90 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



short tube. The bottom is hinged ; but in 

 those we are now making, the fuel recepta- 

 cle extends lower down, and opens in the 

 side just like the Simplicity. It stands up 

 as solidly as an oil can, and" is the most com- 

 pact and simple of any smoker yet out. 



Is there not something wonderful in all 

 these coincidences? Friend Clark, the bee- 

 keepers of our nation owe you, too, a vote 

 of thanks, for your very timely invention, 

 so kindly offered. Just" see how simple! a 

 single piece of tin for the body, and another 

 for the bottom, and the whole so compact 

 that it can doubtless be mailed without any 

 box at all ! Nothing can be cheaper or 

 simpler. We can give you a nice, large smo- 

 ker, on this plan, for 7oc. or :50c each, by the 

 dozen. 



I should have mentioned last month, that 

 friend Corey, besides giving us the cold 

 blast, has devised a most ingenious and 

 cheap valve. In fact it is so cheap, that we 

 can have a valve almost as easily as not to 

 have one. It is simply to bore a hole in the 

 bellows board, and tack over it an oblong- 

 piece of soft leather. For a hole f in. in di- 

 ameter, you want a piece of leather about H 

 by 3i in., putting a tack in each corner. In 

 making bellows, there will be fragments of 

 leather left, that will answer 'for nothing 

 else. Such valves work beautifully, are ab- 

 solutely air tight, and I hardly know how 

 they can get out of order. I have studied 

 much on valves, and when I saw it, I felt 

 ashamed, to think I had never thought of a 

 thing so simple. 



AN OPEN LETTER TO MB. COKEY. 



Mr, John 6. Corey, Santa Paula, California : 



Dear Sir:— I have tbe pleasure of mailing- to your 

 address this day, one of my large sized bee smokers, 

 in which I have arranged and developed the princi- 

 ple you have so generously donated to the bee-keep- 

 ers of America. 



How far superior cold smoke may prove to that 

 heretofore used, time and extensive use alone can 

 determine. 



To facilitate such practical experiment without 

 possible loss, should it prove of no real value, I havo 

 constructed the attachment contained and shown 

 herewith, which can be used or removed without 

 trouble or expense, as may be desired. 



I was pained to receive so unmerited a slur from a 

 practical bee-keeper— one of a class of citizens whom 

 it has ever been my greatest desire to benefit, and 

 among whom it has ever been my pleasure and pride 

 to associate. 



I have a patent, it is true, covering- my smoker, 

 but my smoker has not raised the price of smokers, 

 neither has it debased their quality; but, on the con- 

 trary, has done just what the framers of the patent 

 law designed that it and all other real improvements 

 should do; viz., placed within easy reach of the 

 user or consumer the best quality of goods, at a 

 reasonable price. Respectfully yours, 



T. F. Bingham. 



Otsego, Mich., Feb. 18, 1879. 



GLUCOSE ONCE MORE. 



BELIEVING you to be in error on the glucose 

 question, and feeling- convinced that vou are 

 exceedingly desirous to be set right if wrong, 

 I desire to present the following points to you and 

 your readers, feeling that, though all the points be 

 not well taken, the importance of the subject 

 should insure them an earnest consideration bv all 

 honest and candid honey producers and dealers. 



1. Grape sugar and glucose are one and the same, 

 home dealers may call the liquid form glucose, but 

 whether solid or in form of syrup, both are grape 

 sugar, both glucose. This nomenclature is found in 

 all scientific works. Any manufacturer who devi- 



ates from it is facing all scientific usage, and of 

 course must back down. 



2. In your kind letter, as also in the current vol- 

 ume of Gleanings, page 41, you ask, "Can any bee- 

 keeper convert grape sugar into glucose'/" Of 

 course not, no more than you can change a quadru- 

 ped into an animal with four legs. They are already 

 the same thing. Hid you asked, cm anyone con- 

 vert solid grape sugar or glucose such as I sell, into 

 the liquid, i would have answered, yes; just put it 

 into a basin, add water, then boil cm the stove till it 

 is of n desired thickness, and you have it. The solid 

 glucose you sent me, I treated that way, and return 

 it to you in bottle No. 1. 



3. You ask, "Can the grape sugar 1 sell be used 

 to adulterate honey?" In bottle ISo. 2, I have mixed 

 the syrup from the solid glucose half and half with 

 white clover honey; in bottle No. :j, there is only 

 one-fourth grape sugar; while bottle No. 4 is pure 

 honey. Here then you have the full answer to your 

 question. Owing to the greater specific gravity of 

 the honey, the liquids do not readily mix; but by 

 warming and shaking them, they mix thoroughly 

 and afterwards remain so. Please repeat the ex- 

 periment for yourself . You need no laboratory, or 

 even skill; just use your cook stove, a basin, and 

 water, as you do when you make a syrup from cane 

 sugar to feed your bees. 



4. But what of the quality of honey thus adulter- 

 ated? I made the following test. I prepared four 

 dishes as follows: No. 1, pure honey; No. 2, three- 

 fourths honey; No. 3, two-thirds honey; No. I, half 

 honey; the remainder was syrup made from the 

 glucose you sell to bee-keepers. 



I had several persons test them. The following is 

 the result. 



X g. 

 good 

 best 



good 

 good 

 good 

 good 

 good 

 good 

 good 



I asked all to test my several grades of honey; no 

 i one, except Mrs. Cook and myself, knew what 1 h-d 

 i done till judgement had been rendered. I fully be- 

 lieve that with no honey to compare them with, few 

 would complain either of that with > i or ' : i grape 

 1 sugar. 



SHALL BEE-KEEPERS USE GRAPE SUGAlt.' 



An article which appeared in a late issue of the 

 i New York Tribune, gives my views on the subject. 

 I I should have less objection to artificial adultera- 

 tion, if each can or bottle was labeled glucose and 

 honey. A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College, Lansing, Mich., Feb. 12, '79. 



Many thanks, friend Cook, for your very 

 faithful experiment. I give up, and beg 

 pardon ; the bee-keeper can, if so disposed. 

 add as much as I grape sugar to pure honey, 

 I or perhaps even more, and still have it pass 

 as honey. It seems to prevent candying al- 

 so; but" the bottle No. 1. the contents of 

 which you seem to think you had made into 

 glucose, contained only solid grape sugar such 

 as I sent vou. Before me is a small bottle of 

 glucose, that although so thick it will hardly 

 inn. has remained as clear as crystal, for the 

 I iast -1 years, and yet has been exposed many 

 times to temperatures far below zero. 



Do not you and Prof. Kedzie owe me an 

 apology, friend Cook V You failed with the 

 basin on the stove; suppose you now try in 

 the laboratory, to convert grape sugar into 

 glucose. I have made many experiments 

 with great care, to see if there was any dan- 

 ger of the grape sugar's being carried into 

 the surplus boxes, when fed to bees to pro- 

 mote breeding, and I am satisfied that there 

 is none. 



