41st YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL., SEPTEMBER 12, 1901, 



No, 37, 





^ Editorial. 



"ffsr-prvK 



Glucose Not a Wholesome Sweet. — 



Dr. J. H. Kellogg, of the Good Health Pub- 

 lishing Company, and widely known as an 

 authority on health foods, answers the ques- 

 tion, •' Is glucose a wholesome sweet?" in 

 this way : 



No. The glucose of commeroe is manu- 

 factured from corn and other starchy sub- 

 stances by boiling them with sulphuric acid. 

 This form of sugar is quite unlike the sugar 

 formed by the digestive processes. There is 

 no doubt that the large use of glucose, or 

 grape-sugar, in the form of candy, syrups, 

 adulterated bone}', and various other meretri- 

 cious products which have been put upon the 

 market, is responsible for a large number of 

 eases of diabetes — a disease which is rapidly 

 increasing. 



We are often asked concerning the advisi- 

 bility of feeding glucose to bees for winter 

 stores, or to keep them goingduring a drouth. 

 Our answer is, invariably, Don't. A certain 

 Ijee-keeper who numbers his colonies by the 

 hundreds, experimented in this matter last 

 fall, by trying to feed something like a ton of 

 glucose to his bees. He won't do so any 

 more. We have been trying to get him to 

 write out the results of the experiment for 

 publication, but so far have failed to get him 

 at it. We imagine that he is trying to forget 

 his mistake as soon as possible. 



In our opinion, bee-keepers can't get and 

 stay away too far from the whole glucose 

 business. 



Big Money in Bees. — In the American 

 Bee-Keeper, F. G. Herman does his full share 

 toward inducing a venture into bee-keeping. 

 He began with one colony and now has 60. 

 He says : 



It has been my experience and that of bee- 

 keepers generally that there are fewer risks 

 and larger profits in comparison to the 

 amount of capital Invested in bee keeping 

 than in any other business. Of course, emer- 

 gencies do arise, but if they are met by ordi- 

 nary foresight and common-sense, they are 

 not likely to result disastrously. 



Now, that's encouraging. One prefers a 

 safe business, even if the prolils are less: and 

 there are fewer risks in bee-keeping ■' than in 

 any other business.'' But it is cheering to 

 know that in bee-keeping we are not confined 

 to small profits, for there are larger profits 

 upon the capital invested " ihan in any other 

 business." If J. Pierpont Morgan had only 

 had the foresight to invest his money in bees, 

 he might to-day have been a rich man ! 



Without any desire whatever lo harbor any 

 doubts as to bee-keeping bting ihe business 



of fewest risks and largest profits, one still 

 has a secret longing for definite figures. 

 There is comfort in looking them over and 

 making estimates for the future. Fortunately 

 Mr, Herman has given us just what we want. 

 He says : 



It is a conservative estimate of the bee- 

 keepers generally, however, that each colony 

 should bring in at least five dollars a year, 

 and as each colony also throws off a swarm 

 annually, it is easy, to see how a little capital 

 invested in bees will grow and multiply, be- 

 sides yielding a very fair percent of profit. 



Let us figure upon this basis, and see what 

 Mr, Herman's income should be five years 

 from now. As the number of colonies doubles 

 each year, his present 60 colonies will in five 

 years increase to 1020, and as each of these 

 '■ should bring in at least five dollars a year, 

 his income will be ?9,600, and in 10 years 

 from now it will be .$307,200. Note that this 

 is not the wild vision of a dreamer, but the 

 estimate of bee-h-eepm gexeraHy. Note, too, 

 that it is a couKerualipe estimate. Each col- 

 ony should bring at least five dollars. That's 

 in the poorest years. There are good years 

 when the income is ten, twenty, fifty times 

 as much as in one of the poorest years. Let 

 us continue to be conservative, and say the 

 income will be only ten times as much. That 

 will make the income in ten years from now a 

 round three millions, with $72,000 left for 

 loose change. 



