1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



381 



niodate the largest force of bees that can be 

 held together iu one brood-nest. My notion 

 of brood-nests is this : One shallow enough so 

 that two of them will accommodate a large 

 colony, or one deep enough so that one will 

 accommodate one such colony. Taking this 

 view of the matter, I do not see that friend 

 Pettit gains any thing by decrying the loss of 

 1600 or 2000 cells to a colony of L. depth, 

 when we do not need, if the view be correct, 

 that number of cells. But perhaps it may be 

 asked, "Why not cut down the L. depth? " 

 We are doing it in the Danzenbaker hive, to a 

 certain extent, but we can not get bee-keep- 

 ers who are already using L. depth (and we 

 would not if we could), to go to the great ex- 

 pense of changing over their fixtures for the 

 shallower depths. — Ed.] 



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^/lOM OUR MEIGHBORS FIELDS. 

 ■■■ • Br'i3T£f>ioci-.^' 



May-day! twine to the top, with flowers sweet, 



The May-pole's stately shaft; 

 I,et children laugh as did their sires 



When they, around it laughed. 



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Somebody says queens' wings need not be 

 clipped — just slit them in the direction she 

 walks, near the outer edge, and she will pre- 

 serve her beauty, and yet not be able to fly a 

 foot. 



Now that the question is settled as to the 

 damage bees do 7iot do to fruit, let's determine 

 what good they do as fertilizers of fruit-blos- 

 soms. The picture on page .3.39 would be a 

 good starter for " Vol. I. No. 1." 

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Will bee-keeping die out as the country be- 

 comes settled ? is now debated. It is settled, 

 and yet the honey crop increases with civiliza- 

 tion. Without doubt, Colorado alone pro- 

 duces more honey, from artificial sources, than 

 was produced in the entire United States in 

 1850. Its use, too, is fast becoming more 

 general. 



Mr. F. Greiner sends us the following in re- 

 gard to the adulteration of honey in Germany. 

 It is a very welcome addition to this depart- 

 ment, with more to follow. 



The chemists in Germany have not yet been able to 

 discover a reliable method to detect adulteration in 

 honey. Mr. Kaempf, of the Pure-food Commission, 

 says in the April issue of the I.eipziger Bienemeilting, 

 that he collected samples of honey, taken from the 

 stores in Koenigsberg, and submitted them to the Ag- 

 ricultural Experiment Station for analysis. The 

 chemist of the station was to work on these samples 

 for four weeks; and although it was evident that 

 many were adulterated, only one of them could with 

 any degree of certainty be pronounced as such, others 

 receiving the attribute "suspicious." 



Dr. Klien, it seems, took a great deal of pains in 

 testing these different honeys by different methods. 

 In testing a sample of suspicious American honey by 

 the polariscope he showed the polarized rays turned 

 to the left, as in pure honey. The alcohol test of pure 

 basswood honey showed the same sort of sediment as 

 in suspicious honeys. 



The difficulty lies in the fact, so it is said, that differ- 

 ent honeys differ in their composition, and for that 

 rea.son the uncertainty. The chemist doesn't know 

 where he is at. 



The proposition is, first, to have as many samples of 

 absolutely pure honey analyzed, each sample to be 

 gathered from a different particular kind of blossom, 

 as far as possible. Then when the chemist fully un- 

 derstands the behavior of the different kinds of hon- 

 ey, it is hoped he will be better able to detect adulter- 

 ation. How anxious the German beo - keepers are 

 about this matter appears from the fact that now a 

 movement is on foot to raise a fund of 8250, this to be 

 offered as a reward for an absolutely sure method of 

 detecting adulteration of honey. Some liberal dona- 

 tions have already been made. 



CENTRALBLA.TT. 



A bee-keeper reports that he had a bad case 



of foul brood, in which half the brood was 



destroyed, and by the use of formic acid the 



plague was stayed and a perfect cure effected. 



\i< 



Corns can be removed by taking pure bees- 

 wax and spreading enough of it on a piece of 

 paper to cover the corn, and binding it on for 

 three or four days. At the end of that time 

 the "hen's eye," as the Germans call it, can 

 be easily removed. In some cases a second 

 trial may be necessary. Another German bee- 

 journal says propolis is still better for this pur- 

 pose. Any thing that works will be welcome 

 to most of us. 



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The Breslau General Anzeiger says that the 

 adulteration of honey has brought a bee-keep- 

 er of Hennersdorf into a bad scrape. He pro- 

 cured of a foreign firm an enormous quantity 

 of artificial honey, and sold it as pure honey. 

 The police seized 1500 pounds of the stuff in 

 the hands of the rogue. The event has creat- 

 ed great excitement in apicultural circles, as 

 such adulteration has been the means of a de- 

 cline in the price of pure honey. 

 ti/ 



" Rose honey " sounds very attractive, and 

 should not fail of its object, at least its high- 

 sounding name should not, even if the artifi- 

 cial product itself should prove to be a disap- 

 pointment. What is rose honey ? asks the 

 Lux. Bienenzeitung. It says : Take four 

 parts of white potato syrup, one part of pure 

 honey, mix thoroughly, and add two drops of 

 warm honey-water to the mass, and — the rose 

 honey is ready ! Selling price, 36 cents a 

 pound ; cost price, 6 cents — a slick profit. 

 \i/ 

 LE RUCHER BELGE. 



Mr. Theodore Hercher, of Pfanzwirbach, 

 Austria, has a hive made from the hollow 

 trunk of a tree, and in this bees have been 

 kept since 1767 — a period of 133 years, and 

 not a colony has ever died in it. As to old 

 combs, Mr. G. de Layens says, "Apicultural 

 writers continue to assert that it is necessary 

 to renew old combs. Here is a fact which 

 destroys this old prejudice." I will not give 

 the " facts " here, but suffice it to say that 

 some Europeau bee-men think combs may be 

 used indefinitely. 



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The editor asked Mr. Rauschenfels, the edit- 

 or of L'Apicoltore^ the chief bee- journal print- 



