THE BEE-KEEI^ERS' REVIEW 



305 



many of the expense items would have 

 been considerably reduced; that is, in 

 proportion to the amount of honey se- 

 cured. Take the item of labor: While 

 there was plenty for one to do a consid- 

 erable of the time, at other times there 

 was little to do: and. had the crop been 

 double, just a little extra help at harvest 

 time would have secured it. This extra 

 help, and extra supplies would not have 

 been anywhere near as much expense, as 

 would have been gained in the larger 



crop of honey; while the items of interest, 

 wear and tear, rent and taxes, would be 

 the same. 



I think this statement would be incom- 

 plete, unless I told what my sob would 

 often say, while working- this yard. The 

 expression would be something as follows: 

 "I could have worked five yards for ex- 

 tracted honey with the same labor it took 

 to produce this crop of 2.S00 pounds of 

 comb honey." 



Remus, Mich., Jan. 21, 1907. 



Some Comments on the Review for 



1906. 



E. F. ATWATER. 



^HE first point of special interest to me 

 T^ in the Review for 1906 is found in 

 Mr. Gill's article in the January number. 

 I fully agree with him in his sincere ap- 

 preciation of the Review; and his high 

 opinion of the standard Langstroth hive 

 is just my opinion too, after no small 

 study of the question and some experi- 

 ence with various hives, including one ex- 

 perience in following after strange hives 

 -led astray by some weakness in my 

 nature. In letters of gold let us repeat 

 with him that "1 will say that I aim to 

 see how little work 1 can do in early 

 spring instead of how much." It is just 

 wholly true in many places that hives 

 having an abundance of stores and 

 breeding room need no spring care before 

 some time in May, unless queens are to 

 be clipped in many yards. Our distant 

 yard had no care until May 1 0th, yet 

 gave a fine crop. Our Dry Creek yard of 

 80 colonies in 1 /4 and 2 story hives 

 heavy with stores will need no care next 

 spring, unless the season be so favorable 

 (as was the season of "06) that they will 

 need even more room, early in the season. 



Now that dubious looking Miller Wax 

 extractor: Strange, that we hear no re- 

 ports from users of an invention so prom- 

 ising. 



WESTERN HONEY IS SOMETIMES RIPE WITH- 

 OUT BEING GAPPED. 



In the February Review, Holtermann's 

 article on short-cuts in extracting is fine. 

 but don't let any Eastern man with a 

 humid summer climate try to dictate to 

 all the world that honey must be capped 

 before extracting- don't think that I ad- 

 vocate frequent extracting, but with such 

 tiering as Holtermann and Hutchinson 

 practice, a large part is sometimes left 

 without capping here, some seasons. He 

 gives the Alexanders a nice dig in the 

 ribs about "carrying and shoving the 

 comb-baskets through openings in a wall." 

 Use a wheel barrow or cart, of course — 

 do twice the work twice as easy, twice as 

 quickly. Why not tell us how the uncap- 

 ping machine worked, if it did work. 



How about the A. C. Miller uncapping 

 machine, heralded a few years ago ? 



When 1 read about the Holtermann Au- 

 tomatic strainer, within the extractor, I 



