224 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



hands as a sacred trust. Whenever we 

 have got into litigation of any sort, the fact 

 that there was a thousand dollars in the 

 treasury of the N. B. K. A., and the further 

 fact that there were a thousand members 

 who could, if necessary, pour in another 

 thousand dollars, has had a tremendous 

 influence on the minds of our enemies, the 

 adulterator, and municipal authorities that 

 were disposed to declare bees a nuisance. 

 Mr. Secor has shown another good quality — 

 an ability to keep still when "under fire." 

 Again, we might have had a General Man- 

 ager who would not have turned over a 

 single cent. — Ed.] 



The Leipziger Bietienzeitung offers $250 

 for an absolutely certain test for pure hon- 

 ey. [Any good chemist who has made the 

 analysis of honey a specialt}^ can determine 

 nearl}' enough for all practical purposes 

 whether honey is adulterated or not. Some- 

 times when the percentage of sugar syrup 

 is very low it may be difficult to detect it; 

 but the ordinary commercial glucose, such 

 as is used in the United States, at least, is 

 very readily discovered. The average 

 chemist who has never had much to do with 

 the analysis of honey, may make a mistake; 

 but one who is at all familiar with the 

 range of the proportions of the different 

 properties or elements that go to make up 

 ordinary honey can very readily show the 

 spurious fromithe genuine; indeed, the courts 

 of our land accept the statement of a relia- 

 ble chemist. I do not know why the Bie- 

 nenzeitung should feel under the necessity of 

 offering $250 for an absolutely certain test. 

 If it desires a test that can be used by any 

 bee-keeper, without a knowledge of chemis- 

 try, it might just as well make the offer ten 

 times as large, and be perfectly sure of 

 keeping the money. — Ed.] 



Sometimes bee - keepers will agree to 

 market through certain avenues, and then 

 take up with a better offer elsewhere, say 

 you, Mr. Editor, p. 189. I have been under 

 the impression that there was nothing dis- 

 loyal in a member of a honey exchange sell- 

 ing outside at any time, providing he sold 

 at a higher price. Am I wrong in that ? 

 [It all depends on what kind of contract is 

 entered into with the organization of which 

 the bee-keeper is a member. In the Colo- 

 rado Association, one of the most successful 

 organizations of its kind — perhaps the most 

 so — the bee - keepers buy up a certain 

 amount of stock, and I think the members 

 are supposed to market their product 

 through the organization. But suppose Mr. 

 A, a member of the organization, does sell 

 at a higher price ; he does not break down 

 the market, it is true ; but should not his 

 fellow-stockholders share in the better price 

 he is able to secure in the slightly increased 

 dividend that will be made later ? If the 

 bee-keepers are going to band together for 

 mutual protection, they should be willing 

 to give to the organization for the sake of 

 what it may give them in return — a higher 

 level of prices year after year. — Ed.] 



Replying to the question whether balled 

 queens die from stings or suffocation. Dr. 

 W. G. Sawyer, in A>nerican Bee-keeper, 

 doubts the sufl^ocation, because he found 

 that, when he immersed drones completely 

 in water for fifteen minutes, nine-tenths of 

 them revived and were as lively as ever, 

 and he thinks queens would not be so differ- 

 ent from drones. I suspect he is right. 

 Neither does the stinging theory seem tena- 

 ble. If bees sting any thing, they're not 

 likely to be two or three hours at it. My 

 guess is starvation. [But haven't I seen 

 stings lodged in the body of a balled queen? 

 Yes, I am sure I have. But the fact that 

 drones can be kept under water for so long 

 a time, and still be revived, is a new fact. 

 Wouldn't that also argue, rather, that the 

 queen can get along for a considerable 

 length of time with very little air? and is 

 it not rather improbable that a ball of bees 

 should be so tight as to exclude fresh sup- 

 plies of air? If the queen smothers that 

 way, why shouldn't several of the bees die 

 also? We know a queen is more hardy 

 than any of the workers — or at least the fra- 

 ternity has generally held to that opinion. 

 —Ed.] 



Mr. Editor, after reading some things 

 you say on p. 188, I'm just the least bit 

 afraid that some of the beginners may 

 expect that Gleanings is to take the place 

 of a text-book. That should never be. If 

 a beginner can't have both a bee-journal 

 and a text-book, let him by all means start 

 with the text-book, and then get Gleanings 

 just as soon as he can get the money for it. 

 When he has studied the ABC throughout, 

 he is then in condition to profit by what he 

 reads in Gleanings. But Gleanings is 

 noplace in which to answer which bees lay 

 the eggs, how to form nuclei, nor any other 

 of the things plainly told in the ABC. But 

 in the faithful study of the ABC there will 

 be some things the beginner can not fully 

 understand, and Gleanings is the place in 

 which to ask for clearer light ; and after 

 the contents of the ABC have been fully 

 mastered there will still be plenty of things 

 coming up all the time to 3sk questions 

 about, and he should always feel free to 

 ask them in Gleanings. [You have hit 

 the nail squarely on the head ; Mr. Begin- 

 ner will, therefore, understand that the 

 suggestion offered by Dr. Miller as to what 

 Gleanings should be is a settled policy 

 of its editors and publishers. We have al- 

 ways tried to make our journal supplement 

 the book — not take the place of it. — Ed.] 



Editor Hutchinson thinks there ought 

 to be some changes made in the N. B. K. A. 

 constitution, and says: "In fact, one great 

 source, if not the source, of most of our late 

 troubles has been from a lack of definiteness 

 in our constitution." Perhaps. Undoubt- 

 edly there ought to be some change, but the 

 question is whether it is best to try to make 

 it so definite as to meet every possible emer- 

 gency that may arise, or to rip out some of 

 its present definiteness and depend a little 



