December, 1915. 



419 



American 'Rue Journal 



A H. BOWEN'S APIARY NEAR CHELTENHAM. ENGLAND 



definitely and will not crystallize. — Ed.] 

 I tried it and it worked very well. 

 There was but little granulation, and 

 what there was appeared to be quite 

 soft, so bees could readily dispose of 

 it. As I had usually a good supply of 

 extracted honey from unfinished sec- 

 tions, I was inclined to adopt this 

 method to prevent granulation in pref- 

 erence to those I had before used, 

 although I did not as a rule use quite 

 as large a percentage of honey as Mr. 

 Doolittle recommended. I have used 

 this method for many years, and fed 

 tons of honey with the sugar to keep it 

 from granulation, even buying it by the 

 barrel when I did not have enough on 

 hand of my own for this purpose. 



During the last few years the sea- 

 sons have been very poor, and we have 

 had a demand for all the extracted 

 honey we could produce and very much 

 more. It has seemed necessary to 

 economize to the utmost. Was it really 

 necessary to feed so much honey in 

 sugar syrup to keep it from granula- 

 tion ? I had my doubts, and with some 

 hesitation and a good deal of trepida- 

 tion I actually fed some colonies a 

 heavy syrup (two parts of sugar to one 

 of water), half expecting to find many 

 of the coml/S solid with sugar the next 

 spring. But I found nothing to sus- 

 tain my fear of feeding svrup clear, 

 and in the fall of 1!)12 I did nearly all of 

 my feeding without the use of honey 

 or vinegai or cream-of-tartar. I failed 

 to find any more granulated honey in 

 the combs than in previous years. In 

 fact, I found that nothing added to the 

 syrup worked as well as the additions 

 I had previously used. So well satis- 

 fied was I with results that I have used 

 nothing to prevent crystallization for 

 the past three seasons. 



In the fall of 1014 we fed some five or 

 six tons of sugar without the addition 

 of a pound of anything to keep it from 

 granulation. So much has been writ- 

 ten of the value of cream-of-tartar or 

 tartaric acid that I have watched the 

 condition of stores in the combs in the 

 spring of 1915 with unusual interest, 

 and so far as I could see nearly all the 

 granulated stores I found came from 

 honey stored by the bees the previous 

 summer. Two yards had secured 



enough honey to winter on, and in 

 these we found the most granulation, 

 while in those yards that had to be fed 

 almost their entire supply for winter I 

 found very little granulation, quite as 

 little I think as when I tried to prevent 

 it by the addition of honey or acids. 



There are other fallacies that I may 

 as well speak of at this time. One is 

 the necessity of bringing sugar syrup 

 to the boiling point to break up the 

 crystallization of sugar. I have burned 

 quantities of wood in doing it, but have 

 found it wholly unnecessary. All that 

 is needed is to melt, or rather dissolve 

 it in the water, and as hot water will 

 dissolve it quicker than cold, we use 

 hot water but do not wait until it 

 boils. 



Again we have been told that we 

 should feed early that the stores may 

 be sealed up before winter. Certainly 

 there are no objections to doing so, but 

 I have so far failed to recognize any 

 serious results following late feeding 

 or unsealed sugar syrup in the combs. 

 I presume we had two tons of unsealed 

 syrup in hives in the fall of 1914, and 

 where not consumed it looked in the 

 spring as though it might have been 

 placed in the combs the previous week. 

 Sugar syrup does not appear to absorb 

 moisture as readily as honey. 



In looking over hives this spring I 

 found some where the feeders leaked 

 and the syrup ran down over the 

 combs and on to the bottom-board. 

 Such syrup I found as hard as so much 

 ice, yes, harder, more like glass, and 

 presenting a remarkable contrast to 

 that in the hives that the bees had 

 stored in the combs. 



Now 1 would not say that tartaric 

 acid is not desirable where syrup is fed 

 2yi parts of sugar to one of water. 

 From my experience I would almost 

 think it necessary to keep it from gran- 

 ulating before the bees would take it 

 up unless fed to very strong colonies. 



I have simply given my experience 

 in feeding and the conclusions I have 

 come to as a reiult of such experience. 

 We are feeding again this fall, without 

 the addition ot anything to prevent the 

 granulation of syrup made by two 

 . arts of sugar and one of water. It 



seems to me quite evident that bees 

 know as well as we do how to prevent 

 granulation, and I shall hereafter leave 

 the matter with them. 

 Middlebury, Vt. 



Weeds, Soils, and Honey 



BY TARLTO.N R.WMENT. 



Author oj " A 'I rratisc on the Bees and Neetari- 

 feroiis I'lanis of Australia." 



WEEDS have been defined as "plants 

 out of place," but there are some 

 specimens that are obnoxious in 

 any situation. Happily, the number 

 absolutely useless is very limited. The 

 apiarists of most countries are more or 

 less indebted at some period of the 

 year — to the botanical pariahs for 

 honey or pollen, perhaps both. 



A wide and interesting variation 

 occurs among the weeds. The methods 

 of their distribution are no less won- 

 derful and unique. Insidiously some 

 " commandeer " the services of a bird's 

 plumage or even the maw; while 

 others utilize the fur of animals or the 

 cloven hoof of cattle to spread their 

 seeds over the countryside. Thus the 

 miniature yellow suckling clover suc- 

 ceeds as a notable traveler though, it 

 must be admitted, a rather spasmodic 

 one. There are navigator seeds that 

 nature has specially provided with a 

 set of water-wings that peculiarly fit 

 them for aquatic wanderings; an 

 everyday example of which is the com- 

 mon dock of low-lying swampy coun- 

 try. Thistles, on the other element, 

 evolved a scheme of aeronautics long 

 before he to whom is given dominion 

 over the beasts of the fields and the 

 birds of the air. 



Modern agriculture has, uninlention- 

 ally,been the means of distributing many 

 weeds through the agency of impure 

 seed. A few of the unbidden guests 

 have subsequently proved themselves 

 the friends of the graziers and the api- 

 arists. Quite a few have developed 

 from persistent weeds into esteemed 

 fodder plants. The question arises 

 whether the term " weed " is not then a 

 misnomer. 



The cape weed (Cryptostemma calen- 

 dulaceum) is a striking example. Botan- 

 ists class it with the Composita;, and 

 definitely state that "it possesses no 

 food value," though this is disproved 

 by the experience of practical dairy 

 farmers. Introduced to Australia from 

 Africa, this plant so readily acclima- 

 tized itself that every State in this vast 

 commonwealth is now familiar with its 

 yellow bloom in early spring. It is not 

 infrequently referred to — though erro- 

 neously — as dandelion. Indeed, the 

 similarity is in the general aspect of 

 the fields during golden infiorescense. 

 Closer examination of the flowers re- 

 veals only a single row of petals simi- 

 lar in many respects to a marguerite. 

 The center is dark colored and charac- 

 teristic of thecompoiite order to which 

 belong thistles, sunflowers, etc. 



It is notable that while a weed may 

 be actually deleterious to stock in 

 some localities, transplanted to other 

 soils in distant fields it becomes a pas- 

 ture of no mean value. In South Gipps- 

 land, which forms the mountains and 

 most southerly portion of Australia, 

 the deep rich soil is volcanic in origin 



