THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



335 



perfectly. Several years ago I tried mixing 

 glucose with houey in au experimental way. 

 I tried using one-lifth glucose; one-third; 

 one-half; and two-thirds. Why did I do 

 this ? Well, so much was said about the 

 adulteration of honey with glucose that I 

 wished to know from actual experience ex- 

 actly how houey mixed with glucose looked 

 and tasted, and to see if it were really true 

 that the glucose would prevent the honey 

 from granulating. I learned that the mix- 

 ture must be at least three-fourths glucose 

 to prevent granulation. But to the point: 

 I think that I could detect the addition to 

 honey of even ten per cent of glucose. I 

 think that any one who had had experience 

 in the matter could do the same. By the 

 way, it is not so much the matter of taste as 

 it is that of the feeling in the mouth. There 

 is a peculiar, sticky, gluey feeling. The 

 taste comes after the substance has passed 

 from the mouth. Then there is a sort of 

 brackish taste that lingers quite awhile. 

 Last summer Prof. Wiley ridiculed the idea 

 of Mr. Muth trusting more to his (Muth's) 

 taste than to the results of chemical analysis 

 to determine in regard to the purity of 

 honey. I would sooner trust Mr. Muth's 

 taste than a chemical analysis. No adulter- 

 ater would ever stop with so small an amount 

 of glucose that it could not be detected. 

 The diiiiculty here is that the public has not 

 been educated to detect this peculiar taste 

 and ascribe it to its proper source. 



The New Crane Smoker and Its Points of 

 Superiority. 

 Last July and August the subject of smoke 

 and smokers had a thorough discussion in 

 the Review, yet so difficult is it sometimes 

 to understand the workings and advantages 

 of a new and slightly complicated instru- 

 ment from simply seeing a description and 

 illustration that even the editor of Gleanings 

 did not fully understand the good points of 

 the Crane smoker until he had seen one of 

 the implements. W^hen Mr. Crane sent him 

 a smoker he also sent an article describing 

 its good points. This article appears in 

 Gleanings together with two illustrations. 

 As I look upon the smoker as the most im- 

 portant implement in the apiary, and believe 

 that the principle upon which the Crane 

 smoker is made is the one that will eventu- 

 ally give us the best smoker, I take pleasure 

 in copying Mr. Crane's article and the edi- 



torial comments on the smoker. I made a 

 few slight changes in the wording to accom- 

 modate the article to a cut that I had of the 

 Crane smoker: 



"tor many years I have felt that there 

 was need of a better smoker than any now 

 offered in our bee journals. Broken springs, 

 burned bellows leather, clogged blast-tubes, 

 burnt clothing from sparks that escaped 

 from the base of the tire-barrel, a large hive 

 containing a good colony of bees burned up, 

 the scarred trunk and limbs of an apple tree 

 beneath which it stood, and, above all, the 

 constant feeling that followed me that I 

 ought to get a larger supply of smoke with a 

 stronger blast for the effort I made, set me 

 to thinking whether a better smoker could 

 not be made. As the smoker is the most 

 important tool of the apiarist, it is very de- 

 sirable to have it as near perfect as possible. 

 Even if it costs a little more at first, the 

 time saved will soon pay the difference. Not 

 only do we want an instrument that will not 

 easily get out of repair and scatter sparks, 

 but we want one that will give a large or 

 small volume of smoke at will. 



Some years ago I constructed a smoker 

 with two leather valves, the upper one placed 

 in the mouth of a wooden air-flue connecting 

 with the base of the fire-barrel. While this 

 smoker seemed to give me more smoke, and 

 a stronger blast, than any other I had seen, 

 it did not fully satisfy me. Having to make 

 some new ones last winter, I began anew to 

 study the whole question, giving it more 

 time and thought than I had before been 

 able to do. I made a great variety of valves 

 and connecting-fiues. What I wanted was a 

 smoker easy to operate, that would not read- 

 ily clog with soot or creosote, or get out of 

 repair, and that would give the strongest 

 blast and volume of smoke possible. The 

 results of my efforts are before you. 



A 3-inch barrel is fastened to a 6x8 inch 

 bellows, by two pieces of ''s-inch hoop iron. 

 Each piece is bent about ''s way around the 

 barrel, and fastened by wire, and then bent 

 at such an angle as to give the greatest 

 strength, and then bolted to the bellows. 

 The bellows springs are on the outside, one 

 on each side of the bellows, and fastened by 

 metal clasps, and can be removed at will, 

 and made stronger or weaker to fit the hand 

 of the operator. They are so made that it 

 may be said that they will neither break nor 

 wear out. For my own use I fasten a hook 

 to the small end of the bellows between the 

 springs to hang the smoker to the edge of 

 the hive while at work, and find it very con- 

 venient. 



To secure the strongest blast of air through 

 the fire-barrel, filled with all sorts of com- 

 bustible material, and, perhaps, a layer of 

 ashes and spent fuel upon the grate, it is nec- 

 essary to have a closed air-flue between the 

 bellows and base of the fire-barrel. But if 

 we connect with a metal tube, large quanti- 

 ties of smoke and sparks will be drawn into 

 the bellows when it opens, and that will soon 

 ruin it. besides causing the fire to go out un- 

 less the bellows is kept in constant motion. 

 There appear to be only two ways of getting 



