346 



AMERICAN BEE JOURMAL. 



of the low price of extracted honey in the 

 market, my plan seems to be the best way 

 to dispose of what I produce. 



My crop last year was 3,600 pounds of ex- 

 tracted, and 3.000 pounds of comb honey; 

 besides capped brood-combs for feeding in 

 the spring, 2,000 pounds. My number of 

 colonies, spring count, was 80 ; number on 

 Nov. 1st, 130, average stores, 20 pounds 

 each, making 2, COO pounds more, or in all, 

 10,200 pounds of honey. Now to get this 

 yield I used 1,000 extra extracting combs, 

 and 1,000 frames filled with foundation, 

 which were all filled or drawn but about 

 150, and after July 15th the honey-flow was 

 very slim. Everything was covered with 

 insects, and the conditions were unfavor- 

 able on every hand, even buckwheat gave 

 but little honey. I do not think the bees 

 gathered what was used as stores after the 

 middle of July. 



Basswood gave no honey noticeable. 

 Raspberry, white clover and blue thistle 

 are the principal sources from what the 

 bees gathered ls,st year. Stores were seri- 

 ously reduced in the month of October, so 

 that they had to be replenished before put- 

 ting in outside cases for winter I have 

 suffered in years before in not being faith- 

 ful in this respect ; in the future I will do 

 better than I have the last year, for one 

 colony has gone to rest already, and no 

 doubt more will follow. 



E. H. Sturtevant. 



Ft. Ann, N. Y., Feb. 2. 



Gathering Honey and Pollen. 



With 28 colonies of bees in the spring of 

 1893, I had no swarms, nor got any surplus 

 honey ; but left them on the summer stands 

 in good condition. To-day, on examina- 

 tion, I find 5 colonies dead, and the rest 

 strong with brood and eggs, and in good 

 working order, carrying honey and pollen 

 from the maple. F. W. Wiedemann. 



Equality, Ills., March 1. 



The Alcohol Test and Results. 



Friend York:— I want to tell you about 

 my experience with the honey tested by 

 the alcohol process. When I saw that the 

 editor of Gleaiuii.ijs was testing honey with 

 liquor, I thought the thing was all safe, so 

 1 procured a small amount (just a quart) to 

 make the test. Well, I put some pure 

 honey in half of the liquor, and some coun- 

 terfeit honey in the other half. I of course 

 mixed it well, and waited the result. But, 

 by the looks of each bottle, for my life I 

 could not see any difference. So I thought 

 I would test the thing a little closer. 



I tasted the contents of the pure honey 

 bottle, and I thought " That is pretty fair." 

 Well, now, to carry the test fully out, I 

 was compelled to taste the contents of the 

 counterfeit bottle, and I thought -'That is 

 not so bad, after all." Well, I kept on tast- 

 ing, first one bottle then the other, and I 

 couldn't see any difference. Now was it 

 the whiskey that killed the taste of the 

 counterfeit honey, or what was it ''. Of 



course, I left a little in each bottle for 

 farther testing. Now shall I send this to 

 the editors of some of the journals, or what 

 shall I do with it ? 



Now for the feeling it produced upon the 

 body. I suppose I felt about like Mrs. 

 Jennie Atchley's Cyprian bees when they 

 run the cattle off the premises 200 yards 

 from the hives. Well, I believe after that 

 test, I could have taken a colony of bees I 

 have, and if I had been in Texas, I could 

 have run every head of cattle out of that 

 State. Of course, I would not have made 

 the experiment if it had not been recom- 

 mended by some of our prominent temper- 

 ance leaders. 



I am 64 years old, and had not tasted one 

 drop of whiskey, to my knowledge, in 44 

 years until that test. Of course I didn't 

 let my wife and children know anything 

 about the test, and to avoid their company 

 I took a '■ fox chase," but you know I did 

 not see a single fox ! 



After all this hard test, and being mis- 

 led, I am as much down on whiskey as I 

 have been for the last 44 years. 



Now shall I make a further test, or had I 

 better defer it ? ' Joun Faris. 



Chilhowie, Va. 



[Friend Faris, we think you had better 

 "defer" any further experience of this 

 kind. — Ed.] 



Wintering "Well— A Blizzard. 



Bees are wintering well thus far. I have 

 24 colonies packed in chaff and straw, and 

 they all seem to be as quiet as kittens. My 

 honey crop was light last year, being only 

 250 pounds. My spring count was 10 colo- 

 nies, increase to 24, and average lOKj pounds 

 per colony. 



A genuine blizzard visited us on Feb. 

 13th, which upset things in general, the 

 mercury running ddwn to 10 degrees below 

 zero, with 10 inches of snow. 



Chas. C. Chamberlin. 



Romeo, Mich., Feb. 26. 



Hunt's Adulterated Honey. 



Here is something more about Hunt's 

 honey, to which I have seen many refer- 

 ences in the Bee Journal for the last few 

 months, which interested me very much, 

 and I would like to see the law of Minne- 

 sota so remedied that such a person could 

 be fined and punished as he deserves. 



I have a brother who clerks in a store at 

 St. James, Minn., and about the middle of 

 the winter an agent came to the store and 

 sold extracted honey. Before saying any 

 more, I would say that I had sold that same 

 firm 130 pounds of nice basswood extracted 

 honey in the fall, which they had sold in a 

 short time, and asked for more, but I had 

 none on hand. 



The proprietor bought over 200 pounds of 

 extracted honey from the agent, for pure 

 honey, and the agent told him he would 

 send a label with the honey, which would 

 be as good as a label to certify to its purity. 



