402 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



July 1 



crop; in other portions, a ])artial failure. 

 Southern ("aUfornia is not going to give us 

 the honey-How that was first expected. It 

 is too eariy yet to gi\e an aiiproximate idea 

 of what the season is to be; but it is evident 

 there will be a light or fair crop of white- 

 clover honey in the Eastern States. 



A FIFTY-THOrSAND-eOIiONY BEE COMPANY 



ORGANIZED FOR THE PRODUCTION OF 



HONEY. 



The following letter will explain itself: 



Mr. Hoot: — The above company has been incorpo- 

 rated in the State of Xew Yorlc. and on July 15 will 

 start their fiist apiary of 1000 colonies at Kingston, 

 .lainaica, W. 1. It is the intention of the company 

 to increase to oO.OOO colonies. The Board of Direc- 

 tors are: J. 8. Charleson, Xew York, President: A. 

 B. Peters, Brooklyn, .^ . Y., Secretary and Treasurer: 

 "\V. C. Morris, Yonkers, N. Y.. Theodore lless. Pater- 

 son, N. .J., and Herman Xeubert, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

 The field work will be under the personal direction 

 of W. C. Morris, the Yonkers bee-keeper, A large 

 bottlinc-plant will be established in Xew York, and 

 the iiroduct sold direct to the grocery trade. Agen- 

 cies have been estal)lished in England and Ger- 

 many. Any other information will be furnished by 

 A. B. Peters, Sec. 



We wish the new company success. It is 

 to be iiresumed, of course, that they will 

 have experts, familiar with the localities, 

 where they propose starting their yards, 

 otherwise the venture would prove to be a 

 failure. The experience in the past, how- 

 ever, has been that these large bee compa- 

 nies have not been successful. What the 

 history of this will be remains to be seen. 



A GOOD SCHEME FOR CROP REPORTS. 



The bee-keepers of Imperial Valley, Cali- 

 fornia, are sending out blanks, "Crop and 

 Market Report." The blanks are well got- 

 ten uj), and the questions asked are perti- 

 nent and important. We hereby append a 

 copy that will speak for itself. We would 

 respectfully request that our readers in va- 

 rious portions of the country answer these 

 questions by number on a postal card. 

 Don't, for pity's sake, write any thing but 

 answers to these questions, and each answer 

 must not be longer than two or three words. 

 When the reports come in by the thousand 

 it is impossible to summarize them unless 

 they are very brief. 



1. Condition of bees? 



2. Climatic conditions (favorable or not)? 



3. Are bee-men suffering from drouth or wet 

 weather? 



4. Prospec;ts for honey crop? 



5. Compare prospects with last year, same date. 



6. Percentage of full crop harvested to date? 



7. Compare yield with last year, same date. 



8. Kind of honey produced in your locality, comb 

 or extracted? 



9. Color of honey produced this year? 



10. Price local dealers ar epaylng for honey? 



11. Price bee-men are holding for? 



12. Is the crop moving readily? 



THE PROGRESS OF MODERN METHODS OF 

 EXTRACTING HONEY. 



During the last few years a number of 

 different honey-strainers have been devised, 

 all of which are quite different from the 

 usual form of strainer consisting of a large 



square of cheese-cloth tied o\er the top of a 

 can or tank. That so many are trying to 

 improve on the cheese-cloth strainer is con- 

 clusive evidence, we think, that the old 

 forms of strainers, in spite of the fact that 

 they are so widely used, must give jjlace 

 sooner or later to a cheaper, quicker, and 

 more convenient method of straining. Some 

 time ago mention was made of gravity 

 strainers, and a number of extensive pro- 

 ducers have been trying them. Among 

 these should be mentioned Mr. E. D. Town- 

 send, one of the best authorities on extract- 

 ing honey who is now writing a series of 

 articles for the Bee-keepers' Revieiv. Mr. 

 Townsend is not a bee-keeper of the mere 

 hundred-colony caliber, for he has a num- 

 ber of out-apiaries; and any tool or appli- 

 ance that he uses must be capable of han- 

 dling honey on a large scale. In the May 

 issue of the Review Mr. Townsend describes 

 and illustrates the imi)lements which he 

 uses in his honey-house, and we are glad to 

 furnish our readers with a summary of his 

 article. 



HOW MR. TOWNSEND CLARIFIES HONEY 

 RAPIDLY WITHOUT A STRAINER. 



The illustration, p. 41.), shows Mr. Town- 

 send's very simple clarifier, which is noth- 

 ing more nor less than a round tank, 22 

 inches in diameter and 82 inches deep, with 

 a 1^-inch Scoville honey-gate at the bot- 

 tom. The main feature of the tank is a 

 separating float, which is a disc made of J^- 

 inch board, 21 inches in diameter. At in- 

 tervals of a few inches on the circumfer- 

 ence, staples are given, projecting y% of an 

 inch, these staples acting as spacers to keep 

 the float in the center of the tank, thus pro- 

 viding a ^-inch crack, so to speak, entirely 

 around the side of the tank. When honey 

 is poured into a tank the force of the fall is 

 likely to drive the cappings, etc., down to- 

 ward the bottom of the tank; but this float 

 breaks the fall and allows only the honey 

 to find its way past the float down and out 

 of the gate at the bottom. Mr. Townsend 

 says that, when he uses this separator or 

 clarifier, the honey is freer from fine parti- 

 cles than any that he has ever been able to 

 get when using a cheese-cloth strainer. 



The method of using the sejiarator is best 

 given in Mr. Townsend's own words, as fol- 

 lows: 



With the separating float (previously described) 

 in place, the tank is filled full of honey as it conies 

 from the extractor. When pouring in the first two 

 or three pails of honey from the extractor some par- 

 ticles of comb and impurities will go into the gate; 

 so, draw out half a pail or so, or until the honey ap- 

 pears clear, before beginning to can. * * * 



Only one or two cans of honey are drawn at a 

 time, when the tank is again filled full. Handled 

 in this way, with a 32-inch-deep tank and our sepa- 

 rating float, honey is more free from particles of 

 comb and impurities than when strained through 

 cheese-cloth in the usual way. 



The separating feature seems to work automatic- 

 ally, for the faster It is worked the warmer is the hon- 

 ey (animal heat), and the more rai)id the separating 

 of the impurities: consequently, the caiiacily is un- 

 limited: or, at any rate, it will handle all the honey 

 that can be extracted with a four-frame extractor, 

 and do the work well. 



Each night when through extracting, when the 

 separatlng-tank is still full of honey; remove the 



