THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



167 



boat he went down on had on hoard 

 600 barrels of gUicose consigned to 

 New Orleans. 



Look at the quotations of honey in 

 the different cities to day. '" Honey 

 dull and ot slow sale "" is what usually 

 greets our eye. While there are some 

 localities where the home market is 

 good, the Held is not yet fully occu- 

 pied, and the (iroducer may expect 

 ere long to see others engaged in the 

 business, induced, no doubt, by the 

 ready sale of honey in their vicinity 

 and the reports of enormous yields of 

 honey published by some of our bee- 

 keepers. If some of our honey pro- 

 ducers were as ready to report their 

 small yields as well as their excep- 

 tionally large ones, those about to en- 

 gage in the business would have a 

 better idea of the profits they could 

 expect. The home market is un- 

 doubtedly the best, and is the one to 

 cultivate. Every inducement should 

 be held out for tlie people to use honey 

 instead of glucose, as it is much 

 healthier, and, therefore, conduces to 

 their welfare, and at the same time 

 increases tlie sales of honey. Comb 

 honey should be put on the market 

 only in attractive packages, and kept 

 on sale tlie year round. 



We should be very careful of our 

 extracted lioney, put nothing on the 

 market but what is fully ripened and 

 is first-class in every respect ; put 

 nothing on the market which you are 

 ashamed to put your name on, for if 

 there is anything the matter with it 

 they will say at once it is adulterated 

 with glucose, for which they seem to 

 have a holy horror when mixed with 

 honey, but in syrups they eat it with- 

 out even a protest. 



Delhi, 111. 



For tlie American Bee JournaL 



The Last Number of the Bee Journal. 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



About once a week I feel like writ- 

 ing an article with the above heading. 

 The .JocRN.VL of Feb. 20 was es- 

 pecially good. 



When I asserted that, in my opin- 

 ion, the almost abnormal prolificness 

 of the Syrians was an undesirable 

 characteristic, especially when kept 

 for honey- producing purposes, I be- 

 lieved that I was making a truthful 

 assertion ; but I expect that mv views 

 would be strongly opposed, biit when 

 I find such men as Messrs. Doolittle, 

 Heddon, Poppleton and Davis giving 

 testimony in support of my views, I 

 feel that, should there be any con- 

 troversy upon the subject, I shall not 

 be left to defend single-handed what 

 I believe to be the truth. 



Another thing pleases me, and that 

 is the frank and honest manner in 

 which W. T. Stewart " owns up '" that 

 reversible frames are not exactly wiiat 

 they have been "cracked up to be." 

 If I understand the matter, there are 

 two desirable features claimed for re- 

 versible frames. First, by reversal 

 the bees will fasten the combs to the 

 bottom bars, and if any honey is 

 stored along underneath the top-bars 

 the bees will remove the honey to the 



section boxes. Now, by using wired 

 frames the first desirable feature is 

 rendered ■' null and void;" while in 

 regard to the second point, would it 

 not l)e nuich ninre desirable to employ 

 such a method of management that 

 the honey would be stored in the sec- 

 tions in the first place V If reversible 

 frames were a very desirable thing, I 

 think a reversible hive would be still 

 more desirable. 



In reference to Mr. Ackerman"s ar- 

 ticle on '• The hive I like and use," as 

 I have used both the Simplicity and 

 the Langstroth hives, I cannot resist 

 the temptation to " say something."' 

 This beveling of the upper and lower 

 edges of the hives (to which Mr. Hed- 

 don objects, and of which Jlr. Acker- 

 man approves) looks nice on paper, 

 but no one who has ever tried the 

 simple square joints by the side of 

 the " telescopic " will ever think of 

 adopting the latter. The thin edges 

 of these beveled joints are easily 

 broken off ; this breaking often being 

 done in prying off the upper stories. 

 I believe that some one has told us 

 how to make a sort of hinged lever 

 with which to pry off the upper story, 

 one end of the lever being inserted in 

 the " handle hole " in the upper story, 

 while the lower end of the support in 

 which the lever turns is inserted in 

 the " handle hole " of the lower story ; 

 but who wants to carry a " wagon 

 jack " around with him when opening 

 hives. Hives that go together with 

 '"telescopic" joints afford much better 

 facilities for the bees to use propolis 

 than those with plain, square joints. 

