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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



35, where you state that you made an in- 

 crease of 164 per cent on a white-clover 

 pasture only. After reading all this I am 

 simply uji against it, and can get no head 

 nor tail to the whole business. Such 

 contradictory articles should not be written 

 without full explanations, in order to make 

 a work any good to an amateur. I shall 

 thank you very much for some light on this 

 subject. 



Ellsworth, Wis. - 



[Dr. Miller sends the foregoing to us 

 with his reply.] 



Don't be discouraged if at first there are 

 some things not entirely clear of compre- 

 hension in the literature of beekeeping. It's 

 a study, and by no means a superficial one. 

 When you studied arithmetic or grammar, 

 more than once you came upon things diffi- 

 cult to gTasp, and you were glad to apply 

 for help to " Teacher." Why expect bee- 

 keeping to be so different from other stud- 

 ies? And please don't expect too much 

 in the way of " full explanations " in con- 

 nection with every thing written about bee 

 culture. If every thing were so fully de- 

 tailed that the beginner could not possibly 

 misunderstand, a year later he would com- 

 plain at having the columns lumbered up 

 with unnecessary material. Moreover, in a 

 text-book a misunderstanding often arises 

 because a detached item is taken without 

 full acquaintance with the rest of the book. 



Having said all this, let me hasten to add 

 that there are (probably always will be) 

 discrepancies and contradictions among the 

 writings of beekeepers. Difference in local- 

 ities and conditions lead to difference in 

 views. Besides, beekeepers are human, and 

 so may err in their observations or conclu- 

 sions. 



Now for the thing you say you are up 

 against. Mr. Alexander divides before the 

 clover harvest, and says, " I find I can get 

 nearly twice the amount of surplus " by 

 thus dividing. In the footnote I say, '' If I 

 should follow the plan it would only be at a 

 loss in the honey crop." In thus saying I 

 do not accuse Mr. Alexander of being un- 

 successful, or as misrepresenting. He was 

 a successful beekeeper of the highest integ- 

 rity. But his situation wa.s one out of a 

 thousand. His bees had the range of 50,000 

 acres of buckwheat. His late flow was his 

 chief fldw, if I am not mistaken. If he 

 divided a colony before white clover he 

 could have at the beginning of buckwheat 

 two colonies, each as strong as would have 

 been the one if left undivided. Clearly that 

 should double his buckwheat crop; and even 

 if his clover crop were lessened by dividing. 



his total crop might easily be "nearly twice" 

 what it would be without the dividing. 



My late floAV is small compared with the 

 early flow. If I get a colony to its highest 

 strength by the beginning of white clover I 

 am doing well. If I divide, the yield from 

 clover of the two divided parts will be so 

 much less than the undivided colony would 

 give that no increase of fall flow would 

 make up for it. So if I should divide " it 

 would only be at a loss in the honey crop." 



It may be well" to explain that the thing I 

 tliink esi3ecially misleading on the page 

 mentioned is the statement that you can 

 divide so that " you can have two good 

 strong colonies in the place of one ready to 

 commence work on your clover harvest." 

 On the face' of it, what can the beginner 

 understand but that with the proper man- 

 agement he can, by dividing, double his 

 white-clover crop? Not only do I not be- 

 lieve that it can be doubled in other loca- 

 tions, but I do not believe it can be at all 

 increased in one place in a thousand. Of 

 course, I may be mistaken in my belief; but 

 if I am correct in that belief, such a state- 

 ment should not stand in the A B C and 

 X Y Z without some other warning than 

 the protest in that footnote. If the author 

 of that book thinks I am off in this matter, 

 I'll change the question asked in the foot- 

 note, and say, " What successful man dou- 

 bles his white-clover crop by dividing his 

 colonies before the white-clover harvest ? " 

 If he thinks there's any unfairness in that 

 question, let him please answer this : "What 

 successful man (or unsuccessful) increases 

 his white-clover crop each year by dividing 

 his colonies before the white-clover har- 

 vest ? " Names, please. Two will elicit my 

 wonder; five, a handsome apology. 



You seem to see inconsistency in my 

 thinking that I could increase 100 per cent 

 only at a loss in the honey crop, and then 

 make an increase of 164 per cent myself. 

 Bless your heart, I've made a good deal 

 bigger increase than that. But I didn't 

 increase the honey crop by it — didn't expect 

 to. I increased bees, not honey; and when 

 I increased 164 per cent I didn't get as 

 much honey as if I had increased less or 

 not at all. 



Here's the whole thing in a nut-shell: I 

 believe that where the early harvest is the 

 chief one (and that probably covers the 

 most of the ground) the less increase the 

 more honey ; but if the late crop is sufficient, 

 early doubling may increase the total har- 

 vest. 



Marengo, 111. C. C. Miller. 



[The Alexander method, when it first 

 came out, received a great deal of favorable 



