our favorite industry, and should be re- 

 warded and encouraged as a material 

 blessing, and a benefit to every honest 

 and thrifty bee-keeper. After a day 

 under the hospitable roof of the Van 

 Deusens, C. C. took your correspondent 

 to Cherry Valley, in the Van Deusen 

 family carriage. 



Here I met, for the first time, the 

 most extensive bee-keeper in the United 

 States, Capt. J. E. Hetherington. He 

 is a tall, sunny-haired young man, with 

 prominent and overhanging forehead, 

 and pleasant and cordial address. He 

 is a ready talker, and, like his brothers, 

 impresses you with the sense of candor 



CAPT. J. E. HETHERINGTON. 



and frankness so essential to compan- 

 ionship. The day was stormy and cold, 

 and your correspondent declined with 

 regret an invitation to be shown about 

 the premises. We talked over founda- 

 tion of the new type, with and without 

 the wire, and no fact can be better es- 

 tablished than the success of the wire 

 in the brood chamber. Not a card 

 stretches, and not a larva is removed on 

 account of the wire. 



I saw many samples of comb built up 

 from comb foundation, and can testify 

 to the fact that all of the combs I saw, 

 which were built on thin, flat, septum 

 foundation, had just such shaped bot- 

 toms as the bees make in natural combs. 

 The pressing in of the honey into the 

 cells, or the raising of the cells on the 

 oppposite side, invariably produce the 

 original and time-honored base. 



The snibker question was freely talked 

 over, and I had the pleasure of seeing 



the 8 Bingham smokers which had con- 

 trolled 2,000 colonies of bees in the 

 rapid work necessary in the manage- 

 ment of so many. They bore the marks 

 of hard use. Mr. H. said they were a 

 necessity ; they could not do without 

 them and do the work daily .required. 



The new knife was also freely dis- 

 cussed. He said it was a great wonder 

 and a grand improvement. His men 

 all spoke of it in the highest praise, 

 and would use no other when they 

 could get one of them to use. He said 

 we should have a large trade in knives 

 and smokers as their excellence became 

 known, and gave me an order for more 

 of the large size smokers and new 

 honey knives. 



Seeing the near approach of the "wee 

 sma' hours" and the rapid fall of snow, 

 we left the pleasant village among the 

 hills and its short but prized associa- 

 tions. C. C. and your correspondent 

 returned to the Van Deusen mansion. 

 I was shown the machine in which is 

 made the thinnest and most beautiful 

 foundation ever produced (ten square 

 feet weighing only one pound) ; the 

 bottoms of the cells are like tissue pa- 

 per, while the walls are high and thin, 

 apparently just aching to be drawn out. 



The following day the elder Van Deu- 

 sen kindly took me to the railroad, and 

 I started' for home after a delightful 

 visit in which no incident or accident 

 conspired to lessen the pleasure I found 

 in visiting those I had long desired 

 to see. 



Did it ever occur to you, Mr. Editor, 

 that altitude had anything to do with 

 the production of honey r Certain it 

 is, that the high portions' of New York, 

 California and the North-western 

 States, all of which have a high alti- 

 tude, produce the greatest amount and 

 finest quality of honey found in our 

 markets. 



Abronia, Mich., January, 1879. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Glucose, or Grape Sugar. 



BY BUSY BEE. 



There seems to be more said upon the 

 subject of glucose, or grape sugar, at 

 present, than upon any other article. 

 Novice says, " It is even better than 

 honey for feeding bees," and that it 

 makes good cake, and he might as well 

 have added that it would take the place 

 of cane sugar, while Mr. Dadantsays it 

 is all vile trash, but he does not seem to 

 possess Novice's virtue of " feeling 

 friendly, even if he can't agree." 



Now comes the question, Who shall 

 we believe V That grape sugar must 



