740 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



off I placed a similar quantity of 

 honey on orange paper. After she 

 had returned twice I transposed tlie 

 papers ; but she returned to the honey 

 on the blue paper. After she had 

 made three more visits, always to tlie 

 blue paper, I transposed them again, 

 and she again followed the color, 

 though the honey was left in the same 

 place. The following day I was not 

 able to watch lier ; but on the 14th. 

 at 7.29 a. m., she returned to the honey 

 on the blue paper ; she left at 7:31 and 

 returned at 7:44 ; she again left at 7:51 

 and returned at 7:56. 



I then again transposed the papers. 

 At 8:5 she returned to the old place, 

 and was just going to alight ; but ob- 

 serving the chanise of colors, without 

 a moment's hesitation darted oil to 

 the blue. No one who saw her at that 

 moment could have entertained the 

 slightest doubt about her perceiving 

 the difference between the two col- 

 ors. 



The book is a very interesting one 

 and we can supply it at the publishers' 

 price, postpaid. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Bee-keeping in Maine.— Mr. E. P. 



Churchill writes thus to the Home 

 Farm, concerning his fall and winter 

 management of bees: 



This season has been rather a poor 

 one, on the whole, for bees, until a 

 few weeks ago, when the honey was 

 coming in much faster than at any 

 other time and all looked bright ; but 

 a few cold days shut them up for a 

 time ; and more than the cold, we 

 have now had a very heavy rain for a 

 number of days, which will wash out 

 and dilute much of the nectar that 

 was so plenty in the goldenrod, and 

 what few other fall flowers there are. 

 But if the month opens clear and 

 warm for a few days we are in hopes 

 of an opportunity for a little more 

 stores for wintering. But be the case 

 as it may, let us attend to them at 

 once, to know just how every colony 

 is. 



If they are on a full set of frames 

 there should be about one-half taken 

 out as soon as the brood is all hatched 

 or out of the cells, and a division 

 board set down on each side of what 

 frames are left, and leaves Hlled in 

 the open spaces. I lind cedar shingles 

 make the best division boards, by 

 running the thin ends to lap each 

 other so as to be one-fourth of an inch 

 shorter than the hive,and deep enough 

 to come up level with the tops of the 

 frames ; then clear them at each end 

 and in tlie middle, and have them per- 

 fectly square and even ; tlien tack one 

 thickness of woolen cloth on tlie bot- 

 tom and enough on the ends to cause 

 them to lit siuig when run down. I 



leave a few inches of cloth on the up- 

 per ends to roll down and tuck down 

 into the ends of the boards. This is 

 very handy, as it is always ready ,keeps 

 all snug, and also keeps the bees from 

 getting outside. There need not be 

 strips of cloth on the tops of the 

 boards, as the cloth that covers the 

 frames will answer. Now this is done 

 there should be a chaff cushion on the 

 cloth over the frames. A bran sack 

 is a good and cheap article for this 

 purpose and oat chaff the best, but if 

 this chaff is not to be obtained, about 

 half very dry leaves and sawdust 

 mixed will do. The cushion should be 

 four inches thick and filled out even 

 at all corners, and packed down quite 

 snug. If the rims and cap are all 

 nailed together, I would take the cap 

 off and put strips under at each end 

 so as to shut outside of the rim ; then 

 there is a good cliance to do all pack- 

 ing, etc., very handily. 



One who has never used hives thus, 

 will be surprised with one trial, for it 

 is impossible to do the packing thor- 

 oughly with the rim and cap alto- 

 gether. There should, of course, be 

 no cracks, no holes for the least rain 

 to get in, but there should be an inch 

 air hole at each end and at the side of 

 the rim near the top, bored slanting 

 to turn water, and wire clotli tacked 

 inside. These will take away the 

 moisture that passes up through the 

 packing, and keep the bees dry and 

 warm. I did not lose one-half a pint 

 of bees from my two heaviest colonies 

 last winter packed in this manner. 



