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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Dec. 20, 1900. 



\ ^ The Afterthought. *- 



The "Old Reliable" seen thru New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. B. HASTY, Richards, Ohio. 



"GETTING BEBS TO MAKE WAX." 



Quite a g'ood few of us do not take any stock in the old 

 tradition about wax being- (to the bees) an expensive article, 

 which causes them a mysterious loss when they secrete it. 

 A rotten tradition hardly worth the very small amount of 

 powder required to blow it to pieces. To change honey to 

 wax costs the bees a little valuable time ; but beyond that it 

 apparently costs them neither less nor more than what the 

 relative water, carbon, oxygen and hydrogen of honey and 

 wax naturally call for. (O king, the full pail does run over 

 when you put a live turbot in it !) One bj' one sham mys- 

 teries have to "clear the coop." Well, this being thus, the 

 Australian experiences in intentionally harvesting as much 

 wax as possible during their g-reat runs of honey is practical, 

 doUar-and-cent apiculture, which we may well look into. I 

 rather guess that Loyalstone's method of cutting off the 

 lower half of each comb every time it is extracted is the 

 winning way. The other way of cutting the whole of each 

 alternate comb would make them build sonic when by the 

 other method they would not build any ; but it divides the 

 comb-builders up into small sections, to no particular good, 

 I reckon. As for the third method of slicing off half the 

 face of the comb in uncapping instead of the thinnest pos- 

 sible sheet, I should think that to be the poorest of the ways 

 mentioned. And indeed it straightly appears that in Aus- 

 tralia bees are not always prompt to lengthen out again 

 such shaved combs. I would remark that my bees very 

 often seem reluctant to lengthen the cells of super combs. 

 When I was experimenting in this line I cut from the brood- 

 ibainber, and took all the comb every three days, to keep 

 the eggs from hatching — rather too severe a method for 

 very extended use ; but it utilizes one of the strongest of 

 bee qualities — obstinacy. The Australian record of 11 

 pounds wax from one colony in a season — well, we would 

 have to " scratch gravel " to come up to it. But 11x25x100^ 

 5275, from an apiary — worth scratching for. It is of inter- 

 est to hear that the best honey-gatherers produce the most 

 wax. Page 723. 



COTTON HONEY A CHOICE AKTICI,E. 



That is quite high praise for cotton honey — combs of 

 snow and contents of glycerine. If the flavor even toler- 

 ably corresponds, the South has at least one choice kind of 

 honey. Let me see, this is Texas. A yield from cotton not 

 by any means universally expected, I believe. Page 718. 



A MOSES (NOT A CALEB OR JOSHUA) ON SPELLING REFORM. 



And this last number I am reviewing closes with 

 another shot for improved spelling. On that subject I am 

 like Moses — delighted to view the good land, but not going 

 in myself — absorbed in a more important reform that I am 

 unwilling to lay an extra ounce of weight on — and too old. 

 Would have to use both spellings for awhile, and I fear I 

 should be all mixt up in the process till my page would be 

 but a delirious species of "pi." When sentiment gets 

 strong enough to sustain the move, two simple laws can 

 help the reform amazingly without exactly taking away 

 any one's liberty to spell, if he chooses, as crooked as the 

 horns of Noah Webster's ram. Let one little law say that 

 all public advertising shall be given to newspapers using 

 the improved spelling ; and let another little law say that 

 books printed in the improved spelling may travel at a 

 softiewhat cheaper rate by mail. 



CAUSES OF BISEASES OF BEES. 



Pollen-shells heavily charged with fungi in a// winter 

 dysentery excreta in Texas. I suppose some of our wise- 

 heads would incline to the darkey's explanation anent the 

 chicken, "whoever put the pollen in there was no friend of 

 ours." Dr. Howard is nobly considerate in admitting that 

 it may be different in the North, where bees are quiet and 

 shut in for months. That he has not been able to find a 

 definite microbe in paralysis to which the disease can be 

 charged, is of some interest to us. And much more so is 

 his experience in trying to infect healthy colonies — can not 

 as yet make them take paralysis iv/ien conditions are sani- 

 tary, and',riectar coining in lively. Dr. Howard evidently 



does not think the queen communicates any disease to the 

 eggs she lays. Good thing if we could be fully assured of 

 that — and practical certainty may come by and by. But, on 

 the whole, I'm glad there is no professor in my region to be 

 starting every plague for experimental purposes. I should 

 be thinking how the bubonic plague got loose in Vienna. 

