320 
AMERIOATs"' AGEIOULTUEIST. 
[August, 
Bee Notes for August. 
^V. Z. IIUTCUINSON. 
How TO Manage Robbee Bees. —At the close 
■of a honej’-flow, and especially the bass-wood 
honey harvest, bees are inclined to rob. Let a 
hive be open five minutes at such a time, and a 
horde of hungry robbers are ready to pounce upon 
any exposed portions of the combs. A part of the 
honey crop is usually upon the hives at the close of 
the harvest, and the task of removing it is attended 
with “unpleasantness,” and sometimes with loss. 
The queen breeder must necessarily open hives and 
handle combs, whether robbers trouble or not. 
AVhen examining the bees in preparing them for 
winter, robbers are often jjarticularly troublesome. 
To save themselves from these annoyances, many 
bee-keepers have a small tent, in which they can 
Ijerfonn the 'work of the apiary. This consists of 
a light frame-work covered with mosquito netting, 
easily carried from place to place, and set over the 
hives that are to be opened. The simplest and 
most convenient st^de of bee-tent known to the 
Avriter is shown in the illustration given below. 
The strips a, 5, c, and d, are straight-grained pine, 
eight feet long, one inch thick, and an inch and 
one-fourth wide. Tliey are held together where 
they cross by ordinary wood-screws. Their up¬ 
per ends are tied together with stout twine, that 
passes through small holes. The “ ridge pole” is 
a piece of heavy tarred twine. An inch from the 
bottom of each strip an ordinary wood-screw is 
A bee-tent. 
driven in until its head projects about half an inch. 
Upon each screw is placed a small iron ring, and 
to these rings are attached the cords of tarred 
twine,/, g, 7i, i, j, k, I, and m, which complete the 
frame-work of the tent. The upper ends of the 
wooden pieces are covered with sheep skin, to 
prevent them from punching holes in the mosquito 
bar covering. To keep the wind from upsetting 
the tent, the lower ends of the wooden strips are 
furnished with curved points of heavy wire, two or 
three inches long, that can be thrust into the 
ground. AVhen the tent is in position, the bee¬ 
keeper raises one side, crawls under, and per¬ 
forms his task unmolested by the buzzing crowd 
outside. By slipping tlie iron rings, to which the 
cords are attached, off the screws, the wooden 
bars can be shut up like a pair of shears, thereby 
folding the whole bee-tent as easily as an umbrella. 
Geading, Ceating, and Shipping Honey.— 
The first grade should consist of only perfect, 
white combs, and it is the writer’s opinion that, in 
many instances, there should be only this one grade 
of comb-honey. Some bee-keepers make a second 
grade of unfinished sections, but if the apiary is 
rightly managed, there will be but few of these at 
the close of the season, and it is better to extract 
tlie honey from them, and keep the . combs until 
another season. Honey that is too dark for the 
first grade, should not, as a general thing, be stored 
in sections, as it is usually more profitable to ex¬ 
tract it. Before crating, sections should be scraped 
clean of propolis. A small crate is preferable; it 
is more easily handled, and less liable to be “dump¬ 
ed,” while it sometimes enables the retailer to sell 
a whole crate of honey at once. Sections should 
be placed only one tier high in shipping crates; 
because if any combs of the upper tier become in¬ 
jured, the honey drips down and soils those of the 
lower tier. Some bee-keetiefs make a shallow 
“ dish ” of heavy manilla paper, and place it in the 
bottom of tlie crate, then if combs are injured the 
“ dish ” catches the honey, and prevents the soil¬ 
ing of other crates. All honey crates should have 
glass on at least one of their sides. 
Small lots of honey should be sent by express, 
and large ones by freight. Express matter is 
necessarily handled rapidly, and when there is a 
large lot of honey to unload, it is apt to be jerked 
oil in a hurry. When a large lot of honey is sent 
by freight, the consignee should be notified in ad¬ 
vance, so that he may see to the unloading. Small 
crates should not be stacked up in a tall, upright 
jiile, in a car, but built up in the shape of a low 
pyramid. If access can be had to one end of the 
car, place the honey there, as it will be protected 
on three sides from tumbling down, and upon the 
other it can be built up like a flight of stairs, 
which will pretty effectually prevent any crate from 
receiving a tumble. Always handle honey with care. 
A New Process of Extracting Sugar from 
Sorghum. 
