1072 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15 



Nearly three years ago I published my 

 ibook, and on pages 53 and 54 "sounded the 

 alarm" on the light-weight sections. I 

 mailed a copy to almost all the principal 

 writers for the bee journals and to all the 

 journals, but no attention was paid to it. 

 "Too radical," I suppose. It seems that a 

 few are now waking up and see the folly of 

 shutting our eyes against facts. Had all 

 bee-keepers exhibited the right spirit (work- 

 ed on the "square-deal principle) toward 

 the consumers, the organization of a " Hon- 

 ey-producers' League" to push the sales of 

 honey would never have been inecessary. I 

 sell all my honey direct to the consumers — 

 my home customers — and could sell thou- 

 sands of pounds more if I could get ' ' honest 

 goods." My sections are 4iX5Xl|, plain. 

 This size will, when well filled out, average 

 a shade over a pound. I am changing all 

 my supers for the 4x5 sections into chunk- 

 honey supers by simply nailing a top-bar be- 

 tween the end-pieces of the section-holders. 

 The 4X5 plain section will not hold a full 

 pound of honey. All unfinished and hght- 

 weight sections are put with the chunk hon- 

 ey. The honey is cut out, packed loosely 

 into tin cans (the friction-cover cans are ex- 

 cellent for this purpose), then thoroughly 

 ripened extracted honey, which has been 

 carefully strained, is poured over it till all 

 the spaces are filled, and the comb literally 

 floats in the liquid honey. This sells readily 

 as comb honey at 18 cents per pound. It is not 

 necessary to mention all the advantages of 

 this plan. Wideawake bee-keepers will see 

 the point. It gives us satisfied customers who 

 always "come again" for more of that ex- 

 tra-fine honey, the "best" they ever used; 

 solves, to a great extent, the question of 

 disposing of extracted honey, and it educates 

 the people to know that liquid (extracted) 

 honey is more palatable — is better every 

 way — than comb honey, the beeswax in 

 which is absolutely indigestible. 



I notice what our friend A. I. R. says in 

 his footnote. I see that he doesn't complete 

 the third line till he calls the section a "one- 

 pound section. ' ' I agree with the remain- 

 der of his footnote. The facts stated are 

 correct, and the sentimenfs expressed are 

 proper and right. 1 notice, also, what Dr. 

 B. says in regard to the laxity of our pure- 

 food laws, so called. The doctor, and others 

 who have expressed similar views, seem to 

 forget that commercialism is at the bottom 

 of all our trouble on this point. 



Tophet, W. Va. 



«««» 



THE TOWNSEND METHOD OF PRODUCING 

 COMB AND EXTRACTED HONEY.. 



BY EARL SAFFORD. 



I noticed Mr. E. D. Townsend's article in 

 your issue for June 1, and would say that I 

 have been using practically the same ar- 

 rangement of super as he describes, for the 

 last three or four years, with good results. 

 I use the ten- frame Langs troth hive and 

 Ideal super, putting one or (preferably) two 



shallow frames of comb on each side, and 

 four or five rows of sections, 20 or 25 through 

 the center, and find it to be the best plan I 

 have been able to discover whereby swarm- 

 ing can be practically controlled and bees 

 kept hustling in the supers. When I first 

 commenced using this arrangement I made 

 frames on the closed-end-frame style by cut- 

 ting up the bottom slat for end-bar, and 

 making the top and bottom bars § and ^ 

 thick, and just long enough so one frame 

 would occupy the same space as one row of 

 sections; then when the bees got to work- 

 ing well in sections I sometimes took out the 

 frames and put sections in their place. But 

 this made considerable work; and as I have 

 as good sale for extracted as for comb hon- 

 ey I now prefer the regular shallow frame. 



Spaces for the frames are easily made by 

 driving two small nails or staples at proper 

 distances from the side in each end of the 

 super, and setting the first fence separator 

 against them instead of the side of the su- 

 per. Some might object to using two sizes 

 of frames; but for me in this locality I think 

 it a great advantage to do so. With me the 

 shallow frame for brood-nest has not been 

 satisfactory; but for putting on top of the 

 Langstroth- frame hives at first in spring 

 they are just the thing to catch the first 

 honey and keep the bees from crowding the 

 queen. 



Salem, N. Y., July 7, 1905. 



TROPICAL BEE-KEEPING. 



A Reply to W. K. Morrison's Article, P. 655; 



the Color and Quality of Tropical 



Honey. 



BY LESLIE BURR. 



Allow me to make a few remarks on that 

 article by W. K. Morrison, on the principles 

 of tropical bee-keeping. It is true that 

 much of the tropical honey is dark and in- 

 ferior. Something over two years ago I 

 was at the office of the National Biscuit Co., 

 Chicago, and was there shown samples of 

 honey from a number of the tropical coun- 

 tries. There was not a sample in the lot 

 that a Northern honey-buyer would call 

 first class. 



The reason for this is that the honey was 

 stored in brood-combs. I know it is true 

 that old brood-combs will darken the honey; 

 but I also know it is true that a smaller per 

 cent of Cuban honey is produced in old combs 

 than that of the North. For instance, the 

 honey produced from the "cajas creolla" 

 by the native Cuban is, as Mr. Morrison 

 says it should be, produced as it is cut from 

 the hive, combs and all. But I should Hke 

 to have some one prove that this honey ranks 

 any better than that produced by American 

 methods. 



The bellflower and a very few other plants 

 produce beautiful white honey. The wax 

 produced v/hen the bees are working on the 

 bellflower is as white as tallow; but later, 

 when the bees are working on mango and 



i 



