604 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15. 



hay. The frequent rains have made sv.'cct clo- 

 ver do better than usual, and have caused red 

 clover (or peavine) to put forth its best efforts 

 in honey secretion. While the bees have not 

 made much of an attempt to store surplus 

 since about the middle of July, they have held 

 their own and a little more. It begins to look 

 now as if we should not have to use extract- 

 ing-combs containing sealed honey that has 

 been set aside for wintering purposes. If the 

 fall flow shall amount to any thing, very little 

 feeding will be necessary. All of this, if gen- 

 eral, looks toward prosperity for the bee-keep- 

 er. During a number of the previous seasons, 

 the clovers ( especially the white ) have been 

 killed out root and branch by the drouth. 

 This year, clovers of ever}- description are well 

 rooted, and we may well hope, at lea.st, for a 

 good clover crop next year. 



BIG COLONIES, AGAIN. 



I H.WE said a good deal in our late issues 

 in regard to the value of powerful colonies; 

 and, as I have said before, I reiterate; I ex- 

 pect to say a good deal more about it. It is 

 one of those things that will bear repetition; 

 for I believe it is going to take a good deal of 

 pounding to get tl:e fact thoroughly into the 

 heads of bee-keepers. Well, here goes for 

 round No. — let's see — somewhere about seven 

 or eight — call it eight — for I am sure I have 

 harped on this question at least eight times. 



I have noticed that a two-story eight-frame 

 Langstroth colony, run for extracted, is just 

 the sort of colony we need for producing comb 

 honey. Take off the upper story with all its 

 extracting-combs, that the bees have begun 

 storing in, and place in its stead one super 

 containing full sheets of foundation, and, my! 

 how the bees go to work! If the colony is 

 ver\" populous it may be wase to put on two 

 supers. I am not sure, but I am inclined to 

 believe that a good way to start bees to stor- 

 ing honey in supers is to give theiu extracting- 

 combs; and if the season is a good one. take 

 the super away and give them supers prepared 

 for comb honey. But the plan won't work a 

 little bit unless the hive is fairly " biling " 

 over with bees. The super that has been re- 

 moved may be given to an extracting-colony 

 to complete. 



JOSEPH NYSEWANDER. 



Wk have with us to-day Mr. Joseph Nyse- 

 wander. of Des Moines, Iowa, who is almost 

 too well known to need any introduction here. 

 Originally he was an obscure bee-keeper in 

 New Carlisle, Ohio. . 



I remember very distinctly of our receiving 

 a letter from Mr. Nysewander, at that point, 

 offering his services as stenographer and type- 

 writer operator, adding that he was using a 

 caligraph. As we had no stenographer at 

 that time he was engaged, and worked for vis 

 a time. He finally left us, and struck out for 

 himself, buying supplies and doing some man- 

 ufacturing. He shortly discontinued manu- 

 facturing, as he early discovered that the 

 large factories could not only make supplies 

 for him cheaper, but l)etter goods as well. 



Soon after, we began sending him supplies bj- 

 the carload, for I believe he was o;ie of the 

 ver}- first who bought goods of us in a whole- 

 sale way, and he has ever since been getting 

 his stuff by the carload. During the past 

 year he has already purchased of us thirteen 

 carloads of goods, besides numerous small 

 shipments. 



He is a young hustling business man ; and 

 the rapid strides that he has made in the bee- 

 supply line is no small credit to his enterprise 

 and pluck. He is now on his return trip to 

 Des Moines, having been to visit his father, 

 who is very sick, and who even now is not 

 out of danger. 



A TWELVE-MILLION-DOLLAR GLUCOSE TRUST 

 AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE. 



In our issue for July 1st I stated that it had 

 been reported that the glucose-factories of the 

 United States had formed a trust aggregating 

 two millions of dollars, and added that I hop- 

 ed this trust would put the price on the stuff 

 up so high that it will not pay to use it in hon- 

 ey. Another item now appears in the daily 

 press, to the effect that another glucose com- 

 bine has been foryned, aggregating something 

 like tiL'etve mittioiis! If this is true, it goes to 

 show that there mustbe an enormous demand 

 for an article that is used, if I am correct, en- 

 tirely for the purjTOses of adulteration. 



By the way, it was somewhat of a query in 

 my mind a'//i' this particular trust should be 

 formed at this particular time. Then it oc- 

 curred to me that it might be the tariff. In 

 looking over the Dingley act I find glucose 

 has a tariff of 1 Ji cts. per lb., the old rate be- 

 ing 1") per cent ad valorem. The new duty is 

 heavy enough to shut out foreign competition; 

 and now an enormous trust has been fonued, it 

 ought to be possible for it to run the price up to 

 where I hope it won't pay to use it in honey. 

 Let it go up. Honey has been coming down in 

 price ; and if it is true that glucose will be go- 

 ing up, all the better for the bee-keepers. It 

 is when honey goes up and glucose dozen that 

 the adulteration of honey is on the increase. 



It is also reported that injunction proceed- 

 ings \\\\\ be begun against the formation of 

 this big trust, under the anti-trust law. I 

 don't know, but somehow I hope the injunc- 

 tion will be dissolved, and that the trust will 

 shove the price up. 



REPORTS IN REG.AlRD TO DRAWN FOUNDATION. 

 \'ERV vmfortunately the new dies were com- 

 pleted too late to get samples all over the 

 country in time for the honey-flow. In the 

 great majority of instances the honey-flow 

 was either waning or had stopped at the time 

 the drawn foundation was received, and the 

 results were, therefore, somewhat negative 

 in some instances. A lot we sent to Mr. 

 F. A. Salisbury reached him just about the 

 time the honey season was stopping. After 

 putting the drawn foundation and full .sheets 

 of ordinary foundation in the same super on 

 the hive, he wrote us, July 17, "Honey for 

 the la.st few days has not been brought in as 

 a short time before." . . . "The founda- 



