JULY 1, 1914 



48d 



Dr. C. C. Miller 



JTMAY 



Half-inch bottom-starters are mention- 

 ed, p. 327. As tlie bottom-starter is my 

 baby, I'm anxious it should have the best 

 chance, and would advise against any thing- 

 less than %, no matter what tlie size of the 

 upper starter. The half-inch starter is hard- 

 er to put in, and the bees are more inclined 

 lo tear it down if a dearth occurs. 



"The wave-like motion of the intestines, 

 says Dr. Lorand, is primarily mechanical, 

 and peristalsis can not continue unless there 

 is some bulk of food on which it can take 

 eifect. Hence follows the singular result 

 that if we eat only the food that we ought 

 to eat, that solely essential to nutrition, we 

 should be worse oil than if we ate a great 

 deal of material that has no nutritive qual- 

 ities whatever." This, from a medical jour- 

 nal, is commended to those who are worried 

 about eating comb honey because wax is 

 indigestible. Fact is, if we would be well 

 we must eat a lot of indigestible food, and 

 wax works wonderfully well. [The story is 

 told of a ship captain who ran out of hay 

 for horses on his boat ; but he had jjlenty of 

 oats. But in spite of this concentrated food 

 the horses kept going down. He then in- 

 structed his ship carpenters to take their 

 l)lanes and plane up some of the plank he 

 had. The shavings were then mixed with 

 the oats, when the horses began to build up. 

 Planed shavings are indigestible, but in this 

 case they accomplished the object sought. — 

 Ed.] 



A. I. Root, p. 477, you say there are 12 

 kinds of Presbyterians. Yes, nearly as bad 

 as the " 57 varieties " of Congregationalists. 

 But then, Congi-egationalists iiave no synods 

 and presbyteries to hold them level, and so 

 there can be almost any variety under the 

 same name. But please don't hold me re- 

 sponsible for all the fool things done by 

 Presbyterians. I'm doing my little best to 

 get them all together. But I don't believe 

 in waiting for the 12 kinds of Presbyterians 

 to get together before trying to have a big- 

 ger uniting. I don't believe there's any 

 more excuse for Presbyterians and Congre- 

 gationalists to keep separate than there is 

 for the different Presbyterians. In Canada 

 there's a movement on foot that I hope may 

 soon end in uniting Congregationalists, 

 Methodists, and Presbyterians. God speed 

 the day when we'll " all be one." 



P. S. — My dasheens are up. 



[The time will soon come when we sha)l 



not have so many denominations. A lot of 



weak colonies will not begin to do as much 



effective work as the same numerical 



strength of bees combined into a few good 

 colonies. The same principle holds true in 

 regard to churches. Why in the world 

 church denominations cannot get together, 

 especially in our rural communities, we can 

 not understand. It is a travesty on the 

 Protestant church at large. Theie are hun- 

 dreds of rural communities that have little 

 struggling churches which, if combined into 

 one, would make a power for good. — Ed.] 

 First bloom was seen on white clover 

 May 27, and we began putting on supers. 

 The rule is that the ilow begins ten days 

 after first bloom appears. But this year the 

 bloom increased so rapidly, and was so im- 

 mense in cjuantity, that we thought the ten 

 days might be shortened. When the tenth 

 day came, June 6, and not a thing doing at 

 the hives, we began to make ready to face 

 another year when white clover doesn't give 

 down. June (3 it rained in the forenoon ; 

 but as soon as it cleared at noon and before 

 it was fairly dried off, the nectar began to 

 come in a tiood, and in the ten days since 

 then the flow has kept up whenever it was 

 not raining. The cold has not seemed to 

 make much diff'erence, for it has been pretty 

 cold. While I'm now writing this, at 11 A. 

 M., June 16, it's 03 degrees outdoors, and- - 

 just wait a minute .... Just been down to 

 the apiary where Miss 'Wilson is at work, 

 and I said to her, " Well, how is it? " "Not 

 so very well," she replied ruefully. " It's 

 so cold that they're fearfully cross. It 

 doesn't seem they could be doing any thing 

 when it's so cold, but they have. I've been 

 over sixteen colonies, and I've put on ten 

 fresh supers, and it's only six days since 

 they were given all the suiters they needed. 

 But, aren't they cross? Mercy!" (It's 

 cruelty to animals to have any one work at 

 bees at such a time, and I don't know that it 

 ever happened exactly the same before. ) An 

 unusual combination of circumstances seem- 

 ed to make it imperative that, for several 

 days to come, the bees should be left to 

 themselves. I said, " No need to do any 

 thing to-day — too cold. Instead of doing 

 that row before it's time, it can go a little 

 over time." But with her usual persistence 

 Miss Wilson said, " We'll take no chances ; 

 those colonies will be done to-day." And 

 done they were, or at least they're being 

 done. With the exception of hindrance from 

 rain, the season seems as good as last year, 

 so far. How long it will continue is an- 

 other stoiy. [We are glad that you have 

 prospects of honey. We have none around 

 here unless it comes from basswood. — Ed.] 



