102 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1. 



[The above was submitted to our neighbor 

 Kraver. who replies as follows:] 



Mr. Root:— I think I laid about 1000 2 and 

 3 inch tile on about one acre of ground, about 20 

 inches deep, and from one to two rods apart— 

 no engineer employed. T planted i)art in early 

 potatoes; and after digging them I cultivated 

 the ground and sowed iu purple-top White 

 Globe turnips, and a pait in cabbage and also 

 turnips. I am satisfied that the second crop 

 paid for the lile and work of laving them. 



Windfall. O., Jan. 9. 8. K. Kraver. 



6 Pages? /.lO 

 9 o PEH YEA^-- 



He brought me up also out of ;> hori'ible pit, out of the mil y 

 clay, anil set my feet upon a roek, and established my goings. 

 —Psalm 40: 2. 



Don't fail to read what Dr. Mason says, p. 94, 

 about Ohio's honey exhibit at Chicago. 



Dr. Miller says he has been president of 

 the N. A. B. K. A. only one term, and not two 

 or three as we stated. We must have been 

 thinking of the Northwestern, for that is al- 

 most national in character. 



Here is another definition of "slumgum." 

 As it is a pretty good one. we give it here: 

 •"Tell Dr. Miller tliat the definition of "skimgum" 

 is a kind of stubble tliat some people g-ather to 

 make brick when they have no "straws," 



Santa Barbara, CaL Delos Wood. 



On account of our temporary indisposition, as 

 noticed elsewhere, we have been obliged to de- 

 fer until our next the continued report of the 

 North American at Washinton. In its place 

 we are happy to give a very excellent condensed 

 report, by W. Z. Hutchinson, of the meeting of 

 the Ontario Bee-keepers' Association that as- 

 sembled in Walkerton, Ont.. Jan. 10—12. 



Our cold weather has been holding out re- 

 markably. The mercury has been playing 

 around zero, a good deal of the time below it, 

 som'e of the time accompanied with high winds. 

 Our bees are nicely packed all outdoors this 

 year, for Mrs, Root said she must have our 

 front cellar— the place where our indoor bees 

 have been wintered of late. When winters are 

 as cold as this one has been we don't mind hav- 

 ing them in the cellar. Still, we do not fear 

 losses from those outdoors. 



The following is a fair sample of the letters 

 we are now receiving, and will explain the 

 apparent apathy bee-keepers hBive with regard 

 tojoining the Union: 



' Dear Sir:— I fully expected to send a dollar and 

 become a member of tlie Union ; but when I read such 

 astounding statements in last Gleanings, and from 

 such men as they came from, I hesitated. How are 

 part of the members going toflght the other part? 

 " A house divided against itself can not stand." I 

 am out until things look different, _ 



Conroy, la., Jan. 11. 



As this was a private letter, we omit the 

 name. We do not wond(^r that bee-keepers 

 should hesitate to join the Union when the 

 President, James Heddon, practically sanctions 

 the adulteration of honey with glucose. 



ARE glucose mixtures WHOLESOME? 



Shortly after tasting freely the glucose 

 mixtures mentioned in another column, a pe- 



culiar kind of sickness came over us. We went 

 home and stayed there two or three days, and 

 haven't gotten over it yet. The doctor called 

 it rheumatism as a result of a disordered 

 stomach. While this temporary indisposition 

 may not have been and probably was not the 

 direct result of tasting the glucose, yet it had 

 something to do with it. This morning, as we 

 came before our office desk, thei'e were the 

 glucose honeys, just as we had left them. 

 Whether it was imagination or not, the old 

 feeling of nausea came back, and we turned our 

 eyes to more agreeable subjects. And yet Mr, 

 Heddon says that glucosing actually improves 

 inferior honey! The vilest dark honey we 

 ever saw was, in our estimation, better than 

 glucose. We hope there is no one in our ranks 

 who will be foolish enough to follow out Mr. 

 Heddon's teachings — teachings, did we say? 

 That is exactly what we mean. He tries to 

 teach, so we interpret it, that adulteration is 

 harmless to the consumer and beneficial to bee- 

 keepers, because it helps to move ofT dark hon- 

 eys, and that, therefore, instead of making any 

 fuss when we hear of adulteration, we must 

 wink at it and keep still. This is, in fact, his 

 position boiled down in a nutshell. Does Mr. 

 Heddon not see that this argument, if believed 

 in by dishonest persons, would cause them to 

 practice adulteration largely? In the first 

 place, he is wrong in all his points. In the 

 second place, we are not going to keep still and 

 let this sort of glucose logic be rammed down 

 the throats of any one if we can help it. 



Later. — While Dr. Mason was here we gave 

 him several of the glucosed samples to test. 

 After tasting No. 2 (half glucose and half hon- 

 ey) he turned to us and said " I don't wonder 

 ihat you were sick." The glucose, the pure ar- 

 ticle itself, he pronounced as good as any he 

 had before lasted^ 



ANOTHER MICHIGAN BEE-KEEPER AS A LEGIS- 

 LATOR. 



Our readers will remember that George E. 

 Hilton was recently elected as a member of the 

 State Legislature of Michigan. A letter which 

 we have just received shows that he is not idle. 

 It reads as follows: 



F/)V)(d Rdof;— Yesterday we suspended tlie rules 

 and passed a l)ill. to take immediate effect, appro- 

 priating an additional fifty thousand dollars 1o as- 

 sist in making tlie exhibit at the World's Columbian 

 Exposition. Tlie agricultural departments are to 

 have seventeen thousand of this, and bee-keepers 

 expect one thousand in the subdivision, wliich will 

 enable us to make a very creditable display. You 

 will be glad to know that I have been assigned the 

 chairmanship of the important committee, I'oads 

 and bridges. Geo. E. Hilton. 



Lansing, Mich., Jan. 13. 



The following, also, from the House Records, 

 shows that Mr. Hilton is determined to do 

 something in the line of good roads: 



Mr. Hilton gave notice that, at some future day, 

 he would ask leave to introduce a bill to amend, 

 revise, and con.solidate the several laws of this State 

 relative to the laying out, construction and main- 

 tenance, and imi)rovements of highways, and to 

 repeal all acts or parts of acts inconsistent there- 

 with. 



We have always known that Mr. Hilton was 

 one of the bright and progressive men of that 

 State; and when he champions the cause of 

 good roads, we have additional assurance of it. 

 One of the most crying needs all through our 

 country is better roads; and in the majority of 

 places the same money intelligently expended 

 in accordance with the latest ideas would se- 

 cure something far better than we now have. 

 In the State of New York it has been shown 

 that the money now spent is practically wasted; 

 possibly this is true of Michigan. Referring to 



