598 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15. 



should wish to satisfy himself that feeding 

 back will not pay, he can get the best resuhs 

 by feeding the extracted honey right at the 

 close of the early white-honey harvest, so that 

 tlie bees are kept active. It is thought best 

 by some to take away all combs except those 

 which have brood in them, when preparing 

 tlie colony for feeding Ij.ick; but if all combs 

 are filled with sealed honey, except that which 

 the brood occupies, there is no advantage in 

 taking away the combs, that I can see. The 

 extracted honey should be thinned to a con- 

 sistency of raw nectar, by adding the neces- 

 sary amount of warm water, thinning only 

 the amount needed for one feeding at a time; 

 for if the thinned honey is allowed to stand 

 long in warm weather, it is quite liable to sour 

 and spoil. 



Then there is another item against feeding 

 back, which is that, from some reason or other, 

 this fed-back honey is far more likely to candy 

 or become hard in the comb than is that put 

 in the comb at the time it is gathered from the 

 field. When first taken from the hive it looks 

 very nice and attractive; but when cool weath- 

 er comes on in the fall it assumes a dull, un- 

 attractive appearance, thus showing that the 

 honey has hardened in the cells; while comb 

 honey produced in the ordinary way is still 

 liquid, and will keep so for from one to three 

 months after the fed-back article has become 

 almost unsalable. 



COMBS OF HONEY FOR NEXT SEASON. 



Question. — I have on mj' hives about 200 

 combs, very full of honey, which I wish to 

 use for next year's increase. I am at a loss to 

 know what to do, so ask if it would be advis- 

 able to throw the honey out with the extractor 

 and use the empty combs, or would it be best 

 to use the full combs of honey? I expect to 

 make my increase by natural swarming. 



Ans2uer. — If extracted hone}' brings a good 

 price in your market, and the honey in the 

 200 combs is of good quality, then my advice 

 would be to extract the honey and sell it; for 

 the old saying, "A bird in hand is worth two 

 in the bush," is generally correct. If, on the 

 other hand, extracted honey drags heavily, at 

 a price hardly above the cost of production, or 

 the honey in the combs is of a quality not lit 

 for market, then I would store the -combs of 

 honey away till spring (allowing the bees to 

 protect them till there was no danger of dam- 

 age from the larvoe of the wax moth), when I 

 would use the.se combs for building up colo- 

 nies in the spring, by exchanging them with 

 the colonies for combs that they might have 

 which were empty, or nearly so. In this way 

 you will get this honey converted into brood, 

 which brood, when hatched into bees, will 

 store for you large quantities of honey. If the 

 colonies in the spring had no need for this 

 honey, then I would use the combs of honey 

 something as you propose, hiving new swarms 

 on them. If the combs are only from one- 

 third to one-half full of honey, then 5'ou may 

 secure the best results by hiving your swarms 

 on the full number of frames and putting the 

 sections on at the time of hiving. But if com- 

 pletely full from bottom to top, it will be bet- 



ter to use only from four to six combs to the 

 hive when hiving the swarms; for, if given a 

 full hive of full combs of honey, the bees may 

 not carry much of the honey to the sections, 

 as they generally will do with the whole where 

 only a few are ussd. If the bees do not im- 

 mediately start to carrying the honey from 

 these full combs, the result will be little or no 

 honey in the sections, and little brood and 

 few b^es in the hive in the fall. But should 

 the honey in the 200 combs be of inferior 

 quality or of dark color, or both, then the only 

 thing to do wdth it is to extract, or use it for 

 spring feeding; for if such inferior honey is 

 given at swarming time, more or less of it wall 

 find its way into the sections, thus injuring 

 the sale of the honey, and giving yourself a 

 bad reputation. 



COMMISSION HOUSES ; THE ADVANTAGE OF 

 CO-OPERATION. 



The clipping inclosed is from the Denver 

 Field and Farm. It does not speak directly 

 upon the subject of bees, but I think it would 

 be a good thing for bee-keepers to take 

 example, as they have battles to fight in 

 marketing their produce, similar to those of 

 the farmer. O. W. Stewart. 



Las Cruces, N. M., July 26. 



CO-OPERATIVE MARKETING OF CROPS. 



When a crop is produced, but half of the battle 

 against all the evils of trade is won; and unless the 

 farmer finds a good market his labor is lost, and the 

 complaint is made that the farm does not pay. 

 There are many leak-holes between the harshest and 

 the market, by which the profits escape through care- 

 lessness; but the most important point, requiring 

 constant vigilance, is the fluctuating scale of supply 

 and demand. Many times the we.stern farmer and 

 stockraiser loses his entire shipment of potatoes or 

 sheep, and frequently receives a bill for freight, with 

 the stereotyped "please remit" stamped upon the 

 paper. 



There is no safety in relying upon the middle-men 

 or agents of commission houses, because they give no 

 guarantee of returns except such as the market as- 

 sures on day of sale. The local merchants are not 

 always justified in paying the value of produce, even 

 in goods, for the reasons that they have not the capi- 

 tal to invest nor facilities for watching the market. 

 Direct shipments can not be made to the market 

 centers except by train or carload lots, and then ex- 

 perienced dealers must accompany the produce in 

 order to realize the full benefits of all that the market 

 returns. Individual marketing has always proven 

 disastrous to the general farmer because 'of lack of 

 business tact and the small lots of produce he has to 

 offer. 



The only .solution of the question of realizing all 

 there is in'the prodiicts of the farm lies in the proper 

 practice of co-operative marketing. The Utah Mor- 

 mons have con.structed irrigation-ditches, built up 

 over three hundred towns, and conquered vast areas 

 of desert by co-operative exertions, fully demonstrat- 

 strating the fact that the principle is correct. In 

 citing "these facts Joel Shoemaker asks: Why not 

 adopt the methods u'sed in selling as well as in grow- 

 ing produce ? Twenty farmers could baud together 

 and practically control the community. Five of the 

 be.st qualified men acting as a board of directors could 

 employ one of their own number as a manager, and 



