1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



767 



Our first honey-flow begins between March 

 25 and April 15, and this is our swarming 

 time. For the last ten years we have had a 

 good deal of cold, windy, or very wet weath- 

 er just about the time the bees start to work; 

 and as soon as it gets warm again every col- 

 ony tries to swarm, and from 60 to 75 per 

 cent do swarm. After this is over the hon- 

 ey is gone and no surplus secured. 



I run for extracted honey, and I have 

 tried giving plenty of room, also an upper 

 entrance, as well as an extra-large opening 

 at the bottom by using four blocks as Mr. 

 Ackerman describes on page 320, May 15. 

 None of this does any good. The nearer 

 the bees are to being full-blood Italians, the 

 worse they swarm. They \nall swarm even 

 when there is not enough honey coming in 

 to permit comb-building. The blacks have 

 never done this. All this convinces me 

 that if any one ever finds a non-swarming 

 bee it will not be an Italian. 



On p. 360, June 1, Frank C. Pellett men- 

 tions a swarm without a queen. I have had 

 this same experience several times. I ex- 

 plain it in this way: The swarm must have 

 gone off with a virgin queen which was lost 

 in returning from her ma ting-flight. 



Havana, Ala. 



A NATIONAL BRAND OF HONEY SUG- 

 GESTED. 



BY M. E. PRUITT. 



If we had a "National" brand for our 

 honey, we as members of the National As- 

 sociation would have a strong shoulder to 

 lean against, and therefore substantial 

 backing. A member would not dare, nor 

 even have the inclination, in fact, to put 

 up something not pure, and brand it with 

 the National brand. On the other hand, 

 no one would question the absolute purity 

 of an article under such brand. 



In the second place, more bee-keepers 

 would rally around the National banner so 

 as to be entitled to use the brand and its 

 protection, thereby making the National 

 Bee-keepers' Association that much the 

 stronger and that much wider known, so 

 that there would be more demand for pure 

 honey. 



Since the pure food and drug law has 

 been in force, all bogus preparations that did 

 not go out of business have baldly adver- 

 tised their stufi' under various names; and 

 if it pays to advertise trash, why should it 

 not pay us to advertise our pure goods with 

 a brand that is synonymous with strict hon- 

 esty ? Among those benefited by this mea- 

 sure would be the National Association, 

 the bee-keeper« as a body and individually, 

 the grocers and the consumers, and only 

 the glucose-manufacturers w^ould suffer. 



A UNITED EFFORT TO PUT DO\\'Tsr THE COMB- 

 HONEY LIE. 



Why would it not be a good plan for bee- 

 keepers in one community to get together 

 and agree to keep the following notice, or a 



similar one, running continually in the lo- 

 cal papers? "$500 [or some other amount] 

 to any person ingenious enough to produce 

 artificial honey in artificial comb that can 

 not be told from the genuine." The under- 

 standing might be that one bee-keeper 

 should pay for the notice for one month, 

 another for the next, and so on until this 

 delusion about manufactured comb honey 

 is entirely obliterated. 



Eola. Texas. 



[In this connection, note what Wesley 

 Foster says, page 732, Nov. 15. For a num- 

 ber of years the General Manager of the Na- 

 tional Association has given to members a 

 label bearing the National seal to use on 

 honey, so that the buyer may at least know 

 that such honey is absolutely pure. If the 

 word "brand" were used, or if the honey 

 were advertised as the "National brand," 

 would it not be a suggestion of manufac- 

 tured goods? Furthermore, unless such 

 honey were put up by a central packing 

 force at National Association headquarters, 

 say, it would vary considerably in flavor. 

 One "brand " of honey should be the same 

 the country over. 



We had begun to think that the comb- 

 honey lie had almost died out; but only re- 

 cently it appeared again in as bad a form as 

 we have ever seen it, in Collier's Weekly. 

 There is no way except to keep on fighting 

 it; but it is certainly discouraging when 

 careless writers in our popular magazines 

 make statements that undo at one stroke 

 the united work of bee-keepers for years. — 

 Ed.] 



♦ ■ ^ ■ ♦ 



THE FOUL -BROOD SITUATION IN CALI- 

 FORNIA. 



How the Law Works, or Fails to Work. 



BY J. O. SHEARMAN. 



I have talked with bee-keepers in Los An- 

 geles, Riverside, and San Bernardino coun- 

 ties, and they all say that the inspectors do 

 not come near them unless they send for 

 them, and very seldom even then. They 

 mostly explain it by saying, "The board of 

 supervisors appoint men by political prefer- 

 ence or favoritism rather than for fitness for 

 the oflice." Some say that there is a cer- 

 tain amount of money raised each year to 

 pay the inspector, and when that is gone 

 there is no more to pay the inspector, and 

 you can't compel a man to work for nothing 

 and board himself. 



Mr. Andrews, a representative bee-keeper 

 of Pomona, and I were talking the matter 

 over one day, and we agreed to call a local 

 meeting of bee-men in that vicinity and see 

 what we could do about it. So a few of us 

 got together and agreed to adjourn it a week, 

 andjsend word for the foul-brood inspector 

 to meet with us and see what he had to say 

 first. We met aeain at the house of Mr. 

 Lee, but the inspector did not come, although 

 a few more bee-men did, and took much in- 

 terest in the question, "How to eradicate 



