14 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan 1. 



doubt others will be built soon. The steam- 

 plow is now turning over the soil of 5000 acres 

 for planting during the coming year, besides 

 another 2000 for barley. The factory gives em- 

 ployment to 300 men; and during the season of 

 work, all is activity; but ;il other times there 

 is but little to attract the visitor. 



The only honey-plant I noticed was a vigorous 

 growth of wild sunflower which crowded almost 

 into the streets of Chino. Bees are, however, 

 not wanted here, and would probably interfere 

 with the opprations of the factory, for I noticed 

 much sweetness in the form of syrup exposed, 

 and the honey-bee would be an unmixed evil. 

 But with Messrs. Hutchinson's and Cook's 

 ideas in mind I have been liguring how to turn 

 the product of this factory into comb honey. I 

 think 10.000 colonies of bees could do it by work- 

 ing night and day for eight months. Different 

 grades of honey could be made by taking the 



of the question with our present knowledge of 

 bee culture. It is the same with this experi- 

 ment of Mr. Hutchinson. It is on too small a 

 scale to have practical results. When we com- 

 pare the sugar product of the whole country 

 with the honey product, into what insiguiflcant 

 proportions the latter dwindles I And even the 

 product of this one sugar-factory is nearly 

 equal to the entire product of California honey 

 in a good season, and beyond it in the season 

 just past. The many uses to which sugar can 

 be put and sold; its cheapness, and the very 

 limited use of honey, and its higher price, will 

 always make the one a staple and the other 

 largely a fancy article: and ideas to the con- 

 trary, and for making honey a great staple, are 

 only the theories of an idle dreamer. 



Another obstacle to honey becoming a great 

 staple is the uncertainty of the yield and the 

 impossibility of estimating the amount of prod- 



VJKere 



T^^APING. 



syrup in different stages and running it directly 

 to the hives. W^'could thus produce pure Cuba 

 honey, or honey from the hills of Palestine, or 

 any other grade. If sugar-mills make pure 

 honey, as stated by Prof. Cook, of course it will 

 make pure orange-blossom honey, or any thing 

 desired. I. however, have but little faith in 

 the experiments so far; and before planting 

 10,000 colonies of bees around th<' factory I wish 

 to have further experiments tried. No, 1 

 wouldn't give a straw for Mr. Hutchinson's ex- 

 periments; and now that the agitalion is on, 

 why can not this matter be tested and settled, 

 so that it will stay settled? Let an apiary of 

 25 or .50 colonies be set aside for the sole purpose 

 of feeding; let the feeding last for several 

 months, and the amount fed be several tons of 

 sugar. We can take one colony of bees during 

 a good season, and make it do wonders; but to 

 make the whole apiary do the same is all out 



uct for the coming season, while the sugar- 

 factory is so certain of its pi'oduct as to be 

 able to make contracts a year or two ahead. 

 Now, to resort to feeding sugar to splice out 

 our poor seasons with a makesliift honey is a 

 grand step toward the degradation of our prod- 

 uct. 



The public demand that their butter shall be 

 made from pure cows' milk; and oleomargarine, 

 which has all the marks of pure butter, but 

 which degrades and unsettles the pure product, 

 is restricted by law. In like manner the public 

 demand that their beautiful comb honey shall 

 be gathered from the flowers of the field; bee- 

 keepers themselves, witnessing the degradation 

 of their extracted product by the introduction 

 of glucose, also demand laws for the restriction 

 of this fraud. Can we not also say that the 

 feeding of sugar for making comb honey de- 

 grades the natural product, and is just as much 



