Entered as second-class matter at the I'osl-oHice at Hamilton. III., under Act of March ,). i«7y 



Published Monthly at $1.00 a Year, by American Bee Journal, First National Bank Building 



C. p. DADANT. Editor. 



DR. C. C. MILLER. Associate Editor. 



HAMILTON, ILL, MARCH, 1914 



Vol. LIV.— No. 3 



Editorial 



Comments 



A Season's Work 



The method of production given by 

 Mr. F. W. Hall, on another page, may 

 not appeal to all producers of extracted 

 honey. Mr. Hall, however, is a large 

 producer who manages a number of 

 out-apiaries, and who harvested some 

 40,000 pounds of honey in 1913. As will 

 be seen, the gist of his method consists 

 in dequeening during the honey har- 

 vest, and avoiding swarming in this 

 way while securing young queens in 

 most of his colonies. The advantage 

 of that method lies in avoiding the 

 nursing of brood at a time when the 

 bees would hatch too late for the iirst 

 honey crop and too early for the sec- 

 ond. The great science of beekeeping 

 is to have the field workers at the right 

 time. Mr. Hall shows us that he un- 

 derstands that. His success should in- 

 duce us to give full consideration to 

 his system. Of course methods must 

 be varied to suit the conditions of the 

 honey crop in different countries. 



Alin Caillas 



Mr. Alin Caillas, whose portrait we 

 reproduce in this number, and who 

 also supplies us with a series of articles 

 on honey and its adulteration, is the 

 author of a very interesting little work 

 entitled, " Les Tresors d'une Goutte de 

 Miel " (The treasures in a drop of 

 honey). He is an agricultural engineer, 

 laureate of the National Agricultural 

 Association for anew process of analy- 

 sis of honey. He has also obtained the 

 " prix d'honneur," a vase of Sevres 

 china, fromthe Presidentof the French 



Republic, for his most extraordinary 

 exhibit of beekeeping, at Avignon in 

 December, 1913. He is making a spe- 

 cialty of honey studies and analysis. 

 We made mention of one of our visits 

 to his chemical laboratory in our Sep- 

 tember number, page 294. He is the 

 official analyst of the French National 

 Beekeepers' Association, and a young 

 man of great ability. 



Comb Houey by Parcel Pest 



The readers will find in our contri- 

 butions an article from the pen of Mr. 

 Allen Latham, which we commend to 

 their consideration. But the parcel 

 post will not fulfill its mission properly 

 until perishable and fragile articles 

 may be sent as safely as if carried by 

 the most careful transporting agents. 



We must, as a nation, get rid of the 

 idea that all mail matter is to be put 

 into sacks and thrown about like old 

 rags. The nations of Europe have bet- 

 ter' methods for transporting perish- 

 able goods than we have ever used. 

 America is practical and progressive, 

 and must sooner or later do these 

 things at least as zcelt as the Knropeans. 

 Let us agitate these questions until the 

 riddle is solved. It is not a hard one. 



Death of John Phiu 



John Phin, author of the " Practical 

 Dictionary of Apiculture," 1884, died of 

 pneumonia during the closing days of 

 1913, at the age of 83, in Patterson, N. 

 J. After retirement from teaching 20 

 years ago, he attained prominence as 



a microscopist. He wrote more than 

 HOO books on scientific and other sub- 

 jects. He was born in Scotland, com- 

 ing to this country when 21. He re- 

 tained an interest in beekeeping to the 

 last. 



Spraying Fruit Tree.s 



Gleanings in Bee Culture quotes, and 

 we think it worth while to quote also 

 the following from Prof. Surface in 

 the Practical Farmer: "No trees, 

 shrubs, bushes or vines of any kind 

 should ever be sprayed while in bloom. 

 Please tell this to your neighbors. 

 Please tell it to the editors of all the 

 papers. Proclaim it from the house- 

 tops. Let everybody learn that, to 

 spray a tree while in bloom, is liable 

 not only to injure the fruit and thus 

 help to destroy the crop, but also kills 

 the bees and other insects that are ab- 

 solutely essential in carrying pollen 

 from fruit to fruit, and thus help ferti- 

 lize the blossoms and ensure a crop." 



Scent and Queen Introduction 



In this number Dr. Bruennich sug- 



gests that errors in queen introduction 

 may result from the queens not being 

 marked in an infallible manner. He 

 modestly abstains from telling that he 

 has a most excellent method of mark- 

 ing his queens, which we witnessed 

 when visiting him at Zug. We trust 

 he will fully explain this method to our 

 readers. It not only gives the queen 

 an individual mark, but makes her very 

 conspicuous, so she may be found very 

 easily. 



Wintering Bees in Attics 



In the February Beekeepers' Review, 

 on the first page, Mr. Pearce criticizes 

 the advice given by the Dadants against 

 wintering bees in rooms and attics, 

 where the temperature varies. He as- 



