118 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1 



that I am encroaching- on valuable space 

 in giving- here a translation of nearly all 

 he says as he lays down the scissors and 

 the pen, especially as his work was, all 

 this time, so ably seconded by the late 

 Charles Dadant, of Hamilton, 111. 



At the moment of taking leave of m5' readers, it is 

 incumbenl on me to express to thern the regr t which 

 I feel on leaving them, and to thank lh<-m for their 

 support — particularly the subscribers who have ac- 

 corded me their assistance from the very beginning, 

 and who have remained faithful to the end ; and also 

 those who have contributed by their communications 

 to augment any interest which the journal may have 

 have bten able to offer. 



I wish likewise to ^tate here how much T am indebt- 

 ed to those of mv colleagties who have aided me with 

 their pen: namely. Mr. J. Jeker, the foi mer director 

 of the Swiss Beejournal. who has enable! me to profit 

 by his experience, and who was good enough to edit, 

 the first year, the monthly calendar for beginners. 

 Without his concourse and encouragement I should 

 not have dared to launch my modest Bulletin. Some 

 of my original co workers are, al^s ! no more in this 

 world. My teacher, Charles Dadant. wrote for my 

 journa] up to the time of his death — that is to say, for 

 twenty-three years. Mr. George de Lavtns sent me 

 his articles for thirteen years, and Mr. Matter- Perrin 

 did so up to a verv advanced age. 



More recentlv it was my dear friend Ulr. Gubler, 

 the worthy president of the Societe Romande: then the 

 eminent writer Mr. CrepieuT-Jamin a great lover of 

 the bees, and Mr. Camille P Dadant, the son and asso- 

 ciate of my venerated teacher, whom I called on. and 

 to whom I extend my thanks for the service thev ren- 

 dered me in continuing my journal up to the present 

 time. 



If I take a retrospective glance over the field of ac- 

 tivity covered by the Revue during the pa=t twenty- 

 five years. I find that, at its beginning, things were 

 different from what they are to-riav. The rearing of 

 bees in hives having movable frames ws practiced by 

 but few persons, either in Switzerland. France, or 

 Belgium. In France the hee-jonrnal that was most 

 widely read was still resisting the introduction of the 

 new methods. To-day their superiority is no longer 

 contested except by a few hold-backs. These new 

 methods are indor ed in France by a score of bee- 

 journals and by a dozen in Belgium. 



My Revue was devoted to a de.scription and recom- 

 mendation of the modes of culture that were more 

 practical and less complicated, without falling into an 

 exaggerated simplicity. 



It has made a deep study of foul brood : and the ob- 

 servations and researches which it has published on 

 the subject have contriViuted in a great measure in 

 rendering mo'e efifective the struggle against this 

 pest of the hives. 



Bv its numerous translations of works and articles 

 jn foreign languages, it has taught i^s readers concern- 

 ing apicultural things in other countrie.s, such as Eng- 

 lan'^, Germany, Italy, the United States, where the 

 culture of bees is greatlv develr>ped Likewise it has 

 published two works from Thos. W Cowan, the Eng- 

 lish apicultural expert, "The British Beekeeper's 

 Guidebook." and " The Anatomv of the Bee," besides 

 a compl*'te treatise on foul brood by Mr. F. C. Harri- 

 son, professor of bacteriology in Canada. 



I have had the goo! fortune to publish a large num- 

 ber of unedited letters by Francis Huber, the eminent 

 author of " New Observations " 



Finally the Revue has made itself the organ of the 

 Societe Romande d'Apiculture, whose proceedings it 

 has published. 



When in 18S7 T adopted for mv journal the name it 

 now bears Tniernationnl Review, which name was 

 suggested to me by Mr. Gaston Bonn-er several of my 

 colleagues in Switzerland made a little sport at that 

 name which th>y considered somewhat i- fli'ed It 

 has. nevertheless, been justified bv communications 

 which have come to me from all qua't-rs of the globe, 

 and by the number of countries where we have sub- 

 scribers. 



It remains for me to perform one more agreeable 

 task — that of thanking warmly mv brethren of the 

 press as well as manv of mv subscribers who have 

 expressed to me their ret ret on the o^cas-on of mv re- 

 tirement. I am greatly totiched bv the f 'vorable 

 j'idgment which they fx'end to mv journal and to its 

 director — a judgment which permit-^ me to hope 'hat 

 mv work will havp contributed in some measure to the 

 progress of apiculture. 



PREVENTION OF SWARMING AT AN OUT- 

 APIARY. 



" Oh my! isn't the snow deep? Did you 

 ever know so much in any winter before, 

 Mr. Doolittle?" 



" I think I did when I was a boy, Mr. 

 Brown. But that was years ago, before 

 you were born. But I never saw so much 

 in the apiary here before. Even the roof to 

 the bee-reposilory, doors and entrance, are 

 all under snow. Just look! " 



" Yes, I see. I find it snowed a foot last 

 night: and this, on top of the two to two and 

 a half feet we had before, makes a strug- 

 gle for any one to go anywhere outside of 

 the beaten paths and roads." 



"Yes. and the roads have snow in them 

 anywhere from two to ten feet deep, just in 

 accord as the wind has piled it up. I 

 thought yesterday morning, Jan. 13, it was 

 going to thaw; but instead we have had 

 this big fall of snow, and now the wind is 

 coming west again for another cold spell. 

 How did you enjoy the cold of the first of 

 the month? " 



" Enjoy it? Why, we could hardly keep 

 from freezing. In fact, those three morn- 

 ings of Jantiary 3, 4, and 5. when the 

 mercury stood at 20, 21, and 20 degrees be- 

 low zero, 'beat the record' here in Onon- 

 daga County. Then Monday, the 4th, it 

 never got above 6 below zero, with the sun 

 shining bright in the middle of the day. 

 Why, on Monday night water froze on our 

 stove, and that, too, with fire in the stove; 

 and neighbor C. said some potatoes were 

 frozen which were left in their oven, with 

 fire in the stove at the same time." 



" Tut, tut, that is entirely too fishy! " 



" I did not say how much fire there was. 

 I know that Ihere were two coals as large 

 as the end of my little finger buried down 

 deep in the ashes in our stove, and I have 

 told nothing but what can be proven by our 

 oldest boy. But this is the first day of the 

 beekeepers' institute at Syracuse. Did 

 you intend to go? " 



" Yes; but on looking out this morning I 

 saw it was going to be impossible to get six 

 miles to the trolley, and now it is blowing 

 a gale, which will stop all travel for the 

 next 24 hour.s. But if you came over to talk 

 bees we can have a bee convention all by 

 ourselves, and perhaps get some profit in 

 that way, though not as much as we would 

 could we meet with the others at the con- 

 vention. What shall we talk about? " 



" The question I wanted to ask j'ou is 

 this. If you were going to run an out-api- 

 ary for comb honey, how would you man- 

 age to prevent swarming? " 



