600 AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



That Kinky Man. — Here's a square, out-and-out unkinked apology to that 

 kinky man Thonapson. He's given us on page 465 a good quantity of kinks, and 

 they're of good quality, too. 



Personal Experiences. — On page 471 are " Some Personal Experiences " that 

 I read while traveling on the cars. I laughed aloud at some passages, and I suppose 

 the other passengers v?ondered what ailed me. Then an exquisite tenderness at the 

 close brought a sigh that would not be repressed. All in all, if the writer had been 

 at hand I would have given him a very hearty grasp. But say, Mr. Editor, who is 

 Edwin Bevins,* anyhow ? Is he a farmer, shoemaker, lawyer, or what ? 



In reply to your appeal. Friend Bevins, I assure you there are pleasures in bee- 

 keeping that can never be rated on a cash basis. I keep bees for the money that's 

 in the business, but I hardly know what other business I would stick to so persis- 

 tently with the same discouraging results I have experienced this year with an out- 

 lay of 1,500 pounds of sugar and an income of 20 pounds of honey ! 



I have some doubt whether a bee-keeper could be considered a thoroughbred if 

 he didn't begin first thing to try to make improvements. But as he gets settled 

 more soberly, he'll begin to think that among the hundreds that have preceded him, 

 some one else may have thought of the very improvements that have suggested 

 themselves to him, and in time he'll get to be more slow in making changes. I 

 haven't a word to say against your making your own hives, but you'll take it good- 

 naturedly— won't you, Bro. Bevins ?— if I say a word about your changes. 



I don't like the cleats projecting below the cover at each end, but I think you 

 will like the cleats nailed on the end of the cover rather than under or over it. You 

 think you will like better to have your hive so deep that there will be a space below 

 the frames no matter upon what flat surface it is placed. Possibly you may, but I 

 doubt it. I have had such hives for a third of a century— have more than 100 in 

 use now. For several years I have had some that require the %-inch strip on the 

 bottom-board. So you see I ought to know pretty well which kind suits me, 

 although I'm not going to insist that you must be governed by my taste. The past 

 summer I sawed off % of an inch from some of the old ones, and I shall be glad 

 when they are all replaced. When you go to pile hives one upon another, whether 

 bees are in them or not, it's so nice to have them pile up bee-tight, mouse-tight and 

 moth-tight. With your improvement it is no little trouble to get the entrances 

 securely closed, and the older the hives the greater the difficulty. With the others 

 there's nothing to be done but to pile them up. When you want to allow your bees 

 more than one story to work in (and you'll want to do that some time, even if you 

 don't now), your arrangement won't allow it without having more than double the 

 space you want between the top bars in one story and the bottom-bars in the next 

 story. But having said thus much, I'll be magnanimous and allow you make your 

 hives just as you please. 



I sincerely hope that you'll carefully compare the results of the big and little 

 hives side by side in the same apiary, worked for the same kind of honey, and help 

 settle this war that's on. It is one of the things I very much want to know about. 

 You say that I now condemn feeding sugar syrup to be stored in sections, and 

 intimate that at other times I have upheld it. Now look here, Frend Bevins, I've 

 been misjudged no little in that direction, and have generally kept quiet about it, 

 but I can't stand it to keep quiet and have you think that way. A man with as 

 much brains as I think you have, ought to be able to see the truth without preju- 

 dice, and a man with as good a heart as I think you have, I can't bear to have think 

 ill of me. 



Now suppose you put your finger on the spot where I ever said a single word In 



