362 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



United States, from Chesapeake Bay to the 

 Rio Grande, is one vast fish and oyster pre- 

 serve (see what A. I. Root says about Flori- 

 da), affording luxuries unknown to inland 

 people. The climate being mild, fruit, truck, 

 stock, and bees do well; and the American 

 people, enamored of the golden West, have 

 overlooked a very attractive country. The 

 writer has seen the whole coast from New 

 York to Galveston, and can, therefore, bear 

 this testimony. Furthermore, there are 

 many Americans looking all over the tropics 

 for locations who can find just about what 

 they want in the United States. 



In the countries of South America, with 

 the exceptions of Chili and Argentina, ants 

 are a great worry and annoyance to bee- 

 men, and bee-hive benches should be always 

 constructed to circumvent them. Northern 

 folks have no conception of the wonderful 

 ability of these tropical scourges. They can 

 destroy a good-sized apiary in one or two 

 nights. The writer has had to nail up the 

 entrances to his hives every night to pro- 

 tect his bees from annihilation. The bees 

 fight a battle royal in self-defense, but suc- 

 cumb to superior numbers. These ants have 

 been known to construct a tunnel under a 

 river as wide as the Thames at London. 

 The carnivorous species are extremely fond 

 of bee larvae— a precious tit- bit. They can 

 not do any thing against the stingless bees. 

 How many people realize the fact that Apis 

 mellifica is a tropical animal? Many seem 

 to think and act as if it were a native of 

 northern latitudes. Apis still retains all its 

 tropical habits, though the newspapers are 

 fond of saying the honey-bee learns to be 

 lazy in the tropics. Apis is "at home" in 

 the tropics. It can stand much less cold 

 than most tropical animals. A temperature 

 of 50 degrees Fah. seems to put it hors de 

 combat. 



TOP ENTRANCES. 



Top entrances are seemingly great novel- 

 ties to many bee-keepers. In Stray Straws 

 (March 1, 1905) appears the following: "Top 

 entrances are said, in Apiculteur, to increase 

 the yield of honey 20 per cent. I can imag- 

 ine that there might be some increase over 

 hives with the entrance at bottom, and that 

 too small for hot weather. For years I've 

 had piles four or five stories high, an en- 

 trance to each story, and an entrance at the 

 iDack of the cover. I can't say whether they 

 stored more honey; but I can say that none 

 of them ever swarmed. But it doesn't work 

 for comb honey. ' ' For my part I can add 

 but little to this except to say auger-holes 

 bored with a Fostner bit answer very well. 

 The holes are best half way up the honey- 

 chamber, not too near the zinc. Don't make 

 the mistake of making too many holes, al- 

 ways remembering the lowest entrances 

 should be largest. In hot weather a cover 

 entrance is necessary. Some one asks if top 

 entrances are practical. Yes, decidedly. I 

 don't see how an extracted- honey producer 



can very well get along without them, and 

 I didn't know there were many bee-keepers 

 who didn't use them. 



j0 



GLUCOSE AS A FOOD (?) 



The distinguished chemists who advocate 

 glucose as an excellent food should be com- 

 pelled to take some of their own medicine 

 by taking a reasonable amount every day. 

 I don't mean sugar coated glucose — the 

 straight goods. Their wives won't allow it 

 on their tables — not if they know it. The 

 time has come for all honey- producers to 

 join hands with the makers of real fruit jelly 

 and jam, and suppress this fraud. The case 

 is precisely similar to that of the dairy in- 

 terest and oleomargarine. One of the oddest 

 things that ever reached the West Indies is 

 an extensively advertised table corn syrup. 

 It owes all its flavor to a small pro- 

 portion of cane syrup. The cane sugar men 

 want to know what's the matter with put- 

 ting in more cane syrup, say 99 per cent, 

 and letting the public have something real 

 nice. Every bee-keeper who comes in con- 

 tact with fruit-growers should use his best 

 endeavors to show them the great loss to the 

 fruit industry by the substitution of glucose 

 for real fruit jelly. Owing to the fear of 

 adulteration, housekeepers all over this 

 broad land are compelled to make their own 

 jellies. Were it otherwise they could buy 

 ready-made jelly cheaper than their own. 



RENDERING WAX OUTDOORS BY THE 

 HOT-WATER METHOD. 



BY ARNT ARNESON. 



Not having the ready cash last spring 

 wherewith to buy an up-to date wax-press, 

 and yet seeing the need of doing something 

 to convert the accumulating slumgum into 

 good marketable wax, I devised the appli- 

 ance shown in the illustration. The cash 

 outlay was nothing, as I had a Settle al- 

 ready. The time actually spent in construct- 



ing it was about three hours. The outfit 

 consists of a 40- gallon copper kettle placed 

 on a strong foundation, an 18-ft. ironwood 

 lever, anchored to a stump; one large block 

 of wood, and several smaller ones for ful- 

 crum; two mower-wheels for weight; a gun- 

 ny sack to hold slumgum, and the customary 

 slotted affairs to go under and over the sack 

 containing slumgum. 



