1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



953 



tail purposes. If we look at the problem 

 from this point of view, he could afford to 

 pay SlO a thousand if the extracted-honey 

 man can afford to buy small gflass pack- 

 ag"es, and give them away to those who buy 

 his honey. The comb-honey producer can 

 not weig^h in his shipping'-cases with his 

 honey at so much per pound. No, he must 

 pay out good money for them, and then ^ive 

 tfu'>n away if he ships out of town. But his 

 sections he seils ag'ain by weight at the 

 price he gets for his honey; and when he 

 pays at the rate of S5.00 per thousand for 

 them he is pretty sure of g^etting that $5.00 

 back again. But, fortunately, the large 

 producer does not yet have to pay this fig- 

 ure. He can buj' for less, and make a lit- 

 tle profit in the wood of the section when he 

 sells.— Ed.] 



"Thkkris no advantage in opening a 

 hive oftener than two or three times a sea- 

 son if 3-ou desire to get honey," p. 931. 

 Well, yes — er — that is, if you're following a 

 plan th;it doesn't require opening a hive 

 oftener than two or three times a season. 

 I've just been looking at my book to see how 

 often were opened the five hives from which 

 the largest harvests came. I don't dare 

 tell how often it was, but it was more than 

 two or three times, and I desired to get hon- 

 ey, too, and wasn't opening them just for 

 the fun of it. [This is a question that 

 hinges ver}' largely on management, the 

 man. and the season. You will remember 

 the Review for March mentioned Mr. E. D. 

 Townsend. of Michigan, who has for years 

 secured good crops of honey from an out- 

 yard by visiting the bees onlj' four times in 

 a whole year. And was it not Mr. Hutch- 

 inson, Mr. Heddon, Mr. Coggshall, and sev- 

 eral others who made the statement that too 

 much opening of the brood-nest is a waste 

 of labor? At our outyards there are some 

 comb-hone\' hives that are opened only two 

 or three times a season. When I say the 

 season, I mean from spring to fall. But 

 j'ou had a remarkably large yield of honey 

 this last season, and I should imagine it 

 would pay j-ou well to open some colonies 

 oftener than three or four times; and when 

 I saj' openitifT I do not mean putting on su- 

 pers and taking off honey. — Ed.] 



j^OTr)0i/r 



■r^f^^^ 



3? 



Our Spanish exchange, El Colmenero 

 Espanol. is publishing a series of accounts 

 of the present condition of apiculture in the 

 principal nations of the world. In our 

 next issue it is my intention to give a trans- 

 lation of these, as it is the best birdseye 



view of the situation I have 3'et seen; and 

 it shows no little labor on the part of the 

 writer to collect so much information in a 

 small compass. 



Dr. Miller writes concerning what I said 

 about the pronunciation of the word propo- 

 lis^ saying that good authority authorizes 

 prop-o\\% as well as /»;'o-polis. That's true; 

 but as the greater part of our authorities 

 seem to favor pro-\>o\\% rather than prop- 

 olis, we have' always used the former way 

 here. The English writer quoted says 't 

 would be a pity to lose sight of the originnl 

 meaning of the word — pro, in front of, and 

 polis, a cit}', by calling it any thing hut pro- 

 polis. The matter is comparatively unim- 

 portant, but I add this explanation simply 

 to prop up my pro. Dr. Miller is always a 

 safe guide, and I thank him for his sug- 

 gestions. 



The sight of any thing from Ireland al- 

 ways arouses my interest, especially if it 

 is something new. Well, the newest thing 

 I have seen from there lately is a new bee- 

 journal, Bee-keeper of Ireland. The pages 

 are the same size as this, 16 in number, 

 and well filled with matter of a very inter- 

 esting nature. We have here onl}' the July 

 number, which was the second one issued. 

 I don't see how an American can fail to be 

 interested in the following, as it gives in 

 fine form an Irishman's idea of his own 

 country as well as of this: 



If Ireland does not "buck up" in the bee business 

 before long, some Atrerican will come over and "ex- 

 ploit " the Hmerald Isle in the production of honey and 

 beeswax. It is ab.solutely disgraceful that in a country 

 so near I,ondon, the principal market of the world, in 

 a country with a flora p obably unequaled in the tem- 

 perate zones, there are not three apiaries of over 100 

 hives, and that Ireland markets a miserable 100,000 

 lbs. of honev per annum. The poverty stricken in- 

 habitants eat'the other(iOO,000 lbs. produced. If there 

 be not soon a rustle among the dry bones, the afore- 

 said American, when he comes, will make his " pile." 

 He will turn out from each of his " stations" nearly 

 as much honey as is now obtained from the whole 

 country. Irt-land is without question, able to support 

 200 000 .stocks capable of yielding 200 lbs. each, or 40,- 

 0(0 000 lbs . and until it turns out that quantity the 

 business will not b' attended to properly. At 6rf. per 

 lb. (the price of sections in America, with its hundreds 

 of tons of production has never fallen so low as six- 

 pence, butlake it at that) there is nectar worth a mil- 

 lion of money going to waste. The peddling arrange- 

 ment of kf eping a hive or two must give the palm to 

 commercial apiaries of 100 or 200 hives at regular in- 

 tervals all over the country. Those who are first in 

 the field will get the market connection, which is al- 

 ways a valuable asset. 



There is no finer honey in the world than is produc- 

 ed in Ireland. The writer, as judge at the Koyal Dub- 

 lin Society's and other shows, has frequently found 

 almost every specimen exhibited to be entitled to full 

 marks, and has been compelled to apply tests not con- 

 templated by ordinary judging standards to secure 

 differentiation. 



On consideration, the above remark about "some 

 ."Vnierican " must be withdrawn. It is not one Ameri- 

 can we shall have. They will come in shoals A mil- 

 lion of money will stanrl a great deal of carving, and 

 many an American will be content with a fraction of 

 the amount. Ireland is the most paradoxical country 

 on the surface of the globe. In one paitof Dublin one 

 must speak German to be underslo d: in another, 

 Italian ; and in another, the language of the Baillie 

 Nicol Jarvir: yet. as regularly as the spring returns, 

 thousands of natives go to America, where they earn 

 three times as much money doing ten times as much 

 work. We say to these emigrants — stay at home and 

 keep bees. 



