GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. L 



brother-in-law of the late Miles Morton, at 

 Groton, N. Y. I spent a day and a half in 

 looking ovei plain sections and fences again. 

 There were a number of things we talked over, 

 but it seems there were some little matters 

 that we did not discuss as we intended to; the 

 following letter, therefore, will explain itself : 



^ Ileal- Fyiend: — After all, we forgot to sample that 

 bitter honey, and aKo forgot to look for the difference 

 between honey finished from drawn combs and foun- 

 dation. Fully a third of the honey you saw was built 

 on old combs, and not leveled at all. I put in .some 

 time, two j'ears ago, leveling Morton's " pitce boxes," 

 about 800 of ihem. J/r lot at the North .Star Apiary 

 had to go without it — no time. At the close of the 

 season you couldn't discover any difference, so we 

 voted it labor lost, and you couldn't tell which was 

 which on this year's honey. 



I have been getting out the wax from my cappings 

 to day, and found 00 U)s. of honey candied solid in the 

 bottom. What would you do? Well, here's what I 

 did. (The honey was full of cappings, of course. ) I 

 rigged up a double boiler, and ran a steam jet into the 

 outer one, which had water in it, and boiled the whole 

 mass until the wax melted, and have left it to cool. 

 How will it come out in the morning ? and will that 

 honey lose a little buckwheat (rich old buckwheat) 

 flavor? You guess, and I'll report. S. A. Niver. 



Groton, N. Y., Oct. lit. 



I will explain that we sent to Mr. Morton, 

 then living, and to Mr. W. L. Coggshall, half 

 a pound each of the new drawn foundation 

 with natural bases, wishing them to test it in 

 the buckwheat honey-flow. Without going 

 into details, I would state that the results of 

 these tests showed no particular advantage in 

 the use of drawn foundation over the ordinary. 

 Supers, both at Niver's and at Coggshall's, 

 were shown me that had been on hives for 

 four or five days, and in each case the ordinary 

 foundation kept about an even pace with the 

 drawn. I can account for this result only on 

 the ground that common foundation has a 

 great deal of surplus wax in the wall, and this 

 the bees evidently consider as so much ready 

 capital to work into cell walls. The other, 

 the drawn, of course, had walls drawn out 

 about I'i inch deep, but they were nearly as 

 thin as natural ; and when the bees began 

 work upon them there was no surplus material 

 to draw, so that, in working drawn foundation, 

 they have to utilize their own wax, which, 

 taking time, offset the advantage in having 

 cells partially completed. 



These tests at the apiaries of Morton and 

 Coggshall have been confirmed by reports 

 from bee-keepers in other portions of the 

 country; and notwithstanding the fact that 

 we have put a large sum of money into dies 

 for the manufacture of this product, we feel 

 that the truth must come out, even if it does, 

 apparently, as I think it does, put the article 

 about which we entertained such high hopes 

 on the shelf. Mr. Weed and ourselves went 

 at it in good faith; but, as I stated in advance, 

 if it did not prove to be a success, we would 

 not try to push it on the market. We feel 

 that we could overcome the difficulties of 

 manufacture; but if the bees show no particu- 

 lar liking for it over common foundation, 

 then that settles its fate. Requiescat in pace. 



But in all this experimenting we have learn- 

 ed a good many valuable kinks, and these we 

 hope to incorporate into the foundation of the 

 future. Mr. We.d is at work on a new set of 

 dies, for which we have even greater hopes 



than we had for the drawn foundation ; and 

 with these dies we propose to make a sort of 

 combination of common and drawn founda- 

 tion that will eliminate the objections to both, 

 and be very much superior to either. 



Referring to the drawn comb leveled down 

 and not leveled, Mr. Niver said nothing about 

 that whatever. I had always supposed that 

 the leveling down a la Taylor did awa)' with 

 thickened and soiled edges on the top of the 

 cells, and that the bees, therefore, were com- 

 pelled to make clean new edges or practically 

 clean new comb. I should like to get the 

 testimony of others on this point. For pity's 

 sake, let us do no work that is unnecessary. 



With regard to the wax in the honey, my 

 opinion is that Mr. Niver took just the right 

 course in separating the two. If the honey 

 had been white clover it would be darkened 

 somewhat by the process, and the flavor would 

 be a little impaired thereby; but inasmuch as 

 it was only buckwheat, there would be no 

 impairment, either in the way of color or 

 flavor — at least, not enough to be noticeable. 

 Now that I have put in my guess, we await 

 your report. 



FENCE .SEPARATORS; VENTILATION: TAYLOR'S 

 CRITICISMS. 



In the last Revieiv Mr. Taylor, referring to 

 the article by J. A. Golden, pages 689, 690, 

 especially to the illustration, says: 



I am not going to call in question the claim that the 

 kind of separator makes a difference in the color of 

 the cappings of comb honey. That may or may not 

 be a fact. What I wish to prote.st against is the sort 

 of evidence u-ed in the effort to establish the fact. 



I do not find anywhere that Mr. Golden set 

 up the claim that the fence was the cause of 

 the whiter honey in 1 and 2, as against the 

 dark honey produced in old-style sections 

 and separators shown in 3. On the other 

 hand he says, " I have my own idea as to the 

 cause of so much difference in color, but I 

 want to read the opinions of our learned api- 

 arists — yes, and a footnote also, Mr. Editor; 

 then I will be honest in writing my opinion as 

 to the reason above referred to." Mr. Taylor 

 will observe that Mr. Golden reserved his 

 opinion. Then if he had quoted the whole of 

 the statement in my footnote, instead of a 

 part of it, he would not have made it appear 

 that I too was setting up the claim that the 

 fence was the cause of the whiter honey shown 

 in engraving. Referring to the color of the 

 three tiers of sections, I did say this: "I 

 should imagine the difference would be so 

 slight as to be almost inappreciable to the eye. ' ' 



This is not the first time that Mr. Taylor's 

 prejudice makes him fall into the error - — just 

 the one he condemns in Doolittle on the next 

 page — of misquoting his opponent in discus- 

 sion; or, perhaps, more correctly, making him 

 say more than he actually does by quoting 

 him in part and making that part stand for 

 the whole; or, to put it another way, set up a 

 man of straw, and deliberately knock it over — 

 a very common and easy trick on the part of 

 men of less mental caliber than Mr. Taylor. 



As to my opinion that the fence gives freer 

 ventilation, and, consequently, better ripen- 

 ing of the honey, Mr. Taylor asks, " Would 



