ESTABLISHED ^(^^ 

 IN 1861 



VOL. XIX. 



CHICAGO, ILL., JUNE 13, 1883. 



No. 24. 



Published every Wednesday, by 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



Editor and Proprietor. 



EuropeanHoney & Waxlmportation. 



Some time ago we noticed an item 

 in an English paper that, at a sale in 

 Lisbon, Portugal, sixty tons of beeswax 

 had been sold. This shows what an 

 extensive sale and use it lias in 

 Europe. 



The Beutscher Bienenfreund for May 

 contains a table showing the amount 

 of honey and beeswax received at 

 Hamburg from foreign countries dur- 

 ing 1881 and 1882. The amount of 

 honey was as follows, from 



1881. 1882. 



Havana lbs -d.^O.OOO .52.5,000 



Mexico " 1,100.000 835,000 



Chili and Peru. " 1,320,000 1,105,000 



California " 48,000 — 



Domingo " 450,000 270,000 



Total, 3,468,000 2,735,000 



Of beeswax the amounts received 

 were as follows, from 



1881. 1882. 



Chili lbs 90,000 .54,000 



Venezuela " 14.5,000 63,000 



Angola " 14,000 — 



Madagascar " 48,000 33,000 



West Indies " 38,500 12,000 



Total, 335,.500 1 62,000 



Honey is extensively used in Europe 

 in the manufacture of honey wine, 

 iiietheglin and cakes; for preserving 

 fruit, and preparing medicine, as well 

 as for table use, tor which it is more 

 generally used than in America. 



One firm (Messrs. Field & Co.), in 

 Paris, use ten tons of American bees- 

 wax per month m making candles for 

 Catholic altars. The religious pa- 

 geantry of Roman Catholic countries 

 owe much of its spendorand influence 

 to its altar-candles, eacli the tribute 



of a thousand flowers, collected by 

 millions of bees, leading the thoughts 

 back, perchance, to the sweet and 

 pure origin. 



Its other uses are very numerous 

 and important. The New York Grocer 

 enumerates the following : 



Its property of preserving tissues 

 and preventing mold or mildew was 

 well known to the ancients, who use 

 serecioth for embalming, and wax for 

 encaustic painting, as in the wall pic- 

 tures of Pompeii, wax candles and 

 tapers play an important part in the 

 processions and ceremonies of the 

 Roman Catholic church. Wax is used 

 by manufacturers of glazed, ornamen- 

 tal wall papers, and on paper collars 

 and cuffs for polishing the surfaces. 

 It is used in varnishes and paints, and 

 for the " stuffing" of wood which is 

 to be polished, as pianos, coach work. 

 Hue furniture and parquette floors. 

 Electrotypers and plasterers use wax 

 in forming their molds. Wax is an 

 important ingredient in preparations 

 for covering surfaces of xiolished iron 

 and steel to prevent rust. Combined 

 with tallow, it forms the coating for 

 canvass and cordage to prevent mil- 

 dew, as in sails, awnings, etc. Arti- 

 ficial flowers consume much wax, and, 

 despite the introduction of paraftine, 

 ceresin and mineral wax, its use ap- 

 pears to be extending. One of the 

 oldest of its applications is in the 

 laundry, and in polishing wood-work. 



Bees and Fruit. 



A correspondent in the Prairie 

 Farmer remarks as follows on this sub- 

 ject, giving the results of some ex- 

 periments. " The much-discussed 

 question whether bees injure fruit 

 ,was attempted to be solved by a com- 

 mittee of the Warsaw Horticultural 

 Society. The work was begun, but 

 finally neglected and never finished. 

 How much and what was shown is 

 the purpose of this paper:" 



A committee of three was appointed 

 in the summer of 1881, of which the 

 writer was one— and on July 9th of 

 that year, in conjunction wilii a noted 

 bee expert, they began their experi- 

 ments, with early peaches. Their 

 first experiment was as follows : 

 They took three peaches of equal 

 ripeness— two of them with the skin 



slightly punctured, by insect or bird, 

 and one width the skin entirely sound 

 and unbroken. The punctures in the 

 skin of the two were small, say about 

 the size of a pin-head. These tliree 

 peaches were carefully handled, and 

 were taken and placed in a hive with 

 a strong swarm of bees. 



Eesult.— The next day, which was 

 Saturday, and just 24 hours after- 

 wards, the hive was opened and the 

 peaches examined. The two punc- 

 tured ones were found to be partly 

 eaten by the bees, while the one with 

 unbroken skin remained whole as at 

 first. They were all replaced again 

 in the hive. On Monday, at the same 

 hour— which was 48 hours from the 

 last examination, and 72 hours since 

 the peaches had been taken from the 

 tree— they were again examined. 

 This time the two were nearly con- 

 sumed, and the one was considerably 

 eaten. 



The query here presented itself to 

 the committee : Did the bees begin 

 on the third peach while its skin was 

 yet intact, or did they wait till it, by 

 its decay, became broken V That 

 single experiment could not decide 

 that important point. At the period 

 of the first examination, that peach 

 was still whole and seemingly sound, 

 but as two more days intervened be- 

 fore it was examined the second time, 

 it is quite possible that it may have 

 decayed so far as to open the skin be- 

 fore the bees began their work on it. 

 It is aflirmed by bee physiologists that 

 the bees have no teeth or other in- 

 strument by which they could per- 

 forate the skin of a sound ripe peach. 

 And they stoutly maintain that bees 

 do not originate the trouble, but only 

 follow after some other depredator. 

 This single exjierimentof the Warsaw 

 committee, though not conclusive, 

 goes far to prove that this theory of 

 the bee men is the correct one. 



Kumerous other experiments and 

 examinations were made subesquently 

 by individual members of the commit- 

 tee, in regard to peaches; but none 

 worth reporting in reference to other 

 fruits. 



In one case, five peaches were desig- 

 nated as they hung on the tree. One 

 of them was nearly eaten up by the 

 bees, one about half eaten, two others 

 less so, and with no sign of decay 

 about any of them. The fifth was en- 

 tirely whole, with the exception of 

 one little round puncture the size of a 

 pin's head ; and another the size of a 

 grain of rye. These were both located 

 at the ripest and softest side of the 



