320 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURK 



Apr. is 



"I SECOND heartily A. I. Root, p. 293, in 

 his "protest ag-ainst this fashion of drop- 

 ping down with a lot of hives close to a suc- 

 cessful bee-keeper." And I suppose there 

 was a time when protest was made against 

 dropping down with a bunch of cattle close 

 beside a successful cattle-raiser. But the 

 moral protest didn't work, and the man had 

 to get legal protection for a certain territory. 

 I once got a hornet's nest about my ears for 

 saying that bee-keepers needed the same 

 protection as cattle-raisers or farmers. I 

 was right, but there's such a thing as get- 

 ting too far ahead of your times. 



Against robbers, Ungar. Biene recom- 

 mends a veil of mosquito-netting hung over 

 the entrance. The robbers will settle on 

 the netting, vainly trying to enter, while 

 those inside will force their way out else- 

 where. But if they're as persistent as rob- 

 bers are in this locality, I'm afraid they 

 would keep right on trying to get in. [Mos- 

 quito-netting will not work with our bees. 

 We have tried it hundreds of times. Wet 

 grass or weeds thrown over the entrance 

 are about as good as any thing I know of. 

 A little carbolic acid in the water that is 

 used to wet down the grass will make the 

 robbers hover around at a distance. — Ed.] 



A correspondent wants a dozen im- 

 proved Miller queen-cages, and asks for a 

 price list. I've no price list, and don't sell 

 supplies. The old-style Miller cages may 

 be found on old supply lists, but not the 

 improved as described on p. 246 of " Forty 

 Years Among the Bees." Possibly others 

 may not think these an improvement. I 

 sent one to Editor Root two or three years 

 ago; and as he never said any thing about 

 it I suppose he thought the old was better. 

 [Yes, such a cage was sent, but I did not 

 like it as well as the old one. The latter 

 has some features for the general trade 

 that the new one does not possess. — Ed.] 



Who would have thought of " Somnam- 

 bulist " rubbing his eyes open long enough 

 to side with the editor against me? To my 

 suggestion of outdoor work he says in Pro- 

 gressive Bee-keeper: "Nothing like it, doc- 

 tor; but the prescription is not convenient 

 for all, and field work needs some varia- 

 tion about it to give the best results, other- 

 wise the same set of muscles gets all the 

 ■culture, while others, as much or more in 

 need, languish for want of being used. The 

 proof of the pudding is in the eating. If 

 you doubt the exhilarating effects of physi- 

 cal culture, just try it once for a short 

 time. When one is alread3^ tired out it 

 seems unreasonable to expect additional ex- 

 ercise to prove restful. Such is, however, 

 the case." 



" I SUPPOSE they destroy the fertile work- 

 er at once," says B. Coman, p. 290. Some 

 beginner, on reading that, will understand 

 that there is only one laj'ing worker instead 

 of a whole lot, if not most of the bees in the 

 colony. Better make the correction in a 

 footnote, Mr. Editor, every time any thing 

 of that kind is said. If you haven't room 



for so many footnotes, then "cut it out." 

 [While I can readily believe there are gen- 

 erally more than one fertile worker, yet how 

 do we know or how can we know that there 

 is only one in all cases? Is it not probable 

 that there is only one laying worker in a 

 hive sometimes? If it has been definitely 

 proven that there is more than one fertile 

 worker in a hive in every instance, I have 

 not seen the proof. On the other hand, has 

 it not been stated that the fertile worker 

 was caught in the act, killed, and that 

 thereafter the promiscuous egg-laying ceas- 

 ed? It seems to me such evidence was pre- 

 sented some years ago. — Ed.] 



I wonder if M. W. Murphy didn't mis- 

 understand that nurseryman who told him 

 that pears grafted or budded on seedlings 

 never blight. At one time I raised seedling 

 pears by the thousand; and when they were 

 budded I had hundreds of them to blight. I 

 think he will find that nearly all, and I'm 

 not sure but all except the one original tree, 

 of any named variety are budded or grafted 

 on seedlings. [Our readers may not know 

 that Dr. Miller, years ago, embarked in 

 the fruit business quite extensively. The 

 younger bee-keepers may be surprised to 

 know he has a good many acres of fruit on 

 his place. The care of it is in the hands of 

 his hired man or a brother-in-law, while 

 the doctor devotes himself to his bees. It 

 is, therefore, to be presumed that the doc- 

 tor, when he talks about pear-blight, is 

 speaking from personal observation and ex- 

 perience; but we are glad, " allee samee," 

 that he got switched off from the pear busi- 

 ness to the bees. — Ed.] 



A. I. Root says, p. 295, C. E. Woodward 

 very much prefers Hoffman frames so as to 

 have automatic spacing, while Moe, Hoch- 

 stein, Howe, and perhaps all the bee- men 

 west of Havana, will not have a Hoffman 

 frame on the premises, and asks, "What 

 are you going to do about it?" I'll tell you 

 what I'd do, Bro. Root; I'd advise them to 

 use Miller frames. Then they'd have all 

 the advantage of automatic spacing without 

 the intolerable nuisance of the bee-glue, 

 which is almost certainly the reason the 

 Hoft'mans are disliked. [I do not know 

 about Mr. Hochstein nor Mr. Moe; but Mr. 

 Howe did not like Hoffman frames when he 

 was working witn Coggshall in New York; 

 indeed, the latter started with unspaced 

 frames. I always felt that if Mr. Cogg- 

 shall had commenced with Hoffman frames 

 he would have preferred them to any thing 

 else; but it might surprise yon to find how 

 many would not like your style of frames. 

 We tried to introduce metal-spaced frames 

 in certain parts of Cuba, but they would 

 not take. — Ed.] 



Referring to that 75 cts. business, p. 276, 

 you say I'm introducing a new condition. 

 Sure; and a new frame. But the question 

 remains a fair one: Will the shallow frame 

 with feeding after the harvest clean up any 

 more than H. R. Boardman will with the 

 deeper frame and feeding the same amount 



