October, 1912. 



American Hae Journal 



tically a monotronic bee at certain seasons 

 of the sear. While the b isswood and wliile 

 clover are in bloom, the honeybee visits 

 these Howers almost exclusively. Again in 

 the fall, in Maine, it confines its attention 

 solely to the KoUien rods. In California, at 

 times, it collects nectar exclusively from 

 the sages, in Michigan frinn the willow lierli. 

 and in other regions from other plants. If 

 from any one of these olanls it also obtained 

 its simply of Dollen.and was on tlie wing 

 only while it was in blonin.it would be re- 

 garded as a monotropic bee in the strict 

 sense of the word That it exhibits a strong 

 tendencv. when collecting pollen, to be con- 

 stant to one plant species is well Unr)\vn; 

 and the little packetsof pollen it brings into 

 the hive seldom consist of two kinds of pol- 

 len But. when a bee flies from spring until 

 fall, and requires a large amount of stores' 

 it is evident that it can never become oligo- 

 tropic." 



Horsemint Honey. — By the ki-idness 

 of my friend. Prof. Wilmon Newell. I 

 have received a liberal sample of honey 

 from horsemint {Moiiartia fiiiulala). 

 Horsemint is widely distributed, but is 

 especially at home in Te.xas, and there 

 does its most important work as a 

 honey-plant. So I was interested in 

 the sample, and especially so as it was 

 put up in the style of the famous bulk- 

 comb honey so popular in Texas. 



The sample was of the June flow, put 

 up in a Simplex glass jar, containing 



piece. In larger vessels the comb is 

 supposed to be twice as much as the 

 extracted. 



It does seem to me that a thorough 

 search over a .State as lari»e as Texas 

 ought to have resulted in finding a bet- 

 ter name than b Ik-comb honey, That 

 name can appropriately apply to some- 

 thing that is all comb honey, but hardly 

 to that which is from a third to two- 

 thirds extracted. 



The flavor of horsemint honey is 

 quite pronounced. Those who sampled 

 it agreed that it had a good taste, but a 

 little too strong. The sampler said, 

 "I like it better than clover honey it; 

 has a richer flavor." That same samp- 

 ler prefers buckwheat to clover. So 

 what one calls rank another calls rich. 

 Where a pronounced flavor is favored, 

 it is easy to believe that hosemint honey 

 should be popular. 



Mter writing the foregoing I sent a 

 copy of it to Prof. Newell. A response 

 from him showed that I didn't know all 

 that was to be known about honey 

 down Texas-way. I might make cor- 

 rections according to the new light re- 

 ceived, but Prof Newell's letter is so 

 interesting and full of instruction that 

 I prefer to make no corrections, but 



A Lesson in Extracing Honev. Manoiba. Tlnis— (See page 203.) 



about ^ of a pint,or a pound of honey. 

 The general appearance was to me dis- 

 pleasing, for it took me back to the 

 days when the sight of a piece of comb 

 honey resting in a liquid was a sure 

 sign that the liquid was nothing but 

 glucose. But that isn't fair to bulk- 

 comb honey, for the days of such adul- 

 teration are past and gone, and the 

 average consumer — indeed, the pro- 

 ducer of today — sees only a beautifully 

 clear honey of light amber, containing 

 a piece of comb honey that appears a 

 bit lighter still. 



I didn't think to weigh the liquidand 

 comb separately, but the mouth of the 

 jar is of such size that it admits, with- 

 out crushing, a piece of comb honey 

 about a third as large as the contents 

 of the jar. But by crushing the cor- 

 ners one could squeeze in a larger 



print his letter, even if it does show up 

 that I don't know as much as I thought 

 I did Here is the letter: 



Coi,i,EGE Station. Te.x.. Aug. 24. IQ12. 

 Dr C. C .Miller. Marengo. Ill — 



Dear Dr. Miller: — \ have your very kind 

 letter of the 20th and copy of your note on 

 the horsemint honey, prepared for the 

 .■\merican Bee Journal. I gave you a wrong 

 impression aboui the packingof that bit of 

 honey I placed it in a Simplex jar because 

 that was the right size for a sample, and \ 

 put in both comb and extracted because I 

 I wanted you to see both: but I certainly 

 never intended to give the impression that 

 //;.;/ was the way they pack bulk-comb honey 

 in Texas. or that theproportion of extracted 

 and comb in that jar was any indication of 

 the proportion which ordinarily holds in the 

 packing of bulk-comb honey. 



