156 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1 



mer, the sun shines into a north entrance 

 an hour and a half before it touches a south 

 entrance in the morning, with a like advan- 

 tage to a north entrance in the evening. Is 

 it better in summer to have a hive face north 

 or south? [These ideas throw new light on 

 the subject. But photography brings out 

 the point that the sun, in the very early 

 morning or in the late evening, is not nearly 

 as bright as it is more in the prime of day. 

 So, all things considered, when one hive is 

 taken with another the year round, it is 

 doubtful whether the direction in which the 

 hive faces has vei'y much to do with the 

 amount of honey produced. — H. H. R.] 



"What ails this granulated sugar? It is 

 so yellow I am afraid there is something 

 wrong with it," said my wife. "It's the 

 pure-food law that ails it." I replied. "You 

 ought to be glad to see it yellow, for that is 

 because the manufacturer no longer dares to 

 poison it by putting in blue coloring to 

 whiten it." I remember one year, when 

 feeding a large amount of sugar, there was 

 a blue sediment in the bottom of the tub, 

 that would go a long way toward bluing a 

 whole washing. [It would not be bad if they 

 used only bluing to make sugar white; but 

 we are informed they use sulphuric or hy- 

 dro-chloric acid to bleach it, and this is not 

 always eliminated by the subsequent process. 

 This is why white sugar injures teeth. Straw- 

 colored sugar with large crystals possesses a 

 rich sweet taste. The larger the ci-ystals, 

 the better it is. Molasses sugar, which is soft 

 and moist, ought to be carefully avoided. 

 It is made from the "dregs" of a sugar- 

 factoi'y. The pure- food law will stop it soon, 

 however. The blue sediment referred to in- 

 dicated that the sugar came from beets. Raw 

 beet sugar has a bluish cast. Under the 

 pure-food law sugar ought to be cheaper and 

 at the same time better. — W. K. M.] 



E. Westphal writes me from Germany 

 that the fireless stove ( " Kochkiste " they call 

 it) is coming into universal use thei-e. Dif- 

 ferent makes can be found in the stores, and 

 home-made ones are common. He sends 

 me a pamphlet written by Elise Hannemann, 

 Vorsteherin vom JIaushaltungs-Semi?iar des 

 Lette-Vereins, which gives full instructions 

 for constructing and using this up-to-date 

 invention which is a saver of fuel, time, and 

 trouble, and adds to the palatability and 

 wholesomeness of food. It is a great boon 

 to rich and poor alike. [Glad to see that 

 you keep up your interest in this great in- 

 vention, or, as it perhaps had better be 

 called, discovery. 1 don't see why more 

 people don't try it. The fireless stove is es- 

 pecially valuable in those homes where a 

 saving of fuel means real economy. But, 

 aside from the economy, this method of 

 cooking has many other advantages. The 

 rich flavor of the food is preserved. I have 

 been roasting or baking potatoes in my old 

 trunk that I have fitted up. May be others 

 have done the same thing; but the plan is 

 original with me, any way. 1 take an old 

 pan, of pretty good size, and put in coarse 



gravel until it is over half full. This is 

 heated on the stove until every small piece 

 of stone is pretty hot, and then a hole is 

 scooped in the gravel, the potatoes put in 

 and well covered up. The pan is now put 

 in the trunk and well covered on all sides 

 with the cushions. Several hours later, when 

 we are ready to sit down to dinner, the pan 

 is taken out and the potatoes are found to be 

 steaming hot and 2)erfectly cooked. Try 

 this if you have not done so already; and if 

 you do not pronounce them the best potatoes 

 you ever ate I'll miss my guess. — H. H. R.] 



After reading that very interesting ar- 

 ticle on wax-rendering, p. 102, I'd like to 

 have H. H. Root stand up in a straight row 

 and answer a few questions. 



1. How would it do, instead of emptying 

 out each |-inch cheese of slumgum, to pour 

 directly upon the cheese a fresh lot to be 

 worked ? 



3. Would there be advantage in doing the 

 work during a hot day or in a hot room? 



3. How small an amount of wax annually 

 do you think would make it worth while to 

 own both the unheated and the German? 



4. For an annual amount of 25 lbs. of wax 

 would you advise the unheated, or the Ger- 

 man? 



5. For 300 lbs. annually, which kind would 

 be preferable? 



6. Suppose you have combs from which to 

 extract 300 lbs. of wax melted three times in 

 an unheated press: what would be the rela- 

 tive time to extract the same amount of wax 

 from the same material, in a German press? 



Before you begin your answei's, allow me 

 to thank you for emphasizing the point that 

 plenty of water with the comb must be used. 

 With only a little dab of water and comb it 

 would be so promptly chilled that no wax 

 would be obtained; but by using water 

 enough to fill the press, even a few ounces 

 might work. In other words, the beginner 

 with only a small quantity of wax to extract 

 is likely to make the mistake of thinking 

 that the water must be in proportion to the 

 wax; instead of that he must have a large 

 quantity of water and wax, no matter how 

 little wax he has. [All right; here I am in 

 as straight a row as I can get. It's "kindo'" 

 hard to answer you, for you sometimes get 

 me all tangled up. But I'll tell the truth 

 and do the best I can. 



1. I don't think it would do at all. There 

 would be just that much more refuse each 

 time, and the thicker the layer of refuse 

 the greater the percentage of loss. The wax 

 from the upper cheese would run down into 

 the lower one, and there would have to be 

 more time spent in getting it out. 



2. Yes, I say on page 101 that I think it 

 would be better to do the work in warm 

 weather or else in a warm room. 



3. I wouldn't use the two presses together 

 for any amount of wax, no matter how large. 

 My only object in using the German press 

 was to prove the small amount of waste left 

 after the second treatment in the Hatch 

 press. 



4. The unheated Hatch press, by all means, 



