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Tubiishedy theA l^Roo-f Co. 



15°P[rV'ear'^'\s) HEDINA-OHIO- 





Vol. XXXI. 



SEPT. \, 1903. 



No. 17 



"White clover "usually lasts two weeks, 

 and sometimes a month," at Medina, page 

 723. Some years it doesn't last at all here, 

 but this 3'ear it has already lasted eleven 

 weeks, and the end is not j-et in sight. 



Elias Fox, didn't you have a "stick" 

 in that lemonade to make a little of it give 

 up and become alkali, and then with suffi- 

 cient recruits recover its spirits and change 

 back again to acid? In this locality one 

 maj- be overcome by the other, but I don't 

 believe one is ever changed into the other. 



After reading in Gleanings about the 

 right wa\- to hold a smoker, I was worried 

 for fear I was pigeon-toed in my hands. I 

 am now pretty well satisfied that I don't 

 need any surgical operation, but that it's 

 the editor who is pigeon-toed in his hands 

 — or else in his head. [Now, look here, 

 doctor; if 3'ou do not quit calling me names 

 I shall get after you with both of my " pig- 

 eon-toed " feet. — Ed.] 



I HAVE one of the bee-brushes sent out by 

 Mrs. Sarah A. Smith, as advertised in 

 Gleanings, and thej-'re fine for a whole- 

 sale sweep of the combs. They're made of 

 some kind of grass, a sort of vegetable 

 horse- hair, very fine and very tough, and 

 should last well. Possiblj' they would be 

 just a little better if the tip ends were not 

 clipped off. [These brushes appear to be 

 very soft and pliable. It is possible thej^ 

 would make the best bee-brush in the world. 

 — Ed.J 



A CORRESPONDENT wants me to tell what 

 kind of season I'm having. Bless your 

 heart, the bees are driving me so I haven't 

 time to tell. But I'll just take time to say 

 I never saw such a flood of honey before, 



and never expect to see it again. [That 

 beats any thing we ever had here or expect 

 to have; and I am beginning to feel that 

 the region in and about Medina is almost 

 as poor for the production of comb honey as 

 any place in the United States, because 

 our honey-flows are so very, very short. — 

 Ed.] 



Won't some one come between the editor 

 and me, and clear away the smoke on the 

 smoke question ? We're square fornenst 

 each other in our impressions about the 

 smoke of rotten and sound wood (by the 

 wajs I think the most savage smoke comes 

 ivoxn. green wood), but neither of us furnish- 

 es any proof. Who has any positive proof? 

 [How can positive proof be produced unless 

 we accept one's individual feelings and im- 

 pressions after inhaling the smoke from 

 rotten wood and that from hard wood? We 

 have been trying our own experiments over 

 again, and our experience is the same as 

 before — that rotten wood will give a more 

 subduing smoke than hard wood. — Ed.] 



You ASK, Mr. Editor, whether I hived 

 shaken swarms (that swarmed afterward) 

 on starters, etc. They were hived on full 

 combs, although other years I used also 

 foundation, and I think the combs gave 

 better results than foundation. [Inasmuch 

 as we had no swarms from bees shaken on 

 foundation, and 3'our bees shaken on full 

 combs did swarm, it would look as if there 

 were some merit in foundation. The fact 

 that bees start housekeeping almost from 

 the ground up, when put on foundation, 

 puts them more nearly back to the condi- 

 tion of nature — that is, the hollow tree. 

 The old combs have a tendency to suggest 

 to the bees that they haven't swarmed, I 

 think.— Ed.] 



Incubators, or nurseries, ma}' be used 

 by other than professionals to advantage. 

 I've been using them for queen-cells cutout 

 of combs. Thus I avoid the chance of a 

 virgin with a bad wing or a cell with a 

 dead queen, and can hold over a virgin un- 

 til needed. The Stanley cartridge has the 

 advantage that the bees can get to the cells 



