THE AMERICA]^ BEE JOURNAL. 



G31 



mates something in regard to " ruts 

 worn smooth," I will say that I have 

 been more or less prominently before 

 the public as a bee-keeper, and writer 

 for over 16 years ; that I have always 

 boldly traveled out of the old ruts. 

 when I saw anything to be gained 

 thereby ; and further, even, that I 

 think that during the last 16 years in- 

 stead of following, I have been pretty 

 near the front, and have done my 

 share of making the ruts that are now 

 being traveled in. by the most experi- 

 perienced of my brethren. 



I still say that with the low price 

 of foundation, and the ease by which 

 we can control the matter of cell sizes 

 by its use, I fail to see any practical 

 advantage that will follow the use of 

 plain sheets of wax, even if but 4 

 inches wide ; and further, that as 

 drone comb is not usually built at the 

 tops of frames, I should not expect 

 that any would be built on starters in 

 the brood-chamber, especially if room 

 was given for so doing elsewhere. 



FoxborOjOt Mass. 



For tne American Bee Journal. 



Has Nature Maile a Mistate ? 



GEORGE F. ROBBINS. 



Mr. O. N. Baldwin, on page 600, 

 does not meet the gauntlet thrown 

 down at all. I say again, this talk 

 about nature (" or the " Great King ") 

 making a mistake amounts to little 

 or nothing, as against the testimony 

 of experience. And, reasonable or 

 unreasonable, I do believe that under 

 certain conditions, or in certain locali- 

 ties, as I said in my article on page 

 567, bees will winter better on sugar 

 than on natural stores, because the 

 array of evidence presented in the 

 testimonies of Ileddon, Hutchinson 

 and Cook is conclusive, and has never 

 to my knowledge been fairly met. 



I repeat, to successfully controvert 

 those testimonies, they must be op- 

 posed by precisely the same experi- 

 ments, under like conditions, with 

 exactly opposite results. I appeal to 

 any fair and candid man if that posi- 

 tion is not good. JSTow, what oppos- 

 ing evidence does Mr. Baldwin offer V 

 Why, he gives one experiment with 4 

 colonies, and instead of being shut in 

 gaol for five long months without a 

 break, they have two good flights in 

 that time. There is a vast difference 

 between the conditions in Missouri 

 and Michigan. My latitude is higher 

 than that of Mr. Baldwin, and my 

 bees winter very well on natural 

 stores. The argument that, because 

 2 colonies died of starvation, they 

 died for want of honey and pollen, is 

 astunner. It is too bad that they 

 did not have access to some sugar 

 syrup about that time. 



Mr. B. says nothing about the 

 quantity of stores they had when put 

 away, whether they had been breed- 

 ing much, orshowed signs of diarrhea, 

 etc. Altogether his testimony proves 

 nothing. The fact that sugar syrup 

 may be safer winter food for bees in 

 Michigan than natural stores, does 

 not argue that nature has made mis- 



take. We find laws of death as well 

 as life permeating all nature, and for 

 good reasons, although we may not 

 always undertand them. 



The same Diety who made the 

 atmosphere for man to breathe in life 

 and health, has charged it with mala- 

 ria and pestilence to produce disease 

 and death. But He has at the same 

 time created roots, herbs and miner- 

 als, and endowed man with faculties 

 to discover and apply their properties 

 so as to largely over-rule these forces 

 of death. So He has created the 

 honey-bee with instinct and nature 

 to multiply with wonderful rapidity 

 where conditions demand it ; but at 

 the same time He has sown the seeds 

 of death to prevent them becoming 

 an evil rather than a good. And He 

 has made man, in this as in a million 

 other cases, lord of the very laws and 

 forces of nature to over-rule them to 

 his own good. To meet the exigen- 

 cies that arise in a state of nature, 

 the instinct of the honey-bee is to rear 

 drones in such numbers as to become 

 a nuisance in modern bee-culture. 



But this same rule in nature may 

 be and is annulled by the art of man. 

 So, also, if adverse conditions may 

 discriminate against certain regions 

 of country, man possesses the power 

 to put these laws of death under his 

 feet — by the very simple expedient of 

 using sugar syrup. There, my friends, 

 is some theorizing, if that is the 

 proper term, as plausible as any that 

 have been offered, I think. 



