20 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



struments usually have a curved 

 nozzle which can be straightened in 

 the flame of a lamp. 



I soon gave the instrument a 

 trial. I could suck the contents 

 of every cell and deposit the com- 

 bined contents where there was 

 already a tiny larva. We watched 

 these cells with much solicitude 

 and after the lapse of the proper 

 time found but a few cells accepted 

 and built out by the bees. I then 

 tried taking food from cells already 

 started ; the food in these being 

 thick but a small portion could be 

 removed. I could get enough, 

 however, to deposit in cells, but 

 with indifferent success. I found 

 an advantage in some cases in 

 giving cells just started more 

 food, thus making all cells more 

 uniform in size, which could not 

 but help to influence the size 

 and strength of the queen. I was 

 intending to experiment still fur- 

 ther during the coming season, but 

 the publication of Bro. Alley's book 

 and a better method will probably 

 lay my plans on the shelf indefi- 

 nitely. 



Hartford, N. T., April, 1883. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Editor of Am. Apiculturist : 

 Dear Sir, 

 Being a New England Yankee 

 myself, and still having a soft spot 

 in my heart for that dearest of all 

 spots, home, I naturally feel an in- 

 terest in all new enterprises that 

 may start up in that concentrated 

 corner of the U. S. 



I should be glad to see a first- 

 class bee journal published in New 

 England, and would gladly use my 

 pen occasionally to help fill its col- 

 umns, were it not for the fact that 

 the mere mention of bees swarming 

 in February, with all that it implies 

 of warm pleasant weather in mid- 

 winter, yellow jessamine, orange 

 blossoms ; no tiresome packing 

 away in cellars or bee-houses and 

 taking out in the spring with fear 

 and trembling, no dysentery, no 

 spring dwindling, etc., etc., seems 

 to set the brains and pens of the 

 denizens of the colder regions at 

 work, and forthwith I am deluged 

 with a shower of letters from 

 " blasted hopers" to whom to reply 

 takes all my spare time for weeks 

 thereafter. 



I am no real estate agent, neither 

 am I a boarding-house keeper, so 

 I find after three years of providing 

 stationery, time to Avrite and often 

 stamps, feeding, entertaining, ad- 

 vising and showing about for a day 

 or two, parties that I have never 

 seen and may never see again, — 

 after doing this for three years 

 cheerfully for the good of the state, 

 that m}' zeal begins to lag and 

 that I have come to dread the effect 

 of writing for a paper. Then, too, I 

 believe that we are getting about 

 as many beekeepers in this imme- 

 diate neighborhood as I think best 

 to encourage to settle here. How- 

 ever, if you Avill permit me to write 

 under a blank signature, or adopt 

 the nom de plume of Linda Flora, 

 or something of the kind, 1 will try 

 to give you a few lines once in a 

 while. 



Bees commenced to swarm the 

 twentieth of February which is two 

 weeks earlier than usual, and have 

 kept it up ever since, although 

 there is now quite a decrease in the 

 honey flow as is usually the case 

 herein April, and the bees are kill- 

 ing off"their drones. Although many 

 of the hives are full, from the bottom 



