258 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



up through the covering of earth, 

 and projected four or five feet 

 above tlie surface. At the bottom 

 of this tube was kept a thermome- 

 ter, wlience it coukl easily be drawn 

 by means of a string. When the 

 bees were first put up, the temper- 

 ature in the clamp was 47°. It 

 gradually sank, and in a week had 

 reached 45°. Here it remained 

 until steady cold weather came on, 

 when it again gradually fell until 

 it reached 42°, where it remained 

 unchanged for nearly four months. 

 "When the warm days of April 

 came on, it again graduall}' fell 

 until it reached 42°, where it re- 

 mained unchanged for nearly four 

 months. When the warm days of 

 April came it gradually rose to 45°, 

 at which point it was when the bees 

 were removed. Now, the bees in 

 this clamp wintered splendidly, 

 and there were no supervision, and 

 the conditions were the same as 

 though they had been in an out- 

 door cellar. I am aware that some 

 beekeepers use a fire to warm their 

 bee-cellars, and, with some cellars, 

 this may be necessary ; but with 

 an underground cellar that receives 

 a steady supply of heat from the 

 earth, fires are wholly unneces- 

 sary ; and all the supervision that 

 is needed does not amount to any- 

 thing practically, so far as cost is 

 concerned — at least, not to the 

 man who lives at home winters. 



Mr. P. gpeaks of the "wear and 

 tear" of putting bees in the cellar 

 and taking them out again. I fail 

 to see wliere there is any "wear 

 and tear." He further says, a cel- 

 lar won't last always, and must be 

 repaired. This is true of some cel- 

 lars. A cellar stoned up, and un- 

 der a building, such an one as Mr. 

 Taylor's or Mr. Heddon's, will re- 

 quire no repairs for a lifetime. 

 You, friend Root, speak of the cost 

 of preparing the cellar for winter- 

 ing bees ; that the windows must 

 be darkened ; sub-earth ventila- 



tion furnished, etc. Candidly, my 

 friend, do you, or does anybody 

 know that all these things are 

 needed ? Do we knoio that a cel- 

 lar must be dark? and if w^e do 

 know it, is it expensive to daiken 

 the cellar? Where is the man who 

 knows that sub-earth ventilation, 

 or any ventilation for a bee-cellar 

 is needed ? 



Friend P. saj^s there are two 

 "ifs" in the quotation from Prof, 

 Cook ; and then in the next sen- 

 tence he (Poppleton) says, "Chatf 

 hives are safe in severe winters if" 

 (there it is again) "they are prop- 

 erly constructed and handled ;" 

 but the really weak point in this 

 part of the argument is found in 

 this sentence : "Many of us older 

 heads have supposed that we had 

 found the ro3'^al road to success, 

 and would reach it, too, for a series 

 of years, when some climatic or 

 food chavges would occur, and the 

 goal would be still ahead." I wish 

 to call attention to the part I have 

 italicized. The two "ifs" in my 

 quotations from Professor Cook 

 are surmountable. We can have 

 the cellar right; ditto the food; 

 but in outdoor wintering, those cli- 

 matic changes are an element of 

 uncertaint}^ the damages from 

 which can be only partly averted 

 by chaflT hives or protection of some 

 kind. In the cellar we can have 

 the conditions the same every win- 

 ter. I have yet to lose a colony 

 having cane sugar for stores, and 

 wintered in a warm cellar, and by 

 the methods that I now employ I 

 can have the winter stores consist 

 of so large a per cent of sugar, and 

 that, too, in such a position that 

 it will almost surely be used dur- 

 ing the winter, and all with so lit- 

 tle labor that the damage of loss 

 from unsuitable food practically 

 amounts to but little. It is so 

 slight that I prefer to take the risk 

 rather than to perform more labor 

 and take no risk. I will admit, 



