FEBRUARY 15, 1916 



139 



Dr.C.C.Milw| STRAY STRAWS I Mare„go,Il,. 



It is predicted in European bee 

 journals that the great war will 

 give quite an impetus to beekeep- 

 ing. Well, I'd rather see the bus- 

 ine^=s languish in this country than 

 to have it flourish with that kind 

 of impulse. 



It warms one's heart to see a crusade 

 started in the great city of Chicago to save 

 the boys. It costs much less to stop a boy 

 taking the first step in crime and make a 

 good man of him than it does to wait till 

 he is a man and then convict him of murder. 



A. I. Root asks, p. 81, whether any of 

 the veterans can tell who it was, years ago, 

 that told about a Avire-cloth paddle instead 

 of a wooden paddle to knock down an 

 angry bee. Wasn't G. M. Doolittle the 

 guilty party ■? 



A. I. Root, p. 83, tells of his *' surprise " 

 Christmas present in the way of a bunch of 

 fluffy chicks. I too had a surprise that 

 you'd never guess. In lieu of any other 

 Christmas present, a very dear friend gave 

 me his word that he'd give up entirely the 

 use of tobacco. And I didn't give him a 

 smoker, either. 



Replying to your question, Mr. Editor, 

 p. 5, I don't know the relative strength of 

 honey and sugar — tried to get a ruling 

 from Washington, but failed. But I've had 

 the idea that a pound of sugar Avill sweeten 

 more than a pound of honey. I think a 

 syrup of 21/^ sugar to 1 water is about 

 equal to honey (altho in some respects 

 greatly inferior). 



H. Spuehler, in Schweiz. Bztg., 24, ven- 

 tures the guess that foul brood abounds in 

 this country because so much sugar is fed, 

 and that giving an Italian queen help be- 

 cause Italians do not feed sugar. But I 

 doubt whether sugar is fed here as much as 

 in Europe, judging by the pages and pages 

 in German journals occupied with denatur- 

 ed sugar. Then as to Italians, the queens 

 given are not from Italy, but reared in this 

 country, and so are in just as much danger 

 from sugar-feeding as others. 



Beer consumed in this country in 1913 

 amounted to 18.24 gallons per capita. 

 That's tlie least in 10 years, and 2.3 gallons 

 less than in 1914. It means an average of 

 2/5 of a pint for every man, woman, and 

 child for every day in the year. But some 

 of us didn't drink our share. The per cap- 

 ita of spirits was 1.25 gallons, the least in 

 1() years, and .18 of a gallon less than in 



1914. Let us hope that the pendulum will 

 continue to swing in the same direction in 

 1916. 



Lately I saw the statement that there 

 was no need to have a queen a year old 

 before deciding whether she would be good 

 to breed from, for we could tell before she 

 is three months old what kind of layer she 

 will be. That shows that prolificacy was 

 counted the only thing needed — a view held 

 by many. Such people should read Doo- 

 little, p. 10. I don't see how I can estimate 

 a queen's valuje until she is more than a 

 ^•ear old. 



The United Honey-producers' Associa- 

 tion, under the leadership of Geo. W. Wil- 

 liams, is quoted on page 46 as saying that 

 some of the old fossils will " open their 

 eyes when they wake up some of these 

 mornings and see the United Honey-pro- 

 ducers doing the things that they have been 

 dreaming and talk, talk, talking about for 

 a quarter of a century." Don't be too hard 

 on the '' old fossils," George. Some of 

 them did a good bit more than talk — and, 

 by the way, you're doing some talking your- 

 self — they put up quite a lot of good mon- 

 ey. Like enough, they would commend to 

 you the word of Ahab to Benhadad, " Let 

 not him that girdeth on liis armor boast 

 himself as he that putteth it off." If you 

 will be our Moses, we'll rejoice ; but please 

 don't shy stones at any honest effort of the 

 past, even if it didn't have the same suc- 

 cess you will have. 



" We consider a good windbreak next to 

 packing," says ye editor, p. 56. I wonder, 

 now — I just wonder — whether that might 

 not be made a little stronger. After study- 

 ing over it quite a bit, I feel inclined to say 

 that a sufficient windbreak is more impor- 

 tant than packing. Set a hive without any 

 packing in a dead calm, with a zero tem- 

 perature, and another with the best of 

 packing, in the same temperature but with 

 the wind blowing a gale, and I believe the 

 unpacked hive would have the best of it. 

 To be sure, you're not likely to have a wind- 

 break that will make a dead calm, but it's 

 working toward it; and a windbreak of 

 even a few scattered trees makes more dif- 

 ference in the force of the wind than it 

 generally gets credit for. [We felt just as 

 you did; but on thinking it over we thought 

 that, if we came out as strong as you ex- 

 ])ress yourself, the public might think that 

 we were too radical; but if we can have 

 your company, we shall subscribe to all yot. 

 say. — Ed.] 



