May, 1914. 



American Tiee Joarnajj 



161 



increase the use of honey than its pro- 

 duction. 



In all this, those who are already bee- 

 keepers have received by far the great- 

 est benefit. No doubt mistakes have 

 been made. They say that he who 

 makes no mistakes spends his life 

 doing nothing and doing it well. But 

 my plan has not been to make a lot of 

 K<ri' biekeepers, but better beekeepers. 

 Of course, in helping established bee- 

 keepers we cannot help making some 

 new ones. But more beekeepers have 

 gone out of the business because of 

 careless methods in dealing with Eu- 

 ropean foulbrood than the Department 

 at Guelph has brought into it. 



Now about markets. As Pres. Byer 

 has pointed out, this must be taken 

 in serious consideration. In 1913, 

 the leading members of the asso- 

 ciation undertook to form a co-opera- 

 tive association, and the annual crop 

 report and forecast of prices was the 

 result. This has meant thousands of 

 dollars to the members. Three or four 

 years ago a committee worked to form- 

 ulate a plan for cooperation. Their 

 report was dropped. Prices were too 

 good at that time. Last fall a sort of 

 co-operative sale was undertaken, and 

 met with a measure of success which 

 shows the possibilities of such an en- 

 terprise rightly managed. The con- 

 vention voted the responsibility back 

 to the county associations. Since then 

 one county has organized a co-opera- 

 tive stock company in readiness for 

 next season's work. 



Mr. Byer's policy is to devote more 

 attention to the marketing end of the 

 business. This has been my policy. 

 Three years ago, being asked by the 

 secretary to prepare the program, I put 

 on some of the best lecturers obtain- 

 able on co-operation; and was criticized 

 by leading members for it. I was told 

 that " practical mangement" was want- 

 ed. On the short course this year, we 

 brought a speaker loO miles for a spe- 

 cial session on co-operative sale. The 

 only extensive beekeeper who attended 

 that session was one who happened to 

 have his 1913 crop still on hand. 



I want to commend Wesley Foster's 

 article on pages 123 4, especially when 

 he says : " I should think a little fore- 

 sight would bring the Ontario bee-men 

 together, before forced by the lowering 

 price of honey." But I would compare 

 honey with candy which sells so read- 

 ily at 30 to 75 cents per pound and not 

 cane sugar and cheap syrup. 



Guelph, Ont. 



A New Support for Foundation 



BY A. F. BONNEY. 



WHILE the slender wood splint de- 

 vised by Dr. C. C Miller is use- 

 ful, it is so large, at the best, and 

 is so often left e.xposed that it has not 

 come into use to any extent, ami hav- 

 ing had some foundation sag in the 

 hot summer of 1913, I began studying 

 with the following result : 



Take several pieces of soft white 

 twine and fasten them to top and bot- 

 tom bars perpendicularly, by punching 

 holes with an awl and fastening the 

 strings with plugs of wood. This 

 makes the string taut, and leaves it 

 lying in contact with the foundation. 



Now with a spoon bent to pour a 

 small stream pour melted beeswax over 

 the strings, let the wax cool and the 

 job is done. The strings support the 

 foundation, the wax protects the strings 

 until the bees have drawn out the un- 

 covered parts between the ridges of 

 wax. When they come to the strings 

 they will remove them and there will 

 remain nothing but clean foundation. 



Buck Grove, Iowa. 



[I am not so wedded to the use of 

 foundation splints that I could not wel- 

 come any improvement, for splints 

 have not at all times satisfied me en- 

 tirely. So I am interested in Dr. Bon- 

 ney's experiments. Notwithstanding 

 his success last summer, it may be 

 worth while to say what I think might 

 happen at other times, basing my no- 



Another View of the Clenat .Aiiakv. 



tions upon my own experience with 

 splints. 



Dr. Bonney makes a radical depar- 

 ture in that he uses twine as a tempor- 

 ary support for the foundation, merely 

 to keep it from stretching until it shall 

 be drawn out, while the splints are not 

 expected to be removed after the foun- 

 dation shall be drawn out. When I 

 have given splints during a heavy flow 

 there has been little trouble. But let 

 there be a stoppage of the flow after 

 they are given, and before the founda- 

 tion is drawn out, and the bees having 

 nothing else to do are likely to turn 

 their attention to the splints as some- 

 thing foreign, and to be gotten rid of. 

 If they would merely try to gnaw away 

 the splints it would be much better, 

 but when they start upon the splints 

 they are pretty sure to gnaw away the 

 foundation, and having once started 

 upon it they are likely to make a gap 

 of an inch or so in the foundation 

 which would have been left intact but 

 for the splints. 



So I should expect that when the 

 bees were not busily engaged at gather- 

 ing they would resent the presence of 

 a cotton string with its more or less 

 fuzziness more than they zuoiild the 

 splints, and that wherever the cotton 

 was attached to the foundation the 

 foundation itself would be gnawed. I 

 suspect that Dr. Bonney's success was 

 in a heavy flow, and I should expect 

 that even in a moderate flow the twine 

 would be attacked. Indeed, it was at- 

 tacked, for it was removed, and it must 

 have been removed before the founda- 

 tion was fully drawn out. And in or- 

 dinary cases it would not be strange if 

 the foundation should be also removed. 



Editor Dadant suggests that Dr. 

 Bonney might succeed if he should 

 first saturate his strings in wax. May 

 be; but that would change the princi- 

 ple, with the idea of having the strings 

 remain, the same as the splints. 



A friend at my elbow suggests that 

 when the strings are gnawed away the 

 foundation is without support, so that 

 combs would break out of fhe frames 

 more readily than with splints or wires. 

 Yet that objection might be overbal- 

 anced if strings would always make a 

 greater success than splints, and after 

 all that has been said it still remains 

 true that actual trial may show less 

 trouble with strings than imagined. 



Dr. Bonney says the splint "is so 

 large, at the best, and is so often left 

 exposed," etc. That makes me wonder 

 what may be the size of his splints. 

 Mine are one-sixteenth of an inch 

 thick, and I can see no objection to 

 their size. In the finished comb filled 



