'JOURHAIJ 

 • DELVOTE 

 •To -Be. ELS" 

 •ANtiHoNEY 



•lNTEflEST6 



'ublishedbxrTHE"A1^00YC0. 



Sis^ pwVtA^^^@^^EDlNA• Ohio • 



Vol. XXV. 



NOV. I, 1897. 



No. 21, 





This year 17,728 1 "s sections averaged ]4.41 

 oz. each, against an average last year of 15.088 

 oz. [Can you give any reason, doctor, why 

 there should be a whole half-ounce difference 

 between this and last year? — Ed.] 



DOOLITTLE SAYS, page 737, that with drawn 

 foundation for bottom starters only two rows 

 of cells are needed. I wish he'd tell us what 

 he has tried "along this line." I've found 

 more trouble about having very narrow start- 

 ers of foundation gnawed down, and feared it 

 would be the same way with drawn foundation. 



Honey-boards, that so many of us have 

 been replacing with thick top-bars, have a 

 good word in W. B.J. from F. L. Thompson. 

 He thinks s^^ctions are whiter over the honey- 

 boards. With very black brood-combs a 

 greater distance helps about keeping sections 

 white; but does the gain in whiteness pay for 

 the extra trouVjle, time, and expense ? 



The editor of Review expects to be at the 

 Northwestern convention at Chicago, Nov. 10, 

 11. How about the editor of Gleanings? 

 Don't think of my ever speaking to you again 

 if you don't come ! [If I can possibly go I 

 will. But .some unforeseen circumstance will 

 very possibly prevent my coming at just the 

 date on which the convention is held. — Ed.] 



vSomnamrulist, who dreams out such wide- 

 awake ideas in Pjo^ir.ssiz'e P>ee-kcepe)\ wants 

 to know if I didn't Itarn the value of sleep at 

 Bufifalo, and says: " The ' stay-at-homes ' have 

 at least a crumb of comfort in the knowledge 

 that we didn't have to .'^leep on a cot, with old 

 shawls for a mattress." Look here, Sommy, 

 those cots had first-class woven-wire mat- 

 tresses, and I slept just as well as if on a gild- 

 ed couch until Leland, hopeful scion of the 

 house of Root, came hammering me to wake 

 me up. 



Prof. Cook believes in bee-keeping for oth- 

 ers than specialists, and says I accuse him of 

 changing his mind in that regard. I kind o' 

 think he'll change his mind again if he'll look 

 up what I said. The only place I find where 



I said an}- thing about it is on p. 58-5, where I 

 said, "Prof. Cook favors a return to the old 

 plan of having a few bees on every farm, rath- 

 er than large apiaries in the hands of special- 

 ists." That doesn't mean that you've changed 

 your mind, professor, but that you want oth- 

 ers to change their practice. 



Elias Fox is entirely right, page 7o9, that 

 locality does not rigidly and entirely control 

 taste. While the general rule holds that 

 people in general prefer the honey of their 

 own locality, plenty of exceptions are to be 

 found. Buckwheat honey is hardly known 

 here, and yet some of my friends mucli prefer 

 it to the best white clover. It's not a matter 

 of cultivation ; they seem to be born with a 

 Ijuckwheat taste. He is also right that one 

 colony will propolize three times as much as 

 another in the same apiary. 



T. Grexnfr, the well-known agricultural 

 v.riter, although not a bee-keeper, was present 

 at the Buffalo convention, unfortunately at a 

 session when there was what he calls a dis- 

 graceful squabble, and in Farm and Fireside 

 he advises as an outsider that Mr. Benton, 

 who is a meritorious but impulsive bee-man, 

 should gracefully make amends for offensive 

 personal remarks, and abstain from referring 

 to the .services he might render, or refuse to 

 render, in his official capacity to the society, 

 and then be i-einstated to full membership. 

 Not bad advice. 



The a^ariation in the weight of finished 

 sections this year was very great. The light- 

 est case of 12 sections was 8>^ lbs., and the 

 heaviest case X^^i, lbs. Of course, the lightest 

 section of the lightest case and the heaviest 

 section of the heaviest case were still farther 

 apart. It hardly seems right to sell such sec- 

 tions by the piece. [Say, doctor, you want 

 me to knock that chip (honey by the piece) 

 off your shoulder. I just won't do it, but 

 next time I go out among bee-keepers I will 

 stick you on the rear end of my bicycle, if you 

 don't get too fat, and let you see that selling 

 by the piece, in some localities at least, is the 

 simplest and easiest wav, and in accordance 

 with the Golden Rule.- Ed.] 



I can't Tf:ij, whether you're in fun or 

 earnest, Mr. Editor, p. 730, so I don't know 

 whether to get mad or not when you say you'll 

 make a glossometer to measure the tongues of 



