118 



April, 1913 



American ISee Journal 



ticularly when the alighting-board of 

 the hive is-fixed just above the height 

 of the birds' heads. They look out for 

 the scuffle which invariably follows 

 the attack of the pirate, and when both 

 insects roll of^ on to. the ground, one 

 peck sees the end of the invader's 

 temerity, and she herself rests in the 

 crop of the fowl. 



An Illinois Bee-Keeper Passes Away. 



— Mr. S. T. Crini, of Dawson, 111., who 

 died Jan. 14 last, had almost rounded 

 out his 73d year. Coming from Lou- 

 doun Co., Va., where he was born Feb. 

 29, 1840, he spent the last 30 years of 

 his life in Illinois, keeping bees. 



The Illinois State Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation will miss one of its older loyal 

 members, who stood for the right and 

 for progress. 



at the hands of the Legislature, whose 

 watchword seems to be economy in 

 appropriations, but in many cases crip- 

 pling the legitimate interests of the 

 State. We have a splendid foul brood 

 law, and that is all. We did not re- 

 ceive one cent as an appropriation, 

 and, more than that, it took the hardest 

 kind of work to keep them from re- 

 pealing the law itself. 



O. A. Keene, Sec. 



Kansas Loses Appropriation. — The 



bee-keepers of this State fared badly 



A Pleasing Picture of Flowers. — On 



the front cover page of this journal is 

 a picture of wild asters or daisies, 

 taken by Wesley Foster. He wrote us: 



"This little clump of flowers was 

 growing in an orchard close to one of 

 the apiaries of Mr. W. P. Collins, of 

 Boulder, Colo. He is president of the 

 Colorado Association. 



"The bees were busily gathering 

 pollen from the flowers before I fright- 

 ened them away in focusing my camera." 



Bee-Keeping ^ For Women 



Conducted bv Miss Emma M. Wilson, Marengo. 111. 



Manufactured Honey 



A loyal sister sends the following, 

 clipped from a religious periodical, 

 with a woman's name signed to the 

 clipping : 



Put three pounds of granulated sugar into 

 a porcelain vessel. Add sufficient water to 

 moisten and make a thick syrup. When 

 boiled to a syrup add one iiound of good 

 honey and let the mixture come to a boil. 

 Remove from the fire and pour in vessels 

 desired. The increased quantity will be 

 found as good as the original pound of 

 honey, and a great many people like it bet- 

 ter because of the absence of the honey 

 comb, which is dissolved. 



That woman and that religious peri- 

 odical might be in better business than 

 giving publicity to such stuft' as that. 

 Let us be charitable and attribute it to 

 ignorance, for no intelligent mother 

 would be likely to palm off upon her 

 children a mixture of three parts sugar 

 to one part honey as being "as good 

 as " pure honey. That woman is prob- 

 ably entirely ignorant of the fact that 

 thousands are injured in health by the 

 excessive demand made upon their 

 digestive organs in changing cane sugar 

 into invert sugar, whereas honey is 

 ready for direct assimilation without 

 rnaking any such demand. Taking this 

 view of the case, a pound of sugar is 

 not as wholesome an article of diet as 

 a pound of honey, and neither are three 

 pounds as good, even though a pound 

 of honey be added. 



That statement that " a great many 

 people like it better" would be laugh- 

 able if it were not sad. If we " let the 

 mixture come to a boil," the sugar part 

 is as good as ever, but the honey is in- 

 jured beyond repair. The delicate 

 flavor and aroma of honey will not 

 stand boiling. It is a pretty safe guess 

 that the woman in this case did not 

 learn from her own children that they 



liked the boiled mixture better than 

 the unboiled honey. 



But the reason given why " a great 

 many people like it better" is "be- 

 cause of the absence of the honey 

 comb," and the honey comb is absent 

 because it " is dissolved !" That's some- 

 thing new under the sun. Dissolve a 

 thing and presto, it is gone! Equally 

 new under the sun is the idea that one 

 can dissolve wax in hot sugar and 

 honey. Heretofore the most that could 

 be done in that way was to melt it. 

 And if " a great many people " like 

 honey better with no comb, or with 



the comb dissolved, it seems a bit 

 strange that they will pay a higher 

 price for honey in the comb than for 

 the pure honey extracted from the 

 comb. Poor woman! Poor periodical! 



A Sister's Experience in Wisconsin 



I started with 2 colonies about h 

 )'ears ago, and have 28 now. I have 

 not tried to work for lots of colonies, 

 but to keep them strong in bees. Two 

 years ago I took 1.5 colonies out of the 

 cellar and secured 1200 pounds of honey 

 and increased my bees to 27 colonies. 



Last year, being a very poor year, I 

 did not get any honey; it was too dry. 

 This year I had to unite a few colonies, 

 as I had a few queens laying nothing 

 but drone eggs. I got about 7U0 pounds 

 this year. I tend the bees myself. 



(Mrs.) George Schmidt. 



You were very wise to run for 

 strength rather than number of colo- 

 nies, and you certainly did well to get 

 80 pounds per colony, and nearly 

 double your number of colonies be- 

 sides. 



Color or Pollen 



Miss .Annie D. Betts, who appears to 

 be one of the keenest observers among 

 British bee-keepers, reports some ob- 

 servations upon pollen that are inter- 

 esting, British Bee Journal, page 33. 

 Two observers may report two differ- 

 ent colors of pollen from the same 

 plant, and both may be right. The 

 pollen of Erha chie>\a may be quite 

 pale gray, varying from this to almost 

 black. This variation is largely due to 

 the presence, in some of the loads, of 

 portions of anthers, sand, etc. A great 

 quantity of such "foreign bodies " is 

 found in the dark-colored loads, less 

 or none in the light-colored ones. It 

 is possible, too, that the color of the 

 pollen, like the quality of the nectar, 

 may be affected by soil and climate. 



Miss^Betts says : 



It appears that the color of pollen is also 



Mrs. G. SiHMiDT IN Her .-^piakv. 



