Ai'Rii., 1018 



GLEANINGS T N P. K K C II I. T U "R E 



219 



c 



BEES appear 

 to have win- 

 tered pretty 

 well up to this 

 time, March 1. 

 They had a nice 

 flight Feb. 25 for 

 the first time in 

 three and u half 

 months- ^ ^ ^ 



I notice a goodi deal of speculation these 

 days as to how long prese_nt prices for honey 

 will continue. After the Civil war the high 

 l>rices for honey continued for some IS or 

 20 years. Of course, a good deal more honey 

 IS consumed now than then. But it seems 

 ])robable that the high prices then were cans- 

 V 1 by the greater supply of money in circula- 

 tion. Almost all commodities have gone up 

 and especially foods. Even the boy that 

 gj:thcred dandelion greens for the local hotel 

 wanted twice as much as usual. When asked 

 as to why, he replied that it was owing to the 

 war. ^ ^ ^ 



Dr. Miller, March Gleanings, page 1-53, 

 calls for some word that will take the place 

 of "extracted" in describing liquid or pure 

 honey. I have sometimes used liquid or pure 

 honey to those who I thought would not un- 

 derstand if I used the word ' ' extracted. ' ' 

 But the Doctor objects to liquid because 

 honey will not always stay liquid. Well, 

 water surely is a liquid but does, not always 

 stay liquid as many of us in this part of the 

 world have found out in the past winter to 

 our sorrow. I have sometimes wondered iL' 

 it were not better to use the words "straiiie I 

 honey," as most consumers would know at 

 once that it was honey separated from the 

 comb. After all, is there as much diffeieuce 

 as we beekeepers have tried to make our- 

 selves believe. Strained honey is honey se]'- 

 arated from the comb by drawing it thru a 

 coarse cloth or finer wire cloth by the force 

 of gravity; while our extracted honey is se]'- 

 arated from the comb by a coarse wire cloth 

 or screen by means of centrifugal force, fre- 

 quently carrying so many particles of wax 

 with it that it is found desirable to run it 

 thru another finer strainer before it is nt 

 for market. If I remember correctly, the 

 word "extracted" w^as rather forced at first 

 by beekeepers so as to give the impression 

 that the product was much superior to the 

 old strained honey that our mothers used 

 to render 75 years ago. I strain all extracted 

 honey thru cloth before bottling. 

 * * * 



That is a most enjoyable beekeepers' con- 

 vention on pages 169 and 170 under the title 

 of "Bees, Meu and Things." More than 10 

 present from all over the country, and Brit- 

 ish Columbia and even Cuba and far-away 

 Africa and Australia and Europe, too. No 

 long-winded speeches here. No one "talk- 

 ed and talked and didn't say nothing," as 

 the little girl said, but every one gives their 

 experience in the briefest way — and what a 

 difference. One says his bees have not flown 



SIFTINGS 



J. E. Crane 



1 



for two and a 

 half months, 

 while another 

 says his bees 

 have been get- 

 ting nectar all 

 winter. Some re- 

 port bees as 

 starving, while 

 another says he 

 has extracted 30,000 pounds since November. 

 One reports his bees under two and a half 

 feet of snow, while somewhere else bees are 

 swarming. One reports a very severe winter, 

 while another says it is the mildest they 

 have ever had — and so it goes. Let no reader 

 of Gleanings in Bee Culture skip these pages. 

 You can take a trip all over these United 

 States and the whole round earth, almost, and 

 know conditions existing among beekeepers 

 while you sit comfortably in your arm chair 

 reading Gleanings in Bee Culture. Give us 

 more, Mr. Editor. [Thank you. We will give 

 you more, if THEY gives it to us. — Editor.] 



* if * 



Our friend, Virgil Weaver, page 150, gives 

 advice about sowing sweet clover. He says: 

 "Sow the railroad's right-of-way; sow the 

 highways; sow the byways; sow the vacant 

 lots; sow the farmers' fertile fields; sow the 

 barren spots; sow the cliffs; sow 10 pounds 

 of white and 10 pounds of yellow for each 

 colony." Now it seems to me this sort of 

 advice will bear a little good-natured criti- 

 cism. I am interested in increasing the yield 

 of honey by all legitimate means, but when 

 it comes to sowing seed upon other people 'a 

 property, I draw the line. Honey is good, 

 but there are some things of more value than 

 honey or money. I have yet to see that any 

 one has any moral right to enter the rail- 

 roads' right-of-way or the farmers' fertile 

 fields to sow sweet clover seed without the 

 consent of the lawful owners; nor yet to sow 

 seed along the highways beside land whose 

 owners object to it. Would we like to have 

 any one enter our fields and sow seed we did 

 not want, or sow along the roadside close by? 

 ' ' Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ' ' 

 is still binding. To get what we want, by 

 hook or crook or without regard to the 

 rights of others, is the law of the Hun. Again 

 he says sow 10 pounds of white and 10 pounds 

 of yellow sweet clover for each colony. This 

 would require about 20,000 pounds to supply 

 us, or $4,000 worth of seed. No, thank you. 

 I would much prefer to furnish my farmer 

 neighbors with Alsike clover seed for nothing 

 and let them do the sowing, and enjoy their 

 smiling faces and good wishes for a pros- 

 perous season for the beekeeper. 



* » * 



Dr. Miller rath_^r recommends the use of 

 sections with drawn combs, believing the 

 larger amount of honey secured will more 

 than make up the difference in price for 

 which it will sell. I think he is right. We 

 shall use several thousand drawn combs iv 

 sections this year. See page 152. 



