Vol. XXXV. 



TAN. 15. J 907. 



No. 2 



A POSTAL from Frank Benton locates him 

 at Hongkong, Nov. 28. I hope he'll get 

 away with his feet full size; but then I be- 

 lieve it's only the women who have their 

 feet squeezed in China. 



R. F. HoLTERMANN seems to think it dan- 

 gerous to feed honey in any case, p. 20. 

 Whew! that's caution with a vengeance! Of 

 course, his rule is a safe one, but it would be 

 pretty hard for me to adopt it so long as 

 there is no foul brood within ten miles. 



Stenog is getting me all tangled up about 

 pronouncing propolis, p. 16. When I saw 

 the discussion the question certainly was 

 whether the accent was on the first or sec- 

 ond syllable. As to whether the first syllable 

 is pro or prop, there is authority for both. 



You ARE KiGHT, I think, Mr. Editor, in 

 saying, p. 16, that a stove is better in the cel- 

 lar than calcium chloride, and in some cellars 

 it might Ije cheaper. But the whole outfit 

 for the chloride ought not to cost more than 

 $5.00, and in some cellars it would cost $5.00 

 to make a chimney; Ijesides, the salt can be 

 used over and over again, and the fuel in 

 the stove can't 



Evidently the English is a hard language 

 to use without getting things muddled. In 

 reply to the question whether I thought the 

 bees would use dry ilust for brood-rearing, 

 p. 16, I replied, "I hardly think the l^ees 

 would waste time gatheringuseless material." 

 By that I meant that, as the bees had spent 

 time gathering it, I thought it would hardly 



be useless, but useful, although ye editor's 

 question shows that he understood it the 

 other way. 



C. BoHM has been making a study of 

 drones. The drone has a period of youtii, 

 9 to 14 days, in which he seldom leaves the 

 hive; then a transition period (he doesn't say 

 how long), when he liies more or less; theii 

 full maturity, during which time only he is 

 capable of service, this period being of short 

 duration, when death ensues. This accounts 

 for the need of so many drones. It seems, 

 also, that drones should emerge two weeks 

 or more before needed. — Leipz. Bzlg. 



I HAVE DONE a lot of Studying over what 

 Mr. Alexander says in the first full paragraph, 

 p. 29. My belief' has always been that there 

 was an important gain to leave bees out of 

 cellar till after th^ latest flight day in Novem- 

 ber, thus shortening the period of their win- 

 ter confinement. His testimony, I must con- 

 fess, shakes my faith in that belief. I heart- 

 ily wish that he may be right and I wrong, 

 for it would simplify matters very much to 

 take bees in at a certain date without the un- 

 certain waiting for another flight-day that 

 may never come. 



Gleanings would like to reforiu its spell- 

 ing if big journals like Ladies'' Home Journal 

 would blaze the way. Well, look at the Jan- 

 uary number of that journal, p. 19. ancj you 

 will find the first blaze, the Roosevelt spelling 

 being used in one department. Good ! [This 

 is good so far as it goes; but Gleanings 

 would hardly feel likehelpingtoblaze the way , 

 with only one big gun ahead. If the Ladies 

 Home Jou?'7ial starts out with the reform, 

 doubtless others will follow soon. When that 

 is done, we little fellows will try to get into 

 the band-wagon. — Ed.] 



Whether bees leave wire-cloth separators 

 clean of burr- combs or not, p. 18, may also 

 depend on whether the bees are crowded or 

 not. I can get almost any one of njy colo- 

 nies to build burr-combs between supers by 



