356 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15 



mud almost as well as on dry ground. The 

 pneumatic-tired machine is not suitable to 

 drive in muddy roads. It skids and slides to 

 a considerable extent, while on the other 

 hand the high-wheeled machine holds its 

 place in the road, and, what is more, has al- 

 ways good traction. 



THE SEASON IN CALIFORNIA FALLING BELOW 

 EARLIER EXPECT.\TIONS. 



Right after our last issue we wrote to sev- 

 eral bee-keepers in California, asking them 

 to give us by return mail information con- 

 cerning the honey prospects up to date. 



Mr. Root:— In answer to yours of May 26 I will say 

 that information I have just recived ref^arding condi- 

 tions for honey crop along the coast is very unfavor- 

 able—cloudy or cold until May 29, then three hot days, 

 which will shorten the crop very materially. I am sor- 

 ry, but it is another golden dream floating before our 

 eyes— half a crop or less when we expected a bumper. 

 Here in Imperial we shall probably have a normal crop; 

 but this section is only a drop in the bucket. 



Imperial, Cal., June 3. J. W. GEORGE. 



Mr. E. R. Root:— Yours of May 2(ilh is received in re- 

 gard to the honey crop. I still think it will be very 

 light— not more than half what we call a full crop. In 

 some localities there may be a full crop, 200 pounds to 

 the hive, spring count; but there are more places where 

 there will not be 50 pounds to the hive. 



Buyers are offering 5'/? cts. now; but sellers are ask- 

 ing 6, and I think the white honey will bring that be- 

 fore we are done extracting, the first of June. 



We had a change in the weather from too cool for 

 the bees to do well to so hot that it injured the sage, so 

 that it will not last as long as it would if the weather 

 were cooler. We extracted the home apiary to-day, 

 and took out about three tons. L. E. MERCER. 



Newhall, Cal., June 3. 



Notwithstanding the season in California 

 is falling below earlier expectations, we have 

 information to show that there will be con- 

 siderable honey produced there, much of 

 which will find its way to the East. 



DR. WILEY CHAMPIONED BY SOME STRONG MEN. 



Every now and then we run across Con- 

 gressmen who are not afraid to speak out in 

 highest praise of Dr. Wiley. Some little time 

 ago, when some of his enemies were trying 

 to degrade him, and, if possible, get him out 

 of office, we made mention of the fact in 

 these columns, and requested our subscrib- 

 ers to write to their Representatives and 

 Senators in Congress, requesting them to do 

 every thing they could to protect Dr. Wiley. 

 One of our subscribers, Mr. James E. McClel- 

 lan, of Santa Anna, Texas, did so, and receiv- 

 ed back this letterf rom Congressman Slayden : 



Mr. J. E. McClellun :— Your letter of recent date has 

 been read with much interest. I rather suspect that 

 some manufacturers of food products would like to see 

 Dr. Wiley removed from his position, but I hardly think 

 they can accomplish their purpose. I am sure I hope 

 they can not. 



Personally I have always supported him in his cam- 

 paigns against impure foods, injurious drugs, and dis- 

 honest, lying labels, and I shall continue to do so. The 

 more fully people come to understand the nature of the 

 work Dr. VViley is doing the more largely he will be 

 endorsed. JAMES L. SLAYDEN. 



Washington, D. C, June 3. 



It is a pleasure to know that there are some 

 Congressmen like Hon. James L. Slayden 

 who are willing to speak out in praise of Dr. 

 Wiley's splendid work in the interest of pure 

 food. 



BUTCHER-KNIVES FOR UNCAPPING; THE THICK- 

 NESS OF THE BLADES. 



The uncapping-knives with only one cut- 

 ting edge, illustrated and described in Mr. 

 Schoirs department, page 359 of this issue, 

 look as if they might do very effective work, 

 especially where one uses only the down 

 stroke. The only objection we see to them 

 is that, if they are like common butcher- 

 knives, the blade being thin, the sheet of 

 cappings, even after they are cut, might cling 

 to the surface of the comb, whereas in the 

 case of a thick-bladed knife with a beveled 

 edge like the Bingham, the cappings as they 

 are sliced are diverted away from the surface 

 Mr. Scholl in a previous issue, page 53, ex- 

 plains that in the downward stroke the cap- 

 pings fall away from the knife, since the 

 frame is tilted slightly forward. 



It would be perfectly practicable to make 

 a single-edge knife with the handle in the 

 same plane as the blade; but such a knife, in 

 our judgment, should be thick with a bevel- 

 ed edge so that the blade, while cutting, 

 would be at an angle instead of lying flat on 

 the comb surface, as would be the case when 

 a thin-bladed butcher-knife of ordinary type 

 is used. 



The old original Novice honey-knife, which 

 we introduced nearly forty years ago, while 

 it had an offset handle, the same as the Bing- 

 ham, had a thin narrow blade. With this we 

 did a large amount of uncapping; but in later 

 years we discovered that it was not nearly 

 as effective as a thick beveled-edge blade, 

 because it allowed the cappings to come back 

 in contact with the surface of the comb and 

 stick. When Bingham & Hetherington got 

 out their thick-bladed knife they saw the de- 

 sirability of having a thick knife with a 

 beveled edge, so that the blade would be at an 

 angle with the comb while cutting. 



We should like to have this question dis- 

 cussed, because we regard it as very impor- 

 tant, and if it is possible to make improve- 

 ments in our standard tools for bee-keepers 

 we ought to make them. There is such a 

 thing as getting into a rut without ever sus- 

 pecting that there is more and better ground 

 somewhere else. 



AN EXPERIMENT IN SHIPPING COMB HONEY 

 BY EXPRESS IN THE NEW CORRUGATED- 

 PAPER CASES; THE OPINION OF A 

 COMMISSION MAN. 



As announced in our last issue, page 328, 

 we sent 24 sections in one of the J. E. Crane 

 corrugated-paper shipping-cases by express 

 to Hildreth & Seo-elken, New York. We well 

 knew it would Be a rather severe test; but 

 as that test involved only the price of 24 sec- 

 tions we decided to take the risk for the 

 benefit of our subscribers. The following 

 from Hildreth & Segelken will explain: 



Mr. E. R. Root:— We this morning received the hon- 

 ey which you sent us in the new pasteboard box with 

 the partitions. It appeared to be in good order when 

 we received it; but when we cut the strings and open- 

 ed the box we found that half of the combs were en- 

 tirely smashed up. Six or seven of them were broken 



