GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Published by The A. I. Root Co., Medina. Ohio. 



E. R. Root, Editor H. H. ROOT, Managing; Editor 



A. I. ROOT, Editor Home Department J. T. Calvert, Business Manager 



Entered at the Postoffice, Medina, Ohio, as second-class matter. 



VOL. XLIV. 



JUNE 15, 1916 



NO. 12 



EDITORIAL 



Mr. M. W. Harvey, in this issue, gives 

 some good orthodox advice on Ihe co'/'lrol 

 of swarms at outyards — see page 4D0. 



Our Cover Picture 



That the straw skep is not a relic of the 

 past in every country is shown by the pic- 

 ture reproduced on the cover, sent by Hans 

 Matthes. Mr. Hamelberg, in his article, 

 page 481, explains why the straw hive is 

 still used so extensively in Holland. 



Honey as a Food 



The honey salesman should not foil to 

 read very carefully the article by J. H. 

 Heberle in this issue. The German chemists 

 have proven that honey is more easily as- 

 similated by persons of weak digestion than 

 is ordinary cane sugar; and they explain 

 why this is so. 



A Long-time Subscriber 



One of our subscribers, Mr. J. B. Rat- 

 clitfe, Amboy, Minn., sent in his check to 

 cover five years renewal for Gleanings, 

 making thirty-eiglt years of continuous 

 suhsci-iptio^i. We wonder how many others 

 there are who liave been wiili ns this length 

 of time. 



Drifting 



Mr. R. r. I]oLT?:n:\rANN, page 491, has 

 not had the same experience, apparently, 

 with his bees drifting in his big quadruple 

 winter cases that Ave have had. He suggests 

 that if we have the entrances arranged so 

 Ihey will face all points of the compass 

 there will be no drifting. That is exactly 

 what we did have, yet we had a great deal 

 of drifting. Time and again, colonies that 

 were very strong would become very weak, 

 or one that was very weak became very 

 strong. 



We were well pleased with the big winter 

 cases except in this one particular. 



Honey Butterscotch 



Here is a recipe for some good old- 

 fasliioned butterscotch. You can't get 

 enough of it, and it won't hurt you for it's 

 nearly all honey. 



Boil two cups of honey until it hardens 

 when a little is dropped into some water. 

 Stir the latter part of the time, taking 

 care not to let it burn. Stir in half a cup 

 of melted butter, add % teaspoonful of salt, 

 and flavor with vanilla. Pour on to a cold 

 greased platter, and, when cool, cut into 

 squares and wrap in oiled paper. Wrapping 

 is quite important, as, unless the candy is 

 kept away from the air, it will gather mois- 

 ture and become sticky. 



How Bees Made a Cherry Crop Possible 



Mr. E. Whitcomb, a former president of 

 the National Beekeepers' Association, and 

 one of the prominent beekeepers of Nebras- 

 ka, reports in the Independent Farmer of 

 May 25 how his bees made it possible for 

 hira to secure a big crop of cherries when 

 other cherry-growers, without bees, secured 

 none. He says : 



We had .300 bearing cherry-trees close to 

 our apiary. During the blooming season 

 there were two days during which our bees 

 worked on these cherry-blossoms profusely. 

 As a result we harvested 300 bushels of cher- 

 ries when our neighbors two or three miles 

 away, who had no bees, and whose trees 

 bloomed as profusely as did ours, were com- 

 pelled to come to our orchard for cherries. 



Prop. M. B. Waite, of the United States 

 Department of Agi-iculture, among other 

 things he has given to the public on the 

 sub.ject of the relation of bees to horticul- 

 ture, says: 



" Out of 2586 blossoms covered with 

 gauze netting, only three apples set fruit. 

 Of these the Baldwin, Spitzenburg, and 

 Fameuse set some fruit. The Baldwin, 

 which is often self-fertilized, gave four 

 times better results when cross-pollinated. 

 Cross-pollinated apples were larger, moi'e 

 highly colored, and better sui)plied with 

 seed." 



