«52 



GI.EANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15. 



A FIXED STRAIN of bees is very desirable 

 for the sake of continuing good qualities with- 

 out change. But the " fixed strain " idea may 

 be worked too hard when it comes to the mat- 

 ter of improvement. With a strain so fixed 

 that there is no possibility of variation, there 

 is no possibility of improvement. Continua- 

 tion of good traits comes from fixedness. Im- 

 provement of traits comes, not from fixedness, 

 but from variation. The trouble with a cross 

 is that its characteristics are not fixed, but 

 that does not argue against the possibility of 

 greater improvement in the cross, and then it 

 is the province of careful breeding to make 

 that improvement fixed. I am an advocate of 

 pure stock ; but if I had the purest and best 

 Italians on earth, and a cross that would beat 

 them in storing by 50 per cent, I'd drop the 

 purity and try to fix that 50 per cent. [Yes, 

 but I believe you will find that crosses would 

 have a very strong tendency to sport back to 

 the original stock, either one of which would 

 be poorer than the mixture. — Ed.] 



The American Beekeeper^ speaking of the 

 pasteboard-candy mode of introduction, says : 

 " At this writing numerous reports are coming 

 in which show that failure more often results 

 through the use of the new plan than with the 

 older method." Isn't your verdict a bit hasty, 

 Bro. Hill ? In the few hundred cases that 

 have come within my knowledge there have 

 been rare exceptions when the bees did not re- 

 move the pasteboard, but that is the only ob- 

 jection. As to the rest, there is undoubtedly 

 additional security from the longer time it 

 takes to remove the pasteboard ; and, without 

 being sure of it, my present notion is that few- 

 er failures will occur with the pasteboard. 

 [A good deal depends on the kind of paste- 

 board and the manner it is put in over the can- 

 dy. The first cages we sent out had the strips 

 cut too wide. We now cut them much nar- 

 rower, so that the candy is exposed on both 

 sides to the bees as well as through the perfor- 

 ations in the center. It is true, there have 

 been failures by this plan of introduction ; but 

 the failures have been due, I think, in all 

 cases, to too much pasteboard or to the wrong 

 kind of pasteboard — Ed.] 



You ASK, Mr. Editor, p. 869, if I am sure 

 the inverting of the syrup will be as thorough- 

 ly done by the bees when water is poured on 

 the sugar in the feeder as when the two are 

 thoroughly mixed beforehand in the extractor. 

 No, I'm not sure, but I think so. Please disa- 

 buse your mind of the idea that the mixing 

 cuts any figure in the case. When a bee takes 

 a particle of sugar and a particle of water, 

 those two particles are as thoroughly mixed as 

 if you had reeled them an hour in the extract- 

 or. The only question is as to the thinness of 

 the syrup. The thinner, the better chance for 

 inversion. I think more water is used when 

 the water is merely poured on the sugar ; in 

 other words, my plan gives a thinner syrup, 

 and, hence, better inversion. But it should be 

 said that, unless the feeding be done early 

 enough, my plan is not so good as yours just 

 because my syrup takes more time to evapo- 

 rate. And if very late, a thicker syrup than 



yours must be used. [You may be right, but 

 it strikes me the bees can handle a syrup of the 

 same general consistency better than they 

 handle a mixture all the way from almost 

 clear water, away up to a thick syrup. The 

 last named will not be inverted as well as the 

 medium thin syrup. Take it all in all, I sus- 

 pect you will get good results by your plan, 

 and the method to be used is more a matter of 

 convenience, perhaps, than of any thing else. 

 —Ed.] 



^ICKlJWjGS 



If/IOM OUR NEIGHBORS FIELDS. 



Into eternity goes the old year; 



The century, too, hath its close; 

 The millennium dawn now hastens fast on. 



Ending humanity's woes. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 

 In Gleanings for Nov. 15 the senior editor 

 had a write-up of Mr. York's journal from the 

 very first. I w?s wondering what Mr. Y. 

 would say after he regained his breath. Well, 

 he said this : 



We hardly know what to say in response to the ex- 

 ceedingly kind words Mr. Root has written, for it is 

 not possible to deserve them. At any rate, we take off 

 our iiat and make our best bow with a sincere "thank 

 you " for all he has said. 



In speaking of the Canadian Bee Journal 

 Mr. York says : 



The literary shortcomings of cotemporaries are not 

 considered the best things with which to fill up the 

 columns of a bee-journal ; but it may not be greatly 

 out of order to say that since W. J. Craig has taken the 

 editorial chair of ihfi Canadian Bee Jotirrial th.erc'has 

 been a very gratifying improvement in the proof-read- 

 ing of that journal. 



Amen ! But the improvement is great all 

 over. 



The subject of getting bright yellow wax 

 out of old combs is now receiving considerable 

 notice. Mr. York thinks attention is being 

 diverted from brightness to mere color, and 

 thinks Mr. Dadant would pay but little atten- 

 tion to the yellowness, but would insist on 

 brightness. He says, " As a matter of fact, 

 slow cooling is a sine qua fion in ninety-nine 

 cases out of a hundred, and perhaps necessary 

 in the hundredth case. . . Some wax from 

 old combs needs the addition of acid to bring 

 out the bright color, but that does not take 

 away the necessity of slow cooling, and there 

 is practically no bright yellow wax without 

 slow cooling." But why does slowness of 

 cooling have any thing to do with the 

 brightness of appearance ? Simply because a 

 long time in cooling allows the dirt and sedi- 

 ment to settle to the bottom of the mass, leav- 

 ing the pure wax by itself.; 



Mr. Dadant gives an interesting account of 

 his visit at the home of Mr. Ed. Bertrand, who 



