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Vol. XXXII. 



OCT. I, 1904. 



No. 19 



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Joke on W. K. Morrison, p. 892. Right 

 after saying the papers get mixed when 

 tall<;ing about pigeons and dogs, he gets 

 mixed himself when talking about the Dr. 

 Walkers. Friend Morrison, it was Eynma 

 that started the row in The Ladies' Home 

 Journal, not Dr. Mary of the bifurcated 

 garments. 



If you want to make an easy job of 

 scouring your silverware (this is for the 

 sisterhood), try this: Take an aluminum 

 dish, put in it a suds made with ivory soap, 

 and in this boil your articles of silverware. 

 That's the way it's done at our house, and 

 it's away ahead of any sort of scouring— 

 the things come out as bright as new, only 

 it's something of a job to clean the alumi- 

 num dish. 



Replying to S. LaMont's question about 

 young queens swarming, p. 897, there may 

 be a difference in locality and season, and 

 perhaps more in bees. In my own case, if a 

 young queen only three or four weeks old 

 begins laying in a colony after the opening of 

 the honey harvest, there being no unsealed 

 brood in the hive when she begins to lay, I 

 have no further anxiety about that colony 

 swarming that season. 



King-birds pronounced not guilty be- 

 cause no dead bees in stomach, p. 888. But 

 there has been very positive testimony that 

 they do kill them. They just mash 'em and 

 spit 'em out, so of course no dead bees would 

 be found in stomach. [Yes; since the item 

 referred to was published there have been 

 reports from various sources showing that 

 the king-birds in some cases may be a seri- 

 ous menace to queen-rearing operations. In 

 some yards, at least, it may be advisable to 

 use a shotgun if many queens would be rear- 

 ed. -Ed.] 



Thanks, friend A. I., for giving us that 

 poem, "Come in the evening or come in the 

 morning," p. 898. I read it to Mrs. Miller, 

 and she said, in a half-meditative way, "If 

 there was a little more of that nowadays, 

 there wouldn't be so many divorces, would 

 there?" But say, friend Root, if you like 

 that sort of thing— and I'm sure I do— the 

 old Scotch songs ought just to suit you. I'd 

 like to sing 'em to you for half an hour. 



"If the new queen has acquired the scent 

 of the bees of the hive, ' ' etc. , p. 8{i6. Where 

 does that scent originate? Don't know just 

 where I got the idea, but I always supposed 

 that the queen was the one that carried the 

 perfumery-bottle. Have I got to unlearn 

 that? [Yes and no. Whether the queen 

 may carry the scent-bottle, I think that we 

 can be reasonably certain that she must ac- 

 quire the general scent of the colony; other- 

 wise she is regarded as an intruder and is 

 treated accordingly. —Ed] 



Very interesting is that article of Dr. 

 E. F. Phillips, page 846, and it seems quite 

 reasonable to believe that young bees do not 

 go afield because they can not see. Yet it 

 must not be ignored that very young bees, 

 under stress, have been reported as doing 

 field work. In my own experience I had 

 one such case. An imported queen was shut 

 in a hive with absolutely not a worker pres- 

 ent, but with just-emerging worker brood. 

 Five days later the entrance was opened, 

 and in a short time the five-day youngsters 

 returned with loads of pollen. [We have 

 had other reports that young bees will go to 

 the field very early; indeed, we have one in 

 hand now that is not yet published. Wheth- 

 er this militates against Dr. Phillips' theory 

 or observations, I can not say. — Ed.] 



A plain flat board suits J. A. Green best 

 for a hive-cover, with two stones to keep it 

 flat when it obstinately refuses to stay flat, 

 p. 885. Same thing here, only I want a hol- 

 low place filled with wind in the center of 

 the cover, the grain of the wood above and 

 below running in opposite directions— cooler 

 than a solid board in hot weather, and warm- 

 er in cold weather. And next time Editor 

 Root sees them he'll tell you they stay flat 

 without compulsion. [I am rather of the 



