210 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



4, What is your opiuion regarding 

 the reversible frame? 



0. How do you think that pollen, 

 mixed with winter stores of the bees 

 and consumed by them, affects the 

 bees? 



6. What is the best method of sheet- 

 ing wax for the " Given " press, so that 

 the sheets may be of uniform thickness 

 throughout, and either eight or ten feet 

 per pound as the beekeeper may 

 choose? 



7. Is there any better method of 

 purifying wax than repeated meltings 

 and allowing it to cool slowly so that 

 the sediment may settle and be re- 

 moved? 



8. Will melting by the sun improve 

 the color of commercial beeswax? 



9. Will this injure or harden the 

 wax for comb foundation ? 



ANSWERS BY J. E. POND, JU. 



1. The honey-bee is no respecter 

 of person or property ; it gathers its 

 stores regardless of the rights of any 

 one save its own. Nectar found within 

 the radius of its flight from home is 

 appropriated by it regardless of the 

 ownership of the soil on which it 

 grows. There is honest competition 

 in all trades. Why should A, owning a 

 one-fourth acre section, claim all the 

 honey within the range of his bees, 

 simply because he happened to be the 

 first one to keep bees in that section? 

 Has not his neighbor B, who owns 

 hundreds of acres, and who has made 

 the locality his lifelong home, the 

 same rights as B, who is a new comer? 

 or must B, if he desires to keep bees, 

 leave home and friends in order to es- 

 tablish an apiary? My own opinion is 

 that there is no right in the matter, 

 either moral, legal or equitable, that 

 A can gain simply by priority of occu- 

 pation. 



2. I do not believe it can. A man 

 by the name of C J. Eobinson claims 

 it to have originated in something such 

 a manner, but if it could originate 

 spontaneously as indicated in the 

 question, the occupation of beekeeping 

 would at once prove a lamentable 

 failure, all over the world. 



3. It is easy to guess, but theoreti- 

 cal answers are of no value in a case 

 like this. It is proof we want, and I 

 have no desire to experiment in this 

 direction. That it is a fungus of the 

 most deadly nature to our bees is well 

 known, and 1 sincerely hope that none 

 of tlie readers of the " Api" will ever 

 have a nearer acquaintance with it, 



than they obtain in the answers to the 

 question. 



4. The reversible frame will accom- 

 plish the results claimed for it, but 

 until some inexpensive arrangement 

 can be made by which we can use it 

 lu connection with our ordinary hives 

 and frames, I hardly think it will pay 

 to fit up for and with it. 



5. I do not think that a natural food 

 of the honey bees, when pure, can have 

 any injurious effects when consumed 

 by them ; at least it never has in my 

 own apiary. 



6. I have had no experience, so 

 cannot say. 



7. None that I know of. It should 

 be melted in quite a quantity of water, 

 when the sediment will settle on the 

 lower part, and can be easily removed 

 therefrom. 



8. I have had no experience. 



9. I do not know positively, but 

 should judge that it would tend to 

 harden it. Wax is bleached by the 

 action of sun and air, and wax when 

 bleached is ordinarily harder than it is 

 when crude. 



ANSWERS BY G. W. DEMAREE. 



1. It would require more space than 

 would be suitable to this department 

 to give my views in detail on this sub- 

 ject. 



I utterly repudiate the " spirit "man- 

 ifested by some who have written on 

 the subject. There is not one case 

 in a thousand where a beekeeper, who 

 makes the production of honey a spec- 

 ialty, would be fool enough to select 

 and move to a lield already occupied 

 by another. The danger to tiie pros- 

 perity of the specialist comes from 

 an entirely different source, hence it 

 is weak and silly to talk about system- 

 atic "war" of forces, etc. 



Let me illustrate, and I do so the 

 more particularly because I regard this 

 matter of a "clear field" as one of the 

 greatest of all factors which go to 

 make up good success. But now for 

 the illustration. I was brought up 

 within eight miles of my present home. 

 Well, when I moved here tifteen years 

 ago, I did not see hnlonehee on the white 

 clover the first two seasons after locat- 

 ing here. And by inquiry I could 

 learn of but one old box hive in the 

 ordinary tlight of my bees. Of course, 

 I had the right of preemption, eh? 

 But I really came here to practise law, 

 and hence did not think of keeping 

 bees as a business. I commenced keep- 

 ing bees as a study and pastime, and 



