THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



bees, knocking it over. Instantly, 

 the disturbed occupants came at him 

 with lire and fury. Fortunately, the 

 grass was long, and tliere was a big 

 Norway spruce, w'ell bruslied to the 

 ground, close by. (iuick as thought 

 he drop])ed, and crawling forward got 

 his bead esconced in the evergreen 

 brush. There he lay, the bees not 

 standins, but Hyins guard all around 

 him. They kept him prisoner till the 

 shades of "evenins gathered, and lie 

 improved the passing hours by think- 

 ing over some law cases he "had on 

 hand, rising, at last, smarter and sad- 

 der, like INIrs. Harrison. To guard 

 against iwssible contingencies, it is 

 well to be protected. 



But why does Mrs. H. use a wire 

 hat V It is a stiff, clumsy affair, and 

 gets unpleasantly rusty with the 

 moist breath. Black netting is bet- 

 ter. A veil of any kind is ratherclose 

 and hot, especially in July weather, 

 but a Tnrkish bath does one good, and 

 I get several in the course of a season, 

 without expenditure of money, or loss 

 of time, as one of the casual advanta- 

 ges of bee-keeping. 



Listowel, Dec. 22, 1881. 



For tho American Bee JoumaL 



Salicylic Acid and Foul Brood. 



A. It. KOHNKE. 



The difference of opinion as to the 

 probability or iiossibility of curing 

 foul brood, as stated in the proceedings 

 of the Michigan State Convention, I 

 consider very damaging to the bee- 

 keeping public at large ; the more so, 

 when noted bee-keepers disagree on 

 the subject. Mr. C. F. Mulh says it 

 can be cured by the use of salicylic 

 acid, wliile Mr. I). A. Jones asserts lie 

 has thoroughly tested it, and found it 

 of no use, indirectly liinting that he 

 has another and surer remedy. From 

 the nature of the disease, I doubt Mr. 

 Jones having had a case of genuine 

 foul brood. Nor will Mr. Townley's 

 remedy stay the progress of the dis- 

 ease among his remaining bees, if it 

 has attacked as niiiiiy as (iO or 70 colo- 

 nies, for he could not possibly know 

 what colonies of the remainder had 

 caught the contagion before the dis- 

 ease makes its appearance among the 

 brood. 



But, then, there is a great deal in 

 knowing how to do a thing. It would 

 take more space than I am allowed in 

 this article to describe, minutely, the 

 modus operundi, but I will say this 

 much, if Mr. Jones knows of a better 

 remedy, please let us bee-keepers have 

 the benelit of it: if not, I make the 

 following iiroiiosition to him : I agree 

 to go to his apiary ne.xt summer, lirst 

 week in July, to cure with salicylic 

 acid a genuine case of foul brood, if 

 he has such ; if he has not, he may 

 designate any other infected apiary 

 accessible by railroad, lying betweeii 

 the Missouri river and '4th deg. long, 

 east of Washington, :md between the 

 40th and 48th degs. north latitude. If 

 I succeed, he is to pay me S500 and all 

 expenses of traveling and boarding; 

 if I do not succeed, he is to pay noth- 

 ing, I assuming the loss of time and 



money expended, provided, however, 

 there is no foul brood in the neighbor- 

 hood outside of the ai>iary treated, 

 whereby bees in lliat apiary may be 

 exposed to continuous contagion. It 

 will take from 3 to 6 weeks to do it, 

 according to whether or not there are 

 many colonies, and badly diseased. 

 My time would, of course, be worth 

 more than the above sum asked, as I 

 want to carry on some experiments at 

 liome, to do which I would have to en- 

 gage a competent man ; but I wish to 

 remove all doubts with bee-keepers as 

 to the curing of foul brood, and Mr. 

 Jones will have the choice of either 

 accepting my proposition, or acknowl- 

 edge to have been mistaken as to his 

 thorough test of salicylic acid. 

 Youngstown, O., Dec, 1881. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Extracted Honey— No. 1. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



After wishing each other a happy 

 and successful New Year, do we not 

 all feel that our past year's discussions 

 through the Bee Journal, though 

 they sometimes waxed warm, have 

 been the means of giving us more 

 light, and bringing us nearer to that 

 point which we never can reach — per- 

 fection. Each of lis may have thrown 

 out some erroneous theories, but they 

 served a useful purpose in arousing a 

 desire to put truth in their place upon 

 the part of others who knew the facts 

 better. 



