congratulate ourselves more than ever thai 

 we have an all-round man like our corre- 

 spondent to represent Gleanings on the 

 Coast. He knows the horticultural as well 

 as the apicultural proposition. 



Denatured Sugar 



At one of the last sessions of the Nation- 

 al Beekeepers' Association, Dr. Jager, the 

 man in charge of the agricultural school at 

 Minneapolis, suggested the matter of using 

 denatured sugar. In Australia, for exam- 

 ple, the beekeepers petitioned the general 

 government to remove the duty from sugar 

 fed to bees; but in order to prevent such 

 sugar from being used by the public gener- 

 ally, a scheme was employed to " denatu- 

 rize " the sugar, or, rather, to color it so it 

 could not be used for domestic purposes. 

 An infinitesimal amount of coloring matter 

 which could in no wise be injurious to bees 

 colors the sugar just enough so it can be 

 used only for bees. In this way it is made 

 available to the beekeepers at reduced prices 

 without the duty. 



Dr. Jager suggested that the National 

 Beekeepers' Association pass a resolution 

 asking the general government to make 

 some provision by which the beekeepers of 

 America could use a similar denatured 

 sugar. The question was debated for some 

 time, when it was finally decided to hold 

 the matter for future consideration. 



Educating the British Coluimhiaes 

 What is a skilled beekeeper? F. Dundas 

 Todd, foul-brood inspector for British Co- 

 lumbia, says the difference between skilled 

 and unskilled is that the former secures a 

 crop three times as great as the latter. In 

 his circular on honey production in British 

 Columbia for the season of 1913-14, he 

 shows that there are also about three times 

 as many unskilled beekeepers as skilled, as 

 we might expect. The average crop per 

 colony reported by the skilled class was 84 

 pounds in 1914. Were all the amateurs 

 shortly to become as experienced as the 

 skilled beekeepers the local market would 

 be swamped unless the honey were disposed 

 of elsewhere. 



The people of the province are rather 

 poor consumers of honey, so there is plenty 

 of room for development of the market. 

 The buying public must be tempted by 

 attractive packages and attractive advertis- 

 ing. British Columbia has all the qualities 

 one could desire in honey. The main thing 

 is to prove this. 



glf:anings in bee culture 



The Three-cornered Alfalfa Hopper 



The importance of alfalfa as a honey- 

 plant makes of interest to beekeepers any 

 information regarding its pests. Perhaps 

 the most difficult of these to eradicate, as 

 well as one of the most active, is the " three- 

 cornered alfalfa hopper " {Membracis fes- 

 tina), the subject of a recent monograph by 

 V. L. Wildermuth, published in the Jan. 

 15th number of the Journal of Agricultural 

 Research, Washington. 



Alfalfa is not its only food. The insects 

 have been found on a great variety of 

 plants, particularly on clovers. Of alfalfa, 

 however, it seems to be particularly fond. 

 Injury is due to the sucking of plant juices 

 by both adults and larvae, and the develop- 

 ment of a feeding ring or scar. The insect 

 leaves the plant in a wilted and often dying 

 condition. 



While no method has yet been discovered 

 which will entirely control the pest, its 

 numbers may be greatly reduced by clean 

 methods of farming, such as the eradication 

 of weeds, rubbish, etc. 



While the alfalfa hopper is found in 

 greatest abundance in the soutliwestern and 

 southern part of the United States, it ex- 

 tends its range in limited numbers as far 

 west as Montana and as far north as Otta- 

 wa, Canada. 



Adulterated Beeswax 



Those who are buying beeswax in any 

 quantity are cautioned to look out for adul- 

 terated beeswax offered by dealers at a cent 

 or two below general market price. It has 

 been found that some of these cheaper 

 waxes contain from 5 to 10 per cent of 

 paraffin or ceresin. Those who have put 

 out this adulterated product have probably 

 been laboring under the assumption that 

 wax containing so small a percentage of 

 adulteration would not be suspected, and 

 therefore not put to the chemical test. 

 Ordinarily the " crack " test to an experi- 

 enced eye will show as low as five or ten 

 per cent, providing, however, that such an 

 experienced eye is on the lookout fo-r these 

 low percentages of adultei'ation. 



Again, it has been generally supposed 

 that ordinai-y beeswax in cakes of all sizes 

 and colors is probably pure, the presump- 

 tion being that such wax is gathered up 

 from numeroua beekeepers, who, of course, 

 use all kinds of utensils to cake the prod- 

 uct; but some of the adulterators have 

 learned this trick, and have been buying up 

 old pots and kettles, even going so far as 

 to dent or jam some of these jians slightly 

 out of shape. 



