148 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



is carried too far we will soon have to 

 start another "Leag-ue. " Seriously, 

 it seems to me that it would be better 

 if the publishers of bee journals 

 devoted all of their energies to the bet- 

 terment of existing beekeepers, in- 

 stead of trying to avigment their num- 

 bers. It does not seem like a kindness 

 to either the new recruits nor to the old 

 hands, when we urge people to enter 

 bee-keeping at the same time that we 

 are donating hundreds of dollars to try 

 and lift the honey market even to a 

 norm-il plane. 



Twenty per cent, of the receipts will 

 now be paid General Manager France, 

 instead of 15 per cent, as heretofore. 

 The Board of Directors has so decided 

 by a practically unanimous vote. Even 

 this will be small pay for the amount 

 of work thac Mr. France does for bee- 

 keepers. Last year he neglected his 

 regular foul brood work to work for 

 the National, to such an extent that 

 $200 of the fonl brood fund remained 

 unused. This means that Mr. France 

 lost just that much money that he 

 might have earned. We have never 

 had a manager the equal of Mr. 

 France, and we certainly ought to pay 

 all that it is possible for us to pay 

 him. Only recently Mr. France wrote 

 numerous letters, then rode all night, 

 spent three days' time, $12.00 railroad 

 fare, hotel bills, etc , in order to secure 

 a reduction in tlie freight rate on the 

 round, jacketed, tin cans tilled with 

 honey. He succeeded, too, and, here- 

 after, they will berated as fourth class 

 freight. This is the Ivind of a man to 

 have as Manager, and wiien we have 

 got such a man we better keep him if 

 we can. 



Questions Answered Regarding the Making 

 of Rapid Increase. 

 A subscriber wants to know if I 

 bought $2.00-queens when making 

 three colonies build up to 33 in one 

 season. No, I was in the queen rear- 



ing business at the time, and there 

 were always plenty of queens in the 

 yard to spare. Queens can be reared 

 for tliis purpose, or, in the summer, 

 they can be bought for 50 cts each. 



My friend also wishes to knovi' if I 

 had hives full of empty combs. No; I 

 used full sheets of foundation. 



Still further, he would like to know 

 if I kept the entrance closed, for a few 

 days, to the hive of a newly made 

 colony. No; the bees were allowed to 

 fly freely. Most of the old bees would 

 of course, return to tlieir old homes; 

 but there would soon be a fl3'ing-force 

 of bees that had never flown from any 

 otlier hive. 



The Foretelling of Swarming. 

 Tlie tendenc}' of tlie times is to the 

 keeping of more bees; to the establish- 

 ing of out-apitiries; and to the controll- 

 ing of swarming, either by "shaking," 

 or by some other method, of which the 

 Sibbald is an illustration. The great 

 obstacle to this plan is to know in ad- 

 uance if a colony is making prepara- 

 tions for swarming. If a colony will 

 keep on working, with no' thoughts of 

 swarming, well and good, we don't 

 wish to disturb it; but the only way to 

 know whether it is on swarming bent, 

 is to examine the brood combs for 

 queen cells. With a populous colony', 

 upon which are two or three supers, it 

 is a somewhat unpleasant, laborious 

 and time-consuming task. It is very 

 evident that some method will be de- 

 veloped whereby this examination can 

 be quickly and easily made. One 

 plan is described in this issue of the 

 Review. 



The Need of an Avocation. 

 Mr. Jas. H. Cantield, in the May 

 Cosmopolitan, in a most excellent arti- 

 cle entitled "The Philosoph}' of Stay- 

 ing in Harness," says, among other 

 things, "With very rare and brilliant 

 exceptions, he is necessarilj' and 

 always a man of limited horizon, of 



