762 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



December I, 



mournintr the loss of his wheel. But the wandering wheel was 

 found later. 



We understand that Mr. Martin expected to make a hur- 

 ried trip among the bee-men of Oregon and Washington, and 

 then take the steamer at Seattle for San Francisco. Owing 

 to the continuous wet weather he will hardly be able to call 

 on many of the northern apiarists. 



Mr. Jos. Beaudrt, of Quebec, Canada, sent us SI. 00 

 Nov. 23, for the Langstroth Monument Fund. There is room 

 for more dollars in this Fund, and we should think that all 

 who can afford to do so would contribute their share 

 promptly. All that is sent to us on that account will be for- 

 warded at once upon receipt to the proper place. 



Editor Emfrson T. Abbott, of the Modern Farmer and 

 Busy Bee, is on the program for Thursday, Dec. 8, at 7:30 

 p.m., at the 41st annual metting of the Missouri Horticul- 

 tural Society, to be held at Columbia, Mo., beginning Dec. 6. 

 His subject is " Bees in Relation to Horticulture." Mr. Ab- 

 bott will interest those horticulturists, and they will ever 

 afterward be better friends to bees and bee-keeping. 



Mk. J. H. TicKENOR, of Crawford Co., Wis., writing us 

 Oct. 29, had this to say : 



" I like the American Bee Journal very much. It is cer- 

 tainly a money-saver to everyone that ' bee-lieveth,' to the Jew 

 first and also to the Gentile. I like the short method of spell- 

 ing adopted by the Bee Journal. I also like criticisms, for 

 they are educative, but I think the majority of the bee-keep- 

 ing fraternity would be with me In saying : Let's not jangle 

 through the Journal, or elsewhere. I have a six-months' boy 

 whose name Is Victor Joseph Langstroth." 



Mb. Geo. W. Blair, of Mason Co., Mich., when renewing 

 his subscription for 1899, and also taking advantage of our 

 SI. 50 offer for both the Bee Journal and Prof. Cook's "Bee- 

 Keepers' Guide" (see page 765), wrote as follows: 



"It makes me feel kind of guilty to get it so cheap. 

 Couldn't do without the Bee Journal, you know." 



Yes, that $1.50 offer is enough to make a fellow " feel 

 kind of guilty " when he accepts It, but that's all right — just 

 come on with your orders until Dec. 10, when the offer will 

 positively be withdrawn. 



Somnambulist, in the Progressive Bee-Keeper, gives this 

 comment on facing honey : 



" Among the correspondents of the bee-journals one finds 

 a good deal of tit for tat on facing honey. While we cannot 

 be t(jo scrupulous about having the different sections which 

 constitute a case of honey, of equal merit, there are but few 

 of us who can refrain from putting the most beautiful to the 

 front. 'Tis simply human nature that. In displaying any of 

 our belongings, either to a prospective buyer or the every-day 

 family visitor, to bring out In bold relief the best we have. 

 The people are few and far between who are anxious to bring 

 defects into the glare of the searchlight, unless, indeed, it be 

 those of an enemy." 



The Value of Foundation in Sections lies chiefly, ac- 

 cording to the belief of Editor Hutchinson, of the Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Review, in the fact that " in a heavy flow the use of foun- 

 dation enables the bees to furnish storage for honey that could 

 not be stored if comb were built naturally." He does not agree 

 with the belief that worker-comb looks better in sections than 

 drone-comb. 



Immunity to Stings. — In response to a circular sent out 

 by Dr. Langer to German bee-keepers, 144 had become in- 

 sensible to the effect of stings, nine claimed they had been so 

 from infancy, and 26 declared that they had the same sensi- 

 bility as at the beginning of their aplcultural career. The 

 number of stings required to reach immunity varied ; some re- 

 quired only 30, and others 100 or more. — Prakt. Wegweiser. 



Comparative Quantity of Comb and Extracted Honey. 



— In the discussion at the Ontario convention, last year, with 

 75 percent of the honey sealed before extracting, Mr. Hal! 

 thought little more extracted than comb honey could be se- 

 cured ; Mr. Post thought about 65 of comb to 100 extracted, 

 Mr. Picket 60 or 65 of comb to lOii extracted, and Mr. Darl- 

 ing thought less was secured in sections because bees disliked 

 working in such small spaces. — Canadian Bee Journal. 



