18 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1 



For outdoor feeding the position would be 

 bad, but all right for the cellar. — Ed.] 



Wm. M. Whitney, p. 1594, says the case 

 of the bee-keeper is not parallel with that of 

 the stock-raiser. That's just it, Bro. Whit- 

 ney, and I'd like to see the bee-keeper have 

 the same show as the stock-raiser. As it is 

 now, it's all a gamble whether he may oc- 

 cupy a certain territory undisturbed, or be 

 crowded out by others. I'd be willing to 

 pay good money to be as sure of my ground 

 as the stock-raiser is of his. 



So you think, Bro. Whitney, you might 

 grant me control if I'd hopple or clip my 

 bees. How about fish? They're neither hop- 

 pled nor clipped, no one even pretends to 

 own them as bees are owned, and yet legis- 

 lation clearly defines territory upon which 

 one may not encroach in catching them. 

 Very likely you are with the large majori- 

 ty, but ' ' the world do move. ' ' Many years 

 ago I rashly advocated legal control of bee 

 territory, and called down wrath upon my 

 head. So far as I know I was entirely alone; 

 at least if any one agreed with me he never 

 said so. Now I'm not alone. Not only do 

 many good men agree with me, but in some 

 places sole control of bee-territory is an ac- 

 complished fact, made so by legal enactment. 

 If it doesn't come here it's only because we 

 are not so progressive as the people on the 

 opposite side of the globe. 



Reading what is said on p. 1557, the be- 

 ginner is likely to think that he should use 

 split sections. Does Gleanings really ad- 

 vise this? [Every man has his own ideas re- 

 garding fixtures, but from the standpoint of 

 dollars and cents, we can not see that it 

 would pay any bee-keeper to throw away 

 good supers, section-holders, and other ap- 

 pliances to adopt the split-section plan. We 

 are not even sure that it would pay a begin- 

 ner to start out with the split sections. 



After the split sections are purchased, and 

 every thing is in readiness, foundation may 

 be put into four at once, very rapidly. But 

 this saving of time does not mean much of a 

 saving of money, for such work is usually 

 done when time is not very valuable. A bet- 

 ter grade of comb-honey is produced if foun- 

 dation is held on all four sides, but we do 

 not believe that the split-section plan has 

 any merit as far as the appearance is con- 

 cerned over the melted- wax plan for instance, 

 for fastening full sheets on all four sides of any 

 style of section The latter plan has the further 

 advantage that no special section is needed. 



Split sections cost 50 cents a thousand ex- 

 tra. Or, if the bee-keeper has his own foot- 

 power saw, he niay reduce this extra cost a 

 trifle by doing his own spliting, but not 

 enough to be worth mentioning. Now a 

 helper's time in the winter would not ordi- 

 narily be worth 10 cents an hour. But fig- 

 uring the labor at 10 cents an hour, never- 

 theless, we have found that the cost of put- 

 ting full sheets, fastened on all four sides, in 

 the unsplit section, is not far from 50 cents 

 per thousand, for it takes about five hours. 

 It will be seen that this cost is practically 

 the same as the extra first cost of the split 



sections. This means that the labor in put- 

 ting foundation into split sections is an ex- 

 pense that may be eliminated by adopting 

 the plan of putting full sheets in ordinary 

 sections by means of hot wax from the wax- 

 tube. The wax used would not cost any 

 more than the extra wax in the larger amount 

 of foundation needed for the split-section 

 plan. 



Finally, we have learned that there are 

 many who object to the appearance of the 

 split sections. Just how serious this objec- 

 tion would be, we can not say. — H. H. R.] 



A BIG FIELD FOR BOTTLING HONEY. 



A RECENT canvass made in one of our large 

 cities showed that little or nothing was being 

 done with the bottling trade for extracted 

 honey. While comb honey was fairly well 

 represented in the retail groceries they had 

 no liquid honey to speak of. We are in a 

 position to know that the same condition ex- 

 ists in many of our other large cities. It 

 only goes to show that much more of extract- 

 ed might be disposed of, and what a field 

 there is for individual bee-keepers to bottle 

 their own honey, especially if they are near a 

 large city or town! This would have the ef- 

 fect of increasing enormously the consump- 

 tion of extracted, and at the same time have 

 a tendency to advance prices. 



It is not because good bottled honey would 

 not sell, but because none is offered. Before 

 the new National pure-food law went into 

 effect the market was injured and practical- 

 ly killed by adulterated goods masquerading 

 under the name of "Pure Honey," or "Farm 

 Honey." 



Mr. Selser, of Philadelphia, Mr. Weber, of 

 Cincinnati, Mr. Ponder, of Indianapolis, and 

 some others, have demonstrated that pure 

 goods will sell, and bring fairly remunerative 

 prices. What these men have done for their 

 respective cities others can do. There was 

 never a better time to develop the bottling 

 trade than now. 



Always put up a fine table honey, well 

 ripened, and then be careful not to spoil a 

 good trade, once worked up, by putting out 

 inferior honey. We know of one case where 

 a bottler having a fine trade practically ruin- 

 ed it by putting out an off grade of pure hon- 

 ey. It was off in body and color, and now 

 he can not sell honey that is first-class. 



CLIPPING QUEENS VS. QUEEN-TRAPS. 



It takes considerable courage to run di- 

 rectly counter to orthodoxy. For example, 



