1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



141 



certainly, can not mean a hive full of comb- 

 honey sections, unless one is woefully igno- 

 rant of apicultural terms. — Ed.] 



not meet the approval of our legislature and can not 

 be invoked to determine its meaning. 



Every label or stamp will probably have to 

 have a blank space in which the exact weight 

 can be shown, in pencil or pen. w. k. m. 



LIVE-BEE HANDLING AT THEATERS. 



Evidently some one else is doing stunts 

 in handling live bees before an audience. 

 The following advertisement appears in a 

 Philadelphia daily, and reads as follows: 



NINTH AND ARCH DIME MUSEUM. 



Always ahead! First Philadelphia appearance of 

 Barrett the bee-king and his countless thousands of 

 bees. Unique stunts by curious winged artists. The 

 most novel exhibition ever presented. Instructing, 

 interesting, entertaining. What do you know about 

 bees? 



This dime museum will exhibit all over 

 the United States, we are told. Perhaps 

 some of our bee-keeping friends will be glad 

 to see this. 



DETROIT SECURES THE NATIONAL CONVEN- 

 TION. 



The following, received from Secretary 

 Hutchinson, will explain: 



By a unanimous vote the executive committee of 

 the National Bee-keepers' Association has decided to 

 hold the next annual convention in Detroit, Michigan. 

 The exact date has not been decided on, but it will be 

 after the hot dusty busy season is past, but before the 

 cold of winter has come — in those glorious days that 

 come only in the autumn. The National has met in 

 Detroit only once, nearly a quarter of a century ago : 

 but that meeting was well attended— practical, enthu- 

 siastic, and harmonious. 



The majority of bee-keeping specialists— those who 

 attend conventions — live in the northeastern part of 

 the United States and Canada, and Detroit is very 

 nearly the geographical center of that district. It is 

 easily reached from the middle South, from the East, 

 from the middle West, and from Ontario ; hence a 

 great crowd of practical men can be gathered at that 

 point. W. Z. Hutchinson, Sec. N. B. K. A. 



LABELING THE WEIGHT. 



Bee-keepers in Nebraska will have to take 

 notice in future of the State pure-food law 

 which compels venders to state on the out- 

 side of a package the weight of the goods in- 

 side. According to a ruling of Deputy-At- 

 torney-General Rose, this feature of the law 

 is sound and constitutional, and must be en- 

 forced. 



It looks as though comb honey would have 

 to bear a label certifying to the weight. For 

 the benefit of readers who have to do with 

 this law we append the opinion of Mr. Rose. 



In my opinion your interpretation that the contents, 

 weight, or measure must be correctly stated on the 

 outside of food packages sold in Nebraska is in )" ar- 

 mony with both the spirit and the letter of the pure- 

 food law. It is no answer to this construction to cite 

 the national pure-food act. The Nebraska statute re- 

 quires the contents, weight, or measure to be branded 

 on the outside of packages of food, if sold for use in 

 this State, while the act of Congress contains no such 

 requirement. In this respect the federal statute did 



SUCCESS INSTEAD OP FAILURE. 



At the convention of the Michigan Bee- 

 keepers' Association Mr. W. J. Manley, San- 

 dusky, Mich., gave a most entertaining talk 

 on "winter losses," in which he made the 

 remarkable statement that he saved only one 

 swarm out of 135 last spring, and made 400 

 per cent on his investment. He remarked 

 that a winter loss with him is almost as good 

 as a honey-flow. He explained the same by 

 saying that his is an excellent locality for 

 honey, but winter losses are heavy on account 

 of the aster honey that the bees deposit late 

 in the season, and on which they would not 

 winter well. In the spring he melts up his 

 old combs, sells the wax, buys bees by the 

 carload, and turns apparent failure into suc- 

 cess. He also explained his method of ren- 

 dering wax on a large scale. 



In a locality where the fall honey does not 

 give good results as a winter food, we would 

 advise the substitution of sugar syrup, prop- 

 erly made. It would at least save such great 

 losses during the cold weather. 



A WORD TO THOSE WHO EXPECT TO QUIT 

 KEEPING BEES BECAUSE OF POOR 



SEASONS. 



Last week we had a visit from Mr. F. A. 

 Salisbury, of Syracuse, N. Y. While here he 

 told how one bee-keeper came to his place 

 and said he guessed he would quit the busi- 

 ness, as the seasons were getting to be too 

 poor. Said Mr. Salisbury: 



"Mr. Jones, you say you are going out of 

 the bee business. Will you tell me if there 

 is any other rural pursuit that, for the mon- 

 ey and time invested, will begin to give the 

 returns that one can get from bees when in- 

 telligently handled? Now just stop and 

 think. A colony of bees will earn more clean 

 money than the same money invested in 

 general farming." 



Jones thought a minute, then a smile be- 

 gan to play over his face, and he said: 



"I guess you are right, old man — I guess 

 you are right. But I thought that, because 

 I had not done as well as 1 used to do, it did 

 not pay me to keep bees." 



"But really," said Mr. Salisbury, "have 

 they not earned for you more than any thing 

 else on the farm? " 



"I guess that is so," said Mr. Jones. 



In counting up the profits and losses in 

 keeping bees, $100 worth of syrup given to 

 100 colonies looms up awful big; but an av- 

 erage of only 10 lbs. of honey will cover 

 this up. An average of 25 lbs. will leave a 

 comfortable margin of $100 of clean money. 

 An average of 50 lbs. ought to give an earn- 

 ing capacity of $4.00 per colony after expenses 

 have been paid. Now, $100 in the apiary 

 does not begin to take the amount of time 

 that the same investment does in general 

 farming operations. 



