336 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1. 



germs were incorporated with wax which was 

 barely melted and at once cooled and made 

 into foundation. Full sheets of this were put 

 into six colonies, but no sign of disease fol- 

 lowed. [There can be no question on this 

 point, although for my own purpose I should 

 rather burn the combs, because I think it is 

 cheaper than to try to save the wax. Diseased 

 combs ought to be destroyed, or rendered 

 aseptic at once. Actual burning does both. — 

 Ed.] 



It isn't right, according to A. I. Root, p. 

 317, " to be a party to even an appearance of 

 untruth." That reminds me of the way Hasty, 

 in Review, goes for Doolittle and E. R. Root 

 for what they say on page 175. I esteem and 

 love the two men named, but I want to say in 

 all kindness that I 1)elieve if they'll look 

 closely into the morality involved in that ve- 

 neering business they'll both see that it's rot- 

 ten, rotten, rotten. [I suspect you are right, 

 doctor ; but I do not see how you and the rest 

 of the chaps put me on the same side of the 

 fence with Doolittle. I supposed I was on the 

 tiptopest part of the fence — tried to get there, 

 anyhow. Well, see my answer to articles by 

 Whitney, Doolittle, and Thompson, in another 

 column. — Ed.] 



" I i,AY IT DOWN as a safe and imperative 

 rule for kitchen use — Never stand ivhen you 

 can do your work as well sitting,'' says Marion 

 Harland in Common Sense in the Household. 

 The rule is just as good for bee-work as for 

 kitchen use, and I thought of it when I look- 

 ed at that picture on p. 299. Might just as 

 well sit comfortably while scraping honey. 

 [It is only fair to state that friend Boomhow- 

 er's boys do use chairs in scraping sections. 

 The photo that I took of them was an interior 

 view, and rather indistinct; and our artist, in 

 reproducing the picture, made the operator 

 standing when he should be sitting. Yes, 

 indeed, I believe most heartily in the rule that 

 we should sit down at our work whenever a 

 sitting posture will not interfere with the 

 quantity and quality of the work. — Ed.] 



In Bulletin de la Somme is gravely given a 

 warning against American honey. " This de- 

 plorable honey, under the name of paraffine 

 wax ( !), is imported from the U. S., where it 

 is made in Boston." "The combs, with their 

 cells, are made by a machine, like foundation, 

 with a mixture of very white paraffine, ex- 

 tracted from petroleum, and wax. The cells 

 are filled with glucose perfumed with essence 

 of clover and thyme ; a hot iron delicately 

 passed over the cells seals them," and there 

 you are. Now, why don't the Bulletin send a 

 pound to A. I. Root and get $1000? [Tell 

 your Bulletin de la Som — what you call it ? — 

 that we have %\id{){) waiting for them providing 

 they can give proof of their assertions. You 

 did not give us their full name and address, 

 or we might write them, giving them a little 

 " sass " back, properly peppered. — Ed.] 



James Cormac, p. 297, indorsed by a foot- 

 note, thinks a sudden stoppage of the honey- 

 flow, where hives are raised on four blocks, 

 might cause trouble " that would set the whole 

 apiary wild on account of robbing." One 



would naturally think so, but such is not the 

 case. My hives remained blocked up till late 

 last year, and seemed just as safe as if all let 

 down. I think a three-frame nucleus would 

 be safe blocked up an inch, provided there 

 was no change in place or appearance. But 

 on a sudden stoppage, hoist a hive or change 

 its location and you'll have fun. [In that 

 same footnote to which you refer, you will 

 note that I did not believe myself that there 

 would be any danger from robbing, providing 

 colonies were strong enough. But your tes- 

 timony is valuable in that it shows that bees 

 become accustomed to large entrances, and 

 will defend them, even after the honey-flow 

 stops. — Ed.] 



I don't Think stopping the sub-ventilator 

 last winter made fire unnecessary. The win- 

 ter was unusually mild, and, besides, a larger 

 number of bees may have helped to keep up 

 the heat. I think as much as ever of fire 

 when the temperature is low. [Are you sure, 

 doctor — real sure — that fire is absolutely neces- 

 sary in your cellar under any circumstances ? 

 and do you know of any other person besides 

 yourself who makes a practice of using fire in 

 the cellar ? and is it not true that some, know- 

 ing that you use fires, will put a stove in their 

 own cellar, and make matters worse rather 

 than better? Bees sometimes winter under 

 what might seem to us to be very unfavorable 

 conditions. Take, for instance, the good 

 wintering in that dugout of Harry Lathrop'-s, 

 in Wisconsin, where there are several inches 

 of water in the bottom of the cellar. There 

 are no sub-earth ventilators, neither is there a 

 stove to create artificial ventilation or to raise 

 or lower the temperature; and yet he says his 

 bees wintered perfectly. — Ed.] 



A GENERAi^ FEELING seems to prevail that 

 the bee-journals ought to warn us against 

 shaky firms. But how, and be safe? Root 

 and York say, tell on 'em and let us guess 

 their names. Hutchinson says, tell their 

 names and let us guess they're bad. If you 

 know enough to make you suspicious, why 

 under the sun can't you tell what i'0« know? 

 If I sell honey to a man and can't get my pay, 

 is there any law in the land that will hurt me 

 for telling the plain truth ? [I suspect the 

 fact of the matter is, doctor, it would not be 

 wise to follow the York-Root policy invariably, 

 nor the Hutchinson. Sometimes it may be 

 advisable to tell about firms without giving 

 their names, and sometimes it may be advis- 

 able to give the names and a mere inkling of 

 the transaction. I have two cases right before 

 me now. Two commission houses have failed 

 to answer letters regarding consignments of 

 honey shipped to them, notwithstanding the 

 consignors have written them a number of 

 times. The firms are reputable and honest. 

 To publish their names, and give an inkling 

 of the transactions, might be doing them a 

 manifest injustice. I suspect that, when we 

 get right down to the bottom of it, some clerk, 

 to save his neck, has been pigeonholing the 

 correspondence, or that one or two letters 

 have been mislaid; but if there is a commis- 

 sion house that fails to answer letters, and 



