1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



511 



human thought beyond which the keenest 

 minds can not go, so in chemistry there are 

 limits. No chemist has yet discovered the size 

 and position of atoms, nor the influence the 

 position or cliange of position of the atoms 

 malies in bodies — how sulphuric acid effects 

 this change of place, and converts starch into 

 sugar or glucose; and the very fact that the 

 sweetening properties of glucose are not eciual, 

 weight for weight, to true grape sugar, ought 

 to settle in the mind of any man of common 

 sense, for ever, tlie fact that glucose is not 

 grape sugar, though the chemical equivalents 

 are the same. I don"t profess to be an expert 

 in chemistry, but I iiave paid a good deal of 

 attention to it. Rev. J. Janeway. 



Pawling, Pa., May 8. 



THE CONDITION OF BEE-KEEPING IN GERMANY. 



In Germany great complaint is made over the 

 depression of bee culture, and for this the new 

 tariff law is held responsible. America and 

 Switzerland send into Germany annually some 

 one million dollars' worth of honey; and this is 

 sold at so low a price that, together with the 

 low protective duty, it renders it out of the 

 question for the German bee-keepers to hold 

 their own. So also the price of wax has suffer- 

 ed tlie important decrease of about .50 per cent 

 in prici — that is. from 48 to 60 cents it has fallen 

 to 26 and .30 cents, reckoning a German mark at 

 24 cents. From this we see there is no longer 

 any motive for keeping bees in Germany; and, 

 ■worstof all. is the adulteration of honey, against 

 whicli the law seems to provide no a'iequate de- 

 fense. Besides, to add to the trouble of those 

 who live in the Liinenburg heath, and who can 

 not get even the poorest kind of extracted hon- 

 ey, large quantities of so-called "Liinenburg 

 Extracted Honey" are thrown on the market. 



Medina, O. Karl R. Mathey. 



STINGLESS BEES IN YUCATAN. 



The other day. when reading the description 

 of a tour a German traveler made through Yu- 

 catan I came across a passage which was some- 

 what surprising to me. and will, no doubt, be 

 news to many of your readers too. The writer 

 f^ays that, a few leagues from ^Merida. at the 

 hacienda Zucalun, the property of Don F. Leon, 

 he noticed quite a strange kind of bees he had 

 never seen before, and did not see afterward 

 within the tropics. '• They are larger."' he con- 

 tinues, '" than the Gernian bee, of a brownish- 

 yellcw color, and stinglos. There were, under 

 a shelter, over 400 hives in logs, sawed the same 

 length, hollowed out and laid one above the 

 other in terrace shape. At both ends they are 

 closed with wooden plugs. To get the honey, 

 one looks to see at which end the honey is, 

 •which is stored in wax pockets of the size of a 

 regular apple; then, after the hive is hung in a 

 slanting position, holes are opened in the pock- 

 ets, and the honey, which is just as good as 



ours, is allowed to run out. The brood-cells at 

 the other end are six-cornered, like those of 

 our bees." That is what I read, and I mention 

 it with this caution: I neither believe nor dis- 

 believe it; but, judging from what else the 

 writer has to report and describe;, he gives one 

 the impression of being a perfectly honest man, 

 who liimself fully Ixslieves wiiat he relates. 



Chari-es Norman. 

 St. Petersburg, Fla., May, 18'j4. 



[The stingless bees of Mexico and certain 

 parts of our own country are a small bee. about 

 half the size of the ordinary German. We do 

 not remember to have seen any statement of 

 any such bees being larger. We, however, ac- 

 cept the statemiMit with caution, and in the 

 meantime ask our subscribers to furnish us any 

 facts that will corroborate or disprove it.— Ed. J 



WOOD separators nailed on wide frames 



A SUCCESS. 



Allow me to disagr 'e with Dr. Miller in re- 

 gard to wood separators, on [)ag" 378. I have 

 just finished filling 380i) section holders with 

 sections, and they all have wood separators 

 nailed on. I would not have them any other 

 way. Dr. Miller do( s not say what the thick- 

 ness of his is; but mine are sawed ,V, and are 

 the full width of the holder. Some of them 

 have been in use two years, and show no signs 

 of moving in any way. I would have them 

 nailed on because it gives me 2800 less pieces to 

 handle; by their use the sections do not fall out 

 sidewise when putting in loiindation by the 

 melted-wax plan, and four sections can be han- 

 dled at once. Now, why is it that so often the 

 same article gives different results with differ- 

 ent men, and can not be used in the same way ? 

 I know Dr. Miller's separators warped and 

 curled when nailed on, because he says so; and 

 I know mine do not. as any one can see by step- 

 ping into my bee- house. 



A word for tlie holders. I would not tolerate 

 a wide frame with a top- bar — the holders are 

 so much easier emptied. With Carnidlans, 

 propolis is no objection to their use, as none of 

 my honey was scraped at all, and I got 17 cts. 

 for it too. H. P. Langdon. 



East Constable, N. Y., May 4. 



[The separators that Dr. Miller spoke of as 

 not being satisfactory when nailed on wide 

 frames were of the sliced sort. He probably 

 had not tried those that were sawed. These 

 latter are belter in every way. and almost as 

 cheap. We have no doubt that, when 's inch 

 thick, they would work all right, even when 

 nailed as you say.— Ed.] 



SWEET CLOVER AS A TROUBLESOME AVEED. 



Mr. Root:— I notice in Dr. Miller's Straws 

 that he is lamenting a failure of his sweet- 

 clover seed growing. Now, it seems to me he 

 ought to feel good over it. It may be he knows 

 all about sweet clover and what a nuisance it 

 is. We would just as soon think of sowing 

 mustard or thistles as sweet clover here in 

 Wood Co. It may not spread with him, how- 