Do Bees Move Eggs or Larvae P — Referring to what Doo- 

 little says about bpes moving larvK (American Bee Journal, 

 page 578), Critic Taylor, of the Bee-Keepers' Review, thinks 

 the testimony strong in favor of the belief that workers do 

 move larvEe, and says he has been watching for just such cases 

 for years, and in some cases thought he saw evidence in favor 

 of such moving, but continued observation showed him his 

 error. So he registers doubts as to Doolittle's correctness. 



The Building of Drone-Comb. — I. W. Beckwith says, in 

 the Bee-Keepers' Review, that his experience is at variance 

 with the rule that queenless colonies build mainly drone-comb. 

 He divides colonies and allows the queenless part to fill the hive 

 with combs while the queen is maturing, and finds very little 

 drone-comb built unless the bees are hopelessly queen- 

 less. He quotes Dadant as saying: "If all, or part, of 

 the store-combs of a hive are removed, the bees will rebuild 

 large cells, at least three times out of four." And says his ex- 

 perience is the reverse of this, for when he removes most of 

 the combs from a populous colony It is always replaced with 

 worker-comb. But are these last the "store-combs" that 

 Dadant speaks of, Mr. Beckwith ? 



Improving Our Honey-Resources. — "If one-half the 

 energy that is now expended in Inventing new hives and other 

 appliances," says Ed Jolly in American Bee-Keeper, "search- 

 ing for new races of bees, breeding for beauty, etc., were 

 turned to the betterment of the resources of the country, bee- 

 keeping as a business would be a more lucrative one " — a prop- 

 osition that Is hard to gainsay. He advises sowing white 

 clover seed along roadsides and streams, fence-corners, pas- 

 ture fields, and through the woods. Also starting linden trees. 

 In the fall, rake the old rotted leaves from the ground in the 

 forest, stir the soil a little with a rake, then sow the seeds and 

 cover lightly with well-rotted leaves or compost. A year later 

 the seedlings may be transplanted. Slips may be cut in early 

 spring, stuck in a marsh or wet ground, and the following 

 spring they will be found rooted. 



Boiled-Down Laziness. — Critic Taylor, in the November 

 Bee-Keepers' Review, says he Is sometimes discouraged in the 

 work of a critic, because there is so much careless statement 

 and careless editing that ought to bu reformed. As a good ex- 

 ample of both, he refers to page 618 of the American Bee 

 Journal, and quotes as follows: 



"Critic Taylor, speaking of Doolittle's plan of preventing 

 after-swarms, said ; ' Perhaps Doullttle is led to practice his 

 method from the fact that he is largely using the Gallup hive 

 and wishes to engage others toward a favorable opinion of 

 that hive.' " 



Mr. Taylor says he could never have written such absurd 

 nonsense, and is somewhat at a loss to know whether to at- 

 tribute the misrepresentation to carelessness or impotent 

 malice. Neither, Mr. Taylor ; it was laziness — Dure, boiled- 

 down laziness. On page 268 of the Review, Mr. Doolittle 

 gave as a paraphrase of what Mr. Taylor had written : "Per- 

 haps Taylor is led to practice his method from the fact that 

 he is largely using the Heddon hive," etc.; and instead of 

 turning back to see what Mr. Taylor had actually written, it 

 was an easier, and a much lazier, way, to jump at the conclu- 

 sion that, in paraphrasing, Mr. Doolittle had merely changed 

 the proper names, and that conclusion was unfortunately 

 acted upon. What Mr. Taylor actually did write was this : 



" Perhaps Doolittle is led to practice this method from the 

 fact that he Is largely engaged in the production of queens, 

 since by this process he gets plenty of good queen-cells almost 

 ready to hatch." 



Which goes to show that It is not always easy to look upon 

 a paraphrase and construct therefrom the thing paraphrased. 

 It was a case of unpardonable carelessness and laziness, for 

 which a thousand apologies are hereby tendered to Mr. Tay- 

 lor, with many thanks for being let off so easy, and a promise 

 never again to work backward from a paraphrase. 



Every Present Subscriber of the Bee Journal- 

 should be an agent for it, and get all other bee-keepers possi- 

 ble to subscribe for It. See 6 big offers on page 746. 



