310 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1 



ticularly, are determined to act in their own 

 behalf. National Representative Wadsworth, 

 of New York, has been already retired to 

 private life by the farmers of his district, 

 and Washington will see him no more. 



Senator Dryden, of New Jersey, who ex- 

 pected to occupy a seat in the Senate for the 

 rest of his lifetime, has been relegated to the 

 same fate by the farmers of his State, urged 

 on by such journals as the Rui'al New-York- 

 er and the Country Oentleman. This shows 

 that the farmers are doing their own think- 

 ing now. Both were friends of oleo and the 

 Chicago packers, and opposed to pure-food 

 laws. 



The fate of these gentlemen seems to have 

 been lost on Representatives Crumpacker, of 

 Indiana, and Tawney, of Minnesota, who 

 seem to be leading the fight against pure- 

 food laws by cutting down or withholding 

 the necessary money appropriations for en- 

 forcing the law as it should be. There is 

 nothing in the nature of politics involved 

 here, but simply a question of insuring fair 

 dealing between man and man. 



Our subscribers in Indiana and Minnesota 

 should lose no time in letting their respect- 

 ive representatives know their mistake, and 

 that, if they persist in their policy of fight- 

 ing pure food, they also will be retired by 

 the storm of votes from fai'mers and bee- 

 keepers whose interests have been affected. 



SIZE OF ZINC PERFORATIONS. 



In response to our request for reports on 

 perforated zinc, as now made with holes 

 ^^^ inch wide, quite a number have written 

 stating that it would be better to have the 

 perforations larger. Some aver that they 

 would prefer to have an occasional queen go 

 through than to have the perforations so 

 small that none can pass, making it more 

 difficult all the time for all the bees during 

 the height of the honey-flow to get through 

 the metal. In other words, they consider 

 the slight disadvantage of having a few 

 queens pass the metal is more than offset by 

 the convenience of loaded boes; and one 

 writer in particular feels satisfied that* this 

 larger perforation will enable more honey to 

 go into the supers. 



This same question was brought up at the 

 Bi'antford convention, and, quite to the sur- 

 prise of the editor, who was present, a ma- 

 jority of the bee-keepei's expressed them- 

 selves as decidedly in favor of having the 

 zinc its present size. Among them was that 

 extensive extracted-honey producer, Mr. R. 

 F. Holtermann, who uses a cross of Italian 

 and Carniolan blood. It has been said that 

 Carniolans are slightly larger than Italians; 

 and even if this be true, Mr. Holtermann 

 would object seriously to increasing the size 

 of the perforation. He is a large producer, 

 and expressed himself as believing that the 

 increase in size would be a positive disad- 

 vantage to him, without any compensating 

 gain. 



The makers of the standard zinc in this 

 country would like to get the truth, cut 

 where it may; and whatever the majority of 



bee-keepers call for,- that they are prepared 

 to give them off from their machine, not- 

 withstanding a new set of dies might cost 

 some $600 or $700. The perforated metal as 

 now sent out has been used for the last five 

 or six years, and during all that time there 

 has been no complaint as to the size of the 

 hole. 



Perhaps it might be advisable to make 

 two brands of metal, having two sizes of 

 holes. But that would make complications; 

 and what is best for one bee-keeper ought to 

 be better for all of us. 



If top entrances are used the field bees 

 learn not to pass through the zinc, says Mr. 

 Morrison. Some say this is a grand pre- 

 ventive of swarming, and it ought to be, as 

 the brood-chamber is deprived of a great 

 number of bees that otherwise would crowd 

 it to the point of swarming. 



GIVE us A SQUARE DEAL; HOW OTHER IN- 

 DUSTRIES HAVE SUFFERED FROM THE 

 SLANDER OF YELLOW NEWSPAPERS. 



At the present time the New York news- 

 papers are creating a furore over the condi- 

 tion of their milk supply, which has hitherto 

 been considered a model. The result is, 

 each paper is vying with its competitors in 

 condemning the poor dairymen, who proba- 

 bly know a great deal more about milk and 

 its care than city editors and reporters. For 

 example, one paper roundly asserted that, of 

 the cows supplying the metropolis with milk, 

 at least 300,000 were affected with tubei'culo- 

 sis. As a matter of fact, this number is not 

 needed to furnish that great city with all its 

 milk, so that more than 100 per cent of New 

 York's cows must be diseased. 



This is only a sample of the statements 

 made. This leads the National Stockman 

 and Farmer to remark, "The worst feature 

 of this or any other milk or food agitation is 

 the complete disregard of the rights of the 

 producer. His product is slandered regard- 

 less of its quality, and his market is injured 

 through the fears aroused by exaggeration 

 and falsehood. It is about time the daily 

 press remember that the producing class has 

 rights as well as the consuming class." 



The honey-producers have much sympathy 

 for the dairymen, as they too have been 

 systematically slandered by the sensation- 

 loving newspapers. It may yet be necessa- 

 ry to enact laws for the protection of honest 

 goods from slanderously inclined newspa- 

 pers. 



IS the present SCHEME OF HONEY QUOTA- 

 TIONS ONE THAT WORKS TO THE BEST 

 INTERESTS OF THE HONEY-PRO- 

 DUCER? 



For some time the conviction has been 

 forcing itself on us that our present system 

 of placing market quotations before our read- 

 ers is not calculated to give bee-keepers the 

 best figures for their product. The tendency 

 is to keep prices down rather than to push 

 them up. With no desire in the least to dis- 

 credit any commission man or honey-mer- 

 chant, there is no denying the fact that it is 



