THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



225 



fertilized, then the queens reared from lier 

 •will also be pure; but may, and in all 

 probability will, mate with black drones, 

 the progeny will then be hybrids. After 

 you have hybridized all your stocks, re- 

 move your queens and raise others and you 

 will soon have all your colonies purely 

 Italianized.— AV. j. A.] 



COVERING FOR FRAMES. 



Chattanooga, Tenn., June 7,1877. — "Again 

 I ask your counsel. As you know my hives 

 are (for Gallup frames) 12x12x18 inside 

 measure; there is a strip nailed 1 inch all 

 round from top, and a cap fits over the top 

 and rests on said strip. The cap is 6 inches 

 deep above the frames when in place. Now 

 I wish you would tell me what is the most 

 economical and yet sufficient covering on 

 top of the frames? What do you cover up 

 your frames with?" S. C. Dodge. 



[ We have tried the honey board, quilts, 

 sheet tin, domestic— in fact everytliing we 

 have heard of, except straw mats. This 

 year it occured to us to try enameled oil 

 duck. We did so on a few hives at first, 

 and were so pleased with it tliat we now 

 have it on all our hives. The bees do not 

 cut through it nor stick it so tight with pro- 

 polis but that it is easily removed. There 

 is a great difficulty in removing propolis 

 from plain duck and other substances, but 

 with the enameled oil cloth we have no 

 difficulty in this respect whatever. A few 

 minutes exposure to the sun will remove it 

 entirely. This spring being our first trial 

 of it, we cannot say how it will answer for 

 wintering, but fear it will be too close. I 

 shall try it as an experiment on a few hives. 

 — w. J. A.] 



Our Honey. 



The main honey crop of our Northern 

 friends, and that most highly prized by 

 them, is gathered from white clover. We 

 have seen many beautiful specimens of this 

 honey. Friend Muth sent us, this spring, 

 one dozen l-lb jars of it. We had hoped to 

 secure quite a yield ot it in our own 

 apiaries this year, but were unable to do so. 

 Its bloom has existed and still exists in 

 great profusion with us, but with its early 

 blooming we also had the black locust, 

 which is very rich in its secretion of honey, 

 and our bees took it in preference, and no 

 sooner had the blooms of the locust fallen, 

 when our poplar (tulip) trees came in bloom 

 and again they took it in preference. We 

 have extracted a considerable amount of 

 honey, but it is very dark, being from the 

 poplar and honey-dew. Our linn (basswood) 

 trees are just commencing (June 4th) to 

 bloom. This is our principal dependence 

 for honey. We are now engaging in ex- 

 tracting the honey from all our hives, in 

 order to keep the linn honey to itself. 



w. J. A. 



c^y 



GLEANED BY FRANK BENTON. 



Remedy for .Stings.- M. Griffon says, 

 after describing in L' Apiculteur a hive 

 designed by its inventor to enable one to 

 avoid stings, " This, even if true, amounts 

 to nothing with the practical apiarist, who, 

 besides not fearing the stings of liis bees, 

 has other means to guarantee safety. If, 

 notwithstanding his precautions, he is 

 stung, he has at hand the simplest and most 

 efficacious remedy; that is, simply moisten 

 many times with saliva the wound made by 

 the sting, which should be removed as soon 

 as possible. I have tried all the means re- 

 commended—alkalies and all other liquids, 

 juices of herbs, etc.— but none of them have 

 succeeded as well with me as the first one 

 mentioned, simple as it is." 



Does Taking the Honey from the 

 Plant Injuiie it ?— Some horticulturists 

 complain that tiowers visited by bees wither 

 more rapidly than those protected from 

 their contact. There is nothing strange 

 ahout this, for it is simply the result of the 

 fecundation of tlie stigma of the plant visit- 

 ed by the bee. But certain gardeners claim 

 that by removing the honey or juice of the 

 nectaries of flowers, bees hinder the com- 

 plete development of the fertilizing organs 

 of plants. This is a great mistake; and M. 

 Adrien de Jussieu says, in his Cours Ele- 

 mentaire de Botaniqxie : " One can remove 

 the nectaries, or at least their contents, 

 without injury to the fertility of the flower, 

 and without retarding the maturity of the 

 fruit." The bee injures the fruit no more 

 than the flowers.— ^tig. Pillain, in L'Api- 

 culteur. 



Mr. E. Hilbert, and the Cypkian 

 Bee.— M. Emile Ililbert, of Maciejewo, is 

 one of the many learned and enthuiastic 

 apiarists to be found in Germany. He is a 

 patient observer, who permits no obstacle 

 to stop his progress. This is proved by his 

 study of foul brood, which has led him to 

 the discovery of a remedy for this terrible 

 affection. He is particularly enthusiastic 

 as regards foreign bees— better races, and 

 believes in the improvement of our native 

 bees by crossing. To the exhibition of in- 

 sects he sent tiie Cyprian bee, which had 

 not been introduced in France. His little 

 colony ot Cyprians, even more marked in 

 character than the Italians, is eagerly 

 sought after. The committee accorded M. 

 Hilbert an abeille d'honneur (a bee honor) 

 for his introduction of the Cyprian bee and 

 for his investigations concerning foul- 

 brood.— i?epo7-t coneenviny Apiculture at 

 the Exhibition of Insects in 1876. 



Adulteration of Honey.— The follow- 

 ing was read before the Societe d'Apicul- 

 teur de la Somme: The substances which 

 serve for the adulteration of honey are of 

 two kinds— those soluable in water, as for 

 example, the sugar of glucose; and those 

 which are insoluable, such as starch, raw 

 and parched flours, etc. 



Sugar of glucose cannot be recognized 

 positively except by a chemical analysis: 

 nevertheless, persons who are accustomed 

 to the use of honey recogniee it quite readi- 

 ly, because the sediuientary sugar hinders 



