THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



141 



A miller in Nebraska who keeps bees has 

 been much annoyed by the way they came 

 into the mill for early pollen. He was stir- 

 red up to try a very interet^ting experiment. 

 Nine different kinds of mill stuff were ex- 

 posed in a long trough to see what bees pre- 

 fer. Corn meal " took the cake " very de- 

 cidedly. White and yellow corn meal were 

 both tried : but he does not speak of notic- 

 ing any difference between them* But 

 ground peas and beans, which have been 

 strongly recommended, were not among the 

 nine articles tried. O. K. Olmstead in A. 

 B. J., 208. 



A straw in Gleanings, 20:*. tells how the 

 Bienen Vater says that queenless colonies 

 often put abundant royal jelly in empty 

 queen cells, and build them out nearly a 

 finger long. Some one has recently said 

 that these abnormally long cells are caused 

 by a drone larva's disgusted crawling away 

 from the jelly, which is not the same as his 

 proper food — the workers lengthening out 

 the cell to humor him. 'Spects the B. V. 

 got fooled that time, by seeing some cells 

 from which the drones had crawled clear 

 out. 



The improvement in honey drinks the 

 fourth great step in apicultural improve- 

 ment, eh ? Evidently then the fifth step 

 will be an unsteady one, and in the direction 

 of perdition. Straw, Gleanings, 203. 



'Pears like I was at war with all mankind 

 for their misstatements of foreign honey 

 prices. Here's Dr. Miller tempting the un- 

 wary tenderfoot to believe that certain hon- 

 ey sells in Paris at GO cents a pound. Evi- 

 dently 00 centimes (12 cents.) Of course 

 you can read GOc. as GO centimes, if you are 

 up to the scratch in French currency ; but 

 friend M., with all his " don't know," knows 

 that nine-tenths of his readers will read it 

 6U cents. 



Manum thinks a Crane smoker, with pro- 

 polized rags as fuel, would drive mad dogs 

 out of the streets. Gleanings, 208. 



"The disease (paralysis) usually disappeared 

 when new honey began to be gathered " Cal- 

 ifornia convention, reported by Rambler. 



Does it ? Or is there no difference at all 

 excejit that when bees are active they carry 

 away all the dead and dying, and drop them 

 at a distance ? Or does the diligent carry- 

 ing away of everything infected finally bring 

 a cure ? 



And the following, from the same article 

 is, as a California joint report, somewhat 



surprising. Howsomever, its all in my style, 



and I've no " 'jectioii." 



"Tim most rapid way to pet over a largo num- 

 ber of hives was to pour the feed into empty 

 combs, and place them in tlie hive after dark." 

 Gleanings, ^10. 



Ernest is in danger of getting crazy with 

 the nmltitudo of new bee escapes the lioys 

 are sending in. Let up there for a few 

 mouths ! Can't afford to have him in the 

 asylum just yet. 



According to Gleanings, 227, the govern- 

 ment chemists found all granulated sugars 

 pure quite recently. Let us be thankful. 

 But they can't assure us maple when we 

 don't want it half cane— nor cane when we 

 don't want it of beet stock. Chemistry in 

 the human tongue quite a bit more delicate 

 than chemistry in the laboratory ! 



A big interrogation point has been fired 

 after " lysol." Gravenhorst answers in 

 Gleanings, 3()8. Coal-tar product — new — 

 brown — smell of tar — GO cents a pound — 

 great disinfectant — chemically, cresylic acid, 

 made into a liquid soap by a patented pro- 

 cess — cures foul brood verhaiJS — will know 

 more about it a year hence. 



T. B. Blow, who ought to be pretty good 

 authority, says he found a new bee {Apis) in 

 British Guiana. Very interesting if true, 

 as the idea prevails that there is no true Apis 

 on this hemisphere except the one with 

 which we are familiar. These are little half 

 size chaps, worthless except as curiosities, 

 few in a hill, and not in the honey business 

 any to hurt the market ; yet they swarm, 

 take possession of cavities, and in general 

 carry sail like children playing at grown 

 folks' business. Gleanings, 305. Still I 

 imagine the new Apis may turn out a Meli- 

 pona, or something. 



The same article reports the island of 

 Montserrat as producing one pound of bees- 

 wax to each 27 acres of surface. This was 

 very likely obtained by squeezing out finish- 

 ed honey and melting the cake. My largest 

 melt up of honey was 30 pounds to get l^a of 

 wax or 20 to one. Applying this measure to 

 the island we find a pound of honey grew on 

 one and seven-twentieths acres of land, 

 counting in streets, plow land and all. If 

 Ohio should do as well it would yield nearly 

 a million pounds of wax and twenty million 

 pounds of honey — or, to be mathematical, 

 19,323,259 pounds of honey. Come and see 

 us when we harvest it, and we'll give you 

 some. 

 KiCHAKDS, Lucas Co.. Ohio, April 20, '95. 



