SOMETHING OF INTEREST TO BEEKEEPERS. 407 



and they will pay no attention to him. I had some bees I was going 

 to shake out of a hive, and they got angry in a minute, and my 

 hands were just covered with bees. I staid there a moment, and 

 in a short time they were just as quiet as could be, but for a moment 

 they were savage. At another time they were swarming, and they 

 were up quite high in a tree, and I shook them off. When they 

 were coming down it made them quite savage, and they went for 

 me for a minute, but they quieted down right away so I could do 

 almost anything with them. I think it is the smell of a person more 

 than anything else that they notice. Different persons Have different 

 smells, and they can tell the difference. 



Mr. H. G. Acklin : There is a great difference in the docility of 

 bees, the same as one finds in cattle and sheep. Quite a number of 

 people have been through our apiary, and our little girl makes that 

 her play ground, and a hundred or more visitors are there every 

 summer, and none of them have been stung. The students visit us, 

 and I do not think any of them have ever been stung. If you get a 

 colony of the right kind of bees I do not think you will have much 

 trouble on that score. 



The President : What kind have you ? 



Mr. Acklin : I have the Italian. 



Mrs. L. A. Alderman (S. D.) : I would like to ask the question 

 whether bees have anything to do with disseminating blight. One 

 of the gentlemen said that they only came to bless, but I think I have 

 had trees that were entirely sound infected with blight from the bees. 



Mr. J. S. Trigg: What kind of blight? 



Mrs. L. A. Alderman : Twig blight. 



The President : How do you think it was carried there ? 



Mrs. Alderman : By the bees when the trees were in bloom. 

 Two years ago we had a third of our orchard blight when it bloomed. 

 It was the worst season we ever had ; we had trees on which the 

 bloom was entirely blighted. 



Mr. Trigg: Did it ever occur to you that the blight is not 

 an active poison ? 



Mrs. Alderman : Prof. Vesey told me that bees were not re- 

 sponsible, and I think the gentleman is mistaken, that it is an active 

 poison. The blight was not in active operation before the bloom 

 was there. 



Mr. H. G. Acklin : I see Prof. Green is present and perhaps 

 he can give us some light on the subject. 



Prof. S. B. Green : I think this lady has told about all there 

 is about it. It seems as though the thing might be possible, but the 



