^c. 



TBE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPEB. 



March 



1 flMHI m K[[P[II. 



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EDITORIAL, 



PLAIN VS. OLD-STYLE SECTIONS. 



The Bee-Keepers' Review for Janu- 

 ary presents a most interesting and 

 beautiful half tone engraving of eight 

 finished sections of honey. As 

 four of the sections are of the stan- 

 dard, or "old-style," and four of the 

 plain ones, the illustration is presented 

 as an object lesson in comb building, 

 and to show by contrast the su- 

 perior work obtained by the use of the 

 plain section. And in this case it is, 

 indeed, very striking. 



If such contrast could be shown from 

 the same colony, by partly filling a su- 

 per with each style of sections and sep- 

 arators, or even by a separate super, 

 during a continued flow of honey, the 

 superiority claimed by many for the 

 plain section would be established be- 

 yond the possibility of further ques- 

 tion. The editor says of the illustra- 

 tion: "This is a fair representation 

 of such honey as I have seen pro- 

 duced in the two classes of sections." 

 That's good, and is, in itself, enough to 

 give considerable weight to the possi- 

 bility of the wide difference being a 



result of the difference in the style of 

 sections; yet the Review's characteris- 

 tic spirit of fairness is becomingly 

 maintained in the above quotation by 

 emphasizing the personal pronoun. 

 Having had no ' personal experience 

 with the plain section, Bro. Hutchin- 

 son's illustration of the relative ap- 

 pearance of the work secured in the 

 two styles of sections, and his remarks 

 relating thereto are doubly interesting; 

 and we have no hesitation in saying 

 that if such widely different results in 

 the matter of filling out and finishing 

 up the work, as depicted, is wholly due 

 to the style of the section, that the in- 

 troduction of the plain section will 

 mark the beginning of a new era in 

 the history of comb-honey production. 

 But the high degree of perfection to 

 which Editor Hutchinson has risen in 

 the photographic art as well as in that 

 of bee-keeping and journalism, as re- 

 vealed by the excellent definition and 

 brilliancy of the negative, due to perfect 

 lighting and a knowledge of every de- 

 til in the treatment of his subject, from 

 start to finish, discloses (to our mind) 

 existing conditions in the production of 

 the specimens shown that may have 

 been responsible in a measure for the 

 striking contrast in the appearance of 

 the work, other than the style of the 

 section. 



In the case of the in-set sections, it 

 is apparent that the bees were not 

 crowded much, either as to numbers or 

 storage room; while the plain ones 

 have every appearance of having been 

 taken from a strong colony that was 

 confined to a comparatively limited 

 space. If economy of room fails to ac- 

 count for the extra completion of the 

 work and the smooth, flat cappings 

 shown in the plain sections, as com- 

 pared with the open edges and convex 

 capping, clearly defining the line of the 

 side-walls of each cell in the old-style 

 specimens, may the picture not serve 

 as an object lesson in comb-building 

 traits, in favor of the colony employed 

 in the production of the former? 



