104. 



le to make the statement that tall 

 'rtioiis will be tiiiished quicker than 

 lallow ones. 



It is true that a small cluster in a 

 i-.ue hive must of necessity build 

 iA\ jnvard faster than sidewise but if 

 le cluster can fill the top of the hive 

 ; is the case with the shallow brood 

 lamber, the cehter of the comb will 

 ily be slightly lower than the ends, 

 hen such are built half-way down 

 e frames. 



After carefully reading friend M"s 

 lie article I am forced to the con- 

 usion that he has never had a proi> 

 ly constructed divisible brood cham- 

 'V hive. 



The shallow brood chamber hive is 

 r ahead of the deep frame, hive 

 ther for wintering, building up in 

 ring, rapid manipulation or comb 

 )uey production. 



I have loO such hives and I know 

 hereof I speak. I have also frames 

 deep as 16 inches. Also the regular 

 frame. 



Theory is one thing and actual facts, 

 eked up by tons of fancy comb 

 iiiey. is another. 



\A'hen in doubt consult your bees and 

 t theories go for what they are 

 M-th. 



I will close by saying that in my 

 teen years experience in wintering 

 OS in veiy shallow frames I have 

 ■ver had a colony die of starvation 

 ith plenty of honey in the hive, as 

 have had scores of them do on deep 

 ames. 

 irmingham. Ohio, Sept. 7, 1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



LORIDA NOT A QUEEN BREED- 

 ER'S EL DORADO. 



By M. F. Reeve. 



^ HE last time I met E. L. Fratt, 

 the Swarthmore queen breeder, 

 in the spring he had just return- 

 from a trip to the St. Johns river, 

 a., where he had located a site for a 

 anch queen breeding plant, so as 

 enal)le him to secure early queens. 

 e told me he had his ticket purchased 

 d everything arranged to start in 

 th breeding. 



met him again a few days ago, 

 d he informed me that he was ex- 

 emely lucky in not having gone to 



Land of FloAvers. 

 He had advices from another North- 

 n queen I)reeder who went there pic- 

 ring everything in such discouraging 

 lors that he had abandoned the idea 



and concluded to seek for some other 

 Southern iocalily, probably Texas. His 

 Florida friend told him that the king 

 bird and dragon Hies committed such 

 havoc among his colonies that he had 

 lost 70 per cent of the bees he took 

 down there. Hragon flies literally 

 swarmed in myriads, devouring the 

 queens on their mating flight and the 

 drones as well as workers. He was 

 about to pull up stakes and get out for 

 some place where they didn't have 

 such pests. 



Mr. Pratt says he has been much 

 hampered this year by the difficulty of 

 getting bees for his nuclei and has hiul 

 to turn down several hundred orders 

 for queens in consequence. 



liutletlge, I'a., Dec. 1903. 



PHACELIA AS A FORAGE 

 PLANT. 



By. Henry E. Horn. 



APICULTUKIST C. C. Miller's chal- 

 lenge to '"those California 

 chaps" to produce evidence 

 showing that the phacelia tan. is a 

 valuable forage plant, has been noted; 

 and, my name having been singled out 

 in particular with relation to said chal- 

 lenge it gives me delight to buckle on 

 my nickle-plated armor and to face the 

 Sir Knight in combat. The trouble, I 

 may here add, why said "chaps" have 

 remained "dumb as oysters" hereto- 

 fore lies probal)ly with the gentleman 

 himself, i.e., his choosing"The Conglom- 

 erate Goody-Goody"to convey forth h's 

 martial proclamations instead of the 

 regular "War Cry." In this moun- 

 tain-enfolded corner of Roosevelt's em- 

 pire, we all study the "War-Cry" and 

 the "Arizona Kicker." and the "Rhig- 

 Yeda," as we sit squatting behind a 

 cactus stalk apiece but naught else. 

 Any time-crevices left between, are 

 filled in with meditations on the in- 

 finitesimal calculus and blinking at the 

 southern coal sacks. 



There is just a doubt whether the 

 phacelia cultivated by Mr. Miller as 

 a window plant is the true tanaceti- 

 folia variety. There are, at least, 

 three varieties of the plant known. 

 California seednien keep phacelia seed, 

 but not of the tan. variety. Mr. Mil- 

 ler's kind is fragrant, the tan. here is 

 not. Also, the tan. variety is less 

 showy than the "Parryi" and the rest; 

 hence florists would naturally select 

 the latter for their trade. Yet, as a 

 forage plant, none but the tan. is of 



