1871.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



27; 



I have tried the J. M. Price hive. I do not 

 mean the revolvable, reversible one : but the one 

 described in the Journal, Vol. IV, page 87. The 

 Dr. Conklin hive embi-aces nearly the same prin- 

 ciples, and is,I think, more convenient for surplus 

 honey boxes and for shedding the rahi. Alley's 

 Langstroth hive, with its side box arrangement, 

 deep brooding apartment and outside covering, 

 ' is a good hive, if we can credit the statements 

 of the side box arrangements ; and why shouldn't 

 ^ we credit those statements ? Such experienced 

 veterans as Quinby, Gallup, Hazen. and others 

 I could mention, would not knowingly make 

 statements to lead their brother bee-keepers 

 astray. 



I took two swarms to 0. E. Wolcott's to have 

 them Italianized. In a few days one of them 

 cast a swarm. Mr. Wolcott piit them in a 

 Langstroth hive. On the 13th of January I 

 found them nearly all dead ; the few bees that 

 were living looked nearly as large as queens, ap- 

 peared to be damp, and discharged all over their 

 combs and frames, but had plenty of honey. 

 They had just the appearance of two swarms 

 that I left at the north side of the house through 

 a long spell of cold weather. They had upward 

 ventilation in caps ; and so had this swarm that 

 I lost in the Langstroth hive. I examined the 

 rest of my apiary, and did not find one-fourth 

 as many dead bees in thirty colonies, as there 

 was in this one Langstroth hive. I had three 

 young swarms away from home near a buck- 

 wlieat-field. They were brougM home at the 

 same time and had the same care that the one 

 in the Langstroth hive had, and tliey are all 

 bright and lively. Some may claim that they got 

 the bee cholera from Wolcott's bees (Wolcott 

 vises the Langstroth hive and lost over forty 

 colonies last winter). From the description he 

 gives of the symptoms of the bees tliat he lost, 

 the case is similar. If it is the cholera, why did 

 not the other two have it? And will not my 

 whole apiary have it, for I allowed my bees to 

 make free plunder of the honey that was left? 

 I am so well convinced that it was the hive that 

 I have no fears of the bee cholera from that 

 source. 



This is the third winter that I am using 

 double-cased hives, and I have yet to lose my 

 first swarm in them. As Novice says, I am so 

 well rooted in this belief of my text that the 

 shape and form of hive which the apiarian uses 

 has a great influence on the loss or profit of bee- 

 keeping, that the best antidote for that bee fever 

 that I wrote of in a former number of the Bee 

 Journal, would be to use the shallow hive. 



John Middlesworth. 



Byron, Michigan, Feb. 11, 1871. 



The poets, always exalting and magnifying the 

 subjects which they touch, have contributed 

 perhaps more than any other set of writers to 

 mislead our judgment. They endow the bee 

 with memory, and Rogers thinks that it finds its 

 way back to the hive by this faculty alone. Nor 

 is it only with regard to the bee that poets, the 

 worst entomologists in the world, have led ixs 

 astray. — Mrs. Griffith. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Things Past, Present, and Future. 



It is now over thirty years since our experience 

 with bees commenced here, among the hills of 

 Northern Vermont. We had then no scientific 

 bee-keepers to instruct us, and access to no books 

 or i^eriodicals devoted to bee-culture. Now, we 

 have scientific and infallible rules for success, 

 and line upon line for our guidance, and "the 

 way is so plain," &c. How strange that so many 

 in this new era spurn the proftered aid and fol- 

 low the old "do nothing" plan, or what is even 

 worse, recklessly ruin their bees by their inhu- 

 man interference. * 



We are now plodding along in the footsteps of 

 our most illustrious bee-men, and our path is 

 radiant with light reflected by our invaluable 

 Bee Journal. Now, in this connection, will any 

 one object to the expression of a long growing 

 conviction, tliat there is one infirmity that should 

 not be allowed to get "rooted," or become 

 chronic. I refer to the controversies in the two 

 or three last volumes of the Bee Journal upon 

 patent bee hives. This seeking an opportunity 

 to give an opponent a horn too much ; then the 

 explanations and apologies that follow, remind 

 me of the Yankee whose bull, getting the advan- 

 tage, threw him over the fence, hurting him 

 severely. The Yankee arose with difficulty, and 

 turning to tlie bull, said— " Well now, I say it is 

 devilish mean for you to stand there bowing and 

 scraping at me. Vou did it on purpo.se, you 

 know you did I" These things do not tend to 

 "bi'otherly love," nor that "strong bond of 

 union" which is the life of our fraternity. 



Mr. Langstroth is entitled to sincere and heart- 

 felt thanks for his successful labors in behalf of 

 bee-culture, and most assuredly to all money due 

 him, with interest. If he is the inventor of the 

 movable comb frame, our obligations for that are 

 inexpi-essible ; but if only an improver upon the 

 inventions of others, they should share the credit 

 with him. Tliousands will rejoice when the 

 reading columns now devoted to personal contro- 

 versies or advertisements of worthless compli- 

 cated fixtures, are filled with simi^le talks and 

 shoi't direct inquiries for beginners in bee-keep- 

 ing ; then we can recommend it to such of our 

 numerous inquirers. Oh, won't it be joyful ! I 

 use the original Langstroth hive, with glass 

 boxes or extra set of frames ; and think it un- 

 equalled for simplicity, cheapness, and in-door 

 wintering. My colonies paid the best, in honey 

 and increase, of any in Vermont reported yet. 



We have organized a bee-keepers' association, 

 and would like to have the address of bee-keepers 

 in the State ; also a statement of condition, pro- 

 gress, &c. Address, 



O. C. Waite, 

 Secreinry of Association. 

 West Georgia, Yt., ^lay 2, 1871. 



[If onr respected correspondent, who sees only the pnh- 

 lished controver.sial articles, could also see the large number 

 of communication.s relating to the hive question still flowing 

 in from ni'ntU to month — for most of which we cannot make 

 room, and mnny of which we are constriiined to rnject — he 

 would be apt ti) conclude that tlie time for inhibiting or even 

 more rigidly restricting discussion, has not yet arrived. — Ed.] 



