1494 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15 



ter must be looked after on that side. For this 

 reason I shall be glad to receive letters from all 

 those who have had experience in shipping hon- 

 ey, and especially those who have had damaged 

 shipments, etc. All items that may be of im- 

 portance toward helping to remedy the trouble 

 should be mentioned. 



From my own experiences and observations 

 in shipping honey for sixteen years, and seeing 

 it shipped by others, I find that the shipper is 

 often at fault, while at other times the fault 

 rests with the railroad people in the handling of 

 the honey. In the former the trouble lies in that 

 too much honey is shipped in cans of inferior 

 quality, placed in wooden cases that do not hold 

 together under the great weight. I have learned 

 that from my own experience, when I used the 

 same kind of cans and cases. The greatest trou- 

 ble is due to too light cases being used to hold 

 the heavy cans of honey. Therefore this should 

 be looked after, and remedied another year by 

 using heavier boxes or cases, looking also to the 

 quality of the cans as well. 



There are instances, too, of rough handling of 

 the honey on the road by the railroad employees. 

 If substantial packages are used in the first place, 

 however, then the railroad companies can be held 

 responisble for damaged shipments due to negli- 

 gent handling. The long distances that honey 

 must be shipped herein the South, with the many 

 transfer stations, together with more or less care- 

 less handling, makes it important that we look 

 to good strong packages for shipping our next 

 year's crop of honey. 



There is a danger that confronts us, as produc- 

 ers and shippers of honey, if we do not attend to 

 this matter promptly. It is of vital interest, as 

 the loss of honey in shipment is so great that it 

 not only costs the railroads a great deal of money 

 each year, but in the end works to the detriment 

 of the producers. Furthermore, the buyers who 

 receive shipments only slightly damaged, and do 

 not present a claim for the loss, may be turned 

 against buying a commodity on which they must 

 lose, hence will not buy again. So let us take 

 up the matter together. Letters on the subject 

 will be welcomed. 



SPRING MOVING OF BEES. 



All jokes aside. Dr. Miller, here is one who 

 believes it is often better to wait till spring to 

 move bees. I have tried it several times, and 

 with better results. Did you ever notice colonies 

 of bees in an apiary which has been in one place 

 a long time become so " sot in their ways " as 

 not to give best results.? They seem to get set- 

 tled down into a rut — don't do so well as new, 

 vigorous, hustling colonies generally do. I mean 

 this of colonies that are not manipulated very 

 much, but remain on their stands the year round, 

 receiving only their supers, etc., and having the 

 surplus (which for the above reasons is not the 

 greatest amount) removed. Leave them on the 

 same stand next year, and they are the same; they 

 seem slow and sluggish. Move them to a new 

 place in the spring; stir them up, and note how 

 much better they work. I compare them to peo- 

 ple who have tired of their old home, have mov- 

 ed to a new one, and have become invigorated 

 with new life. At the old place they were in a 



rut; every thing was left to go its way; at the 

 new, they gain a new interest; every thing is over- 

 hauled and put into better condition. The same 

 change has an effect upon the results of the occu- 

 pation, whatever that is. With bees it will be 

 noticed very easily, if one buys a neglected api- 

 ary and moves the colonies to a new location the 

 following spring. If moved in the fall the bees 

 remain more or less in the old rut, or get back 

 into the same old habits before the following 

 spring through the long winter. Thestirring-up 

 of the bees rouses them, and the excitement causes 

 them to use their stores, so that they are stimu- 

 lated to heavier brood-rearing. The result is a 

 rousing colony of bees and a greater amount of 

 surplus. The best time for these moves, I find, 

 is just long enough before the expected-honey 

 flow to allow the young bees, raised on account 

 of the move, to be old enough for it. 



GLEANINGS FROM OUR 

 EXCHANGES 



By W. K. Morrison 



SACCHARINE BEWARE! 



That reliable journal, The Louisiana Planter, is 

 responsible for the statement that saccharine is be- 

 ing sold right now in New Orleans. It says: 

 "And it is doubtless utilized by manufacturers 

 of syrups as a cheaper way of obtaining the nec- 

 essary degree of sweetness, without paying the 

 cost of the proper sugar to produce the desired 

 sweetness. " 



This is an important statement, as the general 

 effect of saccharine is equal to a slow poison by 

 causing the food to remain undigested. It neu- 

 tralizes the action of the digestive ferments, and 

 in this respect resembles formaldehyde. Bee- 

 keepers will be obliged to register a protest against 

 the sale of this insidious substitute for real sweet. 

 We ought to have a national law prohibiting its 

 sale for food, and even its manufacture should be 

 regulated. It is derived from coal tar. 



DEATH OF A PATRON OF APICULTURE. 



The death is announced of M. Leon de Bruyn, 

 formerly Belgian Minister of Agriculture. He 

 is very gratefully held in remembrance by Bel- 

 gian bee-keepers, because during his term of 

 office he did so much for the hee-keepers of his 

 country, being extremely liberal in giving their 

 societies needed assistance. With the exception 

 of Switzerland, Belgium stands higher, perhaps, 

 than any other country in the way the bee-keep- 

 ers are organized for mutual assistance and de- 

 fense. Six bee-journals are maintained, and 

 bee-keeping is taught in the agricultural schools 

 in very good style. Bee-keeping is followed in 

 a scientific fashion, and every thing is done to 

 promote a truly efficient system of keeping of 

 bees. This healthy state of affairs is in no small 

 part due to M. Leon de Bruyn. He was 70 

 years old when he died, and was a member of 

 the sen lite. 



