470 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



account. All moneys recovered by the County Attorney 

 for such destruction or treatment shall be paid into the 

 hands of the County Treasurer, to become a part of the 

 fund for the carrying-out of the provisions of this Act. 



Sec. 4.— If any owner or keeper of any diseased colo- 

 nies of bees shall barter or give away any infected bees, 

 honey, or appliances, or shall expose any other bees to 

 the danger of infection of the disease, or shall refuse or 

 neglect to make report as provided in Section 1 of this 

 Act, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and 

 upon conviction thereof shall be fined in any sum not 

 exceeding two hundred dollars. 



Sec. 5.— The fact that the season when young colonies 

 of bees will leave the mother colonies is near at hand, 

 that there is no existing law properly governing colo- 

 nies affected with foul brood, creates an emergency and 

 an imperative public necessity, requiring the suspen- 

 sion of the constitutional rule which requires bills to be 

 read on three several days, and the same is so suspend- 

 ed; and this Act shall take effect and be in force from 

 and after its passage; and it is so enacted. 



Pat M. Neff, Speaker House of Rep. 

 Geo. D. Neal, President Senate. 



Author, Hon. Hal Sevier. 



Passed House, March 20, IWS; ayes, 112; nays, 0. 



Passed Senate, March 30, 1903; ayes, 25; nays, 0. 



It will be noticed that the matter is placed 

 entirely in the hands of the State Entomolo- 

 gist, with full power to act upon the mea- 

 sure. We are very anxious to keep the 

 State free from this dread disease ; and 

 while this law may not be as efficient as it 

 might be it will help much. More will be 

 said about this matter later. 



The early spring which seemed to be so 

 propitious along in March is going to prove 

 to be a late one in most localities. So far 

 as we can gather from reports, bees have 

 gone through the spring well, although 

 brood-rearing has not progressed as rapidly 

 as it has done at other times. At this writ- 

 ing, April 28, the weather is opening up 

 very fine, and the bees are busy bringing in 

 pollen. 



DISTINGUISHED VISITORS AT MEDINA. 



We have just had the pleasure of a visit, 

 although a short one, from Mr. and Mrs. 

 Thos. Wm. Cowan, of the British Bee Jour- 

 nal. They were on their way to their res- 

 idence in California, from which they have 

 been absent for some time. 



Mr. Cowan needs almost no introduction 

 to the readers of Gleanings. He is the in- 

 ventor of the Cowan honey-extractor, and 

 various other devices. Besides being the 

 editor of the British Bee Journal, and 

 Chairman of the British Bee-keepers' Asso- 

 ciation, he is the author of the " British Bee- 

 keeper's Guide," of which 40,000 copies 

 have been printed in English alone. Not 

 only this, it has been published in eight dif- 



ferent languages. Notwithstanding our A B 

 C book has tiad a larger aggregate sale in 

 English, yet Mr. Cowan's Guide has the 

 honor of being the only bee-book that is al- 

 most world-wide in its influence. 



Mr. Cowan is also the author of a beauti- 

 ful scientific work on "The Honey Bee." 

 This has gone through two editions, and, 

 besides, is also printed in two or three dif- 

 ferent languages. Mr. Cowan is, without 

 doubt, not only the most widely known bee- 

 keeper, but the best-posted man on both 

 scientific and practical apiculture in the 

 world.' Knowing this, American bee-keep- 

 ers will always be glad to do him honor. 



counter-articles vs. direct RETRACTIONS 

 OF COMB-HONEY LIES. 



Mr. W. a. Selser, partly under the di- 

 rection of The A. I. Root Co. and partly 

 under that of the Honey-producers' League, 

 has been writing various articles on honey 

 as a food, particularly on the general sub- 

 ject of comb honey and the impossibility of 

 its manufacture. He has interviewed quite 

 a number of publishers and editors, and in 

 most cases he has been fairly successful, 

 either in securing direct retractions or coun- 

 ter-articles giving the truth about honey. 



Mr. Selser remarks in one of his late let- 

 ters that publishers do not like to admit 

 that they have published an untruth in their 

 columns, because they don't like to confess 

 to having published nonsense or a lie. But 

 it is often very easy to get them to accept a 

 counter- article that does not in any way re- 

 fer to the first one, but which gives the 

 facts from the standpoint of the bee-keeper. 

 Mr. Selser thinks (and I believe properly) 

 that sometimes it is not wise to give promi- 

 nence to the original untruth by even men- 

 tioning it— that it is often best to ignore it 

 entirely, and then give a readable article 

 which the publisher will be in duty bound to 

 accept and place before his readers as prom- 

 inently as possible. 



SOME CORRECTIONS ON THE SWARTHMORE 



METHODS; THE SIBBALD NON-SWARMING 



PLAN NOT NEW. 



The following letter, received from Mr. 

 E. L. Pratt, will explain itself: 



I wish to thank you for your kind criticism of the 

 "baby ' and Swarthmore methods in general, given on 

 page 361; there is one or perhaps two points in need of 

 immediate correction in your report, however, lest bee- 

 keepers make a failure of introducing the virgins and 

 condemn the plan. I refer to the number of hours to 

 elapse before the virgins are run in. In your report you 

 say wait from 12 to 24 hours, which is entirely too long. 

 In my book I set 8 hours as the limit of time. Virgins 

 should be run directly into the boxes within 6 to 8 hours. 

 If you wait 24, many will be lost. You recommend that 

 the beginner, "to be on the safe side," use an introduc- 

 ing-cage. In doing this the chances are even greater 

 for serious loss of virgin queens at making-up time. 

 When the nuclei are established, however, the introduc- 

 ing-cage is necessary, or other means of protecting a 

 queen from being balled. 



You will pardon me for the suggestion, but I feel that 

 success in the use of mating-boxes will be materially 

 aided by making these corrections at once. Do not in 

 any event, recommend caging the virgins when first 

 making up the boxes, for many will be lost and the plan 

 will be condemned. 



