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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1 



bees would be set down within a certain 

 distance of yours? 



"Nectar gathered by the bees from 

 flowers, and deposited in wax cells, " is given 

 as government definition of honey, p. 1063. 

 If 1 am not mistaken, I saw a few days ago 

 a government document in which honey was 

 defined as obtained from flowers and other 

 parts of plants. [There are two or three 

 definitions for honey; but the government 

 document you refer to in the last sentence 

 reads thus : ' ' from flowers and from the 

 exudations of plants." The question is, 

 whether or not honey should not be limited 

 to the nectar of flowers only, gathered and 

 stored by the bees. Chemist Selser, of 

 Philadelphia, believes that nothing else 

 should be recognized as honey. This will 

 simplify the work of the chemist, and pre- 

 vent the bee-keeper from putting on the 

 market honey-dew honey and other honeys 

 so called, of doubtful source. —Ed.] 



Inoculated soil is mentioned, p. 1077, as 

 being offered for sale; but I wish you had 

 told us, friend A. I., at what price. I won- 

 der if there isn't a little bit of humbug 

 somewhere about this offering for sale spe- 

 cific bacteria for each different crop. Please 

 remember that, where any crop has been 

 successfully grown, the proper bacteria are 

 already there. The inoculating matter is 

 needed only for some new plant that you 

 have not already grown. For example, on 

 ground where alfalfa has never been grown 

 the special bacteria are needed. Fortunate- 

 ly, however, the experiment stations have 

 proved that the bacteria of sweet clover are 

 identical with alfalfa bacteria, so land where 

 sweet clover grows well doesn't need any in- 

 oculation for alfalfa. The Illinois Experi- 

 ment Station (other experiment stations 

 likely do the same) furnishes enough infect- 

 ed soil to inoculate an acre of ground for 

 alfalfa at a charge of 50 cents, if I remem- 

 ber correctly. Do the circulars mentioned 

 cut under that price? [The price, doctor, 

 was $2.00 for enough of the stuff, whatever 

 it was, to inoculate an acre of ground; and 

 there was quite a list of plants to be inocu- 

 lated, including garden vegetables. I pro- 

 nounced it a humbug at once— that is, when 

 they undertook to send the exact bacteria 

 that would increase a crop of wax beans or 

 any other legume wonderfully, and that each 

 vegetable needed a different "concoction." 

 The circular was very ingeniously made up 

 ■of extracts from reports of different exper- 

 iment stations to prove that their stuff was 

 the genuine thing; but, of course, no exper- 

 iment station pretended to indorse that par- 

 ticular institution. —A. I. R.] 



Dr. Burri, the Swiss bacteriologist, says 

 in Schweiz. Bztg. that there are in Switzer- 

 land at least two different kinds of bacilli 

 that produce foul brood, and in the treat- 

 ment regard must be had to the kind of ba- 

 cilli present. But it is a question whether, 

 under the designation of " foul brood," the 

 Swiss do not include more than we do, for on 

 the same page we are told that it includes 



"stinking foul brood, non - stinking foul 

 brood, and sour brood." [Possibly the term 

 foul brood in other countries takes in all 

 forms of dead brood that is foul, ropy, or 

 gelatinous. But I think Mr. Cowan, of the 

 British Bee Journal, considers the real foul 

 brood as referring to Bacillus alvei only; 

 and, if I am correct, that is the understand- 

 ing of the bacteriologists of this country. 

 There is no doubt at all that there are more 

 than one form of microbe that causes brood 

 to die. The germs that produce black brood 

 are very different from those that produce 

 foul brood, although the York State bacteri- 

 ologists seem to have made some confusion 

 somewhere by calling black brood foul 

 brood, and foul brood black brood. —Ed.] 



You FELLOWS that don't need to cellar 

 your bees should be thankful you don't have 

 to "rassel" with the troublesome problems 

 of the right time to take bees in. We've 

 had fine fall weather till about the third 

 week of November. Then a few mornings 

 with the thermometer 22 to 25 degrees 

 came. That cold spell made it important 

 that the bees should have another flight be- 

 fore going in. But if I waited for them to 

 fly I might wait till spring. As the darkey 

 said, "Doubtful things mighty onsartin, 

 massa." Nov. 14, Clark began carrying in; 

 but by the time 39 were in, it looked so 

 promising for a warmer time that he stop- 

 ped. The promise was fulfilled, and there 

 were several summery days, the bees flying 

 briskly. Nov. 19 the last of the bees went 

 in. Since then there has been flying weath- 

 er but no bees out in it. I'm not grieving 

 over that, except that I wish that first 39 

 had gone in a week sooner or a day later. 

 [Our bees are still out of doors, Nov. 22. 

 Our season is a little later than yours— prob- 

 ably by two weeks. We do not put them 

 into the cellar much before the first of De- 

 cember, because we have a good many fine 

 flying days up to that time on the average. 

 We are paving in front of the factory, with 

 the result that quite a quantity of dirt was 

 deposited on a low spot in our bee-yard. 

 This necessitated the removal of several 

 hives. As it was not practicable to move 

 them to another portion of the apiary, I told 

 the boys to put them in the bee-cellar for a 

 couple of weeks, then put them in some 

 other location in the yard. This was done; 

 and, notwithstanding the bees had been 

 confined only about two weeks, I noticed 

 that they voided a good deal of liquid fecal 

 matter. While they would have been able 

 to retain this for some time, possibly till 

 next spring, yet the confinement of the two 

 weeks showed that, when released, they 

 would relieve themselves of fecal matter. 

 I therefore think it advisable to put the 

 bees in the cellar as late as possible, and 

 then, wherever the locality will permit, 

 give them one or two midwinter flights on a 

 warm day. It pays well in this locality. 

 Indeed, I do not believe we could have good 

 wintering without these mid-winter flights. 

 -Ed.] 



