1184 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1 



ken as a whole, the honey-palm is a very valua- 

 ble tree. Great numbers have been ruthlessly 

 destroyed by the Chileans. Californians ought 

 to prize this palm. 



General 

 Correspondence 



DEATH OF MONSIEUR GIARD. 



L'Apiculteur, in its September number, an- 

 nounces the death, on the 8th of August, of M. 

 Giard, President of the Central Society of Bee- 

 keepers in France. Note what kind of men the 

 French bee-keepers select for a leader. He was 

 formerly professor of natural history and zoology 

 in the faculty of sciences at Lille. Later, from 

 1882 to 1886, he represented Valenciennes in the 

 Chamber of Deputies. Latterly he occupied a 

 chair in the Paris Faculty of Sciences. He was 

 also a member of the city council of Paris, and 

 a prominent member of the French Association 

 for the Advancement of Science. He was 62 

 years of age. Such a man adds weight to a 

 society. 



DR. WILEY HONORED. 



Critics of our pure-food laws prophesied, when 

 the glucose decision was rendered, that Dr. Wi- 

 ley was " down and out." This does not seem 

 to be the case, however, for he has just been ap- 

 pointed president of the first international con- 

 gress for the repression of adulterations of ali- 

 mentary and pharmaceutical products. The con- 

 gress was called at Geneva, Switzerland, on Sep- 

 tember 8, the principal nations of the world par- 

 ticipating in the event. The congress arose out 

 of a suggestion made by Dr. Wiley to the gov- 

 ernment of France; and Switzerland, a neutral 

 nation, was selected to call the congress togeth- 

 er. Its purpose is to establish uniform stan- 

 dards for foods and drugs for the leading civil- 

 ized nations. Uncivilized nations do not re- 

 quire food laws. 



ANALYSIS OF MEAT EXTRACTS. 



Bulletin No. 114 of the Bureau of Chemistry, 

 United States Department of Agriculture, resem- 

 bles very much the honey bulletin gotten out by 

 the same bureau some time ago. The subject- 

 matter relates to " Meat extracts and similar 

 preparations." The object of the investigation 

 to which it relates was to discover just how val- 

 uable meat extracts are. There is a great varia- 

 tion in the analysis of the various brands, but it 

 is clearly evident that their real value is very 

 small. Good lean meat has about double the 

 nutritive value of an average brand. This is 

 contrary to the general impression. Most peo- 

 ple " imagine" beef extract to be extremely rich 

 in nourishment. According to rhis bulletin it 

 isn't. Some of the best authorities cited state 

 that the general effect of these extracts is poison- 

 ous; others say they are sometimes injurious, and 

 some think they are beneficial as condiments. 

 The general consensus of opinion among these 

 eminent authorities is decidedly adverse. This 

 ought to be known by all. If the American 

 people understood the contents of this book, the 

 sale of meat extracts would be small. It is nec- 

 essarily very technical, but it shows the Bureau 

 is doing good work. 



THE HONEY RESOURCES OF MICH- 

 IGAN. 



What the Bee-keepers of the Lower Half 

 of the State have to Depend on for Sur- 

 plus Honey; the Influence of Weather 

 Conditions on the Flow. 



BY E. D. TOWNSEND. 



There appear to be two distinct soils in Mich- 

 igan that are especially adapted to the wild red 

 raspberry, the famous white-honey yielder of 

 Northern Michigan. One is the southern two- 

 thirds of Lower Michigan, which is now a rich 

 farming country. It so happened that this part 

 of the State was cleared off and made into farms 

 before much was known of the value of the wild 

 red raspberry as a honey-producer, and the rasp- 

 berry honey that was produced in the lower part 

 of the State was mixed with and went for clover 

 honey, many not knowing it from pure clover, 

 when quite a portion of it might have been wild 

 red raspberry. * 



This lower section of our State is now the old 

 well-settled farming country, and, of course, the 

 wild red raspberry is a thing of the past. When 

 the country was new, and the farms were being 

 cleared off, there were many waste places around 

 stumps, etc., where the raspberry thrived; but 

 this was before there was much of an awakening 

 along the bee-keeping line, so I do not suppose 

 there was any great amount of this honey secured. 



One bee-keeper, however, Mr. Denis Gardner, 

 was an exception to the general rule, for he was 

 a little more in advance of his time than the rest 

 of us. He was located with his bees in the south- 

 west corner of Gratiot Co. This was about 

 thirty years ago, when the county was new, and 

 a few small farms were being cleared off. Dur- 

 ing a dry season all the adjacent woodland was 

 burned over, and in three or four years there 

 came up on this burned-over district a dense 

 growth of the wild red raspberry. Mr. Gardner 

 was there with his bees, and he reaped a fine har- 

 vest of honey. My bee-yard at the time was lo- 

 cated some 15 miles south of Mr. Gardner's, in 

 Clinton Co., where the fire did not burn hard 

 enough to kill the timber. Then my yard was 

 not established early enough (1876) to take ad- 

 vantage of this flow, even had I had the bees and 

 experience to take advantage of it. 



Mr. Gardner had both the experience and the 

 bees. He produced the very finest comb honey, 

 which came in with a rush during just the kind 

 of flow for the best comb honey. I realize now, 

 but could not grasp the idea then, that he had the 

 knack of getting his bees through the winter and 

 spring in good condition for this honey-flow, 

 which came on early in June. He would have 

 honey on the market at about the time my bees 

 had but nicely commenced in the sections. The 

 honey was of a pinkish color, but of a fine flavor; 

 and knowing what I now do of willowherb I'm 

 satisfied that it was of a mixture of clover, willow- 

 herb, and raspberry. This raspberry honey, the 



