VMS 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



211 



,'d fatlior. tlu' late (.'has. F. Mutb, 

 who for years, we believe, bore the 

 n'putatiou of being the most exteusive 

 ili'aler in honey in the United States. 



.Mr. Mnth has grown from infaney 

 miong the bees and barrels of honey, 

 iud while it has been .stated pnbliL-ly 

 that adnlteratiou of honey could not 

 e detected in many instances outside 

 of a certain Philadelphia establishment. 

 -Mr. Muth assures us that though the 

 adulteration be but five per cent, he 

 ran positively detect it, and in all his 

 transactions "Purity" is his watch- 

 word. ^Ir. Muth seems to take es- 

 pecial delight in introducing tlie use 

 uf honey with uiauufacturers who 

 iiave formerly had no knowledge of its 

 superior iiualities along their lines of 

 Imsiness. and to this fact, doubtless, 

 his extensive sales are largely attrib- 

 utable, with a consequent benefit to 

 the producer by extending the con- 

 stmiption. 



Mr. Muth is a memlier of the execu- 

 tive committee of the recently organ- 

 ized Bee-Kpepers' Association of Ham- 

 ilton county. Ohio, in which organiza- 

 tion his exnert skill and progressive- 

 i!o<« nre generalhi recognized. 



NOTES ANDICOMAIENTS. 



tC. S. Harris.) 



After some twelve or thirteen 

 years of bee-keeping I have this 

 season had t^-o. to me, new ex- 

 periences. I have for the first time 

 had a queen which laid regularly and 

 well, but whose eggs did not hatch, 

 i'lid a colony of hybrid bees which 

 made life unltearable in the yard. I 

 have had cross colonies bofor'^. for 

 I like hybrids for cell building, and 

 they are usually more or less irritable, 

 hut never one where the bees laid in 

 wait for me and followed me about 

 in considerable numliers. 



Editor E. R. Root finds it hard to 

 yield acknowledgement to the fact 

 that layinsr (pieens pi-efer old to new 

 eonib for breeding purpose;.. Locality 

 ean scarcely count in this case, and the 

 majority of testimony is certainly 

 against him. I have this presenc sca- 

 ''on. blocked a number of nnck'i v.ith 

 newly drawn foundation or a bright 



new comb, and I belicse that a queen 

 just laying will more readily make 

 use of a new comb than wdl an old 

 queen. During a rush of nectar the 

 difference is not so perceptible. 



The editor credits Mr. Arthur Miller 

 with the dethroning of tiie umbilical 

 (ord theory by seienti.'io investigation. 

 Without wishing to deny Mr.' Miller 

 his ju.st due, I believe that question 

 \\'as early settled for the majority by 

 plain common sense and observation. 

 The most astonishing feature cf the 

 case is that it was ever given such 

 prominence in the apicultnral press. 



Quite frequently the advice is given 

 to alloAv drones only in selected colo- 

 nies. The man who think.s he can 

 ]irevent drones without a regular sys- 

 tematic overhauling of the colony is 

 fooled, and even then undesirable 

 drones from elsewhere may be accept- 

 ed. When all worker comb or founda- 

 tion is given the bees will rear drones 

 when it suits tliem so to do. The bet- 

 ter plan is to keep only desirable 

 queens, and even then distribute 

 drones from the choicest among tlie 

 other colonies. 



That (jueens are sometimes injiu-ed 

 in the mails I have just had practical 

 proof. In the 'first week of July I sent 

 ou.t twenty queens for a friend, keep- 

 ing a record of the nuclei from which 

 they were taken. A few days ago he 

 told me be had received word from 

 the party to wliom they were mailed 

 stating that one of them was a drone 

 layer. An examination of the nuclei 

 showed the queens to have been all 

 right at the time of shipping. 



This reminds me of thf> only case of 

 drone haying I have had this .season, 

 which proved to be something out of 

 the common, or at any rate I do not 

 remember hearing of anything sim- 

 ilar. This queen filled one comb and 

 one side of another with drone eggs, 

 and then worker from that time 

 forward. 



Some years ago I had a queen many 

 of whose workers were provided with 

 drone heads, and a veiy poor provis- 

 ion it proved to be. 



Holly Hill, Fla., Aug. 18. 1-XlO. 



Tn making sales at long prices a 

 good line of advertising goes farther 

 than a good line of ancestry. — Class 

 Advertisins. 



