268 



uLea.n ihn^a lii bj<:e cuLl^uliJ^. 



Apr. 



pound into vinegar is also a weig-hty article against 

 economic use. While ordinary vineg-ar, said to be 

 cider, is sold at wholesale per barrel at about 10 cts. 

 per gallon, it would be useless to attempt to sell 

 vineg-ar to a merchant for the value of 3 lbs. of 

 honey, and necessary expense per gallon added. 

 Any merchant would at once say, "The vinegar 

 you offer will be part mother, and other waste, so 

 that we shall not only pay for your honey and 

 trouble, but a loss of everal gallons will fall upon 

 'us, while the cider vinegar we sell holds out in 

 measure, and we have no trouble with the mother 

 and other matter not salable, left in the bottom of 

 the barrel." 



It Is not that I wish to discourage any one in the 

 effort to make vinegar; on the contrary, I have 

 shown at conventions all the honey vinegar I have 

 ever seen on exhibit at those places, and freely 

 told how to make it. I have also written for the 

 bee-journals, describing the process minutely. 



With the egg-test, the only way to use less than 

 3 lbs. of honey per gallon would be to reduce the 

 saccharine strength by adding one gallon of clear 

 water to every gallon of honey-water that would 

 float a fresh egg. Eggs are a very uncertain mea- 

 sure of specific gravity. 



I have steadily maintained, that one pound of 

 good honey would make one gallon of the best 

 vinegar that could be made. I have evaporated 

 the best vinegar 1 ever made or saw, and know that 

 it does not contain quite one pound of honey per 

 gallon. 



1 make a little sweetened-water tester which I sell 

 to my friends for 10 cts., which is a test for vinegar- 

 making, and will last a lifetime, and is always relia- 

 ble. It will readily be seen, that vinegar contain- 

 ing 1 lb. of honey could be profitably sold at 3.5 cts. 

 per gallon; further, that it will make in an ordina- 

 ry house-cellar, in an open tub, screened with bur- 

 laps, in less than one year's time. I have beauti- 

 ful candied honey evaporated from such vinegar as 

 I have made and used exclusively in my family for 

 the past 13 years, so you can get your honey out of 

 such vinegar in case j'ou should want honey more 

 than vinegar. 



HOW TO MAKE BINGHAM'S VINEOAR-TKST. 



Take clean yellow beeswa.v, 'A ounce, and two 

 ordinary shot, ^i inch in diameter. Heat the wax 

 so it will be soft, and put the two shot into the 

 center of it. Now make a ball of it like a marble. 

 Its upper surface will rise just to the surface of the 

 vinegar, or sweetened water, if it contains one 

 pound of honey per gallon— just the amount need- 

 ed for tine vinegar. T. F. Bingham. 



Abronia, Mich. 



BEES IN YUCATAN. 



MORE ABOUT THE STINGLESS BEES. 



fNE of our subscribers, Mr. J. M. Beatty, 

 Shaw's Landing, Fa., sends us the 

 Meadville Gazette. From an article 

 on Yucatan and its climate, people, 

 and productions, written by a Dr. 

 Roberts, we clip the following paragraph, 

 giving us an insight as to how they keep 

 bees down there on that peninsula south of 

 the Gulf of Mexico. We presimie that the 

 race of bees are the same as have been pre- 

 viously described as being found in some 

 parts of Mexico. 



Here we had an opportunity of seeing the man- 

 ner in which honey is produced — one of the great 

 staples of Yucatan, as large quantities are consum- 

 ed by the inhabitants. We notice at one end of the 

 beautiful garden a picturesque shed covered with 

 tile. On inquiry we were told it was a bee-house, 

 and upon examination we found it contained a 

 large number of bee-hives of very peculiar con- 

 struction. Under the shed was placed a framework 

 running the whole length of the building — wide at 

 the base and running to a point near the roof, thus 

 forming a sort of inclined plane fronting outward 

 on either side of the shed, or bee-house. On the 

 sides of this framework the hives were placed. 

 They are made of logs of wood about twelve to fif- 

 teen inches in diametei% and from two to three feet 

 long, the inside being cut out, leaving a thin shell 

 of the log. Each end is sealed up with clay or ce- 

 ment, and in the center of this peculiar hive a hole 

 is bored just large enough to admit a single bee. 

 These hives are placed on the inclined plane, or 

 framework, under the shed, commencing at the 

 bottom and laying one on top of the other to the 

 top, with the hole in the hive facing outwai-d. 

 When filled with hives the shed presents the ap- 

 pearance of a log-heap, sawed up, roady to be split 

 into stovewood. The bees are different from ours. 

 They are a trifle larger, a little lighter colored, and 

 have no sting— in this particular they are a great 

 improvement upon ours. When in the hive they 

 place a sentinel at the hole, and no bee is allowed 

 to pass in or out, except such as have the permis- 

 sion of their guard. The sentinel dodges back to let 

 the other bees pass in or out, but almost instan- 

 taneously his head is seen in the hole after the pas- 

 sage of the other bee. We watched these little sen- 

 tinels a long time with much interest, and thought 

 that if human beings, intrusted with responsible 

 positions and duties, were half as faithful as these 

 little sentinels, we should have a much more vii'tu- 

 ous and happy world. 



FIRST-CLASS HONEY, AND THE MAR- 

 KET. 



IS THE I'liAVOH OF THE HONEY, WHEN LEFT IN THE 

 HIVES, IMPROVED? 



T CAN not agree with friend Kussell, on page 46, 

 /^ nor with anyone else, that "there is butasmall 

 ^i proportion of the honey produced at the pres- 

 "*■ ent day that is strictly first class." His state- 

 ment is based on the idea that capped honey 

 must be left on the hives until late in the season, 

 that it may attain its finest qualities. This I con- 

 sider a mistake. I believe comb honey is finished 

 when capped, and the sooner it is removed the bet- 

 ter. Many of our friends who have left honey on 

 the hives until late in the season have stated that 

 they found it to be finer in every respect. It cer- 

 tainly does appear finer when cut or broken or 

 tasted; but as far as we can consistently go is to 

 concede that the quality appears to be better than 

 the same honey removed in the early part of the 

 season. Honey taken from the hives in the heat of 

 the summer will, of course, be softer and thinner 

 than the same quality of honey taken in cooler 

 weather, and after it has a little age. I think our 

 friends who advocate leaving it on the hives till the 

 close of the season will find that their capped comb 

 honey, removed from the hives as soon as capped, 

 and placed in the honey-house, will, at the same 

 time of the year, compare favorably, and I may say 

 equally, so far as quality is concerned, with that 

 left on the hives. It certainly is not subject to the 

 liability of becoming soiled or stained, as when left 

 on the hives. 



I think, as to the sale of our production, much 

 more depends upon the manner of preparing, pack- 

 ing for shipment.andafew other things, than wheth- 

 er or not the perfectly capped sections be left on the 

 hives until late in the season. We well know, that 



