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Vol. XXVII. 



DEC. i, 1899. 



No. 23. 



That face on p. 832 has an honest look ; 

 pity to see that pipe sticking in it. A. I. 

 might offer the owner a smoker ! 



Tilia petiolaris is a new linden about 

 which much is said nowadays in the British 

 Bee Journal. It is later than other lindens, 

 prolonging the season two weeks. 



A PICTURE of Wm. H. Horstmann's apiary 

 in American Bee Journal shows a new feature — 

 beauty and utility combined. The shade- 

 boards are held on the hives by pots of bloom- 

 ing plants. Nice for a city yard. 



In making increase, the first item given, 

 p. 829, is to buy in March a strong colony in 

 a box hive for a dollar. If I could get that 

 far in the plan, I think I shouldn't want to go 

 any farther ; all increase would be by further 

 purchases. 



S. Simmins, editor of Bee Chat, is very pos- 

 itive that no queen ever lives over winter a 

 virgin, to be fertilized in the spring. Editor 

 Atchley is positive that such a thing often oc- 

 curs. Possibly both are right A winter in 

 England is different from a Texas winter of 

 only two months. 



Slowly upward goes the price of honey. 

 [Yes, but bee keepers must not make a seri- 

 ous mistake and hold their honey until after 

 the holidays. The probabilities are that it 

 will take a slight drop — at least it has always 

 done so, and I see no reason why it should 

 not do so this year. — Ed.] 



Binni thinks his sections safe from worms 

 till doomsday when screwed down (p. 828), 

 because he thinks worms are found only in 

 sections that have in them pollen or brood. I 

 don't know about Australia, but in this coun- 

 try I've seen many a worm on sections entire- 

 ly innocent of pollen or brood. 



In Gravenhorst's Bienenzeitung it is sug- 

 gested that, when cross-breeding is supposed 

 to bring good results, it may be that the gain 

 is only on account of bringing in fresh blood, 

 and that the gain would be more permanent 



if fresh blood were introduced without the 

 crossing. 



Don't Think for a minute that I ever meant 

 to argue that the Doolittle plan was not better 

 than simply unqueening to rear queens. With 

 the latter plan bees left to themselves will rear 

 as good a queen as the best, and destroy some 

 not so good. With the Doolittle plan, all — or 

 at least more nearly all- — will be good. 



What is association worth ? The answer of 

 a milk-producers' association is: "It is worth 

 3}4 cts. per gallon. We were getting & l / 2 cts., 

 and now we are getting 10 cents. We were 

 scattered, and they told us what they would 

 give ; we became united, and then we told 

 them what our reasonable demands were, and 

 obtained them." It doesn't seem as if asso- 

 ciation could raise the price of honey 50 per 

 cent ; but it isn't easy to show why milk and 

 honey should be so very different. Come on 

 with your dollar, and get into the A. B. K. A. 



You've done a good thing in using half- 

 tones to show new supplies. It is a delight to 

 look at such beautiful pictures. [If you could 

 have experimented with Rob and me in trying 

 all the different effects of light and shade, 

 background, etc., you would appreciate the 

 pictures all the more. We took a number of 

 "shots," but discarded them all until we 

 struck a plan whereby we can get brilliant ef- 

 fects. The beauty of a half-tone in any case 

 from a photo is that it shows the real thing it- 

 self, without exaggeration. That is the rea- 

 son why half-tones of buildings and factories 

 must necessarily be truthful. — Ed.] 



IT'S Murray, and not Doolittle, I'm going 

 gunning for now. In that middle picture, p. 

 837, he makes me hold the hammer in my left 

 hand ! Doolittle never did any thing half so 

 bad as that. [Yes, I imagine that Doolittle 

 will turn that gun which he stole from you on 

 Murray also, for he (Murray) has made our 

 Borodino friend hold out his left hand for a 

 "shake." By the by, it is a little funny that 

 you should employ a colored footman to bring 

 in an announcing-card, and yet you yourself 

 be employed in the menial labor of nailing up 

 hives. Murray ought to have made you sit- 

 ting before a desk with a pen over your ear, 

 dictating at a 40-mile clip to a pretty stenog- 

 rapher. — Ed.] 



