IN 



bit CULTURE 



Published by Th« A. I. Koot eomp^ny, Iledlaa, Ohio 



E. R. Root, Editor A. L. Boyden, Advertising Mcr 



H. H. Root, Asst. Ed. J. T. Calvert, Business Msr 



A. I. Root, Editor of Home Departneat 



Vol. XXXV. 



NOVEMBER 1, 1907. 



No. 21 





Caucasian blood is recommended, p. 1310, 

 to get queen-cells started. The only Cyprian 

 colony I ever had would start perhaps three 

 times as many cells as Italians. Are Cauca- 

 sians better cell starters than Cyprians ? [No, 

 Caucasians are not as good cell- builders as 

 Cyprians; but they are much better than 

 Italians.— Ed.] 



Abram Titoff makes some good comments 

 on the plural-queen system, p. 1328; but that 

 it's against the laws of nature is hardly a 

 valid objection. On the same ground we 

 ought not to fill brood-frames with worker 

 foundation to limit drone production. But 

 the one point that makes the plan appeal to 

 me he utterly ignores. // it will prevent 

 swarming, I want two queens in every hive, 

 nature or no nature. 



That ideal bottom-rack, p. 1324, Fig. 2. 

 I said I had nut tried it, and I was a little 

 afraid that a space of | inch under bottom- 

 bars was too much. I was also afraid that 

 the bees might gnaw any thing so thin as 

 separator stuff. I tried a few the past sum- 

 mer, and am happy to report they are a per- 

 fect success. Do you realize that it's quite 

 an item to have an air-space two inches deep 

 under bottom-bars all summer long, and yet 

 no building down? 



Mr. Editor, I'm much obliged to you for 

 being back at your work "with renewed vig- 

 or" (p. 1308), but please repress that vigor 

 just a bit so as to last longer. I don't want 

 you to go dead yet, just as prohibition all 

 oyer the land seems to be «'oming in sight. 

 [Ye editor is going slow, noivsiihstandiDg 

 the doctors at the hospital .sai<J he made a 

 "star recovery." He suffered no pain to 



speak of after the operation; the second day 

 had a back rest, in a week was walking 

 around, and on the tenth came home. Yes, 

 we should like to live a little longer to wit- 

 ness the good times that are coming, not only 

 in material progress but in morals. — Ed.] 



My thanks are hereby tendered to Allen 

 Latham, and my apologies to G. M. Doolit- 

 tle. At the same time I'm not sure but the 

 said Doolittle owes me an apology for not 

 giving the page in American Bee Journal 

 where he found me saying that bees do not 

 gather honey and pollen on the same trip 

 (Gleanings, p. 1015), for I felt confident I 

 could show that he had misread. Mr. La- 

 tham helps out by citing me to American 

 Bee Journal, page 571. There it. is in cold 

 type, so plainly stated that I can not by any 

 possibility explain it away, "yet the same 

 bee never carries both on the same trip. ' ' / 

 believe they often gather both on the same 

 trip. I'm not a somnambulist, I don't drink 

 whisky, wine, nor beer, and how I came to 

 write what I did is something I can't explain. 



E. B. KiBBE wants to know whether sheep 

 in an apiary trouble the bees or the bees 

 trouble the she^p. Both. If the hives are 

 low down, the sneep rub against them and 

 push them off their stands. This summer a 

 sheep got into the small enclosure contain- 

 ing the Wilson apiary, and I found the sheep 

 dead. But with a little watching, sheep, or 

 a flock of sheep, might be turned in. and they 

 do beautiful work trimming down the grass. 

 [Dr. Miller is about right. In some cases 

 sheep will do no harm, and in others there 

 appears to be some danger both to the sheep 

 as well as to the bees. If the hives are large, 

 and solidly placed on their stands, there will 

 not be much liability of the sheep bumping 

 them off. Last summer we let a flock of 

 sheep in among our baby nuclei. We found 

 in some cases that they bumped the little 

 boxes clear off their stands, and some of the 

 sheep got pretty badly stung. — Ed.] 



I'm afraid you don't quite catch the idea 

 of Rev. Mr. Luger. Mr. Editor, page 1308. 

 Wintering and springing may be equally im- 

 portant with queen culture, and the right 



