THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



49 



now ? Subject's closed. The sentence was 

 on the other side ; and if my side cannot be 

 heard I'm not going to expedite the enemy's 

 cannon balls for him. 



In the third number for 1893 editor York 

 announces that one side of the sugar-honey 

 matter may be heard in his columns but not 

 the other. No comments from me. My 

 readers can imagine what I think of that per- 

 formance without my telling them. 



In the Contributions department, G. M. 

 Doolittle writing in his usual able way con- 

 cerning winter work brings out this idea 

 about warming honey to extract in cold 

 weather. Warm room, of course, but put it 

 0)1 a high shelf. Nothing warms readily 

 near the floor in winter. True as a die. 



J. A. Green restates his excellent method 

 of packing — and it amuses me to see that he 

 has this year got among the late packers, 

 like me. 



Gleanings, 



Here's a journal so broad and long that a 

 reviewer can't very well talk all over it. 

 How queer that some of you should be wait- 

 ing to hear me tell what Gleanings is like ! 

 It always begins with " Stray Straws," little 

 nuggets of truth, fun, gossip, warning or 

 conundrum by Dr. Miller. Then Father 

 Langstroth in his ripe autumn, gives us a 

 section of his reminiscences. After bees 

 fried, bees roasted, and bees " biled " recess 

 comes, and Rambler makes us laugh with 

 outrageous pictures. More fried, roasted 

 and "biled," and then senior editor Root be- 

 gins to heave in sight with endless " garden 

 sass," and interesting travels, and good earn- 

 est Christian preaching, all interleaved and 

 lit up with splendid illustrations. Lastly, 

 to end off with, Ernest tries his prettiest to 

 get his last leaf up even with Miller's first 

 leaf — two unbroken colts pulling at an even- 

 er. You perceive at once that Gleanings' 

 theory of success is not " Bees exclusively " 

 but bees "till you can't rest," and lots of 

 other attractive things too. It's rather a 

 taking theory ; yet none of its cotempora- 

 ries can wrestle with it on that basis. They 

 have not the space to do it in, else " can't 

 spell able" — mostly both. 



As to this number, whereabouts have we a 

 portrait and biography that we can afford 

 to put beside Miss Leah Atchleys? Old maid, 

 eh ? Six years old Dec. 16th, and had reared 

 with her own hands a number of queens. 

 First word she ever spoke was " Bees !" 



She looks to me like a come-outer. Let us 

 pray God she may never (come-outer girls 

 of the South have done the like already) 

 never take a rifle in her deft little hands, and 

 fight for the lives of her people, and her 

 faith, against the great Juggernaut that 

 wears the livery of heaven in these days. Her 

 hot speech to the older brother that meddled 

 with her bees sounds a little like battle. He 

 had doubled up the bees without asking per- 

 mission — " Youngster, you let my bees alone 

 or I will double you up." Mother must do a 

 lot of rubbing in the " Suffereth long, and is 

 kind," as well as leaving in the dauntless en- 

 ergy. 



Now here's a little of that preface. I think 

 I must be excused from the articles on gen- 

 eral subjects, even though of great excellence, 

 barring the few cases where it seemeth me 

 good to make exception. Ditto of the hu- 

 morous bee articles. Fun seldom makes 

 good hash even if good when fresh. 



So that stilted pack of scientific lies about 

 each pound of honey representing millions 

 of miles of bee travel came to grief in Eng- 

 land. Requires 275 lbs. of working bees per 

 colony to haul in a 22 lb. run. Same thing 

 printed in A. B. J. and none of us took pains 

 to get after it. 



Fortunately we do not thus let alone the 

 mistakes of a recognized bee writer. Edwin 

 France, one of the best bee-keepers in the 

 world, and the editor both get after me for 

 the dangerous error of putting bees above 

 their stores for winter. In Wisconsin weath- 

 er the cluster is not always able to follow 

 doivn. My defense is I did'nt say so. Dr. 

 Miller misquoted me just one important 

 word. I said stores behind them, meaning 

 toward the rear of the hive when on shallow 

 frames. 



Gleanings No. 1 looks rather like a sugar- 

 honey special ; but in No. 2 the gates are 

 banged and bolted again. Perhaps, the most 

 remarkable thing about it is Prof. Cook's 

 "Right About Face." He does not base it 

 to any great extent on change of opinion, 

 but on disposition to yield to the popular 

 clamor. Well, well, comrades, the wheels 

 have stopped ; and we are sitting on the 

 safety-valves now nice and heavy — but the 

 tvater is still bilin. 



More preface. It is hardly best to review 

 articles in which a queen-breeding editor 

 puffs his queens and their race, or those in 

 which the supply editor puffs his supplies. 

 Not all, by any means, of this kind of writ- 



