1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



343 



this : Is there not as much or more money in 

 extracted at 6 than in comb at 10 cents? If 

 higher prices can be secured for both, the 

 relation will be the same.- — Ed.] 



" The sun is up," shouts lazy Drone ; 

 " Ye v orkers, take to wing. 

 And bring me lots of nectar fresh, 

 While 1 — sit here and s/>/g." 



ft 



PROGRESSIVE BEE-KEEPER. 

 A prize story, "Two Worlds," has been 

 commenced, written by Mrs. J. M. Null. I 

 am well pleased with it. The editor says 

 there were 17 contestants, and two-thirds of 

 them wrote with a lead-pencil. I can reallize 

 how Mr. Leahy felt about the pencils. Why 

 anybody will choose a pencil instead of a pen 

 for writing to an editor is more than I can 

 make out. Always use a pen, and a blunt 

 one, and write on good paper. Use ruled 

 paper, and don't run one line into another. 

 Be careful to make the end of a sentence plain, 

 ending with a period, and beginning the next 

 sentence with a capital letter. Then — get a 

 typewriter ! Mr. Leahy says four of the 

 stories were excellent, but were rejected on 

 account of bad spelling, grammatical slips, etc. 



ii/ 



BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



In regard to an tasy way of rendering wax, 

 Mr. A. C. Miller, ot Providence, R. I., says if 

 old combs are properly treated before mtlting, 

 the pollen and silk will not absorb the wax 

 nor produce the jelly-like gum referred to, 

 and much of the annoyance of reduction will 

 be avoided. The best method is to place the 

 combs in a strong solution of sulphuric acid 

 and cold water about a week before melting. 

 If the combs are well broken up, and occa- 

 sionally stirred in this solution, the acid will 

 decompose these troublesome substances, and 

 a large part of them will remain behind when 

 the crushed comb is removed to the mtlting- 

 pot. 



0) 



C. Davenport says a solar extractor should 

 have double glass, and be made tight. The 

 combs should he spread out, and not piled on 

 each other. He finds the wax is so completely 

 extracted in this way that any further attempt 

 to get out more by pressure is time wasted. 

 If the comb contains pollen, a pressure will 

 get from 20 to 50 per cent more wax. The 

 time required to treat old comb in a solar 

 extractor is so great as to make its use entirely 

 out of the question with Mr. Davenport, so he 

 has settled upon the old-fashioned method of 

 boiling as being the quickest and most effective 

 way of rendering old comb. By this method 

 he gets y & or more of the wax without the aid 



of a press. Before boiling he soaks the combs 

 ten days or two weeks in barrels, weighting 

 the wax down with stones. He puts the wax 

 into a sack before boiling, keeping it well 

 stirred with a stick. After the water boils it 

 requires but a short time for all the wax to 

 escape from the sack. The sack must not be 

 made of woven stuff, but of coarse knit cotton 

 stuff like that in a coarse knit heavy cotton 

 sock. 



v*/ 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 

 Daniel Whitmer reports a remarkable case 

 of the cure of rheumatism by means of stings. 

 He was attacked with sciatic rheumatism, 

 resulting in paralysis of the back, thighs, 

 kidneys, bladder, etc., and was forced under 

 the doctor's care, and confined to his room 

 for three months. One day in handling a 

 colony of bees he irritated them so that they 

 rushed out at him and stung them so as to 

 make him dance whether he believed in it or 

 not. In only 24 hours he was a well man so 

 far as rheumatism was concerned, numbness 

 all gone. He says it has returned three times 

 in 20 years, but it has subsided every time he 

 got out among his bees in the spring. 



\*< 



Touching the union of the " Association " 

 and the " Union," Mr. York well says, " The 

 door is open for the Union to come into the 

 Association whenever it decides to cast in its 

 lot." That's it. One of the associations 

 must simply cease to exist, and its members 

 be incorporated in the other. Those who are 

 trying to unite certain other organizations 

 nowadays would do well to read Mr. York's 

 words. The only way is to find the best, and 

 annihilate the others by disbanding in favor 

 of the better. 



\h 



The political discussion between Mr. Doo- 

 little and Mr. Abbott is very interesting. In 

 winding up his reply to Mr. Doolittle, Mr. 

 Abbott touches on the subject of adulteration 

 as follows : "I honestly believe that the adul- 

 teration fraud is the gigantic crime of the 

 century, and a disposition to wink at it shows 

 a lack of moral sentiment that should start 

 into activity the most sluggish and indifferent 

 citizen of a free country. Adulteration ignores 

 the foundation principles of all moral senti- 

 ment, and undermines two of the recognized 

 basic ideas of legitimate trade and commerce 

 — namely, that a contract is the agreement of 

 two minds as touching one thing, and that 

 every man who has come into the lawful 

 possession of any article has a right to fix the 

 price at which he will part with it. If he 

 makes the price so many pounds of honey, 

 and you give him half the amount in glucose, 

 you defraud him." 



0i 



Mr. York spells "burr-comb" with one r, 

 but spells fuzz with two z's, instead of fuz. 

 Why not go the whole length and spell it eel, 

 wil, be for bee, etc.? The new spelling is cer- 

 tainly misleading when past is used f or passed. 

 A law that was past last March had ceased to 

 be a law at that time. 



