September, 1913. 



299 



American Vae Journal 



sity of Wisconsin, is likely to think 

 there is too much of it. Some reporter 

 quoted him as saying that sugar was 

 poison to bees, and that has not only 

 gone into the papers of this country, 

 but has gone the rounds of European 

 bee-journals. 



Prof. Sanders flatly and vigorously 

 denies that he ever made such a state- 

 ment. Yet there is little likelihood 

 that many of the publications in which 

 the erroneous statement was found 

 will take the trouble to contradict it. 



It seems, however, that some of 

 these questions about sugar in connec- 

 tion with bee-keeping are important 

 enough to be taken up by competent 

 investigators — why not our Washing- 

 ton authorities — so that we could 

 know just what the truth is ? 



There is the question of beet z's. 

 cane sugar. For years the British Bee 

 Journal has strenuously insisted that 

 beet sugar should never be used as 

 winter food for bees. We are told that 

 tlie two kinds of sugar are chemically 

 alike. Yet in the matter of food there 

 may be important differences that the 

 chemist cannot discover. Still, if it be 

 true that 2 pounds of ultramarine blue 

 to every 100,000 pounds of sugar are 

 used for bleaching, and that the molas- 

 ses left from beet sugar is not edible, 

 as is the New Orleans molasses from 

 cane sugar, but is highly laxative, even 

 in small quantities, on account of the 

 salicylates present, as well as other 

 chemical compounds, the chemist 

 should have no difficulty in differen- 

 tiating the two sugars. At any rate, 

 we ought to know whether beet sugar 

 is or is not as good as cane for win- 

 tering bees, and be done with all un- 

 certainty about it. 



But there are other questions about 

 sugar, even though beet be as good 

 as cane. Probably all agree that in 

 regions where unwholesome honey or 

 honey-dew is practically death to the 

 bees in winter, it is much better to re- 

 place these unwholesome stores with 

 sugar. But some hold that good sugar 

 is better for winter stores than the 

 best of honey, while others, especially 

 in Europe, hold that good honey is 

 much better for the bees, and that con- 

 tinued sugar-feeding lowers the vitality 

 of the bees. Which are right ? 



Again, there is no small difference of 

 opinion as to the financial phase of 

 the matter. Some hold that big money 

 is to be made by feeding sugar when it 

 is worth only half as much as honey; 

 others think it does not pay. One of 

 the questions in this communication 

 that calls for a reliable answer is this: 



How many pounds of sugar must be 

 fed in order to replace 100 pounds of 

 honey of a given density ? 



Those who will give us reliable in- 

 formation upon these and other ques- 



tions regarding feeding sugar to bees, 

 whether at Washington or elsewhere, 

 will be deserving of hearty thanks 

 from the bee-keeping fraternity. 



c. c. M. 



Miscellaneous ^ News Items 



Parcel Post Problem Again. — Until 

 the bee-keeper learns to use parcel 

 post intelligently, there will be no 

 small effort made to keep honey out of 

 the list of mailable articles. As long 

 as a person insists on sending stuff 

 without thinking of inconvenience to 

 other people, just so long will-there be 

 barriers thrown in the way of e.xtend- 

 ing his trade. Read the article below, 

 copied from the Cincinnati Times of 

 Aug. t< : 



Residents of Zion City received, to- 

 day, the sweetest bunch of letters they 

 ever got. Business communications 

 were just as honey-laden as love notes. 

 The morning's mail, comprising about 

 1.500 letters, was coated with honey 

 when a jar of the sticky sweet, which 

 had been sent by parcel post, broke as 

 the sack was thrown from a mail car. 

 Post-ofTice clerks tried washing the 

 letters with wet sponges, but the honey 

 wouldn't come off. 



Honey Gin and Orange.— We have 



notice from the Department of Agri- 

 culture of judgment against Furst 

 Bros., Cincinnati, for the misbranding 

 of food products. They put out a 

 beverage so called Honey Gin and 

 Orange, which they claimed to be abso- 

 lutely pure. The article was misbranded 

 from the fact that it contained in addi- 

 tion to the three above ingredients a 

 quantity of sugar syrup which was sub- 

 stituted in part for the honey. Mis- 

 branding was alleged further for the 

 reason that the product contained 23. -lO 

 percent by volume of alcohol, and each 

 of the packages containing the pro- 

 duct considered as a drug, failed to 

 bear a statement upon the labels of the 

 quantity or proportion of alcohol so 

 contained. 



A plea of guilty was entered by the 

 defendants, and they were fined $2.j 

 with costs of $1.5.2-5. Pity it was not 

 more. 



Death of a Prominent Bee-Keeper in 

 Japan. — We have just learned through 

 our good friend, Mr. JohnC. Frohliger, 

 of the death of Mr. Jim Sano, proprie- 

 tor of the Sano apiaries in Japan. Mr. 

 Sano was a young man just entering 



into the modern methods of bee-keep- 

 ing, and was a thorough and capable 

 bee-keeper. He was operating exten- 

 sively, owning, himself, several hundred 

 colonies of bees which he had improved 

 by the importation of good stock both 

 from this country and from abroad. 



Mrs. H. S. Duby. of St. Anne, Hiving a 

 Swarm. 



Ontario Honey Report. — — We are in 



receipt of the White Honey Crop Re- 

 port of the Ontario Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation, sent out by its efficient secre- 

 tary, Mr. Morley Pettit. Of the 1243 

 members in the association, 543 gave a 

 report of their crops. Mr. Pettit 

 comments that the work of the com- 

 mittee would be much more valuable 

 had the proportion been larger. 



The average amount secured per col- 

 ony was 63 pounds. The total for the 

 whole province will be less than usual,_ 

 however, owing to the fact that the 



