THE AMERICAJM JJEJfl JOURNAL. 



231 



tives, ;ind cause death to fungus or 

 germs. This acid can be noticed in 

 new lioney by its irritating effect, but 

 old lioney, where its strength is neu- 

 tralized or expended, is smooth and 

 mild. 



Raw nectar, or ripe honey that is 

 heated and the acid expelled, does not 

 keep so well. New honey, if ex- 

 tracted, may be thickened by evapora- 

 tion, but this causes loss of flavor, 

 and such honey is imperfectly changed 

 from a lack of the constant addition 

 of this acid. Generally, honey is ripe 

 as soon as capped ; however, much is 

 ripe that is not capped, and much is 

 capped that is not ripe. 



The longer the honey is cared for 

 by the bees, the more completely is it 

 ripened. The Dadants and many 

 others work on this principle, leaving 

 the extracting supers on the hive un- 

 til the end of the season. Such honey 

 can be bottled as soon as extracted, 

 and there is no loss of flavor. 



Probably some of the above is 

 simply theory. How and when formic 

 acid is added, cannot be easily known, 

 and will require careful experiments 

 to determine. Eev. W. F. Clarke 

 says that he has experimented in a 

 way to cause him to think that the 

 sting of the bee is used as a trowel in 

 comb-building, and that stinging is 

 not its legitimate use. Will he kindly 

 describe these experiments V I think 

 that honey lacking formic acid or the 

 required heat, would be more liable 

 to the coarse granulation often com- 

 plained of. Fall honey is soon taken 

 from the hive, and this is more liable 

 to granulate in the comb even in 

 capped cells. 



The ripening of honey seems to me 

 an important matter. This is an age 

 of progress, and while the best and 

 most successful producers — many of 

 them — do not accept these views, this 

 is not sufficient to discard them. 



The above ideas may throw some 

 light upon the unsatisfactory results 

 of the analysis of samples of honey in 

 comb by the Government chemist. 

 Many prominent apiarists furnished 

 samples, the purity of which they 

 could swear to. Some of these sam- 

 ples were i)ronounced apparently adul- 

 terated, and others apparently gen- 

 uine. At the Detroit meeting of the 

 North American Bee Keepers' So- 

 ciety, this matter was referred to by 

 some of the members who had fur- 

 nished samples, and the sense of the 

 meeting was that such a report was 

 unjust, and caused unmerited injury 

 to the industry, and that Prof. Wiley 

 should only have published a report 

 on that which he was sure of, instead 

 of classing the honey as " adulter- 

 ated," " apparently adulterated," and 

 "apparently genuine." This report, 

 " Honey and its Adulterations," may 

 "be found in the United States Agri- 

 cultural Pieportfor 1885, pages 109 to 

 117, or the American ApicuUurist, Vol. 

 III. page 265. Prof. Wiley is the one 

 who started the sensational story that 

 comb honey was made by machinery 

 Blled with glucose, and capped over 

 by machinery, and who afterward ad- 

 mitted it to be " a scientific pleas- 

 antry." This was from a government 

 employe. 



According to these results of the 

 analysis of honey it may not be safe 

 for an honest producer to offer as 

 many do, $100 reward to any one who 

 will prove by analysis that his 

 honey is not strictly pure. 



According to the principles re- 

 ferred to, tne samples taken off the 

 hive as soon as gathered, would be 

 nearly pure nectar somewhat evap- 

 orated, and would have a large pro- 

 portion of- natural sugar, styled by 

 chemists, cane sugar or sucrose. That 

 more ripened would have less cane- 

 sugar and more inverted sugar ; and 

 that thoroughly ripened would have 

 little or no natural (cane) sugar, and 

 more natural glucose or grape-sugar 

 and inverted sugar. If the best ripen- 

 ed honey is to be taken as a standard, 

 then all not as thoroughly ripened will 

 be pronounced " apparently " adulter- 

 ated. This matter of judging the 

 purity of honey by analysis is an im- 

 portant and a serious one to honey- 

 producers, and is worthy the atten- 

 tion of our ablest men. We hope 

 Profs. Cook and McLain, of the 

 United States, S. Cornell, of Canada, 

 Frank Cheshire, of England, and 

 others may be able to experiment in a 

 way to throw more light upon this 

 subject. 



