1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



49 



ened digestive powers. The nectar of flowers i> al- 

 m St entirely cane sugar. The secretions added by 

 the bees change this to grape sugar, and so prepare it 

 that it is almost ready for assimilation without any ef- 

 fort on the part of the stomach. The unplensant 

 symptoms from which some snffer after a surfeit of 

 honey may often be removed by drinking a little milk, 



Mr. Cowan says: 



Not since the appearance, in ]87<5, of Buechner's 

 "Mind in Animals " have we had a book about bees 

 more charming, or one that we have read with greater 

 pleasure, than Maeterlinck's " I„ife of the Bee." 



\fcr 



In speaking of sections of honej' weig-h- 

 ing less than 16 ounces, a writer sa3's: 



Society righteously brands such weights with even a 

 stronger and harsher name, I trust that, whatever in- 

 novations may be introduced, a pound section may be 

 made to weigh the full number of ounces. 



If it 7S a pound section, why bother about 

 the weight? But as bees don't know that 16 

 ounces make a potind, we shall have to take 

 sections as they come, and sell them at so 

 much apiece, saying nothing about the 

 weight. A vender of very cold "hot" cakes 

 excused himself by saying, "I didn't mean 

 they were 'ot. 'Ot is jtist the name of 'em." 

 If "pound" is "just the name of 'em," 

 perhaps we'd better change the name, leav- 

 ing off all reference to weight. 

 vi/ 



The editor quotes the following from An- 

 swers of Nov. 30: 



The purchaser of honey vainly imagines that swin- 

 dling is impossible if frame honey is bought. The 

 fact is that clever bee-keepers now make perfect imi- 

 tation combs out of paraffine \< ax, and nut these into 

 the hives for the bees to fill and seal. To test it. pour 

 a drop or two of sulphuric acid upon the comb which 

 is on trial. Good beeswax will char and blacken un- 

 der the acid, but upon paraffine no effect will be per- 

 ceptible. 



The onl}' strange thing about the above 

 is that the British Bee fonrnal lets it go as 

 if it were an undoubted fact, making no re- 

 plJ^ It did not take pains to say that such 

 combs can not be made by man, and that 

 they w^ould melt down b_v the heat of the 

 hives, even if man could make them. A 

 failure to do this is as bad as to publish 

 the canard. The general reader would 

 take it as a piece of common news. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 

 In speaking of the benefits of co-opera- 

 tion among bee-keepers and the agricultu- 

 ral classes generally. Prof. Cook relates 

 the following, and his words contain a vol- 

 ume: 



The Citrus Fruit Exchange of Southern California 

 has now been in operation for over seven years, and 

 h s been an eminent success. These are the things 

 wliich it has done : Greatly lessened the expenses in 

 preparing to ship ; .secured a more perfect grading of 

 the fruit : employed salaried agents of their owiT in 

 all the leading cities ; developed new markets in the 

 East ; with surprising success distributed the fruits in 

 the East with such skill as to prevent overciowding or 

 ruinous competition, and at the same time keeping all 

 the marke's supplied ; doing all their business at an 

 expense of less than three per cent, and, though the 

 goods marketed bring in millions of dollars each vear. 

 they have met with almost no loss at all — less than 

 one-eightieth ot one per cent during all their years of 

 Viu.siness. The receipts of their business the past year 

 have been over eight millions of dollars, and yet there 

 has been no loss at all. This is only one of several 

 years with a similar record. 



AIKIN'S HONEY AND WAX SEPARATOR. 



A Valuable Adjunct to the Solar Wax=extractor. 



BY R. C. AIKIN. 



About three or four j'ears ago I conceived 

 the idea of an attachment to wax-extractors 

 to separate the honey and wax. The old 

 way of letting the honey and wax run into 

 one common pan or tank had several objec- 

 tions that I longed to get rid of, and, hav- 

 ing solved the problein in a very satisfacto- 

 ry way, I now propose to publish the results 

 of my cogitations and experimenting. The 

 device, while having m )re properly its place 

 with the solar, may be made to answer the 

 same purpose for which it was invented, in 

 connection with wax-extractors of other 

 kinds. I have no extractor but the solar, 







i 



►VAX 



3- 



.Sediment 



Honey 



FIG. 1. 



hence have not used it with any other kind, 

 but the principle may be applied to others. 

 The principle upon which this device 

 works is specific gravity'. Honej' weighs 12 

 lbs. to the gallon, and water about 8 lbs. I 

 do not know w^hat is the weight of beeswax, 

 but I know what every apiarist does — that 

 wax is lighter than water. It is immateri- 

 al as to the exact proportion, so we will 

 call it 8 for wax and 12 for honej^ 



FIG 



Now, suppose you take a citke of wax 3 

 inches thick and put it into a bucket of hon- 

 ey or into a tank where the wax has plenty 

 of room so it does not touch the bucket or 

 tank in any way that will interfere with its 



