1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



129 



the embodiment of convenience and effi- 

 ciency. 



Mr. Phillips' reference to the "sear and 

 5'ellow leaf" hardlj* has to do with criti- 

 cism of Alley's system of queen-rearing, 

 and impresses one with the feeling that 

 Mr. Phillips consciously or unconsciously 

 harbors some personal or commercial an- 

 tagonism to Mr. Alley. It had better been 

 omitted. 



Though well along in years, Mr. Alley 

 is as active and enduring as many a man 

 far his junior. Mentally he is as keen 

 and alert as he ever was; and as he goes 

 from hive to hive and from nucleus to nu- 

 cleus, telling before he opens it just what 

 is within, one envies him his wonderful 

 memory; and yet he has been through 

 trouble and sorrows which would crush 

 most of us. 



There is nothing spectacular or sensa- 

 tional about Mr. Alley, his system, or his 

 queens; but they " get there just the same," 

 and in a most satisfying way. 



Providence, R. I., Dec. 30. 



[You give us a very clear exposition of 

 the Alley sj'stem, and I would suggest to 

 Mr. Alley that, when he gets out a new 

 edition of his book on queen- rearing, he in- 

 corporate your description instead of his 

 own. His last bojk is somewhat confusing 

 — too profuse is some details, and woefully 

 lacking in some others, to make it easily 

 understood. 



The two essential differences between 

 the Alley system and that of others seem to 

 be, 1. A cell- starting colony queenless and 

 broodless, confined for six hours; 2. Strips 

 of natural comb, each alternate egg de- 

 stroyed in lieu of artificial cells or wooden 

 cell cups. 



It m^y be that the queenless and brood- 

 less colony confined will have more pap for 

 young larvaj than an ordinary queenless 

 colony lavishly fed with syrup, but I should 

 somewhat doubt it. As Mr. Phillips has 

 already pointed out, it is a lot of work to 

 make a colony broodless, as this brood 

 must be taken out and taken care of. 



The artificial cell cups or wooden cups 

 do not involve as much work as would ordi- 

 narily seem. True, they require grafting; 

 and right here there may be one item of 

 labor not found in the Alley system. But a 

 g^raftcd cell gives an operator a selection of 

 larvae, and saves mutilating otherwise good 

 combs. 



We have for some two years practiced the 

 Alley as well as the modified Doolittle sys- 

 tem. The two have been worked side by 

 side in order that we might be able to judge 

 between them. Our own individual opinion 

 is that the modified Doolittle plan, such as 

 we have described and illustrated, is as 

 simple as any, and gives as good queens as 

 are furnished by any plan known. While 

 "the Doolittle system involves the grafting of 

 the cells, it saves labor a/fer the cells are 

 once grafted, because they can be handled 

 like hickorynuts. A cell made from a piece 



of comb is apt to be irregular in form, and 

 requires trimming to get it into a queen- 

 cage later on in the process. It was our 

 own experience, after two years of trial, 

 that the trimming of the Alley cells required 

 more time than the grafting of the artificial 

 cell cups, which, when built out and com- 

 pleted, are always clean and perfect. When 

 the wooden cup is used, the cylindrical 

 form makes it just right to plug up the hole 

 in the cage or cell protector; and, what is 

 of considerable importance, it can be shoved 

 into the side of a comb without mashing or 

 injuring it. 



It was my privilege and pleasure to meet 

 Mr. Alley at Boston, on a recent trip to 

 that city. I was surprised and delighted 

 to see how robust and healthy he seemed to 

 be, even if he had reached the period of the 

 "sear and yellow leaf," so far as age was 

 concerned. He seemed to think it a great 

 joke that he should be regarded as in his 

 years of decline*. I remarked to him as I 

 saw him, that, if the average man at forty 

 were as strong and vigorous as he was, 

 he might consider himself very fortunate 

 indeed. Said I, "Mr. Alley, if you had 

 your mustache trimmed off the same as Dr. 

 Miller, there would be a strong resemblance 

 between you — of the same height (short), 

 of the same square stocky build, and of the 

 same general facial expression." He re- 

 marked with some warmth that he consid- 

 ered it a crmpliment to be compared to Dr. 

 Miller, even in mere physical appearai c^. 



Mr. A. C. Miller secured a photo of Mr. 

 Alley while in the midst of his queen-rear- 

 ing operations. He had just caged a lot of 

 his cells in Alley nursery- cages. The cam- 

 era caught him in the very act, and I am 

 pleased to introduce him to our readers, 

 showing him the vigorous man that he is. — 

 Ed.] 



IN MEMORUM OF "THE PRINCE OF AMERICAN 

 BEEKEEPERS." 



BY E. R. ROOT. 



Capt. John Edwin Hetherington was born 

 Jan. 7, 1840, in Cherry Valley, N. Y., 

 where he always resided, and died there 

 the last day of the old year. It has been 

 said of him that he would have gained dis- 

 tinction in any occupation, for nature had 

 endowed him with indomitable will power 

 capable of organizing, and executive abili- 

 ties such as would have quickly placed him 

 at the head of any large undertaking. He 

 was born of good ancestry, his father being 

 an educated English gentleman, and his 

 mother of the old Judd family, of Connecti- 

 cut. His father died when he was but 



*A mutual friend had written me a short time before, 

 that Mr. Allty was in his f eclining years, sick, and 

 not long for this world. Full of sympathy I had writ- 

 ten him, expressing my regret over his ph\ sical condi- 

 tion, expressing the hope that he might hold out some 

 years longer. My! what a letter 1 received! He de- 

 sired to a-Eure me that he was far from being a dead 

 man, and hoped I might come and look him over. 



