176 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1. 



was like Cutting's extra, the price would hard- 

 ly be so low. 



R. Wii-KiNS writes, " Bees' eyes not accom- 

 modating themselves to strong and weak light 

 seems to account for many of my bees in bright 

 days falling wounded to the ground from bump- 

 ing their heads against the south side of my 

 white bee-house, as great numbers of them 

 have to fly close by it." 



Dr. Jesse Oren, A. B. J., recommends burn- 

 ing sulphur in the cellar a week or so before 

 taking in bees for winter. It helps to keep 

 combs dry. and free from mold, and the family 

 from fever, diphtheria, etc. A heavy dose after 

 taking bees out is a good thing. I've practiced 

 it, and like it much. 



A CORRESPONDENT is deterred from making a 

 fire in his cellar because I said occasional fires 

 didn't work in practice as well as in theory. 

 Please emphasize "occasional." A constant 

 fire works better for me. Some will need fire 

 less constantly, some still less, and so on to 

 those who never need any. 



Clipping queens has a majority in its favor 

 among those replying in A. B. J. Rather 

 strangely, most who favor it see no disadvan- 

 tages, and the others are equally blind to any 

 advantages. Disadvantages named: Trouble 

 and barbarity of clipping, danger of supersed- 

 ure or loss of queen. Advantages: Easier to 

 keep age of queen; saves watching, time, care, 

 and labor, at swarming; less danger of losing 

 both swarm and queen. 



What preparation of pollen does W. S. 

 Fultz mean on p. 127, that bees can not make 

 and man can? Certainly man doesn't prepare 

 the pollen out in the orchard. And I supposed 

 that the ripe grains of pollen floating through 

 the air, and adhering to various parts of the 

 bee's body, needed no preparation. Surely he 

 can't suppose that the contents of the pollen- 

 basket are meant. [You are quite right, Dr. M. 

 Hadn't thought of that before.— Ed.] 



If the practice of rendering combs with 

 acid becomes universal, the quality of the wax 

 will be greatly lowered, and bees will not ac- 

 cept comb foundation made from such wax as 

 readily as when it retains the bee and_ honey 

 snjeil.— C. P. Dadant, in A. B. J. [We can see 

 no difference, as w;e do it. We use less than a 

 pint of acid for .500 lbs. of wax, and by our plan 

 we recover every particle of the acid. Its spe- 

 cific gravity is so much greater than wax that 

 it settles to the bottom of the water before the 

 wax cools. Chemical tests too show that there 

 is no sulphuric acid left in the wax. Our friend 

 C. P. doubtless alludes to those who use too 

 much acid, or use it improperly. If so, we agree 

 with him. — Ed.j 



[You see we have started the footnote feature 

 to Straws. What will the doctor do when he 

 sees we have the " last say '"? — Ed.] 



wmm?^ 



THE CALIFORNIA STATE MEETING. 



THE greatest BKE country IN THE WORLD; 



THE DETECTION OF GLUCOSE BY THE 



TASTE. 



By Prof. A. J. Cook. 



[On pag'e 14.5 we liave ah-eady given a report of 

 the California State Bee-keepers' Association; but 

 tills one by Prof. Cook presents new phases of the 

 meeting, that will be no repetition.— Ed.] 



Dear Mr. Editor:— I need not tell you that 

 the California State Bee-keepers' Association 

 was a very interesting one. The members are 

 very intelligent, wide-awake men. and there 

 were even more of these present than there 

 were two years ago when you and I met with 

 the Association. The hall in the Chamber of 

 Commerce was crowded from first to last with 

 eager, successful bee-keepers. I think I never 

 attended any convention where the discussions 

 were more interesting. Some of the papers, 

 like the President's Address, and especially the 

 paper by Mr. Woodbu'-v, were of unusual inter- 

 est. Three topics elicited more consideration 

 than any others, and the points developed will 

 interest the readers of Gleanings: " The Bee- 

 keeping Interest of California; the Relation of 

 Apiculture and Pomology, and the Matter of 

 Marketing." I will endeavor to give you in 

 three brief papers the substance of the discus- 

 sions in each of these directions. 



I stated in substance the following in a 

 paper which I read on the first evening: That 

 I was told by one of the best-informed bee- 

 keepers of Southern California that more than 

 half of the seasons in California are excellent: 

 that he had never had to feed his bees; though 

 one season, before he commenced keeping bees, 

 feeding was necessary to save the bees, and that 

 from 300 to 500 lbs. of honey were often secured 

 from each colony in the apiary; and that in 

 good seasons, when the rain exceeded 15 inches, 

 it was practically impossible to overstock a lo- 

 cality. I asked for exact facts, that we might 

 publish the truth to the world; and if any 

 thing like the above was true, establish the fact 

 that Southern California is the most wonderful 

 bee-locality in the world. The inquiry brought 

 out the records from several of the oldest relia- 

 ble bee-keepers, when it was found that less 

 than one-third of the seasons for twenty years 

 had been poor; that other years the bees in 

 large apiaries had averaged from 2,50 to 300 lbs. 

 per colony, and that in most of the poor years 

 the bees had given some surplus, while they had, 

 with the exception of one season, gathered 

 enough to be self-supporting. It also appeared, 

 from ample authority, that, in good seasons, it 

 was almost impossible to overstock a locality. 

 At least, hundreds of colonies had been kept 



