THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



87 



forward only by the inspiration of 

 neglected truth, smothered faets. 

 Now it comes in response to (]uestions 

 from men who bid fair to rank among 

 tlie leaders of our business in the near 

 future. I expect the A 15 (' class will 

 wonder. The old producers will gen- 

 erally sanction it. The froth of the 

 profession, those whose interests lie 

 m the sale of such wares as only the 

 beginner can be caught with, will 

 scream the same old scream, " Put 

 him out." But time has added won- 

 derfully to the ranks of the experi- 

 enced. There are too many of us to 

 '• put out '■ now. 



There may be some who are honest 

 and sincere", who liave no other in- 

 terest than that of the producer to 

 bias their judgment, who may wish to 

 take issue with me. With " them it 

 will be a pleasure to discuss until we 

 are put to rights, or they are, upon so 

 important asubject ; oiie whose im- 

 portance and interests are growing so 

 rapidly. With no other class do I 

 care to argue. I wish it to be remem- 

 bered that at the time above referred 

 to, a time when this business was run 

 by gas to a far greater extent than it 

 is to-day, the Bee ,T(iuunal was 

 either conservative enough, or philo- 

 sophical enough, or generous enough, 

 or more likely all combined, under the 

 management of its present editor, to 



five us a hearing above the multi- 

 ude ; a gift that most of the other 

 bee publications withheld. We shall 

 be slow to forget the debt. 

 Dowagiac, Mich., Jan. 24, 18&4. 



For the American Bee JuurDal. 



My Critics. 



WM. F. CLARKE. 



the point I raised, jind I for one shall 

 feel obliged by his doing so. 



I am not so'sure alxuit the correct- 

 ness of Prof. I'hin's criticisms as to 

 ■'pollen"' and •'farina.'" It is not 

 mv good fortune to own " Webster-on- 

 a-bridge."' as Mrs. Partington called 

 it, but the dictionary I go by, gives 

 the following definitions : ""Pollen, 

 the fecundating dust contained in the 

 anthers of llowers ; (inel)ran."' " Pol- 

 lenarious, consisting of meal." " Far- 

 ina, the pollen or Hue powder con- 

 tained in the anthers of plants, and 

 which is supposed to fall on the stigma 

 and fructify the plant; the flour of 

 any species of corn or starchy root, 

 such as the potato, etc. 



Let us not forget, in our aim to be 

 critical, that it is possible to be hyper- 

 critical, which my dictionary explains 

 to mean, " critical beyond iise or rea- 

 son, excessively exact.'" 



AVill my correspondents kindly no- 

 tice my present residence, and ad- 

 dress me accordingly 'f 



Speedside, Ont. 



Early in the Xew Year I received 

 the following friendly criticism, 

 which, as it contains also a couple of 

 items of bee news, may, perhaps, fitly 

 find a place in the "Bee Journal 

 along with an apology for not for- 

 warding it sooner. The apology will 

 be accepted, I know, when I "state 

 that I have been in the throes of mov- 

 ing and settling down in a new home, 

 hence, a variety of matters have been 

 either overlooked or postponed : 



Mr. Wjt. F. Clarke :— In reading 

 your article in the last Bee Journal, 

 it occurred to me that the definition 

 to bee moth should be more explicit. 

 As I understand it, the moth does not 

 eat wax at all, but the larvae does. 

 The past year has been a very poor 

 one for honey, J4 ot a crop is all. Bees 

 are wintering well, so far. 



L. C. Whiting. 



East Saginaw, Mich., Jan. 3, 1884. 



To the same purport as the aliove is 

 Mr. Poppleton's criticism on page 43. 

 As editorially remarked in a note at 

 the close of ^Ir. P.'s communication, 

 "the point is well taken," as to its 

 being the larvae and not the moth 

 which eats wax, though this was not 

 the " point " that caught my eye, but 

 rather whether " miller "' is "a strictly 

 and scientifically correct term to use 

 in an apicultural vocabulary. Prof. 

 Cook will, no doubt, be able to settle 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Section Racks and Bee Spaces. 



M. BRAY. 



inch ; making the whole ^ of an inch. 

 The sample sent me was only % of 

 an inch. I make mine }i inch," '4 nee- 

 space ; it takes oil the brood frames 

 better tlian one that is more stiff. 



