236 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAIi. 



[April, 



but, as we stated before, they would soon all 

 work over to one side or the other, or just as soon 

 as they could get the brood hatched. 



Our greatest objection to the Gallup style is 

 the labor of handling so many small frames. 

 Quinby uses the largest frame we know of and 

 we really like the idea. 



Do our readers remember what Gallup once 

 said about brooding sticks in the spiing? 



Ain't there an awful pile of sticks hoarded, 

 especially in June, in his hive, compai'ed with 

 those of larger frames. 



Mr. Gallup, we shall not be astonished if you 

 think us thick headed in this matter, nor should 

 we be very much astonished if we really were so, 

 for we can look back and see many times where 

 we have been before. 



Lifting off the upper story is quite a task, and 

 we are ready for some improvement that does 

 not give greater disadvantages. 



Now, please don't send any of your patent 

 hives to examine, kind friends. Our better half 

 Is well supplied with kindling wood for some 

 time to come. 



Dr. J. H. Salisbury, opposite Post Office, Cleve- 

 land, Ohio, wishes a piece of comb containing 

 genuine foul brood, for microscopjical examina- 

 tion. Will those so unfortunate as to have foul 

 brood in their apiaries send him a small piece by 

 mail. (Don't send any to us, we never want 

 any in Medina county.) His large experience 

 with microscopical forms of both animal and 

 vegetable life, we think, will enable him to de- 

 cide at once if foul brood be either, and very 

 probably he may give us a remedy in any case, 

 or some suggestion in regard to the remedy 

 given by F Abbe. 



He has al-so promised to aid us by making ex- 

 aminations of drones produced from unfertile 

 queens compared with those from fertile queens, 

 and that we do really want some plain facts 

 without theories and unprofitable argument on 

 this subject is the candid opinion of your old 

 friend, Novice. 



P. S. — Some one asks in the Journal where we 



get our jars ? Of Messrs. Fahnestock, Fortune 



<to Co., Pittsburg, Pa. ; they cost about five cents 



each, corks, labels and all, for one pound jars. 



' Those for two pounds, about seven cents. 



Imported Queens. 



We have found by dear experience, that a 

 large number, if not the majority of the Italian 

 queens we have imported have been short lived. 

 Many of them have been superseded the first 

 season, and others early the next. We attribute 

 this to the fact that old queens may sometimes 

 have been sent, but more to the way in which 

 the transport boxes are prepared. 



The queens which were sent to Mr. Parsons, 

 in 1859, for himself, and the Agricultural De- 

 partment, were put in common segar boxes, the 

 combs were wedged into tliese boxes, and a few 

 slits cut in them for ventilation. I assisted in 

 opening a large number ; all for the Agicultural 

 Department were dead, and nearly all of 3Ir. 



Parsons', besides others which came for another 

 party. Out of fifty or more, I do not think we 

 saved more than half a dozen. Some had 

 starved to death, others were drowned in honey, 

 others smothered, and others still, crushed 

 between the combs, which got loose in the 

 boxes. That same season Mr. Carey, of Cole- 

 raine, who had the care of Mr. Parsons' apiary, 

 packed over one hundred to go to California, 

 and only one of the number was lost. 



In America we guarantee the safe arrival of 

 our queens. We do not know of any breeder in 

 Europe who guarantees the safe arrival of 

 queens sent to this country. Of this we do not 

 complain, but we cannot \\e\\) feeling sore when 

 our queens arrive dead, or so exhausted as to be 

 short-lived if not worthless, because after our 

 repealed remon-ttrarbcts, the transport boxes are 

 overcrowded with bees. 



We are, therefoi'e, specially glad to learn that 

 IVIessrs. Gray and Winder have determined to 

 send Dr. Bohrerto Italy, this spring, to make an 

 importation for them ; for we believe that the 

 Doctor will not only bring over live queens, but 

 such as will arrive in good condition and give 

 satisfaction. We shall make our own importa- 

 tions this season through them, and only wish it 

 was our good fortune to go with the Doctor, and 

 see the Italian bees in their own homes. 



L. L. L. 



[For the Americaa Bee Jouruiil.] 



The Triangular Oomb-guide again. 



As we learn that Mr. K. P. Kidder is still de- 

 manding money fi om those using his comb-guide, 

 we shall show from facts that have just come to 

 our knowledge, that the salient angle or beveled 

 edge for a comb-guide, was used in a hive with 

 has in 1843. 



M. Frariere, in a work on bee-culture, '■^Traite 

 de r 'education det aheilles,^^ published at Paris, in 

 1843, gives a wood-cut of a side-opening hive, 

 very much like some of Dzierzon's ; with two 

 sets of slats or bars which are thus described : 



" Un g;rilla2;e le<;ercompos6 de six or sept baguettes 

 triangulaires, dont un dus angles sura tourne vers le 

 bas, pour diriger le travail des abeilles." "A light 

 grating composed of six or seven triangular sticks, 

 one of the angles of which is turned downwards for 

 directing the work of the bees." 



The Clark jjatent, under which Mr. Kidder 

 claims the absolute control of the triangular 

 guide in bars or frames, having been issued ia 

 1859, cannot cover the use of a device fully 

 described in 1843. 



We have repeatedly called the attention of 

 bee keepers to the fact that the salient angle 

 comb-guide, was described by the celebrated 

 English surgeon, John Hunter, in 179:2, and 

 tliat we made, used and sold this same guide 

 more than two years before I\Ir. Clark applied 

 for a patent, which alone, according to the law, 

 makes it pul)lic property. 



Will Mr. Kidder take any notice of this prior 

 use so clearly described by M. Frariere? We 

 hope, at least, that the public will. Jlore, anon. 

 L. L. Langstkoth. 



