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•MDHOMEL- *- 



uBLiiHED BY g^ rrtp I' 



Vol. XX. 



DEC. 15, 1892. 



No. 24. 



Stray Straws 



FROM DR. C. C. MILLER. 



Mkrijv Christmas 1 



350 MILLION people talk Chinese; 105, English; 

 100. Hindoo: 80. Russian: 4.5, German; 38. 

 French. 



A CORRESPONDENT asks what insurance com- 

 panies insure bees against fire, etc. I don't 

 know. Who does'? 



The Review has been gathering statistics as 

 to the queen-trade, and estimates not less than 

 20,000 queens sold in 1893. 



Golden Carniolans are mentioned in 

 Imhern RiincUchfUi. with the word ''humbug" 

 occupying a very near position. 



British bee-keepers are to have in London 

 a competitive exhibition of the honey intended 

 for the World's Fair, before it starts for this 

 side the water. 



For dysentery, the Medical Brief says one 

 of the best remedies is two or three eggs daily, 

 beaten up lightly with or without sugar. This 

 for p eople, not for bees, n^ i , 



A "sFiiUES^'oF^ARTiCLEs by P. Bols. ou " The 

 Science of Bee-keeping." is being published in 

 the B. B. ./.. and R. A. Grimshaw follows with 

 a second series, making fun of the first. 



"A NUCLEI " is something spoken of quite too 

 often. There is no such thing, any more than 

 there is " a women." You may have a "nu- 

 cleus:" but if more than one, then they are 

 " nuclei.'' 



The Washington cona'ention is now set 

 for Dec. 27-39; but as yet no light is giv(>ii upon 

 the one thing that .'^ome of us want light upon, 

 so as to know whether we can afford to attend — 

 the railroad fare. 



R. McKj^ght was supposed to need icdtching 

 by the Ontario Bee-keepers' Association, so 

 tiiey mttclted him with a valuable gold watch, 

 "in appreciation of el'ficient services rendered 

 to the association." 



"Slumgum" is a word tliat I have seen used 

 a number of times. Will you kindly, tfjl us, 

 Mr. Editor, what it means, and, if possible, its 

 derivation'? Is it a word that ought to go into 

 use as a straight English word ? 



Prof. Cook says, A. B. J.. " I do not believe 

 mating bees in confinement can ever be made a 

 success." How can you say that, professor, in 

 the face of successes reported'? But somehow 

 those successes were never capable of repetition. 



Do YOU KNOW of any bee-keepers' terms not 

 to be found in the dictionaries, or any that need 



different definition? If you will send them to 

 me I will try to see that they are all straight in 

 the great " Standard " dictionary soon to be is- 

 sued. 



Carrie B. Aaron relates, in A. B. J., that 

 she intends to keep a colony continuously at 

 work throughout the coming winter in a heated 

 glass balcony. Her experiments will be watch- 

 ed by bee-keepers with more interest than hope- 

 ful ness. 



A STRIKING case of the cure of facial neural- 

 gia is reported by P. C. Gress. M. D.. in A. B. J. 

 It was effected by a single sting in the eye, and 

 the doctor thinks if six or eight stings had been 

 used the patient would have been killed instead 

 of cured. 



" Does it pay to paint hives?" is asked in A. 

 B. J. Nearly all say, " Yes;" but Messrs. l3oo- 

 littie. Secor. and Cook agree with me that it is 

 a matter of looks rather than economy. I sus- 

 pect, however, that it may be economy to paint 

 flat covers. 



Enlarging the field of the Bee-keepers' 

 Union so as to make it include prosecutions for 

 adulteration, if it will swell its ranks to '3(X)0, as 

 Gleanings thinks, would be a grand move in 

 the right direction; and I shouldn't wonder if 

 Gleanings is right. 



A common error is to suppose that, in set- 

 ting a weak colony in place of a strong one in 

 order to strengthen it, it is important that the 

 chancre be made when the largest number of 

 bees are out. There will be just as much gain 

 if the change is made at midnight. 



Laying workers. Mrs. Atchley says in A. B. 

 J., sometimes commence work just about the 

 time the queen is hatched, or a little before, 

 then stop after the queen gets fairly down to 

 business., On this account she thinks breeders 

 are sometimes fooled, and send out virgin for 

 laying queens. 



One of the French bee-journals does not 

 sacrifice clearness of meaning for brevity in 

 selecting a name. Its luime is La Culture 

 Ratlonelle de-s Abeilles. or " The Rational Cul- 

 ture of Bees." If the full name must be given 

 with every quotation from it, it doesn't need a 

 copyright to prevent many extracts. 



What ails the proof-reader of Gleanings? 

 In last "Straws" he puts John for .las.; and by 

 changing the place of quotation-marks he 

 makfis me father the idea that a metal hive 

 would be moth-proof — an idea whose credit I 

 should not like to steal from Mr. Wykott'. Bet- 

 ter turn off" that proof-reader and get a Prohi- 

 bitionist. Or were the mistakes all mine ? 



That usu.\lly cheerful writer, E. E. 

 Hasty, is very blue in the C. B. J., over the 

 advance of civilization. Clean tillage leaves 



