1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



(5 



by the Department. Write to Prof. H. W. 

 Wiley, Department of Agriculture, Wash- 

 ington, D. C, W. A. Selser, 10 Vine Street, 

 Philadelphia, and Prof. E. N. Eaton, Chicago, 

 Ills., or to any other chemist who may be 

 connected with a pure-food department. If 

 honey-dew were barred out, any of us might 

 be subject to a fine and possible imprison- 

 ment for selling adulterated honey. Such 

 a condition of affairs would drive two-thirds 

 of the bee-keepers out of the business. 

 There ought to be at least 20,000 letters 

 sent in to the chemists to let them know the 

 sentiment of the bee-keeping fraternity of 

 the United States. Write any way, whether 

 you have honey-dew in your locality or not. 

 You do not know ivhen your bees may gather 

 some of the stuff, and you be made the vic- 

 tim of the law. — Ed.] 



Replying to your footnote, p. 1143, Mr. 

 Editor, I was talking about wintering on p. 

 1055, but you asked a general question on 

 the next page about the difference between 

 honey and sugar syrup, and you will see that 

 I answered it as such without reference to 

 wintering, page 1()99, where you will see 

 that neither of us made any reference to 

 wintering, although you were probably 

 thinking of it and I was not. But let's get 

 back to the original question, which is real- 

 ly a very important one, ' ' Is good honey 

 better than sugar syrup for wintering?" 

 I'm frank to say I don't know. The testi- 

 mony of Editor Reidenbach, page 1012, is 

 pretty strong that the two colonies suffered 

 from having sugar only. I'm sorry to say I 

 don't remember how many other colonies 

 there were, but my impression is that the 

 number was considerable. But it is possible 

 that there was some other trouble with those 

 two particular colonies, leaving the question 

 still open. Mr. Hutchinson, yourself, and 

 others, testify that bees have wintered just 

 as well on sugar as on honey. But do you 

 know that the bees of any particular colony 

 would not have been just a little more vig- 

 orous if they had had honey instead of 

 sugar? A man who takes his daily dram of 

 whisky lives to good old age with never a 

 day of sickness; but does that prove that he 

 would not have been better off with water 

 in place of whisky? A colony comes out 

 strong on sugar; but does that prove it 

 would not have been better off with honey 

 in place of sugar? Honey contains elements 

 for building up tissue that are not contained 

 in sugar, but is there enough wear and tear 

 of tissue in winter to make the difference 

 count? Can we have any positive testi- 

 mony either way? [Of late years we have 

 paid but very little attention to the question 

 of winter food for bees, except that the honey 

 in all cases should be at least a good table 

 honey well ripened. We have wintered for 

 years with a good grade of clover or bass- 

 wood, and used this food right alongside of 

 pure sugar syrup sealed in the combs. We 

 have never had any choice. So far as we 

 could see, one way was as good as the other. 

 Very possibly if we had conducted the ex- 

 periments along scientific lines, weighing 



and measuring, and noting exactly the con- 

 ditions of the colonies in the spring, we 

 might have seen a difference ; but the differ- 

 ence, if any, was not sufficiently noticeable 

 to call our attention to the matter.— Ed.] 





m"c{:^'^ 



55 



An interesting article on the uses of 

 honey as practiced by the Arabs appears in 

 UAbeille, published in Algiers. The Arabs 

 think the best honey in the world comes 

 from Sicily. "It is the most perfect in 

 point of taste, and its perfume is exquisite. 

 No other honey is more savory, more richly 

 colored, more unctious to the tongue. It 

 granulates rapidly, but is dissolved by the 

 use of a very moderate amount of heat. It 

 is so thick that, by dipping the finger in it, 

 it will form a thread of honey reaching to 

 the ground, without breaking." In fact, 

 that is the test among the Arabs as to 

 whether honey is ripe enough to eat. 



A Cleveland daily announces as something 

 wonderful that a man now living in Canada 

 is going to establish a bee-farm in Texas of 

 480 acres. Even if bees could be confined 

 by fences that would not be a very large 

 bee-range. Then the man is going to do 

 what was never attempted before. He is 

 going to import his queens from Italy! They 

 will be so valuable as to be worth their 

 weight in gold— that is, about 20 cents apiece 

 if we take that statement literally. We are 

 further informed that good queens from 

 Italy range in price from $50 to $100. What 

 a fine story was spoiled by the ignorance of 

 that writer, when the truth would have 

 served him much better ! The whole matter 

 was explained to the editor, but such tri- 

 fling deviations from the truth do not seem 

 to disturb him in the least. 



What would the world do for sugar if the 

 present supply from cane and beets were 

 cut off ? Yet we do not have to go far back 

 in history to find that these two sources of 

 sugar were of no use to mankind for that 

 purpose. The extent to which honey took 

 its place is seen from the following extract 

 from "Joyce's Child's History of Ireland," 

 quoted in the Irish Bee Journal : 



HONEY IN ANCIENT ERIN. 

 There was no sugar, and honey was greatly valued; 

 bee-hives were kept everywhere; and the management 

 of bees was considered such an important industry that 

 a special section of the Brehon Laws is devoted to it. 

 The people used honey in a great many different ways. 

 They basted roasted meat with it; it was used with 

 salmon while cooking, and as a seasoning with all sorts 

 of dishes. Often at meals each person had a little dish 

 sometimes of silver, filled with honey, beside his plate 



