1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



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along without it. I liave proved to others a 

 great many times that the escape was useless, 

 and just as many times I have proved it to be 

 an indispensable article of the apiary. There 

 are two chief conditions wherein it is contra- 

 dictory both ways. If I am working for comb 

 honey, using separator-section supers, and a 

 good flow of honey, I would not take any bee- 

 escape as a gift, and be paid to use it, because 

 they are a nuisance, from the fact that the 

 apiarist usually picks out sections here and 

 there, but does not take the whole sui)er clean; 

 and the smoker does, as Mr. France says, send 

 the bees out of the way. and a brush will finish 

 the few left. But if th(! non-separator-section 

 super is used like the Heddon, the escape does 

 very well, and in that case the bees can be 

 nearly or quite all driven out as quickly as the 

 escape can be used, the super overhauled, re- 

 filled, and returned lo the hive without any 

 trouble. It has proved just the same with me 

 when using the second and third stories for ex- 

 tracting, or for the wide frames for sections. 



We will now look at the other side, taking 

 the meager, light, and dashy honey-flow where 

 there is a rush for a few days, then a stop for 

 two or three days, then another dash of a flow 

 at the closing- up of a flow of honey, and there 

 are hundreds of sections to come off, then the 

 bee-escape is a boon, or, as some have said, a 

 Godsend to the apiarist, and a thing that he 

 can not do without unless he wants to have his 

 nice sections spoiled by the bees puncturing 

 them, as they nearly always do when there is a 

 poor flow of honey, or at the end of the season; 

 then the escape has proved with me to be indis- 

 pensable. And then, repeated trials have con- 

 vinced me that the double-cone Reese is the 

 best, with cones at leasts inches deep {214 inches 

 is better), with the space between the board the 

 cones are on and the tops of the sections or 

 frames below not less than three to four 

 inches, so that the bees may have plenty of 

 room to cluster. 



At these necessary times referred to I would 

 just as soon have six or eight escapes as to 

 have a good helper to take off sections, or to 

 clear extractor- cases; and for their benefit, 

 when they are needed, any one can afford to 

 house them when not needed. Another time 

 when they are extremely valuable is, that there 

 are in some places, and in some seasons, times 

 when the bees are gathering to their utmost 

 ability from daylight till 9 to 11 a. m. ; and dur- 

 ing the rest of the day, or till perhaps 5 p. m., 

 there would be robbing at every move or ai 

 every hive that is opened. At such times, put 

 on a dozen or more escajx^s, as the case may be, 

 late in the afternoon. The next morning, or 

 during the forenoon, take ofl' the cases free of 

 bees, or do such other work as is necessary 

 while the bees are busy; and during the time 

 from 11 A. M. till late in the afternoon you have 

 the benefit of the escape, cleaned sections, or 

 extracting-cases. Therefore the argumenta- 

 tive expert bee-keeper, taking season, location, 

 honey-flow, and number of colonies, and wheth- 

 er there are other bees near, all into considera- 

 tion, can, if he chooses, prove that the bee- 

 escapes are worthless or unnecessary, or one of 

 the indispensables in the apiary, and that it is 

 next to impossible to do without them. I have 

 seen the need of them, and I have thrown them 

 aside; then perhaps in three days or a wet^k I 

 have been obliged lo use them again. 



But I would say, have some of them, and 

 don't be satisfied with only one exit in a board. 

 In my Reese's I have six or eight cones. I 

 prefer eight in the place of six, because, the 

 more escape-holes, the less pricking is done to 

 the sections, and the freer they are cleaned of 

 bees, whether section or extracting - supers. 



But if extracting supers, and there are any 

 larva> (uncapped brood) in the case, don't 

 expect any known escape to clean the case, 

 although it mav- H. L. Jeffkey. 



Woodbury, Ct., Oct. 21. 



[You have corroborated and added facts in 

 proof of our statement to the effect that there 

 are times when the bee-escape can be used to 

 advantage, and there are times when it can 

 not. This is a practical question, and we 

 should be glad of further testimony.] 



AN EXPERIMENT "WITH GRAPES, 



HOW TO SAVE THEM AND HOW TO MAKE JEL- 

 LY WITHOUT SUGAR. 



I see, by the last Gleanings, that you have 

 been using up your grapes in jellies and unfer- 

 mented wine. This is good. The grape is good 

 food in any way you can use it, if it is not al- 

 lowed to ferment, when its food qualities disap- 

 pear and its power to " deceive " and " bite " 

 takes their place. 



This year I had a good many grapes, and I 

 resolved to try an experiment. I am not my- 

 self partial to fruit that is sweetened. I 

 want the natural sweetness combined with the 

 natural acid. To get them from the grape, the 

 skins must be worked with the pulp; for the 

 acid and coloring matter seem to be in the skin. 

 We usually get both when we cook the grape. 

 Could we get them by treating them as apples 

 are treated at the press ? And then, could the 

 expressed juice be turned into jelly, as apple 

 juice is turned into jelly by the steam-evapora- 

 tor ? 



To settle these questions I sent some 400 lbs. 

 of grapes to the cider-mill to be ground and 

 pressed, and the juice evaporated into jelly — if 

 it could be— using no particle of sugar in the 

 process. The grapes were ground, then pressed, 

 making some 33 gallons of juice, which was 

 run over the evaporator immediately, and came 

 out very fine jelly. The 33 gallons made 5}4 

 gallons of jelly, at a cost, all together, including 

 grapes, hauling, pressing, and jellying, of $1.00 

 per gallon. This jelly I can eat every day, and 

 three times a day, without satiety — a thing I 

 can not do with any of the fruits put up in 

 sugar. It answers as a table sauce, and, in an 

 emergency, can be reconverted into wine — sweet 

 as the ancient Jews used in their passover 

 feasts, when all leavened or fermented things 

 were by law put out of their houses. 



This experiment I made in the interests of 

 temperance, to show that our grapes need not 

 be turned into grape juice, to be fermented and 

 alcoholized, and labeled as "Champaign," 

 " Port," or " Heidsick," etc., and put on the 

 market for the simple to " look upon " and be 

 " bitten " by them. 



The result proves this: 



1. That the ripest and best grapes make the 

 best jelly. 



2. That no sugar is needed to make jelly. 



3. That all oui' extra grapes can thus be kept 

 in a convenient form for continual use. 



4. That there will be no excuse for turning 

 the surplus grapes into the vvine of commerce, as 

 soon as the preceding facts are made known to 

 grape-raisers; and it is certain that they need 

 to know them, now that grape-raising has come 

 to be so general, and the crop so large, that 

 good grapes from Northern Ohio were selling 

 this month in the Cincinnati markets for 15 to 

 20 cents per 10-1 b. basket. G. A. Adams. 



Perrysburg, O., Oct. 21. 



