270 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CUI.TURE. 



April 1. 



good supply. It appears the National Biscuit Co. have 

 not bought yet this year ; when they do it generally 

 makes a big hole in the market. There is a new en- 

 terprise started on the east side in which they are 

 adulterating by the csrload honey which will granu- 

 late in three "days. It has the appearance of atid 

 tastes very much like honey ; has about 10 per cent of 

 the pure article in it. Twelve carloads have been turn- 

 ed out in the last 60 days. It sells lor oj^ cents per 

 pound. 



The National Bee-keepers' Association is 

 doing every thing in its power to stem the 

 tide of adulteration of honey ; and we hope 

 that, in the near future, it will present some 

 interesting and startling facts. The condi- 

 tion of affairs revealed in the extract above 

 should merit the careful consideration of every 

 bee-keeper — especially those who have not 

 joined the National Association, one of the 

 objects of which is to make the mixing of glu- 

 cose dangerous and unprofitable. Membership 

 costs only a dollar, and one does not know 

 how far that dollar will go when combined 

 with other dollars from bee-keepers far and 

 wide. 



The state of affairs as indicated above shows 

 that extracted honey may be a glut on the 

 eastern market this coming summer ; and if 

 bee-keepers in that portion of the country are 

 wise, they will turn their attention largely to 

 the production of comb honey, which can not 

 now be bought in the open market for love nor 

 money. It is gone, absolutely ; but pure ex- 

 tracted honey is a glut in the same markets, 

 just because twelve carloads of the adulterated 

 stuff have been turned loose within the last 

 sixty days, and which sells at 5^ cts. 



I am placing this letter, giving the full facts, 

 names and address, before General Manager 

 Secor, of the National Bee-keepers' Associa- 

 tion, hoping that he may be able to do some- 

 thing to stop the rascals who are perpetrating 

 this wrong on the bee-keepers of the East. 



CAMERAS FOR HALF-TONES. 

 On page 141, Feb. 15, I criticised a para- 

 graph of Mr. Htitchinson's in the Bee-keepers' 

 Revieiv, relating to the above subject, where 

 he said that an ordinary kodak was of but lit- 

 tle value for use in taking half-tones, for the 

 reason that the lens was of a universal or 

 fixed-focus type, and that, therefore, the pic- 

 ture thrown on the plate would be only "pass- 

 ably sharp." As I had used quite a number 

 of this class in Gleanings, taken with the 

 universal- focus kodak, and as some of them, I 

 thought, were excellent, I took our brother- 

 editor to task. The latter, instead of replying 

 in his next number, laid the whole matter be- 

 fore the editor of ih& American Atnateur Pho- 

 tographer, Dr. John Nicol, an acknowledged 

 authorit}^ on cameras and lenses. Among oth- 

 er things the doctor says : 



Mr. If. Z. Hutchinson : — A lens at fixed focus would 

 give as sharp an image as one that you focused, bid 

 otily of such objects as were at the point for which it was 

 fixed. All lenses have a point at and beyond which 

 all things are in fairly good focus, the distance de- 

 pending on the length of the focus and the size of the 

 stop emploj'ed. The shorter the focus and the smaller 

 the stop, the nearer that distance. So called fixed-fo- 

 cus lenses in cameras are generally placed a little 

 within that distance, as the eye can not distinguish 

 between lines less than -i\,r, of an inch apart, so that 

 with, say, a 5-inch lens, every thing at and beyond 25 

 feet will be to the ordinary eye in fairly good' focus. 



But, as already said, only one thing, or one plane, will 

 be in perfect focus, and all nearer and beyond only a 

 compromise ; while with a lens that you can focus, or, 

 as you say, with your head under the cloth, you can 

 focus, at any distance, and that not a compromise but 

 a perfect focus. 



This I referred to the Eastman Kodak Co., 

 who, though an interested party, stated that 

 neither Mr. Hutchinson nor myself had got at 

 the real root of the matter, and that " Dr. 

 Nicol came very near putting it plainly. The- 

 oretically, Mr. Hutchinson and Dr. Nicol have 

 entirely the best of the argument. Practical- 

 ly, fixed-focus cameras are the most desirable 

 within certain limits. . . Our experience, 

 then, has taught us, owing to the mistakes lia- 

 ble to be made in focusing, . . the amateur 

 is more certain to get good results with a 

 fixed-focus camera, provided the size of the 

 picture is not greater than 3^ by 3)^. . . , 

 Dr. Nicol states in his letter, ' The eye can 

 not distinguish between lines less than ^ J f, of an 

 inch apart, so that, with a fiveinchfocus lens, 

 every thing will be to the ordinary eye in very 

 good focus.' Now, so long as it is in focus to 

 the eye, what is the use of microscopic defini- 

 nition ? " 



I should be glad to publish the whole of the 

 correspondence in which Mr. Hutchinson and 

 myself have been greatly interested ; but as 

 we are both publishing bee-journals, the whole 

 text of the correspondence, probably, would 

 not be interesting to bee-keepers, and I have 

 therefore endeavored to give the gist of the 

 whole. 



In doing so I hereby acknowledge that Mr. 

 Hu'.chinson, from a theoretical standpoint, 

 was more nearly correct than I ; and while I 

 use an adjustable- focus camera for most work, 

 yet there are certain conditions, times, and 

 circumstances, when I can use a small fixed- 

 focus camera, and get some beautiful effects — 

 something that could not be secured at all 

 with the ground-glass tripod focusing-cloth 

 camera requiring an expenditure of five or ten 

 minutes to adjust the focus, etc. Some sub- 

 jects in their best poses remain so for but an 

 instant, and their unconscious bearing, not 

 expecting to be photographed, gives to them 

 the very life and beauty that can not be found 

 in o'her poses where the subjects know that 

 they are under the scrutiny of a camera. 



I HAVE on hand several drawers full of 

 good manuscripts, some of which I shall keep 

 over till next winter, when they will be in 

 season, and others will be held to await such 

 time as we can find room for them. Still oth- 

 ers may never be used. Keeping in mind the 

 greatest good to the greatest number, I shall 

 endeavor to use all of the best thoughts and 

 experiences that are sent in. 



Reports still show that bees are wintering 

 well generally over the country. Only two 

 letters speak of bad wintering— one for a dis- 

 trict in Pennsylvania, and the other for a large 

 portion of South Carolina. With these two 

 exceptions, during the 15 years that I have 

 had to do with this journal I do not remember 

 a time when the prospects for good wintering 

 were any better if as good. 



