THE AMERICAJM BEE JOURNAL. 



call it, is eauseil by the " peildliiis lit- 

 tle imps "" piUiig on more wax '" or 

 by a space left unfilled witli honey 

 just beneath the cappinsr, we will not 

 liere discuss, but we would remark 

 that it may be well enough for Mr. 

 Demaree to" talk about "the peddling 

 little black imps." and the "dead 

 chalky appearance," and the "deli- 

 cate cream-tinted comb so deftly 

 filled by the Italians,"' but all this 

 rubbish" is swept away wlien the 

 " dead chalk " comes into competition 

 with the " cream-tinted." It might 

 be mentioned that the truest, whitest 

 combs always carry oft' the prizes at 

 the fairs, but tliis is :iot so important 

 as the difference in price when the 

 honey is marketed. Just turn to 

 some of the market reports, and such 

 expressions as these will be found : 

 " New crop, prime one pound sections 

 (pure white) have sold for 20 cts., 

 when in fancy cases."' " 1 lb sections, 

 well filled, 18 cts. Xone but white 

 being taken." "When in Chicago last 

 October, I visited the commission 

 merchants who handled honey, and 

 was shown honey of different grades. 

 The very whitest, "dead chalky," 

 honey was selling for 20 cts. ; honey 

 just as good, but having the " cream- 

 tint," brought only 18 cts. Now why 

 try- to "slide"' over this point by 

 \is"iug such expressions as : "Peddling 

 little black imps," "dead chalky ap- 

 pearance "' and "delicate cream-tinted 

 combs so deftly finished " ? Why not 

 come out, like a man, and say : ""Yes, 

 it is true that the German Itees fur- 

 nish the whitest combs, and though 

 my taste is in favor of the ' cream 

 colored," yet the public is in favor of 

 the " dead chalky '■ at the rate of 2 

 cents a pound." V I believe that no 

 one has asserted that the superior 

 whiteness of the combs adds to the 

 good qualities of the honey itself, but 

 appearance always has" had, and 

 always tcill have, a market value; why 

 ignore it ? 



That the Germans are not better 

 comb builders than the Italians, Mr. 

 Demaree brmgs forward no proof ex- 

 cept his own experience ; but, al- 

 though, he does not forget to inform 

 us that that experience has been 

 drawn out to a great length. — nearly 

 40 years— yet he forgets entirely to 

 mention its breadth. A man may be 

 doctor, editor, lawyer, clergyman, 

 professor, or merchant for 40 long 

 years, and all this time may be " dab- 

 bling" with a few colonies of bees; 

 another man drops everything for bee- 

 keeping, devotes his whole time, 

 talent and energies to the business, 

 thinks of little else during his waking 

 hours, and even dreams of bees. He 

 reads almost evei7thing %ATitten upon 

 the subject, visits bee-keepers and at- 

 tends conventions, and conducts ex- 

 periments upon such a comprehensive 

 scale as to give weight to the conclu- 

 sions drawn therefrom. He continues 

 this course for 8 or 10 years, and be- 

 comes, every inth, a thorough going, 

 well-informed, first-class bee-keeper ; 

 but let him attempt to express his 

 views, and ten to one if some " pro- 

 fessional dabbler does not exclaim : 

 "Oh you have had no experience 

 young man, while /have been in the 



business 40 years. "" Now, wliich one 

 knows the niost of what he is talking 

 about y I do not wish Mr. Demaree 

 to think that in writing tluis I intend 

 to be personal, nothing of the kind. I 

 merely wish to shuw that, to have 

 value," experience must have breadth 

 and quality as well as length. 



Air. Demaree has seen it mentioned 

 in print, tliat " the Germans are bet- 

 ter comb builders '" ; he has seen it so 

 often that he does not know how 

 many times he /I'f.s seen it, yet it 

 coimts for nothing against his " long "' 

 experience. 



That " the Germans build less, or 

 more, drone comb " is immaterial now 

 that we have comb foundation. 



That the German bees do not enter 

 the surplus receptacles more readily, 

 Mr. Demaree attempts to prove by 

 again putting his " long " experience 

 " against the world. "" Oh yes, and he 

 also mentions that there lias always 

 been complaints because they did not 

 enter the boxes. Of course there has 

 always been such complaints, and 

 there always will be, because many 

 bee-keepers do not understand the 

 principles of comb-honey production, 

 but amon<j well-informed, experi- 

 enced, como-honey producers, these 

 complaints have been neither long nor 

 loud. 



