Gleanings In Bee Culture 



Published by The A. I. Root Co., Medina, Ohio 



H. H. Root, Assistant Editor E. R. ROOT, Editor A. L. Boyden, Advertising Manager 



A. I. Root, Editor Home Department J. T. Calvert, Business Manager 



Entered at the Postofflce, Medina. Ohio, as Second-class Matter. 



VOL. XXXVIII 



APRIL 1, 1910 



NO. 7 



EDITORIAL 



By E. R. Root. 



The plan suggested by Mr. O. B. Metcalfe, 

 one of the firm of Metcalfe & Parks, exten- 

 sive honey-producers of New Mexico, for 

 securing a wire to the end of a needle, seems 

 as if it might be a good thing. We shall be 

 glad to get reports from others who may be 

 in position to try it. 



ATTENTION, OHIO BEE-KEEPERS ! 



Ohio bee-keepers, if they have not already 

 done so, should write at once to their Sena- 

 tors and Representatives, urging them to 

 support the Patterson foul-brood bill recent- 

 ly mtroduced in the Senate. There is every 

 thing to show that the bill will pass both 

 houses, and receive the signature of the 

 Governor, providing Senators and Represen- 

 tatives are urged to vote for it by one or 

 more of their constituents. It is up to you 

 Ohio bee-keepers to write at once if you 

 have not already done it. The full text of 

 the proposed law was given on page 171 of 

 our last issue. 



spraying, and the RELATION OF BEES TO 

 FRUIT. 



By the time this journal reaches our read- 

 ers, spraying will be in progress. In most 

 States there are no laws against spraying at 

 any time; but in the majority of cases, pro- 

 gressive fruit-growers do not spray until be- 

 fore and after blossoming time. They know 

 that spraying destroys many of the delicate 

 parts necessary to get good fruit, and that 

 the time to do the work is before the blos- 

 soms come out and about a week after the 

 petals — that is, the white bloom— have fallen 

 off. 



Of course, the mixtures of lime and sul- 

 phur washes and the oil emulsions to destroy 

 the San Jose scale can not harm bees. It is 

 the arsenites designed to kill the codling 

 moth that do the mischief. Metcalfe & 

 Parks, of Mesilla Park, New Mexico, lost 

 last year very heavily because the fruit- 

 growers in their vicinity insisted on spray- 

 ing their trees when in bloom. All who are 

 situated as Metcalfe & Parks are should be- 

 gin a campaign of education. Secure bulle- 

 tins from the experiment stations, mark 

 them, and turn them over to the fruit-grow- 

 ers. F. A. Waugh, one of the best authori- 

 ties on fruit culture in this country, and 



author of a number of excellent books on 

 fruit culture, advises against spraying while 

 trees are in bloom. See what Mr. Waugh 

 has to say in next issue. 



Nature has designed that bees shall per- 

 form a very important work in pollinating 

 fruit-trees. That, of course, means more 

 and better fruit. Many varieties of fruit are 

 sterile to their own pollen. This is especial- 

 ly true of some apples, pears, and plums. 

 The wind, as the article in this issue shows, 

 will carry the pollen but a short distance. 

 Therefore it seems that nature designs that 

 insects (and that means bees) shall perform 

 the important work of cross-fertilization. 

 Darwin, Fletcher, Waite, and others have 

 shown conclusively that nature seems to ab- 

 hor self-fertilization, and seeks the pollen of 

 other trees and plants. This explains why 

 many fruit-growers are asking bee-keepers 

 to put colonies of bees in their orchards. 

 They know that the presence of bees helps to 

 secure more and better fruit. 



WINTERING AS REPORTED FROM DIFFERENT 

 PARTS OF THE COUNTRY. 



The reports are very conflicting, sometimes 

 even from the same locality. For instance, 

 one of our correspondents from Nebraska 

 reports heavy losses everywhere, while 

 another one there says the bees never win- 

 tered better. As nearly as we can gather, 

 winter losses are confined mam/j; to localities 

 such as are found in Southern Ohio, Northern 

 Tennessee, Southern Illinois, and along about 

 that latitude. Further north, where the bees 

 are mostly in double-walled hives, and were 

 fed in the fall, there appears to be compara- 

 tively good wintering. In nearly all the cases 

 of cellar wintering reports are favorable. In 

 most of the Northern States where it has 

 been very cold, and there has been a large 

 amount of snow, the wintering has been 

 good providing that bees have been well 

 housed in double- walled hives well packed. 

 In nearly all cases where they have been 

 left in single-walled hives with honey-dew 

 stores, the losses have been very heavy. In 

 what is ordinarily understood as the South- 

 ern States, presumably the wintering has 

 been good. The only danger in that part of 

 the country is starvation. 



LOCATING AN APIARY, 



About the time this issue reaches many of 

 our subscribers some of them will be locate 



