614 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



not only have a clean bill-of-health, " but 

 should be taking preventive measures so 

 that, if the germs of disease do work them- 

 selves in, they may be destroyed before they 

 do any damage^ 



JAMES HEDDON'S NEW INVENTION. 



The question is sometimes asked, "What 

 has become of Heddon?" meaning, of covirse, 

 James Heddon, of Dowagiac, Michigan, in- 

 ventor of the hive which bears his name. 

 Well, he is still very much alive but engaged 

 now in the manufacture of artificial lures for 

 anglers. He is the patentee of several 

 wooden minnows which are in use by bait- 

 casters; indeed, he is the head-center of the 

 Dowagiac school of bait-casters as distin- 

 guished from the Kalamazoo school of ang- 

 lers who are celebrated the world over. 

 Bait-casting is done on the same lines as 

 fly-casting, and is quite different from the 

 old style of fishing with a bait, requiring 

 c9nsiderably more skill for its successful 

 accomplishment. 



LIVE-BEE DEMONSTRATION AT THE JAMES- 

 TOWN EXPOSITION. 



Mr. Charles Koeppen, of Fredricksburg, 

 Va. expects to give some live-bee-demonstra- 

 tion work at the Jamestown exposition. For 

 this purpose he is erecting a structure 30x50 

 feet. When it is installed it will cost some- 

 thing like $1400. It will be known as the 

 Live-bee Exhibition, for the bees will be 

 handled in connection with the moving pic- 

 ture apparatus. In the mean time he expects 

 to sell standard bee-books. This live-bee- 

 demonstration work will appear on what is 

 known as the "War-path;" and we are of 

 the opinion that it will be one of the attrac- 

 tive features and certainly a great deal better 

 than some of the fakes that crowded the 

 Pike at St. Lonissnd the Midway at Chicago. 



This will be the first attempt ever made to 

 get up a bee exhibit on so large a scale 

 at an exposition, and we are, therefore, wait- 

 ing with interest the result of the experimett. 



more about malted honey. 



Dr. Hamilton T. Mason has written us 

 lurther with regard to his malted honey. 

 He says he has no idea of putting up honey 

 for appearance, but rather something for 

 weak run-down people who do not stop to 

 look at the color, nor perhaps the flavor, for 

 that matter. He adds the honey sent us was 

 originally amber, hence not the best. He 

 further states that, by putting in less malt, 

 the flavor is unaffected. He aims, however, 

 to produce a food having both the flavor of 

 the honey and the malt. He is of the opin- 

 ion that this blend can be introduced through 

 the health stores, and by advertising in the 

 health magazines, in which he is probably 

 correct. 



The makers of "health" foods have cer- 

 tainly been very successful the last few 

 years in making money; and if honey can 

 be advertised in the same manner there is 

 "millions in it." If it could be patented, a 



great deal of money could be made out of 

 honey, but — 



THE unusual APRIL WEATHER. 



In our last issue we i-eported an unusually 

 warm spell of weather duiing the latter part 

 of March, adding that we felt fearful this 

 would be followed by the other extreme — a 

 cold April. That our fears were not alto- 

 gether groundless is evidenced by the fact 

 that, since the first of April, we have had 

 cool to cold weather. The bees have had 

 almost no chance to fly; snow and cold rains, 

 with very little sunshine, have continued on 

 throughout the month thus far (April 20). 



If this condition is universal in the North 

 it will mean much spring dwindling, and as 

 a result many colonies will be in poor con- 

 dition when the harvest comes. Even if the 

 nectar supply should be abundant in June 

 and July, the weak stocks will not be strong 

 enough to gather a good crop. But bees 

 have a wonderful recuperative power; and 

 should the weather be ideal from now on, 

 they may make up the lost time. 



Comparing this April with that of three or 

 four years ago, the contrast is remarkable. 

 Then we were having swarms at this time. 

 Fruit-bloom, which was then out in all its 

 glory, had made the bees simply wild. 



THE LATE SPRING, AND PRICES ON HONEY 

 FOR 1907. 



The late spring in many of the Northern 

 States, coupled with an excessive amount of 

 rain in California, and the entire failure of 

 the honey season in Cuba, does not give a 

 prospect of a glut of honey for 1907. The 

 markets, when they open up, should be firm, 

 especially so this year — the first one when 

 the National pure-food law has been in 

 ett"ect. We must not expect, however, that 

 this law is going to work a revolution in 

 prices in one year. It may take the dear 

 public ten years to learn of the existence of 

 such a law. Some fool papers even now are 

 telling about manufactured comb honey, 

 when they ought to know, if they know any 

 thing, that if such a product were mechan- 

 ically possible it would be barred from the 

 markets, especially so as new pure-food laws 

 are being enacted in the various States at a 

 rapid rate. 



"THE HIT BIRD THAT FLUTTERS." 



Recently some of the dealers affected by 

 the proposed New Jersey pure-food law were 

 given a hearing which brought quite an ar- 

 ray of druggists, ice-cream makers, and 

 others. One druggist is said to have stated 

 to the reporters that, if he was compelled to 

 state on his labels the ingredients of some of 

 his preparations he would lose $40,000. The 

 ice-cream dealers vigorously oppose the pro- 

 posed law because they wish to sell a coun- 

 terfeit made from gelatine, condensed milk, 

 and starch as ice-cream. 



The farmers of New Jersey ought to make 

 themselves heard at once. As a matter of 

 fact, the demand for real cream, real milk. 



