1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



529 



but is undesirable. Better by far have the 

 row of cells bordering the wood unsealed, 

 and free from honey. That a merchantable 

 article of comb honey maybe produced with- 

 out full sheets of comb foundation my 30 

 years in producing comb honey proves. I 

 believe I have had as few smashups as any 

 other producer. 



The comb-honev producer who uses only 

 small starters will occasionally have a few 

 cases containing honey very poorly attached 

 to the wood. This seems unavoidable. Some- 

 times we miscalculate the duration of our 

 honey-flow, and give too much room. It 

 happens even when we make no mistake. 

 But what of that? Such honey always finds 

 willing buyers from near by, providing we 

 offer it for what it is worth, selling by weight. 

 ^^'o have never enough to go around. Dur- 

 h\g the honey season my sections are nearly 

 a! v/ays well filled, and attached on all four 

 sides. Such as are not attached to the bot- 

 tom, but have the other three sides securely 

 fastened, are placed topside down in the 

 shipping-crate. Thus they carry with safety. 

 As long as our honey is bought by the pound 

 there is no injustice to the purchaser if the 

 sections are of light weight. He pays only 

 for what he gets; and if the honey itself is 

 good there is no reason for fault-finding. 

 The only loss, in fact, hits the shipper, inas- 

 much as the cost of the shipping-case is the 

 same whether the 24 sections contained there- 

 in weigh IS or 25 lbs. 



UNSEALED CELLS NEXT TO THE WOOD. 



As to the number of unsealed cells admis- 

 sible, a word might be said. Cells contain- 

 ing honey should be sealed. This is greatly 

 to be preferred. However, if there are a 

 few such cells unsealed, and the honey is 

 thick enough not to run out when turned on 

 its side, there will be no harm in crating it. 

 Even should there be a dozen such cells on 

 a face, few consumers will object. Here the 

 man that does the crating must use good 

 judgment, as iron-clad rules can not be laid 

 down. 



THE QUESTION OF GRADING HONEY FOR EXHI- 

 BITION PURPOSES. 



Now we are coming to an interesting point, 

 of the real merit of comb honey as exhibited 

 at lairs. Comb honey for exhibition pur- 

 poses must be perfectly clean, the comb as 

 well as the wood. This is conceded by all. 

 The boxes must be well filled, which is also 

 conceded. Further, they must be uniformly 

 filled and sealed all around with no popholes 

 anywhere, not even at the corners. All 

 worker comb looks better than drone comb 

 or worker and drone comb mixed. To at- 

 tain this greatest perfection is possible only 

 with full sheets or foundation, and the split- 

 section man has the better of every other 

 competitor, although his honey is the poorest 

 product which it is possible to produce. 



If the exhibitor were obligea to show just 

 how his sections were fitted when given to 

 the bees, and this be made a prominent fea- 

 ture of his exhibit, the judge would be in 

 better condition to judge who deserves the 



greatest credit. He ought to have the privi- 

 lege of carving several sections of each ex- 

 hibit to satisfy himself that no fraud is prac- 

 ticed. The man who produces a fine article 

 of comb honey without comb foundation de- 

 serves greater credit than the one using full 

 sheets, although in point of filling and in uni- 

 formity his exhibit may not be equal — in 

 fact, can not be — to that of his competitor 

 using full sheets. It is no great tricK, and 

 does not per se speak of mastery to produce 

 perfect comb honey with full sheets of foun- 

 dation. It is much more so to produce an 

 article of which W. Z. Hutchinson saj^s he 

 would give five cents more a pound for it for 

 his own use. 

 Naples, N. Y., Aug. 9. 



ALSIKE POISONING. 



Some New Appliances Tried in Extracted- 

 Honey Production. 



BY J. L. BYER. 



After writing that note for Gleanings re- 

 garding the effect of alsike pasture on horses 

 I thought that possibly it was unwise for me 

 as a bee-keeper to have said any thing about 

 the matter, as sometimes it does no good to 

 ventilate even the truth too much. Howev- 

 er, as a rule no harm can result from an hon- 

 est discussion of any subject; and after read- 

 ing what Mr. Case has to say on the matter 

 I felt rather glad that I had brought up the 

 subject for discussion, as what he says ap- 

 peals to me very strongly as being the cause 

 of the trouble. The only thing I can not un- 

 derstand is, why the trouble does not occur 

 when the horses are pastured on red clover, 

 as weeds would be just as apt to be there as 

 in the alsike. As to the fact of the horses 

 being poisoned while in the alsike pasture, 

 there is not the slightest doubt, as the cases 

 are comparatively common; but as to wheth- 

 er the trouble comes from the clover or the 

 weeds, that is another question, and per- 

 sonally I shall be only too glad to find a scape- 

 goat to carry the blame away from the alsike. 



Only a few days after penning the note 

 above referred to, I was called away on an 

 inspection trip, and had to stay over night 

 in Toronto; and while at breakfast in the ho- 

 tel I happened to be seated near a farmer 

 from Ontario County. In the course of con- 

 versation, the subject of bees and alsike clo- 

 ver came in for cliscussion, and my farmer 

 friend casually remarked that he had left 

 ten acres of alsike for seed, but that he had 

 decided to pasture it off, as there was a lot 

 of trefoil and other weeds among it. 



"But," he said, "I had to take my horses 

 off the alsike after they had been on only a 

 week or so, as their noses, as well as their 

 pasterns and fetlocks, all broke out in sores." 



He further stated that he called the veter- 

 inary, and the trouble was pronounced "al- 

 sike poisoning." In fact, nearly all the vet- 

 erinarians are calling the trouble by that 

 name; i. e., where they are practicing in al- 

 sike sections. The trouble is little thought 



