86 



aLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Feb. 15 



the majority of instances, when a sample ol liquid 

 honey is shown, people use the same expression 

 now that they did fifty years ago— "Oh ! its strain- 

 ed honey!" 



COMB HONEY IN THE CRANE CORRUGATED- 

 PAPER SHIPPING-CASES. 



We received quite a shipment of nice 

 comb honey packed . in new corrugated- pa- 

 per shipping-cases. Although the honey 

 had been pretty badly banged around inside 

 of the car, the cases being piled up on end, 

 on the sides, and any old way, yet the hon- 

 ey, except for some breakage, reached us in 

 fairly good order. 



We relieve that the greatest feature of 

 protection in these corrugated-paper cases is 

 the cross-partitions, which are a little higher 

 than the sections are deep. Whether paper 

 or w ooden cases come to the front in the fu- 

 ture, one thing we are reasonably sure of; 

 and that is, that cross-jiartitions of corrugat- 

 ed paper will be a necessity in either style 

 of case. Poultrymen have for years used 

 packing-trays having a separate compart- 

 ment for each egg. The glassware men, 

 and those selling any kind of bottled goods, 

 have for years used cross-partitions of cor- 

 rugated paper, to protect their goods. It 

 seems strange that we bee-keepers have 

 been asleep so long that we should just now 

 wake up to the importance of shipping our 

 No. 1 and fancy comb honey in better 

 cases. 



WINTER-KILLING OF CLOVER; PROSPECTS 

 FOR NEXT SEASON. 



The winter in this section of the country 

 was pretty snug and cold, with a large 

 amount of snow on the ground until the 

 11th of January, since whicu time the ground 

 has been bare, with warm and cold spells, 

 rain, sleet, and a little snow scattered in be- 

 tween until yesterday, Feb. 6, when we had 

 a very heavy fall of snow. We have been 

 fearlul that such weather would be hard on 

 clover, but some old farmers with whom we 

 have talked say that the ground has not 

 been wet enough nor the weather cold 

 enough to do very much damage as yet. 

 The heavy blanket of snow we now have, 

 and which we find is quite general over the 

 Northern Slates, will protect us, as long as 

 it lasts, at least. We are in hopes that our 

 "January thaw" is over. 



It may be well at this point to define what 

 is winter-killing of clover. Different au- 

 thorities do not quite agree as to what causes 

 clover to die or disappear during the winter. 

 The same conditions that affect wheat ad- 

 versely also affect clover. It is generally 

 stated that a quick hard freeze, followed by 

 a rapid thaw, and this followed by another 

 quick hard freeze, is more destructive to 

 clover than a gradually freezing and thaw- 

 ing temperature followed by continued cold. 

 It is also generally agreed that, when the 

 ground is covered with snow, and stays cov- 

 ered almost throughout the entire winter, 

 conditions are the very best for clover. If 

 the ground has been frozen, and snow falls 



on it, the snow, says the old farmer, "will 

 draw the frost out." Strictly speaking, this 

 can not be true; but a fine blanket of snow 

 will so protect the ground that the heat of 

 mother Earth beneath will draw the frost 

 out of the ui)per crust. All the snow does 

 is to prevent the further action of the at- 

 mospheric cold. 



So far, taking conditions throughout 

 the country as far as reported, there has 

 been no destructive winter-killing; and if 

 conditions are not unfavorable from now on 

 we ought to have a fair clover yield the com- 

 ing season, as the soil hereabouts, at least, 

 is soaking wet. We have have had two off j 

 years; and on the principle that three bad I 

 seasons never come together we may hope ■ 

 that 1911 will break the spell. 



THE HONEY MARKETS; GOOD TABLE EX- 

 TRACTED SCARCE. « 



The wholesale market is practically bare I 

 of first- quality table extracted honey. There ' 

 is a good supply of dark and off grades, but 

 the best grades are conspicuous by their ab- 

 sence. There is plenty of fine No. 1 and fan- 

 cy comb honey on the market; and it is 

 doubtful whether it will be all cleaned up 

 before the new crop comes on. 



It is not at all strange tbat more bee- 

 keepers should be turning their attention 

 toward the production of extracted honey. 

 The inexorable law of supply and demand 

 will compel a large number more to change 

 from comb honey to the production of ex- 

 tracted honey; but it would be folly to go 

 to the other extreme. The average person 

 who has been producing comb honey would 

 better produce both comb and extracted. 

 Many localities favor the production of the 

 two kinds on the same hive. In other 

 words, the seasons are so short and slow 

 that some bee-keepers find it advisable to 

 use a shallow extracted- honey super to coax 

 the bees upward, and then, when they are 

 once started there, to put a comb-honey 

 super under it. In this way both comb and 

 extracted can be produced on the same hive. 

 If the season begins to taper olf, the ex- 

 tracting-sui)er can be removed, thus com- 

 pelling the bees to devote all their attention 

 to filling and cajoping over the sections in 

 the comb-honey super or supers. If any of 

 the extracting-combs are not quite filled, it 

 is a matter of small importance. 



COMB HONEY AND COLLIER S WEEKLY. 



In our issue for Dec. 1st, page 745, we 

 stated that Louise Eberle, in an article that 

 she had written for Collier's Weekly on the 

 subject of faking food, said, among other 

 things, that the imitation of maple syrup 

 was not "anywhere nearly the masterpiece 

 that is turned out in honeyles^s honey in a 

 beeless comb." A good many of our sub- 

 scribers wrote us, protesting, and asking if 

 w^e could not secure a retraction. Accord- 

 ingly, on page 745, as above, we urged our 

 subscribers, one and all, to write to Collier'' s 



