346 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



May 30, 1901. 



\ ^ The Afterthcught. « | 



The "Old Reliable" seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. HASTY, Sta. B Rural, Toledo, O. 



jvctioxs of bees at SW.\RMING-TIME. 

 And so B. Ginner wants to know if bees pile up in front 

 ■of a swarming- hive in weight enough to touch off a mechani- 

 cal arrangement to sound an alarm. Bees have forty differ- 

 ent ways of swarming. I should not be surprised to see 

 several ounces clung together on the ground in front : but 

 once in fifty times would be sufficient to expect it, I think. 

 Usually the downy young bees very recently emerged are 

 mostly swept out in the rush ; and many of them crawl 

 around awhile before the)' can get the use of their wings. 

 Machinery would have to be made pretty delicate to spring 

 with their weight : but I guess the thing is possible. If B. 

 G. will rig a second entrance somewhere about his hive (say 

 in the rear end of the bottom-board), I think he can get all 

 -the power he needs by means of it. The idea is to have a 

 long crack there almost wide enough to let out bees, but 

 not quite, and a swinging gate on which the joint push of 

 several dozen bees could be utilized. At ordinary times a 

 bee doesn't want to get out except at the habitual place; 

 but in the usual forms of swarming the sentiment seems to 

 be any way to get out, or any where. Page 283. 



THE I.AVING CAPACITY OF OCEEXS. 



That Langstroth experiment on page 248, where queens 

 are made to drop eggs on a black cloth — " some thirty, 

 some sixty, and some a hundred fold," and the colonies 

 turn out accordingly three months later — it is striking and 

 instructive ; yet there is danger of predicating far too 

 much upon it. The queen that dropped only one egg may 

 have been just as good a queen as the one that dropped 

 "twenty. It is not only possible, but probable, that each of 

 the queens, with the exception of the first, was laying at 

 just about the rate that the workers were able to care for 

 the eggs. If I am right, no queen (in the season! will lay 

 much in advance of the wishes of the workers. Far be it 

 from me to wish to nullify all the conclusions of the paper 

 referred to. Two things remain after we have made all 

 proper allowances : Some queens will not keep up with the 

 reasonable requirements of a fair colony. To supersede 

 them is of course just the proper thing to do : only don't 

 make mistakes about the facts. The other thing is that 

 some few queens will keep up with the requirements of an 

 immense colon j' in which most queens would fall far short. 

 These presumably are of extra value ; but their phenomenal 

 laying exhausts them quickly, and they are not likely to 

 last long. 



BEES AND FRUIT-BLOOM FERTILIZATION. 



Anent the articles of Thaddeus Smith, on pages 262 and 

 280, denying fruit-fertilization by bees — we can make be- 

 lieve we are Boers, and he can be a Britisher without mak- 

 ing believe; and thus we will have a splendid chance to 

 learn courtesy and fair conduct toward adversaries. He's 

 right that pretty much all that class of experiments are 

 inconclusive in which boughs or trees have been covered 

 with fine netting. In thus preventing insect pollenization 

 other modes of pollenization are also hindered, if not pre- 

 vented altogether. Our folks must mend this defect and 

 experiment some more. Apparently neither himself nor 

 his friend are well posted in insect lore. We greatly need 

 a skilled entomologist turned loose in May among the 

 islands of Lake Erie. Quite possibly he would see with 

 half an eve that the sheltered location keeps oft' predatory 

 insects, and that nectar-loving insects are abnormally thick 

 there. Moreover, from climatic and other causes, these 

 islands are among the choicest spots on the globe for fruit- 

 culture. The excellence of results without bees does not 

 show all it seems to. Still, a chance for some competent 

 and friendly hand to show how much better results can be 

 attained with bees. And let us watch the present straw- 

 berry bloom, and see how many of us can " pink him " on 

 his reckless assertion (page 280) that the blossoms of pistil- 

 late strawberries do not secrete nectar. Look for bees, of 

 course, but especially look for very small insects. 



HEALTH AND BED-CLOTHING. 



