APRIL 15, 1916 



303 



Dr. C. C. Miller 



STRAY STRAWS I Marengo,Ill 



Laurenck a. p. Stone says, p. 

 275, " If bees get thru the spring 

 months and to the clover flow with- 

 out contracting European foul 

 brood, it is almost a sure thing 

 that there will not be any until a 

 scarcity of honey again." I know 

 that is claimed, but here it is not likely to 

 put in an appearance until clover begins. 



New Zealand law, which allowed 26 per 

 cent of water in honey, has been changed to 

 20 per cent, largely thru the influence of 1. 

 Hopkins. Analysis of 51 samples of honey 

 gathered from all parts of the country 

 showed the average water content to be 

 16.46 per cent — British Bee Journal, 79. 

 Ts the 25 per cent water allowed in this 

 country a bit liberal? 



A. I. Root, you say you don't entirely 

 agree with me about cross bees, p. 293. I 

 quite agree with you that bees rarely han- 

 dled may be Grosser than those frequently 

 handled. More than that, if continued gen- 

 erations enough it may become a permanent 

 trait. That doesn't bar out heredity. I 

 think you will agree with me that, if you 

 breed from cross stock, cross bees are like- 

 ly to result. If the temper is not transmit- 

 ted by the queen, how is it transmitted? 



George H. Rea, p. 273, you say shaking 

 is more economical than dequeening for 

 European foul brood. May be, if a single 

 shake will do. But you say, " In order to 

 keep your bees clean it is necessary to have 

 the surrounding territory clean." " Ay, 

 there's the rub." How am I to control the 

 surrounding territory? You speak of a 

 colony, by the dequeening plan, being left 

 without a laying queen for two or three 

 weeks, and then of little value for the rest 

 of that season. Eight or ten days, not two 

 or three weeks ; and before I ever had a 

 case of foul brood I had hundreds of cases 

 of big crops from colonics made queenless 

 for ten days, and my bees don't loaf in that 

 ten days. You say, " By the shaking treat- 

 ment the bees lose practically no time." 

 Don't they lose practically all they've done 

 in the previous three weeks ? They do here. 

 If shaking is more economical for you, by 

 all means shake; but it's more expensive 

 for me. 



Rather startling it is to have Doolittle 

 come out flat-footed, p. 236, and say that 

 European foul brood is not conveyed in the 

 honey. I do know that I have fed honey 

 from diseased colonies without conveying 

 the disease, so I know it is not always thus 



conveyed. T am pretty well satisfied that it 

 is continued in a colony by the nurses eating 

 diseased larvae that have not yet become 

 putrid; but how does it get into the hive in 

 the first place, if not by the honey? Likely 

 robbers, in nosing about among the diseased 

 combs with their millions of spores, get 

 spores on their bodies, and a chance one of 

 these in some way gets into the babies' 

 food. If you insist, it can hardly be de- 

 nied that there is one chance in a thousand 

 that a stray spore may fall into the honey. 



The 4x5 plain section is gaining in 

 popularity, we are told, p. 248, but the 

 4^4x414x1% is still in the lead — very 

 gi-eatly in the lead, if I am not mistaken, 

 and at the present rate of gaining popular- 

 ity it will take many a year for the 4 x 5 to 

 overtake it. It should be remembered that 

 the 414 x 1% bas made and held its way 

 without any boom — never a boom so far as 

 I know — but in spite of heavy booming of 

 other kinds. We were told that we could 

 market some other kind for a cent or two 

 more a section, and probably a good many 

 tried it only to be disappointed and return 

 to their first love. You, Mr. Editor, prefer 

 the 4x5. That helps the 4x5 quite a lot. 

 A beginner, seeing your preference, will at 

 once decide the 4 x 5 is the thing for him, 

 will adopt it, and use it successfully, and 

 then think no other kind so good, having 

 tried no other kind. But others of us don't 

 like the 4x5, and will none of it. I won- 

 der if we are not considerably m.ore in the 

 majority than you think. Some prefer sizes 

 other than either 4 x 5 or 4^4 ^ 1% J but the 

 majority, including a good many who have 

 tried other sizes, prefer the 4^4 x 1%. Now 

 if you odd-sizers would sink your personal 

 preferences, and unite to give the 4^4 x 1% 

 a fourth of the boosting the other kinds 

 have had, don't you believe that in a short 

 time we could be rid of the nuisance of 

 having more than one kind? [The 4i4xl% 

 is a long way in the lead, and probably will 

 always hold it. The facts are, the 4 x 5 is 

 making slight gains if the record of sales 

 means anything. Whether it will continue 

 to do so, of course remains to be seen. It 

 would be almost impossible to make the 

 public confine itself down to one section, 

 one hive, one frame, however desirable uni- 

 formity might be. If the shoemaker, for 

 example, could sell only one .style of shoes, 

 and all black, and no tan, it might .simplify 

 his problems in buying his goods; but the 

 fact is, the liuman race is fond of variety, 

 and variety is the spice of life. — Ed.] 



