lOO:; 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



191 



'I'lu' foUuwini;- obsi-rvation is dipped 

 from a copy of tlu' Hostou Transcript, 

 nearly twenty years old: 



Dr. ('. Spencer has been prying into 

 the Itusiness secrets of the bee. and 

 thus tells of what he has learned: '"In 

 my ohservator.v hive one cell was 

 built against the glass, and that af- 

 forded an excellent oppiu-tunity of see- 

 ing how bees deposit honey in the 

 cell. First a bee deposited a thin 

 coating of honey upon the base of 

 the cell, makiuo- a sort of varnish, as 

 it Avere. to the'base of the cell. The 

 next bee that came with honey raised 

 up the lower edge of this film of 

 honey and forced its honey lieneath; 

 the iiext bee did the same, and this 

 film acted as a kind of diaphragm, 

 keeping honey in the cell. When the 

 cell is full enough to be sealed, the 

 bees commence contracting the open- 

 ing with wax until there is only a 

 small hole left in the center, when 

 they appear to take one little flake of 

 wax and pat it down over the open- 

 ing. At any time during the process 

 of filling the cell the honey could be 

 withdrawn with a hypodermic syringe, 

 and the 'diaphragm' left hanging in 

 the cell." 



After all that has I)een said on this 

 side of the water in favor of the tall 

 section, the following, by W. Woodley. 

 in the Bee-Keepers' Record, of Eng- 

 land, makes^ interesting reading, by 

 way of variety: "Regarding tall sec- 

 tions I cannot say mucli in tlieir favor. 

 I have tried a rack or two and shall 

 do so again this season, but fail to 

 see any advantage in the extra three- 

 fourths inch added to the height or 

 length — whichever way it is worked — 

 over the 4 1-4x4 1-4 inch sections. All 

 I have had so far. have had to go into 

 my second or tliird quality to clear 

 them. Honey dealers do not want 

 them — the ordinary square honey -disli 

 will not take them when cut out of 

 the section, and the i)art cut off makes 

 a mess in the larder." After all, the 

 whole thing is merely a matter of per- 

 sonal preference. 



Texas is fortunate in having secured 

 the passage of a foul-1)rood law; liut 

 is particularly unfortunate in having 

 failed to secure an appropriation for 

 the carrying out of the new law. In 

 Texas, as elsewliere, it seems that 

 laws without cash for their enforce- 

 luent and execution availetli naught. 



Away liack in bSS."), I'resident L. C. 

 Root, in his annual address before the 

 Eastern Bee-Keepers' Assoeiation, 

 b(»re down heavily upon tht> (luestion 

 of increased production of honey, say- 

 ing in part: ''The motto has too fre- 

 (piently been, •cheaper, rather than 

 better products.' One individual even 

 being in.iudicious enough to assert that 

 we can afford to jiroduce liquid honey 

 at five cents a pound. This savors too 

 much of the teachings of some whose 

 names are sometimes found under the 

 heading of 'Humbugs and Swindles'." 

 Whether they can afford it or not, Mr. 

 Root has lived to see the day when the 

 names of those wlio would like to re- 

 ceive five cents a pound for all the 

 liquid honey they can produce, are 

 innumerable. "If you don't believe 

 it.'' make inquiry of the alien apiarian 

 element of the Queen of the Antilles. 



According to R. A. Burnett, in 

 Gleanings, the practice of extracting 

 unripe liuckwheat honey, notably by 

 the so-called "lightning operators" of 

 New York, in past years, has resulted 

 in the demand for this erstwhile pop- 

 ular grade of goods being knocked out 

 to a surprising extent among manu- 

 facturers. The man who takes honey 

 from the hive in an unripe condition 

 and places it on the market, is on a 

 par with the fellow who runs the 

 .lilucose mixing machine in the cellar. 

 The l)ee industry has no enemy so ma- 

 licious as these. 



At the Ontario convention someone 

 asked how to prevent moths from get- 

 ting into the hives, to which Mr. Arm- 

 strong answered, "Keep strong colo- 

 nies." In case Mr. F. L. Thompson 

 should be troubled with moths, he will 

 now know the remedy to apply. 

 For the information of the general 

 reader, it should be explained that 

 to Mr. Thompson the stereotyped in- 

 .iunction, "Keep all strong colonies," 

 appears about as sensible as would 

 a command to always have a good 

 honey flow. 



Arthur C. Miller, in the Review, 

 .says. "Carniolans are the gentlest 

 bees known." May be, some Carnio- 

 lans are the gentlest bees known to 

 Mr. Miller, but there are Carniolans 

 and Carniolans. and none of them are 

 the gentlest bees of which Ave know. 

 The Caucasians are not only the gen- 

 tlest but the laziest on record, accord- 

 ing to the experience of this journal. 



