idy'i 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAI. 



627 



of such a widely-circulated and able medium as the American 

 Bee Journal through which to give the information. 



Clinch Co., Ga. 



[No doubt Mr. Duncan will offer this hive in the advortis- 

 Idk columns In good time for next season's use. So it will not 

 be necessary for any one to send to us for his post-office ad- 

 <)ress, but simply wait until his advertisement appears. If It 

 is as good a thing as Mr. D. seems to think It Is, It is well 

 worth advertising It extensively. — Editok.J 



Parafflue Paper Over the Sectious, Etc. 



BY F. L. THOMPSON. 



Noticing that sections which have been covered with 

 parafBne paper were said to be perfectly free from propolis, 

 and even took prizes at various Fairs, I procured a number of 

 sheets and applied them according to directions. During the 

 early part of the season, the results were pretty fair, tho the 

 sections were far from being free of propolis, even on the top 

 edges. Still, the tops between the edges were perfectly fresh 

 and bright when the sections were removed, forming a markt 



fixt up one super in good shape in the time that it would ordi- 

 narily take to Hx two. I've had enough of it. I believe a 

 fresh surface of burlap over every super full of sectious, with 

 three or four thicknesses, not necessarily uusoiled, above that, 

 to keep it flat and conserve heat, would amount to about the 

 same thing, and be much quicker handled. 



By the way, I am coming to think honey-boards are a 

 valuable aid In producing first-class comb honey. 1 was 

 obliged to do without them this summer, and the percentage 

 of fancy honey was rather small, In spite of the fact that half 

 the hives had thick top-bars. The editor of (Jleanings, speak- 

 ing of thick top-bars and burr-ccmbs, says the exception 

 proves the rule. I would rather do without the exception, in 

 this case, because besides oUircly preventing burr-combs un- 

 der the sections, the honey-boards very largely diminish 

 travel-stain on the section honey, better, I think, than thick 

 top-bars do. I am not sure of this, having been too busy to 

 observe accurately, but that is my general impression. 



EVOLUTION OF THE UONEY-BEK. 



Mr. Beckwith can and will, of course, reply to the argu- 

 ments on page 530, against the evolution of the honey-bee. 

 But allow me to protest against the class of arguments em- 

 ployed, which, in my opinion, is not in accordance with tha 



Views of Mr. Kreutz'myei's Aiyinry, Showing the Ai~rangement of Hives. 



contrast to other sections which had been covered with a '4 

 inch " layer of air." 



Later in the season the bees plastered propolis just as 

 freely at the junction of the paper with the section edges as 

 they did anywhere else. I conclude that it was the combina- 

 tion of paraffine paper with some other things that produced 

 that prize honey, and that those other things were far more 

 important. I have before this produced section honey with- 

 out the aid of paraffine paper, which went into the case un- 

 toucht by the knife. They were built during the first of the 

 flow by new swarms, in brand-new hives, in supers which per- 

 fectly cornprest both edges and ends of the sections, and over 

 a, honey-board. 



Another objection to the paraffine paper is the fusslness it 

 requires, with the extra paper and thin boards (I used old sep- 

 arators), and the difficulty of removing in the last half of the 

 season. Every time a super replaces another, there is a lot of 

 red tape, so to speak, to go through with. First, the news- 

 papers and thin boards must be carefully removed and laid 

 aside; then, still more carefully, the paraffine paper — snip, 

 snap, tear 1 (confound it) — wsh-sh-sh-crack ! (darn these 

 things, anyhow 1)— and then it is laid on the lower super re- 

 verst, first smoking the bees out of the way, except some re- 

 fractory ones, that have to be carefully cow-catchered out of 

 the way with the edge of tho paper, then, if the wind is blow- 

 ing ever so little (it usually is, just then), held there while the 

 other paraphernalia are reacht for and spread on In succes- 

 sion ; and you have the satisfaction of knowing that you have 



broad spirit of inquiry which usually characterizes the utter- 

 ances of the writer of that article. 



If I infer that the top of a hill was once part of the bed of 

 a stream, on account of the numerous water-worn pebbles Im- 

 bedded in the soil, Mr. Doolittle mightsay, "Will you attempt 

 to prove that, because you find round stones in a stream in 

 189T, therefore, wherever you find round stones, there was a 

 stream in the primeval state of the earth? This you must do 

 if you would attempt to sustain your position." And when I 

 begin to inform him that my conclusion Is the result of tha 

 observation of the round stones in connection with several 

 other things, such as erosion, absence of glacial action in this 

 spot, etc., and admit that there is no absolutely direct evi- 

 dence — that from the nature of the case, even if it was really 

 so, we could not actually lay our hands on the evidence, but 

 that, on the contrary. If my theory were true, it would be just 

 what ought to be expected, that visible evidence would be 

 wanting — I suppose he would wink, and say, " Aha I Told 

 you so. See? You can't tell )»c anything about streams on 

 top of a hill." Such, apparently, would be his exact attitude, 

 if I should show that the mere classification of species shows 

 them merging into one another — a "species" being an arbi- 

 trary division of the naturalist, not of nature ; that the com- 

 parative studies of external forms, and of Internal bones and 

 soft parts, show the same result; that the embryos of all 

 higher animals pass through successive stages, in an ascend- 

 ing scale of complexity, in which they are Indistinguishable 

 from those of lower animals ; that rudimentary and useless 



