March 8, 1906 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



213 



Head ; S. A. Bedford, Brandon ; James Murray and W. C. Mclllican. 

 of the Dominion Seed Division, and Mr. John A. Mooney, Valley 

 River, Man., will address the farmers at the various stops. Samples 

 of all kinds of grain grown in the Northwest, samples from unclean 

 or inferior seed, and samples from weed-invested crops, are shown. 

 The movement has the co-operation and support of every agricultural 

 organization in the West, including the various provincial depart- 

 ments of agriculture. 



Dead Bees on the Alighting-Board— Ripening Honey 



The appearance of numerous bees on the alighting- 

 board at this time of the year need not be the signal for 

 alarm respecting the condition of the colony. The ordinary 

 mortality of an average colony will at times block the en- 

 trance of a hive, an accumulation of as many as two or 

 three handfuls of dead bees being found on the floor-board. 

 During cold weather these bees fall to the floor inside the 

 hive, where they are not visible to the bee-keeper, and while 

 the cold spell lasts are of little harm, as the colony is inac- 

 tive ; but if the temperature is such as to enable the bees to 

 leave the cluster, they will do their best to rid the hive of 

 them, which accounts for their consequent appearance on 

 the alighting-board in such apparently appalling numbers. 

 Instead, however, of being a sign of unhealthfulness or dis- 

 ease in a colony, this may be taken as quite a reverse indi- 

 cation, for the strongest and most active colonies will have 

 the board more thickly covered with such refuse. — E. W., in 

 Journal of Horticulture and Home Farmer. 



Speaking of the ripening of honey by the bees, " E. 

 W." says, " It is possible that the bees assist in reducing 

 the moisture by extracting the watery portion of the honey 

 for brood-rearing and for their own use." 



Is there anything in this? I have never seen or heard 

 the idea brought out before. 



Wintering Bees— Wrong Conclusions 



Experiments amounting to nothing when the observer 

 fails to draw logical conclusions from the results. Ida M. 

 Stephen, in The Epitomist, copied in the Montreal Wit- 

 ness, has this to say about wintering bees : 



Expensive Carelessness. 



When the winter sets in freezing cold and you wrap up the bee- 

 hives with old quilts, comforts, etc., don't forget to take them off 

 when the weather moderates. More damage is done by covering bees 

 up too warmly than by not covering at all. A friend of mine did this 

 last winter— piled much stuff about his bees, and forgot to take it off 

 when a warm day or two set in. Consequence was, the bees got a 

 good sweating out, and water ran everywhere in the hive, the honey 

 came uncapped, the bees were all stuck up and helpless, a big breeze 

 set in and froze up the water in the hive, bees and all. 



The conditions may be truly observed so tar as they are 

 observed, but the conclusions are wild. At least it is news 

 to me that bees ever " sweat." The probable explanation 

 is the ventilation was nil, the entrance probably closed, the 

 hive ran with moisture from the breath of the bees ; they 

 died from dampness and poor ventilation — not warmth. 

 Incidentally the dampness caused the honey to swell, burst 

 the cappings, and run down over the combs and poor, 

 smothered bees. 



^ 



Winter Bee-Repository Above Ground 



My " bee-cellar " above ground was a small frame of 

 4x4 inch scantling about 14x18 feet. I first boarded up out- 

 side and inside which left a 4-inch space in the wall. Then 

 I put up 2x4 inch studding outside and inside, and boarded 

 it up, using matched siding outside. Then I filled the in- 

 side and outside spaces with sawdust, giving two 4-inch 

 walls of sawdust with a 4-inch air-space between. The floor 

 overhead is covered with 4 inches of sawdust. 



I then put a lean-to on the south side, 8 feet wide with a 

 4-inch wall filled with sawdust, and sawdust overhead. The 

 door is open between it and the main part most of the time. 

 The whole has a double floor of lumber. I have about 64 

 hives in the lean-to. R. Lowey. 



The Maritime Farmer, published in New Brunswick, 

 has an Apiary Department conducted by E. L. Colpitts, 

 Petitcodiac, N. B. 



xhe Premiums we offer are all well worth working for. 

 Look at them in this copy of the American Bee Journal. 



