NOVEMBER 1, 1912 



683 



But I should like to know just how many 

 comb-honey producers stack up their su- 

 pers three higli. If the season were not 

 exceptionally good it would seem as though 

 there would be danger of too many un- 

 finished sections. — H. H. R.] 



"We intend to preach the doctrine of 

 producing more comb," etc., p. 610. I've 

 an idea that a strong factor in the pre- 

 ponderance of extracted over comb was 

 your i3reaehing "more extracted." Look 

 out now that your i3reaehing doesn't get 

 too much comb on the market. I'm lean- 

 ing just a little to the opinion that it would 

 be for the general good if only extracted 

 were jiroduced. [Where did we continue 

 to ijreaeh more extracted, as we are now 

 advocating more comb-honey production? 

 -Ed.] 



Mr. EDITOR; can you tell us whether sec- 

 tions will ship as safely in safety shipping- 

 cases without carriers as they will in I'egu- 

 lar shipping-cases with carriers'? If so, 

 then the safeties are the cheaper. Let's 

 figure. Suppose we have standard sec- 

 tions and buy cases by the hundred. 

 Eight 24-lb. regulars will cost $1.44 



Carrier for same 60 



Total 2.04 



Eight 24-lb. safeties will cost.. 2.00 

 A saving of half a cent on each case by 

 buying the safeties. Suppose we use 12- 

 Ib. cases. 



Twelve 12-lb. regulars will cost. .$1.38 



Carrier for same 60 



. Total 1.98 



I Twelve 12-lb. safeties will cost.. 1.80 

 •» A saving of 1^/^ cents on each ease by 

 buying the safeties. And that counts 

 nothing for the labor of putting together 

 the carriers. On the other hand, it must 

 take a good deal of time to put the sec- 

 tions in the cartons of the safeties. With 

 the carriers you must always shijj a mul- 

 tiple of 8 or 12 cases. With the safeties 

 you can ship any number you Uke. I think 

 I would rather handle single cases at a 

 time than to handle the carriers. One man 

 or boy can handle the single eases, and 

 there must be two men to handle the car- 

 riers. But the question still i-emains : Are 

 the safeties as safe without carriers as 

 the regulars with carriers? [No compara- 

 tive tests of the two kinds of cases in the 

 manner stated have been made; but we 

 would recommend both safety cases and 

 carriers combined. While the safeties 

 compared to the old-style cases are un- 

 questionably superior to the old-style cases 

 when neither is in carriers, yet we believe 

 it is very wise to give comb honey all the 

 protection it can reasonably have. Of one 



thing we are sure — that, unless the old- 

 style cases are discontinued, the comb- 

 honey business is doomed; for commission 

 men and buyers will not longer tolerate 

 the breakages of the combs, the consequent 

 leakage, and the difficulty of making set- 

 tlement satisfactory to either party. — -Ed.] 



J. F. Crane, p. 577, just to please j'ou 

 and J. L. Byer (and myself) I'm going to 

 say "grade" instead of "hybrid" hereafter. 

 [Apparently the term "hybrid" has been 

 undergoing a change, or else the term is 

 broader than it is usually given credit for 

 being. The latest edition of Webster's 

 New International Dictionary gives it the 

 following definition : "The offspring of a 

 male of one race, variety, species, or genus, 

 with the female of another" (italics ours) ; 

 "a cross-bred animal or plant . . . Those 

 between distinct species are distinguished 

 by some as true hybrids. . . By many 

 plant and animal breeds hybrid is now 

 limited to a cross between different species, 

 cross-breed being used for a cross between 

 races or varieties of the same sjiecies." 

 Now the last sentence above quoted nar- 

 rows down the term ; but nevertheless, ac- 

 cording to the dictionary it is perfectly 

 correct to speak of a hybrid as a cross be- 

 tween varieties. The Century Dictionary 

 and Encyclopedia have the following: "The 

 offspring or progeny of animals or plants 

 of different varieties, species, or genera; a 

 half-breed or cross-breed . . . The com- 

 monest are those resulting from the union 

 of opposite sexes of varieties of the same 

 species. . . . Hybrids or half-breeds of 

 the human race are among the best known 

 examples." The italics in the foregoing are 

 ours. 



It will be seen from the above that the 

 two dictionaries very closely agree in sanc- 

 tioning the broader use of the term. There- 

 fore it does not seem to us that "hybrids," 

 denoting a cross between Italians and black 

 bees, for instance, is incorrectly used. It 

 is possible that the word has degenerated; 

 but if so, beekeejDers are not the only ones 

 who have had a hand in thus changing the 

 meaning. Moreover, assuming for the mo- 

 ment that the narrower meaning is the cor- 

 rect one, the mere fact that beekeepers 

 dropped the term "hybi'id" would have no 

 effect on the use of the word in general. 



In Gleanings and in the ABC and XYZ 

 of Bee Culture we stand as opposed to 

 changing apiarian terms which have been 

 long in use, unless such terms are clearly 

 misleading. For example, we favored 

 dropping the term "black brood," owing 

 to the fact that the diseased brood in this 

 case is not necessarily black. — Ed.] 



