1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



183 



doubt not that America will stand at the 

 head of the list. But I don't believe that 

 that standing- * at the head ' will be because 

 of our purity of stock.'''' 



In our next issue Rambler will begin his 

 interesting- series of articles on Cuba. We 

 have some fine illustrations, and the story 

 that Martin will tell will be an eye-opener. 



The Rocky Mountain Bee Journal pub- 

 lished at Boulder, Colo., gives evidence of 

 holding- more than its own, notwithstanding- 

 it is only a year old. Its editor appears to 

 be both a bee-keeper and a printer — a com- 

 bination that is certainly very desirable. 

 The field for a bee-journal in the great 

 central West is certainly very large; and a 

 good paper, devoted to the interests of the 

 bees, will, as the years go by, find a good 

 strong clientage. It is impossible for one 

 paper, or half a dozen of them, to publish 

 all the newsy items for all localities, with 

 all their climatic differences, in this great 

 country of ours, and Gleanings is always 

 glad to welcome any new rival to the field, 

 for there is room for all. 



NO HONEY IN CALIFORNIA THIS YEAR. 



The California bee-keepers, especially 

 those in the southern portion of the State, 

 are very much discouraged. That little 

 spbrt of rain that I told about recently did 

 not amount to much; and it is almost a cer- 

 tainty now that there will be but little or 

 no honey in California the coming season, 

 as every thing is drying up. What effect 

 this will have on the honej^ market all over 

 the United States can scarcely be estimat- 

 ed at this time. If California produced 

 last year 200 carloads, and some say 300, 

 and turned a large part of it loose on the 

 East, what will be the eftect on the market 

 if next year it can not ship any? Certain- 

 ly the price on extracted here ought to hold 

 its own and a little more, whether we get a 

 crop or not. 



California will be no bonanza this year 

 for bee-keeping home-seekers. The State 

 will have more bee-keepers and bees than 

 it can take care of. 



THE packing-housp:s and the board of 



HEALTH AT SAN FRANCISCO; GRANU- 

 LATION NOT A TEST OF PURITY. 



I LEARN from E. H. Schaeffle, who is, 

 perhaps, one of the strongest champions of 

 pure honey in California, that the packing- 

 houses of San Francisco recentlj' Ciilled on 

 the Board of Health and asked to be allow- 

 ed to add a small quantity of glucose to the 

 honey which they put out, because, as thej' 

 allege, it is not possible to keep the honey 



liquid without the glucose. But, fortunate- 

 ly, the Board informed them that this was 

 not possible under the law, and it is well 

 they did, for, as the old saying is, if you 

 give these packing-houses an " inch they 

 will take a mile." If they were allowed to 

 put in a little glucose they would make a 

 "mistake " and mix 75 parts of glucose to 

 25 of honey, and then call it " pure honey." 

 And speaking of " mistakes," there never 

 was a bigger one than that glucose will 

 stop the granulating of honey. For exper- 

 iment I once mixed glucose and honey in 

 various proportions, let them stand, and 

 they all granulated more or less. Glucose 

 would, of course, remain liquid and show 

 where it had separated from the pure hon- 

 ey. But pure granulated honey often has 

 clear streaks through it just the same as 

 the " doctored " stuff has. 



BEES AND FRUIT. 



The following item, taken from the Red 

 Wing, Minn., Republican, is one more link 

 in the chain of evidence showing the almost 

 indispensable offices of the bee in fertili- 

 zing fruit: 



BKES AS PEACH-RAISERS. 



At the Oregon station, experimenters forced a num- 

 ber of peach trees into bloom under a gl iss last No- 

 vember, and introduced a colony of bees into the 

 house, first pro ec ing one tree so that the bees coutd 

 not get to it. From that tree all the fruit dropped 

 when the .stones began to form. From the other no 

 fruit dropped and it was abundant. 



I desire to say in this connection that we 

 have quite a lot of leaflets that we are pre- 

 pared to send out to our subscribers where 

 they come in contact with certain disagree- 

 able neighbors who persist in spraying 

 their fruit-trees while in bloom and killing 

 their best friends, the bees. They ought 

 to understand that they can not afford to 

 carry on so foolish a policy, if they con- 

 sult their own interests; and if they are men 

 who can be influenced at all by reason, 

 these clippings that we are prepared to 

 furnish when called for will convince them. 



THE BIG GLUCOSE TRUST AND HOW IT PRO- 

 POSES TO BEFRIEND THE BEE-KEEPER. 



From several clippings that have been 

 sent in it appears that a new glucose trust 

 is about to be or has already been organ- 

 ized with a capital of 80 millions of dollars, 

 and will be called the Corn Products Co. It 

 will " take care of all commodities made of 

 corn, except meal, hominy, grits, and 

 whisk}^" But its particular business will 

 be the manufacture of starch and glucose. 

 Several of the items referring to this trust 

 go on to state that it will make an effort to 

 " bring the cost of honey and maple syrtip 

 something- near the price set by the bee and 

 the maple-tree." This will be interesting if 

 true. The object of this "trust," I trust, 

 is to advance the price of its product. If 

 so, I hope it will make it so high that it 

 will not pay to use it in hone3'. But there 

 is no likelihood that it will be thus consid- 

 erate of the honey business. 



