1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1247 



was put to no inconvenience; and without 

 cost to him we would have screened his win- 

 dows from flies and other insects as well as 

 bees. He has now put himself in a position 

 where other bees can visit his premises, and 

 he is not nearly as well off as he would have 

 been if he had listened to our suggestion. 



We asked the girls in the other buildings, 

 that show just beyond, if they had had any 

 trouble from the bees, and they answered in 

 the negative. So did all the others in the 

 immediate vicinity. 



Whether or not Mr. Loft stirred this mat- 

 ter up in order to get newspaper advertising 

 for his business we can not say. At all 

 events, the Root Co. estimates that its office 

 and business in the great metropolis have 

 secured a publicity throughout the city, and 

 the country as well, that would have cost us 

 in actual advertising thousands of dollars. 

 Most of the news items were favorable and 

 sympathetic to the bees, while a few, and a 

 very few, averred that we put the bees on 

 the roof for the very purpose of letting them 

 feed on Mr. Loft's candy. 



The whole affair was not without its 

 humorous side. The newspapers for weeks 

 fairly teemed with cartoons and funny 

 write-ups. 



The photo was taken by me when in New 

 York, about a month or so before this case 

 came up, at that time little dreaming that 

 this lot of bees would receive the publicity 

 it did throughout the great newspaper world. 

 Historically it is now of more than ordinary 

 interest. There are many buildings that are 



higher, round about, and the bees were in 

 plain sight of a good many operatives, espe- 

 cially working-girls. 



BLACK BROOD CURED AT E. W. ALEXANDER'S. 



In our issue for Nov, 1, p. 1125, it will be 

 remembered Mr. Alexander described his 

 cure for black brood. When Dr. Lyon and 

 myself were visiting at his apiary the for- 

 mer took a photo of a frame of brood which, 

 a few months before, was about as rotten 

 and bad a specimen as one would often see, 

 according to the testimony of Mr. Alexan- 

 der and his help; but at the time of my vis- 

 it the comb was clean and sweet, and as 

 healthy as one could wish to see. A photo 

 was taken, and a section of it is reproduced 

 on the next page. The colony had been 

 cured some four or five months ; and the 

 condition of this comb, and the brood in par- 

 ticular, speaks for itself. One can readily 

 see how nicely marked are Mr. Alexander's 

 bees, for they are all three-banded Italians, 

 mainly Alexander's honey strain. 



When one sees brood as shown in the pho- 

 to, with an even homogeneous appearance, 

 without flattened or sunken cells, he can 

 generally conclude it is healthy; but there 

 may be only here and there a cell, all the 

 rest of the brood looking good; so, be care- 

 ful. In hunting for the evidence of brood 

 diseases it is very important to cast the eye 

 on every square inch of surface to be able 

 to catch the early stages. When there are 

 only two or three diseased cells in the whole 

 hive, with foul or black brood, it makes the 



THE ROOT BEES IN NEW YORK THAT SUDDENLY BECAME FAMOUS THROUGH THE PAPERS. 