Food Adulterators. — The Western 

 Rural contains the following very 

 sensible article on food adulterations, 

 and the way to punish the adultera- 

 tors: 



Our coming legislatures in the West 

 will need give some further attention 

 to the subject of adulterating food 

 products. In Illinois and in some 

 other States we have some pretty good 

 statutes touching upon this matter, 

 bnt, perhaps, they are all susceptible 

 of improvement, and if not, we sin- 

 cerely believe that all attempts to leg- 

 islate in such cases, are a most excel- 

 lent means of agitation and of arous- 

 ing tlie people to action. We are 

 among those wlie believe that we 

 should be vastly better off if we had 

 less law making, but as we seem to be 

 fated to have the infliction of a legis- 

 lature every year, or every two years 

 at least, we are in favor of their mak- 

 ing all the noise possible on such im- 

 portant questions as that of putting 

 a stop to the infamous work of the 

 adulterators. The last legislature of 

 Illinois gave us a very fair law against 

 the sale of bogus butter as the genu- 

 ine article, and for a time, there was 

 an energetic and successful effort to 

 enforce the law. liecently, however, 

 there seems to have been a suspicious 

 calm after the storm, and a corres- 

 ponding suspicious flavor to a con- 

 siderable of the butter that is found 

 in the market. There are fairly 

 grounded fears that the people have 

 gone to sleep, and if we can get the 

 legislature to discuss the matter again. 



and some such man as Evans, of Kane 

 county, running about to raise a cor- 

 ruption fund to prevent legislation 

 against food adulteration — as was the 

 case when our last legislature sat— it 

 will undoubtedly have the effect of 

 once more attracting public attention. 

 We have about the least patience 

 with food adulterations that we are 

 called upon to manifest. The com- 

 mon swindler who assaults the pocket- 

 book alone, will probably meet in time 

 something like just punishment in the 

 penitentiary ; but the conscienceless 

 scamp who robs us of both our money 

 and our health, can never be punished 

 according to his deserts ; and the 

 knowledge of this greatly irritates us. 

 Our farmers are quietly engaged in 

 raising products which support our 

 population and add wealth to the na- 

 tion. They are producing the flour 

 which makes our bread, the honey 

 and syrups which sweeten it, the sugar 

 that makes our tea and coffee palata- 

 ble, the butter and cheese and vinegar 

 which we demand for daily consump- 

 tion ; and with the railroad to cut 

 deeply into bis profits, boards of trade 

 to gamble with his products, until 

 prices are forced down below what 

 they ought to be, and with the tax col- 

 lector demanding of him his own tax 

 and the tax of a whole horde of tax 

 shirkers besides, he stands poor 

 enough show,without being compelled 

 to compete with dishonest imitators 

 of the jiroduets named. But without 

 stringent legislation to prevent it, our 

 stores are filled with adulterated flour, 

 glucose for honey and the sweets or 

 the cane, oleomargarine butter and 

 cheese, and vile acids for cider vine- 

 gar. It costs next to nothing to man- 

 ufacture these imitations, and if they 

 are sold a few cents cheaper than the 

 genuine articles are sold for, under 

 the rejiresentation that they are first- 

 class, which they often look to be and 

 taste as if they were, it does not re- 

 quire much perception to see that an 

 incalculable injury is done the honest 

 producer. During the last half dozen 

 years we believe that millions of dol- 

 lars have been wrongfully taken from 

 the pockets of our farmers through 

 the audacious adulteration of farm 

 products, and during that time we 

 have no doubt that thousands have 

 lost their lives by eating such imita- 

 tions. The business, therefore, as- 

 sumes a most villainous character, in 

 whatever light it is viewed, and there 

 is no class of our people, except those 

 who are engaged in the disreputable 

 business, that is not interested in hav- 

 ing a stop put to it. The legislatures 

 or Congress— and there is great need 

 of national lecjislation upon this sub- 

 ject — cannot Tind a more hearty or 

 universal support in legislation than 

 they will find in any attempt to pro- 

 tect the producer and consumer from 

 these greedy leeches. The Bund, in 

 behalf of the producer, demands that 

 the market shall be cleared of bogus 

 food products which are not so marked 

 as to convey a clear idea of their char- 

 acter. When so marked, they will not 

 tie very productive of harm, for the 

 great majority of people will not pur- 

 chase imitations if they know what 

 they are. 



