GLEANINGSIN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15. 



Bees appear to have wintered unusually well 

 all over the country, up to this writing; and so 

 far the spring has been favorable. 



The Caliiornia anti-honey-adulteration law, 

 spoken of in last issue, is already bearing fruit, 

 for, according to the Pacific Bee Journal,'' The 

 fight is already on, . . . and many arrests 

 have been made." This sounds like business. 

 Let other States follow suit. 



The use of drawn combs in sections, and 

 their value in supers, is being commented on 

 very favorably in the Review and in the Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal. By " drawn combs " is 

 meant those that are built wholly by the bees, 

 but have been previously drawn out to catch 

 the honey-flow." 



The new machine for making drawn founda- 

 tion is now able to turn out samples with cells 

 about T^ deep, running somewhere about 9 

 feet to the pound. The base is very much 

 thinner than in that of any sample of founda- 

 tion that we have hitherto turned out, and the 

 walls themselves are about rAn thick— i^u be- 

 ing the natural thickness. We are at present 

 using only a small portion of the die surface. 

 Later on we hope to make larger samples the 

 same weight. 



In the last Review, experimenter Taylor, of 

 the Michigan Experiment Apiary, details his 

 experiments with the Aspinwall non-swarming 

 hive. He has used two of these hives in his 

 apiary for two seasons, and yet he says " the 

 results, so far as determining the true value of 

 its non-swarming quality is concerned, are thus 

 far negative." Elsewhere he states that 

 " swarms from other hives were exceedingly 

 few. The hjve is a marvel of ingenuity," he 

 says, "with closed -end frames held compactly 

 together with a screw which works against a 

 movable side." An objection to the hive, he 

 urges, is that it would cost considerably in 

 excess of the regular Langstroth hive; and the 

 present times and low prices and small profit 

 speak too eloquently in the ears of the producer. 



Personally I have always liked the appear- 

 ance of this hive, and it has seemed to me that 

 it contained good features providing it did not 

 make the hive too expensive. 



MRS. J. N. heater. 

 It is with much regret that we announce the 

 sudden death of Mrs. J. N. Heater, of Colum- 

 bus, Neb.— one of the leading lady bee-keepers 

 of her State, and at the time of her death she 



had attained almost natiomal distinction. She 

 was present at the Lincoln convention, and 

 gave us a valuable paper. Mrs. Heater had 

 undergone an operation, which was supposed 

 to have been successful; but it seems the anes- 

 thetic—chloroform—was too powerful for her. 

 She was an earnest Christian woman, and at 

 the time of her death we have no doubt she 

 had placed her hope in Christ Jesus. The 

 manner of her death is told in one of the local 

 papers in this way: 



On Friday night, March 12, Mrs. Heater could not 

 sleep; and toward morning- Mr. Heater, who was at 

 her bedside, said, " Sliall 1 sing to you ? Perhaps it 

 will put you to sleep." The suffering one nodded 

 assent, and Mr. Heater softly sang a favorite song, 

 and she seemed to drop Into a gentle sleep; but, 

 alas ! the watching husband soon found to his sor- 

 row that it was the sleep of death. 



The untimely death of Mrs. Heater reminds 

 us of the very sudden death of another lady al- 

 most equally prominent, who was present at 

 the Lincoln convention— Mrs. A. L. Hallen- 

 beck. It will be remembered that she died 

 from the result of injuries received in a run- 

 away, about ten days after the convention. 



the majesty of the law. 



Just as we go to press, the April number of 

 a bee-paper (monthly) is at hand. It is filled 

 almost from cover to cover with articles attack- 

 ing the new drawn foundation. Some of the 

 writers have not only resorted to gross misrep- 

 resentations and ridicule, but have gone so far, 

 in our judgment, as to libel our name and 

 attempt to injure our business. Indirectly, but 

 very pointedly, we are referred to as " unprin- 

 cipled men," " adulterators," and the like. The 

 editor is evidently making the effort of his life 

 to injure our name, reputation, and business. 

 He has written bee-keepers everywhere to se- 

 cure sympathy. From some of them, as we 

 know, he has received cold comfort in return; 

 and the letters from others he has, of course, 

 published. We have fully explained our course; 

 and any reasonable person knows we do not 

 and would not do any thing to injure the honey 

 business. 



One thing is certain— we shall not weary our 

 readers with an extended reply in defense of 

 our name. As to what we shall do further, we 

 have not yet decided. It may not have occur- 

 red to some of these writers that they may be 

 rendering themselves as well as the publisher 

 amenable to the law. 



character of combs containing honey; a 

 distinction in terms 

 In the April 1st issue of the American Bee 

 Journal is an article from W. Z. Hutchinson, 

 the last paragraph of which is as follows: 



I recently expressed my views regarding the new 

 deep cell foundation, with which The A. I. Root Co. 

 is experimenting, and have only to add, when such 

 a man as E. R. Hoot says that the comb resulting 

 from the use of this new foundation is as brittle 

 and "eatable " as natural combs we can only wait— 