 Mr. Ackerman says that the tele- 

 scopic joint more effectually protects 

 the hive and bees from tlie inclem- 

 ency of the weather. How can this 

 be y The square joint certainly fits as 

 closely, and there is no colony strong 

 enough to require an upper story that 

 does not immediately proceed to stop 

 all cracks as soon as it is added. 



Mr. Ackerman does "misunder- 

 stand " the latter part of Mr. Ileddon's 

 article, in which he (Heddon) quotes 

 from the specifications of the Lang- 

 stroth patent. If Mr. Ackerman will 

 re-read thatquotation.and read it care- 

 fully, I think he will find there noth- 

 ing even remotely touching upon a 

 " dead-air space or double covering 

 over the surplus room." Could I be 

 induced to use wide frames, I should 

 use them exactly as Mr. Ackerman 

 recommends, only one tier of sections 

 higli. 



Mr. Ackerman advocates 10 frame 

 hives, and then division-boards to 

 make them smaller. AVhy not make 

 them the right size in the first place, 

 and thus avoid the expense of division- 

 boards V Had hives been made small 

 enough so that ordinary queens could 

 keep tliem full of brood, reversible 

 frames would probably never have 

 been thought of. The only reason 

 that he gives for using 10 frames in- 

 stead of 8 is that " side storing " can 

 be indulged in. I wonder how much 

 more writing and talking and "pound- 

 ing " nuist be done before bee-keepers 

 will give up that expensive luxury, if 

 luxury it can lie called, side storing. 



Mr. Jiuchanan's remarks in regard 

 to the light in which, or rather the 



suspicion with which many people re- 

 gard extracted honey, and his sugges- 

 tions as to the advisability of i^ee- 

 keepers turning their attention to t\w 

 production of ctHul) honey, reminds 

 me that, perhaps, it would be well to 

 be a little more careful in " booming," 

 through the agricultural press, the 

 "feeding back" question. Let the 

 public be once led to believe that ex- 

 tracted honey can be " fed back " at a 

 profit, and comb honey will be viewed 

 with as much suspicion as was ever 

 extracted honey. That "scientific 

 pleasantry " of Wiley's only needs 

 some such corroborative testimony to 

 be believed more universally than ever. 

 Rogersville, Mich. 



ror the American Bee Journal. 



Foul Brood in the Mails. 



W. H. STEWART. 



On page 524 of the Bee .Ioukn.vl 

 for 1883,T'rof . T. J. Burrill proposes 

 to make a thorough examination of 

 the suliject of foul brood, its cause and 

 cure, etc., asking for specimens and 

 information as to the nature and vio- 

 lence of the disease, to be sent to him 

 by mail. And on page 611 he says: 

 " That several packages have already 

 been received by him ; and one sent iu 

 a pasteboard box, shows indications 

 of being genuine foul brood." 



I would most heartily thank Prof. 

 B. for offering to investigate the un- 

 fortunate matter of foul brood among 

 bees, and hope that he may be en- 

 couraged by all bee-keepers when the 

 matter is conducted in a proper man- 

 ner, but I would most earnestly protest 

 against any specimens being sent him 

 by mail at any time. I have read 

 carefully what I could ^et on the sub- 

 ject of foul brood, and as yet I can 

 get no satisfactiory proof that those 

 who have had the most experience 

 with the disease know to a certainty 

 in how manv ways it may be conveyed 

 from one colony to another. It is the 

 opinion of some that it may be carried 

 by bees that carry honey from an in- 

 fected hive to their own. If this be 

 so, then it would seem that the spores 

 are on the honey combs, scattered all 

 through the infected colony, and rob- 

 ber bees may get them on their feet 

 or tongues and unwittingly carry 

 them liome. 



While these poison germs are so 

 small and easily carried about and 

 left on whatever tliey touch, is it not 

 reasonable to conclude that bees hav- 

 ing them on their feet or other parts 

 would, on visiting flowers, leave the 

 contagion to be taken up by other 

 bees that visit the same flowers after- 

 ward V And in this way alone, bees 

 working on buckwheat, would soon 

 scatter it far and wide. This shows 

 how carefid we should be to give it no 

 possible chance to come to our apiaries. 



Let us suppose that Mr. A. is put- 

 ting up some foul brood for the mail 

 bags. He, of course, handles it with 

 his fingers, and it is reasonable to 

 suppose that many of the germs would 

 adhere to the fingers, and that more 

 or less of them would be left on the 

 outer surface of the box, and if an 



