THE AMERICAN APIGULTURIST. 



251 



ated with starch sirup" demands 

 our attention and investigation. 



Nearly one-sixth of all the samples 

 declared adulterated by the Govern- 

 ment Chemist, and of all the remain- 

 ing samples not classed positively as 

 adulteration, §| are classed as " ap- 

 parently adulterated." 



This ought to be followed up and 

 every person adulterating honey (or 

 anything else) smartly dealt with. 



Thorn Hill, N. ¥., Sept. 6, 1886. 



NOTES FROM THE BAY 

 STATE APIARY. 



The Quinby Bellows Smoker has 

 been for years the most popular 

 smoker used and offered for sale, yet 

 although it has given general satisfac- 

 tion, it was not perfect. Lately, one 

 has been in use (though not as orig- 

 inally made), at the Bay State apiary. 

 We saw and pointed out certain de- 

 fects to the manufacturer, and also 

 wherein this smoker could be made 

 the best one in the market. The 

 improvements suggested have been 

 adopted and now this smoker is as 

 near perfect as it is possible to make 

 one. Not only does the improved 

 smoker work better than the old style, 

 but it is much less work to manu- 

 facture it, and the price to beekeep- 

 ers will be considerably less. 



When we used the old style of 

 smoker, it was necessary in order to 

 start a smoke to go into the house 

 for a coal of fire. This was some- 

 times very inconvenient. All that is 

 now needed with the improved smoker 

 is to light a match and apply the 

 blaze to a small hole at the base of 

 the barrel and pump away at the bel- 

 lows, and in less than a quarter of a 

 minute smoke enough will be made 

 to break up a town meeting. 



I have used other smokers made 

 somewhat similar to the one in ques- 

 tion, but they all have more or less 



serious defects. One bad fault is the 

 filling up of the air tube which con- 

 nects the bellows and the barrel, and 

 again, the valve which admits the air 

 to the bellows soon becomes gummy 

 from smoke which works back and 

 condenses on the edges of the valve, 

 thus preventing it from shutting suf- 

 ficiently tight to prevent the air from 

 escaping. 



FUEL FOR SMOKER ; HOW TO 

 PREPARE IT. 



Whatever is used for fuel in smokers 

 should be very dry ; in fact, it cannot 

 be too dry in order to work quickly 

 and make a good flow of smoke. 



We cut up rotten elm-wood spunk 

 in small pieces, and fill a large baking 

 pan, and place it in the stove oven 

 to dry. Rotten-wood thus prepared 

 will cause less trouble and vexation 

 than any other material we have 

 tested. Try it. 



GOLDEN-RODS. 



August 25, our bees commenced 

 to gather honey from the golden-rods, 

 of which there were nearly fifty acres 

 near our apiaries. We had just sent 

 an order to a beekeeper in New York 

 State for a lot of extracted honey, 

 but before its arrival the bees had 

 filled their hives, and now we have a 

 barrel of fine white clover honey as 

 was ever made in the state of New 

 York. 



We found a few colonies that did 

 not seem to have sufficient stores for 

 winter, so some of the honey was 

 melted and heated sufficiently to de- 

 stroy any germs of foul brood that 

 might exist and then given to the 

 bees. This precaution is one that all 

 should take before feeding extracted 

 honey, unless it is positively known 

 that it came from a locality where 

 no foul brood has ever existed. We 

 wrote the party who shipped us this 

 honey to know if there was any foul 

 brood in his section. He answered 

 there was not, and that I need not 

 scald it. But to be on the safe side 



