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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Nov. 23 1905 



protected have been visited by bees and the 

 juice drawn from the fruit. In consequence 

 the fruit is unfit to be talsen from the vines. 



The damage wrought can hardly be esti- 

 mated in dollars and cents. In the southern 

 part of the State, where many of the hills are 

 Tine-clad and a few large vineyards are not un- 

 known, the damage has been great. 



The local market has felt the effects of the 

 insects to such an extent that Indiana grapes 

 have been not only a scarcity but almost an 

 unknown factor. 



Many who foresaw the work of the bees 

 " sacked " their fruit before it began to ripen, 

 and in this way saved much of the fruit from 

 destruction. 



It is probably a mistake to attribute the 

 work of puncturing grapes to nocturnal birds. 

 There are enough miscreants to do the work 

 in broad daylight, although so shy as to be 

 not easy of detection. Any one who carefully 

 examines the holes made in the grapes will 

 easily be convinced that the opening looks 

 like the work of birds rather than bees. 

 When freshly made, the hole is not round. 

 Two holes are made at some little distance 

 apart by the upper and lower mandibles, the 

 bird striking the grape with its mouth open ; 

 then the closing of the mouth makes another 

 line of opening from one of the first holes to 

 the other. Bees wouldn't be likely to make 

 such an opening. 



This sort of defamation of the character of 

 the bee does not come from a malicious desire 

 to lie about it. It is merely a part of "yel- 

 low" journalism, that must have something 

 sensational, all the better if true, but if noth- 

 ing true is to be had, then something false 

 must take its place; anything for the sake of 

 something " yellow." Let us hope that the 

 days of yellow journalism may speedily be 

 found on the wane, and that the reading pub- 

 lic may demand truth, and truth only, even 

 about such a defenseless creature as the little 

 busy bee. 



Later.— After the foregoing was written, 

 we received the following from Mr. P. B. 

 Thaxton, of Scott Co., 111., taken from the 

 Scott County Herald, which seems to lix the 

 responsibility of grape-destruction upon the 

 miserable sparrows: 



The Spabbow Pest and Grapes. 



J. A. Tribrausser, writing to the State Jour- 

 nal at Springfield, says: 



I read with interest an article in the State 

 .Journal headed, " Indiana Grapes Injured by 

 Bees." I desire to state that I am a fruit- 

 grower in a small way, and my experience 

 has been that the sparrow is the source of the 

 trouble. 



These birds pick the grape first and then 

 the bees suck the juice. That is what they 

 did to my grapes this summer. First, they 

 pulled oil" the peach blossoms; next they ate 

 all my peas and lettuce; when raspberries be- 

 gan to ripen they destroyed them ; followed 

 this by picking the summer apples and early 

 peaches full of holes and then ate the sugar- 

 cane seed. 



As there were thousands of these birds I 

 tried to shoot them, and also discharged fire- 

 crackers under their roost, but still they stay. 

 It is only a question of a few years, if some- 

 thing is not done to destroy them, until they 

 will destroy all the fruit. 



I know it is the sparrow that destroys the 

 grapes, because I put mine in paper-bags, and 

 the birds picked holes in the bags and ate the 

 grapes. This I saw them do. 



They are here in bunches of thousands, and 

 as no bounty is offered for their destruction, 

 they are increasing so rapidly that they will 

 destroy all the fruit unless they are done 

 away with. 



The Fair E.vhlbit of Win. K. Prisk, 



of Mineral Point, Wis. , appears on the first 

 page. When sending the picture he wrote as 

 follows: 



I send a photograph of my honey exhibit 

 at the Wisconsin State Fair. The 4 pillars are 

 all glass, filled with fancy white honey in 4x.5 

 sections. The corners are grained in oak. 

 The arch is painted white. There are 4 kinds 

 of honey in the arch and 4 kinds of packages. 

 In the center of the pillars stands a table with 

 6-ounce bottles filled with fancy extracted 

 white clover honey, with glass between each 

 tier of bottles. Back of the arch, which can 

 not be seen in the picture, stands two more 

 tables, one with :3 kinds of honey in round 

 pyramids of fancy bottles, and the other table 

 has U dozen fancy bottles of honey —12 kinds. 

 Next to the tables are 3 square show-oases 

 on top of each other. The bottom one has 4 

 deep and 4 shallow extracting frames per- 

 fectly filled and capped; the rest of the case 

 is filled with sections from 2 pounds to % 

 pound. 



The next case has all the kinds of sections 

 in use. The top case is filled with 3;'„'x5 sec- 

 tions; next comes the shipping-cases, 80 in 

 number, of 24 pounds each. You can see part 

 of them. These cases are grained in oak and 

 mahogany, and painted white and blue. The 

 cases are filled with very fine white clover 

 honey. 



On top of the cases stands another glass 

 show-case filled with different kinds of comb 

 honey. Back of the cases are honey-cans 

 from 60 pounds to 1 pound. The cans are 

 painted yellow, red and blue. Back of the 

 cans are the bees and sample cases of honey. 

 You can see some of them in the small picture. 

 In the small picture are the 3 sample cases 

 of comb honey — white, amber and dark. The 

 premiums I received were as follows; First 

 on sample case of white comb honey, ex- 

 tracted honey, amber couib, dark comb, dark 

 extracted; and best and most attractive dis- 

 play of comb honey. Second premium on 

 best and most attractive display of extracted 

 honey. 