I have never seen any bnlkcomb honey 

 put up for the general market in glass jars, 

 and while it may be done, certainly the 

 number of Texas bee-keepers that put up 

 bulk comb in glass— as a regular practice- 

 must be very scarce. It is invariably in tin 

 pails or cans. The proportion of comb to 



extracted varies with the individual bee- 

 keeper, but. for my i)ari. 1 -idvocate the *'//- 

 /w of the p,-iil or can with comb honey 

 after which the extra space is ftlled with 

 extracted for the principal purpose of 

 keeping the comb from mashing down- 

 which It will most ceriaiiilv do if ihere is no 

 extracted in with it Most of the bee-keep- 

 ers, however, do not HII the cans full of 

 comb, but only from one-lialf to three- 

 fouthsfull. in order that they mav get full 

 weight into the cans. A 60 pound' can, for 



i!n'"i"( Vi^V" ""1' ''"i''^,'' '"lly *"> pounds if 

 tilled full of combandthenextracted added 

 However, honey shoulj be sold by //,-/ weight' 

 regydlessof how it is packed or what the 

 container is. 



Am sorry you got the impression that I 

 was sending you a sample of "bulk comb" 

 ^?"MjAr ^"'■^?-J ^^"Sjust sending a sample 

 of horsemint honey and the proportion 

 ftaH^e extracted was purely haH-en- 



If youdori't like the term '■ bulk comb." 

 sou might adnptonethat we heard of a short 

 ime ago. away back in the slicks-in the 

 big woods, to be explicit. The term was 

 slug honey and the appellation is syn- 

 onymous with bulk-comb honey " ^='" 

 Sincerely yours. 



Wilmon .Vewell. 

 ♦■ 



Bees Versus. Roses — Some time ago, 

 quite a discussion was brought about 

 by the assertion of Gaston Bonnier 

 president of the French Central Bee- 

 Keepers' Association, that one never 

 saw bees upon roses, no matter how 

 colored or how fragrant. Dr. Miller 

 replied that he had often seen them 

 upon the Crimson Ramblers, and that 

 they even tore the buds open. 



The magazine " L'Abeille de I'Auhe," 

 in its August number, quotes the differ- 

 ent assertions which were made upon 

 the subject since then, in Europe. 

 I .Mr. Bonnier came back with the as- 

 sertion that the bees were only hunt- 

 ing for pollen, as. according to him, 

 there is no nectar in roses. 

 P Jean Huppin.of Fontenay-Aux-Roses, 

 saw his bees take pollen on the roses, 

 but never any nectar. 



.A. Martinot saw the bees often on 

 the Crimson Rainblers and other sim- 

 ple roses, never on the double flowers. 



F. Pitrat believes they find both 

 honey and pollen on the simple flowers. 



Louis Rosseil, Consul of Belgium in 

 Athens, says that in the island of 

 Eubea, the bees work upon fields of 

 roses, and produce a white honey much 

 esteemed. 



Unicuique Suum — Under the above 

 proverb, L'.Apicoltura Italiana, of \n- 

 cona, Italy, in its .August issue, asks 

 who is the discoverer of "enforced 

 fasting" for the cure of foul brood. 

 Dr. Cesare Colantoni quotes his own 

 letters to L'.'\picoltore, in date of 1896, 

 showing that he supported this method 

 of treatment of the disease as early as 

 1882. 



We had the curiosity of looking up 

 the records to find the earliest method 

 of cure in the United States. Lang- 

 stroth, in 1 8-57, gave in his book the 

 following from a German apiarist, 

 whom he does not name: 



" Drive out the bees into a clean hive and 

 shut them up in a dark place without food 

 for 24 hours; prepare for them another clean 

 hive fitted up with combs from healthy col- 

 onies, transfer the bees into it, and feed 

 them with pure honey." 



This was not fully the fasting sys- 

 tem, but a little later Quinby, in his 

 "Mysteries of Bee-Keeping," 18Utl, page 

 219, says: 



"All the bees should be driven into an 

 (tnply hive. If it is desirable to put them in 



