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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



is scarce, dwindle away so fast that, before 

 young brood begins to hatch, the old bees 

 are half or two-thirds gone; while if honey 

 is plentiful the colony keeps its strength 

 much better. 



COLOR OF HONEY. 



Are you sure, Mr. Editor, that those bees 

 that gather amber alfalfa honey found no 

 other flowers to work on ? Were there no 

 weeds among the alfalfa, no plants growing 

 along the irrigating- ditches or on the deserts 

 within a few miles ? How does that sound 

 —amber alfalfa honey" ? 



I had an interesting experience last sea- 

 son. The clover honey during most of the 

 season was very white and fine, but that 

 gathered late was dark. I began to wonder 

 if honey gathered from clover late in the 

 season was dark like sugar made from 

 maples late in the season. On tasting it, it 

 seemed to be pure clover honey, only the 

 flavor as well as color was a little off. But 

 when I came to pack I foimd some where 

 the lower edge of the comb was quite dark, 

 and on tasting I was able to detect a 

 very perceptible buckwheat flavor, which 

 showed that the whole cause of the darker 

 shade of honey was caused by a very slight 

 mixture of buckwheat honey. I do not 

 remember to have had buckwheat stored in 

 my surplus-receptacles but three or four 

 times in the past forty years. Does the 

 darker or amber colored alfalfa have the 

 same flavor as that which is white ? 



[Since a "third party" has "butted" 

 into this scrimmage I respectfully invite a 

 "fourth party " to help me. It is not fair 

 for two big fat men to jump on to one poor 

 little editor. If I am to be " knocked out " 

 I'd like to have company. Regarding the 

 amber alfalfa. I feel quite positive that 

 there was nothing else from which the bees 

 could gather nectar. The soil and climate 

 are sufficient to account for the color, I 

 think. -Ed.] 



Mr. R. V. Murray, of Cleveland, the 

 Gleanings artist, sends the following verse 

 which comes in very properly just now: 



Let us, then, be up and doing ; 



Thrift comes to those who strive ; 

 The bee that gets the honey 



Doesn't loaf around the hive. 



Apicultura Moderna is the name of anew 

 bee-journal published in Bucharest, Rouma- 

 nia. The issue before me is the fourth. 

 This is the first bee- journal I have yet seen 

 in the Roumanian language, and we are glad 



to welcome the new exchange. In size it is 

 just like Gleanings, but contains only 24 

 pages. Judging by the headings, the jour- 

 nal is well filled with matter of an up-to- 

 date character. 



A writer in a French journal suggested, a 

 few months ago, that in handling queens or 

 cages containing queens the hands should be 

 rubbed over thoroughly with beeswax, as 

 that will prevent any odor from the hand 

 adhering to the cage. He says there is 

 something about beeswax that attracts a 

 bee's attention very strongly, and seems to 

 deprive the bee of its bad temper. I was 

 reminded of this suggestion by the article 

 on introducing- cages in last number. 



Paul Schonf eld, whose name has been so 

 long identified with advanced bee-keeping 

 in Europe, and whose fame in that line is 

 about on a par with that of Dzierzon, died 

 on the 7th of April. Like Dzierzon he was 

 a native of Silesia. By profession a clergy- 

 man, he drifted over into apiculture owing 

 to some unhappy experience with a man 

 who had charge of his bees. The dispute 

 caused Mr. Schonfeld to resolve to take 

 care of his b°e3 himself, and fortunate it is 

 for the world that it thus turned out. His 

 crowning work from a literary point of view 

 was his Investigations into the Anatomy 

 and Physiology of the Bee. Like Lang- 

 stroth he made the world his parish, and 

 blessed it, by so doing, for all time to come 

 I am indebted to the Leipzig Bee Journal 

 for the above. 



I glean from the other German bee papers 

 that father Dzierzon himself is fast failing 

 in health, being now in his 96th year; hence 

 we may expect that great luminary will 

 soon be below the horizon. 



I had made some arrangements to trans- 

 late the following article, but deferred do- 

 ing so on account of three new departments 

 now occupying the room that Pickings for- 

 merly did; but as Mr. Greiner has made a 

 translation of his own, and perhaps a better 

 one than I could, as he is a regular Deutsch- 

 er, I make place for it here, as I consider it 

 as valuable as any thing else I could find. 



THE EFFECT OF HARD WATER ON WAX : BY P. NEUMANN. 



Bee-keepers will have made the discovery that cakes 

 of wax often have a grayish, spongy sediment at the 

 bottom. What may be the cause of this? Maandschrip 

 yoon Bejenteelt gives the following explanation : Wax 

 is not a chemical combination, but a mixture of different 

 ingredients in varying quantities which may be again 

 separated one from another by boiling in alcohol. The 

 principal ingredients are myricin and cerin. There may 

 be also a high per cent of cerolin pr« sent. These three 

 ingredients may be separated in the following manner : 

 Cerin and cerolin will dissolve in boiling alcohol, but 

 myricin does nrt. Filtering the hot solution, taking 

 care all the while that it does not cool off during the 

 process, there will remain upon the filter the myricin as 

 a grayish matter. When the filtered portion is cooling 

 off, the cerin separates from the cerolin, as it does not 

 dissolve in cold alcohol. 



When myricin is heated in water for a long period, a 

 separation and uniting with the water occurs. As a re- 

 sult we have myricil alcohol and palmatin acid. The 

 lime which is present in hard water favors and hastens 

 this separation, and unites wit h the palmatin acid, form- 

 ing a lime salts which does not dissolve in water. This 

 is the chalky and spongy part on the under side of wax 



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