ryS 



I'HE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



rather than practical lines His practi- 

 cal advice, of which his articles contain a 

 fair proportion, is good ( when not car- 

 ried too far), but is not extraordinary, 

 and is already familiar in substance to 

 experiencetl bee-keepers in America as 

 well as in Europe. I would not, how- 

 ever, undervalue the correlation of prac- 

 tical work with scientific knowledge; it 

 makes all the difference between drudg- 

 ery; yes, sordidness, and mental growth, 

 which cannot be divorced from humanity 

 proper without irreparable injury. The 

 attempt to disjoin work, and legitimate 

 and pre-eminently desirable result of 

 work, made from time to time by writers 

 of the fiercely practical order, I cannot 

 but regard as ridiculous from any point 

 of view. 



Spring developement, says Gerstung, 

 is like a ladder with rungs. These rungs 

 in their order are worker brood impulse, 

 building impulse, drone impulse, queen- 

 cell impulse; all accompanied by the 

 gathering impulse, which increases in 

 proportion to the stage reached in the 

 ladder or scale of development. The 

 higher steps of the ascending scale (drone, 

 cjueen and swarming impulses) are un- 

 favorable to our aim, which is to get the 

 main flow with the main Strength of our 

 colonies; the lower steps are favorable, 

 hence these should be helped and the 

 others hindered. He spreads brood in the 

 early stages, then gives full sheets of 

 foundation to work out when masses of 

 young bees bring on the danger of swarm- 

 ing. This often sufhces for weeks at a 

 time to keep the colony on the lower 

 steps of the scale. But the bees may 

 suddenly refuse to draw out any more. 

 Then the ''swarming devil" is again 

 loose, and there is but one means left — 

 that of exchanging the emerging brood 

 of the strong colonies for the unsealed 

 brood of the weak ones. 



He leaves but 1-5 of an inch between 

 the end-bars of the frames and the sides 

 of the hive, in order that the bees may 

 leave passage-ways in the combs, on the 

 ground that just as the queen loses her 



head when shegeisher feet off the comb, 

 so the bees may, and so, we are to sup- 

 pose, lose valuable time in aimless wan- 

 dering around. This serious trifling is 

 characteristic of the Gerstung system. 

 Cxranted that this point is true, it cannot 

 reach such proportions as to outweigh 

 the difference in ease of handling frames, 

 in any recently populated colony. 



Montrose, Colo., Dec. to, 1898. 



Department of 



riticism 



CONDUCTED BY R. I,. TAYLOR. 



Blaine where you must, be candid where yon can, 

 And be each critic the Good-natured Man. 



GOLDSMITH. 



THE PREVENTION OK INCREASE. 



In the April Review I made some com- 

 ments upon Mr. Getaz's plan for prevent- 

 ing increase; a plan which, as I there 

 explained it, I recommended some years 

 ago; and, consequently, one in which he 

 took considerable interest. His article in 

 Gleanings explaining his method of pro- 

 ceedure not having been satisfactorily re- 

 ceived by the editor and Dr. Miller, Mr. 

 Getaz returns to the matter (Gleanings, 

 304 ), attempting to enable the others to 

 "grasp all the circumstances of the case." 

 The result of his effort must prove rather 

 discouraging to Mr. Getaz. Dr. Miller 

 seems, indeed, to tinderstand Mr. Getaz's 

 position, but by implication, at least, he 

 prefers to put on "excluders" before any 

 swarming takes place, "and let the bees 

 do the rest" until the young queen nuist 

 be released. Such a method would, as a 

 matter of course, be unendurable; but 

 the doctor says if he had 25 colonies, or 

 less, he'd like to try it again. The editor, 

 on the other hand, is farther astray than 

 ever. Mr. Grctaz says "When a SiVart/i 

 issues return it and kill or remove the 

 queen." The editor says "If I under- 



