282 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



flannel, and got good thick syrup. Well, I 

 have not yet found the ' nigger in the wood- 

 pile,' unless there is something in the fact 

 that old flannel, which has been used, is 

 more fuzzy, and consequently more imper- 

 vious to the rapid escape of the syrup. As a 

 last resort, we cleaned out all the sugar, 

 leaving nothing but the felt. Over this we 

 deposited very evenly cotton batting, about 

 an inch thick, and over all one thickness of 

 muslin. We then poured in the sugar and 

 water as before, and next morning I had the 

 satisfaction of seeing good thick syrup — that 

 which registered 45 on the hydrometer scale 

 used by maple syrup makers to determine 

 when the syrup is thick enough ; but after 

 drawing off the first pailful or two the syrup 

 became thinner ; and, to cap it all, the thing 

 wouldn't percolate at all. We finally re- 

 moved the felt, spread over the bottom a 

 thickness of muslin ; over this an inch of 

 cotton batting, and then covered it with an- 

 other thickness of muslin. Results : This 

 combination is working finely ; and, al- 

 though we haven't found the ' nigger,' in the 

 flannel, we have something better. 



I have gone into details to prevent others 

 from making the same mistakes we did. 



I may explain to our readers that a hy- 

 drometer is a delicate instrument of blown 

 glass, with a graduated scale. It is a very 

 convenient implement for showing the thick- 

 ness of honey or syrup for feeding. Maple- 

 syrup makers tell me that the scale that they 

 use is 32. This makes about 11 lbs. to the 

 gallon, or about the usual thickness of ordi- 

 nary extracted honey. They can be had at 

 almost any hardware store ; or if you cannot 

 get them near home we can furnish them for 

 35 cents ; postage 3 cents. 



Later. —Since writing the foregoing I have 

 learned from Mrs. E. R. that new unwashed 

 flannel will let water go through it like a 

 sieve ; but after it has been used a while the 

 woof, or web, becomes more dense. I asked 

 her how she knew. She hesitated a minute, 

 and said that ne^v baby-diapers, unwashed, 

 are not very serviceable until they have been 

 through the laundrying process a few times. 

 Our readers will pardon this allusion, for 

 nothing but false modesty would object to 

 it. The illustration is a good one, and ex- 

 plains why I had trouble with new cotton 

 flannel letting the syrup through too fast, 

 and why B. Taylor and Mr. Burt, using old 

 flannel and old bed-blankets, had entire suc- 

 cess. The ' nigger ' is found out at last." 



A Condensed View of Current 

 Bee Writings. 



E, E. HASTY. 



T BELIEVE I have never " slopped over " 

 1 on the subject of experiment stations, and 

 therefore I can be the more free to express 

 my admiration of the style of the work 

 whereby experimenter Taylor gets at the 

 real preferences of the bees as to different 



kinds of foundation. Pleasant to see the 

 Given hold its place the second year as the 

 standard of excellence. And friend Hunt, 

 who succeeded in getting a little above the 

 standard, he deserves a sugar plum. But 

 some of our heedless brothers will proceed 

 to draw a very incorrect inference from the 

 figures unless somebody heads them off. 

 Take for example No. 2, the first case clear 

 of fractions. These bees had 24 lbs. of hon- 

 ey to store, and they put 13 lbs. in the Given 

 sections and 11 lbs. in the Root sections. 

 Suppose now that this case had been filled 

 with Given foundation throughout, how 

 much honey would there have been then ? 

 The blunder to which I alluded would be to 

 answer, 26 lbs. The probability is that they 

 did not have two more pounds available, and 

 so of course could not have put it in. Or 

 suppose the case had held Root foundation 

 throughout, would they have stored 22 lbs. 

 only, and put the other two pounds below ? 

 Possible, but very improbable. The gain or 

 loss to the crop is a further matter, which 

 will require further experiment. And mean- 

 time we may sagely guess that any of the 

 foundations tried, although less attractive 

 than the Given, would have been sufficiently 

 acceptable so that there would have been no 

 loss to speak of. If 24 passengers ride, 22 in 

 a horse car and 2 in an omnibus, how many 

 (horse cars being stopped) would ride in 

 two omnibuses. Shall we say 4 ? No in- 

 deed, 24. The passengers somewhat prefer 

 the cars, but not to the extent of going afoot 

 any of them. Perchance it may be so with 

 the bees — a marked expression of preference, 

 yet nothing beyond the expression of prefer- 

 ence likely to result. But in getting at the 

 one thing, preference, the experiment seems 

 as conclusive as it is admirable. 



Friend Dayton's new bee escape (Review. 

 241) is at least worthy of notice. Window to 

 attract the bees out by a beam of light. 

 And yet (honest boy that he is) he tells us 

 that toward night light rather repels than 

 attracts them, as he finds in practice. And 

 isn't it rather a new discovery that masses of 

 bees draw away from moonshine into the 

 shadow ? I suppose moonlight at best is not 

 strong enough for them to see by ; and yet 

 it impresses them with a sense of exposure. 



One doesn't take kindly to his enemy's 

 remarks when the rascal pokes fun ; but 

 sometimes it is as well to listen and inward- 

 ly reflect. Hear then onr grape-growing 

 enemy in EMral New Yorker, 646. 



