14 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1. 



any boe-keeper is troubled with indigestion, or 

 the blues, let him attend these conventions and 

 hear Dr. Miller render his side-splitting comic 

 pieces (as Ernest calls them in Gleanixgs): 

 and I miss my guess if he does not return home 

 very much improved in health as well as 

 spirits. 



Among the supplies shown at the conven- 

 tion was a section foundation-fastener, which I 

 purchased and brought home with me. I like 

 it very much better than the Pai'ker machine. 

 It does its work much more accui'ately and more 

 rapidly than any other process I have evei' 

 tried. I feel sure I can trust my help to put in 

 starters with this fastener, which we never 

 succeeded in having done accurately with oth- 

 er machines. This is Mr. Bittenbender's ma- 

 chine. I think he told me he had it patented, 

 but I am sure no one will hesitate to expend 50 

 cents for so good a fastener when he has tried 

 this. He is quite an enthusiast in his work. 

 His wife was intending to come with him had 

 not his little child got badly burned a day or 

 so before. 



QUITE A .JUKE ON US. 



The night after the convention closed, we 

 thought to remain at the hotel where it would 

 be quiet, rather than to travel on the cars, as 

 we wei'e going over into Iowa; but about 10 

 o'clock, dancing and music began, and it was 

 kept up until about 2 o'clock in the morning. 

 Doors banged every two minutes, it seemed to 

 me. all night, and people kept up a continual 

 tramp, tramp, by our door, until I thought sure 

 I was in bedlam for once. We had just fallen 

 asleep when the lady of the iiouse called us at 

 4 o'clock to take the train west. As I passed 

 along by farmhouses I kept on the watch for 

 bee-hives, but saw none until we reached about 

 the middle of the State, where we found one 

 small apiary on the north side of a steep hill. 

 Probably there were bees, but not in sight of 

 the cars, until we reached Afton. and there we 

 passed a beautiful little apiary of 50 hives. 

 They looked real pretty, standing in straight 

 rows, and hives so white and clean, on a side 

 hill sloping toward the railroad track. 



As our friends we went to visit lived in Afton. 

 we found the owupr of that apiai'v was Mr. 

 W. R. Hunter. Mi'. Axtell called on him and 

 found him to be quite an enthusiastic bee- 

 keeper. He had just invented a foot-power 

 saw that Mr. Axtell said was ahead of any saw 

 he had ever tried. With this saw he sat down. 

 To work it he used both feet. He had ai)plied 

 for a patent upon it. He winters out of doors 

 in double-walled hives, and seldom loses a col- 

 ony if propei'ly ])repared for winter with good 

 stores. His bees were all pure Halians except 

 two or three hylirid colonies. 



About a mil(> from Mr. Hunter lives Mi-. Sype. 

 who has about 50 or (K) colonies. They both re- 

 ported a fair crop of honey from colonies that 

 were in good condition in the spring. They 

 both use a double-walled hive without chaif 

 ])acking. which, he claims, is almost air-tight, 

 or almost holds water on all four sides. The 

 corners have tin strij^s tightly nailed on. He 

 claims for them that they are almost a non- 

 swarming hive, as the dead -air space keeps 

 them cool, even in the hottest place: and just 

 before they swarm he takes out the combs that 

 have the most honey in, and removes the center 

 combs full of brood to the two sides, and puts 

 three or four empty frames with starters in. in 

 the center, or uses empty brood-frames if he 

 has them. With that treatment he said he 

 seldom had a swarm: but he has not been in 

 the bee-business many years, and it has how 

 been several years since we have had many 

 swarms: but let a heavy honey -flow come 

 again, especially early in .June or the last of 



May, and I believe he too would have a plenty 

 of swarms. 



If we can be prepared to care for swarms, and 

 hive them so as to return tliem after the colony 

 has lost its swarming fever (especially all col- 

 onies that are not very strong), I think it just as 

 well to let swarm, as it seems to be nature's 

 way: and a colony that has swaiined. and gets 

 settled down to work, works with much energy 

 and vim. 



Our last shipment of honey to Chicago 

 brought us 18 cents wholesale, and we are sell- 

 ing cut-out honey in new tin pans with glass 

 shades over it. in Koseville groceries, at 18 

 cents, and take it in trade. Mrs. L. C. Axtei.l. 



Roseville. 111.. Dec. ISltO. 



CANE SUGAR. 



PKOF. COOK TELI.S US A GREAT DEAI, AISOUT 

 SUGAR OF ALL KINDS. 



Since you ask me to state whether there is any 

 difference between beet sugar and sugar made 

 from cane, you must excuse me if I am quite 

 scientiiic. I see no way to avoid it: but I prom- 

 ise to be as brief as possible, and to try hard to 

 make all plain to all. 



There are several tests of sugars: First, their 

 chemical composition: :^ their reactions with 

 various chemical reagents: 3, the way they ro- 

 tate the xjolarized ray of light: and. lastly, their 

 solubility and assiniilability. Now. so" far as 

 we have any knowledge, the sugar from beets, 

 from cane, from maple, and from the nectar of 

 flowers, is precisely the same in all these re- 

 spects. It is know n as cane sugar, or sucrose. 

 It has the following chemical composition: Cjo 

 Ho, On. C stands for carbon, H for hydrogen", 

 and O for oxygen. It will be seen that the H 

 and the O are "in projiortion to form water, the 

 symbol of which is H.O. This is true of all 

 tiie sugars and starch, as such substances are 

 called carbo-hydrates. The same is true of 

 lactose, or milk sugar. These siigars rotate the 

 ray to the right, but do not decompose the cop- 

 per salts. They are not as soluble, not as easily ab- 

 sorbed, nor as easily assimilated, as are other su- 

 gars. Thus wemaybelievethatsugarfrom beets, 

 from cane, and from maple, is identically the 

 same. In the manufacture, beet sugar and sugar 

 from cane are perfectly refined, or clari tied, and so 

 seem alike. Maple sugar is not so. The sugar is 

 the same, but there are other substances present 

 which modify the color and flavor. By the re- 

 moval of these we should make maple sugar 

 exactly like beet sugar. All water is precisely 

 alike: but all •so-c((/7e(? water is not so. Some 

 is full of lime, some impregnated with iron, and 

 some saturated with a mixture of saline sub- 

 stances: but these are foreign substances added. 

 The water is always the same. The same is 

 doubtless true of these cane sugars. As cane 

 sugar will not act upon the copper salts, it must 

 be reduced to glucose before it can be analyzed 

 by the use of Febling's test. The bee does this 

 with nectar in changing it to honey. We do 

 the same with cane sugar when we eat it. Tlius 

 it seems very probable that honey is a safer 

 sugar for one with feeble digestion than is our 

 common cane sugar. Cane sugar is not so solu- 

 ble, not so easily absorbed and assimilated, as is 

 honev or otiier glucose sugars. We know this: 

 for, if the same amount of cane and grape sugar 

 be injected directly into the blood, at different 

 times, it is found that but very little of the 

 cane sugar will be used by the tissues, but most 

 will be eliminated by the kidneys. Much more 

 of the glucose will be appropriated. This proves 

 that glucose is more assimilable, and explains 



