I907-] 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



241 



The cost of this is between six and 

 seven dollars per acre, and fields thus 

 treated yielded a most luxuriant growth 

 of white clover making two and one- 

 half tons of hay. The soil is a good, 

 strong, retentive soil. Dr. Brooks 

 said that his bees fairly revelled in vast 

 billowy masses of bloom afforded by 

 the luxuriant growth. 



Arthur C. Miller. 



AS SEEN FROM ABROAD. 



The British Bee Journal has a de- 

 partment occasionally in which Ameri- 

 can subjects are received. These com- 

 ments are always interesting and fre- 

 quently are instructive. Following is 

 a sample page: 



AMERICAN AND COLONIAL 

 PAPERS. 



Extracts and Comments. 

 By D. M. Macdonald, Banff. 



Top Entrances. — This subject crops 

 up periodically, and of late several bee- 

 keepers outside this country have de- 

 voted considerable attention to test- 

 ing its good points. While not 

 enamored of it, I feel it may have 

 something in its favor. One writei 

 and e.xperimenter says: — "A very un 

 expected thing happened. There was 

 considerably less mortality during the 

 winter in the hives with the entrance 

 above, or at least a much less number 

 of dead bees found on the alighting- 

 board, and an examination showed that 

 the bottom boards were clean, and that 

 the dead had not been left inside, as 

 might be suspected." The system finds 

 some favor in Germany. 



Wired Foundation. — It has often 

 been advocated that a gain would be 

 secured if the manufacturers could sell 

 foundation to bee-keepers with the 

 wires embedded therein. The American 

 Bee-Keeper lately contained an article 

 showing miserable results from an ex- 

 tended use of such wired foundation, 

 but in the issue for August there is a 

 refutation of Mr. Allen Latham's con- 

 clusions. This writer practices the 

 "cross-wiring plan," with vertical wires 

 in the foundation and horizontal wires 

 in the frames. It seems to me that 

 there would be far too many wires, 

 and that the game is scarcely worth 

 the candle. If, however, the wire? 

 could be embedded by the manufacturer 

 at a merely nominal cost the gain to 



the busy business man or the extensive 

 bee-keeper would be considerable. 



Dark Bees Hardiest. — Mr. J. L. 

 Byer, in "Canadian Beedom," has the 

 following: — "Just lately I was speaking 

 with a bee-keeper who has been in a 

 large number of apiaries in Ontario, 

 and he remarked that in every case the 

 dark bees — Carniolan and natives — had 

 stood the adverse conditions much bet- 

 ter than the Italians. My own personal 

 experience," he continues, "is exactly 

 in accord with this view, and the very 

 few weak colonies I have are nearly 

 all headed by Italian queens. The 

 very yellow or five-banders have suffer- 

 ed the worst; in fact, through these 

 parts they have been cleaned out en- 

 tirely. It seems to be quite the general 

 opinion that these very yellow bees 

 are not so hardy as the leather-colored 

 Italians, yet I have never seen a good 

 explanation as to why this is the case." 

 Several correspondents of Gleanings 

 report like results. 



Thick Combs.— Mr. Townsend, in the 

 Bee-Keepers' Review, goes solid for 

 very thick combs for extracting. 

 "With I 3-4-in. spacing we get great 

 fat combs of honey, and then we run 

 our uncapping-knife deep, cutting the 

 comb clear down even with the frame, 

 and there is rarely ever a comb so un- 

 even but the knife will uncap it the first 

 time over. It is possible to uncap 

 much faster, and there are fewer combs 

 to handle. I do not think it would be 

 putting it too strong to say that two 

 ten-frame upper stories, with eight 

 combs in, can be uncapped as quickly 

 as one with ten frames, and then the 

 eight combs can be extracted in one- 

 fifth less time." He has a good deal 

 more to say in favor of these thick- 

 bricks of honey. 



Distance Bees Fl3^— Messrs. C. P. 

 Dadant and Louis H. Scholl both take 

 up the cudgels in the American Bee 

 Journal in favor of short-distance trav- 

 eling. By means of a graphic diagram 

 the first-named makes some telling 

 points to support his conclusion "that 

 bees do not usually travel over two 

 miles in search of honey." Mr. Scholl 

 had two yards only one and a half 

 miles apart. Near one of them a com- 

 positae bloomed profusely. The bees 

 of the one yard stored their combs 

 heavily, there being the roar of a big 

 honey-flow during the time of the 

 yield. The bees at the other yard did 



