546 



which is free from all the dangers of a can- 

 dy containing honey. 



Providence, R. I., Aug. 13. 



[It is to be hoped that a candy of this 

 description may come into general use ; for, 

 aside from the danger of disease, honey is 

 not always uniform, and, furthermore, it 

 takes up moisture so rapidly that the can- 

 dy containing it is likely to become disas- 

 trously soft in damp warm weather. We 

 should think that the glucose candy would 

 be an improvement in this respect, but we 

 may be mistaken. 



We wonder whether the commercial glu- 

 cose purchased in this country would be 

 satisfactory. The so called corn syrups evi- 

 dently Avould not, because of the varying 

 amounts of cane sugar which they con- 

 tain.— Ed.] 



*-•-*■ 



LIME DOES DRY A CELLAR 



BY JAMES M. MUNRO 



In reviewing Gleanings, Feb. 15, 1911, 

 p. 110, I take decided objection lo the 

 heading of an article by F. L. Huggins, 

 "Lime in the Cellar will Not Dry the Air," 

 and what makes it the more misleading is 

 that he uses terms in chemistry to sub- 

 stantiate his position. I have worked in 

 a lime trade for the past 40 years, and I 

 know of no better agent than stone lime 

 (CaO) to absorb moisture unless it may 

 be fire. 



For those of us who have to winter our 

 bees in a clay cellar in a severely cold 

 climate I consider lime a most useful arti- 

 cle, as it dries the air and does not give 

 off any poisonous gases as some methods 

 of temporary cellar heating do. 



OTHER USES OP LIME. 



How many know that air-slacked lime, 

 dusted into places where it is not conven- 

 ient to whitewash, is death to mold? How 

 many farmers know that, if they are caught 

 in a shower with a load of hay, a light 

 sprinkle of air-slaked lime will prevent it 

 from turning musty, and that it is a bene- 

 fit rather than an injury to the stock? How 

 many know that a dusting of air-slaked 

 lime applied to potato tops on a damp 

 morning in a summer fog will prevent 

 potato blight? 



I begin the prevention by dusting with 

 lime as soon as the potatoes are cut. This 

 not only lessens the chance of the seed 

 rotting, but is a cheap fertilizer, and a 

 preventive against gTubs. Then when I 

 harvest my potatoes I sprinkle an occa- 

 sional handful as I empty them into the 

 cellar. I haul them directly from the field 

 and have no more handling of them, only 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



as required for sale, use, or planting. Be- 

 fore I adopted this plan I used to have 

 to sort the rotten ones out at intervals dur- 

 ing the winter. I put the lime treatment 

 to the test in a small way before adopting 

 it wholesale to hundreds of bushels as 

 I do now. Upward of 20 years ago I 

 had some Beauty of Hebron potatoes, and 

 many of us know how susceptible they 

 were to rot. They began to rot, and I 

 put one lot in a box with lime sprinkled 

 in. The others I put in a box without 

 any Ume. The unlimed ones rotted so 

 badly that they became a mass of corrup- 

 tion. The lime-treated ones came out dry; 

 and wherever a spot of disease had begun 

 it had dried up. 



I consider no farmer's home to be well 

 equip23ed without a barrel of lime stored 

 in a dry place 



A GOOD RECORD IN A SMALL CELLAR. 



A year ago I was so beset with work that 

 I failed to weigh any of the hives. Many 

 of them felt too light. Four were nuclei. 

 So, naturally, I risked it. I piled them 

 in the cellar like so many rows of stove- 

 wood. The size of the cellar is 9x11 feet, 

 6 feet high, raised 16 inches from the 

 floor, so I think you will smile at the 

 crowded aspect 84 colonies would present. 

 The winter, of course, was very severe, and 

 there was very little snow here. The tem- 

 perature frequently fell to 40 and even 60 

 degrees below zero. I began taking cel- 

 lar notes Jan. 2, which are as follows: 



1912. Jan. 2. Tern. 26 degrees above zero in cellar 



" 11 " 28 



" 16 " 33 " " " " 



" 30 " 36 



" Feb. 12 " 34 " " " " 



" 17 " 44 



" 28 " 37 



" March 4 " 36 " " " " 



" 20 " 39 



" 21 " 41 



" 25 " 42 



" April 4 " 44 " " " " 



10 " 48 



On April 12 I set the bees out on their 

 summer stands. The night temperature 

 outside was 21 above zero. The bees gath- 

 ered the first pollen on April 23 from 

 black-alder bushes. 



Now with all this abuse you will wonder 

 how many came out alive. Out of the 84 

 colonies put into cellar, 78 came through 

 in good order; and what I am surprised 

 at is the small quantity of stores they con- 

 sumed. I use the ten-frame Langstroth 

 hive exclusively. 



Slate River, Ont., Feb. 2, 



[If we understand Mr. Huggins correct- 

 ly, his idea was that the lime would- not 

 permanently dry the cellar unless moist 

 air from outside could be kept from com- 

 ing in again. However, since most cellars 



