190 PRODUCTION OF EXTRACTED HONEY 
a support for the cloth. Ifa large basket, which may be hung 
in the tank, is made of this coarse screen and lined with cheese- 
cloth it makes a fairly satisfactory strainer. There is always 
more or less bother with clogged strainers, unless the basket is 
deep enough so that much of the refuse will come to the top 
rather than fall directly on the strainer. 
Alexander Strainer—The Alexander strainer is made of 
fine wire screen, and is about the size and shape of a large bucket 
with bail. This pail is hung in the tank or other receptacle, in 
which the honey is stored and the honey run into it as extracted. 
The bottom and all side surface permitting the passage of honey, 
it does not clog readily and it is strong enough to sustain the 
weight of a full pail of honey. All sediment is caught and held. 
The strainer is easily cleaned with hot water after the refuse is 
dumped out. 
Second-Hand Containers Not Desirable—So much honey 
goes to market in the square sixty-pound cans that there is always 
an accumulation of them in all the large centers. These are 
offered for sale at a very low price. So little is to be saved by 
the use of these second-hand containers that the bee-keeper can 
hardly afford to buy them. If they are rusted inside, the quality 
of the honey will be injured, and if otherwise perfect there is 
some danger of spreading disease by their use. 
As mentioned elsewhere the principal bee diseases are spread 
from hive to hive in the honey. Second-hand containers brought 
to the apiary are more or less daubed with the honey with which 
they have previously been filled. This honey attracts the 
workers, and if it came from a diseased colony there is great 
danger in bringing it into the apiary. Disease is thus spread 
to considerable extent. The author has had his attention ofti- 
cially called to this source of disease so many times that he is 
inclined to favor restrictions on the use of containers for honey 
a second time, unless it be in the same apiary where filled at first. 
If the honey is put up in bright new cans a better impression 
is made on the buyer than if received in cans that are rusty and 
