96 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1. 



Mohammedan Spain, i)i'isoner. without one 

 singlo lost battle. Jousscf died at the age of a 

 hnndred years, exactly the number of bees that 

 were counted in the swarm. 



The Arabs are very fond of honey, and this is 

 a great cause why Algeria does not export a 

 great deal. Here. also, they have manure to 

 make the hives. The only time they visit the 

 bees is to take out the honey, which they put in 

 earthenware trays, and then press out the hon- 

 ey, simply by forming a ball out of the honey- 

 combs and squeezing it out as fast as possible. 

 Comb honey is nevei" ke]jt for sale. Some fine 

 comb may be had if oi'dered beforehand. The 

 wax is purified and brought to the market. In 

 the Kabyly Mountains are the Kabyles (a dif- 

 ferent race altogether from the Arabs, for they 

 are fair, and have a different language). They 

 are vei'y likely descendants of the Vandals, and 

 may even have been Christians before Moham- 

 medanism reigned here. The women of this 

 tribe have a cross tatooed on the forehead, some 

 also on the cheeks or chin — an old tradition 

 they have probably carried thi-ough for centu- 

 ries. These Kabyles are a good deal more in- , 

 dustrious than the Arabs: have divers arts, as 

 soap-making, pottery, and others. They live in 

 stone houses in their wild mountains. Their 

 women are unveiled, and they have a kind of 

 shoes or boots made of cloth, resembling very 

 much the old Germanic warrior's or Roman's 

 foot clothing. They move their bees, too, to 

 bett<'r regions when they find a good place of 

 pasturage. Their land is better cultivated than 

 the Arabs', and they raise a good 7nany olive 

 and fig trees. They are as fanatic Mohamme- 

 dans as the Arabs, and in 1871 they w(>re tiie 

 fiercest I'ioters against the French, massacring 

 all Europeans they could get hokl of till the 

 regiments coming back from Prussian captivi- 

 ty immediately checked the insurrection. The 

 punishment has been very severe, but they 

 leai'iied to support the easy French yoke, and 

 are even glad to call themselves French as soon 

 as they are away from home. 



Ph. J. Baldenspehger. 



Algiers, Africa, Dec. 18. 



[Friend B., your legend about the little 

 swarm of bees (just 100) reminds me vividly of 

 my early days in queen-rearing. I had a great 

 number of little hives with three or four combs 

 three or four inches square. Well, when these 

 little nuclei got their hives full they would 

 swarm out; and SAvarms of bees, about as large 

 as a goose-egg, got to be such a common occur- 

 rence during the height of the honey-yield that 

 they were the sport of the neighborhood; and a 

 queen with perhaps a hundred bees was likely 

 to alight almost anywhere or on almost any- 

 body, so that it is quite likely that so much of 

 the legend was absolutely true.] 



Wisconsin, Ohio, and Illinois. We receive large 

 quantities from these States, and have always 

 received it in kegs or half-barrels, and some- 

 times in barrels, holding 500 lbs. For our mar- 

 ket we favor the use of kegs, half-barrels, or 

 even barrels, because these jiaekages find ready 

 sale, and our trade prefers them. Ucsidcs they 

 are less expensive, and cheaijer for tlie pi'oducer 

 than the tins. We can not advise the use of 

 them when there is absolutely nothing gained. 

 Honey in kegs, half-bari'els, or barrels, will sell 

 just us readily, and at as good a price, as when 

 packed in tins. The same may be said for 

 Southern honey. Kegs, half-barrels, and bar- 

 rels, are the packages our market demands for 

 extracted honey, with the exception of Califor- 

 nia. HiLDKETH Bugs. & Segelkex. 

 New York, Jan. 10. 



[Square cans miiM be used in California be- 

 cause the climate there will shrink the wooden 

 packages; in fact, kegs would be utterly useless 

 with them. We have always advocated the tin 

 cans for all sections of the country, but perhaps 

 there are good reasons why kegs should be used 

 instead in this part of the U. S. They are 

 easier' handled, and, in some cases, can be ship- 

 ped on a lower classification. While square 

 cans will not shrink they are liable to spring a 

 leak if the boxes in which they are put are too 

 roughly handled. Kegs are stronger, but they 

 also take more storage I'oom, and, worst of 

 all, they are very apt to give the honey a slight 

 taint of the wood, which clean tin cans never 

 do. In fact, the principal ivason why we have 

 abandoned the use of ban-els and kegs is, we 

 have so many times had a very fine article of 

 honey so tainted by the barrel as to make it 

 second or third quality. We should be glad to 

 have bee-keepers and other commission-houses 

 give us a little more light on this subject.] 



KEGS INSTEAD OF SQUARE CANS. 



AVHY A COMMISSION HOUSE PKEFEI! 

 MER. 



TIIE FOR- 



We note the discussion regarding the (50-lb. 

 can, and the use of the same for extracted hon- 

 ey. As a rule, they are used exclusively in Cal- 

 ifornia: and all the honey we i-eceive from 

 there is put up in these cans, two cans in a case. 

 This fact is generally known among the trade; 

 and when they order California honey they ex- 

 pect to get it in these cans. For basswood, 

 clover, and buckwheat honey, we have always 

 advocated and advised the use of kegs holding 

 about l.nO to 200 lbs., or half-barrels holding 

 about 300 to 3.")0 lbs. We believe these packages 

 q,re generally used in this State, Michigan, 



CLOSED-END AND HOFFMAN FRAMES. 



A WORD ON THE OTHER SIDE. 



Friend Root: — As closed-ends, thick top-bars, 

 and bni'r-combs seem to hold first place in the 

 bee-journals at present, I feel it my duty to add 

 a few words; fii-st, because I fear some articles 

 (written in good faith) are misleading; second, 

 with so much testimony on one side, and little 

 or nothing on the other, it may lead some to dis- 

 card their convenient, well-proportioned frame 

 for something they know little about. Of 

 course, one who has had experience in bee 

 culture will not be easily lead into changes; but 

 the beginner, who is reading, and being guided 

 by the teachings of the various bee-journals, 

 often makes changes which his means will hard- 

 ly allow. 



I have had six years' experience with closed- 

 end or one-half-closed-end frames (the original 

 Hoffman frame), and have worked them nearly 

 all out of the apiary. When 1 say six years, I 

 mean I used the Hoffman frame exclusively that 

 length of time. Exact spacing, by using a fixed 

 distance or closed end. will work nicely so long 

 as we take pains to have each frame in its orig- 

 inal place and position. But we want our 

 frames all interchangeable; and when we can 

 get every comb perfectly straight and true, then 

 we can use closed <'nds and be well pleased with 

 them. But in our experience, combs will differ. 

 We can not keep evei-y hive exactly level at all 

 times, and that of necessity throws our combs a 

 little out of true; and I find that many combs, 

 when changed from their original position, we 

 have to change the bee-space at the top to get 

 the right distance in the center of the brood- 

 nest. Now, it will often happen that our ends 



