302 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15 



enormous quantities of this valuable timber; 

 and unless some effort is made to replace it, 

 coming generations will suffer hardship. 



SWEET CLOVER AS A FORAGE PLANT FOR 

 CATTLE. 



On p. 147 of this issue will be found some 

 very valuable and interesting testimony- 

 showing how cattle, tvhen once educated to 

 it, will actually ignore timothy and alsike 

 clover — two of the supposedly best forage- 

 plants in the woi'ld, and eat sweet clover 

 clean down to the ground. All the more 

 surprising it is that so many State legisla- 

 tures have declared that sweet clover is a 

 noxious weed, and that, therefore, the road 

 supervisors must keep up an unremittmg 

 warfare against it. We hope our readers 

 will seek the ears of their Senators and Rep- 

 resentatives, and ask to have the law against 

 noxious weeds amended, eliminating sweet 

 clover from the list. 



A NEGLECTED FIELD. 



There is a demand for a method of serv- 

 ing small portions of comb honey at hotels 

 and on dining-cars, without drip or the 

 messing of dishes. Quartering up a section 

 of honey is not entirely satisfactory unless 

 four people are served at one time. What 

 is wanted is a plan for cutting up a sealed 

 comb in an extracting-frame into small por- 

 tions, washing off the drip and wrapping in 

 waxed or paraffine papers. The problem is, 

 how to do this without too great an expen- 

 diture of labor, and yet at the same time 

 have something that is neat and attractive 

 If this can be done in a manner satisfactory 

 to the hotels, restaurants, and dining-car 

 people, a big demand for honey at good 

 prices will be assured. We should be glad 

 to hear from any one who knows how to 

 meet the requirements. 



BEES AND RHEUMATISM. 



We notice in the Youth's Comx>anion for 

 Feb. 6 that "Dr. Ainley Walker, of Universi- 

 ty College, Oxford, England, has undertaken 

 to solve the question whether, as popular 

 belief in many countries has long asserted, 

 the poison of bees' stings acts as a prophylac- 

 tic and a cure in case of rheumatism. As 

 he has recently been able to collect some 

 definite evidence in support of this belief he 

 invites correspondence from all persons hav- 

 ing personal knowledge of the subject. 

 Among other facts which he believes to be 

 established is a connection between rheumat- 

 ic fever and the production of formic acid 

 (the acid of bee poison) in the human body." 

 We hope bee-keepers in a position to give 

 evidence will be kind enough to write Dr. 

 Walker, stating the facts. w. k. m. 



MORE ROMANCE. 



M^:terlinck has written a book entitled 

 "The Intelligence of Flowers," "which," 

 The I7idepe7ident says, "is, like 'The Life of 

 the Bee,' a unique combination of fact and 



fancy, scientific in its statements, humanis- 

 tic in its interpretation of them, mystical in 

 its philosophy, and poetical in its expres- 

 sion." Our contemporary hits the nail on 

 the head. The features which it character- 

 izes so well are calculated to make any 

 book sell, and in this respect Maurice Mae- 

 terlinck is one of the greatest writers of this 

 or any age. No doubt "The Intelligence of 

 Flowers" will be as popular as any of his 

 previous works; but it is a peculiar commen- 

 tary on our civilization that a book which is 

 not true is far more popular than a strictly 

 truthful one. Some allowance must be made 

 for the fact that the elegance of diction and 

 beautiful ideas are worth something, and in 

 this the great Belgian certainly excels. 



W. K. M. 

 VERY LITTLE ADULTERATION. 



The annual report of the Connecticut Ex- 

 periment Station relating to the analysis of 

 food products has this to say on the subject 

 of honey adulteration: 



Formerly strained honey was extensively adulter- 

 ated with glucose, and to some extent with cane su- 

 gar It was also a common practice to feed bees with 

 sugar, which yielded, when stored in the comb, an in- 

 ferior and flavorless product. At the present time 

 these frauds are not so commonly practiced. 



During the present year 45 samples of strained 

 honey were bought and examined, of which only one 

 was adulterated. A description of the adulterated 

 sample follows : 



17997. Label : " Hallett Table Water Co., Bridge- 

 port. Conn. Nonquit Pure Honey. Superior quality. 

 Sparkling, delicious." Dealer : S. Manjoney. 1362 

 Main St., Bridgeport. Per bottle, 15 cents. Adulter- 

 ated with glucose. 



It seems to us this is a very satisfactory 

 report from the land of wooden nutmegs, 

 and yet it is our opinion that other States 

 can make a showing equally good. Honey 

 adulteration has practically ceased, and con- 

 sumers are well protected against fraudu- 

 lent honey. One case in forty-five is a small 

 percentage, and probably that was bottled 

 before the national pure-food law went into 

 effect. w. K. M. 



TOO MUCH BOTTOM VENTILATION IN CEL- 

 LAR DETRIMENTAL. 



It will be remembered that we had last 

 year a large amount of bottom ventilation 

 for our cellar-wintered colonies. Even be- 

 fore the first of the year they were wintering 

 very badly, and before the time of setting 

 them Qut we had lost nearly 90 per cent, as 

 we afterward learned. This year, in the 

 same cellar, under the same conditions, we 

 put in another lot of bees of about the same 

 strength, but with a narrow contracted en- 

 trance, |X8 inches — just the same the bees 

 were having in the late fall outdoors, and, 

 presto! what a change! They are wintering 

 finely. 



Last winter, when we lost such a heavy 

 percentage of our bees, there was one colony 

 that, by mistake, was shut up tight during 

 almost all the winter, and it wintered the 

 best of any colony in the cellar. This we 

 considered to be a "pointer" showing that 

 too much ventilation, in some cases at least, 

 is decidedly bad. 



