1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



505 



teresting one to me, and I am a little sur- 

 prised to learn that the valuable part of all 

 this foul matter can be washed out by stir- 

 ring it up in the way you mention. The un- 

 dertaking seems to he quite an expensive 

 one, liowever. Now, inasmucli as a large 

 part of liic expense is due to the water com- 

 bined with this foul refuse, is it not possible 

 to lessen the labor of moving about from 

 place to place by evaporating a large part of 

 this water, and at the same time avoid tak- 

 ing theref]'om any thing valuable for agri- 

 cultural purposes V Some of the friends 

 thought it was astonishing because I spoke 

 of 40buslielsof wheat to the acre, sometime 

 batik. An English gardener in my employ 

 (and a Cluistian gentleman of veracity) says 

 he has seen a lield of 20 acres that yielded 72 

 bushels of wheat to the acre. This was, of 

 course, in England. He said he could not 

 tell what means were employed to secure 

 this wonderful crop of grain ; but it was the 

 result of intelligent work on ground that 

 was natuially favorable for such a crop. 



ERRONEOUS OPINIONS IN REGARD 

 TO THE HONEY-BUSINESS. 



AI.SO SOMKTllINC IN UEGARD TO MANUFACTURED 

 CO.MB HONEY. 



BNEof our subscribers forwards us the 

 following, taken from an editorial in 

 the Wellington EnterpvUe of June 8 : 

 At ii mec'tinfr of the Northern Ohio Bee- 

 Keopers' Association recently held at the 

 Gregory House. New London, it was decided that 

 the next meeting should he held in Wellington 

 ne.\t October. Wc will weiconie the gentlemen to 

 our town, but whether the little bee sanctions such 

 meetings is a (question, (iive us the old lashioned 

 hive with iileuty of white clover and buckwheat 

 for the bee to subsist on, and then let the little in- 

 sect perform its worlv as nature has dictated, and 

 we will guarantee a far superior article of honey 

 will he placed upon the market than at present. 

 The bee needs no educating. 



Bee-keepers do not propose to " educate " 

 bees; they simply give them facilities for 

 indulging in their ruling passion — gathering 

 honey — in a way intinitely better tlian that 

 which Nature provides. When it is found 

 best not to build bank-barns for horses and 

 cattle, then it may be V)est not to provide 

 good hives for oiir bees. Those who " let 

 Nature have her own way '' are those who 

 never hoe their ct)rn, comb their hair, wash 

 their face, build a house, nor sow grain, but 

 simply live wild. Nature gives man a 

 swamp, and he mtikes a park of it. Natixre 

 never has " her own way " so perfectly as 

 through the medium of sanctified common 

 sense. 



Now, then, friends of tlie EnteTprise, are 

 you not in danger of discouraging enterprise 

 and progress in the remarks you make V 

 Wlien you intimate that lioney of the olden 

 time was superior to that gathered by the 

 bees of the present time, are you not mak- 

 ing a mistake, and casting a slur upon a 

 great Ijody of honest and em'nest people ? 

 It is true, that we produce tons of honey 

 now where we used to produce pounds; but 

 I think you are mistaken in intimating that 

 there is a difference in quality. Bees gather 

 honey now^ exactly as they did in the olden 

 times, and I do not believe it true that 



either clover or buckwheat has deteriorated 

 one particle in their product. On the con- 

 trary, the honey gathered now from alsike 

 clover seems to be considered, witiiout a 

 dissenting voice, quite a good deal in ad- 

 vance of the honey from the old-fashioned 

 white clover. If \ on will apply to some bee- 

 keeper near you, I think he will give you 

 the means ofsatisfying you of this. 



Two or three years ago our newspapers 

 were fidl of slanderous statements about 

 the adulteration of comb honey ; but most 

 of these very papers have kindly and cour- 

 teously apologized for their mistaken state- 

 ments. In regard to liquid honey, it is now 

 otfered at too low a price, I presume in your 

 own town as well as elsewliere, to make it 

 an object to adulterate it. Some years ago 

 we offered $1000 to any one who would in- 

 form us where spurious comb honey was 

 manufactured. The offer still holds good ; 

 but every effort to tind a single pound of 

 artificial comb honey has so far failed. 



From the same paper of June 15 we clip 

 the following, which is, as you notice, taken 

 from the Hartford ./ournaZ.- , 



A process for making artiticial honey has been 

 invented, and accepted by all the bees that have 

 tried it. This leaves the bees free to gather honey 

 all the day from every opening flower in the season 

 of honey-making without wasting time as wax- 

 workers. 



Now, altiiough the above does not make 

 any definite statement, it is, without ques- 

 tion, a sort of clip at this old exploded piece 

 of slander. There is no process in use for 

 making artihcial comb honey, and no such 

 thing has ever been invented. Bee-keepers 

 are, as a rule, honest men, and they would 

 no more try to build up a trade with bogus 

 honey than they would by making bogus 

 dollars. If they" were so foolish, they w^ould 

 probably turn out just about as badly as 

 bogus-money makers. 



MORE ABOUT THE McFADDEN MYS- 

 TERY. 



WINTERING BEES IN A CHILLED CONDITION. 



XN answer to yours of the 13th, asking for infor- 

 £|p mation regarding Danie McFadden, I would 

 ^l say that I suppose ho is the same D. McFadden 



■*■ whom I had the honor of entertaining for a 

 few days about a month ago, as he was passing 

 through here going west, and I assure you that I 

 was surprised at the intelligence displayed by him 

 in our conversation about bees. I thought, previ- 

 ous to his acquaintance, that I knew all about bees; 

 but I discovered that I knew absolutely nothing, 

 and I therefore am resolved to adopt his method of 

 keeping bees over winter. Either j-ou or I have 

 misunderstood Mr. McFadden as to freezing the 

 bees. I understood him to say that he on]y chilled 

 them. The bee-business is his business, and it is all 

 he wants, as he says that he and his father-in-law, 

 who is an Indian, bj' the name of Muskegen, or 

 Musquegan, or something like that, have made 

 large amounts of money out of bees: and, to tell 

 the truth, I did intend to make something out of 

 the discovery myself; but I find from your commu- 

 nications that he has kept his word, for he told me 

 that he would like to let the world know of this 

 great Indian discovery about the wintering of bees. 



