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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Dec. 7, 190S 



that his beclouded brain could not discern that " peculiari- 

 ties," whether " disagreeable " or otherwise, are among the 

 things that can not be counted out in taking an inventory 

 of the qualities that go to make up the character of a bee ? 

 If I understand him correctly, he says : 



" Blacks are the best bees, but I refuse to keep them 

 because of a disagreeable peculiarity in their style of run- 

 ning when handled." To which I reply, " Yes, blacks are 

 really the best bees, but they have the disagreeable pecu- 

 liarity that they don't put up as good a fight against rob- 

 bers and moths as do Italians and hybrids ; also that they 

 don't store as much honey as others, and a few other little 

 peculiarities which make me refuse to keep them, although 

 they are really the best bees." Anti-Black. 



Width of Sections in England 



In this country 1% inches prevails, in England prob- 

 ably 2 inches. At a meeting of the British Bee-Keepers' 

 Association, reported in the British Bee Journal, the ques- 

 tion of adopting a standard width came up. After an ani- 

 mated discussion, the resolution in the following form, 

 " That it is desirable, in the opinion of this meeting, that 

 there should be a standard section recognized by the British 

 Bee-Keepers' Association, namely, 4'4x4'4x2 inches," was 

 submitted to the meeting, and carried by a majority of seven . 



Fastening Foundation in Frames 



In this country saw-kerfs to receive foundation in top- 

 bars are generally made only in top-bars Ji an inch thick 

 or thicker, the kerf being only ji inch deep, and not mate- 

 rially afifecting the strength of the top-bar. In England 

 top-bars }i thick are sawed entirely in two, and complaint 

 is made that the top-bar is thus weakened to tke extent of 

 10 percent. But this gives opportunity for a special plan 

 of fastening thus given in the British Bee Journal : 



" My own simple plan is to press the top edge of the 

 sheet between my thumb and forefinger; when thus flat- 

 tened the foundation slips easily into the saw-cut, and is 

 pushed so far through as to project slightly on the upper 

 side of the top-bar, then run a hot poker along the project- 

 ing edge, and the sheet of wax is made perfectly secure." 



ITtisccIIaneous 

 Hctps V 3 terns 



^ 



J 



Canadian Beedom is a new department of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal this week — or, rather, an old department 

 revived — with Mr. Morley Pettit as conductor, or editor. 

 Mr. Pettit is well known to bee-keepers of Canada, although 

 one of the younger generation of bee-folks. His crop, the 

 past season, was 40,000 pounds of extracted honey. Having 

 produced that amount in one season in Canada should give 

 him the right to speak on bee-culture with at least some 

 authority. 



We trust that our Canadian readers will help Mr. Pettit 

 to make their department as interesting and valuable as 

 possible. 



A 20-Page Number is this week's American Bee Jour- 

 nal. It is our expectation to make it a 20 page paper from 

 now until July 1, 1906, and then 16 pages until Dec. 1. This 

 plan is begun on account of the extra advertising patronage 

 and also extra demand for general reading space during the 

 first six months of the year. Also, from July 1 to Dec. 1 

 most bee-keepers are very busy with work aside from bee- 

 keeping, so that they have scarcely time to read so much 

 bee-literature. 



By the way, the extra pages each week are furnished at 

 no extra charge to the subscribers. We are pretty familiar 

 with the current bee-literature of the day, and, really, we 

 think it would be rather diSicult to find a bigger and better 

 dollar's worth of apiarian information than we give in 

 52 copies of the Weekly American Bee Journal each year. 



The Apiary of Clias. Ciarke, of Chicago, 111., appears 

 on the first page this week. The year after the Chicago 

 fire the Clarkes located and built at Washington Heights 



Some 3000 or 4000 pounds of Mr. Clarke's 1905 Honey Crop, as it ap eared in his Honey-House. 



