1873.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



107 



the production of box honey, obtaining from 

 them two thousand eight hundred and fifty- 

 two (2,852) pounds, or an average of nearly 

 forty-four (44) pounds each. From the whole 

 eighty-six (86j the average product is seventy- 

 four and three-quarter (74 3-4) pounds each. 

 From the much greater yield of extracted honey, 

 and from a similar experience of former years, 

 and for various other reasons they much prefer 

 the production of extracted to box honey. Their 

 hives and all the tools and appliances about 

 the apiary are kept in a neat and orderly man- 

 ner, which no doubt adds to the pleasure of 

 the bees as well as that of the owners, and 

 their visitors. Their hives are all near the 

 ground, on short legs about six inches long, 

 generally with an inclined board leading from 

 the ground to the porch of the hive, partly 

 shaded by trees, and are among the farm build- 

 ings, the family having no fear of stings, as 

 they generally are when two or three hives of 

 black bees are kept within gunshot. We open- 

 ed several hives, examining their internal ar- 

 rangements and the color, size, &c., of the 

 queens without receiving any stings, and with 

 very little danger of it. All bee-keepers agree 

 that the Italians are much gentler and more 

 easily handled than the blacks, and the former 

 are fast superceding the latter. The produc- 

 tion of Italian queens for the quicker change 

 has become an established business for many 

 bee-keepers. The Hills, Mr. Muth and Mr. 

 Winder, to whom we award the different pre- 

 miums, as well as several other bee-keepers 

 around the city, are importers as well as home 

 breeders of Italian queens for that purpose, 

 and those desiring to Italianize their apiaries 

 can be well suited among them. 



We award as below : 



1261. Chas. F. Muth, best Bee Hive with 

 bees. 



314. .J. W. Winder, best Honey Extractor. 



1359. J. S. Hill & Sons, best Apiary. 



,o- p,i\ Jas. H. Anderson, 

 ^ ° ^ H. W. Stephenson. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Progressive Bee Culture— Answer to Mr, Adair. 



If the pamphlet of Mr. Adair could be of 

 some utility to beekeepers, I would advise 

 every one of them to get a copy, in which they 

 would see that if I have not always given the 

 exact terms of Mr. Adair in my quotations I 

 have always remained in the general meaning, 

 such as would be understood by the majority 

 of our readers. But the pamphlet recalls to 

 my mind the nature bee book of Prof. Flan- 

 ders, of humbugging and charming memory, 

 who had contrived to sell fifteen cents a circu- 

 lar, with sixteen pages of reading matter, and 

 sixteen pages of advertisements for his hive, his 

 bee show, etc., likewise the book of Mr. Adair 

 has twelve pages of reading matter, and twelve 



of advertisements ; and I think that the twen- 

 ty-five cents, price of this book, can be em- 

 ployed to better use ; especially as I have not 

 been able to detect in it a single new or prac- 

 tical idea. 



It is not the first time that Mr. Adair has 

 used this way of raising money. I have on 

 hand a small pamphlet — The Outlines of Bee 

 Culture ; second edition ; by D. L. Adair ; price, 

 twenty cents. That has only three pages of 

 matter on bee culture, and nineteen of adver- 

 tisements. 



Talleyrand used to say that language was 

 given to man to conceal his thoughts ; the same 

 can be said of Mr. Adair, who uses his pen to 

 conceal what he means, as I can prove by a few 

 quotations. 



In his reply to my criticism, Mr. Adair says 

 that I have construed my quotations into his 

 saying that " the production of drones is an 

 irregular act." He adds : ''If he will read it 

 over, he will see that I did not say so. I was 

 speaking of the constitution of the colony, and 

 not of the act of production of drones." Now 

 if we turn to his pamphlet, page 3, we can 

 read : '" Drones an abnormity.'''' The production 

 of drones " always the result of an imperfect 

 action of the organs of reproduction in the 

 queen, and is an abnormity." 



I quoted from the book, page 5 : " ^ normal 

 colony of bees ; a perfectly balanced normal col- 

 ony of bees consists only of a queen and work- 

 ers ; and so long as that balance is maintained, 

 there is no necessity ff)r any other members 

 being added. Another fact of great import- 

 ance'is, that so long as the balance is perfect, 

 no drone comb will be constructed by the bees, 

 nor will any queen cells be commenced " In 

 answer to my appreciation of these paragraphs, 

 Mr. Adair says : •' If this and the next six pages 

 that follow, simply convey the idea that a 

 queen and workers are all that is necessary to 

 a perfectly balanced colony of bees, I will quit 

 writing. When I said that such a colony con- 

 sisted only of a queen and workers, it strikes 

 me I did not say that as long as a hive has no 

 drones it is well balanced, l)ut maybe I did." 

 Friend Ijeekeepers, you can judge whether Mr. 

 Adair should quit writing. 



Further Mr. Adair adds: "Mr. Dadant dos- 

 es his article by an unfair criticism on a hive I 

 sent him several years ago (1869), and conveys 

 the impression that it is the ' new idea' hive. 

 Such is not the case." Of course the hive sent 

 was the Adair section hive. To see how unfair 

 I was in this matter, let us turn to the adver- 

 tisement on the cover of the A. B. J.,— we read: 



THE NEW IDEA.— Adair Section Hive : 

 The result of fifteen years of experiment. 



Two paragraphs above he notices an unkind- 

 ness from me, when I charge him with claiming 

 that his hives alone produce certainty of non- 



