E 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



AUGUST, 1921 



1 



OUR FRONT cover this month shows one 

 of the apiaries of The A. I. Root Company 

 near Medina, Ohio, as it 

 appeared in July before 

 any of the honey was 

 taken of£. The Root 

 Company has near Medina a series of apiar- 

 ies which are operated for extracted honey. 

 The crop from these apiaries this season 

 will probably be somewhere between one 

 and a half and two carloads of honey. 



A PECULIAR honeydew 

 gathered from scrub pine 



sometimes 

 considerable 

 quantities, w h i c h 

 Melezitose, a contains the rare 

 Rare Sugar trisaccharide, mele- 

 in Honeydew. zitose. Minute quan- 

 tities of this rare 

 sugar have been available to scientists for 

 many years, but never in larger quantities 

 until it was discovered in honeydew in this 

 country. It derives its name from melez, 

 the French name for larch tree, on which it 

 was originally discovered as honeydew. It 

 also occurs as manna on a leguminous tree 

 in Persia. Recently it has been found in 

 the form of honeydew on the Douglass fir 

 in British Columbia and from scrub pines 

 in Pennsylvania and Maryland. 



Honeydew which contains melezitose 

 granulates almost as fast as it is stored in 

 the combs, and sometimes the dry crystals 

 can be seen in the bottom of the cells even 

 when only a few drops of nectar have been 

 deposited in them. Some manufacturing 

 chemists desire to obtain honeydew which 

 contains melezitose, and beekeepers who 

 are located where it is gathered freely may 

 be able to supply this demand, which is, 

 of course, for limited amounts only. Just 

 now we have a letter from the Digestive 

 Ferments Co., Detroit, Mich., inquiring 

 where such honeydew can be obtained. Bee- 

 keepers who have a supply of honeydew 

 which granulates quickly could determine 

 whether it contains melezitose by sending a 

 sample to this firm. 



OUR READERS will find a vast amount of 

 information within a small space in the 

 Opinions of Produc- 

 WhatHasthe ers on our market 

 Harvest Been? pages. Southern 

 California has had 

 a very poor yield from orange and sage. 

 while farther north in the State the yield 

 is better. Taken as a whole the reports 



from California indicate that the crop in 

 that State will be far below normal. It is 

 too early to estimate the yield from alfalfa 

 and sweet clover in the Intermountain re- 

 gion; but present indications are that the 

 crop will be below normal in Colorado, Ida- 

 ho, and Nevada, while farther north ])ros- 

 pects apparently are better. Reports from 

 the sweet clover belt of the Missouri River 

 Valley indicate a good yield from this 

 source. Reports from Texas are much more 

 encouraging than earlier in the season, and 

 some parts of this State at least will have 

 a normal crop. In the white clover region 

 the area of heaviest yield apparently is 

 northern Ohio, eastern Indiana, southeastern 

 Michigan, and Ontario, where tlie yield is 

 well above 100 pounds per colony in well- 

 managed apiaries. Outside of this area the 

 yield from clover is spotted. Northern New 

 York and Vermont report but little surplus. 

 Central and western New York report 

 yields from 20 to 50 pounds per colony. In 

 Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa the yield is 

 spotted, but generally somewhat below nor- 

 mal, except that western Iowa has a good 

 crop in the sweet clover section. The At- 

 lantic Coast States south of Pennsylvania 

 have secured but little surplus honey ex- 

 cept in some portions of Florida. Eastern 

 Tennessee reports a good crop from clover. 



ao^c«= 



ALTHO it was the plan of the committee in 

 charge of the contributions for the Doctor 



Miller Me- 

 Contributions to morial Fund 



Doctor Miller to close the 



Memorial to Continue, subscriptions 

 in June, it 

 has been decided to continue the effort un- 

 til a larger amount has been collected. Some 

 scattered contributions are still being re- 

 ing received, and members of various bee- 

 keepers ' associations have suggested that 

 their associations may desire to contribute. 

 "The Bee World" of England and the 

 "South African Bee Journal" are asking 

 their readers to contribute to this fund, and 

 it will take some time for these contribu- 

 tions to be collected and sent to this coun- 

 try. Surely, if men in other parts of the 

 world are eager to honor the memory of 

 Doctor Miller, a greater number of the bee- 

 keepers of the United States than have al- 

 ready contributed will desire to do so if 

 given more time. The committee has de- 

 cided to continue its efforts to collect a 

 fund large enough to provide a lasting me- 



