18 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEv^i . 



Another point that seems to be settled, 

 although I don't feel so sure about that, is 

 that a continuance of 145° of heat will en- 

 tirely liquefy granulated honey. Now if our 

 good brother would continue his experi- 

 ments a little farther I think he would do 

 valuable service. The question to oe an- 

 swered is this : ' ' Does a continuance of 14.')° 

 make any change in the quality of honey ? 

 and if so, how long must that temperature 

 be maintained to produce the change ? " 



Now if 14r)° will liquefy houey, and if with- 

 out too much trouble it can be held at that 

 point until liquefied, it might be a good rule 

 to say that in liquefying honey it mnst not 

 be allowed to go above 145°. 



On page ;>40 F. Ij. Thompson endorses 

 Marvin's saying, " When the season is poor 

 for 200 colonies, it is poor for four, and when 

 good for 200, it is good for GOO, all in the 

 same yard. " I arise to remark that I'm 

 not on speaking terms with that man Thomj)- 

 son until he withdraws his endorsement. 

 The saying is one of that class that contains 

 just enough truth to make it dangerous. 

 Don't see how it can be dangerous ? Well, 

 let me show you. Here's a sentence uttered 

 by James M. Marvin, one of the successful 

 veterans, whese word goes a good ways with 

 me, and it is endorsed by F. L. Thompson, 

 a man I hold in high esteem — always bar- 

 ring the grudge I hold against him for 

 reading Ij'Apicoltore in a language I can- 

 not master — and basing my practice on 

 their word I increase my home apiary to 200 

 colonies, A dead failure comes, but I say 

 the season was poor, and I would have done 

 no better if I had had only four colonies, 

 and as year by year goes on with the same 

 result, and I keep up my number of colonies 

 with the aid of the sugf^r barrel, my faith in 

 that sentence simply keeps me from gettiug 

 some good crops that I might have with a 

 smaller number. 



Of course there may be cases in which the 

 sentence is true, but under ordinary circum- 

 stances it is the reverse of true. Take those 

 l.'i.OOO acres of alfalfa that are spoken of 

 with no other source to gather from, and an 

 apiary of 100 colonies might do a land office 

 business if they had the whole field to them- 

 selves. Put another hundered colonies with 

 them, and it wouldn't make a particle of 

 difference in the gathering of the first hun- 

 dred, and it might perhaps make no differ- 

 ence if the number were raised to GOO, but 

 there would be a limit somewhere. 



But instead of 15000 acres, suppose the 

 bees could touch nothing throughout the 

 season but 15 acres of alfalfa. If those 15 

 acres did their best, four colonies wonld do 

 just as well, I suppose, as if they had 15,000 

 acres to care for. Bnt I very much doubt 

 whether GOO, or even 200, could register the 

 same average that the four alone could do. 



I admit that there may be places and 

 seasons where four would overstock just as 

 much as GOO, but as a rule there are very few 

 places where 200 would do as well as four in 

 any season, and still fewer where GOO could 

 continue alive any two consecutive years, 

 without feeding. Mr. Editor, please put 

 that man Thompson out. 



Marengo, 111. Jan. 1, 189G. 



[ My experimental friend is entitled to no 

 credit for that word " liquification. " He 

 wrote " liquefaction. " The honor should 

 be about ecjually divided between the com- 

 positor and proof reader. How it all hap- 

 pened is too long a story to tell here. Ed. ] 



The Outlook 



EUGENE SEOOB. 



t seems to the writer that there never was 



a time in the history of this country since 

 the advent of improved methods in apicul- 

 ture where there were fewer attractions 

 toward the business of bee-keeping than 

 now. 



Low prices might be accepted philosoph- 

 ically if good yields were as common as 

 formerly. 



But in all the older and well settled States 

 the woodman's ax and modern farm ma- 

 chinery have so reduced the pasturage as to 

 render specialized bee-culture very precari- 

 ous. 



There is no use to argue that better 

 methods alone will remedy the matter, be- 

 cause if the flowers are absent or fail to 

 secjrete nectar no art of the bee-keeper can 

 atone for these defects. 



Where once stood the primeval forests of 

 Linden and Tulip trees the farmer's plow 

 and reaper now hold sway. The great im- 

 provement in agricultural implements has 

 made farming so easy that the pastures are 

 growing smaller every year. 



The increased amount of sugar produced 

 in the last quarter of a century, the improve- 

 ment in its quality and reduction in price 



