AvcrsT, 1920 



I, V. A X I N R 



R K E 



T U i: E 



479 



HEADS OF GRAIN liPPQiarDTFFERENT FIELDS 



iiiulorstaiul C'alit'ornia eonditioiis and are 

 abk' to make tlie bees jiav. E. R. Root. 



Too Early Orders In reference to your 

 for Bees and editorial on "Too Early 



Queens. Orders," page 329, June 



Gleanings, I value 

 nueloi and pound lots of bees much 

 more highly at the beginning of fruit 

 bloom than I do at the close. In our 

 section of the country it is not a bit more 

 likely to rain during early fruit bloom than 

 later, and receiving the bees early makes a 

 very great difference in the strength of the 

 colony when the clover flow begins. More- 

 over, if a breeder agrees to do a thing and 

 does not do it, he is the man who should 

 make good the loss. Suppose I buy a two- or 

 three-frame nucleus with .i young queen in 

 each for dcliverj- May 1, and that I get 

 them 15 or 20 days late. I have lost the 

 use of that queen for laying every day and 

 at a time when every bee would have been 

 of value to me for the clover flow. The 

 shipper knows this and knows that I did 

 not get the value agreed upon. Therefore, 

 he should seek to make it good. It might be 

 added that generally the stock he ships is 

 not worth, at the point of shij^ping, what it 

 was at the time he agreed to ship it, but with 

 this the purchaser has nothing to do. 



I am afraid that too often the advertiser 

 knows that the chances are he will not be 

 able to carry out his agreement. I will 

 give you an experience of mine. I pur- 

 chased 50 two-pound lots to be sent by a 

 certain date. They were sent. Owing to a 

 shortage of food, about one-half of them 

 were dead. I wrote to the shipi)er and he, 

 like a man and without a murmur, replaced 

 those that died in transit. The second lot 

 was not \eiv tiuH-li better, but I admired 



the manly and fair way in which the ship- 

 per had acted and made no more demands 

 and said no more to him. Justice has a 

 clean-cut live self-interest and often blinds 

 us to what is just, but it should not do so. 



I would buy bees in nuclei at the begin- 

 ning of fruit bloom, but would not want 

 them at all wlien fruit bloom is over, at a 

 time when there is robbing, and when, even 

 aside from this objection, I could not expect 

 them to do more than build up into a full 

 colony without sufficient winter stores. 



Brantford, Ont. R. F. Holtermann. 



QC 



.«f= 



A Plea for the 

 Subduing Cloth. 



tion 

 just 

 how 



I do not think the sub- 

 duing cloth gets its 

 fair share of atten- 

 on this continent. I suppose it is 

 a matter of habit, depending on 

 one was brought up. Personall}^ 

 I like to use both smoke and the subduing 

 cloth. But, if I had to choose between the 

 two, I think I would take the carbolic cloth 

 (lysol cloth it generally is now, as carbolic 

 is so expensive). The little nickel-plated 

 box that shaving soap is sold in, is the ideal 

 thing to keep the cloth in, and the cloth 

 should be cheese-cloth. If you keep two 

 cloths, each in its box, then you will always 

 have a damp one to use. When they dry 

 up, as they do very quickly in hot weather, 

 a little water is all that is necessary; so one 

 doesn't have to carry about lysol to dampen 

 the cloth. Suppose you wish to go thru 

 the brood-chamber of a hive that has a 

 super on, and you are a little afraid of the 

 bees as they are cross hybrids. Pry up the 

 corners of the super just enough to put 

 mat hes across the corners, with each end 

 l)rojecting. Then shake out your cloth and 

 pass the corner of it under the super just 

 insiile the match. Do the sa!n(> at the other 



J'uitalilc i'.\lrii<tiTV_' teiil hi.mIi- up ni iuoM|iiiIo ii<-tliiiir and i-inivas as usetl by A. 

 oiieralf.>. some 1,8(J0 colonies. Notice apiary in ihi 

 background with a grass roof shed over it, 



i:. I.tishcr. Mr. l.ii.'-hcr 



