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42dYEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL,, MAY 29, 1902, 



No, 22. 





^ Editorial. ^ ^ 



The Denver Convention. —Don't decide 



ott the route to take east ot Denver until you 

 see tlie announcement we expect to malce 

 soon in these columns. We think we are 

 going to be able to tell you the cheapest 

 as well as the quiclvest way to go, especially 

 for all who are going east ot Omaha. So 

 please wait a bit until you have seen our 

 announcement. 



The Illinois Pood Commissioner, 



Hon. A. H. Jones, has just recently sent out 

 his Second Annual Report. It is a pamphlet 

 of 2(i0 pages, and can be had by addressing 

 Mr. Jones at ir>2:S Manhattan Building, 815 

 Dearborn St., Chicago, III. The matter of 

 greatest interest to bee-keepers is the part of 

 the report prepared by Prof. E. N. Eaton, the 

 State Analyst. In this issue we begin the 

 republication of it, and will complete it next 

 week. It is interesting reading, we think. 

 Prof. Eaton surely has a desire to help the 

 producers ot pure honey, as well as those 

 who put out pure goods in any other line. 



Sealed vs. Porous Covers. — A sub- 

 scriber says that in the catalog of the A. I. 

 Root Co., the advice is given to use a burlap 

 covering with chaff for outdoor wintering, 

 ' while in Gleanings in Bee-Culture the editor 

 says enameled quilts or sealed covers are bet- 

 ter; and he wants to know whether the cata- 

 log or Gleaniugs is the better authority. Both 

 may in general be considered good authority, 

 but in the present case one or the other must 

 have the preference. Possibly the obliging 

 editor ot Gleanings may offer some middle 

 ground so that both may be followed. 



Honey in Old Oil-Cans.— We have re- 

 cently had some experience with some West- 

 ern honey that was put into oil-cans. It 

 makes us feel like publishing the names of 

 the bee-keepers who put it up. They deserve 

 just such notoriety as that. We shipped 

 some ot this honey to a customer in Massa- 

 chusetts, and here is his report on It : 



Mt Dear Mr. York:— The honey arrived 

 in a reasonably short time, and in good shape. 

 I opened one lot, and had soon filled jars with 

 that from six cans. I liked the honey the 

 more I ate of it, and was more than pleased 

 with it, declaring that I should sell no other 

 as long as I could get that. Last Saturday I 

 went to bottle the other lot ot honey. The 

 first can that I opened I of course tasted. 

 Ugh, but what a taste! I threw aside the 



knife, wondering Itow it happened to get near 

 tlm lump or the (jil-can. I tried the honey 

 with a spoon, and I got the same taste of oil. 

 I washetl the spoon thoroughly, hoping still 

 that the bati taste was not in the honey itself. 

 But no amount of washing did any gooti. 

 That I'un of honey and its mate, also the cans 

 from another case, are contaminated with 

 some kind ot vile, oily taste. Other people 

 may be able to eat the honey, and it is pos- 

 sible that a tew may call it good — one can 

 never account for tastes — but the honey is 

 spoiled for me. 



It seems very unlikely that you could know 

 the condition of these two cases, though you 

 may possibly have known of other cases 

 which had thus been injured. I suppose that 

 the producer of the honey made use ot second- 

 hand cans which had had oil in them, and 

 failed to get them clean. It is surely a fearful 

 mistake to put good honey into such cans. In 

 my own case, I hesitate to allow any of this 

 contaminated honey to go out to my custo- 

 mers for fear that it may do me untold injury. 

 At present I hold the reputation ot putting 

 up the best honey that is found in the mar- 

 kets about here. Where will the reputation 

 be when my customers' tongues meet that 

 oil.y flavor ^ 



Except tor the two cases ot the second lot 

 of honey it was the equal of the first lot. 



I should like to hear from you in regard to 

 the matter. Perhaps there is some way in 

 which I can eradicate that evil flavor. At the 

 worst, you can look over your lot ot honey 

 and see that no more oily cans go out. And 

 you can put some thunder into the American 

 Bee Journal against the folly ot using oil-cans 

 for honey. 



I say again that the uncontaminated honey 

 is fine; that I never ate extracted honey 

 which so pleased me. 



Yours very truly. 



No, we don't know how to remove kerosene- 

 oily taste from honey once it has become 

 tainted with it. 



But we can't understand how any bee- 

 keeper can be so short-sighted as to use sec- 

 ond-hand oil-cans in which to put honey. 

 He should know that only one sale of such 

 stuff can be made in the same place. We are 

 out something like So. 00 on our deal in 

 freight charges alone. We have heard that 

 the school of experience is very valuable, but 

 the tuition rates are high. I'ea. verily. 



We hope that no reader ot the American 

 Bee Journal will be such a scamp as to put 

 honey into oil-cans, and then mix it in among 

 a lot ot good honey in good cans, and thus 



work it oil. 



■♦ 



Improvement of Stock is a subject 

 that has been so much discussed of late that 

 it is likely some may think it should have a 

 rest. If it were a matter for the consideration 

 ot a tew leaders to whom the mass are looking 

 for improvement, there might be no sufficient 

 excuse for this present word. But so long as 

 ei'enj bee-keeper can do something himself 

 for the improvement of his stock aside from 

 trying to get better stock from outside, and 



so long as the probability is that notonc in 

 ten, it indeed one in a hundred, is doing any- 

 thing in the line of improvement, there is 

 abundant excuse for insisting upon attention 

 to the subject, evenlf nothingcan be said that 

 has not already been well said. To every be- 

 ginner it should be said, " It you have only 

 two colonies, you can do something — perhaps 

 much — toward improvement ot your stock." 



For the cliance is very small that the two 

 colonies are exactly alike. It, with equal 

 opportunities, one of them gives a larger sur- 

 plus than the other, there will be a gain to 

 have all your increase from the better colony. 

 Left to themselves, the probability is that if 

 you do not have the same amount ot increase 

 from each, the larger increase will be from 

 the poorer colony, because it is likely to be 

 the case that the colony most given to swarm- 

 ing is the one least given to storing. It is not 

 a hard thing to reverse the case, and indeed to 

 go so tar that you will have all the increase 

 from the better colony. Give the better col- 

 ony brood from the poorer, so as to make it 

 so strong as to swarm first. Then when it 

 swarms, set the swarm in its place, putting 

 the old colony in place of the poor one, and 

 putting the poor one in a new place. The 

 field-bees that leave the poorer colony for the 

 next day or two will all go back from the 

 field to their old location, and a week or so 

 later another swarm will issue with a queen 

 of the better stock, while the poor colony will 

 be so weakened that it will not be likely to 

 swarm till later, if at all. 



It is possible that the beginner may think 

 that it is not worth while to pay attention to 

 the matter until the number of colonies is 

 considerable. Exactly while the number is 

 small is the time to give the matter attention, 

 tor with only two or three colonies it is less 

 trouble than with a hundred, and the little 

 pains taken now will tell upon the whole 

 hundred when they come. And if year after 

 year constant care be taken to breed from the 

 best, the difference made in the total income 

 will be no slight matter. Even if your colo- 

 nies are numbered by the score or hundred, if 

 you have heretofore given no attention to 

 breeding from the best, begin now. 



Tiering Up Supers of Sections is a 



thing that puzzles beginners, and unfortu- 

 nately the most experienced must do more or 

 less guessing about it. Suppose the first 

 super to be given about ten days before the 

 full fiow, the question is, What rule shall 

 guide as to giving additional room * No defi- 

 nite rule can be given, but some general 

 principles may be given to help in the guess- 

 ing. 

 If there is too much delay in giving room. 