My Climb lioney goes on tlie market 

 in retail (I and 3'lbs.) packages. This 

 demands the use or sejiarators. I 

 have made some tritling changes in 

 the lieddon section case, to adapt it- 

 to the use of separators. To my mind 

 it is one of the best of separator-sys- 

 tems. I do not claim to have im- 

 proved it, for Mr. Ileddon or any one 

 that can get along without separators. 

 I have no supply business, and no axe 

 to grind. 



New Almaden, Cal., Jan. 2-5, 1884. 



For the American Bee JournaL 



Comb Honey Reported as being Made 

 Without Aid of the Bees. 



On page 514 of the Bee Journal 

 for 1883, Mr. T. E. Turner says the 

 racks should be no deeper than the 

 sections, 414 inches, and then one tier 

 will set right on another, leaving no 

 space between tiers. I have had, and 

 used this system of 110 bee-space be- 

 tween and aliove the boxes. I did not 

 like it, ahd will give some reasons for 

 not liking it. 



1. In tiering up, the killing of bees 

 is unavoidable. With the rack of 

 empty sections in place, one may pick 

 up the rack that is to be raised (it is 

 full of bees, and bees running thickly 

 over the bottom), and attempt to 

 place it on the empty rack, no matter 

 in what way or how gently he may 

 push, he is certain to kill a few bees. 

 If he only catches the bee's foot and 

 keeps pushing, that bee is gone. 



2. The cover will be more or less 

 glued to the boxes ; in taking it off, 

 we break the glue, with a jar ; this 

 excites the bees, and they will soon 

 be running over the top of the boxes. 

 I never coiild put the cover on without 

 crushing two or three bees ; these two 

 or three bees, with a little bee glue, 

 will raise the cover a little and the 

 cover will warp some ; this will give a 

 half a chance to the wax moth, and 

 this seems to be all they want. 



I find it more work to clean the 

 propolis from the boxes with no bee- 

 space. As well have no bee-space over 

 the brood frames as over the section 

 boxes. 



I am now using the Heddon case 

 system, for comb honey, and get along 

 with but little killing" of bees, conse- 

 quently do not get quite so many 

 stings ; the boxes come olf cleaner 

 than from any other system that I 

 have used. 



The honey board is a necessity. 

 Mr. Turner, "on page .514 (18SS), makes 

 the depth of the Ileddon honey-board 



C. R. ISHAJl. 



Not long since I was in the large 

 retail grocery store of Chas. Salmon, 

 Esq., of Rochester, N. Y., talking up 

 the honey trade, its prospects, etc., 

 when handing me a section with con- 

 tents partly used, he inquired what 

 kind of honey do you call that? I at 

 once told him it was honey gathered 

 from Alsike clover blossoms. lie 

 then remarked a lady has just re- 

 turned that box claiming it was not 

 honey, but a manufactured article. I 

 said there was no way of manufactur- 

 ing honey and putting it in the comb 

 like that", all sealed over with beauti- 

 ful white cappings ; and further ex- 

 plained that the lady had probably 

 purchased this section with the im- 

 pression that it was either white 

 clover or basswood honey, which 

 would be light amber or light colored, 

 instead of the pale wine color charac- 

 teristic to Alsike, and although of ex- 

 cellent quality, yet these should not be 

 classed together. He said it was pure 

 honey, but the lady had been reading 

 some of the newspaper articles about 

 comlj manufactured and filled with 

 imitation honey, seared over as though 

 capped by the bees, and sold for a gen- 

 uine article ; and she had formed the 

 impression that this was of the kind 

 she had been reading about. 



Mr. Salmon then stated that this 

 newspaper talk about adulterated 

 lioney was seriously affecting his 

 trade, and unless something was done 

 to counteract its influence, the honey 

 trade would be badly injured ; that he 

 knew they were erroneous, but that 

 did not prevent a great many who 

 naturally would become consumers 

 from en'tirely discarding honey from 

 their tables as a vile, unhealthy arti- 

 cle of food. He then related the fol- 

 lowing circumstance which took place 

 in his store shortly before this con- 

 versation : 



He had received a large consign- 

 ment of honey from Mr. C. J. Van 

 Eaton, of York, part of which was 

 piled in his show window. A gentle- 

 man of the highest integrity who rep- 

 resents the Kingsford Starch Co., ob- 

 serving tlie display, candidly put the 

 interrogatory : " Is that manufac- 

 tured honey, or was it made by the 



