1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



123 



to be deep enough and wide enough to take in 

 a dipping-board. The wax in this tank, or at 

 least some of it, would be kept hot all day; 

 and we found by experiment, several years 

 ago, that keeping hot for three or four hours, 

 or frequent reheating, would darken wax very 

 perceptibly. Wax in the first place, then, 

 should be kept hot only long enough to let 

 impurities settle to the bottom of the recepta- 

 cle. After that it should be worked into foun- 

 dation about as soon as it is melted. The 

 Weed new process is worked on this plan. 

 There are no dipping-tanks, and not at any 

 time during the sheeting a larger supply of 

 melted wax than two common pails would 

 hold.— Ed.] 



" The veterans probably do not care for 

 instructions to beginners," says the editor, p. 

 101. I don't know whether you call me a vet- 

 eran (been puttering at the business 37 years), 

 but I don't dare to skip instructions to begin- 

 ners for fear they contain something I don't 

 know. If I skip any thing, it isn't instruc- 

 tions to beginners. [You say you do not dare 

 to skip instructions to beginners. If you do 

 not, very likely there are many others who 

 take the same ground. If so, then it would 

 behoove us to put more matter in, suited for 

 the novice. It is true, that many and many a 

 time a veteran may pick up something from a 

 brother bee-keeper who " supposed that every 

 veteran knew it all the time." Mr. Doolittle, 

 for instance, gives special instructions to be- 

 ginners; but very often I have picked out from 

 his department a number of ideas new to me. 

 I should like to have veterans as well as be- 

 ginners express themselves a little more on 

 this question. It will cost no more to make a 

 journal to suit the needs of the masses of bee- 

 keepers than that of the select few; but the 

 editor and publisher must know what the 

 masses really desire. A great many have 

 written so far, " Keep the journal as it is; " 

 but this number, however, represents only a 

 very small per cent of our silent subscribers 

 who I am sure have preferences. — Ed.] 



PICKINGS 



FROM OUR NEIGHBORS' FIELDS. 



BY "STENOG." 



How doth the little busy bees 



Improve these wintry nights? 

 By telling yarns and cracking jokes, 

 "And looking at the sights. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 

 Dr. Miller has found snakes under and in 

 hives, but he thinks they do no harm. 

 \it 

 F. A. Snell does not want snow over the 

 hives, as it starts brood-rearing too soon. It 

 keeps the bees too warm. 

 \ii 

 R. C. Aiken has a proposed experiment to 

 show the comparative yields of comb and ex- 

 tracted honey. It is to be hoped that Mr. A. 

 will settle this vexed question. 



Concerning swarming, Frank Coverdale 

 says : 



For years I used 10 and S frame hives side by side, 

 and the former swatmed fully as much. I am fast 

 coming to the conclusion that it is not so much in the 

 size of the brood-chamber as how completely it is fill- 

 ed with brood before the opening of the harvest. 

 \t, 



As to the size of hives, C. Davenport has the 

 following to say: 



I prefer and use a hive containing only 8 standard- 

 size frames, and with them I can obtain more honey 

 per frame work, feed, and capital invested considered, 

 than I can by using larger hives. But I have no doubt 

 10-frame hives, taking a series of years, would give 

 better results to the average bee-keeper, for, as a rule, 

 it requires a much closer attention to details when us- 

 ing 8-frame hives ; but many years' experience with 

 hundreds of colonies, and with hives of various sizes, 

 has convinced me that a 10-frame hive is better than a 

 larger one for the production of comb honev in the 

 Northern States. 



iii 



On p. 49 Mr. Doolittle answers the question 

 whether imported queens are better than those 

 bred in this country. He takes the ground 

 that the latter are not only as good, but even 

 better. Mr. D. says he is informed that im- 

 ported queens, unless it is very lately, are 

 " from a promiscuous selection, mostly taken 

 from second and third swarms." However 

 that may be, if importations were to cease en- 

 tirely there is no doubt that the present high 

 standard of American queens would be con- 

 tinually lowering. 



\ii 



Concerning the value of bees to fruit, the 

 following should be pasted in the hat of every 

 bee-keeper in the land. It is from H. S. 

 Price, of Livingston Co., Mo. : 



I have the management of the Plunkett Hill Fruit- 

 farm at this place, and I sold, last season, 816.25 of 

 fruit. It should have been that many hundred dollars; 

 but the rain kept the bees in so they could not fertilize 

 the blossoms, so we had only a " drop in the bucket." 

 I was the only one who had any fruit to sell in this 

 section of the country; and if it had not been for my 

 bees I do not think I should have had 16 cents' worth 

 of fruit. I am, as yon will see, a firm believer in my 

 bees. 



Mr. Price says he will have no bees but the 

 pure Italians, as they are better workers. 

 \>, 

 AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



Mr. Ben Honnett, of Colorado, says he 

 would rather have one acre of sweet clover 

 than two acres of any other honey-producing 

 plant. 



m 



The editor, Mr. Hill, contributes some in- 

 teresting notes on Cuba. After speaking of 

 the disappearance of the bellflower and other 

 honey-plants, he says : 



But the light of liberty, which has been obscured 

 since Oct. 29, 1492, is again perceptible on the horizon 

 of this beautiful isle of the sea, and its liberation from 

 the hand of tyranny will open up a field for new en- 

 terprise which willnot be less important in the bee- 

 keeping world than in other branches of industry 

 there to be developed. 



i& 



Replying to Mr. M. W. Shepherd as to the 

 causes of hard times and low prices, Mr. G. 

 M. Doolittle has the following to say, and it 

 seems to me he says it pretty well : 



If prices of sections and honey had kept step to- 

 gether, sections of the same quality as those of the 

 '70's would be selling at $5.00 per 1010 to-day, or section 



