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THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



205 



appliances. Uro. Kerr, if yon want to 

 use sucli a hive, do not. for the sake of 

 practical apiculture, advise others to do 

 likewise. 



A gentleman in New Columbia once 

 got up what he called Ford's Patent 

 Hive. It did not embody as many good 

 features as Mr. Kerr's does. It was 

 simply a box hive with a triangular- 

 shaped bottom-board in two pieces, one 

 being perpendicilar to the other. The 

 projecting end was to be an alighting 

 board. The object of the triangular 

 shape was to rid the colony of moth 

 worms. He claimed that they would 

 drop upon the bottom-board and roll out. 

 Of course every practical bee-keeper 

 would hold such a hive in light esteem. 

 The idea of ridding a colony of bees of 

 moth-worms! Why, if I have a colony 

 of bees that cannot protect itself against 

 the inroads of the moth-worm, the 

 sooner it is out of the way, the better. 

 Let's bury the moth-trap along with the 

 old box hive, non-swarming hive and 

 self-hiver. 



New Columbia. 111. 



True dignity is never gained by place and 

 never lost when honors are withdrawn. 



— Massinser. 



LOCALITY AND ITS EFFECT, AND 

 QUEEN INTRODUCTION. 



BY ARTHUR C. MILLER. 



I AM surprised that Mr. Doolittle con- 

 cluded his article in the September 

 American Bee-kkeper as he did. 

 It hardly seems possible that a person 

 of his professions would deliberately mis- 

 interpret, and 'tis equally incredible that 

 so close an observer as he is credited 

 with being, could by any other means 

 have attributed my suggestion on loss of 

 prestige as referring to his knowledge of 

 bee-keeping, when the context very 

 clearly showed that I referred to socio- 

 logical and statistical matters connected 

 with the City of Providence. 



There is one thought in his article 

 which I wish to emphasize by repeating 



it,though in diflferent words: Be yniirsclf; 

 try things for yourself and dou't take 

 them for granted because some one else 

 says so. It's worth more than anything 

 else he has said in a long time. Locality 

 is such a great factor in bee-keeping 

 that trial of methods is'the only sure 

 way of determining their worth. As an 

 example of this, the following may prove 

 interesting : In my home apiary all 

 hives are placed close to the ground; but 

 in a small one, half a mile away, they are 

 all on a bench some two feet above the 

 ground. Both apiaries are stocked with 

 the same strains of bees and part of the 

 home apiary is worked on the same sys- 

 tem as the outyard. In the latter I have 

 no trouble in getting comb honey while 

 in the home yard it is difficult and often 

 almost impossible. The production of 

 extracted honey is also affected, but not 

 so markedly. iSo far as I have been able 

 to determine, the difference is due en- 

 tirely to the elevation of the hives. In 

 another small apiary (six colonies), the 

 owner has two hives about eighteen 

 inches above ground, the rest on it. 

 The two have done finely, the others 

 poorly. In my own case this experience 

 has extended over several years. In the 

 vicinity of my apiaries at night, a strata 

 of cold fog is often observed close to the 

 ground, audi surmise that this is the 

 cause of my home yard doing less well 

 than the out-yard, the hives of which are 

 above the cold, damp strata of air. In 

 another district where I have had a 

 trial colony to test its resources, periods 

 of honey-flow etc., I found that the hill- 

 sides were free from a fog, while the 

 low lands were blanketed with it about 

 every night. Though this latter loca- 

 ti(m is fifty miles from my home apiary, 

 it would hardly be wise for one to say 

 that because the conditions are alike in 

 such widely separated spots, they must be 

 everywhere ; and in no locality should 

 hives be placed on the ground unless 

 on the hillsides, well up from the low- 

 lands. 



Last Spring I wrote about introducing 



