THE BER-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



265 



beauty. The farmer who appreciates 

 beauty in his home, on his farm and in 

 his animals and other things on the farm, 

 even if he can not realize all his desires 

 in this regard, is better to the extent of 

 such appreciation. Putting a pursuit 

 down to a mere dollar and cent basis is 

 degrading it. We should carry on our 

 work from a love of it. The bees are the 

 most important thing about the apiary ; 

 and how much better it is to work about 

 it when they are beautiful. Then why 

 not have the advantages of beauty in our 

 little friends and get all the enjoyment 

 we can from our intercourse with them .' 

 Several years ago I purchased a queen 

 that was bred from a noted queen. The 

 worker bees from her were the prettiest 

 bees that I ever saw. The three yellow 

 bands were so deep and bright in color ! 

 They did not have the pale dead color so 

 common to the present yellow strains of 

 bees. Often did I go to the hive and 

 look at them — they were so beautiful. 

 Oueen breeders are making a mistake in 

 breeding their bees so pale in color. 

 They should select colonies to breed from 

 the workers of which are the deepest and 

 brightest in color; provided, of course, 

 the bees have the other necessarj' good 

 (jualities. While breeding to develope 

 the ideal bee, let not the two beauties — 

 beauty of color and ])eauty of dis])ositi()n 

 — be neglected. 



If we are to develope hardiness in our 

 bees we must cease importing them, and 

 even stop bringing them from warm sec- 

 tions of our country to the colder ones. 



As the flora of our country is not the 

 same everywhere, it seems to me that for 

 each locality there should be strains of 

 bees that are not only adapted to the 

 climate but also adapted to the flora of 

 the section. 



If our critic is too severe upon mistakes 

 in grammar, he may possibly discourage 

 those from writing who would give us 

 valuable facts. 



White House St.\. July, 15, 1S98. 



KEEPING A RECORD. 



How it may be done on a Board with the use 

 of very Little Space. 



J. E. CRANE. 



EOR a book, I 

 have found a 

 M ^fc board nmch the 



4B ^^ m most satisfac- 



tory. Formerly, 

 I used blank 

 books to note 

 down items and 

 history, so to 

 speak, of the 

 various hives in 

 an apiary ; but 

 the wind would shut it so uncerimonious- 

 ly, or, in spite of my best endeavors, open 

 it in a wrong place. Not onl)- this, but the 

 honey and propolis the paper absorbed 

 from my hands while handling the frames 

 of m)- hives would so stick the leaves to- 

 gether as to make the whole thing very 

 disagreeable. 



Since I began to use a board I have 

 no desire to return to paper. A light 

 colored board, say four inches wide by 

 twent}- inches long by one-fourth thick, 

 gives ample room for the season's record 

 of seventy hives. On such a board one 

 can readily find the number of the hive 

 and all one wants to know; the wind can 

 not shut in up nor propolis stick it togeth- 

 er in such a provoking way. 



But how can a season's record of sev- 

 enty hives be kept in so small a space ? 

 Briefly, by the use of short-hand, or signs. 

 I know but little of scientific short-hand 

 writing, but I know that a system of signs 

 on paper or wood, each sign to represent 

 some condition of the queen, or colony, 

 is just as good, or a great deal better than 

 if it were all written out. I can illustrate 

 this better by giving a few examples from 

 my records than in any other way. If 

 we place the number of our hives on the 

 left hand side of the record board we 



