760 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15 



The combined spacer and brace is a dandy, 

 in my mind. It spaces the frames and holds 

 the nail in place so that it can not wear out 

 at the top under the weight of the comb. It 

 can be made very cheaply, 1 should think, 

 much as are made the flattened staples on 

 candy-buckets. Such a frame possesses the 

 strongest joints, where the end-bars are 

 nailed to the top-bar, that I have ever seen. 



Bro. Hutchinson, of the Bee-keepers' 

 Review, and I do not agree as to the merits 

 of the Hoffman frame and some other de- 

 vices introduced in modern apiculture; but 

 that does not in the least conflict with the 

 cordial friendship that exists between us. 

 In the bee literature of 25 years ago the 

 man who dared to differ with anothe*- dared 

 to make an enemy. I am glad that day has 

 gone by now. 



The date of the next National bee-keep- 

 ers' convention has been settled on for Oct. 

 28 to Nov. 1. at San Antonio, Texas. This 

 is in the center of a great bee country, and 

 the convention will be one of the largest 

 and best, I will venture to say, that has 

 ever been held in the history of the Associ- 

 ation. Better make your plans to run down 

 to Texas and see what a wonderful country 

 there is there. See Convention Notices 

 elsewhere for further particulars. 



MRS. COMSTOCK'S BOOK, "HOW TO KEEP 



BEES." 



In relation to the review by A. I. Root, in 

 our last issue, especially to that part of it 

 where he spoke of the beautiful photographs 

 in the book, we have received the following 

 letter from Mr. Hutchinson v^^hich will ex- 

 plain itself: 



Friend Root:—1 have just read your most excellent 

 review of the new book, "How to Keep Bees." by 

 Anna B. Comstock. I notice you speak in high terms 

 of praise of the engraving- on pa.ee 50. and wonder who 

 was the photographer. The credit for that photo, also 

 for the one on page 63, ought to havp hppn given to your 

 humble servant. I .sold the negatives to Mr. McAlli.ster 

 for him to use in making lantern-slides, and Doubleday, 

 Page & Co. got the photos from him, but did not know 

 who made the negatives, which accounts for the error 

 in giving credit. The publishers write me that they 

 will gladly correct the error in the next edition. 



Flint, Mich., July 10. W. Z. Hutchinson. 



HOW THE COMB-HONEY LIE IS KEPT ALIVE; 

 THE "SMART ALECK" RETAILER. 



I HAVE about come to the conclusion that 

 the comb-honey lie receives its main source 

 of inspiration, not from the yellow newspa- 



per or magazine, but from the grocer's 

 clerk, the "smart Aleck" who "knows it 

 all." Manufactured comb honey? Yes, he 

 knows all about it. He has the two kinds 

 for sale in his store. Then he will pick out 

 some dark-looking ill-flavored stuff, and call 

 it "manufactured," while the nice-looking 

 well-flavored article he will denominate as 

 pure bees' honey. We have pretty near si- 

 lenced the newspapers, but they will break 

 loose again with some more "interviews" 

 unless we can put a plaster over the mouth 

 of some of these know-it-all grocery chaps. 

 The Honey-producers' League is going at 

 the matter in a proper and systematic man- 

 ner—that is. giving out literature to the re- 

 tailers so that they may have their eyes 

 opened, for we must assume that some of 

 them have been blind to the truth, because 

 we bee-keepers have made no effort to throw 

 the strong limelight of facts before them. 



Bee-keepers everywhere should keep their 

 dark and ill-flavored comb off the market. 

 Feed it back to the bees; sell it to the ba- 

 ker—do any thing with it but put it up where 

 it will kill the sale of all honey, good and 

 bad alike. Better still, yank off instanter 

 section supers whenever bad honey comes in. 



LAVA SOAP FOR REMOVING PROPOLIS. 



Something over a year ago the Review 

 contained an item to the effect that lava 

 soap was one of the best articles that could 

 be used for removing propolis from the fin- 

 gers. We tried it somewhat, and were 

 pleased with its results. We laid in quite a 

 stock of it, and soon found our employees 

 were very partial to it for removing grease 

 and general shop dirt. To-day I got my 

 hands pretty badly smeared up with a yel- 

 lowish-brown propolis, "and now," said I, 

 "is a good time to test the lava soap." It 

 had absolutely no effect on the propolis. I 

 rubbed and scrubbed; but the more I lath- 

 ered and soaped, the more it seemed to 

 stick. I then went to the benzine- can, sop- 

 ped my hands in the liquid, and soon had 

 the satisfaction of seeing the propolis roll 

 off. A second application of the soap mjide 

 my hands nice and clean. 



J A. Green, a short time ago, in his de- 

 partment, said lava soap would not remove 

 propolis, or at least not such as he had in 

 his locality. He as well as the rest of us 

 concluded that it was a case of where local- 

 ity affected the result. I am now inclined 

 to think it is a little in the propolis. The 

 transparent red article, as I remember, 

 would come off by the application of this 

 soap: but the gummy yellowish-brown stuff 

 would resist almost every thing except gas- 

 oline, alcohol, and the like. 



WHAT SHALL THE HARVEST BE? 



The conditions portrayed in our last issue 

 were somewhat discouraging; but within the 

 last two or three weeks there has been a 

 change for the better. While the rains 

 have continued, the weather has been from 



