14 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1 



"Pulverized (not confectioners') sugar" 

 is recommended for candy, p. 1301. If you 

 buy in Marengo, both will come out of the 

 same barrel. In M. Ward's catalog, "Con- 

 fectioners' XXXX powdered" rates a trifle 

 higher than " Powdered, " which looks as 

 though "Confectioners'" should be the 

 better. I wonder what's what, anyhow. 

 [I learn from Dr. E. F. Phillips that a little 

 starch in powdered sugar will do no harm. 

 Mr. Benton uses just the ordinary pulver- 

 ized article worked up into a good stiff 

 dough. In a few days this may require a 

 little more sugar as the dough softens up. 

 Those who have received queens from the 

 Department will remember that the caiidy- 

 hole in the cages for holding it is lined with 

 beeswax, and then covered over nicely with 

 a piece of thin foundation. The purpose of 

 this is to confine the moisture of the candy 

 so it will not become too dry and hard. 

 This has particular reference to queen- cage 

 candy. "That which is used for feeding bees 

 in winter is made in precisely the same way, 

 although it is rot so important to have the 

 candy "just right." 



Prof. Cook, in his department, p. 1296, 

 doesn't say a word about getting a bigger 

 crop of honey, but spends his time talking 

 about mandibles, neuroptera, and things. 

 Gleanings isn't an entomological journal, 

 but a bee journal; and when we pay our 

 money for it we want something that will 

 tell us just how to get the biggest crops of 

 honey. But— but— hold on, young fellow— 

 and I want to speak more particularly to 

 younger readers— you take the advice of one 

 who is no spring chicken, and who has spent 

 many a year with the bees, and do you read 

 every word Professor Cook gives about the 

 classification and the structure of the bee. 

 Every item you get in that line will help to 

 make your world just a little bigger and 

 brighter, life a little more worth living. An 

 intimate knowledge of the structure of the 

 bees will help to make play out of your 

 work with them instead of drudgery, and 

 will help you to live longer, and so to get 

 more honey. It will also help, at least a 

 little, to make you manage them more in- 

 telligently. Don't stop at reading once: 

 read over and over, and study till it is clear. 

 It may seem like drudgery, but it will pay 

 well. I wouldn't give up for a good deal 

 the little I know about how a bee is put to- 

 gether. 



Ye editor asks, p. 1292, " But is it true, 

 doctor, that you generally have hot nights 

 during the honey- flow?" I've shut my eyes 

 and tried hard to think what is the right 

 answer to that question, and really I don't 

 know. Without having kept an exact ac- 

 count, it isn't easy to recall just the exact 

 proportion of cool nights; and possibly an 

 exact account would show more cool nights 

 than I had supposed. Here's one thing I do 

 know: We always count on our best flows 

 when we have nights so hot that we have to 

 hunt around for a spot cool enough to sleep. 

 Now, it's just possible that, instead of hav- 



ing all the increase credited to the better 

 flow af er a hot night, at least part of it 

 should be credited to the better wax- work- 

 ing during hot nights. [In this locality we 

 very seldom have it so hot as to make it de- 

 cidedly uncomfortable at night. Whenever 

 I can not sleep, and feel I am suffering from 

 lack of air and a good cool breeze, my phys- 

 ical condition is to a great extent overbal- 

 anced by the feeling that this will be just 

 right for nectar secretion. But going back 

 to the point of discussion, if there should be 

 a spell of cool nights (and your locality could 

 hardly be exempt every season) the protect- 

 ing-cases will be a great advantage; and if 

 the nights should turn very hot they will do 

 no harm. The chances are they would be 

 an advantage, taking the seasons as they 

 come and go. —Ed.] 



" Warning against reading brilliant but 

 ruinous ittacks on the m.arriage relation in 

 the boOxKs and plays of Shaw and Mseter- 

 linck was delivered hy Dr. Felix Adler in an 

 address before the Chicago Ethical Culture 

 Society yesterday. ' To know the manners 

 of disreputables of the othei half is not to 

 know life: it is to know death,' was Dr. Ad- 

 ler's declaration. ' You arise from such a 

 book and go back to the purity of your home 

 life feeling that you have been debased. . . 

 Among the social insurrectionists who avow 

 egotism as their principle is to be four.d 

 MEeterlinck. Admitting his delicate work- 

 manship, his Monna Vanna is a brief that 

 passion, if only strong enough, is justified in 

 breaking all bonds.' Prof. Adler's closing 

 words were, ' Don't read these books or see 

 these plays— don't. ' " — Chicago daily. 



SoJTie months ago I object^'d to unsound- 

 ness in Mjeterlinck's beautiful and brilliant 

 work on the bee— not so very much of it, 

 but the rottenness is there all the same, and 

 all the worse because insidious, so beautiful- 

 ly clothed that gord men have read the book 

 and praised it without stint without ever no- 

 ticing the evil that was in it. Let us keep 

 clear of poison, even when offered in a gild- 

 ed cup. [I shall have to confess I have not 

 read Maeterlinck as I suppose I should. De- 

 pending on the favorable comments o£ oth- 

 ers we cataloged it along with other bee 

 books. I will investigate. —Ed.] 



irresponsible commission houses. 

 Be careful about shipping honey to a new 

 commission house or to a new firm adver- 

 tising to buy honey outright. If you are at 

 all in doubt, write us first. We have already 

 had a case in hand where a party shipped 



