1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



103 



or even better. Other breeders maydojnstas 

 well; but we must have the positive knowledge 

 before we undertake to receive queens on such 

 a proposition. As for contributed articles, we 

 never make any promises. Manuscripts may 

 be sent, and if meritorious they will be received 

 at whatever they are worth to us. 



A SHORT time ago a correspondent in the 

 South hinted that we were putting in the big 

 reports regarding the honey-yields of Florida, 

 but not the other kind. We were not aware 

 that we had made any such discrimination. If 

 any locality is not accurately represented, 

 kindly correct it. sending a short pithy article; 

 but do not accuse us of dishonesty, nor call the 

 other fellow a liar. You want to be sure to 

 bear in mind that there is very often a marked 

 difference in localities only 10 or 15 miles apart, 

 and particularly so between different counties 

 and between different States. Don't imagine 

 that your county invariably represents the same 

 conditions that will be found in neighboring or 

 similar counties of your State. 



We are often asked what typewriter we would 

 recommend. The only cheap one-handed ma- 

 chines that we consider worth any thing are the 

 World, which we used to sell, and the Merritt. 

 The last one does the nicest work of any. Rut 

 there is none of these one-handed machines 

 that will do work much if any faster than the 

 pen. If one wants to do any considerable 

 amount of correspondence, and yet can not af- 

 ford to pay much over $;35.00 or $30.00, we would 

 advise such to write to any of the typewriter 

 exchangps for a second-hand Remington, cali- 

 graph, Hammond, or any of the second-hand 

 machines. You can not expect any o?ic-handed 

 machine to do work, as a general thing, faster 

 than the pen. If one can write a good plain 

 hand, he had better let the cheap one-handed 

 machines alone. 



HONEY FROM SWEET CLOVER. 



During my visit at Salt Lake City I wrote up 

 at length in regard to the beautiful honey gath- 

 ered from sweet clover that thrives so luxuri- 

 antly out on the sandy alkali plains, where no 

 other plant could flourish on account of alkali. 

 This honey is not only equal to any other pro- 

 duced in the world, but it is about the whitest 

 and finest-looking honey in the world. The 

 only respect in which it is inferior to the white- 

 sage honey of California is, that the sweet-clo- 

 ver honey candies readily on the approach of 

 ■cold weather, but the sage honey does not; and 

 when candied it is, perhaps, the whitest can- 

 died honey gathered from any known source. 

 Well, just now I am greatly pained to find that 

 some of the food commissioners think, without 

 analyzing, this honey of Salt Lake City is sugar- 

 ed, probably because of its extra fine appearance. 

 In fact, some specimens of candied honey are 

 almost as white as snow, or as white as white 



sugar. One who is at all conversant with the 

 plant— sweet clover— will have no difficulty at 

 all in recognizing sweet-clover honey. It has a 

 faint or very delicate flavor, reminding one of 

 the smell of sweet clover while in bloom. If 

 you bruise the foliage of the sweet clover when 

 the plant is growing rank in the spring, you 

 will also get a strong perfume, quite like the 

 delicate flavor of the honey. Sweet-clover hon- 

 ey ought to be as readily identified as basswood 

 and clover; and it is a burning shame that the 

 friends who are producing and marketing this 

 beautiful product should be persecuted by hav- 

 ing some stupid official pronounce it or even 

 suggest, that it is not pure honey. A. I. R. 



THAT STATISTICAL SCHEME FALLS THROUGH. 



You will remember we proposed a scheme for 

 ascertaining the amount of comb honey pro- 

 duced in the United States, from the average 

 number of sections sold during any average 

 year. Well, the scheme went along swimming- 

 ly until one of the manufacturers declined to 

 give his output, for reasons which he considered 

 good and sufficient. In addition to this we 

 have been receiving lately letters that read 

 something like the following, which we produce 

 as a sample: 



I see you are goiiig to set Dr. Miller at g-uessing 

 how much comb honey there is produced in this 

 country. Here is something for him to try his hand 

 at; and if; he can guess it he must he a genuine 

 Yankee. r. Two years ago I bou ght of y ou , through 

 A. F. Cate, of Fallbrook. 40,000 sections.GThe season 

 following I got about 50"^ lbs. of corairhoney~Last 

 season I got some more. I now have over 30,000 of 

 those sections on hand, and empty. How much 

 .section honey did I get last year ? And I am anx- 

 ious to know how much I shall get in 1894. 



Wlldomar, Cat. I. S. Crowfoot. 



In the first place, we can not get at the an- 

 nual output of sections unless all of the 

 manufacturers give their annual output; in the 

 second place, even if we could obtain the full 

 number of sections made, circumstances some- 

 thing like those pointed out above might'make 

 the result but little better than a good guess. 



EFFECT OF DRY CLIMATES ON QUEEN-CAGE 



candy; SHALL WE RETURN TO THE 



WATER-BOTTLE? 



In the American Bee Journal for Jan. 18 is a 

 valuable article from W. A. Pryal, on mailing 

 queens long distances. He writes of the diffi- 

 culties in making a candy .iust right so that it 

 will remain just right, or uniformly soft, in the 

 various climates to which the queen-cage is 

 subjected while in the mails. He refers to the 

 very dry atmosphere of California and its bad 

 effects on the candy, and suggests that, as the 

 food can not always be made to meet the vary- 

 ing conditions, we return to the water-bottle. 

 He says: 



I have never yet received a queen dead, that was 

 shipped in a cage that had a reservoir for water. 

 No matter how liard the candy maj' have become 



