363 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1. 



ny in early spring was eggless and broodless 

 when others had brood, and I could find no pol- 

 len present. I gave pollen, and all was lovely. 



M. M. Bat.dkidgk de'^prves a vote of thanks 

 for defending father Langstroth against un- 

 kind insinuations in A nicrican Bee-keeper. He 

 squarely denies Robinson's statement that 

 Mahan imported first Italians. [Yes. and 

 Baldridge confirms what wc said on page 941, 

 Dec. 15th last.— Ed.I 



And now I'm toi-d. in Progressive, that a 

 foundation-press is not a press if the wax is 

 very warm. That won't do. Observer. If you 

 put thin pomac.e in a cider-press, is it a mold? 

 Hut I own up there are no such presses in this 

 country (there's one on the way), and I was all 

 off about the Given press. 



A NEW WAV of having extracting-combs is 

 reported in Illus. Bienenzeitung. Nail a sheet 

 of tin on one side of your frame, then put in 

 foundation close against the tin. Then you've 

 .only one side of the comb to extract. [But 

 on a thousand such combs, wouldn't the tin be 

 rather expensive? and how about so much 

 metal in the super?— Ed.] 



In America there are more than twenty so- 

 cieties, with a million of capital each, which 

 they employ in covering a large part of Ameri- 

 can territory with apiaries. Each farm has its 

 apiary, not only for the honey, but principally 

 for the fecundation of flowers. — From a speech 

 in Elsass - LothringscJier Bieneii - Zuechter. 

 Go from home to hear the news. 



Hutchinson agrees with Dayton, that cleats 

 are better than hand-holes in hives. Sensible. 

 [The trouble with hand-holes heretofore, they 

 haven't been made deep enough and long 

 enough. We noiv make them ^4 inch deep, and 

 long enough so that all the fingers can get a 

 good grip. Of the old hand-holes, only one fin- 

 ger could get a good fair hold. — Ed.] 



There you go again on p. 33L Won't give 

 us Given foundation because it isn't " pleasing 

 to the eye." What I want is something " pleas- 

 ing to the bee." "That nice clear transparent 

 effect" comes from a hard polished surface, 

 doesn't it? and that's just what we don't want. 

 [No, that clear transparent effect doesn't come 

 necessarily "from a hard polished surface." 

 See editorials.— Ed. J 



I'm glad to learn that the V edge on end- 

 bars is not sharp, but ^^ wide. How would it 

 do to make it still wider, say about % ? [" There 

 you go again." This sounds like your sugges- 

 tion that, if an eight-frame hive is better than 

 a ten-frame, tlnm a six-frame is better than an 

 eight. As Mr. Taylor says in this issue in reply 

 to this, there is a Scylla and Charybdis; so we 

 say there is here regarding the bluntness of 

 this V edge. In Trade Notes we explain again 

 more fully why this V edge is preferred by us 

 and by friend Hoffman. — Ed.] 



Our Symposium on Large vs. Small Hives. 



R. L. Taylor on One Side of the Discussion, and 



Hatch, Dadant. and Seeley on the Other, 



with Br. Miller on the Fence.* 



DR. MILLEIi 8 ARGUMENTS REVIEWED: SOME OF 

 THE ELEMENTS OF UNCERTAINTY. 



By R. L. Taylor. 



Dear Bro. Miller: — I note that, in the last 

 number of Gleanings, you make a reply to my 

 letter to you of Feb. 1 upon tlie above topic; 

 and inasmuch as I have become interested in 

 what you say, and in the way you say it, and 

 as the editor seems to expect me to say some- 

 thing in response to your argument, I venture 

 to undertake to make some further suggestions 

 which, it seems to me, should have weight in 

 the consideration of the questions involved. 



In relation to the experiment you propose for 

 the purpose of testing the comparative advan- 

 tages of the two kinds of hives, you see some of 

 the difliculties, but I fear there are many oth- 

 ers. Taking a colony from an eight-frame 

 hive and putting it into a ten-frame hive would 

 not do, because one which had been in a ten- 

 frame hive for a year might be stronger, which 

 would, perhaps, be an advantage, but more like- 

 ly a disadvantage. The difficulty would be 

 hardly less if one had plenty of each kind of 

 hive containing colonies which had occupied 

 them for years; for in selecting the colonies for 

 the experiment there would be no really satis- 

 factory standard to be applied in making the 

 selections. I have just been selecting colonies 

 for some other experiments, and I find that, 

 with care, by examining when closely clustered 

 I can pick out pairs that appeared to be twins 

 in all material points; and then by dividing 

 each of a sufficient number of pairs so as to 

 form two lots, I could make the two lots practi- 

 cally about alike; but if I were to undertake to 

 compare a colony in a iwo-story Heddon hive 

 with one in an eight-frame hive, or one in a 

 one-story Heddon, I should be lost — the result 

 would be no better than a rough guess. So if I 

 were set to select colonies in eight and ten frame 

 hives for comparative experiment I should not 

 know how to proceed. There would be no com- 

 mon standard that could be applied in making 

 the selection. It would not be an attempt to 

 get colonies of equal strength, but it would be 

 an attempt to settle the average relative nor- 

 mal strength of the twoclasses, and then to se- 

 lect, from each, colonies having the same pro- 

 portional ratio to each average. So far no plan 

 of procedure has been suggested to me that 

 seems to give promise of results that would 



* We didn't know e.vactly wliero to put the Doc- 

 tor, so wo have put "him on the fence." If lie 

 doesn't like it he can get off.— Ed. 



