THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



5? 



put in between the combs mostly did not 

 swarm, while similar colonies not so treated 

 did swarm. The unexpected "stump" up 

 which the new craft threatens to sail is adi . 

 position on the part of the bees to supersede 

 the queen. Review 10. Naturally if bees 

 judge of the queen's validity by the amount 

 of scent diffused about, then interleaving 

 thin dummies, by dissipating and diluting 

 the scont of fertility, would set them at re- 

 queening when otherwise they would be 

 content to let well enough alone. And just 

 you neglect them a few days after they have 

 requeeniug cells and, if my insight is correct, 

 you will have swarms, and the whole scheme 

 will defeat itself. If the queen takes such 

 offence at the dummies ns to restrict herself 

 l)adly ( and some of the report seems to im- 

 ply that ) then we have practically a new 

 sort of caging in which the queen is not 

 caged, a thing quite provocative to, and 

 worthy of, lots of experiment. At any rate 

 those who have an appetite for something 

 new under the sun will turn hopefully 

 toward friend Aspinwall's thin dummies. 

 By the way, he talks as though he used 

 them this time without much perforation. 



Oft times, as we very well know, a slight 

 improvement of some well established 

 utensil may weigh much more for the good 

 of the public than the flamboyant new dis- 

 covery which goes up a rocket, and comes 

 down a stick. So it may prove with the 

 modification the Porters have just been 

 making in their bee escape, to adapt it for 

 getting bees out of honey rooms and ex- 

 tracting houses. 



"Pity the sorrows of the poor old man" 

 — likewise those of friend Dayton, who got 

 into a row by his remarks on California 

 glucose honey. But as yet he don't confess 

 and forsake his sins worth a cent. He' says 

 the best glucose can be had in Los Angels at 

 'Jij cents by the single barrel. What then 

 becomes of Skylark's estimate that it must 

 needs cost ?>^i to lay it down there ? Sail- 

 ing vessel from New York or New Orleans 

 may be the way it gets there — and at less 

 than a quarter of a cent a pound — as freight 

 between California and Europe was recent- 

 accepted at one- fifth of a cent a pound. But, 

 don't you see, this cheapness presupposes a 

 demand for shiploads of glucose, and ship- 

 loads are not to be thought of unless aoiue- 

 thing is being adulteredat a great rate, and 

 in California too. Dayton admits his lang- 

 uage was a trifle loose to start with ; then 



the printer made it a little worse by chang- 

 ing punctuation ; then angry complainants 

 made it yet a little worse by omitting words, 

 or saying "statement" instead of "esti- 

 mate. " So flying reports, which he was 

 svilling to endorse to the extent of publish- 

 ing them, came to be called his positive 

 statement of fact. 



'^Voung man, its a critical thins to go 

 (Exactly right with KukHhIi in tow. " 



He has also smoked out the fact that the 

 very dark, strong flavored, valley honey has 

 sometimes sold higher ttian the best honey 

 ( bears so much more glucose. ) When he 

 said " one-half the honey " his mind was 

 rather dwelling on the years when there was 

 no crop in the mountains, and all the surplus 

 was dark honey. And another suggestion 

 of friend Dayton's we certainly ought to pon- 

 der more than we do. In our tests of the 

 matter very unskillful mixers get up sam- 

 ples for skillful tasters to pass upon. We 

 taste, and deside there is not much danger 

 from the competition of such stuff. But in 

 the actual world very skillful )ni.vers do the 

 mixing, and very unskillful tasters eat the 

 product. This consideration makes the 

 affair altogether " a horse of another color. " 



I fear friend Crane, in finding a double- 

 sized bee that lives in a hive, has found a 

 mare's nest. ( Review 17. ) To be sure it 

 looks improbable that the French govern- 

 ment ofiicer and the well known missionary 

 would both make similar mistakes, leaning 

 on native talk instead of personal inspection; 

 but people not personally engaged in hand- 

 ling bees are capable of almost anything in 

 the line of misinformation about them. 

 Guess the good missionary had seen the big 

 bees on tiowers at work, and had also seen 

 ( at a little distance ) native hives, and 

 thereupon jumped to a wrong conclusion. 



Gleanings 



Don't believe I'll try to take Gleanings' 

 photograph again this time. Gleanings is 

 like a man of forty — don't absolutely need 

 his picture taken again at forty- one. It's 

 only the very young folks that we have to 

 have their pictures every six months else be 

 in danger of forgetting who's who. Glean- 

 ings is (ileanings. And when new wrinkles 

 come, or old wrinkles drop off the ends of 

 its horns, I can as well tell you of it at once 

 in the Round- Up. Tlie habit of giving one 

 journal a special show in each number, or 



