16 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' BEVIETV. 



corporeal likeness of the product is to be, 

 that they may know in what direction to 

 straggle. Is it in the like of biscuit, gin- 

 ger snap, doughnut, oyster cracker, army 

 cracker — or is it to be simmered in lard like 

 jelly puffs, or stuffed into outer integuments 

 like sausages ? Quite suggestive that the rec- 

 ipe as orginally published should have the 

 two ruinous mistakes in it; lard, 3 lbs. when 

 it should have been 10 lbs., and soda 4 oz. 

 when it should have been 4 lbs. Always and 

 for ever we must be looking a little ont. 

 Let's have the whole thing ventilated, with 

 lots of reports of success and failure. If 

 honey is valuable as a sweetening ingredient 

 in pastry it is important to our cause that 

 the general public should be taught that 

 fact. At present they consider honey near- 

 ly useless to sweeten things with. 



Another thing we want to teach the public, 

 if it's true that a highly superior article of 

 vinegar can be made from honey that should 

 be known. But if the most lucky efforts 

 only result in a vinegar most as good as 

 cider vinegar, and if the usual outcome is a 

 sour liquid badly infected with some mean 

 flavor, and hardly fit to use, let us 

 train our heroic souls to the duty of own- 

 ing up. The Illinois codvention (American 

 Bee .Journal, XXXV 83G) and C. P. Dadant 

 ( XXXVII 1.) have tackled this subject. The 

 general look seems to be that if you would 

 have good vinegar you must have good hon- 

 ey to make it — and we care most to find a 

 use for poor honey. Mr. Lyman stated 

 from experience that the peculiar flavor of 

 honey-dew would persist for two or three 

 years. And I will venture to assume that 

 spoiled honey can never be coaxed into hav- 

 ing anything else than a bad taste. One 

 striking fact brought out is that good vine- 

 gar, capable of keeping pickles, can be 

 bought in quantity for two cents a gallon — 

 acid of distilled wood. Some who have 

 made honey vinegar get lost when you ask 

 them how inuch honey to the gallon ? Da- 

 dant says 1}4 or 2 pounds, according as you 

 wish it strong or mild. The smaller 

 amount if you wish it to make quickly. The 

 practical rule is to put in honey till a fresh 

 egg floats a spot as big as a dime above the 

 fluid. Too much honey means time wast- 

 ed in making. Don't forget that the mak- 

 ing of vinegar is chemically two different 

 processes, not merely one process. You 

 may stop half way, like the man who jump- 

 ed half way across the river. Be sure that 



alcoholic fermentation gets started; then be 

 patient awhile; then see to it that acetic fer- 

 mentaiion gets started — and don't have your 

 liquid cold unless you want to wait a long 

 time. With exposure to air and temperature 

 just right both fermentations will usually 

 proceed ; but if they don't, the operator 

 should start things. Use fruit juice or yeast 

 for the acetic. People sometimes tear their 

 garments foolishly, and pour good vinegar 

 away on finding it full of living creatures 

 like serpents. These are almost of visible 

 size ; and oft the glass cruet, in combination 

 with the transparent fluid, gets up an im- 

 promptu lens, which makes them look both 

 visible and hideous before our eyes on the 

 dinner table. No help for it — except scald- 

 ing the vinegar occasionally. Dadant says 

 beware of vinegar in which vinegar eels will 

 not thrive — poisonous ingredients. 



We are promised a good recipe for mak- 

 ing honey caramels after a bit. Gleanings 

 57. 



The Progressive with a brilliant stroke of 

 strategy has stolen a march upon the other 

 bee-papera, and engaged Doolittle as assis- 

 tant editor. 



The Dadants object to an " up stairs " en- 

 trance because they find that much comb 

 adjacent to it is left empty of honey. \. B. 



.1. 70y. 



Gallup says there is an abundance of 

 wild bees on Catalina island. So the plan 

 of using it as breeding ground for " Si- 

 mon pure " bees of some new race is no go. 

 A. B. J. 709. 



Prof. Bessey says the nectar in a flower is 

 always at the further side of something. 

 Being bait pure and simple it is never at 

 the front, any more than bait is in front of 

 a mouse trap. A. B. J. 726. 



Ernest Root contributes the fact that a 

 slight coating of paraifine on the surface of 

 comb honey so disgusts the bees that they 

 will not remove the cappings, but tunnel 

 under from the side, very much as they do 

 when the front surface of a comb cannot be 

 got at. A. B. J. 740. 



Evidence that too little warmth and too 

 few bees in queen rearing results in queens 

 much blacker than the original ( as well as 

 poorer) is given by Gallup. A. B. J. 743. 



As a result of several gruesome experi- 

 ments Mr. Doolittle reports that when hon- 

 ey fails a colony of bees in the brood rear- 

 ing season the results are about as follows. 

 The first day the eggs are eaten, and the 



