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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



December, 1918 



of acid? That raises the question as to the 

 proper thickness for late feeding. Of course, 

 all agree it is better to feed thin syrup, and 

 not feed too late. But for late feeding whatF 

 Eoot's ABC and X Y Z says two and one- 

 half parts sugar to one part water. Dr. 

 Phillips says two parts sugar to one part 

 water. I have fed a good many pounds of 

 sugar — for which I hope I may be forgiven — 

 always two and one-half to one, and there 

 seemed no objection. I always used acid 

 with it. But it is better to use no acid and 

 use honey in the syrup, the more honey the 

 better. [We have fed quantities of syrup 

 late in the fall, using two parts of sugar to 

 one of water, with no honey or tartaric acid, 

 and have had no trouble from granulation. 

 When feeding a thicker syrup than this, we 

 have used either tartaric acid or honey 

 (that we were certain came from healthy 

 colonies). Take two bottles of this thick 

 syrup, one containing tartaric acid and one 

 without it, and notice the difference in rapid- 

 ity of granulation. A few days will tell the 

 story. — Editor.] 



* * * 



J. L. Garner sends me from Texas a sam- 

 ple of an important honey-source in his re- 

 gion, which he says furnishes so much that 

 there are not enough bees to gather it. I 

 don't wonder when I see it solidified in 

 large crystals of rock candy on the leaves 

 and gall apples from the live oak. One could 

 hardly imagine that the crystals could be so 



plentiful. 



* * # 



I read aloud what Stancy Puerden says, 

 page 669, about using for soup the chicken 

 bones left on the dinner plates, and then 

 waited for a protest. None was forthcom- 

 ing, so I ventured, " I 'd hardly go as far as 

 that, would you?" "Um-huh," said my 

 wife complacently, quickly adding, "If I . 

 knew my crowd. ' ' I accepted the amend- 

 ment 



* * * * 



After reading The British Bee Journal of 

 Sept. 26, I should have made a vigorous 

 effort to secure a supply of seed of Echinoiis; 

 sphrroceplHiJns, if I had had no previous ex- 

 perience with the plant. A Harwood, in an 

 interesting series upon bee plants, says of 

 this plant, "No bee plant that I have ever 

 grown was so attractive to the bees. When- 

 ever the weather was favorable the heads 

 were crowded. I have counted 14 or 15 bees 

 on one at the same time." 



This is the Chapman honey plant that had 

 a big boom in this country a number of 

 years ago, but is not heard of now, and is 

 not included among honey plants in the bee 

 books. Upon its introduction I planteKl 

 quite a patch of it, and like Mr. Harwood I 

 never saw bees so thick upon any other 

 honey plant. But close observation showed 

 that the bees were not in eager haste in 

 their usual way when getting a big yield, 

 but were in large part idle, and it looked a 

 little as if the jilant had some sort of stupe- 

 fying effect upon them. At any rate, I 



should not take the trouble to plant it now 

 if land and seed were furnished free. 



* * * 



Mr. Editor, I said on page 666 that if you 

 would say that more than one colony out of 

 every hundred had skyscraper piles over 

 them I would climb down. You have made 

 no categorical answer to my implied ques- 

 tion, but what yovi say on page 658 makes 

 me now think that I was talking about 

 something of which I knew very little, and 

 of which you knew a great deal. Mr. Editor, 

 I climb down with my humblest apology. 

 Some day I may become wise enough to 

 learn that * ' fools rush in where angels fear 

 to tread. ' ' 



* * * 



Editor Townsend says in Domestic Bee- 

 keeper: "It has become a habit with us to 

 sell early, and we have usually done well by 

 so doing, but during the last two years a new 

 condition has confronted the honey-pro- 

 ducer, and the one who has held out longest 

 has secured the best price." It might be a 

 bad thing if all should agree to sell early, or 

 if all should agree to sell late. Throwing 

 all the honey on the market at one time, 

 whether early or late, would have a ten- 

 dency to depress it. But it will help no 

 little, if there be some organized understand- 

 ing as to what the jjrice should be, whether 

 early or late. This year I followed the ad- 

 vice of the committee of the Chicago and 

 Northwestern, and sold at retail at $1.60 

 per 5-pound pail. It seemed like a i)retty 

 big price; yet it never went more promptly, 

 and I've no doubt it would have gone nearly 

 as promptly if I had asked $1.75. But $1.60 



is a plenty. 



» * * 



After further experience, I think I can 

 recommend sending extracted honey by par- 

 cel post. All I 've sent has been in 5-pound 

 pails with no packing whatever, the address 

 written on a white space that happened to 

 be on the label. So far as I 've heard, it was 

 all received in excellent condition, including 

 a pail sent to Massachusetts. On this lat- 

 ter pail the postage was 38 cents, insurance 

 3 cents, war tax 2 cents, making the pail 

 cost the consumer $2.03, or a fraction more 

 than 40 cents a pound. Bather expensive, 

 but the customer seemed well pleased. 



* » * 



That talk about wasting valuable time at 

 conventions, page 649, is excellent, Mr. Edi- 

 tor. You might also have added a word 

 against cutting time out of the sessions to 

 make a visit to the knitting factory, or 

 whatever it is that's the particular pride 

 of the locality'. Committees, as you say, can 

 save the time of the convention, but here 

 a caution is needed. I recall a convention 

 where a committee was kept occupied thru 

 practically all of a half-day session of the 

 convention. Some of the best men there 

 were on that committee, making it a half- 

 day lost to them, and their absence was a 

 distinct loss to the convention. Let com- 

 mittees meet between sessions. 



