338 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1. 



Chai,on Fowls, I don't dispute that for you 

 and other people in the East it may be best to 

 keep your honey liquid ; but there's one State 

 in the Eist that's an exception — I mean Ohio. 

 I knew a man in that State who succeeded — 

 " grandly succeeded " — in educating his cus- 

 tomers to prefer candied honey, and he sold 

 more honey than any other man in the State, 

 for good prices too. Could not some other 

 Ohio man do what C. F. Muth did ? [That's 

 right, doctor — give it to him — I mean Fowls. 

 He and I tried to argue it out in our office the 

 other day. — Ed.] 



Stenog clearly has the joke on me. I've 

 studied up all sorts of ways to explain or wig- 

 gle out of saying "foul-broody hives,'''' but 

 there it is twice in plain print, p. 293. I might 

 say that the disease may be conveyed by the 

 hives, so it's all right to speak of " foul-broody 

 hives," but the uncomfortable fact remains 

 that when I wrote hives I meant colonies. 

 But 3'ou see if I don't get even with you, Sten- 

 og.— [As hives themselves may contain germs 

 of disease, it seems to me your use of the 

 words " foul-broody hives " was entirely prop- 

 er — at least I meant no criticism thereon. — 

 St.] 



That editorial, p. 311, sounds as if every 

 bee-keeper ought to join the U. S. B. K. A. 

 There's no need of that. If others join and 

 go ahead with the work, I can have the bene- 

 fit of what they do, and save my dollar. See ? 

 [It would appear as if some good men did see 

 it that way ; but I am sure they do not, and I 

 rather think it is a matter of neglect. They 

 believe that the Association is a good thing, 

 and is doing a good work, and they intend to 

 join it ; but when they have a dollar handy 

 they do not feel like writing ; and when they 

 do feel like writing they do not have the dol- 

 lar, and there it is. — Ed.] 



Bro. a. I. Root, in that Home talk, p. 314 

 (and between you and me it's a fine talk), you 

 say, " I think I am really disturbed more just 

 now than I ever have been before in my life, 

 in regard to the state of affairs, not only in 

 our own nation, but in all nations." I never 

 was more encouraged, and largely because 

 good men like you are disturbed, and begin- 

 ning to say they will no longer be ' ' like dumb, 

 driven cattle," bamboozled into saying that 

 every thing the bosses say and do is just right. 

 Doubtful if there ever was a time before when 

 there were as many scared men at Washington 

 for fear they would be called to account at 

 home for f ivoring wrong measures. 



DevauchellE strongly maintains, in V Api- 

 culteur, that the best way to get good returns 

 in a poor locality is to have large brood-cham- 

 bers and strong colonies ; and now comes our 

 good friend of smoker fame, p. 298, and 

 teaches just the reverse. I sometimes wonder 

 whether there's any thing we know, and know 

 for certain, about bees. [Are you sure, doc- 

 tor, that our friend Bingham is really an ad- 

 vocate of small brood-chambers ? His hive is 

 named the Expansive ; and does not that im- 

 ply that it can be made to accommodate large 

 colonies, because, if he is a believer in small 

 brood-chambers, why need he have an expan- 



sive hive ? Have not the advocates of the di- 

 visible or shallow-brood-chamber hives said 

 that such hives were adapted to any locality 

 or to any bee-keeper because large or small 

 colonies could be made as circumstances seem- 

 ed to demand? — Ed.] 



Again I want to call attention to the fact 

 that in discussing greasy sections we are some- 

 times talking about two different things. A 

 greasy appearance on the outside of the cap- 

 pings caused by a deposit thereon, and possi- 

 bly a difference in the cappings themselves, is 

 an utterly different thing from sections that 

 have the honey filled up against the cappings 

 with no air-space. The whitest cappers in the 

 world may have the first kind under certain 

 conditions, and, indeed, under any condition 

 if sections are left on long enough, the inside 

 sections being first darkened as mentioned by 

 J. T. Siler, and the queen was not at all respon- 

 sible in his case. But when you find the grea- 

 sy appearance due to the absence of air space, 

 outside conditions seem to have nothing to do 

 with the case. That Punic colony is by no 

 means the only colony I've had that would 

 make greasy (more properly watery) sections 

 right through the entire season when other 

 colonies capped white. [I will explain to our 

 readers that Dr. Miller and I talked over this 

 matter of discolored sections when I visited 

 him at his home two or three weeks ago. Aft- 

 er gathering a few more facts I prepared a 

 statement of the various kinds of soiled boxes, 

 including the greasy, the pollen-stained, the 

 propolis-stained, travel-stained, and every kind 

 of soiled section. There has been such a di- 

 versity of opinion that it is very evident we 

 each and all have been talking about different 

 things, when we tlwnglit we were talking 

 about one and the same thing. If I have not 

 fully described and named all the different 

 classes, I hope our readers will correct me. — 

 Ed.] 



OF>icKmjwgs 



l^fiOM OU/f NE/GHBOfiS FIELDS. 

 Br iL5 TENOG-. ' ' 



May-day ! hooray ! all's gay ! 



Bees are buzzing, birds are singing. 

 Music through the woods is ringing, 

 Bells on frisky sheep are clinking^ 



Let us to the fields away. 



Vi/ 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Under the head, ' ' Fool Writers Still Lying, ' ' 

 Mr. York gives the following as a sample of 

 what he seems to consider the foolishness and 

 adroitness at lying on the part of the Nevf 

 York A/ail anil Express. It is a sample brick 

 of several more items just like it, from the 

 same source : 



I know a man who keeps 50 hives of bees on the 

 roof of his store in the city, and by hustling up plenty 

 of glucose he gets enough " honey " out of the buzzing 

 slaves to do a wholesale business in honey. Why, his 

 bees never saw a flower, and would shy at a honey- 

 suckle if they happened to conie near one He will 

 not even let the poor things have a recess to get a 



