1907. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



93 



"Same as usual," said I. 



'•This I bought wasn't 'as usual.' I 

 bought $2.00 worth of your neighbor 

 bee-keeper up there. Say are you 

 sure there ain't some tart weed 

 around that bees work on. This I 

 bought, at first, appeared all right, 

 but some how, it got worse and worse. 

 In fact I can't eat it any more. 



"Say, Jim, go to the house and 

 fetch that honey, tell mother that Mr. 

 Dayton is herel" 



'•Well Mr. Brown," said I, "I think 

 I can tell what is the trouble with 

 your honey. You see this neighbor 

 fed his bees sugar and molasses to 

 keep them from starvation last spring. 

 He fed in milk pans in the open air. 

 Some strong colonies got a great deal 

 while weak colonies obtained less. 

 The strong colonies soon got it rip- 

 ened and sealed over in the combs. 

 When the bees began to store honey 

 from the natural flower it was spread 

 around in the combs around this patch 

 of sealed sugar and molasses. My 

 combs are small and my colonies ex- 

 ceedingly large and on these accounts 

 they get their honey sealed as soon 

 as any. This bee man looked in his 

 hives and saw quite a patch sealed 

 and guessed it would do if Dayton's 

 would. If honey is two-thirds ripe it 

 may keep if the weather is dry and 

 warm but if part is ripe and part thni 

 and watery nectar it makes an abom- 

 inable combination." 



I observed when at his apiary that 

 the nectar was not ripe enough so that 

 the cells were sloped down from the 

 sealed part to join with it, as would 

 have been the case with ripe new 

 honey. 



Chatsworth, California. 



THE MEDICAL SIDE OF BEE- 

 KEEPING. 



I 



The American Bee-Keeper Three 

 Full Years $i.oo. To New Subscrib- 

 ers, Three Full Years for Ninety 

 Cents. Is that Cheap Enough? 



DUDLEY B. TRUMAN. 



N THE BEE PRESS there are 

 constantly being made so many 

 wild statements upon the medical 

 side of bee-keeping that a few re- 

 marks tending to show the lines upon 

 which investigation may be carried 

 out, will not, I think, be altogether 

 out of place. 



These remarks will center about 

 two diseases — rheumatism and diabe- 

 tes; and the second of these I especial- 

 ly hope that you will consider careful- 

 ly, as I think it opens up a possible 

 new source of profit to bee-keepers. 



With regard to rlheumatism, on the 

 one side we have the medical scien- 

 tists stating that it requires thousands 

 and thousands of bee stings before 

 the sligihtest trace of a cure is ob- 

 tained. 



On the other, we have the positive 

 statements of numbers of bee-keepers 

 that they have been cured of their 

 rlheumatism by taking up bee-keep- 

 ing. 



How can these two opposing state- 

 ments be reconciled? 



Let me begin by telling you one 

 of my little stories. About two years 

 ago a bee-keeper of a finely bilious 

 description arrived here from Canada. 

 He claimed every invention under the 

 sun, — smokers, movable frames; ex- 

 tractors, and among the rest, the 

 rheumatism theory. He stated that 

 he had been the first to communicate 

 to the papers how bee-stings had 

 cured his rheumatism, and how he 

 had become so innoculated that he 

 could no longer feel the stings. 



Unfortunately he proceeded to de- 

 monstrate, and in the course of the 

 demonstration he happened to put his 

 hand in a gloveful of bees. That 



