THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



51 



j^rade of paper, boiiiul with a tinted cover, 

 decorated in colors, and embellished with 

 striking and interestinj; pictures. Ves, 

 and J wonld say, have the matter re-writ- 

 ten. There is too much of it. The honey 

 leaflet to help the sale of honey is yet to 

 he written and printed. 



»»>i»«.«i*««ir«. 



The Amkric-\n Bhk Joi'rn.\l began the 

 year with a new dress of type and a num- 

 ber of little nicknacks that add to the 

 beauty of its personal appearance. By 

 the way, this journal recently printed 

 15,000 copies; the extra copies to be used 

 as samples. This is probably the largest 

 single issue of any bee journal that has 

 ever been printed in this country. 



The W.A.X Rendering article of Mr. 

 Beckwith that appeared in the Review 

 for January, along with an editorial on 

 the same subject, has brought out a large 

 amount of correspondence. There is not 

 room for any of it in this issue of the Re- 

 view, but it looks now as though the 

 March Review would be almost a special 

 number on wax rendering. If anyone 

 else has anything to say on the subject, 

 now is the time. 



Improvement seems to be the order 

 of the day with our bee journals. In 

 another place I have noticed the improve- 

 ments made in the .American Bee Journal. 

 Gleanings also calls attention to the im- 

 provements that appear in some of its 

 exchanges. There issomething attract- 

 ive about a neatly gotten up journal; 

 just as there is about a well dressefl per- 

 son. A journal that is poorly printed, 

 from old type, on a cheap grade <5f paper, 

 and no taste exercised in its "make up," 

 stands no show whatever with a journal 

 that is gotten up in the style that char- 

 acterizes the leading bee journals of to 

 day. Let no man start a new bee jour- 

 nal with any hope of success unless he 

 can make it as neat, at least, as the ones 



that are now being published. Yes, he 

 must go even further; as the friendship 

 between an old established journal and 

 its readers is very strong, and, to win 

 them away, something considerably bet- 

 ter nmst be offered them. 



iifi-uru^^*i*.*n 



Tr.\vki--St.\in, according to the gener- 

 ally accepted idea, is a soiling of the sur- 

 face of the combs by the bees running over 

 the combs with dirty feet. To prevent 

 travel-stain, honey is often removed as 

 soon as capped. Mr. J. E. Crane, in Glean- 

 ings, shows quite conclusively that the 

 so-call ed travel-.stain is not simply a dis- 

 coloration of the surface of the comb, but 

 that this color extends through and 

 through the cappings; being as apparent 

 upon the inner surface as upon the outer 

 surface. It is composed of propolis, and 

 bits of wa.x from old combs; perhaps from 

 the cappings of cells from which young 

 bees have hatched. The fact that the 

 whitest cappings upon sections can be se- 

 cured over colo:iies hiving new brood 

 combs goes to show the correctness of Mr. 

 Crane's position. 



HIVES TH.A.T ARE UNWIELDV. 



In this discussion upon hives, there is 

 one more thing we ought not to overlook; 

 and that is the advantage of light, readily- 

 movable hives. With our modern know- 

 ledge and advanced methods there are so 

 many short cuts that can be taken by 

 handling hives instead of combs. Take 

 the Heddon method of preventing after- 

 swarming, for instance, in which the old 

 hive is carried to a new location; or the 

 hiving of a swarm by allowing it to return 

 to the old stand; or the uniting of colo- 

 nies. At the late Michigan State conven- 

 tion I heard my good friend Geo. Yi. Hil- 

 ton explain how he managed all these 

 manipulations — it was by carrying the 

 winds and bees. If it became desirable 

 to move a colony to a new stand, it was 

 necessary to take out the combs and ad- 



