This season 1ms been very poor in 

 this vicinity ; too dry up to the present 

 writing, but we have had plenty of 

 honey-dew from last year, so that we 

 have kept our bees doing their best in 

 brood-raising. 



One other thing and then we close. Is 

 it in keeping with the proverbial fair- 

 ness of the "Old Reliable," not to al- 

 low your correspondents to have their 

 choice of the orthography of a disputed 

 word ? I refer to apiarian or apiarist. 

 The latter word some of us have dis- 

 carded, as we have other antiquated 

 and useless apiarian fixtures ; its very 

 ugliness and harshness of pronuncia- 

 tion condemns it. The mere fact that 

 it appears in the dictionary is no rea- 

 son why it should not be discarded. If 

 we held rigidly to the dictionary far- 

 ther progress in improving orthography 

 would be impossible. We simply ask 

 that we be not misrepresented. We 

 recollect that at one time that there 

 was a z in the word Kansas. This or- 

 thography Horace Greeley and the New 

 York Tribune tried to maintain, but it 

 was doomed and soon went by the 

 board. So of this word apiarist, its 

 doom is sealed. After a while there 

 will be written in the dictionaries op- 

 posite to it the word obsolete, the same 

 as you may find in regard to the word 

 sectariest. 



Lawrence, Kan., June 16, 1879. 



[We had supposed the difference of 

 opinion regarding the use of the word 

 "apiarian" was settled in the May num- 

 ber of the Journal, 1877, p. 165. We 

 are sorry friend Cameron — so univer- 

 sally correct in everything else — persists 

 in this little hobby ; but, then, all great 

 men are said to have hobbies. — Ed.] 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Using Empty Frames. 



N. H. BROWN. 



In the January number of the Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal is an article from 

 the pen of G. M. Doolittle, entitled "A 

 Criticism — Comb Foundation." The 

 position taken in that part of the ar- 

 ticle devoted to the criticism of Prof. 

 Cook's Manual differs so widely from 

 my own experience during the past 10 

 years, that I cannot refrain from having 

 my say on this subject. I have never 

 practiced that plan of swarming, except 

 on occasions when I remove a queen 

 from her hive in order to get her stock 

 for queen rearing. I then use the plan 

 indicated by Prof. Cook, and against 



which Mr. D. protests ; that is, I take 

 a frame of brood from each of 6 or 8 

 colonies and build up a colony for my 

 breeding queen, rilling the vacant 

 spaces thus made with empty frames. 



I never hive a natural swarm without 

 giving them a frame of brood from 

 some other colony, giving the despoiled 

 colony an empty frame instead, unless 

 I happen to have empty combs, which 

 I seldom have, as I prefer to give a 

 swarm a hive full of empty combs. I 

 have never in the latter case had a 

 single drone cell built, and only one in 

 the frame and that during the month 

 of August, 1877. I removed a choice 

 queen from her hive and built up a col- 

 ony for her in the manner under con- 

 sideration ; the empty frames placed in 

 the various hives on that occasion were 

 all filled with drone comb. I do not 

 know whether this would be the usual 

 result of this process at that time of the 

 year or not, as I seldom raise queens 

 after swarming time ; but I am in- 

 clined to think that it would, for at 

 that time there are plenty of workers 

 and usually plenty of honey, and they 

 are in great haste to gather it, hence 

 they build drone comb as the easiest 

 and cheapest means of providing stor- 

 age for the honey. 



I have had occasion to insert about 

 20 empty frames this season, during 

 May, and they were all filled with 

 worker comb and brood in a few days, 

 and I did not use foundation either. As 

 Mr, Doolittle's article suggests, locality 

 may account for the different results. I 

 wintered 42 colonies in the cellar and 1 

 outside, all coming through in good 

 condition. The prospect for surplus is 

 not good, drouth having dried up the 

 clover bloom almost entirely. 



I think I have discovered the cause 

 and cure of spring dwindling com- 

 plained of by so many correspondents 

 of the American Bee Journal, and 

 will make a report of it in time for bee- 

 keepers to test it next winter. 



Plainview, 111.. June 16th, 1879. 



For tne American Bee Journal. 



Apiculture in Florida. 



R. H. M'INTYRE. 



Bees have done worse here this spring 

 than ever before since any of us, now 

 living here, have any recollection of. 

 All of my strong colonies had plenty of 

 honey and brood March 1st, as the soft 

 maple gave a very good yield. But the 

 months of March and April were very 

 cold and wet for this place. The flow- 

 ers seemed to yield very little honev- 

 They commenced to get considerable 



