• DELVoTELD 



•AND HOME,- vi' '^ 

 •INTELREST^ 



TJblishedby-THE7^'I^OO"C Co. 



I^PtRVEAK'^'Xs) Hedina-Ohio- 



Vol. XXXI. 



JUNE J 5, J 903. 



No. J2. 



*' The FOOD g'iven all larvae for the first 

 48 hours of their existence is the same," 

 Bro. Doolittle gives, p. 479, as the belief of 

 the majorit}' of our best bee-keepers. I think 

 that's the first time I've ever seen it set at 

 less than three days, the time set by scien- 

 tists. 



That long-felt want in smokers, a 

 nozzle that would never tumble off, nor get 

 with age so it wouldn't go on, seems at 

 last filled b3' the new nozzle-cover being 

 sent out from Medina. It's a lot of comfort 

 to be freed from the time-wasting annoyance 

 of the old nozzles, and the new one promises 

 to have staying qualities. 



Phacelia, which has now been in bloom 

 in the window for some time, has a blue 

 flower resembling the heliotrope, equaling 

 it in beauty, strongly fragrant, although I 

 don't think it has the same fragrance when 

 grown as an open-air plant. It is wonder- 

 fullj' lasting as a cut flower, rivaling the 

 carnation in that regard. 



I've been trying the corrugated bread- 

 knife for cutting foundation, miter-box fash- 

 ion. It works finelj', and I seemed to be 

 working faster than the old way. But when 

 I timed myself I was surprised to find that 

 I could work 50 per cent faster the old way 

 with a pocket-knife and rules. But I've 

 had much practice the old way. 



When you clip a queen, and try to let 

 her run off j'our fingers on to the comb, she 

 will generall}' persist in running up on 

 your hand. Take a leaf or other small ob- 

 ject, let her run up on that, then lay leaf 

 and all on the top-bars. [Yes, she will 

 persist in running up on j-our hand unless 

 you can get her nose directly against the 

 comb or bees. — Ed.] 



"I NEVER saw more white clover in the 

 fields than now," says the editor. Same 

 here; but the first days of June have been 

 so cold and wet that bees could have only 

 about a day in a week to work. [The same 

 here. Notwithstanding such an abundance 

 of clover, the bees do not seem to be work- 

 ing on it quite so heavily as when there has 

 been less of it. But did you ever see so 

 much sweet clover? The dry weather dur- 

 ing the early part of May seems to have 

 been just the thing to give it a boom. Last 

 year sweet clover did not amount to very 

 much because of the excessive amount of 

 rain. — Ed.] 



The danger of spreading foul brood by 

 means of extracting combs is not light. I 

 learn from Atnerican Bee Journal \.\\2X Prof. 

 Harrison advises disinfecting such combs 

 with formalin. The expense is trifling. 

 He says: "The combs of from 200 to 300 col- 

 onies could be disinfected at an annual out- 

 lay of about 20 cents." Think of it! 10 or 

 15 sets of combs insured for a cent! [This 

 is a good point; and this fall, when we get 

 a lot of empty combs, I am determined they 

 shall be put through the fumigating-box. 

 It would be well, perhaps, for all careful 

 bee-keepers to fumigate their combs, to be 

 on the safe side — that is, if the formalin 

 treatment is effective in killing spores as 

 well as the actual bacilli. — Ed.] 



That statement of the editor, page 480, 

 that at the Los Angeles convention we can 

 get a room at 25 cents a night, and best 

 board at 25 cents, made me stop to think 

 whether he could mean it, as there came 

 up before me other national conventions 

 where room (or, rather, bed) cost a dollar 

 a night, and the bed — well, I think I'd 

 just as soon sleep at home. [I am not sure 

 that meals at 25 cts., and rooms at 25 cts., 

 could be engaged at as high a grade of ho- 

 tel during the week of the encampment of 

 the G. A. R. at San Francisco. Los Angeles 

 is about 450 miles from San Francisco. A 

 large amount of railroad traffic will go 

 through that city. Many people will stop 

 there, with the possible result that rates 

 will be advanced. But two years ago this 



