1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



317 



wooden slide on the under side so that the 

 opening can be closed as weather conditions 

 require. — Ed.] 



THE PREVALENCE OF THE BELIEF IN THE 

 COMB-HONEY LIE. 



Like most bee-keepers I have been trou- 

 bled a good deal in the past year about these 

 stories of manufactured comb honey. When- 

 ever I talk to a stranger about honey I al- 

 ways like to give him a chance to express 

 his opinion on the subject. It is hardly an 

 exaggeration to say that nine-tenths of the 



Eeople beheve these stories as firmly as they 

 elieve in their own judgment. Most of us 

 have a great appetite for the marvelous, 

 and a strong inclination to believe that we 

 are being cheated. For this reason I think 

 our denials are nearly useless. The world 

 is accustomed to seeing an injurious story 

 followed by a denial; and in any case where 

 a lie has been received in good faith a con- 

 tradiction by an interested party has very 

 little effect. 



I think our best course in fighting these 

 lies is not to fight them too fiercely. Like 

 all foolish stories it will finally die of mere 

 weakness if we let it alone. In the mean 

 time we can make our product and our deal- 

 ings so honest that our neighbors, at least, 

 will believe in us, and be ready to take our 

 word for it when we tell them that our hon- 

 ey is made by the bees. If you must sell in 

 the cities, sell in a near one, and invite your 

 wholesale man to visit your apiary. If he 

 comes, show him every thing, but especially 

 the bees. If he can not come, you can at 

 least visit him often enough to keep on good 

 terms. Be an honest man, and he will be 

 sure to find it out and recommend you to 

 his customers. Above all, see that your 

 honey is of good quality and honestly grad- 

 ed. After all, our best argument is a chunk 

 of fine honey. C. F. Bender. 



Newman, Ills. 



[I very much question whether we ought 

 to let up on fighting these comb-honey lies. 

 By our persistent warfare it has come to 

 pass there are quite a number of publica- 

 tions that are now posted, and will never 

 more allow any such nonsense to get into 

 their columns. No, sir, 'e, let's keep up the 

 fight. -Ed.] 



CLEANING sections; KNIFE BEST IN WARM 

 weather; SANDPAPER IN COLD. 



For removing the roughest of the propo- 

 lis, or for cleaning sections in warm weath- 

 er, there is probably nothing better than a 

 common steel table-knife with the blade cut 

 off square two and a half or three inches 

 from the handle. With this, one may be- 

 come expert, and handle sections very rapid- 

 ly. Take the section flatwise in the palm of 

 one hand, and the knife in the other hand; 

 and, by turning the wrist, clean the top and 

 the edges on one side all the way round. 

 Then turn the section over, and in like man- 

 ner clean the bottom and other edges, and 

 the job is done. There is no need of turn- 



ing the section over half a dozen times to 

 find all the edges. g|^ m 



For finishing, and for cleaning sections in 

 cool weather, the best device I have yet 

 found is a sheet of coarse sandpaper, about 

 9X11 inches, tacked to a board. The board 

 should be placed at an angle so that the 

 dust from the propolis will not remain on 

 the paper. If the weather is cool, a single 

 sheet will serve for cleaning hundreds^ of 

 sections, making them bright as new. For 

 beeway sections a strip of wood about a 

 foot long can be made to fit into the bee- 

 ways, and then nailed to the board and cov- 

 ered with sandpaper. 



Another good device is a piece of board 

 two inches wide and ten inches long, with 

 sandpaper wrapped tightly around it and 

 fastened with tacks. This is to be used by 

 being held in the hand while the section is 

 laid upon a board or table. 



E. S. Miller. 



A HANDY funnel FOR FILLING SQUARE CANS 



with honey. 



I send you a drawing of my automatic 

 funnel which I have used for filling square 

 cans with honey. Its use prevents the over- 

 flow of a can, in the way I will describe. 



B is a metal flange supporting the soft- 

 rubber washer C, which seals the top of the 

 can so that the air in the can may be expelled 

 only through the opening D into the J-inch 

 tube A. 



To use the funnel, set the faucet or gate 

 so that just so much honey flows as will run 

 through the funnel. As soon as the honey 

 in the can reaches the hole D it closes the 

 same, and the honey will rise in the funnel 

 to a certain mark, E, when it should be 

 shut off. Then raise the funnel to let the 

 honey out into the can, which will then be 

 within J inch of the screw-cap. 



