316 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



suggest that he use half of a piece of tin or 

 sheet iron, ^-i inch square, cut in two corner- 

 wise, and driven into the middle of the top end 

 of the end-bar of his frame close up under^the 

 projecting end of his top-bar as shown in Fig. 1. 



Use a set made of a piece of iron fiX/s inch, 

 and 3 or 4 inches long, with a saw-cut made in 

 the end to set in the pieces just right, holding 

 the end of the top-bar and the set tightly be- 

 tween the thumb and fingers while it is being 

 driven in. 



If that doesn't suit him, and he is expert at 

 driving nails, let him take a wire finishing-nail, 

 1^ inches long, and drive it in as in Fig. 2. 

 Either of these will guide the frame into the 

 right place, and not " catch on to things." A 

 wire staple, something like Fig. 3, might be 

 made and driven in close up under the top-bar. 

 A tool with which each might make his own 

 staples can be made very cheaply. If the ends 

 of the frames are cut off }4 inch, with the pres- 

 ent construction of hives and frames something 

 will be needed to guide the frame just as it is 

 set down into position. Those little wire sta- 

 ples used on blind-slats, driven into the frame 

 horizontally, close up under the top-bar, with 

 one leg above the other, make quite good 

 guides. One must be a little careful just as the 

 frame is set down. These, as well as the spa- 

 cers, must be put in justgexactly right to be 

 satisfactory. D Many good ;things for bee-keep- 

 ers have been condemned because they were 

 not made exact enough. 5 

 DKingsville, O. 



[Friend Phelps was, I believe, the first one to 

 suggest furniture-nails as spacers; but when 

 two of them are used in such a way that their 

 heads or faces abut together they are not " exact 

 enough." The heads are rounding, and sliding 

 by each other a small trifle destroys exact spac- 

 ing. If I were to use furniture-nails at alj I 

 should want the head deep enough to reach 

 • from one frame to the other as shown on page 

 770. last year. 



The idea of having a beespace between the 

 end of the frame and the upright of the rabbet 

 is good. Your devices for preventing end shuck 

 of the frames when such bee-space is allowed 

 may answer, but I am of the opinion something 

 better yet should be devised. With self-spacing 

 frames there is more propolis sticking at the 

 ends of the top-bars than elsewhere; and it 

 amounts to more, because, in loosening one 

 frame, the propolis joints of all the frames next 

 to it must be broken. The propolis sticking 

 between the frames amounts to nothing.— Ed.] 



CHEAP HONEY IN CALIFORNIA. 



GLUCOSE THE CAUSE. 



By E. H. SchcBffle. 



FURNITURE-NAIL SPACERS A SUCCESS. 



I use the furniture-nail frame-spacers. I 

 have about 2000 frames with four No. 9 furni- 

 ture-nails on each top-bar; bars strong 1 inch 

 wide. I moved 60 colonies three miles without 

 other fastenings. I prefer them to any thing 

 else I know of; but mine get stuck together, 

 and pull out of the bars; if of pine, the nail 

 should be made longer or cement-coated. 



Royersford, Pa., Jan. 13. W. E. Peterman. 



Prof. Cook's argument, that " in union there 

 is strength," and citing the Fruit-growers' Un- 

 ion as proof, reads well, but is misleading. 

 Now, in the same number in which the profess- 

 or complains that extracted honey in California 

 is bringing but 3 cts. a pound, the market re- 

 ports of New York show it to be Q}4 to 114 ; 

 Boston, 5 to 6; Cincinnati, 4 to 7; Chicago, 4)^ 

 to 7. If you will add freight and cartage to the 

 California price it will be seen that there is no 

 big margin in the handling. What is wanted 

 is an increased consumption. The silver-min- 

 ers tried in vain to get silver on the same plane 

 with gold, but the people wanted gold and not 

 silver; and as the supply exceeded the demand 

 at profitable production, the majority of the 

 silver-mines were compelled to shut down. Just 

 so with honey. If we produce an amount great- 

 er than the demand, we must accept the poor 

 prices paid for an article that is in over-supply, 

 and, in consequence, a drug and drag. There 

 are to-day more consumers of honey than ever 

 before, with the number constantly increasing 

 far more rapidly than the production of honey. 

 Then why is honey a drug? Simply because its 

 place has been filled by glucose. This fraud 

 has not only crowded honey out, but it has 

 turned the consumer against honey. 



I worked up a fine trade with retail grocers 

 for honey. The salesman of a packing-house 

 fitted them up with his sham of a piece of comb 

 honey in a jar of glucose; and the merchants, a 

 month later, remarked to me, "Somehow we're 

 not selling any honey now. The people seem to 

 have grown tired of it." 



The apiarist sells pure honey. That soldrin 

 original cases by the commission houses is, as a 

 rule, pure; but the stuff sold by the grocers, by 

 the packing-houses, and by the grocers to the 

 consumers, is a miserable cheat that cures the 

 consumer of his love for honey, and robs the 

 producer, both of a market and of a paying 

 price for his product. The only remedy is a 

 pure-food law that carries with it a provision 

 and appropriation for its enforcement. All the 

 laws nassed or that mav be oassed will benefit 

 no one if they are not enforced. It is against 

 the law to sell adulterated honey in this State, 

 and there is a good fine for the offense; but as 

 it is nobody's business to see that the law is car- 

 ried out, the packer continues to disgust the 

 people with his glucose mixture, and honey 

 grows less and less in demand — first, because 

 the people are disgusted with its substitute; 

 second, because the bulk of the honey (?) sold 

 at retail is glucose flavored with a small quan- 

 tity of honey. 

 Murphys, Cal., Jan. 6, 1896. 



