1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



733 



And then the demand will be increased, for srocers will soon 

 order a supply of what their customers want. Once get the 

 people in the habit of ordering honey with their other groceries, 

 and soon it is going to require a large amount of honey to 

 supply the demand. But in order to hold the family trade 

 after getting it worked up, grocers must be sure to sell only 

 pure honey, and that which is of the better grades. The glu- 

 cosed stuff must be discontinued, and all insist upon getting 

 pure honey only. 



Jake Sniitb has another " letter " in Gleanings for 



Nov. 1. It has been a long time since Jake has been heard 

 from. He ought to change his name to "Rip Van Winkle." 

 Who is Jake Smith, anyway? Where does he live? He 

 seems to be afraid to give his address. 1 don't believe any- 

 body by that name takes the Bee Journal. But it's just as 

 well, for he couldn't read it if he did. Why, the fellow can't 

 spell ! I should think Gleanings would send him a spelling- 

 book and a "primary" dictionary, to start with. 



Preparing- Colonies For Virinter.— That ex- 

 pert apiarist and helpful writer on the subject of bee-culture 

 — Mr. B. Taylor, of Minnesota — gives in the Farm, Stock and 

 Home, the following directions for preparing bees for their 

 wintering in the cellar: 



There are many ways of fixing the hives for winter, but 

 doubtless the cheapest plan is to leave on the board hive- 

 covers sealed down tight, but with the bottom-boards entirely 

 removed. The first tier of hives should be set eight inches 

 apart, and the next tier be set on top of these, and directly 

 over the space between each two hives ; the ue.tt in the same 

 way on top of these, until as high as wanted. Another good 

 way is to cover the hives warmly with quilts or buildiug-paper 

 fastened down tight to the hive with strips of lath or other 

 wood, the bottom-boards to remain on, but the hives to be 

 raised at least one inch above it by strips of wood. My own 

 hives have an entrance the entire width of the hive in front 

 and rear. I leave both thus fully open, and it seems to an- 

 swer all purposes. 



Prom Nov. 1 to 15 is the proper time to put the bees into 

 winter quarters in this climate. 



Superstition. — "Among the peasants of Livonia the 

 genuine bee-keeper never pronounces the word 'bee,' as he 

 believes the expression would inevitably bring misfortune on 

 his apiary. He always speaks of them as ' forest birds,' and 

 however frequently and severely he may be stung, he bears 

 the pain with mute, stoical fortitude; never giving utterance 

 to his feelings, for fear he should offend his ' forest birds !' " — 

 American Bee Journal, Vol. 1, 1861. 



Symposiums are to be a feature of Gleanings in the 

 future — something like the Review was in its first few volumes. 



/Vrrjojj^g tl^c Bee-Papers 



FATHER LANGSTROTH IS DEAD. 



Dear, old Father Langstroth, so long the idol of bee- 

 keepers, has passed away. Death came Sunday, Oct. 6, in 

 the form of apople.xy, while he was preaching at a church in 

 Dayton, Ohio, where he lived. In a long talk that he and I 

 had at Toronto he referred so feelingly to the wife of his 

 youth— not a day of the long 20 years since she was called 

 hence that he has not thought of her and longed to be with 

 her again. Now they are together. "The grand old man" 

 was the title given him reverently by admiring friends, and 

 never was a title more deserved. A grander, truer man I 

 never knew. Long will his memory be green in the hearts of 

 bee-keepers and friends. — Review Editorial. , 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



E. E. Hasty says in Review: "This paper deserves a 



good word for the way it has kept up its interest of late. 

 Several other papers have done fairly well ; but it rather 

 seems to me that for the current year this one deserves first 

 prize." And Editor Hutchinson says: " The American Bee 

 Journal receives high but well-deserved praise at the hand of 

 our friend Hasty this month. If there is a hustler in our 

 ranks it is Bro. York." 



But what reckless individuals those two H.'s are, to run 

 the chance of being mobbed by the "Anti-Mutuals !" 



WILL BEES HAVE COMH BUILT DOWN TO THE BOTTOM-BAR? 



A certain person of the female persuasion for a long time 

 continuously cast a gloom over my life by insisting that no 

 matter how successful I might be in getting combs built down 

 to the bottom-bar, the bees would in time open up a passage- 

 way there. Finally, I showed her the answers to Query 989, 

 and considered her "settled." Now comes to her "aid and 

 comfort," in Review, from the gentleman with the rapid 

 name, who each month saves the name " Review " from being 

 a misnomer, who discourses thusly : 



'Pears like my name ought to be Joseph — leastwise I feel 

 strongly inclined to " teach the senators wisdom." Query 

 989 in the American Bee Journal Question-Box is whether 

 bees will open a passage over the bottom-bar after it has been 

 closed up once. Nearly all say " No," aud only two frankly 

 say that they will. Now I have the impudence to "yawp " 

 right out that the crowd are clearly wrong, and the lean 

 minority right. Of course they have all transferred comb 

 from boxes to frames, and have examined the frames after 

 the bees had fixed them up, and remember that there was no 

 gnawing at the bottom. This perfectly sound fact — this little 

 knowledge which is a dangerous thing — has misled them. 

 They just didn't follow on to notice that little by little, year 

 after year, the comb next the bottom-bar grew lean and dis- 

 appeared. I plumply don't believe that six out of 26 can show 

 any number of transferred or inverted combs that have been 

 in use seven ye?irs in Die brood-chainbcr only, and nov/ in any 

 other condition than the usual one — that is, with a bee-space 

 above the bar for at least half way across. 



Another fact also misleads : Most of the said "senators " 

 have lots of extra combs for the extracting-supers ; and they 

 are nicely fastened to the bottom-bar, those not so originally 

 soon becoming so. It is not in the super but in the brood- 

 chamber that this gradual mischief transpires. And the ques- 

 tion, "What can bees want a second bee-space therefor?" 

 also helps to mislead. The fact is, they do not want it. It is 

 not on account of the passage, but on account of the everlast- 

 ing call for just a little more wax to cap the brood with, and 

 because it's so handy to go down to the bottom of the comb 

 and pinch oft' a little there. 



AFFLICTED EDITORS. 



E. R. Root has been " under the weather " a good share of 

 the past summer : I have been far from well the past summer, 

 at one time being confined to my bed ; and when I learned 

 that R. F. Holtermann had had a severe attack of heart fail- 

 ure, followed soon after by typhoid fever, I was on the point 

 of writing Bro. York that if he expected to be " one of us " he 

 must contract some sort of an ill, when a postal came from 

 him saying that he was sick in bed with tonsilitis. I guess we 

 will all feel better when it comes cool weather. — October 

 Review. 



SPRING PACKING OF BEES. 



Last year an extensive experiment in the packing of bees 

 during the spring months was made, with a view of determin- 

 ing whether any benefit was to be derived from such protec- 

 tion, or, to put it in another way, whether the warmth 

 retained by the packing more than counterbalanced the sun 

 heat shut out by it. The result proved the packing to be 

 disastrous for a spring of the character of that of lS9-i, with 

 bees in the condition those used for that experimeut were in 

 during that time. Many of the colonies were weak in num- 

 bers and some of them not in the best of health. The spring 

 losses were disproportionately large, and the colonies that 

 survived did not do so well as did those without any protec- 

 tion. 



The importance of the matter prompted me to repeat the 

 experiment the present spring, but on a much smaller scale, 

 since I had become satisfied in ray own mind that at the best 

 it could not prove very profitable. Twelve colonies were 



