THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



223 



If the invitation to criticise the honey 

 leaflets includes me, I would remark that 

 such documents generally overdo the thing 

 so badly as to start the " don't believe it " 

 of almost any intellij^eut person. We want 

 candied truth pleasantly told, and kept 

 within credible bounds. Pat wrote to Ire- 

 land tliat he had " mate " once a day, be- 

 cause he was aware that nobody would be- 

 lieve him if he claimed to be eating meat 

 three times a day. The leaflet in last Re- 

 view has the excellent point of not being 

 too long. It's worse point is its warfare on 

 comb honey for the benefit of extracted. 

 First we know somebody will try to " mas- 

 8acree"both comb and extracted for the 

 benefit of beeswax. It is'nt true ( seems to 

 me ) that the rti'e/'ac/p sample of extracted 

 honey found on the markets is better, and 

 morei thoroughly ripened, than the average 

 sample of comb honey. It might be true 

 of one man's product ; and I suppose he 

 would have a right to say so. Better leave 

 out most of the paragraph about certain 

 honey being poisoned by angry bees while 

 being taken ofif. Very doubtful if this is 

 true to any appreciable extent: and we shall 

 appreciably poison the minds of our custom- 

 ers if we talk such matters to them. 

 Same remark on the talk about lobelia and 

 dog fennel getting into the honey. To 

 work upon people's imaginations and sus- 

 picions with that " little knowledge which is 

 a dangerous thing " is business more ger- 

 mane to the Adversary than to the bee- 

 keeper. It is also bad tactics to intimate 

 that honey fluid on top and solid at the 

 bottom is adulterated with sugar. There is 

 usually a day and hour in which almost any 

 vessel of honey can be caught in just that 

 predicament — and lo, we are all adultera- 

 tors, in the poisoned mind of some custom- 

 er I Some samples not at all adulterated 

 remain indefinitely quite fluid on top and 

 quite solid below. 'Spects all, or nearly all, 

 such samples were not ripe enough ; but 

 that is not as bad as adulteration. I would 

 prefer to moderate the tone of the claims in 

 the paragraph entitled "Its Uses " so that 

 ordinary humanity might believe it easier. 

 And I would strike out the sentence about a 

 quart of honey equalling six pounds of but- 

 ter. To save space I have only indicated 

 adverse points, and let the good ones pass 

 unnoticed — hope the friends of the leaflet 

 will not forget this and " throw things. " 



THE PROGRESSIVE. 



R. C. Aikin, Progressive 14L' makes quite 

 an invention auxiliary to the new bee escapes 

 for honey rooms— runs the bees into a larg- 

 ish box with one side of screen wire, instead 

 of causing so- many to wander around out- 

 side a la loose children. Having collected 

 a lot of them |^ hives them in with the col- 

 ony where they will do the most good. As 

 he brings loads of supers from out apiaries 

 with very little time spent in getting the 

 bees out to start with, he would else be over- 

 run with orphan bees, neither old nor 

 young being able to find any home on 

 getting out in a strange yard. His going-to - 

 be way is to have a honey wagon in milk 

 wagon style, bee tight, and with the escape 

 fixed in it. Then most of the old bees 

 would get out and go home in the api- 

 ary where they belonged. 



One correspondent still likes the golden 

 bees, and holds forth in their favor. Doug- 

 las D. Hammond, page 14.">. 



W. M. Cunningham, in correspondence 

 with Dr. Miller, wants to get back to the 

 cubical style of hive. Page 147. 



And Frank Carr he's just so too, only a 

 good deal more so, and two story at that. 

 He wants the job of putting one of his big 

 hives in our apiaries around, some year when 

 we get nothing, and astonishing us with a 

 hive full of honey. And the swarming 

 trouble, pooh ! he never but once had a 

 swarm of bees. Hear him yourselves ; 



" Use a good, large hive ; have a young queen 

 every year, and use no houey board. My advice 

 is, go and bury those honey boards. Do not 

 jail your queen any longer. She is guilty of no 

 crime. Give lier a good, large, deep hive, and 

 she will reward you. " Page 14S. 



But it is rather suspicious when he speaks 

 of his bees being weak in the spring, as if 

 that were a normal state of things. 



The New Mexican correspondent also 

 wants a large hive, but only to the good old 

 tune of Langstroth lOs. 



Ex. Pres. Abbott, who comes next, goes 

 for the overdrawn statements of the outside 

 magazines concerning bees — goes for them 

 a little too hard possible. Let'em have a 

 little rope friend A., and don't expect them 

 to be too wise "all to wunst. " 



On page 1.^4 A. L. Amos set., forth a little 

 tragedy of his. Extra nice queen arrives by 

 mail, and, too nervous about her, he kept 

 her waiting waiting for too few bees to gnaw 



