138 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



come into reputable use, vacancy or no 

 vacancy. But I think there is something 

 of a vacancy for "bring to a boil. 'J I 

 know of no other way to express the same 

 thing in so short a space. Flagrant as 

 may be the crime of charging another 

 with ignorance, I cannot help thinking 

 ignorance or something is the matter with 

 Mr. Taylor if he does not say it is an en- 

 tirely proper thing to say "bring to a 

 boil." 



A CARD OF THANKS. 



I take occasion to thank Mr. Taylor 

 for calling attention to an error of miiie. 

 Ignorance is the only excuse I have for 

 saying what I did about mammoth clo- 

 ver. Alas for the many things concerning 

 which I have a full supply of ignorance ! 

 but if you will faithfully point out all the 

 mistakes I make, Bro. Taylor, between u.= 

 we may make known a good deal of truth. 



But there comes again that same old 

 " sic " on page 87 to trouble. vSort of 

 Banquo's ghost. " It might be a good 

 plan to take part in (sic) the cellar. " 

 Now please, Bro. Taylor, tell me what 

 you mean by saying " sic. "' I don't mean 

 what is the definition of " sic, " but what 

 under the sun have I done, or said, or 

 thought, that makes you put that " sic " 

 there ? 



WHY DO .STRONG COI.ONIES LOSE I.K.SS 

 THAN WEAK ONES. 



In the very interesting article by Adrian 

 Getaz, he says, on page 74, ' ' As to the loss 

 of bees, in my locality, the strong colo- 

 nies lose less than the small ones. 

 In fact, consideralily less in propf)rtion 

 to their si/.e, than the weak colonics. 

 Exactly' why, I don't know. " 



Allow me to give a possible explanation. 

 In winter the bees assume a form more or 

 less spherical, and the outside bees are 

 the ones that suffer the most from the 

 cold. In other words, an outside blan- 

 ket of bees protects the rest of the ball. 

 Of course the outside bees don't always 

 remain the .same, but that doesn't change 

 the principle. For the sake of ilhustra- 

 tion, suppose this blanket of bees is one- 



half inch thick. If the ball of bees be 

 three inches in diameter, the blanket will 

 contain 42 per cent, of the entire lot of bees. 

 But if the ball be six inches in diameter, 

 then the blanket will contain onl}' 29 per 

 cent, of all the bees. It is possible, also, 

 that a thicker blanket may be needed for 

 the small than for the large ball, making 

 the difference in mortality still greater. 

 Marengo, I1.1.. , March 16, 1899. 



RENDERING BEESWAX. 



Some Experiments with Slum-gnm from the 



Ferris Extractor. The Hatch- 



Gethmill Press. 



F. A. GEMMII^I^. 



Mativ a little makes a muckle. 



r--- ^, -:^^I^ ^n V(H'R announce- 

 [ *-?^^SI^^ \ "^ ment, in a late 



issue of the Re- 

 view, that Mr. 

 Beckwith's article 

 describing the 

 methods employed 

 by him in render- 

 ing and pressing 

 old combs in order 

 to secure all the 

 wax they contain- 

 ed, had brought out several articles on 

 the rendering of wax, and that a future 

 i.ssue of the Review would be devoted to 

 a discussion of the subject, was no sur- 

 prise to me. 



The fact that you had also published, in 

 substance, what was said in our conven- 

 tion at Guelph, on this important matter, 

 had no doubt much to do with bringing 

 out criticism on the methods generally em- 

 ployed for securing the best results, with 

 the least time, labor, and expense; and I 

 am now glad that such has been the case. 

 When the subject was being discussed, 

 as stated, I had no thought, much less de- 

 sire, to impress the bee-keeping fraternity 



