10 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1 



introduce, would do well to follow the Wood 

 plan. I should not, however, consider it 

 infallible, for I do not believe any method 

 will ever be devised that would invariably 

 introduce successfully queens to all kinds 

 of colonies. — Ed.] 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Concerning the adulteration of comb hon- 

 ey, Mr. York well says : 



That hoary lie about the adulteration of comb hon- 

 ey seems still to retain much vigor. Here is a sample 

 of its cat like vitality : 



"On my vacation 'in Michigan last summer I got 

 some real honev— the real sweet kind, with a comb 

 that chews up beeswaxy. It was so good that for three 

 months after I came back I tried to get, in Chicago, 

 some honev, but 1 could not find it. Of course, everj' 

 grocery store had what it said was strictly pure honey, 

 in the nicest-looking combs — too nice looking : it was 

 plain that it was all manufactured. A few days ago 

 my grocer told me he had some real honey this time. 

 I was certain of that, too, as soon as I saw it. I have 

 worked with bees and know the ear-marks of their 

 handiwork, and that comb was just irregular enough, 

 imperfect enough in places to fool me. I bought two 

 pounds. And when I got it home and took a mouthful 

 the honey was not very sweet— it was a poor grade of 

 glucose ; and the conib melted in my mouth— it was 

 paraflfine.'' 



No fading away of vigor about that, is there? In- 

 deed, it has gained a roljustnes - that exceeds its for- 

 mer self ; for in former stages it only claimed that a mi- 

 nor part of the comb honey in Chicago was adulterat- 

 ed ; now there is none of the genuine to be found in 

 Chicago, although it be .sought carefully for three 

 months ! 



The amazing part about it is that this vigorous slan- 

 der is not found in some obscure place, spoken bj' 

 some ignoramus in the country grocery at the cress- 

 roads, ^)ut it is an opinion delivered in all seriousness 

 before a body of supposedly brainy men It is an ex- 

 tract from a paper read by the proprietor of the Partn- 

 er's Call, at the annual meeting of the Nati nal Agri- 

 cultural Press I.,eague. and published in that sprightly 

 periodical, Agruultitral Advertisinf;. published bv 

 Frank B White Co. Mr. Frank B. White is well 

 known as a man of untarnished reputation, and the 

 sovil of honor Taken all together, after so many years 

 of battling with a great wrong, bee-keepers may be 

 excused for feeling just a little discouraged as to get- 

 titig any thing like a .semblance of justice. 



More may be said of this hereafter. 



These base falsehoods on the in-Stahl- 

 ment plan seem to have originated from a 

 party in Ouincy, 111., who had spraying- 

 outfits for sale, and advertised them in the 

 bee-journals. He advised spraying trees 

 in blooin; and when he was debarred from 

 further opportunity of doing evil he turned 

 his gtins on bee-keepers as above. That 

 such ill-meaning men should be able to get 

 a hearing before such a body of men leads 

 one to think that the latter are not up to 

 mediocrity in intelligence. 



Mr. E. T. Abbott, in the Busy Bee, han- 

 dles this matter in a manner highly grati- 

 fying. Here is one extract : 



Think of a man who knows enough to edit the 

 Monthly Blatter, of Scrogsville, to .say nothing of an 

 up-to-date agricultural paper, getting off this stale, 

 dead, rotten, and long since buried slander on honey, 

 before a lot of intelligent agricultural editors and pub 



lishers. Whj' ! the very thought of it should drive 

 him to ?ack -cloth and ashes, and an abject apology to 

 the whole bee fraternity-. 



vi/ 

 BRITISH BEE JOURNAL. 

 Concerning Mr. Dzierzon's connection 

 with the invention of movable frames, Mr. 

 A. Royds, of Soberton, England, sa3^s : 



The recent interesting articlfs by Mr. R. Ham'yn- 

 Harris on the " Biology of the Honey-bee " contain a 

 reference to movable-frame hives in connection with 

 the renowned name of Uzierzon that maybe the cause 

 of a certain desree of mi.sconception. Very recently 

 I had the privilege of reading Dzierzon's work, " Ra- 

 tional Bee keeping." in the franslation published in 

 1S82 by Mr. C. N. Abbott, from the then latest German 

 edition of 1.S78 by H. Dieck. The hives which Dzier- 

 zon there describes and recommends are not in any 

 correct sense movable-frame hives, but rather adapta- 

 tions of the old bar hive which had been known in 

 England since about the middle of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury. Although described as "movable." the combs 

 are not so in the sense now understood, as they had to 

 be cut away from the sides of the hive before they 

 could be taken out. Moreover, as the hives were made 

 to open at the ends, it was possible to reach any iiite- 

 rior comh) only bv the formidable process of cutting 

 away all those in front of it. The feature, indeed, 

 most likely to impress a present-day bee-keeper on 

 reading the work is the utter lack of prescience ex- 

 hibited by so skilled an apiarian and keen investigator 

 as Dzitrzon in regard to the use of both movable 

 frames and comb foundation The latter, in particu- 

 lar, he dismisses as hardly worthy of practical coiisid 

 eration, while the former fare but little better at his 

 hands. 



I am not aware that he ever modified his views on 

 these subjects ; but, as movab e frames had been per- 

 fected by both Langstroth and Baron von Berlepsch 

 some twenty-seven years prior to the date of the edi- 

 tion I have referred to, it is clcir that credit does not 

 belong to Dzierzon in this connection. 



THE TROUBLES OF A FOUL=BROOD INSPECTOR. 



New Laws Needed ; War on Stationary Combs. 



BY J. M. HAMBAUGH. 



This is said to be a progressive age; and 

 I believe that, in the general acceptation of 

 the term, it is true; but when I travel over 

 our beautiful country, with its rich nectar- 

 producing resources, and scan the very 

 crude condition of a great many apiaries of 

 San Diego Co., I feel very much like ques- 

 tioning the truth of the above qtiotation. 

 When I see so much of the go-as-you-please, 

 haphazard, miscellaneous mixtips of every 

 description, it makes iny heart fairly ache to 

 realize the splendid opportutaities being 

 lost for the want of a little progress. In 

 some instances we come to a progressive, 

 wide-awake inan, whose bees, hives, fix- 

 tures, and general surroundings indicate 

 an apiarist of culture. His hives, lids, 

 platforms, brood-frames, etc., are of exact 

 pattern. All combs are movable through- 

 out his entire yard, and he takes pleasure 

 in guiding the inspector in his work from 

 hive to hive, for he readily understands 

 that the work of the latter is chiefly in his 



