1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



285 



/Vrr^Ofjg tl^e Bee-Papers 



Conatiated liy " GLEA.j>fER." 



SACALINE PRONOUNCED A FRAUD. 



The Nebraska Queen contains a card from Prof. C. E. 

 Bessey, of the University Experiment Station, denouncing the 

 new plant Sacaline in unqualified terms. He obtained seed 

 from the introducer in France, as also roots. "The seeds 

 made a feeble growth and eventually came to nothing, but the 



roots grew into strong plants Some of the stems were as 



thick as my little finger, and about as palatable as dry buck- 

 wheat straw. The leaves are coarse and unlike anything 

 which stock will eat. I should as soon expect to see an 

 ordinary horse or cow eat dock and sunflowers as this coarse, 

 weedy plant." 



WIDTH OF SECTIONS. 



B. Taylor having advocated in Gleanings the use of nar- 

 rower sections, N. D. West, who successfully manages SCO or 

 400 colonies, makes reply. He tried sections 1?^ by the 

 thousand side by side with iho.'ie 1% wide. The same weight 

 of honey cost more in sections and foundation, and he could 

 get no more per pound when he sold it. He says : " If I sold 

 the honey in the 1% section from the 100 colonies for 10 

 cents per pound, I should have more money than by using the 

 1% section, and selling the honey at 11 cents per pound." 



ARRANGEMENT FOR WEIGHING HIVES. 



Referring to page 229, if h. G. Cash will try the spring 

 balance, he will find he can make a great deal quicker work 

 than with steelyards. One can be had weighing SO pounds. 

 Those who have cleats on thoir hives will not need to put four 

 screw-eyes in the corners of the bottom-board. The rope 

 simply passes around the cleat at each end. 



PROLIFIC QUEENS — GRANULATED SUGAR — MILLER FEEDER. 



Mr. Davenport says on page 231, "The most prolific 

 queens are not the best in many cases." I don't dispute that, 

 but why does he give us no liglit beyond the bare assertion ? 

 Why did he kill that queen that " was prolific and equal to at 

 least 10 frames ?" 



He says, " When I feed sugar I use the bsst granulated." 

 What is the " best," and how is it distinguished ? Across the 

 sea they object to sugar made from beets and say it is not fit 

 for bees. On this side I think it is generally claimed that 

 beet or cane is all the same. Can we know anything about it, 

 or is there no way of finding out? Is granulated sugar 

 adulterated? 



Mr. Davenport uses the Miller feeder. In using it I find 

 difficulty in getting out the bees when I shift it from one hive to 

 another. Will he please tell us how he gets out the bees ? 



SEALING HEATED HONEY. 



Along with the item on page 338, " Keeping extracted 

 honey Ii*iuid," it would be well to have the accompanying cau- 

 tion — "A little too much heating will ruin the honey." There 

 are some who like the flavor of cooked honey, but for most 

 tastes cooked honey is spoiled honey. And if honey is heated 

 to be sealed, the heating must be exceedingly slow, and five 

 out of every ten will overheat it. 



THE VALUE OF BEE-PAPERS. 



"Of all those in my vicinity who have kept bees, and 

 have taken no bee-papers, I cannot think of one who has not 

 failed; while those who have taken a journal have nearly all 

 succeeded. I think this needs no comment." — H. R. Board- 

 man in Gleaning^ j 



DRUGS FOR FOUL BROOD. 



Across the sea reports are made from time to time of 

 cures through this or that drug, but on this side the water 

 few will be found to contradict the assertion that drugs are of 

 no use to cure foul brood. F. L. Thompson comes to the de- 

 fense of drugs in Gleanings, not so much in the way of cure as 

 prevention. The formula is: Carbolic acid 1, salt 3, water 

 295. 



