1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



643 



and rise to the surface. We have repeated this 

 operation with sulphuric acid on several lots of 

 very dirty cakes of wax. many of tlietn .almost 

 perfectly black; and each time we had. as a 

 result, several nice yellow cakes of wax, and a 

 small pile of black organic matter that had 

 been freed by the acid. We followed the pro- 

 portions given us by friend Salisbury in a re- 

 cent article; viz., about a pound of commercial 

 sulphuric acid to about a quarter of a barrel of 

 water. Into this we introduced a steam-pipe, 

 and then tilled up the receptacle with the wax 

 accumulations, or dark cakes of wax which we 

 desired to lighten up. Sulphuric acid mixed in 

 water in the proportions given will not make a 

 solution strong enougii to be corrosive to the 

 hand, nor dangerous to the bees after it has 

 been re-melted and worked over into founda- 

 tion. We exi)ect to render all our dark wax 

 into nice yellow cakes, so that it may all be of 

 good color and ready for use this fall, or for next 

 season's trade. 



HIGH PRICES FOK (iAKDEN PRODUCE, AND 

 VICE VERSA. 



After reading the proof of what I have 

 said in another column, about taking all we 

 can get for the stuff we raise, I fear it did not 

 convey just the meaning I wish. Let me give 

 another side to it. I iiuiy, perhaps, have a 

 thousand bushels of potatoes from less than 

 three acres of my little ten-acre farm. At pres- 

 ent we are getting 80 cents a bushel; but the 

 prospect is that the price will go down very 

 much. I might dig them in haste and market 

 them in haste, and perhaps get a good deal of 

 money for them. But it is not the money I am 

 after. I am going to enjoy selling them at the 

 market i)rice. If they go down to 25 cents a 

 bushel, I hope — yes, I believe — I shall enjoy just 

 as much giving our customers great beautiful 

 Puritan potatoes for 35 cents a bushel as I do 

 now in getting 80 cents. Then why not dig 

 them and sell them for 25 cents a bushel now ■■' 

 Because, dear friends, it would be doing a 

 great wrong to a large class of people. I should 

 break the price down prematurely, and justly 

 incur the ill will of farmers and evei'ybody else 

 who have potatoes to sell. We inquire every 

 day what potatoes are selling for at the gro- 

 ceries, so as to avoid breaking down iJiices. At 

 the same time, we want to be prompt in com- 

 ing down just as fast as t/ici/ come down. I 

 want to be fair, honoi'able, and just with all 

 my neighbors, and I am happy in it, and enjoy 

 doing it. The amount of money that comes into 

 my pocket ought to be. and I ho|)e is, a second- 

 ary consideration. I do esp(^cially enjoy see- 

 ing consumers get nice products at a low price 

 — that is, when the crop genrrally is so large 

 that a low price is the right and proper price. 

 Now. then, hurrah for the big Puritans! 



MY •' POSV-GARDEN " THE FIRST OF AUGUST. 



May be some of you have thought that I 

 don't care for a po.s'i/- garden, but I tell you I 

 do. It is just across the street from the office. 

 It is part of that hotbed that is wai'med by 

 steam in winter. It was so conspicuous right on 

 the street, you know, that it seemed too bad to 

 have the beds vacant, even in summer. We 

 were fixing tlie ground for strawberry-sets. It 

 wa5 made fine and mellow, and very rich, and 

 tlien covered half an inch with lake sand 

 smoothed down as level as a floor. This lake 

 sand looked so pretty and clean that I told the 

 boys we must have some flowers. Perhaps it 

 was first suggested by the spider-plants that 

 came up quite thickly. We were so careless as 

 to let them get killed by the frost, liowever, two 

 or three times, but now they are doing finely. 

 But the floweis that please us so much are 



from the portulacas growing right in this white 

 sand. The green foliage contrasts very pretti- 

 ly with the sand; and evei'y forenoon the many- 

 colored blossoms are to me startlingly beautiful. 

 I gaze at the passersby, and look at the boys, 

 and wonder how they can be unmoved by such 

 entrancing beauty. Then another thing that 

 makes portulacas attractive to me is, that the 

 bees so delight in hovering about them, and 

 crawling down into the blossoms before they 

 are yet quite opened; and how they scramble 

 to get out when they have rifled the blossom of 

 its store of nectar! Then they dance about the 

 expanded blossoms as if they too were en- 

 chanted by the brilliant hues. A great manv 

 times, when I admire beautiful flowers in the 

 florists' windows, and hear the prices, it gives 

 me a feeling of pain. I confess I do not greatly 

 enjoy high-priced flowers, especially when thev 

 go away up into the dollars. Well. now. my 

 portulaca - bed was the product of only a 

 small part of a five-cent paper of mixed portu- 

 laca seeds. Why, if the whole wide world could 

 see that bed, just as it looks to me now out of 

 the window, it seems to me that such a bed 

 would spring up straightway in front of almost 

 every home. It is worth more than it costs, 

 just to show the children, while you teach them 

 and lead them to think of the great God over 

 all, who planned and fashioned the flowers for 

 no other purpose than to please his children 

 wh(jm he loves. 



gPECI^Ii ]^0WICEg. 



EARLY-ORDER DISCOUNT. 



We begin now to offer ^% discount on all goods of 

 our mill lu facta re found on pages 10 to 27 of our price 

 list, ordered tor use next season. Tiiis discount ap- 

 plies on all orders f(jr such goods during tlie months 

 of August. Septeml)er, October, and November, 

 when tlie discount is claimed. 



BEESWAX DECLINING. 



Tlie market on beeswax sliows a downward tenden- 

 cy, and tliere is always less demand at this time of 

 year than in the spring. We will pay, till further 

 notice, 26 cts., cash, 28 trade, for average wax de- 

 livered here. Our selling price will he 31 cts. for 

 average, 35 for select yellow. We will make no 

 change in price of coral) foundation, liecause our 

 early-order discount of 5 ])er cent begins this month, 

 which more than compensates for the drop in wax. 



CKATING COMB HONEY FOR SHIPMENT. 



Comb honey in sections, put up in suitable, shape 

 for market, Is put into light cases, usually called 

 shipping cases, or crates. These vary in size from 

 13 to 48 Ihs., and usually tliey have lieen sent to mar- 

 ket without any further protection. This may do 

 veiy well in full carloads, where it is not ti'ansferred; 

 but it is not safe to ship such cases in less than car- 

 load lots without additional protection. Your lioiiey 

 will reach the market in so much l:)etter shape that 

 it will paj' you several times over for the extra care 

 in preparing it for shipment. The plan of crating 

 has been given once or twice, but it will bear repeat- 

 ing at tills season when you are about to ship your 

 honey to niarki't. 



Make a rough crate that will hold a pile of cases 

 weighing 1.50 to 200 Ihs. Let one piece on each side 

 project at each end so as to form handles to carry it 

 by. Make the bottom solid; and, before putting in 

 the cases of honey, spread in two or three inches 

 deep of straw oi- tiay, to break the jai- if the crate 

 should be dropped. The crate should be made of 

 such a size as to hold a certain number of cases 

 snugly; and it should be covered over the top, and 

 pretty well covered on the glassed sides, so the 

 glass need not be broken. If your lioney is in 24-lb. 

 cases, put either two or three piles three' ca.ses high 

 in a crate, and double the number of 12 lb. cases 

 can be put into the same-sized crates. If any prefer 

 to buy crates rather than make tliem, we will fur- 

 nish them in flat, right size for nine 24 lb. cases, or 

 eighteen 12-lb. cases, at 50c each; $4.00 for 10. 



