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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



J. J. Rapp secured several tons in Ventura 

 Co., while the rest of the bee-keepers got but 

 little if any. His apiary is located well up in 

 the Matilija Canyon, where the clouds could 

 bump against the mountains and cause them to 

 shake out some of their moisture. A. I. Root 

 will remember the Matilija with its hot 

 springs and bathing facilities. 



I clip the following from a late number of 

 the Los Angeles Times : 



At the graduating exercises of the Pasadena High 

 School, the speaker of the evening, Rev. C. G. Bald- 

 win, ex-president of Pomona College, in touching 

 upon the subject of heredity, with a view of illustrat- 

 ing what he claims is the small influence of heredity 

 and the overwhelming effect of environment and 

 education, referred to the worker-bee and the queen- 

 bee. The latter is worth just 40,000 times as much as 

 the former ; but they come from the same egg ; and 

 the food and room for twenty days, he says, make the 

 difference, deciding whether the bee shall be a work- 

 er or a queen valued at 40,000 points more. The speak- 

 er expressed his adherence to the doctrine set forth in 

 one of the latest works of a great German psycholo- 

 gist, to the effect that there is no inheritance of intel- 

 lectual or moral quality where the inheritance is 

 wholy corporeal. Many will dispute this theory. 



Did you notice in the Review for July what 

 Dr. Mason says about a certain portrait of Doo- 

 little that appeared in a certain bee-paper a 

 few months ago? 



Well, like Dr. Mason, I conjectured a long 

 time over that picture when it appeared, and 

 concluded if that truly represented Doolittle's 

 head he had degenerated wonderfully during 

 the past few years. 



Then I conjectured that the editor of said 

 paper had, through mistake, printed a head of 

 one of those terrible Chicago anarchists, and 

 labeled it Doolittle, or perhaps out of spite 

 because Doolittle gets off on to the socialism 

 racket occasionally. 



Then I had another conjecture, and I believe 

 it is correct. Bro. Doolittle is a good kind 

 soul, and he allowed an amateur photographer 

 to take his picture. Why, Bro. Doolittle, the 

 average amateur photographer will reduce the 

 god Apollo into a chimpanzee. I know just 

 how it is, for I am more or less an amateur 

 photographer. 



NO-DRIP SHIPPING-CASES ; HOFFMAN FRAME 



WITH V EDGES SUPERIOR TO SQUARE 



EDGES, AND WHY. 



Mr. Root: — Here is my vote on the no-drip 

 cleat and the Hoffman frame with square edges. 

 The cleats in the bottom of the shipping-case 

 should be fe inch high. A bee-keeper who 

 sees the need of cleats Y% high must put out a 

 poor class of honey. We are supposed to sell 

 our cull honey around home. 



Now a word about the width. The middle 

 cleats should be }i inch wide ; those at the 

 ends of the case, y 2 inch. I can imagine how 

 some persons would have much trouble get- 

 ting narrow cleats in the proper place, in the 

 middle of the case ; and then, even if narrow 



cleats are in the right place, the sections very 

 easily slide off when handled by the store- 

 keeper and retail customers. It is desirable 

 to have the sections remain upon the cleats 

 until the contents of the case are all sold. I 

 have perfected a simple form for putting in 

 the paper and cleats, which saves much time 

 and avoids the necessity of exercising patience. 



I have tested the V edge Hoffman frame 

 side by side with the square edge. For two 

 seasons I thought the square edge was the bet- 

 ter one ; but after looking over my bees this 

 spring on a warm day I noticed some things 

 that set me to thinking ; and no doubt you 

 have thought the same things. Without tak- 

 ing the space to explain just how it comes 

 about, I will say that propolis accumulates 

 between the square edges. Propolis also ac- 

 cumulates between the V and square edges. 

 After two seasons your frames are occupying 

 more room than they really ought to. The 

 day is warm ; you are very busy ; and in at- 

 tempting to get ten frames into a ten-frame 

 hive you find that the hive is too small to ad- 

 mit them. What are you going to do? If 

 your frames have the square edge you wall 

 have to stop and scrape their edges to reduce 

 the spacing. Scraping propolis on a hot day 

 is a mussy job. Well, if your frames are the 

 regular V edge, just squeeze them all up to- 

 gether with your chisel or hive-tool. Give a 

 slow steady push and the V edges will gradu- 

 ally cut their way through and then you are 

 ready for the next hive. If I were going to 

 order some Hoffman frames to-day I think I 

 would take the regular stock — the V edge. 



Eden, N. Y., April 24. E. W. Brown. 



[A very few of our customers have com- 

 plained because we insisted on putting the V 

 edge on all our Hoffman frames. Mr. Hoff- 

 man, the inventor of that particular frame, 

 uses the V edge, and for very good reasons ; 

 but, like some of the rest of our friends, for 

 the first year we began using our Hoffman 

 frames without the V edge ; but one season's 

 use in the apiary convinced me that it was a 

 mistake. It is somewhat refreshing in these 

 latter days to know that some of those who 

 advocated and even insisted on having their 

 Hoffmans made with square edges are now 

 coming to the conclusion that the V edge is 

 about right after all. Mr. Brown is not the 

 only one who has gone through that experi- 

 ence. Indeed, I have been through it myself. 

 Dr. Miller was once very doubtful about the 

 value of the feature ; but he is now pretty well 

 satisfied that if he used the Hoffman frame he 

 would use it rather than go without. — Ed.] 



PRETTIEST OF COMB HONEY FROM PLAIN 

 SECTIONS AND FENCES. 



I tried quite a number of the Ideal plain 

 supers this season, and must say, give me 

 fence separators and plain sections. I have 

 the prettiest comb honey most of us in this 

 part have ever seen. I have also been trying 

 Mr. Doolittle's plan for queen-rearing, and 

 like it. I find that, to take a colony or even 

 a strong nucleus in prime condition, made 

 queenless, and furnish cell-cups properly fix- 



