1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



629 



split bottom-bar, I do not see how this trou- 

 ble could occur. 

 Jamul, Cal. 



WHAT CAUSES BEES TO GNAW SPLINTS? 



I believe that the conditions under which 

 bees will or will not gnaw under the founda- 

 tion and the splints are governed by the hon- 

 ey-tlow. If there is a good honey-t1ow they 

 will be too busy with them; and, on the oth- 

 er hand, should there be no flow they will 

 ffnaw just for sheer aggravation's sake. Idle 

 hands, you know, will find some mischief 

 to do. Then another thing, if the colony is 

 weak, or, in other words, has an abundance 

 of room, they are apt to gnaw the founda- 

 tion because they like to have all their stores 

 accumulated as much as possible in one part 

 of the hive; hence the trouble we have in 

 making them fill all the sections evenly at 

 about the same time clear to the corners 

 unless baits are placed in the corners as well 

 as in the center. M. E. Pruitt. 



Vancourt, Texas. 



the proper WAY TO USE SPLINTS. 



I have used splints for two years, and I 

 believe that there is only one way to apply 

 them. I put them in boiling wax and allow 

 them to boil until they have quit foaming, 

 but this is not long enough, for I have found 

 that the bees sometimes gnaw them out. If 

 they are boiled an hour, the wax gets clear 

 thruugh the wood, and there is no trouble. 

 They should be pressed into the foundation 

 far enough so that they will be flush with 

 it, but not so far as to cut the foundation in 

 two. Geo. J. Friess. 



Hudson, Mich. 



HONEY -DEW AND THE PURE -FOOD 

 LAW. 



Paper Read by W. A. Selser before the 

 Pennsylvania Bee-keepers' Con- 

 vention at Lebanon. 



fWhile it is our rule not to publish the full text of 

 convention papers, yet by request we are placiner this 

 before our readers. It contains matter of much im- 

 portance on a vital matter before bee-keepers all over 

 this l;yid.— Ed.] 



The pure-food law as now upon our sta- 

 tute-books requires the bee-keeper, in sell- 

 ing honey, to brand every package with a 

 truthful and accurate statement of the con- 

 tents. For instance, for many years all 

 white horey has been branded "White Clo- 

 ver;" the tf-rms have almost become synon- 

 ymous, when, as we all know, only a small 

 part of white honey is strictly and entirely 

 from white clover. One large firm in Brook- 

 lyn has been putting up a brand that has be- 

 come famous in the way of lieht-amber hon- 

 ey which th*y call "Orange Blossom." The 

 facts are, while the honey comes from P'lori- 

 da, it is actually from saw-pnlmetto bloom, 

 and never saw an orange-tree. This brand- 

 ing is ruled out bv the recent law. If one 

 puts the brand of any flower on his honey, 

 every particle "f that honey must be secured 

 by the bees from that identical flower. 



Again, the law does not forbid the bee- 

 keeper putting in glucose or glycerine to 

 cheapen his honey or to keep it from granu- 

 lating, as the case maybe; but if he does this 

 the exact amount he has added must be stat- 

 ed on the label. If the beekeeper is not en- 

 tirely satisfied that his product is from one 

 particular flow, he may simply brand it "Pure 

 Honey." There could be no fairer law, in 

 my estimation, nor one that could have 

 brought more beneficial results to the bee- 

 keeper. In fact, it has inspired more con- 

 fidence among the grocery trade; and in place 

 of the bee-keeper being looked upon with 

 suspicion when he offers his product for sale, 

 a much better feeling and tone have arisen 

 as a result of this law in the last three years. 



The pure-food law practically says that hon- 

 ey is the nectar of flowers gathered by the 

 bees. The writer has assumed the position 

 for many years that the nectar as produced 

 in the blossoms is different from any other 

 known natural sweet. In carrying out this 

 theory some eight or ten years ago I adver- 

 tised to pay $10.00 an ounce for any nectar 

 that could be procured from any blossom 

 throughout the United States. I secured, 

 among others, a sample from California un- 

 der an affidavit that it was extracted by a 

 pipette, and found it sustained my theory 

 that this nectar was in reality levulose, all 

 other natural sweets being dextrose. This 

 coincides with the requirements under the 

 chemical standard of pure honey, that it must 

 all show a levulose rotation, or a turning of 

 the plane of the polariscope to the left. Now, 

 then, honey-dew is not nectar, but "bug 

 juice," or a product of the aphis. Therefore 

 it is largely dextrose — sustaining my theory 

 as heretofore stated. This is why honey-dew 

 can not be classed under the pure-food law 

 as honey, which, it seems to me. is very fair 

 and just. But it can be sold by branding it 

 "honey-dew honey." 



Some nine or ten years ago I received a 

 number of samples of honey-dew from the 

 central part of this State. I analyzed tl.em, 

 and found them to contain mostly honey-dew, 

 but not in such large proportions as the hon- 

 ey-dew of this year. So I would say, from 

 close observation of almost a quarter of a cen- 

 tury, that this has been the first year honey- 

 dew has been so general. 



Desiring to know the practical results from 

 all parts of the United States, and hoping to 

 obtain some information that might be help- 

 ful to the bee-keepers to-day, 1 sent out a 

 large number of letters to the large bee-men 

 all through the country, asking the following 

 questions: 



1. Have you found honey-dew more preva- 

 lent during the rainy or the dry season? 



2. During what months of the year have 

 you found it most prevalent? 



3. Do bees gather honey-dew when there 

 is another flow in the field? 



4. Have you had any experience with bees 

 wintering on honey-dew? 



5. Have you had experience with selling 

 honey-dew to the baking trade? If so, how 

 does it work? 



