382 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 3, 19C6 



nal. and asked that the queen be shipped as soon as possible, and in 4S 

 hours after I sent the order I received the queen. The colony con- 

 taining this queen is as strong as any in the apiary. I mention this 

 fact to show that there are some honest queen-breeders. It is well to 

 remember, as we go along, that there are good and bad in all kinds of 

 business, and it is certainly all wrong to imagine that there are no 

 honest men engaged in the business. Grant Stanley. 



Nisbet, Pa. 



This is, indeed, an age of reading. Mr. Stanley has 

 put the matter in a most clear and convincing way. There 

 is nothing to be compared with reading and thinking for 

 the improvement and uplift of any business or industry. 

 And, then, good reading is so marvelously cheap these 

 days. There is really no excuse for any bee-keeper not 

 having a sufficient quantity, and of the right sort of read- 

 ing, when he can get a copy like this for less than a 2-cent 

 postage stamp ! 



Yes, of course, there are honest and reliable queen- 

 breeders. The fact is, practically all of them who adver- 

 tise are so. We feel that we can say that any whose offers 

 are found in our columns are all right. If not, we want to 

 know it. 



But we have received complaints before the queen- 

 breeder was given an opportunity to make things right. 

 We do not think such procedure fair. Everybody makes 

 mistakes, and those who have made them, when discovered, 

 should be notified, so that they can rectify them. Then if 

 a satisfactory adjustment is not promptly forthcoming, it 

 will be time enough to complain to the publishers. 



ZTjttsceUoneous 

 Hetps * 2 terns 



^ 



j 



The San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, of course, 

 have been known to everybody throughout the country long 

 before now. The first word we had direct from any one we 

 know in that locality was received on April 25, from Mr. W. 

 A. Pryal, who lives in Oakland, Calif., but was doing busi- 

 ness in San Francisco. From what he says on a postal card 

 dated April 21, we take the following : 



Three-fourths of the city is burned. The fire was hell. The 

 ■earthquake's damage could have been repaired in a mouth or less, ex- 

 cept, perhaps, in a few cases. Our home here did not suffer — no 

 •chimneys down, no glass broken, nor walls cracked, and we are less 

 than 10 miles from San Francisco. The city will be rebuilt, but of 

 smaller buildings. W. A. Pryal. 



Oakland, Calif., April 31. 



The Dempsey Super.— This is a super invented by W. 

 W. Dempsey, of Osceola Co., Iowa, and its claimed points of 

 superiority are these : 



1. Ventilation. Owing to the manner in which it is made it can 

 be ventilated better than any other super. 



2. Honey-sections can be removed at any time when filled without 

 disturbing the bees. 



3. Honey-sections can be removed without exposing the operator 

 to the bees. 



4. By letting down side doors the operator can see the bees at 

 work, and is not exposed to the bees in any manner. 



5. It is not necessary to use a smoker in removing honey-sections. 



6. Bees will store from one-third to one-half more in a super of 

 this kind than in the old style, for this reason : There is a bee open- 

 ing in front of the super which permits bees to go direct to the honey- 

 sections instead of coming in at the bottom of the hive, and coming 

 up through the brood-frames and then to the honey-sections as in the 

 old style. 



It is claimed by the inventor that this super was thor- 

 oughly tested by bee-keepers last season, and that it proved 

 successful in every respect. No doubt Mr. Dempsey will 

 offer to sell his super to bee-keepers. 



Yon Yonson and the North Pole.— A correspondent 

 complains that this Journal should allow Yon Yonson " to 

 hold up to ridicule the proprietors of Gleanings by taking 

 them to the North Pole in search of new races of bees.'' 

 Pity that Yon Yonson's quaint humor should so miscarry. 

 Our correspondent may rest assured that no unkindness 

 was intended, and the probability is that no one smiled 

 more broadly over the good-natured hits than did the Glean- 

 ings people themselves. 



Corrections. — On page 256, in a question signed 

 " Canada," it is said that Mr. Doolittle gives 92 degrees as 

 the lowest temperature in the brood-nest, having said so in 

 Gleanings for April 1,1896, page 307. " Canada " writes 

 that there is a printer's error, the reference having been 

 given " April 1, 190,, page 368." No real name having been 

 given, it is not likely that any one's reputation for veracity 

 has suffered, yet it is better to have such things correct. 



Also, two queer and yet very humiliating errors ap- 

 peared on the first page of the Journal last week. In the 

 date line appeared " 4jth Year " and " April 26, 1905," when 

 it should have been " 46th Year " and " April 26, 1906." It 

 came from taking the heading that had not been used since 

 the last issue of 1905, and changing only the No. at the 

 right end of the line, and the date of the month — the only 

 two changes necessary each week after beginning a new 

 year. But the dates, etc , were all right on the inside of 

 last week's Journal. 



The Apiary of S. L. Mottinger is shown on the first 

 page. He is a beginner with bees, and tells his experience 

 in the following interesting paragraphs : 



Editor York : — I send a picture of the apiary that I started last 

 May as a beginner in the bee-business. It is not that I care to boast of 

 my success, but rather that my experience might perhaps encourage 

 others who contemplate going into the business. 



The greatest obstacle in my way as a bee-keeper is poor eyesight. 

 I am an ex-soldier of the Civil War, 6? years old. I was wounded 

 twice on the field of battle, lost the sight of one eye entirely, and can't 

 see very well with the other. I retired 5 years ago as a farmer. Not 

 being contented with doing nothing, I decided to go into the bee-busi- 

 ness partly to occupy my time. As I had no experience with bees, I 

 subscribed for the American Bee Journal, ordered Dr. Miller's " Forty 

 Tears Among the Bees," " A B C of Bee Culture," and a modern hive 

 in the flat. With these " instruments" I made the subject a study 

 for one year before I ventured to handle bees with any prospects of 

 success. I have since added another bee-paper and some pamphlets to 

 my bee-literature. 



In April, 1905, 1 bought 2 colonies of bees in box-hives — one in a 

 10-frame Langstroth hive without any frames in it, and the other in a 

 box 16 inches square and 18 inches deep. These 2 colonies stood out 

 all the previous winter with no protection excepting a barbed wire 

 fence on the north and west, with one hive split open from the en- 

 trance to the top, so that the bees passed in and out the whole length 

 of the hive. 



I got them home May 1, and as it was increase I wanted, and a6 I 



The Dempsey Super in Proper Position 

 on the Hive. • 



Side Door Dropped Down Showing the 

 Honey-Sections in Positions. 



Super Lying on the Side Showing Bottom of 

 Super and Entrance for Bees from Hive. 



