1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



547 



whenever a colony of long-tongued bees is superior 

 to a colony of bees with shorter tongues, as shown by 

 the gathering of nectar from red clover, such superi- 

 ority is due to increased vigor, which (other things 

 being equal) shows that the greater length of tongue 

 is due to increased use of and energy in the use of 

 that member, usually through several geueratious, it 

 being apparent that it takes more eneigvto use a 

 long tongue than a shorter one. It naturally follows 

 that in a locality, or at a time when red clover fails to 

 j'ield nectar, this increased energj' of the long-tongued 

 colony will not go to waste, but will be used to advan- 

 tage in the more rapid storing of more easily reached 

 nectar, regardless of its source. 



The last sentence will stand another read- 

 ing. 



It/ 



Concerning the value of bee-papers to bee- 

 keepers, Rambler makes the following forci- 

 ble suggestion : 



I am acquainted with a bee keeper who owns 600 

 colonies of bees. I broached the subject of bee-pa- 

 pers, and he said he had not taken a bee-paper for 

 several years; he didn't see that a paper did him a 

 bit of benefit. "Here, I have my bees," said he. 

 " The bees suit me, the hives are right, I know how to 

 extract, and what more can I know about the business 

 that would be of benefit?" 



All very well so far. A few months after, I was in 

 one of his apiaries with him and he made a great 

 complaint about getting queen -cells accepted. 

 " Why," said he, "they tear down almost every one I 

 insert ; do you have such trouble?" 



" Certainly," said I. 'Unless I cage the cell." I 

 then showed him how to make a very simple cell-cage 

 by taking a piece of wire cloth about three inches 

 square and working a lead-pencil through the center, 

 leaving it cone-shaped. Now, he might have learned 

 that simple thing a dozen years ago from a bee-paper 

 just as I did ; but he had to wait to get it second-hand- 

 ed, and away past date. All the same, it came 

 through reading the bee-papers. And there you are, 

 Mr. Editor. If you arouse that class of bee-men you 

 have a big job on your hands. 



A "big job" truly; for all experience 

 shows that men have been as averse to the 

 things that help them as to those that injure. 

 All great inventions have had to plow their 

 way through icebergs of prejudice, especially 

 the steam-engine and telegraph. 

 \i/ 

 BRITISH BEE JOURNAL. 



A writer has the following to say in regard 

 to sparrows : 



My apiary is situated in the garden, and I noticed 

 after the young sparrows had flown frotn the nest 

 that they, along with the old ones, spent a good deal 

 of time near the bee-hives. After watching them for 

 some time I noticed the old sparrows perched on top 

 of the hives, and now and again making a dart caught 

 any bee that came near; indeed, they sometimes 

 alighted on the ground in front of the entrance and 

 picked up any poor bee that had fallen down too 

 heavy-laden to reach the alighting-board, and carried 

 them off to where the young sparrows were waiting, 

 and in the midst of great rejoicing devoured them. 

 I will leave you to guess what were the feelings I had 

 to see tny workmen so ruthlessly destroyed, and spar- 

 rows are now, and ever will be, classed by me among 

 the worst enemies of bees. I regard them as far 

 worse than tomtits. 



These birds should doubtless be destroyed 

 wherever found, just as rats and mice are. 

 Mu 

 AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



In speaking of our national affairs. Prof. 

 Cook sajs, in his Home Circle : 



The entire world looks enviously at our commercial 

 progress. They watch our rapid and increased thrift. 

 They watch our continued and rapidly increasing 

 prosperity with almost consternation. That should 

 make us no less energetic or frugal. It should make 

 ihem hasten to study our methods, and to adopt our 

 practice. • 



BOTTLING HONEY. 



How it is Kept in the Li(|uid Form ; a Few of the 



Secrets of the Trade Explained ; How to 



Construct Special Apparatus for a 



Large Bottling Business. 



BY J. R. SCHMIDT. 



The bottling of extracted honey for the 

 wholesale and retail trade to supply a market 

 which calls for and wants only extracted hon- 

 ey must necessarily be undertaken on a large 

 scale, and one somewhat larger than most bee- 

 keepers have been accustomed to battle with. 

 Cincinnati, as many know, is a market for ex- 

 tracted honey from the small ten-cent bottle 

 to the 500-lb. barrel shipped in by the carload, 

 and bought by the manufacturer who uses a 

 large quantity of the darker and inferior 

 grades. Then comes the grocery trade, each 

 store with its large or small display of various- 

 sized bottles containing extracted honey of 

 the best looks and the best flavor — the very 

 cream of the bee-keeper's labor. This trade, 

 although not as large as the manufacturer's, 

 is nevertheless a very important and delicate 

 one ; for, if the honey is granulated, it is look- 

 ed upon with suspicion. A shelf containing 

 bottles filled with liquid honey, and one just 

 below it with granulated honey of the same 

 quality, the latter will stand untouched while 

 the former is often sold twice over. 



This state of affairs has set Mr. C. H. W. 

 Weber, our Cincinnati honey - merchant, to 

 thinking ; for, to be continually replacing 

 honey which granulates so quickly during 

 cold weather, was a task almost impossible, 

 and not at all profitable. Mr. W. follows a 

 plan of putting up honey which he calls the 

 new way of liquefying and bottling honey ; 

 and this plan is not only a success so far, aft- 

 er the most severe tests, but also allows the 

 work to be done rapidly and to the very de- 

 gree of perfection. Through the kindness of 

 Mr. W., who explained every thing in detail, 

 and allowed me to take several photographs, 

 I will try to impart some of this interesting 

 knowledge to the bee-keepers. 



This new (?) method is to some extent based 

 on the same principle which our mothers and 

 grandmothers have been practicing for years, 

 and is now still in use, and probably will be 

 through the present century and may be the 

 next one. We all know how much care is ta- 

 ken at home, during preserving time, to have 

 all the jars and cans containing the fruit to be 

 preserved for future use very hot just before 

 they are sealed air-tight. Fruit put up this 

 way in their rich syrup will keep for years, 

 and the syrup will never show the slightest 

 trace of granulation. Now, why can't this 

 method preserve honey in the liquid form ? 

 Well, it can do it in this case just as well as 

 in the first. This is Mr. W.'s foundation upon 

 which he bottles honey ; and as most of the 