In the extraction of sugar from the Sugar Beet, a 
great improvement was made some years ago in 
Europe. Instead of pressing the juice from the 
beets, the roots, finely sliced, were treated with 
water, which dissolved out the sugar and greatly 
simplified the process. The introduction of new 
varieties of Sorghum from w'hich sugar can be 
procured, has given a uew^ impetus to Sorghum 
culture, which is to be supplemented by new 
methods of treating the cane and extracting the 
sugar it contains. In the usual method, the Sor¬ 
ghum canes are passed through mills, having 
several erect or horizontal rollers, which express 
the juice. This milling is found to leave about 
forty per cent of the sugar which the cane con¬ 
tains, in the begasse, or refuse cane, and is a dead 
loss. The chemist of the Department of Agricul¬ 
ture at Wasliingtou, D. C., reports his experiments 
with Sorghum, with a view of obtaining a more com¬ 
plete extraction of its sugar by means of diffusion. 
These experiments and their results are published 
by the Department in the form of a Bulletin, which 
tliose interested in the manufacture of Sorghum 
will do well to procure and study. As a matter of 
general interest to farmers, we give a mere outline 
of the methods. The first point was to reduce the 
cane to thin slices. Eor this purpose a machine was 
constructed, to w'hich the ends of the cane were 
presented and cut into slices one-eighth to three- 
sixteenths of an inch in thickness. The sliced 
cane was then subjected to the action of water, in 
a “ diffusion battery,” consisting of eleven cells, 
each holding ten gallons. This battery is illustrat¬ 
ed in the Bulletin, by an indistinct photograph, in 
which pipes of various kinds are in such numbers 
as to confuse. Each cell, apparently of cast iron, 
is thirty inches long by twelve inches in dia¬ 
meter. It has an opening at the top for filling, and 
another at the bottom for discharging. By a com¬ 
plicated system of pipes and cocks, water, hot or 
coid, is let into the top or bottom of each cell. 
We give in figure 1, three of the cells of the dif¬ 
fusion battery, simplified as a diagram, merely to 
show the working. In the diagram the pipe is so 
piaced as to have the liquid from near the bottom 
of one cell pass into the top of the next, and so 
on. The pressure of the city water was employed. 
The water in the fli'st cell, a, being charged 
wdth sugar, is forced out from near the bottom of 
that cell into the second cell, b, which it enters near 
the top, and so on, throughout the whole battery 
of eleven cells, and that from tlie last cell is evapo¬ 
rated. The experiments show'ed, that cane con¬ 
taining eighty-nine per cent of juice, yielded to the 
diffusion process about eighty-five per cent. The 
diffusion process will properly receive the attention 
of those who now extract sugar from Sorghum 
by the wasteful process of milling. Those who 
would experiment with diffusion, without going to 
the expense of constructing a battery like that of 
the Department of Agriculture, can construct a 
simpler apparatus by the use of small kegs. Each 
keg should have an opening at the top for charg¬ 
ing, and one near the bottom for removing the 
spent Sorghum chips. By arranging the kegs at 
proper hights, as in figure 2, the liquid from a can 
be made to flow into the next, b, without the use 
of hydraulic pressure. The diffusion treatment of 
Sorghum promises excellent results, and whoever 
aids in adapting the method to small operators, 
will be a benefactor to the farming community. 
Melons for Market. 
There are, in the writer’s neighborhood, a num¬ 
ber of small farmers, to whom the melon crop is 
one of importance. When they are asked what 
variety of melons they raise, the answer usually is, 
“my own.” Tliese farmers have learned, by ex¬ 
perience, that it is of no use to grow more than one 
kind of melon if they would keep the variety pure, 
and moreover, that by care in selecting the seed¬ 
bearing melons, each secures a form or strain so well 
suited to his soil, etc., that he is justified in calling it 
“ my own.” This appears to be the true course for 
those who grow melons for market, viz., when they 
once get a good variety to stick to it, and to im¬ 
prove it by great care in selecting the seed for fu¬ 
ture planting. Experience shows that melons of 
the same variety, while they may be alike in exter¬ 
nal appearance, often differ greatly in quality. 
Whether this may be due to crossing in the 
flower of the melon that bore the seed, or to 
the natural tendency of cultivated plants to vary, 
it is sufficiently frequent to establish this rule, viz.; 
Taste all melons before saving their seeds for 
planting, and reject the seeds of tliose that do 
not come up to the standard. It is only by 
this course that the quality can be preserved. . But 
the growers above referred to, are noted for the 
large size of their melons, and as sending to the 
city the lai'gest good melons that are offered. This 
size, as weil as the quality, is the result of several 
years of careful selection of the largest, as well 
as the best, as seed-bearers. Not only has size 
been considered, but relative weight, as indicating 
thickness of flesh. Shape has also been regarded, 
and the melons are surprisingly uniform in this re- 
speet. What these meion-growers have done, that 
is, established for the neighborhood a market repu¬ 
tation for their melons, due to size, soiidity and 
high exeellence, can be done elsewhere, by follow¬ 
ing the same methods. Now', with the ripening 
of the present crop, is the time to begin a rigor¬ 
ous careful selection for next year’s seeding. 
