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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKK. 



19 



especially in bee culture, it is generally con- 

 sidered the correct practice to clip queens' 

 wings in either a comb or extracted honey- 

 producing apiary. The argument in its fa- 

 vor has been mainly that it saves climbing 

 tall trees, chasing after swarms that may run 

 away with their queens, and last, but not 

 least, a large amount of labor in the hiving 

 of the swarm, because it hives itself. 



Mr. R. L. Taylor, who dissents somewhat 

 from this, recently made the statement that 

 "clipped queens are an unmitigated nuisance 

 in swarming time." In the Bee-kcejjers' Re- 

 view for December he defends the statement 

 on the ground that queens are liable to be 

 superseded at any time for any cause without 

 the knowledge of the apiarist. Where a su- 

 persedure has taken place in a hive with such 

 queen, a swarm will issue with the new queen, 

 and the apiarist, supposing that it will re- 

 turn, finds out too late that his swarm has 

 left for parts unknown. Then he adds: 



Swarms issuing with a clipped queen conduct them- 

 selves in quite a different manner from that of those 

 having a perfect one — the latter clustering quickly 

 and completely, as a rule, and if another swarm is out 

 and clustered, are not liable to discover and cluster 

 with It; consequently, they may be secured and prompt- 

 ly hived, while the former, in their search for their 

 queen, hunt the premises over, and if there be a swarm 

 out are sure to find and unite with it, and by their dil- 

 atoriness give abundance of time for other swarms to 

 issue and unite with them. Often they will not clus- 

 ter at all; and if there has already been any swarming 

 that day, they generally make persistent efforts to 

 adopt the hive of the former swarm; and if there have 

 been several previous swarms the same day, only the 

 most skillful and rapid management can prevent a 

 general mix-up. The bees are not only persistent in 

 their attempts to enter strange hives, but, in spite of 

 all, are more or less sucessful; so that often when one, 

 by the use of sheets and smoke, imagines he has done 

 a good job in his efforts to defeat their attempts, he 

 finds later that one-half or two-thirds of the swarm 

 has circumvented him. 



Concluding, he believes that the queen-trap 

 has advantages over the clipping method be- 

 cause it will catch any or all queens in the 

 hive, virgin or laying, whether supersedure 

 took place or not. While it will not prevent 

 the mixing of the swarms, he says it will 

 greatly mitigate it. The trap also has the 

 advantage that the apiarist can see from 

 which hive a swarm may have issued by 

 looking into the trap. 



Mr. Taylor might have added that the trap 

 saves some long hunts for queens and the 

 delicate process of clipping. A trap can be 

 clapped on a hive in a few seconds, while it 

 sometimes takes many minutes, if the colony 

 be strong, to find the queen. 



The only objection to the trap is the ex- 

 pense and the fact that it may hinder to some 

 extent the passage of bees laden with honey 

 going into the hive; but this latter difficulty 

 has been overcome almost entirely in the 

 modern trap. 



THE DANGER OF GLUCOSE SUGARS. 



The Louisiana Planter, of November 30, 

 very properly calls attention to the dangers 

 of starch sugar, or what is known to the 

 American trade as "grape sugar, " but which 

 might with greater propriety be called glu- 

 cose sugar. For evidence, our contemporary 

 calls attention to an article in the Journal of 



the American Medical Association which 

 gives a very able summary of all the data 

 available on the question of the suitability 

 of this sugar for human beings The article 

 goes to show that starch sugar is undenia- 

 bly dangerous, and that it is practically im- 

 possible to have it free from injurious sul- 

 phites when manufactured on a large scale. 

 On a small scale it would not pay, for a 

 substance must be cheap when it is to be 

 used for the purposes of adulteration. The 

 author of the article in question, a Mr. Lipp- 

 man, does not hesitate to condemn this so- 

 called grape sugar in no uncertain words. — 

 W. K. M. 



SOME NEW BEE TERRITORY IN PROSPECT IN 

 WYOMING. 



We have received from the State Board of 

 Immigration, Cheyenne, Wyoming, a very 

 hondsomely gotten-up book on the resources 

 of Wyoming. It comprises over 140 pages 

 of reading-matter, tastefully embellished with 

 a number of excellent illustrations in "half- 

 tone." As the book is compiled by the reg- 

 ular government officials of the State, there 

 is no doubt the statements are reliable and 

 accurate. Particulars of all government and 

 semi-government projects are given, with 

 the address of those in control. Naturally 

 Wyoming is one of the most favored ancl 

 most picturesque regions on the earth, with 

 resources that are practically boundless, and 

 a climate which is almost perfect from the 

 white man's standpoint. As a honey State 

 it will probably rival Colorado, Texas, Utah, 

 or California, at no distant date. Any of 

 our readers who are actually seeking a new 

 location in the West, where they can grow 

 up with the country, can send to the above 

 address and get this book. — W. K. M. 



GLUCOSE, AGAIN; IS IT POISONOUS TO THE 

 HUMAN STOMACH? 



It might be supposed, from the tenor of its 

 articles, that Gleanings is rather against 

 the glucose industry, and that no one else is 

 so prejudiced as we are. As a matter of 

 fact, this antipathy is quite common — so much 

 so that the company making this stuflf chang- 

 ed its name from the American Glucose Co. 

 to the American Cox*n Products Co. in def- 

 erence to widespread popular opinion. The 

 Louisiana Planter, the leading journal of the 

 cane-sugar industry, in a recent issue sets 

 forth the situation in this wise: 



It is now announced in Chicago that the Corn Prod- 

 ucts Manufacturing Company contemplate the imme- 

 diate erection ia that city of another great glucose 

 manufacturing and refining plant, the estimated cost 

 of which will be five millions of dollars. The land for 

 this great establishment has already been secured on 

 the line of the Chicago drainage canal, and it is said 

 the expected capacity of the works will be a loaded 

 car movement of 125 cars per day in and out, which 

 will mean the employment of 750 people. 



Incidentally it is stated that from 5 to 6 million gal- 

 lons of water will be needed for the daily use of the 

 establishment, and borings have been made satisfying 

 the management that they can secure an adequate 

 water supply of excellent quality at a depth of some 

 1600 feet, which will be done with artesian wells. A 

 storage and transfer elevator of a million and a quar- 

 ter bushels capacity will be erected, and the interior 

 is to be of tile laid in concrete. 



