1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1".!.-) 



Standard Oil Co., as above mentioned. They 

 •;ent us a paraffine circular from the company; 

 md among other uses of this substance they 

 mention honey-comb. We have again written 

 the company, sending them our $1000 reward 

 ard; and as we believe they are laboring under 

 a misapprehension we have every reason to be- 

 ieve they will strike out the objectionable line 

 !0 damaging to all apiarian interests. 



In "(Queries and Replies," in the last Arncri- 

 ■an Bee Journal, the (inestion is asked first. 

 What is the correct space between top-bars'? 

 ind, second, correct space oiier top-bars that 

 will give the least brace and burr combs'? Of 



he'iGwho replied, nearly half say, in answer 

 to the first question. I4 ; and to the second ques- 

 tion, over three-fourths of the respondents say 

 I4 inch, and one votes for -/^j. The second ques- 

 tion, if we are correct, was asked some three 

 ^'ears ago, in the same department, and then 

 the majority of writers answered, from J^ to f^. 

 We were among the first to advocate thissmall- 



1- bee-space; and it is pleasant to see how the 

 eminent bee-keepers are agreeing so uniformly 

 3n this same point. Only three vote for %, and 

 three others for tV- AH the rest are for I4' inch 

 between the top-bars and cover or super above. 

 We shall expect, in three or four years more, 

 that the answers to the first question as above 

 will be generally for ^i^ inch. 



hive and humble-bees tjoloi't'd on tlie front \y.\isv, 

 Willi ii i)ortr:ii1c)f Hiiber faciMji- it? The title-i)ii)fe 

 following- is llius: "'I'lie Natuial HisIoi-y of Hees. 

 Compi-eliendinj;- the uses and I'coiioniical inaiiaKe- 

 nient of the Hiitisli and Foreign Honey-bee; tog-eth- 

 er with tiie known wild species," etc;., illustrated 

 with ;i() plates, and a memoir of Huber. This l)ook 

 was written by Ki-v. W. Dunbar foi- Sir Win. .laidine, 

 and forms Vol. VI. of tlie Natui-alist's Library. Sir 

 W. Jardine knew notliiiif? about bees, but Dunbar 

 did; and as he was a friend of liis, and was liviiiKin 

 one of Sir W. .Tardine's manses, lie wrote llie memoir 

 and collected all about tlie wild bees. ]f you want 

 to know !Uiy more about the book I shall be plea.si-d 

 to tell you what I know. I have nearly all the edi- 

 tions of the work and two copies of one or two of the 

 editions. Tiios. Wm. ("(iwa.v. 



London, Eng-., Jan. 20. 



We find, upon investigation, that the book re- 

 ferred to by Mr. Cowan is similar to the one we 

 had in review, but the two volumes must be 

 different ones. Ours is No. 7 of the Naturalist's 

 Library, and contains no reference to the per- 

 sons named by Mr. Cowan. 



FiuEXD Hasty, the "reviewer" for the Re- 

 vieiv, has this to say of a recent charge that 

 was laid at his door: 



I see an editorial note in the American Bee-keeper, 

 with the signature of "C," thinks out loud that 

 Gleanings is g-iven too much space in these papers. 

 Perliaps I should watch out a little more to see that 

 T don't neglect the juniors. But I'll say this much 

 *• to wunst:" Nothing like an equal division of space 

 among tlie journals can be tolerated. Readers want 

 the most important new thoughts, without regard to 

 where they come from. I suspect, moreover, that, if 

 I were fairly tried by a jury of my peers. I should be 

 found guilty— not of the crime charged. Ijut of the 

 opposite one— passing over tilings in Gleanings and 

 A. B. J. tliat would have been promptly noticed liad 

 tliey come up in tlie younger journals. 



Mr Hasty is about right; and, while the 

 jur.iors are pretty apt to have their cream re- 

 dished up, it would look as if there was too 

 much of the same yellow stufT in the two 

 seniors for him to dish up all of it. Gleanings 

 does not complain, but, on the contrary, feels 

 honored for the prominence it has received by 

 the "reviewer."' 



SiNCK our editorial on page 2.5 was printed, 

 regarding the old bee-books, we have received 

 the following from Thomas Wm. Cowan: 



T see in Gleanings, page 25, you allude to an edi- 

 tion of Huber Included in the Naturalist's Lilu-ary. 

 Have you not made a mistake about tliis, as tlie 

 -work you allude to is, I think, liy Rev. Wm. Dunbai-. 

 Is not the title, "The Naturalist's Librai-y." with 



THE MINER HIVE. 



On page .").5 we asked whether any of our 

 readers knew any thing about the Miner hive. 

 In answer to that question, Mr. H. L. Jeffrey, 

 of Woodbury. Ct., sends us a copy of an old bee- 

 book entitled "The Bee-keeper's Chart," pub- 

 lished in 18.5.5, in New York. It was written by 

 E. W. Phelps. Friend Jeffrey sends us the 

 book because one of our most prominent bee- 

 keepers denied the existence of any such work 

 some years ago. It gives a description of the 

 Miner equilateral cross-bar hive.' Mr. Jeffrey 

 says he has used such a hive within the past 15 

 years, and with very good results. It might in 

 some respects be considered the forerunner of 

 the Langstroth hive. On page 33 of this book 

 the author sreaks of " storifying and subtended 

 hives." If the description of this idea was not 

 the forerunner of the tiering-up idea it is be- 

 cause it is the thing itself. In some respects it 

 foreshadows the sectional brood-chamber. 



CONFUSION IN THE USE OF TERMS. 



Some of our best correspondents are confus- 

 ing, in their writings, the words "swarm" and 

 "colony." and oftentimes it is difficult, because 

 of this confusion, to determine in our correc- 

 tions just what term should be used. " Swarm " 

 means a collection of bees that either are now 

 on the wing in the air, or clustered on some 

 limb of a tree, or have recently been hived in 

 their new quarters. "Colony" means the same 

 collection of bees before or some time after the 

 swarm-act takes place; that is, it is a stock of 

 bees that has finally assumed its normal func- 

 tions. If our correspondents would be careful 

 in their writings to make these distinctions it 

 would sometimes save us a little trouble, be- 

 cause we always feel obliged to make these 

 changes whether the writers do or not, before 

 the articles finally appear in print. It is true, 