They say the exhibit was one of the best 

 ever put up. I tried to get a good picture 

 of the exhibit, but all failed. I had about 

 4500 pounds of honey in the exhibit, about 

 equal parts of extracted and comb honey. 

 Everything was grained; that is, the wood- 

 work, in oak and mahogany, which give it a 

 fine appearance 



I read the American Bee Journal every 

 week with profit and pleasure, and will some 

 day write an article on the way I secure such 

 fine crops of fancy honey. W. E. Frisk. 



We will be pleased to receive Mr. Frisk's 

 article whenever he writes it. 



Mr. "Will. A. Selser, of Philadelphia, 

 Pa., is one of the most widely known bee- 

 keepers and honey-dealers in this country. 

 He is slso a director in the National Bee- 

 Keepers' Association. A medical publication 

 in the East, which was interested in bee-sting 

 poison as a remedy, had this to say about Mr. 

 Selser and his work : 



Some 15 or more years ago the large manu- 

 facturing company in which Mr. Salser was a 

 partner, was forced to the walls through the 

 rasfality of some of their selling agents. The 

 failure left him greatly crippled in resources; 

 without business or employment, and for 

 some time without an open door to either. 

 Gradually it came to him that there might be 

 an opening in this line. When once this con- 

 clusion was reached, Mr. Selser threw himself 

 into bis new occupation with his indomitable 

 energy, studying everything that could pos- 

 sibly "be of any advantage, also taking a spe- 

 cial course in the chemical laboratory of the 

 college in the chemistry of honey and its 



adulterations, afterwards traveling extensively 

 through the United States and Mexico for the 

 purpose of observation. The result has been 

 that he has built up a large and profitable 

 business, and is considered one of the largest 

 apiarists in the country, and an authority 

 upon the adulteration of honey. We will let 

 the story point its own moral. 



Bke-Stino Rbmbdt— A Thriving Industry. 



Since the discovery, a few months ago, that 

 formic acid from bees' stingers is a sure cure 

 for rheumatism and lumbago, the demand for 

 the stingers has leaped far in advance of the 

 supply. Chemists and wholesale druggists are 

 placing orders for all of them that can be had, 

 and apiarists are doing their utmost to supply 

 the demand. 



Experiments made by the H. K. Mulford 

 laboratories, near Glenolden, proved the efH- 

 ciency of the bees' stingers as a cure for rheu- 

 matism and lumbago. 



On the end of the stinger, which is about 

 one-sixteenth of an inch long, is a tiny sac, 

 containing a drop of formic acid. This sac 

 the bee detaches with the stinger after the 

 latter has been deposited in human flesh. 



Formic acid neutralizes uric acid, the pres- 

 ence of which in the system produces rheu- 

 matism and lumbago. Science has found a 

 way to convert the stingers, with their supply 

 of formic acid, into a serum, which, used as 

 antitoxine or vaccine virus is used, effects a 

 cure. The stingers bring $S or $9 a thousand. 



Mr. Selser, who has one of the largest api- 

 aries about Philadelphia, finds himself quite 

 busy at certain seasons of the year filling or- 

 ders for these stingers. At this apiary there 

 are more than 1,000,000 bees under cultivation. 



Mr, Selser has devised a regular system for 

 extracting their stingers for market Bees, 

 he has discovered, do not like the odor of 

 rubber, and when they detect it will often 

 attack the rubber in a frenzied manner. He 

 is experimenting with a soft rubber blanket 

 or mat, which he places near the hives. The 

 bees smell the rubber, and, attacking the mat, 

 deposit their stingers, pumping into the small 

 sac more formic acid than they are wont to do 

 when attacking a person, or when not gen- 

 erally excited. 



After the bees have vented their fury upon 

 the mat it is removed and the stingers are ex- 

 tracted by means of small tweezers, care be- 

 ing taken not to destroy the formic acid 

 pouch. As the stings are removed they are 

 placed in small bottles containing pulverized 

 sugar. These in turn are sent to chemical 

 laboratories, where the formic acid is ex- 

 tracted and reduced to serum. 



" The Honey-Money Stories."— The 



Canadian Bee Journal mentions it thus ap- 

 provingly : 



We have been favored with a specimen copy 

 of a handsome booklet of 64 pages, entitled, 

 "The Honev-Money Stories," published by 

 Geoi>ge W. York & Co., Chicago, and edited 

 by Earl M. Pratt. It is very attractively got- 

 ten up, printed on enameled paper, and beau- 

 tifully illustrated. It contains a variety of 

 short stories, interspersed with facts and in- 

 teresting items about honey and its use. The 

 idea of the booklet is to arouse interest in 

 honey, and increase its consumption. It will 

 make an excellent gift-book. Single copies 

 25 cents; 5 copies SI. 



Y'es, it would make a nice "gift-book," 

 especially for a person who is not now inter- 

 ested in the use of honey. Christmas will 

 soon be here. Why not order 5 copies and 

 present them to your friends. One copy with 

 the American Bee Journal a year— both for 

 §1.10 ; or 5 copies and the American Bee Jour- 

 nal—all for only ?1.60. Send all orders to 

 this office. 



