190 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Mar. 21. 



that because the bee has a sting, that therefore it will use 

 that sting whenever opportunity offers. Now, such is not the 

 case, 'J9 out of every 100 persons would be surprised to see a 

 practical bee-keeper open the hive and handle the bees as if 

 they were house-flies. 



The subject of granulation of honey was another item 

 about which few people know anything. They think because 

 the honey crystallizes, that it must be sugar, and therefore 

 the honey-business suffers; the public should know that 

 nearly all pure liquid honey granulates. The President 

 thanked Dr. Keid and promised that the Association would 

 take steps in the direction proposed. 



Several members entered into a discussion about the size 

 of brood-frames. Some are using the Gallup and others the 

 Langstroth frames; each were in favor of their respective 

 styles. The election of officers for the ensuing year, resulted 

 as follows: President, E. F. Beeler, Berwick ; 1st Vice Pres.. 

 Rev. P. S. McGregor, Hantsport ; 2nd Vice-Pres., E. S. 

 Goudge, Halifax ; and Sec'y-Treas., J. H. Cox, Cambridge 

 Station. 



The convention then adjourned to meet at Berwick next 

 June, at the call of the President who promised to entertain 

 the members, and to give them some practical instruction in 

 queen-rearing. Mr. Beeler is considered the best informed 

 bee-keeper in Nova Scotia.— The Acadian Record. 



CONDUCTED BY 

 »e\-. JSmerson T. Jlbbott, St. Joseph, J/o. 



■Why Soft. — "By inserting a cake of properly made 

 soft candy right over the cluster, and covering all warmly 

 down to retain the heat, many a colony will be saved." — Edi- 

 torial in British Bee Journal. 



I am at a loss to know why so many people have an ioea 

 that candy must be so/t when given to the bees for winter 

 food. I have used sugar-cakes made out of granulated sugar 

 for a number of years, and I make the cakes as hard as I can 

 make them, and put nothing in the mixture but sugar and 

 water. The harder it is the better it will be. The bees will 

 look after the softening of it all right, if it is put directly over 

 the cluster. When it is put on too soft, it is apt to run down 

 and smear the bees. 



I notice in a paper sent me from Michigan the other day, 

 that a writer says my plan will not work in Michigan. It will 

 work any place if properly done. This writer further says 

 that I do not mention diarrhea in talking of this plan, and 

 seems to be greatly troubled abont it. I had no occasion to 

 mention it, for bees never have anything of the kind when 

 wintered on sugar candy. I opened a colony a few days ago 

 that had a cake of sugar on them, to see how they were 

 coming on, and the way they bulged out when the cloth was 

 lifted indicated that they were not troubled very much about 

 the candy being hard, nor from any disease known to bee- 

 keepers. This, too, after about three weeks of very cold 

 weather, the mercury ranging from 10 to 20 below zero. 

 Give your bees candy, but be sure it is not soft. 



Must toe a Mistake.— " Bees, seldom work on the 

 strawberry blossoms. I think the wind is the chief agent in 

 pollination." — Eugene Secor. 



There must be some mistake about this, for I am quite 

 sure there is no fruit which needs the bee more in order to 

 secure perfect maturity. In the strawberry the effects of 

 pollination extend beyond the fruit itself, and affect the 

 receptacle, causing it to enlarge and become rich and juicy. 

 Most people know that the part of the strawberry which 

 makes it edible is the enlarged receptacle, and the real fruit 

 are what are commonly called seeds — botanists call them 

 "achenia." Now there are from one to two hundred of these 

 on each receptacle, and each one of them requires a separate 

 fertilizer, or else the receptacle will not be stimulated to 

 activity, and will remain green and hard. Any one, by exam- 

 ination, may see these green, hard places in strawberries 

 caused by imperfect fertilization. Many varieties are dioe- 

 clous, that is, they have the anthers, or male element, on one 

 plant, and the stigmas, or female element, on another; but 

 where they are perfect and have both stamens and pistils, the 

 stigma matures and becomes receptive before any pollen is 

 produced, and even such (lowers must depend upon others, 

 that are more advanced, for fertilization. 



