478 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



iour or five years Canada has had, we be- 

 lieve, five or six iuspeetors. 



Our old friend took it to heart when the 

 beekeepers of Ontario decided that they 

 needed six inspectors in order that the 

 whole territory might be thoroughly and 

 completely covered. In the last year or so 

 he dropped out of the inspection work, and 

 devoted his time wholly to the production 

 of honey. Peace to his memory. 



HONEY PRODUCTION AT MEDINA. 



The past few days have been very busy 

 ones at the Medina apiaries. The 1000-lb. 

 automobile truck has been kept busy going 

 lo the yards and bringing in honey and 

 bees. A part of one ciay and a part of 

 another we took oft' COOO lbs. of extracted 

 from a part of the home yard and one out- 

 yard, and we have an extracing to take at 

 both yards yet. 



THE STEAM UNCAPPING-KNIFE. 



We have been trying out the steam un- 

 capping-knife and the ordinary knives dip- 

 ped in hot water. When there is a large 

 amount of uncapping to do, especially if 

 the capping extends clear over both sur- 

 faces of the comb, and the honey is thick, 

 the steam-heated knife is far ahead of the 

 ordinary knife dipped in hot water. But 

 when the cappings cover only a part of the 

 surface, the hot-water-heated knife does 

 practically as well as the steam-heated knife, 

 and avoids the inconvenience of the tubing 

 reaching from the boiler to tlie knife. 



THE CANADIAN UNCAPPING-KNIFE. 



We have also been testing out the Cana- 

 dian form of knife as compared with the 

 Bingham. At first the boys were inclined 

 to favor the former; but after a more thor- 

 ough testing they decided that the Binghain 

 shape is 1 he 'better, as it takes less pull on 

 the wrist lo shove the Bingham through the 

 cappings, for the reason there is less bevel- 

 ed edge to cause friction on the comb. 



THE PETERSON CAPPING-MELTER. 



We have been using with considerable 

 satisfaction the Peterson eapping-melter; 

 and when the big power extractor was 

 throwing out the honey faster than one man 

 could uncap, another man was put on the 

 other side of the machine. The honey and 

 wax flow together into a wax-separator; 

 and the honey from such separator, so far 

 as we can discover, is equal in flavor to that 

 taken with the regular honcy-extx-actor. At 

 the end of the day's work there are no cap- 

 pings lying around, for the reason that they 

 iiave all been melted and the honey separat- 

 ed out. More or less dirt from old combs 

 will run in with the wax. The big cake of 

 wax from the separator is taken out, re- 



melted, clarified, and recaked before it is 

 St for the market. 



THE HONEY-PUMP AND THE GRAVITY SET- 

 TLING TANK. 



The honey-pump continues to do good 

 work. It carries the honey to any point 

 desired into an elevated gravity tank. All 

 dirt, skimmings, dead bees, etc., rise to the 

 surface. The honey is then drawn off into 

 square cans from the bottom of the tank. 

 We have no hesitation in deciding for the 

 gravit}' scheme for clarifying honey rather 

 than fuss with honeystrainers that are con- 

 tinually clogging up. 



ELECTRIC ALARM FOR FILLING SQUARE CANS. 



We have been using an automatic electric 

 alarm to give notice when the 60-lb. cans 

 are full. The whole thing can be made in 

 about an hour, and is so simple that any one 

 can make it. A full description with illus- 

 trations will appear later. Of course, the 

 idea is not new; but the manner in which 

 we have applied the principle may be new 

 to some. 



THE AUTOMOBILE TRUCK FOR BEEYARD WORK. 



The automobile truck (the Commerce) 

 is doing splendid service. It has never 

 given us any trouble except once when we 

 got stuck in a mudhole through the inex- 

 cusable negligence of certain township trus- 

 tees who allowed the place in question to 

 become impassable for even horse-drawn 

 vehicles. Othenvise our tr:.ck has respond- 

 ed promptly through mud and rain, day in 

 and day out. It has enabled one crew of 

 three men to take care of five queen-rearing 

 outyards, including the one home yard. Our 

 foreman has set his stake at 100 lbs. per 

 colony, spring count. If the drouth had 

 not set in so severely he would have reached 

 his goal, and he may do it as it is. Nor has 

 the basswood apiai-y, in charge of our Mr. 

 Pritchard and his son, been idle. This yard 

 will turn out about 3000 queens besides its 

 full quota of honey. 



CRANBERRY-GROWING ON CAPE COD_, MASS. ; A 



REMARKABLE INSTANCE SHOWING THE 



VALUE OF BEES AS POLLINATORS. 



Just before we started for the Massachu- 

 setts convention referred to in our July 1st 

 issue, p. 434, we received a letter from the 

 President of the United Cape Cod Cran- 

 berry Co., Mr. Marcus L. Urann, at South 

 Hanson, near Boston, inviting us to look 

 over their cranberry properties where they 

 are conducting some experiments with bees 

 in pollinting the cranberry-blossoms. After 

 the convention we went on to Boston, then 

 on to South Hanson, where we met Mr. 

 Urann. 



The United Cape Cod Cranberry Co. has 



