948 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15 



that comb-honey men be not denied the best 

 spacing arrangement just because it doesn't 

 suit extracted-honey men. 



Pine forests, when cut over, give place 

 to willow-herb. Can you tell us how many 

 years the willow-herb continues? [Willow- 

 herb is found all through the region of our 

 cabin in the woods; but it grows more rank 

 and strong after the forest has been burned 

 off. After that, if undisturbed. I think it 

 would continue to grow indefinitely. In 

 fact, it sometimes (tomes up as a weed in po- 

 tato or corn fields, and it is always found 

 more or less in the fence-corners. As good 

 farming prevails, however, willow-berb and 

 all plants of that sort ai'e crowded out. It 

 has no value except for honey, so far as I 

 know.— A. I. R.] 



I HAVE READ that, in the Langstroth frame, 

 there is a two-inch border of honey under 

 the top-bar; and now comes the additional 

 statement, p. 899, that bees "are often very 

 loath to remove honey from the sides of a 

 deeper one-brood-chamLer, since bees always 

 store - honey at the sides of the brood, but 

 never below it." Now will some one please 

 be so good as to arise and say whether it is 

 locality, strain of bees, or what, that makes 

 bees do so differently here? Until late in the 

 season 1 don't have any two-inch nor one- 

 inch border in Langstroth frames; the amount 

 of honey stored at the side can not be such a 

 great deal with brood in from six to eight of 

 the eight frames, and I have had many a 

 pound of beautiful comb honey built below 

 the brood. I have also had bees store in a 

 body of extracting-combs under the brood- 

 chamber. 



E. F. Atwater gives a bright plan for 

 promptly starting his bees on outdoor feed 

 [Review, 192). Break up some old comb in- 

 to pieces about 1^ inches square. Dip these 

 in the feed, lay one at the entrance to each 

 hive, and kick' the hive, if necessary, to get 

 enough bees out. Then go around and pick 

 up the bits of comb, bees and all; carry them 

 on a qi>een-excluder or board, and dump 

 them into the feed. The advantage of this 

 plan is that all your own bees will be prompt- 

 ly started and will finish the feed before 

 neighboring bees get notice. He says noth- 

 ing about the time of day, but evening is 

 probably preferable. I feel pretty sure that, 

 after the first evening, it will be necessary to 

 put only a little feed at one or two entrances 

 to start the whole business going. If late 

 enough in the evening it will be practically 

 certain no neighboring bees will be on hand. 



Slumgum is said (Deutsche Bzht.,Q8) to be 

 good for manure. When perfectly dried, it 

 contains nitrogen, 7.44 per cent; ash, 18.33 

 per cent; phosphoric acid, 1.01 per cent. Has 

 it been tried as manure in this country? 

 [Yes, doctor, it has been tried on a limited 

 scale. When I was growing vegetable-plants 

 I saved all the slumgum, chopped it up, and 

 mixed it all through our plant-bed for high- 

 pressure gardening; but with the best appa- 

 ratus we then had to remove the wax there 

 was enough remaining to prevent the de- 



composition of the slumgum, and so it was 

 raked back and forth, and chopped up with- 

 out doing any good that I could discover. 

 Since recent experiments in removing all 

 the wax down to less than one per cent, it 

 might work differently. If it could be puU 

 verized by some suitable machine, and then 

 composted with stable manure, it ought to 

 make a rich fertilizer. — A. I. R.] 



Weather conditions for honey have im- 

 proved materially since our last report. But 

 we are fearful that so much bad weather pre- 

 viously has had an unfavorable effect on the 

 blossoms, so that nectar, now that we have 

 the right conditions, will not be secreted as 

 it should be. Reports are lacking, and there- 

 fore we are unable to give any definite in- 

 formation. In the mean time we should be 

 pleased to have our subscribers all over 

 the country write, in one or two sentences 

 on a postal caixl, whether they are getting^ 

 any honey, and be sure to write at once. 

 Meanwhile there is a strong probability that 

 the honey crop will be light, and prices 

 should rule accordingly. 



A glucose-factory being demolished 



as a result of the pure-food law. 



The national pure-food law has had some 

 peculiar effects as the following excerpt from 

 the Louisia7ia Flanter of a recent date will 

 show: 



The work of demolishing the plant of the erstwhile 

 Goj'er-AUiance Glucose Company, at Belle Alliance, 

 La., is progressing rapidly under the direction of the 

 Chicago House -wrecliing Company, which concern 

 purchased the big establishment and is disposing of 

 the mechanical equipment. A large proportion of the 

 machinery has already been sold and removed, and 

 the remainder is meeting with ready sale at good 

 prices. 



It may be added that some of the northern 

 concerns in the same line have recently had 

 financial difficulties of a like nature; but for 

 excellent reasons we have said nothing about 

 their troubles in this paper. But more anon. 



the value of protection for outdoor- 

 wintered COLONIES. 

 Mr. W. Z. Hutchinson, in speaking of 

 some of the hard lessons learned in this re- 

 markable spring, says: 



As I carefully examined hive after hive, the conclu- 

 sion was forced upon me that most of them had starv- 

 ed with honey in the hives. It was a peculiar com- 

 bination, but one that is liltely to occur in wintering 

 bees out of doors with no protection. 



Those of us who lave had very much ex- 

 perience in wintering outdoors in single- 

 walled hives have observed the same thing 

 time and time again. The investment in 

 winter-cases or in double-walled hives, even 