=^ 



(Dur* Sister 

 Beekeepers 



J 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



'Glucose and Its Uses- The Honest Label" 



The reading of an article in the January number of 

 The Delineator will very likely cause some to ask, " Is it 

 possible that money from the overflowing coffers of the 

 glucose interest has been used to secure the insertion of an 

 article making a special plea for glucose in this ingeniously 

 covert manner 7" The high character of the publication 

 forbids any such belief ; and yet if space had been bought 

 for the advancement of the glucose interest it could hardly 

 have been used to better effect. It is the women of the 

 land who decide mainly what shall come upon the table ; it 

 is a woman who writes the article, and it is published in a 

 woman's journal of highest standing and widest circulation. 



It is one of a serious of articles under the general head- 

 ing, " Safe Foods and How to Get Them," the sub-head of 

 this special article of more than three pages, by Mary Hin- 

 man Abel, being "Glucose and Its Uses — The Honest Label." 

 It is a well written article, making the general reader likely 

 to say, " Here is the whole truth about glucose, the decep- 

 tion used in its vending told in the most frank and uncom- 

 promising manner, and yet when all is told it is not such a 

 bad thing as I had supposed." And yet if Mrs. Abel had 

 been a little less superficial in her investigations the con- 

 clusion of the whole matter could hardly have been as it 

 now stands. 



Throughout the article are items pro and con, ingenu- 

 ously, let us say, rather than ingeniously, intermingled, a 

 few of which may be quoted, confining the quotations to 

 those of special interest to the sisters who are engaged in 

 bee-keeping : 



There is no fairer row on the grocer's shelves than that which ex- 

 hibits glass bottles of extracted honey, table syrups and transparent 

 jel!ie6. But doubt seems to hover over this goodly array, as you learn 

 from the grocer himself when he finds that you really want to know 

 the truth. Here is a 14-ounce bottle of maple syrup, price 40 cents. 

 It is "undoubtedly genuine," he tells us, and we wonder if such a 

 high price must really be paid for the surety. Here is a bottle of the 

 same size for 25 cents, still a good price, but the dealer is not sure 

 that the label is a truthful one, although bright-colored maple leaves 

 surround the name, and it is a " good seller." On a can of table syrup 

 is a picture of a cane-field, and if you look closely you will see in the 

 thick underbrush the mysterious word "Compound." And here is 

 one instance of the truthful label from a State with strict laws. It 

 reads, "80 percent corn syrup, 20 percent sugar-cane." 



Half a million tons of this substitute for sugar are manufactured 

 in this country every year, but you would hardly find it sold as glu- 

 cose, unless, perhaps, by the apothecary. I once succeeded in buying 

 some glucose at a candy-kitchen. The proprietor 6eemed displeased 

 that I should know it was in his possession, and evidently feared that 

 his use of it would be condemned. 



In the glucose factories of the United States 35,000,000 bushels of 

 corn are used, and the output, as estimated by Rolfe & Dufren a few 

 years ago, amounted to a thousand million pounds. Fifteen to 20 per- 

 cent is exported, about as much is used by brewers as a substitute for 

 barley malt, and the remainder finds a ready market with the canners, 

 the confectioners and the mixers of table syrups, molasses and ex- 

 tracted honey. 



Next to maple syrup, the dainty, most popular with our national 

 breakfast cake is honey. And we buy honey in the comb when we 

 would much prefer to buy extracted, because we feel that man's in- 

 genuity in making substitutions is here batlled. The making of those 

 wonderful cells has never been achieved by man, nor can he work as 

 cheaply as the busy bee, which never strikes — except in self-defen6e— 

 and never takes a holiday. Nor can this intelligent insect be induced 

 to eat glucose, though thousands of dollars have been spent on the 

 experiment. But extracted honey 1 That is another story. Regard- 

 ing the adulteration of extracted honey, the truth seems to be as sen- 

 sational as any one could wish. 



There are a few firms that sell an undoubtedly pure honey. But 

 here, as with maple sugar, we have a high flavor that will " carry " a 

 large admixture of what is comparatively tasteless. The temptation 

 to mix glucose with honey is great, and it is not resisted. With glu- 

 cose at 1 or 2 cents a pound, and pureliquid honey at 7 and 8 cents, as 

 quoted a few years ago by Mr. George W. York, editor of the American 

 Bee Journal, the reason is evident Mr. York says that he himself 

 can tell by the taste an admixture of 25 percent glucose, but most of 

 us would be easily deceived by 50 percent. Even as high as 80 or 90 

 percent glucose is used in these mixtures. 



Quite an arraignment, is it not ? Think of a billion 



