1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



765 



the empty place in No. 12. When No. 12 is 

 empty, or nearly so, we fill it with sweetened 

 water again, and it makes No. 1 for next year. 

 Nothing helps so much to make vinegar clear 

 and sparkling and sharp as the working from 

 one barrel to another. It seems to act like 

 kneading on dough. It sounds, to tell of it, 

 like a lot of work ; but, really, when one has 

 good faucets in all the barrels it doesn't take 

 long to run a few pailfuls from one to another 

 of the whole lot. I try to get at mine once a 

 month, and oftener when we sell a large quan- 

 tity. 



Our neighbors come to get honey vinegar in 

 preference to the cider vinegar at the stores. 

 We have kept some in the stores, but have 

 never had enough to supply them yet. We 

 use all kinds of refuse or waste honey, such 

 as broken combs and dark unfinished sections, 

 and this year we had about 300 pounds of 

 dark strong honey that came from weeds be- 

 fore alfalfa bloom. That will go into the vin- 

 egar next year if I don't need it to feed my 

 bees in the spring. 



I believe the secret of success in the bee- 

 business lies in looking after every part of the 

 business, and saving every thing produced ; 

 and what can not be marketed as first-class 

 honey should be turned into first-class vinegar. 



I have been asked if honey vinegar will keep 

 pickles. I have put up quantities of them in 

 the last three years, and have never lost any, 

 but have sold a great many, both of whole and 

 mixed pickles. We are using mixed pickles 

 now that were put up last August, and they 

 are as firm and brittle as they ever were. If 

 the vinegar is old enough, and has been prop- 

 erly handled, it is of the very best quality for 

 pickling or any thing else that vinegar is used 

 for. 



Mancos, Col., Aug., 1900. 



ARE BELGIAN HARES A MENACE? 



Interesting Examples of the " Survival of the 



Fittest ; " how many Times a Doe may 



Breed in a Season. 



BY A. J. COOK. 



I am asked if there is not danger that the 

 Belgian hare may gain its liberty in the United 

 States, and become as great a pest as did the 

 English rabbit when introduced into Australia. 

 It will be remembered that, soon after the 

 English rabbit was taken to Australia, it be- 

 came so common as almost to threaten the 

 very existence of profitable agriculture. So 

 serious seemed the impending danger that a 

 very large reward — I think it was $100,000 — 

 was offered for some cheap and practical meth- 

 od whereby the new comers might be exter- 

 minated. The experience of introducing the 

 mongoose into Jamaica was another case in 

 point. Introduced into the island to eradicate 

 the cane-rat, it not only did this but also de- 

 stroyed poultry, and even changed its habit 

 and commenced depredating upon the fruit, 

 so that the Jamaicans soon found they had 

 caught a Tartar. They, like the people of 

 Australia, would now gladly be rid of what 



they had introduced in the hopes of receiving 

 large benefit. Australia is very similar to Cal- 

 ifornia in its general character, which should 

 lead us to greater caution. In the East, the 

 thickets and brushwood are less abundant, 

 and we should have reason for less fear. 

 Again, Australia has a lower type of animal 

 life. It is back-woodsy, so to speak, in the 

 way of development, and we should rightly 

 expect that it would be less able to hold in 

 rightful check any animal from America or 

 the Orient, and especially an animal so prolif- 

 ic as the rabbit. Jamaica is a small island, and 

 so we should have much reason to expect dan- 

 ger there as has been experienced with the 

 mongoose. 



In California, Colorado, and other sections 

 of our country where rocks and chaparral 

 make a hiding-place for hare and rabbit, there 

 have been developed along with rabbit and hare 

 the coyote, fox, and wild cat, which are ever 

 working to preserve the balance of nature, so 

 that neither rodent nor carnivore will gain the 

 upper hand. These hungry carnivores have 

 developed a cunning craftiness which compels 

 an equal cunning, and a peculiar cunning 

 withal, in rabbit and hare, if they would re- 

 sist extermination. Thus the jack-rabbit and 

 cotton tail of our western plains, mountains, 

 and California coast, are peculiarly fleet, are 

 possessed of very acute sense organs, and are 

 exceedingly alert in all that protects them 

 against their rapacious enemies. Indeed, in 

 Northern California there are what are called 

 the wire-fence rabbits. They have taken this 

 name from the habit they have of dodging 

 from one side of the fence to the other to es- 

 cape their hawk enemies. I hope that all the 

 readers of Gleanings have or will read that 

 most fascinating book, " Wild Animals I have 

 Known." It has rare merit, and may well be 

 numbered among the classics. The story of 

 Molly Cotton-tail, as given in that book, is 

 very true to life, and very little if any exag- 

 gerated. It plainly shows how hard a time a 

 new comer will have to endure the struggle 

 for life, which is ever enforced by the hard 

 conditions of all our Western regions. But 

 we are not confined to theory alone in form- 

 ing a judgment in this matter. The more 

 alert and brisk English rabbit has been re- 

 peatedly brought to California, and has often 

 escaped from domestication. In every case it 

 has been quickly exterminated. It did not 

 find the simple easy conditions of Australia 

 to combat. Indeed, the struggle in its new 

 home is much more severe than that of the 

 British Isles, and hence its inability to brave 

 the perils of its new environment among us. 



The Belgian rabbit, or so-called hare, would 

 ill compete with even its British relative in 

 any such trying conflict. It has been bred 

 carefully, and, as in case of all domesticated 

 animals, would lose much of the sagacity and 

 alertness which the harder condition of wild 

 life ever tends to develop. In a recent article 

 in the American Bee Journal I referred to 

 these Belgian rabbits as inactive and loggy. 

 I have been criticised for this assertion. True, 

 as we see the young rabbits frisking in their 

 small pent-up quarters we might well regard 



