578 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Sept. 15 



Stray Straws 



By Db. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 



I LIKE Mr. Fowls' veil, p. 557, but I don't 

 like the extra denim shirt that goes with it. 

 One shirt is hot enough in good bee weath- 

 er. 



W. R. Wiggins' water-bottle, page 246, is 

 good, but I suspect he will find it better 

 and cheaper to have a tub of water with 

 cork-chips thrown in. 



Terry, PracUcal Farmer, p. 66, accuses 

 Fletcher, the chew-chew man, of eating too 

 fast. Now, isn't that a joke? Fletcher 

 spends 14 minutes at a meal; Terry, 40 to 60. 



Virgin queens have a i)assion for tearing 

 holes in queen-cells without reference to 

 what may be in the cells. In a number of 

 cases where queen-cells have been caged I 

 have known the young queen after emerg- 

 ing to dig a hole in the side of her own cell. 



F. L. Pollock, page 552, takes 50 lbs. ex- 

 tracted white honey as the average yield 

 the country o\'er. Is there any way of 

 knowing whether that is correct? [If a bee- 

 keeper's locality will not average 50 lbs. for 

 a period of ten years, he had better move 

 to pastures new if he can. — Ed.] 



"Usually with a first swarm, the old 

 queen and the swarm leave just before or 

 just about the time that the virgins from 

 the cells begin to hatch," p. 497. Doesn't 

 the first swarm usually issue about the time 

 the first cell is sealed? It may issue a good 

 deal sooner; but I never heard before of one 

 waiting till a virgin was about to emerge. 



Replying to F. E. Monckton, I don't 

 know of any test by which a bee-keeper can 

 tell beet from cane sugar. Neither do I be- 

 lieve granulated sugar from beets is death 

 to bees in winter. I have fed a few thousand 

 pounds of sugar, and I suppose much of it 

 was beet sugar. So have others, yet I don't 

 know that any one has reported bad results, 

 although in England they insist that only 

 cane sugar should be used. Yet the pure- 

 food law should not allow beet sugar to be 

 sold as cane. [Ijike Dr. Miller, we have fed 

 many thousands of pounds of both beet and 

 cane sugar; but so far we have failed to de- 

 tect any difference in favor of one over the 

 other. Some English writers have, how- 

 ever, asserted that cane sugar is far superi- 

 or to beet. — Ed.] 



A. I. Root, page 570, in the American Re- 

 vision you will tind no mention of the Sav- 

 ior eating honey. But it was an important 

 part of the food of a man of whom the Sav- 

 ior said no greater had been born. [Thank 

 you, doctor, for having reminded me that I 

 have been a little careless in reading my Bi- 

 ble. The first passage I had in mind does 

 not, come to examine it, mention honey; 

 and I find the American Revision has taken 

 out the word "honeycomb" as you state. 



But there is, however, a side-reading say- 

 ing, "Many ancient authorities add 'and a 

 honeycomb.'" — A. I. R.] 



Testing hens is wisely favored, page 505. 

 Dairymen in this region have formed an as- 

 sociation for testing their cows. It's easier 

 to test bees than to test hens or cows. They 

 test themselves automatically, and all the 

 bee-keeper has to do is to record the results 

 of the tests. But what good to test hens, 

 cows, or bees, if no advantage of the tests be 

 taken by sorting out and breeding from the 

 best? The hen-men and the cow-men do 

 this, but I'm afraid not many bee-men do. 

 Yet it pays bee-men, probably, as much as 

 it does hen men and cow-men. 



The drouth this year was, I think, a lit- 

 tle the worst I ever knew. The flow stop- 

 ped .July 10, and pastures became as brown 

 as in winter except spots of green. It look- 

 ed as if clover might be dead beyond recov- 

 ery. Aug. 15 came a heavy rain, and grad- 

 ually the dead surface came to life almost 

 as if by miracle. I've just been out through 

 the pastures, Aug. 31, and I'm not sure I 

 ever knew them more thickly carpeted with 

 clover! Hurrah for next year! [The drouth 

 seems to be broken all over the country; 

 and the best part of it is, white clover is 

 very much in evidence. A summer drouth 

 does not seem to affect the clovers; but a 

 fall drouth, or alternate freezing and thaw- 

 ing during winter, has a disastrous effect. 

 Indications are certainly good for a clover 

 crop next year. We base this statement on 

 an extended trip through Ohio, Pennsylva- 

 nia, New York, Ontario, and Michigan. 

 We assume that the conditions that pre- 

 vail in those States prevail also in all other 

 sections where clover grows. — Ed.] 



After reading about tendency toward 

 extracted rather than comb honey, p. 542, I 

 made a comparison of present prices with 

 those of ten years ago. Taking those quo- 

 tations which give prices for both kinds of 

 honey, and taking highest figures for each, 

 I find that for Sept. 1, 1910, the price of 

 comb is 91 per cent inore than the price of 

 extracted; while for Sept. 1, 1900, it is 100 

 per cent more. That surprises me a little. 

 I had not supposed extracted was so low in 

 comparison with comb, and I supposed it 

 had gained more than it really has. Anoth- 

 er thing is a little surprising. Taking those 

 best prices, it appears that comb honey is 

 only b]4. per cent higher now than it was 

 ten years ago, and extracted only 1% per 

 cent higher. In the face of advances in all 

 other lines that's a bit discouraging. [These 

 figures go to support our statement on page 

 582, but the actual difTerence is not so great 

 as we supposed. However, it is enough to 

 make it felt. You say it is a bit discourag- 

 ing that there is not a greater advance in 

 view of the advance in other food stuffs. 

 If you will stop to think, you will see there 

 has been no greater advance in sugars and 

 syrups. If these went up in price we would 

 naturally expect honey to do likewise. — 

 Ed.] 



