80 



March, 1913 



American Tiee Journal 



a bee journal. It will be called the 

 Western Honey Bee, a monthly, and is 

 to be devoted to the interests of the 

 bee-keepers of the West. Many suc- 

 cessful bee-keepers live in that part of 

 the country, so that plenty of support 

 for the new bee journal will undoubt- 

 edly be found. 



The editor-in-chief will probably be 

 Mr. P. C. Chadwick, of Redlands, Calif., 

 assisted by such able western men as 

 J. D. Bixby, L. L. .'Vndrews and Geo. L. 

 Emerson. 



We take pleasure in extending our 

 heartiest wishes for success to the new 

 bee journal. 



Flower Polliuatlou 



Gleanings in Bee Culture contains an 

 interesting article on this subject by 

 John H. Lovell, page 771, Dec. 1, 1!)12, 

 being a friendly reply to atiother inter- 

 esting article by P. F. X. Ryan in 

 Gleanings for Oct. 1.5. Mr. Ryan ob- 

 jects to the claim that bees are at- 

 tracted to the flowers by their bright 

 colors, saying that the theory is con- 

 fronted by many ugly facts. In this 

 direct connection he says: "Lubbock 

 makes an assertion similar to Spren- 

 gel's, that the very arrangement of the 

 colors, the circular bands and radiat- 

 ing lines, are all with reference to the 

 visits of insects. Why, then, I ask, is 

 the apple blossom painted on the back 

 and not on the front ? Here, surely, is 

 an instance of the complete unsatis- 

 factoriness of their contention." 



The observant bee-keeper who is not 

 a botanist, would be likely to reply to 

 this, " It may be that the bee does not 

 see that outside red with its nose 

 directly in the flower, but to me that 

 red color is very plainly to be seen 

 when I look at the tree either from a 

 distance or' close by. Why may it not 

 be thus seen by the bee ?" But Mr. 

 Lovell dees not choose to make such a 

 reply. Instead of that he takes an en- 

 tirely different tack, and brings out a 

 very interesting point as to color in 

 flowers. He says : 



In New England the whole outside 

 of the young blossom of the wood 

 anemone {.Uiemone <jn/>iq/ic/'o/ia),v/hich 

 blooms the last of .\pril, when winds 

 are chill and snow still lingers in the 

 ravines, is often colored purplish red. 

 Red coloring may be observed on 

 many other flower-buds, leaf-buds, and 

 on young leaves in early spring. Be- 

 cause a pigment is useful in some in- 

 stances in rendering flowers conspicu- 

 ous, it does not follow that in other 

 cases its ro/e may not be entirely dif- 

 ferent. It is believed that red colora- 

 tion is often beneficial to plants in 

 raising their temperature by convert- 

 ing light rays into heat. 



That red coloration does actually 

 raise the temperature can be shown by 



the following experiment : Place some 

 red leaves, the superficial area of which 

 has been measured, in a small flask of 

 water. In another flask containing an 

 equal quantity of water put a few green 

 leaves with the same extent of surface 

 as the red leaves. Place a thermome- 

 ter in each flask; close them and set 

 them in the sunlight. After a time the 

 water in the flask containing the red 

 leaves will be found to be 4 degrees C. 

 above the temperature of the water 

 containing the green leaves. The 

 water in the second flask will also be a 

 little warmer than at first, as the green 

 leaves produce some heat. On a cold 

 day in springtime, when the air is near 

 the freezing point, an increase of only 

 4 degrees C. might be a great benefit 

 to a plant. In the same way red styles 

 may aid the growth of the pollen-tubes. 



Mr. Ryan objects to the theory that 

 highly-colored flowers are designed for 

 insects by saying : " Where is there a 

 more highly-colored flower than the 

 poppy ? and yet it contributes not one 

 iota of nectar to its insect visitors." 

 To this Mr. Lovell replies that the 

 poppy, like the rose, is a pollen flower, 

 and that bright colors and odors are 

 as valuable to pollen flowers as to nec- 

 tar flowers. 



Mr. Lovell refers the question to the 

 bees themselves. He savs : "Let us 



put the question to Nature. The way 

 to question Nature is by experiment. I 

 repeatedly counted the number of 

 visits made by the honey-bees to clus- 

 ters of pear blossoms during a given 

 interval of time. In one instance 8 

 visits were observed in 15 minutes. I 

 now removed all the petals and watched 

 the denuded blossoms for the same 

 length of time. There were either no 

 visits in some cases, or in others only 

 one or two. 



Again, during a certain time the 

 number of visits made by honey-bees 

 and bumble-bees to the flowers of the 

 garden squash were counted. The big 

 cup-shaped corollas were then cut ofif 

 close to the green caly.x. The result 

 was ihe same as with the pear blos- 

 soms — the naked flowers received few 

 or no visits. 



Like results were shown by experi- 

 menting with borage. 



The fact that the bees visited the en- 

 tire blossoms but paid no attention to 

 the denuded ones no.twithstanding 

 their nectar was left undisturbed, is 

 conclusive evidence, Mr. Lovell thinks, 

 "that bright-colored petals are an ad- 

 vantage in attracting the visits of bees.' 



Miscellaneous ^ News Items 



state Inspection in Texas We are in 



receipt, through a friend, of the report 

 of the Texas State Inspector of bees, 

 Wilmon Newell, foi the year ending 

 Aug. .31, 1912. It being too lengthy for 

 these columns, we will give but the 

 most important points. 



The appropriation of $2,500 was ex- 

 pended in the inspection of 31,819 colo- 

 nies in 10 counties. 283 colonies were 

 found affected with American foul 

 brood. Of these, 2-30 were treated and 

 the others destroyed. A very gratify- 

 ing condition is shown of the decrease 

 of the disease in some of the counties 

 inspected since 1911. LTvalde county, 

 in 1911, showed .58 diseased colonies: 

 in 1912, only 3. 



The above statements show conclu- 

 sively that prompt and active measures 

 will eradicate disease where inspection 

 is conducted in a thorough manner. 

 Mr. Newell and his assistants are to be 

 congratulated. 



There is no European foul brood, or 

 at least none reported in Te.xas. This 

 simplifies the work very much. Al- 

 though Mr. Newell is evidently very 

 thorough, it is probably owing to the 



absence of this variety, and to the 

 small number of colonies diseased, that 

 the cost of inspection is less per colony 

 than in other States. Texas is doing 

 the job at the right time. 



Bees Need Special Attention. — In- 

 stead of making the care of bees a part 

 of the general farm work to be shared 

 in by any one or all members of the 

 family, as the passing moment dictates, 

 let some one member — the one who 

 takes the most interest i.i bees — be 

 made responsible for the profit or the 

 loss from the apiary. This is nothing 

 more or less than beginning organiza- 

 tion. With organization, neglect and 

 loss will disappear, and with all the 

 modern improvements above enumer- 

 ated, at the command of the present 

 day bee-keeper, profit must appear. — 

 A'xtr/ia/ii^t: 



Kansas Bee-Keepers. — The 10th an- 

 nual meeting of the Kansas State Bee- 

 Keepers' Association was held in To- 

 peka Feb. 4 and 5. 



Talks were given by Prof. George 

 Dean and Prof. S. J. Hunter, both of 

 which were highly appreciated by 

 those present. Dr. G. Bohrer, of 

 Lyons, O. S. Mullin. of Holton. and 



