THE BRIvKI•;^:^KK^' RIWIEW. 



277 



vest, and the reporting of the supply and 

 (leniaiid in different localities, thus pre- 

 venting glutted markets mid unprofitable 

 sales. I'roni this, the good work will go 

 on until, if the Association (foes not ac- 

 tually control the bulk of "the sales, it 

 will be a potent factor in the regulation 

 of prices. 



Honey may never be higher in price 

 than it is i:ow, but it will be produced at 

 less cost. The continued development 

 of specialty, and of organization, will les- 

 son the cost of production. The number 

 of bees will be increased, but not the 

 number of bee KEEPERS. They will 

 "keep more bees." Few bee keepers will 

 be content with simply the home-apiary. 

 There will be an out-apiary for each day 

 in the week. With this style of bee keep- 

 ing, organization will be an easy matter. 



Commercial bee keeping will be in the 

 hands of specialists. In the hands of 

 men who have carefully selected, and 

 thoroughly understand their respective 

 localities. Of men who keep enough 

 bees to fully employ their hands, their 

 brains, and their capital. And among 

 these men there will be complete organ- 

 ization and co-operation. 



.\s a foundation for the more perfect 

 organization of the future, let us cherish 

 and foster the dear old Association of 

 which we are now members. Let us pay 

 our dues promptly. Let us encourage 

 others to join. Let us lay aside .self and 

 selfishne.ss. .And of the talents that we 

 possess, let us give that which will the 

 most quickly and surely help to build up, 

 to strengthen, and broaden its .scope. 

 I/Ct us not rest until every bee keeper, 

 from ocean to ocean, has rallied under its 

 banner, and all can co-operate as the mem- 

 bers of one great family. 



A VI.SIT To MR. \. D. I), wool) js— .SO.MK 

 POINTS IN QUEEN REARING. 



While on my way home from the Den- 

 ver convention I stoppe<l off at Lansing, 

 Michigan, and spent li;df a day visiting 

 with niv old friend Mr. A. D. D. Wood, 



who has for the past few years been mak- 

 ing a specialty of queen rearing. 



Mr. Wood pronounces the past season 

 one of the worst for queen rearing that 

 he has ever known. It was too cold and 

 wet. Even with liberal feeding it was 

 impossible to secure the desired queens 

 in cell building. Many cells would nev- 

 er hatch. Upon opening them the queen 

 would be found dead with no royal jelly 

 in the cells. 



Then there was a great loss in the mating 

 of queens. The cold wet vveather would 

 keep the queens in until they and the bees 

 were so anxious for them to take their 

 flight that they would venture out in un- 

 suitable weather, and perish in storms. 

 He believes that he has had at least 5,000 

 quee:is hatch, but only a small proportion 

 of them mated and began laying. 



He has tried queens from all of the 

 leading breeders of this country' but has 

 never secured any stock so satisfactory 

 as he has obtained by direct importation 

 from Ital}'. 



He is greatly in love with the Grace 

 queen cell compressor. He saj-s that 

 some of the Swarthniore ideas may not 

 be of value but he regards this as worth 

 its weight in gold. Some of my readers 

 may not know what a Grace queen cell 

 compressor is, or how it is used, so I will 

 explain. It is a little metal punch operat- 

 ed with a lever, and the head of the punch, 

 that is forced into the soft wax, is shaped 

 like the inside of the base of a queen cell. 

 Let me illustrate: Take a small spool 

 of thread, one alxuit ^ of an inch in di- 

 ameter, and unwind a little of the thread 

 so as to leave a little rim of wood sticking 

 up at eaeh end. Now set it up on end 

 and cut it in two horizontally. In the 

 small end of one piece, the end opposite 

 the rim. bore a ^'i inch hole half way 

 through. You now have the wooden part. 

 Mr. Wood gets these made in Chicago at 

 a cost of >^ cent each. The cavity in the 

 small end is filled with melted wax, and 

 while the wax is still soft the Grace cell 

 compressor is used, making a spherical 

 cavity in the wax. The blocks thus pre- 



