396 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
is an insufficient expedient, and all but a total failure 
if the hive be covered down warmly above (by a chaff- 
tray, If the American cloth could be kept at 
the temperature of the brood-nest, no moisture would 
be deposited upon it at all. No moisture is deposited 
upon a knife in a jet of steam, if the blade be as hot 
as the steam. The water is only gained, then, in 
appreciable amount, by suffering a leak of heat, which 
is one disadvantage to cure another. Striving to com- 
pare regulated syrup-feeding with dry sugar-feeding, as 
a stimulant to brood-raising, I venture to think that 
the former, at least in dry weather, has decidedly the 
advantage, although, of course, as Mr. Simmins urges, 
it is attended with more trouble. 
Candy is a species of dry sugar which may be quite 
safely given to stocks appearing likely to run short 
of food during the winter. It is prepared thus : Add 
about I pint of boiling water to each qlb. or 5lb.* of 
loaf sugar, in a saucepan. Stir carefully, and boil for 
a few minutes. Try if it be stiff enough by cooling a 
drop or two on a piece of paper, or by plunging a 
little of it, in a spoon, into cold water. In a few seconds 
it should be tough enough to draw out into threads. 
If not, continue to boil. When right, place the sauce- 
pan in a sink, or stand it in a vessel of cold water, 
stirring uninterruptedly, so as to keep the crystals 
(the grain) very fine, and these, between them, hold 
the saturated syrup. When the mass is getting into 
a pasty state, pour into saucers or soup-plates in 
* The absolute amount can hardly be given, as much depends on the 
state of the fire, a slow one driving off more water, a quick one less, 
before the boiling point is reached. The candy must set ; but short 
of this, the larger the quantity of water it retains the better. 
