628 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Decembkr, 1917 



easily lose the fine aroTia of the honey, since 

 the aroma is veiry volatile, and evaporates 

 easily. Overheated honey is not honey. It 

 is not even good molasses. 



In selling honey to local markets, near 

 home, we have always found it a good plan 

 to assure the dealers that any honey which 

 granulates on their hands will be replaced 

 by liquid honey or else will be removed and 



reliquefied free of charge — in other words, 

 that we will keep the honey on their shelves 

 in a liquid state. We find that the souih- 

 ern honeys do not as a rule candy as hard 

 as many of those from further north, ajid 

 are, therefore, not as well liked in the gran- 

 ulated state as those honeys that become 

 solid. Most customers like our Florida 

 honey best in the liquid form. 



NEWS h a s 

 reached me 

 from Bowl- 

 ing Green, Ken- 

 tucky, of the formation of the Warren 

 County Beekeepers' Association, with 0. L. 

 Cunningham as president. There is also a 

 "\nce-president, a secretary-treasurer, and 

 four directors. Good luck to you, Wai'ren 



County! 



* * * 



All the discussion about sealed covers 

 versus absorbents interests me greatly. We 

 have never used anything but sealed covers. 

 Spring after spi-ing finds combs in the hives 

 so moldy that even the bees, skillful and 

 thrifty tbo they are, destroy them rather 

 than try to reiiair them. ]\Iany of the ar- 

 guments for both sealed covers and ab- 

 sorbents have the ring of conviction that 

 com.es apparently from success with the pre- 

 ferred method. Will locality account for 

 all this varying experience? What makes 

 the difference between different hives in the 

 same yard? I wonder if considerable un- 

 sealed stores makes a dtiffei'ence in the 

 amount of moisture that condenses in the 

 hive. I have seen water coming out of the 

 entrances in winter, and have run a long 

 slender stick in several hives, and had it 

 come out from some wet all over, and from 

 others di'y. This fall I have removed a few 

 super covers, leaving only burlap between 

 the bees and the super of leaves, with sticks 

 under the burlap. 



« * • 



We had no trouble getting three hundred 

 pounds of sugar at $8.75; but when I de- 

 cided we would need another hundred I was 

 told of orders not to sell more than twenty 

 pounds to a customer. This was a very re- 

 cent order, however, and the grocer knew I 

 wasn't buying it to store away ; and so wh^^n 

 T told him how Washington had sent out 

 letters to beekeepers, urging especial care 

 in putting bees into winter quarters, to h k) 

 get a record crop next year, he sent me the 

 other hundvpd at $&.bO, wiiich put our little 

 yard iii j'leriy good shape as to =fores. 



THE DIXIE BEE 



Grace Allen, Nashville, Tenn. 



Trying out 

 the situation in 

 regard to buying 

 soiled or " sal- 

 vage " sugar, for feed, Mr. Allen visited 

 several wholesale grocers one day this week, 

 witliout success. One of them said that the 

 little they had that spilled out or got rained 

 on or otbenvise met mishap was sold at a 

 low price to the negroes helping around the 

 store. They dried it, he said, or sifted it, 

 etc., and were always glad to get it for use 

 at home. " No salvage sugar for our Ital- 

 ians," Mr. Allen reported that night; "it 

 all goes to the blacks." 



* * * 



THE CI,OSE OF THE YEAR 1917 



Dying, at last, this terrible year, 



This tragic and terrible year. 

 And children in far-off peaceful days 

 Shall look from their books in startled amaze 

 To say, " But, Mother, are these things true? 

 Did children like us and mothers like you 

 Starve ? And did death drop down from the sky ? 

 Did millions and millions of fathers die. 



That terrible year?" 



Dying, today, this glorious year. 



This stirring and glorious year. 

 And the youth of a fairer juster day, 

 With proud exulting eyes, shall say, 

 "They rose, my peaceable people, at length t 

 Quietly rose in their ancient strength; 

 With hearts aflame and flags unfurled 

 They marched to make a safer world. 



That glorious year!" 



Dying, so soon, this beautiful year, 



Tins fleeting, beautiful year. 

 In times to come if people shall say, 

 " There was nothing desirable, day after day " 

 Oh! I shall be a voice that sings, 

 " Bees with gay adventurous wings 

 Hummed and hummed ! spring brought flowers 

 And dawns and dreams and sun-lit hours 



That beautiful year!" 



That beautiful, terrible, glorious year — • 

 That strange bewildering year! 



We are quite an experiment stat'on this 

 fall. All liives have contracted entrances. 

 There are hives with no other winter atten- 

 tion; hives Avith supers of leaves only, with 

 supers of leaves and paper wrappings, with 



