138 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. 28, 



that energy and detenu i nation to please are principal compo- 

 nent parts of bis being. " 



Now, Bro. Yoik, if your hat begins to feel a little tight, 

 just remember Somnambulist is talking in his sleep. 



[Say, Gleaner, what Somnambulist said is enough to make 

 a fellow " feel tight " all over. But if I find my hat pressing 

 too much, I'll get one made of rubber. — Editob.] 



WAX EVAI'OKATING. 



I tried holding a waxed cloth over a steam jet, as directed 

 by Chas. Swindells, on page 94, but the magical disappearance 

 did not take place. Does the slightest particle of wax ever 

 evaporate at 2123? jj^s he not made some mistake in the 

 whole matter? 



TWO BEE-MEN WITH " K0TION8." 



What in the world's the matter with Dr. Miller that he 

 wants to insist that Bro. Abbott should be run in the same 

 mould as every other bee-keeper? He doesn't always stick so 

 close to the beaten track himself that he should make a hulla- 

 baloo when some one else varies. Isn't that the very thing 

 a bee-paper is for — to find out one another's notions? We're 

 not bound to adopt them. 



SHALLOW vs. DEEP EXTRACTING-COMBS. 



That's a new idea to me, and I believe it's a good one, 

 that Dadant gives, that queens are less likely to lay in shallow 

 than deep extracting-combs. But the question is, will it make 

 enough difference so that a queen-excluder is not needed? I 

 had always supposed that the reason queens seldom went up 

 into sections was because of the separators and the width of 

 the sections. Possibly the shallowness has something to do 

 with it. I wish Mr. Dadant would tell us if he uses excluders. 



EARLY vs. LATE QUEENS. 



On page 85, W. W. Gravlee finds by experiment that 

 queens reared artificially very early in the season are best. 

 The point for strong emphasis in the matter is that the exper- 

 iment was with a few colonies for a single season, in which 

 case there might be a number of things to account for the 

 difference in results without regard to the character of the 

 queens. As the testimony of many is that queens reared in 

 advance of the swarming season do not come up to the average, 

 and that good queens are reared all through the swarming 

 period, it is hardly worth while to advance anything less than 

 a considerable number of different results obtained through 

 more than a single year. The only point upon which there is 

 much chance for controversy is whether a queen reared after 

 the swarming season can be as good as one reared during that 

 time. 



MUSHROOMS AND SPANKING. 



I suppose it is dangerous to disagree with a doctor, but 

 I'm not sure that Dr. Peiro's test for mushrooms will work in 

 this "locality.'' He don't give the color of good ones, but 

 says those covered with pink or red are always poisonous. In 

 this region two colors are common — white, which I have 

 always rejected, and those whose under surfaces are pink, 

 turning to brown and black with age. These latter I have 

 often gathered and eaten with pleasant results. If onions 

 were boiled with them, I'd call them bad, no matter what the 

 color. 



Now I'm not going to come in conflict with Dr. Peiro as a 

 medical man, but it seems to mo there's something out of 

 whack with his morals on that spanking question. If prece- 

 dent counts for anything, the spanking should be given to the 

 boy that has run off to go in swimming and come home safe 

 and sound. 



Condiiciea hy "BEE-MASTER." 



Who is Bee-]na§ter? 



c: 



A paragraph in the January Bee-Keepers' Review reads 

 as follows : — 



" 'Bee-Master' has a department in the American Bee 

 Journal, and flatters himself that no one will discover his 

 identity. Let him not lay that flattering unction to his soul, 

 as anyone at all conversant with his writings in the past will 

 at once recognize the eloquent quill that he drives." 



