THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



759 



those who were necessarily absent 

 will not fail to appreciate this " new 

 departure." 



With its many excellences this 

 publication is marred by an impor- 

 tant omission. Most of the after- 

 noon of the second day's meeting was 

 taken up with a matter of which the 

 only record given is the following : 

 "N. W. McLain, of Aurora, Ills., 

 then read an essay on ' Bee-Keeping 

 and Apiculture.'" The essay does 

 not appear, nor is there any report of 

 the discussion that followed. It is 

 understood that papers read at the 

 convention are the property of the 

 society. At the annual meeting last 

 December, Mr. McLain gave us ex- 

 tracts from his forth-coming official 

 report, and explained that these were 

 not eligible for publication until they 

 had been duly submitted to the 

 United States Department of Apicul- 

 ture. But there was no intimation 

 that the paper presen*;d at Indian- 

 apolis was official, and must be held 

 over, nor is there the least reason to 

 suppose that it is to be embodied in 

 the next report of the Apicultural 

 Station. 



In the absence of information I 

 naturally inter that the manuscript 

 has not been handed over by its au- 

 thor. Whatever the motive may be 

 for withholding it, such a course is, to 

 say the least, unvpise. The pith of 

 the essay and the after discussion 

 have been given in other published 

 reports. It is generally known that 

 exception was taken to the main drift 

 of the paper, and that certain of its 

 positions were challenged. As the 

 party who criticised Mr. McLain'g 

 paper, I beg respectfully to call for its 

 publication. I was interrupted in 

 my comments to give opportunity for 

 Mr. R. L. Taylor to read his essay on 

 " The Coming Bee," or I should have 

 pursued them farther. I would like 

 to discuss the subject in the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, but prefer that 

 we first have the paper before us in 

 print. 



According to my notes, Mr. McLain 

 told us there was a very large amount 

 of bee-keeping, and but little apicul- 

 ture ; that the only progress now to 

 be made is by improving the bee ; 

 that little has been done as yet in 

 improving the bee; that dairymen 

 have improved their cows far more 

 than bee keepers have improved their 

 bees ; that the hive is of little com- 

 parative account ; that Father Lang- 

 stroth attached overweening impor- 

 tance to it in the title of his book — 

 " The Hive and the IIoney-Bee ;" and 

 that among the various lines along 

 which progress is to be made, the hive 

 holds the fourth and last place. These 

 and other statements furnish invit- 

 able debatable ground, and it would 

 enliven the columns of the American 

 Bee Journal, and kindred periodi- 

 cals to have them well discussed. Our 

 convention was rather tame and dull. 

 This matter was the liveliest episode 

 in it, but just when there was promise 

 of a little fun, the thing was nipped 

 in the bud. 



I know we are now under the presi- 

 dency of such a peace-loving 

 " brother," that if he sees a cloud of 



controversy arising in the distance no 

 bigger than a man's hand, he wants it 

 dispelled instanter, but all are not of 

 that way of thinking. A friend of 

 mine was once boasting in a company 

 (from which his wife was absent) of 

 the peace and love that had charac- 

 terized their wedded life ; why, there 

 had never been a cross word or a dif- 

 ference of opinion between them, and 

 so forth. Whereupon a married lady 

 present exclaimed : " O, dear I what a 

 dull time you must have had !" 

 Guelph, Ont. 



[Mr. Clarke is in error about the 

 essay which Mr. McLain read at the 

 Convention. Had it been voted " that 

 the essay be received and placed on 

 file," as was done with all others, it 

 would have been the property of the 

 society. As this was not done, Mr. 

 McLain had a perfect right to put it 

 in his pocket, as he did. 



We will, however, add that Mr. 

 McLain has informed us that he is 

 revising and cutting down the essay, 

 preparatory to offering it for publica- 

 tion in the American Bee Journal. 

 Its extreme length was its greatest 

 objection, for as originallylTprepared 

 and read, it would take nearly the 

 whole of one issue of the Journal to 

 print it.— Ed.] 



Rural New Yorker. 



Cofflli Honey vs. Extracted, 



prof. a. J. cook. 



