1062 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15 



sional colony that might be lost because it 

 could not be removed from the immediate 

 vicinity of another colony that was "creat- 

 ing a disturbance "?— Ed.] 



" Bees will yield as much money as any 

 outdoor pursuit, and a great deal more than 

 the poultry business on the average," page 

 1029. I don't arise to contradict that— mere- 

 ly to say I'd like to see figures for it. [I 

 have not the figures; but I do have a definite 

 knowledge of several young men who have 

 gone into the poultry business quite exten- 

 sively, and sunk every cent they had. I can 

 recall but very few, outside of the farmer, 

 whose chickens can get feed at little or no 

 cost, and the resident in town, who keeps 

 four or five hens, or perhaps a dozen, to 

 convert the refuse from the house into eggs, 

 who have ever been able to make money in 

 the hen business. — Ed.] 



Yellow- JACKETS have their abode in a 

 box that's under one of C. M.'s hives, the 

 hive and super being very heavy with honey. 

 He wants to know what to do. One way is 

 to get some one to help lift off the hive, you 

 and he being well veiled and gloved, smoking 

 the yellow- jackets heavily, and then destroy- 

 ing the nest, killing as many of the beasts 

 as possible. Another way would be to go in 

 the evening and give them a good dose of 

 bisulphide of carbon. Possibly you could 

 squirt in enough gasoline to do the business. 

 [The latter plan, in my opinion, is altogeth- 

 er better. My one experience with hornets 

 leads me to believe that they must not be 

 tackled in the open. Even at night I think 

 I would squirt in the bisulphide as soon as 

 possible and get away.— Ed.] 



G. M. Doolittle, p. 1025, says that, with 

 the narrow stripe of yellow on the fourth 

 segment of the abdomen, "came the con- 

 tention that the Italian was not a pure race 



of bees for, if bees showing three 



bands are pure, what are those showing yel- 

 low on four bands?" If I understand the 

 trend of that argument, it is that three 

 bands can not be so pure as something with 

 more yellow. That argument will hardly 

 hold. If three bands Ue the mark of the 

 pure type, then any change either toward 

 less or more yellow will be getting away 

 from the pure type. If the argument be 

 that Italians are not pure because they have 

 varied, then it will be hard to find any thing 

 pure under the sun, for sports are to be 

 found in most of the things that are called 

 pure. [Dr. Miller is correct. All pure 

 races sport more or less; but these sports 

 always tend to revert to the original type; 

 and this tendency, to one set of markings 

 or characteristics, is the best evidence of 

 the purity of the stock. The five-banders, 

 -?/ left to themselves, will inevitably work 

 back to three bands.— Ed.] 



Not so certain that the worms mention- 

 ed by L. L. Brockwell, p. 1028, are only the 

 old familiar moth-worms. One year, and I 

 rather think never but that one year, I had 

 some cases much as he describes. Here and 

 there would be a group of three or four 



young bees in their cells, uncapped and 

 wriggling around as if trying hard to get 

 out, but unable to do so because held fast at 

 the bottom. On digging out the bees I 

 found a small worm at the bottom— never a 

 large worm, and never a gallery web. Either 

 it was something different from the com- 

 mon wax-worm, or the common worm per- 

 formed in those few cases in a way different 

 from any thing I ever saw before or since. 

 I am strongly of the opinion that it was not 

 the common wax-worm. [You are doubtless 

 correct; and these little worms that you 

 speak of may be the cause of the trouble 

 mentioned by a correspondent elsewhere in 

 these columns. — Ed.] 



Early-order discounts. The American 

 Bee Journal figures out in a way that can't 

 be disputed that the man who gets a discount 

 of 10 per cent on supplies bought before Oct. 

 1, which supplies he would otherwise buy at 

 full prices the first of next June, is getting 

 interest on the money advanced at the rate 

 of 16§ per cent per annum. Let's figure 

 what it will be to order in October and get 

 9 per cent discount rather than to wait till 

 June 1. Nov. 1 to June 1. 7 months. Nine 

 per cent off $100 leaves $91. That is, $9L 

 gains $9 in 7 months; and that's at the rate 

 of 16 1% per cent per annum. Good interest. 

 [A good many people have not yet learned 

 that one way to earn money is to be fore- 

 handed. In this deal, both parties are the 

 gainer. The manufacturer is willing to 

 work for less profit in the dull season, in 

 order that he may keep his men going. The 

 bee-keeper not only saves money, but he 

 gets his stuff at a time of the year when he 

 has leisure, can put it together, and have it 

 all ready for the spring rush. Delays in 

 getting goods in the height of the honey 

 season are very expensive and exasperating, 

 to say the least.— Ed.] 



' ' Was it not our duty to work and pray 

 a little harder for these men? " is a question 

 A. I. Root asks, p. 1035, I suppose ' ' harder 

 for these men than for children" is meant. 

 Evidently you base your judgment on 

 your belief that the boy of ten is more likely 

 to backslide than the man of forty, Bro. 

 Root. I think a careful study will change 

 your belief. I think the testimony of Spur- 

 geon and others is to the effect that there 

 is less falling away among children than 

 among adults. Suppose, however, that the 

 boy is twice as likely to fail as the man. If 

 he is twice as easily won, then the account 

 balances. I confess, however, that there's 

 a good deal in your argument that getting 

 the strong men will help get the children. 

 But these things are hardly settled by the 

 ordinary rules of arithmetic. We ought to 

 work with all our might for the child, and 

 we can hardly work harder for the man. 

 And surely we ought to do our utmost for 

 the man, seeing his chance is constantly be- 

 coming less; and I'm not going to quarrel 

 with you about which you should work hard- 

 er for so long as you're using all your pow- 

 ers to work for either. 



