GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTtJEE. 



JAK. 



abling him to get lars-e quantities of honey very 

 cheaply, as compared to what could be done with 

 the old methods. The farmer was not long in dis- 

 covering that he could buy his honey more cheaply 

 than he could produce it; he could not afford to buy 

 improved hives, honey-extractors, smokers, honey- 

 knives, comb foundation, section boxes, fountain 

 pumps, bee-veils, etc.; fit up a place to keep and 

 use them in, and learn how to use them, all for the 

 sole purpose of caring for a few colonies of bees, 

 and then be bothered with them right in his busiest 

 season— haying and harvesting — not he; he could 

 buy his honey cheaper, and, like a sensible man, he 

 dropped bee-keeping; the specialist picked it up, 

 and, with each year, it was becoming more of a 

 specialty; in fact, it was rapidly becoming a scien- 

 tific profession. 



In thus writing upon the other side of bee culture 

 I do not wish to be understood as discouraging peo- 

 ple from entering our ranks; but in coming I wish 

 them to come with their eyes open, with a full un- 

 derstanding of the difficulties they will have to en- 

 counter; then when the disappointments come they 

 will not be so bitter. Instead of wishing to drive 

 everybody out of bee-keeping, I have a genuine love 

 for my brother bee-keepers; in fact, some of them 

 have been so kind to me that I not only feel grateful 

 toward them, and would do almost any thing to help 

 them, but I have a real, downright, heartfelt love 

 for them; but I must say, that I take more interest 

 In making of bee-keeping a safe, pleasant, and prof- 

 itable pursuit, than I do in leading others to become 

 bee-keepers, by continually holding up to their 

 View the bright side of the business. For instance, 

 I take pleasure in telling bee-keepers 



HOW TO GET PURE SUGAR. 



In the Remindery for November, page .588, you 

 say: "Now, if we shall succeed with these natural 

 stores, after having failed so many times with gran- 

 ulated sugar, do not say it was because natural 

 stores are better than sugar, but rather because we 

 doubled them up until every colony was a powerful 

 one." When I read this I could not help wondering 

 if you had not before doubled up olonies until they 

 were "powerful," given them natural stores, and 

 then lost them; and furthermore, I wnnderedif you 

 knew that nil grnnulated sugar is not pure cane su- 

 gar. Within the last month I have c >nversed with a 

 candy-maker who has bad more than 30 years of ex- 

 periencf, and he told me that granulated, coffee A, 

 confectioner's A,— in tact, all grades of sugar,— can 

 be, and many times art-, adulterated with triuoose or 

 grape sugar. That adult- rated sugar sometimes has 

 a Dluish cast; that the " motion " of the frusrar as it 

 Is handled will sometimes enable an expert to de- 

 tect adulteration; that in some grades of sugar the 

 glucose can be seen, but that no man can look at 

 sugar and tell positively whfther it is pure. He 

 said that in buying granulated, or confectioner's A, 

 the chances of getting pure sugar were greater than 

 in buying other grades: but there was no absolute 

 certainty. In making some grades of candies, abso- 

 lutely pure cane sugar was required, and for this 

 purpose they bought confectioner's A, but often 

 found it adulterated, and it was only by experience 

 that they had learned that certain refiners cnuld be 

 depended upon to furnish them pure sugar; in oth- 

 er words, they had to depend upon the honesty of 

 the refloer. In making many grades of candy, glu- 

 cose was used; and pure sugar could be mixed with 

 a certaia per cent of glucoee and have it "worn;" 



if too much glucose was added, the candy was a fail- 

 ure. They could always tell how largely sugar was 

 adulterated by the amount of glucose that it would 

 "take." They never could tell, to an absolute cer- 

 tainty, that sugar was pure, until the candy made 

 frotn it was poured out upon the marble slab, and 

 work was commenced upon it. I told him the ob- 

 ject of my conversation, and for what purpose I 

 wanted pure sugar, and he said, " If you want pure 

 sugar, I can get it for you, because there are two 

 firms, or refiners, whose sugar we have used for 

 year?, and they can be depended upon every time." 

 Do you see the point, my friends? If you wish for 

 pure sugar, go and have a candid talk with a candy 

 manufacturer; for if anybody knows where to get 

 pure sugar, he does. But you can not always depend 

 upon granulated sugar, as I have a friend who fed 

 some to his bees in the summer time, and it killed 

 them by the thousands. If the sugar that your bees 

 had, friend Root, when they died, was adulterated 

 with glucose, it would explain why they died, as glu- 

 cose is so largely composed of vegetable matter as 

 to be a poorer winter fojd than even poor honey. 

 w. z. Hutchinson. 

 Rogersville, Mich., Dec. 1.5, 1883. 



Friend H., I, too, think it would be wrong 

 to induce people to go into bee culture by 

 presenting them the bright side of it; but I 

 can not think your criticisms on our bee- 

 books and bee-journals are very well ground- 

 ed in this respect I can not remember of 

 ever reading any book or journal that urged 

 people to go into the business. A book on 

 bees or a book on poultry should tell all that 

 people want to know on the subject, so far 

 as they can, and 1 do not now think of any 

 books that do not give cautions and warn- 

 ings. On page 284 of the A B C book I have 

 not only given you the worst side of bee cul- 

 ture I ever knew, but 1 had our artist make 

 a picture, to show what <iur friends might 

 expect occasionally. It is true, our books 

 and journals do not represent tlie industry 

 as one that won't pay expenses in the long 

 run ; for if such were the case, there proba- 

 bly wouldn't be any books or journals very 

 long. What is tlie matter with you lately, 

 friend II. V You have not got astray into 

 bad company, have you? Here is sometliing 

 that I clii)ped from an address of our mutu- 

 al good friend Fiof. Cook. 1 suppose every- 

 body knows that ii is always safe to bring 

 any thing in that friend Cook ever wrote or 

 said : 



extract from an address uy prof. cook. 



Ani'ther fallacy, as I think, whieh sume few of our 

 apiarists aie I' udly pr< claiming, is that apiculture 

 is only lor the h))eciHlist. Whj, g. ntlf men, our 

 brothtrsin horticulture and agricuiiure are tree to 

 admit thai they owe more, in the way of real prog- 

 ress and advancement, to amateurs thau to special- 

 ists. I know that apiculture is no exception. Our 

 honored guest was an amateur when he conferred 

 the greatest boon upon our art. Long, Demaree, 

 Clute. and a host of others of our best bee-keepers, 

 are amateurs, lam tree to say, that hree-fourths 

 of the honey product of our State is produced by 

 men with whom apiculture is only an avocation. I 

 can name a score of bee-keepers, whom 1 know per- 

 sonally, who are farmers, lawyers, doctors, who keep 

 hundreds of colonies of bees, and muny of whom not 

 only get large returns < f honey, but winter each 

 and every year wiih entire success. When our 

 specialists are all equally successful, then they may 

 cry held! enou^ih! with more justice. 



An indication that the new recruits in apiculture 

 will exalt rather than degrade the business, is seen 



