THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



167 



season were borrowed iVoin the above, 

 we have decided to credit friend Ben- 

 ton S50.00 for what the l)ene(it his ex- 

 periments have been to us." A. I. 

 Root in Gleanings. 



Mr. Benton is deserving all the 

 credit and cash given liini b\^ Mr. 

 Root for the shii)inng cage which is de- 

 scribed in a late issue of Gleanings. 



But, friend Root, how is it tliat you, 

 in your beneficence, do not remember 

 the fellow who invented, or first pre- 

 pared the proper food for the mailing 

 cages? To him belongs the credit of 

 malviug it [possible to send bees and 

 queens long distances by mail. Of 

 what eartiily use would the Benton 

 cage be witiiout tiie i)ulverized or pow- 

 dered sugar and honey food? 



The Benton cage without this food 

 would be about as worthless as a 

 Langstroth hive without hames. 



The person (who can name him?) 

 who first prepared the new food for 

 queen cages, is as much of a benefac- 

 tor to beekeepers as is Mr. Langs- 

 troth who gave us the movable-comb 

 hive. 



Mr. 1. R. Good first mixed granu- 

 lated sugar and honey, but that was a 

 poor food for shipping cages, and not 

 as good as a sponge and honey. I found 

 that the bees would use the honey, 

 and leave the dry grains of sugar to 

 rattle about the Ciige, which would 

 catch in the screen wire used for ven- 

 tilating the cages, thus stopping out 

 all air and killing the bees in some 

 cases ; where powdered or pulverized 

 sugar and honey are used, tlie bees 

 consume nil, and none is left to rattle 

 in the cage. 



Is this a new idea ? 



Of all the devi(;es that have been 

 suggested to retard or restrict brood- 

 rearing after the honey season is over, 

 it seems to nie that the following 

 method is the most practical and ef- 

 fectual. 



When Brother E. L. Pratt was last 

 here we discussed this point at some 

 length. In the first place both had 



had the same experience in one line. 

 When the honey season was over, our 

 hives were full of honey ; but before 

 the fall harvest the combs were al- 

 most eutirel}' bare of stores. 



Then there is another thing in this 

 connection that is peculiar, to say the 

 least. Those colonies that had but a 

 small amount of stores at the end of 

 the honey harvest were in as good 

 condition at the first of September as 

 those that had j^lenty of stores early in 

 the season. Well, now we have come 

 to the conclusion that at the end of the 

 honey flow another season, we shall 

 remove neLirly all the honey fiom the 

 brood combs, and thus compel the 

 bees to make their own living from 

 day to day. In my opinion there will 

 at all times be sufficient honey in the 

 combs to take the bees through a week 

 or more of dull weather. 



It strikes me that this plan for re- 

 tarding brood-rearing and also in 

 economizing the consumption of stores 

 will be successful. If necessary to 

 feed back in the fall, the honey will 

 be on hand for the purpose. This, it 

 seems to me, will be better and 

 cheaper than to i)urchase and feed su- 

 gar to winter the bees on. 



An old friend visits the Bay State Apiary. 

 Rambler — you all have heard about 

 this mysterious fellow. He is the 

 funu}' man whose articles are published 

 in about every issue of Gleanings. 

 His ramblings have mostly been out- 

 side New lilnglaud. However, a few 

 weeks ago he got over the line into 

 New P^ngland and roved about this 

 part of the conntiy considerably. It 

 took Rambler some fifteen or twenty 

 minutes to look the big stale of Rhode 

 Island over, and, before he was aware 

 of it he hail slipped out of that little po- 

 tato patch and found himself in Mas- 

 sachusetts. Once in old Mass., he 

 soon found his way to the Bay State 

 Apiarv. Well, as it was about dinner 

 time Mr. Rambler was invited in. We 

 had no sooner got well under way, when 

 some one says ''there's a man in the 



