THE AMERICAN APICULTUBIST. 



155 



be broken or the delicate surface marred. 

 She will carefully save all bits of comb 

 and wax, for she has received lessons 

 in economy by being told "to spend 

 money judiciously." 



CAN WOMEN MAKE MONEY KEEPING BEES ? 



Of course, if there is any money in 

 bees. A woman can attend to a small 

 apiary while attending to her household 

 duties, if she has the hives located in 

 full view of her kitchen windows. She 

 should not commence with more than 

 two hives, and her knowledge of bee 

 culture should increase in the same ratio 

 as her bees. She may not be able to 

 make much money the first few years, 

 but she may have honey for the family ; 

 a cake of wax and pure vinegar. — Prai- 

 rie Farmer. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



One of my Perfection Self-hivers was 

 expressed to Dr. C. C. Miller. I sup- 

 posed he would test it and report tome, 

 a way tliat most gentlemen do under 

 such circumstances, but the Dr. was 

 not so disposed. In an article which 

 would fill three or more columns of the 

 Api, Dr. Miller gave his experience with 

 the hiver in (?/(?iZ////;^i' of Sept. i. Most 

 any other person could have said equal- 

 ly as much in two lines, thus : "I 

 tested one of Alley's Perfection Self- 

 hivers and did not succeed." 



But then the Dr. had something else 

 in view besides his experience with the 

 swarmer. I need not state what that is, 

 as any one who read his article would 

 have no trouble in seeing the point. 



Well, 1 might have known better than 

 to have sent him the hiver to test. Dr. 

 Miller seems to be a failure in almost 

 anything he undertakes. If one can 

 believe his statements, he never has 

 made a success of apiculture at any rate. 

 "His bees do not winter well ; his colo- 

 nies dwindle in spring ; the weather is 

 too cold, too hot, too wet, or too dry, 

 the spring is backward, etc. He does 

 not know why this or that thing is so, 

 etc., etc." 



Well, there is one thins; that Dr. Mil- 



ler does succeed in adniiral)ly, that is 

 in sarcasm. When the Dr. first wrote 

 '■Stray Straws" for Gleanings^ he did 

 remarkably well. They were then de- 

 void of personalities and were to the 

 point and very interesting. Dr. M., 

 now uses the space devoted to him in 

 Gleanings to worry his friends, or those 

 people with whom he does not agree ; or, 

 perhaps I should say, those who do 

 not believe just as he does. I cannot 

 say that the Dr. intends to be sarcastic 

 in his treatment of those people whom 

 he so sadly ill treats. At any rate he 

 could not be more so should he try to, 

 so it seems to me. Below is a fair 

 sample of his sarcasm, taken from 

 Gleanings oi^ty^l. i, 1892. 



That sklf-hiver. You remember previ- 

 ous history. July 28, swarm caught iu 

 self -hiver ; queen got out of trap, back iu 

 hiver; July HO, all moved back into hive; 

 Aug. 5, old queen killed, leaving eggs, 

 brood, queen-cells, and one qneen hatched. 

 Well, the cells were one after another, 

 torn down, all gone by Aug. 8 Aug. 16, 

 I found the young queen in the liiver, not 

 in the trap, so I put her back in hive and 

 took away trap. This morning, Aug. 20, 

 she is laying. I'erfectiou self-hiver a suc- 

 cess. 



\Vell, Dr. I do pity you — what is the 

 reason you cannot do as well in bee cul- 

 ture as those people who have had 

 little or no experience in the business? 



To the article of Dr. Miller's, re- 

 lating to the hiver was a foot note by 

 E. R. Root, which is as follows : 



If you had tried the Pratt plan there 

 M^ould have l)een no leak holes from which 

 the queen could escape. We presume it's 

 too late for you to 'try it this year ; but 

 next sprinii', if you will remind us. we 

 will send you a few of the Pratt swarm- 

 ing escape-boards, and then all you will 

 have to do will be to put the parent col- 

 ony into an ui)per story or super above 

 the board, leaving the lower story tilled 

 with combs for the reception of the 

 swarm. Of course an entrance-guard 

 should be attached. Alley's arraugemeut 

 is too expensive. Instead of going to 

 the expense of an extra box, an ordinary 

 super or upper story should be used in 

 connection with an escape-board. The 

 latter can be furnished at a small expense. 

 The Alley box is not easy to attach to 



