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GLIANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



135 



GLEANINGS FROM OUR 

 EXCHANGES 



By W. K. Morrison, Mf ina, O. 



Several European bee-journals have made men- 

 tion of the death of Mr E. W. Alexander. They 

 take great pleasure in chronicling the " fact " that 

 he had an apiary of 1200 colonies of bees. Mr. 

 A. never claimed to have more than 750. 



OKKA AS A HONIY-PLANT. 



There is a prospect that this excellent southern 

 vegetable, so dear to the heart of soup-makery, 

 will be far more extensively planted than former- 

 ly. It has been found to be excellent for paper- 

 making, as the stalks are very fibrous It is a 

 very fair honey-plant; and should it be grown 

 on an extensive scale it will be a valuable asset to 

 bee-keepers. The okra grows fairly well at Me- 

 dina — that is, the improved kinds grown for 

 their pods. 



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PURE FOOD IV FRANCE. 



In September last there was held at Geneva, 

 Switzerland, an international congress for the 

 suppression of food frauds. One of the measures 

 decided on was an international system of uni- 

 form names or definitions lor food products. 

 The man asked to define honeys, honey-brtad, 

 sugars, glucoses, etc., is M. bilz, expert chemist 

 to the French Court of Appeals. As Dr. Wiley 

 was honorary president of that congress, doubt- 

 less he will soon inform us what is the definition 

 of the word " honey." B^uropean bee-keepers 

 are just as well pleased with the new pure-food 

 laws as Americans are. 



THE BEST HARNJSS-DHES-ING. 



Three ounces of turpentine and two ounces of 

 refined beeswax are dissolved together over a slow 

 fire. Then add one ounce of ivory black and a 

 dram of indigo, well pulverized and mixed to- 

 gether. When the wax and turpentine are dis- 

 solved, add the ivory black and indigo, and stir 

 till cold. Apply very thin. Wash afterward, 

 and you will have a beautiful polish. This 

 blacking keeps the leather soft. It is excellent 

 for buggy-tops and harness. In England a large 

 amount of beeswax is used by the makers of har- 

 ness-dressing. The above is the usual recipe. 



BEES IN GUADALOUPE; DO THEY WORK ON CO- 

 COA AND COFFEE.? 



Mr. Holtermann refers to the fertilizing power 

 of bees on cocoa and coffee in Guadaloupe — see 

 page 123. This statement has been repeated for 

 many years, and the Dutch government hired Mr. 

 Frank Benton to take some bees out to Java for 

 that very purpose, thinking, no doubt, that what 

 was feasible in Guadaloupe would work out faiily 

 well in the East Indies. The worst of it is, that 

 there are very few " honey bees " in Guadaloupe, 

 and not so very long ago I was there and found 

 none. Moreover, our bees seldom notice cocoa- 

 blossoms. I have watched cocoa for years, and 

 never saw them on it; but others have told me 



they did visit it, and possibly in some places they 

 do. There are quite a good many stingless bees 

 in Guadaloupe, and they visit cocoa somewhat. 

 As to coffee, bees go fairly wild over its beauti- 

 ful snow-like blossoms; but it blooms only 24 to 

 48 hours, hence they can not get a crop from it. 

 This refers to Arabian coffee. Liberian blossoms 

 longer. 



The trouble, I believe, is that Guadaloupe is 

 not a good place to grow cocoa. It is too windy, 

 and much of the soil is not fit for it By the 

 way, cocoa is habitually mis'ipelled. The proper 

 way is cacao, pronou ced kak-cow. 



RFAL CORN SYRUP. 



An effort is being made by Prof. F. L. Ste-a't, 

 of Murrysville, Pa., to intere t the commercial 

 world in the manufacture of sugar from the ordi- 

 nary Indian corn. By preventing the stalk from 

 forming ears, the plant becomes a sugar producer 

 almost equal to sugar-cane. He says the sugar 

 content is about 13 per cent, equivalent to 200 

 lbs. of sugar per ton, which is about the same as 

 the proportions in sugar cane. The " corn syrup " 

 sold in most grocery stores is not made from 

 corn, but from starch, and any starch will answer 

 the purpose. Syrup from corn would compe-e 

 with honey, but such a competitor would be just 

 and fair. 



W*.\' IN PLANTS. 



Allusion has been made on a former occasion 

 to the abundance of wax in the sugar-cane plant 

 Lo^g ago a New Orleans apothecary pioved it 

 was closely alhed to beeswax in composition. 

 Later studies show wax is quite common in the 

 ^egetable world Mr. Edward Step, in his new 

 book, "The Living Plant," has this to say of it: 

 " Wax is another frequent vegetable production, 

 especially in the torrid zone, where many of the 

 wax-bearing plants supply the natives with lig' t. 

 This substance gives the bloom to the plum cher- 

 ry, and grape; and 'the raindrops lie on the waxy 

 surface of the cabbage-leaf like balls of diamond, 

 from the total reflection of the light at their point 

 of contact' Wax is secreted in the cuticle for 

 the purpose of getting rid as rapidly as pos ible 

 of the water which is deposited on the furfare of 

 the leaves, or to prevent excessive loss of water 

 by transpiration. " Evidently wax cut" a big fig- 

 ure in this old world of ouis. Further on the 

 same author says: "The delicate waxen blo< m 

 of many plants presents some curious forms u - 

 der the microscope. The bloom on the rye, 

 familiarized in a popular song, consists cf dense 

 agglomerations ot rods or net dies of wax, and is 

 a most interesting object for examination. So, 

 too, is the wax coating of the leaves of the bana- 

 na (Mw.f«), which conss s of little rods whii h 

 stand erect on the cuticle like so many Lillipu- 

 tian posts, while the "frosting" of the leaves of 

 many lilies is made up of tiny granules of wax." 

 I am decidedly of the opinion that beeswax will 

 play a far larger part in the industries ot the fu- 

 ture than it has hitherto. What we want is a 

 "square deal." Something will have to be done 

 with such sub titutes as paraffine and ozokerite 

 before the production of beeswax will stand on a 

 sound basis. Let us have the provisions of the 

 pure food laws applied to all " jh'ddy " gocds. 



