58 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Jan. 23, 1902 



The "Old Reliable" seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By B. B. HASTY, Sta. B Rural, Toledo, O. 



THE DR. MILLER NUMBER. 



That was an excellent idea to have a Dr. Miller num- 

 ber. The pictures one at a time would not be so effective. 

 Getting acquainted is a process not happily done by small 

 driblets — and, of course, all old readers enjoy anything ap- 

 proximating to getting acquainted with the senior member 

 of the staff. I feel most interested in him at work at his 

 desk. Desk as crowded as mine, but not so disreputably 

 crowded. Face has a happy look, aS if he enjoyed writing — 

 and if he's like me he does. 



By the way, our chief has been very shy about showing 

 us his home, and family, and surroundings, and when- 

 nobody's-looking style. Why not have a York number? — 

 [We prefer to leave such things to the editors who enjoy 

 showing themselves off in their own papers. Our family is 

 only Mrs. York, and the "surroundings" are all rented. — 

 Editor. ] 



curious ways of climate. 



How curious are the wavs of climate. In the climate 

 of Florida, it seems, wire-cloth lasts so poorly that burlap 

 is recommended instead of it. Page 744. 



DISCOLORATION OF HONEY BY THE COMB. 



Dr. Mason is going it stronp- against discoloration of 

 honey by the comb, if he is going to destroy all his extract- 

 ing-combs and have new ones built. Page 742. 



COLORS OF BEESWAX. 



W'e expect the perfume of a flower to assert itself in 

 some degree in the finished honey ; but as to wax a differ- 

 ent and very puzzling set of laws seems to come in. A 

 diploma for the wise-head who can tell us fully about the 

 how and the why of it. To a certain extent it seems as if 

 the secretion of wax wipes out all original odors and colors 

 and produces uniformity. And yet there are very great 

 variations in wax, and lots of them. Once when in a supply 

 store I found the place pervaded with an unusual perfume ; 

 and the lots of foundation piled up around was of a cherry- 

 red instead of the usual color. Was told it was the usual 

 color and odor of Jamaica wax. Page 751 gives us a num- 

 ber of these variations. One locality in Austria furnishes a 

 wax with the odor of pitch, and too soft. A grayish-brown 

 wax of almost no odor comes from India. Senegal wax is 

 dark brown, and has an unnleasant smell ; yet from Guinea 

 comes a good wax. Guadaloupe has a black wax. And 

 the European bleachers say American wax is too hard to 

 bleach. Manifestly it's not the latitude and longitude that 

 does all this. What is it? 



THE PICTURES OF APIARIES. 



Did you mind (of course you didn't) that for a long 

 time I commented on every apiary picture that appeared. 

 After awhile the thing seemed to scrape and run hard — then 

 I faced about and quit the pictures altogetner. The beauty 

 of the view on the outside of No. 48 almost tempts me 

 back into the old rut again. Mr. Elliott ought to be a good 

 man to be the Adam of such an Eden of rural simplicity. 



HAND-PICKING DRONES. 



And here is a subject that is fresh, and not yet shop- 

 worn. How do you select in hand-picking drones? How 

 discriminate between the desirable pater-familias of the 

 "coming bee," and the low-lived proletarian that mates th^ 

 other fellows' queens? Mr. Doolittle makes a promising 

 start at an answer on page 764. Undersized and ill- 

 shapen ones first killed off. "Nextly," he takes the hind 

 ones, and spares those that rush around lively. Then all 

 that vary much in markings from what seems to be tlie 

 normal style of the colony have to go. Lastly, he ferrets 

 out and kills all that show by their looks that they might 

 have been born in some other colony. Not easy to give a 

 better set of rules. I reckon. Yet at least two of them are 

 open to some doubt as to whether the best ones are not the 

 very ones that get killed. Never will be able (more's the 



pity) to keep the approval of a drone in abeyance uritil you 

 have examined a few of his "calves." 



DOOLITTLE's BEST SEASON — LONG TONGUES. 



And so Doolittle secured his highest average last sum- 

 mer. Congratulations. For a season when so many did 

 poorly it's nice. In the attempt to give the long-tongued 

 bee a black eye (or nose), well, he must try again. Of course, 

 any bees, if their snouts were as long as the elephant's, 

 could fritter away their season with the aid of the swarm 

 fever. And I fear that everything which conduces to pros- 

 perity increases a little the danger of that undesirable con- 

 dition. Page 77S. 



SELLING HONEY. 



Lots of people are troubled over the difficulty of sell- 

 ing their honey after they get it. They should read the 

 Buffalo Convention, pages 772 and yyz — read it twice over. 

 Hard cases if they can do that without getting some valuable 

 ideas. 



^.JaLJ»L^.J>C^:L.j!l.JiCJiLJiLJ!LJiCJiLJiLJiC^. 



^ The Home Circle. ^ 



Conducted bu Prof. ft. J. Cook, Glaremont, Calif. 



A COLD. 



That's what I've got. And it does make one feel very 

 miserable. We can but marvel at the cold. We are one day 

 hearty and vigorous, and the world seems full of cheer and 

 delight. The very next day we are in the dumps, and 

 everything seems different. And all this because of a 

 " cold " (as we usually call it) that has stolen in upon us. 



I have no reason to complain ; for it is three years since 

 I have had a cold before, if I except a spell of lagrippe which 

 came into every household of Claremont, a year or two ago, 

 and treated all alike. Isn't that one of lagrippe's virtues? 

 It never shows any partiality. 



The cold is like the wind which, as we know, " bloweth 

 where it listeth ; we hear the sound thereof, but know not 

 whence it cometh or whither it goeth." 



My cold of three years ago I could explain. It came as 

 the result of necessary exposure. This one is more baffling. 

 We are told that the Esquimaux, in their home land, are 

 never troubled with cold. I have heard this explained by 

 the suggestion that colds always come from microbe attack, 

 and the Artie cold is so severe that the microbes would 

 freeze up, and so are not known in the polar regions. I 

 wonder if we won't find, some 'day, that every cold is the 

 result of an attack from these minute germs. I ween that 

 that will prove true. 



This year I have three very hard days each week when 

 my work carries me almost to the limit of my strength. I 

 have wondered if colds are not very much quicker to steal 

 in upon me at times of great weariness ; at such times the 

 whole body is below par in vitality, and as the thief could 

 easily enter the house of the sick person and rob him of his 

 valuables, so, mayhaps, these theiving microbes steal in 

 upon us at these times of weariness, and further sap the 

 entire body of its strength and vigor. If this is the correct 

 explanation, then these little, worthless intruders must 

 have a special fondness for the mucous lining of nose and 

 throat. By the feeling, I could easily be presuaded that 

 they had entirely stripped mine from the subjacent tissue. 

 They seem to grip these parts with their invisible teeth, 

 and we are disturbed with the feverish congestion. And 

 how the mucous glands act as if they would have every 

 microbe carried away. 



I suppose the moral of all this is always to guard 

 against exposure, and double the caution in times of great 

 weariness. I wonder if all our home circles know of the 

 value of the warm water compress at such times. A napkin 

 wet in warm water is placed about the neck and chest, and 

 thickly covered with several layers of warm flannel. This 

 will often bring great relief to the fevered throat and nose, 

 and will often check the coughing spell at night almost in- 

 stantly. . We have found the same remedy one of the best 

 specifics against croup in children. Possibly the perspira- 

 tion induced scatters the venomous microbes. 



Warm flannels in cold and changeable weather, good 

 rubbers in time of damp and sleet, and the warm overcoat 



