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



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



A. I. Root, Editor Home Uopartmeiii. J. T. Calvert, Business Mgr. 



Entered at the Postoffice, Medina, Ohio, as second-class matter. 



VOL. XLII. 



MARCH 15, 1914 



NO. 6 



Editorial 



THE HEAVY SNOWS AND CLOVER. 



Thk heavy snows that have covered the 

 iiTouud all over the North during the last 

 month will go a long way toward insuring 

 a good crop of white, alsike, and sweet 

 cloxer. The snows not only protect the 

 clovers, but thoroughly wet down the soil 

 for the early spring growth. 



WEATHER IN SOUTHERN FLORIDA. 



The weather has been very beautiful in 

 Bradentown — bright si.inshine and a cool 

 crisp air while the Northern pajDers repert 

 blizzards, zero weather, and snow. It has 

 been cool at night, in the morning, and 

 evening, and warm during the middle of the 

 day. Ordinarily it is much warmer than 

 this; but the exceptional cold weather in the 

 North has had its influence in the South. 



THE COLD FEBRUARY AND ITS POSSIBLE 

 EFFECT ON WINTERING. 



The exceptionally cold February through- 

 out the North, preceded bj^ a comparatively 

 mild December and January, may have a 

 bad effect on outdoor-wintered bees, par- 

 ticularly if brood-rearing got much under 

 way in the warmer part of the winter; but 

 the cold coming so late probably will not 

 do much damage if March is not too severe. 

 The cellared bees of course will be all the 

 better oft' for the cold. We are not sorry 

 that the most of our bees are in Floiida this 

 winter, and the rest in our Medina cellars. 



OUR COVER PICTURE. 



The cover picture for this issue shows 

 the result of taking a colony of bees from 

 a tree, as described by J. Bakula, page 221, 

 of this issue. 



If the work is done at the right time of 

 ;he year and in the right way, a good strong 

 colony of bees may often be obtained be- 

 sides considerable honey. Ordinarily it does 

 not pay to remove bees from trees in the 

 fall; for unless conditions are unusually 

 favorable the colony obtained can not be 

 wintered with any degree of success. Very 

 early in the fall might be all right if the 

 bees have time afterward to adjust them- 



selves to their new surroundings; but, of 

 course, unless one has watched the bees in 

 the tree for some time he runs the risk of 

 having all his trouble for nothing. More 

 than one large tree has been cut down in 

 the fall, revealing only a late swarm, and 

 a weak swarm at that, with practically no 

 honey. 



THE ROOT BEES AT APALACHICOLA. 



The last reports from our apiary on the 

 Apalacliicola River show that the weather 

 has been cool and unfavorable during th.e 

 last two weeks of February. Notwithstand- 

 ing, our Mr. Marchant in charge says the 

 bees have been breeding right along, and 

 that he is now about ready to put on upper 

 stories ; but he has had to feed. The bloom 

 from ty-ty is just opening up, and it is ex- 

 pected that the yard will be on the boom. 

 Before swarming, the two-story colonies 

 will be divided and another yard* establish- 

 ed. 



E. R. R., now in Florida, after visiting 

 the southeast coast, will go on up to Apa- 

 lacliicola, arriving there from the 12th to 

 the 15th of March. The weather was so 

 oool on coming into Florida on the 13th of 

 February that he decided to visit our apiary 

 just before his return to Ohio. The defer- 

 red visit will give him a better opportunity 

 to study conditions and thus better deter- 

 mine whether the experiment of moving 

 carloads of bees into this region for increase 

 and honev is a success. 



AN EXPLANATIOa. 



Quite by accident, we left out the last 

 half of J. L. Byer's discussion in tlie last 

 issue relating to the condition of the honey 

 market in Ontario. As his first paragraph 

 on the subject was not very complete, we 

 hasten to place the rest of it before our 

 readers at this time. The second paragraph 

 in (s(uestion is as follows: 



As nearly all beekeepers in Ontario know, for a 

 number of years the Ontario Beekeepers' Association 

 has appointed a committee each year to gather statis- 

 tics as to crops of honey, and then they advised each 

 member as to what price they should expect for their 

 crop. I suppose that, if the beekeepers had been in- 



