OEiVOTi:!) TO BEEH ATSI> 1I0]VI::Y, AiVX> IIOIVTE I]VTi:il3i:STS. 



A. I. ROOT, 



Pi'.hlishpr and Proprietor, 

 Medina, O. 



Published Monthly. rTERMS: «1.00 Per Annuni in 

 -] vance; 3 Copies for $2.dO; 5 for^S 

 IZ]sta.l>lisliecl ill ISy:?. ClO r<;' »(ore, 60c. eac/t, ' 



Ad- 



,7 5; 



Single Nuinber 10c. 



Vol. IV. 



MAY 1, 1876. 



No. 5. 



SMOKERS, ETC. 



fT is said that, "In a miiltitiule of counsellors there is 

 safety." Just where the safety comes in, for the nov- 

 — ice in apiculture who attempts to follow teachings 

 that differ toto ccelo, it is difficult to conceive. Thus, 

 friend Doolittle on page 75, takes Novice to task for his 

 sa,yings about smokers. Your humble servant, too, has 

 h:id to make a business of taking off boxes, and he has 

 had to employ an assistant, to blow the mouth smoker; 

 and then just as the hive' is nicely ojjon, the smoker is 

 likely to go out and it must be relighted, bees in the mean- 

 time having pretty much their own way. And by the 

 lime he f:etshalf through, assistant has blown till she is 

 just about sick, and she must retire. Not so with the 

 Quinby. No assistant is necessary. No chronic fjo out 

 about it. It stands by 5-ou, faithfully smoking away, ready 

 for use at any moment. In short, after a fair trial, I have 

 I'ejected the mouth smoker, and chosen the Quiiiliy, for 

 precisely the same rea.'ons that have led friend Doolittle 

 to a diametrically opposite conclusion ! And to me the 

 Quinby is njewe'. D. P. Lane. 



KoslikoTiong, Wis., April 4th, 1S76. 



If it were smokers only on which bee-keepers 

 disagree, friend L., we might feel thanlifnl, but 

 it is hives, honey, bees, feeders, and lately they 

 bid fair to wage a fierce war on patents, to say 

 nothing of the diverse opinions in regard to 

 how a Bee jourual should be conducted. As 

 au illustration, one friend wishes his journal 

 stopped because we do not answer questions 

 more at length, that a novice may understand, 

 while several of the veterans actually "get 

 mad" in reading "Heads of Grain," because we 

 fill it with so many repetitions, and things that 

 every body knows already. Again, our regu- 

 lar subscnbers do not wish us to repeat r,he 

 whole of what we wrote last year or the year 

 before, yet we get abuse — most of it stated 

 very pleasantly — because we often refer inqui- 

 ries to the back numbers. One party insists 

 that we make every number complete without 

 any reference to previous ones ; while others 

 wish us to collect all the facts we can on a 

 subject, give an exhaustive article, and then 

 refer future querists to said number. It is the 

 .same in regard to small or large type ; as the 

 votes are just about equally divided, and about 

 equal in vehemence, we are really obliged to 

 decide according to our best judgment, as be- 

 fore. In regard to smokers, and other imple- 

 ments, we can give our opinion, but that like 

 the opinion of the rest, is liable to be a mista- 

 ken one ; many times the best we can do is to 



give opinions on both sides and let each decide 

 for himself. 



Bee-culture is a new and rapidly growing 

 science, and as a consequence, much error will 

 creep in now and then, which must be thrown 

 out as soon as discovered. New developments, 

 bring demand for different implements, and if 

 the hive we advise this season differs from the 

 one we sent out a year ago, is not the sudden 

 and unexpected demand for comb foundations 

 a sufficient reason for it? Now dear friends, 

 can not all this be talked over in a friendly 

 and charitable way V Can we not bear in 

 mind that it is but human to err, and take it 

 all good-naturedly, even though we are suffer- 

 ers. The implements we send out now, are so 

 much superior to those sent out two years ago, 

 that we feel ashamed of the old ones, yet we 

 then made them the best we knew how. To 

 bring them to their present state we have 

 wasted much money on experiments, and have 

 never hesitated to throw away any implement, 

 as soon as really assured we had a better one. 



I have 18 swarms and think if the Quinby smoker is a 

 good thing. I would like one. Please give me a descrip- 

 tion of it. It makes me sick to blow smoke from rotten 

 wood, or through a pipe. 



T. P. Morton, Augusta. Mich. 



The Quinby smoker is a very light and neat 

 little bellows with a tin tube attached to one 

 side for holding the burning wood or rags ; 

 and the valves are so arranged that when 

 standing on end it has a draft, and burns like 

 a minature cook stove. When laid on its side, 

 the valves close, and it soon goes out for want 

 of air. When in nice order, a stream of smoke 

 two feet in length may be produced, and with 

 it we can send this jet of smoke beneath the 

 quilt as soon as it is raised a little, or to any 

 part or corner of the hive, driving almost any 

 kind of bees with as much ease as you would 

 drive flies with a brush. That is one side of 

 the story; another is — especially if j'our smo- 

 ker is allowed to become filled up with soot, or 

 if your fuel is not carefully selected and dried 

 — that it takes three-fourths of your time to 

 fuss with the machine to keep it going, and 

 even then it will go out at the wrong time, the 

 bees will take the stream of cold air as au in- 

 sult and will cravvl up your sleeves and per- 

 haps into the tul^e of the smoker, and finally 

 instead of bein^ driven, will drive you clear 

 out of the yard. 



