46 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Jan. 15 



COLOR OF BEESWAX. 



Quite a discussion took place on the above 

 subject. One member was prepared to swear 

 that the bees secrete yellow wax when work- 

 ing on the goldenrod; but when the conven- 

 tion wanted to know upon what evidence he 

 was prepared to swear, he did not give a 

 very satisfactory answer. The point was, 

 did the yellow color come from the pollen 

 after the scales were secreted? Some one 

 stated that the wax would be according to 

 the color of the honey. This was easily dis- 

 proved, from the fact that buckwheat honey 

 gives white wax. Dr. Miller stated that, con- 

 trary to some high authorities, he found that 

 wax is sometimes, at least, quite white. He 

 had taken virgin comb and melted it into a 

 small cake when it was still white. 



Brantford, Canada. 



A BIBLIOGRAPHY ON BEE-KEEPING. 



BY DR. E. F. PHILLIPS, 

 of the Bureau of Entomology, Washington, D. C. 



It may be stated with little fear of contra- 

 diction that we all write too much, not only 

 concerning bee culture but on all other sub- 

 jects. It is impossible, however, to stop the 

 increasing current of bee books and pam- 

 phlets, and articles in bee journals, and it be- 

 comes necessary to devise some way to keep 

 track of what is written, not only to aid in 

 keeping up to date on the subject, but to 

 prevent the repetition of work already done 

 and to check up various claimed discoveries. 

 The need of a bibUography on bee-keeping 

 has been very strongly felt in connection 

 with the work of the Bureau of Entomology 

 on apiculture, and to satisfy this need at 

 least partially such a bibliography has been 

 begun. I shall here attempt a brief descrip- 

 tion of it for the benefit of those who may 

 desire to start something similar. 



All records are made on cards (linen ledger 

 paper) 12.5 by 20 centimeters in dimensions 

 (approximately 5 by 8 inches). This size 

 was chosen rather than the 3-by-5 mch cards 

 usually used in libraries because of the need 

 of space for abstracts and notes, and also be- 

 cause cards of this size are used for the rec- 

 ords and notes of the office, and the subject 

 bibliography cards can thus be arranged right 

 with our own notes. All reference cards are 

 made at least in duplicate. One set of the 

 cards (blue) is arranged in alphabetical or- 

 der under the names of the authors, and 

 another set (yellow) is arranged according 

 to the subjects treated. In case an article 

 treats of two or more subjects, as is often 

 the case, separate yellow cards are made for 

 each subject. In the case of books devoted 

 exclusively to bees, the subject catalog is 

 not attempted, for it would be an endless 

 task. In all such cases the yellow cards are 

 filed in the drawer containing the book cat- 

 alog. For example. Dr. Miller's "Forty 

 Years Among the Bees" is cataloged thus: 



Miller. Charles C. M. D., 



1903 Forty Years Among the Bees. Chicago: George 



W. York & Company; 327 pp., Ill text figures; 13x20 cm 



The blue card containing this record is fil- 

 ed under Dr. Miller's name, and the carbon 

 copy on the yellow card is filed in the book 

 catalog under 1903. Both cards are stamped 

 "Book," so that in case either is removed 

 from the files it can easily be replaced prop- 

 erly. The size of the book is given in centi- 

 meters rather than to mark it octavo, smce 

 such designations vary greatly in their use. 



In the case of articles in journals the name 

 of the journal takes the place of the publish- 

 er in the case cited. Anonymous publica- 

 tions are filed in chronological order in a 

 separate place. All articles by one author 

 are arranged under his name in chronologi- 

 cal order in the authors' catalog. 



In some cases references are obtained 

 which do not indicate under what subject 

 the yellow card should be filed, in which 

 event the two cards are fastened together 

 and filed under the authors' catalog until 

 the article can be looked up. 



In case an article is of enough value to 

 warrantan abstract or translation (in the case 

 of articles in foreign languages) these are 

 either written on the yellow (subject) cards 

 or on thin paper cut to fit envelopes which 

 are just the size of the cards. On these en- 

 velopes is written the bibliographical refer- 

 ence, and they are filed under the proper 

 subject. For example, in our bibliography 

 on disease we have translations of all the im- 

 portant foreign papers on this subject, and 

 numerous abstracts and notes on the subject 

 cards where the articles are of less impor- 

 tance. In this way the subject catalog be- 

 comes an important storehouse of informa- 

 tion. 



This bibliography was begun about two 

 years ago, and now contains between 16,000 

 and 18,000 titles. The Drory bibliography 

 has been copied complete; the DeKellar bib- 

 liography, which is very inaccurate, has also 

 been included; but the titles and references 

 are corrected in many cases. The Taschen- 

 berg catalog of articles in journals has also 

 been included as well as numerous smaller 

 lists. In each case the source of the refer- 

 ence is stamped on the card, so that any er- 

 rors can be traced to the proper source. 

 Where the references are made directly from 

 the books or articles, the cards are stamped 

 "Verified" The available bee journals 

 are now being cataloged. This is an enor- 

 mous task, but is proving of great value. 

 Numerous articles not directly on bees, but 

 which are used in our work, are also includ- 

 ed in the bibliography. 



All of this indexing means lots of work for 

 the winter months, but we are fully repaid 

 by the ease in finding literature that we 

 need. Unfortunately these cards are not 

 available to other workers in bee culture, 

 but will be freely accessible to any one de- 

 siring to consult them in Washington. Nat- 

 urally they can not be sent away from the 

 office. 



To publish such a bibliography would be 

 very ex| ensive. It is constantly growing, 

 so that it should be printed on cards so that 

 new titles could be inserted in the proper 



