18".i2 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



859 



fear, may be done: Twenty or thirty ix-r cent 

 of glucose maybe added to honey, and fed to 

 bees: luit tli(> pure artieh^, ik-vim'. 



Aixain. tlie nasty Ihivor ol glneose is so cliai- 

 aetcristie. tliat we believe we oonld deteet tiie 

 smallest (|uantity of it in himey. cither eonib or 

 extracted. We believt' we would about as soon 

 rely on a carefully educated taste as on an 

 elaborate analysis, lioth together ought to be 

 accept^'d as good proof of the purity or impurity 

 of honey. 



We want to give, right here, fair warning 

 that those chaps who are adulterating with 

 glucose, or conu»mplate doing so. had better 

 go slow. In the lirst place, it is impracticable 

 — yes, impossible — to get pure glucose comb 

 honey. In the second place. 2.") or .W per cent 

 mixtures will tell their own tale. 



Ldtcr. — Since writing the above we have had 

 the pleasure of a visit from John II. Larrabee. 

 lately of the Michigan Apicultural Experiment 

 Station, at Lansing. In consequence of his 

 connection with llie station he has, of course, 

 made many experiments in apiculture : and 

 among tliem was feeding pure glucose and glu- 

 cose mixtures to bees. Ibc pure corn syrup, 

 the bees almost refused to take, although by 

 starving them to it he has got them to store in 

 a very few cells. Practically, then, his experi- 

 mentwould agree with ours mentioned above. 

 By putting from 2.5 to .50 per cent of glucose into 

 sugar syrup or honey he could get them to take 

 it.down. 



Mr. Larrabee will go back to Vermont, and 

 commence again on his own account the busi- 

 ness of honey production. He is a progressive 

 and intelligent bee-keeper: and although he is 

 not now conn(>cted with an experiment station. 

 we hope he will not entirely give up the field of 

 investigation. 



MORE ABOUT THOSE FUNICS; OXE REDEEMING 

 QUALITY. 



Some of our friends may be Interested in 

 knowing how those Funics are behaving of 

 lati'. We have been watching them narrowly 

 ever since our first reports. Regarding their 

 bad trails, we have nothing to take back, but. 

 on the contrary, we are sure that we did not 

 condemn them any too severely. But among 

 all their naughty habits it would be a little 

 singular if we did not discover at least some 

 partially redeeming quality. Well, we have 

 found o/ie. They are th(; best defenders of 

 thi'ir home against robbers, of any race of bees 

 we have ever known. Indeed, when the rob- 

 bers are the worst, we find we can pull the 

 cover off their hive and leave their combs ex- 

 posed for hours at a time; and although the 

 robbers will at first pounce on to them fiercely, 

 in a few minutes they begin to find they have 

 " got the wrong pig by tlie ears,"' and then th(iy 

 hover about more cautiously. Those " little 

 black devils," as one of the boys calls them, 

 will stand in military array along the edge of 

 the top-bars; and the first robber bee that 

 comes within smelling distance will be met, on 

 the wing, and perhaps jerked down heiwecui 

 the combs, and that is the last of Mr. Kobb(!r, 

 for two or three Funics will very soon tinish 

 him* up. Our experiments were made some- 

 what late in the season: but we believe it 

 would be safe to move the rover off at any lime 

 of the year, if the hive be well shaded. This 

 trait is a very desirable one; but at the same 

 time it is overbalanced by so many bad on<;s, 

 that, if all Funics are as naughty as ours (and 

 reports seem to show it), bee-keepers having 

 them will soon brimstone them. We might 

 add. in this connection, that this same skill in 



* We suppose we oug-ht to say her, l)ut her is too 

 effeminate liere.— E. R. 



def(uiding their home renders them terrific 

 roi)bers, for no ordinary bee is a match for a 

 Funic in a hand-to-hand combat. One time 

 last summer, when the bees got to robbing, we 

 notic(>d tliat there \\-ere two Funics l(j one Ital- 

 ian, helping themselves to tin' ill-gotten gains; 

 and this, notwithstanding there were L'OO times 

 as many of the yellow bees as of the black 

 in the apiary. Suppose the situation were re- 

 versed, and the honey-house door should be 

 left open — what then ? 



THE RURAL XEW-YORKER. 



After I liad given the Country Gentleman 

 such a comijliment as I did in the last issue, I 

 felt a little troui)led to think it might look as if 

 I intended to place it ahc^ad of the Rural New- 

 Yorker. Well, in some things I do think it per- 

 haps a littler better authority; but on the other 

 liand, the Rund has done a woik in testing 

 new things recommended to the farmer, and in 

 sifting out frauds, that no other agricultural 

 paper has done. In fact, our enterprising seeds- 

 men can hardly start an old thing under a new 

 name without" having th(^ Rural come after 

 them with a sharp stick in double-tjuick time. 

 There is som(d)ody back of the Rural Xew- 

 Yorker, with such a real honest energy and 

 vim that it tempts us to smile, even if he does, 

 in his vehemence, bear on a little too hard at 

 times. Long live the Rural I and. in fact, it 

 has lived long already, for I remember walking 

 two miles and a half to ray grandfather's, more 

 to look over the Rural than almost any thing 

 else when it was first started, about forty years 

 ago. Another thing, the Ruj-al is broad and 

 comprehensive. It takes in the topics of the 

 day, the new enterprises, and the general news. 

 It upholds godliness, and it sits down on tobac- 

 co and whisky with no uncertain sound. Even ' 

 if it is an agricultural paper, it makes it its 

 business to pitch in lively when our country de- 

 mands the help of all good men. Again, it was 

 one of the first to inaugurate the plan of getting 

 opinions of eminent men on all the serious ques- 

 tions of the day. Last, but not least, it has just 

 r<^duced the price to only 81.00 a year. If they 

 are going to keep it up to its standard, and keep 

 up its many and varied illustrations, as they 

 have done in years past, it will be almost ridic- 

 ulously cheap ; and no one need be afraid to 

 take it into the family circle and have every 

 one, from the smallest child up. look at its pic- 

 tures and read it all through. I said, a little 

 time ago, that it did not give place to advertise- 

 ments of patent medicines. It seems, however, 

 that it does accept certain kinds of advertise- 

 ments of this class. I do not think even this 

 best, but perhaps the Rural folks are right and 

 I am wrong. It is their own affair, any way. 

 A. I. R. 



THCSE IMPORTED QXTEENS. 



We have just been advised by our forward- 

 ing agents in New York that they received 

 breeder's certificate, and advices from Havre, 

 that crates of Italian bees were to arrive. They 

 notified us that the packages could not be found 

 on the manifest of the steamer when it came, 

 nor did they receive any notification from the 

 steamship company or United States customs 

 regarding the arrival of bees. The queens came, 

 however, and on investigation they and all the 

 bees were found to be absolutely dead from 

 fumigation on account of the quarantine i-egu- 

 lations for the prevention of the cholera epi- 

 demic then threatening to enter the port of 

 New York. We refused to receive them, of 

 course, and we suppose ere this they have been 

 burned. The case is a little peculiar. While 

 the breeder in Italy is supposed to deliver, or- 

 dinarily, queens to us in good order, it is hardly 



