302 



THF BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



the first thought would be that more room is 

 needed. There are many things about this 

 entrance diagnosis tliat cannot be told in 

 words ; experience is needed, and at lavt it 

 comes to be a sort of second nature. 



Michigan State Bee-Kbepees will hold 

 their annual convention Wednesday and 

 Thursday, Jan. 2nd and 3rd, 1895, in the city 

 of Detroit, at the Perkins Hotel, corner of 

 Cass and Grand River Avenues. Rates $1.2.5 

 and $1.50 per day. The former rate if two 

 occupy one room. This will be at a time 

 when the railroads will probably give ouc- 

 half fare, and those who could not attend the 

 North American can now attend their home 

 convention at little expense. 



The Review does not criticise without al- 

 lowing a defense, hence Mr Heddon uses the 

 space that he does this month in replying to 

 the criticisms that appeared last month. I 

 do not know as I have anything to retract, 

 or to add to what I said last month. I am 

 not prepared to prove that our literature 

 does not need improving in the lines sug- 

 gested by Bro. Heddon; in fact, I am inclined 

 to believe that he is partly right, but in 

 pointing out this needed reform I would 

 avoid stinging personalities. 



SWEET CLOVER. 



Mr. M. M. Baldridge appears to have more 

 faith in sweet clover than has any other 

 Northern man with whom I am acquainted. 

 He is getting out a series of bulletins on the 

 subject of sweet clover showing its value as 

 an enriching crop for the soil, its adaptabil- 

 ity to poor soil and drought, audits value for 

 pasture, hay and houey. The second bulle- 

 tin is already out, and the next one is to be 

 illustrated. He says that he knows of sev- 

 eral parties that are finding it profitable to 

 grow sweet clover, and, so great is his faith 

 that he proposes another year to seed fifty 

 acres to this plant. 



Wide, Deep Top Bars will lessen brace 

 and burr combs, but not prevent them to 

 that degree that will allow of dispensing with 

 the honey board, Bays Bro. Heddon in his 

 new journal. I just wonder if Bro. H. used 

 accurate spacing with his wide and deep top 

 bars ? I fear that it will require a few years 

 to definitely settle this problem. So many 

 things about a bee hive work so nicely the 

 first year or two, that there is need of cau- 



tion. One thing is certain, a honey board 

 does prevent the building of brace combs 

 against the sections, and it is not much more 

 expensive than frames with large top bars 

 and fitted with some self-spacing arrange- 

 ment, besides, we often need a queen exclu- 

 der and this calls for a honey board. 



Emekson T. Abbott, in reply to an inquiry 

 of mine as to how Missouri was induced to 

 employ a lecturer on bees to attend the 

 farmers' institutes, had only time to give me 

 the following hint : " Given a man who 

 has something to say and knows how to say 

 it, and then let him keep everlastingly at it, 

 and something will come of it in time. I 

 paid my own way to the first institute and 

 spoke for nothing, but, after awhile they 

 were willing to pay my expenses and some- 

 thing besides. This year I covered the State 

 and am paid so much a month and my ex- 

 penses." Mr. Abbott has promised to write 

 for the Review an article upon the relation of 

 bee-keepers to farmers' institutes, in which 

 he will try and show other States how they 

 may enjoy the advantages that Missouri now 

 has in this line. 



FEEDING AND FEEDERS. 



Bro. Heddon has been experimenting the 

 past summer with feeders arranged under 

 the hive, but lias not found them so desira- 

 ble as those above the hive. A top feeder is 

 more convenient to arrange, besides, if it 

 leaks, it leaks into the hive. He is inclined 

 to discourage the use of the percolator — 

 thinks it a quicker job to make the syrup by 

 heat in a large tank. To those who have ar- 

 rangements for making syrup in large quan- 

 tities, and who can make it so that it will not 

 granulate an 1 will be satisfactory in all ways, 

 it may not be advisable to use the percolator 

 method, but there are many who keep bees 

 in a limited way, to whom the percolator 

 may prove a great advantage. It gets the 

 syrup just right every time. Let us not 

 throw cold water upon percolation until we 

 have given it a more thorough trial. 



Top bars still furnish food for discussion 

 and experimentation. In the last Progress- 

 ive, S. E. Miller has the following: "It 

 will soon be as hard to keep up with the 

 fashion in frames as it is to follow the fash- 

 ion in dress. The A. I. Root establishment 

 turns out something different about once a 

 year. For some time the top bars grew wider 



