1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



221 



almost 40 years ago. "The chief factor in success In por- 

 traiture," says Mr. Golden in a recent letter, "is abundant 

 reading and practice combined. The man who will practice 

 and digest what he reads in his journals," further observes 

 this old worker, " can always insure himself comfort and pros- 

 perity in his profession, inasmuch as he can avoid failures and 

 loss, and avail himself of the knowledge of other workers to 

 his own profit." 



If we had more such philosophers photography would be 

 eased of many of the difficulties which accompany it to-day. 

 Think as you work. 



Reverting to his apiarian interest, I may say that Mr. 

 Golden has been a frequent contributor to the columns of the 

 Bee-Keepers' Review in past years, and has recently begun to 

 write for the American Bee .Journal. The first article in this 

 number, as the reader has doubtless already noticed, is from 

 Mr. G.'s pen. It is always a pleasure to me to be able to show 

 by picture and sketch the prominent veterans in the active 

 field of apiculture. 



fKrr)or}^ \\)^ Bee-Papers 



Conducted bv " GLBAJXBR." 



PACKAGES FOR EXTRACTED HONEY. 



R. C. Aikin, in Gleanings, thinks instead of 60 pounds, 

 the square tin cans should hold 50, two 50's in a case being 

 heavy eCiough to handle, and the round 50 being oftener 

 ordered. He likes cans better than barrels. Although costing 

 a little more, they are much more convenient when honey can- 

 dies. He puts in a tank six cans covered with water over a 

 slow fire for 24 or 48 hours, and does not even take off the 

 screw-caps. Thinks the consumer should get it in the original 

 package, which must be cheap, perhaps something like an 

 oyster can. 



WHEN TO EXTRACT HONEY. 



The Dadants leave honey on the hives to ripen till the 

 season is over, but E. France says in Gleanings that this will 

 network with him. He extracts just as the bees begin on the 

 white honey, so as to get out all the old dark honey, then a 

 second extracting will be tinged still with dark and must not 

 be mixed with the best; and then in a good season he extracts 

 three times more to get his pure white crop, leaving enough 

 basswood honey for the bees to winter on. 



CLEATED SEPARATORS. 



B. Taylor uses separators of }4 inch stuff, and instead of 

 being in one piece the separator is in two parts scant % inch 

 apart, thus leaving at the middle a free passage from one sec- 

 tion to another. The two parts are fastened together by cleats 

 of J^ stuff at the points where the wood of the section touches 

 the separator. This leaves the surfaces of the sections li inch 

 apart when shipped, instead of the usual M inch. — Gleanings. 



QUILTS AND BEE-ESCAPES, 



At the California State convention, says Rambler in Glean- 

 ings, quilts had been discarded by 10 of the 19 who had used 

 them. The bee-escape was considered not so much of a success 

 here in clearing an extracting-super as it might be. The 

 escape clears the super of bees ; but the honey, deprived of its 

 warming factor, gets cold during the night, and is extremely 

 hard to extract. 



SELLING GOOD HONEY. 



C. Davenport tried to sell a merchant honey, asking 17 

 cents. Merchant said he could buy all he wanted for a shilling. 

 D. asked merchant what he paid for butter. 10 to 20 cents 

 according to quality. As much difference in honey as butter, 

 says D. Then he left a ease of 24 sections on trial — no like, 

 no cost. Result, merchant gets regularly three cases a year 

 for his own family. — Gleanings. 



IS BEE-KEEPING BECOMING A SIDE ISSUE ? 



Editor Hutchinson read an essay at the Toronto conven- 

 tion rather taking the ground that hereafter no one could 

 afford to devote his whole time to bees, and E. T. Flanagan 

 takes issue with him in Progressive. Mr. Flanagan thinks 

 that such a view can only come from a partial knowledge of 

 the field. "This is a large country of ours, and no one man is 

 fully acquainted with its resources for producing honey. There 



are millions of acres yet of unreclaimed land, and abounding, 



too, in honey-producing plants These all will in due time 



be occupied by the specialist." He also refers to changes going 

 on that may again make the cultivated regions a paradise for 

 the bee. 



THE GIANT BEE OF INDIA. 



The foot-note of the editor on page 169 is timely. It is 

 not always safe to say what is impossible, but there certainly 

 are things in the statements made by Mr. Holt that look very 

 improbable. After we have been led to believe that the 

 domestication and importation of iipis dorsata was an impossi- 

 bility, we are quietly told that it has already been in this 

 country some four years. How has the thing been kept quiet 

 all this time ? 



If the statements made are true, $3 to $S is a very low 

 price for a queen, but what is the difference between the 

 queens of the different prices ? 



That a cross will gather more than twice the amount of 

 either parent kind is remarkable. That the workers live 

 three times as long as common is new. That a drone put in a 

 cage with a queen will fertilize her at once, and will " fertil- 

 ize as many as four queens before he stops" is — well, what do 

 you think it is ? The question arises, after the drone has 

 fertilized four queens and stops, how long will he stop before 

 he is ready for another four ? And what is the price of such 

 drones? One of them might be caged and passed around 

 among bee-keepers at so much per day. 



On the whole, it may be charitable to suppose that there is 

 a youug man down in Kentucky whose mind is somewhat 

 unbalanced. 



THE AGE OF COMBS. 



How much things go by fashion. It really seems that 

 fashion has something to do with the length of time combs 

 are considered good. If my memory serves me, it is the fash- 

 ion in England to think it is better to reject brood-combs four 

 or five years old, whereas the answers on page 176 of this 

 journal show that the fashionable thing on this side is to con- 

 sider age never a detriment. Possibly the truth lies between 

 the extremes. 



Conducted tyy "BEE-MASTER." 



The Swarming of Bees. 



We have all styles of bee-keeping here in Canada. There 

 are some localities where the old-fashioned straw-skeps are 

 used almost exclusively ; in others, box-hives are the prevail- 

 ing ones. In some sections of the country there are none but 

 movable-frame hives kept, and these are of all sorts and sizes. 

 Traces of the old superstitions may be found here and there. 

 I once met with a quaint old lady who told me that they 

 formerly kept bees, but a member of the family died, and 

 they neglected to inform the bees. The consequence was that 

 all the bees died also, very soon afterwards. 



In those localities where the old style of bee-keeping in 

 straw and box hives prevails, natural swarming is the only 

 kind known. When a swarm issues, the primitive custom of 

 rattling all the tin pans, pots and kettles is usually observed, 

 and there is great faith in the efficacy of noise and clatter in 

 causing the bees to settle. By the way, so high a scientific 

 authorty in bee-keeping as the late Mr. Prank Cheshire, thinks 

 this is not wholly a superstition. In Vol. I. of his great work 

 on "Bees and Bee-Keeping," page 127, he says: "I believe 

 that the old idea, now almost universally discredited, that 

 these noises disposed the bees to settle, is accurate." He 

 adduces two or three arguments to support his view, among 

 the rest that bees choose quiet times — notably Sundays — for 

 their departure, which reminds me of an old Presbyterian 

 minister, one of the class who believe in keeping the " Saw- 

 bith, and every thing else they can lay their hands on," who 

 used to be a great bee-keeper, but finally abandoned the pur- 

 suit, because the pagan insects had such a fashion of swarm- 

 ing on Sundays, and he doubted the propriety of hiving them 

 on that sacred day. . 



Of course our best bee-keepers know all about artificial 

 swarming, or dividing, but I do not think many of them prac- 

 tice it except as an occasional thing and for some special 

 purpose. 



There is not much faith here in any self-hiving device, 

 although one of our supply firms advertises a selt-hiver, and 



