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$i^PERrEAR^'\§ Medina- Ohio- 



Vol XXXI. 



JULY I, J903. 



Na J 3. 



'^Br.C.CMiLLER. 



A FEW WEKKS ago I fouod on the ground 

 in front of some hives a few bees in appar- 

 ently bad order, and among the rest one 

 tumbling around with its abdomen torn 

 avva\-. I tried to think what could have 

 caused it, but gave up the conundrum. I 

 suppose the true answer is given on page 

 531 — the poor thing kicked itself to pieces. 

 A cherry orchard probably had some spray- 

 ing when still in bloom. [We should be 

 glad to hear from others of our subscribers 

 as to whether they have seen bees torn to 

 pieces in the manner described. — Ed.] 



What A. I. Root says, page 557, about 

 the danger of having an automobile in the 

 hands of a drunken man suggests the 

 thought that if automobiles are to become 

 cheaper than horse-flesh it may become 

 necessary to pass laws against having any 

 saloons. I really believe we'd be just as 

 well off without saloons anyhow. [Yester- 

 day a horse went by drawing a drunken 

 driver. The poor animal seemed to know 

 that its owner needed to be taken care of; 

 and in spite of the pulling and hauling at 

 the lines it kept right in the road. But an 

 automobile would, possibly and probabl}', 

 run him into a ditch and crush him beneath 

 its weight — Eo. ] 



"Now, IS IT hard to suppose that a three- 

 storj' hive, run for extracting, might aver- 

 age 70.000 bees?" p. 528. Nothing very 

 hard about it for me, but how about a cer- 

 tain editor who not so very long ago was 

 trying to convince me that such a thing was 

 an. impossibility? [Convinceyou that such 

 a thing "was an impossibility"! — why, I 

 can not recall to what you refer. I have 

 advocated strong colonies, "double-deck- 

 ers," for years, and last year at one of our 

 out-yards I had several three stories high. 



and one or two four stories. If some of 

 them did not have one hundred thousand 

 bees it would be strange. If I was trying 

 to convince you that a colony could not have 

 that number, I must have been inconsistent 

 with my practice and teachings. — Ed.] 



You're right, Mr. Editor, I made very 

 bungling use of language when I said "giv- 

 ing all the earlier supers on top." I meant 

 having the earlier or older supers always 

 on top, each time putting the later supers 

 under. My practice, like the practice of 

 many others, has been to put the second 

 super under the first, the third under the 

 second, and so on, leaving the oldest super 

 always on the top, except when it comes 

 near the close of the harvest, when the 

 empty super is put on top. I think I 

 should never have thought of trying any 

 other way if friend Hershiser had not 

 stirred me up, but he has set me to think- 

 ing whether a compromise may not be a 

 good thing, and if anj' good comes of it he 

 should have credit therefor. This year I'm 

 putting the empty super next to the brood- 

 chamber, as heretofore; but instead of hav- 

 ing the oldest super always at the top, it 

 will be next above the lowest. I think this 

 will not only hurry up the finishing, but it 

 will especially help about getting the cor- 

 ner sections finished. 



Editor Hutchinson is doing his share 

 toward popularizing bee-keeping in the 

 magazines. A finely illustrated article 

 from him appears in the June issue of that 

 aristocrat of agricultural magazines, Coun- 

 try Life in America. [Nearly two years 

 ago the editor of Country Life wrote our 

 firm asking us to name someone who would 

 be capable of writing a general article on 

 bees, and who would be able to furnish a 

 set of fine photos for purpose of illustration. 

 We could think of no one abler than our 

 friend W. Z., and immediately put him in 

 touch with the editor of Country Life. The 

 sequel is the fine illustrated article that 

 appears in that paper for June. Mr. Hutch- 

 inson is getting to be known pretty well 

 outside of beedom as a writer on bees. His 

 skill with the camera and with the pen 

 makes him just the man to write popular 