Mr. McLain, with the help of the 

 chemist of the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment, should be able to do a service 

 worth more to our pursuit than sev- 

 eral years' expense of the Experi- 

 mental Station. If the chemist should 

 be furnished with honey thin and just 

 gathered, that just capped and that 

 capped and on the hive until the end 

 of the season, the result of the anal- 

 ysis of such honey showing the pro- 

 portions in each of the natural, in- 

 verted and grape sugar, would be of 

 great value. One lot might be ana- 

 lyzed when it was taken from the 

 hive, and another lot stored in the 

 usual honey-room until the time it is 

 usually sold. It all should be from 

 the same source and from the same 

 colony which should be kept of uni- 

 form strength the entire season. 



Pawtucket,5 K- 1- 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Preventing or Controlling Increase. 



A. A. FRADENBURG. 



In my 10 or 12 years' experience, I 

 have been trying to learn how to con- 

 trol swarming, and I have concluded 

 that it is best to let a colony swarm 

 once, then prevent all after-swarms, 

 so far as possible ; but by getting one 

 prime swarm from each colony it does 

 not necessarily follow that we are 

 obliged to have an increase of 100 per 

 cent, from all that do swarm. 



For the benefit of Mr. Abel Gresh 

 (whose article appeared on page 167) 

 and others, I will give the plan I tried 

 last summer, and the results; but I 

 am not the orginator of it, for I read 

 it in some piiper last year. It is as 

 follows : 



As soon as a swarm is out, and has 

 begun to cluster, or after it has clus- 

 tered, put an empty hive in a new 



location ; then put off all the surplus 

 receptacles of the parent hive, take 

 the frames out of the brood-chamber 

 and destroy every vestige of queen- 

 cells, and put these same frames in 

 the empty hive. But leave 1 , 2 or 3 of 

 the frames, as you may desire, with 

 brood, honey and adhering bees in the 

 parent hive, leaving them only one 

 queen-cell. Then fill the balance of 

 the brood-chamber in the new hive 

 with empty combs or foundation, or 

 empty frames. 



Now put the surplus receptacle that 

 was taken from the parent hive and 

 put it on the new one ; shake the 

 swarm, that has clustered nicely by 

 this time, in front of the new hive. 

 Now they have swarmed according to 

 nature, have a new home, and are 

 satisfied on that score. In a short 

 time the queen will be attending to 

 her own business amongst the brood, 

 and the workers will be workins hard 

 storing honey in the sections, as they 

 have no other place to put it, and the 

 bee-keeper need not wait a week or 

 more to see any Incresise of honey 

 stored. 



I tried the above plan on 7 swarms 

 last summer, and it was a success in 

 every case, except one that swarmed 

 again after 3 or 4 weeks ; but I was 

 satisfied it was caused by a desire to 

 supersede their queen, and they al- 

 lowed too many queens to hatch. 



Now about the parent colony, or 

 what was left of it : I generally left 

 2 frames of hatching brood and one 

 queen-cell, then filled up the hive 

 with empty combs, and with what 

 straggling bees returned it made a 

 pretty good colony with plenty of 

 stores by fall, and the whole 7 are all 

 right at this time. If I wanted but 

 little or no increase, I should leave 

 but one frame and but little brood- 

 just enough to retain the returning 

 bees, then put several such together ; 

 or else hive the next swarm where ther 

 last one left. 



Port Washington,©* Ohio. 



For the American Bee Journal 



The Canse of Low Prices for Honey. 



R. C. AlKIN. 



Much is being said about markets, 

 monopolies and associations. We can 

 theorize and talk, but practice and 

 experience is what opens our eyes. I 

 have never known what it is to lack a 

 market for my honey. Experience 

 has taught me that the most of our 

 troubles are our own making. I con- 

 sider that the credit business, coupled 

 with pride and mismanagement lies 

 at the bottom of the whole trouble. 

 For example : I wish to buy more 

 bees. My neighbor will sell me 10 

 colonies and wait until January for 

 the pay. I jump at the chance, think- 

 ing that I can sell honey to pay for 

 them. The crop fails ; I have done 

 business on capital that was not my 

 own ; I have done business on the 

 prospects of good health and pros- 

 perity. 



My neighbor sees my condition. I 

 cannot pay legal proceedings ; waste 



