1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



105 



YIELD PER ACRE. 



You think any sugar that will graiu will do to 

 feed to bees, and seem to think your friend, 

 Mr. Bennett, has some new kind of cane. Well 

 perhaps he has, but we have the same kind, I think, 

 for it grains very readily after being made into mo- 

 lasses; but, as to making 20 bbl. per acre, I think it 

 a rather large average. We have had some little ex- 

 perience in this matter for the past season, as we 

 made 3,300 gal. We cannot tell how many acres 

 are required to raise that amount as it was worked 

 for different parties, but we think it averaged about 

 150 gal. per acre. Our mill is only about 7 rods from 

 our bees, but they do not bother, as long as they can 

 find anything else to work on. To make a cover- 

 ing for our works would cost a great deal as we oc- 

 cupy more than \ i acre; so you need not go west, 

 unless you go beyond this. I think I will try the 

 syrup with one hive in the spring, in order to start 

 brood early; for then there will probably be no dan- 

 ger in feeding it. B. F. Cowgill. 



Villisca, Iowa, Dec. 29, 1879. 



SOROHUM SAFE FOOD FOR BEES. 



The Amber Sugar Cane seed, as sent me in 5c. 

 packag-es, has been raised here by acres, and 4 mills 

 manufacture it within 4 1 c miles of our place. 175 

 gal. per acre is very good. I fed 200 gal. sorghum 

 in 18(54, with good results. Jesse Oren. 



La Porte City, Iowa, Feb. 17, 1880. 

 Was it in the spring or fall that you fed 

 this quantity safely, friend O.V and was it 

 not a pretty nice article? 



WHICH IS CHEAPER, ORAPE SDOAR OR SORGHUM? 



Which will be the cheaper for feeding bees in the 

 spring, sorghum syrup at 35c. per gal. weighing 11 

 lb., or grape sugar at what it will probably cost to 

 get it from Davenport? I never heard of sorghum 

 as feed for bees until lately, and I am not sure now 

 that it will not kill them. 



You seem to be surprised that sugar can be made 

 from our sorghum. I never knew it to fail to gran- 

 ulate, if boiled down thick, without burning. Our 

 barrel always has a great quantity of sugar at the 

 bottom, but it is abominably black or brown stuff, 

 and no amount of draining would take the corn or 

 sorghum taste out of it. However, there are many 

 who like it, and a great deal is grown and manufac- 

 tured here. We have also what is called the " Early 

 Amber Sugar Cane," superior, I think, to any other 

 kind. Still it will never make a sugar that will pass 

 for coffee A. as yours does. 



Do you think this sugar that lies a foot thick or 

 more in the bottom of our molasses barrel would 

 make better bee-feed, if taken out and drained from 

 a bag, or the like? and will it do to feed it before 

 vegetation starts, if I set my bees out so early? 



I am feeding several swarms now, with white- 

 sugar candy in plates inverted over the frames, as 

 you recommend. (Let me say here that this one 

 idea which I got in Gleanings has been worth more 

 than a dollar to me.) I cover the plate, as I do the 

 whole hive, with plenty of cloth, and the bees stick 

 to the candy until it is about all gone. The above 

 mentioned colonies were late September swarms 

 that gathered little or no honey. C. H. Miles. 



Pawnee City, Pawnee Co., Neb., Jan. 14, '80. 

 Grape sugar, when melted without the ad- 

 dition of any water at all, makes a very thick 

 syrup. The Davenport sugar can now be 

 bought by the barrel at 3ic. If a gallon of 



the sorghum Aveighs 11 lb., it costs a trifle less 

 than the grape sugar syrup. Which is worth 

 the more? One is principally cane sugar, 

 and the other principally grape sugar. 

 Without any accurate experiments, I should 

 call cane sugar worth twice as much as grape 

 sugar for feeding bees. This would be 

 largely in favor of the sorghum, to say noth- 

 ing of the cost of getting the grape sugar 

 from the factory. The great danger in rais- 

 ing our own bee feed is that so many will 

 kill their bees with a poor article fed in the 

 fall; whereas, if they bought good sugar 

 they would save them. To be sure the 

 grained sugar is better than the syrup, but 

 neither will do any harm if fed during 

 weather permitting them to fly freely. Any 

 grained sugar can be made white by the 

 usual modes of clarifying cane or even ma- 

 ple sugar. 



OUR HONEY EXTRACTORS AS CENTRIFU- 

 GAL MACHINES. 



Press the syrup out as a friend mentions 

 above, and, if you want it still whiter, wash 

 it with warm water, squeezing the water out 

 quickly, or throwing it out with your honey 

 extractor, which, by the way, will make a 

 very good centrifugal machine for small 

 amounts of sugar. Several samples of beau- 

 tiful sugar have been sent, and I like it al- 

 most as well as new maple sugar stirred off 

 dry. 



COST OF APPARATUS FOR SUGAR MAKING. 



Will you please give us the price of press, to ex- 

 press the juice from sugar cane, and a cut so we can 

 make one. If I ask any one to send with me for 

 seed, he asks what a press will cost. 



S. Cuyler, N. Y., Jan. 27, '80. G. H. C. Potter. 



Iron rolls are used for expressing the juice, 

 and they cost all the way from $2-5.00 up- 

 ward. A suitable pan will cost as much 

 more, and the centrifugal machines for ma- 

 king dry sugar are mentioned in the book 

 on sugar making, at S40.00. Of course not 

 every one who raises the cane is expected to 

 have a mill, but one mill does all the work 

 for all those who raise cane for miles around. 

 I think the book on the Early Amber Sugar 

 Cane will be well worth the price to all who 

 are going to try it. The publishers price is 

 Si. 00; but I have purchased a hundred of 

 him, and got them so low that I will supply 

 our readers for only 7oc., a book nicely bound 

 in cloth, sent by mail, and a paper of Early 

 Amber sugar thrown in, to show you what it 

 is like. Isn't that liberal? 



THE EARLY AMBER IN CANADA. 



I have been somewhat interested in the remarks 

 about the Early Amber Sugar Cane, but fear, as you 

 remark, that the making of syrup and sugar, and 

 bee-keeping, cannot well be combined. It is a re- 

 markable coincidence that some Amber cane was 

 grown in this neighborhood last season, as a forage 

 plant, by a Mr. Bennett, and it attained a height of 

 eleven feet. It was planted June 12th, and cut Sept. 

 22d, at which time we had severe frost, and it was 

 then quite green. W. P. Taylor. 



Fitzroy Harbor, Ont., Can., Feb. 10, '80. 



I have been manipulating sorghum for over 20 

 years, and do not recollect ever seeing a bee about 

 my mill. R. Robinson. 



Laclede, Fayette Co., 111., Feb. 9, 1880. 



