182: 



(;Lh:ANiN(;.s in bee culture. 



193 



there is no one thine «o vexatious in the spring 

 as the robbing of bees. 



UTAH honey: PECfMARITIRS OF TH?: HOXEY; 



FKOM A BEE-KEKPKR WHO I.IVES WHERE 



IT IS J'RODLT ED. 



Mr. Root:— I thank yon for standing up in 

 defense of Utah honpy. I have had the same 

 thing to contend with, especially in the mining 

 towns, where many of the people have never 

 seen candied honey, and imagine all honey must 

 appear like the stuff sold in the stores, in a liq- 

 uid form, dark and strong. I have often been 

 accused of mixing sugar and lard in my honey: 

 but the absurdity of that ought to appear, be- 

 cause both of these articles command a better 

 market price here than honey, and I believe 

 but few if any of our bee-keepers feed sugar to 

 their bees; and to mix it with honey is out of 

 the question. 



In regard to sweet clovpr and alfalfa honey. 

 there is no difference that I know of. only in the 

 taste. Sweet clover has a taste peculiar to it- 

 self, and has a verv fine flavor after it is fully 

 ripe. All of our Utah honeys candy extremely 

 quick, for some cause that I can't explain. My 

 whole crop, 10,000 lbs., candied in Spptember 

 la«t>ear. Geo. Freestone. 



Vernal. Utah. Feb. 12. 



QL'EEXS LAYING IN THE SUPERS. 



Friend S.-haeffle. from his letter on page 150. 

 I am afraid, has got the impression that I am 

 somewhat skeptical about his statements. Not 

 by any means: and I didn't know, till he array- 

 ed them together, that I had so many times re- 

 plied to him. I'm sure I have none but the 

 kindest feelings toward him. 



I don't for a minute dispute, friend Schaeffle, 

 that honey in uncapped cells granulates sooner 

 than that which is sealed. It always does with 

 me. But I do think you are wrong in the opin- 

 ion that " they are evaporated to such an ex- 

 tent that they candy." I feel pretty sure that 

 evaporation helps to prevent candying. And I 

 think the honey in uncapped cells candies soon- 

 er, largely because it is thinner than the rest. 

 And if I have the right case in mind, there was 

 something decidedly peculiar about the queens 

 laying so much in his supers, and I'd like much 

 to have the puzzle solved: but I never thought 

 of doubling his statement. C. C. Miller. 



Marengo. III. 



WHY BEES ARE NECESS.VBY FOR SCATTERING 

 POLLEN. 



On page 44, in reply to Dr. Miller, I will say 

 that I think there is no place where fruit grows 

 but that there is some kind of bee that gathers 

 pollen. I have seen what I call sweat-bees at 



work on sirawberry-blo'soms when there was 

 not a honey-bee in the field that I could see. I 

 should like to ask, If pollen is not needed, why 

 a pistillate variety does not set fruit without a 

 staminate variety beside it; and if it needs pol- 

 len 'which science and reason teach it does), 

 then then- must be something to carry the pol- 

 len from the staminate to the pistillate variety; 

 and I do not think the wind will do the work 

 properly. I have been in the small-fruit busi- 

 ness (on a small scale; for the past 20 years, and 

 have made some observations in this line, and I 

 believe that God. in his infinite goodness, has 

 given us the bees to perform this work. 

 Columbus, Wis., Feb. 14. Super Lifter. 



BEES ON basswood; a reply to friend 



FULTZ, on page 46. 



Friend Root:— In regard to Mr. W. S. Fultz's 

 letter, I must say that, in all my experience, I 

 never knew basswoods to bhjom, and the bees 

 not work on them. We have basswood-irees a1) 

 around us, large and small, and sometimes in 

 the golden-basswood honey-harvest time I sit 

 in their shade and listen to the merry hum of 

 the bees. But some years basswoods do not 

 yield much honey, and then the hum will be 

 louder, for the whole force will be at work, and 

 very few returning to the hives with honey, 

 working all day for very little pay, as some of 

 the rest of us mortals sometimes do. I know 

 for a certainty that some basswood-trees never 

 produce seed. How is that? Well, very likely 

 some trees produce pistillate and others stami- 

 nate blossoms, and the bees are needed to pol- 

 lenize them. Our bees always work on our 

 strawberry-blossoms, and often very strong. 

 Some years our bees do not work much on the 

 buckwheat, because the second crop of red clo- 

 ver blooms at the same time, and often produces 

 more honey, and the bees prefer to work on that, 

 and I admire their good sense: but I have in- 

 variably noticed that, when the bees fail to 

 work on buckwheat, it produces very, little 

 grain, and the same is sometimes true of alsike 

 clover — the bees preferring to work on wild- 

 raspberry bloom (which abounds here) and the 

 whit« clover, and then we get ver>- little alsike 

 seed. Ila Michenkr. 



Low Banks, Ontario, Can. 



THE HUE and CRY. 



Mr. Root:— Yon said on page 10.5 that you 

 would leave it with your readers whether you 

 would stop your hue and cry about the adulter- 

 ation of honey. I would say, make all the hue 

 and cry you can. If you did not say any thing 

 against adulteration you would be for it. I be- 

 lieve you must be for or against in this matter: 

 and if you were in favor of adulteration in any 

 form, I should not like your journal as well a 

 I do now. John C. Freeman. 



Cuttingsville, Vt., Feb. 0. 



[We have received a good many other letters 

 of similar import.— Ed.] 



