April 11, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



233 



decidedly the exception and not the rule that they return to 

 the hive without forming at least a partial cluster. 



Page 299 — Mr. Root in referring to turnips writes as 

 follows: "If they are turned under just before going out 

 of bloom, they make one of the most valuable of soiling 

 crops. Thus a good turnip pasturage may be obtained with 

 no extra work except sowing the seed, and the crop will be 

 an actual benefit to the soil if turned under." Has not Mr. 

 Root used the wrong word here ? As I understand it, soil- 

 ing is used to refer to cutting green herbage for immediate 

 feeding. When we cut green corn for our cattle, we are 

 then soiling. Plowing under a green crop, as I understand 

 it, is not soiling but green manuring. I think, also, that 

 no scientist would agree with Mr. Root that turnips are one 

 of the best crops for green manuring. They would add no 

 manurial element to the soil. They would be of advan- 

 tage in adding humus. They are not very deep-rooted 

 plants and so would not bring up inorganic matter deep in 

 the subsoil. Leguminous crops, like peas, clover, and 

 lupin, root much deeper, furnish just as much, if not more, 

 humus, and in taking the nitrogen from the air and com- 

 bining it so that it can be utilized for the plant, are the 

 plants par excellence for green manuring. The man who 

 is content to plow under the cereals like oats, barley or rye, 

 turnips or weeds, instead of some legume, like clover and 

 peas, is content with a half loaf when it were just as easy 

 to secure a whole one. This suggestion is all the more 

 valuable in view of the fact that nitrogen is the most 

 expensive fertilizing element which we need to add to our 

 soil. 



Page 306 — Is it true that all the moisture that is found 

 in the hive, making the sticky mass after bees have been 

 suffocated, comes from honey that the bees have regurgi- 

 tated ? I think there is good reason to believe that much of 

 this is the water of perspiration, or, possibly we better say, 

 respiration. In such cases, bees try hard to cool off. The 

 only possible way that they can do it is by evaporation of 

 water. That they function in some way analagous to our 

 sweating, I think there can be no doubt. That perspiration 

 from the exterior of the body can amount to much, is 

 doubtful. Their thick, chitinous crust would seem to make 

 this impossible. I have no doubt that there is much escape 

 of water by evaporation — in fact, there must be — from the 

 innumerable air-tubes. I believe close investigation will 

 prove that such moisture is more in evidence on such occa- 

 sions than the honey which the bees regurgitate. 



Page 308 — Here, again, our author refers to bees sepa- 

 rating water from honey while on the wing. I believe this 

 is physically impossible. I have never as yet seen this 

 " mist " fall from the bees while flying in the air. The 

 statement has so often been made by others who thought 

 they had seen it that we can hardly doubt but that it had 

 some basis in truth. If such mist does fall from, the bees, 

 it certainly must be the water of evaporation in the air- 

 tubes, or else excreta from the intestines. This is certainly 

 a matter which deserves very close investigation. 



Page 310 — The Chinese wax referred to on this page is 

 the product of an insect. It is one of the scale insects or 

 coccids. Thus it is related to the cochineal insect, which, 

 as is well known, gives us our carmine dye. This Chinese 

 wax is very white and is used for making candles. As Mr. 

 Root well says, it is too expensive to be used to adulterate 

 beeswax, and, more than this, detection would be very easy. 



Page 321 — In speaking of the willow, it is stated that 

 it does not furnish honey, and the late Mr. Quinby is 

 quoted to the same effect. This is certainly not true of all 

 our willows. As is well known, the willow, like our pepper 

 here in California, are diiL-cious, that is, the male and 

 female flovrers are on different trees. I have seen bees over 

 and over again thick on the blossoms of both. They were 

 visiting, one for pollen and the other for honey. True they 

 might get honeyfrom the willow Aphis, a plant-louse which 

 is very common on the white willow, but careful observa- 

 tion in many cases has shown me that thej' were visitini,'- 

 flowers and gathering nectar from trees not at all infested 

 with plant-lice. 



Page 322 — On this page, Mr. Root gives an admirable 

 illustration of that incomparable plant, the willow-herb. 

 Curiously enough, in giving the scientific name lu' 

 exchanges the generic and the specific names. The plant 

 is known as Epilobium angustifolium, and not, as he jjuts 

 it, Angustifolium epilobium. This plant is worthy all thr 

 good things he says of it. It is not only e.xcellent for 

 honey but has a most beautiful (lower. This plant comes 

 up thick over the burnt areas of northern Michigan, and so 

 is often called fireweed. This name, like that of Indian- 



pink, is unfortunate, as these names are also given to 

 other plants which are very different. 



