326 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1 



_ yrow Ou'r 



5? 



Mr. Villuendas Herrero will be the fu- 

 ture editor of our esteemed Spanish ex- 

 chang-e, El Colmenero Espaiiol, whose edi- 

 tor died last December. He is well recom- 

 mended. 



In speaking of cheap insurance among 

 bee-keepers in Germany and Austria, I 

 said it was about 8 cents per colony. Dr. 

 Miller sends me a clipping showing it is 8 

 cents per bee-keeper, without reference to 

 the number of colonies he has. So much the 

 better. 



About eight bee-journals are published 

 in Russia, most of which we expect to get 

 on exchange. Mr. Abram E. Titoff. of this 

 office, will have them for review. He is a 

 native Russian, and the only man I know 

 who can read and translate that difficult 

 language for us. Mr. Titoff is a well-in- 

 formed bee man, and has already given us 

 some good hints. 



It/ 



The question of the legal prohibition of 

 artificial honey having been brought up 

 before the German Reichstag (Congrc s), 

 it led the minister, Count Posadowsky, to 

 make the following declaration: 



I well know that much is eaten for honey that is not 

 honey ; and all these who eat honey at a hotel in 

 Switzerland or elsewhere would be very wro ig in sup- 

 posing that it is by any means the natural product. 

 One day in the federal council we had two samples of 

 honey brought to us — natural and artificial. It was 

 impossible to distinguish one from the other, for as 

 yet there is no means for doing it by chcncal analy- 

 sis. The honey from Havana is entirely different from 

 that of Lunenburg. When the day corats that will en- 

 able us to distinguish natural from artificial honey, 

 the law will take hold of the matter. 



The March issue of the Bee-keepet ''s Re- 

 view is a beauty, and a decided improve- 

 ment over any I have yet seen, on accaunt 

 of a better style of headings. Mr. Hutchin- 

 son has discarded the cumbersome and 

 costly style he has long used, and now I do 

 not see how he could make his pages more 

 beautiful so far as type is concerned. The 

 contents, too, of this number are of unusual 

 interest and usefulness, taking in a wide 

 range of practical topics. Mr. Hutchinson 

 is a voluminous editorial writer, a large 

 proportion of his journal being from his own 

 pen. That alone is praise enough; but the 

 kindly tone that has always pervaded his 

 paragraphs is very commendable. 

 \t< 



The Pfalz Bienenzeitung says the ancient 

 bee-keepers of Egypt were in the habit of 

 putting their bees on boats in October, and 



p escending the Nile slowlj', stopping here 

 and there in order to allow the bees to gath- 

 er nectar in that spot. On pagt 83, 1889, [ 

 gave an article, with illustration, showing 

 how this is done even now. But the idea is 

 not peculiar to the Egj'ptians. U Apiciil- 

 teur, one of our best French exchanges, 

 says, " There is nothing new under the 

 sun. The Russians have copied the Egyp- 

 tians. Some boats, carrying a garden of 

 honey bearing plants, forming a veritable 

 apicultural garden, descend the large riv- 

 ers of Russia, explaining to the people 

 along the shore the benefits cf apiculture. 

 We are informed that the Russians emoloy 

 the same prccess to popularize new meth- 

 ods in fruit culture." There is a decid- 

 edly poetic aspect to that phase of bee- 

 keeping. No valid argument could be 

 raised against movable frames in that case, 

 as the whole business would be a moving 

 spectacle. It is to be suspected, however, 

 that constant governmental interruption in 

 Russia would make the work rather disa- 

 greeable. That method seems to be entire- 

 ly out of vogue in the United States. 



"^ 





SETTING BEES FROM THE CELLAR. 



"Good morning, Mr. Doolittle. This is 

 a fine morning." 



"Yes, Mr. Barker. And it seems nice to 

 have a little something springlike, after 

 the long cold winter we have hai." 



"Yes. And this nice morning made me 

 think that it would soon be time to get the 

 bees from the c liar, and I came over to 

 have a little talk with you in regard to the 

 matter. When should I set them out, and 

 how should I do it? This is the first time 

 I ever tried wintering bees in the cellar, so 

 I am 'green ' in this matter of setting out." 



"As to time of setting out, there seems to 

 be a difference of opinion among our best 

 apiarists Some think that, by setting bees 

 out early in March, when the first warm 

 days come, they will raise young bees in 

 sufficient numbers to take the place of the 

 old bees that are lost and worn out of old 

 age later on, when they commence to gath- 

 er pollen, so that, in case of earlj- setting 

 cut, there is little or no spring dwindling " 



"Well, that looks a little reasonable. 

 But what about those who do not agre ?" 



'Other good bee-keepers are equally posi- 

 tive that bees should in no case be set from 

 the cellar till steady warm weath' r is like- 

 ly to occur, giving the time for settled warm 

 weather as commencing with the blooming 

 of the elm and soft maples. These last ar- 

 gue that, with the warm weather, each old 



