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Vol. XXXIIL 



DEC I, 1905. 



No 23 



A. I. Root doesn't know that he has had 

 experience with blue grass, but he has with 

 June grass, page 1201. Friend Root, blue 

 grass is Poa pratensis, and so is June grass. 

 They're one and the same thing. 



So A. I. Root "will go back to his old 

 love, the bees," p. 1177. Good! But say, 

 Bro. A. I., don't go so crazy on bees that 

 you can't stop now and then to give a whack 

 at humbugs, rotten politics, and some other 

 things. 



I AGREE perfectly with you, Mr. Editor, in 

 the ground you take, p. 1174, as to the im- 

 portance of having piles of sections well 

 ventilated. I didn't raise any question as to 

 that; but my question was as to the need of 

 another set of receptacles for it, instead of 

 piling up in the supers. Possibly friend 

 Green has receptacles that are more open 

 than supers, but I didn't understand it so. 

 [1 stand corrected. — Ed.] 



A QUESTION is asked of me by that canny 

 Scotchman, D. M. Macdonald, British Bee 

 Journal, p. 425. Referring to what I say of 

 that group of teachers so grittily holding on 

 to their bee-covered combs in that picture 

 in Gleanings, page 914, he says: "Thanks, 

 Dr. Miller, for what you say of my young 

 brethren in the group; but why leave out 

 the gentler sex? / think they are so bonnie 

 that they must all be of Scotch descent. 

 What can I say more than that?" Friend 

 Macdonald, I don't know any thing better to 

 say of them. 



"I HAVE OFTEN TRIED to Satisfy myself 

 as to whether the bee is more profitable 

 from the standpoint of wax or honey, but I 

 can't do it," says Stenog, p. 1177. If you 

 mean whether one can make more money by 

 producing honey or wax, you ought to be 

 able to satisfy yourself easily. You proba- 



bly never saw a bee-keeper who made as 

 much money from his wax as from his hon- 

 ey. The fact that there are a few places 

 where wax is more profitable cuts little fig 

 ure in the case, I think. I beheve it is not 

 because wax is so profitable, but because 

 honey is so unprofitable, the expense of get- 

 ting to market eating up all the profit on 

 honey. If it costs 6 cts. per lb. to reach the 

 market, and on that market brings 6 cts. 

 and wax 30, the honey will be practically 

 worthless, while the wax will bring a pay- 

 ing price. 



Prop. Bigelow, I respect your plea, page 

 1187, for attention to some other things 

 than simply those that pertain to getting 

 the most honey from bees; but we may as 

 well recognize the fact that naturalist^^ and 

 bee-keepers are in two separate classes. We 

 look up to naturalists as a superior order of 

 beings, but it would hardly do to have noth- 

 ing but naturalists. Shoemakers are need- 

 ed; so are bee-keepers. So please don't 

 blame us too much for being bee keepers, 

 and don't blame us for looking at things 

 from a bee-keeper's standpoint. When bee- 

 keepers find in a periodical professedly pub- 

 lished for bee-keepers the statement that 

 those who practice tanging are not fools, 

 you may always expect that they will be un- 

 naturalistic enough to think such a state- 

 ment comes very close to advising tanging. 

 With all this, I am still thankful to you for 

 trying to have bee-keepers enjoy some of" 

 the higher delights of the naturalist, 



"It is always advisable, where it can fee- 

 done, to put cellared bees into protecting- 

 cases when they are set out in the spring,'", 

 page 1179. That raises two questions: 1. 

 Where can it not be done? 2. Would it pay 

 me to use such cases? [Where can it not be 

 done? Some would object on account of the 

 expense or extra work. Would it pay you'i' 

 I am inclined to think it would, I have no- 

 ticed this: After a colony is set outdoarp 

 and there comes on a severe cold spell for 

 four or five days or a week, many of the 

 bees die. They have been getting old, and 

 after their long confinement in the cellar 

 they suffer more or less from exposure when 

 set outside with only the single walls of the 



