332 



It is claimed by some persons that 

 they cannot cross a wide chalk mark, 

 and to stand the hive (or its legs, if it 

 has any) on a board and make a chalk 

 mark % inch wide all around will keep 

 them ont of it. Of course it must be 

 renewed after a rain. But this is not 

 an infallible remedy ; they will some- 

 times ignore its existence entirely, and 

 cross and re-cross at pleasure. 



To exterminate them some drive a 

 crowbar deep down through their nest, 

 causing a trap into which thousands 

 upon thousands drop and die. 



A jar or tin can, with holes punched 

 through the tin cover with a small awl, 

 half tilled with honey mixed with wa- 

 ter, and then placed . near the ants' 

 nest, or burying it level with the 

 ground, will destroy them in great 

 quantities. 



The large black ants are extraordina- 

 rily fond of honey, and will sometimes 

 carry off large quantities of it in a short 

 time. 



Mr. A. I. Root mentions a case — his 

 hives were troubled with ants, and his 

 bees, after being annoyed much with 

 their presence, took them up, one at a 

 time, and flew away from the apiary and 

 dropped them to the earth so far away 

 that they could not again return. 



The pungent odor given off by the 

 ants is very obnoxious to the bees, 

 and if they cannot expel the intruders 

 they will swarm out, and no amount of 

 " returning" them to the hive will cause 

 them to remain. 



It may be well to try some more of these 

 methods of defense before becoming 

 totally tl despondent" over the trouble. 

 The case is an unusually severe one 

 and requires severe measures. Ordi- 

 narily we would not counsel their exter- 

 mination, but when it becomes a ques- 

 tion of which shall be exterminated — 

 the bees or ants— we must say, save the 

 bees at all hazards. 



Sulphuret of lime is said to be the 

 most potent remedy for their expulsion, 

 and a more recent letter from Mr. Bur- 

 net states that he has used it with full 

 success.— Ed.] 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Manufacture of Glucose. 



M. M. BALDRIDGE. 



So much has been said respecting 

 glucose by those who know very little 

 about it, that I have concluded to send 

 you the following article from the Chi- 

 cago Tribune for republication, so that 

 both sides of the question may be 

 heard. The author is a stranger to me, 

 but it is my impression that he knows 

 what he is writing about. It seems that 

 glucose, when made properly, is not 

 such a very unhealthy product after all. 

 The Tribune says : 



" Glucose is the Latin name for all 

 saccharine solutions contained in the 

 cereals, in fruits, peas, beans, etc. It 

 differs from sucrose (cane-sugar) in that 

 it forms no crystals, and is identical 

 with the sugar formed on dried fruits, 

 particularly raisins, from which the su- 

 gar thus formed derives its name of 

 grape sugar. 



" Kirchoff , a chemist at St. Petersburg, 

 Russia, was the first to convert starch 

 into sugar. This was in 1811. It created 

 at that time, when the traffic of colonial 

 sugars was interdicted by Napoleon, 

 such a sensation that several factories 

 were at once erected in France and 

 Germany. The excitement, however, 

 soon subsided after it was found that 

 the sugar was much inferior in sweet- 

 ness and taste to cane sugar, and the 

 invention of the extraction of pure su- 

 gar from beet root, which soon followed, 

 thereafter put a stop to the whole un- 

 dertaking. 



" Beet-sugar, however, did not yield a 

 palatable syrup. All the experiments 

 failed to improve it into an article for 

 table use, and this brought to life again 

 the question of the feasibility of ma- 

 nipulating the starch into an uncrys- 

 tallizable syrup. Still it was not before 

 1832 that the eminent practical chemist 

 Payen commenced to improve upon the 

 first rude process of the conversion of 

 starch into sugar and syrup. He was 

 followed by Musculus and Dubrunfault, 

 and these' three men may be regarded 

 as the founders of this enormous indus- 

 try. The researches which they made 

 were followed by the most astounding 

 success. They produced a syrup in 

 color and taste even superior to cane 

 syrup. It did not possess the powerful 

 sweetness of the latter, but it had the 

 great advantage of being not liable to 

 crystallize. 



" This result gave at once a new life to 

 the abandoned enterprise. Factory fol- 

 lowed factory throughout France and 

 Germany. Better and improved ma- 



