IS^OVEMBER 15. 1910 



1061 



Dr. C. C. Miller 



STRAY STRAWS r^^^^ 



For feeding as late as Oct. 15, a 

 syrup of two parts sugar to one of 

 water is neeommended, p. 988. 

 Isn't 21/2 to 1, as given p. 963, bet- 

 ter? [In your locality, yes; in 

 ours, 2 to 1 would be strong 

 enough. — Ed.] 

 "A queen not showing sufficient strength 

 to resist European foul brood in the start is 

 not worth any future trials against the dis- 

 ease," p. 967. That may be true in Mr. 

 Meeker's locality; but in my locality the 

 disease may appear in a colony with an 

 excellent queen, and caging her upon first 

 attack is the very best treatment. 



Last Temperance Sunday my Sunday- 

 school class of men thought it might be well 

 to vote the Prohibition ticket, only they 

 couldn't think of losing their votes. " Sup- 

 pose," said I, " an election were to decide 

 whether Marengo was to have saloons, and 

 you were sure the town would go wet, which 

 way would you vote? " " If I were the only 

 one to vote that way," said one, " I'd vote 

 for a dry town." " How about voting for a 

 dry president?" said I. A surprised look 

 went around the class, and one of them with 

 a sheepish grin said, " You've got us." 



You ask, Mr. Editor, p. 966, whether 

 lime, sodium, etc., should not be considered 

 with iron in honey. Sure; and if you Avill 

 turn to p. 841, the place that I supjjose 

 started your query (p. 837) whether I was 

 not attaching too much importance to iron, 

 you will see I said "iron and other matters." 

 I'm entirely with you that all the things you 

 mention, in which honey excels sugar, 

 should be kept before the public constantly, 

 and I'm glad of this opportunity again to 

 stress the minerals in honey, not because 

 more important than other things you men- 

 tion, but because the public — and possibl}' 

 some editors — don't realize that elements 

 minute in quantity may be greatly impor- 

 tant. [We give up. Guess you're right. — 

 Ed.] 



I SAID it was a physical imi)ossibility for 

 bees to build comb with worker-cells one 

 side and drone on the other. Now, what 

 does tliat troublesome Allen Latham do but 

 send me a sample of the " physical impossi- 

 bility," a plain case of drone on one side 

 and worker on the other? He says: "The 

 explanation is simple. Whenever bees work 

 out only one side of a sheet of foundation 

 and put honey in those cells before the oth- 

 ei- side is worked out, then the other side 

 will more often than not be more or less 



drone. I have seen hundreds of sections 

 where tliis occurred. It is doubtful if it 

 ever occurs in natural comb-building." That 

 leaves it still unexplained how bees can 

 build drone-cells on a worker-base. Exam- 

 ination of the samjjle shows that they didn't 

 do so in this case, for the base is reither 

 drone nor worker, but flat. Either he uses 

 foundation with a flat septum, or else his 

 bees have the trick of flattening it. I've 

 seen many thousand sections, many of tliem 

 with one side built out first, but never ob- 

 served a single case like the sample sent. I 

 shall have to modify my statement by say- 

 ing it is a pliysical impossibility for mi/ 

 bees to build worker-cells on one side and 

 drone-cells on the other side of a natural 

 base. But I'm not responsible, Allen, for 

 what fool things your bees may do. 



Arthur C. Miller, you take sides against 

 me, p. 932, for criticising one who said 

 "there is no need of having a queen a year 

 old to determine if she is a good breeder." 

 Please look again at that Straw, p. 139, and 

 you will see that the thing I was objecting 

 to was making prolificacy the only point in 

 choosing a breeder, -the statement having 

 been made " 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 a layer she would be." You 

 would object to that yourself, for you say 

 " my queens are at least eight montlis old 

 before I pick the breeders." But you have 

 some right to object to the unqualified state- 

 ment I made : " I don't see how I can esti- 

 mate a c(ueen's value until she is more than 

 a year old." For that might be understood 

 to mean that no one in any case fould judge 

 a queen under a year old. Here's my 

 ground : I cannot know the value of a queen 

 until she has been in the hive from the very 

 beginning of the season until the close of 

 the honey-floxv. Likely enough you would 

 agree on that. If your queens are only 

 eight months old at the close of the honey- 

 flow, then eight months is old enough to 

 judge. My honey-flow closes toward the 

 last of Sejjtember. At tliat time some of 

 my queens are only a year old, possibly less. 

 But the greater part of those that began the 

 season are more than a year old, and I 

 must know the I'ating of a queen in com- 

 parison ivith others. So I should liave said : 

 I don't see liow I can estimate the relative 

 standing of a queen until my queens aver- 

 age moi'e tlian a year old. Say, Arthur, 

 let's be friends again. 



