1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1369 



good; and he might have told us that, when we 

 find a little patch of polished cells near the center 

 of a comb, half as large as the hand, surrounded 

 by honey, we may be very sure we have a 

 queen nearly ready to begin laying. 

 * 

 Then A. I. Root is to give us some " Health 

 Notes." Good! There is room here for a large 

 amount of much-needed work along these lines; 

 and he seems to be on the right track too. It is 

 queer that birds and wild animals should live their 

 lives in almost perfect health, while man, the 

 most perfectly organized of all creatures in this 

 world, should so often live an unheal thful life of 

 weakness and suffering. Even those who think 

 themselves well are unable to accomplish nearly 

 what they might if they were all they imagine 

 they are. It ought to be a shame and disgrace 

 to have constant ill health. How many persons 

 we meet who seem to know about almost every 

 thing but how to live, and die because they do 

 not know enough to live! 



GLEANINGS FROM OUR 

 EXCHANGES 



By W. K. Morrison 



TROUBLE FOR FRENCH BEE-KEEPERS. 



The French bee-keepers have had not a little 

 worry lately on account of the proposal now up 

 for consideration before the local government of 

 the department of Loiret to regulate the distance 

 of apiaries from the highways or inhabited dwell- 

 ings. At present the regulations call for bees to 

 be located not less than 15 feet from the high- 

 way, if they are enclosed; if not, they must be 

 37 feet from the highway or dwelling. On the 

 petition of 44 inhabitants of the village of d'As- 

 cheres le Marche the prefect evidently thinks 

 seriously of increasing this distance to 325 feet. 

 Of course, this would impose a great hardship on 

 the bee-keepers, and many would have to stop 

 keeping bees. The French bee-keepers have a 

 strong organization, and doubtless they will put 

 up a stiff fight before they allow this proposed 

 change to become law. 



CONFISCATION OF ADULTERATED HONEY. 



Some time ago the United States pure-food in- 

 spectors seized a large quantity of adulterated 

 honey in Detroit. It was shipped there by the 

 Rogers Holloway Co., of Philadelphia. The 

 Department of Agriculture immediately began 

 action in the district court for a decree of forfeit- 

 ure and condemnation. The defendant having 

 failed to answer, the misbranded goods have 

 been forfeited by order of the court. There 

 were four actions — one for eight barrels of hon- 

 ey, one for 200 cases, one for ten cases, and an- 

 other for six barrels. It was all marked " Pure 

 Strained Honey," but on analysis by the Bureau 

 of Chemistry it was found to be a mixture of 

 honey, invert sugar, and glucose. 



It is generally understood that this concern 

 had been doing a large business in this kind of 

 artificial honey. Evidently they thought they 

 could deceive Uncle Samuel. The honey-pro- 



ducers of Michigan may be congratulated on 

 these seizures. It is one of the finest things that 

 ever happened for bee-keepers generally, and can 

 not help being a great benefit to the honey-deal- 

 ers of the whole country. 

 * 



THE FEDERAL INDEPENDENT BEE-KEEPER. 



The two first numbers of The Federal Indepen- 

 dent Bee-keeper, published by Messrs. Penglase 

 & Armour, at Bairnsdale, Victoria, Australia, 

 have arrived here. It is certainly a very bright 

 and lively bee-journal — not very large, but full 

 of strictly original matter. It is edited and pub- 

 lished by men who depend solely on bees for a 

 livelihood, and none but original contributions 

 appear, and that is to be its policy. Gippsland, 

 where these enterprising men have pitched their 

 apiaries, seems to be a fine bee country; and so, 

 of course, the various items will be tinged with 

 propolis and slumgum. There are twenty pages 

 in the first and second numbers, and the Septem- 

 ber issue has two half-tone illustrations. I sin- 

 cerely hope Messrs. Penglase & Armour will 

 keep up the pace they have set for themselves. 

 Australia now has three bee-journals, which is 

 all that the United States has at present. Ad- 

 vance, Australia. 



FORMIC ACID IN HONEY. 



The writer has never taken much stock in the 

 ordinary theories accounting for formic acid in 

 honey — least of all the sting-trowel theory of the 

 Rev. Mr. Clarke. There is not much doubt 

 that the formic acid is the result of the process 

 the nectar undergoes while in the honey-sac of 

 the bee. Burning sugar, we know, develops 

 formic acetylene-hydrogen — one of the most pow- 

 erful of gases. Sugar is itself an antiseptic, and 

 this gas is infinitely more so. Many people burn 

 sugar for the express purpose of disinfecting sick- 

 rooms, with good results. 



Another theory which has not much to support 

 it is, that bees invert nectar. As a matter of fact, 

 it is usually half inverted before the bee sips it 

 from the flower. It inverts while in the combs, 

 and it keeps on inverting in the bottle after it has 

 been extracted. Of course, the temperature at 

 which it is held in the hive helps the process and 

 rather favors the presence of enzymes; but to say 

 the bees do it all requires a vivid imagination. 



IRRIGATION IN MEXICO. 



Old Mexico has decided to emulate Uncle 

 Sam a little, and purposes irrigating large bodies 

 of land by means of government assistance. To 

 do this it will give bonuses or subsidies to indi- 

 viduals or companies who provide the means to 

 irrigate tracts of land within the republic. The 

 first enterprise of the kind will use the waters of 

 Lake Chapala, one of the most beautiful sheets 

 of fresh water in the world. The concessionaire 

 is a private individual who will get $10.00 per 

 acre bonus from the government. Mexico is one 

 of the finest regions in the world for bees, and 

 large tracts of land in alfalfa will help somewhat 

 as a balance-wheel to the bee-keeping industry 

 by making it more reliable. The Mexican 

 ranchero is not likely to cut alfalfa before it is 

 ripe, neither is he likely to compete with the ex- 

 pert bee-keeper, so the latter will have a fair field. 



