248 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1. 



The Ontario B. K. Ass'n received in 1895, 

 for membership fees, .¥175; affiliation fees of 13 

 societies, $65; government grant, $650; total, 

 $890. Those Kanucks know just how to do it. 

 [I wish we had for our national association some 

 of the money that is wasted in the government 

 seed business. — Ed.] 



Referring to p. 215, friend Phelps, I have 

 the furniture-nails in use, and also common 

 nails, which I like better. We can't all agree 

 about "best things." But I'm inclined to think 

 that's a good idea of yours to have a space at 

 end of top-bar, and have the spacing done lower 

 down. [The point is a good one. — Ed.] 



Mountain-laurel honey has the reputation 

 of being poisonous; but "Novice," in A. B. J., 

 doubts whether it is ever poisonous. Forty 

 acres of laurel were within a mile of his bees: 

 he extracted twice while it was in bloom; the 

 honey was all eaten near home, and no one was 

 sick from it. [A writer in our own columns 

 gave expression to the same thought. It must 

 be that it is not always poisonous. — Ed.] 



" Bee paralysis, dysentery, and spring dwin- 

 dling are exactly the same family of diseases, 

 only in a little different form. . . If we are 

 not mistaken, these diseases are one and the 

 same thing, and really have no name." — South- 

 land':^^ Queen. I don't know about their being 

 the same; but surely it sounds queer to call a 

 disease by a name, and then say it has no name. 

 [I should say that the three diseases were very 

 different in character.— Ed.] 



What does ail the British Bee Journal ? 

 It recommends fastening foundation in sections 

 with melted wax or a warm flatiron, and says, 

 " Sections are now made with a split top-bar for 

 reception of the foundation." That was true 15 

 years ago; but I didn't know split top-bars were 

 still in existence, or that any one would now 

 putter with melted wax or warm flatirons. 

 [Split top-bars and grooves in sections — yes, 

 we make lots of them. Bee-keepers won't use 

 all the^same appliances. — Ed.] 



DooLiTTLE, in A. B. J., thinks overproduction 

 is to blame for the fact that, considering differ- 

 ence in labor and product at the present day, 

 honey brings little more than one-third what it 

 did years ago. J. H. Martin thinks there's no 

 use talking!'about competition so long as people 

 eat less than one pound per capita. He thinks 

 glucose^makes the low price. [Knowing what 

 I do, I jincline more toward Martin's idea. We 

 must meet this glucose competition by the 

 strong arm of the law. Unless bee-keepers or- 

 ganizeland make a good fight, honey will sell 

 lower yet, I fear.— Ed.] 



Secretary Morton, against his better judg- 

 ment, is forced by Congress to send out 10,125,000 

 packets of garden seeds and 1,000,000 packets 

 of flower seeds. They'll probably go largely to 

 people who don't care for them, and will throw 



them into the waste-basket, and to those who 

 can buy what they want, the poorer class who 

 need them getting little chance. Wonder if it 

 will be the same way if the government prints 

 bee-books. [ There is hardly an agricultural 

 paper that has not warmly supported Secretary 

 Morton; and it is a shame that he should have 

 been sat down on, for he surely was in the right. 

 The government seed business has been an out- 

 rage, and a senseless drain on Uncle Sam's 

 pocket; and every right-thinking Congressman 

 should have supported the Secretary. But I 

 presume considerable pressure was brought to 

 bear upon our Senators and members of the 

 House because certain friends and patrons were 

 after the salaries and clerk hire that the seed 

 business has been giving. I for one wish the 

 patronage business could be taken out of the 

 hands of every law-maker in the country; and 

 that every one desiring a government position 

 should get it only under civil-service rules. 

 However, the Secretary's protest was not en- 

 tirely in vain. If the government must furnish 

 seeds free, it is better to buy them under the 

 laws of competition than to go into the business 

 of putting them up. Government bulletins on 

 the other hand are designed to inform the peo- 

 ple at once of the progress of the work done, 

 and have their legitimate and proper use. They 

 could hardly, I think, be classed in the same 

 category as the government seed business.— Ed.] 



There is a rumor floating around California 

 that bee-keepers somewhere in the world — per- 

 haps Patagonia— are making a very good yield 

 of comb honey right in the face of a severe 

 drouth. They do it by feeding sugar. Now, I 

 really do not believe it; and I hope our Patago- 

 nian friends can contradict such statements. 



I am not sure but our exchange will need the 

 services of an expert taster when we get to 

 grading honey. Few men are able to distin- 

 guish the different flavors of honey after sam- 

 pling a score of cans. It might be well to edu- 

 cate a class of tasters just as they do in the tea- 

 trade. Come to think of it, it being merely a 

 matter of tongue, our ladies — but, there; I won't 

 say another word. 



On page 77, March Progressive, " Little Bee" 

 puts California down as one of the States that 

 is afflicted now and then with a bad failure in 

 the honey yield. While that is true in relation 

 to this southern end of the State, it is not true 

 about the central and eastern portion. In those 

 localities the yield is from alfalfa, and every 

 year is a honey-producer. And, by the way, the 



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