96 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
August  4,  1 898. 
iws-rr  „  1. 1  -  -  j  .  i.,...  - - rr=. 
-IE  BEE-KEEPER.^ 
Dark  Honey. 
From  various  parts  of  the  country  come  reports  of  the  large 
amount  of  dark  honey  stored  by  the  bees.  In  some  apiaries  the 
honey  harvest,  from  which  much  was  expected,  owing  to  the  preva¬ 
lence  of  favourable  weather  during  early  spring,  will  from  this  cause 
be  a  total  failure.  We  have  on  several  occasions  at  the  end  of  the 
season  had  a  small  quantity  of  dark  honey,  but  never  before  have  we 
had  the  dense  black  honey  such  as  has  been  stored  during  the  present 
season. 
We  know  of  large  hives  in  some  districts  that  were  duly  doubled 
for  extracting  purposes,  and  were  crowded  with  bees  which  worked 
freely  on  fine  days  and  stored  a  larue  surplus.  The  frames  were  all 
passed  through  the  extractor  twice,  after  an  interval  of  ten  days,  the 
result  being  black  honey,  quite  useless  for  commercial  purposes.  At 
the  present  moment  the  supers  are  again  sealed  over,  and  as  the  frames 
are  placed  an  extra  distance  apart,  they  have  immense  slabs  of  honey 
stored  in  them.  Several  of  them  were  placed  in  the  scales  out  of 
curiosity,  and  they  weighed  upwards  of  8  lbs.  each.  The  honey, 
however,  was  of  the  darkest  hue,  and,  if  anything,  worse  than  the 
two  previous  crops.  As  it  is  a  waste  of  labour  and  energy  to  extract 
such  stuff,  it  has  been  left  on  the  hives  for  the  bees  to  carry  down  into 
their  brnod  nest  as  required.  They  will  thus  be  bountifully  supplied 
with  stores,  and  the  bee-keeper  will  look  forward  to  another  season  in 
the  hope  of  having  a  share  of  the  honey  harvest,  instead  of,  as  at 
present,  feeding  it  all  back  to  the  bees. 
At  the  various  exhibitions  visited  during  the  past  few  weeks,  at 
which  prizes  were  offered  for  honey,  it  was  interesting  to  observe  how 
poorly  the  present  season’s  honey  was  represented.  At  some  of  the 
shows  not  a  single  sample  was  exhibited  ;  but  at  a  large  agricultural 
show,  at  which  honey  is  usually  well  represented,  the  reverse  was  the 
case  this  season.  Sections  were  fairly  good,  but  run  honey  was 
indifferent,  and  but  few  exhibitors. 
It  is,  however,  interesting  to  hear  from  a  bee-keeper  “down 
west,”  who  complained  of  dark  honey  earlier  in  the  season.  Writing 
on  16th  of  July  he  says  “  Yesterday  I  extracted  114  lbs.  of  very 
good  honey  from  five  hives,  two  of  which  were  doubled,  on  the  system 
recommended  in  the  Journal  of  Horticulture ,  with  full-sized  frames, 
the  other  three  having  shallow  frames.  These  had  been  stored  in 
eight,  days,  as  the  combs  were  then  passed  through  the  extractor.” 
The  above  is  interesting,  as  showing  what  has  been  done  in  that 
particular  district.  Although  the  sample  of  honey  obtained  early  in 
the  season  was  dark,  a  fair  sample  was  eventually  procured. 
The  Cause  of  Dark  Honey. 
Dark  honey  may  be  obtained  from  different  sources.  A  correspon¬ 
dent  complained  early  in  the  season  of  his  bees  storing  dark  honey, 
which  he  supposed,  and  we  think  rightly,  vvas  obtained  from  Rhodo¬ 
dendrons,  which  grew  in  large  masses  in  the  neighbourhood  of  his 
apiary.  Blackberries,  which  are  flowering  profusely  at  the  present 
time,  yield  a  very  dark  honey.  The  Spanish  Chestnut,  too,  may  be 
classed  in  the  same  category ;  and  as  it  does  not  bloom  till  late  in  the 
season,  when  the  White  Clover  and  Limes  are  nearly  over,  the  bees 
collect  the  honey  somewhat  freely  from  this  source,  a  little  of  which 
will  soon  spoil  a  good  sample.  It  has  a  very  sickly  odour,  which  may 
be  observed  whilst  standing  several  yards  from  the  hive. 
