Vol. XXXIV. 



SEPT. 1. J 906 



No 17 



Puke mating is guaranteed with no othei' 

 bees within hve miles, in ad., p. 1087. With 

 three different kinds of bees within that five 

 miles, how is pure mating secured? 



" The novice should distinctly understand 

 that natural swarming does nothing toward 

 renewing or superseding a quee i, and that 

 there is just as good a chance for the renew- 

 al of a queen if a colony never swarms." — 

 American Bee Journal. 



The editor of Bienenvater stipulates that 

 in migratory bee-keeping the man who drives 

 the team should be an al«tainer, as many a 

 mishap in hauling bees has been due to a 

 drunken driver. Right you are, Herr Al- 

 fonsus; and abstinence is a good thing for 

 the bee-keeper as well. Among American 

 bee-keepers the man who uses either whisky 

 or tobacco is a rara avis. 



I AM GLAi> to see Mr. A. I. Root intei'ested 

 in bees: but it luakes me a I)it sad to see him 

 playing with toy hives, so as to favor natu- 

 ral swarming and coml:)-l3uilding without 

 foundation, when that brain of his might be 

 of so much use to those of us with whom bee- 

 keeping is a matter of bread and butter if he 

 would work at our kind of ])ee-keeping. But 

 I'd rather he would play with them than not 

 to handle them at all. 



A. I. Root thinks that, to avoid side fins 

 and attachments, bees must be allowed at 

 least some little comb-building in the hive, 

 without foundation, p. 1074. But, but. Bro. 

 Root, if we "have got rid of everj' bit of 



drone coml) except in the hives where we 

 want some drones reai'ed," as you advise, p. 

 1078, will they not be sure to build drone 

 comb if they have no foundation? 



Pkof. Cook said in American Bee Journal 

 that in Uadant and Grimm we got the best 

 Europe had to give. Commenting on this, 

 Herr A. Schi^oeder asks in 111. Monatsblaet- 

 ter, "How about Wagner, who founded the 

 American Bee Journal") and Huber. the blind 

 seer? and Dzierzon. the discoverer of par- 

 thenogenesis? and Hruschka, the inventor of 

 the honey-extractor? and Mehring. the in- 

 ventor of coml) foundation? and Leandri, 

 the inventor of the solar wax-extractor? — 

 only to name a few — were these indeed 

 Americans? " 



As EXPLAINED, p. 1048. Mr. Editor, your 

 view of sweet clover is all right, and I heart- 

 ily endorse what A. 1. R. says. It is very 

 hard to get a stand of sweet clover on ground 

 in good tilth, but very easy to get a good 

 stand on the hardest ground by the roadside. 

 It is more easily kept down by cultivation 

 than many weeds. The only place where it 

 will keep its hold is in hay or pasture land, 

 and it is a good thing to have some of it 

 there; but I don't want it on a lawn. [I do 

 not see how it could grow on a lawn, doe- 

 tor. The frequent cuttings would kill it. 

 Or is it possible I am mistaken? Some of 

 our readers who have tested this, can, per- 

 haps, tell us. — Ed.] 



DooLiTTLE is right; two staples are enough 

 to fasten bottom-boards when hives are not 

 to be hauled, p. 1070; but instead of putting 

 them midway of the length I prefer them at 

 two corners diagonally opposite— just a little 

 more sure to keep the hive square on the 

 bottom-board. [We have used both ways; 

 but we prefer to put them on as Doolittle 

 does. If the bottom-board is a little out of 

 true, fastening them at the diagonally oppo- 

 site corners may not close up the gaps, al- 

 though if the high or low corners were diag- 



