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VoJ. XXXL 



JAR U 1903. 



Na J. 



Happy New Year! 



That picture of A. I. Root, page 1030, 

 looks so natural that it makes me kind o' 

 lonesome to have a good talk with him. 



A HORSK so bad with rheumatism that he 

 was only fit for light work was badly stung 

 by bees, and then he was as good as ever. — 

 Prak. Wegweiser. 



A COLONY having 11 frames of brood in- 

 creased in weight from May 2 to 6 33 

 pounds; another of nine frames increased 

 only half as much! — Schweiz. Bztg. Was 

 not that exceptional? With a fourth more 

 brood I should expect more than a fourth 

 increase of stores, but hardly twice as 

 much. 



Pkof. G. de Bunge says in Zeitschrift 

 fuer Biologie that, among the hydrates of 

 carbon which serve as foods, honey holds 

 an exceptional place. Of all the sugar}' 

 matters, honey is the only one containing 

 iron; and, strangely enough, almost exact- 

 I3' in the same quantity as found in white 

 bread. [Put this down as another point 

 in favor of honey as food. — Ed.] 



You ask what more I want than shaking 

 or brushing, Mr. Editor. I want some- 

 thing ttiat will not deplete a colony of its 

 bro d — its future bees. [But ^Yhen one 

 practices the double-drive plan of return- 

 ing all the hatched brood to the first drive 

 of bees, he does not deplete a colony; and, 

 if I judge rightl3% the majority of the shak- 

 ers or brushers practice the second drive. — 

 Ed.] 



I want that index for 1902. If I have to 

 take my choice between that and the next 

 number of Glkanings, I'll take the index; 

 but I'd rather have both. [You shall have 

 it. I suspect there are many others who 

 have not written for the index who never- 



theless want it. We shall be glad to send 

 them a copy any time they call for it. A 

 volume of a periodical, without an index, 

 comes next thing to being worthless — espe- 

 cially so if time is any factor. — Ed.] 



Liixembtirg Bztg. relates that a number 

 of drones and workers freshly killed were 

 laid at the entrance of a hive in the even- 

 ing. Nightingales came and devoured the 

 drones but did not touch the workers. Is 

 it not possible that some other birds have 

 the same discrimination? [Quite likely, 

 although I have seen king birds catch com- 

 mon bees on the wing. The bee is caught 

 at the waist, and crushed instantly. The 

 bird then alights on a perch, and other ob- 

 servers have said that his birdship chews 

 away at his victim, keeping the sting al- 

 ways out of his mouth, until he has ex- 

 tracted the honey and the juice, and then 

 drops it. This part of the performance I 

 have never witnessed, although I have re- 

 peatedly seen the act of catching. — Ed.] 



We were talking, Mr. Editor, about a 

 colony that never thinks of swarming, and 

 then, p. 1012, you say, "But the colony you 

 think never thinks of swarming may swarm 

 just the same." Well, you are incorrigi- 

 ble. We were not talking about what / 

 think. We were talking about a colony 

 that never thinks of szvarming — not one that 

 / think. I've no secret by which I can 

 know that a colony will not swarm, but I 

 do not despair of finding some feasible 

 plan of dealing with a colony that will 

 leave it without the desire to swarm, and 

 such a supposed case I was talking about. 

 [Right j'ou are; but, admitting all that, the 

 apiarist must somehow have some means of 

 knowing whether a colony will ever think 

 of swarming. If you can not get that 

 knowledge, then your never-think swarm 

 has no practical value. — Ed.] 



Comparing South Florida with the 

 North, H. F. Hill says in Review that in 

 Florida bees consume vastly more stores; 

 the period of a queen's useful life is re- 

 duced about one-half; combs kept in an 

 open shed from season to season as at the 

 North would be destroyed within a very 

 few days by the moth larvae; and whereas 



