GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



575 



The Son of man came not to be ministered >intr>, but to min- 

 istei', and to give liis life ii ransom for many.— Matt. 20; 28. 



We regret to learn that the; C(ni(tdian Bee 

 Journal office was entirely burned out some 

 days ago. 



Since the article of R. F. Holtermann, in re- 

 gard to self-hivers, went to press we have re- 

 ceived a letter from him, to the effect that his 

 self-hlver is a perfect success. 



We are still putting in foundation by using 

 an electric current from three bichromate-of- 

 potash batteries to heat the wires. The plan 

 has proven to b^ a grand success. The work 

 when done is not only many times nicer but 

 decidedly cheaper: and no bee-keeper or sup- 

 ply-dealer who has any considerable number of 

 sheets of foundation to put in wired frames 

 should think of fussing with the tracing-wheel 

 ■or any other mechanical device to crowd the 

 wires, when cold, into the sheets of wax. The 

 spur wire-lmbedders, in order to press the cold 

 wire into the foundation, mash the cells some- 

 what out of shape; and, besides, make unsight- 

 ly teeth-marks at regular intervals along the 

 track of the wire. 



Perhaps some of our readers are anxious to 

 know how we are coming out in our experi- 

 ments in uncapping combs by means of wires 

 heated by electricity. J. S. Reese, of Winches- 

 ter, Ky., who has been experimenting along 

 this line, has rather given it up as a failure. 

 ■Our experiments so far have been both a failure 

 and a success; but there has been enough of 

 the latter to cause us to still have hope. Five 

 cells of bichromate-of-potash batteries connect- 

 ed in series will produce the requisite current. 

 These cells can be made at home, not counting 

 the time (by using common well-glazed crocks 

 instead of glass), at a cost of about 25 cents 

 apiece. The cost of maintenance per day 

 for the five cells would be about 25 cents, 

 so the expense is merely nominal; and the only 

 point to be proven is, whether the heated wire 

 can be made to do the work satisfactorily 

 and with reasonable speed. Perhaps some of 

 you may want to know what bichromate-of- 

 potash batteries are. A full description is 

 given on page 412 of this journal for 1892, to- 

 gether with full details how to make up the 

 batteries so as to heat the wires for imbedding 

 them into foundation. 



THE AMOUNT OP COMB AND EXTRACTED HON- 

 EY PRODUCED annually; A NEW METH- 

 OD OF FIGURING IT OUT. 



In Trade Notes, mention is made of the fact 

 "that the G. B. Lewis Co. turn out annually 

 from ten to twelve million sections. Would it 

 not be interesting to know the number of sec- 

 tions that were made during anyone year by 

 all the section-makers? It is too early yet to 

 get any figures for 1893; but the number of 

 sections made during any particular year, if all 

 the manufacturers reported correctly, would 

 give us some idea of the amount of comb honey 

 produced that year in the United States; but we 

 should of course have to deduct a certain per 

 cent for sections that would have been leftover, 

 and sections partly filled. Having done that, we 

 could estimate pretty accurately the amount of 

 ^omb honey produced in this country in a sin- 



gle year. We will agree to report accurately, 

 at the end of the season, the number of sections 

 we have manufactured. Now, if the G. B. 

 Lewis Co., the W. T. Falconer Co., the Leahy 

 Manufacturing Co., and a host of smaller man- 

 ufacturers would report, we could tell at the 

 end of the year something near the amount of 

 comb honey produced. Can we not secure 

 your co-operation in collecting these valuable 

 statistics ? It is a disgrace to our industry that 

 we are not able to give any thing better than 

 guesswork figures for the annual comb-honey 

 product of the United States. 



Suppose we do a little guesswork, or a little 

 rough estimating. If the (t. B. Lewis Co. made 

 in 1892 ten million sections, and that during a 

 poor year, they made at least a third of the 

 sections produced in the United States. There- 

 fore during the poor year of 1892 there was pro- 

 duced from 25 to 30 million pounds of comb 

 honey. This would represent an aggregate 

 of 12,000 to 1.5,000 tons. In a good year this 

 amount would be nearly doubled; or, putting 

 it moderately, 50 million pounds. As there 

 would surely be as much extracted honey pro- 

 duced — probably more — the annual product in 

 a fair season would aggregate, of both comb 

 and extracted. 100 million pounds, or 50.000 tons. 

 This would be, however, only about 22 ounces 

 for every inhabitant of the LTnited States; and 

 as vast amounts of extracted honey are used in 

 the bakeries, and for mechanical purposes, we 

 see that our estimate as above is certainly 

 moderate. 



JOHNSON'S CYCLOPEDIA. 



When this great work first appeared in 1874 

 It was immediately accorded a place in the 

 front ranks of its competitors; but it has been 

 so much improved and enlarged since then that 

 the first editor would hardly recognize it. Even 

 while we have had in mind the other superb cy- 

 clopedic works with which English-speaking 

 people are blessed, we have never hesitated to 

 advise inquiring friends to get Johnson's, al- 

 though we have used anqther one, printed be- 

 fore the work in question was out. It is diffi- 

 cult to give an adequate idea of this work, of 

 which the first volume is before us. It includes 

 all subjects lettered from A to V<tlvulus. We 

 made a guess at the number of pages in it, and 

 put it at 480. If we had said 880 we should have 

 been just right. The size of the print is exact- 

 ly that of the letters on this page. The print 

 measures 9x6 inches. The paper is of the very 

 best, and has no shine on the surface, so the 

 print is perfectly plain, no matter how the book 

 is held in relation to the light. The latter ob- 

 jection has been urged against the super-calen- 

 dered paper used by most of our illustrated 

 magazines. The cuts are numerous, and first- 

 class in every respect. Sb far as the work of 

 the printer, pressman, and proof-reader is con- 

 cerned, we would say, as printers, that at pres- 

 ent the world has nothing better to offer. So 

 far as the editorial work is concerned, every 

 department is in charge of a literary star of the 

 first magnitude, thus making the work a con- 

 centration of human talent not often found. 

 This cyclopedia is perfectly adapted to the 

 wants of the plainest person who ever uses 

 such works at all. and yet exhaustive enough 

 on great matters to take the place of most text- 

 books; or, at least, if the matter is not sutfi- 

 ciently treated in this work, a good text-book 

 should be used. The other extreme, of filling 

 up the pages with a list of every town in the 

 United States, which can be found revised in 

 any postal guide every three months, has been 

 avoided. In the volume before us we find im- 

 portant discoveries mentioned, made in 1892, 

 and one date is mentioned as late as Feb. 20 of 



