THE AMERICAN APICULTUEIST. 



77 



been caring for the late brood and 

 to provide for otlter contingencies. 



It is far safer to liave all feeding 

 done as early as possible at least 

 as soon as the middle of October 

 and earlier is better thongh I liave 

 done it later with success. But 

 beware of being caught l\y the cold 

 weather when tlie bees will no lon- 

 ger carry down the syrup. If 

 worst comes to worst in the ab- 

 sence of any other resource, a few 

 colonies if placed in a warm room 

 could be supplied very well. 



Another wa}' in which sugar 

 stores may be got ready for use is 

 to select a number of colonies at 

 the beginning of the summer honey 

 dearth, reduce the brood-chamber 

 of each to the capacit}'^ of five -L. 

 frames, and then give to each empty 

 combs and syrup as fast as tlie 

 bees will appropriate them. 

 Treated in this wa}' a colony would 

 furnish capped sugar stores suffi- 

 cient for several others and these 

 stores may be easilj- substituted at 

 the proper time for the combs with 

 honey in the several colonies. 



As this article is already long 

 enough I shall reserve the remain- 

 ing questions of winter manage- 

 ment for future discussion. 



Lapeer, Mich. 



For the American Apiculturist, 



SIMMINS' NON-S WARMING 

 METHOD. 



James Heddon. 



In the "American Bee Journal" of 

 1886, page 727, Mr. Hutchinson 

 discussed the above method as 

 taught by Mr. Simmins of P^ngland. 

 In your last issue, Mr. Editor, I 

 notice that Mr. Samuel Cushman 

 discussed the same system. Both 

 reviewers seem never to suspect 

 that the system and its principles 

 were taught, practised and found 



wanting as long as sixteen 3'ears 

 ago, in this country. I have no 

 doubt but that you and many others 

 of the older members well remem- 

 ber how it was presented b}^ Gen. 

 D. L. Adair of Kentucky and E. 

 Gallup of Iowa. Back numbers of 

 the A. B.J. are replete with reports 

 and discussions of this method, if I 

 understand Mr. Simmins' method 

 correctly. 



In 1872 Gen. Adair published a' 

 twenty-five-cent pamphlet, entitled 

 "Progressive Bee Culture," in which 

 the system was detailed. Whether 

 or not I correctly understand the 

 Simmins' non-swarming sj'stem, I 

 certainly understand the Adair 

 system, and at the time it was be- 

 ing tested, I joined in the experi- 

 ments by constructing and using, 

 three seasons, thirtN'-two hives 

 specially designed to carry out the 

 system. 



The claims for the "new idea" 

 system as it wa^ then called, were 

 as follows : Whatever was to be the 

 capacit^'of the hive, whether run for 

 comb or extracted hone}^ it was to 

 be all strung outhorizontally, never 

 but one story, or tier of frames 

 high ; all frames of the same size. 

 In producing comb honeys it could 

 be stored in full-size brood-frames 

 in large sheets, which were then in 

 such good demand with "honey-cut- 

 ters," who put comb and extracted 

 lioney together in glass jars. You 

 may be wondering if there wasn't 

 occasionally some pollen or cocoons 

 found in comb honey stored in this 

 yv&y ; but let me inform your junior 

 readers that in those days, even 

 such honey as that sold for twice 

 as much as the very nicest in our 

 little sections of to-day. This was 

 not all ; in those days the buyers 

 used to seek n.s, and many times 

 our whole crop was contracted for 

 long before either buyer or seller 

 knew hovv much that crop was to 

 be. These were the days when the 

 eyes of the apiarist gladdened as 