Page 335 — Is it true that dark honey is more unsuitable 

 for wintering than other honey ? If we give the definition 

 for honey that some bee-keepers urge, that honey is the 

 transformed nectar of flowers, then surely the above is not 

 correct. It is true, however, that bees often gather nectar 

 from bark-lice or scale-insect secretion, which I think they 

 transform into honey. This is very dark and is certainly 

 unfit for wintering. While I would not wish to use this lat- 

 ter in any climate where bees can not fly frequently, for 

 purpose of winter food, I should not hesitate at all to use 

 buckwheat or any other dark floral honey for winter food 

 in the apiary. 



Page 348 — In his glossary, our author gives Apis as the 

 family to which the bee belongs. This should have been 

 the genus to which the bee belongs. It may be of interest 

 to some of our bee-keepers for me to give the groups from 

 first to last in succinct form, to which our pets of the hive 

 belong. The phylum or branch, which used to be called 

 Articulata, and which included worms, is now known as 

 Arthropoda, a word meaning "jointed legs." All animals 

 which belong to this phylum have not only jointed legs but 

 also jointed bodies. Thus the sow-bug, crayfish or lobster, 

 thousand-legged worm, and spider, as well as the insect, all 

 belong to the phylum Arthropoda. The bee belongs to the 

 class Hexapoda, or insects. The former name is given 

 because they all, in the mature state, have six legs. They 

 are called insects because their body is cut up into three 

 well-markt portions, head, thorax and abdomen, besides the 

 other rings and joints which make up these main divisions. 

 Of course this class does not include the lobster class, with 

 their varying number of legs, the eight-legged spiders, or 

 the many-leg'ged myriapods. 



The bee belongs to the order Hymenoptera. This word 

 comes from the Greek and means membranous wings. 

 They are so called because they have thin wings like those 

 of the common house-fly. This order does not include 

 moths, butterflies, two-winged flies, beetles, bugs, locusts, 

 etc. The family of the bee is Apida?, a word signifying 

 honey-bee, as the typical genus is Apis. In this family, 

 the larvae are always fed on pollen, and thus the bees are 

 always provided with means for collecting this valuable 

 food substance. 



We have a great many bees, from the huge bumble and 

 carpenter bees down to the small solitary bees which are 

 often very beautiful. With very slight exception, none of 

 the bees ever do any harm, and all of them will co-operate 

 with the honey-bee in the valuable work of pollinating the 

 flowers of our fruits and vegetables. The carpenter bees 

 sometimes bore into cornices and window-casing of houses, 

 but rarely do any serious mischief, and are easily dislodged 

 by the use of a mixture of lard and kerosene oil. The 

 genus of the honey-bee is Apis, and includes all those bees 

 that have their hind legs best fitted for carrying pollen, and 

 have no tibial spur on these legs. The species of the 

 honey-bee is mellifera. This includes all of the bees that 

 have been domesticated, of which there are several races, 

 as the Italian, Syrian, German or Black, Carniolan, etc. 



In concluding these reviews of our three most import- 

 ant bee-books, I wish to say that the task has been alto- 

 gether a pleasant one. There is so much to commend, so 

 little to criticise. I am proud of our bee-books, and am 

 proud of my brother authors. 



Los Angeles Co., Calif. 



A Celluloid Queen-Button is a very pretty thing for a 

 bee-keeper or honey-seller to wear on his coat-lapel. It 

 often serves to in troduce the subject of honey, and frequently 

 leads to a sale. 



NoTK.— One reader writes: " I have every reason 

 to believe tllat it would be a very good idea for every 

 bee-keeper to wear one (of ihe buttons] as il will cause 

 people to ask questions about the busy bee, and many 



started would wind up with the 

 honey; at any rate it would g-ive 

 perior opportunity to enlighten 

 ard to honey and bees." 



sale of more 



the bee-keepe 



many a perso 



The picture shown herewith is a reproduction of a motto 

 queen-button that we have been furnishing to bee-keepers 

 for a long time. It has a pin on the underside to fasten to 

 the coat. Price, by mail, 6 cents each: two for 10 cents; 

 or six for 25 cents. Send all orders to the office of the Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal. 



The Premiums offered this week are well worth work 

 ing for. Look at them. 



