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Vol. XXXI. 



SEPT. J 5, J 903. 



No. J 8 





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I^R/Dr.C.CMiLLER. 



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One objection to going to a convention 

 so far awajf as Los Angeles is that, v^hen 

 it is all over, 3-ou have a sort of homesick 

 feeling to take leave of so manj' nice people 

 you may never meet again. 



The weather at the Los Angeles con- 

 vention was not served on ice, but brought 

 on steaming hot. [When I visited Califor- 

 nia two years ago, the weather was very 

 delightful — cool at night, and bright and 

 warm during midday. — Ed.] 



For some time I've been learning that 

 I'm not so large a man as I had supposed, 

 but I never felt my littleness quite so much 

 as I did after meeting the California bee- 

 keepers with their big apiaries and big 

 yields. They have big hearts too. [Yes, 

 indeed they have. — Ed.] 



Apiaries are not very plentifully sprin- 

 kled alontr railroads. In the whole 2300 

 miles to Los Angeles I thin'ic not a dozen 

 are to be seen. [Yes, and the major part 

 of the dozen are to be seen mainly along 

 the last two or three hundred miles as one 

 gets closer and closer to Los Angeles. — Ed.] 



I don't know much about such things; 

 but I'm wondering if E. F. Phillips means 

 to put it just as strongly as he does when 

 he says that in the second case it is never 

 necessary' for a male and female to meet. 

 Is there no c^xle in the case that calls for 

 the male to appear after so long a time if 

 the race is to continue? 



Mr. Editor, I attach more importance to 

 J. M. Mack's tool than you, for I can hard- 

 ly agree that the accumulation of wax and 

 propolis between top-bars does no particu- 

 lar harm. It means a good many bees 

 killed if j-ou don't go slow, and in time the 



accumulation becomes such that the spac- 

 ing is greater. I can show you proof. 

 [Perhaps j'ou are right. — Ed.] 



Never before, I think, in the history of 

 the world, did so many bee-keepers take so 

 long a ride together in the same car as the 

 25 who rode in a tourist car from Chicago 

 to Los Angeles. For five days and six 

 nights their home was in that car, and 3'ou 

 may guess they had a good time. It was a 

 bee-keepers' convention in continuous ses- 

 sion. 



The hot spell during the national con- 

 vention made some of the Californians 

 afraid of a repetition of the experiences of 

 1883. That year it held at 115°, and M. 

 H. Mendleson said that, in spite of his 

 covering the hives with brush, the combs 

 melted down in them, the honey ran out in 

 a stream, the bees deserted the hives, and 

 hung in huge bunches all about. When a 

 bee struck the ground the sand was so hot 

 that it turned over and doubled up, a dead 

 bee. 



You are rthht, very right, Mr. Editor, 

 to advise against unqueening at beginning 

 of settled warm weather in spring for the 

 sake of having j'oung queens reared to pre- 

 vent swarming, p. 767. But the immense 

 loss from stopping brood-rearing is not the 

 only objection. I tried it one year with 

 several colonies. The majority of them 

 failed to raise queens so early, and those 

 that succeeded seemed as much bent on 

 swarming as if the queens had been reared 

 the previous fall. 



I'm writing this Straw in Los Angeles, 

 Cal., on a table whose central adornment 

 is a bottle more than afoot high, said bottle 

 being placed there by A. I Root, who 

 makes frequent potations therefrom, with 

 many expressions of delight therewith. 

 No, A. I. Root hasn't gone back on his 

 temperance principles; the bottle contains 

 nothing stronger than distilled water. I 

 don't know that he got it at a bargain 

 counter, but he seems greatly pleased that 

 he got the whole gallon for 10 cents— bottle 

 returnable. 



