1871.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



149 



tliey have any stores above them, they do not 

 advance up. Did you ever know bees in your 

 tall hives to commence rearing brood at the top 

 of the hive? If so, vv'here were their stores? 

 Again, he remarks— "Instead of spreading 

 the brood in a circle, they are obliged to carry 

 it along horizontally, and after all work to a 

 disadvantage." Please prove your assertions, 

 Mr. R. I have examined a great many stocks 

 (in the shallow form of hive) in early spring, 

 when first taken from the cellar, and always 

 found what brood they had, to be in a circle — 

 the largest circle being in the centre. On the 

 next card the circle would be a li'tle smaller, 

 and so on ; but never did I see their brood placed 

 horizontally in one card of comb, And as for 

 their working to a disadvantage in the shallow 

 form of hive, we shoxdd need some better proof 

 than Mr. R.s' naked assertion. Mr. R. now hits 

 Mr. Alley a slap across the nuckles for recasting 

 some of his former views as to the shallow form 

 of hive. As there might be some inducement for 

 Mr. Alley to change his vievv'S as to the best form 

 of hive, I will not attempt to answer for him. 

 The profits of a patent might induce some men 

 to change their views. How that would operate 

 on Mr. Alley I do not pretend to say ; but this 

 much I will say, that the Alley hive is no better 

 than the Langstrotli two-story glass hive, or his 

 double-story hive. They have the advantage of 

 the outer case. And J\lr. Alley's hive is no bet- 

 ter for out-door wintering by the frames being 

 reversed. The secret of its wintering well all 

 lies in its outer case. The great objection to the 

 Alley hives is the cost of getting them up. They 

 are a good hive, but they cost too much. If I 

 have to go to that expense, I would get up the 

 double-story Langstrotli hive at once. They 

 cost no more and winter fully as well in the open 

 air; and are some better for (pure) surplus 

 honey, as the honey obtained from the Langstroth 

 hive is free from pollen ; and the side boxes of 

 the Alley hive opposite the brood, nearly always 

 contain more or less pollen — at least that is my 

 experience. Mr. Rogers winds up by requesting 

 me to explain how the Langstroth hive can be 

 made deeper and still retain about the same 

 number of cubic inches? Well, I will make the 

 attempt, hoping it will prove satisfactory to Mr. 

 R. If I wanted the Langstroth hive deeper, 

 and still the same amount of cubic inches, I 

 would take off one, two, or three of the frames, 

 just as my fancy might suggest, and put the room 

 they occupied at the sides, to the bottom of the 

 hive, dividing the space they occupied equally 

 between the balance of the frames left in the 

 hive. Would you not then have precisely the 

 same room in the hive? (eh !j 



B. PUCKETT. 



Winchester, Inch, Nov 23, 1870. 



Honey is the most elaborate of all vegetable 

 productions. 



Bees assist in the fertilization of flowers, by 

 disturbing their filaments, and causing the dis- 

 tribution of poUen. 



[For the Ameiican Bee Jouiiial.] 



The Thomas Hive. 



Mr. Editor : — In the November number of 

 the Bee Journal, current volume, there appears 

 under the above heading, an article from the 

 l)en of George Cork, of Bloomfield, Ontario, in 

 which he speaks disparagingly of the Thomas 

 hive, and makes a feeble attempt to disprove the 

 statements made in the Journal in 'its favor. 

 Justice to myself and to many bee-keepers in 

 Ontario demands that I should notice it ; other- 

 wise I would let it pass as unworthy of notice. 



As a correspondence of this kind cannot be 

 very interesting to the readers of the Bee Jour- 

 nal, I will be as brief as possible. 



Up to the time of the appearing of the above 

 article I had never seen or heard of such a juan 

 as George Cork — have never seen an article on 

 bee-culture over his signature in any paper or 

 journal in Ontario, and I venture to say he is not 

 acquainted with one of every hundred bee-keep- 

 ers in Ontario, and not one of every hundred 

 ever heard of him. Hence the statement, "I 

 know of no person making bee-keeping a busi- 

 ness, who uses the Thomas hive," is not worth 

 the ink it cost to print it, as it is of no weight 

 as evidence that tlie Thomas hive is not the 

 principal hive in use in Canada. To correct tlie 

 errors or rather disprove the statements, he re- 

 fers to three bee-keejiers who, he says, condemn 

 the Thomas hive. I wonder if Mr. Cork is ac- 

 quainted with any other bee-keei^ers ? From 

 such statements the readers of the .Journal 

 might well infer that there were not more than 

 a score of bee-keepers in Ontario. How insig- 

 nificant his own words make him appear. Re- 

 duced to the form of a syllogism, he stands 

 thus : I know of three bee-keepers who condemn 

 the Thomas hive ; /know of no person making 

 bee-keei)ing a business, who uses the Thomas 

 hive ; ergo, the Thomas hive is not the principal 

 hive in use in Ontario ! Now for a few facts 

 and figures that will enable the readers of the 

 Journal to see the feebleness of the attempt to 

 disprove the statements made in all candor, by 

 those who know whereof they affirm. By refer- 

 ence to my books it can be seen that I have 

 placed nearly six thousand (G,000) copies of my 

 Canadian Bee-kee])ers' Guide in the hands of bee- 

 keepers in Ontario ; I have been and am in 

 communication with something over five thou- 

 sand (5,000) bee-keepers, a large number of 

 whom have purchased my hive and are now 

 using it, and among them the most noted and 

 successful bee-keepers in Ontario. Some have 

 ordered as many as forty (40) hives at one time 

 for their own use ; and as many as one thousand 

 hives have been required for one season's de- 

 mand. True, some who have used it do not 

 like it, but they are few indeed, and in most 

 cases simply because they were not well enough 

 acquainted with bee-culture to appreciate its 

 advantages. On the other hand, I have scores 

 of letters giving the Thomas hive the highest 

 possible praise, and saying the wr'ters will u.'e 

 no other. The hive has taken the first prize at 

 the Ontario Provincial Fair for the last seven 



