor E. R. ROOT, Editor A. L. BOYDEN, Advertising Manager 



A. I. ROOT. Editor Home Department J. T. Calvert, Business Manager 



Entered at the PostofHce, Medina, Ohio, as Secoud-clasn Matter. 



VOL. XXXVII 



DECEMBER 15, 1909 



NO. 24 



Editorial 



By E. R. Root. 



Mr. Leslie Burr, in the Review, says, do 

 not bother with any uncapping-machine, be- 

 cause any average man can learn to uncap, 

 with a regular uncapping -knife, solidly 

 capped combs of honey as fast as any ex- 

 tractor can handle them. 



Mr, 



FALL DROUTH KILLING CLOVER. 



J. A. Crane, in the Bee-keepers' Re- 



view, cites instances where fall drouths bad 

 apparently a bad effect on the honey crop, 

 and other cases v/here in spite of those 

 drouths he had the best honey-flow he ever 

 had. This is one of the things that he can 

 not understand, and there are others in the 

 same state of perplexity. 



LARGE honey-producers CAN'T AFFORD TO 

 REAR THEIR OWN QUEENS. 



Mr. M. a. Gill, one of the largest honey- 

 producers in Colorado, in the last Bee-keep- 

 ers' Review, says: 



It is utterly impossible and impracticable for the 

 larue honey-producer to keep on hand all the laying 

 queens he will need at all times; and even where he 

 has anticipated his needs, and has queen-cells on hand, 

 he will often find that his cells are in one apiary and 

 his need of queens is at another; besides, as there is 

 "many a slip " 'twixt the queen-cell and the laying 

 queen, I have found it profitable to buy queens in a 

 wholesale way. having them arrive at regular intervals, 

 and carry them with me to meet the needs at the difTer- 

 ent apiaries. 



Elsewhere in the same issue the editor 

 gives expression to a similar statement. 



three new IDEAS IN THIS ISSUE. 



There are three things that we take plea- 

 sure in presenting to our readers in this our 

 Christmas issue. First, Dr. Miller's modified 

 treatment of the Alexander plan for curing 

 European foul brood; second, the H. R. 

 Boardman method of preventing honey from 

 granulating; third, the plan of putting up 

 comb honey in the foi'm of individual services 

 before a trade hitherto never reached We 

 believe that all three of these ideas are some- 

 thing new (or comparatively so) to the gen- 

 eral public. We have some more good things 

 to follow during the year 1910, and trust that 

 not only our old subscribers but many new 

 ones will find the journal an indispensable 

 adjunct to their business. 



the new officers of the national bee- 

 keepers' ASSOCIATION. 



The follov/ing were elected, as shown by 

 the election returns received by Director R. 

 L. Taylor: President, Geo. W. York, Chica- 

 go, 111.; Vice-president, W. D. Wright, Alta- 

 mont, N. Y. ; Secretary, Louis H. Scholl, New 

 Braunfels, Texas; General Manager, N. E. 

 France, Plattleville, Wis.; Directors, J. E. 

 Crane, Middlebury, Vt.; E. F. Atwater, Me- 

 ridian, Idaho; R. A. Morgan, Vermillion, S. 

 Dakota. 



These are all new men — at least no one 

 was re-elected except General Manager N. 

 L". France Mr. France has served the or- 

 ganization so well and so faithfully that the 

 Association members v/ere wise in re-elect- 

 ing him for the seventh time. 



FOUL-BROOD LAWS. 



Attention is drawn to a very valuable ar- 

 ticle in this issue by Dr. E. F. Phillips, of the 

 Bureau of h ntomology, on the subject of 

 bee-disease laws and the necessity of legis- 

 lation in the various States. So many in- 

 quiries have come in of late, asking for a 

 model bill to present at the various State 

 General AssemlDlies that vvill convene about 

 January 1st, that we asked Dr. Phillips, who 

 has given this matter special attention, not 

 only to submit to us such a model bill as his 

 large experience v/ould indicate was desir- 

 able, but also to make some general obser- 

 vations about foul-brood laws and their en- 

 forcement. This he has done, and the read- 

 er is referred to page 782 of this issue. 



rheumatism AND BEE-STINGS. 



During the last three or four years there 

 has been considerable said in the newspapers 

 regarding the value of bee- stings for the cure 

 of rheumatism. Many clippings have been 

 sent to us, but in most cases we paid no at- 

 tention to them, as we considered them sim- 

 ply the emanation of a report<ir who was 

 hard up for something sensational to fill up 

 space. We have been inclined to believe, 

 however, that in soma cases, at least, some 

 forms of rheumatism could be relieved, if 

 not actually cured, by bee-stings to the af- 

 fected part's. Dr. E. F. Bonney, in a couple 

 of articles in the American Bee Journal, and 

 in one in this issue, doubts very much if the 

 stings have any effect whatever. He goes 

 on to explain that rheumatism is a disease 

 that will often disappear of itself without 



