716 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



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A BRIEF REVIEW OF THE AUSTRALASIAN BEE 

 MANUAL. 



BY DR. E. F. PHILLIPS. 



INIark Twain is authority for the state- 

 ment that there are four things that you do 

 not know, and that there are but four or 

 five people in the world who possess this 

 knowledge. One of the four is the answer 

 to the question, "Where is New Zealand?" 

 Every American should know his Mark 

 Twain well enough to know what the other 

 three unknown facts are. However, bee- 

 keepers have of late yeai-s been led to learn 

 something of New Zealand because of the 

 activity on those islands along the line of 

 bee-keeping. We may still labor under the 

 impression that New Zealand is close to 

 Australia or Asia or somewhere, and that it 

 is reached by means of a bridge, but we 

 know now that bee-keeping is an important 

 industry there (wherever it is), and that 

 Isaac Hopkins is largely responsible for the 

 present importance of the industry. 



Mr. Hopkins, late Chief Apiarist to the 

 New Zealand Government, has recently is- 

 sued a new book with the title which heads 

 this notice. This is an extension of his 

 "New Zealand Bee Manual," and is issued 

 as a fifth edition. The book is written in 

 an extremely able way, and contains much 

 of interest to bee-keepers on all sides of the 

 globe. It will, perhaps, shock an Ameri- 

 can bee-keei)er to read in the calendar in 

 Chapter XIX., ''January. — In average 

 seasons a goodly proportion of the crop of 



honey is secured this month " 



"June. — This should be a quiet month in 

 the apiary . . . ." However, either the 

 New Zealander or the American is upside 

 down, and we must believe that in Austral- 

 asia the times are out of joint. 



Tlie discussion of races of bees, natural 

 history, bee products, api)aratus, and honey 

 production read quite naturally to an Amer- 

 ican, for Mr. Hopkins was instrumental in 

 introducing the Langstroth hive into New 

 Zealand in 1877-'78, and he states, "In 

 Australasia we fortunately have the Lang- 

 stroth as practically the standard hive; in 

 fact, there is no other kind in use in New 

 Zealand." We must take off our hats to 

 New Zealand in this matter. He also in- 

 troduced the Italian bee in 1880, and it 

 seems to be almost "standard" also. 

 Many of the illustrations are of apparatus 

 of American manufacture. 



Mr. Hopkins is a firm believer in the de- 

 sirability of ripening honey outside the hive 

 in shallow tanks, and he discusses this sub- 

 ject at some length. Chapter XVIII. is an 

 important discussion of the subject, "Bees 

 in Relation to Agriculture." This chapter 

 presents the claims of bee-keeping for recog- 

 nition as an important phase of agriculture 

 in a manner which leaves room for little 

 doubt in the mind of even an outsider. 



While Mr. Hopkins has done much for 

 apiculture in Australasia, there is probably 

 no room for doubt that his best work has 

 been in connection with the control of 

 brood diseases. He was chiefly instrumen- 

 tal in the passage of the New Zealand 

 Apiaries Act in September, 1907, and for 

 two years had charge of the inspection. 

 This law is unique in that it is the first to 

 prohibit the keeping of bees in any thing 

 but movable-frame hivC'^. Mr. Hopkins 

 firmly believes that any law which lacks 

 this iirovision is faulty, and that this pro- 

 vision is the chief factor in the marked suc- 

 cess which has attended the enforcement of 

 the law. In the introduction he states, "I 

 feel certain that little or no headway 

 against disease can be made in any country 

 unless power is given by legislature to abol- 

 ish all fixed-comb receptacles as domiciles 

 for bees." In Chapter XVI. he states fur- 

 ther: "The result of this provision in the 

 diminution of foul brood throughout the 

 Dominion has exceeded all expectation." 

 It will certainly profit these of us who are 

 interested in disease control to consider 

 carefully the experience of New Zealand. 



Mr. Hopkins has recently entered his 

 seventy-fifth year. He has resigned his 

 former position as Bee Expert for New Zea- 

 land, but still retains the management of 

 the government apiary. The bee-keepers 

 of New Zealand and of Australasia are to be 

 congratulated on having received his long 

 years of service in their behalf. 



Washington, D. C. 



CARBOLIC ACID IN THE APIARY. 



BY A. W. YATES. 



.With reference to what friend Crane has 

 said, page -119, .luly 15, my first experience 

 with carbolic acid for apiarian purposes dates 

 back 25 or 28 years. An article which I read 

 in one of the bee-papers at that time recom- 

 mended its use instead of smoke for handling 

 bees. I was a young man at that time, and, 

 I might add, born and raised in Mr. Crane's 

 State, and curiosity led me to try it. My 

 bees were all blacks, and the consequences 

 were that I took a good stinging and skip- 

 ped. 



It can be used for driving the bees from 

 the supers; but unless one is very careful not 

 to let it come in contact with the sections it 

 had better not be tried. 



It was not until recent years that I under- 

 took to make any practical use of carbolic 

 acid around the apiary. One day a can of 

 honey was accidentally upset in a little out- 

 house having no cellar under it; and as it 

 ran down through the floor the bees were 

 soon there in force — thousands of them. 

 What to do I did not know. I tried smoke 

 and then water to no avail. Finally, in des- 



