24 



THE AMERICAN APICVLTURIST. 



valuable Ajoicnlturist, for I found in it 

 many a new idea and a great many ar- 

 ticles on apiculture written by master- 

 ly hands and brains, and the one topic 

 on the "New Races and In-breeding" 

 (Api, 1888, page 80) is worth three 

 times the mone^' of the yearly paper. 

 All the contributions of Mr. Stachel- 

 hausen are an honor to your AjJicuUu- 

 rist, for their plain, clear and correct 

 language, free of all conjectures and 

 only based on facts and experiments, 

 and also free of all personal reflections 

 as any article in a good paper ought to 

 be. I found the writings of Mr. S. 

 years ago in some German bee-papers, 

 and his name has there a very good 

 sound, and I was exceedingl}'^ pleased 

 to find him here in America one of the 

 ablest writers on bee-topics. 



B}' the way, friend Alley, you told 

 us in the December number, page 184, 

 that you had the intention to. pay a 

 visit to Mr. H. D. Davis of Vermont, 

 and tell us afterwards what 3'ou saw 

 and heard. Now, I wish you could find 

 time to undertake the journey and con- 

 vert the gentleman from his pollen- 

 theory, and no doubt 3'on could do it 

 ver}' easily, if you only show Mr. Davis 

 the Api ofl888, page 214, 2d column, ^ 

 where he can see, that the same theor}^ 

 was started in an old countr}-, about 

 1778, but was soon abandoned, and 

 that in the j^ears 1876 and until 1879, 

 the same question Avas deliberated and 

 discussed in the Bienenfreund in Ger- 

 many with the same result : — That the 

 whole pollen-theory is therefore a very 

 old question, nothing new, just as you 

 would dig out the old theory of raising 

 young bees by butchering a steer. But 

 the fun of the thing is, that the inven- 

 tors of the pollen theory in our days 

 grew ver}' jealous and envious against 

 one another about the priorit}^ and the 

 patent of the said theory : t\\Qy would 

 sell the hide, before they had the bear. 



I wish you great success for your 

 A2ncuUurist for the next 3'ear. 



Fulda, Indiana. 



[iThe article referred to was by Mr. Stachel- 

 bauseu.] 



Bees by the pound by mail. 

 W. p. Henderson. 



Yes, the}' can be sent without dan- 

 ger to postmasters, or carriers — even 

 three or four pounds could be carried, 

 in a tin-box, made something like the 

 fresh oyster cans, with round tin sup- 

 ports soldered, or even small blocks 

 of wood tacked on the inside at con- 

 venient distances, to avoid being 

 smashed. A box capal)le of carrying 

 two pounds of bees could be made 

 that would withstand a pressure of 

 two or more hundred pounds, and 

 even if it did get bent or smashed, 

 the bees could not escape. But we 

 do not need at present, and I think 

 queen breeders generally are opposed 

 to using, the mails for this purpose. 

 Start it, and some botch of a beekeep- 

 er, would avail himself of the privi- 

 lege and such a fuss and muss would 

 come from the postmasters, as hasn't 

 been heard since Crop was stung at 

 the camp-meeting. 



Bee-papers. 



You are right, don't mix up your 

 paper with poultry, pigs, pet stock or 

 preaching ; and another thing 3'ou no- 

 ticed sometime since which struck me, 

 viz. : writing one or two columns, with 

 not a single new idea in the article ; 

 the whole matter could be boiled down 

 and stated in a dozen lines. Putting a 

 new top on some old fact and string- 

 ing out a page or two about it, re- 

 minds me of a cup of coffee, an old 

 Virginian and myself got at a restau- 

 rant. He said, "that was very fine cof- 

 fee, and I would have taken the second 

 cup, but did not like to drink so much 

 water for so little coffee." These 

 communications are general!}^ well 

 written, and sometimes readable, but 

 they have nothing in them to think 

 about. 



Handling queens by the wings. 

 I am satisfied, tliat I caused the 

 death of one of my finest queens by 

 taking hold of her wings in removing 