That German bees produce whiter 

 combs, are better comb builders, enter 

 the surplus boxes more readily, are 

 less liable to upset the aparist"s plans 

 by their swarming propensities, than 

 the Italians, has been so generally 

 admitted, that, to me, it seems like a 

 waste of time to attempt to prove the 

 contrary. 



I believe that we " hybrid " bee- 

 keepers admit, (I know that I do) 

 that, upon actual count, there are 

 more points in favor of the Italians 

 than there are in favor of any other 

 pure variety, and that for the produc- 

 tion of extracted lioiiey they are un- 

 excelled ; and, of course, the "pure 

 Italian " bee-keepers find no fault 

 with this admission, but the moment 

 that we reach out for the good quali- 

 ties of the German race, and say that, 

 in the production of comb honey, we 

 cannot afford to ignore the few good 

 qualities that they possess ; when we 

 try, by crossing the two varieties, to 

 obtain a strain of bees possessing 1;he 

 good qualities of 6o(A varieties ; then, 

 as the "old school " physicians con- 

 dermi the Eclectics because they are 

 progressive enough to use remedies 

 that they find good, even if not men- 

 tioned in the books, so would some of 

 the old school bee-keepers condemn us. 



I have no desire to build up nor to 

 pull down the reputation of any 

 variety or strain of bees, my only de- 

 sire is to an-ive at the truth ; and, if 

 there is a better bee for the produc- 

 tion of comb honey than a cross be- 

 tween the dark leather-colored Italian 

 and the large brown German — not the 

 "little fidgety black imps'' — no one 

 would be more pleased to know it 

 than myself. 



Rogersville, Mich.. Dec. 20, 1883. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Section Eack Comment. 



T. K. TUIINEK. 



^° Letters for publication must be 

 written on a separate piece of paper 

 from items of business. 



Tlie comment of Mr. Heddon, on 

 page .5.58, of the Bee Journal for 

 188;h, on my article on Section Racks, 

 deserves a little notice, " ere some of 

 the less experienced be led, what 

 seems to me, astray ;" and what I have 

 to say may serve, in part, as an answer 

 to J."C. Tliom, on page 548. 



I do not claim to have tried as many 

 devices for holding sections on the 

 top and sides of liives, as Mr. Ileddon, 

 but I claim to have tliorouglily tested 

 the rack he uses, except tlie ^3 inch 

 space between tiers, and I find it much 

 more impracticable tliaii the portable- 

 sided rack, in all the respects indi- 

 cated in my former article. I fail to 

 see wherein the movable-sided rack 

 is " weak and incapable of enduring 

 some of the most important manipu- 

 lations,"' from anything that has been 

 said against it by Mr. H., and I think 

 I have handled quite a few bees. 



With respect to the variations in 

 the shrinking and swelling of wood in 

 sections, in the use of the movable- 

 sided rack, I have not experienced the 

 slightest inconvenience, from their 

 use for 4 years, and, perhaps, that is a 

 little longer experience than he has 

 had with them. 



It may be that glass is objectionable 

 to bees, but with all my observations, 

 I do say that bees do not " sorely 

 neglect those combs that are next to 

 them." Bees do not always work as 

 quickly on the outside sections as they 

 do the centre ones, in any kind of a 

 rack, but that those without glass, are 

 perceptibly more acceptable to the 

 bees than those w-ith them, may be 

 considered an open question. The 

 glass admits of the same examination 

 between the ranges of combs that 

 others do, and then one can see with 

 them, with sufficient accuracy for 

 practical purposes, wlien the sections 

 are full, without disturbing the bees 

 by taking off the honey-board, for 

 generally bees commence work in the 

 centre, and when the outside combs 

 are capped, all are ready to remove. 



If glass is so objectionable to bees, 

 those who think so can have racks 

 without it, for, like separators, they 

 are no part of a movable-sided rack. 

 I have never tried separators on one 

 side of sections and glass on the other, 

 but from my use of separators, I 

 would lay the blame on them, rather 

 than the glass. Though I regard 

 glass as a very convenient arrange- 

 ment, yet the views and taste of tlie 

 individual must regulate that matter. 

 The expense of movable-sided racks is 

 but a trifle more than those with 

 stationery sides, especially if the 

 views are" left off. 



I did speak of the risk of breaking 

 the cappings in shoving one section 

 past another, for that is the danger 

 with his rack in removing single sec- 

 tions. Full sets, or even rows, can- 

 not always be removed, for the bees 

 will not always fill a set full, and it 

 may be desirable to leave those par- 

 tially full on the hive, and take full 

 ones off, putting new ones in their 



