120 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1 



The New York bee institutes will be re- 

 ported in our next issue. 



Mr. 0. L. Hershiser has written an ar- 

 ticle showing that his bottom-board is not 

 affected by propolis attachments as suggest- 

 ed in the editor's footnote in our last issue. 

 It will appear in our Feb. 15th number. 



PRESERVATIVES NOT ALLOWED FOR PRE- 

 VENTING GRANULATION. 



Dealers over the country should under- 

 stand that putting small quantities of pre- 

 servatives such as salicylic or phosphoric 

 acid or even glycerine in honey to keep it 

 from candying will, in all probability, 

 cause it to be classed by chemists and food 

 commissioners as adulterated, and subject 

 the seller of such goods to a fine. One such 

 case occurred this summer, where a dealer 

 put a small quantity of phosphoric acid in 

 honey— not to adulterate it, he said, but to 

 keep it in a liquid condition. Whether it 

 would or not I do not know, but the pure- 

 food commissioner got hold of a sample of 

 this, had it analyzed, and the dealer was 

 notified to discontinue the sale of all such 

 honey, which he did. If preservatives were 

 permitted for the purpose of preventing 

 granulation this might open the door wide 

 to fraud ; and it is well, perhaps, that the 

 commissioners and chemists should declare 

 that all such honeys be classed as adulter- 

 ated. * 



manufactured (?) COMB HONEY WANTED. 



A SHORT time ago Mr. Walter S. Pouder, 

 of Indianapolis, received a letter which he 

 thought was rather a joke on him. It was 

 nothing more nor less than an inquiry for 

 prices on machine-manufactured comb honey. 

 Mr. Pouder referred this to us; and my re- 

 ply, with the address and all, is given as 

 per below: 



Mr. C. A. Cook, Fairmount, Ind.—Dear Sir: — Your 

 letter of Oct. 20, to Walter S. Pouder, making inquiry 

 for artificial comb honey, supposing him to be a manu- 

 facturer, has been referred to us at Medina, for M r. 

 Pouder is one of our agents who sells our bee-keepers' 

 supplies. You have been misinformed as to the exist- 

 ence of this product on the market— namely, machine- 

 made artificial comb honey. There is no such article 

 for sale, never has been, and never will be. We enclose 

 you one of our thousand-dollar reward cards that we 

 have had out for over fifteen years. We have sent it 

 broadcast over the country, and the exact language of 

 it has been copied in a number of the large daily papers, 

 but never have we had any one who would presume to 

 take up with the terms of the offer. Likewise, the Na- 

 tional Bee-keepers' Association, an organization of 2000 

 members, has offered a thousand dollars for proof of the 

 existence of machine-made comb honey, which offer has 

 also been published widely without a taker. The La- 



dies' Home Jotwnal recently published an item to the 

 effect that there might be such manufactured comb 

 honey. Several other magazines gave currency to simi- 

 lar stories; but every on^ of them, with scarcely an ex- 

 ception, has published a retraction when the facts were 

 laid before them. 



We can f urnisli you regular bee-comb honey in any 

 quantity. If you make known your exact requirements 

 we shall be glad to give you prices and particulars. 

 Yours truly. 



The A. I. Root Co., 

 per E. R. Root. 



Mr. Pouder thought it was hardly worth 

 noticing; but I should like to get hold of all 

 such inquirers, and give them a good solid 

 dose of facts. 



OUTDOOR FEEDING ; WHEN IT SHOULD AND 

 SHOULD NOT BE PRACTICED. 



In this issue, page 132, Mr. Doohttle men- 

 tions some of the disadvantages of outdoor 

 feeding. Taking it all in all, he advises the 

 beginner to let it alone. In this I entirely 

 agree with him. I also agree with him that 

 it should not be practiced in the spring when 

 the weather is a little cool. As to some of 

 the other difficulties, I can only say that, 

 only a year or so ago, I would have written 

 myself just as Mr. Doollttle does. My first j 

 experience in outdoor feeding was decidedly 

 unfavorable; but later experience on a more 

 extended scale showed me that the difficul- 

 ties were not nearly as great as I had ex- 

 pected. For the queen-breeder I consider it 

 the greatest boon that has yet been offered; 

 for by careful management the bee-keeper 

 can bring about artificial conditions very 

 much like a natural honey- flow, when cell 

 cups will be accepted, built out, queens in- 

 troduced and mated; and as to robbing and 

 getting weak colonies or nuclei robbed out, 

 there is not a particle of need of it. None 

 of our bees stood the outdoor feeding better 

 than those in our baby nuclei, and we had a 

 lot of them. It is true^ as Mr. Doolittle 

 says, some colonies will get more than they 

 need. No harm in that, for the colonies 

 that have too much can spare surplus combs 

 to those that do not have enough. It is 

 simp y a matter of equalizing stores on the 

 part of the bee-keeper. As Mr. Doolittle is 

 a queen- breeder himself, I strongly urge 

 him, if there are not other bees in his im- 

 mediate locality, to try the plan out again, 

 being careful to observe all the hints that 

 have been given by the different writers on 

 the subject within the last six months. 



THE MINNESOTA BEE-KEEPERS' CONVENTION. 



A MEETING of the State Bee-keepers' As- 

 sociation was held at Minneapolis on Thurs- 

 day and Friday, Dec. 7 and 8, 1904. I had 

 intended to get in a mention before this; 

 but the reports of other conventions of a 

 prior date crowded it out until now. In the 

 mean time I wrote to the Secretary for a 

 report of the meeting, but have not heard 

 from her at the present time. 



The convention was called to order by Dr. 

 E. K. Jacques, of Robbinsdale, who proved 

 to be an excellent presiding officer, and just 



