188 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



on for the later flow. I am not sure whether this is wise, 

 except in the few years in which from some unknown source 

 some exceptionally white sections were secured at the Hasting!! 

 apiary. In other years at the Hastings apiary, and in all years 

 at the other apiaries, the honey stored during the cucumber 

 flow is rather dark in color, and is likely to have an unpleasant 

 appearance on the surface, as if lightly varnished with bee- 

 glue. But of late years the late honey has been improving, both 

 in color and flavor. I don't know why. Possibly a greater 

 proportion of sweet clover may have improved the flavor. 

 Possibly, also, the ineiease of heartsease may have something to 

 do with it. Although I think my bees get no inconsiderable 

 quantity of honey frum cucumbers, I confess I don't know 

 what pure cucumber honey ta,stes like, but I am afraid it does 

 not rank very high in flavor. 



LATE HONEY. 



As I said, I am not sure that it is ever wise, except in the 

 Hastings apiary, to allow supers to stay on after the white- 

 clover harvest is over. True, a considerable amount of honey 

 may be got in sections from the late flow, but it is not all of it 

 of the best, and if it were stored in brood-combs and saved as 

 extra combs to be crowded into the brood-chamber the next year 

 before the beginning of the harvest, there might be nearly or 

 quite as many more sections of white-clover honey stored, to 

 offset what was lost in sections in the fall. 



GETTING BEES OUT OP SEC'TION.S. 



For the purpose of getting bees out of sections I lia\e tried 

 pretty thoroughly the Porter escape and other escapes which 

 work on the principle of allowing the bees to go down out of 

 the supers without the chance of returning, but they do not 

 work fast enough to suit me. When I go to an out-apiary, I 

 always want to bring home with me all the honey taken off that 

 day. Even at home I want it taken in the same day it is taken 

 off. I may want to go elsewhere the next morning, and I don't 

 want to be hindered from an early start by having to get it in 

 before starting. Besides, I am just a little afraid that if I 



