92 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1 



known as the rain-belt were the freest from 

 the extremes of weather conditions of any 

 place on the globe. We who live in this 

 favored section ought to consider ourselves 

 fortunate. 



THE PURE-FOOD BILL BEING HELD UP IN 

 THE SENATE. 



The pure-food bill that passed the House 

 is being held up in Senate. If you will 

 look over the original vote in the house you 

 will see that, on the day the bill passed, 

 only about a fourth or a third of the mem- 

 bers were present. All the rest "dodged." 

 Those that remained had stamina enough 

 to stand up for their colors, and vote their 

 honest convictions. If it is not held up in 

 the Senate as now seems probable the same 

 game may be plaj'ed over again. The bill 

 is being shoved over from one time to an- 

 other; and the obvious purpose is to carry 

 it past the time of this session. It is con- 

 ceded by the friends of it that it will pass 

 overwhelmingly in the Senate, if it can be 

 brought to a vote, for the Senators will not 

 dare to vote against it. But the glucose 

 people, and those engaged in the business 

 of adulterating food products, realize that 

 their best tactics is to delay. 



The thing for our readers to do is to keep 

 up the pressure — get in touch with the men, 

 the politicians, who make your Senators. 

 Get them to write to those same Senators, 

 who, perhaps, are inclined to postpone. 



It would be a monstrous shame, and no 

 credit to the Senate, if this bill fails to pass. 

 Keep up your letter-writing, even if you 

 have already written. But your best work 

 will be to write to the prominent politicians 

 who have influence with your Senators. 

 Do not forget that every State has two Sen- 

 ators. Find out who those men are, and 

 then address them at the United States 

 Senate, Washington, D. C. 



NO NEW ELECTION TO BE .CALLED; MR. N. 



E. FRANCE TO QUALIFY AS GENERAL 



MANAGER. 



In this issue will be found a further 

 statement in regard to the Association mat- 

 ter. While we may regret the clause in the 

 ballot that has been construed as election- 

 eering for Mr. France, I am now con- 

 vinced we can not get back of the election 

 we held in the month of December as the 

 constitution provides. To hold another elec- 

 tion at some other time would, I believe, be 

 unconstitutional and illegal, as Attorney 

 Moore says. Several other lawyer bee- 

 keepers and good parliamentarians in the 

 ranks have given precisely the same opin- 

 ion. In view of this the Directors, I under- 

 stand, or a majority of them, have decided 

 against calling a new election, although I 

 am satisfied they would be glad to do so if 

 it could be done without making the situa- 

 tion tenfold worse than it is, and confusion 

 worse confounded. I had hoped one might 

 be called. 



Mr. France has been requested to quali- 



fy, and has submitted his bond to the Di- 

 rectors for their approval. We shall soon 

 be ready for business. Now let us, one 

 and all, stop our wrangling, stand by the 

 constitution, work for the Association, and 

 move "on to victory," as Mr. Moore says. 

 There is much important work to be done, 

 and I believe Mr. France to be equal to the 

 occasion. If he is not, let us put in the 

 man who is, at the election next December. 



POWER EXTRACTORS; A OUART OF GASO- 

 LINE FOR A WHOLE DAY'S EXTRACT- 

 ING. 



In this issue, in Straws, I have made ref- 

 erence to the fact that I was studying up 

 gasoline-engines with a view of getting one 

 rigged to an extractor so that the engine 

 and extractor would be a common commod- 

 ity in bee-supply catalogs. As I have said 

 heretofore in these columns, a high rotative 

 speed can not be secured by hand-turning — 

 that is, turning a crank — at least, not high 

 enough to get the combs clean. My experi- 

 ence in extracting in California (and Mr. 

 Mendleson put me at the machine and made 

 me earn my bread that day by the sweat of 

 my brow) teaches me that at least the large 

 machines should be run by power, to save 

 honey as well as manual strength. The re- 

 sult of my studies along the line of gasoline- 

 engines is such that I am now thoroughly 

 convinced that such an engine can be satis- 

 factorily coupled to an extractor. I have 

 roughly estimated that a quart of gaso- 

 line would take care of a big extracting in 

 one day. Just contrast that with the hire 

 per day of a man to turn one of those big 

 machines two months in the year in Califor- 

 nia, and consider the further fact that the 

 little motor as well as the man could be 

 used for other purposes too numerous to men- 

 tion. 



But some will say that the speed of a gas- 

 oline-engine is constant, and that some 

 combs can't stand the speed of others. 

 True; but a gasoline-motor can be throttled 

 to a certain extent, and adapted to any 

 speed ; and it is done to a great extent in the 

 automobile. But in the case of the extract- 

 or it would be more practicable to leave the 

 speed of the engine constant and use the 

 roller and disk transmission to give a vari- 

 able speed from the lowest to the highest 

 point without jar or bang. Of course, as 

 intimated above, some extracting-combs 

 can be rotated at a higher speed than oth- 

 ers. It is a common practice to put combs 

 of equal age or strength into the extractor 

 at a time, and then extract the weak ones 

 at a whirl by themselves. 



Now, then, by a power extractor and a 

 variable speed that can be controlled by 

 means of a lever, either by hand or foot, 

 one man could do the uncapping and extract- 

 ing and a much more thorough job than two 

 men could do by hand. My impression 

 now is that the gasoline-engine will not be 

 so very expensive; and when that day arrives, 

 no extensive extracted-honey man will 



