328 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 4, 190S 



and made room for the fourth on the list, as only three were to be 

 considered. 



As to the examination, all credit of my passing should be given to 

 my excellent teacher, Mr. W. L. Coggshall. 



Very respectfully, Emma V. Haggertt. 



Of course there is some satisfaction at having been able to diag- 

 nose the situation so correctly; but our good friend, Mr. Coggshall, 

 will no doubt protest against taking so large a share of the credit for 

 passing the examination. 



Honey Paste for the Teeth 



Eight ounces of precipitated chalk, 4 ounces of powdered castile 

 soap, 4 ounces of powdered orris root, 40 drops of oil of sassafras, SO 

 drops of oil of bay, and honey enough to form a paste. — Mme. Qui 

 Vive, in the Chicago Record-Herald. 



Bees and Fruit-Puncturing 



As a further contribution in the case of the bees on trial. Miss 

 Frances E. Wheeler sends the following letter written by the ento- 

 mologist of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station: 



Miss Frances E. Wheeler:— I have read your letter with a 

 good deal of interest, and understand your position as I did not before 

 when your observations were given me second-hand. The prevailing 

 opinion is, of course, that bees are not able of themselves to puncture 

 the skin of fruits, but as regards your suggestions that they may 

 deliberately sting the fruit as the first step in feeding, I can only say 

 that I have had no observations to sustain such a theory. I fully 

 appreciate the stinging abilities of these insects, and can understand 

 that if they so willed they could puncture the fruit in the manner 

 described. This is a point that could easily be determined, and I know 

 of no better place where suitable observations could be made than in 

 your own orchard. If this year the bees frequent the fruit as they did 

 last year, I should consider it a great courtesy if you would call my 

 attention to the same, that I may make observations to settle this point. 



Thanking you for your interest in this matter, I am, 



Tours truly, P. J. Pakrott, 



March 7, 1905. Enlonwlogist. 



Clftcrtl^ougl^ts 



J 



The " Old Reliable " seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. Hasty, Sta. B Rural, Toledo, Ohio. 



LIGET- WEIGHT SECTIONS OP HONET. 



So a grocer of 10 years' experience thinks the swindle of light- 

 weight sections is responsible for much of the falling off in consump- 

 tion. Hit the mark that time. Not necessary to suppose that grocers 

 generally lie about the weight, or that purchasers generally believe 

 sections weigh a pound when they do not. But when a man buys a 

 so-called pound section, and pays for 12 ounces the price that should 

 have sufficed for a pound, he will ruefully kick himself about it after- 

 ward. Among other things he will tell himself then that it didn't 

 weigh more than W ounces. And it will be quite a while before he 

 buys any more. Page 329. 



SPRING AND FALL PRICES OP BEES. 



On the price of a colony of bees, fall and spring, 6 of the 29 ex- 

 perts do not try to answer the question as it is given. Among the 

 remaining 23 there are obvious causes of decided scatteration. Some 

 live where farm sales of neglected bees are common, with resulting 

 depression of prices. Some live where the winter problem is nothing, 

 with the result that the two prices are the same, or nearly so. 



We'll take ^.00 in spring and S4.00 in fall as the comparison 

 figures. Three name these sums exactly and nothing else. Five more 

 give answers that agree thereto, but with more or less of "frills" 

 attached. So these prices have the assent of over one-third of the 

 respondents. Three more name the same price in the spring but 

 cheaper in the fall. Nine name them cheaper both fall and spring — 

 lowest in Kentucky and Texas, where they are sometimes *2.00 or 

 lower. Two name them higher both fall and spring. If you glance 

 over and compare these ballots you will most likely conclude that (by 

 popular suffrage) the comparison figures are at least a shaving too 

 high. Page 245. 



EXTRACTED-HONET EXHIBITS — BEESWAX. 



So Utah exhibited its best honey in great 100-pound glasses with 

 the result that it didn't seem to be very white. The light amber honey 

 in one-pound glasses looked whiter than the best honey did. Remin- 

 der for future exhibitors. 



One of the things for us to find out when we get around to it is 

 about the wide abnormal variations of beeswax. These affect both 

 color and odor; and when we consider the world as a whole, they are 

 by no means rare, it seems. These peculiar waxes seem local. 



