120 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



queens until he is further persuaded 

 of their value. 



What is the matter with the Ital- 

 ians? They have been tried long and 

 severely in competition with other 

 races and have not been found want- 

 ing. They are the "coining bee," and 

 they bring tons of honey with them. 

 Did you ever hear of train-loads, or 

 car-loads, or even tons of honey be- 

 fore the daj's of the beautiful Ital- 

 ians? 



What is the exact size of the 

 Langstroth frame? 



"The Langstroth frame is 17f X 

 9 J inches." 



J. P. H. Brown. 

 "Tlie Standard Langstroth frame is 

 171 X9| inches." 



G. W, Demaree, 

 "I always supposed it to be 17| X 

 9 J inches." 



Eugene Secor. 

 "The frame is 17| X 9^ inclies. 

 A. J. Cook. 

 Of course these men all know just 

 what they are talking about. Root's 

 "Simplicit}^" frame whicli is 17| X 9| 

 turns out to be sAvaoslbutnot quite an 

 L. 



Mr. John F. Gates, in the Cana- 

 dian Bee Journal, makes some rather 

 cutting, yet true and timelj^, remarks 

 as to the too common practice of some 

 of the older brethren of lauding bee- 

 keeping too highly. The day is past 

 for this sort of thing. Let your en- 

 thusiasm be properly curbed and 

 bounded. The conclusion of the whole 

 matter, as it seems to me is, that 

 it requires as much hard work and 

 hard worry to make beekeeping paj' 

 as to succeed in any other vocation. 

 The way we tread is not a path of 

 roses. Another mistake is made in 

 trying to induce women and inva- 

 lids to engage in this pursuit under 

 the impression that there is no ivork 

 ahoxit it. Rather say to all that there 

 is hard work, lieavy work and hot 

 work and plenty of it in beekeeping. 



I would not deter women and inva- 

 lids from keeping bees, but let them 

 understand that a strong man is at 

 times scarcely sufficient for the work. 



Mr. Doolittle gives his views at 

 length as to preventing increase in 

 Gleanings for March. 



It would not do, with the space at our 

 disposal, to copy his article entire, so 

 we shall simply "sift" out some of the 

 most important points. He gives three 

 methods. Tiie first, which he prefers, 

 is to contract earl}' in the spring tofive 

 combs. Then, when by giving them 

 combs of honey outside of the division 

 board, they have their five frames 

 full of brood he takes the queen of one 

 hive and one frame of the brood along 

 with one empty frame with a starter 

 which he leaves on the old stand to 

 build comb. He then takes all the re- 

 maining brood and adds it to the next 

 hive which is thus greatly reenforced. 

 In the fall the little colonies are united 

 or added to weak swarms. 



The second plan is to cage the queen 

 at the time she swarms, cutting out all 

 queen cells at the end of six days and 

 again at the end of fourteen days from 

 time of swarming and then releasing 

 the queen. 



The third plan is that given b_y Prof. 

 Cook and is to hive the first swarm of 

 the season in a new hive, and put the 

 next swarm that issues in the hive the 

 first came from and the next in that 

 the second came from, and soon to the 

 end of the season. 



After all, we are told b}' J. M. Doo- 

 little in Gleanings that brace combs 

 area blessing. He gives two reasons 

 for his view. First, tliey answer for 

 Hill's devices, giving a winter pas- 

 sage over the combs, and, second, they 

 serve as ladders for the bees to go up 

 to the sections, thus saving much time 

 and honey. 



There is one class of persons that 

 I would like to see encouraged in bee- 

 keeping. 1 mean our bright Amer- 



