22 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' MEVIEW. 



occasional pieces of natural drone comb are 

 built atrociously thick and heavy. 



Many folks will be enabled to use their 

 last year's foundation with lighter heart 

 after reading this report. Old very nearly 

 as good as the new (as long as it don't get 

 daubed with propolis.) And now for the 

 Given press again, eh ? We used to hear 

 that Given foundation was better than roller 

 foundation, but we had settled back in our 

 chairs thinking that probably that was " all 

 in the eye " of the man who wanted to sell 

 presses. Instead of a renewed attempt to 

 peddle the presses why not have a few of the 

 best possible presses made, and used by the 

 great manufacturers? They can then sell the 

 product side by side with that of the roller 

 mills, charging a small advance in price. In 

 the course of time, if people generally be- 

 come convinced that such a course is best, 

 the roller mill can be retired altogether. 

 Moreover I think an inventor only a mere 

 trifle smarter than Edison might invent rolls 

 that would turn off sheets with just as plastic 

 a surface as the press gives. But let's have 

 no more " say so " without the proven real- 

 ity — had too much of that already. 



THE Progressive, 



The Progressive calls it " Ueberwinterung 

 der Bienen," and prints the article in geese 

 tracks. Nice way to avoid disgusting south- 

 ern readers who don't want to hear about 

 " Wintering Bees," but I'll just go and tell. 

 And how does the Progressive get along since 

 last inspection ? Nicely holding its own, 

 thank you. Friend Leahy has taken to him- 

 self a mate, not in the usual way, but in a 

 way that even Rambler and myself can ap- 

 prove. So the journal has an " Editok " 

 and an "editok" now — the added pen be- 

 ing no other than our friend E. F. Quigley, 

 the former editor. Welcome, and congratu- 

 lations ! 



One little individuality in which this jour- 

 nal stands alone is that it has a regular poet, 

 and a good one. Note the strength of the 

 lines below. 



" Wlio art thou ? Aud we hear him say 

 (In icy tones we all roinember) 

 I am the brother of fair May 

 And June— the year's last born, December.' 



WILL WAKD MITCHELL. 



S. E. Miller's notes from the Star Apiary 

 continue. As one cannot eiptomize a string 

 of items it must suffice to say that they are 

 good. Somnambulist, not quite so happy as 

 usual for December, did a specially excel- 



lent piece of work in the November number, 



in the word painting of Chicago day at the 



World's Fair. 



" The street cars were not street cars at all, but 

 simply great balls of people, held together by 

 some strange cohesion, * * Conductors 

 climed all over the passengers, and tramped 

 upon toes promiscuously, in their frantic efforts 

 to collect fares. * * j ^m still alive, and 

 any of you can go in my place next time." 



Beg pardon for trying doggerel on the sit- 

 uation so eloquently set off in prose, but 

 this seems about the size of it — 



The crowd, a sea, its waters gone, 

 Naught but six feet of human eels ; 

 Each street car was a human swarm, 

 A clustered swarm of bees on wheels. 



E. T. Flanagan finds stealing a sad draw- 

 back on out apiaries. Mrs. Hallenbeck tells 

 with simple grace how she came to be a bee- 

 keeper. J. W. Rouse advises attending far- 

 mer's institutes. C. W. Dayton essays the 

 not very difficult job of an interesting article 

 about California bee-keeping — 



" Losses by starvation are as extensive in Cal- 

 ifornia as losses from wintering in the north. 

 Starvation culls out the poorest working col- 

 onies, while winter losses take good and poor 

 alike." Progressive, 224. 



This indeed is a very valuable salvage to 

 offset starvation losses, the decided improve- 

 ment of the stock. Winter fosses fail to ac- 

 complish this. One kind of winter losses, 

 in fact, works the other way and destroys 

 the best colonies — the winter starvation of 

 those colonies that are too free to put their 

 honey in the sections. .J. B. Dann adds an 

 item to a matter we decidedly need to know 

 about, the diarrhtjea of starvation. His case 

 was in July. Perhaps famine made them 

 seek and eat unwholesome things, which 

 otherwise they would not have touched. 



The Progressive copies but little, only the 

 Michigan reports in this number. When a 

 journal gets so as to never copy anything 

 merely to fill up, but only when there is 

 something which its readers could not well 

 afford to miss, then it steps from a lower to 

 higher class. 



Friend A. F. Brown seems to be the pro- 

 gressive " king bee " of migratory bee- 

 keeping. 



" I have followed this system two years mak- 

 ing from three to four moves each year, cover- 

 ing distances of from 20 to 800 miles, by cars, 

 boats and teams, and I have fully demonstrated 

 it to be a practical success, by securing three 

 good surplus crops in one season " Progress- 

 ive, 208. 



But some of us sleepy old chaps would not 

 enjoy having an invisible policeman always 

 calling out from the almanac and saying 

 " Move on, move on !" 



