1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



173 



]nr. D. E. merrill. 



The picture shown in the second column of the first page this 

 week is that of the editor of the American Bee-Keeper, published 

 by the W. T. Falconer Mtg. Co. When sending the photograph, 

 Mr. Merrill said: 



The picture is, of course, much better looking than the original 

 —artists must tnake them so to sustain their reputations, you 

 know. The position is not exactly as "reposeful" as might be. 

 Taking all together, however, my friends say they would recognize 

 the picture as intended to represent me. 



Mr. Merrill was born Sept. 6, 1S59, in Chautauqua county, N. 

 Y. When about 10 years old his parents moved to Titusville, Pa., 

 where he lived until 1874, after which time, until 1883, he lived at 

 Erie, Pa., where he received the greater part of his education. He 

 went to Jamestown, N. Y., in 1883, where he has lived ever since. 



In 1888, Mr. M. went into partnership with Mr. W. T. Falconer, 

 who had been engaged in the manufacture of bee-keepers' supplies 

 since about 18T3. Besides bee-keepers' supplies^tbe y ma ke a con- 

 siderable quantity of oth^r goods, and employ from 50 t o 1 35 hands, 

 depending upon the tim e of the year. 1 Mr. Merrill de votes very 

 little.time to the bee-business, as that department is looked after 

 by Mr. Falconer, Mr. M.'s time being fully occupied~with the other 

 lines of their business. J.IZ1 I^Tj lZ^I im CZ^ -^ J ^ ^ 

 ~ ~ H e has always taken 3 greaVdeal of interest "in out-door rec- 

 re ation , and to the fact that he spends all his spare time out- 

 doors, he owes the pleasure of good health. He is very fond of 

 yachting, and owns a sloop on Chautauqua lake. He is also a 

 bicyclist, having riddenVevera l " cen turies " (100 m iles a day) , i 

 T Mr. Merrill is married, and has a family of three strong and 

 healthy boysT the oldest being 6 years, the youngest only a little 

 over one year old. Mr. M. is a Yankee, bred from "way back," 

 his ancestors having come from France to England in 1583, and 

 from England to America in 1635 — a little too late to be in the 

 Mayflower, however. 



I am sure the foregoing short sketch will be read with interest, 

 as the man who has the most to do with the American Bee-Keeper 

 has heretofore been but little known to the beekeeping world, 

 particularly in name. 



Next week I expect to " hold up " Mr. R. B. Leahy, of the Pro- 

 gressive Bee-Keeper, in these columns. The Editor. 



fKn)or)^ tl?e Bee-Papers 



Conducted bv " GT^EANEU." 



HOW MANr EGGS A DAY LAID BY A QUEEN-BEE ? 



3,000 is often called the maximum. Doolittle says in 

 Gleanings that if you give a prolific queen 8 frames and then 

 increase as she needs them to SO frames, she'll lay 5,000 to 

 6,000 eggs daily through most of the laying season and die at 

 IS to 24 months old. He don't believe in such heavy laying, 

 and says : "From all past experience I think that 2,400 

 eggs per day day would be a good maximum average for any 

 queen." 



LARGE vs. SMALL HIVES. 



This question doesn't seem to be settled very rapidly. In 

 Review, B. Taylor reports having tried along side of 10-frame 

 hives some 40 larger ones, having 12, 16 and 19 frames, only 

 to store them away as useless rubbish. J. E. Crane reports 

 that in his home apiary he has much better success with hives 

 having 7 or 8 frames, while 6 miles away 10 or 11 frames are 

 decidedly better, the honey-flow being quite different in the 

 two places. 



RIPENING EXTRACTED HONEY. 



Opinions differ as to whether honey can be ripened arti" 

 ficially as well as in the hive. For those who believe in the 

 artificial ripening, a plan given by Mr. I. Hopkins in the 

 Australian Bee-Bulletin seems well worthy a trial. j^He says; 



"My arrangements were — a very warm extracting-house ; 

 large, shallow wooden tanks, 6 feet by 4 feet and IS inches 

 deep, lined with tin ; and good strainers. As the honey ran 

 from the extractor, it fell into the strainer, or rather strainers, 

 three arranged one above the other, the top one rather coarse, 

 the middle one finer, and the lower one very fine. This lower 

 one split up the honey into very fine, silk-like threads as it 

 dropped into the tank, and I believe a good deal of the surplus 



water evaporated during the extraction. The honey was 

 allowed to remain in the tank exposed to the atmosphere for a 

 day or two until I considered it sufficiently ripe to tin. In the 

 meantime a scum would rise to the top, which of course was 

 skimmed off." 