The only wonder is, that with all this there 

 is such careful concealment of the names of 

 all the millionaire bee-keepers. 



Wild Statements About Bees are 



often made in the general press, and some- 

 times are copied unchallenged in bee-journals. 

 The following paragraph occurs in the Pacific 

 Bee Journal : 



It is interesting to note in a northern Cali- 

 fornia paper mention is madeof a fruit-grower 

 hautiiti/ with (I sijr-hin'.fe team a biftitm. ur fnort' 

 bees ^'iuculoHize them ill hia iirchanis tu aid in 

 jertUiziiHi the ijear-b/ossoms." 



If each colony contains .50,000 bees, a billion 

 of bees would make 20,000 colonies* Esti- 

 mating the weight of each colony at 50 

 pounds, the whole weight would be 500 tons. 

 Inless the six-horse team would make more 

 than one trip a day. it would take the biggest 

 part of the year to do the hauling. 



Extractins-Supers. — '• Loyalslone," of 



whom the Auslialian Bee-Keepers' Review 



I says he is a practical apiarist, all of whose 



I writings are will worth reading, dilfers in 



I some of his views from many if not most of 



the bee-keepers on this side the globe. He 



advises against the use o( shallow frames in 



extracting-supers, saying, ■' Full-depth frames 

 pay best, as they hold more honey and require 

 less handling." He also objects to barring 

 the queen out of extracting-supers, because 

 if the ciueen is allowed full range the bees 

 will work better and not be so likely to 

 swarm. 



The editor of the same journal doubts very 

 much that it requires less brains to work for 

 extracted than for comb honey. 



Hive-Covers. — A good cover is a very im- 

 portant part of a hive. At the present time 

 the most popular cover is probably the plain 

 board cover. Editor Hutchinson thinks there 

 is nothing better for the North, and finds it 

 hard to believe it is not the best everywhere. 

 To this the editor of the Rocky Mountain Bee 

 -Journal rei>lies: 



Editor Hutchinson says in the July Review, 

 that for hive-covers, " in the northern part of 

 the United States, there is nothing better than 

 a plain board of white pine, thoroughly 

 cleated and painted; and it is hard to believe 

 that such a cover is not the best cover in any 

 climate." That sort of a cover may be all 

 right in the rain-belt, but if Mr. H. will come 

 out here we will show him hundreds of such 

 covers so full of checks that they afford little 

 more protection than a sieve. We have ex- 

 perimented quite largely with covers for this 

 climate, and have concluded that a plain, flat 

 cover made of rough boards and covered with 

 " Neponset Red Rope Roofing," is about as 

 good as can be devised. This fabric, when 

 painted white, is a very poor conductor of 

 heat, and if a new coat of paint is added every 

 spring, will remain water-proof indefinitely. 

 Another merit it possesses is cheapness, cost- 

 ing only about 3'o cents per 10-frame cover. 



However well satisfied Editor Hutchinson 

 may be with the plain board cover, it is not 

 alone in the trying climate of Colorado that 

 murmurs are beginning to arise against it. 

 The plain board cover has its advantages. It 

 is not expensive. No quilts or sheets are 

 needed with it, and it is light to handle. 

 When new, it makes a close fit, leaving noth- 

 ing to be desired. But it will not always stay 

 new. With time it will eurl up at the edges, 

 allowing cracks large enough for cold to 

 enter, and sometimes large enough for robbers 

 to enter. Still worse, it will twist so that it 

 will not lie llat. Making the cover of several 

 pieces (although it takes it out of the list of 

 plain covers), and beveling the edges, will 

 help against the warping that makes the 

 edges curl uji, but it will not prevent twisting. 



The bee-keeper who has thrown aside his 

 bungling telescoping cover with its quilt is 

 greatly pleased with the simpler plain cover, 

 but he can not resist a yearning for the 

 greater warmth of the discarded cover iu cool 

 weather, and when the sections melt down in 

 his superb because the hot sun shines upon 

 the plain board covers, he remembers that he 



