170 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15 



monthly, and they will keenly feel the loss of it. M. 

 Ed Beitiand at the age of seventy-two has well earned 

 his retirement, and has the satislacuon of seeing the 

 methods he has so ardentlj' advccated pretty genei al- 

 ly adopted, not only in his own native country, but 

 aUo in France and other countries. 



Further on is the following: 



M. Berlrand, it was known, was not only a practical 

 but a successful bee keeper and his advice could al- 

 wajs le rt lied upon. Having also successfully fought 

 foul brood he was able to give such advice as has been 

 the means of curing many diseased apiaries. 



Being acquainted with several languages M. Bertrand 

 has kept his readers infotmed of the progre.'^s being 

 made in Kngland, America, Germany, and Italy- U 

 was with this object in view that the ' British Bee- 

 keeper's Guide Book" and ' The Honey B e " were 

 translated by him into French, as was also that most 

 complete work on '• Foul Brood of Bees " by F. C. Har- 

 rison. 



The above is well-deserved praise for one 

 of the most prominent bee-men of the world. 

 Personally, too, as much may be said for 

 him. Perhaps we shall yet hear irom him 

 through other journals. 



COLMKNERO ESPANOL. 

 Judging from what I have read in the 

 new Spanish bee journal, El At>icultor, Mr. 

 Mercader-Belloch, the late editor of the 

 journal I am reviewing, was what the 

 "weather-prophets" term a "reactionary 

 storm center." The editor says of him, ap- 

 parently with a feeling of charity too: 



We do not wish to speak of his defects. Who does 

 not have them? We will simply say that his own per- 

 sonal interests counted with him as nothing when they 

 stood in the way of his gaining his great, object that 

 of occupying the first place among Spani>h bee-keep- 

 ers, and to hold absolute authority over any of their 

 criticisms. Ki.r that he sacrificed friendships, forgot 

 the services of others, and sliired up autipithies 

 against tho^e who presumed to deviate from him so 

 much as a line or to contradict an v of his affirmaiions, 

 and wound up by finding himself alone in the manage- 

 ment of El Colmeneyo, which at last was -i faiihful le- 

 flection oi the decay of mind of its mel lUcholy editor. 



The writer of the above, long the right- 

 hand mtnof Mr. Mercader Belloch, then re- 

 lates the difficulties they had in finding a 

 suitable place to establish an apiarj'. The 

 best they could do was to take up with a 

 piece of rocky and unproductive land, and 

 use it as the center of a series of apiaries 

 around aming those steep mountains. 



Nothing could be more discDuraging to a 

 man of his disposition than to meet with re- 

 pulse in his own land; and that will ac- 

 count largely for the following from his 

 pen, concerning bee-keeping in Spain. It 

 is the last of a review which he wrote about 

 bee-keeping in different countries, which I 

 have already given. He says: 



Our country continues behind in general in all 

 branches of industry, and apiculture is no cxcepti n — 

 quite the contrary. Aside from a few persons who 

 have devoted themselves to the improvement of agri- 

 culture and other industries, the nation in general 

 looks with contempt, not only on bees, but on agricul 

 turea'la'ge In this unfortunate country which has 

 bt eu styled " the land of opposites," the people learn 

 with zeal to make all kinds jf goods while Spain lacks 

 the conditions necessaiy to compete wiih other na- 

 tions. . . .Some hope, or pretend to, to make 

 Spiin an industrial nation like England and the Unit- 

 ed Slates, which would simply work her ruin, as it 

 would concentrate many in the large cities and dtp ip- 

 ul ite the rural dist icts. This would create coiillicls 

 which, iu time, would cripple all departments of gov- 

 ernment, and work the ruin of the very class it is de- 

 signed to protect. . . . Here in Spain it is very 



difficult to put in practice modern systems, as the peo- 

 ple are opposed to every new thing. Lei us enumerate 

 some of the almost in,-uperable difficulties thai present 

 themselves to a progressive man: 1. Tne characteris- 

 tic indolence of the people ; 2 A kind of fear which 

 workmen h»ve fcr the gatherer of statistics for it is 

 usual for them to refuse absolutely to give any data on 

 which to base apicullural statistics : and without that, 

 nothing can be done H. The refusal of those same 

 bee-keepers to communicate a report of their failure 

 and success to this journal, for we should like to pub- 

 lish all. 



The above is not exactly bees, but it is 

 worth considering by the bee-men of this 

 country and Canada. In the last 50 years 

 the price cf labor in Spain has fallen from 

 53 to 47 cents per day, while the cost of liv- 

 ing has greatly advanced. Witli superior 

 natural advantages, Spain has stepped 

 down frcm her position as first amjng na- 

 tions at the time Columbus was imprisoned 

 by her for giving her a hemisphere, till 

 now she is the seventh power in the world, 

 which IS equivalent to saying she is no- 

 where. DiscoQtent broods over her bor- 

 ders, and revolution over her interior. 



Mr. Merc.ider-Bellcch was a good man, a 

 very able one, and one who was highly 

 gifted with true greatness of mind. 



MAKING SUGAR SVRUP FOR FEEDING BEES. 



" Mr. Doolittle?" 



" That's my name." 



" My name is Barber, and I came over to 

 have a talk with you about making feed for 

 bees out of sugar. I know you have told 

 how you do this in some of the bee-papers, 

 but I can not turn to where it is." 



" I suppose it is spring feeding you want 

 to do." 



" Yes. But I want to know how to make 

 sugar syrup for feeding at any lime of the 

 year. But perhaps we better talk about 

 how to make the syrup for spring feeding. 

 How about this part?" 



"It is not so very essential regarding 

 how it is made for spring feeding as for 

 fall, as the bees can fly often in the spring, 

 while in fall they should be fed in view of 

 their winter repose and quietude, as much 

 as possible. But for early spring feeding 

 I should make the syrup "richer" than 

 later on. Will you have to feed the bees 

 during March, do you think?" 



"Very many of my colonies went into 

 winter light in stores, and I fear they may 

 starve soon; and that is the reason I come to 

 you for advic'=^ on this matter of making feed 

 for them." 



" For feeding bees early in the spring, 

 before they can fly every few days, I should 

 make the syrup after a formula I have used 