While making his best bow in acknowledgement of the 



delicate compliment conveyed in the latter part of this 

 clipping, Bee-Master begs to assure the genial editor that he 

 does not lay any such flattering unction to his soul as he is 

 charged with. He knows that men are even more curious 

 than women, if that be possible. He knows, also, that not 

 only, as a certain pious ditty says : 



*'Tbe painted hypocrites are known 

 Through the disguise they wear," 



but it is very hard for honest men to hide their personal 

 identity when, for good and sufficient reasons, they wish to do 

 so. But while he may be " suspicioned," Bee-Master does not 

 intend to be discovered. He believes in impersonal editorship, 

 anyhow, and is bound to enjoy the fun of this way of doing it 

 in the present instance. At a masquerade you may think 

 you recognize a party by some peculiarity of form, gait, or 

 manner, but cannot be sure until the masked person lifts his 

 or her visor. So it will be in this case. 



Bees are prying little insects, and some bee-keepers are 

 prone to fall into the ways of their "pets," as they call them, 

 but over-inquisitiveness is not a virtue, by any means. When 

 a royal or otherwise distinguisned person travels incog., 

 although he or she may be recognized, it is not etiquette to 

 presume to address them by any other name than that by 

 which, for reasons of their own, they have chosen to be 

 known, for the nonce. Mr. Hutchinson is a very smart man, 

 and possessed, no doubt, of great penetration, but he is too 

 polite and well-mannered to intrude into a "sanctum sancto- 

 rum" over whose door " no admission " has been inscribed. 



Stacliclliansen. 



Mr. E. E. Hasty in his "Condensed View" for January 

 speaks of the aboved-named eminent bee-keeper as follows : — 



" Stachelhausen, one of the strongest and best of American 

 writers, and who has been missing somewhat for quite awhile, 

 appears in the September number of the Apiculturist, unless, 

 perchance, that article is a re-publication. We can ill afford 

 to lose such a pen as Stachelhausen's ; and whoever knows 

 where he is secreted ought to poke him out Stachel- 

 hausen thinks it probable that bees do add formic acid (sting 

 poison) to the honey before capping it. Thus he willingly 

 volunteers to take part of the odium and chaff to which Friend 

 W. F. Clarke has been subjected. He also suggests that the 

 same is the natural preventive to foul brood." 



Mr. Hasty suggests that formic acid may be a cure for 

 bee-paralysis. It might be well if M. R. L. Taylor would try 

 some experiments along these lines. 



Onlario Foul Brood Inspector's Report. 



Br WM. m'evoy. 



During 1894 I visited the bee-yards in the counties of 

 Essex, Lambion, Middlesex, Oxford, Brant, Wentworth, Wel- 

 lington, Halton, Peel, York, Frontenac, Duffern, and Simcoe, 

 and in the cities of Hamilton and Toronto. I examined 125 

 apiaries, and found foul brood in 39 bee-yards. In two apiaries 

 the disease had not made much headway, while in three it 

 had. The remaining 34 apiaries were very bad with foul 

 brood, and the death-rate among many of these had been very 

 large before I examined any of them. 



The condition I so often found things in, in several locali- 

 ties, gave me more to do than any person ever knew of. I 

 found some bee-yards very badly diseased and near fine 

 apiaries, and the owners of these foul-broody apiaries away 

 from their homes looking after other business that they were 

 engaged in. In all such cases I looked around and got a good 

 bee-keeper in the same localities to carry out ray method of 

 treatment in these foul-broody apiaries, and make cures with- 

 out causing loss or trouble to any one. I never saw people so 

 willing to take hold and cure their diseased apiaries after I 

 explained how to do it, as the bee-keepers that I met with 

 in the past season. 



I had one very old couple cure 13 foul-broody colonies 

 under the most trying circumstances. This aged couple were 

 in poor health and scarcely able to go around; the weather 

 was very warm and the bees not gathering any honey, and the 

 diseased colonies being near some fine apiaries, I was very 

 much pleased to see the grand cure the old couple had made 

 in such a short time. 



In getting foul-broody apiaries cured I have always found 

 that it made a great difference who was going to do the work. 

 Nearly all bee-keepers would cure their fool-broody apiaries 



