Feb. 1, 1912 \ 



80 and even 90, even when the weather was 

 very cold outside. This room had two out- 

 side exposures and two good-sized windows; 

 but the house was sheeted with inch pine 

 himber on the outside, and over this was 

 nailed tar- felt pai)er. Over the whole was 

 nailed ordinary siding. The inside walls 

 were lathed and plastered in the usual way. 

 It was very easy to warm this room in the 

 house with that radiator. 



Now, it happened that the inside cubic 

 contents of the garage were about the same 

 as those of the room. We concluded that, 

 if that radiator was too much of a good thing 

 for a double-walled room, it would be just 

 about right for a single-walled room of four 

 sides and a roof of exposure. What was our 

 amazement when we found that, even in 

 moderate weather, this big radiator would 

 not make the garage warm enough so that 

 the motor woulil start readily. When the 

 temperature was down to zero outside, the 

 temperature inside of the building was far 

 below freezing. When that radiator was in 

 the house, in a double-walled room, it would 

 run the temperature up to 80 while the mer- 

 cury outside was at zero with a high wind. 

 We were at a loss to understand why this 

 garage should be so cold with a radiator go- 

 ing all the time, night and day. On placing 

 the hand on the siding we saw the reason at 

 once. The boards were as cold as a block of 

 ice. Indeed, it became very apparent to us 

 that the outside cold penetrated those y% 

 boards to a much greater degree than we 

 ever supposed. So little did they keep out 

 the cold that a pail of water would freeze 

 solid within two feet of the radiator. 



Now, then, to the application. A colony 

 of bees, even though it be contracted down 

 to a comparatively small ball, is a miniature 

 radiator, i. e., a source of heat. The closer a 

 thermometer is placed to this ball of bees, 

 the higher the temperature will go, provid- 

 ing the entrance is not too large. Now, if 

 this little ball of bees is a ladiator, and if 

 those bees have to keep up their body heat 

 by consuming honey, the colder the atmos- 

 phere around the cluster, the more food will 

 be required. Overfeeding is quite sure to 

 cause dysentery before spring. If the hive 

 is single-walled, an immense amount of cold 

 will penetrate those walls, making the prob- 

 lem of the bees to keep the cluster warm 

 much greater. The thicker the walls, the 

 larger the cluster, and the more it can ex- 

 jiand over the food. It would seem that, for 

 most localities, a moderate entrance with a 

 double-walled packed hive will give better 

 results in wintering than a single-walled 

 hive or one protected by any kind of single 

 thickness of paper. The question of the 

 size of entrances and of upward ventilation 

 or sealed covers will depend largely on lo- 

 cality. We are beginning to favor a flat 

 board laid on top of the hive, not sealed 

 down. This permits a moderate entrance 

 and a slight amount of upward ventilation, 

 but not enough to make the packing above 

 dam J). 



The thermometer readings inside and out- 



67 



side of the hive by Mr. Byer and ourselves 



on jniges 77 and 7S would seem to favor dou- 

 ble-walled i)acke(l hives. The actual dilTer- 

 ence is anywhere from 20 to 40 degrees where 

 the outside temperature has not taken a sud- 

 den change. A zero atmosphere or a few de- 

 grees above must be bad for a cluster, espe- 

 cially if it continues for days. 



THE CENSUS OF 1010; THE MARKED DE- 

 CREASE IN THE NUMBER OF BEES ON 

 FARMS, AND WHY. 



Bee-keepers have been waiting with in- 

 terest for the returns on the bee-keeping 

 industry from the Census of 1910. Part of 

 the data is now available and is presented 

 herewith, together with similar data from 

 the Census of 1900. That there has been a 

 decrease in the number of farmer bee-keep- 

 ers, there can be no question. Whether 

 the tables showing this decrease by States 

 are accurate we can not say; but decrease 

 there surely has been. This is probably 

 due to two causes; viz., 1. To a reduction in 

 the amount of clover grown, either because 

 intensive agriculture has crowded it out, 

 or because soil that once grew clover luxu- 

 riantly has become "clover-sick" — that is, 

 too acid. Clover is the main dependence 

 for honey in most of the States east of the 

 Mississippi and north of the Ohio. It is a 

 notable fact that clover doesn't yield as it 

 did in the olden days before the lime had 

 been exhausted from the soil. When "bees 

 don't pay" on the farm, they die off be- 

 cause the farmers won't feed them. We 

 shall have more to say about this at a later 

 time. 2. The other cause for reduction in 

 the number of farmer bee-keepers is clearly 

 traceable to bee disease that has made such 

 rapid spread. The obvious remedy is to 

 work for more extensive bee-inspection work 

 and, besides, preach the doctrine of putting 

 lime in the soil. That can be done cheai)- 

 ly, and make clover grow as before. While 

 lime can have no effect on bee diseases it 

 will make clover grow as it did in old days. 



Attention should be called to the fact 

 that these data are for bees on farms only, 

 and that bees in towns and cities are not 

 included. The official designation of a 

 "farm" actually includes many apiaries in 

 towns; but, as is well recognized, most of 

 the large town apiaries have not been in- 

 cluded in the enumeration. At one State 

 bee-keepers' convention last winter it was 

 found that approximately three-fourths of 

 the bees there represented had not been in- 

 cluded in the count. It is obviously not at 

 all fair to the bee-keeping industry to count 

 only the bees on farms when many of our 

 largest bee-keepers are not on farms, but 

 are in small towns or even in our larger 

 cities. It is understood that no enumera- 

 tion was made in the Census of 1910 of bees 

 in towns and cities, and it is hoped that, 

 before another census is taken, the author- 

 ities in the Census Tiureau will learn that 

 bee-keejiing is not confined solely to farms. 



'i^he data presented shows a decrease of 



