GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



813 



This journal seems to be nearly all editorial 

 matter. We promise not to monopolize so 

 much space next time. 



The last number of the Bec-kccpers' Review 

 is a good one. In spite of the fact that Bro. 

 Hutchinson has " pas.sed through the deep 

 waters " so recently, he seems able to keep 

 his journal up to its own excellent standard. 

 Most men would be too nearly crushed to be 

 able to do good and creditable work so soon. 

 Bro. H.'s pluck and good sense in going right 

 on with his work in spite of deep sorrows are 

 to be admired. We hope our readers will 

 remember him when they make up a list of 

 papers they will take the coming j-ear. 



A POSSIBLE METHOD FOR CONTROLLING FER- 

 TILIZ.\TION OF QUEENS. 



Mr. L. a. Aspinwall, of Jackson, Mich., 

 has black and hybrid bees all around him ; 

 but by clipping a small trifle off from the 

 wings of each queen he has managed to have 

 a much larger per cent purely mated. The 

 idea seems to be that the queens have more 

 difficulty in flying with their wings clipped 

 down, and consequently the mating is restrict- 

 ed to a great extent to the drones around 

 home. By this plan I\Ir. Aspinwall, according 

 to the Review, " has kept the mismated down 

 to one in twelve -with clipped queens, while the 

 undipped average one in four." It is not 

 stated how nmch Mr. Aspinwall clips oflf to 

 bring about this result, alihough mention is 

 made of one queen from which an eighth of an 

 inch had been taken from each -wing. 



This is valuable ; and if equally good results 

 shall be secured by others in a vicinity where 

 blacks and hybrids are predominant, we may 

 feel that we have "gone and done " what has 

 hitherto been regarded as impossible. 



A SAD ACCIDENT. 



I AM pained to note, by the Progressive 

 Bee-keeper, an accident that happened at the 

 factory of the Leahy Mfg. Co. While Mr. 

 Leahy was passing at some distance, a scream 

 and a falling of lumber attracted his attention. 

 Three children — two of them belonging to his 

 partner, Mr. E. B. Gladish, had been trying 

 to climVj up on a lumber-pile, resulting in its 

 falling " over on them, crushing the life out 

 of one, while another had a leg broken, and 

 Clifton Gladish was more or less injured. The 

 one killed was little Florence Gladish, a bright 

 sweet child of four years." GLE.A.NINGS ex- 

 tends to Mr. Gladish its sincere sympathies ; 

 and while neither he nor any one else can 

 really be blamed, it is one of those unfortu- 

 nate things that sometimes will happen. I 

 have always had great fear that my own boy, 

 always eager to climb up on lumber-piles, 

 might have something similar happen to him. 

 The little tots scarcely realize that a lumber- 



pile is almost as dangerous as a railroad-track, 

 and yet it is well nigh impossible to keep eyes 

 on them all the time. 



FOUL BROOD IN SCHOHARIE CO., N. V. 

 I SAID some little time ago that foul brood 

 was making rapid headway in districts where 

 there were more bees and bee-keepers than in 

 most places in the United States, and I had in 

 mind (though I didn't say so) Schoharie Co., 

 N. Y. I am pleased to learn that, through 

 the energetic efforts of the foul-brood inspect- 

 or, Mr. I'Yank H. Boomhower, of that county, 

 the disease is being rapidly stamped out ; but 

 he fears it is working over into adjoining 

 counties that have just as many colonies of 

 bees in them, but over which Mr. B. has no 

 jurisdiction as inspector ; and he hopes that I 

 \\\\\ put in a warning that bee-keepers in those 

 vicinities may be alive and awake to the dan- 

 ger that may confront them next season. Mr. 

 Boomhower says he has worked every day 

 since he was appointed inspector, and that 

 every yard so far inspected has been affected 

 by it, and that in some instances whole yards 

 are wiped out entirely by the dread destroyer. 

 In one instance he found 51 colonies out of 61 

 that were rotten with the disease. I think it 

 would be a good idea for the State of New 

 York to have Mr. Boomhower appointed State 

 Inspector. When I visited him early last fall 

 I was much impressed with the thoroughness 

 with which he did every thing he undertook. 

 He thinks foul brood is an awful scourge, and 

 that it should be handled promptly and. ener- 

 getically. And it is this kind of men that 

 make good inspectors. 



A BOOK ON PATENTS ; THE SMASHING OF THE 

 SECTION MONOPOLY. 

 J. A. Osborne & Co., have just issued a 

 hand-book of patent law. We did the print- 

 ing, and, of course, that part of the work is A 

 No. 1. We are not up on patent law ; but 

 Mr. Weed, who is, says he believes this to be 

 the very best hand-book of the kind of any 

 thing heretofore published. It answers most 

 of the questions usually asked by inventors, 

 manufacturers, and patent-owners and users 

 of patents, and further considers what is pat- 

 entable, etc. A copy of this book can be ob- 

 tained free on application to J. A. Osborne & 

 Co., 580 Arcade, Cleveland, O. Some of our 

 readers will remember J. A. Osborne in con- 

 nection with M. D. Leggett, of Cleveland, one 

 of the attorne\'s who heloed to defend us in 

 the suit brought by Forncrook in the famous 

 F'orncrook section case. It went through the 

 lower courts, and then it went to the Supreme 

 Court of the United States ; and Judge Stanley 

 Mathews declared the Forncrook patent ' ' null 

 and void for want of novelty-." This, express- 

 ed in ordinary language, simply meant that 

 the one-piece section, which formerly had 

 been selling for seven, eight, and even ten 

 dollars a thousand, was old, and therefore by 

 this decision was made common property ; 

 and the result was that other manufacturers 

 commenced making it, and the price finally 

 dropped to $5.00, then to .$4.00, then .$3.50, 

 then to $3.00, where it now stands. 



