1002 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1 



cold, otherwise it will have a tendency to 

 leak or ooze out through the paper. Colo- 

 rado honey, from its pronounced tendency 

 to granulate, would remain solid until 

 clear up into warm weather. But I doubt 

 very much whether Eastern candied honey 

 will do so. 



The reading on these packages is not very 

 plain, and so I will reproduce the general 

 directions, which are as follows: 



The candied condition of this honey is proof of its 

 purity. If preferred liquid, put it into a pail, and the 

 pail in hot water — not much hotter than you can bear 

 your hand in. Never let it boil. Boiling spoils the 

 houey flavor. 



I wish to call attention to the words made 

 emphatic. Never let it boil, and further at- 



• tention to the very excellent suggestion of 

 putting honey to be liquefied " into a pail 

 of water that is not much hotter than you 



'can bear your hand in." Many make the 

 mistake of getting the water too hot, and 

 thereby very much impairing the flavor. 

 The other day my wife, in getting the last 

 remnants of candied honey out of a glass 

 jar, put it into water so hot that the flavor 

 of the honey was appreciably affected. If 

 the wife of a bee journal editor will commit 

 such an unpardonable sin, is it not proba- 

 ble that hundreds of consumers would do 

 the same thing? They can not have the 

 fact put before them too strongly, that the 

 water should not be much warmer "than 

 you can bear the hand in; " and let me tell 

 j'ou it will be far better to put the pail into 

 lukewarm water and let it stand for several 

 days, or until it comes to a liquid condition. 

 Such honey will be much finer than if it be 

 liquefied in a few hours; and slow liquefy- 

 ing will keep the honey in a liquid condi- 

 tion longer than if it is brought to the melt- 

 ing-point in a short time. 



There is quite a trade starting up in 

 bags for candied honey; but let the Eastern 

 bee-keepers be careful to see that honey put 

 up in them is taken care of before summer 

 weather comes. The Aikin honey or any 

 other equally fine will probably be all 

 used up before it can melt or run over the 

 shelves. 



I have in my hands a sample of the ten- 

 pound size. It is as hard as a block of 

 wood. Indeed, if I wanted to knock a bur- 



. glar down — knock him into insensibility — I 

 think I would lain at him one of these pack- 

 ages, if a brickbat were not in sight. 



THE LOS ANGELES CONVENTION, AS REPORT- 

 ED BY THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL; 

 J. S. HARBISON, J. G. CORY, 

 A. I. ROOT. 



The reports of the talks from bee-veter- 

 ans, above mentioned, in the issues of the 

 Am. Bee Journal for Oct. 29, Nov. 5, Nov. 

 12, ought to be worth a dollar to every bee- 

 keeper in the land, especially to any one 

 who has any regard for what happened in 

 the earlier days of our industry. I once 

 thought of copying from the " Old Relia- 

 ble " the talks from the above three; but so 

 many of the readers of Gleanings take the 



Am. Bee Journal also, it would hardly be 

 fair to them to give the same story twice. 

 Another thing, it would greatly crowd the 

 pages of our own journal when we have al- 

 ready more valuable articles than we can 

 find room for. There are some mistakes, 

 however, probably made by the stenogra- 

 pher, that I wish to mention. On page 694 

 Mr. Samuel Wagner is credited with mak- 

 ing the first machine with rollers for mak- 

 ing comb foundation. Instead of giving 

 Wagner the credit it should have been 

 Washburn. Mr. Alva Washburn, of Medi- 

 na, Ohio, made the first pair of rolls the 

 world ever saw, for rolling out comb foun- 

 dation. He did this while working for me 

 by the day; but, notwithstanding, the cred- 

 it is due to him more than to anybody else 

 for having carried the operation through its 

 experimental stage, and making it a prac- 

 tical success. 



On the same page we are told that our 

 good friend T. F. Bingham, of smoker fame, 

 has "hives of his own." It should read, 

 '''■ a. hii'e ot his own." It would seem very 

 strange if an old bee-keeper like friend 

 Bingham did not have some "hives," more 

 or less, of his own. 



On the same page, lower down, we are 

 told the daily papers spoke about a " Qua- 

 ker chap down in Ohio." The word Qua- 

 ker should be queer. I have always been 

 more or less queer to the outside world, but 

 I have never been a Quaker. 



On the next page we read, " The sorrow 

 that covers a man's grave is oftentimes the 

 poultice that draws out his virtues. " The 

 word sorrow should be sod. I used the old 

 proverb in speaking of the death of T. G. 

 Newman. 



On the same page, toward the close, after 

 commenting on the friendly visit that Mr. 

 Langstroth had with Moses Quinby, I in- 

 tended to say something as follows: 



After pleading so earnestly with father 

 Langstroth to go and have a friendly visit 

 with Mr. Quinb}', before death took one or 

 both away, I felt a good deal discouraged. . 

 I probably said to Mrs. Root, " I shall have 

 to give it up; it does not seem to be of any 

 use." Very likely, just then and there I 

 knelt down and prayed that the Holy Spir- 

 it might do what I in my feeble strength had 

 failed to do. Now, I can not remember that 

 I did this; but so often, when discouraged 

 in trying to move human hearts, I have done 

 this very thing, I think it is quite likely I 

 did so. I know this: When I went into his 

 room in the morning I was greatly aston- 

 ished to find my prayers were answered. 

 As there is a very great moral in this sim- 

 ple little story I think I will repeat the rest 

 of it here. Father Langstroth was a little 

 late in getting up. I knocked at the door, 

 and then went into his room. Without say- 

 ing a word he pulled his watch out from 

 under his pillow, and handed it to me ask- 

 ing me to listen to its ticking. As I was a 

 jeweler by trade at that time, I supposed, 

 of course, something was the matter with 

 his watch. Then he said, "Friend Root, 



