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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



J. E. Crane 



SIFTINGS I Middlebury.Vt. 



From that interesting- article on 

 page 494, June 15, it looks as tho 

 we shall have to revise our meth- 

 ods of bottling honey by using a 

 lower temperature for a longer pe- 

 riod. More and more, honey is 

 coming to the front as a most val- 

 uable food. 



* * * 



" The beginner should understand there 

 is a large amount of risk in trying to intro- 

 duce a laying queen to a colony that has 

 been queenless for a week or ten days," says 

 the editor, page 518, July 1. Yet this is 

 the method advised by queen-breeders fifty 



years ago. 



* * * 



The g-reenish yellow pollen from clover 

 that Prof. Lovell speaks of, page 477, June 

 15, here appears to be a greenish brown; 

 and, while not abundant in each flower, it 

 proves to be very abundant in the aggre- 

 gate, as I believe bees gather more of it 

 than any other kind. 



* * * 



August 14 the Vermont beekeepers met 

 in this town for a summer meeting. I be- 

 lieve it was the largest gathering we have 

 ever had, owing in part to a large crop of 

 honey in this immediate vicinity and the 

 presence of C. P. Dadant, editor of the 

 American Bee Journal. 



It is decidedly interesting at this season 

 to watch the gTowing fruit, and cut open 

 imperfect ones and discover that the cause 

 of the imperfect development of the fruit 

 which, in almost every case, is the lack of 

 the proper fertilization of the flowers, and. 

 as a consequence, the lack of growth of 



seed and fruit. 



* * * 



The crop in our county will be abundant 

 this year; but last week I was inspecting 

 bees in the next county south and was sur- 

 prised to learn that the crop there would be 

 very light — not half that of last year. This 

 week I met two beekeepers from the north 

 part of the state, from two different coun- 

 ties, who say they have secured very little 

 honey this year. 



There is a fitness in using so much of the 

 space of the Aug. 1st number to the mar- 

 keting of honey. As Mr. C. P. Dadant 

 remarked a day or two ago, the future of 

 profitable beekeeping will depend on our 

 ability to increase its consumption. I am 

 glad to know the A. I. Root Co. are enter- 



ing on a vigorous campaign of honoy ad- 

 vertising — page 646, Aug. 1. 



Tt seems that Massachusetts has recently 

 passed a law iirohibiting misstatements in 

 advertising. It prohibits untruthful state- 

 ments of values in excess of advertised 

 prices ; false declarations that the advertiser 

 emjiloys ; misleading statements designed to 

 induce the public to go into the establisli- 

 ment of the advertiser, and other intention- 

 ally deceptive advertising, etc. Let the good 

 work go on. 



* * » 



Three or four weeks ago we began to 

 wonder how we were to get our honey home 

 from the outyards. We could not hiie a 

 truckman; farmers were busy with their 

 haying; livery teams were expensive, and 

 our own horse was getting tired out. We 

 bought an International motor truck that 

 lias given us no end of pleasure. It solves 

 the problem of transportation to outyards, 

 and our horse has been turned out to pas- 

 ture. 



» * * 



WHien I see an article by Allen Latham 

 in Gleanings I always " sit up and take 

 notice," and his discussion of European 

 foul brood on page 479, June 15, is no 

 exception. While I am not prepared to 

 accept fully his theory as to the spread of 

 the disease (he may be right) I am quite 

 sure the disease spreads from nurse bees 

 entering a neighboring hive. There may 

 be more than one way in which it spreads. 

 With me I have found a hive standing near 

 another having the disease much more sub- 

 ject to it than those further away. 



Mr. Latham assum&s that the reason Ital- 

 ian bees are more immune to European foul 

 brood is because they remove the diseased 

 larvae bodily. If this theory holds true, then 

 we may believe that in removing the dead 

 larva) by first sucking the soft parts the 

 blacks get germs into their stomachs, and so 

 transmit the disease to other larvae. Now, 

 I have found Italian bees much more resis- 

 tant to American foul brood than black 

 bees. When I go thru a yard of bees for 

 the first time where American foul brood has 

 recently broken out, and find every colony 

 of black bees in bad shape from the disease, 

 and the Italian bees but slightly affected, 

 and perhaps some of them showing no indi- 

 cation of disease, I have great respect for 

 their ability to resist this form of disease, 

 as well as European foul brood. Let us be 

 thankful for tlie lemonade treatment, , 



