762 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15. 



may do when he once gets hold of one, and 

 gains control of the imagination. 



What has all this to do with keeping control 

 over the appetite, or cutting short your dinner 

 when you are only half through ? Why, one is 

 the beginning of the other. The man who has 

 found by experience thnt his welfare depends 

 upon moderation in eating, and who has the 

 manhood to say to appetite, "Thus far and no 

 farther," thix man has taken the first step 

 toward being a Christian. The one who says 

 he is going lo have enough to eat, no matter 

 what the doctor says, or anybody else, is likely 

 lo land in a drunkard's grave or the prison-cell, 

 with the gallows ahead of him. Let me close 

 by repeating a few Bible promises that strike 

 in line with what I have been teaching:i 

 ^;To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with 

 me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am 

 set down with my Father in his throne.— Rev. 3: ^1. 



Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neitlier have 

 entered into the lieart of man. the things wliich 

 God hath prepared for them that love him.— I. Cor. 



THE NORTH AMERICAN BEEKEEPERS' CONVEN- 

 TION AT LINCOLN, NEB., OCT. 7 AND 8. 



There is a good deal said about railroad com- 

 panies and railroad officials not being accom- 

 modating; but I have not found it so when 

 they are approached in tho right way, and 

 when my requests have been reasonable. In 

 making our trip to Lincoln we left Medina on 

 Monday morning, Oct. 5, and should have been 

 home Saturday morning were it not that one of 

 the trains from Chicago was over an hour late. 

 As it was, I reached home by Saturday noon by 

 using my wheel for the last 25 miles. We are 

 very much indebted to Mr. P. S. Eustis, General 

 Passenger Agent of the Chicago, Burlington & 

 Quincy Railroad, for courtesies extended in 

 making the trip soquickly and pleasantly; and, 

 by the way, the whole C, B. &, Q. R. R. seems 

 to be under excellent management all the way 

 through. The road is so smooth, and the 

 coaches are in such good condition, that we 

 made the whole distance— something like 2000 

 miles— without feeling tired at all. But I shall 

 have to defer till our next issue a fuller account 

 of our trip on the cars. 



There has always been more or less incon- 

 venience at our national conventions from the 

 fact that few of those who attended the year 

 before are present at the convention. Our 

 country is so large that it has been found ad- 

 visable to move the convention about from 

 place to place in order to give all the bee-keep- 

 ers a chance to attend, so that each gathering, 

 as a matter of course, is for the most part made 

 up of those who have rarely or never attended 

 before. On this occasion the gathering was 

 made pleasant by finding at least a few of the 

 veterans. From Ohio we had Dr. A. B. Mason, 

 Ernest, and myself; from Illinois, Dr. C. C. Mil- 

 ler and our good friend York, of the" American 

 Bee Journal. From Missouri we had Rev. E. 

 T. Abbott and his good wife, besides quite a few 

 other friends we got acquainted with at St. 

 Joseph, Mo., two vears ago. From Nebraska 

 we had friends L. D. Stilson and Hon. E. Whit- 

 comb; also Mrs. J. N. Heater, of Columbus, 

 Neb. The State University at Lincoln gave us 

 some excellent help in the way of talks from 

 Prof. Bruner, on entomology, and Prof. Charles 



E. Bessy on botany— its connection with bee 

 culture. Eugene Secor, of Iowa, contributed 

 not a little bv his wonderful noetic talent. 



The meeting was opened by chapel exercises 

 in a beautiful room in the University building, 

 with from 600 to SOO^of the students present. c_' 



The first paper was on tne importance ot 

 water in the apiary, by friend Whitcomb. It 

 was to the effect that much of our spring 

 dwindling is caused by bees being obliged to 

 come out at untimely seasons in pursuit of 

 water; and still further that, when they find 

 the water, it is generally icy cold. The speaker 

 thought bees were lost by going quite a dis- 

 tance from the hives after water, and thereby 

 being exposed unnecessarily to chilling winds. 

 On the western prairies perhaps this is more 

 often the case than here in Ohio, where water 

 Is almost always to be found near by. Friend 

 W. advised providing water in fruit-jars invert- 

 ed on a grooved board, as described in the A B 

 C book. If this arrangement is placed in the 

 sun, the glass jar acts like a miniature green- 

 house, keeping the water several degrees warm- 

 er than the surrounding temperature. 



".The wild Bees of Nebraska." by the ento- 

 mologist. Prof. Bruner, was in regard to bumble- 

 bees and other smaller bees that visit the 

 flowers. I for one was greatly astonished to 

 learn that there are something like 200 differ- 

 ent kinds of bees in our country, not counting 

 the honey-bee; and in addition to this there 

 are about 60 kinds of bumble-bees all together. 

 Ten different varieties of bumble-bees are found 

 in Nebraska. Some of the wild bees are quite 

 small— so small, indeed, that they might be 

 called gnats, or even smaller than that. Their 

 office in life seems to be to insure the fertiliza- 

 tion of the different varieties of plants. The 

 plants can not well get along without these 

 special bees, and the bees can not very well get 

 along without these special plants. I gathered 

 from the talk that not all of these have stings. 

 Prof. B. told us, however, to look out about 

 meddling with any sort of insect having rings 

 about its body. Wasps, hornets, and yellow- 

 jackets belong to still another family. These 

 subsist mainly on animal food— other insects 

 such as spiders, etc.; but some of them— hor- 

 nets and yellow-jackets, for instance — have a 

 sweet tooth for honey. None of these wild bees 

 gather honey and store it up except the bumble- 

 bees; and none of them, not even the bumble- 

 bees, winter in clusters like the honey-bee. 

 They all get through the winter by a sort of 

 hibernation, iioney-bees do not hibernate — at 

 least, not in the strict sense of the term. Hi- 

 bernation belongs to insects and animals that 

 lay up a sufficient supply of food in their own 

 bodies, and then become torpid; and in this 

 state they are not dependent upon being inside 

 of a cluster of others of their own kin d as are 

 the honev- bees - zi ZT"? — ^ ' =._ - 



Prof. Bess'ys excellent talk on botany""as 

 related to bees was a sort of supplement to the 

 talk on entomology. He likened the flower to 

 a mouse-trap. We put a piece of cheese in the 

 trap to entice the mice; the trap is so arranged 

 that the mouse must pass the danger-line In 

 order to get the bait. Dame Nature baits her 

 floral trap with a minute drop of honey. She, 

 too, places the bait beyond a certain object to 

 be attained. The bee can not get the honey 

 without brushing the pollen; and thus Nature, 

 by a baited trap, accomplishes her object of 

 fertilization. Besides the sweet nectar. Nature 

 hangs out a flag — a gaudily colored flag— to 

 attract the bee; and in order to make things 

 douhly sure she also equips the plant with an 

 apparatus for sending out a beautiful and en- 

 ticing aroma — the perfume of the flowers. The 