EXTRA-LARGE COLONIES. 



If we had a big pile of bees, as we sometimes do in the swarm- 

 ing season, when several swarms go together, how many would 

 it be profitable to put together in a hive in dividing them up ? 

 I have sometimes hived these big abnormal colonies all in one 

 hive, and given them room, and watched them with expectation 

 of wonderful results. To be sure, they work very rapidly at 

 first, and do more than an ordinary colony ; but they never come 

 up to my expectation. They soon become normal in size, and 

 never make a record that will compare with the same amount 

 of bees in two colonies. — H. R. Boardman, in Gleanings. 



SWEET CLOVER FOR HOG-PASTURE. 



0. H. Dibbern says in Gleanings: "I have often won- 

 dered why farmers did not make more use of sweet clover as 

 a forage-plant and for fertilizing. I know of several hog-lots, 

 of from 10 to 20 acres, that have produced nothing but dog- 

 fennel for the past 10 or 15 years. Why not plow up, say, 

 half, plant to sweet clover, and keep the hogs off for the first 

 year ? The next spring, plow and seed the other half and 

 turn the hogs in to live on the tender clover shoots. If not 

 overstocked, enough clover would bloom and seed the ground 

 to keep it from running out. Incidentally, the neighboring 

 bee-keepers would be benefitted." 



BARRELS EOB EXTRACTED HONET. 



E. France says in Gleanings that he'd rather handle a 

 large crop of honey in :570-pound barrels than in the popular 

 tin cans. And where do you think he keeps his barrels till 

 needed, so they won't leak ? " In the cellar ?" Not a bit of it. 

 Kept in a cellar they're sure to leak. He gets his barrels 

 ready in winter, keeps them in a dry, warm place, then drives 

 the hoops before using, and has no leaking. 



jSotes ^ Con)n)cr}is^ 



CONDUCTED BY 



Rei'. Emerson T. Abbott, St. Josepii, JVTo. 



The Sweets That 'Waste.— "It is too bad to 



allow so much of the sweet provided by Nature to go to waste 

 for lack of a little care and attention on the part of many 

 farmers who have facilities for carrying on this important 

 adjunct to agriculture." — Canadian Bee Journal. 



This is well said; however, I would not call bee-keeping 

 an "adjunct," but a bravicJi of agriculture. It is not some- 

 thing to be joined onto agriculture, but as much a legitimate 

 part of it as raising wheat, poultry, or calves. I am decidedly 

 of the opinion that the sooner the agriculturists recognize 

 this fact and profit by it, the better it will be for the country. 

 Then, again, if apiculturists will press the claims of the 

 industry on the ground that it has the same reason for recog- 

 nition as any other branch of agriculture, I am sure it will 

 receive this recognition much more quickly at the hands of 

 the experiment stations and agricultural colleges of the 

 country than it will if its claims are pressed as an independent 

 industry. I know that some of our bee-keepers hold that 

 farmers should not keep bees; that bee-keeping is not an 

 industry suited to be carried on in connection with mixed 

 farming, but I am not among that number. I am confident 

 that apiculture can be more successfully conducted as a 

 branch or part of mixed agriculture than in any other way. 



It may be claimed that this industry requires special skill 

 and aptitude, and that this cannot be found on the farm. 

 Further, that the farmer has not time to give the bees the 

 attention their successful management demands. Now all of 

 this may be true, and I will admit it for sake of argument, 

 and yet I insist that the proper place for this industry is on 

 the farm. Almost every farmer's household is made up of a 

 number of people, and there is generally some one among that 

 number who would be successful with bees, if he or she would 

 make the proper effort to learn how to handle them. Bees 

 and poultry belong on the farm, but they should not be left to 

 shift for themselves, but should be placed under the imme- 

 diate charge of some member of the family. 



Frequently it would save the father and mother many 

 days of anxiety and sleepless nights, if the bees were placed 



