1897 



GLEANINGS IN JBEE CULTURE. 



485 



honey, cover np its identity, and who will name 

 it either " pure maple syrup '' from Vermont or 

 Ohio, or "pure farm honey," etc. Ifglucosois 

 to be ranl<ed as an honest product in the sense 

 that honey, flour, and meat are, why do we 

 never .see it advertised in the general run of 

 papers? In common market quotations it is 

 never mentioned Is not this fact alone enough 

 to convince any one that this stuflf goes direct- 

 ly from the factories into the vats of those who 

 mi.x it with the product of honest labor to rob 

 the farmer to just the same extent they enrich 

 themselves? Did you ever hear a grocer rec- 

 ommend an article because it contained glu- 

 cose? Does he not always carefully conceal 

 that fact if he can? It signifies nothing to say 

 that it is a legitimate article of commerce. So 

 are whisky and opium, but surely in this case 

 the altar does not sanctify the gift. 



I have been told that glucose has been used 

 to preserve dead bodies: that, when immersed 

 in the " vile stilfF," said bodies will keep indefi- 

 nitely. There are other "vile stuffs," such as 

 alcohol, etc., that have the same property. 

 But alcohol has a few legitimate uses; but glu- 

 cose, beyond the possible one mentioned, is used 

 first, last, and all the time for cheating and de- 

 frauding, unless when it is used for making 

 beer or spirituous liquors. 



I will grant that the sugar of glucose is chem- 

 ically identical with the saccharine matter of 

 honey. Chemically the diamonds in the Brit- 

 ish crown are identical in substance with char- 

 coal.— Ed.] 



BEE BTJZZINGS. 



EXTRACTING. 

 By E. E. Schaeffle. 



I prefer to take off honey very early in the 

 morning. Over night the honey has all been 

 evaporated, and there is then no thin honey re- 

 quiring after-evaporation, or souring for the 

 want of it; the bees are not flying, and so do 

 not become excited. During the day the combs 

 are all extracted, and returned late in the eve- 

 ning, thus preventing robbing as the combs are 

 all cleaned up over night, and do not attract 

 the robbers on the following day. As a rule I 

 leave an unfinished comb in the super for the 

 bees to store in during the day's absence of the 

 other combs. 



EXTRACTOR. 



I use a Cowan, and should like it still better 

 if there were a groove in the bottom, where the 

 gate enters the can, so that all of the honey 

 would drain out with the can standing level. 

 Frequently a black mixture of iron and honey 

 oozes out of the bottom bearing, and is a nui- 

 sance to scoop out of the honey. This, I think, 

 could be remedied by reversing the position of 

 the bottom pin and bearing, and using ba'l bear- 

 ings placed above the honey. As the extractor 

 is now built, if five gallons is allowed to accu- 

 mulate, the honey works into and the iron out 

 of the bearing, and trouble follows. It is not 

 possible to oil the lower bearing; but with ball 

 bearings this would not be required. The ma- 

 chine would run far easier, and, with a more 

 rapid gear, make extracting less laborious. 



With the present slow gear the operator must, 

 if the honey is as heavy as that which I am ex- 

 tracting, run at his utmost speed. I do not find 

 it necessary to evaporate my honey after ex- 

 tracting, as I allow the bees to do that for me. 

 While I may not secure quite as large a crop in 

 consequence, I am satisfied it is enough better 

 to offset the loss. I find a light block and tackle 

 a great convenience in extracting. With it I 

 can pick up the extractor, when full, place it 

 on a table, strain out the honey, and drop the 

 extractor back on to the floor, without any spe- 

 cial effort. 



FEEDING. 



In a recent number of Gleanings a subscrib- 

 er advised the use of honey only in feeding. 

 Recently there has been a pure-food crusade in 

 San Francisco. One of the city's leading gro- 

 cers was arrested, fined, and greatly injured in 

 trade by an analysis showing the honey he 

 sold to contain a small per cent of cane sugar. 

 Now, this grocer, to be s.ure of the purity of 

 the honey he sold, bought direct from an apia- 

 ry whose owner guaranteed the purity of the 

 honey under a penalty of $150; but the chem- 

 ist said "cane sugar," and the grocer suffered; 

 the bee-keeper lost a good customer (yours tru- 

 ly got him). I feed only pure honey, and fear 

 no honest analysis. 



It is evident that the bee-keeper had fed 

 sugar syrup in the fall or spring feeding, and 

 the bees, when crowded, had extracted a por- 

 tion of it to make room for the queen, and car- 

 ried it up into the super, where it was thrown 

 out with the other honey, and while the per 

 cent must have been exceedingly small, the 

 chemist found it in his test, and the fines and 

 losses followed. 



HONEY yield. 



February, March, and a portion of April was 

 an almost continuous shower, with an unusual 

 amount of bloom in April, and one of the best 

 spring flows that the State has ever produced. 

 Since then it has turned hot and dry, with the 

 result that reports from all parts of the State 

 agree that the flowers are withered and gone, 

 and the remainder of the season will be very 

 light, and In some sections feeding will be re- 

 quired to carry the bees over to the fall flow. 

 This in most sections is barely suflHcient to fur- 

 nish the bees with a good supply of winter 

 stores. With me it varies. Some seasons my 

 fall flow is better thau that of the spring; as a 

 rule, however, it is only fair. 



PRICES. 



The dealers write me that I must be mistak- 

 en about the yield, as the bee-men, jobbers, and 

 country storekeepers are all trying to force 

 their honey on to them in large amounts. This, 

 I think, is the result of the past short seasons. 

 The bee-keeper is hard up, and hastens to real- 

 ize, fearing a drop in price, with the result that 

 the price is forced down, notwithstanding the 



