12 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



them in the matter of selling honey. More- 

 over, in the light of recent developments I 

 am afraid that it is going to be still harder 

 to sell extracted honey in the future than it 

 has been in the past. Still, looking at the 

 question from the standpoint of immediate 

 economy, I know of no better advice to give 

 the apiarist desirous of increasing his profits 

 and rendering them surer, than to establish 

 out-apiaries of moderate size in the unoccu- 

 pied fields near him and run them for ex- 

 tracted honey. 



There is much in hives and implements. 

 There is more in methods. Don't be satis- 

 tied with poor ones in either. The man who 

 attempts to meet modern conditions with 

 the implements and methods of long ago 

 will surely fail. Throughout the seasons, 

 good and liad, remember that the specialist, 

 the man who keeps his business well in hand, 

 has the advantage. He can make money if 

 anyone can and when the distance between 

 profit and expense is but short, he will be 

 found on the right side. 



Dr. Miller's plea for government experi- 

 naent stations should receive the earnest at- 

 tention of every bee-keeper. I know that I 

 have spent hundreds of dollars in experi- 

 ments. I have no doubt that there are many 

 others who can say the same. Many of us 

 have been going over just the same ground 

 in these experiments and yet I fear the re- 

 sults we have attained have not been as ac- 

 curate and valuable as might have been at- 

 tainea by a single experimenter working 

 under circumstances that permitted a closer 

 attention to details and a wider range of 

 conditions. I believe, at the same time, the 

 greater part of the expense would be done 

 away with. I believe that if we would ask 

 loud enough and long enough, we could se- 

 cure the help we need in this direction. 



The difference between W. F. Clarke and 

 Prof. Cook is only one of terms. Prof. Cook 

 does not claim that nectar, in the process of 

 transformation into honey, passes through 

 all the stages of digestion, nor does friend 

 Clarke deny that in this process it passes 

 through some of these changes. Why should 

 they quarrel about this difference in de- 

 grees ? If the word " digested " offends the 

 nice taste of our Canadian friend, or others, 

 let them invent some more appropriate 

 term. Really though, I cannot see why the 

 thought of eating nectar that has been 

 changed by the action or addition of the 

 glandular secretions of the bee, should be 

 any more offensive than the thought of using 



milk, which is entirely a glandular secretion 

 of the cow. The bee is the cleaner animal, by 

 far. The general public, for the most part, 

 believe that honey is a secretion and a large 

 proportion of them are so confirmed in this 

 belief that they believe that honey is being 

 produced in the hive at all times, regardless 

 of the state of the weather or the time of 

 year. 



Frieutl Hasty's observation, on page 821, 

 accords with my experience. I have lately 

 had occasion to handle a number of colonies 

 of bees in cold weather, part of the time 

 with the mercury below zero. The prompt- 

 ness and thoroughness with which those col- 

 onies would rouse up from their quiescent 

 state would be a revelation to those that be- 

 lieve that bees hibernate, and the amount of 

 heat that they developed when thoroughly 

 aroused was astonishing even to me. Al- 

 though I believe it better to do all work with 

 bees at a time when they can fly, I should 

 not hesitate, with my present light on the 

 subject, to handle them whenever they 

 really needed it. Although if it were very 

 cold I would take .ihem into a moderately 

 warm room for the purpose, allowing them 

 to cool off gradually after I was through. 

 In this way I have hunted up queens and 

 done other work of that character in the 

 coldest weather and with the loss of very few 

 bees. 



H. R. Boardman gives expression to a very 

 common experience when he says that two 

 cellars that seem exactly equal in all the re- 

 quisites of a cellar, may be very unequal for 

 wintering bees. This is a matter that might 

 stand considerable investigation. At pres- 

 ent no one can he sure it will pay him to 

 winter bees in his cellar until he has given it 

 a thorough trial for himself. Friend Board- 

 man's experience with a repository above 

 ground seems a little remarkable when we 

 consider how often failure has been report- 

 ed with this method. 



R. L. Taylor's advice is all so good that it 

 would take an entire article to comment 

 satisfactorily on its many good points. In 

 one respect only can I take issue with him. 

 Great inventions are not always made to 

 order. It very often happens that they do 

 not even " fill long felt wants." Many times 

 a really meritorious invention must struggle 

 long before it finds appreciation. If inven- 

 tors always waited for a clamorous need, I 

 fear much of the world's richness would be 

 yet undreamed of. While it does seem that 

 nothing further in the way of great inven- 