Thus we are all helping each other 

 slowly, but surely, up the hill of sci- 

 ence. All we ask of each other is our 

 last and best thoughts, honestly ex- 

 pressed, and that each accords to the 

 other, freely, all the riglits expected 

 by himself ; and be that is not willing 

 to do this, is not yet morally or intel- 

 lectually civilized. 



I feelthat no one should commence 

 a series of articles upon the subject of 

 ■' Extracted Honey," without men- 

 tioning the names of Chas. I)adaiit& 

 Son, and referring to their little book 

 upon tills topic. If ttie value of a 

 work consists in its candid, able and 

 practical style, the quick adaptability 

 of means to ends, and the jirolit to be 

 realized by following its instructions, 

 then, in niy judgment, this little work 

 on "Extracted Honey,'" for its size 

 and cost. stands unrivalled by any book 

 ever written upon the subject of api- 

 culture. While the little work de- 

 scribes ways and means very different 

 from what we would use to reach the 

 same end. in each case the result 

 reached is the same. In these articles 

 I desire to pick up what stray heads of 

 grain I can, that may have been left 

 after Messrs. Dadants' harvester. 



It may seem strange that a comb 

 honey producer should clioose this 

 subject, but till within a very few 

 years the greater jiortion of my pro- 

 j duction has lieeu extracted honey. In 

 this article I wish to consider the value 

 of the commodity viewed from a ])ala- 

 tableand hysienicstandiioint. While 

 my knowledge of chemistry is very 

 limited, I know a few primary princi- 

 ples that I think apply directly to the 



case under discussion. Honey is pal- 

 atably enjoyed for its sweetness. 

 Chemistry tells ns that it ranks with 

 glucose, inrespect to that element, and 

 that they are about one-third as sweet 

 as cane sugar. This seems a bad defect 

 — let us see : 



Chemistry, also (like all sciences, 

 modest and trutliful) tells us that 

 wood fiber (sawdust) possesses the 

 same elements that glucose does. It 

 admits it cannot see through it, saw- 

 dust is not sweet, and then asks, What 

 is sweetness ? No one being so weU 

 able to solve tlie problem, all look to 

 chemistry with longing eyes, and she 

 says, " it seems to me to be, simply, a 

 peculiar arrangement of molecules 

 that produce, by such arrangement, a 

 certain sensation in the mouth called 

 sweet." 



Thus we see that at last the con- 

 sumer is left to be the judge. This 

 consumer has been in tlie habit, in the 

 past, of calling honey the " sweetest 

 of all sweets." If I am not much 

 mistaken, all consumers of to-day who 

 have j udged only by their taste, believe 

 honey to be first class in its sweetness. 

 I remember reading in the Bee Jour- 

 nal some years ago that honey was 

 88 per cent, as sweet as cane sugar. It 

 seems that, after all, honey vi^ill assume 

 tor itself all the value established by 

 the appetite. Chemistry may tell us 

 to-day and to-morroit that glucose and 

 honey are essentially the same — both 

 grape sugar— of the" same sweetness, 

 etc., but tliat is not the impression 

 upon the taste of man, or the health 

 of bees. Any one who has taken a 

 mouthful of glucose, was no doubt 

 sur|)rised at the lack of sweetness and 

 general tastelessness of the stuff, not- 

 withstanding that honey has been his 

 standard. Now, if it should jirove to 

 be a fact that honey effects this sweet 

 sensation in the glands of the taste 

 only, that it fails to exhibit the same 

 liower in the stomach or in cookery, 

 then that will be an argument against 

 it as a staple, but largely in its favor 

 as a luxury; perhaps so much so as 

 to make it a staple luxury, like oys- 

 ters, etc. 



Tlie indulgence in the ideasure of 

 sweet-eating is, in this land of luxury 

 and plenty, carried to excess, often to 

 the extent of overbalancing the sys- 

 tem. Of course, it is the principle of 

 sweet acting upon the body lielow the 

 glands of taste, that produces the bad 

 effects. I am of the opinion that in 

 honey we can " get the game without 

 the lilame," fori have never been able 

 to eat enougli of it yet to feel that my 

 system was surfeited with sweet, as I 

 have realized from excessive indul- 

 gence in cane and maple sugars. 



The acute disturbances experienced 

 by exceptional individuals, no doubt 

 arise from their peculiar idiosyncra- 

 sies. Their stomachs probably con- 

 tain, to an eminent degree, some 

 peculiar elements that are very antag- 

 onistic to elements contained in the 

 honey — some acids deposited by the 

 glands of the bees, or some element in 

 the floating pollen. 



Most of us know that by subjecting 

 honey to the degree of heat that boils 

 water, for a short time, the particles 

 of floating pollen appear to be eitlier 



