526 



CiLEANiNGS W BEk c\jL'i'ijiii<:. 



AVii. 



made a rush for the telephone. But I jiucss they 

 iliiln't hear much, for the swarm came off at one 

 side of the apiary, and came in contact with the 

 wire but very little, if any at all. So I soon saw 1 

 must have mme wires, and went to work and 

 stretched two wires across the apiary, running 

 them into the kitchen, as this is where our " stand- 

 ing army " is mostly located. Bui, no good. It will 

 answer the purpose sometimes, but not to be relied 

 upon; and, laying- all jokes aside, I have lost two 

 valuable swarms bj' just depending on the tele- 

 phone. It is up yet; but I think this is the last sea- 

 son that my little pets shall bumj) their heads 

 against any such nuisance. A. H. Duff. 



Creighton, Ohio, July U, 188i5. 



Friend I)., it seems to me you are coii- 

 demiiiiig the instrument a little bit prema- 

 turely. If your bees spread out when they 

 swarm as oius do, 1 can't see how they miss 

 striking the wire— at least some part of the 

 swarm ; and even if one edge of it should 

 come near the wire, you would have notice 

 enough. Were not those two swarms a lit- 

 tle bit erratic in their behavior? The wire 

 should be about as high up as the bees usu- 

 ally go when they are whirling about, pre- 

 paratory to clustering. I have never before 

 heard of a report indicating tliat more than 

 one wire was needed. Tiie room ought to 

 be rather still where the sounders are. In a 

 shop where much racket is going on, no 

 doubt tlipy might fail to give notice. See 

 fiiend Salislnny's report in another column. 



WHAT I KNOW ABOUT THOSE SOUR- 

 ED APPLE SKINS. 



ANY THINO KKSE^rnr.I 

 CAN KE MADE FltO.M 



HONEY THAT 



tElNG in the fruit evaporating business, I have 

 had a tew skins and cores to dispose of, so 1 

 will throw what light I have on the sub- 

 ject. It is without a doubt a fact that some 

 of the drying factories do barrel up their 

 skins and cores, and ship them to the large cities 

 and sell them, l)Ut that is the extent of my informa- 

 tion in that direction, as I have never shijjped any 

 off; but I am told that they go to the vinegar facto- 

 ries. P'rom the refuse of 180U bushels of apples last 

 fall, I have about 40 barrels of vinegar now making, 

 which is quite an important item in the business; 

 for without that 1 should have been left last season, 

 for the dried fruit did not sell for enough in mar- 

 ket to cover the cost of its production. As to their 

 making honey, or even jolly out of the skins after 

 they can get them from the factories, I think it is 

 rather mixed; for I liave found that if the weather 

 is any way warm, fermentation will begin in from 

 10 to U> hours after they are separated fr<mi the 

 apple. ] liiive often n<)tiee<l that a l)ushel or two 

 taken olf in the evening, if put in a close tx)x or 

 barrel, will be quite hot by next morning; antl it is 

 pretty well known that apple cider will not make 

 good jelly, even if it will jell at all, after fermenta- 

 tion has started. But some factories are making a 

 genuine cider jelly, and a splendid good article it is 

 too, from apple skins and cores. It is nuide by 

 boiling with steam, and in the wonderfully short 

 space of three minutes from the cold eider to the 

 llnished jelly. No tiavoring of any kind, nor any 

 adulteration, need be used. The inventor of the 



rapid process says that every thing used about the 

 works must positively be kept scrupulously clean; 

 and the stock to be used must be fresh; that cider 

 even an hour from the press will sometimes start 

 fermentation enough to prevent its jellying. Yet I 

 find these makers of pure jelly have as much to 

 fight against in the markets as the honey-producers 

 do; for the markets are flooded with all kinds of 

 bogus so called fruit jellies that are said to be made 

 of glucose and coloring matter, and llavored to rep- 

 resent about or quite all of the real fruit jellies. 

 I have never yet made any jelly, but have some- 

 times thought I would. A. A. Fradenbuug. 

 Port Washington, Ohio, July 8, 188.-). 



Friend F., be careful you do not fall into 

 the same mistake we are trying to correct, 

 when you intimate that our fruit jellies are 

 adulterated with colored glucose. Are not 

 the fruit jellies to be found in our groceries 

 and stores made from genuine fruit, as a 

 rule? \^ery likely some of it is poorly made, 

 but that is not a crime like adulteration. 



A KIND LETTER WITH SOME SUG- 

 GESTIONS. 



SWAUMINn BY MOVING TIIE OLD HIVE 

 AWAY, ETC. 



fHAVE tested all the queens that T 

 fiom you this season, and, like all tl 

 bought in former seasons, prove to I 



have got 

 the others 

 have been 

 jnirely mated, and two or three of your dollar 

 queens that I bought this season would bring 

 me a good price as fancy tested queens. I have 

 never lost a queen in introducing, but I have been 

 sadly vexed with the Peet cage. I prefer to fasten 

 the cage on the comb without brushing off all the 

 bees, and it works all right until I go to remove the 

 tin slide when I find them fitted in so tight that it 

 would tear the comb, cage, and all, to pieces. Now, 

 for my use I would have the tin slide fit so loosely 

 that it would drop out, and then secure it with a 

 half-inch wire nail driven in the lap at the top. 



My bees are doing well now. 1 lost aliout lialf 

 in wintering. I bought some in box hives after 

 they were too full of honey to transfer, and I divid- 

 ed them by moving them in the middle of the day 

 and setting a hive with a eaged queen in their 

 place, as per instructions in A B C book, and the 

 colonies I made in that way are the best for bus- 

 iness of any in the yard, and it is the only plan that 

 I could think of to prevent after swarming with a 

 box hive. 



I i)lanted 1000 strawberry-plants last spring. I 

 followed Doolitlle's instructions, as described in 

 Feb. Gleanings. I like the plan excellently, and 

 my plants are extra fine. 



I must thank you again for your kind and jtrompt 

 manner of filling my small orders. 



Biirnettsville, fnd., July 6, 1885. A. B. Hehman. 



Friend IT., I am very glad of the report you 

 give in regard to untested (lueens — not on 

 mv own account only, but becatise it si)eaks 

 well for the friends in the South who have 

 been sni)i)lying us. (,)ueen-re;u-ing in the 

 South, before we can p.)ssibly gel at it here 

 in the ^'ortli, is getting to be a growing in- 

 dustry. Some of the time during the pres- 

 ent season we have been receiving at the 

 rate of from 50 to 100 a day.— Your sugges- 



