UtlU 



GLEAN INCiS IX BEE CULTURE 



245 



Sittings 



V,y .1. K. Ckake, Mlddleburj-. Vt. 



Bees api)ear to hiwe wintered well in this 

 section. 



<fc. 



If handling bees on a Hoat shows oflf to as 

 good advantage as in the picture on page i;'> 

 it must jiay well. 



From W. Mares' exi)erience it would seem 

 that the heat has quite or nearly as much to 

 do with non-granulation as the sun's rays — 

 l)age 771. 



It looks to me as though the steam-heated 

 uncapping-knife isoneof the great improve- 

 ments of the year in the line of extracting 

 honey. 



Mr. Holtermann's observations as to the 

 value of bees fertilizing buckwheat-blos- 

 soms, page 5. are well worth remembering, 

 as it adds more evidence of the value of 

 bees to rural industries. 



Mr. Pouder's reference to paper bottles, 

 on page 1J>. is of interest, ("an Mr. Pouder 

 tell us who manufactures them, east or west'.' 

 I have had only the address of the owners 

 of the patents who were apparently interest- 

 ed only in the sale of machinery and rights 

 to manufacture. I believe they have a large 

 future for the sale of honey as well as milk. 



A good deal is written these days about 

 foul brood. It has been i)utting in its dead- 

 l\- work for several years in the southwest 

 corner of our (Ireen Mountain State, and it 

 lias been recently rejKjrted in the northwest 

 and northeast corners. At the annual con- 

 vention of the N'ermont Bee-keepers' Asso- 

 ciation steps were taken to secure a foul- 

 l)rood law for this State that will rid us of 

 ihis scourge before it becomes more general. 



On p. 77S Mr. Byer gives interesting facts 

 al:»out the law in Canada in regard to sjiray- 

 ing fruit-trees. A kind of si)raying other 

 tlian for fruit-trees came to my attention 

 by some of the Massachusetts liee-keejiers. 

 where poisonous mixtures were used to de- 

 stroy the gii)sy and brown-tailed moths. 

 TJiey told me the bees in the vicinity of such 

 spraying were very soon destroyed. Could 

 not a law lie enacted that would compel such 

 l)ersons to use carbolic acid or something 

 tliat would l)e distasteful to the liees so they 

 would go elsewhere for their water? 



Mr. Foster is right in saying that "too 

 uiuch can not be expected of the straw- 

 board case. Several of these came to Den- 

 ver from a liistance of several hundred 

 miles without any marks to show what the 

 contents were." The honev was broken 



badly. This is as we should expect, and we 

 have always marked such cases so as to 

 show their contents, and tried to get others 

 to do so. If the l)ee-keei)er will not mark 

 his i^aper cases so as to show whether they 

 contain honey or lead he had better use the 

 wooden cases with glass fronts; but it seems 

 that it is not much protection in the West, 

 for Mr. Foster says. i)age (i. that the rail- 

 roads out that way ha\ e claims for breakage 

 on a very large i)ercentage of the local ship- 

 ments of comb honev. 

 '^ 

 For a score of years l^ee-keepers' have 

 sought to i)ut comb honey up in small i)ack- 

 ages: but to make liees work in a small sec- 

 tion was, as a rule, to make them fritter 

 away their time and accomplish little, so that 

 it has, so far as I know, never proved a suc- 

 cess. On i)ages 7(io, 766, Dec. 15, a method 

 is described that has already l)een jiroved a 

 success, which the editor modestly describes 

 as "cut comb honey." I believe it would 

 have been jierfectly proper to put the head 

 lines in larger capitals. I may be a little en- 

 thusiastic; but after reading over this article 

 carefully two or three times I could have 

 thrown my hat twenty feet high, and shout- 

 ed " Hurrah! hurrah!" .lust to think of hon- 

 ey selling at retail for a dollar a jKnmd! Isn't 

 it looking up some? And then to think that 

 the whole business is already so well " Root- 

 ed " that no penny-wise and iiound-foolish 

 bee-keeper can kill it. A new industry? Yes. 

 and one tliat is destined to exert a great in- 

 liuence in the use of honey in this country. 

 I l)elieve; for if the dining-cars and big res- 

 taurants use it. the smaller hotels and res- 

 taurants will soon follow suit, and want little 

 services of comb honey at a lower price: and 

 one person will tell another how tine it is. 

 and thousands will see it used and learn to 

 use it themselves who would not otherwise 

 have ever thought of it. And John Jones, 

 when he comes back from Chicago, will tell 

 his wife what a delicious meal fie had on the 

 dining-car. of warm rolls, butter, and honey; 

 and she will inquire of her grocer for comb 

 honey, for some night she will want to sur- 

 prise John with honey and warm rolls, you 

 know, and so it goes. But. hold a little. 

 We had better not all rush into the new in- 

 dustry; for if we do. while we may not kill it 

 we may hinder its growth. It looks very 

 much as though it were a better industry for 

 the city than the country l)ee-keeper. and 

 that jiiore careful handling would be re- 

 ijuired after cutting up than it is likely to 

 get when shipi)ed some distance. Another 

 thing, it would seem as though it should 

 be used pretty soon after it is cut uj), as the 

 h(»ney that drijjs from the comb would gran- 

 ulate and make a rather unattractive-look- 

 ing service; or does the ])erson who cuts u]) 

 the cohilj let the small lilocks stand on wire 

 cloth a few hours till dry? [Yes. they are 

 drained. — Fd.] We would also do well to 

 rememV)er that there must be some waste 

 from the edges of the comb, and other tle- 

 fects. A i)ound of honey occupies almost 22 

 cul)ic inches of space, or % lb. b}( inches. 



