1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



443 



^X^_ e.R. ROOf ^^ 



That article by Friedemann Greiner in this 

 issue, on the honey-bee, is decidedly interest- 

 ing. It will bear careful reading. 



Editor Hutchinson, writing to Editor 

 York, May 1, had this to say of his father- 

 in-law: 



I remember with pleasure the visits that I made 

 him when scarcely out of mj' teens, to talk bees. It 

 was during these visits that I made the acquainiatice 

 of the girl who has since been my good wife. 



And this is the way Mr. York philosophizes: 

 Yes, of course Mr. Hutchin.son made those visits to 

 " talk bees " to the father, and finally talked "honey" 

 to the daughter. Great scheme that. F^avorably im- 

 press the parents, and half the battle is won — some- 

 times. 



The following note from the General Man- 

 ager of the N. B. K. U. will explain itself : 



Friend Root: — I am glad to inform yon that Mr. 

 Buchheim, referred to in my Annual Report as having 

 been put in jail on the ground that bee-keeping is a 

 nuisance, has, through the efforts of the National 

 Bee-keepers' Union, been fully exonerated and his 

 bail di.scharged. This vyas a case where the Union 

 appealed from the Justice's Court, which found him 

 guiltv of maintaining a nuisance, and had sent him 

 to jail. I am just informed this morning of the suc- 

 cess of our lawyer in the ca' e. This is another victory 

 for the National Bee-keepers' Union which is fully in 

 keeping with its victorious record in defending the 

 rights of bee keepers. Thos. G. Newman, 



San Francisco, Cal., May 16. General Manager. 



I know our readers will be pleased to know 

 of this result. 



OUR OHIO FOOD COMMISSIONER. 



A SHORT time ago I learned of a place where 

 they were adulterating honey in a neighboring 

 city. I procured a sample, and after testing 

 the same it seemed to me that the stuff was 

 almost entirely cheap commercial glucose. I 

 wrote, forwarding the sample, to our Food 

 Commissioner, Joseph E. Blackburn, at Co- 

 lumbus, the man who has been doing such 

 thorough work in Ohio in the line of pure 

 food, and this is the reply I received : 



Mr. E. R. Root: — I have jours of the 13th, and note 

 contents. I shall be very glad to bring action against 

 any one .selling adulterated honey or any other prod- 

 uct. I shall always thank you to call my attention to 

 any violations coming under your notice. The sam- 

 ple you speak of as having been sent by express has 

 not been received; but as soon as it is I will act at 

 once. I have no hesitation in saying that we shall 

 certainly drive these goods out of the State, if adulter- 

 ated. 



I have noted your kind reference to me on several 

 occasions, and assure you they are very much appre- 

 ciated. Very truly yours, J. E. Blackburn, 



Columbus, O., May 16. Dairi,' and Food Comm'r. 



I have taken the liberty of publishing this 

 to show what an energetic man we have. His 

 work has been so thorough and energetic that 

 the food adulterators, especially some of the 

 patent - medicine men, had been trying, it 

 would seem, to poison the minds of the edit- 

 ors of some of our leading daily papers — in 

 fact, doing every thing they could to injure 

 Mr. Blackburn ; but in spite of attacks from 

 all sources he stands up rigidly to his duty. 



WEI^TY'S BOTTOM-BOARD. 



Mr. C. W. WelTy, of Lucas, Ohio, formerly 

 manager of the apiaries belonging to W. K. 

 Vanderbilt, at his southern residence in Ashe- 

 ville, N. C, and now with us, has devised a 

 bottom-board after the manner of the one 

 here shown. You will observe that it allows 



the usual }■'% space under the frames, and at 

 the same time permits of an entrance 2 inches 

 d'eep ; nay, further : It provides for a slanting 

 alighting-board reaching from the ground 

 clear up to ?/§ inch of the bottom-bars. If it 

 is found to be desirable not to have more than 

 Yi, space under the frames, and yet equally 

 necessary to have a two inch entrance, Welty's 

 bottom board comes the nearest to filling the 

 bill of any thing heretofore shown; but if, on 

 the other hand, the deep space under the 

 frames clear back is necessary, as well as the 

 wide-open entrance, the Welty board will not 

 be as good as some form like the Danzy. 



THE CHAMPIONS OF LARGE COI^ONIES. 



Every now and then I am receiving in- 

 dorsements from bee - keepers, encouraging 

 me to keep on talking about large hives. Dan 

 White said to me a few days ago, "Why, I 

 think nothing of running my ten-frame colo- 

 nies three and four stories high, and it is these 

 that give me the honey." J. F. Mclntyre is 

 another champion of double and triple deck- 

 ers. Well, here is a sample from another of 

 the prominent bee-keepers of California, Dr. 

 Brodbeck, w-ho writes : 



"I have been very much interested in your advo- 

 cacy of a double brood-chamber; and I can fully in- 

 dorse the plan, having had four years' experience 

 with it. My present apiarj' has been modeled in ac- 

 cordance with the method, and some time or other I 

 expect to give a detailed report of my success." 



Yes, indeed, I hope Mr. Brodbeck will tell 

 us about it. 



Now, although I have been talking large 

 hives, i. e., two and three Langstroth brood- 

 chambers, don't imagine for a moment that it 

 is some new idea of mine — I borrowed it from 

 others. The large-hive scheme I got from the 

 Dadants ; and the more I have tested it, the 

 more I know the Dadants have been right all 

 these years ; and they know that their own 

 countrymen in France back them up in it. In 

 this country they have been ridiculed, almost 

 persecuted, because they have insisted that 

 the large hives would give them more honey 

 than the smaller ones. But some day we shall 

 wake up and find out that they were right. A 

 great many half believe it, but insist that their 

 locality is not adapted to the running of such 

 large colonies. 



Some one says, " Oh, yes! every one believes 

 in two or more stories when running for ex- 



