THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



93 



Lewis Dalberg, Oxford Furnace, 

 New Jersey, lias one new Bay State 

 and one new Standard L. hive for sale. 

 He has adopted Lizzie Cotton's liive as 

 a standard. He likes the latter hive 

 very uiiK-h. We think it the meanest 

 arraiiiietl and the worst old rattle-trap 

 of ii hive yet devisi'd. How a bee- 

 keeper of any experience can adopt 

 such a thiun to keep bees in at this en- 

 lightened age of l)ee culture is more 

 than we can comprehend. 



While we are speaking about the 

 Cotton hive, we may as well say some- 

 thing about the inventor of that worth- 

 less old clap-traj). 



A. I. Root, in noticing Mrs. Cotton's 

 circular in "Gleanings" says : "I think 

 she does all she agrees to." Well, if 

 by sending out a pint of bees witliout 

 a queen and a small piece of comb in 

 the hive is a full colony, for which she 

 charges $20, is doing ail she agrees to, 

 it may be all right. Our idea of a fnil 

 colony of bees is this: There should 

 be, at least, eight L. frames fllletl with 

 comb, brood and honey, a good queen, 

 and bees enough to cover all. That is 

 what we send out for a full colony, and 

 a hive which is not an old rattle-trap, 

 and worth less than ten cents. 



The idea of purchasing one colony 

 of bees for .^0, diviiling it up into ten 

 or more colonies and then selling them 

 for $20 each is a good way to make 

 money, also to cheat and defraud inno- 

 cent people. A person who is mean 

 enough to do that business and the 

 one who will sell rum will surely have 

 plenty of money. We have al)out the 

 same opinion of the one as of the other. 



You must bear in mind that the wri- 

 ter of this has been through tlie "Cot- 

 ton press." and knows whereof he 

 speaks. We had the pleasure of driv- 

 ing one C. B. Cotton out of business. 



Nearly twenty years ago that gentle- 

 man advertised that he had the best 

 strain of Italian ix'cs in the world. We 

 gave him an order for twocf)lonies, pay- 

 ing $40 dollars cash for them. After 

 some delay the bees came to hand. 

 There was not one healthy cell of brood 

 in the hives. All were as rotten as 

 could be of foul brood. We could get 

 no redress. Soon, C. B. C. retired from 

 business and Mrs. L. C. took it up and 

 has conducted it since. We guess it 

 is the old C. H. C. at the helm. Now 

 Brother Root, give the old lady another 

 puff. 



of queen-rearing. Well, suppose he 

 does not. When Mr. Clieshir<! gets a 

 better knowledge of beekeeping he 

 may discover that we are correct in all 

 our slatenieiits. 



We never saw one of the many 

 books Mr. Cheshire has written. 



Just what Mr. Cheshire's criticisms 

 of the "Handy Book" are, we do not 

 know. 



We cannot yet spare the room in the 

 Api to show beyond dispute that Mr. 

 Simmins, in his criticism of our man- 

 ner of rearing queens, does not know 

 what he is talking about. We shall get 

 to it by and I)y. When Mr. Simmins 

 and Mr. Frank Cheshire present a bet- 

 ter method for rearing queens than 

 is given in the "Beekeepers' Handy 

 Book," then we will acknowledge the 

 corn. Don't stand back, gents, trying 

 to make people think yon know more 

 than what yon really do. We have 

 given the result of thirty years' experi- 

 ence in queen-rearing. Please show 

 wherein our system is wrong. Merely 

 saying you do not agree with us 

 amounts to nothing at all. 



The articles on the "Prevention of 

 Increase," which first appeared in the 

 Apicultguist as prize essays have been 

 pul)lislied in the "British liee Journal" 

 They may be found in the January issue 

 of our journal and should be read by 

 every beekeeper. Each number of the 

 Api during the present year will contain 

 several articles, any one well worth 

 the subscription price of the journal. 

 We have the copy for the articles and 

 know wiiereof we speak. 



An article on the above subject from 

 the pen of P. H. Elwood, of Siarkville, 

 N. Y., will soon be pui)lislied. Mr. L. 

 C. Root has spoken so highly of Mr. 

 Elwood as a practical lieekeeper that 

 all will look forward to the appear- 

 ance of the promised article. 



Mr. Prank Cheshire says he does 

 not agree with Mr. Alley in all he says 



The person who says bees never 

 sting queens and those who contend 

 that a swarm of bees intending to de- 

 camp do not first clean and prepare 

 the new home, are people who do not 

 study the bee uuderstantlingly. We 

 will not say tiiat in all cases bees will 

 first clean up an old tree before they 

 occupy it. but when they issue from 

 their own hive and go directly to an- 

 other they certainly have been at work 

 in the new home several days before 

 they attempted to occupy it. 



