.±iJL BEE-KEH^PEHS' RF.VIEW. 



16 



I am the last one to oppose or throw 

 cold water upou anything that promises 

 trae progress, but I feel that a most earn- 

 est warning ought to be given regarding the 

 use of such foundation. We all know that 

 the eating quality of comb honey has not 

 been improved by the use of comb founda- 

 tion — much has been the complaint about 

 the "fish bone" in bomb honey. Comb, 

 natural comb, is of a light friable nature — 

 like the feathery, new-fallen snow. Once 

 this snow has been vielted it can never be 

 restored to its former state. It may be 

 frozen again, but it will be hard and solid; 

 it will be ice. Of course. Nature can eva- 

 porate the water, and form it into snow 

 again, but man cannot restore it to snow. 

 In a like manner, once comb has been 

 melted into wax its character is changed. 

 It is no longer comb, but tcax. Another 

 simile has been used by Mr. Bingham, viz. 

 that " Butter is butter, but melted butter is 

 grease; so comb is comb but melted comb 

 is ivax/' CoUib foundation of the light- 

 est, most fragile type is bad enough: founda- 

 tion walls one-half inch deep will be an 

 abomination. Unless I am greatly mistaken 

 it will be as great a blow to the sale of 

 comb honey as has adulteration to the ex- 

 tracted honey market. Vt least let us try 

 this thing most cautiously. I fear, too, that 

 unscrupulous men would use this product, 

 even if it did injure comb honey. Let us be 

 careful what we do in this line. 



I would not assert that artificial comb 

 could not be made having walls as thin as 

 those of natural comb, but they would still 

 be of icax: and comb honey having such a 

 product as its base would be little else than 

 honey " done up " in tough, leathery, " gob- 

 by " wax — not comb honey wtth its deli- 

 cious, fragile, toothsome, flaky comb. 



A Condensed View of Current 

 Bee Writings. 



E. E. HASTY. 



HONEY never adaltered in France, eh ? 

 but imported honey nsnally impure. 

 Review '.VA. That sounds remarkably like 

 the way bee folks in "perfidious Albion" 

 try to key up their honey market, and pre- 

 vent importions. 



One of the the most important subjects 

 recently started is the use of bisulphide of 



carbon instead of sulphur as a destroyer of 

 moth worms. C. Davenport, in Gleanings 

 XXV 1.'), gives rather startling testimony. 

 Damages flavor or honey, and changes its 

 consistency, in so much that unsealed cells 

 that were not inclined to drip at all shower 

 their contents out with provoking readiness 

 after treatment. Mr. Davenport says he 

 has tried many drugs, and all thit kill worms 

 effectively damage flavor also— bisulphide of 

 carbon worst of all. I suppose we can still 

 trust it for empty combs, which is the 

 main use for a vermicide which most of us 

 have. But it seems that much attention has 

 to be given to stopping cracks, especially in 

 the floor, if a room of any size is to be used 

 — much more nimble to get away than sul- 

 phur gas, A special advantage is that the 

 big worms, that refuse to die in sulphur 

 fumes, will succumb to bisulphide about as 

 easily as the little ones do. Yet at best 

 will not die as quickly as mice and other 

 small animals — needs four hours of treat-, 

 ment if the worms have several combs well 

 webbed together. 



The ladies have been having some suc- 

 cess lately competing with the bakers in 

 making honey jumbles. Jumbles, besides 

 being delicious, resist the tooth of time 

 remarkably ; albeit they disappear with 

 frightful rapidity before the teeth of Homo 

 Sapiens. First recipe published in Glea- 

 nings called for a barrel of fiour — a trifle be- 

 yond the capacity of the ordinary domestic 

 oven, say nothing about stomach and pocket 

 book. Ernest in XXV 23, whittles it down 

 to— 



" Flour, ri lbs. lard, 4 oz. ; honey, 3]^ lbs. ; mo- 

 lasses. 14 oz ; salt, J4 oz. ; water, 1 pint; extract 

 of vanilla, one tenth of a gill. " 



A little more information about how to 

 put the thing together, and how to conduct 

 the baking, would doubtless be welcome. 

 Shall the liquid ingredients be hot, or cold, 

 or midway, when the flour is worked in ? 

 Is it to be kneaded, or pounded, or rolled, 

 or poured from a ladle ? When and where 

 should the vanilla and the soda go in ? By 

 the way, molasses now-a-days is a pretty 

 indefinite article — f;nything and everything 

 from " black strap " to melted sugar in one 

 direction, and pure glucose in the other. It 

 would improve the the receipe quite a bit to 

 define the molasses. May be glucose helps 

 to give the honey jumble its enduring qual- 

 ity, and on that account unglucosed molas- 

 ses would'nt do. And some who keep 

 bachelor's hall will want to know what the 



