GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1. 



That wax is secreted by bees, and not gath- 

 ered somewhere outside the hives, was, accord- 

 ing to Cowan, discovered as early as 1684 by 

 Martin John, and soon after by Thorley; but 

 no great notice seems to have been tal<en of it 

 till it was rediscovered by a Lusatian peasant 

 whose name. Cowan says, is, unfortunately, not 

 given. Herr Beck, in Gravenhorsl's Bienen- 

 zeitung, gives H. C. Horeboslel as the name of 

 this man to be remembered for his discovery in 

 1720. 



The doctrine that each nurse-bee prepares 

 food for larva3 of a particular age gets a black 

 eye from (iravenhorst. He thinks it will notdo 

 to say that a bee U days old is too old to feed a 

 larva one or two days old. because, when brood- 

 rearing commences in spring there are none but 

 old bees present. Also, after a colony has been 

 long queenless in summer the larvae are well 

 fed on the introduction of a queen. Dzierzon, 

 in Noerdlingen Bicnciizeitunq, pokes fun at the 

 whole idea. 



Foul brood raged for two years in the apiary 

 of Herr Fulde, in spite of all efforts at cure; 

 then every two or three days a few drops of the 

 new disinfectant, lysol, was given in the bees' 

 food, and it worked like a charm, all traces of 

 the disease disappearing for good in three 

 weeks. Now, what's lysol ? and will it work in 

 the English language as well as in the German ? 

 [I should be interested also, in knowing wheth- 

 er the disease stayed away. Perhaps Herr 

 (iravenhorst will answer these questions. — Ed.] 



Herk Reei'En, the great German gleaner, 

 sturdily opposes the idea that workers carry 

 eggs or larvae from one cell to another, and yet 

 he has most faithfully given all the testimony 

 favoring such belief. He now sums up as ad- 

 vocates, Langstroth, Wagner, Root, Abbott, 

 Americans; Editors Bertrand. Wathelet, 

 French; but Germans and English seem to be 

 absent from the list. [I have personally seen a 

 worker carry an egg (not larva), but what it 

 did with it I can not be positive. I was not in- 

 terested at the time, and so did not take the 

 pains to follow the bee up. — Ed.] 



Ye Editor is a little too sweeping when he 

 says, p. 23, that color will detract from both 

 prolificness and the honey crop. Best qualities 

 don't necessarily go with any shade of color. I 

 like leather color, not because that color makes 

 good bees, but because good bees happen to 

 have that color. [The last sentence taken 

 alone (and to which you doubtless refer) does 

 sound a little strong; but when taken in con- 

 nection with what precedes, and especially 

 with what I have said aforetime on this same 

 question. I don't think my meaning will be mis- 

 understood. What I meant was that it was 

 iiabfe, under the present craze, to detract from 

 both of the qualities— prolificness and honey- 

 gathering, because, in the selection of the one 

 thing, color, the other things are left out of the 



consideration; or, rather, the undesirable traits 

 are allowed to creep in.— Ed.] 





CAMPING, FISHING, CUTTING BEE -TREES, 

 ETC. 



HOW TO GET HEES OUT OF TREES WITH FEW 



OR NO stings; a question for c. a. 



HATCH TO ANSWER. 

 Jill F. France. 



I have bt^en in the habit of going to the Mis- 

 sissippi River and camping out, or living in a 

 tent, from four to eight weeks, for the last five 

 years. I go for sport and health. I think it 

 does me good, and it gives me rest from other 

 labor. My wife has gone with me three years, 

 and she stays about five or six weeks, then takes 

 the train and comes home, and I stay two or 

 three weeks longer. I usually stay until it gets 

 pretty cold, as we get better fish after the 

 weather gets cold enough to use an overcoat 

 and mittens. 



I have a partner, a Galena man, who camps 

 with me and stays as long as I do. We each 

 have a boat and a tent, a stove in the tents, 

 good beds, and camp-outfit. We are as comfort- 

 able there as at home, with plenty of fresh air. 

 We catch catfish, buffalo, bass, pike, and a few 

 other kinds. We fish with rod and line. At 

 that time of the year we catch mostly pike, 

 called there salmon, but they are not salmon. 



I was feeling pretty miserable — tired out, no 

 appetite. After T had been there three days I 

 thought I should have to give it up and go 

 home. But I stayed; and after I had been 

 there a week I got stronger, and got a "river 

 appetite,'' as I call it. After that I was all 

 right, and able to handle my boat without tir- 

 ing me as it did at first. I went down the 20th 

 of September, and came back the 12th of No- 

 vember; but as the weather turned out, the 

 best fishing was after I came home. As for 

 fish, I got enough. I salted a 1.5-gallon keg full, 

 and sent home once a week a good market-bas- 

 ket full. 



With the rest of the fun I helped to cut two 

 bee-trees. I was down there, and stayed a 

 week with Newel France and his whole family 

 in August. I found those two bee-trees on an 

 island. The island belonged to an old fisher- 

 man. He lived in a cabin on the island — the 

 same island that we camped on later. I show- 

 ed him the trees, and told him 1 would help 

 him cut them when I came down in the fall to 

 fish. So when I went in September I took 

 along a smoker and brush-broom, and a paper 

 of tobacco. You see I wanted a good strong 

 smoke, as the trees had to be chopped down. 



