Apr. 15, 1912 



223 



Dr. C. C. Millek, Marengo, III. 



Poultry in the United States, in 1910, 

 according to Bureau of. Census, was worth 

 14.79 times as much as bees, [Bees are not 

 so far behind as one might suppose. — Ed.] 



"The increased honey-yield which is 

 possible by even a reasonable amoun^ of ef- 

 fort in selecting and breeding bees is little 

 realized by the majority of us." — Arthur C. 

 Miller, American Bee Journal, 50. Right 

 you are, Arthur. 



The origin of the plan of starting queen- 

 cells on a horizontal comb seems to be in 

 doubt, p. 177. It may be labeled "Made in 

 Germany." Haven't time to look it up 

 now, but I first saw it in a German bee jour- 

 nal, and gave it in a Straw a few years ago. 



F. P. Clare, you won't mind if I revise 

 your figures, p. 179, will you? You took the 

 word of some one else for it that the Lang- 

 stroth frame is some two square inches less 

 than the 16 X 10-inch frame of Mr. Simmins. 

 Figure it up for yourself, and you will find 

 that the Langstroth {11 H X 9>s) contains 

 IQOll square inches, a trifle more than the 

 160 square inches contained in the 16 X 10 

 frame! 



.1. L. Byer, American Bee Journal, p. 48, 

 says that in Ontario the claim that Italians 

 are more immune to foul brood than blacks 

 refers only to European foul brood, not to 

 American foul brood. Italians being worse 

 at robbing than blacks, his experience is 

 that they contract the disease oftener by 

 robbing than the blacks. He thinks it's all 

 "moonshine" about resisting the disease 

 after it is once contracted. [Byer is right. 

 —Ed.] 



"The specialists who are producing ex- 

 tracted honey, and are making the most 

 money, do not average over 50 pounds to 

 the colony." — ^Yesley Foster, American Bee 

 Journal, 46. That's quite a bit below the 

 general estimate; but so much the worse for 

 the general estimate. [It depends upon 

 what you mean by "general estimate." 

 Our A B C and X Y Z of Bee Culture puts 

 the average for comb honey at 35 lbs., and 

 from 25 to 50 per cent more for extracted. — 

 Ed.] 



March came in like a lion and went out 

 like a whole menagerie of lions. [It is like 

 a lamb hereabout. This 5th day of April it 

 is a good deal like the weather we left in 

 Florida. The only thing we fear is that it 

 will not last long. However, Dame Nature 

 has been giving us a long steady cold, and 

 we are hoping that she will now give us 

 enough warm weather so that we can save 

 the remnants of our colonies that did not 

 die in winter. — Ed.] 



Replying to G. L. Tomson: H. A. King 

 never published I'he Am,erican Bee Jour- 

 iiftl ; but if I am correct he or his brother, A. 



J. King, published another bee journal. I 

 do not think the patent on the American 

 hive was ever annulled. Rev. L. L. Lang- 

 stroth claimed it was an infringement on 

 his patent, and there was much bitterness 

 about it. Shortly before the patent expired 

 Mr. King came out in a statement that his 

 conscience would not allow him to take 

 money for it, but I never heard that he re- 

 funded money he had taken or made any 

 reparation to Father Langstroth for infringe- 

 ment. [A. J. King published the Beekeep- 

 er'' s Magazine for a number of years; but 

 H. A. King and A. J. King were associated 

 together in the manufacture of bee supplies 

 in the early 70's. — Ed.] 



When I got through reading April 1st 

 Gleanings I couldn't tell whether a two- 

 cycle piston with an exhaust cylinder es- 

 scapes the gas of the planetary system bet- 

 ter than a 167>^ h. p. transmission or not. 

 Any way, I sympathize with that fellow 

 who grew twenty years older in ten years 

 through worrying about hauling bees with 

 horses, and I'd like to go back 20 or 30 years 

 and begin over again with autos. [Say, 

 doctor, you are badly mixed up in automo- 

 bile nomenclature; at any rate, you do not 

 have to know about the inside mechanism 

 of an automobile, neither is it necessary to 

 understand the function of the carbureter, 

 transmission, and all such, to be able to 

 drive the car. But it is mighty convenient 

 to know all of these things when it takes a 

 notion to stop ten miles from nowhere. You 

 are not yet too old to learn. A. I. R. is driv- 

 ing a little auto, and it is not often when 

 the machine "balks " that he can not make 

 it go. — Ed.] 



Still air at zero is less of a hardship for 

 a colony than a gale with the temperature 

 30 degrees higher. Never mind about credit- 

 ing that to Allen Latham, page 212. Allen 

 won't mind if I steal his thunder. I can't 

 fix it up in quite so good shape in my own 

 words, and it's a truth too little recognized. 

 That's why it may be harder to winter out- 

 doors here than in some places a long way 

 north of here. There are times here when 

 hour after hour, if not day after day, we 

 don't have air — just wind. And it's no 30 

 degrees above zero either. [It is true that 

 still air, although the temperature be much 

 colder, is not nearly as severe on bees as a 

 warmer temperature when a gale is on. This 

 shows the importance of suitable wind- 

 breaks for bees wintered outdoors. There 

 may be a gale of wind outside of the beeyard 

 and yet the air be almost quiet inside. We 

 have seen this time and time again at our 

 home apiary here in Medina. The outside 

 of the yard is surrounded by tall evergreens 

 on the north and west, while the east and 

 south sides are protected by factory build- 

 ings. — Ed.] 



