906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1 



shiser, of Buffalo, N. Y. Mr. Hershiser is 

 a well-known bee-keeper, a man of liberal 

 education and of known ability and business 

 capacity. He has attended nearly every 

 National convention (an important matter 

 to consider) , and has usually been given a 

 place on the most important committees. I 

 believe he would not only make an accepta- 

 ble presiding officer but an efficient and val- 

 uable head to the Association in other re- 

 spects. There are some men I should like 

 to nominate for other positions, and I might 

 go on and nominate a full ticket, but I 

 should prefer that others take a hand, so I 

 will stop with the head of the ticket, hoping 

 that others will make nominations — the 

 more the better — for all the offices to be 

 filled. 



In my trip east, made in the last few 

 days, I saw an unusual amount of golden- 

 rod in different parts of York State. It 

 seemed to be yielding considerable honey, 

 although it seldom yields any thing here. 

 Buckwheat in Eastern New York must be a 

 tremendous yielder of nectar. The in-rush- 

 ing bees came in loaded as if they had come 

 from basswood. Elsewhere it does not 

 amount to much as a honey-producer, ex- 

 cept an hour or so in the morning. 



The following letter from Mr. W. H. Put- 

 nam, editor of the Rural Bee-keeper, will 

 explain itself: 



Mr. Root:— Many thanks for the nice things you say, 

 page 857. There is, however, a correction I feel I should 

 make, and that is, you should credit those thoughts and 

 sayings to T. K. Massie and not to W. H. Putnam. 



River Falls, Wis., Aug. 21. W. H. Putnam. 



I stand corrected. But in looking over 

 that copy of the Rural I can readily see how 

 I made the mistake. If the paragraph pre- 

 ceding the black dash had been put in small 

 type, perhaps I should not have made the 

 mistake; but the matter in question starts 

 off almost as if it were an editorial, for the 

 black dash apparently cuts it off from that 

 which precedes. My thanks are extended to 

 Mr. Massie as well as to Mr. Putnam. 



WANTED— A PERFECT OUTDOOR FEEDER. 



The inverted square can with holes punch- 

 ed in the top (before inversion) for an out- 

 side feeder, while a decided improvement 

 over the grooved-board plan, does not en- 

 tirely prevent the bees from struggling 

 against each other. The result is that in 

 some of our hives many of the bees are 

 shiny-backed. These, we anticipate, will die 

 early. A perfect outdoor feeder is yet to 

 be discovered. 



THE honey crop FOR 1905; PRICES. 



Conditions have not changed materially 

 since our report on page 857. Michigan and 

 Ontario still stand out in the lead in secur- 

 ing a fair crop of honey, and the other 

 Northern States report from a fourth to 

 half a crop. There will be a late fall flow 

 in many of the Eastern States. Indeed, 

 buckwheat, goldenrod, and other fall sources, 

 give evidence of a good yield of dark and 

 amber honey. The reports are still discour- 

 aging for Colorado and Texas. Wm. Rohr- 

 ig. Secretary of the Arizona Honey Ex- 

 change, reports for that Territory from one- 

 fourth to half a crop. Reports from Neva- 

 da and Utah are rather unfavorable, and the 

 same may be said of Idaho. 



There will not be very much Western 

 honey in competition with the Eastern prod- 

 uct. While the crop of white honey in the 

 Northern and Eastern States is about the 

 same as last year (and last year was below 

 the average), yet the fact that there will be 

 practically no competition from the West 

 ought to make a stiffening in prices on East- 

 ern honey. Until further notice the trade 

 would be warranted in offering an advance 

 over last year. 



the HONEY-PRODUCERS' league GUARANTEE 

 CIRCULAR. 



The Honey-producers' League, with head- 

 quarters at Chicago, G. W. York Manager, 

 has succeeded in getting the leading manu- 

 facturers of bee-keepers' supplies to furnish 

 at their own cost, with the shipping-cases, a 

 guaranteed-comb-honey circular intended to 

 aid in dispelling the belief that comb honey 

 is ever manufactured. It is the intention 

 that one of these leaflets be put out with 

 every shipping-case by the producer, so that 

 the general public may be properly informed 

 concerning the contents of the case. The 

 full text of the leaflet is as follows: 



TO THE PURCHASERS OF THIS HONEY. 



The producer of this Comb Honey, and also the un- 

 dersigned, guarantee that the product in these sections, 

 or small frames, was all made by honey-bees. 



There is 710 such thing as manufactured comb honey. 

 It never was made and never can be, newspaper and 

 magazine articles to the contrary. If any one says 

 there is such a thing as manufactured comb honey on 

 the market, just tell that person that the National Bee- 

 keepers' Association, an organization of over 2000 mem- 

 bers, through its General Manager, N. E. France, of 

 Platteville, Wisconsin, will pay $1000 for proof of such 

 machine-made combs filled with glucose or any other 

 cheap syrup, and capped over by machinery without 

 the aid of bees. Also, a corpoi'ation capitalized at 

 $300,000, all paid in. has had for many years a standing 

 offer of a like sum for the same so-called manufactured 

 comb honey as described, and the offer is still good. In 

 addition to this, the bee-expert, a life long bee-keeper, 

 now in the employ of the Department of Agriculture at 

 Washington, has repeatedly, in government bulletins 

 and in public addresses, denied the existence of any 

 such product. For evidence of this fact, refer to the 

 report of the Secretary of Agriculture for 1904, page 83; 

 also to Farmers' Bulletin No. 59, for 1905, pages 32 and 

 34, also issued by the Department of Agriculture, enti- 

 tled "Bee-keeping," by Frank Benton. 



It may be well to state that the basis for these comb- 

 honey canards is possibly due to the fact that the flavor 

 of honey in one locality may be very different from that 

 of another; that when one tastes of a honey quite differ- 

 ent in color and flavor from that which he used to eat 

 on the old farm, he concludes it is adulterated or manu- 

 factured, especially if it be of poor quality. As a mat- 

 ter of fact, the comb honey from California is just as 