While it is a fact that extracted 

 honey possesses all the intrinsic ex- 

 cellence of comb honey, and will go 

 much further, yet it is equally true 

 that comb honey, because of its ap- 

 pearance and the fact that the comb 

 acts as a wholesome and pleasant 

 dilutent, will ever find readiest 

 market. Fine comb honey is so at- 

 tractive that it rarely goes begging. 

 Extracted honey, because of its real 

 excellence and cheapness, will surely 

 be in great and ever increasing de- 

 mand as its virtues come more and 

 more to be understood and appre- 

 ciated, as they must be ; but while 

 the bee-keeper will have to push the 

 sale of his extracted honey, the mar- 

 kets will come seekina: after his beau- 

 tiful comb homey. Hence, there is 

 an incentive for every bee-keeper to 

 study the methods of securing a flue 

 harvest of comb honey. 



Any novice can secure a good crop 

 of extracted honey, while only the 

 expert can secure as much of the 

 beautiful comb. Some of our bee- 

 keepers say they can secure only 

 about one-half as much comb as ex- 

 tracted honey ; others say they can 

 secure nearly" as much of the comb. 

 Surely, then, it behooves every bee- 

 keeper to study the methods of comb 

 honey production, that he may secure 

 the most of that which sells best. 



One of the things we must look 

 after in working for comb honey is to 

 get our product in the neatest form 



with the least labor. There is no 

 need of urging all to use the one- 

 pound sections, made of the whitish 

 poplar or basswood. All know that 

 these alone can compete in the honey 

 markets of to-day. It is just as im- 

 portant to keep these sections neat 

 and clean. Of course they can be 

 scraped, but this is attended with 

 labor and danger. How much better 

 to secure our sections full of honey 

 with the very minimum of propolis or 

 bee-glue to mar their beauty. To do 

 this we find the Ileddon slatted honey- 

 board just the thing. This is made 

 exactly the size of the top of the hive ; 

 that is, the part containing the 

 brood. If the outside measure of the 

 hive is 14x20 inches, the honey-board 

 will be 14x20 inches. For the Lang- 

 stroth hive, I make it 13x19% inches. 

 The slats are tacked to a rabbeted 

 rim, which, below, is in the same . 

 plane as the slats, but which projects 

 above % of an inch. Thus while the 

 whole under surface is flat and of the 

 same level, above the rim projects % 

 of an inch above the balance of the 

 honey-board. The slats which need 

 not be more than y of an inch wide 

 are ^i of an inch apart, and are so 

 made as to break joints with the 

 frames below. If the frames run 

 lengthwise, as do the Laugstroth, 

 then the slats should extend length- 

 wise of the hive. If crosswise, as do 

 the Gallup frames, then the slats of 

 the honey-board should run crosswise. 



This honey-board is used between 

 the brood-frame and section-case, and 

 if any one is troubled with the queen 

 going into the section-case to lay 

 eggs, the zinc excluders should be 

 fastened in the ^s-inch spaces be- 

 tween the slats ; then the workers can 

 go into the sections while the queen 

 cannot. Now, if we use this honey- 

 board in connection with the double 

 bee-space, I find we secure our sec- 

 tions very neat and clean — often as 

 free from stain as when freshly put 

 into the hive. 



To secure the double beespace, the 

 brood-frames should come within % 

 of an inch of the top of the hive. 

 That is, if the rabbets for the frames 

 are ?4 of an inch deep, and the top- 

 bars of the frames % of an inch thick, 

 we shall just secure this space. Now, 

 when the slatted honey-board is laid 

 on the hive we note that % of an inch 

 is the perpendicular distance between 

 the plane of the top of the brood- 

 frames and that of the bottom of the 

 honey -board, and if our sections come 

 in a plane with the bottom of the 

 honey-case, and this is placed on the 

 slatted honey-board, we have a sec- 

 ond %-inch space between the upper 

 surface of the slats and the lower 

 surface of the sections. A7ith these 

 two spaces, even in crowded hives, 

 the bees keep the sections mainly 

 clean. I feel sure that no one, after 

 once trying these slatted honey-boards 

 in connection with the double space, 

 will ever discard them. I have now 

 used them three years, and I am 

 more than pleased with my success. 



There is just one thing that might 

 be considered an objection to this 

 arrangement — everything must be 

 just right, or it does not work well. 



