348 



THE BEE-KEEPERS JR,EV1&\. 



A Condensed View of Current 

 Bee Writings. 



E. E. HASTY. 



Gleanings has a new humorist, Skylark by 

 name. Wants us to blow him up, because 

 an ancestor received the thanks of Congress 

 for blowing him up in the harbor of Tripoli, 

 and descendants were advised to follow his 

 example. As for me I haven't much of an 

 idea of a skylark that can't get up without 

 being " blowed up." His - arguments, 

 moreover, do not sound light and feathery, 

 as becomes a child of the sky, but more 

 like those we would expect from a hippopot- 

 amus. Listen to him about California 

 matters on page 842 ; 



" More than two million pounds of extracted 

 honey have been sold on this coast this year for 

 3V^ cents"— 



Therefore glucose at two cents on the Mis- 

 souri river cannot be carried to California 

 (at a freight charge of 1>2 cents) and mixed 

 with honey there to any protit. Sounds 

 conclusive ; but don't tumble too recklessly. 

 The only sample of California honey I ever 

 sent for was dark in color, and too queer in 

 flavor and other characteristics to sell at all. 

 Perhaps mixing in a fine quality of glucose 

 would make it sell. At any rate if the 

 adulteration is actually done it is of small 

 moment to "we-uns" where it is done. 

 Once again, prove to the railway magnates 

 that your freight cannot stand the charge 

 and a special reduction is not unthinkable. 

 How about glucose at 1^ cents with freight 

 reduced to a half cent, and a salable product 

 made of a previously unsalable one ? When 

 plausible argument collides well authenti- 

 cated fact the argument has to give way. It 

 is quite imaginable that friend Dayton had 

 such an inside view of things as enabled 

 him to give us the authentic fact when he 

 said that half California's product left the 

 state in an adulterated condition. 



Editor Holterman makes a curiously in- 

 teresting statement in the Nov. No. of the 

 Canadian— all the more interesting from 

 being the outcome of meditations on a sick 

 bed. It applies to conventions, particularly 

 to those held in Canada — 



" Many of our readers have no idea that for 

 years at almost, every convention there has been 

 a battlefield, which has disgusted many, who 

 have decided not to return until a different state 

 of feelings prevail, or different men attend the 

 convention. " 



The confession is no more remarkable than 

 is the remedy which friend Holterman 

 proposes. It is to stop covering up the 

 squabbles, and report them to the bee-keep- 

 ing public with relentless truthfu Iness, 

 until the offenders are shamed into decency, 

 or their friends shamed into muzzling them 

 some way. It is hardly necessary to add 

 that Mr. Holterman has grown some inches 

 in my estimation by this courageous para- 

 graph. Perhaps he will esteem it poor pay 

 for me to say what I am moved to say in 

 addition. It would help some toward peace 

 if Canadians would cease trying to get a law 

 passed for the purpose of persecuting their 

 neighbors. The sugar-honey law, which 

 has been offered to two Parliaments in suc- 

 cession, gives itself away by its wording — 

 evidently not so much intended for general 

 enforcement as for a handy club to hit 

 prominent heretics. Legislate ten years 

 imprisonment for sneezing, and you have 

 things in shape so you can put whom you 

 choose in prison, and leave whom you 

 choose at large. The act in question is so 

 draconically worded that the most innocent 

 bee-beginner in the land could be put in 

 prison under it, for no greater crime than 

 feeding sugar to his starving bees to keep 

 them alive over winter. It is not merely 

 selling but producing sugar honey that is 

 made penal: and manifestly every one who 

 feeds syrup early enough to have it finished 

 and sealed produces the article. 



In Heddon's Quarterly I find that I mark- 

 ed for use, but think I have not used, the 

 statement of a queer little kink in regard to 

 changing from one kind of work to another. 

 If you begin the season by giving them sur- 

 plus combs for extracting it is not practical 

 to change over that season to section honey 

 — bees pretty sure to sulk and waste time — 

 but you can take away the sections and give 

 a super of empty combs for extracting any 

 time you choose. In other words bees are 

 not offended by being required to leave ofif 

 comb building ; but they are offended when 

 a plentiful supply of empty comb is taken 

 away and they are suddenly required to 

 commence comb building. I think this is 

 about in accord with bee nature as we usu- 

 ally find it. But if you have an extra-strong 

 colony and want to grab a little soft maple 

 honey ( or any other early flow ) by means 

 of it, I hardly think they would lay up spunk 

 against you, provided the extra combs were 

 taken away again a week or two before the 

 time to put sections on. 



