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Vol XXXII. 



-Publi5hedo/THE"A ll^OO-f Co 



tr^^^^'^^^t^Sia^PERY'EAR "X® "Medina-Ohio- 

 NOV. U J904. Na 21 





Years ago I did a lot of fastening foun- 

 dation in frames as described on p. 969, but 

 the present-day kerf-and-wedge plan is away 

 ahead. 



"The best package for extracted honey 

 is the white iron drums holding about 60 

 gallons each," p. 986. That would be 700 

 pounds or more. I'm puzzled to know 

 whether it really means that, or a 60-pound 

 can. 



"What is the cause of the sour smell I 

 notice about all apiaries at this season of the 

 year?" writes a correspondent. Likely 

 some peculiar honey source. Not all years, 

 but a few years, in my home apiary there 

 has been for a short time a very offensive 

 odor when a hive was opened, and I could 

 lay it to nothing but the honey gathered. 



Rotten wood soaked in saltpeter is what 

 the editor says I use, p. 984. Cotton rags, 

 my boy, cotton rags. More convenient in 

 my case. [About this use of saltpeter, there 

 was a time when you used to soak rotten 

 wood in such solution, if I am not mistaken. 

 You lighted one of these pieces, then put in 

 other fuel that had not been so treated. If 

 I am mistaken, I standcorrected. — Ed.] 



I'm afraid beginners will understand, 

 from what is said on p. 983, that it's a good 

 plan to put an unfinished super of sections 

 on a swarm as soon as hived. Whether full 

 sheets or starters are used in the brood- 

 chamber, the danger of the the queen going 

 up is sufficiently great to make it advisable 

 in all cases to give no super till work in 

 brood-chamber is started, unless an excluder 

 is used. 



" A popular fallacy " is what 0. O. Pop- 

 pleton, in American Bee-keeper, calls the 

 notion that much more honey can be ob- 



tained by extracting unsealed honey than by 

 waiting till it is in right condition. In Cuba 

 he had special advantages for observation, 

 and proves pretty clearly that "nearly or 

 quite i^o of all loss of weight of newly gath- 

 ered honey in the hive occurs during the first 

 12 or 15 hours after it is first deposited in 

 the hives. ' ' Might be rather severe to say 

 so, but it looks as if the man who puts on 

 the market some of the unripe stuff to be 

 found there is not only dishonest but a fool 

 as well to spoil his market without any com- 

 pensating gain. 



General Manager France, in giving 

 that lot of names as candidates, p. 973, has 

 followed his own notion, not the rule of the 

 directors. The rule is that ' ' the two men 

 receiving the greatest number of votes for 

 each respective office are to be candidates 

 for such office." The spirit and intent of 

 that rule is that those two shall be candi- 

 dates, and no others. If the intent had 

 been that all were to be considered on equal 

 footing, what sense was there in saying any 

 thing about the two highest? When that- 

 rule was submitted, I sent an earnest pro- 

 test to the chairman, but there was no- 

 chance for discussion. A little wire-pulling- 

 might succeed in giving the highest prelimi- 

 nary vote to two men not the choice of the 

 whole, and the best man for the place en- 

 tirely shut out of the race. If there had 

 been any chance for discussion, I don't be- 

 lieve the directors would have passed any 

 such rule. 



That man Laws told such big stories 

 about such little nuclei that it raised the 

 question whether he wasn't a bit up in the 

 air; but when I saw him and talked with 

 him at St. Louis he impressed me as a very 

 solid sort of man, built from the ground up. 

 He modestly disclaims entire originality as 

 to all his plans, but all the same he deserves 

 great credit for giving us so clearly plans 

 that may be carried out at such a saving. 

 [One of the great benefits of attending a 

 bee convention is to see the very people 

 whose articles we have read for years. 

 Sometimes our impressions are unfavorable 

 and others very favorable, with the result 



