1018 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1 



the season, although enough was gathered 

 most of the time for bees to live on and to 

 store a little in the brood-chamber. This ex- 

 plains why the largest share of our crop con- 

 sisted of just such unfinished sections as could 

 be extracted with very little trouble; and as 

 extracted honey was so very scarce, the little 

 that those sections contained looked big in 

 my eyes, .which induced me to try the ex- 

 tractor. 



As I said before, I had no convenient way 

 to extract sections; but being anxious to try 

 the experiment, a few minutes' work solved 

 the problem. 



The accompanying drawing, Fig. 1, repre- 

 sents a little adjustable shelf that is suspend- 

 ed by wire hooks into the upper part of the 

 extractor-basket, as shown at Fig. 2. It is 

 made of half-inch lumber, and fits loosely in- 

 to the comb-basket. The dotted lines show 

 the position of the wires on the under side of 

 the shelf, where they are fastened by two 

 little staples clinched above. The shelf should 

 not be hung too low. If the sections project 

 above the basket enough for a hold, it will 

 make it all the more convenient. If we use 

 the precaution of reversing the basket twice, 

 or, in other words, if we reverse the basket 

 after part of the contents is thrown out from 

 one side by moderate speed, before trying to 

 make a clean sweep, it is almost impossible 

 to detach the combs from the wood or even 

 bend them out of shape, if they are reasona- 

 bly fastened to the sides. They will bear the 

 same speed as I'egular extracting-combs. 



Simple as this little arrangement may seem, 

 it does the work to perfection; and I am sur- 

 prised that I did not put this scheme into 

 practice years ago. It may be well enough 

 to let bees have access to our sections after 

 they are passed through the extractor. Al- 

 though they are in very good condition for 

 winter storage without it, the little trouble 

 will improve them for next year's use. 



La Salle, N. Y. 



WHAT AVE OWE THE GERMANS AND 

 WHAT THEY GAVE US. 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



It is greatly to be regretted that in this 

 country there is so much ignorance among 

 bee-keepers, editors and all, as to the great 

 debt of gratitude we owe Germany for the 

 devices and discoveries of her able and pa- 

 tient investigators. Unfortunately the same 

 may be said as to conditions on the other 

 side. Although in some German bee- journals 

 American methods are in good credit, in oth- 

 ers there is too much tendency to say that any 

 good thing in America came from Germany. 

 Conspicuous is the utter ignoring of Lang- 

 stroth's claims, giving to Dzierzon entire 

 credit for the invention of movable combs. 

 The truth is, that the two men each worked 

 independently, without knowing what was 

 done by the other. But Dzierzon's invention 

 was not a movable frame, only a top-bar re- 

 quiring the comb to be cut away at the sides 

 each time it was lifted out, and the last comb 



could be taken out of the hive only by first 

 removing all the others; and it is well known 

 that for years Dzierzon would not use a mov- 

 able /ra?«(!. 



And now Doolittle's laurels seem to be 

 threatened. In Bienen-Vater is given a full 

 account of artificial cell-cups invented by 

 William Wankler, and his method of queen- 

 rearing, with "illustrations. Well, it is noth- 

 ing strange that the two men should conceive 

 of the same thing, and that takes away noth- 

 ing from the credit of either. But in 

 Deutsche linker aus Boehmen, p. 35, occurs 

 this: "Since 1880 Wankler has carried on 

 queen-breeding on a large scale; he can be 

 considered as the real mventor of the Ameri- 

 can method of queen-rearing, for at the ex- 

 position in Munich, 1883, Frank Benton had 

 Wankler fully explain his method, then 

 bought from Wankler several drawings, as 

 well as the glossometer, and subsequently 

 made known and spread this method in 

 America." 



I do not know how much Mr. Benton did 

 toward making known what he learned from 

 Wankler, but I have kept pretty close track 

 of bee literature in this country, and I do not 

 remember ever to have seen mention of it. 

 This much is certain: Doolittle made and 

 used artificial cell-cups before 1883, and un- 

 til this year of our Lord 1907 he never had 

 any inkling from Mr. Benton or any one 

 else that any thing of the kind was done in 

 Germany until it was learned fi'om America; 

 and it is safe to say that the American meth- 

 od of queen-rearing would have been exactly 

 what it is to-day if Wankler had never been 

 born — this without in the least detracting 

 from any credit due Wankler. It was his 

 misfortune rather than his fault that his 

 countrymen were so slow to recognize any 

 good thing in what he had done, as he him- 

 self relates in Bienen-Vater. Neither, by 

 any means, do I mean to say that the entire 

 credit belongs to any one man for the pres- 

 ent condition of American queen culture. 

 Mr. Doolittle would be the first to give cred- 

 it to a number of others for their part. 



After ail this is said, I want to stop where 

 I started, by saying that very few bee-keep- 

 ers in this country realize the debt of grati- 

 tude we owe to pioneers across the sea for 

 all we have learned — are still learning — from 

 them. 



[Honor to whom honor is due. The first 

 man (so far as known) to use the grafting or 

 transposition method of rearing queens was 

 John L. Davis, of Delhi, Michigan, who 

 briefly described his plan in Gleanings for 

 September, 1874. The so-called Doolittle 

 cell cups were perfected a little later, and 

 are described and illustrated in Gleanings 

 by W. L. Boyd, of Hamilton, Ohio, Septem- 

 ber, 1878, page 328. A certain Yankee by 

 the name of A. I. Root adopted both of these 

 inventions at once, and succeeded with them. 

 It is very likely Wankler learned these things 

 from American sources. Let me whisper, 

 doctor, the Germans are slow on bee-keeping. 

 — W. K. M.1 



