(Entered at the Post-Offlce at Chicago as Second-Class Mail-Matter.) 

 Published Weekly at $1.00 a Year, by George W. York & Co., 334 Dearborn St. 



HHOBUfi W. VORK, Editor 



CHICAGO, ILL, JUNE 7, 1906 



VoL XLVI-No. 23 



^ 



(Sbitorial Hotes 

 anb Comments 



j 



Bee-Keeping In the Public Press 



More and more is bee-keeping' written about in the mag- 

 azines and newspapers of our country. And often there 

 are fully illustrated articles that can not help drawing the 

 attention of the public to honey and its production. What- 

 ever familiarizes reading people with the methods of honey- 

 production will also tend to interest them in the use of 

 honey as a food. So in the end it will help the honey-pro- 

 ducer. 



It is quite possible that it may also induce a few people 

 to become bee-keepers, but we don't believe the producers 

 of honey want to be considered " close communionists," and 

 would prevent any one from keeping bees if he desired to 

 do so. There are some trades, we believe, that are making 

 it very difficult for a beginner to learn. What selfishness ! 

 We are glad that the great majority of real bee-keepers are 

 not like that. Why, this is " the land of the free, and home 

 of the brave." 



Mice, Honey, Doolittle, Hasty, and Miller 



The following appeal comes from Dr. Miller, who seems 

 to think he has been "stood up " by Mr. Doolittle : 



Please, Mr. Editor, why does Mr. Doolittle stand me up in a row 

 beside that man who thinks afterward, and throw rats, chipmunks and 

 things at me, on page 403? [" I don't know.'' — Editor.] 



We weren't talking about all those other things — just hou6e-mice. 

 And please look at what I said, and see if I said a word on Hasty's side. 

 Why, one of the things that I have had for years stored away on the 

 memory-shelf that is labeled " positive knowledge," is the fact that 

 mice not only nibble off the cappings, but gouge big holes in the solid 

 combs out of which they eat the honey — not unripened, watery stuff, 

 either, as Mr. Hasty suggests (page 368), but sealed honey; and lack- 

 ing a mouse-proof room in which to pile sections, I have set dishes of 

 honey on the floor to keep the mice from chipping the cappings of the 

 sections. 



Please look it up, and see whose side I stand on. 



C. C. Miller. 

 Some one has said that language was invented to con- 

 ceal thought, and it seems to be so to some extent in the 

 present case. Reference to what Dr. Miller said on page 

 308, shows pretty clearly that he was misinterpreted by Mr. 

 Doolittle, when the latter wrote the article on page 403. On 

 page 254, Mr. Hasty said, " Doolittle is usually accurate, 

 but I am unreasonable enough to entertain some doubts 

 whether he is perfectly sound on mouse-diet." On page 308, 

 Dr. Miller claims to paraphrase this sentence, quoting it 

 word for word except the one word " Doolittle," in place of 

 which he puts " a certain gentleman whom I hold in high 

 esteem." This was, no doubt, intended as a neat way of 

 turning upon Mr. Hasty in his own words, the charge of 

 unsoundness on mouse-diet that he had made against Mr. 

 Doolittle. Then he suggests to Mr. Hasty an experiment 



that he evidently thinks will prove to that gentleman that 

 mice are honey -lovers. 



Mr. Doolittle takes exception to the proviso in the pro- 

 posed experiment requiring the presence of "food in abun- 

 dance, but nothing sweet except " honey. It is true that such 

 abundance of food is not generally given, as Mr. Doolittle 

 says, but the proviso is entirely germane, for Dr. Miller 

 evidently wants to show that the mice were not starved into 

 eating honey. 



The testimony of Messrs. Doolittle and Miller seems 

 strong and conclusive except that there is still the possi- 

 bility, as Mr. Hasty suggests, that the mice are taking the 

 honey for the water it contains. So he might vary the ex- 

 periment by setting two dishes side by side, one of extracted 

 honey and the other of water. 



Smartweed Honey 



On page 390, Dr. Miller inquired whether honey from 

 the true smartweed (Persicaria punctatum) was acrid in 

 taste. Ralph P. Fisher writes that in his locality, Great 

 Meadows, N. J., both heartsease and smartweed grow in 

 large quantities, and he thinks that throughout the Eastern 

 States wherever one is present the other is (in the West is 

 not the heartsease often found alone ?), and the honey stored 

 by the bees will be found a mixture of both, in character as 

 described in " A B C of Bee Culture " — " light colored and 

 of good flavor." From this it may be inferred that the 

 honey from the true smartweed is not acrid. 



Mr. Fisher thinks bees prefer to work on the heartsease, 

 which, in cultivated ground, grows as high as one's head, 

 while the smartweed is always short and rank. 



Deep Bottom-Boards for Wintering 



The editor of the Canadian Bee Journal says : 



Outside winterers have had rather the best of it last winter. 



We are more than pleased with the results of the deep bottom- 

 board, giving a %xl2}£ space under the frames and a corresponding 

 entrance. The wintering case and packing of forest leaves of course 

 contracted the outer entrance to ix.%. Every hive fitted up in this 

 way came out clean and dry, and there was quite an apparent differ- 

 ence between these and a few with %±\2,% space and similarly con- 

 tracted. 



Deep bottom-boards for winter seem to be growing in 

 favor on this side the line, perhaps more especially for cel- 

 lared bees ; but some are not satisfied with a depth of + 

 inch, preferring 2 inches. 



Bees Building Comb Over Wires 



" Natural comb built below the starter will be built over the 

 wires." To the above clipping from meanings, Dr. Miller adds the 

 comment, "Yes, but the wire will not be in the septum." Glad you 

 have mentioned it, Doctor; have noticed this for some time, but from 

 the fact that the "big guns " are continually telling the greenhorns 

 that the practise is ail right, thought perhaps my bees behaved out of 

 the ordinary. 



So says J. h. Byer in the Canadian Bee Journal. Mr. 

 Byer's bees are probably not unlike others in this respect. 

 They build down vertically ; if there is a starter of founda- 

 tion at the upper part of the frame, and nothing but wires 



