JOUR 



• de:.vote.d; 



•andHoNEV- 

 •MD HOME. 



•INTEJtEST^ 



,$l£°PEaYtAR '\@"MED)NA-0H10' 



Vol. XXXIL 



MAY J 5, J 904. 



No. 10 



■^ 



^w«s 



iMkfi^ 



Lr.C.CMiLLER. 



So A. I. Root couldn't g-et along without 

 posies. Good ! I feel sorry for those who 

 have no flowers, and still sorrier for those 

 who don't care whether they have them or 

 not. 



Cutting honey with wire seems to have 

 been carried on in Canada too. John Fix- 

 ter did it in a more wholesale way than 

 any thing' yet reported — had a big wooden 

 tank made so that it could be taken down, 

 leaving a solid block of honey weighing' a 

 ton to be wired into little blocks. Good for 

 Canada! 



Fashion seems to rule quite a bit in bee- 

 keeping as well as in women's shirtwaists. 

 In Europe it is a rather common thing to 

 have horizontal or long-idea hives. Seems 

 to be the fashion there. In this country 

 Poppleton stands nearly alone. But when 

 a man like Poppleton does a thing, it's the 

 same as if a whole lot were at it. 



Golden-leaved salvias were praised 

 hip hly by A. I. Root. I got some and set 

 out in a bed. They were not as good as the 

 common kind — merely looked a little faded. 

 Though they weren't true to name, I tried 

 it again with same result last year. Very 

 likely if I'd kept them in the house they 

 would have been as fine as Bro. Root's. 



Two wings are shown on p. 438, and not 

 a word said about the lower one. Mr. 

 Beginner, those two wings belong together 

 on the same side of a bee, and you'll see a 

 beautiful relation between them if you'll 

 note that set of hooks on the upper margin 

 of the lower wing, which takes hold of the 

 fold in the lower margin of the upper wing. 



E. F. Phillips, p. 439, advises the use 

 of drone foundation. With apologies for the 

 presumption, I demur. Don't the bees 



build drone-cells large enough without foun- 

 dation, except the ti ansition-cells? and if a 

 few drones are raised in transition-cells, 

 will they be in the race at all with their 

 burly brothers reared in the larger cells? 

 [There is a possibility that they might; but 

 I think Mr. Phillips had more in mind 

 queen- breeders putting in drone foundation 

 to make sure that there would be a sufficient 

 number of drones of choice stock and of the 

 right size. — Ed.] 



You SAY, Mr. Editor, that, of course, a 

 section broader than tall, laid on its side, 

 will have one long side not so well filled out 

 as the other long side, and Mr. Hains says 

 no one but an expert would tell the differ- 

 ence. B.th probably true. With a bottom 

 starter in a good flow, even an expert could 

 not probably tell which was which without 

 some study. [Yes, a bottom starter would 

 be a great help; but even then one side of 

 the tall section would be a little plumper, or 

 a little thicker, perhaps — not enough, how- 

 ever, to hurt its appearance in the eyes of 

 the consumer. — Ed.] 



Sometimes there is a tendency to sneer 

 at the work of scientific men who know 

 little or nothing about practical bee-keep- 

 ing, forgetting that sound theory is at the 

 foundation of successful practice. I take 

 off my hat to men like Messrs. Phillips 

 and Casteel, who have the patience to mea- 

 sure the wings of a thousand bees, giving us 

 practical bee-keepers the results. [Mr. 

 Phillips is all right. I know him personal- 

 ly — enough so that I can see that he has in 

 him the instinct of a true scientist. He re- 

 quires to be convinced — not by one case, 

 but by many. The trouble with us ordinary 

 mortals is that we jump at a conclusion be- 

 cause one or two circumstances may point 

 our way. — Ed.] 



" Nuclei " is a word that is used incor- 

 rectly by bee-keepers perhaps more than 

 any other term in bee-keeping. I've been 

 puzzling for some time over "nuclei-ship- 

 ping boxes," p. 429, and I can't be positive 

 whether it's right or not. Get Stenog to 

 set his gray matter to work on it, and see 

 what he decides. [Say, doctor, I do not 



