386 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15. 



pages of the Old Reliable. Now in the Chi- 

 cago public schools the spelling is to be as 

 follows : tho, thoro, thorofare, thru, thruout, 

 prolog, etc. Evidently the time is coming 

 when we who pride ourselves on being such 

 good spellers will be left with no advantage 

 for our years of labor in learning to spell. 

 [We have often thought of adopting tho for 

 though, and alt ho for although. We have for 

 some little time used the short form for pro- 

 gram, catalog, and perhaps one or two oiher 

 words ; but we hesitated to go further, in view 

 of the fact that we do so much printing for 

 other people; and two forms of spelling could 

 hardly be used in one office. But we are in 

 thoro sympathy with the movement for short- 

 er spelling provided the changes are notmade 

 too abruptly. — Ed.] 



You GIVE some pretty good reasons, Mr. 

 Editor, p. 342, why I should give up comb 

 honey and produce extracted. But ought not 

 some one to supply the demand for comb ? 

 And is it not a separate trade to prodvice ex- 

 tracted ? and is it better for me to leave the 

 trade I've already learned ? But aren't you 

 wrong in thinking that extracted will usually 

 bring 60 per cent as much as comb ? Let's 

 figure on the market reports. . . . Say, 

 I've figured, and the figures support your 

 view. But I'm not going to give up comb 

 yet. [No, doctor, I did not mean that you 

 should give up producing comb honey, by 

 considerable, although my remarks might 

 have implied that. But I do think it would 

 be to your advantage to produce a little ex- 

 tracted in connection with comb honey; and 

 I also believe that a shallow extracting super 

 will get the bees a good deal more in the 

 working fever in bait sections than in the 

 comb-honey super. — Ed.] 



Difference in climate is not considered 

 alwavs as much as it should be. You sav, p. 

 352, Mr. Editor, that C. Davenport and' the 

 Dadants have practically the same winters. 

 What makes you think so? The Dadants are 

 about 225 miles south of the southern boun- 

 dary of Minnesota. They are about 60 miles 

 south of Medina. But the distance north or 

 south doesn't always tell the climate. I think 

 the winters at Marengo, which is only 60 miles 

 north of Medina, are more severe than at 

 many points much further north. Many varie- 

 ties of apples that are all right at Medina will 

 not live here. Quinces and peaches will not 

 live here. Only a few of the hardiest cherries 

 and plums will stand the winters. Last winter 

 was unusually severe. Fruit-trees were killed 

 outright, as well as hardy roses well protected. 

 A bed of the hardiest tulips is a rotten mass. 

 [Yes, perhaps I was mistaken in not making 

 more allowance for the distance. The locality 

 of C. Davenport must be much more severe in 

 winter ; and that is doubtless the reason why 

 he prefers the smaller brood-nest. — Ed.] 



I've 16 supers containing the new founda- 

 tion alternating with the old style, and I'm 

 waiting to see what the bees say about it. 

 Also twenty supers filled one side with old- 

 style sections and separators, the other side 

 with fences and plain sections. [Putting the 



two kinds of foundation in alternation in the 

 same super is not the correct way, according 

 to our experiments. It should be placed, one 

 kind of foundation in one half of the super, 

 and the other kind in the other half. What 

 for? If one foundation is very much better 

 than the other, when the two kinds are placed 

 in alternation the poorer kind is helped along 

 by the better next to it, because the bees have 

 a disinclination to have every other comb 

 built out better than the rest. There is a 

 decided tendency on their part to fill out 

 evenly all they do fill, in a bunch by itself. 

 In making tests for the last two seasons we 

 have found that the principle of alternation is 

 not likely to lead to accurate results. I sug- 

 gest, if it is not too late, that you change a 

 part or all of those supers so that the thin 

 base will be wholly on one side or half of the 

 super and the common foundation wholly in 

 the other half.— Ed.] 



If That Old Fogy, Stenog, would occa- 

 sionally read a dictionary, he wouldn't ask 

 such questions as that on page 343. My 

 Webster, 47 years old, gives " bur," but " fuz " 

 is not in it. And say, Stenog, what sense is 

 there in wanting to spell "past" wrong be- 

 cause "pass" has two meanings, to go by, 

 and to adopt? Why don't you insist on two 

 different ways of spelling "out," when you 

 say, "The light is out, and the blossom is 

 out " ? [Strictly speaking, there is no " right " 

 way of spelling a word. There is what is 

 called a conventional or established way, and 

 that way is as binding as to call a spade a 

 spade when we mean a spade and not a spoon. 

 We read that ' ' the Levite passed \>y on the 

 other side;" and to substitute past for passed 

 causes the reader to look twice to catch the 

 meaning. Do you propose to spell all words 

 alike that are pronounced alike, such as peel 

 and peal; quean and queen; rye and wry? 

 As for spending years in school learning to 

 spell, that is an exaggeration. I don't be- 

 litve there is a good speller in the United 

 State s who ever spent a week in learning to 

 spell. If one does not learn to spell when he 

 learns to read he will never spell. Extremely 

 rare words may admit of a few exceptions. 

 If you will rip up the whole alphabet from A 

 to Z, and have a precise character for every 

 sound, as we have in shorthand, I shall be 

 much p'eased. English spelling is very ir- 

 regular, but no more so than French. — St.] 



All right, Mr. Editor; send on a few of 

 those barns Draper wants tried, and I'll give 

 them a fair show. I've always had a kind of 

 uneasy feeling that one story with big frames 

 might be better than two-story hives of small- 

 er frames; but I don't want to believe it if I 

 can help it. Ask Draper how many men I'll 

 have to engage to carry one of those hives 

 into the cellar. [We are preparing to send 

 you some of those "barns." I have just been 

 looking at those great big frames, and I could 

 not help feeling that there is something in 

 having great cards of brood all in one batch 

 instead of having an equal quantity in two 

 batches divided off by two sticks and a bee- 

 space. The two sticks and the bee- space may 



