170 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Mar. 15 



Our neighbor, Mr. Wilde, some six or sev- 

 en miles west of us has lost only three colo- 

 nies out of one hundred; and wnile there 

 are some few weak ones he says the rest of 

 the colonies are doing well. 



This has been an exceedingly favorable 

 winter for cellar or indoor wintering; that is 

 to say, it has been easy to control the tem- 

 perature. For that reason we shall expect 

 all inside wintering to show up even better 

 than those wintered outside. 



Later — Since writing the foregoing we 

 have received a number of reports from vari- 

 ous sections of the United States. The indi- 

 cations are that the mortality will be very 

 heavy among bees having nothing but hon- 

 ey-dew, wintered in single- walled hives. 

 Honey dew stores in outdoor colonies well 

 packed in winter cases or double-walled 

 hives, in the more northern sections of the 

 country, do not necessarily seem to be fatal. 

 Indeed', the reports from most of our north- 

 ern States, where the bees were prooerly 

 put up outdoors or indoors, are fairly good. 

 Some reports go to indicate that there is 

 good and bad wintering in about latitude 35 

 to 40 and east of the Mississippi River Where 

 the colonies were fed su^ar syrup and the 

 old honey dew was covered up, tiiere appear 

 to be no great losses. But pure honey- dew 

 in tingle walled hives, unless the hives are 

 located pretty well south, seems to ha,ve uis- 

 astrous effects. 



THE RELATION OF CLOVER TO SNOW. 



The large amount of snow that has fallen 

 all over the northern section of the country, 

 and hds stayed on the ground almost 

 throughout the entire winter, will mean 

 a luxuriant and heavy growth of clovers 

 this coming summer. The ground has been 

 thoroughly watered, and the plants have 

 been protected as they have not been before 

 in years. 



In this connection it is pleasant to remem- 

 ber that, years ago, when we used to h.ive 

 these old-fashioned winters, such as we had 

 this year, we had "old-fashioned honey- 

 flows." that is, there was a flow of clover 

 honey every year; but these open winters 

 seem to have an adverse effect upon the clo- 

 vers, in that there is a great deal more win- 

 ter-killing t'lan when the winter is more se- 

 vere and continued, with snow. Taking it 

 all in all, we are exceedingly hopeful of tne 

 outlook for the coming summer. 



ADULTERATORS BEL-^IG BEING BROUGHT TO 

 TIME. 



The Department of Agriculture, Washing- 

 ton, D. C, is bringing some of the adultera- 

 tors and misbranders of food products and 

 drugs to time. Some of the specific offenses 

 are as follows: Misbranding strawberry ex 

 tract, adulteration of lemon extract, mis- 

 branding drug preparations, ailulteration and 

 misbranding of vanilla and lemon extract, 

 selling of rotten peaches, misbranding of liq- 

 uors misbranding of mapleme, adulteration of 

 seedltso r i^ns, misbranding of evapo.ati d 

 apples, misbranding of cheese, of baking- 



powder, of pepper, and powdered assafcBti- 

 da. 



May the good work go on! There is a 

 great deal more that Uncle Sam ought to 

 do, could do, and would do, if that prince 

 of pure-food exponents Dr. Harvey W. 

 Wiley, of the Bureau of Chemistry, could 

 have his way. The fact is, he seems to be 

 overruled by his colleagues, who are in the 

 majority. 



On the other hand, we have reason to 

 know that there is very little if any misbrand- 

 ing or adulteration of honey. We have trav- 

 eled over a good portion of this country, and 

 have been keeping, as we believe, in fairly 

 close touch with the great market c-^nters, 

 and we do not hear or know of any adulter- 

 ated honey of any sort, and we do not be- 

 lieve there is any, a magazine article to the 

 contrary. 



TRICE OF HONEY; SOME Ri^ASONS WHY IT 

 DOES NOT KEEP PACE WITH THE AD- 

 VANCES OF OTHER FlK^D PRODUCTS. 



There is one point that perhaps has not 

 been touched upon by our correspondents 

 in the general discussion that has appeared 

 in our columns during the last two or three 

 issues. Say what we may, the fact is that 

 the price of all sugars, syrups, and sweets in 

 general have mainta ned about the same 

 level for years back The price of honey is 

 dependent somewhat upon the price of other 

 sweets, like maple syrup, granulated sugar, 

 brown sugar, and New Orleans molasses. 

 The facts are, for the last ten years there 

 has been very little fluctuation in the price 

 of these commodities. The probabilities are 

 that, if there had not been a general advance 

 in general food stuffs, the price of sugar and 

 the diiferent grades of molasses would have 

 decreased. ■ So L ing as a standard table arti- 

 cle like maple molasses, one of the finest 

 products that was ever sold, remains station- 

 ary, extracted honey can not go much above 

 i s present f gures, for the dear public will 

 not pay too high a price for mere flavor, or 

 at least until it is educated to ihe fact that 

 honey is a predigested sweet, more easily as- 

 similated than the o dinary cane sugars and 

 syrups on the market. We do not mention 

 the different classes of glucose or the so- 

 called corn syrups, as we do not for a mo- 

 ment consider them in our class. 



Maple syrup is an article produced only in 

 very limited areas in the Unit'^d States — one 

 section in Northern Ohio, another in M.chi- 

 gan, and still another in Vermont There 

 are a few other places where limited quanti- 

 ties are produced; but the three first gien- 

 tioned pmdu ;e tne great bulk of the maple 

 syiup that is made in this country. This 

 means that the genuine m pie syrup, a boil- 

 ed-down sap of maple trees, has a very lim- 

 ited produ -tion The amount annually turn- 

 ed out is very small in comparison to the an- 

 nual production of extracted honey alone, to 

 say nothing of that produced in the comb. 

 Yet notwithstanding that, and the further 



*Its production has increased faster in proportion 

 than the population. 



