American ISee Journal 



May, lyi f. 



the wront: time in liis locality, have copies 

 sent to all of his neighbors where he thinks 

 it is needed. It ought not to cost much, and 

 will be money well spent. The fruit-grower 

 should get his copy just before the usual 

 time of spraying. If he reads anything at 

 all, it will be good advice, and at the right 

 time. Illinois Rustic. 



On the face of it, it would seem that 

 all that is necessary is to have fruit- 

 men sufficiently well informed to pre- 

 vent any possibility of spraying fruit- 

 trees while in bloom. Leading au- 

 thorities among horticulturists declare 

 that no good can come from spraying 

 during bloom, for the insects that are 

 to blame for wormy fruit do not get in 

 their work upon the blossoins, but on 

 the young fruit after the blossoms have 

 fallen. On the other hand, the poison 

 does harm when it falls upon the ten- 

 der stigma of the blossom, making it 

 unfit to receive the pollen for the 

 fecundation of the ovules. Intelligent 

 horticulturists are also emphasizing 

 more and more the fact that insect 

 assistance is of exceeding importance 

 in getting a crop of fruit to " set," and 

 that in most places proper fecundation 

 is dependent almost entirely upon the 

 bees. 



Now it would seem that under the 

 circumstances the right sort of a man 

 would hardly be willing to cause a 

 severe loss to his bee-keeping neighbor 

 by poisoning his bees, and even if he 

 were utterly selfish, self interest ought 

 to restrain him. Indeed so reasonable 

 is this, that when the Illinois legisla- 

 ture was asked to pass a bill making it 

 unlawful to spray during fruit-bloom, 

 a prominent legislator, himself a lead- 

 ing authority among fruit-growers, op- 

 posed it on the ground that it was ut- 

 terly needless, for no intelligent fruit- 

 grower would be so stupid as to do a 

 thing that would result only in injury 

 to himself. 



Yet facts are stubborn things. Among 

 the personal acquaintance of the writer 

 is a fruit-grower who sprays his trees 

 before they have gone out of bloom. 

 He is no ignoramus; he is a well-in- 

 formed man, with a high standing as a 

 horticulturist. He is not a bad man 

 with no regard for the interests of his 

 neighbors. He is a good man, public- 

 spirited, and among the foremost in 

 church work and in matters for the 

 general public welfare. When remon- 

 strated with for poisoning the bees 

 that have come to do him a benefit by 

 helping in the securing of a crop, and 

 for causing a serious loss to the owner 

 of the bees, he replies that his orchard 

 is so extensive that unless he begins 

 spraying before the last blossoms fall 

 the earliest fruit will be too far ad- 

 vanced to be benefited by the spraying. 

 And so he thinks that the loss to sur- 

 rounding bee-keepers from his spray- 

 ing during bloom is not so great as 

 would be his personal loss if he should 

 wait until all blooming has ceased. To 

 say that he is mistaken is hardly to the 

 point. He thinks his view is correct, 

 and is conscientious in his belief. Now 

 what good would it do to put into the 

 hands of such a man literature such as 

 our friend proposes ? The only thing 

 to meet the case is to have a law like 

 the New York law, making it a crimi- 

 nal offense to use poisonous spray dur- 

 ing bloom. There ought to be no 

 difficulty in obtaining such a law, and 

 there probably will not be, so soon as 



the complexion of the Illinois legisla- 

 ture is so changed that a rake-oft' for 

 the jack-pot will not be demanded as 

 the price of securing laws for the pub- 

 lic good. 



In the meantime it will no doubt be 

 a good thing to make sound informa- 

 tion as to the matter easily available, 

 so that fruit-growers may fully under- 

 stand as to their own best interests. 



Swarming Prevented, by Man- 

 agement 



J. E. Chambers makes in Gleanings 

 the rather startling statement that he 

 has nearly 800 colonies of Carniolans, 

 which have the reputation of being the 

 greatest swarmers known, and yet he 

 does not have over 6 percent swarm- 

 ing. He uses large hives at all seasons 

 of the yedr, gives generous ventilation 

 and shade, and says : 



" But perhaps the most important reason 

 why I have so little swarming is that I try to 

 get every colony well started to gathering 

 honey before the condition of the hive be- 

 comes crowded with young bees. With this 

 object in view I winter all colonies with 

 from 75 to too pounds of honey in the combs: 

 and as soon as extensive brood-rearing is 

 begun I extract clean — that is. if there is a 

 flow on, or near at hand. This gives abun- 

 dant room at the right time." 



