GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



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



E. R. Root, Editor H. H. Root, Managing Editor 



A. I. Root, Editor Home Department J. T. Calvert, Business Manager 



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



VOL. XLIV. 



NOVEMBER 1, 1916 



iiiiMiiiMiiimHinii 



NO. 21 



EDITORIAL 



GLEANINGS A MONTHLY AFTER JANUARY 1 



We have long cherished the hope of making Gleanings a monthly publication — one 

 that might compare favorably with the standard magazines that now grace our tables. The 

 time now seems auspicious for starting an improvement in this direction, and we feel sure 

 that our readers, when they see what we are going to give them during the next year, will 

 be delighted. 



The first and foremost purpose of the change from a semi-monthly to a monthly is to 

 give the editors of Gleanings the needed time to make a better and handsomer journal ; for 

 the financial fact is that the cost of the new monthly for a year will exceed the present year- 

 ly cost of the semi-monthly. While some economies will be eifeeted in the amount of paper 

 used and in mailing, this saving will be put into a better quality of paper, better printing 

 better engravings, better subject-matter, and a larger journal. 



Practically all the magazines in the counti-y are now either in the weekly or monthly 

 class. There is no need of a weekly bee publication, and no good reason for continuing 

 a semi-monthly if it stands in the way of an improved monthly publication of a higher class. 



If, at the end of the year 1917, there should be a subscriber to Gleanings (now paid in 

 advance for the next year) who feels that he has not had his full money's worth in the 

 new and better monthly journal, we will then refund to liim the amount of his subscription 

 upon his request to do so. 



A. I. Root will continue to give the readers of Gleanings nearly if not quite as much 

 of his matter in the new monthly as in the present semi-monthly for two issues. 



We are looking forward to a bigger and better Gleanings with enthusiasm, and 

 hope and tiiist that every reader will share this enthusiasm with us. 



Asters Yielding Better after Frost 



Our Mr. Mel Pritchard, who has charge 

 of our queen-rearing yards at the bass- 

 woods, reports that bees worked well this 

 fall on asters, but while tiie flow was at no 

 time heavy it was continuous. 



WTien we asked him if the frosts had not 

 IDretty well cleaned them out — " Cleaned 

 them out ? " he said ; " why, I have always 

 noticed that the asters yield better after 

 frost than before." 



A few days ago we had a very severe 

 frost — so severe that we naturally conclud- 

 ed that even the asters that would stand 

 ordinary frost would go down with all other 

 vegetation ; but they did not. Even at this 

 date, Oct. 21, the asters ar? looking well; 



and if warm weather is coming on they will 

 yield something yet, according to Mr. 

 Pritchard. 



Death of Prof. A. J. Cook 



We have known for some time that Dr. 

 Cook, State Horticultural Commissioner of 

 California, was in ill health; and we also 

 knew that he was obliged to drop his work ; 

 but we were not aware that death was so 

 near. We see by the Western Honey Bee 

 for October that he died September 29 last. 



Dear old Prof. Cook was one of the 

 pioneers in modern beekeeping in this coun- 

 try in the early '70's and '80's. He was not 

 only a prominent writer but one of the most 



