2l6 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



watch the cell and he will find, if the 

 bees go on with it, that the larva from 

 the egg will grow into a drone — some en- 

 terprising worker produced the egg. 



CANE SUGAR AND BEET SUGAR ARE IDEN- 

 TICAL. 



Doctor Miller (Gleanings, 377) quotes 

 B. F. Onderdonk as saying West India 

 sugar is mixed with beet sugar, refined, 

 losing half its sweetness when it becomes 

 granulated sugar. The doctor is ' ' all 

 stirred up to know more;" and asks "Is 

 it the mixing with beet or is it the refin- 

 ing that loses the sweetness?" Neither. 

 It don't lose its sweetness. The editor 

 is in doubt, too. From samples he has 

 tried he doubts whether anybody but a 

 chemist could tell the diflference by the 

 taste "between cane sugar and beet su- 

 gar." I think even a chemist could not 

 tell. The highest chemical authority at 

 the Michigan State, Agricultural College 

 savs they are idenical — beet sugar is cane 

 sugar. 



THE BEES' INSTINCT TO SWARM NOT- 

 EASILY OVERCOME. 



In reply to doctor Miller's admission 

 that "I've had a good many colonies 

 swarm with two stories, sometimes with 

 little but empty combs in the lower story. " 

 (Gleanings, 422) The editor says, in part, 

 of a colony of his own bent on swarming: 

 "But if this colony had in the first place 

 been in quarters large enough to hold 

 them so that the notion of swarming did 

 not get possession of them they would, 

 if I had gone down and given them more 

 room, have never thought of swarming 

 the whole season. ' ' Does the editor real- 

 ly think the instinct "to multiply" can 

 be so easily overcome ? Do the bees in 

 the rocks not swarm until the cave is 

 crowded ? The doctor's facts are such as 

 most of us are meeting with very fre- 

 quently. 

 NOVEL REASON FOR THE SUPERIORITY 



OF HONEY STORED BY ITALIAN BEES. 



Mr. Volkert (A. B. J., 331) makes a 

 funny argument to show why Italians 



"produce a finer quality of honey " than 

 other bees. It is in brief because they 

 are more active. As Leghorns, being more 

 active, produce finer (?) eggs than other 

 hens, so with bees. The admission used 

 to be made that Italians, being more act- 

 ive, often produced inferior honey to that 

 produced by the blacks because they 

 wonld collect it from sources which the 

 blacks shunned. 



WHAT THE U. S. B. K. UNION OUGHT TO DO. 



The American Bee-Keeper (page 105) 

 is not entireh- satisfied with an answer I 

 made to a question in the A. B. J., and 

 propounds a supplemental one: "How 

 can the Union (The U. S. B. K. U. ) be 

 made of any possible good ( not to saj- 

 the 'greatest' ) to its members without an 

 increased membership?" I answer, the 

 membership of the Union is already large, 

 and its resources abundant. Let its offi- 

 cers make a determined and effective 

 campaign, offensive and defensive, against 

 the evils and dangers that threaten bee- 

 keepers and bee-keeping, and doubters 

 will fall in rapidly enough. 



Lapeer, Mich. June 24, 1898- 



eXT-RKCXEO. 



A DIGNIFIED( ? ) EDITOR. 



He Astonishes Mr. J. H. Martin. 



The following, which was written by 

 Mr. J. H. Martin, appears in the May 15 

 issue of Gleanings. 



Well, wonders never cease. The Re- 

 view has started a joke department. 

 Just see the column of good white paper 

 and black ink that Mr. Aspinwall wasted 

 in the last Review. But realh- the most 

 astonishing thing in the same number of 

 the Review, under editorial offerings, is 

 that the editor winds up one of the offer- 

 ings with a " Whoop-e-e ! " Well, just as 

 sure as you live I should not be more 

 astonished should I go into a graveyard 

 and have a tombstone waltz up to me and 

 shoiit " Whoop-e-e ! " Just think of it ! 

 " whoop-e-e " from the dignified and se- 