The Carniolan Gray-Banded Al- 

 pine Bee.s 



A stroke of enterprise that chal- 

 lenges admiration is shown in the pub- 

 lication of a brochure of 20 pages hav- 

 ing the above title, evidently printed in 

 Carniola, and yet in the English lan- 

 guage, in the interest of the Carniolan 

 queen-trade. It is published "by the 

 Imperial Royal Agricultural Associa- 

 tion of Carniola," and is devoted to 

 making known the good character of 

 Carniolan bees. Industry and gentle- 

 ness are claimed, and especially hardi- 

 ness and prolificness. "Yea," says the 

 writer, "the Carniolan Alpine bees are 

 undoubtedly the most prolific breeders, 

 the most severe winters they stand 

 well, and in the spring they breed rap- 

 idly up." The pamphlet seems to be 

 devoted to a campaign of general pub- 

 licity, no mention being made of prices 

 or of places or persons to order from, 

 this being left to specific advertising. 

 For those who want Carniolans in their 

 purity, certainly here is their oppor- 

 tunity. 



Smoking Bees at the Hive-En- 

 trance 



D. M. Macdonald says in the British 

 Bee Journal : 



"An Australian advises not to inject 

 smoke at entrance when manipulating. An- 

 other says that Doolittle advises the con- 

 trary, and adds : 'I inject smoke at the en- 

 trance before raising the quilt.' I wonder, 

 now. if many follow out this practice. I 

 never found any necessity for it. and I ques- 

 tion if for ordinary operations, it would do 

 any good. More interruption of work and 

 moreconfusion in the interior would result." 



W. Woodley adds : " I never think 

 of doing such a thing." 



I must confess that I never manipu- 

 late a hive without first blowing a little 

 smoke into the entrance, if smoke is 

 used at all, and I must further confess 

 that I have been ignorant enough to 

 suppose that every one else followed 

 the same practice. But when two such 

 prominent writers object, it raises the 



question whether, after all, their prac- 

 tice may not be the usual and mine the 

 e.xceptional. Referring to several text- 

 books, however, I find instruction for 

 an introductory puff of smoke at the 

 entrance. Among these books are the 

 excellent works of Messrs. Cowan and 

 Digges. Apparently it is the usual way. 



But sometimes the unusual way is 

 the better way, and I, for one, would 

 be glad to hear further from Messrs. 

 Macdonald and Woodley, why they ob- 

 ject to a first puflf at the entrance. Tt is 

 only fair, however, that I should say 

 why smoking at the entrance seems to 

 me a good thing. First, as to the in- 

 terruption and confusion Mr. Macdon- 

 ald mentions, if the sum total of smoke 

 be the same in each case, will not the 

 interruption and confusion be the 

 same ? 



If I am correct, when a hive is jarred, 

 the bees rush out of the entrance to 

 attack the disturber, and a little smoke 

 at the entrance quiets these guards, 

 whereas smoke blown over the frames 

 has no effect upon them. Without the 

 smoke at the entrance, they rush out 

 at the first jar, flying about the head of 

 the operator, where the smoke blown 

 upon the frames will have no effect 

 upon them. These are the very bees I 

 want quieted, and that's why I want to 

 quiet them at the place where they are 

 easily reached. 



Now this is the way it seems to me, 

 and if I am wrong I shall be glad to be 

 shown my error. C. C. M. 



Language— In Beedom and Else- 

 where 



D. M. Macdonald sticks to his use of 

 "nuclei-forming." Of course. He's 

 Scotch; and the writer hasn't lived all 

 these years under the same roof with 

 three Scotch women without knowing 

 what to expect from a Scotchman. He 

 says in the British Bee Journal : 



" When I write of ' forming several nuclei,' 

 why should I transgress against the rules of 

 grammar and common sense by using the 

 word for one when I mean a number more 

 than one ?" 



In other words, he wants to know 

 why he should say "nucleus-forming " 

 when he is forming nuclei. Well, I 

 suppose there is enough Yankee blood 

 in me to give me the privilege of an- 

 swering his question by asking another : 

 " Why should he transgress — if it be 

 transgression — by saying 'bee-keeper' 

 when he means a man who keeps more 

 than one bee ?" Now if he will give 

 me the answer to that question, I think 

 that answer will serve as an answer to 

 his question. 



I do not insist too strongly on com- 

 mon sense, but as to grammar, that is 

 supposed to follow the custom of the 

 best speakers and writers, and I think 

 on that ground it may be considered 

 good grammar, in this case, to have 

 the first word of the compound in the > 

 singular number, no matter how many 

 are referred to. If Mr. Macdonald 

 thinks "nucleus-forming" is not justi- 

 fied, then let him please say on what 

 ground he justifies the following com- 

 pounds ; bee-keeper, cow-milker, dog- 

 fancier, 24-horse-power, etc. If be- 

 cause he is forming more than one nu- 

 cleus, he insists on "nuclei-forming," 

 perhaps on the same ground he would 

 insist on cows-stable, hens-coop. 



