536 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



boy has a puppy, a cross between a Scotch 

 terrier and a pointer, that keeps saying 

 " Yor-ick, Yor-ick," every hour of the day; 

 and scmetimes he keeps on saying "Yor- 

 ick " all night. Late one night while I 

 was trying- to sleep, it popped into my head 

 that the dog was calling to another bee- 

 editor — the one who stands for the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal. I doubt whether a human 

 being could pronoui.ce the word more dis- 

 tinctly than this pup does at times. I 

 wrote friend " Yor ick," telling him about 

 this wonderful canine that could pronounce 

 his name so distinctly, and that I thought I 

 would name him York if he had no objec- 

 tions. He writes back that I must be a 

 good interpreter, and thinks if I should 

 send him to the St. Louis exposition he 

 would be a great attraction for the Root 

 Co. 's exhibit. He thinks, however, if I 

 should teach him to say "York's honey," 

 he could use him in Chicago. He has no 

 objection, he says, to my using the name, but 

 " it must be understood that the dog is to 

 be a Prohibitionist, without any «/r-tail- 

 ment about him except his own." Then he* 

 winds up by saying, " Please excuse this 

 doggoned letter." I have set myself to the 

 task of teaching the dog to howl "York's 

 honey" just as lustily as he now " Yor- 

 icks " at night; and if I succeed I am go- 

 ing to put him in York's advertisement to 

 bark up trade. 



PUBLISHING BEE JOURNALS TO MAKE 



MONEY. 



The editor of the Review, in commenting 

 on the fact that each year on an average 

 witnesses the birth of one new bee-journal 

 and the death of another, says, "If the main 

 object in starting a bee-journal is to put 

 money in the bank, disappointment will 

 come as surely as night follows day;" and, 

 further, the one who hopes to make a living 

 by publishing a bee- paper can do so; but 

 "if he wishes to measure success in dollars 

 and cents he may choose from many other 

 fields more fruitful in that direction." 



Our readers are requested to write at 

 once a courteous letter to the editor of the 

 Ladies' Hoyne Journal, at Philadelphia, pro- 

 testing against the statement made by Dr. 

 Mary Walker, in the June ni mber, to the 

 effect that comb honey is manufactured of 

 paraffine, and filled with glucose. It is 

 very important that every one of our read- 

 ers act upon this at once. 



FORMALIN SUCCESSFUL FOR TREATING 



BLACK BROOD, BUT NOT FOR FOUL 



BROOD. 



One of the most extensive bee-keepers in 

 'the United States, Mr. E. W. Alexander, 

 of Delanson, N. Y., has contributed a val- 

 uable article to the Bee-keepers'' Review for 

 May. He thinks it is perfectly feasible to 

 treat combs affected with black brood with 

 formalin or formaldehyde; but he empha- 

 sizes the very great importance of doing the 

 work thoroughly. Combs can not be put 



into supers or hives, one stacked above 

 another, then applying the gas, with any 

 expectation of getting satisfactory results. 

 They must be put into an air-tight com- 

 partment, and subjected to the gas fumes 

 for 7nany hours. I^^^T^ 



He uses an ordinary honey-tank capable 

 of holding 4000 lbs. of extracted honey. 

 For a cover he makes one of wood lined on 

 the under side with sheets of tarred paper. 

 The combs are put in suitable racks, the 

 top is securely clamped down by means of 

 long r(ds, and the combs are fumigated for 

 about five hours. To heat the drug he uses 

 a small oil-stove which is placed under the 

 generator. Although he does not say sj I 

 infer that he has a tube to convey the gas 

 from the generator to the sealed tank. 

 Another supply of formalin is, after the 

 first fumigation, repeated. But this time 

 the combs are left confined for four or five 

 days, at the end of which time he finds the 

 combs are thoroughly disinfected and fit to 

 use again. He has in this way, he says, 

 fumigated over 1000 of the worst combs he 

 could find in 1000 colonies; and although 

 some of them contained a little capped hon- 

 ey and brcx)d, he has since had no trace of 

 the disease. 



But he does not recommend this formalin 

 treatment for foul brood. The combs of 

 that disease, he says, should be burned. 

 Very emphatically he says, "Do not waste 

 your time in trying to save combs that con- 

 tain spores and germs of foul brood. You 

 will certainly regret it if you dr. I doubt 

 if there ever was a comb of foul brood dis- 

 infected so it would be safe to put in a 

 healthy colony." Mr. Alexander's repu- 

 tation as a bee-keeper is such that I think 

 we can place reliance on his statements. 



SPECIALTY AND THOROUGHNESS. 



Elsewhere in the article he emphas'zes 

 the importance of thoroughness, persever- 

 ance, and f-pecialty. He says, "I am sor- 

 ry that such a large per cent of the people 

 who keep bees do not realize the necessity 

 of being thorough in every thing connected 

 with the business. Far too many of them 

 are looking for some other business to go 

 with it, not knowing that hardly one man 

 in a thousand is sm irt enough to be cut in 

 two, and two men made of him." The ed- 

 itor of the Review, in commenting on this in 

 a footnote, says thfse words ought to be 

 "printed in gold. . . Do not forget this 

 when tempted to be or do half a dozen 

 things." 



SHALL THE NATIONAL BEE-KET PERS' ASSO- 

 CIATION AFFIX ITS BRAND OK PURITY 

 AND QUALITY ON THE HONEY PRO- 

 DUCED BY ITS MEMBERS? 



The suggestion has been continually com- 

 ing to me of late whether or not the Nation- 

 al Bee-keepers' Association, in view of the 

 widespread distrust of all comb honey and 

 a large part of the extracted, could not in 

 some way place its own brand of purity 

 on honey produced by its members, so that 



i 



