204 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



will prove a " howling " success, so that 

 us ' ' small fry ' ' with more than a plenty 

 of black drones all about us, may be able 

 to get our queens fertilized more to our 

 notion of what we want. It seems to me 

 that Mr. Holmbei-g's method of introduc- 

 ing queens is an improvement on other 

 methods, and if the old queen, or the one 

 to be removed, should for any reason be 

 left caged for a day or more, I presume 

 there would be no harm done; and if 

 when the new queen, or the one to be in- 

 troduced, is caged, the cage is so fixed 

 with Good food or something that the 

 bees would remove in a few hours it 

 would save the trouble of again opening 

 the hive to release the queen, when per- 

 haps the bee-keeper is very busy and ev- 

 ery moment of time worth " its weight in 

 gold, " or more, or he obliged to be avva}' 

 from the region of the apiary for days. 



I notice Mr. Whitney says, " I have 

 just visited the apiary of Mr. J. A. Holm- 

 berg of this city, ' ' and when I looked to 

 see what city he meant I couldn't find any 

 thing to give me an inkling of its location , 

 and it occurs to me that I may after all 

 have " put my foot in it" by even assutn- 

 ing that it is a Canadian city, and that 

 Mr. Holmberg is a Canadian, and I almost 

 wish that all the Canadians, especially 

 those in what was known as " Upper Can- 

 ada " when I studied geography in m}^ 

 younger days, were your uncle Sam's 

 boys, because I like his boys a little the 

 best, although there are some grand and 

 noble ones in the Queen's Dominion. 



FAC SIMir.E SIGNATURE — GIVING THE 

 ADDRESSES OF CORRESPONDENTS. 



In this connection I'm glad to see our 

 versatile Doolittle express his views on 

 page 81 of the May number of "The 

 American Bee-Keeper. " In speaking of 

 how much like letters from personal 

 friends it makes the article in the Bee-Kee- 

 per seem when the fac si)nilc signature 

 of the writer is given instead of the sig- 

 naturein " cold type," he goes on to say : 



When you give the full post office ad- 

 ress, it tells me just where the}' are, just 



the same as they do when writing to me 

 personalh' and expecting a reply. And if 

 I wish to know something further of the 

 matter which they write about I have it 

 in my power to write them without first 

 writing you, Mr. Editor, to find out their 

 post office address, thus taking your time, 

 my time and two extra stamps to get the 

 chance to ask them something further re- 

 garding the matter they have written 

 about, of which I am longing to know. 

 But I hear some one reply that this course 

 will brijig a host of questions to the wri- 

 ters for your paper, many of the questions 

 not even enclosing a stamp for the reply 

 they expect to get, which is such a bore 

 to those who write for publication that 

 multitudes of our best bee-keepers will 

 not write atall just on this account. Yes, 

 nearly thirty years of answering questions 

 in this way causes me to know that lots 

 of questions will be asked, and many's the 

 the man who asks questions to the amount 

 of from one to eight or ten pages of fools- 

 cap without even enclosing a stamp, 

 which verifies the correctness of the above. 

 But there is one point these objectors to 

 questions forget, which is, that if the one 

 answering improves upon ever^' opportu- 

 nity for bee-knowledge coming to him, 

 as they should, then will enough new 

 ideas come to him through these ques- 

 tions, or some comment bv the one asking 

 them, or to himself in studying for an an- 

 swer, to more than pay for the time and 

 stamps used in answering them. Quite a 

 a good deal of the knowledge of bees pos- 

 sessed l)y the writer of this has come to 

 him through the multitude of questions 

 that has been asked of him during over 

 a ciuarter of a century. Sometimes when 

 sitting up tired and weary, till nearly tlie 

 sma'l, wee hours of the night, answering 

 questions, I am almost led to exclaim 

 with one of old, "I pray thee have me 

 excused, " but when I open that little box 

 having some fifteen or twenty letters 

 from Klislia Gallup filled with answers to 

 questions of mine, sent him during the 

 early 70's, when my " tender feet" were 

 feeling for the practical road of apiculture, 

 and fully realize that it was just those an- 

 swers, " without money and without 

 price," save the few stam])s I sent him, 

 which, more largely than any thing else, 

 shaped my bee-keeping course, I am 

 ashamed of myself for ever being the least 

 bit weary in answering questions. The 

 Master said, " Freely ye have received, 

 freely give. " 



I am glad that our friend Doolittle is 

 pleased with the fac simile signatures 



