THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW- 



265 



they do in a severe one, I prefer the latter 

 plan. It is possible that the house apiary 

 may yet furnish the advantages of both 

 methods — warmth and an opportunity for 

 flights when the weather permits. In the 

 cellar we can control the temperature, also 

 the moisture to a certain extent. If we give 

 them sugar stores, we then have everything 

 under our control except the length of the 

 confinement, which will nut usually vary 

 sufficiently to undo our plans. It is only by 

 cellar wintering that we can have the same 

 conditions year after year. .Just a few more 

 words about stores. Ordinary colonies in a 

 warm cellar consume about two pounds per 

 colony each month. These stores are taken 

 from the center of the hive. By feeding 

 each colony seven or eight pounds of sugar 

 syrup at the end of the season, it will be 

 stored In the center of the hive, and it will 

 be largely this food that the bees will con- 

 sume during their confinement. This is al- 

 most the same as their liaving all sugar 

 stores. Where a man winters his bees year 

 after year with no trouble from dysentery, 

 all these precautions are unnecessary. They 

 are for the man who does have trouble. 



To recapitulate : If the honey of any lo- 

 cality was uniformly good I would give but 

 little attention to the food. If it frequently 

 proved unsuitable I would feed sugar late in 

 the season. I would leave the bees in the 

 open air until there was slight prospect of 

 their enjoying another tlight ; yet I would 

 wish to have them in the cellar before the 

 advent of snow storms and severe cold. I 

 would take in the hives with no bottom 

 boards and stack them up with two-inch 

 blocks between the hives. I would carefully 

 watch the temperature and never allow it to 

 go below 40" nor above i*y . The tempera- 

 ture can be kept up by the use of an oil stove, 

 but I would have a hood over the stove and 

 a pipe to carry oft' the gases of combustion. 

 If this pipe is connected with a stove pipe in 

 the room above it will also help to ventilate 

 the cellar when there is no fire in the oil 

 stove. I would also have a wet bulb ther- 

 mometer in the cellar and not allow the de- 

 gree of temperature marked by the wet bulb 

 iustrument to approach nearer than 3° to that 

 of the dry bulb, with a temperature of 45°. 

 Just as soon as it was warm enough in the 

 spring for the bees to fly I would remove 

 them from the cellar. This may be two or 

 three weeks or a mouth earlier than steady 

 warm weather may be expected, but it will 



be seen that an early removal shortens the 

 confinement that much. When a bee has 

 retained its faeces three or four months, a 

 further retention of three or four weeks may 

 be all the difference between death and fair 

 health. But I would not leave the bees with- 

 out protection. I jiould pack them the same 

 as I would in the fall if they were going to be 

 left out of doors all winter, only I might not 

 do it in so thorough a manner. So thick 

 packing is not needed, and it may be held in 

 place in the most simple and cheap manner. 

 A super filled with sawdust will answer for 

 the over head packing." 



Now, friends, I shall be very glad of your 

 views upon this subject for publication in 

 the ( )ctober Review. 



EXXRJ^CTED. 



Opportunity. 



I do not know that I have ever copied a 

 poem into the Review, but I came across 

 one the other day, entitled "Opportunity," 

 written by Professor Sill, that struck me as 

 so encouraging to those who sometimes 

 lament their lackoi opportunity, that I must 

 let my readers enjoy it with me. Here it is : 



"Tills I beheld, or dreamed it in a dream ; 

 There spread a cloud of dust alontr a plain • 

 And underneath the cloud, or in it, raged 

 A furious battle, and men yelled, and swords 

 Shocked upon swords and shields. A prince's 



banner 

 Wavered, then staggered backward, hemmed by 



foes. 

 A craven hung along the battle's edge. 

 And thought, ' Had 1 a sword of keener steel- 

 That blue blade tliat the king's son bears— but 



this 

 Blunt thing—! ' he snapt and flung it from his 



hand 

 And lowering crept away and left the field. 

 Tlien came the king's son, wounded, sore beset 

 And weaponless, and saw the broken sword. 

 Hilt-buried in the dry and trodden sand. 

 And ran and snatchrd it. and with battle shout 

 Lifted afresh he hewed his enemy down 

 And saved a great cause that heroic day !" 



What the Experiment Station May Do for 



Bee -Keepers. 



A servant of servants shall he be unto his 

 brethren. 



Some of the experiments that are to be 

 undertaken at the Michigan Experimental 

 Apiary have already been mentioned, but in 



