£^'^J>^ 



Vol. XXV. 



NOV. 15, 1897. 



tubhshedy the7\I^ooY Co. 



PERrtAR'"^@"^EDlNA■OHlo• 



No. 22. 



Ui,R. GUBLER, who writes the monthly 

 counsels for beginners in Revue Internation- 

 ale, says he has found by years of trial that 

 bees winter better in hives not painted. I be- 

 lieve Doolittle stands on the same ground. I 

 want covers painted, but not bodies. 



The Busy Bee for October is devoted al- 

 most entirely to sweet clover, the shears being 

 freely used on Gi<e.\nings for that purpose; 

 and, as sho\\4ng progress, the present attitude 

 of Gle.^nings is contrasted with that of five 

 years ago, when an editorial said, "Sweet 

 clover is not a success with us for fodder or 

 feed at all, although stock will eat it to some 

 extent if cut just at the right time." 



Last ve.\r I said, " If paraffine is left un- 

 touched by bees, why not apply a coating of 

 it to ends of top-bars and other points we 

 don't want glued?" Ignoring that first word 

 " if," an item has been going the rounds of 

 the German bee-journals that painting with 

 paraffine would prevent gluing. There is now 

 no " if " in the case. Bees ivill daub propolis 

 on paraffine. Sehen Sie, meine guten deutsch- 

 en Freunde? 



A WRITER in one of the German bee-jour- 

 nals thinks bee conventions will be better if 

 discussions are held with wine-cup in hand. 

 It doesn't work that way over here. At Buf- 

 falo, a man who had evidently hacl the wine- 

 cup or some other cu])a bit too nuich in hand, 

 seemed to be trying to hinder useful discus- 

 sion. His friends should put a seal on his lips 

 in conventions hereafter, or else keep close 

 watch on what pa.sses his lips before coming. 



"Don't forget that very feiu people get 

 tired of first-class honey; and, above all, re- 

 member that almost any one will tire of poor, 

 thin, unripe honey." That's what Dan White 

 said, p. 707, but it's time it was said over 

 again. That story of his almost makes me 

 want to raise extracted honey so I can peddle 

 it. [ Yes, indeed. This is one of the truths 

 that should be passed around. If it could 

 only take wing like an unmitigated malicious 

 lot of good. 



lie, it would do the world 



There is too much slipshodness in harvesting 

 and marketing honey. — Ed.] 



I arise to remark in a very subdued tone, 

 that, much as I like the groove in the bellows- 

 board, I don't think it's quite equal to a '4^ x 

 >s-inch cleat. [ Perhaps. But the groove 

 looks so much neater, and is .so much easier 

 to apply, from a manufacturer's point of view, 

 that the little cleats could hardly be consider- 

 ed. But for the life of me I can not see why 

 a groove is not just as good if made deep 

 enough. Possiblv ours are not deep enough. 



—I'D.] 



I don't know for sure just why sections 

 this year should be half an ounce lighter 

 than last. Something might be due to the 

 fact that empty sections were furnished more 

 freely than last year. July 1 there was an 

 average of nearly four supers to each colon}' 

 in one apiary. But the honey-flow has much 

 to do with tiie weight of sections. vSometimes 

 the upper two-thirds of a section will be seal- 

 ed, the .section being rather thin, then comes 

 a change in the harvest, and the lower third 

 looks bulged. 



Acetylene gas. After reading what A. I. 

 Root said about this, I determined to have it 

 in my house just as soon as it could be had. 

 According to the Cosmopolitan, however, it is 

 dangerously explosive. I don't believe I 

 want it. [Yes, and from recent reports in 

 other periodicals it would seem as if this new 

 gas could never be used for domestic lighting. 

 By the way, doctor, the members of the Root 

 firm are just equipping their houses with elec- 

 tric lights, the current coming from the fac- 

 tory. If you will move down clo.se beside us 

 we will give \ou some of the same sort of 

 "juice." — Ed.] [Doctor, see p. 791. — A. I. R.] 



vSf)ME time within the past five years a 

 smoker-hook like that on p. 779 was sent me, 

 asking about patenting it. I said it couldn't 

 be patented — old. I wish I could remember 

 where it was first described — was it in Glean- 

 ings? At any rate I used it years and years 

 ago, but got tired of it. Still, .some will like 

 it. r ^'cs, I am quite certain" that the hook 

 was illustrated in Gleanings; but no rnter- 

 prising manufacturer at that time probably 

 thought enough of it to have it supplied with 

 his regular stock. It does not stand in the 

 wav if one does not care to use it; and on the 



