i84 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



ROBBING WHEN HIVES ARE RAISED ON 

 BLOCKS. 



The editor ( Gleanings 298 ) advises 

 care, in speaking of the danger of robbing 

 at the close of the honey season when the 

 hive is raised on blocks, "that is provid- 

 ing he uses one-story colonies. A good 

 strong colony, a double or triple-decker, 

 such as I would use and do use — I think 

 would be fully capable of holding its own. 

 No little colonies for me." Does the 

 editor really think a colony could defend 

 three sets of combs more easily than one 

 set? Or does he only mean that a very 

 strong one could defend three better than 

 a despicably weak one could one ? If so, 

 why should the weak one be set upon 

 blocks at all? It would be a proper sub- 

 ject for contraction. 



SOME POINTS IN USING DRAWN COMB. 



In discussing the subject of using sec- 

 tions containing drawn-out comb ( Glean- 

 ings, 343) Dr. Miller quotes me as say- 

 ing that the bees are slower to fill and 

 cap them. I cannot believe he quotes 

 me correctly. Beesyf// them more quick- 

 ly but cap them more slowly. Further 

 on he says, "in years of failure I have 

 had hundreds of cases in which one un- 

 finished section in the super was filled 

 and sealed and the remaining sections 

 with foundation were left untouched." 

 Certainly; I trust however, that the doctor's 

 logical faculty will not allow him to claim 

 there is any argument in that. Again, to 

 the claim that honey stored in deep cells 

 is not so good in quality and that it is 

 better to reduce the depth of the cells he 

 says "if that be true, a cell Yz inch deep 

 will not give as nice honey as one ^ inch 

 deep; a cell y% inch deep will be excelled 

 by one X inch deep; this in turn is not so 

 good as one ^ deep." "The less the 

 depth the better the honey; the best hon- 

 ey of all being produced on the Michigan 

 no-wall foundation." The doctor is up 

 in the healing art equally well as in bee- 

 keeping; and if I should say to a conva- 

 lescent who was trying to take four hours 

 of exercise a day: "You are exerting 



yourself too much; two hours of exercise 

 would be much better;" he (Dr. Miller), 

 if he overheard me, and were feeling pug- 

 nacious, wouldsay to the invalid: "That's 

 all bosh; if two hours are better than 

 four, then one is better that two; and a 

 half better than one; and none at all best 

 of all. Any one could see that is bad 

 advice; don't listen to it; take all the time 

 there is for it — 24 hours a day." 



TVPOGR.\PHY AND GRAMMAR. 



E. A. Daggitt talks of typographical 

 beauty { Review 1 11 ). I think I prefer the 

 print in which the "extracted" articles 

 appear to that in the body of the Review, 

 and I would be inclined to put the like- 

 nesses on a page by themselves. 



Mr Daggitt also says "I have noticed 

 that if a person once keeps bees that he 

 or she is apt, " etc. , "Although they are 

 going" etc. I have a particular antipa- 

 thy to the use of the words "or she" in 

 such connection; they add nothing and 

 mean nothing. "He" in such a place 

 being generic may mean one of either 

 sex, and "they" is of course out of place. 



TO MUCH ITALICIZING. 



The writer of the article on page 150 of 

 the Review is made to squirm at the 

 amount of Italicizing the editor has seen 

 fit to introduce; and in one case (first ex- 

 ample, second column, page 153 ) he would 

 put the emphasis on the wrong word. I 

 sympathize with the writer. 



ONE BY ONE THE . IDOLS FALL — TO BE 

 PICKED UP BY OTHERS. 



How are the idols falling! Dr. Miller 

 has parted with the under-ground ventila- 

 tion to his bee cellar (A. B. J., 231). It 

 had become stopped up so that it didn't 

 work at all; but, strange to say, the bees 

 wintered well notwithstanding. It was 

 built to satisfy the doctor's fresh-air 

 theory; and, now that it is stopped, the 

 same theory is gratified because when 

 open it probably brought in underground 

 gases. I am looking for his artificial 

 heat fad to follow speedily. How com- 

 fortable it is to have some little simple 

 matter of routine management to rest up- 



