%Mm*m*m. 



JV 



■^^ 



«J5il«lft,>e 



T T Y 





^ J. J. 



L*' 



OEOROE W. YORK. Editor. ^^. 





39th YEAR, 



CHICAGO, ILL, MARCH 30, 1899, 



No, 13, 



i aAf terthouglit. I 



f^ The " Old Reliable " seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 4^ 

 :,S By " COGiTATOR." g^ 



WHAT ABOUT THE "GOLDEN" METHOD. 



Now that the Golden method has been fully set forth, 

 what shall we say about it ? Rather a matter for trial than 

 a matter of criticism. It is a superior auger //" it bores bel- 

 ter than pt/icr augers, otherwise not. Plausiijle enoug-h to 

 demand a show, and in points " onplau.sible " enough to 

 demand watching. Watch a little out as to what the bees 

 do with their pollen those first five days. Mr. G. well says 

 that the method saves an immense number of new hives 

 and fixings, which of course need to be figured in as reasons 

 in favor. 



Cogitator once ran a number of hives several years in 

 which bee-space chambers (ftiU of bees usually) surrounded 

 the sections entirely top and sides. They were not so they 

 could be used as climbways at all. The inventor was only 

 seeking to give confidence to the little misers, and secure 

 evenness of temperature. I don't knoiv that this plan 

 secured the storing of more surplus than otherwise would 

 have been stored, but it seemed as if it did. So I cogitate 

 that Golden's spaces help on somewhat, in the same way as 

 those of mine, but not for the reason which he assigns. 



"knock-down" evidence on HONEY-DEW. 



That knock-down evidence that leaves secrete honey- 

 dew without any insects at all (page 98) has been given be- 

 fore. But 'Tater is just scabby and dirty enough not to be- 

 lieve it, either for "tother chap, or for this chap. Of course, 

 Mr. Nash is sincere and all right — but then. There are ex- 

 perimenters, and experimenters. The commonest kind are 

 capable of proving' things that aren't so, in the most lovely 

 fashion. He wiped off the surface sweat, but not that 

 which had penetrated the pores of the leaves. This last 

 modicum of it workt out in time. What we are askt to be- 

 lieve is too much like believing that an amputated arm 

 would spurt out blood 24 hours afterward. Still, 'Tater 

 may some day have to hunt his hill, and admit that there 

 sometimes are circumstances under which leaves pour out 

 sweet of themselves. Freshly-cut stubble certainly does 

 sometimes — in immense quantities — but that is more like 

 having the stump of the arm bleed after an amputation. 



A LITTLE OLD-FASHIONED FAITH NEEDED. 



" On hand with money and influence to defeat." Yes, 

 sir ; that's the kind of an age we are living in. No law to 

 make a man sell his products for just what they are is going 

 to get thru without an awful fight — and another one to 

 enforce it. See Mr. Abbott's article, page 99. But did you 

 ever think how much a little genuine, old-fashioned faith — 



faith in the ultimate triumph of the Kingdom of God — helps 

 people in such a contest as that ? Sometime, not far off, in 

 the sweet by-and-by, things will not be sold undercfalse 

 names. 



PRICE OF SUCCESS— A HARD PROBLEM. 



"From daylight to dark, year in and year out — the 

 price of success in almost any calling." (Page 102.) That's 

 another thing the sweet by-and-by will abolish. At present 

 we are tied up in this contradictory fix. First, excess of 

 labor offering, so that some must go idle. Second, long 

 hours for all that do work — and dreadfully long hours for 

 most who get independent jobs. I don't know how to solve 

 this problem of too much and not enough. If I did (and 

 told) that would be politics, and I should have to stop. 



UNOUEENING TOO MUCHEE FUSSEE. 



Interesting to see that so strong a hand as F. L. 

 Thompson is not satisfied with the unqueening-in-harvest 

 methods. (Page 103). Too much allee time fuss, fuss, fuss, 

 when a bod^' hasn't time to fuss. And at best it depopulates 

 the colony undesirabl_v. 



SWARMING WITHOUT INCREASING. 



While successful non-swarming seems to be no nearer 

 than the millennium, swarming without increasing does 

 seem to be .getting down to a cheerfully accurate science. 

 Mr. Thompson's last contribution to it seems excellent. Put 

 the hive that has swarmed a-top the new one, pretty closely 

 shut up, yet with a perforated-zinc passage leading below, 

 for young workers, and an escape at the door, available for 

 drones and young queens. Soon all the population have 

 left ; and administration is in order on an emptj' hive — and 

 a swarm from the full one, perchance. 



WHEN TRAVEL-STAINS ARE NOT TRAVEL-STAINS. 



Quite important is that boiling from J. E. Crane, on 

 page 106. Certainly travel-stains can't be travel-stains 

 literally if they go clear through. Undoubtedly they some- 

 times do and sometimes do not. Whether real travel-stain 

 is rare or not is the question — let's find out. Current opin- 

 ion has been that travel-stain is a very common thing. 



STINGLESS BEES OUGHT TO BE MORE CLEVER. 



The information about the stingless bees of Old Mexico, 

 on pages 109 and 110. deserves a more prominent place than 

 it got. Three or four pails of honey sometimes from a col- 

 ony of the little trigonas, which are individually only 3/16 

 of an inch long. If we were g'oing to keep them for honey 

 we should object to their style of storing honej- in hollow 

 bullets. Why can't they be clever, and put their honey, as 

 well as their brood, in civilized comb ? 



TWO DIFFERENT RANKS OF BEES. 

 Bees (as to their storing) are divided broadlj' into two 

 different ranks. The one prepares its honey by manipula- 

 tion, and processes in which comparatively little is added to 

 it ; the other trusts mainly to secretions which they add to 

 it, usually some acid. All the bees we are familiar with 

 here belong to the first rank, but elsewhere there are a mul- 

 titude of species of the second rank. And, if I am right, no 

 two are exactly alike as to the character and palatableness 



