OCTOBER 1, 1914 



749 



ir. C. Co 



ITEAY straw; 



The season was remarkably \Yet, and then 

 it turned around and burned the pastures 

 brown till a good rain came Aug. 16. [That 

 has been the trouble in most localities; and 

 the parching hot weather has been the main 

 reason why the crop of clover honey in the 

 country was cut short. In the whole north- 

 ern portions of the country, where the sea- 

 son was two or three weeks later, the rains 

 came soon enough to save the crop. — Ed.] 



Speaking of European foul brood, Mr. 

 Editor, you ask, p. 619, " If you had used 

 only vigorous Italian blood instead of part 

 hybrid, would you not have been entirely 

 free from the disease by this time*?" Hardly. 

 I have had just five cases this year (mild). 

 Two were three-banders and three hybrids. 

 Previous years Italians wei'e also affected. 

 Yet I wish I had only Italians, and advise 

 them for those fearing European foul brood. 

 Please remember, too, that the disease sur- 

 rounds me. 



I'm sorry I couldn't report my WS 

 crop in pounds. Not knowing the weight, I 

 gave the number of sections per colony. 

 The result has been that in a number of 

 cases (as in last Gleanings^ p. 661), it has 

 been stated that I got 266 pounds per col- 

 ony — a regrettable exaggeration. I don't 

 believe it was more than 245 pounds, and 

 possibly not more than 235. [We should 

 put even the figTires, of 235 pounds, as a 

 l-eeord-breaking job — pretty good for a 

 young old man 83 years old like you. — Ed.] 



Referring to that matter of foul-brood 

 colonies absconding during treatment, I 

 may say that I didn't have absconding after 

 I began giving a section of honey to the 

 colony left in the empty hive. [The one 

 serious difficulty with the standard ortho- 

 dox treatment of foul brood, either Euro- 

 pean or American, is the tendency of bees 

 to swarm out after being hived on frames of 

 foundation. If a section of honey will over- 

 come the trouble it will mean much. But 

 we should suppose that such section, after 

 the bees get started on foundation, should 

 be burned or melted up, and the honey 

 brought to a temperature of boiling for 

 twentv minutes, as recommended bv Dr. 

 Philliips.— Ed.! 



J. E. Hand^ glad of your company on 

 that sugar- feeding business, p. 671. It is 

 possible that Editor Root may be correct 

 that evaporation and inversion of sugar 

 syrup may be no harder on bees than in the 

 case of nectar, and he is correct in sajdng 

 that thousands of colonies are successfully 



wintered on sugar syrup. But that doesn't 

 end the matter. Two colonies, side by side, 

 may to all appearances winter equally well, 

 one on honey the other on syrup, but there 

 may be a notable difference in the vitality of 

 the bees. Those fed on honey have all the 

 elements needed for full vitality, some of 

 which are entirely lacking in sugar; and, 

 altliough these latter are minute in quantity, 

 they are so important that, without them, 

 there will be a lack of vigor. I don't think 

 it would take many kegs of nails to supply 

 all the iron I need; but I believe I should 

 suffer in health .'seriously if all iron were de- 

 nied me — same ^vith bees. I have a sus- 

 picion that the honey-fed bees may be of 

 such greater vigor that their successors shall 

 do enough more on the harvest to pay for a 

 difference of 5 vients a pound — possibly 10 

 cents — between honey and sugar.. More- 

 over, I believe, on the same ground, that if 

 three-fourths or more of the .sugar used by 

 this nation were replaced by honey we 

 should be a more vigorous people. [You 

 may be right ; but we feel quite sure you 

 have overestimated the relative difference in 

 values. Even 5 ets. per lb. is a big differ- 

 ence. Is it not a fact that sugar-fed colonies 

 produce big crops the following season? 

 Chemically speaking, sugar syrup, if prop- 

 erly inverted, is very nearly the same as 

 honey. Sugar syrup and nectar in the first 

 place are both cane sugars or sucrose. At 

 the same density the bees will invert either; 

 that is to say they will make a sort of honey 

 of both. But a great deal of sugar syrup 

 fed in the hives is only partially inverted, 

 because it is fed too late or too thick. But 

 we have noticed time and time again that 

 the late feeding of thick sugar sjrrup has 

 brought out colonies in the spring that were 

 the best we had m the apiary. A strong, 

 vigorous colony m the spring, no matter 

 how it was fed, ought to get more honey 

 when the harvest ccmes on than a weak col- 

 ony fed on honey during the winter. No, 

 sir, doctor, we feel sure that you are great- 

 ly overestimating the difference, if differ- 

 ence there is. Then, what element is there 

 in honey that the bees need that is not 

 found in good pollen and sugar syrup? 

 When natui'al pollen comes on in the spring 

 the bees will probably get all the elements 

 they need. 



This is a profitable subject for discussion, 

 and it is an important one. If Dr. Miller is 

 right in his belief that honey is 5 cts. per lb. 

 better as a winter food, then we ought to 

 know it. — Ed.] 



