Published ^Veekly at «>1.00 a. Year by Ueor^e W. Vork ^ Co., S»l l»earborn St. 



Eniered at the Post-Office at Chicago as Second-Class Mail-Matter. 



aBORQE W. YORK, Editor 



CHICAGO, ILL, SEPT. 29, 1904. 



Vol, XLIV— No, 39. 



Orange Blossom Honey. 



E. B. Rood expresses surprise in the American Bee- 

 Keeper that W. S. Hart should have thought that not a bar- 

 rel of pure orange-blossom honey had ever been shipped 

 from Florida (as mentioned on page 483). Two years ago 

 Mr. Rood extracted 30 pounds to the colony, and previously 

 A. F. Brown extracted 50 pounds per colony that must have 

 been almost pure, for nothing but orange blossoms were 

 within reach to yield an appreciable amount of honey at the 

 time. 



Division of Labor Among Bees. 



E. F. Phillips, Ph.D., says in Gleanings in Bee-Culture 

 that a young worker-bee has the entire eye well covered 

 with unbranched hairs, making it seem practically blind ; 

 and he thinks that blindness rather than instinct accounts 

 for the fact that it does no field-work till 16 to 20 days old, 

 when almost every hair is removed from its eyes. Looks 

 like a reasonable supposition, and yet when no older bees 

 were present workers 5 or 6 days old have been known to 

 gather stores. 



No Need to Strain Extracted Honey. 



E. D. Townsend, of Michigan, says in the Bee-Keepers' 

 Review : 



No matter how much you strain honey, it needs skim- 

 ming, anyhow, so the straining does not help any ; besides, 

 it requires some work to arrange a practical strainer. Then 

 there is the washing, and care ; more work all for nothing. 

 The gates to our tanks are now placed close to the bottom. 

 When we first began using tanks, we worked on the princi- 

 ple of drawing out the center, so the gates were placed 4 

 inches above the bottom ; but we soon found that there was 

 nothing settled to the bottom, so now we place the gates 

 clear to the bottom and this allows us to draw that much 

 more honey before the scum begins to come through the 

 gate. _^^_^^^__ 



Bacteria— Kinds and Importance. 



When a bee-keeper hears the words bacteria, microbe, 

 or micro-organi%m, it is in perhaps most cases with the 

 thought only of something destructive, suggesting foul 

 brood, typhoid fever, consumption, etc. But it is not true 

 of these microscopic plants that they are all baneful, any 

 more than it is true of plants of larger growth. Because 

 one is poisoned by handling poison ivy it does not follow 

 that he must wear gloves to pick apples or currants. 



Neither are most bacteria deadly enemies because one of 

 them produces foul brood. The fact is that out of the many 

 hundreds of the different species of bacteria, abounding 

 everywhere in air, water, and soil, but a comparatively few 

 are harmful to man. 



Some who read these lines will probably change to 

 some extent their notions about bacteria after reading the 

 following very instructive extract from an article by Prof. 

 R. M. Bundy, in the American Bee-Keeper : 



Bacteria are simply a class of low plants. They are the 

 active principle in many of nature's processes and are as 

 necessary to our life as the blood in our veins. They are 

 the cause of putrefaction or decay of all animal and vegeta- 

 ble substances. They enrich the soil by a process of nitri- 

 fication in a way that cannot be done by artificial means. 

 They are the curing agents of the farmer's hay in the mow, 

 as well as his fodder in the silo. In the dairy they are of 

 great importance, the souring of milk being caused by the 

 action of bacteria, converting the sugar of the milk into 

 lactic acid. The ripening of cream and its changes into 

 butter, and the ripening of cheese are the direct results of 

 bacteria growth. It is to their powers of producing chemi- 

 cal changes during their growth that they owe their im- 

 portance in the world. 



Paste for Labeling Tin or Wood. 



The American Pressman, a printers' paper, gives the 

 following in response to an enquiry as to paste for sticking 

 labels on tin or wood packages : 



Mix 4 ounces of rye-flour with I'i ounces of clean 

 powder sugar in cold water, until they form a smooth 

 cream ; cut up an onion (about as large as a good-sized 

 white plum) into small squares and drop them into a pint of 

 boiling water, letting them remain there for one minute, 

 after which pour in the boiling water (skimming off the 

 onion particles) and briskly stir till the right consistency 

 of paste is obtained. It is essential that the water be at 

 boiling heat when stirring into the mixture of flour and 

 sugar. Add 4 or S drops of carbolic acid to keep the paste 

 from becoming sour. When this has been well stirred in 

 and the mass cool, it is fit for use. Apply with a fairly fine 

 pig's-bristle brush for evenness. 



Phacelia for Honey and Forage. 



This plant which has had such a boom in Germany, al- 

 though little has been said about it in California (it was in- 

 troduced into Germany from California), has had a good 

 deal said in its favor as a forage plant. Of course it is 

 natural that a good honey-plant should be viewed optimisti- 



