482 



Gleanines in Bee Culture 



of bee-sui)plies to make a cage that does not 

 require the candy niethotl of introducing. 

 From present indications such a cage has 

 been devised — one that will introduce a 

 larger percentage of queens than could be 

 secured from the candy method. The scheme 

 provides for a flat wire-cloth push-into-the- 

 comb cage that telescopes over an ordinary 

 mailing-cage. The queen, on arrival, is re- 

 leased on to one of the combs. The wire- 

 cloth introducing part of the cage is lifted 

 oflf from the wooden part, and set down over 

 the queen, released on a few cells of honey, 

 sealed and unsealed brood. The cage is 

 then pushed into the comb about ys inch. 

 In 24 to 36 hours the bees will tunnel under 

 the strands of wire cloth projecting down in- 

 to the comb, and release the queen without 

 any action on the part of the apiarist. This 

 plan of introducing is, of course, old; but the 

 idea of having such a cage just large enough 

 to telescope over a mailing-cage to save room 

 is new. It was the late W. Z. Hutchinson 

 who, if we are correct, guaranteed safe in- 

 troduction in every case where this "push 

 into the comb " cage scheme was used. 



It involves the old principle of the Peet 

 cage that was so successfully used over 25 

 years ago; but the Peet plan was much more 

 awiiward to apply than the one here outlin- 

 ed; and, besides, the construction of the 

 cage was bad from the mailing point of view. 

 Too many queens were lost in the mails. 

 About that time the Benton cage was adopt- 

 ed by most of the qvieen-breeders; and the 

 only feasible plan with such cage was the 

 eat-out-candy method. But because disease 

 is liable to be transmitted that way. Glean- 

 ings now proposes to go into a cami)aign 

 urging the new way of introducing. This 

 will not only eliminate the possibility of dis- 

 ease being carried in the mails, but insure a 

 much larger percentage of safe introduction 

 of queens. 



Illustrations and a general description 

 will be placed before our readers as early as 

 possible. _ 



CAPPING-MELTERS; WHEN AND HOW THEY 

 DISCOLOR THE HONEY. 



Mr. K. Beuhne, of Australia, a pioneer 

 in the use of cai)ping-ra"lters, and the one 

 who obtained the first patent in the United 

 States on such machines, has in this issue, 

 on page 4H9, the best article we have ever 

 read. He says that while the cappings from 

 old combs discolor the honey those from 

 neiv combs do not when run through the 

 eapping-melter; that when capi)ings from old 

 combs are allowed to drain cold, insfead of 

 iDeing melted as they come off the knife, 

 this discoloring matter adheres to the wax. 

 If this is true (and Mr. Beuhne is an author- 

 ity on the subject) it will be one serious ob- 

 jection to the eapping-melter for the reason 

 that most extracted-honey producers will 

 use old combs because they have them, and 

 because they will stand harder usage. New 

 combs are objectionable unless they are well 

 wired; and they will be rather expensive if 

 one has to melt up old combs every three or 



four years, buy foundation, and wire it into 

 frames, for your new combs can not be sat- 

 isfactorily used unless wired. 



It would appear that probably 90 per cent 

 of the honey will drain from cold cappings, 

 when allowed to stand. Assuming that the 

 remnant of the honey would be discolored 

 when the cappings are finally melted, this 

 remnant would be so small in comparison 

 with the entire crop of honey that it is a 

 question whether it would not be money in 

 the pocket to let the capi)ings drain in' the 

 good old-fashioned way, avoid the heat, and 

 then melt them when as dry as they can be. 



Mr. Beuhne, while admitting that the cap- 

 pings from dark combs will discolor the hon- 

 ey slightly, if melted immediately, argues 

 that this slightly darkened honey can be 

 mixed with the entire crop, and not show 

 much. For bottling purposes we doubt if 

 there are many producers on this side of the 

 globe who would be willing to mix their 

 darker honey wdth the white and gilt-edged 

 product that is perfection itself. 



The more that we test out capping-melters 

 the more we are convinced that Mr. Beuhne 

 is absolutely right in every thing that he 

 says. We do not, however, share his con- 

 clusions of the practicability of the machines 

 for table honey. In the production of a fine 

 article the old method of draining the cap- 

 pings and then melting is the more practic- 

 able. 



UNCLE SAM CHASING DOWN THE MANUFAC- 

 TURERS OF BAD food; no GLUCOSED-HON- 

 EY adulterations; our debt to dr. 



WILEY. 



Uncle Saini is doing good work in chas- 

 ing down those who adulterate and mis- 

 brand food and drug products. It is note- 

 worthy that quantities and quantities of 

 packages containing tomato catsups have 

 been found bearing on the label "Benzoate 

 of Soda;" but in every case where this pre- 

 servative is used, millions of bacteria from 

 the decayed fruit used were found, showing 

 that the proi)rietors of these food products 

 had been using half-rotten tomatoes, on the 

 assumption that benzoate of soda would pre- 

 vent further decay. In all cases, these cat- 

 sups were highly flavored, we presume, for 

 the purpose of covering up and disguising 

 the otherwise uneatable stuff. What has 

 been done with catsups has been done with 

 canned half-rotten fruit. No small wonder 

 that thousands of our people have been suf- 

 fering from dysi)epsia. 



Among other things found to be adulter- 

 ated was a large quantity of eggs, which, 

 while not "adulterated," w^ere spoiled, and, 

 therefore, condemned. Sixty-nine i)er cent 

 of the entire shipment was unfit for food. 

 Except for <Jncle Sam's interference the 

 whole shipment would have gone into the 

 stomachs of consumers. 



Among other things condemned as adul- 

 terated or misbranded were frozen eggs, al- 

 falfa hay, flour, jieanuts, evaporated ap- 

 l)les, coffee, vinegars, maple syrup, condens- 

 ed milk, and a great variety of drugs, espe- 