 Mr. Stahlman's article (page 743), helps my feelings on in 

 this same direction. 



BARRELS FOR LARGE USERS OF HONEY. 



How strong the honey-dealers are in favor of barrels, 

 as a general thing 1 Don't believe they " catch on " to the 

 main objection. The main objection is the impossibility of 

 making oak barrels so the staves will not shrink in contact 

 with honey. The dealers persist in thinking that all the 

 trouble is owing to careless cooperage. But we really seem 

 to have some light in the direction of getting the barrels 

 made of just the right kind of wood. Barrels are certainly 

 desirable in supplying great bakeries that take honey by 

 the ton. Pages 725-7. 



WATER FOR BEES. 



So Mr. Greiner wants both his bee-town and his man- 

 town to be "dry" towns. He is right. Nonsense, and 

 worse than nonsense, to give bees water in the winter. 

 But his hint is also sensible that during cold spring weather, 

 when a good many bees are perishing in the work of bring- 

 ing water, perhaps something useful might be done in that 

 line. I believe the trouble has hitherto been that the "con- 

 trary little critters" will go for water all the same, and neg- 

 lect that which you give them. Water-carriers don't know 

 what else to go at, perhaps. Had you been betimes with 

 your watering, possibly they would never have become 

 water-carriers. 



BEES WINTERED IN A CLAMP. 



Mr. Hutchinson's heavy loss of bees in a clamp is so 

 illustrative that it should not be forgotten. Too many col- 

 onies for the space and air they were in. Air got a little 

 bad, but they could have borne it, if they had all kept pas- 

 sive. Instead of that, they all got supremely active in the 

 very natural effort to improve their air bj' fanning. This 

 speedily used the oxygen up until the air got unendurably 

 bad. Then every bee crawled in the direction from which 

 oxygen was coming by percolation. Some may have suffo- 

 cated, but probably most died of starvation, not knowing 

 enough to .get back to the food. Page 739. 



EXPERIMENTING WITH THE GOLDEN SYSTEM. 



The proposition of J. S. Hartzell, page 744, to prove the 

 superiority of the Golden system by trying one hive is 

 hardU' what one would expect of a practical bee-man. 

 Neither the success nor the failure of one hive can count 

 for very much, unknown elements of the problem will creep 

 in so. Even with dozens of test-hives in each of two meth- 

 ods it requires much thought and care on the part of the 

 experimenter really to hold the scales level — and otherwise 

 our favorite " hoss " is pretty apt to win the race. 



GRANULATED SUGAR AND GLUCOSE. 



The apparent error on page 760 is not an error in re- 

 ality, I judge. I mean where Mr. Cowan says much of the 

 granulated sugar of commerce is adulterated with glucose. 

 Here the trouble seems to be that (being a scientist and also 

 a foreigner) he doesn't sling our " United States " exactly 

 as we do. Where he says glucose he does not mean the Jliiid 

 article we mostly have in mind. And we apply the term 

 "granulated " only to very dry white sugar, while he ap- 

 parently means brown sugar in a granulated but moist state. 



NO POLLEN IN NORMAL FINISHT HONEY. 



Well, there is also my blunt declaration on page 746, 

 that there is no pollen in normal finisht honey, and Mr. 

 Cowan's, on page 759, exactly to the contrary. Not a case 

 of what shall be done when doctors disagree, but what 

 shall be done when one of the doctors in the temple of 

 science disagrees with one of the door-keepers thereof. Mr. 

 Cowan is an expert microscopist of large experience, while 

 I am a very green and shockingly inexperienced one. Good 

 chance for me to say I must have been mistaken ; and yet 

 somehow I decline to say it. I just point out the contradic- 

 tion and the situation, and let things stand that way for a 

 bit. Pretty cheeky, am I not ? I have a sneaking idea that 

 scientific men, as well as others, sometimes bandy sayings 

 back and forth till they come to believe them, when_no.one 

 ever actually proved them at all. 



