1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEK CULTURE. 



871 



I have kept still about it all these years ; but 

 now that Dr. Miller has finally disposed of 

 those old hives, and has in their place modern 

 Dovetails, I do not believe I am under obliga- 

 tions to keep the cat in the bag any longer. 

 But if I could find those photos I believe I 

 would have the meanness to show them to our 

 readers. Say, doctor, I congratulate you on 

 the use of all modern bee-hives. May you 

 never, never use rags again to stop leaky 

 hives. N. B. — Tear this leaf out before the 

 women see it. — Ed.] 



RBD-ci,ovER tubes and bees' tongues don't 

 seem so very far apart. We now have tubes 

 .13 deep, and tongues with a reach of .23. Get 

 those measurements established, and the red- 

 clover honey crop is ours. Or, figure another 

 way. Clover-tubes now vary from .13 to .38, av- 

 eraging .25, and we can count on their remain- 

 ing so. Establish the .23 tongue, and we get 

 all the nectar from tubes .23 or shorter, and 

 that will be 40 per cent of all the red-clover 

 crop, if there is a regular xaxi^ixoxi from .13 

 to .38. Stretch the tongues .02 more, and 

 half the crop is ours. That's only counting 

 the tubes that will be drained to the bottom. 

 An extra quantity will be got from some of 

 the other tubes. For example, with .25 

 tongues all the nectar will be got from a .26 

 tube except .01 of an inch. You're right, Mr. 

 Editor ; never mind the tubes but stretch the 

 tongues. [Yes, sir, you are right in your fig- 

 uring, I believe ; but do not assume that we 

 have a full colony of bees whose tongue-reach 

 is .23. J. P. Moore has a queen, some of 

 whose bees will show that extreme measure- 

 ment ; but the majority of them run about 

 .21. But the very fact that the bees of this 

 queen have a tendency to sport gives friend 

 Moore a chance to pick out the sports 

 and breed from those that show the longest 

 tongue-reach. It is true that, when we have 

 reached the limit of .25 (possilaly we could go 

 further), we are still a little shy of reaching 

 the depth of th loengest clover-tubes. But 

 there will be some satisfaction in thinking 

 that we can get down into them deeper than 

 we ever did before. — Ed.] 



r^afeil^-^ 



r^JCKlJSTGS 



i/-AOM OU/f NEIGHBORS FIELDS. 



The snow ! the snow ! y'ho ! y'ho ! 



The birds are all gone save the sparrow and crow; 



The rich greet it cheerily, 



Poor men more drearily, 



Sick folks quite wearily, 

 That chilly hexagonal snow. 



Vkf 



WESTERN BEE KEEPER. 

 This is a new comer from Boulder, Col., and 

 is in every respect a readable and able bee- 

 journal, published by the Labor Publishing 

 Co. I hope to see it regularly. On one page 

 I notice an article copied from the Chicago 

 Chronicle, in reference to making paraffine 

 wax from petroleum. It is very interesting. 



and describes the various products that are 

 manufactured from this oil in addition to 

 common kerosene ; but I wondered the fol- 

 lowing paragraph was printed without any 

 protest on the part of the editor : 



The busy little bee was long ago cheated out of his 

 monopoly in the honey-making business by the arti- 

 ficial-honey manufacturers. Now he is left to im- 

 prove the shining hour as best he may, for his corner 

 on wax is rapidly slipping away from him. Paraffine, 

 a product of etude petroleum, is taking the place of 

 beeswax in commerce very largely, and half the wax 

 candles of to-day are pure parafiSne, and never saw 

 the inside of a bee-hive. 



While paraffine often can, without a doubt, 

 be made to take the place of beeswax, and an- 

 swer as good a purpose, especially for relig- 

 ious ceremonies, the first ' sentence shows 

 plainly that the correspondent did not know 

 what all well-informed people do know — that 

 parafiine can by no means be made to take the 

 place of beeswax in comb, as it melts too 

 easily. 



Right here I am pleased to note that the 

 editor has, after all, grappled this matter. 

 He says : 



In these days of prevailing adulteration, when so 

 often things are not what thej' seem it is a comfort to 

 know that, when one buys comb honey, he may know 

 without question he is getting the genuine article. 

 The silly stories seen from time to time in the papers 

 about artificial combs being filled with glucose, and 

 deftly sealed over with a hot iron, have not the slight- 

 est foundation. In fact, for years there has been a 

 standing offer by one whose financial responsibility is 

 unquestioned, of flOOO for a single pound of comb 

 honey made without the intervention of bees. The 

 offer remains untaken, and will probably always 

 remain so, for the highest art of man can never 

 compass such delicate workmanship as the skill of 

 a bee accomplishes. 



Will somebody please undertake to get this 

 straightened out in the columns of the Chron- 

 icle? By the way, daily papers never correct 

 a false assertion. A New York paper recently 

 gave the obituary of a man who immediately 

 replied, trying to prove that he was not dead. 

 No retraction was made, but the editor said he 

 would announce the birth of the man in ques- 

 tion, in the proper column, and leave his 

 readers to draw their own inference. 



\)/ 



Grace and sweetness are combined in the 

 following : 



Grace I,. Lane and Sadie J. Butman, two ladies 

 who moved from Missouri recently, will establish a 

 honey trade in the vicinity of L,oveland. Both were 

 engaged in school-teaching in Missouri, but, it is said, 

 have been preparing themselves for this work for 

 some time. 



Mrs. H. R. Norville, of Denver, expects to 

 establish a large bee and Belgian-hare indus- 

 try near Loveland this fall. She is negotiat- 

 ing for twenty acres, and will proceed to stock 

 it with bees and young hares. 



In regard to starting in bee-keeping in Col- 

 orado, the editor says : 



The bee industry in Colorado is still in its infancy. 

 Still we know of no locality better adapted for bee 

 culture than the eastern slope of the Rockies. With 

 its abundance of wild flowers, and fields of alfalfa, it 

 offers to wide-awake people a gcod business proposi- 

 tion and a climate Equaled by none. There are plenty 

 of locations and openings for many in bee culture in 

 Colorado. 