Although  a  limited  quantity  of  dark  honey  may  be  obtained 
from  various  kinds  of  flowers,  they  are  not  of  sufficient  variety  and 
quantity  to  hive  spoiled  the  whole  of  the  honey  harvest,  as  unfor¬ 
tunately  has  to  be  recorded  in  manv  parts  of  the  country.  The 
cause  must  thus  be  sought  for  elsewhere,  and  we  have  no  hesitation 
in  saying  that  the  honeydew  has  been  the  chief  cause  of  the  nu's- 
cbief,.  owing  to  the  peculiar  season,  which  commenced  most 
promising  for  bee-keepers  during  the  first  three  months  of  the  year. 
This  was  followed  by  changeab'e  weather  in  April ;  May  was  cold 
and  dreary.  Owing  to  the  check  vegetation  received,  aphis  made 
great  headway  on  many  of  the  hardy  trees.  Plums  were  infested 
in  a  marked  degree;  although  the  fruit  set  thickly  much  of  it  fell, 
owing  to  the  blight,  and  as  the  unfavourable  weather  continued  the 
aphis  spread  at  a  rapid  rate.  The  Roses  that  were  left  to  chance 
were  a  mass  of  green  fly.  The  shrubberies  were  in  the  same  un¬ 
satisfactory  condition,  whilst  in  the  woodlands  the  Oak,  Lime,  and 
similar  trees  were  affected  with  this  pest. 
As  is  well  known,  the  aphis  increased  at  a  rapid  rate,  and  as 
there  were  no  heavy  rains  to  clean  the  foliage  it  was  soon  covered 
with  honeydew,  being  the  excrement  from  the  greenfly.  On  some 
-occasions  it  was  dripping  from  the  leaves  like  gentle  rain.  No 
wonder,  then,  the  bees  were  tempted  to  store  it  in  quantity  when 
they  could  obtain  it  close  to  their  hives;  as  it  is  very  sweet  the 
bees  could  not  be  blamed  for  storing  it.  But  a  small  quantity  of 
honeydew  will  spoil  a  good  sample  that  may  have  been  previously 
stored  in  the  hives.  This  fact  alone  proves  the  advantage  of  the 
moveable  frame  hive  over  the  straw  skep,  as  in  the  former  when 
worked  on  improved  methods  the  honey  may  be  extracted  as  often  as 
necessary,  and  thus  a  good  sample  may  be  obtained  ;  whereas 
if  it  had  been  allowed  to  remain  in  the  hive  till  the  end  of  the  season 
all  would  have  been  of  inferior  quality.  This  season  has  been  an 
exception. 
On  the  night  of  July  22nd  heavy  thunderstorms  set  in  which  lasted 
for  six  hours,  2-29  inches  of  rain  falling  during  that  time.  This  has 
been  the  greatest  amount  we  have  ever  measured  during  twenty-four 
hours.  It  has  had  the  desired  effect  of  cleaning  the  foliage  of  much 
of  the  aphis  and  honeydew,  but  came  too  late  to  materially  benefit 
the  bees. — An  English  Bee-keeper. 
TRADE  CATALOGUES  RECEIVED. 
II.  Canned  &  Sons,  Swanley. — Cacti. 
W.  Cutbush  &  Son,  Highgate. — Bulbs, 
Herb  &  Wulle,  Naples. — Bulbs. 
Little  &  Ballantyne,  Carlisle. — Bulbs. 
T.  Methven  &  Sons,  Edinburgh. — Bulbs. 
"  Piuehurst  Nurseries,  Pinehurst,  N.C.,  U.S.A.  —  Seeds  of  Herbaceous 
Plants. 