On pages 248, 249, Prof. Cook has a splendid article on 

 the health of the dear ones at home. I will not attempt to 

 saj' over again his good precepts, but rather (as possibly 



is too much my habit of late) " mouse "' to see if I can't find 

 a little heresy somewhere. He advocates plenty of bed- 

 clothing — he's right — but then there stands unmentioned 

 the very prevalent evil of too much bed-clothing. Are we 

 not g-etting somewhere near the bounds of heresj- when we 

 ignore such an evil — as if we should say. Folks ought to 

 eat plenty of food, and not waste too much time about it ? 

 It's half in vain to have pure air outside the"kiver" if 

 underneath, next to our persons, the air is thick with ex- 

 creted gases and thin of oxygen. And that's the state of 

 things which must exist with unnecessary sheets of cotton- 

 batting over us. And is not the result a torpid skin — almost 

 as bad as weak lungs ? Or, am I wrong about this whole 

 business ? 



\ ^ The Home Circle. ^ \ 



Conducted by Prof. ft. J. Cook, Claremont, Calif. 



Because You Keep in Tune. 



There is a harmony that runs thro' all God's works of love, 

 It rises thro' the hum of earth to join the choirs above: 

 And if your heart desires a part, morning and eve and noon. 

 In the wide chorus, sing your best, and always keep in tune. 



The voices close beside your ear may grate discordantly. 

 And sometimes all the world around eeems to be out of key. 

 But hold the note you know is true, sing clear and sweet, and soon 

 Others will join the melody because you keep in tune. 



— Priscilla Leoxari). 



SUCCEEDING BY READING. 



I am sure wo are all glad that Mr. Hutchiusou visited the 

 Coggshalls, and gave us the beautiful pen-picture of their 

 home. The remark of \V. L. Coggshall to Mr. Hutchinsoa is 

 so pregnant with sense and truth that I wish to take it as a 

 test on this occasion. "The man who reads is the man who 

 succeeds." 



I have always remembered something I read of Beecher's 

 years ago ; " Show me a man's library, and tell me of the 

 company he keeps, and I will tell you the man's character." 

 It has often been remarked that we owe our civilization to the 

 discovery of the printing-press. Sure it is that without the 

 stored-up wisdom which we have in the blessed books that 

 grace our homes, our progress would be very much less rapid. 

 I think I said in a previous number of these " Home Circle " 

 papers that I wished I was able to put the Youth's Companion 

 into every home in our country. 



I have also said that there were three things I would 

 strive to develop in the child from the very first — as soon as 

 he could lisp '-papa" or 1 could make him understand ray 

 wishes — -'truthfulness, self-control, system." I wish to add 

 now that I would also strive to interest the child in reading, 

 good reading, from the very earliest moment. The little nur- 

 sery magazine should be among the child's first possessions, as 

 soon as it can enjoy pictures or tingle with pleasure at the 

 story. This should be followed by Saint Nicholas and the 

 Youth's Companion. Of course, the child can not read these 

 at first, but how delightful it is for father and mother to sand- 

 wich in the Sunday walk between the talks and readings on 

 Sunday, and surely a little time each week-day can not be 

 better spent by either parent than by giving it to the children 

 with some good book or paper as the third party. If we com- 

 mence thus early, 1 think there will be rarely any difficulty in 

 interesting any child of ordinary intelligence in the child 

 book or paper. In case the child does show indifference, the 

 parents should tax invention till they succeed. 



I know of one little boy who was quite a trouble to his 

 parents in his very early years by a discouraging indifference 

 to book and paper. He would enjoy their reading to him but 

 was very slow to read for himself. A visit to some little 

 friends who possessed a menagerie of white mice, interested 

 the boy greatly, and nothing would do but that he must have 

 like pets. The parents, of course, were interested in his 

 desire and suggested that he find out where he could buy 

 them, what they would cost, and suitable cages or homes for 

 the little rodents, when they should once be secured. The 

 result was that the little fellow hunted the papers over for 

 advertisements regarding white mice. The parents seeing 



