i 



52 THE AMBRICAN BEE-KEEPER. March 



piece of brush to switch and strike in gates for a torreut of all sorts o; 



front of the hives. claims and disputes. The beginning 



The queen will not lay in combs of of progre-^^sive bee-keeping may be sale 



more than two-inch spacing, page 146. to have been contemporaneous witi 



I am interested, for, if true, we could the issue of these books. From thei 



do away with the expensive queen ex- until the appearance of Langstroth'i 



cinders; unless such Avide spacing has book little advance w^as observable ii 



other objections. bee-keeping a* compared with thi 



Mr. Hewitt says Punic bees are changes which followed. Aside frori 



proof against foul brood. Mr. Benton the publication of Bevan's wonderfni 



contradicts this on page 203. There ly comprehensive book, which appear 



is also other interesting reading in that ed in England early in the century, Q' 



article. I have read with interest, all other books of consequence appeare( 



that has been published in the Ameri. until Langstroth's, in 1851. 



can Bee-Keepers about Punic bees, and The English have always been ahea( 



am more puzzled than ever to know of us in the material and mechanica 



what" they are like. They are said to detail-s of their books. That classic 



be such great collector.s of propolis. Is "The Feminine Monarchie," Avas in it 



the colony you own, "Mr. Editor," any language, arrangement, indexing am 



worse in this I'espect than your other cross-references ahead of anything w 



bees? had up to recent times. Key.s in th'. 



"Oh my!" a queen restrainer and latter part of the eighteenth, am 



entrance guard, on page 219. Mr. D. D. Huish, early in the nineteenth centurj 



Alley must be keeping bees for i>leas- published interesting books, well prini 



ure, rather than profit. As I have said, fcl and well illu.strated, concerning th 



I would rather do without any queen times, 



excluder than use an extra one. Then came Bevan's fine book whie 



Lenkoran or Persian bee.s. page 325. has served up to the present day a 



How many kinds of hive-bees are there the basis of many of our America 



any way? I would be interested to books. Later came Cheshire's mastei 



have Mr. Benton (or someone else) piece and Cowan's smaller, but mos 



write an article on the different varie- excellent book on the natural histor 



ties of hive bees. But the last page of the bee, not to mention other les 



of Volume XIV has been reached, and, imjiortant but interesting works, 



in my review I have been struck with In 1893 there was published in Loi 



the fact that the American Bee-Keeper <ton one of the best books for a begii 



is the biggest "little" bee-paper pub- n^i' in bee-keeping that I have seei 



lished in the States. At least for size. It is called "The Book of the Hone 



and price, its like does not appear on Bee" by Charles Harrison. The dt 



my table. ascriptions and instructions are plai 



:Metz. Wis., Jan. 10, 1905. and to the point while the illnstrationi 



mostly from fine i^hotographs. are 



BEE BOOKS, ANCIENT AND ^'"^ ^^ '''"^ ^'^^^^ '^'"'^ ^^^ appeared 1 



MODERN. ^ bee-book, and each one has close coi 



nection with the text. The book c 



Sf 



Bv -Vrthur C Miller course treats of English hives an 



■ * ■ " ' tools, but aside from that, is equall 



1r MAY surprise the uninitiated to well adapted to novices here. It pu* 



know that of bee-books ancient and most of our books sadly in the shad* 



modern, there are several hundreds But still we have some good bookii 



The earliest English book-s on the sub- many with good material in them, br 



.ieot date back to about 1550, and some few^ in w^hich it is well set forth. On 



of those old ones are wonderfully fine, of our good ones is "Langstroth'- 



Later books were largely quotations Revised." It is exhaustive and shoM' 



from these with sometimes a little the infinite pains taken in the work c 



more of mysticism. Not until about revision. A less pretentious volumi 



1800 was the first bee-book pul^lished but perhaps the most pleasing an 



in America, to be followed at varying satisfying, is that little gem "Fort 



intervals by others, little and big. most Years Among the Bees." 



of them being largely copies of theEng- For popular literature Miss Moi 



lish works, which had been extensive- ley's books are entertaining, accurat 



ly imported. and charmingly illustrated. 



The translations of Reaumur's and Notwithstanding these oases in tb 



of Huber's books gave an impetus to desert, we still have much to wish foi 



bee literature, opening wide the flood- Perhaps some day we will have Amer 