J.  C.  Schmidt,  Erfurt. —  General  List. 
All  correspondence  relating  to  editorial  matters  should,  until 
further  notice,  be  directed  to  “The  Editor,”  a.  Rose  Hill  Road, 
Wandsworth,  S.W.,  and  NOT  to  12,  Mitre  Court  Chambers, 
Fleet  Street.  It  is  requested  that  no  one  will  write  privately  to 
any  of  our  correspondents,  seeking  information  on  matters 
discussed  in  this  Journal,  as  doing  so  subjects  them  to 
unjustifiable  trouble  add  expense,  and  departmental  writers 
are  not  expected  to  answer  any  letters  they  may  receive  on 
Gardening  and  Bee  subjects  through  the  post.  If  information 
be  desired  on  any  particular  subject  from  any  particular 
authority  who  may  be  named,  endeavour  will  be  made  to  obtain 
it  by  the  Editor.  Letters  of  inquiry  must  be  accompan  ed  by 
the  names  and  addresses  of  the  writers,  but  these  will  neither  be 
published  nor  disclosed  when  initials  or  nom  de  plumes  are  giveo 
for  the  purpose  of  replies. 
Correspondents  should  not  mix  up  on  the  same  sheet  questions  relating 
to  Gardening  and  those  on  Bee  subjects,  and  it  is  convenient  when 
each  question  is  written  on  a  separate  sheet.  All  articles  intended 
for  insertion  should  be  written  on  one  side  of  the  paper  only;  and 
the  name  and  address  of  each  writer  must  be  known  by  the 
Editor,  though  not  necessarily  for  insertion.  We  cannot,  as  a 
rule,  reply  to  questions  through  the  post,  and  we  do  not  under¬ 
take  to  return  communications  which,  for  any  reason,  cannot 
be  inserted. 
Dressing  Tomatoes  (T.  H.  T.\ — We  have  sent  your  letter  to  Mr. 
Iggulden,  trom  whom  you  will  probably  have  heard  before  you  see  this. 
Yellow  Carnation  (£?.  F.). — The  flowers  sent  for  inspection  are  of 
great  size  for  secondary  blooms,  and  we  can  well  understand  your  admir¬ 
ation  of  the  variety.  Why  did  you  not  send  one  or  two  good  central 
flowers  when  you  had  them  ?  If  you  had  done  so  we  could  have  formed 
a  much  more  accurate  opinion  as  to  the  merits  of  the  flowers  as  compared 
with  the  several  excellent  named  varieties.  As  you  say,  the  calyx  shows 
no  symptoms  of  splitting,  but  the  central  petals  of  the  flowers  were  con¬ 
fused,  and  this  is  a  defect  in  a  perfect  flower.  It,  however,  may  be 
absent  in  central  blooms,  of  which  you  will  perhaps  favour  as  with 
examples  at  some  future  time. 
Mildew  on  Cucumber  Plants  (Cucumber).  —  The  giving  of  more  air 
and  fire  heat  will  not  arrest  the  growth  of  this  epiphytal  parasite,  but 
probably  favour  it  in  some  respects,  as  it  ha3  secured  a  hold.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  use  any  poisonous  substance,  always  more  or  less 
dangerous  on  edible  fruits  ;  but  simply’  flowers  of  sulphur,  dusting  on 
as  lightly  as  possible,  but  so  as  to  coat  every  part  evenly.  Of  course, 
where  syringing  is  practised  this  will  be  washed  off  more  or  less,  there¬ 
fore  may  need  repeating,  but  too  liberal  use  of  sulphur  has  a  bad  effect 
on  the  roots.  We  should  use  a  little  sulphur  on  the  hot-water  pipes, 
the  fumes  acting  better  against  the  mildew  than  the  article  in  contact. 
We  should  not  materially  vary  either  the  temperature  or  the  ventilation 
on  account  of  the  mildew,  but  use  the  sulphur  as  advised,  as  it  also 
acts  well  against  red  spider  and  white  flyT. 
