1416 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15 



[We have, or shall have, about Jan. 1. the 

 very thing in the national Hepburn pure-food 

 law that the Germans are now seeking at the 

 hands of their own government. From ev- 

 ery point of view it should not be possible to 

 label any product as "honey" unless it be 

 that which was gathered by the bees from 

 flowers, modified, and stored in their combs 

 —Ed. J 



Pkof. Gaston Bonnier says that, among 

 the field bees, must be distinguished those 

 which he caWs j]ros]]ecto7-s (chercheuses). In- 

 stead of going straight to their aim they seek 

 here and there over all sorts of objects to find 

 the day's work for the colony. Numerous 

 in the morning, they become less and less as 

 the day advances, themselves taking up the 

 role of gatherers; consequently any sweet 

 placed at a little distance is quickly found in 

 the morning, but very slowly late in the day. 

 — Les Abeillcs. [This may be true; but I do 

 not see how it can be proved. — Ed.] 



"Ten Congressional districts in Indiana 

 are now organized by the liquor men. State 

 Organizer Philip Heisee has issued an appeal 

 to the liquor interests of the State to resist 

 the temperance crusade lest the business be 

 destroyed.— Chicago Daily. Must be some- 

 thing doing by the other sort of people to 

 arouse a feeling like that. [You are right. 

 The best evidence that the temperance cause 

 is now progressing is the way the liquor peo- 

 ple squirm, metaphorically speaking, through 

 their papers. The time was, and that not 

 over fifteen years ago, when they feared no 

 efforts on the part of religious or' temperance 

 people. But, say: I doubt if ten Congres- 

 sional districts in Indiana are organized for 

 and by the liijuor men. — Ei>.] 



Referring to last f(^otnote, page 1348, the 

 curious part was that, so long as roblDing 

 continued at that pile — and it was for three 

 or four days — only three-banders were at it. 

 I tried to ti'ace them to some particular 

 hive, but failed to do so. Perhaps I did not 

 try hard enough. [If you simply try to trace 

 home a robber, I think you wil'l fail in the 

 attempt. If you had sprinkled fiour on 

 these bees as tliey came forth with their sto- 

 len sweets, then gone around and inspected 

 the entrance of every one of your hives. 1 

 think you would have found that some par- 

 ticular hive was receiving most if not all of 

 the powdered bees. Then is not true that a 

 rol)ber as it hurries from the hive will circle 

 about a little? and where there are so many 

 bees flying in the air it makes it next to 

 impossible to trace it to any particular hive. 

 But mark them in some way, and the task 

 is easy. — Ed.] 



Sometimes when sealed honey is spaced 

 wider so as to give room for it, the bees 

 build fresh cells over the capping to fill with 

 honey. I wonder if it is generally known 

 that in such ease the honey under the first 

 capping is to the bees the same as so much 

 wood When they reach the fii'st capping 

 they seem to think it the septum, and will 

 starve rather than dig through. Not only 

 so, but if the (tapping be slightly depressed, 



without any second building over it, as some- 

 times happens (for what reason I don't in 

 the least understand), such cells will not be 

 uncapped by the bees. I have sent you, Mr. 

 Editor, a bit of comb with a few such cells. 

 I have submitted it to the robbers here, and 

 they would not uncap it. Please see what 

 your robbers will do with it. (Incidentally, 

 notice the foundation-splint in the comb.) 

 [What you say in the first part of this Straw- 

 is, I think, true, for I see evidence of the 

 fact in our own yard. But it is not true in 

 our experience that sunken cappings are 

 any more immune to the attacks of robbers 

 than cells capped in the ordinary way. We 

 placed the very sample comb that you mail- 

 ed us in the hands of our Mr. Wardell. Our 

 robbers dug it open without anv hesitation. 

 It is possible our bees are better " trained " 

 in the stealing business than yours, doctor 

 — Ed.] 



Editor York quotes this from Printer's 

 Ink: "One of the most disastrous campaigns 

 in the history of advertising, it is said, was 

 that of corn products, with Karo corn syr- 

 up." Then he is inhuman enough— no, hu- 

 man enough— to gloat over the failure of an 

 article, in advertising which such immense 

 sums were spent, and closes by saying: "It 

 was a deliberate attempt to displace honey 

 as a table article, but the scheme did not 

 work. The fact is, there is no substitute for 

 honey; and if bee-keepers could spend as 

 much money to advertise honey as was spent 

 on trying to popularize the miserably tast- 

 ing 'Karo-Korn Konkoktion,' we believe it 

 would create such a demand for honey as 

 would take every pound, every year, and at 

 a greatly increased price over present mar- 

 ket quotations." Which is, no doubt, true; 

 but, alas, the history of the Honey-produc- 

 ers' League does not make the case look 

 very hopeful. It was as honest an attempt 

 as ever was made for the general good; but 

 the many were willing to leave the work to 

 the few, and some who should have been its 

 friends stood off and threw stones. [This 

 all goes to show that heavy advertising alone 

 will not sell a poor product. It is possible 

 and even probable that the glucose people 

 saw the impending legislation that we now 

 have, and wished to test out the proposition 

 whether glucose could be sold under its real 

 name. I do not believe the dear public ob- 

 jected to the name "Karo" or corn prod- 

 ucts, but that it preferred to pay a little 

 more money and get something that had a 

 real flavor and sweetness to it. — Ed.] 



Abbe Pincot, in a long article in UApi- 

 culteur, shows that bees build cells according 

 to the varying sizes of the bees, the diam- 

 eter of cells built by Italians having been 10 

 per cent greater than those built by degen- 

 erate blacks; that increasing the size of cells 

 increases the size of bees; that the increase 

 is not in the thorax, but in the abdomen, giv- 

 ing larger honey-sacs and a larger amount of 

 honey stored. If he is correct in these things 

 should we not have foundation of a little 

 larger size? How many cells to a given sur- 



