556 



gLkanIngs in hj^e cuL'^uKi:. 



Aug. 



opening cut in it will be directly over the slit, and 

 pour in your feed. In cool weather, cover with 

 several thicknesses of cloth or old carpet, so as to 

 keep in the heat. This is decidedly the best cheap 

 feeder that I have ever tried— no rol)beis, no 

 drowned bees, no stings, no expense. 

 Greensburg-, Tnd., July 29, 188."). J. A. STA(ir.. 



Friend S., we have thought of making 

 smokers in the way you describe, but it 

 makes them more complicated, and there 

 will always be a chance for air getting out 

 inidet- that tin slide. We try to have onr 

 bellows so tight that, when the blast-tube is 

 closed by the finger, the bellows can not be 

 closed, even with considerable pressure : 

 and every bellows should be thus tight to 

 work effectively. — Where a young queen 

 gets away under the circumstaiices you men- 

 tion, she is liable to go wherever it happens, 

 or where she hears bees humming. As a 

 rule, though, they come back to the place 

 from which they took wing. — Your feeder 

 is substantially the one figured in Mr. Lang- 

 stroth's book. You say, in enumerating its 

 good qualities, " No expense.'" Were you to 

 make fifty or a hundred, I think you would 

 find that they do cost something, after all. 



THE BRANCHVILLE CASE OF POISON 

 HONEY. 



SOME ADDITIONAT 



"E take the following from the Dranch- 

 ville Banner of July i) : 



Editors Branchvilli' Bminrr:— The .Tuly 

 number of Gleunh)u>< in Bee Culturr con- 

 tains an article on the subject of the recent 

 cases of poisoning from honey, with whifli your 

 readers are familiar. There is also a leit«M- iroui 

 Prof. A. .1. Cook, of the Michigan Ajjiicultural 

 College, who asserts that the poisoning could not 

 have resulted from the presence of (ieUemium in 

 the honey, or, if present, the drug must have been 

 maliciously placed there. 



Without being an e.xpert in niattei-s concerning 

 bees and honey, the writer believes tluit the cases 

 referred to in Gleanings, in the letter oi Mr. and 

 Mrs. Dukes, were the result of poisoning by (ld»cmi- 

 um contained in the honey, and begs to submit 

 the following reasons for that belief. The whole 

 question is certainly worthy of close investigation. 



1. The symptoms produced by the to.xic action of 

 Oelsemium nempfirvirens are: 



Diaphoresis; muscular relaxation; dizziness, and 

 dimness of vision; dilatation of pupils; reduced pul- 

 sation; retarded respiration; absence of stupor or 

 deliruim.— [7. S. Dispensatory. 



Every one of these symptoms was present in all 

 the cases above described. 



2. Pavy says: " The honey, again, of certain coun- 

 tries and districts is well known to possess certain 

 special qualities, dependent on the flora of the lo- 

 cality. * * * * Hence also the deleterious quali- 

 ties which the honey of Trebizonde, upon the Mlack 

 Sea, has long been known to possess, and which iiie 

 due to its collection from aspecies of rhododendron, 

 the Azalia pmitica, which grows upon the neiglilmr- 

 ing mountains."— Fi>()(( atul rUitrtics. 



Every one knows how the odor, the taste, and col- 

 oring matter of flowers are frequently imparted to 

 honey. What ground is there, then, for asserting 

 that the toxic principle ot Howers can not be also 

 conveyed to the honey? 



;j. That the flowers of the yellow .iessamine arc 

 very poisonous, is well known in the South. One 

 instance will suffice. Sonu'two months sinee, Mrs. 

 Clark, a Northern lady, sta>ing in (>r imgeburg (18 

 miles from this point) gathei-ed a larjjc liou()uet of 

 yellow-jessamine flowers, and thoughtlessly chewed 

 the blossoms, while walking. An hour afterward 

 she exhibited every symptom described above, and 

 recovered after several hours, vomiting very freely. 



4. On the coast of South Carolina, and on the Sea 

 Islands, where the jessamine grows in rank luxuri- 

 ance, the i)oisonous qualities of honey (especially 

 wild lioneyi are known to everybody. No planter 

 or colored person dares to eat wilil honey there. 

 During the war many of the Federal soldiers, who 

 ate freely of this honey, found out its deadly effects 

 to tlieir cost, although no deaths are known" to have 

 lollowed from this cause. 



5. The Ininey which caused the Branchville poi- 

 soning was obtained by Mrs. .Jacob Dukes from her 

 father, who lives near the edge of a swamp where 

 jessamine grows in great aliundauce, and where, 

 during the present late spring, no other flowers, or 

 very few, were accessible to the bees. 



In the case of Mrs. Dukes, her son, and the color- 

 ed cliildren, we see the effect of a poison which is 

 traced clearly and indisputably to the honey. This 

 Ijoison in its action produced e\ ery symptom ot gd- 

 seiniiiin poisoning, to the minutest particular. The 

 bees (/id make the spring honey chiefly from the 

 yellow-jessamine Howers; and the suppositifui that 

 any one mixed any dr\ig with this honey in the 

 comb, is out of the ()uestion, to any one knowing 

 the parties. Is not this very strong evidence as to 

 the active agent producing the sickness and deaths 

 above recorded? The strength of these facts can 

 not, at all events, be shaken by a simple assertion 

 or opinion from any source whatexer. A. T. P. 



Friend A. T. P.. our thanks are due to you 

 for calling oiu' attention to the fact that so 

 good an authority as the U. 8. Dispensatory 

 describes so plainly the poison from gelsemi- 

 um. As you state it, I should say there 

 was no mistake. We have almo.st positive 

 evidence in regard to the source of the hon- 

 ey : and hereafter when these symY)toms fol- 

 low after eating honey, we niay be pretty 

 sure it is owing to the" presence of yellow 

 jessamine in the vicinity. It may be, that 

 honey made frotn this plant is not always 

 etjually poisonous ; but in any case, where'it 

 is known to grow extensively people should 

 be caieriil about eating freshly gathered un- 

 capix'd honey. It would be qiiite a valuable 

 l)oiiit now to asceitain whether this honey 

 remains poisonous after being thoroughly 

 ripened and capped over by the bees. 



AFTER-SWAKMS; CAN THEY BE PRE- 

 VENTED? 



UOOI.TTTI, 



IMPROVE.MENTS IN THE PLANS AL- 

 READY IN USE. 



fHATEVER may be said regarding the pre- 

 vention of increase w here an apiary is run 

 for extracted honey, one thing is certain: 

 That an apiary so worked as to obtain the 

 best results in comb honey must of necessi- 

 ty give more or less natural swarms. I believe 

 with many others, that jiis^ one natural swarm from 

 each old colony in the spring will give better re- 

 turns in comb honey than it is possible to get by 

 any other mode of management; while if more 

 than one swarm are allowed from any ope colony, 

 with such an afterswarm goes at least a half of 

 what might be obtained as surplus; hence it be- 

 comes very desirable to prevent all after-swarms. 

 For this reason the subject has been written about 

 and talked upon for the past quarter of a century, . 

 and many plans of prevention given, the most of 

 which have proven to be a failure when put in 

 practice. 



Among the plans given, two methods have stood, 

 and are the most prominent; the first of which is 

 the cutting of (jueen-cells, and the second the mov- 

 ing of hives from the old stand to a new. As I wish 



