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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15 



initial stages of consumption this is success- 

 ful in the majority of cases. The result is 

 due to the levulose oxydizing into a form of 

 carbonic acid. Paste this in your hat, and 

 credit Therapeutische Monatshefte. 



The fact is well known that honey is good 

 for infants, particularly those who do not 

 seem to thrive satisfactorily. If honey (or 

 levulose) be given, the increase in weight is 

 as much as 300 to 400 grams per week. For 

 this purpose it is superior to milk sugar, and 

 it is sweeter and more palatable. It is no 

 less valuable as a nutrient in the case of 

 older children. So says Furst, in the Brit- 

 ish Medical Journal. 



Subscribers to Gleanings who live in the 

 tropics, and who have not read Mr. C. E. 

 Woodward's article on Cuba, p. 700, should 

 make haste to do so. It is just right for 

 other tropical countries as well as Cuba— 

 perhaps more so. 



Concrete sugar is the best for feeding 

 bees, as it contains the natural wax of the 

 sugar-cane, and is free from all chemicals. 



Porto Rico will lose its trade in sugar with 

 the bee-keepers of Europe who used to feed 

 its muscovado sugar. The sugar-estates are 

 being made up-to-date to produce white sul- 

 phuric-acid sugar. Amen! 



Of the large islands in the West Indies, 

 Porto Rico is the most backward in the mat- 

 ter of bee-keeping. As the colony has been 

 under the American flag for some time, this 

 seems the more remarkable. 



Peru has probably more apiaries of sting- 

 less bees than any other country. The hon- 

 ey from this source is thought to be superi- 

 or to any other for medicinal purposes. It 

 seems very probable that the Incas had 

 these bees under domestication for ages be- 

 fore Columbus. 



The nearest modern apiary to the equator 

 is away down on the Corentyn River, on the 

 confines of Surinam. The proprietor is a 

 Belgian named Franck. 



Comb honey has been shipped from Trini- 

 dad to England, where it arrived in first- 

 class condition, and realized fair prices. 

 This is a record, so far as the West Indies is 

 concerned. 



The honey season in the tropics is the dry 

 season. It rains too steadily in the wet sea- 

 son to allow bees to gather a surplus. In 

 Trinidad the honey season extends from Jan- 

 uary to June; in British Guiana the period 

 is July to December, though the distance 

 which separates them is only 200 miles. 

 Here is a good chance for migratory bee- 

 keeping if transport becomes cheap. 



Mr. Powell, the former genial curator of 

 the St. Vincent Botanical Experiment Sta- 

 tion, who takes a lively interest in bee-keep- 

 ing, has taken charge of a station far away 

 in British East Africa. As there are plenty 

 of bees in that country, probably he will 

 soon start an apiary having all the latest ap- 

 pliances, as an object-lesson to the savages 

 of that region. 



The Canadian commercial agents having 

 investigated the subject, report the British 

 honey market preempted by West-Indian 



and Chilian honey. This is good, as the Ca- 

 nucks levy a very high tariff on West-Indian 

 honey. It is a poor rule that doesn't work 

 both ways. If Canada won't buy our honey 

 we won't buy hives up there— so there! 



Buenos Ayres, with 800,000 inhabitants; 

 Sao Paulo with 350,000, and Rio de Janeiro 

 with 400,000, ought to be good markets for 

 honey, as the people have the cash, and are 

 not averse to eating nice foods. These cit- 

 ies are not behind North-American places in 

 general appearances. Beeswax is eagerly 

 sought for to make church-candles. 



Around Bogota, E. U. Colombia, are large 

 areas of alfalfa, which readily accounts for 

 the ease with which honey is secured in that 

 locality. Wheat and other temperate crops 

 are also grown to perfection, which makes 

 living cheaper than elsewhere in Spanish 

 America. 



The ackee fruit-tree is an excellent bee- 

 plant; and where common, as in Demarara, 

 it ought to prove a fruitful source of honey. 

 Mammee sapote is also a fair producer, but 

 not equal to the ackee. 



A kind of borage is an excellent honey- 

 producer in Trinidad and other West-Indian 

 islands, and might with advantage be intro- 

 duced elsewhere. 



So far as the tropics are concerned, cy- 

 press is much superior to pine from almost 

 every point of view, more particularly for 

 its lasting qualities. A hive-stand made of 

 pine is of little use in moist countries with 

 heavy rainfalls— that is, 60 to 150 inches per 

 annum. 



A good many tropical bee-masters would 

 appreciate a recipe for making honey-cakes 

 similar to those made of sugar and shredded 

 cocoanut. They can not have solid honey, 

 for obvious reasons ; but a honey-cake would 

 suit if it is cheap and good. The pickanin- 

 nies of the West Indies have a very sweet 

 tooth that must be gratified ; and with a 

 ' ' mamma ' ' to tote the cakes around, the 

 sale problem is simple. 



»♦»»••* • • 



CALIFORNIA NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Honey Consumption; Redwood Hives; Baby Nu- 

 clei, etc. 



BY W. A. H. GILSTRAP. 



When reading a paper I frequently mark 

 points of special interest with a blue crayon. 

 Gleanings gets many such marks, and my 

 ideas on some of them may be of interest. 



Page 188, to kill a skunk I take a pole 

 somewhat heavier than a fishing-pole, and 

 whip the animal to death on short notice, on 

 a moonlight night. Lately I dispatched two 

 fine skunks in less than three minutes by 

 this process. 



Amount of honey used by a colony (page 

 376) will never be known. The quantity fed 

 a colony during a dearth is no test, as, dur- 

 ing a flow, owing to more exercise, bees use 

 much more honey. In this country they 

 evidently use over 100 lbs. per colony on an 

 average. 



