THE BEE-KEEPERS- REVIEW 297 



side, the front being cut back on a bevel. The two side strips are 

 J/g inches thick, 1^ inches high and 19^8 inches long. The back 

 bottom cleat is J^ inches thick, 1^2 inches wide and 13^4 inches 

 long, nailed under the back end. The front cleat is similar, but is 

 2}'2 inches wide. As this forms part of the bottom Roor a strip >}-^ 

 inches thick and 113'2 inches long closes the opening at the back 

 end on top. When completed this bottom board is 13^4 inches wide 

 and 197/8 inches long, the size of the Hedden hive. The entrance 

 is 1^4 inches deep at the front, but only }i inches under the 

 frames. 



For Avintering outside we close the ends of the entrance, but 

 leave the center IJ4 inches deep by about o^i inches long. The 

 bridge over the entrance in the outside w^intering case is about 3 

 inches deep, nailed to the bottom of the outside packing case, and 

 is about 4 inches wide. A storm door with several small holes in 

 it keeps out wind and mice. 



STONE Ci:i.I.ARS. 



Years ago my father built a root cellar with walls about 18 

 inches thick of solid stone. It would keep out very little frost. A 

 second wall 8 inches thick of sawdust was built inside, leaving an 

 inch air space. This improved it, but the mice got into the sawdust 

 and destroyed the dead air space. Finally the sawdust was thrown 

 out and earth banked up on the outside up to the eaves. The frost 

 does not go through the earth. Stone offers the least resistance to 

 frost of any of the building materials. For a cellar, cement blocks 

 with air spaces would have been much warmer and drier. 



Lambeth, Ont., Canada. 



Breeding for General Improvement. 



LEO ELLIS GATELEY. 



"^^ft HAVE read wuth interest those articles in the January and 

 Tl February issues, but am at a loss to understand how anyone 

 can, in the light of what has been accomplished, view with 

 doubt the ultimate result of the present research for an improved 

 type of honey bee. That the different varieties, strains and individ- 

 ual grades of bees, with which we are at present familiar, are sus- 

 ceptible to all sorts of crossing and modifications, can no longer be 

 doubted except by those who have made no eft'orts in such direc- 

 tion. 



The mutableness of the species is admitted by Mr. Newell in 

 stating that while the golden strain of Italians has probably been 

 established through a continued course of selection, no reason exists 



