Published Monthly by The W. T. Falconer Mfg. Co. 



Vol. XII 



FEBRUARY 1902 



No. 2 



IF WE UNDERSTOOD. 



Could we but draw back the curtains 



That surround each other's lives, 

 See the naked heart and spirit. 



Know what spur the action gives, 

 Often we should find it better. 



Purer than we .iudge we should. 

 ^ye should love each other better. 



If we onlv understood. 



Could we judge all deeds by motions, 



See the u:ood and bad within. 

 Often we should love the sinner. 



All the while we loathe the sin. 

 Could we know the powers working 



To overthrow integrity. 

 We should judge each other's errors 



With more patient charity. 



If we knew the cares and trials. 



Knew the effort all in vain 

 And the bitter disappointment. 



Understood the loss and gain. 

 Would the grim, external roughness 



Seem, I wonder, just the same? 

 Should we help where now we hinder ': 



Should we pity where we blame? 



Ah, we judge each other liarshly. 



Knowing not life's hidden force, 

 Knowing not the fount of action 



Is less turbid at its source. 

 Seeing not amid the evil 



All the golden grain of good. 

 Oh. we'd love each other better 



If we only understood. 



—Selected. 



How Can We Improve Our Bees ? 



<By Arthur C. Miller.) 



I"LL GIVE it up. Ask me an easier 

 one, Mr. Editor. But such an an- 

 swer will be of little value to you, so 

 I will endeavor to suggest a few things 

 which may help us on toward the goal. 



First, what improvements are desired? 

 That the bees do not give a surplus of 

 honey, that they wintered poorly, that 

 they seem cross, is no oroof that the 

 bees are to blame. On the contrary 

 it is more than likely the trouble is 

 with the apiarist. He fails to correctly 

 diagnose the case. It is no easy matter 

 to determine the true cause of a poor 

 yield, of slow building up, of crossness 

 and of a thousand and one other things 

 which puzzle its all. 



We examine a colony in the spring 

 and find them below what we expected, 

 brood is not abundant and progress 

 seems slow. We attribute it to a poor 

 queen, but are w'e at all sure? Do we 

 know just the exact conditions of that 

 colon)' the previous fall, the age of the 

 queen, the relative proportion of old 

 and young bees, the quantity and qual- 

 ity of the stores, whether the bees had 

 a chance to arrange them to their lik- 

 ing after we had shifted them about? 

 Do we know that the conditions during 

 the winter were as favorable for this 

 colony as for the others, that they were 

 in no wise disturbed or made restless? 

 Do we know that their crossness is due 

 to "temper" or only to some temporary 

 disturbance? How many, I wonder, 

 are aware that the weather makes a 

 great difference to the temper of the 

 bees? To one who watches them close- 

 ly the approach of a storm is often in- 

 dicated before it is visible to the eye, 

 by clouds or wind. If all these facts 

 are unknown is it right to lay the trou- 

 ble to the queen and promptly pinch 

 her head of?? 



The difference in various strains of 

 bees is far less than our friends the 



