1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1369 



ers should see fit to print such nonsense when 

 there is so much of real interest that is never 

 published about the bee industry except 

 what appears in the regular bee-journals. 



w. K. M. 



Dr. Charles A. Browne, of the Bureau 

 of Chemistry, United States Department of 

 Agriculture, is engaged in the extended anal- 

 ysis of 100 specimens of American honey ob- 

 tained by purchase at the St. Louis exposi- 

 tion. In addition, various other specimens 

 of colonial and foreign honey will also be 

 analyzed so that the Department will soon 

 be in possession of a mass of accurate data 

 on the subject of honey. Of course, the data 

 are mainly required for the purpose of en- 

 forcing the provisions of the food and drugs 

 act; but when published in pamphlet form 

 it will be useful for other purposes besides 

 that. w. K. M. 



just as they are about to be put in their win- 

 ter quarters, showed that all the queens were 

 missing but one. We should like to inquire 

 of Mr. Alexander whether he is able to work 

 with two or more queens in a hive without 

 perforated zinc at this time of the year. 



SOME HONEY MOVING. 



While the season has been a short one, 

 some of the honey-men have apparently done 

 a good business in buying and selling honey. 

 We happen to know that Mr. C. H. W. Weber, 

 of Cincinnati, has bought this year seven 

 carloads of Colorado comb honey, two car- 

 loads of Wisconsin white-clover comb honey, 

 also several carloads of California water- 

 white sage. As Mr. Weber is one of those 

 men who buy and pay cash he is doing a 

 real service to the producers at large. If 

 other dealers have done as well it is appar- 

 ent that considerable honey has been mov- 

 ing quietly without the knowledge of the 

 general public. 



the mal de max. 

 The foreign bee- journals of la<^e have been 

 devoting considerable space to remarks on 

 the disease known as '"mal de mai,"or May 

 disease of bees. One authority states that 

 certain flowers, when the bees are at work 

 on them, seem to bring on or develop this 

 trouble, and instance Cannabis Indica, the 

 Oxyacantha spinosa, and the Centaurea, or 

 blue cornflower. The mal de mai is a sort 

 of frenzy; and, that being so, it is easy to see 

 how Cannabis Indica can be a contributing 

 cause, because the people of the hast have 

 long used the resin or extract of cannabis as 

 a powerful stimulant, producing frenzy, and 

 quite infrequently insanity, by habitual users 

 of it. The Eiist Indians, who use this large- 

 ly, name this substance ganjah. Some good 

 authorities now think it was this substance 

 which caused the downfall of King Solomon. 

 Hamet attributed this disease to the charlock, 

 or wild mustard. w. k. m. 



THE PLURAL- QUEEN SCHEME TESTED AT 

 MEDINA. 



The boys have been conducting some ex- 

 periments in introducing a plurality of 

 queens in one colony. They succeeded in 

 introducing the queens, and they stayed for 

 a short time; but an examination to-day. 



keeping COLONIES IN PAIRS FOR THE PUR- 

 POSE OF UNITING. 



Usually it is not very satisfactory to unite 

 several weak colonies located remote from 

 each other in the same yard. To obviate the 

 losses from returning bees, our Mr. Wardell 

 has so planned as to have his weak colonies 

 in pairs, but on separate hive-stands. When 

 he got through with his queen-rearing oper- 

 ations he took away one of the hives, put- 

 ting its brood and bees in the other, and 

 then moving that hive and all to a spot mid- 

 way between where the other two stood . The 

 hive so placed will catch the flying bees, and, 

 what is more, there will be no losses from re- 

 turning bees. 



While this is an old trick of the trade, well 

 known to the veterans, it is one of the tricks 

 that ought to be mentioned once in a while 

 for the benefit of our new readers. 



THE HONEY MARKET. 



An examination of the market reports for 

 several issues back show a gradual and stead v 

 increase in prices on comb and extracted. 

 Some of those who were offering so much 

 lower than others found it necessary to make 

 an advance to get consignments. Others, 

 who were offering the high prices, reduced 

 their figures slightly, so that the markets are 

 obtaining more nearly a level on comb honey, 

 the prices ranging from 17 to 19 and 20 cts., 

 wholesale. While this advance has been due 

 to shortage we believe it is also owing to the 

 fact that we have advised producers to hold 

 for better prices which we were sure were 

 bound to come. 



As we stated in our last issue, we would not 

 advise producers to hold their crop of No. 1 

 and fancy any longer. There is some danger 

 of a slight decline in prices at the holidays, 

 although the general shortage will not allow 

 much of a drop, if any. Honey for manu- 

 facturing purposes does not seem to fluctuate 

 so much in price, because the bakers make a 

 steady call for it. 



A VISIT FROM AN EXTENSIVE PRODUCER; 



CALIFORNIA HONEY AND ITS EFFECT 



ON EASTERN PRICES. 



We have just been favored with a visit 

 from Mr. and Mrs. L. E. Mercer, of Ventura, 

 Cal. Mr. Mercer has long been an extensive 

 producer of honey in his State. At present 

 he operates 1800 colonies, running them for 

 extracted honey. His bees are located in 

 territory that will never be capable of grow- 

 ing farm crops. It has no use, and never 

 will have, except to furnish pasturage for 

 bees. The same may be said of some other 

 fine bee-ranges in California. The mountain 

 sides will grow nothing but sage, and in a 



