1921 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



441 



class magazine at $1.50 per year, '.o 

 a poorer one for less money. Since 

 we could not reduce the subscription 

 price without reducing the size or 

 quality of the Journal, or printing It 

 at a loss, we propose to spend any 

 saving which may be possible throu;;h 

 lower costs of publication, in making 

 a still better Journal. We have other 

 improvements in mind which we hope 

 to add just as soon as the costs of 

 publishing are reduced to a point 

 which makes it possible. 



In no other product of human en- 

 deavor does the consumer get so 

 much for his money as in magazines. 

 It costs us more than $2,500 to as- 

 semble and publish a single issue of 

 the American Bee Journal, yet the 

 subscriber gets his copy for 12*2 

 cents, or $1.50 foj- 12 issues, which 

 cost us $30,000 to publish. This i^ 

 possible because the cost is distrib- 

 uted among so many individuals. A 

 half-tone cut, to reproduce a single 

 one of the many pictures which we 

 show, costs about $4.00, yet it is as 

 good for 20,000 copies as for one. 

 The same thing applies to the cost ,>f 

 setting the type, which takes ro 

 longer for a large number of copies 

 than if only one was printed. 



Again, we wish to express our sin- 

 cere appreciation of the hundi-eds of 

 letters of encouragement which ha 'e 

 reached us during the past fe.v 

 months. A number have said that 

 the American Bee Journal is the 

 finest publication of its kind in the 

 entire world and this encourages us 

 to make an extra effoi-t to make it 

 worthy of the high confidence of our 

 readers. 



F. W. L. SLADEN 



Passing of the Dominion Apiarist of 

 Canada 



By C. B. Gooderham 



On September 10, Mr. F. W. L. 

 Sladen, Canada's Dominion Apiarist, 

 died of heart failure while bathing at 

 Duck Island, in Lake Ontario. Mr. 

 Sladen had been suffering from heart 

 trouble for several years, and only 

 three years ago was ordered by his 

 physician to take a long rest. It ap- 

 pears that Mr. Sladen, who could not 

 swim, had been in the habit of bath- 

 ing in shallow water at the edge of the 

 l..ke, after finishing his work with 

 the bees, and on Saturday went into 

 the water as usual, when he was sud- 

 denly stricken with heart failure. Mr. 

 Sladen was not missed from his tent 

 until the next morning, when a search 

 was made by Mr. Thomas, the light- 

 house keeper. Mr. Sladen's clothes 

 were found on the shore and the body 

 was found in the water about seventy 

 feet from the shore. 



Mr. Sladen was born in 1876, at 

 Shooters Hill, near London, England. 

 He was educated privately and com- 

 menced beekeeping at the age of 13. 

 He also became keenly interested in 

 the bumblebees and solitary bees and 

 spent nearly all of his spare time in 

 studying them. 



At sixteen he wrote "The Humble- 

 Bee; Its Life History and How to 

 Domesticate It." He also wrote a 

 series of articles on the wild bees for 

 the British Bee Journal. In 1896 he 

 visited India to study the bees of that 

 < ountry, especially Apis dorsala, A. 

 florea and the domesticated varieties 

 of A. indica. In 1901 he visited 

 prominent beekeepers in Canada and 

 the United States. It was in March 

 of that year that he discovered the 

 function of Nassanoff's organ in the 

 honeybee. 



All this time Mr. Sladen was spe- 

 cializing in queen rearing and bee 

 breeding, and he developed a hardy 

 golden bee suitable for the trying 

 English climate. The subjects of 



v. W. L. Siaden 



queen rearing and bee breeding were 

 studied thoroughly and in 1904 he 

 published his book, "Queen-Rearing 

 in England." A second edition of this 

 book was issued in 1913. 



In 1912 he joined the staff of the 

 Experimental Farm at Ottawa, as as- 

 sistant Entomologist for Apiculture, 

 and in 1914, when the Bee Division 

 was separated from the Entomolog- 

 ical branch, he was given the posi- 

 tion of Apiarist in charge. In 1920 

 this position was changed to Domin- 

 ion Apiarist. 



Since coming to Canada Mr. Sladen 

 has done much for the advancement 

 of Apiculture. Almost his first work 

 in Canada was a study of the honey- 

 producing plants from coast to coast 

 and of the conditions under which 

 they secrete nectar. He has also 

 given much study to swarm control, 



and developed his two-queen system 

 1 y which swarming is controlled and 

 tne queens are wintered over in each 

 hive. He has also devoted consider- 

 able study to wintering problems, and 

 recently issued Bulletin No. 43 on 

 "Wintering Bees in Canada." 



Queen rearing and bee breeding, 

 however, have been Mr. Sladen's first 

 consideration, and experiments have 

 been carried on annually by him in 

 different parts of Canada. In 1919 a 

 mating station was established on 

 Duck Island and isolated matings be- 

 CuUie a fact. The experiments were 

 continued during 1920 and 1921, and 

 a large number of queens have been 

 reared at Ottawa and transferred to 

 the island for mating with drones of 

 special breeding. Excellent results 

 liave been obtained and purely mated 

 i|Ueens have been distributed to 

 branch farms and beekeepers in dif- 

 ferent parts of the Dominion. It was 

 while cari-ying on this work at the 

 I'jland that Mr. Sladen met his death. 



A PROBLEM FROM INDIA 



Dear Mr. Pellett: 



A friend of yours suggests placing 

 before you my difficulties in beekeep- 

 ing, and I do so in the hope that your 

 e.\perience and researches 'nay have 

 embraced sections whence the same 

 troubles have arisen. 



The principal enemy to our bees, so 

 far, is a large hornet (more than one 

 kind, moreover) which infests these 

 pa)-ts. These hornets hover in frojit 

 of a hive entrance and caro' off' the 

 V, oi"-trs bouly and devour them. We 

 destroy their nests when discovered, 

 ana I am cxperimeiiting with a wire 

 fraiiv placed in front of the hive to 

 allow the workers a better chance 

 of getting away from tlie hornets. 

 This latter is only a partial success so 

 far, though a decided step in the 

 right direction. Do you by any 

 chance know of any similar ti'ouble, 

 and how overcome? 



Norbert T. Gill. India. 



Answer. — Beekeepers of South Af- 

 rica report that some species of 

 wasps, commonly called bee pirates, 

 are a very serious pest in that coun- 

 try. Various methods of dealing 

 with them have been tried, with more 

 or less success. Sometimes they are 

 killed by swatting them by hand as 

 they fly about the hives. This meth- 

 od, however; is tedious and unsatis- 

 factory, as the beekeeper can hardly 

 remain long enough at the hives to do 

 effective work. Traps of different 

 patterns have been used with some 

 success. A common way is to daub 

 bird-lime on branches of trees and 

 place them near the hives. When the 

 pirates alight on the branches they 

 are held by the sticky substance. 



A white plate or basin filled with 

 water and oil is also recommended. 

 This is said to be the simplest and 

 most effective method of all. Paraffin 

 is the best oil for the purpose. Some 

 lees will also fall into the basin, but 

 the number is small compared to the 

 number saved by the destruction of 

 the pirates. — F. C. P. 



