GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1. 



stored in a dry room. Just before the honey is 

 put into them, the hoops are driven down solid- 

 ly. Mr. France assured me that they never 

 had any trouble from leaky barrels.— Ed. J 



Twenty five cents used to buy a corn- 

 husker. Now the best machine for that pur- 

 pose costs several hundred dollars. But think 

 of the work it does! It takes the corn— stalks, 

 ears, and all— as fast as two men can feed it, 

 husks out the ears, and loads them on a wagon, 

 then tears the leaves and stalks all to shreds, 

 and carries them upstairs into the barn. And 

 It never grumbles because there's no pie for 

 dinner. 



A MISTAKE occurs In that first recipe on p. 23. 

 Instead of 3 lbs. it should be 10 lbs. lard. [Mrs. 

 ''Barney" made some most excellent honey- 

 jumbles from the recipe given in Gleanings. 

 lam rather of the opinion that the jumbles 

 will be just as good with less lard— certainly 

 much more wholesome. You know lard, or at 

 least the excessive use of it, in cookery, is ta- 

 booed now by nearly all the medical fraternity. 

 -Ed.] 



HONEY-.JXJMBLES. For the benefit of those 

 who may want to try them on a smaller scale 

 than that given p. 23, here's the recipe: 2 lbs. 

 flour, \% oz. lard, l>i lb. honey, 6 oz. molasses, 

 X oz. soda, J oz. salt, 1 gill water, ^i teaspoon 

 vanilla extract. \lx, would be a good idea for 

 you, doctor, to put all three of these honey- 

 jumble recipes in your honey leaflet, then the 

 family can pick out the size that will best suit 

 its requirements. — Ed.1 



Ontario bee keepers at their convention 

 raised the question of government's "compell- 

 ing bee-keepers to put upon the market well- 

 ripened honey." I don't like that sort of com- 

 pulsion. If I've only enough honey for ray own 

 family I don't want to be compelled to put it 

 on the market just because it's well ripeaed. 

 But if it means I sha'n't sell uuripe honey, 

 that's all right. Why not a law against unripe 

 honey just as much as against " unripe " veal ? 

 Failing to find any thing else to fight with 

 you about, Mr. Editor, I arise to continue the 

 quarrel as to the time for development of a 

 queen. Seventeen days is an old belief, and it 

 is known that it is not now true and never was 

 true. Fifteen days is found to be the truth 

 under normal conditions, and is so put down in 

 such reliable books as Cowan's. Now, what 

 business have you tostrike an average between 

 that error and that truth, and then say 16 days 

 is about right ? [I just won't fight at all — sim- 

 ply give up.— Ed. J 



R. F. Holtermann, of the Canadian Bee 

 Journal, is stirring up things by trying to get 

 Canadian honey on the British market — 

 shrewdly giving members of the Ontario Asso- 

 ciation some advantage — and by getting a 

 meeting of honey-vinegar makers and consum- 



ers at the Toronto convention. [If Mr. Holter- 

 mann does not " look a little out "he will be 

 stirring up the wrath of his British cousins. 

 They do not take kindly to the importation of 

 foreign honey into their market. What excites 

 their indignation particularly is that the in- 

 ferior grades of foreign honey have been sent 

 to England and palmed off as English; but I 

 presume the goods that Mr. Holtermann had 

 in mind were first quality; but by a letter I 

 have received from an eminent bee-keeper in 

 England, it seems to be apparent that little if 

 any thing, from a money standpoint, will be 

 gained by the experiment. — Ed.] 



Wisconsin reports for 1896 1,800,000 pounds 

 of honey, and 20,000 pounds of beeswax. [These 

 figures seem tremendously large, but they are 

 within the range of possibility, for Wisconsin 

 is certainly one of the very best honey-produc- 

 ing States in the Union. If every State aver- 

 aged as well as this, then the total amount of 

 honey would be 86,400,000 lbs.; but according to 

 estimate made last fall (see Oct. 1st Glean- 

 ings), on the number of sections sold in the 

 country, 50,000,000 (for both comb and extract- 

 ed) would be a nearer figure. If this is correct, 

 then Wisconsin produces l^^j more honey than 

 the average of the States. Indeed, there is no 

 doubt there are single counties in Wisconsin 

 that produce more honey than some whole 

 States. But Wisconsin probably does not pro- 

 duce the largest amount of honey. California, 

 by reason of its larger area, longer seasons, and 

 greater variety of honey-producing plants, 

 would run considerably in excess. I believe 

 that somewhere rough estimates have been 

 made as to the annual output for California, 

 but I can not now put my finger on them. 

 Granting it is in the lead. New York and Penn- 

 sylvania, and perhaps Illinois and Iowa, will 

 each hold its own alongside of Wisconsin. But 

 there are other States, such as Colorado and 

 Arizona, that are rapidly coming to the front.— 

 Ed.] 



Please, sir, Mr. Editor, what makes you box 

 my ears for things I never did ? On p. 7 you go 

 to arguing about "'sunken bottles" and things, 

 and I never said a word about them. Go for 

 Hutch. He's the " sunken bottle " man. Bless 

 your heart 1 I'm for thin sections just as much 

 as you, I suppose. What I'm fightng is the 

 thievish plan of selling light-weight sections 

 for full pounds. And I say if the grocer sells 

 them that way, why shouldn't he buy them 

 that way ? [It is true, doctor, you may not 

 have said any thing regarding the sunken- 

 bottle matter; but what I was "boxing your 

 ears" for was not that, but because you persist 

 in saying the plan of selling thin sections is 

 " thievish." I do not believe it is true that con- 

 sumers have the idea generally that such sec- 

 tions weigh a whole pound; but 10 cts. is a nice 

 even change; and if a section of honey is only 



