1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



95 



to guarantee varietj'; but is it for the prac- 

 tical hone3'-producer? For my part I shall 

 not attempt to answer the question in this 

 article. 

 Brantford, Ontario, Canada. 



[We are g'reatlj' interested to know about 

 that mammoth queen-mating tent 20 feet high 

 and 30 feet in diaineter, constructed along 

 the lines suggested b}' Mr. Davitte in the 

 Revieiv and on p. 348 of our Apr. ISth issue, 

 1901. The experiment was a success in that 

 j'ou were able to get the drones to fly out 

 and in; and so far as they were concerned 

 they believed they had the range of the 

 whole wide world; but wh}' the qiiee^is did 

 not flj' out is a mystery' that remains to be 

 solved. I can only suggest that if while you 

 had that big tent, and the school of drones 

 was circulating around in it, you had taken 

 several virgin queens of the right age and 

 thrown them up in the air, copulation might 

 have taken place. You would then, of course, 

 have to step inside to catch the j'oung 

 queens as soon as they dropped with their 

 companion. 



Like yourself, I do not consider the ex- 

 periment a failure. If some means could be 

 devised by which the queens could have 

 been coaxed out into the inclosure through 

 the unobstructed entrances, instead of try- 

 ing to squeeze through the metal that barred 

 them from all outdoors, the plan would have 

 worked. The greatest fear I had was that 

 the drones could not be made to fly out into 

 an inclosure without bumping their heads 

 against the netting in a vain attempt to 

 escape. So far I believe you have demon- 

 strated that such a part of the work can be 

 done. It remains to go onlj' one step fur- 

 ther, and get queens to go out also. I would 

 suggest that, if the experiment is to be re- 

 peated, that a young virgin of flj'ing age be 

 put into a nucleus having nothing but larood 

 and hatching bees. It would then be pos- 

 sible to shut up the outer entrance, leaving 

 onh' the entrance leading into the tent. If 

 a dozen such nuclei were prepared, it seems 

 to me there would be no reason why the plan 

 could not be made a success. 



About that glass bottle — the experiment 

 almost staggers me. //"it can be made to 

 work, there is no use in fussing with a big 

 tent. If I mistake not, similar experiments 

 were tried over and over again 25 or 30 

 years .igo, but without success. 



We had not seen an account of the ex- 

 periment of Mr. Rawsome, and that is the 

 reason I have not mentioned it in our col- 

 umns. But nevertheless there is no use in 

 being " doubting Thomases," and I sug- 

 gest that queen-breeders give the matter a 

 test in the manner explained by Mr. Raw- 

 .eome. A big glass carboj' can be obtained 

 at almost any drugstore. 



My brother Huber will be home from 

 school this summer, and we expect to turn 

 him loose in the bee-j'ard, to do experi- 

 mental work. I had planned to do a great 

 deal of that kind of work, but lack of time 

 always stands in the way. — Ed.] 



MR. FRANCE LEGALLY ELECTED. 



Why we Can't go Back of the Returns of the Last 

 Election. 



BY HERMAN F. MOORE. 



I have just finished reading Mr. E. R. 

 Root's masterly resume of the General Man- 

 agership trouble. There is no doubt that 

 the words, ''has been regularly and proper- 

 ly nominated, and is believed to be worthy 

 of your support,'' should, never have been 

 printed on the ballot. I can not excuse Mr. 

 Eugene Secor for their presence there. He, 

 a practical politician, must have known 

 their impropriety at the time. Perhaps he 

 thought this was only a family matter, and 

 the ordinary rules of ethics did not apply. 

 I hope I am not unjust or uncharitable when 

 I say that I believe the true reason for his 

 action was a desire to get back at Abbott. 

 The presence in the annual report of words 

 indicating that Abbott had never turned 

 over the money, goes to prove this view, 

 when he must have known that Dr. Mason 

 had the money before his death. 



Mr. Abbott never was my personal pref- 

 erence for General Manager, nor was Mr. 

 France; but I felt that, as Mr. Abbott had 

 agreed to submit his status to the election 

 in December, there should have been no at- 

 tempt to prevent such a submission. 



I believe the said words so printed on the 

 ballot were the result of an effort on the 

 part of some of our officers or members to 

 do up Abbott at all events. If so, such 

 action is on a par with the most disreputa- 

 ble party poltics, and must be openly con- 

 demned. 



However, I think the old National is in 

 no danger of immediate dissolution, any 

 more than the family is in danger when the 

 boy comes home and announces to father and 

 mother that "he is not going to school any 

 more." The 3'oung man gets a certain 

 needed chastisement, and the great institu- 

 tion goes along very much as before. 



Let me say, while I am speaking, that 

 one great body (the greatest bee-keepers' 

 society in the world) must be governed by 

 strict parlimentary rules. All bodies of 

 men, associated for a common interest, have 

 from time immemorial submitted themselves 

 to certain rules that make for harmony and 

 the dispatch of business. There are Rob- 

 ert's Rules of Order, Reed's Rules, etc. 



Some of the errors into which our officers 

 have fallen would have been easily avoided 

 by following closely the rules of order ap- 

 plicable to such cases. This great body of 

 1000 American citizens can be controlled in 

 no other way. 



I am satisfied that no new election is pos- 

 sible under our constitution, which says, 

 " The election shall be held in December 

 each year." No new ballot can be cast until 

 Dec, 1903, and none of us desires 12 months 

 to elapse, and nothing done. The matter 

 has gone to the voters in the regular way, 

 and they have decided for Mr. France. 

 This should end the dispute. I think even 



