1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



421 



I have a sample of it now; and, although 

 nearly twenty-five years old, it has never 

 granulated. 



But some one will say, as did Mr. Niver, 

 ' ' I never saw a bee on white daisies. ' ' Well, 

 I have, but it is not very often that we do. 

 I think I might say further that we feel sure 

 as to the source of this honey. During the 

 past season we have seen very few bees on 

 clover. Indeed, I think when there is a 

 great abundance of flowers there are fewer 

 bees seen on them than when there are but 

 few flowers. In seasons when clover fails 

 to yield early in the season we sometimes 

 have the sections started nicely, and just 

 enough of this reddish honey put in some of 

 them to injure their quality, the same as 

 l3oolittle speaks of. When this honey is 

 first gathered it smells and tastes as a field 

 of daisies does. It is rarely very abundant, 

 and, apparently, bees wear out rapidly while 

 gathering it. 



From information received from buck- 

 wheat sections I am under the impression 

 that the fine appearance of clover honey in 

 those sections is sometimes injured from be- 

 ing mixed with a dark honey gathered from 

 volunteer buckwheat during clover bloom. 

 In thinking over this subject it occurred to 

 me to look in the A B C of Bee Culture to 

 see what it had to say about the honey- pro- 

 ducing quality of these somewhat despised 

 daisies, and did not even find it included 

 among those that produce honey. I have 

 received this honey, or what appeared to be, 

 through the mails, sent me as sumac honey; 

 and I have no doubt sumac honey was mixed 

 with it, as both bloom together. 



Now, if any one can bring proof, beyond 

 the shadow of a doubt, that the flowers of 

 any given plant actually change color on dif- 

 ferent soils, or in slightly different climates 

 or seasons; if it is white in one place and 

 dark or reddish in another, it would establish 

 an exceedingly interesting botanical fact, 

 providing the change were sufficiently pro- 

 nounced as to affect materially its commer- 

 cial value, as Doolittle suggests. 



This may all seem a very small matter, 

 and I would not claim it a large subject; and 

 yet if we are in the habit of accounting for 

 inferior grades of honey from sources of 

 good repute to some mysterious influence of 

 soil or climate, I fear we shall lose some 

 grains of truth that might be of value to us 

 all. 



It would be an excellent thing, and a most 

 interesting thing as well, if bee-keepers 

 could or would collect different kinds of hon- 

 ey of undoubted purity for their own pleas- 

 ure, and for the information of others inter- 

 ested. Few things will interest a crowd 

 quicker than showing samples of different 

 kinds of honey. This would be good work 

 for the boys winter evenings. The expense 

 of sending samples through the mails is very 

 small, and will well repay the trouble. 



[On one of my western trips there was 

 nothing, perhaps, that surprised me more 

 than to find alfalfa honey on the amber or- 



der in some localities where nothing grew 

 but alfalfa, while in other localities in the 

 West it had the same color as the ordinary 

 clover of the East. Both of the alfalfa sec- 

 tions were irrigated, but the soil was differ- 

 ent, and the number of cuttings varied. 

 This, it would seem to me, is a very clear 

 case where the soil and cHmate do affect the 

 color of the honey from the same plant. I 

 might point out the localities where the 

 darker alfalfa is produced; but some of the 

 resident bee keepers would not thank me 

 for advertising the fact that their alfalfa 

 was not as light in color as that produced in 

 some of the other irrigated sections. 



In the East it may be very hard to prove, 

 in view of the great variety of plants that 

 may or may not be in bloom, the effect of 

 climate and soil on the color of honey from 

 any particular plant. —Ed.] 



CURING AND KEEPING COMB HONEY. 



"Good morning, Mr. Doolittle. My name 

 is Alderman, and I have come up north from 

 Florida to have a short talk with you about 

 curing comb honey." 



" All right, Mr. Alderman. But aren't you 

 a little early in the season in talking about 

 comb honey and the curing of the same when 

 we have snow on the ground?" 



' ' Perhaps so, for you northern people, and 

 it is a little early for us; but I wished to 

 know at this time so I might be fixing what 

 I may need by way of preparation, before I 

 am too busy to do so with my season's work. 

 Will you tell me how you fix your room for 

 comb honey, so it will keep honey after it is 

 off the hives?" 



' ' The most necesssary part about a room 

 for comb honey here at the North is to have 

 the roof and sunny sides painted some dark 

 color which will absorb the rays of the sun 

 so as to warm up the whole interior during 

 the day time to from 85 to 100 degrees; but 

 you might not need the dark paint in the 

 South for this purpose. You will know bet- 

 ter about this. ' ' 



"What is the object of keeping honey so 

 hot? I have thought of some way of keep- 

 ing it cool. ' ' 



"The object is to keep as near a tempera- 

 ture as possible with that which the bees 

 use when they are keeping honey; for you 

 know that, the longer the honey stays on 

 the hive during warm weather, the better it 

 grows, save the one thing of discoloring the 

 nice white cappings of the combs. Were it 

 not for this coloring of the white combs, and 

 lack of room on the hive, there could not 



