1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



409 



native honey is encouraged as a preference 

 over foreign. Tlie value of the bee as a fertil- 

 izer is beginning to be understood. In this 

 respect the value of the bee is greater than the 

 value of the honey and wax. Twenty times 

 more bees than other insects visit the bloom 

 which is absolutely dependent on insects for 

 pollenation. In England and Wales thore are 

 20 bee-keepers' associations, with 4104 members; 

 number of hives, 260.000: average per hive, 17 

 lbs.; wax per hive. 4 ounces. Ireland produced 

 248,363 lbs. of honey and 3188 lbs. of wax, whicn 

 is considered an underestimate. It is believed 

 that Scotland exceeds this, but statistics can 

 not be obtained. 



A STUDY OF INSECTS. 



A SCIENTIFIC treatise on this subject, and yet 

 one adapted to the capacity of the average 

 reader, is what the book named above purports 

 to be. It has 700 pages, the size of this one. It 

 is illustrated with 797 cuts, all engraved for this 

 work by Anna B. Comstock, its assistant editor. 

 These cuts were all made from the creature it- 

 self, and certainly leave nothing to be desired, 

 and they are a monument to the skill of a wo- 

 man's hand. Twenty-two orders of ins(;cts are 

 described fully, while the total number is al- 

 most beyond count. All of the old bugs pecul- 

 iar to this country (except hum ) are here 



seen, drawn with remarkable fidelity, especial- 

 ly the "tree-hoppers." which are certainly fun- 

 ny enough to suggest to the author the idea 

 that Nature must have been in a joking mood 

 when she created them. We can not think of 

 an enemy of any of our garden and field crops 

 which is not here described, with information 

 as to their destruction. The subject of " Bee- 

 moths " will be found to be very interesting to 

 bee-keepers, as will also the bee itself, although 

 the latter has had such special treatment by 

 Cheshire, Cook, Cowan, and others as to leave 

 this book in question entirely in the shade, as a 

 matter of course. But it takes us into a world 

 of wonders, and most of these " wonders " are 

 at present the enemies if not the scourges of the 

 agriculturist if not. indeed, of the human race. 

 We know of no book which will better enable 

 us to combat such foes; and to be forewarned is 

 to be forearmed. The scientific names are so 

 printed as to enable any one to pronounce them 

 at sight. As to the author, his name is John 

 Henry Comstock, Professor of Entomology in 

 Cornell University and in the Leiand Stanford 

 Junior University: and after that is said, noth- 

 ing more needs to be remarked in regard to the 

 thorough manner in which the work has been 

 done. The price is $3.75; postage 34 cts. extra. 

 Printed and published by the Comstock Pub- 

 lishing Co., Ithaca, N. Y., to whom all orders 

 should be addressed. 



The work has been adopted in twenty-six 

 colleges as a text-book, and twenty of these are 

 agricultural. v,\ p. r. 



HANDLING HIVES; THE METHODS OF DIAGNOS- 

 ING WITHOUT HANDLING FRAMES, ETC. 



I MAKE it a part of my business, assisted by a 

 light-weight safety bicycle, to take entire 

 charge of our out-yard. This I have done for 

 the last three or four seasons. While I keep 

 track pretty closely of our home yard, I do not 

 do much work with it except to hive an occa- 

 sional swarm on Sundays and other days when 

 our regular man is not about. Early this 

 spring, as soon* as the roads were fit, I took a 

 run down to our basswood apiary, peered under 

 all the cushions, raised the sealed covers, and 

 made an examination of each colony. I found 

 that they had all wintered, whether under 

 sealed covers or under absorbents, and that 

 notwithstanding they were in a comparatively 

 open field, with the exception of what protec- 

 tion the small bass wood-trees afforded. 



Again I went down a few days ago, and this 

 time I gave them a very thorough examina- 

 tion. I took along a Crane smoker, a twenty- 

 penny wire nail, and a silk-tulle veil. My 

 object was to determine the amount of brood 

 in each colony, the amount of stores, bees, etc. 

 Now, I can not with my other work in the 

 office afford to handle over every frame. After 

 opening up the hive, with the wire nail I have 

 just spoken of I removed the division-board, 

 then ran the nail between the center pair of 

 brood-frames, and pried them apart. This split 

 the brood-nest perpendicularly in two equal 

 parts, leaving a space of from }4 to ^4 inch be- 

 tween them. In some cases I lifted out one 

 frame, and in others I got satisfactory informa- 

 tion by simply peering in between the frames. 

 In the latter case, if not entirely satisfied as to 

 the amount of stores I split the brood-nest in 

 another part, and peered down between the 

 frames as before. This usually gave me an 

 idea of the amount of stores. After having sat- 

 isfied myself as to the condition of the colony, I 

 pried on the outside frame, crowded the whole 

 set of frames together en masse, inserted the 

 division-board, and closed the hive up. If 

 there was any thing unusual, or'something re- 

 quiring attention, I laid a brick, or block of 

 wood, on top of the hive. 



If, in splitting the brood-nest perpendicular- 

 ly in two equal parts, and looking down be- 

 tween the frames, I thought the brood looked 

 a little irregular, or scanty in amount, I pulled 

 out a frame to see whether there were eggs. If 

 these were present, and the brood well capped 

 over, and healthy-looking, I replaced the 

 frame, crowded over the other four with one 

 operation, and closed up the hive. I seldom if 

 ever stop to hunt for the queen. If I see eggs I 

 know that she is present in the hive, or at least 

 she has been within a very short time. Eggs 

 are supposed to be eggs for at least three days. 

 But, supposing the queen was killed the day 

 before I examined, I think I should be able to 

 recognize her absence, even if I saw eggs, by 



