1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



277 



Aftev clrainin<T, these caps are removed to a tif^lit 

 vessel and put to soak with a little water. After 

 soaking the water is drained off and put into the 

 vinegar barrel, and makes excellent vinegar. The 

 comb is then ready to make into wax. Our ex- 

 tracted honey we do not bung up if put in casks, 

 under twenty- four hours. If put in glass jars, 

 we prefer to put it into an open barrel or ves.sel 

 and let it stand over night, as it goes through a 

 process of working and there is quite a scum 

 raises to the top. This scum goes into the vine- 

 gar barrel also. In our first season's operations 

 we put it warm, right from the machine into the 

 jars and closed them up, and we found on selling 

 them this scum did not look well on the top, and 

 on opening them and exposing the honey to the 

 air, it acquired such a disagreeable flavor that it 

 could scarcely be used. It was terribly annoying 

 to us to have our customers come to us with 

 such complaints. By running it into an open 

 vessel or laarrel, and allowing it to go thi'ough 

 the working process over night, then scumming 

 and canning, it is all right. It is also better to 

 allow it to stand awhile before putting it in a 

 barrel. By so doing, if the honey is thinner in 

 some hives than others, mixing brings all right. 

 We put up our honey, the past season in new 

 oak butter casks (heads in both ends), contain- 

 ing almost 150 pounds each, and we have kept 

 them in the cellar. When wanted for use we 

 loosen the top hoops, take out the head and melt 

 it over the fire, as it soon candies or grains solid 

 in the casks. Melting or scalding improves the 

 flavor of late fall honey amazingly. In melting 

 we do not put any water with it. We prefer our 

 honey and water separate. 



Here is another question. How long will ex- 

 tracted lioney keep? It will keep a great deal 

 longer in some families than others. Extracted 

 honey is comparatively a new thing under the 

 sun, and many accuse us and others of making 

 honey out of sugar, &c. We opened one cask 

 of our honey (and we don't know but we sold 

 some of the same sort without opening), that 

 looked very much like sugar. It was coarse 

 grained and the grain looks like the grain of 

 coarse sugar to the naked eye, and if we had not 

 put it up ourself we certainly should have thought 

 it moist sugar. Yet, it was honey for all that, 

 and when melted, of a peculiar rich flavor and 

 of a rich golden color. It was gathered from 

 corn blossoms. We plant a few acres of the 

 white flint or Button corn on purpose for our 

 bees. It produces abundance of honey and pol- 

 len. Dent, or western corn, produces almost 

 nothing for bees. Elisha Gallup. 



Orchard, Iowa, April 16, 1873. 



1^ 



In March, when the bees fly, set out rye meal, 

 and see if every colony brings in some. Exam- 

 ine those that do hot. Bees with a fertile 

 worker bring in pollen also. Do not take the 

 meal away as soon as pollen is brought in, for 

 weak colonies do not fly far, and often pollen 

 fails again ; my bees worked two to three weeks 

 on the meal after the pollen had come in. 



HULLMAN. 



[For Waguer's American Bee Journal.] 



The Bee Hive Controversy. 



We reprint ]\tr. King's reply to our criticisms 

 on the Williams article, and to our vindication 

 of Mr. Wagner. The readers of the Journal 

 will know how to put a proper estimate upon it 

 without a single word of comment from us. We 

 shall republish in a sej^arate pamphlet, as a 

 supplement to the American Bee Journal, the 

 whole of this controversy {both sides) as it has 

 appeared in the pages of this Journal. 



" Mr. Langstroth's Last Words." 



We have too much matter of hitereat to beekeepers, 

 to devote umch space to personal afllaii's merely, 

 hence we sliall only glance at the voluminous vale- 

 dictory of Mr. L. 



The terrible "charges," the awful "treachery," 

 the " damaging facts," have now been used as "le- 

 gitimate weapons of an honorable warfare;" the 

 pent-up, concentrated hate of years has been poured 

 forth, and, contrary to Mr. L.'s expectations, we are 

 not dead yet. It was too bad to keep us in " quiver- 

 ing suspense" for a whole month, before we could 

 know our doom. The broadside has come, and after 

 the smoke cleared up, we not only find ourselves 

 alive, but positively immjured. Should we not be 

 thankful? 



From an analysis of Mr. L.'s last two articles, it 

 is evident that he considered any weapons he could 

 employ against us as "legitimate" and "honora- 

 ble," and if he could not kill us with one, lie would 

 with another. The awful "treachery " turns out to 

 be only his view of what he supposes to have been 

 our representations, in making a bargain several 

 years since with his son, now. deceased. The " garb- 

 ling for a base purpose" has dwindled down to a 

 mere difference of opinion as to whether the quota- 

 tion with the omission of a clause which we indi- 

 cated by asterisks, was garbling or not. lie sustains 

 his opinion by repeating the accusation, while we say 

 the omission was made to avoid occupying space in 

 the discussion of another subject which would have 

 been introduced. 



The attempt to create a prejudice against us by al- 

 most, if not actually asserting that we had asked hinr 

 to prosecute other hive dealers, is a shrewd one, but 

 in the end, Mr. L. will find that " Honesty " would 

 have been " the better policy." He knows that he 

 cannot produce one particle of evidence to prove this 

 inferred charge. That was his sou's proposition, 

 made probably to secure as few unfavorable excep- 

 tions as possible, and in closing the arrangement we 

 merely reminded them of the fact. We have done 

 more for beekeepers in this particular than all others 

 combined. " Actions speak louder than words," 

 hence we do not fear that Mr. L. will establish much 

 prejudice against us. 



As an indication of how thinking men regard Mr. 

 L.'s articles, we present the following extract (not 

 garbled), from a letter we have just received. 



" What is the matter witli Mr. L. ? He goes at you 

 with hammer and tongs in column after column of 

 trash without a single show of anything damaging. 

 According to his own testimony you have done noth- 

 ing which is not in strict accordance with business 

 principles, and ordinary transactions. I was aston- 

 ished to find such trivial matters magnified into 

 mountains of sinfulness by one I have for years de- 

 lighted to hold in grateful respect." 



