318 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



May 14, 1903. 



I used this lower section as the upper section 

 to the next hive in which I put a swarm. 



This management did away entirely with 

 the swarming out after hiving. It gave the 

 bees plenty of room until they had cooled off 

 and settled down to work, when it mattered 

 little how much they were squeezed, there 

 was no swarming. 



Differences of Opinion About Time 

 for Cutting Alfalfa. 



Experiment stations should be able to de- 

 cide such questions right, 60 farmers could 

 tell exactly what is best; that is what the 

 stations exist for. Experimenters can bring 

 chemistry to bear on the subject, and then 

 prove or disprove the practical application of 

 the conclusions thus obtained by feeding 

 stock and carefully noting results. Then, why 

 don't they agree? Different environments 

 naturally bring different results. It would 

 seem strange if the most successful mode of 

 handling alfalfa on rich, sandy loam would 

 necessarily be best on a thin limestone soil 

 where the growing season is more than a 

 third shorter. The best hay for horses may 

 not behest for beef slock or milk production. 

 If any one has advocated very early cutting 

 of hay in this valley, when the hay is in- 

 tended for horse feed, it has never reached my 

 attention. Many claim that alfalfa should be 

 in full bloom for some time to make best feed 

 for beef cattle, and many claim it should not 

 stand so long. But when it comes'to dairy 

 stock, I do not know a man who has changed 

 from late cutting to early, and then changed 

 back to late cutting. As dairying is rapidly 

 comingtothefront.it is revolutionizing the 

 alfalfa business. As farming is usually done 

 on methods which are supposed to give the 

 best average results, the alfalfa is all cut 

 young where dairying is the main thing (and 

 it generally is), and little thought is given to 

 the small loss, if any, that is brought about 

 by feeding the " wishy-washy" feed toother 

 stock.— W. A. H. GiLSTRAP, in Gleanings in 

 Bee-Culture. 



Tlie Percent of Water In Honey. 



At the annual meeting of the Ontario Asso- 

 ciation, Prof. Frank T. Shutt, Chemist of the 

 Experimental Farms, Ottawa, gave an exceed- 

 ingly interesting address relating to the pro- 

 portion of water in honey. The address oc- 

 cupies a number of pages in the Canadian 

 Bee Joiu-nal, and a few of the points are here 

 given : 



I said we had no Canadian data on the sub- 

 ject, and as far as I was aware the European 

 authorities differed widely, for I found some 

 authorities staled 10 and 1.5 percent of water, 

 whereas I found other chemists gave as much 

 as 25 and aO percent of water; and then, on 

 the other hand, there were those who en- 

 deavored to bring together the two, and said 

 the proportion of water in honey might vary 

 very largely, and that we should not be sur- 

 prised at finding a variation of as much as 10 

 and 15 percent. 



A large amount of work was done in the 

 attempt to settle the question, with regard to 

 which Prof. Shutt said: 



However, I must make this statement at 

 the outset, so that there may be no misun- 

 derstanding: It is very greatly to my dis- 

 appointment that I am not aljle to tell you to- 

 day what is the normal percentage of water 

 in genuine honey, either ripe or unripe. We 

 have done, as I have said, an exceedingly 

 large amount of most careful, thorough 

 chemical work since Oct. 1, but still I am not 

 In a position to say really what the percent- 

 age of water is. Now, the reasons for that I 

 will explain to you as I give these results. 

 You will see it has not been a matter of neg- 

 ligence at all, but the question involved is one 

 relating to the accuracy of the process now 

 in vogue. 



Keferring to the great discrepancy in the 

 results obtained by chemists in England and 

 on the continent, he said : 



One authority, J. C. Brown, gives dextrose 

 as 31.77 to 43.02 percent; and levulose 33.56 



Tennessee Queens. 



Daughters of Select Imported 

 Italian, Select long--tongued 

 (Moore's), and Select, Straight 

 5-band Queens. Bred 3^ miles 

 apart, and mated to select 

 drones. No bees owned with- 

 in 2h miles; none impure 

 within 3, and but few within 

 Smiles. No disease. 30 years' 

 experience. WARRANTED 

 QUEENS, 75 cents each ; 

 TESTED, $1.50 each. Dis- 

 count on large orders. 

 Contracts with dealers a spe- 

 cialty. Discount after July 1st 

 Send for circular. 



JOHN M. DAVIS, 



9A26t SPRING HILL, TENN. 



Plefte mention Bee Journal when ■writing 



The Danz. Hive— 



The Comb Honey Hive. 



We sell it. We are authorized jobbing agents 

 for THE A. I. ROOT CO., for Michigan. Send us 

 a list of the goods you want for this season, and 

 let us quote you prices. Beeswax wanted. Send 

 for catalog. H. M. HUNT & SON, 



lOAlTt BELL BRANCH, MICH. 



Please mention Bee J ournal -when TOntlng, 



i I fS.SO For 

 I ^ 200 Egg 

 INCUBATOR 



egg. Write for catalog 



GEO. H. STAHL, Quincy 



46A26t Please mention the Bee Journal. 



before 



Italian Queens, by Mail. 

 Golden and Honey Queens jSV 



1 6 12 



Untested '. $1.00 $ 5.00 $ 9.00 



Tested 1.25 7.00 13.00 



Breeder 4 00 



2-frame Nucleus (no queen) 2.00 11.00 21.00 



Add price of any Queen wanted with Nucleus. 



Our bees are shipped in lig^ht shipping--cases. 

 Purchaser pays express on Nuclei. 



Safe arrival guaranteed of all stock sent out. 



