1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



285 



fearful that if they waited until the apple-blossoms 

 fell, it would be too late to destroy the laivit. sprayed 

 their trees while in blossotn, and bte-ket pens com- 

 plained that their bees were poisoned, and prevailed 

 upon our Legislature to pass a law forbidding spraying 

 while trees are in blo.s>oin. Many or<:hardisls fell 

 greatly aggrieved by this law, asserting thai they were 

 lorbiddeii lo spiay just when spraying would do the 

 most good, and that they must sacrifice their apple- 

 crop upon their own land, for the beuefit of the bee- 

 keeper, who had no claim upon their orihard as a bte- 

 paslure. More recently, a cart ful observation of ihe 

 habits of the codliiig-moth led to the d scovery that 

 she does not deposit her eggs immediately after the 

 blossom falls, but several day^ later, and that instead 

 of placing thtm in the calyx, or blo-som end of the 

 fiuii, a= had always been supposed, she lays them up- 

 on the side of the young apple, gluing them to the 

 lind, and that wheu the egg hatches the larva; crawl 

 over the fruit in search of a place of concealment 

 which they generally tind in the partially closed ca- 

 lyx This stems to show that there is no occasion for 

 haste in spraying immediately after the blossoms fall, 

 but that any time before the calyx closes will answer 

 when the little cup maj- he filled with the poisoned 

 water ready to give ttie worm an inhospitable wel- 

 come to its first meal. 



Still more recent investigations show that it is not 

 only not ntcessary to spray for the codling-worm 

 when the tre s aie in blos.-om. but that it is a positive 

 detriment to the fruit to spray at such a time. At the 

 late meeting of tlic Western New York Hoi ticullural 

 Society, Prof. S. A. Beach, of the New York .State Ex- 

 periment Station, at Geneva, detailed some experi- 

 ments he had made in spraying apple-tret s, when in 

 bloom, with Paris green. He experimented in t«o or- 

 chaids in Ontario County and two m N agara Couuty. 

 Had sprayed some trees in all of the orchards and left 

 others contiguous without spraying. All the trees 

 were very full of blossoms. On the trees sprayed, but 

 few apples set, a very large proportion of the blossoms 

 falling, apparently, before the fruit set in, while on 

 those not sprayed a very large ciopof fruit grew. To 

 make the test still more conclu-ive he selected trees 

 very full of blossoms alike on both sides, and sprayed 

 one side of each tiee, leaving the other side unspray- 

 ed. The result was, on those sides sprayed, the fiuit 

 .set very sparsely, whi e on the opposite side, tjot 

 sprayed, a heavy burden of fruit giew. Prof. Beach 

 came to the conclusion that, where you fail ly hit an 

 apple blos.som with Paris green strong enough to kill 

 insects, you will pretty certainly kill the blossom. 

 The organs of reproduction in fruit-blossoms, whtn 

 fully e-xposed, are very tender and easily killed. A 

 slight fro^t or a long cold rain will often leave an or- 

 chard, covered with blossoms, with little or no fruit. 

 If thtse experiments shall be confirmed we shall con- 

 fess that the Legislature " builded bttter than it 

 knew;" that while protecting the lives of the bees it 

 prevented fruit-growers from destroying their fruit. 



CHUNK HONEY IN THE SOUTH. 



Peculiarities of the Southern Markets; When free 

 Communication in Comb honey Supers is Need- 

 ed ; mportance of Protecting tomb hon- 

 e.v Supers with Double Walls; Baits 

 and their Real Purposes 



BY ADRIAN GETAZ. 



Several articles have appeared iu bee-jour- 

 nals lately concerning chunk honey — that is, 

 noney cut out from the conihs or sections, and 

 sold in buckets or other receptacles 



There has been some misunderstanding on 

 the subject. The fact is, throughout the 

 South the honey is almost altogether sold that 

 way. In the North the honey, as well as most 

 of the other farm products, is sold to the gro- 

 cers, and the retailing to the customers is done 

 by them. In the South, the farm products, 

 vegetables, fruits, poultry, honey, and even 

 dressed pork, sausage, cornmeal, sorghum 

 molasses, and cider aie bought on the public 

 market by the farmers and gardeners, and re- 



tailed out directly to the consumers, who come 

 also to the market — that is, the majority of 

 them. What is left after the market hours 

 ( 12 o'clock generally) is either peddled from 

 house to house during the afternoon or sold 

 to ihe grocers and shippers for whatever they 

 will give for it. 



Honey is sold that way. Most people buy 

 it that way in preference — some because they 

 think the nice, white, and well sandpapered 

 sections seen iu a few of the groceries are 

 " manufacttired honey." The majority of 

 consumers calculate that, in bu3'ing sections, 

 they have to pay for the wood, and, besides 

 that, the sections are not always full weight 

 by any means ; so they buy now and then a 

 '• bucket " of chunk honey. Generally, also, 

 the vender " throws in " a pound or two ; that 

 is, if the honey weighs, for instance, 21^4 lbs. 

 he will " let it go " for an even 20 lbs. So 

 you see it is a question of " locality " alto- 

 gether. 



That party in Texas who shipped some 

 chunk honey North some time ago was evi- 

 dently ignorant of the fact that the Northern 

 markets require comb honey to be in sections 

 altogether, and thought that, provided the 

 honey be good, the kind of package and shape 

 could not make much difference. 



As to the chunk-honey system being a good 

 one, I say no ; and it is only a question of 

 time when the comb honey of the South will 

 be sold also in seciicn boxts. 



The question has been raised whether more 

 honey could be secured in large boxes than in 

 sections, supposing that both are furnished 

 with foundation. It depends on the condi- 

 tions of the colonies and on the hives used. 

 Years ago it was argued that free communica- 

 tion between the sections or large boxes was 

 ntcessary so the bees can cluster in them. It 

 was also argued that it was necessary to use 

 shallow frames in the brood-nest ; otherwise 

 the honey in the brood combs above the brood 

 would prevent the bees from entering the sec- 

 tions. 



When I began bee-keeping with rather 

 smiiU iingle- walled hives I found it so, more 

 or less. Since I have larger hives and larger 

 C3lonies, and have the supers protected by 

 outer cases and some packing, I find it differ- 

 ent. It is a question of warmth altogether. 

 If your supers are warm enough during the 

 night, as well as during the day, to permit 

 comb-building and other bee-work to go on 

 frtely and uninterruptedly, you will find that 

 it makes but little difference whether you use 

 separators or not — that is, so far as the rapidi- 

 ty of bee-working is concerned. You will 

 find that they will begin almost as soon with- 

 ot t bait sections as with them, and that the 

 honey contained in the upper part of the brood- 

 combs does not cut any figure at all. 



But the supers must be warm enough, other- 

 wise the result would be different. If they 

 are not warm enough, some bait sections will 

 induce part of the cluster to move upstairs, 

 and enable the bees to carry on and extend 

 jiradually the comb-building. If the supers 

 are not warm enough, it is better that free 

 communication should be had between the 



