801 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1. 



^5:DlTORIAC 



THE LEWIS CO.'S EXHIBIT AT OMAHA. 



Elsewhere we show the G. B. Lewis Co.'s 

 exhibit in the Omaha apicultural building. 

 This exhibit was one of the largest ( if not the 

 largest) displays of any of the supply manu- 

 facturers. It is oblong, and faces the main 

 aisle going through the building. 



The G. B. Lewis Co. have the reputation of 

 making a very nice line of goods. They are 

 prompt, reliable, and enjoy a very large trade 

 with bee-keepers, particularly in the West. 

 They are the pioneers in the manufacture of 

 the one-piece section with V grooves, and 

 have put thousands of dollars into special au- 

 tomatic machinery for making this line of 

 goods. We have found them to be honest and 

 fair competitors — certainly pleasant people 

 for us to deal with. We wish ihem prosperity 

 and a big trade next season. 



A NEW WAY OF FACING. 



I HAVE just been looking over a lot of hon- 

 ey that recently came in. At first I thought 

 it was comb honey in plain sections ; but on 

 closer inspection I noticed that the edges of 

 the sections had been split or whittled, mak- 

 ing a no-bee-way-faced section. Opening a 

 case I saw that the bee-keeper had actually 

 cut away the bee-ways, or, rather, the tops 

 and edges, of the sections whose faces were 

 next to the glass. This brought the comb up 

 close, giving it the effect of honey in plain 

 sections. 



I do not go into the ethics of this sort of 

 facing; but it is sufficient to note that the bee- 

 keeper who put the honey up thought that 

 honey in plain sections would show off better 

 than in the bee-way kind, so he resorted to 

 the method of facing above explained. It 

 certainl}' does add to the appearance of the 

 honey, to my notion. 



THAT BULL-FIGHT, AGAIN. 



I HEARD indirectly from Harry S. Howe, 

 Coggshall's "lightning operator," that, while 

 the bull episode, represented on page 764, in 

 our previous issue, was a funny kind of lark, 

 it really lacked but little of being a tragedy. 

 Mr. Coggshall told me that he did not care to 

 reproduce the scenes again for the amusement 

 of his brother bee-keepers. 



It seems there were two "bull-fights;" but 

 the first time he went through the experience 

 he says he was literally almost "scared to 

 death," and for days afterward he scarcely 

 recovered from his fright. When the bull 

 came at him the first time out in the middle of 

 the lot he realized that he was entirely alone, 

 and a long way from any house. When that 

 pair of gleaming eyes came nearer, and when 

 that woolly head gave forth a mighty roar, he 

 thought his end had come. But as he hitched 

 along by degrees (for he said he knew it would 

 never do to run) he spied his apiary, and then 



a gleam of hope came. He does not know 

 exactly how he got near one of those hives ; 

 but he says when he got where he could give 

 one of his "professional kicks " he knew the 

 battle was his. He " pressed the button " and 

 the bees " did the rest." 



TOO BLACK AN EYE ; DRAWN FOUNDATION. 



Mr. Weed, who has just looked over what 

 I wrote regarding drawn foundation, in an ed- 

 itorial in another column, and which is now 

 on the press, thinks I have given the article 

 too black an eye. He calls my attention to 

 the fact that L. Stachelhausen, in our July 15th 

 number, says he experimented with the same 

 foundation, and found that the bees entered it 

 much sooner than they did the old style — that 

 a good deal depends upon the time of year. 

 In the earlier part of the season the bees show 

 a decided preference for the drawn article ; 

 but later this difference may be less marked, 

 as is noted in the experiments of Coggshall 

 and Niver elsewhere. 



The drawn foundation that I referred to, 

 and which was tested by Niver and Coggshall, 

 had cell walls only Y^ inch deep. If the walls 

 had been >^ inch deep, or V) the results would 

 have been very different. The bees would 

 then have had plenty of surplus capital to 

 work on ; at any rate, last season and this, 

 where deep walls ( % inch or more) were used, 

 the bees evinced a marked preference for the 

 new article. Of course, there are certain ob- 

 jections to deep-cell ; namely, the cost of 

 transportation, on account of its great bulk, 

 and also that other bugaboo, advanced by a 

 few, that it looked too much like artificial 

 comb, and therefore would give rise to the'^r- 

 tificial-comb story. 



where GLEANINGS CIRCULATES. 



In going over our subscription-list, it occurs 

 to us that our readers may be interested in 

 knowing the extent of the circulation of 

 Gleanings. Here at home we have readers 

 in every State and Territory. Just over in the 

 Queen's possessions. Gleanings visits many 

 homes in six provinces from Nova Scotia to 

 British Columbia. To the south it goes to 

 Mexico and Central America; in South Amer- 

 ica, to four countries. Between these coun- 

 tries we have a large number of readers in the 

 different islands of the West Indies. Crossing 

 the Atlantic, in Europe alone Gleanings 

 goes to nineteen different countries, and has a 

 number of readers in South Africa. Via the 

 trans-Pacific mails it is hurried to China, Japan, 

 India, Siam, Australia, New Zealand, Tas- 

 mania, Hawaii, and other islands. 



When our friends in Norway and Sweden 

 are reading this their bees are likely in winter 

 quarters, while those in South Africa, South 

 America, and Australia are no doubt in the 

 midst of their honey harvest. 



EFFECT OF CUBAN HONEY ON THE HONEY- 

 MARKETS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



When I visited Mr. Coggshall he expressed 

 some fears that Cuban and Porto Rican honey 

 could now, under the new order of things, be 



