422 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1. 



gets the best of the argument." So says Edi- 

 tor Hutchinson. [Our A B C of Bee Culture, 

 now in process of revision, is having all of its 

 pronouns of the masculine gender, referring 

 to individual bees, changed to neuter — Ed.] 



If bee-gloves are worn, I believe those 

 new ones of canvas with linseed oil are fine — 

 away ahead of rubber for comfort, and bees 

 never offer to touch them. The only objec- 

 tions are the smell, and the seams that hurt 

 the hands. A bee-keeper at my elbow prefers 

 hogskin on that account, but to me the smell 

 of the hogskin is horrible. Pooh ! [Yes, 

 that is what I thought about those hogskin 

 gloves when I was at your place the last time. 

 Ed.] 



Coffee is a good honey-plant in the island 

 of Jamaica; and the bees seem a good thing 

 for the honey crop. A writer in Bee Chat 

 says, " I have of my own, 100 colonies of bees 

 located around the coffee-drying ground, and 

 for the past two crops there has been no light 

 coffee at all; while on estates only eight or ten 

 miles away they had forty to fifty bags of 

 light coffee. Of course, the bees did it." [I 

 would give something to get a sample of hon- 

 ey from the coffee-plant. It must have a de- 

 cidedly pleasant flavor to one who is a lover of 

 coffee; but at our house I drink the cereal cof- 

 fee in place of the real article — not because I 

 do not like coffee, but because it does not like 

 me. — Ed. J 



AFTER all that has passed, it's hard for 

 Stenog to get past that " past." Now tell us, 

 Stenog, when a man is talking, how do you 

 distinguish between " passed " and " past " ? 

 and when the same thing is printed, haven't 

 you precisely the same means to decide ? If 

 you read to an audience, ' ' The law was pass- 

 ed the past } ear," will they understand it a 

 whit better than if you read, " The law was 

 past the past year " ? And be sure to tell us 

 how you distinguish between the two words 

 when you read what you've written in steno- 

 graphic characters. [Answering in order, I 

 will say the ear detects the difference, I think. 

 The words are alike in shorthand. Why don't 

 you spell it passt instead of past f Are we to 

 spell locked, loci ? — ST. ] 



Clark A. Montague says in Review that 

 in Northern Michigan their first sure source of 

 surplus is crimson clover, filling the gap after 

 fruit-bloom, and worth more than all the other 

 clovers combined. Last year from crimson 

 clover alone the stronger colonies each filled 

 a super holding 8 L. frames. [Crimson clover 

 is not a sure crop, by any means, with us, be- 

 cause the farmers have not learned the art of 

 raising it. We grow it on our honey-farm, 

 and it grows luxuriantly; but our fields are 

 not large enough to produce any perceptible 

 effect in the hives; but the way the bees do 

 work on it is a sight worth beholding. As Mr. 

 Montague says, it comes just between apple- 

 blossoms and clover — just when it is most 

 needed. —Ed.] 



I agree with Stenog that "to leave off the 

 address seems to rob an article of much of the 

 interest that is due to personality and loca- 

 tion." And it's an improvement in many 



cases to have the county instead of the post- 

 office; easier to locate Onondaga Co. than Bo- 

 rodino P. O., and Hancock Co. than Hamilton 

 P. O. [But if you have the postoffice you 

 have the county too, don't you? Maps and 

 directories are so cheap now that I assume one 

 can as easily learn that Marengo, 111., is in 

 McHenry Co. as that May 25, 1899, came on 

 Thursday. But suppose a man greatly desires 

 to address you, but simply knows your coun- 

 ty — how can he do it ? Of course, you might 

 thus escape a big bore, and may be not. — ST.] 



All right, Mr. Editor, we'll not "discuss 

 infelicities of expression any more." That's 

 the reason I make no reference to the " vicious 

 trick" and "coarse insinuations" mentioned 

 on p. 346, to which you will not allow me to 

 make reply. [I intended in my footnote, p. 

 346, to give notice that I believed it would be 

 to the best interest of all parties concerned to 

 draw this discussion to a close. I can not 

 think that discussions relating to the meaning 

 of words, or grammatical discussions, should 

 be allowed to go on in a bee journal, even 

 when good we'.l-meanirg men are engaged in 

 them. If, on the other hand, valuable facts 

 on bees are being uncovered, I should be 

 heartily in favor of letting the discussion go 

 on, even if some one did feel that some of his 

 tender corns were being trampled on. — Ed.] 



" It is generally considered that, for suc- 

 cessful wintering, there should be no pollen 

 or bee-bread in the combs" (p. 400). Are 

 you sure about the "generally," Mr. Editor? 

 If so, I'm skeptical as to the correctness of 

 the general consideration. [Some twelve or 

 fifteen years ago, when this discussion was up, 

 if I remember correctly it was agreed that it 

 was desirable to have little or no pollen in the 

 brood-combs filled with stores. Some even 

 went so far as to say that they did not even 

 want honey — that they preferred exclusively 

 sugar syrup without a trace of pollen. Per- 

 haps I have misinterpreted the consensus of 

 opinion that was rendered about the time that 

 I began to take hold of the editorial helm of 

 Gleanings. If I am wrong, doctor, twist 

 the helm around a little until it points right. 

 —Ed.] 



I covered the labels under those pictures, 

 p. 293, and took the separate testimony of 

 three persons. One of them agreed with the 

 classification on the page, one thought both 

 No. l's better than the fancy, and one thought 

 the fancy better in one case and the No. 1 in 

 the other. I confess it would be hard for me 

 to decide, and I certainly would not grade as 

 fancy a section having on one side 15 unsealed 

 cells away from the wood. [The section des- 

 ignated as " fancy " was actually better filled 

 out at the corners than the one marked No. 1. 

 The trouble was, the photo did not show the 

 real distinction; but if you will take another 

 squint I think you will see the difference. An- 

 other thing, you must not lose sight of the 

 fact that Niver said that all the pattern sec- 

 tions must be under the average of those for 

 each grade; so that the fancy, No. 1, and 2, 

 would look better than the models we had set 

 before us; but I confess myself that I should 



