1900 



GIvEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



295 



bees. This Devil's Sinkhole is a reality, situated in 

 Edwards Co., about 75 miles northwest of here. The 

 rest of the story, including the signal-smoke feature, 

 is only the production of imagination, etc. 



Del Rio, Texas, Mar. 23. A. W. Gildea. 



The Devil's Sinkhole or Punch-bowl refer- 

 red to is thus described : 



When the party reached it, like every one else see- 

 ing it for the first time they were amazed at the pro- 

 portions of the wonder ; a hole forty feet in diameter, 

 yawning open in the middle of a wide valley, with a 

 perfect torrent of bees rushing up from it like dirt 

 blown from some mighty blast, and all the while a 

 roaring as loud as that of a great cataract ; looking 

 down into the abyss, for the hole widens immediately 

 below^ the surface, they .saw the festoons of honey 

 hanging there which the bees had strung along the 

 sides of their mammoth hive after they had filled the 

 hidden grottoes, and looked in through the upward 

 swarms and saw the gleams of combs Isuilt, no doubt, 

 many years before. 



The account of an attempt to get the honey 

 from this sinkhole with the assistance of some 

 Mexicans is interesting, but reads like an ex- 

 aggerated account of what might have been 

 based on some real incident. It is not likely 

 that such clouds of bees could find subsist- 

 ence in such a place year after year. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



On p. 122 of GlKa>.'INGS the inquiry was 

 made whether sulphur would enrage bees. 

 Mr. P. W. Stahlman, of New York, says, " It 

 does. We found by experience, that in kill- 

 ing bees with sulphur, now and then a few 

 that escape seem to attack a person very read- 

 ily ; also after having used brimstone in 

 the smoker, and then filling it with fuel, it 

 still has a decided brimstone odor, and bees 

 hate it and show fight at once." 



A correspondent in Albany Co., N. Y., has 

 the following to say regarding black brood : 



I never saw foul brood ; but from the description 

 this so called black brood resembles foul brood very 

 much ; it makes its appearance mostly in the unsealed 

 larvfe. and at first it appear? to show in the center of 

 the white grub a small, yellowish dot on the larva, 

 and fiaallythis larva becomes yellow, some more so 

 than others, and then it turns datker and darker, and 

 at last is aim st black, after which it dries down to an 

 alnio-t invisible object. It spreads as if by magic, 

 and seems to be very contagious. As a rule it makes 

 its appearance first among black and hybrid bees, the 

 Italians almost always being the last to be affected. 

 Sometimes in our yard a colony of Italians would be 

 free from it, and in a flourishing condition, when sur- 

 rounded by colonies rotten with the disease. Our bees 

 were mostly destroyed to prevent its spread, and even 

 water that we washed our hands in while working 

 with the bees or honey was not allowed to be thrown 

 where the bees could get it. In spite of all this, over 

 200 colonies have been destroyed, and many hives and 

 fixtures have been buined 



In describing the different kinds of people 

 one meets in selling honey, Mr. S. A. Niver 

 tells the following : 



In a small grocery an old lady was the on Iv occupant 

 that I saw, so I asked her if she kept honey in stock 

 for sale. She replied, " We do ; " while a fond voice 

 from behind a pile of flour, in unmistakable Kilkenny 

 accents, says, "/do." He had plenty of honey oh 

 hand— that nice clear " honey " in tumblers, with a 

 piece of comb in it. which never granulates, and sells 

 cheap — and he knew it was pure honey, for he went 

 to his wholesaler and saw him take the honey right 

 out of the combs, and if I would go I could see them 

 do it evei y day in the year ! How does that strike you. 



Mr. Editor? Extracting honey in a wholesale grocery 

 house in P'ebruarj', thermometer down to zero ! But 

 I accepted the gentleman's .statement, and moved on, 

 searching after more advertisers in the same line. 



Here is some experience in another place : 



Only last evening I overheard a clerk telling a lady 

 customer that you could easily tell when comb honey 

 was genuine — " by noticing the number of layers in 

 the comb." (I just held my breath to catch the rest 

 of it. ) " But whether it is one or two layers that show 

 it to be genuine honey, I have forgotten." Simply an- 

 other case of " Good indigo will either sink or swim, 

 and I don't know which." ^ 



It seems sad that the human race is as in- 

 capable of exercising reason in common affairs 

 as ever. The most absurd idea instantly goes 

 around the world, while the plainest matter of 

 fact is not accepted — especially in medical 

 matters. A friend of mine said last week at 

 dinner that he read in a paper that we had no 

 full moon in February ; and I doubt seriously 

 whether I convinced him to the contrary or 

 not. Perhaps his editor was "full" enough 

 to make up what the moon lacked. 



BEE-KEEPERS' E.\CHAXGES— WHY AND WHY 

 NOT. 



Read Before the California Slate Bee-Ktepers' 

 Association. 



BV C. H. CIvAYTON. 



I was pained lately to read in a prominent 

 bee- journal an article purporting to give the 

 reasons "why bee-keepers' exchanges fail." 

 The article in question was from the pen of a 

 former member of this association, and was 

 wholly unsatisfactory in that the writer not 

 only failed utterly to grasp the logic of the 

 situation, but also failed to point out any ade- 

 quate remedy for the evils complained of. 



In daily speech, modern men and women 

 pay tribute to the old order — the order which 

 seems to decree that the bee-keeper's existence 

 depends upon brawn and not upon brain. 

 This thoughtless slighting of the bee-keeper's 

 vocation seems curious when one pauses to ob- 

 serve how deeply the bee-keeper of to day is 

 involved in the meshes of commerce. The 

 i-uccessful bee-keeper of this generation must 

 be a business man first, and a keeper of bees 

 afterward. In him must be combined many 

 talents. He must be a capitalist, cautious and 

 crafty ; he must be an operator of industrial 

 affairs, daring and resourceful, and he must 

 play labor's part with patience and humility. 

 He is in business as certainly as the merchant 

 or manufacturer. And until the order changes, 

 the bee-keeper's success in business will be 

 governed by the kind and quantity of brains 

 he uses. 



From the flower to the ripened nectar, from 

 the first operation in bee-keeping to the last, 

 one is forced to realize how the spirit of the 

 age has made itself felt here. The most de- 

 sirable bee-keeper is not the fellow who can 

 hit the punching-bag most lustily. He is the 

 man with the cunning brain who can get the 

 most work out of the bees without injuring 

 them for future use. He is in the ranks of 

 skilled labor. 



