232 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. ]5. 



their queens. The bees of the queen as well 

 as the bees of her daughters should be good 

 workers. It may take a whole season to de- 

 termine all this. 



Mr. Alley once said he had a queen for 

 which he would not take $100. He sent us 

 one of her daughters, and later on desired to 

 buy her back, as his $100 queen had died. 

 Not then knowing her exceptional value we 

 let her go; but I learned afterward that her 

 daughters were all evenly marked, and pro- 

 duced bees of excellent working qualities. 



But it stiikes me that, if queen-breeders 

 could find a demand for $5.00 and $10.00 

 queens, we might, among the whole of us, de- 

 velop strains of bees that would be very much 

 superior to the ordinary stock of queens sell- 

 ing for 75 cents, and even as low as 50 cents. 

 While we ourselves have catered to this de- 

 mand — never, however, selling as low as 50 

 cents — I am inclined to believe that, if all 

 queen-breeders had striven for higher quality, 

 and demanded higher prices, some bee-keep- 

 ers, at least, would be able to get more money 

 than they have been able to secure with these 

 cheaper queens. 



THOSE PLAIN SECTIONS AT TORONTO J HOL" 

 TERMANN'S REPLY. 



When any one has been criticised for his 

 statements or course of action, in Gleanings, 

 I believe in giving that one an opportunity to 

 defend himself in his own words. Mr. Hol- 

 termann has sent in a reply, and this I cheer- 

 fully place before our readers : 



I am a little surprised at your letter in Gleanings 

 in one paragraph. It says, " And what explanation is 

 there for their being where they were privately seen 

 (if I have the right idea) by Holtermann and others, 

 and Holtermann, in the interests of fairness, didn't 

 see that they zvere exhibited?" 



I certainly was a little surprised to see Gleanings, 

 which, I understood, put up so high a standard, get 

 down to publishing insinuations as per above, and al- 

 low a correspondent to do it without an attached sig- 

 nature. Mr. Taylor showed me, and probably others, 

 the case after judging had been done. I did not see it 

 before. The paragraph unsigned is not Mr. Taylor's 

 writing, for he is too honorable to insinuate that I, 

 out of personal interest, allowed the honey to be un- 

 judged. Several, evidently, saw the honey afterward; 

 did any of those think that, if it had been exhibited, it 

 would "have taken the prize for the be.st-hlled sections? 

 I think no one would think so for a moment. When 

 you stated in Gleanings that I borrowed the cuts to 

 illustrate the article written against plain sections, 

 you prejudiced the public against my arguments, and 

 no retraction on your part could undo the unwari ant- 

 ed injury you then did me. Was it prejudice or care- 

 lessness ivhen you stated that I had borrowed these 

 cuts? To me it matters not what kind of sections the 

 public use; but i have tried to keep bee-keepers from 

 going to new expenses with an article which they may 

 discard or find of no added value. If better honey 

 can be produced with the plain sections, let bee-keep- 

 ers send them to the Toronto Exhibition this year. I 

 have yet to see as perlect a comb or section with plain 

 sections as we have taken with the ordinary section. 



I have nothing more to say in addition to what I 

 have already said, only this: If plain sections have 

 been better, then the plain-section men on one side of 

 the line have been so modest that in no single instance 

 have they sent them to the leading fairs; and if they 

 are so modest they are a marked contrast to some of 

 the advocates of plain sections on the other side. 



Brantford, Can., March 6. R. F. Holtermann. 



In reference to those electrotypes, I publish- 

 ed my correction before I was solicited to do 

 so by Mr. Holtermann, and in the very next 

 issue. Was it carelessness? Yes, it was that 

 and nothing else, and I am not ashamed to 



acknowledge it. If Mr. Holtermann were 

 willing to do as much, he would leave a better 

 impression. 



Mr. Holtermann 's last paragraph is either a 

 little mixed or else I do not understand him. 

 If I do interpret him, he has contradicted him- 

 self, for he says that in no single instance 

 were they (plain sections) sent to the leading 

 fairs in Canada, and yet in his two preceding 

 issues he says they were sent to the Toronto, 

 Ottawa, and London expositions. 



I might and could answer several other' 

 points in the above; but if I did so, then Mr. 

 H. would ask for more space. I prefer to let 

 our readers, if they are interested, judge of. 

 the merits of the case, and there let it drop. 



AMALGAMATION IN PROSPECT. 



Very recently some correspondence has 

 been begun, looking to the amalgamation of 

 the old and new Unions, or what will be, when 

 the thing is accomplished, the United States. 

 Bee-keepers' Association General Manager 

 Secor, of the U. S. B. K. A., has taken the 

 initiative, through the advice and suggestion 

 of the directors, and I have just this day re- 

 ceived a note from G. M. Doolittle, President 

 of the old Union, that will explain itself. 



I note what is said relative to the uniting of the two 

 bee-keepers' societies, on pages 18.N and 189, of Glean- 

 ings, and I have this from General Manager Newman 

 in reply to a letter of mine of recent date : " I note 

 what you say about consolidation, and am quite will- 

 ing that you should undertake the matter and work 

 in your own way to bring it about. I am quite willing 

 to assist in arranging details, as I always have been. 

 No one will be more pleased to have the matter ami- 

 cably adjusted, and the two organizations united for 

 the purpose of doing effective work, than will I. I 

 feel that, in leaving this matter in your hands, it wiU 

 be properly done." As I am agreeable to the uniting 

 of the two societies, and, so far as I know, all concern- 

 ed are the same, it looks to me that this might be ac- 

 complished in the near future to the advantage of all. 

 But I must be allowed to request as a favor that no ex- 

 tra burden be placed on my shoulders, for, through 

 my sickness and broken bones, my work got behind 

 so far that I am not nearly up with it yet, and I also 

 feel that there are others more capable to deal with 

 this matter than I am. But I will try to do all that is 

 really necessary for me to do in the matter, as the on- 

 coming future may point the way. 



Borodino, N. Y., March 10. G. M. Doolittle, 



President National Bee-keepers' Union. 



With every one favorable to it, it looks now 

 as if amalgamation might come very easily; 

 and the only thing now remaining, is, proba- 

 bly, to bring about the actual thing itself in 

 proper legal form. 



VERY often I feel like saying a good word 

 for something advertised in our journal; but 

 there is just one thing I w<?«7do; and that is, 

 father any statement made by an advertiser re- 

 garding his own goods. When I know the 

 value of a thing, then I am willing to say a 

 word. But there are other meritorious articles 

 of which I know nothing personally. For all 

 such we are for the present willing to let each 

 advertiser, if he likes, say a word outside of 

 his advertising space; and with that end in 

 view we are going to start another department 

 which our advertisers, who use as much as 

 $10.00 worth of space, may use occasionally. 

 This space will be limited to a single column, 

 and each advertiser will be limited to not 

 more than 2 inches of that space, and for a 

 while, at least, it will be given free. 



