298 



THF BEE-KEEPERS' REVi£jW. 



( Chapter 1. ) Jamaica was infested with 

 ratf which did great damage eating the 

 sugar cane. 



(Chapter 2.) An Asiatic animal of the 

 weasel family, called the mongoose, 

 was chosen as the most promising de- 

 liverer; and a stock of them was brought to 

 Jamaica. Result; perfect success — too 

 much success in fact. 



( Chapter 8. ) The mongoose having 

 greatly multiplied, and having no more rats 

 to eat, declined to starve, and went for 

 pretty much every living thing. Poultry 

 raising became nearly impossible in the isle. 

 Little snakes and reptiles, which no one 

 knew enough to lament over at the time, 

 were nearly all eaten up. 



(Chapter 4.) The mongoose, having be- 

 come a horde like the frogs of Egppt, or the 

 rabbits of Australia, and having eaten 

 pretty much everything living which could 

 be got at, still declined to starve. He res- 

 olutely developed vegetarianism, and ate 

 the swjar cane he was brought to jirotect. 

 Hated to do it do doubt, but it was that or 

 die, and he concluded not to die. 



( Chapter .5. ) Not long after the little 

 reptiles disappeared ticks began to get ab- 

 normally plenty. Soon they were so over- 

 whelmingly plenty as to render life a bur- 

 den to all who had to go into the fields and 

 woods. 



( Chapter G. ) Under the reign of ticks the 

 mongoose's nests of young were nearly all 

 nibbled to death and killed before they 

 could grow up; and the mongoose from be- 

 ing very plenty became scarce. 



( Chapter 7.) The former balance of nat- 

 ure is now reasserting itself. The ticks will 

 soon be reduced to their normal place by 

 little reptiles. The rat-s are reappeariny; 

 and the people are jolly glad to see 'em. 



This true fable teaches that when we play 

 against Nature we may think we have beat- 

 en her when we have not. She just waits 

 and laughs in her sleeve. Finally she plays 

 some card she has hid up her sleeve, and 

 wins the game from us at last. 



If anything is wanting to show that our 

 chemists just at present are in a state of 

 high-mixedness about the sugar, jast digest 

 the following from Gleanings t'.)3. The 

 chemist \V. A. Selser is the writer. 



" Pare honey (or nectar eitliori doos iiotcf)n- 

 tain any cane sugar commercially speaking ; 

 that is there is no sugar of any kind as sold in 

 the market, that is found in pure honey ; but 

 tliere is a very large percentage of sucrose, and 

 sucrose is a chemical term for cane sugar 



but it is not the cane sugar of commerce 

 under any circumstances. It you ask a 

 chemist what sucrose is he will tell yon cane 

 sugar, but also tell yon, not as you understand 

 cane sugar of commerce, and has not the same 

 chemical properties by any means." 



The fact is( it seems to me ) that the sugars 

 are a very numerous class of bodies; and 

 that our chemists as yet have not anywhere 

 nearly finished the task of discriminating 

 them. Glucose and sucrose, levulose and 

 dextrose all signifying classes of sugars in- 

 stead of one exact sugar — and the wise 

 gentlemen unable to tell within a dozen 

 how many individuals there are in a class. 

 It used to be supposed that all substances 

 were identical if formed of the same in- 

 gredients in the same proportion. This is 

 now proven to be false. The way in which 

 the different atoms are put together counts 

 just as strongly as a different proportion of 

 one ingredient. This troublesome fact 

 which cannot be got rid of, but which bor- 

 ders on things intangible, will probably de- 

 lay for a great many years the comjAete 

 classification of the sugars and waxes and 

 other carbon componds. 



Glennings .514 — 517 has a very able article 

 on the granulation of honey, inclosing mat- 

 ter from D. S. Jenkins and Oliver Foster 

 and others. It is related that if we uncap a 

 single cell of honey and stir it with a pin it 

 will granulate, while the rest of the section 

 remains all right. The general style of ex- 

 tracted honey is to soon granulate all solid 

 —to remain so two or three years [ some- 

 times only a few months,] then gradually 

 to return to the liquid state — but keeping, 

 at least for some years, a greater or less 

 proportion solid at the bottom. Liquefy- 

 ing makes some difference in the after pro- 

 gram. Also the hotter we heat it the longer 

 it will remain liquid. Hard to get it hot 

 enough to insure that it will "stay put" 

 until eaten up without damaging it some. I 

 frequently bank on the fact most customers 

 rather prefer honey that has been a little 

 damaged by heat, and give it a pretty good 

 heating up before I send it out. Probably 

 the most valuable thing in the article is its 

 bringing out of the fact that a moderate 

 heat continued a long time, say 48 hours, 

 will insure a liquid condition for a longer 

 time than will a considerably higher tem- 

 perature only a few minutes continued. 

 Such treatment given in a small way would 

 be costly; but in handling honey in quanti- 

 ties the cost per ton would not be very 

 great. 



