1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



455 



when she did she found it "evaporated" to 

 within an inch of the bottom, and the evapora- 

 tion was a small wooden paddle. 



The bees were left on the summer stand, and 

 straw packed around them, and there would 

 usually be from one to six to survive the winter, 

 until finally the survivor perished with the 

 rest: then, of course, my feasts were at an end; 

 and it is a fact that I grew steadily worse until 

 the spring of 1882, when I was compelled to 

 leave the farm ; and when I settled in this vil- 

 lage at that time I weighed 132 lbs., and hadn't 

 closed my eyes for ten months without lauda- 

 num or morphine. I could eat nothing that did 

 not hurt me. As for beans, onions, or pork, I 

 might as well have eaten strychnine; and even 

 food as light as corn starch, hulled barley, oat- 

 meal, or, in fact, any thing, seemed only to ag- 

 gravate the disease. Well, I traded an old har- 

 ness for two colonies of black bees in box hives. 

 I put some boxes on top, and the season was good. 

 I got quite a little honey, and in the middle of the 

 summer I commenced to gain in strength and 

 flesh, and soon could sleep without narcotics. 

 The next spring I transferred my bees and their 

 increase to frame hives, and Italianized them ; 

 and since that time I have never been without 

 honey on my table(although I eat much less than 

 three pounds at a meal). I have never taken a 

 drop of laudanum or morphine since, and I can 

 eat beans, pork, onions, or honey, with impuni- 

 ty. My average weight is now 175 pounds. 



We have a young man here in this village who 

 was troubled with dyspepsia; and the more 

 medicine he took the worse he became. I ad- 

 vised him to try honey and graham gems for 

 breakfast, telling him of my experience. He 

 said, •' Bring me up some and I will try it." I 

 did so, and he commenced to gain, and now en- 

 joys as good health as the average man, and he 

 does not take medicine either. 



I attended the bee- keepers' convention at 

 Madison, Wisconsin, several years ago, and Dr. 

 Vance, of that city, read an essay on honey as 

 food and medicine, and in his remarks he said 

 that honey is the only food taken into the stom- 

 ach, that leaves no residue. He claimed that it 

 requires no action of the stomach whatever to 

 digest it, as it is merely absorbed and taken up 

 into the systt^m by the action of the blood. I 

 sincerely believe that honey is the natural foe 

 to dyspepsia and indigestion, as well as a food 

 for the human system. 



Hillsborough, Wis. 



[There are many instances on record show- 

 ing that honey is the most wholesome of any 

 of the SiVf'ets. Indeed, our best physicians are 

 now recom mending it to those who can not eat 

 ordinary snear or syrups without distress, but 

 who can take honey without inconvenience. 

 Prof. Cook, backed by some other scientists, 

 has long held that honev is digested, or par- 

 tially digested, nectar. That bees certainly do 

 someViiiui to it while it is stortd temporarily in 

 the honey-stomach can not very well now be 



doubted; and the fact that honey can be eaten 

 when other sweets can not. goes a long way to 

 prove Prof. Cook"s assertion. — Ed.] 



CLOVERS IN ABUNDANCE. 



OPENINGS IN sections; HOW WIDE SHOULD 

 THEY BE? 



By C. Davenport. 



Never, within my memory, have clovers of all 

 kinds, at this time of the year, looked as prom- 

 ising as they do now. I for one should like a 

 crop of clover honey this year. We had none 

 last year, and hardly any basswood either. On 

 this account I had a good many of those 1000 

 sections left over — perhaps as many as I shall 

 need; but in order to be on the safe side I or- 

 dered 4000 from your Chicago branch a short 

 time ago, just two days before the last drop in 

 prices. 



Now, I should like to make a few comments 

 on the way these sections are made — not only 

 yours, but others' as well — for I believe nearly 

 all the principal manufacturers now make them 

 just the same as you do. Perhaps I should say 

 that I have never had any sections of your 

 make before. Those I ordered were No. 1 white, 

 open top. standard size. They are the finest 

 and most accurately made sections that I have 

 ever seen; but they, as well as almost all oth- 

 ers, have what I regard as a serious fault. 

 They are not cut out enough at the top and 

 bottom. As nearly as I can measure them they 

 are cut out ^q\-j of an inch. Now, a loaded work- 

 er can get through a space as small as that; but 

 with a space of that size in sections, the bees 

 are liable to fix them so they can not crawl 

 through ; for I believe there are no sections 

 made that are perfectly smooth on the edges; 

 and when a super is put on too soon the bees 

 will sometimes put so much propolis on these 

 rough edges that I have had them practically 

 exclude themselves from some of the sections 

 when using those that were cut out only ^'g. 

 Of course, this could not happen when using T 

 tins; for the tins prevent the separators from 

 dropping down and dividing the space between 

 the sections; but with section-holders it is dif- 

 ferent. It is true, that scalloped separators are 

 used to prevent, thus dividing the space be- 

 tween the two scallops of the sections; and if 

 they are scalloped }4 inch deep on the bottom 

 they will work all right; but when using sec- 

 tion holders the separators are supported only 

 at each end, and one or both of the projections 

 at the end of the separators are very liable to be 

 broken partly or entirely otf, in which case the 

 separator, of course, drops down and thus di- 

 vides the space between the scallops of the sec- 

 tions; and if these scallops are only T^d'o. that is 

 as much space as the bees have to get in the 

 sections; and while, as I have said, they can 

 get through such a space, from experience I 



