THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



288 



" Why a bee has no teeth with whicli to bite, 

 any more than a hen ; and a lien having no teeth, 

 CANNOT EAT OOBN ! So the bee cannot eat 

 grapes. Besides, some New York man shut some 

 Does and grapes in the same bottl^ ' and they 

 didn't eat them.' I don't know 'Whether the 

 bees refused to eat the grapes, or the grapes re- 

 frained from eating the bees." 



It certainly is a great annoyance to have 

 multitudes of bees crawling over fruit while 

 it is being picked ; and a little frank expres- 

 sion of regret will pay better than frantic 

 denials which no one but the affiant believes. 

 That bees enlarge minute holes to big ones 

 cannot be suceessfuUy denied. 



THE Progressive. 



Doolittle thinks he gets some profit out of 

 the mullein-on-a-pole way of catching 

 swarms, which some of us had come to con- 

 sider a worn out humbug. But then he uses 

 with it a huge queen cage, with a big lot of 

 bees caught at the hive entrance. If a mis- 

 chievous boy should pick the mulleins all off 

 the pole would not the thing work just as 

 well V Certainly the pole and cage would 

 slip around among the branches better with- 

 out the mulleins ; but then it wouldn't af- 

 ford sufficient foothold for the bees, unless a 

 box or something was attached. Progress- 

 ive, 194. 



Mrs. Halleubeck wears her veil all over 

 herself — no, not so bad as that, but tied 

 around her waist. Large, plain piece of net- 

 ting. Progressive, 196. 



And here is her preparation for stick-em- 

 tight paper. One pint castor oil, one half 

 pint honey, one and one-half pounds resin. 

 Progressive, 237. 



The editor on page 250 seems to get his 

 head beautifully level where he advises the 

 bee journal that doeseiVt pay expenses that 

 adding a supply business would be support- 

 ing an additional baby. And same to a man 

 who starts a journal to keep his unprofitable 

 supply business from sinking. Many of us 

 are afflicted with a mild sort of lunacy as to 

 the honey that can be tapped out of a turnip 

 by starting something. I know of a case 

 where a man not insane, who was notorious 

 for his emptiness of pocket, started the 

 business of banker and broker, so far as 

 room and shingle were concerned. Per- 

 chance he imagined people might possibly 

 be led to deposit money with him till his 

 limp money bag would become a bag of 

 money. 



S. E. Miller (Progressive, 2C.0) thinks 

 county editors have great abilities in the 



line of selecting the most worthless bee ar- 

 ticles for reprinting in their agricultural 

 columns. 



This is the way the journalistic side-shows 

 look to Mrs. Hallenbeck, as per page 270. 



"The American Bee Journal looks after our 

 health, the Progressive furnishes us with law, 

 Gleanings disperses gospel and gardening, and 

 the Nebraska Bee Keeper tells how we shall care 

 for our poultry. The editor of the Api. expects 

 to add a new deisartmcnt to the Api. soon. I 

 wonder what especial topic he will select, Live 

 stock, real estate, or what ?" 



Dayton thinks bee folks abjure seats for 

 fear ths lookers on will think them lazy. He 

 has a wire cylinder queen cage that infringes 

 on "grandfather's clock," in that it stands 

 on the floor of the hive and reaches clean op 

 to the ceiling. A queen cell full of honey 

 furnishes the provisions ; and more can be 

 put in right through the wires with a spring 

 bottom oil can. Dayton's modifications of 

 the AVillie Atchley method of lifting larvae, 

 cradle and all, I am not queen breeder 

 enough to pronounce judgement upon, but 

 they look worth a trial. They comprise 

 several curious little tools, one of them a 

 crimper to tamp the cell wax over the raw 

 silk edges, so no meddlesome little tom -tink- 

 er can discover anything to pull at. For all 

 these things see his very instructive article. 

 Progressive, 267-9. 



If somebody should knock that Observer 

 over he perchance might discover, while the 

 victim was gasping and coming to, that he 

 didn't say a bee-keeper was " no more than 

 a regular gambler," although he used those 

 words. The "idee" was that he knew no 

 more when he would win than does the reg- 

 ular gambler. Say, Brother Ob., the regular 

 gambler knows he'll win when the big money 

 is staked, and lose when the timid little stake 

 is on. Progressive, 265. 



Doolittle puts the maximum gatherings of 

 one bee during its life time at one ounce of 

 nectar, or one-third of an ounce of honey. 

 Progressive, 266. 



In the same article he gives an interesting 

 case where a rather weak colony reduced 137 

 ounces of nectar to 60 ounces in one night. 

 That was a big day's gathering of apple 

 nectar, even if it was thin. The colony was 

 down to a pound of bees, and less. A great 

 colony should have harvested over 40 pounds 

 that day. Friend D. tried to fetch it ; and 

 for the next three years the apple trees 

 " wouldn't give down no milk." 



On the whole the Progressive shows little 

 or nothing of the prevalent disposition to 



