1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



387 



March number. The article bears the title, 

 "Among the Honey-makers," and is by M. 

 E. Dudley. It is primarily designed for the 

 gentler sex. but the men-folks can read it 

 loo. It places the honey production of Cal- 

 ifornia in a good year at 4500 tons. Several 

 fine views of apiaries accompany the text. 



LABELING THE WEIGHT. 



The clause of the Nebraska pure-food 

 law, which requires the labeling of the 

 weight on all food packages, has just been 

 declared unconstitutional by the circuit 

 court in the case of the State vs. Swift & Co., 

 the beef-packers. The law required the true 

 net weight to be printed on all packages. 



CONDITIONS FAVORABLE FOR A CROP IN 

 TEXAS AND CALIFORNIA. 



The latest reports from various sources 

 indicate that there will be a fair crop of 

 honey from California this season. The old 

 crop has been entirely cleaned out, and 

 prices on the coast are remarkably stiff. 



Reports from Texas are also very favora- 

 ble. But during the last two poor years 

 many bees have died, letting their owners 

 become discouraged. But the survivors (it 

 is always the survival of the fittest) ought to 

 be able to get good returns, and to make up 

 for the two poor years that Texas has had. 



OVERLOOKED, PERHAPS. 



One of the most readable and interesting 

 sections of a modern magazine is the ad- 

 vertising pages — that is to say, if the pub- 

 lisher exercises due care in the selection of 

 advertisers. One of the features of Glean- 

 ings likely to be overlooked in this connec- 

 tion is the index to advertisements which 

 some journals do not contain, but which is 

 quite a help to the reader. Another feature 

 which some may not have noticed is the de- 

 partment of foreign honey markets. To 

 some of our readers it must be interesting 

 'reading. 



ALEXANDER'S LOCALITY. 



Several of our correspondents take issue 

 with Mr. E. W. Alexander on the matter of 

 spring feeding. One or two fail to take into 

 consideration that his locality is noticeably 

 different from their own ; for his main hon- 

 ey-flow (buckwheat) does not come on until 

 middle or late summer, while that of most of 

 our subscribers begins in early summer. 

 After one sees Mr. Alexander's special envi- 

 ronment he would, perhaps, feel less inclined 

 to criticise his methods. But this does not 

 necessarily signify that the average reader 

 would do well to follow his advice for a lo- 

 cality with different conditions. 



OVERCOATS FOR BEES. 



Mr. N. E. France, in this issue, in the 

 special series of articles, draws attention to 

 the fact that many bee-keepers who would 

 not think of going outdoors without an over- 



coat in chilly weather will nevertheless take 

 their cellar-wintered colonies out of a warm 

 dry cellar and put them on their summer 

 stands without any protection. What is good 

 for man must also be good for bees. The 

 evidence in this issue shows quite conclusive- 

 ly the value of paper winter cases for spring 

 protection. Shall we give our bees over- 

 coats, or shall we let them stand out in the 

 open, where they must necessarily suffer by 

 reason of the sudden change from indoors to 

 out ? 



SPRING OR FALL FEEDING — WHICH? 



It will be noticed that the trend of the 

 articles on spring management in this issue 

 is against spring feeding. There are more 

 to follow in the next issue, of the same im- 

 port. It has for years been considered a 

 wise policy to stimulate brood-rearing in 

 late spring by feeding. Even so good an 

 authority as E. W. Alexander still advocates 

 it; and not only that, but he recommends 

 extracting and feeding back in dilute form. 

 We are curious to know whether the major- 

 ity of our readers have found spring feeding 

 to be detrimental. No one would question 

 for a minute that colonies short of stores 

 ought to be fed in the spring; but the ques- 

 tion is, should the bees be fed up in the fall, 

 and fed liberally, to carry them until settled 

 warm weather, or should they be fed just 

 enough to carry them through winter, and 

 then give them more feed in the spring to 

 stimulate? 



There would not be space enough for us 

 to insert extended articles on this subject; 

 but we should like to have two or three hun- 

 dred postal-card responses. The answers 

 must be couched in not more than two or 

 three sentences. Just write what you have 

 found to give the best results — fall or spring 

 feeding. 



HAS THE ADMINISTRATION BEGUN TO WEAK- 

 EN THE NATIONAL PURE-FOOD LAW? 



Our readers will remember that we re- 

 quested them to write to Secretary Wilson 

 and President Roosevelt to sustain the deci- 

 sion of the Board of Food and Drug Inspec- 

 tion to the effect that glucose be called glu- 

 cose and not "corn syrup." As stated in 

 our last issue, the administration revoked 

 this decision, by which the manufacturers of 

 glucose can now cover up to a great extent 

 the identity of their product under the inno- 

 cent name of "corn syrup," as if it were a 

 sort of sorghum. The fact is, the glucose 

 people, with their unlimited capital, could 

 send down to Washington chemists and big 

 lawyers by the score, who could present all 

 kinds of p'ausible reasons ; and these same 

 interests, of course, left no stone unturned 

 in the way of getting letters sent in, urging 

 and demanding a recognition of their side of 

 the controversy, while bee-keepers and others 

 had no one on the ground to champion their 

 interests. 



Referring to the decision of the adminis- 

 tration on this point," the American Grocer, 

 published in New York, has this to say: 



