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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1. 



ANTS AROUND THE BEE-HIVES; HOW TO EX- 

 TERMINATE THEM. 



Mr. Abbott, and his Views on the Pure-food Bill 

 Criticised. 



BY E. H, SCHAEFFI,E. 



As a number of your subscribers seem to be 

 troubled with ants, my experience with them 

 may be of service to some. I think I have 

 thrashed this same straw in the past. I once 

 purchased a lot of bees that the owner assured 

 me he would brimstone unless I bought them, 

 as they drove him off his place. On examin- 

 ing them I found one of the stands had half of 

 its combs filled with the large black wood 

 ants. As the combs were ' ' fixed and immov- 

 able " I turned the hive upside down, dusted 

 Persian insect-powder freely among the ants, 

 and then closed the hive for a few minutes, 

 when I reversed it, and in a few minutes had 

 the pleasure of seeing the bees carrying out 

 the dead ants. I had no further trouble with 

 that stand. I irrigate the ground on which 

 my hives stand, and in consequence the ants 

 are driven to the hives. They never enter the 

 combs, but seek the spaces between the sec- 

 tions where the bees can not reach or glue 

 them out. I have tried placing a ridge of in- 

 sect-powder around the hive. While the bees 

 do not seem to be affected by it, the ants avoid 

 it for several days until it has lost its strength, 

 when they remove it. A chalk-mark will pre- 

 vent the passage of ants as effectually as a 

 barb-wire fence will cattle ; but the ants will 

 remove the chalk, a particle at a time, until 

 they have a passage through it, just as rats 

 will pack glass, when placed in their holes, till 

 it is all removed. 



The best way to exterminate ants is to make 

 a mixture of arsenic, Paris green, London pur- 

 ple, or strychnine, with syrup or honey. Put 

 this in a dish, and the dish in a box, with 

 the ends covered with wire-screen cloth that 

 will admit ants but exclude all bees. Place 

 this box on the trail of the ants, and they will 

 carry the poison home, feed it to their young, 

 eat it themselves, and soon the colony will be 

 among the things that were. 



It is almost incredible, the number of ants 

 in a strong colony. I once employed a wood- 

 chopper who came to me stating, " I have cut 

 a tree down, but the ants have run me out." I 

 examined the tree, and found it hollow. Ants 

 were pouring out of the base in a solid stream, 

 like bees swarming. Near the stump they 

 were piled an inch deep, while a circle 20 feet 

 in diameter gradually widened out as the ants 

 migrated. The ant, like the snapping-turtle 

 and the bulldog, holds on, and seems to wear 

 the bee out by its tenacious hold. 



GREASY SECTIONS. 



Greasy sections with me are caused by a 

 want of ventilation and excessive heat. Place 

 a strong colony out in the heat of the sun, on 

 a very hot day ; partially close the entrance, 

 and the cappings on the combs will soften, 

 flatten down, absorb honey, and have a greasy 

 appearance. I think if you were to place a 

 section of comb honey in a warm oven you 



would get the same results, without reference 

 to the queen or bees. 



THE BROSIUS PURE-FOOD BILL. 



I have received Mr. Abbott's paper contain- 

 ing my letter on the Brosius bill, and his re- 

 ply. According to Mr. Abbott, the manufac- 

 turers of glucose, oleomargarine, embalmed 

 beef, etc., have a perfect right to manufacture 

 and sell the same "as such," and should be 

 restrained only when they sell their products 

 as the genuine article. This is on the line 

 with the argument, " If I don't sell whisky, 

 some one else will, so I may as well sell it." 

 Glucose contains a large amount of sulphuric 

 acid — so much in the commercial article that 

 its use can not be other than injurious. Oleo- 

 margarine has been shown to contain paraffine, 

 a mineral product that is certainly not a food, 

 and is injurious to health. The embalmed- 

 beef scandal is so recent that it is not necessa- 

 ry to review it. I contend that the manufac- 

 ture and sale of any of -these articles, as food, 

 should be stopped. Mr. Abbott's apology for 

 the manufacture and sale of these articles is 

 lame. As it now stands, manufacturers snap 

 their fingers at the laws, and proceed to make 

 and sell their imitations. With their great 

 wealth, political influence, and the indiffer- 

 ence of the public, they are as free and safe as 

 though no laws against the manufacture of 

 their products had ever been passed. Now, I 

 believe "self-preservation is the first law of 

 nature ; " and if we can have a law passed sim- 

 ilar to that of the flour-millers, and proposed 

 by the maple-sugar makers, to place a stamp 

 on each package containing glucose when sold 

 as honey, showing that it is a mixture, and 

 not pure honey, the adulteration of honey with 

 glucose will be stopped. No one will buy glu- 

 cose as honey if he knows it is not honey. 



We have, as I presume most States have, 

 strict laws against the adulteration of honey, 

 sale of oleomargarine as butter, and short- 

 weight butter, in California ; but I can buy 

 oleomargarine as butter, in short-weight rolls, 

 and glucose as honey, in any crossroads gro- 

 cery. The trusts say, " What are you going 

 to do about it? " When men like Mr. Abbott 

 will act as apologists for its existence we may 

 well ask, " What are we going to do about it, 

 the canteen and every other trust?" The 

 time is here when the people must speak, and 

 that in no mild tones. If the voice of the peo- 

 ple is the voice of God, then it should be 

 heard, and the tones should be so loud that all 

 should hear them. I can only repeat what I 

 have written before, " The only way to protect 

 honey from adulteration with glucose is to re- 

 quire that each and every package containing 

 a mixture of honey with glucose shall bear an 

 internal-revenue stamp, showing that the con- 

 tents of the package are a mixture of glucose. 

 The tax need not exceed a cent on each and 

 every package. What we want is the stamp 

 in plain evidence. If we are to depend upon 

 men like Mr. Abbott, we shall never see it 

 there. 



Murphy's, Cal., March 8. 



[It has been our practice to recommend 

 hunting up the ants' nests, and destroying 