Whether they really are so or not is part of the problem. One might 

 surmise that some local species of plant or tree serves as the real cause 

 — were it not that most of our numerous divergences in bee-pasture 

 seem to count nothing except as to the honey. A peculiar race or 

 species of bee is without much doubt liable to have its own peculiar 

 sort of wax. These peculiarities cropped out in the wax-exhibits at 

 St. Louis. Nicaragua had a black, wild beeswax. Mexico showed » 

 chocolate- colored wax. Madagascar showed a yellow wax with a very 

 pronounced odor. Although none seems to have been at St. Louis, 

 Jamaica has a cherry-red wax with a very penetrating fragrance. Yet, 

 as a general proposition, we are in the habit of considering that blacks, 

 Italians and Cyprians all make the same wax — and all the- same 

 whether from clover or buckwheat, willow, aster or polygonum. 

 Somebody rob bumble-bees' nests enough to get a visible cake of wax 

 from them. That would show individualities, I'm pretty sure. Page 

 199. 



A PUBLIC HONEY MARKET. 



Nice to have a 3-days' public honey market every fall, as in the 

 Swiss city of Neuchatel. But, considering our prices, 2 cents a pound 

 to pay for selling extracted honey would kind o' strike us in the 

 neighborhood of the solar plexus. Taken out of their figures (from 16 

 cents up to 20) we would stand the blow. Page 245. 



INCORPORATION OP THE NATIONAL. 



Sixteen of the experts favor the incorporation of the National, 7 

 oppose it, and three dodge the question. Page 200. 



HEAVY LOSS OF BEES IN 1903-04. 



We know the winter of 1903-04 was a bad winter on bees; but 

 Canada seems to have caught it worse than the rest of us, according 

 to the figures on page 205. To lose 113,000 colonies of bees out of a 

 total of 190,000 is certainly a startling loss. But such sweeping losses 

 often make some desirable returns. The bee-keeper that harbors foul 

 brood— won't take pains to cure it, and yet won't quit the business 

 and let the territory become clean, is sometimes put out of commis- 

 sion by an extra-severe winter. 



Doctor irttller's 

 Question -- Box 



Send Questions either to the office of the American Bee Journal, 



or to Dr. C. 0. Miller, Marengo, 111. 



U^" Dr. Miller does nut answer Questions by mail. 



Bee-Hlves Made of Cedar and Redwood 



=/ 



I have seen offered for sale bee-hives made of Washington cedar 

 and California redwood. Are they any good? California. 



Answer.— I have had no personal experience with them, but I 

 think some have reported favorably of these woods. 



Sections Protected All Around— Wide Frames 



I am sending you under separate cover " top and bottom " of a 

 section taken from one of my T supers. I would not want to say that 

 all sections from my T supers are so stained. In my travels I occa- 

 sionally come across a man who wants his sections protected all 

 around while in the hive. At our bee-keepers' meeting a year ago 

 there was not one who was in favor of it. I would like to know 

 whether you think it would be desirdbh to have the tops of sections 

 protected. G. M. Doolittle, a few bee-keepers near Syracuse and my- 

 self, seem to be all the " old fogies " who stick to wide frames. 

 What is the matter with us? -New York. 



Answer. — Your samples have been examined and discussed by 

 myself and assistant with much interest. We have had sections as 

 badly daubed, but not many. When honey is yielding nicely, bees 

 are not much inclined to propolize. They will glue cracks and angles 

 to some extent but that is all. Late in the season, at least in this 

 locality, they will plaster glue on plain surfaces, and if a T super of 

 sections is left on for some time after the harvest closes, the bees seem 

 to have it on their consciences to decorate the tops with propolis over 

 the eniire surface. They do not do this with wide frames — cannot — 

 they can only get at the edges. So if a T super and a super of wide 

 frames, side by side, be left on some time after the harvest, the sec- 

 tions in the wide frame will be much the cleaner. While the harvest 

 Is on, the difference is the other way. We take on thousands of sec- 

 tions in T supers that scarcely need any scraping. With wide frames 

 on at the same time, the bees think it the right thing to glue the 

 cracks, and it is wonderful how far they can crowd in the glue be- 

 tween the top-bars of wide frames. So on the whole there is probably 

 less trouble with T supers than with wide frames in the matter of 

 gluing. 



After what I have said, you will not be surprised that my answer 

 to your question is that I do not think it desirable to have the tops of 

 sections protected, because the protection, while efficacious at the 

 central part, invites propolis at the edges. 



In the samples sent I note that you have the locked oorn^ of the 