If one will stop and think for a moment how important 

 pollination is in this case, and how difficult it would be for the 

 wind to act as a pollen-bearer where so many little stigmas 

 in one flower await the coming of the vitalizing dust, I think 

 he will rightly conclude that this very important work cannot 

 be left to the sole care of any element which has such a repu- 

 tation for fickleness as has the wind. Then, it has been my 

 observation that bees do visit strawberries in abundance. 

 Why should they not ? The strawberry yields both nectar 

 and pollen. The existence of the nectar alone would be 

 sufficient evidence that the plant is visited by some nectar- 

 loving insect, if we had no other proof. The berry needs the 

 bee, and the bee needs the nectar, and you can rest assured 

 that they find each other. 



/Kn)or)Q tipe Bee-Papers 



Conducted by " GLE-XXER." 



WHAT CAUSES BEE-PARALYSIS "? 



In Gleanings, .1. Baldensperger thinks the queen has 

 nothing to do with it, nor the food, but possibly the hives being 

 too well protected against cold — " no airing on top, the sweat 

 causing the mischief." T. S. Ford thinks humidity may have 

 something to do with it. Dr. J. P. H. Brown conjectures that 

 in the South the trouble may arise from the bees sucking the 

 juices of decaying melons. 



A VETERAN BRIMSTONING HIS BEES. 



T. P. Andrews, of Illinois, reports in Gleanings that the 

 pasturage and seasons have so changed that summer feeding 

 has become the rule. He says : "My surplus for the past five 

 years has averaged annually only about 1.5 pounds per colony 

 of extracted honey. I have reduced, in the past three years, 

 from 300 colonies down to about 140, without much effort on 

 my part until last fall, when I brimstoned 55 of the least 

 valuable of the colonies after extracting the honey." 



SWEET CLOVER FOR TANNERS. 



It may surprise many to learn that the sweet clover plant 

 is of immense value to tanners of leather. A practical tan- 

 ner, an expert in his profession, assures me that the fraternity 

 can richly afford to pay 10 cts. per pound, or .S200 per ton, 

 for the sweet-clover plant when properly prepared for their 

 use. — M. M. Baldridge in Gleanings. 



ADULTERATION IN BEESWAX. 



The A. I. Root Co. has been " taken in " with some bees- 

 wax adulterated witli parafflne, and a sample being sent to 

 Chas. Dadant & Son they reply ; " We must say that at first 

 sight we should have been taken in, for it smells and looks 

 like pure beeswax. A careful test, however, by the alcohol 

 and water test showed that it has a lighter specific gravity 

 than average beeswax." Look out for wax that has been 

 remelted. 



LARGE VERSUS SMALL HIVES. 



The editor of Gleanings says that among other things 

 learned from the discussion as to the size of hives, he has 

 learned that more bee-keepers than were supposed are using 

 large brood-nests ; that at least some using eight frames might 

 do better with 10 or 12 ; and that in colder climates with one 

 main honey-flow in June and July with very little fall-flow, 

 the eight-frame size seems to be used most, while in warm 

 climates with long seasons a large brood-nest of 10, 12, and 

 16 frame capacity seems to have the preference. 



SIZE OP HIVES AND FRAMES. 



Perhaps the continual discussion of the above topic may 

 arise from the fact that different places and conditions demand 

 different sizes. At any rate, if the matter is ever to be settled 

 it will more likely be by actual experiment than by theorizing. 

 There's no objection, of course, to the theorizing and the 

 experimenting going on together. W. C. Gathright, on page 

 148, thinks a certain line of experiment is advisable. Now 

 the thing for Mr. Gathright to do is to go right to work in the 

 direction he thinks leads to profit — have a given number of 

 the preferable size run side by side with the same number of 

 the old kind, tell us the result at the end of the season, and 

 after having done that for perhaps three years we would know 

 something about what was best for him, and possibly for others. 



