502 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



strong, and cloudy. I was told that it is used principally to give flavor 

 to glucose compounds sold in some countries under the name of honey. 



Although much remains to he done in enlightening the country people 

 of Europe on practical and scientific production, the fact is that the bulk 

 of the honey produced through such countries as ours and in the more 

 enlightened parts of Europe is now harvested in the best shape and in 

 the most economical manner. The straw or willow skep and the "gum" 

 or the box hive have been replaced by the movable-frame hive. With the 

 exception of Switzerland, which is very far advanced in progress, the 

 older countries are following somewhat in the rear of the newer States, 

 Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, etc. 



A necessary complement of the invention of the extractor was comb 

 foundation. To handle frames readily, to be able to sell honey in nice 

 little sections, it was indispensable that the combs be built straight in 

 them. Comb foundation not only secured that end, but saved the bees 

 a great deal of labor and a great deal of honey expenditure, since bees- 

 wax worth commercially between 25 and &5 cents can be thus returned 

 to the hive in such acceptable shape as to save the bees from 8 to 12 

 pounds or more of honey for each pound of wax. The diminishing of the 

 amount of drone comb in undesirable colonies is also a great advantage 

 of the use of foundation with worker cell base. This wonderful improve- 

 ment was thought out in the middle of the nineteenth century, by Mehring, 

 a German. But it remained for an American, A. I. Root, to make it in a 

 practical way. With the help of an able machinist, Mr. Washburn, he 

 produced cylinders in 1876 that made foundation as thin as 8 square feet 

 to the pound. This was later improved upon by Vandervort, in the 80's, 

 and thin sheets are now made as light as 13 square feet, which have long 

 ago removed the objection of a fishbone in the honey. Strange to say, 

 on the European Continent, beekeepers have only slightly improved upon 

 the Mehring invention and make foundation by presses which our Amer- 

 ican beekeepers would reject, owing to its imperfection and its great 

 weight. 



Minor inventions, such as the bee smoker, the honey knife, were im- 

 proved upon from time to time since the middle of the nineteenth century. 



Advance in the diffusion of apiarian knowledge is noticeable every day 

 in a more marked manner. The Germans have dozens of noted writers 

 and scientists. In Switzerland, Bertrand, in England, Cowan, have writ- 

 ten books on bees which have been translated in seven or eight different 

 languages. Another Englishman, Cheshire, in his "Bees and Beekeeping," 

 gave a summary of modern advances, in 1886. In this country, Lang- 

 stroth, Quinby, Cook, Root, C. C. Miller have written the leading text 

 books on the subject. But why name any, when so many have to be left 

 out? 



Queen rearing and the importation of bees from one country to another 

 to try the best races have become common. The selection of the best 

 honey producers as breeders has increased the yield of honey materially. 

 A new method of rearing queens by making artificial cell cups, invented 



