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Vol XXXIII. 



SEPT. J 5. 1905. 



No. J 8 



I WANT TO ASK my friends to waste no 

 votes on me for director of National, as, un- 

 der no circumstances, am I to be considered 

 a candidate for re-election. [But a lot of 

 us will vote for you just the same. There 

 are a few old officers that should be retain- 

 ed, and you are one of them. — Ed.] 



No REPLY is given to J. W. Stoutzenberg, 

 p. 919, as to whether he should transfer now 

 or next year. Wouldn't he do better to 

 wait till next spring? or, still better, until 

 three weeks after the bees have swarmed? 

 There is probably three times as much trans- 

 ferring done in England as here— may be ten 

 times as much; and nowadays the British 

 Bee Journal advises to let the bees swarm 

 first. 



Brother McCain has brought out a good 

 idea, p. 919. When using greasy waste I've 

 always been careful not to get my fingers 

 daubed with it— don't like the smell. Then 

 I'd smear my fingers with butter to get off 

 the glue— must try the plan of going to the 

 hive with ' ' butter-fingers ' ' prepared in ad- 

 vance. [At this time of year propolis is apt 

 to be abundant and very sticky. It is a 

 good suggestion to grease the fingers before 

 commencing work among the bees. — Ed.] 



Mr. Doolittle, page 917, says nothing 

 about the crock-and-plate feeder for those 

 who have no regular feeders. I wonder if 

 the milkpan-and-grass plan is really better. 

 At any rate, that g^reen-grass idea is good. 

 [We are in the habit of recommending to 

 those who have no feeder a common tin pan. 

 Pour m water and syrup, equal proportions, 

 and stir it till it is dissolved. Over this is to 

 be placed, directly in contact with the syr- 

 up, a piece of wet cheese-cloth. This will 

 float; and when the syrup is taken up, the 

 cloth will remain in the bottom, sucked dry. 



Where there is a super or upper story on 

 the hive there is hardly any feeder that is 

 better. —Ed.] 



In uniting by setting one colony over the 

 other, 0. S. Rexford is told, page 919, that 

 "the moved lot will give back many of its 

 old bees to the old stand." Didn't you for- 

 get when you said that, Mr. Editor, that the 

 moved lot has been imprisoned three days, 

 according to Mr. Rexford? But I would 

 strongly advise the unqueening of the mov- 

 ed lot. [You are right. I had overlooked 

 the fact of a three-day confinement, and I 

 therefore withdraw my objection. — Ed.] 



I'm afraid. Bro. A. I. Root, that some 

 may take it, from what is said on page 921, 

 that the conversion of a child is of less con- 

 sequence than that of a grown person. I've 

 known at least one minister to hold that 

 view, but I hardly think you do. If John 

 Smith is a better man for his conversion at 

 40, he should be a still better man if he had 

 begun a Christian life at 20, and I don't 

 know by what rule he should not be a still 

 better man if he had begun at 10. Do you? 

 The longer one works at bee-keeping the 

 better bee-keeper he should be; and it sure- 

 ly ought to be true that, the longer one 

 works at being a Christian, the better Chris- 

 tian he ought to be. 



After reading the new book, "How to 

 Keep Bees, ' ' by Anna Botsf ord Comstock, 

 I agree with Editor Hutchinson that it 

 smacks of being written by one who had 

 read up for it rather than by one who had 

 got her knowledge from the bees them- 

 selves. Certainly any one who should rank 

 it as the best book for a beginner, or for 

 one who intends to keep only a few colo- 

 nies, can hardly be as familiar as he ought 

 to be with the contents of Root's ABC. 

 [While the book may not be technically cor- 

 rect, yet it is a very nice addition to our 

 bee-lore. Lack of technical accuracy would 

 apply to several bee-books, but which, nev- 

 ertheless, have very much merit. — Ed.] 



A perfect feeder for outdoors is called 

 for, p. 906. There is none, except the flow- 

 ers. Here's what I've tried, and if you're 

 willing to take the trouble it works well: 



