1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CUI.TURE. 



225 



WISCONSIN KOUIv-BROOD LAW. 



A COPY ofthe foul-brood law of Wisconsin, 

 drawn up ijy its inspector, N. E. France, of 

 Platteville, Wis., is given in the March J\c- 

 viezv. Of this law, Mr. Win. McEvoy, vState 

 Inspector for Ontario, and the one who has 

 done such splendid work in ridding the prov- 

 ince of a disease that would have wiped bee- 

 keeping almost entirel}- out of its confines, 

 says: " It is by far the best in the world; and 

 ever}' State and Province should have a foul- 

 brood law exactly like it." I do not know 

 exactly zvhy Mr. McEvoy considered this bet- 

 ter than any other law unless it is because it 

 contained this very important section : 



Section 1. Upon the recommendation of a majori- 

 ty vote of the members of the bee-keepers' socitties of 

 Wisconsin, the governor shall appoint for a term of 

 two years a State inspector of apiaries, who shall, if 

 required, produce a certificate from the governor that 

 he has been so appointed. 



The other features of the law are similar to 

 the laws in force in other vStates, with the ex- 

 ception that a sum is appropriated out of the 

 moneys in the State treasury, in an amount 

 not exceeding i^oUU; and the inspector, out of 

 this, is to receive !^4.00 a day and traveling ex- 

 penses for actual time served. 



At the time of ni}^ visit through Wisconsin 

 in 1895 1 heard that foul brood was making 

 rapid advance through the State — so nmch so 

 that bee-keepers were beeoming considerably 

 alarmed; and the worst part of it was, that a 

 certain bee-keeper whom I had the fortune 

 (or misfortune) to meet, and who had a griev- 

 ance against another bee-keeper, not only let 

 the disease run riot in his own apiary, but 

 threatened to scatter the seeds in other apia- 

 ries providing the other parties would not do 

 so and so. The result was, a concerted action 

 was taken on the part of the different conven- 

 tions, and a law was formulated, and N. E. 

 France was appointed inspector. 



Now with regard to this law again. Many 

 of the foul-brood laws are good so far as the}' 

 go; but they lack the one thing needed to 

 make them operative; namely, a section (or 

 similar section ) like the one given above. 



DETACHABI^E BEE-WAYS IN SECTIONS. 



Mr. Doolittle writes an article in the Re- 

 view^ protesting against the plain section. 

 The principal ground of the oljjection seems 

 to be that the edges of the combs are not 

 rounded off so as to leave a sort of wedge- 

 shaped attachment to the section itself. If 

 this objection is a valid one, the fence may be 

 easily constructed so as to secure the same 

 sort of attachment of comb to wood that we 

 find in the old-style section with bee-ways. 

 For instance, if the slats were put close togeth- 

 er so the bees could not pass or see through 

 them, and the cleats were made to extend 

 clear up the whole length of the section, and 

 'i^ inch wide, I would bet my old hat against 

 Doolittle's that we could have the same kind 

 of fastenings of comb which he thinks is 

 essential. The shape of the comb is depend- 

 ent, not upon the fact whether the sections 

 have bee-ways or no bee-ways, but upon the 

 construciion of the separator or fence. Now, 



then, if, next year, plain sections can be 

 bought for 25 cts. less per luOO, and if the 

 combs of these plain sections can be made to 

 have eillicr form of attachment to the wood, 

 the objection disappears Why, it makes no 

 difference whether the bee- way in the sections 

 is detachable or not, so long as it is of the 

 same sort and kind. The plain section 

 has detachable bce-tuays, and the old-style 

 section, permanent bee-ways. The only dif- 

 ference is, the former will be cheaper. I 

 am sorry that we have " an ax to grind ' ' in 

 the matter; but even if we do I can not refrain 

 from correcting what I honestly think is a 

 misapprehension. Mr. Hutchinson, who cer- 

 tainly has no interest in that " old ax," .seems 

 to think a good deal as I do, and that is why 

 I make bold to place emphasis on this point. 



STORING honey in CISTERNS. 



R. Wilkin, of California, reports that he 

 has 14 tons of extracted honey stored in his 

 concrete fire -proof storehouse, which he is 

 holding at 5 cents. As there is not likely to 

 be any California hone}- this season, the last 

 year's crop will probably be snapped up. 



But my purpose is not to give friend Wilkin 

 a free advertisement so much as it is to refer 

 to the fact that he stores honey in 2l fire-proof 

 concrete reservoir. I hope he will send us a 

 photo and description of the storehouse. I am 

 just Yankee enough to want to know whether 

 he has found it practicable to store honey in a 

 reservoir of brick or stone lined on the inside 

 with water-lime or Portland cement. If he 

 has, then when we are short of storage-tanks 

 or barrels, perhaps we could store the honey 

 in empty cisterns, then draw or pump it out as 

 might be required. Who is there among our 

 readers who has ever stored honey in a cis- 

 tern ? If there is such a one, let him hold up 

 his hand. 



THE HICKS WEATHER ALMANAC. 

 The almanac for 1898 is at hand, and I have 

 given it a pretty thorough study. One of the 

 most preposterous things about it is undertak- 

 ing to tell what the weather will be all over 

 the United States for one month, on just two 

 pages. As nearly as I can make out, it is done 

 by the moon ; suppose, however, we say no- 

 thing about frost, high winds, etc., and con- 

 fine ourselves to the prediction of rain. Well, 

 now, when we consider that sometimes it rains 

 like suds in one locality, and does not rain a 

 bit, say only ten miles away, how is Hicks go- 

 ing to help us with his almanac ? Our friend 

 below tells us what success he had in trying to 

 make it do so. — A. I. R. 



On page 152 you show up the " Rev." Hicks, as he 

 ought to be. A few years ago I bought a copy of his 

 almanac, price 25 cts.: hung it, with a lead-pencil, on 

 a hook in the dining-room. On every day which was 

 rainy, I made a cross on the figure indicating day of 

 month: at end of season there were as many crosses 

 on the light figures as on the heavy ones. There is a 

 fortune in almanacs at 25 cts. each. 



Lincoln, 111., Feb. 24. A. B. Nichols. 



CORRECTION. 



After the other side of this sheet had been 

 printed I noticed I made a bad mistake in fig- 

 ures. The figures on page 214 should read 

 $125,000 instead of $1,250,000. 