Mechanicsburg,© His. 



TOT tne American Bee Journal. 



An Aricultural Review, 



EUGENE SECOR, (30—40). 



I suppose we all think the season 

 just past the most remarkable one we 

 ever knew in Iowa. Perhaps that is 

 because we have the most vivid recol- 

 lection of events the most recent. 

 When we do not keep a record of the 

 weather, the last cold snap is apt to 

 be the coldest, the last dry spell the 

 severest drouth, and the recent 

 heated term the hottest weather we 

 ever experienced. 



That is the way we bee-keepers 

 talk about the season just past. We 

 say we never saw such a peculiar 

 year ; that contrary to all past ex- 

 perience the spring opened favorably, 

 and the honey-flow began at once, 

 and then after a brief but plentiful 

 yield the supply suddenly ceased— a 

 thing hardly known in this part of 

 the State. 



In saying this is unprecedented we 

 may be a little outside of the truth. 

 As we have not always kept bees, and 

 a faithful record of the weather is not 

 at hand, we have to draw on our im- 

 pressions for our facts. It has cer- 

 tainly been widely different from any 

 year immediately preceding it. 



After a very protracted and very 

 severe winter, the bees were removed 

 from their depositories in tine condi- 

 tion, and with but slight loss. Tliis 

 was the case with every one who had 

 bees. It did not seem to matter much 

 how they were wintered, either. 



Spring came with such etherial mild- 

 ness that breeding began at once. 

 Scarcely any unfavorable weather to 

 chill the hatching brood or to cause 

 spring dwindling. The early wild 

 flowers were rich in tempting sweets. 

 Fruit blossoms yielded up their 

 wealth of nectar. Every opening 

 petal seemed Lo invite to a feast of 

 honey or pollen. All normal colonies 

 were encouraged to do their best in 

 rearing brood, and the crowding of 

 bees around the entrances showed 

 their readiness to respond to the 

 stimulating effects of the weather and 

 the flowers. 



At the beginning of white clover 

 bloom, about June 1, most of them 

 were populous enough to go into the 

 supers. There was the time that a 

 knowledge of the situation was need- 

 ed. The wide-a-wake bee-keeper at 

 once righted up his pitcher ready for 

 the shower. The Rip Van Winkles' 

 did not wake up until the shower was 

 about over. All the honey we got 

 this year, substantially, was gathered 

 in forty days. Everything came with 

 a rush. The white clover harvest 

 lapped over on to basswood bloom so 

 perceptibly that the bees seemed be- 

 wildered at the profusion of ambro- 

 sial sweets. They were reluctant to 

 leave the pearly drops of the former 

 for the equally tempting chalices of 

 the latter. 



Usually, white clover is gone before 

 linden blooms. We often get, also, a 

 good yield from sumac. This year not 

 a drop. Quite generally the last half 

 of July and August give us the bulk 

 of our surplus. This year scarcely 

 any more honey was gathered after 

 the middle of July than the bees re- 

 quired. The long continued drouth 

 seemed to effectually dry up the 

 honey fountains in all the fall flowers. 

 Buckwheat yielded some honey, but 

 so little of it is raised in this vicinity 

 that the amount was not noticed. 

 AVhat surplus we have is therefore 

 mostly white honey of excellent 

 quality. My own colonies averaged 

 about 75 pounds, spring count, one- 

 fourth extracted, balance mostly in 

 one-pound sections. In consequence 

 of the hght fall yield there are some 

 unfinished sections. 



Forest City, 5 Iowa. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Doolittle's Report— A Peculiar Season. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



No other industry in the world is 

 probably more dependent upon the 

 weather than is apiculture. For grow- 

 ing crops the weather may be bad at 

 times, but when it does come good 

 weather, they are generally ready to 

 make a rapid growth, thus regaining 

 what was lost by the previous in- 

 clement weather. It is not so with 

 honey gathering, for if the weather is 

 bad while the honey-producing flora 

 is in bloom, all the good weather 

 afterward cannot make up for the 

 loss. If the rearing of bees so as to 

 get numerous colonies was all there 

 is of bee-keeping, then the same 



