208 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



For me American Bee Journal. 



To Remove Glue from the Hands. 



In answer to Mr. Mason's inquiry for 

 something "That will remove glue from the 

 hands," Iwill suggest that Rock Soap will 

 fill the bill exactly. As he and the rest of 

 your readers are very likely unacquainted 

 with the article and may suppose it to be 

 some artificial compound, it may be well for 

 me to suggest that the article was discover- 

 ed in the side of a mountain by Mr. A. F. 

 Hubbard, about 7 miles west of Ventura, 

 California. The strata is about 20 feet 

 thick and inexhaustible. They have com- 

 menced quarrying it and packing out of the 

 mountains on the backs of little donkeys. 

 The crude material is then hauled to Ven- 

 tura, crushed in a quartz mill, dried, ground 

 fine like flour between French burs, bolted, 

 dampened, and pressed into cakes of con- 

 venient size for toilet use. 



This soap possesses some remarkable 

 properties. So far as I can see, it washes 

 just as well in hard water as in soft. I no 

 longer take the trouble to replenish my 

 pitelier from my cistern, the well being a 

 little more convenient. Those who have 

 tried it say that it does equally well in sea 

 water or fresh. The discoverers send sam- 

 ples to all those who send 1.5 cents to pay 

 return postage on the cakes. Common soap 

 cleanses by means of its caustic properties 

 and is injurious to the fiber, while, so far 

 as we know or can judge, this rock soap 

 cleanses by means of its powerful absorb- 

 ing properties and is not injurious to the 

 surface. O. L. Abbott. 



Santa Barbara, Cal., June 9, 2876. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Ripe Honey. 



Not being scientific and having only four 

 years' experience, I do not desire to get into 

 a controversy but only desire to throw some 

 yeast into the subject, hoping thereby to in- 

 duce some abler apiarists to ventilate it 

 more thoroughly, it is certainly of the 

 greatest importance to all of us to bring in- 

 to market only the most natural and "Si- 

 mon pure" article, which not only is honey 

 but also tastes like honey. 



Some hold that it is enough done, if un- 

 capped honey, after being thrown out, is 

 put into open" barrels and allowed to evap- 

 orate until all free water has left. Others 

 believe in slinging out the honey only after 

 all honey cells have been capped over by 

 the bees. Who are right? 



It is by many concluded, I think, that the 

 older bees gather the nectar from the 

 flowers or the so-called honey dew from the 

 leaves, and coming home empty the same 

 hurriedly into some cell, while it is one of 

 the oflices of the younger bees to suck it up 

 from these cells, partly digest it. and after 

 the nectar by the process has lost nnich 

 water and is also changed into real honey 

 to deposit it in the comb where it is to be 

 capped over after all free water has evapor- 

 ated. The cells are generally not over X 

 inch deep, and while the bees always keep 

 up a lively circulaticm of the warm air in 

 the hive it cannot be doubted that the 

 honey in cells will soon be rid of all free 

 water, when it is tit to be capped over. The 

 bees knowing exactly what they do, begin 



to cap as soon as the honey does not evap- 

 orate any more.* I always find the honey in 

 combs which have partly been capped, of 

 general thickness. 



I cannot see how thin honey put into open 

 barrels can ever well evaporate. If 2 feet 

 deep, it is 48 times deeper than a cell. If it 

 takes 3 days in a cell to evaporate, it must 

 take 144 days in a barrel of two feet deep. 

 It is only the surface which evaporates. 

 Of course the evaporated honey surface be- 

 coming heavier will sink, giving room for a 

 new layer of thin honey to evaporate. 

 There will certainly be an end to the pro- 

 cess, but I would not dare to wait for it. 

 Expose a barrel of clean water to evapora- 

 tion and see how long it will take to be 

 empty. How much longer may it take to 

 evaporate the free water from a barrel of 

 thin honey? 



I have another objection to slinging 

 combs which have no capping on them. 

 Such combs may as well as not be the first 

 receptacle of the honey as brought in by the 

 older bees, which, as far as my experiments 

 go, is very often quite distasteful, not being 

 like honey at all. To wait before slinging 

 the comb until all cells are capped over is, 

 I think, unnecessary, increased labor and 

 unavoidable injury to the cells by the knife 

 being the only gain. I sling my combs if 

 only 3 or 4 rows of cells are capped over. 



Sigel, 111. Chas. Sonne. 



*[Is it certain that honey sealed over can- 

 not be further evaporated?— Ed.] 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Pro and Con. 



Dear Editor: — Having never wearied 

 your patience, pi'O. or con., with this or that 

 theory, or whether bees can or can't hear, 

 or "dysentery versus foul-brood," or the 

 many topics so fluently discussed by able 

 and worthy writers, whose communications 

 grace the pages of the faithful friend of api- 

 culture, The American Bee Journal, 

 my subject shall be principally— for or 

 against. 



On page 176, July issue, is a notice of 

 Alfred Chapman's ideas or queen rearing 

 in larvaj as food. He is correct, without 

 the shadow of a doubt. 



Can bees hear? Now, that is too trans- 

 parent to take any one's time to write up- 

 on, especially Mr. Argus, who is talented 

 andean word his communication so correct- 

 ly. 



1 am an old man and on account of being 

 crippled in my left hand by a burn in in- 

 fancy, was and am unqualified for any labor 

 that requires two hands, and in order to do 

 duty or labor of some kind I was required 

 to watch bees from a period of my earliest 

 recollections, and I have discovered and 

 satisfied myself at least, of very many im- 

 portant })()iiits and features necessary to the 

 correct and profitable niaiiagtMiicnt and 

 treatment of bees. Yet, 1 have failed in 

 being able to find a deaf bee, and would just 

 as soon say that ail bees were deaf, dumb, 

 blind, had no sense of taste or feeling and 

 couldn't sting, as to assert that they could 

 not hear. 



"When Sorghum came my bees went," is 

 a cry from across in Kentucky. Perhaps 

 it's so, 1 will not dispute, but it is not my 

 experience. I would suggest that bee-men 



