68 
THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
or maybe the “smoker.” After introducing 
myself, and mentioning I had called on her 
twelve months ago, she welcomed me warmly, 
saying I was in better luck than before, as 
Mr. Carrol was at home. I “jumped the 
fence,” and we went in search of “ The Bee- 
master,” whom we found packing some beauti- 
fully-filled “sections” for the market. Of 
course this led off the conversation on the topic 
of sections, and I found we both agreed that the 
Black Bee produces the most regular and best- 
looking sections, but it does not fill them so 
fast, and therefore is not so productive as the 
Ligurian, but, to use the bee-master’s own 
words, “ the Hybrid or the Black, with a dash 
of Ligurian, is my pet.” His opinion is that 
they breed better and store more honey than 
the Blacks, produce nicer-looking comb honey 
than the pure Liguria, are good breeders, and 
are not, as it is generally said, very savage, 
and judging from his stocks, which are mostly 
hybrid, the}- certainly are very easy to handle ; 
but as it was a very favourable day, and we 
did not forget the smoker, I do not consider it 
a fair trial. As to sections, Mr. Carrol says 
he will in future use nothing else but the 
all-in-one-piece section, as they look so much 
neater and are so very easily and quickly put 
together. Our next topic was “ foundation 
comb.” Mr. Carrol, I found, uses the Given 
press, and says he will never use the rollers 
again, as the press can be worked so much 
faster and gives better results. What would 
friend Root say to this ? but perhaps he has 
come round to this view. 1 notice his con- 
cluding remark when writing of it lately, is : 
“ As tbe manufacturers are improving these 
presses continually, they may eventually make 
them to surmount all difficulties.” Mrs. 
Carrol tells me that damping the dies with 
a very weak pearl-ash lye makes the wax come 
away very readily. 
I noticed that a good trade is done in ship- 
ping bees. Mr. Carrol tells me he sends them 
all over the colonies, but principally to the 
northern parts of Queensland. He has to be 
very careful in packing them, as they often go 
for a couple of days on the top of a Cobb’s 
coach, or which is perhaps worse, he has to 
send them by steamer, and “ never mind how 
you tip the seamen, they will not be careful.” 
He usually sends them with say three frames 
of brood, the spare frames being filled with 
foundation-comb, all the frames being screwed 
down to prevent them moving and thus killing 
the bees. It must be a very trying ordeal in 
such a climate, but he assured me that they 
invariably reached their destination in safety ; 
of course, the comb is all wired, or it would not 
stand the knocking about. His plan of wiring 
is the same as that recommended by Root, 
except that instead of drawing the cross wires 
diagonally' across the frame, he draws two 
straight across at right angles to the others. 
Our next move was to the garden, to see 
the bees themselves. I found the hives 
scattered indiscriminately about the garden, 
and some on the verandah. Those in the 
garden are almost hidden by weeds, which 
does not look very tidy, but is allowed, “ as it 
helps to keep the bees cool,” which certainly 
is a great item in this climate. 
This has not been a very good season, but I 
am shown a stock, four stories high, which 
shows what they will do even in a bad season. 
We get the “ smoker,’’ and take off the three 
surplus boxes containing each forty-eight well 
sealed one pound sections, which have all been 
filled since October ; before that, sixty pounds 
had been extracted, and as the season'does not 
end for two months yet, there is still a good 
yield to be gathered. 
We then took a walk amongst the hives, 
which are mostly kerosene cases cut short to 
hold Langstroth frames, and stocked with, in 
most cases, good hybrid bees. 
Mr. Carrol tells me he imports from America 
anything new he sees in the journals, and as 
we are talking, he points out a ease of imple- 
ments which he has not yet opened, and which 
contains a new hive with reversible frames. 
He sets his son to work to open it, who, by 
the w r ay, has just come in from school, and 
has, his father tells me, a mechanical turn of 
mind, and is never so happy as when driving 
nails or working among the bees. The hive 
turns out to be nothing out of the common, 
and the frames just ordinary reversible ones, so 
it has not been a good spec for the bee-master. 
As the cows are now expected home, I am 
asked inside to have a cup of tea, for which I 
feel very thankful, as the day is anything but 
cool. I enjoy it as one only does’ when the 
thermometer is registering 90 degrees in the 
shade. 
After thanking mine host for his trouble, 
and Mrs. Carrol for her good cheer, I take my 
leave, and walk back to the ’bus, soliloquising 
that if it pays to keep bees in England, when 
lOOlbs. of extracted honey is a good yield, 
how it must pay to keep them in Queensland. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
The Berlepsch and Langstroth Hives 
Compared. 
(To the Editors of the Australian Beekeepers’ 
Journal.) 
Gentlemen, — I have read with a good 
deal of interest the articles on the Berlepsch 
and Langstroth hives by Mr. Abram in your 
J anuary and February numbers, in which he 
has endeavoured to show that the former hive 
