1292 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15 



it's extra good new land." In the last Mar- 

 engo paper I see that the Pease farm has 

 been leased for three years at an annual 

 rental of $5 an acre. It is five miles from 

 town, and contains eighty acres. Good farm, 

 but I don't know that it's b'.tter than the 

 average. 



Editor Hutchinson cellared his bees Nov. 

 4 to 10. Sorry — at least unless his weather 

 has been different from mine. My bees have 

 had a number of flving days since then. His 

 were brought from an out-apiary, and then 

 cellared without a flight. He thinks they 

 don't need a flight after hauling. They may 

 stand it, but I've always preferred hauling 

 them home early enough to allow a flight. 

 This year they were brought home Oct 19. 

 Next day they flew as in a first spring flight 

 while the bees in the home apiary remained 

 quiet. What but the hauling made them need 

 that extra flight? 



E. W. Alexander, p. 1238, says, "No man 

 ought to bother trying to produce honey in 

 a poor location," and I suppose any thing less 

 than a fairly good location is counted poor. 

 His "fairly good location" is one where, with 

 the best managemrnt each colony, spring 

 count, yields an average net income an- 

 nually of $21.25. If h'S view should pre- 

 vail, the business would be revolutionized, 

 for so few would be left in the business 

 that prices would go skyward, and none 

 but the rich would know the taste of honey. 

 But would it be a good thing for the coun- 

 try at large if no one should bother trying 

 to produce honey who has not what Mr. Alex- 

 ander calls a fairly good location? 



A. I. Root, p. 1231, says the statement 

 that only 7 of the 83 bee journals of the 

 world are published in this country "gives us 

 an idea of how little we are." Not an en- 

 tirely correct idea, Bro. Root, for of the 

 75 published across the water the larger 

 part contain scarcely any thing except mat- 

 ter copied from the smaHer number of bet- 

 ter ones ; and even in the better class you 

 will find page after page the same, from the 

 fact that the same reports of conventions are 

 contained in nearly all. 



[The journals in this country, without a 

 single exception, publish almost entirely or- 

 iginal matter, and each has a field of its own. 

 If the European readers would take only the 

 best journals, the "copyists" would soon 

 be ruled out of existence. This would en- 

 able the survivors to do better work be- 

 cause of a larger clientage and better profits. 

 —Ed.] 



Gleanings, if I understand correctly an 

 item, p. 1123, wants bee-keepers to secure 

 correction of comb-honey canards in cook- 

 books, etc., saying, "It does not do much good 

 for a manufacturer of bee-supplies to write 

 to these people, because they conclude he 

 has 'an ax to grind.' " But, dear Gleanings, 

 hasn't the bee-keeper still more "an ax to 

 grind"? 



[Yes, in a way; but the concern that has 

 several hundred thousand dollars invested 

 in a certain line has a good deal bigger "ax 

 to grind" than a lone farmer who may have 

 only a hundred dollars so invested. Then, 

 too, the protest from several hundred or a 

 thousand small investors in the business 

 would have a good deal more weight than 

 the protest of one large one, but the point I 

 had in mind was that the stationery of a 

 large manufacturer of bee-supplies having 

 the protest is apt to be suggestive of a "big 

 greedy corporation" that is seeking to feather 

 its own nest independently of the desires and 

 rights of the small user of those supplies and 

 hence the protest is ignored. — Ed.] 



A4^Y GOOD friend from across the water 

 makes a good showing for an increased 

 amount of honey collected on account of 

 protection, p. 1238. Friend Simmins, I don't 

 know but you are entirely jight from your 

 standpoint, "in regions that have cool nights." 

 At any rate, I can easily believe that a tem- 

 perature low enough would hinder the build- 

 ing of comb. Just how low it would have 

 to be, and how much the hinderance, are 

 things I should like to know. I have had 

 comb built in a surrounding temperature of 

 45 degrees, but I don't believe that's the 

 best temperature. But in this country we 

 don't generally have nights cool enough to 

 trouble much in the harvest season. It is 

 probably a rare thing for my bees to have 

 a night while gathering when protection 

 would make any difference as to comb- 

 building. The question is an important one, 

 and our experiment stations ought to give 

 us a definite answer. That would be better 

 than discussion, although discussion may 

 help. 



[If your climate is such that you have 

 hot nights during the honey-flow, then you 

 are a good deal better off than we are, 

 where the general temperature through the 

 winter is higher, for we are troubled much 

 by cool nights. This question of outside 

 protecting-cases for comb honey is one that 

 will hinge on locality. I can readily see 

 how such protection would mean an increase 

 in the honey crop in a climate like that of 

 England, while in your locality, for example, 

 it might not make the difference of one 

 ounce. But is it true, doctor, that you gen- 

 erally have hot nights during the honey-flow? 

 —Ed.] 



The reader will see by the last page of 

 this issue, which numbers 1370, that dur- 

 ing the year we made a big increase in the 

 size of our volume all for the price, $i.co. 

 A few years ago our issue was 32 pages and 

 a cover, making in all 864 pages for the 

 year. This gives us an increase of 506 

 pages. Next year will not run behind. But 

 we do not wish to make any promises in ad- 

 vance as to how much better we can do. 



