1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



813 



to raisin-making would pronounce tlipni lost. 

 If there were in your armor a crack or a crevice 

 he would thi'ust in one of his arrows of conso- 

 lation. But. wait! Don't make them into 

 vinegar or sell them to the wine-maker yet. 

 Wait three days— it may he four. Now see the 

 change. The top of the fruit has slirunken 

 downward. The heautiful blue tinge of the 

 perfect raisin has appeared: and, better than 

 all. there is the magnificent bloom of the green 

 grape that disappeared on the second day — 

 come back again to beautify and glorify its old 

 homel Now they are ready to turn. xVh empty 

 tray is turned upside down on top of the first 

 full one. Both are drawn a couple of feet from 

 the row (to give room to work) and whii'led 

 over. Thus the full tray becomes the empty 

 one, and serves to turn the next. When this 

 side that you have just turned up gets the blue 

 tinge, and the blooin is apparent, the raisins 

 are ready for the ••sweat-box." This is a box 

 10 01- 14 inches deep, and a little larger than 

 the tray, so that a tray will go down into them. 

 You take your tray, piit the open side (one side 

 has no rim) down into the opposite side of the 

 box. As your raisins slide off you draw the tray 

 toward your side of the box. and the fruit will 

 slip in, just as it is laid on the tray. The sweat- 

 box is a misnomer. The raisins do not sweat — 

 they merely e(|ualize. Some are too dry — some 

 not dry enough. They commence to trade off 

 as soon as they get together. In four or five 

 •days they are all alike — ready for the packer. 



You gave a very good idea of packing raisins, 

 in your Riverside article, when yon retui'ued 

 from California. But the fellow'who put the 

 bad raisins in the bottom and the best on top 

 was a rascal — there is no getting over that. I 

 do not here wish to represent myself as an ex- 

 tensive producer or packer. I have but a small 

 vineyard. But he who has a small vineyard 

 must understand the business as well and as 

 perfectly as he who has his .5000 acres. If he 

 ■doesn't he will come to grief. 



I see you made a slight mistake in regard to 

 raisins at Riverside. '• London Layers " is only 

 a name for the best quality of raisins. It does 

 not indicate that they wereeither built, brought 

 np, or educated in London. The early packers 

 gave their best raisins this name to indicate 

 that they were tit for the London market. 

 Some pack undei- the name of Crown. Double 

 Crown, and Treble Crown. But I think that 

 Ameiicans should discard all these imperial 

 and foreign names. New York can eat as good 

 raisins as London or any city in the world — yes, 

 and pay for tlunn tool Why not change the 

 ''London Layers" to ••New York Layers"'? 

 There are really but three grades of raisins. 

 The second giade is simply '•Layers." The 

 third is •• Loose Muscatels." lor cooking. 



A great calamity has befallen the I'aisin inter- 

 est this year. It commenced raining on the 

 26th of Sept.. and continued, at intervals, for 

 three days. At this time aboutall the raisins in 

 Southern California \\'ere s])read out in trays, 

 many of them just fresh i)icked — some half dry. 

 When it quit raining it was evidently against 

 its will. It wanted to rain — threatened us for 

 eight days more. It was cloudy and murky, 

 and iu)w and then it would take a dash at us at 

 night. The green grapes I'otted, and will have 

 to be picked ovei-, at a great loss. The half- 

 dried raisins will be greatly damag<'d. There 

 will b(^ an actual loss of ioo,()(X) boxes in the 

 southern part of the State. 



THE FIRST SKCTIOX BOX. 



In a pleasant conversation with J. S. Harbi- 

 son he informed me that in Oct., 18.58. at the 

 State Fair at Sacramento, he exhibited the 

 first section box that (iver was made for honey. 



Was it the first .section box? Is there any 

 section box that has an earlier record? He also 

 informed me that he used the solar wax-ex- 

 tractor in 1860. But he does not know who was 

 the original inventor. Othei's used it before 

 him. He seems to think it invented itself. His 

 woi'ds were, that it came nat\n'ally into the 

 head of any bee-keeper. They are called solar 

 honey-extractors here, from the fact that all 

 honey was extracted by them for many years. 

 They are used still for that purpose by many 

 farmers. I have seen them 20 feet long, three 

 feet deep, and four feet across the top. They 

 are made like a trough, and lined with tin. A 

 wire screen fits in, half way down. 

 Olivenhain, Cal. J. P. Israel. 



Thank you, friend I. I would by all means 

 mark the raisins so that nobody could be mis- 

 led; and I do not see why Ca/i/or«la layers is 

 not as good a naine as an^". — I have no knowl- 

 edge of any sections previous to 1858, and that 

 dates back before I was a bee-keeper, and be- 

 fore we had any journal on bee culture in the 

 United States. 



GETTING THE BEES TO EMPTY OLD BROOD- 

 COMBS. 



FOWLS PLAN. 



Dr. Miller says he has reduced the time to two 

 or three days. Well, I get the job done in 24 

 hours, if the weather is warm enough so the 

 bees will fly freely; but if it is colder his plan is 

 no doubt the best where the hives have a loose 

 bottom. If the doctor tries to hav(^ old black 

 brood-combs emptied his way when the weath- 

 er is warm, I imagine he will have a '"hot 

 time " taking the combs away, for the bees will 

 hang to the old combs a great deal worse than 

 they will to the unfinished sections; and of all 

 disagreeable work, shaking hungry bees off' dry 

 combs is the worst. 



As before mentioned, his plan will not do for 

 those who have hives with a permanent bot- 

 tom, like mine, and I will therefore give my 

 plan, which is simiily a slight 



IMPROVKMENT ON DR. MILLER'S PLAN OF HAV- 

 ING ITNFINISHEI) SECTIONS CLEANED OUT. 



I take my old combs that I want emptied, and, 

 after uncapping the sealed honey, 1 put them 

 in empty hives with tight bottoms, and set 

 them down close to the entrance of the colonies 

 I wish to feed, just at dusk. I put in a less 

 number than would fill the hive, so they are 

 spaced further apart; and if I want to feed 

 more combs I p\it on an upper story. If it is a 

 cool night I put the hive as close as I can to the 

 entrance; if warnL three or four inches off. after 

 getting the bees started on it, the object being 

 to avoid getting the young bees out of their 

 hive. 



Nearly all of the honey will be cleaned out in 

 the night, and early next morning I carry the 

 hives of combs two or three ix)ds to one side from 

 the apiary, and close the entrance small (Jior % 

 inch will do) ; but if combs are new and tender, 

 or contain any candied honey, they should be 

 closed to a one-bee capacity. 



Now, th(^ bees that are already on the combs 

 have the advantage through the day, and will 

 get about all the honey there is l(;ft; and if they 

 are managed so as to have no young bees on the 

 combs they will all go honu' at night, leaving 

 the combs free from bees, when they can be 

 taken care of. By this plan I can get a h\in- 

 dred ^)r moi'e combs cleaned out every day until 

 the job is all done with, and the light colonies 



