Feb. 23, 1905. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



133 



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next two years, whereby you can be Instructed (free"ofrcost) as' to 

 treatment of your bees in case of foul brood? r^ q^^i 



Do you know that a membership in the National protects you;(iD 

 the right) from a neighbor who might through envy or otherwise, 

 declare your bees a nuisance? And no charges to you but yourjmem- 

 bership fee and one-half the costs. tzz. i ! 



Have you ever thought of the lives of our good imen, that are 

 being spent to publish the bee-papers just in the way that wilMn- 

 struct us most? And have you ever begrudged the little dollar.'a year 

 you gave them for their papers? cr~l C CZl 



We could ply many more questions on these lines, but we do not 

 believe bee-keepers as a class, if they knew it, would hold back the 

 simple fee of $1.00 that gives them membership in both the Associa- 

 tions named, and in that way support the institutions that help to 

 make their interests successful. CZ. :zr- 



Our next Annual Report (the 4th) of about 200 pages, will be out 

 in several weeks, and the larger membership we can show in thatUhe 

 better our prospect, when we go before the Legislature, of a successful 

 appeal being made. 



With all kindness to my brother bee-keepers, 



I am, sincerely yours, Jas. A. Stone, Sec. 



-V Contrtbuteb -f 

 Special (XvticUs 



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Comb Honey and Separators— Foul Brood, 



BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 



I was much interested in the answers to inquiries in the 

 last American Bee Journal. In the production of honey I 

 always took most delight in working for the comb. It always 

 seemed to me that nothing was more beautiful than a perfect 

 specimen of clear white comb-honey. This is specially true 

 when the combs are uniform, smooth and well-filled. I 

 have succeeded many times in securing whole supers where 

 every section was almost perfect, and this without the use 

 of separators at all. I think this usually comes when the 

 colonies are very strong and the harvest is bountiful. The 

 bees seem to rush the honey in to the hive, and if sections 

 are put in either with starters or full sheets of foundation 

 these are carried on together and uneven combs are rarely 

 produced. 



I often found, however, quite a different state of things. 

 Some of the combs would be thicker, and there would be 

 a general lack of uniformity. Indeed, this unevenness was so 

 great, or frequent, that in my own experience I decided that 

 it was never wise to strive to get along without the separa- 

 tors. I did not find it mattered much whether these were of 

 wood or tin. While this was true in my own experience, 

 I have known some bee-keepers who are astonishingly suc- 

 cessful in securing these almost perfect sections without ex- 

 ception, yet these persons never used separators at all. Thus 

 I was led to say that it was possible to get good sections 

 without separators, but that I found it better to use them. 

 I was much interested to find how many there were who, like 

 myself, found they could not produce satisfactory results 

 without the use of these valuable aids in comb-honey produc- 

 tion. 



Indeed, I have always considered that the securing of a 

 fine crop of excellent comb-honey, each season, was the best 

 test of skill and proficiency in the art of bee-keeping. Almost 

 anyone can secure extracted honey, and, for the novice, or 

 the one who does not study to attain the best in the art, it is 

 perhaps always wisest to work for extracted honey. The ad- 

 vantages in working for comb honey are: A much more 

 beautiful product — and there is much joy in producing the 

 beautiful; the producing of that which brings a much higher 

 price in the market; and the fact of knowing that we have 

 reached the highest skill of the art. The two handicaps in 

 comb-honey production — I might say three — are, frequent 

 failure, always securing a much less quantity, and the fact that 

 it is much more difficult to ship comb honey. 



The California bee-keeper finds this last point one that 

 materially concerns him. He must ship car-loads of his 

 honey for thousands of miles. In ca.^e he produces extracted 

 honey, he can do this with no fear of loss or disappointment 

 This alone will always make extracted honey a favorite with 

 the apiarists on the Pacific Coast. The difficulties in the way 

 and the invariably lessened production makes it imperative 

 that we secure at least double for comb honey that which 

 we might expect for extracted, the quality being the same in 

 each case. 



The requisite as I take it, to the best success in the 



