THR feEK-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



5^7 



so often of scrapiiiLjs. in whiih lu)iu\' is 

 mixed with propolis, hastens the death 

 of the honey relish. .Mas, much honey is 

 poor hy nature; and we can't kill Nature 

 off. Soniethinij can he done in the line 

 of withdrawing such honey from market, 

 and feeding it to the bees next year; but 

 the great desideratum is a way to make 

 bees transform poor honey into beeswax, 

 or some other way to get it into cash 

 without mankintl having to eat it. — Ah, 

 yes, I remember now, there's another 

 fellow that must be stoned into non-ex- 

 istence — needs it worse than any of the 

 rest — the foundation maker that runs out 

 surplus foundation flavored with the mild- 

 ly putrid grease of soap. He is the vil- 

 lian most largely responsible for a grow- 

 ing public distaste for hone^', I imagine. 



Review 290 comes with the suggestion 

 of a remedy, a foundation lubricant from 

 Germany, said to be very effective, and 

 with no soap in it; three parts of cheese 

 maker's whey and one part alcohol. It 

 will cost a few cents, per hundred weight 

 of foundation, more than the soap; and on 

 that accoinit perchance the villian men- 

 tioned above will refuse to use it till the 

 stones hit his head pretty square. 



(On the same page friend Thompson 

 brings another note from foreign journals 

 which may be much more valuable than 

 it looks. To fill one side of a comb care- 

 fully with sugar, to wet it with care 

 enough not to spill water around, to wait 

 a whole day for perfect solution of the 

 sugar, and then to turn the comb over 

 and do the same on the other side — all 

 this looks too fussy. Much feeding can 

 be done, however, with combs filled only 

 on one side; and with 20 or 50 colonies 

 to feed waiting a day, or even two days, 

 cuts comparatively a less figure. A 

 cabinet of shelves can easily be extem- 

 porized to hold the frames while the 

 sugar is dissolving — uprights two boards, 

 and the shelves open gridirons of lath. 

 If the method proves to be really a good 

 method the things which look forbid- 

 ding at first sight need not count as 

 very much. But what ails the supph' 



firms that they do not offer for sale a 

 cheaj) and effective centrifugal comb fil- 

 ler? Then we would have an alternative. 

 Then also we could put on our extracting 

 supers a little early, and return our poor, 

 left-over honey to the bees, and often get 

 most of it eaten up at a profit. 



The Progressive. 



Somnambulist thinks he wouldn't like 

 to work for a boss who dug his potatoes 

 in the freezing weather of late autumn, 

 and husked his corn in the winter bliz- 

 zards. .\iid he has the cheek to fling this 

 at our first man Aspinwall, because, for- 

 .sooth, he said to defer feeding for winter 

 stores until t'ne brood had matured. Page 

 2 So. 



On page 2S2 James Cormac finds that 

 .slotted separators cause corresponding 

 ridges on the honey, injuring its appear- 

 ance. So I should expect. Once when 

 very economicalh' inclined I made some 

 separators of woven tin strips. These 

 ridged the honey in correspondence with 

 themselves. 



On page 284 R. C. Aikin commences a 

 series of articles on his own experience. 

 If my memor}- serves me aright friend 

 Aikin won his spurs as a writer in the 

 Review, although we have not seen much 

 of him of late. The series promises 19 be 

 of decided interest. The personal mat- 

 ters of his childhood, and his first green 

 experiments, furnish the first paper. 

 Born in Ohio, like presidents and big 

 folks generally. " Runt of the family- ; " 

 yet his mother's chief tinker, who mend- 

 ed her sewing machine and repaired her 

 chairs. Having a small and tall hive ,one 

 of his first inventions was a series of four 

 inch rims to put one by one inider the 

 little box that served as surplus apart- 

 ment, when the bees had the comb nice- 

 Iv begun. The result was a sweet Tower 

 of Babel, with combs running from top 

 to bottom; and in the end each rim was 

 sliced off from the tower with a long thin 

 Icnife. 



On page 290 J. W. Rouse complains of 

 getting only 120 pounds to the colon\-, 

 which was only half what he expected. 



