1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



65 



at S25 a thousand feet, it would be better 

 for me to pay 25, 30, or even 40 cents for the 

 zinc covers, which, aside from freedom from 

 twisting- and warping, have the advantage 

 over the plain-board covers that they are 

 cooler in summer and warmer in winter. 



This is a matter of very great importance, 

 Mr. Editor, and I hope you'll freely speak 

 your mind. [I think you will find the zinc 

 much more serviceable than the tin. As I 

 have before stated, the old iron used in tin 

 roofing has been displaced by steel. If you 

 will look at your old spouti igs and iron 

 roofiags you will see that many of them are 

 still good while the more modern tin roof- 

 ings and spoutings made of steel are com- 

 paratively short-lived. I would put zinc- 

 covered roofs first; galvanized sheet steel 

 next (galvanized iron has disappeared from 

 the market); good roofing paper next, and 

 ordinary steel tinplate last. — ^Ed.] 



"I THINK I am safe in saying it is away 

 beyond your general avera^'e, season after 

 season." That's what you say, Mr. Edit- 

 or, at the close of my report, p. 13, and I 

 thank you for saying it, as also for your 

 remarks in general about reports. I've 

 had years of entire failure, and more that 

 were nearly failures, and I never yet 

 had any thing that would come anywhere 

 near last year. I've also been saying that 

 I never expect another season like the last, 

 but I'm weakening a little on that. Snow 

 covered the ground the next day after the 

 bees went into the cellar (Nov. 28), and the 

 ground has been covered ever since, with 

 good sleighing now, and it is entire!}' pos- 

 sible that snow may cover the ground all 

 winter. Under that blanket of snow lies a 

 denser carpet of white clover than there 

 was a year ago, and there is a bare possibil- 

 ity that next season maybe as phenomenal 

 as the last. [That same blanket of snow 

 covers a dense carpet of white clover over 

 the whole of the clover regions of the North. 

 As I write, Jan. 13, we are having a heavy 

 snowstorm that is already covering the 

 ground with a still thicker blanket of snow. 

 The protection afforded, and the immense 

 amount of moisture from the slow-melting 

 snow as the warm weather opens up, will 

 do a great amount of good. A heavy rain 

 can not compare with it. Snow melts slow- 

 ly, and herein lies its value as an irrigant. 

 I believe with you, that, unless we should 

 have some verj' warm weather in midwin- 

 ter, followed by severe freezes without snow, 

 we shall have a good clover crop next sea- 

 son. Generally speaking, if there is any 

 thing that can make the hea^rt of the bee- 

 keeper rejoice it is to have heavy snows. — 

 Ed.] 



You SAY "there must be something 'rot- 

 ten ' in Marengo as well as in wicked Chi- 

 cago " because my sections averaged 14*4 

 ounces each, instead of weighing "just an 

 even full pound," p. 13. Haven't you got 

 me mixed up with some one else, Mr. Edi- 

 tor? I'm not the man that ever hinted that 

 sections "might, could, would, or should " 



be produced to weigh "just an even full 

 pound." On the contrary, I've insisted in 

 the most strenuous manner that the thing 

 couldn't be done, again and again reporting 

 the varying weights in mv own experience, 

 and saying that the fair thing was to sell 

 by weight. The specially rotten thing in 

 Chicago is the condition that allows the 

 possibility of a producer getting less for a 

 section weighing "just an even full pound" 

 than for one with less honey in it and no 

 better in any way. That 18,000 pounds of 

 honey was sold for just what it weighed, 

 and there's nothing rotten about that. [In 

 proportion as you do not approve selling 

 light-weight sections by the piece, in that 

 same proportion you should disapprove of 

 producing the naughty (?) ones that are 

 used as a medium of cheating (?). It is just 

 as easy to produce sections averaging 16 

 ounces as those that average 14^^4; ounces. 

 You would have to use a little thicker sec- 

 tion — say 2 inches, just as are used to-day 

 in England. As long as you and I and all 

 the rest of us produce sections averaging a 

 little over 14 ounces, so long will the trade, 

 in order to simplify calculation and sales, 

 run toward selling by the piece, and it is 

 right. Doctor, I believe you are right in 

 selling sections that weigh 14^4 ounces. 

 You do no violation to the great body pol- 

 itic. It is no worse to buy or sell sections 

 by the piece than to buy or sell eggs by the 

 dozen, for some eggs are much larger than 

 others. — Ed.] 



A. I. Root. I want to say amen to that 

 preachment of yours, p. 34. The man that 

 robs his wife of her fair share of courting 

 when her hair turns white is a sneak and 

 a thief; and you might have added that he 

 cheats himself as much as his wife. Let 

 me tell a little story out of The Ladies'' 

 Hoyne Journal. 



The you'g girl, Priscilla, was asking the good old 

 Dutch laiiy: " Do you mean to tell me that, when you 

 married Mr. Blom, you were not well enough acquaint- 

 ed to love him? " 



' Na! Ve vas na veil enoof acquainted for dhot." 



" You did not love your husb;ind? " asked Priscilla, 

 feeling that the old Dutch lady had suddenly gone very, 

 very far away 



" Veil, yon see it's dis vay," explained the old lady, 

 and the look in her bright old eyes made Priscilla feel 

 that she had indeed gone away from her. but in anoth- 

 er direction: ' Vhen you marry a man you dink jou 

 luff him. But vhen you been marriedt a month you 

 find nndt you luff him so much more dhot you know 

 you didn't know vhadt luff vas in de first place. Den, 

 vhen you been marriedt a ^ear alreadty. andt you pe- 

 gm to call him Fahder, and he pegins to call yoii Muh- 

 der^vall, vail, vail, vail, vail! Maype you dond't luff 

 him den, eh? But you dond't. De years dey go py, 

 and dey go py, andt de troubles dey come, andt dey go 

 too. Andt maype, vhen you been marriedt fifty year 

 alreadty, den you kin say, honest andt true, ' I luff 

 him,' tor den you been puttin' up mid each odder long 

 enoof to find oudt for sure." 



That's a good bit the way it is at your 

 house and mine, isn't it, old comrade?" 

 [Dear old friend, 3'our story is exactly to 

 the point. Little did I dream, when I wrote 

 the Home paper to which you refer, of the 

 experience that was just before me. Before 

 my talk was even in print, Mrs. Root was 

 near unto death, and I was compelled to 

 look ahead and see what life would be with- 



