AUGUST 1, 1913 



517 



Stray Straws 



Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, III. 



Clover-yield began here ahead of any 

 thing ever known before. "What the drouth 

 will do with it remains to be seen. 



B. M. Caraway reports that in Texas 

 bees get nectar and pollen from beans. Tex- 

 as may yet nval California with its big 

 bean-fields. 



Mr. Editor, when beginners read, p. 433, 

 about your " shinning up trees " after 

 swarms, some of them will be likely to ask, 

 "Why don't you clip j'our queens'?" 



Otto Dengg reports, Leipz. Bztg., 17, 

 that colonies which had not quite filled out 

 their hives with comb the previous year 

 were 8 to 14 days earlier to swarm than 

 those which had no comb to build before 

 swarming; and this was so year after year. 



Illinois is a good State to live in, and 

 I'm more i^roud of it than ever before. The 

 legislature has passed a bill, and the gov- 

 ernor has signed it, wliich gives women the 

 right to vote for presidents, maj^ors, etc., 

 including the right to vote for or against 

 saloons. You may be sure the liquor men 

 didn't work hard for the passage of the bill. 

 Sony for your Ohio women. But it's only 

 a question of time. 



Right you are, Mr. Editor, p. 437, in 

 thinking " that more and more beekeepers 

 are beginning to accept the deep space un- 

 der the frames as better than a shallow 

 space." It's a hard job for me to use prop- 

 erly the English language. TVliat I was 

 trying to say was that more and more bee- 

 keepei-s were not satisfied with a space as 

 small as half an inch, or even an inch, be- 

 tween floor and bottom-bars. 



I've always had just a little doubt as to 

 the statement that bees are of more value 

 as fertilizers than as honey-gatherers; but 

 that cranberry business, p. 479, may yet re- 

 move all doubts. I hope we may soon have 

 definite figures as to the actual gain in dol- 

 lars and cents made by the bees. It may 

 make some of us old fogies open our eyes. 

 Then may be we could also get figures of 

 the same kind for the apple and other fruit 

 crops. 



Dangerous, perhaps, to but in in that 

 Byer-Chadmck squabble, p. 441, but I think 

 it quite possible both men may be right, 

 and that " locality " may again be a factor. 

 In Canada, the cold prevents the rapid 

 building-up of a colony in an eight-frame 

 hive, as compared with the stronger colo- 

 nies in ten-frame hives, while in the warmer 

 California clime the colony in the small hive 



builds up rapidly, and can sooner be squeez- 

 ed into supers than if in a larger hive. 



A Californian wants my latest " think " 

 about European foul brood. I think that, 

 in its treatment, ten days — possibly a week 

 — without a laying queen, is long enough; 

 that under any kind of treatment the dis- 

 ease is likely to crop out again. By prompt 

 treatment you can get good crops in spite 

 of disease; and yet it takes veiy little of it 

 to lower materially the yield of a colony. 

 My hybrids seem as resistant as the Ital- 

 ians, yet further experience may show the 

 Italians ahead. In general I think Italians 

 are better at cleaning up than hybrids. At 

 any rate, if I had average hybrids I'd hustle 

 to get in the best Italian blood I could find. 



Exasperating. I don't know any milder 

 word for the feeling one so often has when 

 honey is mentioned with no hint whether 

 comb or extracted is meant. An instance 

 occurs in Gleanings, p. 478. " Our fore- 

 man has set his stake at 100 lbs. per colony, 

 spring count." I'd like to beat that if I 

 can, but how do I know where to set my 

 stake without knowing whether that 100 

 means comb or extracted ? Which is it, Mr. 

 Editor? Another case is foul brood. With 

 no qualifying word, how can one tell which 

 of two distinct diseases is meant — American 

 foul brood or European foul brood? [In 

 connection with our honey-yields we have 

 spoken of power extractors, honey-pumps, 

 capping-melters, etc. We have said nothing 

 about the production of comb honey in sec- 

 tions, so we did not think it necessary to 

 specify extracted when we were talking only 

 about that. We gxant you, however, that it 

 might be well to specify each time what is 

 meant, because it is much easier to produce 

 ]00 lbs. of extracted honey than the same 

 amount of comb. As a matter of fact, 90 

 per cent of our honey will be extracted, and 

 10 per cent will be in shallow extracting- 

 frames to be cut up into small squares. These 

 will be put into cartons for Pullman-car 

 service. In running for the production of 

 bees and queens it is not practicable to pro- 

 duce comb honey in sections. Our crop is, 

 therefore, bees and queens, extracted honey, 

 and a very little cut comb honey. 



When we speak of foul brood we verj- 

 often use it in a general sense, meaning 

 either one of the contagious brood diseases. 

 As we have no European foul brood in this 

 locality, and never did have, the term " foul 

 brood " has reference to the common or old- 

 fashioned kind — namely, American foul 

 brood. — Ed.] 



