JULY 1, 1915 



547 



hig barrel. On this account I began to 

 look for ways to get them more acquainted 

 nnd interested in what honey is. 



Putting an advertisement in the Sunday 

 edition of the Denver Fast, one of the larg- 

 est and most popular papers in Colorado, 

 I got as a premium for my paid adver- 

 tisement a saucer. Later 1 learned that 

 this paper is giving away on each Saturday 

 from 4000 to 5000 premiums for paid ad- 

 vei'tisements in the Sunday paper. 



I went to the business manager and had 

 a talk with him. He was busy, and told me 

 to call the following week, and so on; but 

 I kept coming till I had a chance to talk 

 it over more freely, and to give him a jar 

 of honey to taste. He promised to give me 

 a chance, and I was satisfied with this inter- 



view, as T knew he would like it. The next 

 week I got an order for four thousand jars 

 of honey. 



Jn this way I accomplished something 

 more than bj' advertising in the newspapers. 

 The reason I did not advertise more was the 

 lack of capital; but, as experience taught 

 me, honey is not advertised as much as it 

 ought to be. This could be very easily ac- 

 complished by some writers in giving to the 

 editors of big city papers and country 

 newspapers, home journals, and magazines, 

 articles on the honeybee, and how honey is 

 produced, making nice little stories of it. 



Next fall T hope to sell more honey, and 

 the summer I shall s^Dend with the little 

 creatures. 



Denver, Col. 



JOLTS AND JOTTINGS 



BY E. P. ATWATER 



Gleanings for Jan. 15 touches on a num- 

 ber of items that interest me, and so I give 

 a few points gained from experience. 



In Dr. Miller's Straws it is quoted that, 

 in labeling glass, we should put the paste 

 on the glass. We have labeled thousands of 

 bottles for honey, and can beat that for 

 speed. Simply buy gummed labels — no paste 

 to make, no time to waste, and they stick. 

 It is only on tin, Avhich is usually a little 

 oily, that there is any trouble. 



Don't rely too much on combs fresh from 

 the extractor not being moth-eaten. They 

 may not be completely consumed, but they 

 will sometimes be ruined. Even full combs 

 of honey are not safe. 



In his last Straw Dr. Miller says. "Please, 

 ^Ir. Editor, don't say a V starter in a sec- 

 tion is a satisfacton- compromise. It's false 

 economy. The bees Avill fill out with drone 

 comb; and unless you use excluders, the 

 queen will go up and fill out your sections 

 with drone brood." 



For many years Dr. Miller has qualified 

 the above assertion by saying that the queen 

 would go above unless there were plenty of 

 drone comb below in the brood-nest; but it 

 seems that queens are becoming less circum- 

 spect, and now will naughtily go above 

 anyhow — except in this locality. 



Dear beginner and respected veteran, use 

 a half-sheet or V starter with a bottom 

 starter, if you must economize; for in my 

 experience and ob.«!prvation not one queen 

 in n hundred, on the average, will go above 

 tn lay. regardless of the pre.sonre of drone 

 comb below. We have used hundreds and 

 probably thousands of supers with a con- 



siderable gap between the two starters. 

 Most of the extensive producei-s whom I 

 have visited do the same, either regularly 

 or at times when they run short of founda- 

 tion, and there is very little trouble. With 

 the increased use of ten-frame hives it is 

 even less probable. 



Of course many seasons such a plan may 

 not be true economy; but even that is a 

 question in the AVest, with its 10 and 12 per 

 cent money. 



Some very careful experimenters, exten- 

 sive producers, doubt the advantage of full 

 sheets in the sections; and while I am not 

 among them, yet they get very good results. 



In Mr. Crane's Siftings reference is made 

 to the new way of making chaff division- 

 boards. Could not oiled corrugate^ paper, 

 cloth covered, be used? 



In Mr. Holtermann's excellent article, 

 mention is made of the use of tartaric acid 

 to prevent granulation of syrup. Some have 

 reported failure with its use; and in this 

 connection, I have understood that the ob- 

 ject of the acid is to secure partial inversion 

 of tlie sugar, and that inversion does not 

 take place so much by the mere presence of 

 the acid as by being boiled with the acid 

 for some time. It is possible that, by so 

 doing, the syrup will much more nearly 

 approximate honey in its composition, and 

 be far less liable to harden in the combs. 



In Mr. Baldwin's article reference is made 

 to the old plan of rolling a queen in honey 

 for introducing. T linve had an occasional 

 failure, even by this method. 



I n Mr. Wilder's adicle on Caucasian bees 

 it reads a little queer to be told at the last 



