**honey. It takes but a small outlay to** **f** **rill the empty frames with foundation, while on the other plan I would virtually have wasted it in trying to feed it to the bees, for besides the bother of evaporating any great quantity, I consider the feeding of liquid honey to bees as dangerous to peace and comfort, from its making the bees ravenous and cross.** **Oncida, III.** **[The editor "acknowledges the corn," regarding the method of separating the granulated honey from the wax, but he is not in accord with regard to the use of honey as a feed. There can be no doubt that the feeding of honey is attended with certain disadvantages, but the practice of feeding anything else we believe to be pernicious to the interests of the bee-keepers as a whole, particularly in this country, where it is carried on to such a large extent. In Mr. Damaree's article, as well as that of Mr. Chalmers, published in this number, the fear of mixing the sugar feed with the honey that is sold, is spoken of. This danger is one too important to be overlooked. If your customers once get the idea, you _feed_** **sugar to your bees, whether you permit it to get mixed with the honey or not, they will at once put it down as a fact that your honey is half sugar. We all know what that means. These customers will say, we prefer to add the sugar ourselves, and they will buy less of your honey, if** _they buy any.--_**Eb.]** **Our Comment Sustained.** **State of New Jersey.** **Dairy Commissioner, Paterson, N, J., June 14, 1888.** **Editor Bee-Keepers' Magazine** **Your editorial comment on the article in** _British Bee Journal_ **is correct, as no comb honey was found adulterated. The heading to my article is "Strained Honey," and all the specimens were of that kind. The samples** **labeled on the cans and jars** "Choice Comb Honey" were merely small pieces of comb floating in a sea of glucose. I see that** _Gleanings_ **makes the same mistake, and the editor of that journal should correct his mistatement.** **Truly yours,** **Wm. K. Newton, Commissioner.** **[It is unfortunate that your work is discredited in some quarters. We can only believe it is through ignorance of the facts rather than through a desire to cover up adulteration.--_Eb.]** **From the British Bee Journal.** **A Toad Story.** **Our apiary adjoins a meadow, still unmown, which abounds in toads, a wire fence alone separating the two. Late in the summer evening toads may be seen crawling around the hives, but it never struck us that they were intent upon devouring bees. Our hives are placed on stands about eighteen inches from the ground, and in front of our strongest colonies we place a board, sloping from the ground upwards to the hive entrance, for the convenience of heavily laden bees returning homewards. While lazily watching beside an Italian colony thus provided a few mornings ago after a heavy shower, admiring the eagerness of the bees for work while the brief sunshine lasted, a toad appeared on the scene, and most deliberately, step by step, crawled up the board to the entrance, and there took up his station, surrounded by departing and returning bees. Flies occasionally settled on the creature's back, but were dismissed** _instanter_ **by a quick motion of its hinder claws. Several bees of inquiring minds were similarly treated also. At length one, more inquisitive than its fellows, carefully and minutely examined the fore-paw of the toad, but, alas! as it arose on wing from the scrutiny, snap went the huge jaw of the toad, and poor bee disappeared down the capacious throat. All this was done quick as a flash of lightning, indeed, so quick that the eyecould scarcely follow the motion. The operation was repeated again and again by the toad, till at last realizing that the _Toad_ might prove more destructive of bee-life than the _Ti_, we interfered, and tying the toad securely in the position it had voluntarily assumed, we applied to the hive sundry kicks and shakes, with the object of infurating the bees to attack their assailant. But no, although thousands of angry bees surrounded the marauder, not one dared to attack, not a single lance was unsheathed! So great seemed the dread of the bees that not one alighted upon the toad, notwithstanding its struggles to free itself from the bands by which it was bound. Following Virgil's advice respecting a 'bad king'_--_dede neci_--we beheaded and dissected the toad and discovered in his capacious mugthreen of our beautiful Italian bees, which had all been swallowed alive during less time than it has taken us to write the story. Moral : Don't place boards in front of your hives for the convenience of the bees (toads?), and don't adopt the American plan of placing your hives upon the ground. Why cannot toads content themselves by picking up the _dead_ bees, as 'tits' and sparrows are _said_, by their apologists, to do? No, these and many another enemy of the bees prefer the _living_ to the _dead_.