1882 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



29 



bee-keeper of a dozen colonies. For all that, 

 it seems to me there are many good reasons 

 why we should have small tinners and small 

 bee-keepers. Often one may well be both ; 

 for while his bees need no care in winter, it 

 may be better for him to make tin p:»ils at 50 

 cents a day, than to leave home to engage in 

 some other employment. With many of us, 

 the work with our bees is recreation in the 

 open air ; and although Ave should pay out 

 more cash on them than we ever get back, it 

 may be a gain after all, in better health. It 

 is very likely true, that the great honey- 

 producers do not patronize supply dealers 

 very much, for the reason you give ; but, 

 friend II., what is to be done with the world 

 of ordinary people, who are not blessed with 

 very much energy (or brains either, perhaps)? 

 What about those who are e(]ual to the task 

 of caring for only a dozen or 20 colonies V Is 

 it not well for such to take a small start, and 

 grow, even . though they never get up to 

 great heights V Again : 1 have a very much 

 valued friend who makes boots and shoes 

 sometimes. lie also has a small farm ; and 

 as he at one time w;is a printer, he dabbles 

 occasionally in printing, stereotyping, elec- 

 trotyping, etc. A few days ago I suggested 

 to him, that although he did succeed with all 

 these things, it could not pay him very much. 

 Said he, ''Mr. Root, I do not always work 

 for money. Sometimes I work for the plea- 

 sure of it.'' If I am correct, he is not in 

 debt, but has money enough to visit our 

 great cities when he wishes, and see how 

 the large factories do the things he has been 

 working on there at home, and I know he 

 enjoys seeing the world progress in these 

 things, with a relish many of us can not im- 

 derstand. Now. while I believe in him, and 

 enjoy taking a look into his happy face, I 

 also admire specialists. Since 1 met you at 

 the convention, and heard you talk, friend 

 II., I have had quite a longing to visit your 

 apiaries; and I also want to visit George 

 Grimm. I am sure it would do me good, 

 and, mayhap, it might do Gleanings good. 

 What do you think, friends V 



HONEY FROIVI CORN. 



BY ONE WHO IS THOROUOHLV AVAKED UP IN REGARD 

 TO THE MATTER. 



BJpR. EDITOR:— We desire to provoke thoughf, 

 [Jt|[ rather than convey iDformation. We would 

 prefer to convey information, If we possess- 

 ed the facts. " AVlll bees gather honey from corn ? " 

 This is asked on page 595 of Gleanings. The an- 

 swer given by "one," as friend Doolittle had it, is, 

 " Yes, and lots of it, sometimes." Now, I do not be- 

 lieve that honey is ever gathered from the tassel-s, or 

 male organs of corn, or from the pollen producing 

 organs of any plant. Honey, I regard as a sort of 

 menstrua of the female organs of plants, designed 

 by nature to entangle the pollen for impregnating 

 purposes. In most plants these organs are in imme- 

 diate proximity. The honey secreted by the pump- 

 kin Is at the apex of the embryo pumpkin, and im- 

 mediately under the pollen, etc. Now, corn is an 

 exception to this general rule. The silk of the corn 

 Is the natural loeation from which honey should 

 flow. But, bees do not visit the silk, in this section 

 of Iowa; and we have not been able to find our bees 



tonguing the corn-tassels. We do not say that bees 

 do not find honey on corn-stalks or corn-tassels. We 

 believe the old German saying, that •' in a good year, 

 every bean-pole sweats honey; but in a bad one, no 

 flower secretes any." The sapof plants varies in the 

 quantitj' of susar secreted. Some years it is very 

 sweet, and beetles act as "sugar -tree tappers," 

 while bees gather in the sap, etc. " No admittance" 

 seems to be tacked over many departments of Na- 

 ture's laborator3', and we have not found out all we 

 want to know about honey. Will the ABC class al- 

 low me to sa.v, that when a plant secretes pollen in 

 large quantities, it secrets honey in small quantities? 

 Much pollen supersedes the necrssity of much honey. 

 The reverse of this problem is also true— much hon- 

 ey, little pollen. AVe think that, when bees come 

 from the buckwheat fields heavily laden with pollen, 

 it indicates a meager flow of honey. Small pellets 

 and full sacks; large pellets and empty sacks. Hang 

 this on the basswood-trees anyhow, and then tell us 

 where else, and what you know about it. I offer $50 

 for one pound of honey from corn-tassels. Any one 

 knowing his bees to be gathering honey from corn- 

 tassels, will notify me by postal or dispatch. I will 

 at once start for his place. If bees are not gather- 

 ing honey from corn-tassels, he must pay my ex- 

 penses. If the honey is produced from corn-tassels, 

 I am to receive the pound, pay $.50, and my own ex- 

 penses. Jesse Oren. 

 La Porte City, Black Hawk Co., la., Dec. 13, 1881. 

 Although I don't quite like friend Oren's 

 way of bringing out facts, it may be that his 

 letter Avill bring out what Ave do not know 

 about corn from honey. Can not the parti- 

 cles of honey in the tassel, if such there be, 

 be found with the microscope ? It seems to 

 me this Avould settle it. 



SPEAKING 1JNKINDI.Y OF THOSE WE 

 KNO\*% 



fjIIE folloAving is from the American Bee 

 _^ Journal of Nov. 9 : — 



WOULD IT BE AN HONEST TRANSACTION V 



I notice the following editorial remarks in Glean- 

 ings for Oct., page 496:— 



" The Holy-Land bees ceit.ainly have some strong points of 

 difference thiit promise well. AVe often send them out to fill 

 orders, and 1 have never yet heard them called any thing else 

 tkan nice Italians. The bees would please almost anvbod.v in 

 appearance, and we have never had a complaint of their being 

 cross, like .some of the Cyprians. ' ' 



Now, are we to understand by tho above that, 

 should we order from Mr. Koot an Italian queen, he 

 is to send us just what he chooses, and it is all right 

 so long as we do not know the difference? Th.it is 

 on a par with the dairyman who would ship a cus- 

 tomer a tuh of olpomargiirine, and would console 

 himself that the customer would not know the dif- 

 ference between that and good butter. 



Kockland, N. Y. AV. Cairns. 



Whatever ails you, frieml C. V Can't you 

 be kind o' half way civil and decent, even 

 though you may be writing for the A. B. J.l 

 I iiavent said a word about queena in any 

 thing you have quoted — I only said bees. 

 In ''our parts" we sell bees by the pound — 

 bushels and bushels of them. Folks buy 

 queens, and then we send some bees along 

 Avith them, and the Holy-Land bees ore very 

 pretty Italians. Do you suppose the bees 

 sent with a queen are going to spoil her pu- 

 rity V And, by the way, friends, is it just, 

 kind, and civil, for a brother-editor to pub- 

 lish such things about one you all knoAV aa 

 you do me V 



