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Vol. XXVII. 



APR. i, 1899. 



No. 7. 



"Dame Nature I love, and I believe she 

 loves me," says A. I. Root, p. 237. I have a 

 very warm affection for the old lady, but I 

 have some doubt about the feeling being 

 reciprocated, from the merciless way in which 

 she whacks me whenever I break any of her 

 laws. 



In Talking about travel-stain, one thing 

 seems mainly left out of view. My bees fill 

 sections and seal them snow-white ; then if 

 left on the hive long enough they darken 

 them. They're capped white, then I suppose 

 the bees carry up dark matter to put on the 

 surface, but not, I think, with their feet. 



The word "sic" is sometimes used to 

 show that there is something wrong about the 

 word after which it is written, or something 

 wrong about the way the word is used. As 

 used by Crhic Taylor, of the Review, it seems 

 to mean that the word is a good English word 

 as used, only he hasn't yet learned it. 



" In one of Rambler's letters he speaks 

 of the cherry trees of Oregon as being a great 

 place for bee-men." — Gleanings, page 212. — 

 Do all the bee-men out there roost on cherry- 

 trees? [That's another case of "locality," 

 doctor. The bee-keepers should be in the 

 "locality" of the trees, not in 'em — till the 

 cherries are ripe. — Stenog.] 



IT does SEEM as if that thin-base and thick- 

 wall business, p. 218. was a step in advance, 

 but I'll not gratify the editor by saying so. 

 A man who calls a worker " he " ought not to 

 be em ouraged. [Yes, I am satisfied that the 

 new thin base foundation is going to solve the 

 problem of no gob in comb honey. The work 

 of experimenters in the past all points in the 

 same direction. — Ed.] 



J. E. Crane, p. 214, is in line mainly, but 

 not entirely, with Cheshire. When it comes 

 to the rock-bottom question, " What causes 

 the dark color in combs?" they are radically 

 apart. Mr. Crane says, "The brown cocoon 



is left, and gives its color." Cheshire says 

 the color comes from the undigested contents 

 of the bowels of the larva being plastered on 

 the wall of the cell. Both agree that the dark 

 color primarily appears in the cell where a 

 young bee is reared. 



In order to break the news gently, I may 

 say that I'm getting ready to report a case of 

 bad wintering. I'd give $50.00 for a bright 

 day at 50° on or before March 20. Later. — 

 March 20, 12° above zero ! [I am afraid there 

 is many a bee-keeper in your predicament. 

 This continued cold weather during Febru- 

 ary and March scares many — at least puts 

 them in a position so that they hardly know 

 what to expect.- — Ed.] 



Mr. Editor, if you get Apis dorsata here, 

 please keep her chained until you know she 

 can be domesticated, and will not merely use 

 up nectar that we need for our hive bees. [I 

 do not worry about Apis dorsata taking up 

 the nectar that would otherwise go to our 

 hive-bees; neither do I fear that there will be 

 any other form of disaster follow their intro- 

 duction. If they are migratory, and appear 

 incapable of being hived, I can not see even 

 then that they can do any harm. — Ed.] 



He, SHE, or IT? You may "he" the work- 

 er all you like, but I prophesy that in ten 

 years "Stenog" will have instructions to 

 change to " she " every "he" of that kind 

 sent in. [Why is not it better than the other 

 two? Functionally the worker-bee is not 

 capable of reproducing its own kind — never 

 was, and never will be. Indeed, it has been 

 styled, for ages, a "neuter." Then why not 

 call it it, and thus avoid either horn of the 

 dilemma. There seems to be about as much 

 good authority for he as for she, and no objec- 

 tion to it. — Ed.] 



W. S. Pender says that, instead of putting 

 sheets of foundation in the usual way, he cuts 

 the sheets in two and hangs it t'other way, 

 and then it doesn't stretch. Does that mean 

 it stretches more readily the way it has been 

 already stretched ? [It is true, I think, that 

 foundation stretches less when hung the op- 

 posite way to what it is ordinarily supported, 

 than when it is fastened in the usual manner. 



