1250 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1 



case uf adulteration. It may be explained 

 that in Germany the prices obtained for 

 comb and even extracted honey are so very 

 high that it pays to adulterate in this way 

 provided the pure-food authorities do not 

 catch the offender. w K M. 



A CHEAP W^INTER CASE. 



We believe that a very good serviceable 

 winter case can be made out of ordina>y 

 light building-paper or even a heavy grp,de 

 of manilla it oiled. J he top of the hive 

 should first be covered with s<veral folds of 

 newspaper, and then this manilla or build- 

 ing-paper of suitable size .>-hould lie laid on 

 top. neatly folded arouud the ends and sides, 

 and tied. Be sure to make the folds so they 

 will shed water, not catch it. We will have 

 an illustration showing the right and the 

 wrong way in our next issue. 



SEASON REPORTS. 



We give below a bi'ief summary of the 

 crop reports lately received. These do not 

 necessarily represent conditions for the whole 

 States named, as they come from the produc- 

 ers, and are, therefore, merely local in char-, 

 acter. 



Enough for wintprin^r Cpntral Station, W.Va. 



Light early flow; good fall flow, Na-shville 111. 



Fairflow Rciswell N. Mex. 



Very light flow Paxico Kan. 



Very light flow Attica, Ohio. 



Good fall flow Akron, Olio. 



Fair fall flow Hopedale, Ohio. 



Crop almost entire failure Nova, Obio. 



Good flow Edmore Mich. 



P^air fall flow Bradshaw, Neb. 



One-fourth crop Hull, Iowa. 



FLORIDA'S PURE-FOOD LAW. 



The Florida Agriculturist was, after all, in 

 error, and it is a fact that the legislature of 

 that State did pass a pure-food law in con- 

 formity with the national law. 



I am sending you a copy of the " pure-food " law 

 passed by the last legislature. Please correct your 

 statf ment (on vage 1129, Sept. 1). as copied from the 

 Florida Agriculturist. They made a bad break. 



Bradentown, Fla., Sept. 5. E. B. Rood. 



Many thanks, friend Rood. The new law 

 was approved by the governor June 3, and 

 went into effect on September 1. We under- 

 stand that Arkansas, Texas, South Carolina, 

 West Virginia, Tennessee, and Oklahoma 

 can now be included among the pure-food 

 States. It will not be very long before eve- 

 ey one of the galaxy of States will join the 

 column of the pure-food advocates. 



A NATIONAL PURE-FOOD CONGRESS AT WASH- 

 INGTON, AND WHAT DR. WILEY IS 

 DOING. 



Dr. Wiley, the pure-food expert of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture, 

 has recently returned from France, where he 

 acted as judge of the pure-food exhibits at 

 the Bordeaux exposition. While in France 

 he sounded the government on the subject 

 of a universal standard for foods, with fa- 

 vorable results. In England also he had a 



favorable response, so that it is probable a 

 world's congress of pure-food officials will 

 be held in Washington at an early date to 

 fix a standard for all foods. This congress 

 may have far reaching effects on the trade 

 of the world, antl in its life-saving aspects 

 may he regarded as one of the most benefi- 

 cial moves made in the e<-(jnomic history of 

 uiankind 'J'he mnvement can not be other- 

 wise than a benefit to the person who pro- 

 duces purely natural foods. Probably the 

 best feature of it will be the slaVjility given 

 to the prices obtained for natural products, 

 as it will be no longer possible to depress 

 prires by resorting to aititicial pioducts or 

 imiialions. Not only is it dishonest to sell 

 inferior produ(^ts for the real goods, but quite 

 frecjuently the substitute undermines (slow- 

 ly) the health of the persons who have to 

 consume them. w. k. m. 



PARCELS POST ONCE MORE. 



The following, by the Oklahoma Farm 

 Journal, puts the whi-le argument for a par- 

 cels post in a nut-shell: 



In this issue many rf forences are made to the desir- 

 ability of a parcels post and the advantage it would 

 be to the farmers. Possibly all may not understand 

 what is meant by the parcels post. An illustration 

 will make it clear. 



If you lived in Colombia, Costa Rica Guatemala, 

 British Columbia, Honduras. Mexico, Nicaragua, Sal- 

 vador, or Vetiezuela, a package with a lengih and 

 height combined of less than six feet, and weighing 

 not more than eh ven pounds would be sent to you 

 from the Ubited States for twelve cents per pound. 



But since you live in the United States, ana the ex- 

 press c mpanies are better represented than the peo- 

 ple in Congress of this land of the free and home of 

 the b'ave, you can't send a package weighing more 

 than four pounds by mail, and you must pay sixteen 

 cents per pound, even if the package is to go only to 

 the next postoflice. 



It doesn't take any argument to convince farmers 

 that they need the parcels post, and that they need 

 postal currency. They will get it when they go after 

 it. The everlasting right is on their side; but the 

 right doesn't count for much unless you get it into 

 action. But with action to enforce the right, things 

 may be made to happen. 



THE REASON W^HY CAGED QUEENS ARE 

 SMALL. 



M. A. Wathelet says, in Le Rticher Beige, 

 that if a queen is removed from a colony 

 where she was laying, and with abdomen ex- 

 panded with eggs is placed in a cage, the ab- 

 domen will, by degrees, diminish in size as the 

 eggs are dropped. After a few hours, as she 

 no longer receives the digested and stimulat- 

 ing food produced by the workers, she be- 

 comes very small, and, after 24 hours, is no 

 larger than a virgin queen, and is incapable 

 of recommencing egg-laying until she has 

 passed some days in a colony. If in the 

 spring a laying queen is replaced by a queen 

 that has been confined in a cage, the bees 

 easily noticre the change, and her introduction 

 will be difficult. It is quite different if the 

 queen to be introduced is taken out of a col- 

 ony where she is laying. In such a case the 

 change is hardly noticed; and, with the pre- 

 caution of guarding against the robbers, a lit- 

 tle smoke and powdering the bees with flour, 

 the introduction is easy. 



Queens reared in nuclei in the same apia- 



