240 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15 



the American mother uses "patent" foods 

 for feeding infants. 



No food can excel honey as a food for chil- 

 dren, and it is not patented. 



It is not generally known why honey im- 

 proves by being kept for some time, either 

 on the -hive or off. It improves in two ways 

 — first, by the evaporation of some of the 

 water present in it, also by the addition of 

 formic acid, which gives that rich "biting" 

 flavor we all desire. But it also improves 

 by the change of the sucrose (cane sugar) 

 which slowly but surely "changes" of itself 

 into dextrose. The national pure-food law 

 allows 8 per cent of sucrose in honey; but 

 even this amount may be eliminated by 

 keeping the honey in a dry warm room for 

 a period. Honey improves with age. 



THE THICKNESS OF THE COMB OF APIS UOR- 

 SATA. 



The American Bee Journal has a paragraph 

 calling in question the statement that Apis 

 dorsata builds a comb with cells 2^ inches 

 deep; but this is an actual fact, and the thick- 

 ness of the comb is 5 inches and more where 

 it is attached to the branch of a tree. This 

 is for the storage of honey, and also supplies 

 a great hold on the tree. Of course, the 

 comb tapers lower down where the brood is 

 reared. It is probably true the cells at the 

 top of the comb are not six-sided, because 

 the stretching caused by the great weight of 

 so large a comb, together with the weight of 

 one whole colony of bees, would serve to 

 draw the cells out of shape. It should be 

 borne in mind that Apis dorsata builds but 

 one comb in the open air, attached to the 

 branch of a lofty tree or overhanging rock. 

 Occasionally they build more combs, out not 

 often. The wax they make is also softer 

 than ours from Apis mellifica. 



BEES OF NORTHERN AFRICA. 



V Apiculture Nouvelle for December 15 

 contains an interesting article read before 

 the French Association for the advancement 

 of science on "The Bee in Libya." Libya, 

 it may be noted, embraces Tunisia, Tripoli, 

 Algeria, and Morocco, with the hinterland 

 of the Sahara. It is the land par excellence 

 of the date-palm, which is a liberal honey- 

 producer; romarin (rosemary) and wild 

 thyme are also abundant nectar-yielders in 

 that famous land. The paper is by Prof. 

 Lefebure, who gives the history of bee-keep- 

 ing in North Africa from the time of Herod- 

 otus to the present day, giving us glimpses 

 of the way apiaries are and were kept on the 

 Nile itself, floating up and down with the 

 seasons. Some very excellent authorities 

 consider Libya the cradle-land of our ra,ce, 

 and that we are not Caucasians but Funics. 

 It seems very probable our black bees came 

 from North Africa originally. No one has, 

 however, arisen to explain why it is they 

 have a yellow race of bees in Egypt on the 

 eastern end of North Africa, and the same 

 on thie western end (Senegal), with 3000 

 miles of black bees separating them. Here 

 is a conundrum worth studying. 



THE PESTS OF CIVILIZED COUNTRIES. 



Whenever it is proposed to introduce a 

 new animal or insect we are at once con- 

 fronted with statements about the English 

 sparrow, the rabbit in Australia, and the 

 mongoose in the West Indies. These are 

 largely newspaper exaggerations similar to 

 the comb-honey lie, and ought not to appear 

 in the columns of a reliable paper. The 

 United States owes an immense debt to other 

 countries for many valuable introduced ani- 

 mals and plants. The greatest pests in this 

 country are native animals such as the wolf, 

 coyote, prairie-dog, and jack-rabbit. In 

 South America it is the puma. In Australia 

 it is the dingo dog. In New Zealand it is the 

 kea bird. In the West Indies the mongoose 

 (a kind of ferret) almost destroyed the rats 

 — a very serious menace to tropical agricul- 

 ture. If there are any valuable species of 

 bees in other parts of the world, let us ex- 

 periment with them, free from prejudice and 

 fear. Our bees are not "natives," neither 



A DEPRESSED HONEY MARKET IN AUSTRALIA; 

 HONEY IN BAKED GOODS. 



The Australian bee-keepers are up against 

 a hard problem to solve — a better market 

 for honey. They have tried the English 

 market, which will not purchase their non- 

 ey at any price, as they dislike the peculiar 

 flavor. Probably the home market can be 

 developed. The baking trade (large factories) 

 takes up a good deal of the ordinary grades 

 of honey in this country. Probably the Aus- 

 tralians buy their fancy cakes in England, 

 where the biscuit trade uses sugar almost 

 exclusively; if so, there is an excellent op- 

 portunity for an Australian baking-factory 

 to step in and capture the trade, for honey 

 is undoubtedly superior to sugar for this 

 purpose. If our friends of the antipodes 

 have never tried honey bread they ought to 

 at once, for they will probably admit very 

 quickly it is somewhat superior to any bread 

 they ever tasted. For the children it has a 

 wonderfully attractive power, quite equal to 

 the best confections. Extracted honey of a 

 good grade is selling in Melbourne and Syd- 

 ney for 6 to 6^ cents per lb. 

 ^^ 



WHAT THE GOVERNMENT OF BELGIUM IS DO- 

 ING FOR APICULTURE. 



Prof. E. Van Hay contributes to the Dec. 

 15th number of L Apiculture Nouvelle an ex- 

 cellent account of the present condition of 

 bee-keeping in Belgium. In connection with 

 the agricultural school at Gembloux a com- 

 plete course of instruction in apiculture is 

 furnished, divided into five parts, requiring 

 about 200 lessons. First is the theory; next, 

 practical management; next, utilization of 

 the products of the bee, showing how honey 

 is used as a food, in medicine, in fancy cook- 

 ery, honey wines, and vinegar; also wax-re- 

 fining and usage. Next comes apiculture in 

 general, followed by a complete course in 

 the practice of bee-keeping, which includes 

 making foundation and hives. The students 



