Gleanings In Bee Culture 



Published by The A. I. Root Co., Medina, Ohio 



H. H. ROOT, Assistant Editor. 



.A. 1. ROOT, Editor Home Department 



E. R. ROOT, Editor. 

 Entered at the Postoffice, Medina, Ohio, as Second-class Matter 



A. L. BOYDEN, Advertising Manager. 

 J. T. CALVERT, Business Manager. 



VOL. XXXVII 



JANUARY 15, 1909 



NO. 2 



Editorial 



By E. R. Root. 



It is a good time now to bottle honey for the 

 local trade. There is a large amount of literature 

 bearing on this question; and if the reader has 

 any extracted honey that drags on his hands, let 

 him try bottling, supplying his local groceries 

 with the product. 



Owing to a considerable amount of advertis- 

 ing matter coming in at the last moment we were 

 compelled to leave out two pages of editorial 

 matter from our last issue. Our readers will have 

 noticed that, with the exception of editorials, all 

 the department writers are confined to one page. 

 This was necessary in order to increase our ques- 

 tions and answers in the Heads of Grain depart- 

 ment. 



HOW TO LIQUEFY CANDIED HONEY WITHOUT 

 IMPAIRING ITS FLAVOR OR COLOR. 



Mr. E. E. Coveyou, of Petosky, Mich., the 

 man who does such an extensive business in bot- 

 tling honey, says that it is very important, in 

 liquefying honey, to draw off the melted portion 

 as fast as it melts, if the liquefied product is 

 kept under heat until all the solid portion of the 

 honey has become dissolved, it will lose some of 

 its delicate flavor and darken somewhat in color. 

 The same suggestion has come from other 

 sources; and we may say in addition that Mr. 

 Coveyou's experience has been quite in line with 

 our own. It is a fine art to liquefy honey, and 

 do it right, without impairing the flavor or color. 



Right in this connection we discovered in our 

 experiments with the capping-melter that it was 

 important to allow the free honey to run off as 

 fast as the cappings melt. The conditions in a 

 capping-melter are much the same as those that 

 are present in a tank that is melting up candied 

 honey. 



SPACINC; THE COMBS WIDER APART FOR WI.NTER. 



The suggestion has been made by a recent 

 correspondent that, for outdoor wintering at 

 least, the combs should he spaced wider apart 

 than the summer spacing in order to give the bees 

 more clustering room. Having tried it with 

 good results he wished to know why the plan 

 was not more generally practiced. Years ago 

 we, in common with others, did this to a consid- 

 erable extent. We also tested some colonies 

 with regular spacing and others with wider spac- 

 ing side by side, but could see no difference. 

 During the last twenty years, during which we 

 have used Hoffman frames spared IH fioni cen- 



ter to center, we have left the combs in winter 

 spaced just as they were in summer; and any one 

 who has followed our wintering knows that we 

 have been generally quite successful. 



THE bee-keeper's REVIEW PROSPERING. 



The Bee-keeper's Re'vieiv is now in a new and 

 larger home of its own. Mr. Hutchinson and 

 his son-in-law bought out a printing-plant for- 

 merly owned by the Michigan Paint Co. This 

 has been renovated and requipped with about 

 $1000 worth of new machinery, and the editor is 

 now looking forward to the day when he can 

 carry out some of his ideas toward making a bet- 

 ter Re'vieiv. It has always been a good paper, 

 both typographically and for the real helpful 

 subject-matter which it contained. Mr. Hutch- 

 inson has a very pleasing way of injecting his 

 own personality in all of his writings; and there 

 is no reason why his journal will not grow better 

 and better. Gleanings extends its congratula- 

 tions and best wishes. 



alfalfa. 



A NEW bulletin from the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture, Farmers' Bulletin No. 

 339, entitled "Alfalfa," has just been issued. 

 This is a very comprehensive treatise, taking up 

 the general subject of alfalfa and its cultivation, 

 both in the Eastern and Western States. Any 

 one who has any thing to do with the growing 

 of this important forage-plant will do well to se- 

 cure a copy of this bulletin. It is free. 



On page 30 we note that "it is the practice in- 

 the West to cut alfalfa hay for sheep just as it 

 commences to bloom, instead of when one-tenth 

 in bloom, as is customary for dairy cattle, or 

 when one-half to two-thirds in bloom for horses. " 

 On the subject of alfalfa for bees we find this: 



The development of the honey-producing industry in the Wesl 

 has been practically coincident with the extension of alfalfa cul- 

 ture. Statistics indicate that the heaviest yields of honey per 

 stand of bees ate secured in the sections showing the gieatest 

 acreage of alfalfa. That the honey is of good quality is evi- 

 denced by its standing in exhibitions of this class of products. 

 The number of times that the alfalfa-fields come into blossom 

 during the season makes possible the gathering of siiccessive 

 crops of honey. 



THE FALL DROUTH, AND DID IT KILL THE CLO- 

 VERS? 



In response to our request on page 1426 of our 

 Dec. 1st issue for information as to whether the 

 severe drouth last fall had killed clovers so that 

 there would be a light crop of clover honey next 

 season, we have received a large number of re- 

 ports. In the main they go to confirm the state- 

 ment made by our farmer friend on p. 1365, and 

 again on 1426, that the clovers are in good con- 

 dition, and that a fall drouth has not killed them 