C. J. H. Gravenhorst, an eminent German authority and 

 editor of the German Illustrated Bee Journal, says in Glean- 

 ings that he uses "not the refined article you get at the drug 

 store in the shape of white crystals, but black and unrefined 

 carbolic acid, which is intermingled with coal tar, and mostly 

 used as paint. Refined carbolic acid is too strong, and the 

 sanative power of the coal-tar is absent in it To guard 



my bees against infection by foul brood, I take }4 gallon ralu 

 water, add to it a teaspoonful of unrefined carbolic acid, and 

 stir it. With a brush, dipped in this solution, I wash the bot- 

 tom-boards every spring, after the first cleansing llight." 



HOG SCENT TO PREVENT STINGS. 



In Gleanings, Rambler reports W. M. Cole as saying : 



'If 



you get the scent of a hog on your hands or clothing, 

 it is the best of preventives to bee-stings. Smokers! wouldn't 

 have one around. .Inst step over into the pen and rub your 

 hands on the old sow's back, and you will have apifuge enough 

 to last half a day." 



It would also be economy of food to leave your hands 

 unwashed when you came to dinner. 



UPWARD VENTIL.'i.TION WITH A VENGEANCE. 



Thaddeus Smith relates in Gleanings that in Kentucky he 

 found a box-hive in March that had lain all winter upside 

 down with no covering on the combs, it having been supposed 

 that the bees were all dead. To his surprise he found live 

 bees in it, although in December the thermometer was down 

 to 14° below zero, and in February 18^ below, and either 

 down to zero or below every day for three weeks in February. 



MEASURING BEES' TONGUES. 



.Take Smith's bjy Zed, as reported in Gleanings, has been 

 getting up an arrangement to measure bees' tongues. But 

 he's hardly original in this, for across the ocean two or three 

 different glossometers have been invented, and the matter is 

 taken very seriously. Why shouldn't it be? If the same 

 pains that have been taken to breed stripes had been taken to 

 breed from the colonies in ihe apiary showing the longest 

 tongues, we might now have bees that would readily work on 

 red clover. At least it looks that way. 



GETTING THE NEIGHBORS TO PROVIDE PASTURE FOB YOU. 



Says S. E. Miller in Progressive : " Show them that you 

 can make more cash per acre out of Alsike clover than they 

 can out of the common red. By this means you will soon have 

 them coming to you for Alsike seed, and in a short time you 

 may have acres of it within easy reach of your bees." 



CONDEMNING WITHOUT TRIAL. 



"Observer," in Progressive Bee-Keeper, comes down on 

 Heddon for being down on the Higginsville cover, saying it is 

 hardly the fair thing to condemn before trial ; and then three 

 paragraphs further on Observer does the very same thing by 

 saying, of Aspin wall's wooden comb to prevent swarming, "It 

 won't work;" although he gives no intimation he has ever 

 tried it. 



Say, Observer, I wouldn't have told on you if you hadn't 

 threatened in Progressive to gag me. 



CONUUCTED BY 



DR. J. 1'. II. BROWN, ^lUGUST^l. OA. 



[Please send all questions relating to bee-keeping in the South direct 

 to Dr. Brown, and he will answer in this department.— Ed.1 



Salutatory. 



In taking charge of the " Southern Department " of the 

 American Bee Journal I know that I am assuming a great re- 

 sponsibility — a real weight ; but if my Southern bee-keeping 

 friends will come to my assistance, this weight will, in a great 

 measure, be lessened ; and in place thereof there will be a 

 pleasure and a satisfaction in performing the duties pertain- 

 ing to this department. 



Knowledge of anything is but the stem of experience. All 

 that we know about bee-keeping is but the experience of our 

 predecessors added to our own research and observation. 

 Hence it seems to me that, being indebted to others for a large 

 part of our knowledge pertaining to the honey-bee and to its 

 management, we should endeavor to pay at least a part of this 

 debt by giving the gist of our experience to others. This de- 

 partment of the Bee Journal has been established for this 

 object. Let your light shine so some brother now groping in 

 the dark among his bees may be lifted up to the plane of in- 

 telligent bee-keeping. Your torch will be none the less for 

 lighting that of your neighbor. 



Now, my friends, I hope you will favor me with your 



