1T1 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



with honey. The native usually visits his hives 

 frequently; but sometimes they are left for a long 

 time, when the honey is of a richer quality, and 

 much thicker than any 1 ever saw in America. It 

 is possible, with the sides of the knife greased, to 

 cut through 6trained honey, leaving the furrow 

 open and clean for a minute or so after the cut is 

 made. Probably the climate is the chief agency in 

 ripening the honey to so fine a state. When the 

 hive is judged to be full, or when he sees the thing 

 swarming, the native will take down his hive, and 

 extract the honey. This matter of "extraction" is 

 a simple one with him. He takes his hands only, 

 dips in, and takes as much comb honey as he can 

 manage, and ^ueezes it over and over until he 

 gets most of the honey out. Then when the hive is 

 thus manipulated he takes his wax and melts it in 

 his mush-pot, and, digging a round hole in the 

 ground, about two inches in diameter, and six 

 inches long, he runs his wax in the shape of the 

 molds, and in this shape it comes to market. Some 

 of it is a rich clean yellow, and commands the best 

 price; but more than half of it is dirty, mixed with 

 sand, and is only two-thirds value. First-class wax 

 brings to the native, cash in hand, 360 reis per kilo, 

 or about 18 cts. per lb. The trader takes this wax, 

 and melts all the poorer quality in a large caldron 

 with a faucet some six inches from the bottom. He 

 also adds water, and the wax, when melted, rises, 

 and the sand and other dirt settles into the water. 

 The wax is then drawn off through the faucet, run 

 into cakes about 18 inches by 24, sewn up in a bark 

 skin, and in this shape is shipped to Europe. More 

 than 20 tons are shipped from this port annually. 



THE NATIVE HONEY WINE. 



But the honey: This product would be much to 

 the credit of the country if not manufactured into 

 something else. The honey will bring the native 

 nothing. He would sell it if he could; he will sell 

 anything that will bring him copper coins; so he 

 has invented one of the worst uses to which it can 

 be put, and in this manner honey is always in de- 

 mand. He adds about three parts of water to one 

 of honey, lets it ferment for three days (I can't say 

 just how long positively), and then it becomes one 

 of the severest intoxicants the country produces. 

 It is more maddening than sugar-cane rum, and 

 has the name of being the severest of any of the 

 common native drinks. 



Most providentially for the wholesomeness of the 

 country, the supply is limited; and the population 

 being great, the evils are somewhat ameliorated. 

 The native is ingenious in some things at least. 

 With mud pots, with old gun-barrels for pipes, he 

 will distil rum from sugar-cane, cashew fruit, co- 

 coanuts, pine-apples, farina, corn, sweet potatoes, 

 honey, and one or two vegetable-roots which are 

 found in the forest. All of these substances are 

 abundant in their season, and rum retails at about 

 two cents a tumblerful. 



The product in wax, if as much along the other 

 coast ports as here (and I think it more than likely), 

 amounts to more than 100 tons per annum; but 

 with prices paid here, and with $20 per ton freight 

 to Europe, it would not seem possible to interfere 

 with American prices as quoted from time to time 

 in Gleanings. The possibilities for honey in this 

 region are most favorable, without a doubt, and 

 sufficient honey might be produced all along this 

 coast to glut all the mai-kets of the world, 

 and that at the minimum rates of production; but 



it is very doubtful if the world will ever see this 

 honey, unless immigration sets in, or the native be- 

 comes civilized, and, what is more to the purpose, 

 Christianized. With the former we are in no way 

 connected; but in the latter we are hard at work, 

 and welcome the wholesome Christian spirit man- 

 ifested in Gleanings. E. H. Richards. 

 Mongwe, Inhambane, E. Africa, June 7, 1889. 



Friend R., we are exceedingly obliged to 

 you for your vivid description of bee cul- 

 ture in your far-away home. Those cheap 

 hives fastened up in the tree tops are a re- 

 vival of the matter of decoy hives that has 

 been at different times so fully discussed in 

 Gleanings, and 1 think those very decoy 

 hives placed in the forest in most localities 

 near our large apiaries would get more or 

 less bees and honey. L)o you mean to tell 

 us that that thick honey which can be cut 

 with a knife is sold for 10 cents a pailful? 

 Why, I am sure it can be put in suitable tin 

 cans, and shipped so as to give your native 

 friends a better price, and at the same time 

 give the great outside world honey at a low- 

 er price. May be you would need a railroad 

 to do it ; but the railroad is surely on the 

 way to you, and it is coming right along the 

 line of your closing sentences. This matter 

 of intemperance will probably have to be 

 fought inch by inch, and it seems sad to 

 think that it must follow iu the wake of 

 missionary work. May the Lord help us to 

 break loose from this terrible bondage. Are 

 you sure, dear brother, that it is beyond the 

 possibilities for some of our enterprising 

 bee- men to open up bee culture and make 

 use of this honey that you say could glut all 

 the markets of the world? Either you have 

 immense resources in the way of honey, or 

 else the world is larger than either you or I 

 know, in my opinion. On visiting the salt- 

 works of Michigan during my recent trip, I 

 thought more salt was being produced than 

 all the world could use. And yet I found 

 afterward that I had seen only a very incon- 

 siderable establishment compared with oth- 

 ers in the vicinity of Manistee. 



GETTING OUT OP OLD RUTS. 



SHALLOW OR CLOSED -END FRAMES. 



fSI HREE years ago I became convinced that 

 I)" a better road lay close alongside the old 

 •> Langstroth trail, made by the Eight-Frame 

 Co., with which I had been jogging for ten 

 or a dozen years, and I decided to pull over 

 and give it a fair trial. Though convinced in mind, 

 it has taken three yeai-s of training to get the oth- 

 er members of my personal organization out of the 

 old rut sufficiently to give the new a word of praise; 

 but I can say now, with head and hand agreeiog, 

 that a shallow closed-end frame, and sectional 

 brood-chamber, outranks every thing else at these 

 headquarters. 



PERFORATED ZINC. 



I asked you, at the Indianapolis convention, if 

 you would advise us to use perforated zinc. You 

 said it would pay, in your opinion. I can't see why 

 T did not invent it years ago. It is indispensable. 

 I should like two sizes— one so small that a virgin 

 queen could not go through provided the nurse- 

 bees could. I use a nursery frame like comrade 



