342 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1 



Finally I began to search Gleanings, and 

 found your instructions how to make candy, 

 and how to put it in. I followed instructions, 

 and placed good warm quilts over each 

 chink, and was surprised at the result. 

 Eleven colonies starving to death in January 

 came out good and strong in April, and 

 while woi'king on the willows they struck 

 the alighting-board from 68 to 132 per min- 

 ute. 1 took 1576 pounds of comb honey 

 from 11 colonies, and received 20 cents per 

 pound for all I sold. F. E. Starkey. 



Boelus, Neb., Nov. 20. 



candy for vtintek food made in a dif- 

 ferent WAY. 



I read in Gleanings, Jan. 15, about Dr. 

 Lyon and youi'self expei'imenting with win- 

 ter feeding. I am surprised to find no writer 

 who makes candy as 1 do. I use granulated 

 sugar and water, just as others do (but I do 

 not stir it) and run it into greased pans when 

 it is just right for making good taffy. In a 

 few days it granulates and is as solid a wax 

 cake as yours, but they are full of thick syr- 

 up. I lay it over the cluster, and the bees 

 soon take the syrup all out. When I exam- 

 ine again I pour some water on it. Those 

 cakes are so porous that they readily absorb 

 water, and that saves the bees from hunting 

 water every time they take a flight. I use 

 these cakes on all colonies, whether short of 

 stores or not. Sometimes there are sti'eaks 

 of taffy in them when I put them on the hive, 

 but it granulates there, and is all right. 



Royal, 111. B. D. Hall. 



CANDY FOR BEES; MORE INFORMATION 

 WANTED. 



I am much interested in your discussion of 

 candy for winter feeding, pp. 83 and 98. I 

 wish you would say how much water you use 

 per pound of sugar, how long you boil it, and 

 the temperature of the mass when you stop 

 the boiling and turn it out to cool. 



I am guessing that the result depends on 

 the three factors named. The more water 

 you use, and the longer time you take to boil 

 it, the more of the sugar will be inverted, 

 and the moi-e of the sugar that is inverted 

 the more hygroscopic it becomes, and the 

 harder it will have to be to stand up in the 

 humid atmosphere of the hive. The temper- 

 ature determines the hardness. 



When you tell us to cook it till it grains 

 readily when stirred, you leave the final re- 

 sult quite indefinite. I think sugar can be 

 made to grain when it contains so much wa- 

 ter that it wovild not remain firm in the hive. 

 The result fi-om any given boiling tempera- 

 ture of specified quantities of sugar and wa- 

 ter would be quite exact, and could be du- 

 plicated by any one. 



The same ideas apply to making syrup for 

 feeding late in the fall. It should be easy to 

 determine the proportions of sugar, water, 

 and tartaric acid, that, boiled to a certain 

 temperature, would not candy, although made 

 to weigh 11 pounds per gallon, if one would 

 make the needed experiments. 



Solon, Maine. Turner Buswell. 



[As to the quantity of water to the sugar, 

 that depends very largely upon the state of 

 the atmosphere and the intensity of the fire 

 on which the syrup is to be "cooked." 

 Roughly speaking, four dipperfuls of sugar 

 to one of water will give the right propor- 

 tion. Just enough water should be used so 

 that all the sugar will be dissolved when the 

 mixture has just come to a boil. If it is still 

 cloudy when it is boiling, add a little more 

 water. While it is being dissolved it should 

 be stirred. 



The next question is. How long should it 

 boil ? Well, as the candy-makers would 

 say, until it comes to a "crack;" that is to 

 say, dip your finger into cold water, then 

 into the hot syrup, and then immediately 

 back into the water. If the mixture has 

 cooked long enough, the film of hard cold 

 syrup will " crack " upon the fingers. If it 

 has not cooked long enough it will be soft. 

 It may be necessaiy to make two or three 

 tests before the cracking-point is reached. 

 The syrup should then be taken off the stove. 



We omitted to state that about half a tea- 

 spoonful of cream tartar dissolved in a little 

 water, or, if prefei'red, one pound of honey 

 to ten pounds of sugar, should be put in 

 when the sugar and water are fii'st put on 

 the stove. The purpose is to keep the candy 

 in a hard state so that it will not go back to 

 the granular form, rattling down between 

 the frames when the bees start to eat it. — 

 Ed ] 



no bees on alfalfa. 



I watched two alfalfa-fields the past season, 

 one close to North Manchester, Ind., and one 

 in Whitley County, Ind. Not a bee could I 

 see working on either of them. 



North Manchester, Ind. S. F. Miller. 



GOOD FOR WASHINGTON, D. C. 



We take unusual pleasure in submitting 

 the following clipping from The Wom,an^s 

 National Daily, because Congressman Web- 

 ber was a Medina boy, born and educated in 

 Medina Co., Ohio.— A. I. R. 



WILL STORM CONGRESS. 



A most determined effort is being made to do away 

 with the selling of liquor in the District of Columbia. 

 As previously stated in these dispatches, Congress- 

 man Webber, of Ohio, introduced a bill last year to 

 wipe out the saloons in the city of Washington, which 

 is practically all of the District of Columbia— the seat 

 of the national government. There are upward of 800 

 places in which drinks can be bought during the hours 

 the licensed concerns are allowed to keep open. 



Congress has been slow to act on the various bills 

 that have been introduced for the suppression of the 

 liquor-traflic here. The members of the large number 

 of anti-drink associations are, however, organizing a 

 sensation. They have been unusually active during 

 the winter. They have been promised that they will 

 get a hearing on the Uthof the present month. That 

 is St. Valentine's day. They are preparing to invade 

 in great numbers the big white capitol building. A 

 combination of the different societies is now called 

 the " Prohibition Crusaders of the District of Colum- 

 bia." Their plan is to have no less than 10,000 men, 

 women, and children gather in and around the capitol 

 building on the 14th, and demand of the legislators 

 that the liquor business at the seat of government 

 shall be wiped out of existence. 



