THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



131 



ly hinges upon how nuich you can expose 

 the tlnid to the air at a temperature of sev- 

 enty or more degrees of heat: and good 

 vinegar may be made of eidar, honey, orsyr- 

 np, within the space of L'l hours; and the rea- 

 son that we can not make vinegar out of 

 honey, and thus create a market for low 

 grades of honey, is because no one will sell 

 his honey for less than one cent per pound. 

 If he did, honey vinegar would go into com- 

 petiton with corn and syrup vinegars. 



This is not material with the man or wo- 

 man who has a few pounds of inferior hon- 

 ey which they desire to convert into vinegar. 

 We would use one pound of honey to a gal- 

 lon of soft water, setting in an open barrel, 

 and covering with thin cloth to keep out in- 

 sects and dirt; and after the barrel is lilled 

 we would add a gallon of good yeast to 

 every barrel, stirring up occasionally for 

 the first three weeks, when the result will be 

 very good vinegar. AVheii .*ufiQciently strong, 

 draw off with a siphon, such as can be drawn 

 without sediment, and make the second 

 barrel in what is left in the barrel, and you 

 will find that the second lot will oiake much 

 quicker than the first. 



Of course, thestrengtli of the vinegar will 

 be gauged entirely by the amount of honey 

 nsed. Vinegar is an industrious fellow; but 

 when he has used up all the materials yon 

 have given him to work on he will stop ; nor 

 will he stop until he has accomplished this. 



' )f cour-'e. it rau=«t be tiorne in mind that 

 a temperature of above 70 must be kept up, 

 either by the sun's heat or by artificial means, 

 daring the process of making. 



Value of Salt in the Apiary. 

 Mr. Ira Barber of N. Y. writes thus to the 

 •Vmerican Bee .Journal regarding the differ- 

 ent uses to which salt may be put by the 

 bee-keeper. 



" Having used salt for several years, for 

 many things in caring for the bees and hon- 

 ey, with such good results, is my excuse for 

 offering it for publication. 



Salt is the best deodorizor for a cellar 

 that I have ever found, as it leaves the cel- 

 lar sweet and healthy for the bees. After 

 the bees are out, and the liead taken irp, and 

 everything not belonging there is taken out, 

 then cover the cellar bottom all over with a 

 ooatofsalt, a fourth-incli deep, or nearly 

 that, and leave it there to dissolve. Two or 

 three applications are sulVicient to cleanse 

 the cellar, and make it as fresh and sweet as 

 a cellar that is just built. \Vhere the floor 

 of the cellar is wood, the suit will preserve 

 the wood, and make a lasting job, and also 

 a clean floor. 



.\gain, I use salt to tell me when the at- 

 mosphere is too damp in tho room for ftie 

 safety of my crop of hoiif-y, from .July to 

 ()ctof)er. One or two smitl dishes of salt — 

 a tea-saucer is all right are filled about 

 two-thirds full of fine taMe-salt, and are 

 placed on the nile of hoiH \ . and all I have 

 to do is to keep the salt <ir\ . for as long as 

 it is dry and crumbly, tin room is all right. 



Whenever you find the salt damp, or little 

 drops of brine about the saucer, where little 

 particles of salt have lodged, you may know 

 that a fire is needed at once to dry out the 

 room. 



I use salt in front of all my hives to kill 

 out the grass, so that every colony has a 

 clean front yard of its own, with no 

 alighting-board to get out of place, as every 

 hive sets flat on the ground, on a loose bot- 

 tom-board. 



Again, I use salt to scrub my kitchen 

 floor when it gets grindy, as a few quarts of 

 coarse salt scattered over the floor when 

 quite wet, and thorou ^hly worked with a 

 broom, will give the floor a fresh appear- 

 ance, the same as it does on brass or copper 

 when corroded. " » 



The Quality of Honey Stored in Deep Cells. 

 One of Dr. Miller's "straws" in a recent 

 number of Gleanings reads as follows ; 



"1 don't know every thing, Mr. Editor, 

 but I think I know that you don't know what 

 you're talking about on page '28G. I've used 

 drawn combs by the thousand, and don't 

 care how deep the cells are so they'er nice 

 and clean, and don't come close enough to 

 the separators to be bridged. " 



To this the editor replies as follows : 



" While you are perhaps able to use full- 

 depth cells, the majority do not seem to 

 make a success of it. While I may be wrong, 

 I base the reasons for my opinion, as stated 

 on page 286, on two things: Honey stored in 

 shallow cells, the cells being drawn out 

 gradually as they are filled, acquires a cer- 

 tain delicious flavor that I do not believe 

 will be found in honey stored in deep cells 

 at the start. Theoretically, at least, honey 

 will ripen in shallow cells more perfectly 

 than in depp ones. A good many people 

 always believe that comb honey is a little 

 finer flavored than extracted; and I believe 

 the real foundation for this belief lies in 

 the fact that honey in sections is generally 

 produced from foundation ( comb-building 

 keeping pace with the storage ), while the 

 extracted is almost invariably stored in full- 

 depth extracting combs. My second reason 

 for favoring the shallow depth drawn ( or 

 level ) comb is that the bees have a chance 

 to work the cell-walls over, where, if they 

 were full-depth they would let them alone. 

 In any case, full dei)th or not, one object of 

 leveling is to take off the top of the cells 

 the slight ring of wax that the bees always 

 leave, because the cell-walls themselves 

 without this ring would not be strong 

 enough to withstand the constant travel of 

 the bees. " 



I believe that as fine honey as I ever ate 

 was stored in full-depth cells. My belief is 

 that poor honey in full-depth cells, that is, 

 honey of poor f/vnlHi/, arises from the 

 combs not being fully cleaned the previous 

 fall. The cutting down of the cells was not 



