198 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



tive decision as to whether bees 

 "make honey" or only gather and 

 evaporate it. 



There is something interesting 

 and mysterious about the secretion 

 of nectar in flowers which if we 

 could fully understand we could 

 not remedy, because these things 

 are beyond the control of man. 



THE HONEY MARKET. 



High prices for honey is at an 

 end ; the question as to whether or 

 not bee culture as a business will 

 pay must now be decided in the 

 light of present prices for honey. 

 I tried to hold up the price of honey 

 this season to twelve and a half and 

 fifteen cents, but have had slow 

 sales and shall have to come down 

 to twelve and a half and ten, or 

 hold my stock in the honey house. 

 We have been spoiled with good 

 prices. All groceries rule low now, 

 and we cannot reasonably expect 

 honey to be an exception. A friend 

 of mine, who is a poor man, and who 

 has been a failure financially ex- 

 cept in the bee business, vows that 

 he will quit the apiary when honey 

 goes below twelve and a half cents 

 per pound. I think a great many 

 who demand that honey must bring 

 a good price whether times are dull 

 or brisk will have a chance to tr}^ 

 their hand at something else. As 

 for myself, I expect nothing else 

 but reverses in any business, and 

 if I have succeeded in business, it 

 is because I have stood firm and 

 ■worked the harder when reverses 

 came. Those who contemplate en- 

 tering the bee business may as well 

 understand that they will have to 

 work for every dollar they receive, 

 and if prices run low they will have 

 to curtail expenses and meet dull 

 times and dull sales bravely. Such 

 persons will live happily though 

 fortune may pass them on the other 

 side. "Whatever may be said to 

 the contrary the hope of the bee 

 business is bound up in the home 

 trade for honey. In building up a 



home market the apiarist not only 

 finds new customers for his honey 

 but benefits the trade in honey, 

 and thus helps his brethren. 

 Christianshurg^ Ky. 



For the American Apiculturist. 



DES TB DYING ANTS IN THE 



AFIABT: THE HONEY 



SEASON IN TEXAS. 



Mks. S. E. Shekman. 



Let me give you my plan for des- 

 troying ants, which at times you 

 all know are very troublesome 

 about the apiary and also in the 

 honey-room. 1 put London purple 

 in the hills : three applications, a 

 week or ten days apart, will effect- 

 ually destroy them. 1 have in this 

 way killed twenty-five hills of 

 large red ants in the last two years ; 

 also quite a number of smaller 

 kinds. I find that these small, or 

 what I call the regular honey-ants 

 are more numerous around the 

 roots of trees, and are easily killed 

 by sprinkling the London purple 

 upon them around the trees. If 

 they get inside the hives, 1 sprin- 

 kle salt quite freely on them which 

 does the bees no haim and drives 

 the ants away. In fact, 1 think 

 that bees should be salted fre- 

 quently through the spring and 

 summer season. When ants trou- 

 ble me in my honey-room, or about 

 my safe, 1 simply tie a cotton- 

 twine string that has been satu- 

 rated in alcohol in which corrosive 

 sublimate has been dissolved 

 around my safe-legs, cans, kegs 

 or whatever 1 have my honey ui. 

 This, however, should be usea very 

 cautiously, especially if there are 

 small or meddlesome children 

 around, as it is a deadly poison. 

 I have never known an ant to cross 

 such a string. 