Batavia, III., Aug-. 21, 1901. 

 Dear Sir;— I thoug-ht I would let you know as 

 to results of the nucleus sent me. They were 

 placed in 10-frarae hives and now they are in 

 fine condition. From one I removed 24 pounds 

 of honey and had to give 6 of them more room, 

 as they were hanging out. They have more 

 than reached my expectations. 



Yours respectfully, E. K. Meredith. 



Davenport, Iowa, Dec. 31, 1901. 



Your queens are fully up to standard. The 

 honey queen that you sent my brother takes the 

 lead. She had a rousing colony when put up 

 for winter. The goldens can be handled with- 

 out smoke or veil. Very truly yours, 



John Thoeming. 



Notice. — No tested stock sent out before 

 May 15. Send money by P. O. Money. Order or' 

 Express Order. D. J. BLOCHER, 



17Atf PEARL CITY, ILL. 



Please mention. Bee Journal "when "writlns 



DAIRYMEN ARE DELIGHTED 



to meet thoee w&o work for ua. C-ow kfe[iers always 

 have moDey . We start yon ta business. You make 

 large profits. Eaoy work. We furnish capital. Send 

 10 cenla for full line of Bamples and rartlculars. 



DKAPER PUBLISHING CO., Cbicago. Ills. 



BEE^SUPPLIES? 



.verything used by bee-keepers, 

 .DER'S HONEY-JARS. Prompt 

 service. Low Freight Rates 

 NEW CATALOG FREE. 



WALTER S.POUDER. 



INOUNDMI.IS.IND. 



to 40.43 percent. Another authority gives- 

 dextrose 22.23 to 44.71 ; levulose 32.1.5 to 46 89 ; 

 water 16.28 to 34.95, and so on. On looking- 

 over those results carefully the one thing 

 that will strike you is this, that there appears 

 to be great variability in the analysis in the 

 composition of various honey. I say "appears 

 to be," because I can scarcely believe that 

 there is such a great variation, but, neverthe- 

 less, the results as they appear on record 

 would give that indication, viz. : that there 

 is great variability. 



Now, all these analyses have been made' by 

 men of reputation, men endowed with skill 

 and with honesty, but the difficulty has been 

 in connection with the material itself and the 

 process of analyses employed. And now I 

 think I can tell you the reason for this appar- 

 ent discrepancy. We understand that the 

 two principal sugars of honey are dextrose 

 and levulose. Let us consider their proper- 

 ties: Dextrose crystallizes; this is the mate- 

 rial which you see in candied honey. Levulose, 

 on the other hand, does not crystallize; it 

 does not become solid ; it assumes the form 

 of a thick syrup ; it is the sweetest constituent 

 of honey ; it is much sweeter than dextrose; 

 further, we find by experiment and analyses 

 that in the artificial drying of honey it is ex- 

 tremely subject to decomposition; conse- 

 quently during the ordinary and usual metli- 

 ods of analyses employed, as I hope to show 

 you, decomposition of levulose takes place,, 

 and its disappearance has been recorded by 

 the analyst as water. 



Farther on Prof. Shutt said: 



Now, my contention is this, that what we 

 have been supposing to be water, and water 

 only, as passing off in the drying process, is 

 really in part ttie decomposed products of the- 

 honey. The longer you heat it. and the 

 higher the temperature, the greater the 

 amount of caramelizatlon, decomposition, or, 

 in other words, loss. We estimate the water 

 by the loss in drying, and if part of that loss 

 is due to the decomposition of levulose, we 

 get too much moisture. 



The longer the honey-tube is in the drying^ 

 oven the greater the lose— and the higher the 

 percentage of water — apparently. If there 

 were no decomposition we should be able to 

 dry to a constant weight, but this we find im- 

 possible. This, in my opinion, furnishes the 

 explanation of the results as they appear in, 

 this bulletin of the Inland Revenue. Some 

 analysts have dried for 24 or 48 hours, and 

 some have been attempting by still longer 

 drying to get a constant weight. If there 

 were no decomposition a constant weight 

 should be obtainable. But the fact of the 

 matter is that our experiments show you can 

 go on drying these tubes for several days and 

 still they lose weight. Day by day we weighed 

 those tubes and put them back in the water 

 oven, and there was always a loss. From the 

 first weighings we calculated the percentage 

 of water, and got numbers in the neighbor- 

 hood of 14, 15, 16; after 12 hours more we 

 obtained to 18. and then another 12 hours. 

 gave us 20 and 25 percent, and then continu- 

 ing the percentages of loss went up to 28, 30, 

 and :->2. Evidently there was no stopping- 

 place, and what we were calculating as water 

 was really in large part due to the decomposi- 

 tion of the honey. 



Absconding of Shaken or Brushed 

 Swarms. 



Fr. Greiner is afraid of absconding. He 

 says 20 percent turn out to be failures. Dur- 

 ing more than 20 years I formed surely sev- 

 eral hundred brushed swarms on the old 

 stand as well as as on new ones. Only one of 

 them absconded, and settled like a natural 

 swarm on, a limb of a tree near by. It was a. 

 very strong colony, and I had given them one 

 brood-comb and a very small space for brood- 

 chamber, separated from the supers by a 

 iiueen-excluder. I removed the brood-comb, 

 enlarged the brood-chamber, and hived the 

 swarm again, and everything went all right. 

 Some years I had trouble from absconding of 

 natural swarms; but with brushed swarms I 

 never had any difticulty. Gravenhorst recom- 

 mended removing the brood-comb the first 

 day after forming the swarm. This may be 

 true in his locality. Here I do not do it, and 



