1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



155 



it has made a wonderful record, and is highly endorsed by many 

 eastern agricultural experimenters in this country. At the Iowa 

 agricultural college it grew 14 feet high by June, and it is estimated 

 that one cutting may be made every month. Once planted it 

 stands forever, as the roots are deep runners. Like all other nov- 

 elties, it should be tested on a small area before investing heavily 

 in it. 



I hope those who are interested in testing sacaline will heed 

 the last sentence in the above quotation. It doesn't pay to go very 

 fast on most new things. " Slow but sure " is a good motto. No 

 bee-keeper cares to plant a noxious weed, in the hope of getting a 

 good honey-plant. Try things on a small scale first, and then, if 

 all is well, " wade in" if you think best. 



]toy»>. B«>os aud ISear.— The following will interest the 

 younger readers of the Bee Journal, particularly the boys : 



A schoolmistress asked her class to put the nouns "boys," 

 " bees," and " bear " into a sentence. The scholars thought in- 

 tently for a few moments, when one ragged youngster, with a 

 look of victory on his face, raised his hand. '• Well. Johnny," said 

 the schoolteacher, " what is your sentence ?" "Boys bees bare 

 when they go in swimmin'." The teacher did not call on any 

 more of her class. 



^n)or)(^ \\)c Bee-Papers 



Conducted by " GLEANER." 



WORKERS CARRYING EGGS OR LARV.E. 



Herr Reepen, the great German gleaner, sturdily opposes 

 the idea that workers carry eggs or larvae from one cell to 

 another, and yet he has most faithfully given all the testi- 

 mony favoring such belief. He now sums up as advocates, 

 Laugstroth, Wagner, Root, Abbott, Americans; Editors Ber- 

 trand, Wathelet, French ; but Germans and English seem to 

 be absent from the list. [I have personally seen a worker 

 carry an egg (not larva), but what it did with it I cannot be 

 positive. I was not interested at the time, and so did not take 

 the pains to follow the bee up. — Ed.1 — A "Stray Straw " from 

 Gleanings. 



HONEY-HOUSES FOR ODT-APIARIES. 



Harry S. Howe reports in Gleanings that W. L. Coggshall 

 has in each of his out-apiaries a house containing an extractor 

 and all the things needed for use in the apiary. Saves much 

 hauling. His nine houses cost about $30 each, are 12x16 

 and 8 feet high at the eaves, made of rough lumber but 

 having good floor and foundation, so as to support the weight 

 of honey. 



HONEY AS A DIET. 



A writer in Gleanings deplores the fact that honey seems 

 to be so little used, even in the families of bee-keepers, says 

 the price of honey is undeniably high as compared with other 

 sweets, and sadly asks, " Will the price have to come down '? 

 and can we afford to produce it profitably at a lower price? 

 or shall we maintain the price and limit the production to the 

 amount consumed by those who use it only as a luxury?" 

 Whatever may be the best answer to his questions, you may 

 count on one thing for certain, and that is that every indi- 

 vidual bee-keeper, just so long as he stays in the business, 

 will do his level best to produce just as large a crop as 

 he can. 



LATE-REARED QUEENS. 



H. L. Jeffreys says in Gleanings that very late queens are 

 least likely to s^varm, are the steadiest layers, live the longest 

 of any queens, and are the strongest of any, because they are 

 not exhausted while young, in early production. He also 

 thiuks that it is possible that a queen may be injured by being 

 too much restricted in laying for want of room. 



AMOUNT OF STORES NEEDED IN WINTER. 



Doolittle says in Gleanings that after 17 years' trial he 

 finds 25 pounds of stores for those wintered out-doors, and 

 20 for those cellared, sbout the right amount to last from 

 October till May, or from flowers to flowers, that is, so that no 

 feeding need be done in the spring. After 10 years' trial, he 

 finds that no feeding will be needed before the first of April, 

 and not often then, if each colony wintered out-doors has 

 18 pounds, and each colony in the cellar 12 pounds. 



See Prei 



Oirers on pages 161, 163 and 163 of this No. 



Conducted by "BEE-MASTER." 



