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Published by The A. I. Root Company, Medina, Ohio 



H. H. Root, Assistant Editor E. R. Root, Editor A. L. Boyden, Advertising Manager 



A. I. Root, Editor Home Department J. T. Calvert, Business Manager 



Enteied at the Postoffioe, Medina, Ohio, as Second-elass Matter 



VOL. XXXIX 



SErTEMBER 1, 1911 



NO. 17 



d]Dil®[PD 



Don't wait too long for better prices or 

 you may get left. Now is the time to sell. 



WHY SINGLE -TIER SHIPPING - CASES ARE 

 BETTER THAN DOUBLE TIER; TWO VER- 

 SUS THREE INCH GLASS. 



Mr. R. B. Slease, of Roswell, New Mexi- 

 co, a bee-keeper who has had some twenty 

 years' experience in shipping honey, votes 

 in favor of the 24-lb. single-tier shipping- 

 case with two-inch glass. He says the trou- 

 ble with the double-tier case is that it is too 

 nearly square; that express men are "just as 

 liable to chuck it down on its side as any 

 other way." "The single-tier case," he goes 

 on to say, "will always go flat or on one 

 end." He does not favor three-inch glass, 

 because that width weakens the case too 

 much. 



R. L. Taylor, in a letter just received, 

 writes: 



There may be lioney tliat looks better behind a 

 three-lncli glass, but I have n>-ver seen it. It's my 

 opinion that a two-inch glass is better every way. 



Lapeer, Mich., Aug. 10. R. L. T.wlor. 



Our older readers will recognize ISIr. Tay- 

 lor as one of the officers of the National Bee- 

 keepers' Association, an old-time contribu- 

 tor to The Bee-keex>ers^ i?ewew, an occasion- 

 al contributor to Gleanings, and one of the 

 prominent bee-keepers t)f Michigan. This 

 question of the proper width of shipping- 

 case glass is an important one. Dr. Miller 

 favors a three-inch glass because he thinks 

 it shows olT the honey to better advantage. 

 While this is probably so, the added width 

 weakens the case rather more than the dif- 

 ference in proportion to the two widths 

 would indicate. See what Mr. Foster, in 

 his department in this issue, page 517, .says 

 on the subject. 



NOT GUILTY AS CHARGED. 



There has been some little discussi<m go- 

 ing on in Connecticut concerning the ques- 

 tion whether bees puncture sound fruit. One 

 correspondent in The ConnectiGut Farmer, 

 who takes issue with the statements made 

 in our ABC and X Y Z of Bee Culture, 

 that bees do not puncture sound fruit, says 

 the perforations of plums, which he alleges 



the bees made, "were quite too small and 

 delicate to have been made the by tiniest 

 beak of bird." In this he shows his woeful 

 ignorance. The facts are, there are several 

 birds that make very small perforations. 

 One of them in particular, the Cape May 

 warbler [Dendroiea tigrina), makes an in- 

 cision no larger than would be made by a 

 common darning-needle. Some of the holes 

 are no larger than would be made by a com- 

 mon pin. We have caught Cape May war- 

 blers in the very act of making perforations 

 on grapes, and immediately examined the 

 fruit after the bird had flown, and before 

 any bees were on the job. Of course, the 

 ees later on, if it be during a dearth of hon- 

 ey, visit the damaged fruit and suck the 

 juices out until it shrivels up into a wither- 

 ed mass. 



It has been proven over and over again 

 that bees will not puncture sound fruit, al- 

 though they will help, many times, to de- 

 spoil fruit already damaged "that would rot 

 unless used at once. 



HONEY-CROP CONDITIONS : A CAUTION CON- 

 CERNING THE RECENT ADVANCE IN 

 PRICES. 



It is becoming more and more apparerrt 

 that the honey season east of the Mississip- 

 pi River and north of the Ohio has been 

 more nearly a complete failure than for 

 many years back. While there are bee- 

 keepers here and there who have been fa- 

 vored with exceptionally good crops, the 

 great mass of prodticers throughout the 

 northeastern portion of the country have 

 secured no surplus; and those more fa\ored 

 have hardly enough to carry their colonies 

 into winter quarters without feeding. Clo- 

 ver and basswood honey will be scarce this 

 year — particulaily in the comb. 



The conditions west of the Mississippi 

 have been much more favorable. It would 

 ajtpear from our Rocky Mountain depart- 

 ment, this issue, edited by Mr. Foster, that 

 for his section of the great West there will 

 be a fair crop of alfalfa. Some of the other 

 alfalfa States will have from a light to a fair 

 crop. California, from the latest reports, 

 taking the State as a whole, has had a good 

 crop. Some bee-keepers in the southern 

 portions of the State, however, will have a 



