409 



of large hives, with glass on both sides, 

 will enable the beginner to learn very rapidly 

 as it places everything under the eye of the 

 apiarist, just as it exists in a regular colony 

 so that many mysteries are explained. The 

 busy months run from first of February to 

 last'of October, though it is chiefly confined 

 to March, April and May. 



Adaptation of Southern Georgia to bees, 

 though there has been great success in the 

 North, yet it can be carried to greater perfec- 

 tion here than there, if we will but acquaint 

 ourselves with it here as they do there. 



In this section, bees gather pollen and 

 honey from the first of February to last of 

 October, leaving but three months in which 

 to be compelled to remain in winter quar- 

 ters, and during these three months scarcely 

 ten days ever pass without at least a few 

 hours of the day in which they can take 

 flight, which is a great desideratum to their 

 health. Our bees remain all winter on their 

 summer stands, the shelter that wards off 

 the summer's sun and April showers is suf- 

 ficient for winter's blasts, and we have only 

 to make the entrance very small to exclude 

 cold and mice and put on the honey boards, 

 or just as well, apiece of osnaburgs laid on 

 top of the frames of the lower story. From 

 all accounts, we have no more moths here 

 than in the North, besides they can be fully 

 guarded against, as I will at some future 

 time explain. 



Now in higher latitudes, they must be 

 put into close quarters during winter ; their 

 seasons are not more than half as long as 

 ours, and almost all the honey producing 

 trees that flourish there can be made to 

 flourish here. Besides, it not unfrequently 

 occurs, the evils incident to winter there 

 often prove the ruin of large apiaries, while 

 here the bee is perfectly healthy, for I have 

 never had a colony destroyed by dysentery 

 yet, although it frequently occurs in colder 

 climates. 



Translated from the German. 



The Prog as a Bee Enemy. 



The honey bee like every living being in 

 existence has its enemies. As is known 

 many birds, especially swallows, snatch 

 bees on the wing. But here another enemy 

 of the bee might be mentioned, who as such 

 is not generally known by many: it is the 

 frog, the brown as well as the yellow ones. 

 It is generally known that it chooses with 

 predilection its abode on white or red clover, 

 and this it does not without any motive. 

 Thither, especially to the mellifluous white 

 clover, the bees come in order to leave it 

 laden with their sweet burden. But many 

 of these industrious working bees never see 

 their honey place again, but they become a 

 delicious prey of the frog. With greedy, 

 wide-open eyes, like a tiger in miniature, it 

 stares at and lies immovably in wait of its 

 chosen victim, until it snatches it in a fa- 

 vorable moment by a sure leap, when it 

 sinks its fore part of the body deeply into 

 the flower cup, not minding the stings its 

 captive might apply, for the frog is " cold- 

 blooded." No less than eleven dead bees 

 were found in the skinny stomach of a frog 

 —a very handsome portion ! To many an 

 apiarist the gradual diminution of his bees 



in the hive the foregoing might appear clear; 

 the frog is a dangerous foe of his pets. But 

 hereby it is not intimated that the frog 

 should be destroyed, because it destroys 

 many other noxious insects. Only near the 

 bee-hives it should not be tolerated, for 

 there it might be apt to make itself com- 

 fortableand try its hunting skill exclusively 

 on bees. * 



The Composition of Honey. 



PROF. KEDZIE. 



Honey is one of the oldest things under 

 the sun. At one time it was probably the 

 only form of sugar known, and to-day is one 

 of our most delicious articles of food. Does 

 it not seem strange, then, that in this scien- 

 tific age so little is known of its real compo- 

 sition or the changes it undergoes ? Honey 

 is composed of grape and cane sugar, to- 

 gether with water, acid, and waxy matters. 

 If honey be burned completely, a grayish 

 colored ash remains, which amounts to 

 about fifteen per cent, of the original honey. 

 In this ash I succeeded in obtaining reac- 

 tions for silica, lime and iron. There is also 

 a small quantity of potash and phosphoric 

 acid in honey. To estimate the quantity of 

 these present, I took two portions of " cap " 

 honey, free from pollen and wax, and burned 

 them to a coal-like mass. In one I extracted 

 the potash with muriatic acid, and in the 

 other, phosphoric acid with nitric acid, and 

 estimated them in the usual manner. 



The following are the amounts obtained : 

 Potash .06 per cent. ; phosphoric acid .08 per 

 cent. These substances would natuarally 

 be present in honey, as they are found in 

 soils, and circulate in the juices of plants. 

 There are many things connected with 

 honey about which, at the present time, but 

 little is known. The following are a few : 



1. Has honey a definite composition ? Is 

 there any difference between the relative 

 amount of sugar in honey made from buck- 

 wheat, basswood, clover, golden rod, brown 

 sugar, etc., or between the relative amounts 

 of cane and grape sugar ? Probably this 

 question can be answered only by compar 

 ing the analysis of different kinds of honey. 



2. Does the bee add anything to nectar in 

 changing it into honey ? On this point there 

 is wide difference of opinion. But I know 

 of no experiments having been tried to settle 

 the matter. Perfectly pure honey, that has 

 been dried completely, contains about one 

 per cent, of nitrogen. Does the bee supply 

 this nitrogenous matter ? To decide this I 

 gathered some nectar from flowers in the 

 Agricultural College green-house (from the 

 azalia, rhododendron, and fuchsia, but prin- 

 cipally from the last), and carefully tested 

 it for nitrogen. The result of my experi- 

 ments is that nectar does contain traces of 

 nitrogen. Therefore the fact that honey 

 contains nitrogen does not prove that it was 

 furnished by the bee. May not this ques- 

 tion be decided by feeding bees upon pure 

 white sugar, which contains no nitrogen, and 

 afterward examine the honey to see if any 

 nitrogenous matter has been added to it ? 



3. After honey has staid for a certain 

 length of time, a part of the grape sugar 

 crystallizes out, and granulation or candying 