Echoes of the Ontario Convention. 



The editor of the Bee-keepers Review has a long, appre- 

 ciative and critical notice of the Stratford meeting, from 

 which the following paragraphs are taken : — 



THE ONTARIO BEE-KEEPERS' CONVENTION. 



I am just home from attending the above convention. 

 The Secretary asked me to contribute an essay, and Mr. John 

 Myers of Stratford, where the meeting was held, most cor- 

 dially invited me to be his guest while attending the conven- 

 tion — in fact, I was treated as I always have been whenever I 

 have been in Canada, as though too much could not be done to 

 make my visit a pleasant one. 



I left home about 11 o'clock at night, and, as I stood on 

 the threshold aud looked back at the bright, shining coal-fire, 

 and the woman standing beside it with a wistful, beseeching 

 look in her eyes that seemed to say, " Don't go," and then I 

 looked out and saw the street and air full of whirling snow, 

 and visions of blockaded trains arose in my mind, I will con- 

 fess that it required some courage to shut the door from the 

 outside. 



Once snugged away in the Pullman sleeper I soon forgot 

 everything until when, about five o'clock in the morning, the 

 porter poked me in the ribs and said, "Most to Stratford, sir." 

 If anything, the storm was worse than in the night, aud 

 I almost feared that the convention would be a pretty 

 slim affair, but it seems that our brethren across the line, 

 with their great fur coats, and caps, laugh at such storms. 

 Dr. Duncan, who must be in the neighborhood of eighty, 

 drove in some 12 or 15 miles, if I remember aright. Some- 

 times he had to get out and tramp and break a road through 

 the drifts before he could get through with a team. 



For genuine enthusiasm in attending conventions, the 

 Canadians beat us. There must have been nearly 100 in 

 attendance. Not only are their conventions well attended, 

 but they are never dull. One thing that contributes largely 

 to the spice of their meetings is that some of the members 

 are very outspoken. Nothing is ever allowed to pass unno- 

 ticed or unchallenged. The least attempt at unfairness, or 

 irregularity, or any mistake, is promptly challenged, and 

 names are spoken and statements made with a freedom that 

 would be truly refreshing were it not that some trifling matter 

 is often made the basis for a long, sharp and personal debate. 

 It should not be forgotten, however, that the Ontario Associa- 

 tion is really a more complex affair than the associations on 

 this side of the line! There is the grant of $oOO per year 

 that must be used to the best advantage ; there is the election 

 of officers and directors, and the appointing of a foul brood 

 inspector ; then there are the affiliated Societies and com- 

 mittees on this and that, and, taken all in all, there is 

 abundant opportunity for a conflict of opinions and views, but 

 the Association is a power for good, and its discussions of 

 practical subjects second to none. 



There was quite a little talk about out-door wintering 

 versus cellar-wintering. All agreed that it bees could have 

 one good flight in the winter, out-door wintering was advisable. 

 The difficulty is in not knowing whether the coming winter 

 will furnish this warm spell. When there are several warm 

 winters in succession, or winters in which the bees get a flight, 

 then out-door wintering becomes popular, while a like number 

 of severe winters leads bee-keepers to put their trust in 

 cellars. Many who were present said that with them there 

 was not one winter in ten when bees would get a winter flight. 



Giving bees protection in the spring after they were taken 

 from the cellar found no supporters. It was pronounced both 

 expensive and unnecessary. Mr. Pettitsaid that bees could be 

 wintered with as much assurance of success as in the winter- 

 ing of any other stock, and when pressed to tell just how it 

 should be done he went very briefly, yet concisely, over the 

 necessary requisites for successful wintering. Preparations 

 must be commenced in July. Each colony must have a good 

 queen and an abundance of good stores. The bees should be 

 put into the cellar after there is no hope of further flights, 

 and before the beginning of freezing weather. He placed 

 considerable stress upon the manner in which his hives were 

 stacked up in the cellar. The entrance extends the whole 

 length of the front of the hive. The back of the hive is 

 raised % of an inch from the bottom-board, and hive, bottom- 

 board and all is tilted up until the back of the hive is three 



