THE ^EBdERICSK ®E;® J©^RIfSlL. 



595 



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EDITOR. 



VoiniV. Sept, 12, 1888. No, 31. 



' Xliere is a language in each flower 



That opeos to the eye ; 

 A voicelfss but a magic power . 

 Doth in earth's blossoms lie." 



A Uark, ^Varni Room is the best 

 place in which to lieep comb honey, in order 

 to preserve its whiteness, and keep it from 

 " gathering moisture." The temperature 

 should be kept from 80 to 85 degrees. 



Home-.'tlatle is the term claimed by 

 two bee-papers. The editor of the Review 

 is its compositor, foreman, "devil" and 

 proof-reader in his own office, and his wife 

 and children assist in getting the papers 

 into the mails. The editor of the BeeHive 

 fills all the offices mentioned, and does all 

 the mechanical work as well. The work of 

 each one reflects credit upon these brother 

 editors. We wish tbem both success. 



Mr. R. J. Kendall, with whose com- 

 munications from Texas our readers were 

 familiar 2 or 3 years ago, went to New Zea- 

 land and now has gone to Australia. His 

 departure is thus noticed by the August 

 number of the AitstralcLSkni Bee Journal : 



We are sorry to state that our friend and 

 contributor, Mr. Kendall, has left for fresh 

 fields. He has for some time contemplated 

 returning to the United States, but finally 

 made up his mind to try Victoria first, and 

 left for Melbourne last month. Feeling 

 very uusettled of late prevented him con- 

 tributing to the/oi///i((f regularly, but he 

 has promised to take up the running again 

 as soon as he gets settled and has had time 

 to sfe how things in the bee line are moving 

 in Victoria. We shall be very pleased when 

 that time comes, lor Mr. Kendall is a very 

 pleasant and amusing writer. We wish him 

 every success. 



Feediug' Itack, so called, is feeding 

 the bees with extracted honey in sufficient 

 quantity to induce them to finish up incom- 

 plete sections, in order to make them mar- 

 ketable. This has often been tried, but the 

 loss of honey is so great that it is quickly 

 given up in disgust. 



The Virginia champion of "the Wiley 

 lie" is persistent in his assertions that bee- 

 keepers are feeding glucose to the bees for 

 the purpose of having thera deposit it in the 

 combs and seal it up, so that the bee-men 

 may put upon the market a fraudulent arti- 

 cle of comb honey, and thus accommodate 

 Wiley, Evans & Co., by giving them a 

 shadow of excuse for their cheap but un- 

 truthful assertions concerning the existence 

 of adulterated comb honey and of its being 

 found upon the markets in large cities. 



The piice of the pure article of extracted 

 honey and the best glucose is now very 

 nearly the same, and for that reason it will 

 not pay to adulterate extracted honey. As 

 Wiley, Evans & Co. are driven from that 

 position, they now want to find some glu- 

 cosed comb honey on the market. But it 

 the feeding back of pure extracted honey to 

 make comb honey is an unprofitable busi- 

 ness, the substitution of glucose (which is of 

 about equal value) will not help the case ! 

 Both are alike unprofitable ! Both are, 

 therefore, commercially impracticable and 

 financially impossible ! Both " horns of 

 the dilemma " refuse to support, or even to 

 give color to the " vain imaginations " of 

 these deluded mortals ! 



Commenting upon the experience of Mr. 

 W. Z. Hutchinson in "Feeding Back," as 

 given in the Revieiv, of recent date, the 

 Bi-iUsh Bee Jirurnal for Aug. 23, remarks 

 as follows : 



Ten or twelve years ago we experimented 

 on feeding extracted honey to complete 

 sections, but we soon found out that such a 

 practice would not pay at all, and that it 

 could only be done by an enormous waste 

 of honey. 



The experience of the most successful 

 bee keepers in America corresponds with 

 that of our British cousins, and the uniform 

 verdict is that it will not pay to do so ! 



Thus are the enemies of the pursuit of 

 bee-keeping again beaten back ! again 

 made to " bite the dust"! again proven to 

 be making cheap assertions concerning that 

 of which they are in entire ignorance ! — 

 again exposed to public gaze as villifiers 

 and traduceis of an honest pursuit ! and 

 again and again we demand that they shall 

 produce a sample crate of the article — or 

 else acknowledge that their assertions are 

 falsehoods, without excuse and without the 

 least shadow of proof. 



Xliat J%*iw Int-ention a Failure. 



—On page 148 an announcement was made 

 that Mr. Koerbs, a German, had invented a 

 new comb ; and on page 244 we stated that 

 it was merely comb foundation " made on 

 glass, wood, tin, card-board or other mate- 

 rial, with the impression of cells in wax on 

 one side, the other being left smooth." The 

 intention is to have the cells of double 

 length, the mid-rib or foundation being at 

 one side. 



Notwithstanding the fact that several bee- 

 keepers of Germany had stated that they 

 approved the invention, and our friend, C. 

 J. H. Gravenhorst, editor of the Bienen 

 Zeitung, had seen the combs "completed 

 by the bees," and predicted a " revolution " 

 in the matter of bee-comb, " even if the in- 

 vention accomplishes but one-half of what 

 is claimed by Mr. Koerbs "—still we made 

 these remarks : 



A great "splurge" was made at its an- 

 nouncement. There was a great ringing of 

 the bell to announce the advent of the loco- 

 motive, but, alas, the coming of the engine 

 created no enthusiasm. It is almost a use- 

 less affair, if not absolutely so. Here in 

 America, at least, we have no use for such 

 an invention ! We can secure longer cells 

 by simply spreading the combs, but even 

 that is undesirable, because of the slower 

 ripening of the honey, and the consequent 

 hindrance to the bees. 



We shall watch this matter closely, and 

 keep our readers posted concerning its ad- 

 vent and revelation— and ring the bell just 

 in time for all to witness the arrival of the 

 locomotive ! 



Now comes this " conclusion," in a letter 

 from Mr. Hj. Stallhammar, of Sweden, to 

 the Canadian Bee Journal : 



As regards the Koerb comb foundation 

 (one-sided, with cells of double-depth), this 

 Summer it has proven itself a failure, the 

 queen filling the cells with eggs before the 

 bees had drawn the cells out long enough ; 

 and, furthermore, when fastened on the one 

 edge of the frame, the bees are inclined to 

 build a new comb on the other edge of the 

 same frame. 



We had no confidence whatever in the in- 

 vention, and so stated it at the time of its 

 very peculiar announcement. Nothing else 

 than a complete failure ought to have been 

 expected by its friends. 



A Cai'toii— which is a cover for a one- 

 pound package of comb honey, is received 

 from Mr. J. B. Hains, Bedford, 0. It has a 

 neat front, and on the back is a view of his 

 apiary, and a selection from our Leaflet 

 entitled " Why Eat Honey ? " It is neat, 

 attractive and withal inviting and instruc- 

 tive. 



Xlie Honey Crop in California has 

 been misrepresented by the Commercial 

 Bulletin. It stated that " the yield in San 

 Bernardino and San Diego counties will be 

 the heaviest ever gathered." This does not 

 conform with advices received in San Fran- 

 cisco, and the Coimii-j/il/crc/tHntsays that a 

 local dealer who has just returned from a 

 trip to Southern California, after making a 

 careful canvass of the field in person, re- 

 ports the yield of the counties in question 

 will be, from present prospects, only about 

 half that realized in 1886, and that in other 

 sections of the State indications are that the 

 proportion will be no greater. 



The fact is, .somebody has been trying to 

 bcdc the market. But in spite of all such 

 work the prices of both comb and extracted 

 , honey will iji> up I 



