98 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



seemed to cax-e very much about it. There 

 is another thing-, too, you may not discover. 

 Bhie Eyes and her mother found out that 

 tliese blocks of candied honey when melted 

 made the nicest kind of confectionery. Ey 

 all means, let us try to introduce honey 

 everywhere, even to our domestic animals, 

 as you suggest. Horses are fond of sweets, 

 and a great many times it seems to encour- 

 age them to give them a lick of sugar. Now, 

 wouldn't a lick of honey help them to take 

 an interest in our plans and our work in the 

 same wayV 



SUGAR SYRUP FOR WINTER STORES. 



IS IT ADVISAULK, ALI. THING.S CONSIDEK KD? 



fRIEND ROOT, do you know tbat we are build- 

 inff up the siig:ar-ti'adc at the expense of the 

 honey-producers of this counti-yV The uni- 

 versal hiw is, to provide first for our own 

 house, and then, if we have any thing to 

 give, we can help the sugar-men. We hlame the 

 newspaper men for saying- that we feed the bees 

 sugar syrup, and then sell it for honey. J for one 

 don't see how they can very well help saying what 

 they do, as long as afl of the bee - journals and 

 leading bee-men advocate (he feeding of sugar syr- 

 up. I wish I could tell how many times in the last 

 year you have said, in your foot-notes, "Feed su- 

 gar syrup." It is very embarrassing to me when I 

 go to the city to sell honey, and begin to show my 

 samples, to have the merchant look up, with signif- 

 icant grin, and ask me what I fed iny bees. I have 

 1100 lbs. of nice white comb honey that I have been 

 unable to sell. Our home market is glutted with 

 honey; and the worst of it is, that it was sold for 

 less than the best grades of sugar bring. I for one 

 have fed the last pound of sugar, unless necessity 

 corai>els me to. If my bees run short next spring I 

 shall feed section honey before 1 buj' sugar. My 

 experience is, that bees ted well-ripened honey will 

 winter just as well as those fed on sugar. Bees fed 

 on honey last fall (1884) wintered much better than 

 those not fed. I have fed some colonics this fall on 

 a poor quality of last year's honey, and we shall see 

 how they tally in the spring. 



Friend Root, you remember that a tew years ago 

 you rode the grape-sugar hobby until your hobby 

 was besieged and demolished by solid facts; and 

 the sooner your granulated -sugar hobby suffers 

 the same fate, the better it will be for the bee- 

 keepers of the country. If the hundreds of thou- 

 sands of pounds of sugar fed to the bees were left 

 where it belongs, and the bees were fed on honey, 

 the market would not be glutted, and we should 

 get a fair price for our honey, aud there would be a 

 call for it. A man not far from here fed sugar 

 syrup this fall to get partly filled sections filled out, 

 and then sold it for honey. It isn't all gold that 

 glitters. Some bee-keepers have got it in 'em big- 

 ger than a woodehuck. Unless there is a change in 

 the administration in bee afl'airs, I am going to go 

 it on back numbers, and let Gleanings live on 

 carp. 



You remember how you mourned over the wreck 

 of your grape-sugar hobby, and there is one thing 

 certain— that sugar feeding or bee-keeping has got 

 to go down. Ai-e you aware that the best grades of 

 exti-acted honey don't net the producer as much as 



we have to pay for the poorest sugar'/* and then 

 feed sugar? Never— no, sir; I'll let 'em die first. 



Give my best wishes to Ernest. I wish him God- 

 speed. 9— Geo. a. Wright, .55—95. 



Glenwood, Fa., Jan. 15, 1886. 



"SUCCESS IN BEE CULTURE." 



PRUf. COOK'S OPINION OF KEDUON'S NEW BOOK. 



■TTDITOR GLEANINGS:-I know you too well to 

 'Bl) 6ven doubt but that you, like myself, wil' 

 |V r believe and read with great pleasure and sat- 

 ■*~ isf action this /j/'o<7i(tre from our friend Hed- 

 don. From the very nature of the case, my 

 book gives prominence to the scientific aspect of 

 bee-keeping, and to such practical questions as arc 

 more closely related to general science. You, as 

 an editor and dealer, have ready access to the peo- 

 ple, and know just what they are feeling after, and 

 must constantly be working to give them better 

 and cheaper implements, and so the A B C has its 

 special mission. But our friend Heddon, as a large 

 and experienced producer, is emphatically a practi- 

 cal man, and is dead in earnest in his search for 

 better and cheaper methods. As one of our ablest, 

 most successful, most studious bee-keepers, we all 

 expected his book to be replete with valuable facts 

 and suggestions, and we ai-e not disappointed. 



jSIy brother said to me the other day, just after 

 completing the reading of this book, " 1 have re- 

 ceived a large number of valuable hints, and some 

 way they are so in the line of my own experience 

 that I feel certain they will prove practical and 

 very valuable." I have read the work with great 

 care, and I feel that no wide-awake apiarist can 

 spend 50 cts. more profitably than in securing this 

 book, and so I am prompted to write this notice. 



The general appearance and mechanical part of 

 the work, and especially the clear, terse, and forci- 

 ble descriptions, will meet no criticism from the in- 

 telligent, practical bee-keeper. The first part of 

 the book is not greatly different from like portions of 

 other similar works. Mr. Heddon and his anonymous 

 " friend " explain what actual experience proves 

 most valuable with them, and do not obscure and puz- 

 zle with descriptions of many things and methods. 

 While this plan has much to commend it, we must 

 still remember that this is a great country; and in so 

 intricate an industry as bee-keeping, wbatis admira- 

 ble in one location may be worthless iu another. 

 This caution is, however, repeatedly ui-gcd in the 

 work. 



We are specially interested in the chai)ter on 

 hives, and the explanations in regard to the secur- 

 ing of comb honey. The former has been a matter 

 of long and earnest study with the author, and his 

 success in the latter makes him an authority. 

 Surely no one will say that his hive, his method, or 

 his manipulation is copied. For the past two years 

 I have been experimenting with this reversing 

 business, and am fully convinced of its excellence; 

 and though I had no time to plan or speculate on a 

 reversible hive, I had expressed the opinion and 

 belief that it was a desirable implement, and sure to 

 come. I have little doubt but that Mr. Heddon has 

 given us a desirable improvement, and I shall try it 

 the coming season with full assui-ance of success, 

 and of improving old styles and methods. The con- 

 tracting of the brood-chamber at times, I know to 

 be very valuable. This ready means of its accom- 



