28 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



February, 



interests to keep things moving in 

 their lines. 



A complete list of members with 

 their names and addresses should be 

 supplied to all members at frequent in- 

 tervals as the association should en- 

 courage correspondence. 



All proceedings of the board of direc- 

 tors and of the annual convention 

 should be reported verbatim and 

 promptly published in permanent form. 

 It is well that the association has 

 hitherto been assisted by some men of 

 activity who have secured reports 

 where there would have otherwise 

 been no report taken. But the associa- 

 tion should be based on a sufficiently 

 solid foundation so that there would be 

 thorough independence and no need of 

 philanthropy. There are a number of 

 matters on which the membership 

 should vote individually instead of leav- 

 ing them to the board of directors, 

 particularly the publishing of proceed- 

 ings. 



I have above outlined what I believe 

 might be possible if none but bee-keep- 

 ers held office. It might be ar- 

 gued that others might _ do better 

 work, but I am sure if men whose 

 chief interest is directly in the 

 production of honey, found that 

 they were not sufficiently up on par- 

 liamentary practice or anything else 

 necessary for the exercise of official 

 duties, they would very likely be anx- 

 ious to delegate such matters to com- 

 mittees chosen with special reference 

 to their fitness. If, however, such a 

 board of directors should fall far short 

 of doing as well as some whom I have 

 heard of, I will miss my guess. 



Finally, I do not believe we will ever 

 have any restriction as to who shall 

 hold office, but that every member is 

 equally entitled to nomination; but I 

 think by a larger, broader, less small, 

 standard upon which to base all the as- 

 sociation's doings we will get a large 

 enough membership to make the asso- 

 ciation national in fact as well as in 

 name. 



In my opinion all who had anything 

 to do with printing Mr. France's name 

 on the official ballot, should be ex- 

 pelled from the association. 



Most of us have some individual axe 

 to grind and it is well that we have, 



but the axe of the specialist bee-keep- 

 er is the production of honey in most 

 cases, and our officers should be those 

 who are actually doing some exten- 

 sive grinding in that line. At the same 

 time we should avoid having on the 

 board a majority of men who are 

 grinding another axe and all grinding 

 it together. 



Cuba, N. Y., Jan. 9, 1903. 



"The American Bee-Keeper has been everything 

 to tne."—P. A. Birch. 



Notes from Idaho. 



WIRE FRAMES. 



(E. F. Atwater.) 



MUCH useless wiring is being 

 done, says Gleanings. True. 

 More than two horizontal wires 

 is a useless expense. Two wires give 

 best results, and I owe the idea to Har- 

 ry Howe. Now, don't be skeptical; try 

 it. For our part we will never go 

 back to the old plan of using three or 

 four horizontal wires to the L. frame. 

 Editor Root and Dr. Miller have been 

 having a lively "set-to" about brood 

 coming to the top bars of the L. frame. 

 Dr. Miller's frames are filled with 

 combs built from full sheets of foun- 

 dation staid with splints; no sagging 

 there; so brood is much more likely 

 to extend to the top bars. Root's 

 combs are built from foundation staid 

 with horizontal wires, consequently sag- 

 ging all along the top bars, and bees 

 dislike to rear brood in cells ever so 

 slightly elongated, consequently, an 

 inch or so of honey along the top bars. 

 Mr. Yoder, of Mampa, Ida., an apia- 

 rist of many years experience suggest- 

 ed this to me and I am satisfied of its 

 truth, though there are exceptions to 

 this rule. 



GOOD QUEENS WITH CELL CUPS 



Alley and his armed knight (A. C. 

 M.) may hammer away forever on the 

 inferiority of the cell-cup plan of queen- 

 rearing, but they cannot alter the fact 

 that queens properly reared by the cell- 

 cup plan are as good as any that' can 

 be reared. Come, you combative Dea- 

 con Hardscrabble, join me in "The 

 cell-cup plan forever." 



